Florence balcombe photo

Oscar, besotted, gushed to a friend:. She is just seventeen with the most perfectly beautiful face I ever saw and not a sixpence of money. I will show you her photograph when I see you next. Given his involvement in the Crimean campaign, it is thought she was named for Florence Nightingale. The family moved to Ireland in , when Florence was two years old.

Her son Noel testified that she remained beautiful into her seventies, and he remembered men standing on their seats to catch a glimpse of her when she went to the theatre.

Florence balcombe cause of death

Yet there was far more to Florence than beauty alone. Perhaps it was her reputation for being witty and talkative that appealed to Oscar. In the months that followed their first date, the affection between Florence and Oscar deepened. On Christmas Morning , six months into their relationship, he gave her a delicate gold cross with his name engraved on it, an act often interpreted as a prelude to an engagement.

As Oscar was an undergraduate at Oxford University the lovers saw little of each other, and his ardour appeared to wane over time. Florence, stranded in Dublin, became worried for her future.