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What’s New: November 2023

This month’s update, introduced by Rohan McWilliam, adds 8 new articles, with a special focus on popular entertainment on the London stage, and in particular the female stars known as the Gaiety Girls, in the decades before the First World War.

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Gilchrist [married name Fitzmaurice], Constance Macdonald, countess of Orkney [Connie]

Gilchrist [married name Fitzmaurice], Constance Macdonald, countess of Orkney [Connie]

Known as ‘the original Gaiety Girl’, Connie Gilchrist, the daughter of a London engine smith, was an artist’s model from childhood. After appearing in pantomime and then in music hall, she was recruited to join the company at the Gaiety Theatre. After her retirement in 1888, she married the earl of Orkney, and devoted the rest of her life to rural pursuits on a Buckinghamshire country estate.

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NOVEMBER 9, 2023

What's New: November 2023

This month’s update, introduced by Rohan McWilliam, adds 8 new articles, with a special focus on popular entertainment on the London stage, and in particular the female stars known as the Gaiety Girls, in the decades before the First World War.

OCTOBER 12, 2023

What's New: October 2023

This month’s update adds the biographies of eight new subjects of African or part-African descent: Harry Edward, James Harley, Peter McLagan, Sam Minto, De Jornette Plummer, David Smith, Daphne Steele, and Cassie Walmer. 

SEPTEMBER 14, 2023

What's New: September 2023

This month’s update, introduced by Hannah Smith, adds the lives of 22 people connected with equestrianism in modern Britain, including Dorothy Brooke, Marjorie Bullows, Eva Christy, Tony Collings, Ruby Ferguson, Maxwell McTaggart, Harry Faudel-Phillips, and Dorian Williams.