Dorothy Dennistoun : Plaintiff in Dennistoun v Dennistoun

       Some  Brief Details                  

In 1925,  Dorothy Dennistoun was the plaintiff in the high Society scandal-laden matrimonial case of Dennistoun v Dennistoun.  The action was taken by Dorothy against her first husband, Lt Colonel Ian Onslow Dennistoun, who by the time of Dorothy's law suit, for alimony and damages,  had married Almina, Countess of Carnarvon, widow of the 5th Earl of Carnarvon, of Tutankhamun fame. 

Dorothy was born Dorothy Muriel  Webster in 1888, the daughter of Geoffrey Seymour William Webster (1864-1888) and  Ada Mary Paget ( died 1947).   She was descended on her father’s side from Elizabeth  Vassal ( later Lady Holland ) ( 1770-1845) who famously deserted her husband  for Henry Richard Vassal-Fox, the third Lord Holland.  

Dorothy’s father Geoffrey  died before she was born. Her mother Ada enjoyed a number of remarriages, her second husband Gerald Walker was killed in the Boer War in 1901, when Dorothy was 13. The third of Ada’s conquests was to the racehorse owner John ( later Sir John )  Miller of Newmarket whom she separated in 1905 shortly before inherited his brother’s baronetcy. Ada was briefly Lady Miller, but she next married Maximillian John de Bathe, ( whose brother married  the music hall star Lillie Lantry ) and in 1920 admitting her adultery, Ada divorced him. But she remained Ada De Bathe until her death in Nice in 1947.   

Litigation ran through Dorothy’s blood stream. Her twice divorced mother Ada was previously at the centre of  Court proceedings in the 1890s against her own father, Francis Henry Paget,  ( a widower  ) said to be “a lunatic ..living a fast life”. The Court decided that whilst Paget was not mad he was incapable of looking after himself.

Dorothy’s early years were spent growing up at Maunby Hall, Yorkshire ( the seat of her step-father,  Gerald Walker ). As a teenager she met many eminent people in the racing world through the orbit of her next step-father Sir John Miller, (1867-1918),  who gave her away at her wedding to Ian Onslow Dennistoun ( 1879-1938).  Sir John’s sister in law was Eveline ( Evie ) Curzon ( whose husband Sir James Miller, ( 1864-1906),  of Manderston, Duns was, co-incidentally,  a fierce competitor in the horse racing  world with George, 5th Earl of Carnarvon. Eve  ( Lady Miller ) was the sister of the eminent politician, Lord George Curzon, ( 1859-1925).

In November 1910 the 22-year-old Dorothy married the 31-year-old  Ian Onslow Dennistoun. He was serving soldier in the Grenadier Guards.  They later divorced in Paris, in 1921.


The full story of Dennistoun v Dennistoun is revealed in a new book, The Life and Secrets of Almina Carnarvon, by William Cross, FSA Scot,  

The book is now available.

For further information contact William Cross by e-mail at
 
williecross@aol.com