Maud Cunard

Maud Alice Burke (3 August 1872 – 10 July 1948), later Lady Cunard, known as Emerald, was an American-born, London-based society hostess. She had long relationships with the novelist George Moore and the conductor Thomas Beecham, and was the muse of the former and a champion of and fund-raiser for the latter. She was a supporter of Wallis Simpson during the British abdication crisis of 1936, vainly hoping for a court appointment. The Second World War ended her era of private patronage and lavish hospitality.

Maud Burke was born in San Francisco, to an Irish-American father, James Burke (who claimed descent from the Irish rebel Robert Emmet) and his half-French wife. She was brought up in New York, where she became a devotee of music, hearing her first Wagner (the complete Ring cycle) when she was 12. She hoped to marry Prince André Poniatowski, grandson of the last King of Poland, but he jilted her and in April 1895 she married Sir Bache Cunard, grandson of the founder of the Cunard shipping line. He was 21 years her senior, and despite his affection for her, they had little in common. He preferred to live at his country house, Nevill Holt Hall, in Leicestershire, where he was a keen huntsman. His wife began to establish a reputation as a hostess, "with a taste for the arts, or for artists anyhow, especially musicians", and was known for being extremely well read in French and English literature.

Among Lady Cunard's artistic friends was the novelist George Moore, who was deeply in love with her, and to whom she was an inspiration, appearing in many guises in his novels. Moore's love was reciprocated less strongly by Lady Cunard. The Cunards had a daughter, Nancy, in 1896, described by a biographer as "gifted and lonely" and largely neglected by her parents. Moore did not discourage the widespread belief that he, not Cunard, was Nancy's father, but this is not generally credited by historians, and it is not certain that Moore's relationship with Nancy's mother was ever more than platonic. Moore was believed by some to be impotent and was described as "one who told but didn't kiss".

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