FROM RICHES TO PENURY

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 20 February 1935, Page 8

FROM RICHES TO PENURY

FAMOUS BEAUTY IN DISTRESS LIVED AT RATE OF £40,000 A YEAR MONEY LOST IN SLUMP. (From Our Own Correspondent.) (By Air Mail.) ” LONDON, Feb. 2. Sylvia Cawston, wealthy, beautiful daughter of George Cawston, millionaire partner of Cecil Rhodes, was the darling of pre-war society. She lived at the rate of £40,000 a year. Her fame spread over two continents. She was presented at King George’s first Court. She married a rich young, officer in the Guards. A king and dukes dined at her table. She had the world at her feet. To-day she is practically' penniless. This is the story she told this week. “The old days are a dream to me now. I’ve had a terrible time. I’ll tell you how it happened. “I was born with a golden spoon in my' mouth. Soon after I was presented I married Wilfred Gough, a young Guards officer. He was the son of the Governor of Jersey. “King Leopold of the Belgians often dined with us at my father’s house. I knew Lord Kitchener, Arthur Balfour, every' one.

“I used to travel abroad —Monte Carlo, Deauville, Nice. . . I had one house in Versailles and another in Paris. In Germany—the land I liked best —I used to play tennis with Prince Eitel Fritzj the Kaiser’s son. “My portrait was painted by Sargent, by Orpen, by John. “My' troubles began after the wai. I was divorced. I went to New York. J. got a job as a show girl in the Zieg fekl Follies.

“I married a second time. My husband is Wheeler Williams, the American sculptor. I lived happily', although the £40,000 a year of pre-war days had Dwindled to £2OOO. But I was happy' . . . until three y r ears ago.

“Then we lost all our money in the American slump. I sold my property* to pay my debts. And here I am, dead beat.”

When her first husband divorced her, Baron Maurice de Rothschild and Mr Bertrand Neidecker, an American banker, were named as co-respondents. No evidence was offered against Baron de Rothschild, and the case was undefended.

When Sylvia Cawston was in New York she worked for a time as a mannequin. As “Marguerita” she was known as “Broadway'’s loveliest.” Her father, George Cawston, was one of the founders of the British South Africa Company. He died ia 1924 —bankrupt.