Eleanor Souray

Eleanor "Nellie" Souray (1880 – 8 December 1931), later styled as Eleanor Byng, Viscountess Torrington, was an English actress known for her roles in Edwardian musical comedies, pantomime and light opera.

Eleanor Souray, from a 1904 publication.

Early life

Souray was born Ellen Mary Souray (or Sowray) at Long Ditton,[1] one of eight children of Edwin Souray and Mary Ann (or Marion) Husted Souray. Her sister Maidie Souray was also an actress.[2]

Career

Souray was a comic actress and singer, preferring the range of shows "from pantomime to light comedy".[3] She appeared in The Black Tulip (1898), The Girl from Kays (1902), The Duchess of Dantzic (1903), The Blue Moon (1905), The Merveilleuses (1906), The Admirable Crichton, and Letty.[4][5] She was also associated with the Gaiety Theatre.[6]

She wrote Over the Garden Wall: A Story of Racing and Romance, published in 1924.[7]

Personal life

In 1910, Souray married George Master Byng, the 9th Viscount Torrington,[8] at the British Embassy in Paris; they met three days earlier, through their mutual interest in horse racing.[9][10] They were married about four years when the viscount was commissioned to serve in the Royal Navy during World War I. They separated after the war; he declared bankruptcy in 1919, and they were divorced in 1921. She was later romantically linked with jockey and trainer Steve Donoghue.[11]

Souray became more involved with horse racing in her later years, an expensive hobby, which led to her own bankruptcy in 1930.[12] She died by suicide in 1931, in London, at the age of 51.[8][6]

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References
  1. Bampton Hunt, John Parker, The Green Room Book (T. S. Clark 1907), p. 403.
  2. Photograph of Maidie Souray, Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News (February 8, 1908), p. 923.
  3. "Plays and Players", Navy & Army Illustrated (September 24, 1904), p. 835.
  4. Hayter-Menzies, Grant. Mrs. Ziegfeld: The Public and Private Lives of Billie Burke (McFarland 2016), p. 207. ISBN 9780786453085
  5. Felix, Hugo, Victorien Sardou and Adrian Ross. The Merveilleuses: A New Comedy Opera, Chappell (1906), p. iii.
  6. "How Lady Torrington's Craze for Horses Brought Her to a Tragic Finish", Ogden Standard-Examiner (January 17, 1932), p. 24. via Newspapers.com
  7. Byng, Eleanor Souray, Viscountess Torrington. Over the Garden Wall: A Story of Racing and Romance (Hutchinson & Co., 1924).
  8. "Eleanor Souray", The Peerage.
  9. "Torrington Marriage" The Daily News (December 6, 1910): 1. via Trove
  10. "Actress Wins Title By Winning a Race" Inter Ocean (October 16, 1910): 14. via Newspapers.com
  11. Atkinson, Diane. Elsie and Mairi Go to War: Two Extraordinary Women on the Western Front (Pegasus Books 2011). ISBN 9781681770161
  12. "Former Wife of Peer a Suicide by Gas" Brooklyn Daily Eagle (January 3, 1932): 18. via Newspapers.com
  • Ten photographs of Eleanor Souray Byng by Bassano Ltd in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery.
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