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- Jeanette, known as Jennie
Lord Randolph died in 1895, aged 45. Attending a party hosted by Daisy Warwick, Jennie was mixing in the highest London society circles, and was much admired by the Prince of Wales. Her husband's death freed her to move effortlessly in spite of her impecuniosity. Introduced to a much younger man, he was instantly smitten, and they spent much time together that summer. Returning from service in the Second Boer War, George Cornwallis-West proposed, and they were married in London on 28 July 1900. George had two sisters, one of whom, Constance (known as Shelagh), was the first wife of the 2nd Duke of Westminster ("Bendor"). The other, Mary (known as Daisy), was married the immensely wealthy Prince of Pless. A captain in the Scots Guards, George was the same age as her elder son, Winston. Their romantic wedding was held at St Paul's Church, Knightsbridge. Around this time, she became well known for chartering the hospital ship RFA Maine to care for those wounded in the Second Boer War, for which she received the decoration of the Royal Red Cross (RRC) in the South Africa Honours list published on 26 June 1902. In 1908 she wrote her memoirs, The Reminiscences of Lady Randolph Churchill. George doted on Jennie, amorously nicknaming her "pussycat". However, they drifted apart. The Churchills were becoming a dedicated literary family, and George, who was a financial failure in the City, slowly fell out of love with his older wife, who already had a family. Short of money, she contemplated selling the family home in Hertfordshire to move into the Ritz Hotel in Piccadilly. George Cornwallis-West was in fragile health when he recuperated at the royal skiing resort of St Moritz. Jennie took to writing plays for the West End, in many of which the star was Mrs Patrick Campbell.
Jennie separated from her second husband in 1912, and they were divorced in April 1914, whereupon Cornwallis-West married the actress Mrs. Patrick Campbell. Jennie dropped the surname Cornwallis-West, and resumed, by deed poll, the name Lady Randolph Churchill.[21] Her third marriage, on 1 June 1918, was to Montagu Phippen Porch (1877'961964), a member of the British Civil Service in Nigeria, who was three years Winston's junior. At the end of World War I, Porch resigned from the colonial service, and after Jennie's death, returned to West Africa where his business investments had proven successful.
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