Violet Valerie Kindersley (13 February 1909 – 18 July 1997), French, and known from 1931 to 1934 as Lady Brougham and Vaux, was a Natal-born English socialite. She and her sister

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

were known as the "French sisters" and included in '' The Book of Beauty'' by

Cecil Beaton Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton (14 January 1904 – 18 January 1980) was a British fashion, portrait and war photographer, diarist, painter, and interior designer, as well as costume designer and set designer for stage and screen. His accolades ...

Biography

Violet Valerie French was born on 13 February 1909Hammond, Peter W., editor. The Complete Peerage or a History of the House of Lords and All its Members From the Earliest Times, Volume XIV: Addenda & Corrigenda. Stroud, Gloucestershire, U.K.: Sutton Publishing, 1998Townend, Peter. Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 105th edition. London, U.K.: Burke's Peerage Ltd, 1970 at

Pietermaritzburg Pietermaritzburg (; ) is the capital and second-largest city in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa after Durban. It was named in 1838 and is currently governed by the Msunduzi Local Municipality. The town was named in Zulu after King ...

, Natal, South Africa,Burke, Sir Bernard. Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 51st edition. London, U.K.: Burke's Peerage Ltd, 1889 the daughter of English cricketer Lt Col the Hon Edward Gerald Fleming French, Deputy Governor of Dartmoor Prison and Governor of Newcastle Prison (1883–1970), and Leila Elizabeth Fyfe King (d. 1959), daughter of Robert King, of Natal, South Africa. Her grandfather was

John French, 1st Earl of Ypres Field Marshal John Denton Pinkstone French, 1st Earl of Ypres, (28 September 1852 – 22 May 1925), known as Sir John French from 1901 to 1916, and as The Viscount French between 1916 and 1922, was a senior British Army officer. Born in Kent, ...

. In 1933, she was included, together with her sister, in ''The Book of Beauty'' by

, which documented the "

Bright Young Things __NOTOC__ The Bright Young Things, or Bright Young People, was a group of Bohemian young aristocrats and socialites in London during the Roaring Twenties. The name was given to them by the tabloid press. They threw flamboyant fancy dress part ...

" socialites of the 1920s. Beaton wrote: "Valerie, pink and white like sugar-coated almonds, with slow, brown eyes and pale corn-coloured hair, has the more flawless face. Her nose is perfection." She died on 18 July 1997, in

Swindon Swindon () is a town in Wiltshire, England. At the time of the 2021 Census the population of the built-up area was 183,638, making it the largest settlement in the county. Located at the northeastern edge of the South West England region, Swi ...

, Wiltshire, England.

Marriages

In 1926, she was engaged to Henry Bradley Martin, a Manhattan socialite. In 1929, she rushed to the United States to assist him after he was injured in an automobile accident in Colorado. The engagement was subsequently broken. On 21 April 1931, she married

Victor Brougham, 4th Baron Brougham and Vaux The name Victor or Viktor may refer to: * Victor (name), including a list of people with the given name, mononym, or surname Arts and entertainment Film * ''Victor'' (1951 film), a French drama film * ''Victor'' (1993 film), a French shor ...

. They had one son, Julian Henry Peter Brougham (1932–1952), who was killed while on active service in Malaya in 1952, aged 19. They divorced in 1934. On 26 November 1936, she married Captain Hon.

Philip Leyland Kindersley Philip, also Phillip, is a male name derived from the Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominent Philips who popularized the n ...

(1907–1995), fourth son of

Robert Kindersley, 1st Baron Kindersley Robert Molesworth Kindersley, 1st Baron Kindersley (21 November 1871 – 20 July 1954) was an England, English Businessperson, businessman, stockbroker, merchant banker, and public servant who organised the National Savings Movement. Backgroun ...

and Gladys Margaret Beadle.Mosley, Charles, editor. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes. Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003 They had three children: Nicoletta Leila Kindersley (b. 1939), Virginia Alexandra de L'Estang Kindersley (b. 1943), and Christian Philip Kindersley (b. 1950).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:French, Violet Valerie 1909 births 1997 deaths 20th-century English women 20th-century English people Brougham and Vaux English socialites People from Natal Violet Valerie Violet Valerie English expatriates in South Africa People from Pietermaritzburg