Editing Lillie Langtry (section)

==Final days==
During her final years, Langtry, as Lady de Bathe, resided in [[Monaco]] whilst her husband, Sir Hugo de Bathe, lived in [[Vence]], Alpes Maritimes.<ref>{{cite news|title=Lily Langtry's Husband|url=http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/singfreepressb19310626-1.2.22.aspx|access-date=18 June 2015|work=The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser|date=26 June 1931}}</ref> The two saw one another at social gatherings or in brief private encounters. During [[World War I]], Hugo de Bathe was an ambulance driver for the French Red Cross.<ref>The National Archives of the UK; Kew, Surrey, England. WWI Service Medal and Award Rolls; Class: WO 329; Piece Number: 2324</ref><ref>Army Medal Office. WWI Medal Index Cards. In the care of The Western Front Association website</ref>

[[File:Lillie Langtry Grave.jpg|thumb|upright|Lillie Langtry's grave in [[Saint Saviour, Jersey]]]]
Langtry's closest companion during her time in Monaco was her friend Mathilde Marie Peat. Peat was at Langtry's side during the final days of her life as she was dying of [[pneumonia]] in Monte Carlo. Langtry left Peat £10,000, the Monaco property known as Villa le Lys, clothes, and her motor car.<ref>{{cite book|last=Beatty|first=Laura|title=Lillie Langtry – Manners, Masks and Morals|year=1999|publisher=Vintage|location=London|page=Chapter XXXIV ("Final Act")}}</ref>

Langtry died in Monaco at dawn on 12 February 1929. She had asked to be buried in her parents' tomb at St Saviour's Church in Jersey. Blizzards delayed the journey, but her body was taken to St Malo and across to Jersey on 22 February aboard the steamer ''Saint Brieuc''. Her coffin lay in St Saviour's overnight surrounded by flowers, and she was buried on the afternoon of 23 February.<ref>{{cite book|last=Dudley|first=Ernest|title=The Gilded Lily|year=1958|publisher=Oldhams Press|location=London|pages=219–20}}</ref>

The death of the famous Lillie Langtry made headlines in British newspapers.

The ''[[Daily Mail]]'' remembered Lillie Langtry as one of the most famous beauties of the closed century. 'In more modern times it was her acting that brought her renown, but in her youth she took London by storm on account of her dazzling loveliness, and it was indeed her good looks and her wit that enabled her to go on the stage when her first husband lost his fortune.'<ref>''Daily Mail'', 13 February 1929, p. 8. Digital available at ''Daily Mail Historical Archive, 1896-2016/Gale Primary Sources'' - subscription through a library is necessary.</ref> In the following weeks the popular newspaper reported about her estate, her funeral and a memorial service.<ref>''Daily Mail'', 18 February 1929, 22 February 1929, 23 February 1929, 25 February 1929 8. Digital available at ''Daily Mail Historical Archive, 1896-2016/Gale Primary Sources'' - subscription through a library is necessary.</ref>

The ''Daily Telegraph'' published both a news article and an obituary full of memories of a contemporary of Lillie Langtry who had known her in society years and had followed her acting career. 'Never a real actress' was the verdict, but Lillie Langtry had made the wise and honourable decision to use her celebrity to find a career and her living in her own way and by her own resources instead of becoming dependent on offers of aristocratic male friends after her separation from her husband.<ref>''The Daily Telegraph'', 13 February 1929: "Lily Langtry's career", by the Rt. Hon. T.P. Connor, M.P. Digital available in ''The Telegraph Historical Archive, 1855-2016 / Gale Primary Sources'', access through a library-subscription is necessary to  access.</ref> ‘She was one of the first and probably the most popular of the ladies who were universally known at that time as "Society beauties” … Eventually she resolved to go on the stage, and she did an immense amount of work in America as well as in England during a period of about 35 years. She overcame many obstacles, and, although she was never a great actress, her beauty and her charm of manner brought her a large measure of success.’  

''[[The Times]]'' published on three different pages a news alert from the correspondent in Paris, a photograph and an obituary. In the obituary the newspaper looked  back at the start and the development of Langtry's career. On her first appearance on 15 December 1881 – as Kate Hardcastle, in She Stoops to Conquer – all sections of society had fought for highly priced seats in the theatre. ‘The audience, which included the Prince and Princess of Wales, and representatives of eminence in fashion, art, and literature, received Mrs. Langtry very quietly, but the debutante soon overcame the feeling of prejudice….  Mrs. Langtry became so popular in America that she paid many visits to that country, her last being in 1915. Her personality counted for much, and she gradually acquired the technique of the stage. But she never succeeded in touching the emotions, the common chord of humanity….’ <ref>''The Times'', 13 February 1929: "Lady the Bathe". ''Available at: The Times digital archive 1785-2019/Gale Primary Sources. access through a library-subscription is necessary''</ref>

The ''Manchester Guardian'' remembered Lillie Langtry mainly as a "reigning beauty". 'The London of the eighties and nineties, when the "Jersey Lily," whose death is announced, had her heyday, seems even more remote than the passage of years warrants. To a generation whose manifold interests in life have enormously increased in comparison with their fathers' it seems incredible that barely a generation ago crowds should have assembled in thousands to stare at or cheer a "reigning beauty." Yet Mrs. Langtry, though the most famous of her kind, was no exception as a social institution....A world with the "movies" and the wireless to amuse it, a world, moreover, in which the sexes meet on more practical terms than in the past, has more to do than mob a handsome woman for the sake of her looks. But it can at least admire the "Jersey Lily" for one fact in her curious career – that when hard times came she turned to hard work for the theatre. That work was seldom artistically notable but it revealed a force of character on which those who reckoned her by looks alone had hardly counted.' The famous Victorian beauty did have qualities and made some inventions.'Mrs. Langtry was not perhaps a great actress, but her beauty carried everything before it. She was a woman who knew how to make the most of her graces. As she said long afterwards, "I was the first woman in England to have my hands manicured." She knew all the niceties of artistic dressing. It was one of her plaints that "to-day women are becoming so standardised in figure and dress that they all seem to look like each other." Her own grace and graciousness and her ability to please her fellow-creatures she retained to the end. She danced with the vitality of a young woman when she was seventy she wrote a book of reminiscences a year later, and even after a severe illness the beauty of her complexion and of her eyes still remained.'<ref>{{Cite news |date=2010-02-13 |title=From the archive: A Reigning Beauty: Death of Lily Langtry |url=https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2010/feb/13/lily-langtry-death |access-date=2025-01-08 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>  

In the United States the death of Lillie Langtry was front page news for the ''New York Times''. 'Actress, Once called World's Greatest Beauty succumbs to Heart Disease and Influenza.' The article, with the streamer 'was idolized by society',  was continued with a large obituary at page 12.<ref>''New York Times'', 13 February 1929: "Lily Langtry dies on Riviera at 74". On February 24, 1929, the New York Times reported in a small article about her funderal at Jersey. Digital available by Proquest Historical Journals- subscription by library is necessary.</ref>

The ''Washington Post'' reported the news on page 13, but still in a prominent way: a friend of King of Edward VII and one of the most popular women of stage had died. On 17 February 1929 the ''Washington Post'' continued: especially in New York the former actress was adored, but this didn't spoil the famous English beauty. <ref>''The Washington Post'', 13 & 17 February 1929. Headline on 13 February 1929: 'Lily Langtry, Once Famous Beauty, Dies in Monte Carlo". Digital available by Proquest Historical Journals- subscription by library is necessary.</ref> 

The ''Los Angeles Times'' paid tribute to the former actress and her 'notable career' on page 1.<ref>''The Washington Post'', 13 February 1929: "Jersey Lily succum. Death summons Mrs. Langtry".Digital available by Proquest Historical Journals- subscription by library is necessary.</ref>

===Bequests===
Immediately after her death, the ''[[Daily Mail]]'', published exclusive news: ‘The Daily Mail understands that Lady de Bathe , (Mrs. Langtry, " the Jersey Lily "), who died at Monte Carlo on February 12, has made a number of personal bequests in her trill. The famous actress has (left £10,000, her jewellery, and her villa, Le Lys, Monte Carlo, to Mrs. Peat, who was with her during her last illness and for 16 years her constant friend and companion. To her daughter, Lady (Ian) Malcolm, Lady de Bathe left the family old silver from Jersey. To the two daughters of Lady (Ian) Malcolm she left £5,000 each. Lady de Bathe left her motorcar to her maid Mathilde, who was with her for 15 years. The daughter of the Very Rev. W. C. E. le Breton, Dean of Jersey, Lady de Bathe offered to the museum at St. Helier, Jersey, antique furniture, with the proviso that should the museum authorities not want the furniture it is to revert to the maid Mathilde. Mrs. Peat, a pale, middle-aged woman wearing a black fur coat over a black gown, left Paddington for Jersey last night. She was accompanied by Lady Malcolm and the solicitor to the estate.’<ref>''Daily Mail'', 22 February 1929, p. 11. Digital available at ''Daily Mail Historical Archive, 1896-2016/Gale Primary Sources'' - subscription through a library is necessary.</ref>

In 1928 the ''Daily Mail'' reported an Italian man was arrested charged with the theft of nearly £1,000 worth of jewellery from Lady de Bathe at her villa, Le Lys. Only one of the missing jewels, a ring, had been recovered.<ref>''Daily Mail'', 19  March 1928, p. 13. Digital available at ''Daily Mail Historical Archive, 1896-2016/Gale Primary Sources'' - subscription through a library is necessary.</ref>

In her will, Langtry left £2,000 to a young man of whom she had become fond in later life, named Charles Louis D'Albani; the son of a Newmarket solicitor, he was born in about 1891. She also left £1,000 to A. T. Bulkeley Gavin of 5 Berkeley Square, London, a physician and surgeon who treated wealthy patients. In 1911 he had been engaged to author [[Katherine Thurston|Katherine Cecil Thurston]], who died before they could marry; she had already changed her will in favour of Bulkeley Gavin.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Copeland|first1=Caroline|title=The Sensational Katherine Cecil Thurston: An Investigation into the Life and Publishing History of a 'New Woman' Author|date=2007|publisher=©Caroline Copeland 2007|pages=various|url=http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/2808/1/Copeland.pdf|access-date=11 April 2016}}</ref>