Constance Stewart-Richardson

Constance Stewart-Richardson (later Matthew; née Mackenzie; 1883–1932) was a British dancer and author.[1]

Constance, Lady Stewart-Richardson

Biography

She was a daughter of Francis Mackenzie, 2nd Earl of Cromartie (1852–1893) and sister of Sibell Lilian Blunt-Mackenzie, 3rd Countess of Cromartie (1878–1962). Her paternal grandparents were George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 3rd Duke of Sutherland, and Anne Hay-Mackenzie, 1st Countess of Cromartie.

In 1904, Constance married Sir Edward Austin Stewart-Richardson, 15th Baronet (1872–1914) and bore him two sons. She lived in Pitfour Castle in Perthshire.[2]

In 1910 her semi-clad dancing for the "shilling seats" of theatres incurred the displeasure of Edward VII, who considered it unsuitable behaviour for a noblewoman, and she was barred from Court – which constituted social death.[3]

In 1913 she danced in Judith in Vienna.[4] The same year, she published Dancing, Beauty, and Games (1913). In September 1913 she arrived in New York to accompany the French actress Polaire on her American tour.[5]

Her husband, an officer in the Black Watch, was killed in 1914 at the First Battle of Ypres. She went on to marry (in 1921 in London) Mr Dennis Leckie Matthew, an ex-guards officer who had spent several years in Chile pre-1914 observing German activities in South America for the British Government. He acted as a King's Messenger. They had a daughter, Anita, who was brought up (when both parents died in the early 1930s) by her Scottish half-family.

Publications
  • Dancing, beauty, and games. London: Humphreys. 1913.

References
  1. "Titled Dancer Says She is on' the Stage to Promote Art and Earn Money". The New York Times. June 12, 1913. Retrieved 2009-12-31. How an Arab costume can be adapted to the dictates of modern fashion was shown yesterday by Lady Constance Stewart Richardson, who arrived on the Olympic. Lady Constance, who used to come over here to hunt and visit friends, is now here in the role of a professional dancer, and she is going to make her appearance next week.
  2. "Lady Constance Stewart Richardson". Every Woman's Encyclopaedia. 1910. Retrieved 2009-12-31.
  3. A Cat May Look At A King, Chicago Tribune, 13 Feb 1910, p55
  4. "Lady Constance Stewart-Richardson to Appear Before Vienna Aristocrats". The New York Times. February 10, 1913. Retrieved 2009-12-31. According to The Daily Chronicle's Vienna correspondent all Vienna society is talking of the coming stage appearance there as a dancer of Lady Constance Stewart-Richardson, daughter of the Earl of Cromartie and niece of the Duke of Sutherland
  5. "Mlle. Polaire here with ring in nose". The New York Times. 21 September 1913.
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