Catherine Walters
Catherine Walters , also known as Skittles (* 13. June 1839 in Liverpool , † 4. August 1920 in Mayfair , London ) was a British fashion - trendsetter and was next to Alice Keppel as one of the last great courtesans in the Victorian era .
Life
Catherine Walters was born the third of five children of customs officer Edward Walters († 1864) and his wife, Mary Ann Fowlers. Catherine was nicknamed Skittles for working in a bowling alley . At the age of 20 she went to London, possibly as the mistress of one of her many admirers.
Walters was soon to become a well-known figure in London society, in part because of her skills as an excellent rider . So Skittles belonged to the company of the then famous parforcer rider Bay Middleton , Hugh Grosvenor, 1st Duke of Westminster and the Empress Elisabeth of Austria on the fox hunts in Scotland . The English landscape and animal painter Sir Edwin Landseer portrayed Walters 1861 in one of his paintings, The Taming of the Shrew ( The Taming of the Shrew ), and showed her as a young woman a spirited horse taming .
Her lovers included, among others, the Marquess of Hartington , whom she even followed to New York City during the American Civil War ; furthermore the French emperor Napoleon III. ; the Prince of Wales and later King Edward VII , the British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone (or even friendship) and the poet Wilfrid Scawen Blunt . Although the affair with Blunt was short, he remained obsessed with her for the rest of his life. In addition, she had the tremendous virtue of being extremely discreet and loyal to her benefactors. Catherine Walters had no financial worries after her retirement (1890) from the life of a courtesan. She was able to use her connections for business relationships and investments , so that she was soon a wealthy lady of society.
Catherine Walters died in her townhouse of complications from a cerebral haemorrhage at the age of 81. Their remains were in the cemetery of the Franciscan - monastery in Crawley buried. Her grave bears the inscription: In loving memory of CWB Died August 4, 1920 . The initials refer to the fact that Walters was married to the Scots Alec Baillie in the 1870s . However, no marriage certificate was found; so it is possible that for Baillie, a friend of the Prince of Wales, the formal marriage was only intended to cover up her affair with the Prince.
literature
- Katie Hickman: Courtesans: Money, Sex, and Fame in the Nineteenth Century , New York: HarperCollins (2003) ISBN 0-9657930-8-7
- Henry Blyth: Skittles, The Last Victorian Courtesan , Newton Abbot, Devon UK: Readers Union Limited (1972)
Web links
- Findagrave.com - Catherine Walters (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Walters, Catherine |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Skittles |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British fashion trendsetter and the last great courtesan of the Victorian era |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 13, 1839 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Liverpool |
| DATE OF DEATH | 4th August 1920 |
| Place of death | Mayfair , London |