Eleanor Velasco Thornton was born on 15 April in 1880 in Stockwell, south-west London. Little is understood of her adolescence: what’s sure is that because the twentieth Century opened, she was working as assistant to the ebullient and charismatic Claude Johnson, General Secretary of the Automobile Club of Great Britain & Ireland (later the RAC) and soon-to-be enterprise companion of The Hon Charles Stewart Rolls.

Eleanor rented rooms at The Pheasantry on the Kings Road, Chelsea; now a Grade II Listed constructing, its eclectic and flamboyant architectural thrives had been the work of its then proprietor, the artist and inside decorator Amédée Joubert. At that point, it was house to a thriving colony of artists (within the Nineteen Thirties, the basement grew to become a restaurant and consuming membership, the regulars of which included the painters Augustus John and Francis Bacon, the poet Dylan Thomas and legendary actor Humphrey Bogart; it stays a nightclub to today). Amid these bohemian environment, Eleanor lived a exceptional double life: by day, an expert govt assistant; by evening, a life-model for the Pheasantry’s resident artists. One of these for whom she usually posed was a gifted illustrator, Charles Sykes. 

Eleanor’s life modified utterly and irrevocably in 1902. That yr, virtually 100 miles from London, on the sting of the New Forest in Hampshire, John Walter Edward Douglas-Scott-Montagu, was grappling with a longstanding drawback. He was but to ascend to his future title of 2nd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu; within the interim, for all his impeccable lineage and shining prospects, he was perennially wanting money. By a double misfortune, his life’s nice ardour was the motor automobile, which in these pioneering days was nonetheless very a lot the protect of these with deep pockets. 

Happily, Montagu had a aptitude for journalism, so his impressed answer was to arrange Britain’s first devoted motoring journal, The Car Illustrated. Montagu may deal with the writing, modifying and publishing himself; however for pictures, he wanted an expert illustrator. In a type of odd coincidences that so typically form historical past, the person he employed was Charles Sykes.

Among Montagu’s circle of motoring buddies was Claude Johnson. When, by him, Montagu met Eleanor, he was immediately captivated by her intelligence and promptly poached her, providing her the place of Office Manager at his journal. Eleanor accepted, and the aristocratic writer and his new colleague – 14 years his junior – quickly launched into a prolonged clandestine affair.

Thereafter, Sykes and Eleanor discovered themselves abruptly thrown collectively as colleagues at The Car Illustrated, whereas already properly acquainted with each other below very totally different circumstances. Whether this brought about any awkwardness between them is unimaginable to say; but it surely appears unlikely, since Eleanor was quickly posing for him once more.

During this era (the exact date is unknown) Sykes produced a mascot for Montagu’s Rolls‑Royce Silver Ghost. Called ‘The Whisper’, it was a small aluminium statuette of a younger girl in fluttering robes with a forefinger to her lips. It has been confirmed that Eleanor was the mannequin: whether or not the mascot was a token of appreciation from Sykes to his buddy and employer, or made at Eleanor’s instigation as a present for her lover, stays a thriller. Whatever the reality, Montagu displayed it on each Rolls-Royce automobile he owned till his dying in 1929; maybe as a discreet acknowledgment of his love for Eleanor, which he saved secret for thus lengthy.

Tragically, Eleanor was amongst a whole lot who drowned when the P&O passenger ship SS Persia sank within the Mediterranean in 1915. Montagu was among the many handful of survivors: he spent three days adrift on an upturned lifeboat, having suffered a fractured shoulder. He was additionally nursing a damaged coronary heart. Devasted, he by no means absolutely obtained over the emotion of the lack of Eleanor – of which, naturally, he may by no means converse publicly. But for the remainder of his life, she was with him in spirit wherever he travelled in his Rolls-Royce motor automobile.