Eva Carrington

Evelyn Victoria Anne Tate (née Chandler; 1887–1979), known by her stage name Eva Carrington, was an actress, model and sometime peeress as the wife of the Baron de Clifford.

Early life Carrington was born Evelyn Victoria Anne Chandler in Lambeth, London, the daughter of Anglo-Irish Walter Robert Chandler, a messenger and hall porter at the Walsingham House Hotel, Piccadilly, sometime orderly room clerk to Colonel Fred Burnaby. Her mother, Louisa, was a theatre attendant. By 1891, the family were using "Carrington" as their surname and living in Soho. Her sister, Gladys Winifred Carrington Chandler, married Royal Air Force Flight Lieutenant Christopher Humphrey Tancred (1888–1972), grandson of Sir Thomas Tancred, 7th Baronet, a philanthropist and early colonist of Canterbury, New Zealand; their son was the actor Anthony Tancred (1930–1995).

Career Modeling

Carrington was a model for the artist James Whistler between 1898 and 1902. She posed for a number of Whistler's paintings and drawings, including A dancing woman in a pink robe, seen from the back, The Tambourine, Eva and Gladys Carrington seated on a sofa, and The Bead Stringers.

Personal life Eva married Jack Southwell Russell, 25th Baron de Clifford, in February 1906. She adopted the title Lady de Clifford. This marriage, of a commoner and showgirl to a senior peer, created a scandal at the time. In 1922, Eva married George Vernon Tate, grandson of the founder of the Tate Gallery.

She had several children, and the only son, the eldest child, Edward Southwell Russell, succeeded to the de Clifford barony.