Valerie Mewes

Valerie Mewes (2 August 1931 – 9 January 1955) was an English model and celebrity, better known by the name Vicki Martin.

Biography

Valerie Mewes was born on 2 August 1931 in Staines, Middlesex, England to Margaret Alice (nee Reynolds) and John Pembroke Mewes. She attended Ashford County Grammar School. She had a younger sister Doreen who was born in 1932 and a half-sister Vivienne Warren born in 1945 from her mother’s second marriage. Vivienne Warren married George Harrison Marks, a photographer.

At the age of 17, Mewes ran away to London.

She ended up working as a hostess at the Court Club, on Duke Street in upmarket Mayfair, owned by the underworld figure Morris Conley. While there she became best friends with Ruth Ellis another of the club’s hostesses, the last woman executed in the United Kingdom. Mewes and Ellis rented an apartment together in south London. It was during this period that she meet Stephen Ward, who was to become one of the central figures in the 1963 Profumo affair. Ward claimed to have met Mewes in a doorway in Oxford Street during a thunderstorm at night. Taking her under his wing Ward took her back to his flat, dressed her in clothes left behind by his ex-wife and for approximately a year she stayed there with him as he improved her walk and smoothed her Cockney accent, to assist her desire to be model. He introduced her to Mayfair society at the opening night of a club, managed by his friend Siegi Sessler. Also attending the event was Jagaddipendra Narayan, the Maharaja of Cooch Behar who was immediately attracted to her, as was Mewes to him. She received concussion and leg injuries while Narayan broke his collarbone and five ribs. Mewes was killed, dying of massive injuries while on the way to hospital while the other occupant of the car, writer Terence Robertson survived. Robertson was the author of a number of books, including 'The Golden Horseshoe'. Robertson took his own life in January 1970. The wrecked cars were found by Sir David Salt, of Cookham Berkshire. There was some confusion as to who was driving the car, with The Times At the inquest numerous friends of Mewes claimed that she could not drive. The driver of other car, David Salisbury Haig was killed while his wife of six weeks survived. Both survivors had facial injuries and initially treated at Maidenhead Hospital before being taken to Mount Vernon Hospital. At the time of her death Mewes was living at 75 Cadogan Place, in Belgravia, London. Mewes left over £2000 in her will.

Mewes’s funeral was on 14 January 1955. Narayan was informed of Mewes death by reporters while in India and was too distraught to attend. As a result his brother-in-law the Maharaja of Jaipur attended the funeral on his behalf.

In Popular culture

Vicki Martin was a character in Amanda Whittington’s play The Thrill of Love about Ruth Ellis which was commissioned by the New Vic Theatre, Newcastle-under-Lyme in 2013.