Early years Maud Burke was born in San Francisco, to an Irish-American father, James Burke (who claimed descent from the Irish rebel
Robert Emmet) and his half-French wife, Alicia Salendin. She was brought up in New York, where she became a devotee of music, hearing her first
Wagner (the complete
Ring cycle) when she was 12. She hoped to marry Prince André
Poniatowski, grandson of the
last King of Poland, but he jilted her and in April 1895 she married
Sir Bache Cunard, 3rd Baronet, grandson of the founder of the
Cunard shipping line. He preferred to live at his country house,
Nevill Holt Hall, in
Leicestershire, where he was a keen
huntsman. His wife began to establish a reputation as a hostess, "with a taste for the arts, or for artists anyhow, especially musicians", , with
Sir Thomas Beecham, 1919 Among Lady Cunard's artistic friends was the novelist
George Moore, who was deeply in love with her, and to whom she was an inspiration, appearing in many guises in his novels. Moore's love was reciprocated less strongly by Lady Cunard. The Cunards had a daughter,
Nancy, in 1896, described by a biographer as "gifted and lonely" and largely neglected by her parents.
London hostess In 1911, leaving Cunard in Leicestershire, Lady Cunard moved to London with Nancy.
The Times wrote of her, "Lady Cunard was probably the most lavish hostess of her day." The then
Prince of Wales met
Sir Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists, at her home in 1935. In 1911, the Cunards formally separated by common agreement. At about this time, to the dismay of Moore, Lady Cunard fell in love with the conductor
Thomas Beecham and became widely recognised in society as his companion. She was a tireless fund-raiser and persuaded many rich and upper-class people to support Beecham's extravagant operatic ventures. This was always important to Beecham, and it became more so after the First World War, when his finances were much depleted. Cunard died in 1925, and his widow never remarried. In the years after Cunard's death, she took to calling herself "Emerald", by which name she was known for the rest of her life (though not by either Moore or Beecham).
Later years The widowed Lady Cunard took up residence in
Grosvenor Square.
David Lloyd George considered Lady Cunard "a most dangerous woman", because although she was not greatly interested in politics, she beguiled senior politicians such as
Lord Curzon into indiscreet statements at her dinner table. Among her regular guests in the 1930s was her fellow American
Wallis Simpson, whose liaison with
Edward, Prince of Wales she encouraged, thus reinforcing
Queen Mary's disapproval of the Cunard set.
Lady Diana Cooper described Cunard's generous habit of helping out friends in financial trouble: "If Emerald caught me or my kind forgoing a treat for economy's sake, she would casually call, pretend to fancy a picture or a table or a rug, and insist on buying it for double its worth." In this way she accumulated an eclectic assortment of art and furniture, which was part of a more focused collection of valuable 18th century French furniture she had acquired over the years on the expert advice of friends and dealers. The outbreak of the Second World War marked the end of the lavish entertainment and private patronage of hostesses such as Lady Cunard and her rival
Sibyl, Lady Colefax. Beecham's residence in the US in the early years of the war led Lady Cunard to move to New York, where she set up home in a luxurious hotel. In 1942, she learned from an acquaintance that Beecham was going to marry the pianist
Betty Humby. She returned to London and moved into the
Dorchester Hotel where she died, miserable and lonely, at the age of 75. Her ashes were scattered in
Grosvenor Square. == References ==