Editing Sibyl Hathaway (section)

== First marriage ==
At the age of 15, Sybil fell in love with [[Dudley Beaumont]], a British painter who could neither shoot nor climb cliffs, and who her father therefore considered a "weakling". Her father made it clear that he was adamantly opposed to the relationship, but Sibyl continued to see Beaumont. By 1901, after a raging argument, her father dragged Sybil out of her bedroom at midnight and threw her out of the [[La Seigneurie|seigneurial residence]] barefoot and in a nightgown.<ref name="Marr"/><ref name="Smithsonian"/> Sybil remained among the hedges of the garden until Beaumont, alerted by her mother (in an age before the telephone), found her before dawn.<ref name="Marr"/> Her father regretted his action almost immediately, and searched the island for her the next morning, but she had resolved to leave. She boarded a boat for the neighbouring island of Guernsey. When the Seigneur stormed aboard looking for her, she was hidden by the captain. From Guernsey, she travelled to the house of a relative in London. Beaumont soon married her at [[St James's Church, Piccadilly]].<ref name="Marr"/><ref name="Smithsonian"/>

Sibyl Beaumont had no contact with her father for the next one year, until the birth of her first child, Bridget (1902–1948). Wanting to be reconciled with his daughter, her father sent her a telegram of congratulation which contained words of consolation as well, as the child was female: "Sorry it was a vixen". Sybil went on to have six children more: four sons – [[Francis William Lionel Beaumont|Francis William Lionel]], Cyril John Astley, Basil Ian (died in infancy) and Richard Vyvyan Dudley, and two more daughters – Douce Alianore Daphne and Jehanne Rosemary Ernestine ([[born posthumously]]).<ref name="Smithsonian"/> The family moved to Sark in 1912, a few years after her mother's death.<ref name="Ewen">{{cite book |first1=Alfred Harry |first2=Allan Roper |last1=Ewen |title=The Fief of Sark |publisher=Guernsey Press |last2=De Carteret |year=1969 |location=[[Guernsey]] |pages=109}}</ref>

In her 1961 autobiography, Sybil wrote extensively about her relationship with her first husband.<ref name=hathway>{{cite book |last=Hathaway |first=Sibyl |title=Dame of Sark: An Autobiography. 2nd printing |year=1962 |publisher=[[Coward-McCann, Inc]] |location=New York |url=https://archive.org/details/dameofsark006367mbp}}</ref> Dudley Beaumont, who served in the [[British Army]] as an officer during the [[First World War]], died on 24 November 1918 during the [[Spanish flu pandemic]].<ref name="Hathaway"/> His death left her a pregnant widow with precarious finances.<ref name="Marr"/> Neither her father nor her father-in-law, the army officer [[William Spencer Beaumont]], were willing to give financial support to the widow and her six surviving children.<ref name="Marr"/> She learned German and started working for the [[YMCA]] in [[Cologne]].<ref name="Marr"/> She also worked for the [[British Army of the Rhine]] and raised prize cattle.<ref name="Smithsonian"/>