Evelyn Diana Turnour Sheffield

Eliza Dinah Sheffield (née Fairchild; 6 September 1856 – 28 November 1942) was an English entrepreneur and socialite. Born into a working class family in Southampton, England, she rose through the ranks of society through marriage to Henry Digby Sheffield, a minor aristocrat. Since Fairchild was a barmaid at the time of their marriage, they had to invent a more prestigious background for her and she took the name Evelyn Diana Turnour Sheffield, presenting herself as the child of a British naval officer and a Spanish aristocrat.

After her husband died in 1888, Sheffield continued to engage with high society and through both romantic and friendly relationships inherited large sums of money, allowing her to pursue her own interests. In the 1890s, she was a co-inventor of the Tallerman–Sheffield hot-air treatment (or human bake oven), a medical contraption in which patients were baked alive to cure various ailments. Her social standing took a great hit in 1905 following a court case in which she attempted to sue John Townshend, 6th Marquess Townshend for withdrawing an offer of marriage. Sheffield's aristocratic identity was revealed as a forgery during the trial, though she continued to go by her assumed name until her death. Sheffield was a member of the occult Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.

Early life Eliza Dinah Fairchild was born on 6 September 1856 into a working class family in Southampton, England. was steward on board a ship. Her mother's name was also Eliza Dinah Fairchild (née Johnson).

It is unknown how far Sheffield advanced within the order. The Golden Dawn was splintered in 1903 and it is not known whether Sheffield joined any of its successors. Townshend was during this time unbeknownst to Sheffield heavily in debt; he had recently sold many of his family's valuable assets, including nearly 200 paintings by artists such as Thomas Gainsborough, Peter Paul Rubens, and Anthony van Dyck, and had leased Raynham Hall, the family estate.

Both Sheffield and Townshend believed the other to be wealthy and intended to use this to their own benefit; Sheffield wanted wealth and a formal title to securely confirm her place in high society whereas Townshend wanted a rich wife to restore the fortune of his family. Whenever the two engaged in some activity, Sheffield ended up paying since she appeared to be very wealthy. On 16 September 1903, Townshend proposed marriage but the offer was soon rescinded when he discovered that she was not as wealthy as he had believed. The legal excuse for the withdrawal of the offer was that "the plaintiff was an adventuress and a clairvoyant and otherwise unfit to become Marchioness".

Insulted by this description, Sheffield sued Townshend in 1905, both for breach of promise and to defend her reputation and image. The trial commenced on 23 February.e=":2" /> The case turned into a high profile scandal and was widely publicised in national newspapers such as News of the World. Though Sheffield's counsel succeeded in establishing the breach of promise, Townshend's counsel started to expose her real name and origins and in response Sheffield's council immediately withdrew her action thus ending the trial. However the damage was done and the details of Sheffield's real and fake identity were widely publicised in the media. The loss of the case was a disaster for her, not only costing her money in the form of legal costs but also tarnishing her reputation and place in society.

Death Sheffield died on 28 November 1942, aged 86. By the time of her death, she had only £300 left; all of this money was left to the engineer Percy Lock. Despite her humble origins being exposed during the 1905 court case, she maintained her invented first names, Evelyn and Diana, throughout her later life and used them even in official documents. Despite this, her death certificate called her Eliza Sheffield. It is likely that Sheffield's life story had at least some influence on the play Pygmalion (1913) by George Bernard Shaw, in particular on the protagonist Eliza Doolittle.