Jane Carr(1909-1957)

Jane Carr (b. Dorothy Henrietta "Rita" Brunstrom) was a star of stage, screen and radio. Jane's first husband was James Bickley, a civil engineer, whom she married on 14 September 1931 at the Register Office, Marylebone, London. A London Times article dated 2 December 1936 mentioned that at this time she had been "engaged to Major A. J. S. Fetherstonhaugh, D.S.O., M.C., the only son of Colonel and Mrs. Fetherstonhaugh of The Hermitage, Powick, Worcester." Her second union, this with John Donaldson-Hudson, took place on 7 January 1943 at the Register Office, Westminster, when he was 34 and she was 33 years old. She gave birth to a daughter, Charlotte Donaldson-Hudson before the dissolving of her marriage before the autumn of 1947. Charlotte Donaldson-Hudson was known to retell in careful detail a visit by Noel Coward to her mother's South Audley Street, Mayfair flat as preparations were being made for the 1950 Festival of Britain. Miss Hudson recalled Noel Coward as having been a "frequent visitor" to the "well known actress." In the drawing room were two Bluthner grand pianos and on one of these Mr. Coward composed, "Festival of Britain." Jane Carr at the time was a pianist and singer at both Quaglino's (noted for having defiantly remained open during the war amid Luftwaffe attacks) and The Savoy, and would regularly perform the Coward piece at these. Shortly before her third marriage in 1955 to (Henry J.) Robert Stent, Jane was diagnosed with a terminal illness, which would claim her life in two years. Jane and Robert, the Managing Director of Trust House Hotels, purchased a mill on the River Waveny, between Suffolk and Norfolk, England; here the couple would host many of Jane's show business friends, among whom were Michael Denison and Dulci Grey, and Jane's closest friend, celebrity interior designer Nina Campbell.