Born on March 8th. 1881, Jeanne Marie Langtry was left by her mother at an early age in the care of her mother and a governess. To many in Jersey she was thought of as being a niece to Lillie’s husband Edward. She was to live on the Island of Jersey in their charge until 1885, when she was moved to live with her mother in London, knowing her only has her ‘Aunt’. Her father was in fact Prince Louis of Battenberg, a handsome naval officer, who Jeanne Marie did not learn of until she was eighteen.

When Lillie Langtry went on her US tour, Jeanne Marie stayed in London, but finally accompanied Mrs le Breton, Lillie’s mother, over to New York in 1888. Having returned to Jersey rather than London, it was not long before she was asking her mother embarrassing questions about their relationship to her face.

Lillie however spent all that was necessary to give her a first class education and to bring her up as a lady, making a deep impression on Edward, the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) at their first meeting in 1897.

Becoming engaged to Ian Malcolm in 1901, Jeanne was delighted that her mother (who had disapproved of an earlier ‘engagement’ to Ivor Guest, a short time before) gave her her blessing.

After the Wedding, Jeanne and Ian Malcolm  lived alternatively in a house in Belgravia, London, or at the Malcolm’s family seat at Poltalloch in Scotland. At her London home she saw very little of her mother and nothing at all when in Scotland. Lillie’s new in-laws had been prepared to accept Jeanne into their midst, but not  to overlook her mother’s faults.

Jeanne’s first child, George Ian, was born ten months after the Wedding. Victor and Angus followed in the next five years, then a decade later, Helen Mary. (pictured left)