Constance FitzMaurice, Countess of Orkney

Connie Gilchrist
Born
Constance MacDonald Gilchrist

(1865-01-23)23 January 1865
Died9 May 1946(1946-05-09) (aged 81)
Tythe House, Stewkley, England
Occupation(s)Child Actor, Dancer, and Artist's Model
SpouseEdmond Walter FitzMaurice, 7th Earl of Orkney (1892–1946)
ChildrenLady Mary Gosling

Constance FitzMaurice, Countess of Orkney (23 January 1865 – 9 May 1946), also known as Connie Gilchrist, was a British child artist's model, actress, dancer and singer who, at a very early age, attracted the attention of the painters Frederic Leighton, Frank Holl, William Powell Frith and James McNeill Whistler, the writer and photographer Lewis Carroll and aristocrats, Lord Lonsdale and the Duke of Beaufort. She became a popular attraction on stage at the age of 12 in a skipping rope dance routine at London's Gaiety Theatre, where she was then engaged in Victorian burlesque and vaudeville throughout her formative years. Gilchrist, who became known as the "original Gaiety Girl",[1] had abandoned the stage by the time of her marriage in 1892 to Edmond Walter FitzMaurice, 7th Earl of Orkney.

  1. ^ Lady Orkney, Once a Stage Actress. The New York Times, 10 May 1946, p. 19