Mary Lawson

Romances and marriage Lawson was as known for her off-stage romances as she was for her onstage performances. In 1933, her engagement to Maurice Henry van Raalte, heir to a cigar importing fortune, ended tragically with her fiancé's sudden death. cameraman on the set of Money in the Air, a film in which Lawson had a part and that was eventually distributed as Radio Pirates. But only a few months later in August 1934 Lawson caused a national sensation when it was announced that she was engaged to Fred Perry, the world's premier tennis player and winner of numerous Grand Slam tournaments. The couple first met when Perry visited the London studies of the film Falling in Love, in which Lawson played the role of Ann Brent. In April 1935, while Perry was in the United States, the engagement was called off.

Lawson met her future husband Francis William Beaumont while filming the 1936 film Toilers of the Sea, a film adaption of Victor Hugo's 1866 novel Les Travailleurs de la mer. Hugo's book is set in the British Crown Dependency of Guernsey in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy, which includes the island of Sark, a feudal territory ruled by the Seigneur of Sark. Beaumont's mother, Dame Sibyl Collings Beaumont Hathaway, who was the ruling 21st Seigneur of Sark, wrote in her autobiography that the scenes from the film were shot on Sark and that her son provided backing for the film, along with French director/producer Jean Choux; in the film credits the production company L. C. Beaumont is mentioned, but not Choux. That year the Beaumonts were divorced, and on 22 June 1938 Beumont and Lawson were married in Chelsea. In her memoirs, Hathaway makes no mention of her son's second wife, rather she praises his first wife as a "charming girl" and states that "on account of behaviour of my sons … there have been many heartbreaking blows". Upon marriage Lawson legally changed her name to Mary Elizabeth Beaumont, but continued to use Mary Lawson as her stage name.

Death When the Second World War broke out Sark was occupied by the German military and Beaumont joined the Royal Air Force, reaching the rank of flight lieutenant. On 1 May the German Luftwaffe began a bombing campaign on Liverpool that lasted for more than a week. On 4 May, as the warning sirens went off, family and friends at the home, including Lawson's sister Dorothy, took safety in a shelter, while Lawson and Beaumont stayed in their room. Lawson was cremated at Landican Crematorium, Birkenhead, while her husband was buried at Kirkdale Cemetery, Liverpool.

Filmography Year Title Role