Miss 'Pinkie' Hartopp

Miss 'Pinkie' Hartopp


A carte-de-visite portrait of Julia Charlotte Cradock-Hartopp, known to her friends as ‘Pinkie’. The daughter of Sir William Edmund Cradock-Hartopp, 3rd Bt., on 14 January 1868 she became the second wife of Henry Bentinck Boyle, Viscount Boyle, eldest son of the 4th Earl of Shannon. A few months later her husband succeeded his father, becoming the 5th Earl of Shannon. The marriage produced at least three sons. Lady Shannon died on 27 December 1921.

The following short article appeared in the weekly journal M.A.P. [Mainly About People] on Saturday 11 May 1901.

‘In your allusions to Society pet names’ writes a correspondent, ‘you ignore the fact that the gentler sex has not the monopoly on these distinctions. Handsome Lord Francis Lennox was best known as “Midge”. The late Sir William Arbuthnot was “Tops” to his intimates; and the (racing) Mr Barclay was “Toots”. For many years of his life Mr Hamilton Aïdé was “Titums”, a pet name bestowed upon him, it is said by the Mrs Sartoris – née Kemble; Lord Leighton was “Fay” (but to a very small clique only), and Mr George Grossmith will be “Gee Gee” to the latest hour of his life.

‘But to return to women. The beautiful Lady Hastings, née Paget, was “Ladybird” in the days of her youth; and Lady Lucan was “Cuckoo”. Lady Morton Stanley will live and die “Dolly”, and clever Miss “Toupie” Lowther has probably forgotten by this time that her godfathers and godmothers ever bestowed upon her any other name. Two well-known women of the world have been known by the pet name “Pinkie”: Mrs Cavendish Bentinck – who was Miss “Pinkie” Browne; and Lady Shannon – who was Miss “Pinkie” Hartopp. Pretty Mrs Shelley Bontein, Mrs Algy Bourke’s mother, is, and ever will be, “Birdie”, and Lady Dorothy Lee Warner has never answered to any other name than “Ruby”.’

Photographed in 1861 by Hills and Saunders of Oxford.

From an album compiled by Augustus Cholmondeley Gough-Calthorpe (1829-1910), 6th Baron Calthorpe from 1893.

 


Code: 125836
© Paul Frecker 2024