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Jennie (Jerome) Spencer-Churchill CI RRC DStJ (9 January 1854 – 29 June 1921), known as Lady Randolph Churchill, was a New York-born British socialite, the wife of Lord Randolph Churchill, and the mother of British prime minister Sir Winston Churchill. Born at 426 Henry Street in Brooklyn, New York, Jennie was the daughter of Leonard Jerome and Clarissa Hall.[1]
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In acknowledgement of her fundraising work for the women of India, Queen Victoria conferred the Insignia of the Order of the Crown of India (CI) on Lady Randolph Churchill on Friday, the 4th December 1885.[2]
Queen Victoria died on 22nd January 1901. Her son, Edward, Prince of Wales succeeded her. In recognition of Lady Randolph Churchill’s services on the hospital ship Maine, caring for those wounded in the Second Boer War, the King conferred upon her the honour of “a Lady of Grace of St. John of Jerusalem” (DStJ) and the Order of the Royal Red Cross (RRC). Jennie had a seat in the King’s royal box at his coronation in August 1902, and was presented with the Coronation medal, a silver cameo.[2]
Episcopal Diocese of New York church record: Clara Hall Jerome, Jeanie Jerome and Camille Jerome were baptized on 5 April 1857 at St. Peter’s (Chelsea).
Clara married Moreton Frewen, had three children, and died in 1935. Camille died due to fever as a young child in 1863.[3] Another daughter, Leonie (1859 - 1943), married John Leslie, and had four sons. Mrs. Jerome (aged 35), Clara Jerome (7), Eugenie Jerome (5), Camille Jerome (3) and Leonie Jerome (1) are recorded on the passenger list of the Adriatic arriving at New York in 1860.[4]
The three Jerome sisters were known as "the Good, the Witty and the Beautiful." Jennie was considered the "beauty" of the sisters.
Jennie was a talented amateur pianist. In 1909, when American impresario Charles Frohman became sole manager of The Globe Theatre, the first production was His Borrowed Plumes, written by Jennie. Although Mrs. Patrick Campbell produced and took the lead role in the play, it was a commercial failure. It was at this point that Campbell began an affair with Jennie’s then husband, George Cornwallis-West.
Jennie served as the chair of the hospital committee for the American Women's War Relief Fund starting in 1914. This organization helped fund and staff two hospitals during World War I.
With her family wealth, Jennie was able to travel. While in England, she met Lord Randolph Churchill at a sailing regatta on the Isle of Wight in August 1873. Three days later he proposed to Jennie and she accepted. Jennie married Lord Churchill on 15 April 1874 at the British Embassy in Paris, France.[5]
Their first child was named Winston Leonard Churchill (30 November 1874 - 24 January 1965), born at Blenheim Castle in Oxfordshire, an ancestral home.
Their second son was named John Strange Spencer Churchill (4 February 1880 - 23 February 1947), called Jack. He married Lady Gwendoline Theresa Mary Bertie (20 November 1885 - 7 July 1941). They had three children.
Graceful, witty, and charming, Jennie (Jerome) Churchill was an immediate success in British high society. However, her marriage to Lord Churchill was not a happy one. She had many affairs and lovers. Lord Churchill died in 1895.[6]
Following her husband’s death, Jennie began editing a short-lived literary magazine and wrote several books and plays. Jennie's famous sayings: “There is no such thing as a moral dress – it’s the people who are moral or immoral,” and “Treat your friends as you do your pictures, and place them in their best light.”
Jennie had a snake tattooed on her wrist. In the late 1890s, tattooing was very expensive and people paid large sums of money for personal designs placed on themselves. It was popular with aristocrats, including women.
Jennie “helped with social contacts and influence” to assist her son, Winston, in the political field.
Jennie married her second husband in 1900 at London, England, George Cornwallis-West,[7] called “the handsomest man in England,” a Guards officer who was only two weeks older than Winston. They divorced eleven years later. In 1918, Jennie married Montagu Porch,[8] living contentedly with him until her death three years later.
In 1921, while Montagu Porch was away in Africa, Jennie slipped while coming down a friend's staircase and broke her ankle. It did not heal correctly, gangrene set in, and the left leg had to be amputated.
Jennie was at her home in London when she experienced a haemorrhage of an artery in her thigh as a result of the amputation. She died on 29 June 1921.[9]
Jennie is buried at St. Martin's Churchyard, Bladon, Oxon, Oxfordshire, England next to her first husband in the Churchill family plot.[10] Jennie’s sons, Winston and Jack, lined her grave with her favourite flowers, white roses and lilac orchids.[2]
Featured German connections: Jennie is 16 degrees from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 23 degrees from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 22 degrees from Lucas Cranach, 12 degrees from Stefanie Graf, 11 degrees from Wilhelm Grimm, 19 degrees from Fanny Hensel, 26 degrees from Theodor Heuss, 14 degrees from Alexander Mack, 33 degrees from Carl Miele, 9 degrees from Nathan Rothschild, 17 degrees from Hermann Friedrich Albert von Ihering and 13 degrees from Ferdinand von Zeppelin on our single family tree. Login to see how you relate to 33 million family members.
J > Jerome | P > Porch > Jeanette (Jerome) Porch CI RRC DSt
Categories: St Martin Churchyard, Bladon, Oxfordshire | Dames of Grace of the Order of St John | Order of the Crown of India | Royal Red Cross | New York, Notables | England, Notables | Notables