Sylvia Lillian, Countess Poulett (born Sylvia Lillian Storey; 4 October 1889 – 20 July 1947) was a British actress and dancer, a Gaiety Girl who married an

Earl Earl () is a rank of the nobility in the United Kingdom. The title originates in the Old English word ''eorl'', meaning "a man of noble birth or rank". The word is cognate with the Scandinavian form '' jarl'', and meant " chieftain", partic ...

and became known as The Countess Poulett.

Early life

Sylvia Lillian Storey was born in London, the only child of William Frederick Clayton Storey (known as Fred Storey) and Lilian Margaret Thorley Holmes Storey. Her parents were actors, and she joined her father in the cast of ''Rip Van Winkle'' in 1899.

Career

Sylvia Storey acted and danced on the London stage as a Gaiety Girl, and modeled for postcards, cigarette cards, and other publicity. After she married in 1908, she and her husband traveled around the world, appearing in San Francisco in 1910. In widowhood, she became a

socialite A socialite is a person from a wealthy and (possibly) aristocratic background, who is prominent in high society. A socialite generally spends a significant amount of time attending various fashionable social gatherings, instead of having tradit ...

. In 1925, she was rumoured to be keeping late nights with

Coco Chanel Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel ( , ; 19 August 1883 – 10 January 1971) was a French fashion designer and businesswoman. The founder and namesake of the Chanel brand, she was credited in the post-World War I era with popularizing a sporty, c ...

and the

Duke of Westminster Duke of Westminster is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created by Queen Victoria in 1874 and bestowed upon Hugh Grosvenor, 3rd Marquess of Westminster. It is the most recent dukedom conferred on someone not related to the ...

on his yacht off

Cannes Cannes ( , , ; oc, Canas) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. The ci ...

. In consequence, the Duke's angry second wife,

Violet Cripps, Baroness Parmoor Violet Mary Geraldine Cripps, Baroness Parmoor (née Nelson; 1891–1983), was a British peeress. Early life Lady Parmoor was the youngest daughter of Sir William Nelson, 1st Baronet and Margaret Hope. Marriages and children Lady Parmoor was m ...

, threw Poulett's belongings overboard, and her relatives asked the court to take her children from her custody. Before and during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, she spent some time in the United States, especially in Florida, New York, and California. She was fined for violating London's blackout orders in 1940, and took a cottage in

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lor ...

Personal life

In 1908, Sylvia Storey married

William Poulett, 7th Earl Poulett William John Lydston Poulett, 7th Earl Poulett (11 September 1883 – 11 July 1918) was an English peer and British Army officer. Educated at Cheltenham College and Trinity Hall, Cambridge, he was the son of William Poulett, 6th Earl Poulett, ...

. He served in the Royal Horse Artillery during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, and died in the

1918 flu pandemic The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer Spanish flu or as the Great Influenza epidemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case was ...

. She had two children with Poulett, George Amias Fitzwarrine Poulett (1909-1973), and Bridget Elizabeth Felicia Henrietta Augusta Poulett (1912-1975), and in widowhood a third child, Phoebe Amie Sybil Poulett (1922-1948), whose father was Major Percy Howard Hansen. Her son married and divorced an actress, Oriel Ross. Poulett died in 1947, aged 57 years, in London.

References

External links

Six portraits of Sylvia Storey
all made before 1922, in the National Portrait Gallery.
A 1908 portrait of Storey
at

Getty Images Getty Images Holdings, Inc. is an American visual media company and is a supplier of stock images, editorial photography, video and music for business and consumers, with a library of over 477 million assets. It targets three markets— creati ...

. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Storey, Sylvia 1889 births 1947 deaths British actresses British women in World War II Poulett 20th-century English nobility