Vera Bate Lombardi

Vera Bate Lombardi
'Well known in Society', 1909
Born	Vera Nina Arkwright 11 August 1883 London
Died	1948 Rome
Nationality	British, American, Italian
Occupation(s)	WWI nurse, socialite, associate of Coco Chanel
Known for	Introduced Coco Chanel to English Society, inspired Chanel's 'English Look', denounced Chanel for collaborating with the Nazis

Vera Bate Lombardi (1883–1948), born Vera Nina Arkwright but said to have also used the name Sarah Gertrude Arkwright, was a British socialite and close associate of Coco Chanel and the mother of Bridget Bate Tichenor, the surrealist artist. A British subject by birth, she became a citizen of the United States after her first marriage and of Italy after her second marriage. She was arrested in Italy in 1943 on suspicion of spying for the British during World War II. After her release, she went to Madrid, where she denounced Chanel for collaborating with the Nazis.

Early life and reputed royal illegitimacy

Birth

Lombardi was born at 17 Ovington Square, Kensington, London, on 11 August 1883, and she was registered as the daughter of Frank Wigsell Arkwright, later of Sanderstead Court, Surrey, lately a Captain in the Coldstream Guards and a descendant of Sir Richard Arkwright (1732-1792) ('The Father of the Industrial Revolution'), and his then wife, Rosa Frederica Baring, a daughter of William Baring (1819-1906) of Norman Court, West Tytherley, Hampshire, a member of the Baring banking family, and his wife, Elizabeth Hammersley (1825-1897), a member of another banking family (the Hammersleys of Cox & Co.). Interestingly, given the allegations concerning her own parentage, she was, through both William Baring and Elizabeth Hammersley, the (twice over) great-great-great-granddaughter of Andrew Thomson, a Russia merchant who was the father of John Julius Angerstein (1732-1823), almost certainly by Anna, Empress of Russia (1693-1740). Angerstein's art collection formed the basis of the National Gallery, London.

Vera Nina translates as 'True gift of God', from the Latin 'Vera' ('True') and the Hebrew 'Nina' ('God has shown favour').

Mother's connections

Lombardi's mother, Rosa Baring, was a first cousin of Gertrude Jekyll (1843-1932), the noted gardener; of Reverend Walter Jekyll, whose friend, Robert Louis Stevenson, borrowed the family name for his famous novella 'Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'; of Frederick Eden (1828-1916), who created the Garden of Eden, Giudecca, Venice (later home of Princess Aspasia of Greece and Alexandra, Queen of Yugoslavia; now a national monument), so Lombardi was also related, by marriage, to Anthony Eden, Churchill's Foreign Secretary, later Prime Minister (1955–57) and 1st Earl of Avon; of Major-General Frederick Hammersley CB (1858-1923), who commanded the 11th Division at the disastrous Landing at Suvla Bay in 1915; of Mary Frances Hammersley (née Grant) (1863-1911), the subject of John Singer Sargent's famous portrait, 'Mrs. Hugh Hammersley' (1892); of Sir Everard Hambro (1842-1925), first chairman of Hambros Bank (founded in 1839 as C. J. Hambro & Son) and a Director of the Bank of England from 1879 to 1925. Rosa Baring was a niece of Thomas Matthias Weguelin MP (1809-1885), of Billingbear Park, Waltham St. Lawrence, Governor of the Bank of England (1855-1859) and of Charlotte Rosa Baring, the heroine of Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem 'Maud'. Through her great-grandmother, Anne Greenwood, wife of Thomas Hammersley (1747-1812), Rosa Baring was descended from Sir Henry Percy (1364-1403), Shakespeare's 'Sir Harry Hotspur', and Philippa Plantagenet (1355-1382), Countess of Ulster and of March, from whom the House of York derived their (successful) claim to the throne. Rosa Baring was a second cousin of Hon. Margaret Baring (1868-1906), who married Charles Spencer, 6th Earl Spencer (1857-1922); they were great-grandparents of Diana, Princess of Wales.

Norman Court, West Tytherley

Lombardi after her parents' divorce in 1885

After her parents' divorce in 1885, on the grounds of her mother's adultery with George FitzGeorge (who Rosa Baring married in Paris later that year), she appears to have lived with her Baring grandparents. She later became the "surrogate child" of Margaret Cambridge, Marchioness of Cambridge, a daughter of Hugh Grosvenor, 1st Duke of Westminster, and was reputed to have been the illegitimate daughter, by Rosa Baring, of Prince Adolphus, 2nd Duke of Teck and 1st Marquess of Cambridge, younger brother of Queen Mary. Several factors could have contributed to Lombardi's adoption by the Cambridges; the increasing age of her Baring grandparents, the death of her legal father, Frank Arkwright, in 1893, and the engagement and marriage of Prince Adolphus to Lady Margaret Grosvenor in 1894 (which might have prompted a confession from Prince Adolphus).

Reputed daughter of Prince Adolphus by Rosa Baring

The family belief (as stated by Lombardi's daughter, Bridget) that Rosa Baring seduced Prince Adolphus (a pupil at Wellington College between 1883 and 1885) at Norman Court appears to have been accepted by Hal Vaughan since he describes Lombardi, in his biography of Chanel ('Sleeping with the Enemy: Coco Chanel's Secret War'), as a "cousin and childhood friend" of Edward, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII), and a "member of the British royal family"; he also refers to her "royal blood".

The official evidence - The 1891 Census

Lombardi is described as "adopted" in the 1891 census, when she was living with her Baring grandparents at Norman Court in Hampshire. This is the only officially recorded evidence (which would have been provided by Lombardi's grandfather, William Baring) that has emerged which indicates that she was not the legitimate issue of her legal parents. The fact that Lombardi was living with her grandparents at Norman Court in 1891, while her brother, Esmé Francis Wigsell Arkwright (born 7 May 1882), was living with his father at Sanderstead Court may indicate that Frank Arkwright wanted to have nothing to do with his 'daughter'.

File:Warren House, Kingston-upon-Thames.jpg

Warren House, Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey

Prince Adolphus and Rosa Baring - Did they know each other?

If Rosa Baring and Prince Adolphus did actually ever meet, they are far more likely to have done so at or near Warren House, Kingston-upon-Thames (Map ref: 51.423792, -0.272045), the home of Rosa Baring's uncle, Hugh Hammersley (1819-1882), and his wife, Dulcibella Hammersley (née Eden) (d. 1903), daughter of Arthur Eden (1793-1874) of Harrington Hall, Slingsby, Lincolnshire and later of Cannizaro Park, Wimbledon. Warren House is only a mile and a half from White Lodge, Richmond Park (Map ref: 51.445183, -0.264913), then the home of Prince Adolphus' parents, the Duke and Duchess of Teck. Given that Warren House is on the edge of Richmond Park and that there are no buildings between the relevant part of the park boundary and White Lodge, the two families were, in fact, next-door neighbours separated only by parkland.

File:Richmond Park Outline Map.jpg

Richmond Park, Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey

Hugh Hammersley built Warren House in 1865 and the Tecks moved into White Lodge in 1869, so by 1882 the Tecks and the Hammersleys had been neighbours, and had almost certainly known each other, for 12 or so years. Perhaps the families also met in church. Rosa Baring and Prince Adolphus had therefore probably known each other, or at least been acquainted, since he was a one-year-old and she was 15. Hugh Hammersley knew Prince George, Duke of Cambridge (Prince Adolphus' uncle) both socially and professionally (he was the Duke's banker); in fact, he built Warren House on land on the Coombe Estate which he acquired from the Duke of Cambridge. Furthermore, as a partner in a leading private bank (Cox & Co.) who were bankers to various members of the royal family, it is more than likely that Hugh Hammersley not only lent money to the Duke and Duchess of Teck, who were known for their extravagance and inability to live within their income (they had to flee the country from 1883 to 1885 to escape their creditors), but that he may also have been involved in efforts to try to otherwise resolve their financial difficulties.

Prince Adolphus and Rosa Baring - Were they in the right place at the right time?

Hugh Hammersley died in September 1882 and his sister, Elizabeth Baring (née Hammersley), Rosa Baring's mother, will undoubtedly have visited Hugh Hammersley's widow, Dulcibella, in the following months; that is, in the last three months of 1882. Rosa Baring may well have visited Warren House in this period to be with her mother. Vera Bate Lombardi was conceived in late October/early November 1882; given a 40-week pregnancy she was conceived on Saturday 4 November 1882.

File:The latest style 1886.jpg

The latest style of riding habit 1886

Thus there is an event, a location (known proximity) and a known social connection that could account for a meeting between Prince Adolphus and Rosa Baring at precisely the right time. The two could have had assignations either at Warren House, or at White Lodge or, more probably, in Richmond Park itself (possibly in Spankers Hill Wood (Map ref: 51.440775, -0.265439), which is between White Lodge and Warren House). There is an entrance gate to Richmond Park (Map ref: 51.425944, -0.275816) just opposite the drive of Warren House and visitors to Warren House will invariably have gone for walks or rides in Richmond Park on a regular basis.

Rosa Baring's motives - Seduction or revenge?

The Teck boys were known for their good looks and Rosa Baring cannot be regarded as a 'shrinking violet', given that her husband divorced her in 1885 on the grounds of her adultery (though we cannot assume that she was entirely to blame). Perhaps Rosa Baring felt that it was time to introduce Prince Adolphus, in a kindly way and as a friend and neighbour, into a 'garden of earthly delights' previously unknown to him. He appears to have graciously accepted her offer. But an alternative scenario cannot be entirely discounted; namely, that Hugh Hammersley/Cox & Co. lent money to the Tecks (possibly as a favour to Prince George, Duke of Cambridge), that the Tecks' financial situation became untenable in 1882, that this contributed to or even caused the death of Hugh Hammersley (because he might have been left 'on the hook' financially) and that Rosa Baring seduced the Tecks' eldest son as an act of revenge. This scenario is consistent with the fact that the Tecks had to flee the country between 1883 and 1885 to escape their creditors and might, in turn, explain why Hugh Hammersley's widow, Dulcibella, unexpectedly sold Warren House in 1884.

Other matters requiring explanation - What happened in 1885?

Other matters require explanation. Who paid off the Tecks' debts in 1885, allowing them to return to England? Was it the Barings (Barings Bank was itself rescued by the Bank of England in the Crisis of 1890)? Lombardi's daughter, Bridget, believed this to be the case; certainly, Queen Victoria and Prince George, Duke of Cambridge, had resolutely refused to help the Tecks financially. If either of them had helped the Tecks then surely this would be public knowledge because it would reflect to their credit? The fact that there is no such public knowledge is a clear indication that some other party rescued the Tecks financially. And was this matter in any way connected to Rosa Baring's divorce in 1885 and her marriage to George FitzGeorge, eldest son of Prince George, Duke of Cambridge, in that year? George FitzGeorge was himself constantly in financial trouble. These are murky waters. Was there some 'arrangement' between the Tecks, the Barings and possibly the royal family which involved (1) the Barings paying off the Tecks' debts, (2) the Barings paying off George FitzGeorge's debts, (3) the divorce of Frank Arkwright and Rosa Baring, (4) a marriage between George FitzGeorge and Rosa Baring, (5) a financial settlement to provide a trust fund for Rosa Baring's illegitimate daughter by Prince Adolphus, Vera Nina Arkwright, and possibly Vera's brother as well, and (6) an agreement that the royal family would take that illegitimate daughter under their wing at some stage (as seems to have happened). These are interesting questions, given that the return of the Tecks to England in 1885 paved the way for the engagement of their daughter, Princess Mary, to Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale, eldest son of the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII), in 1891 and, ultimately, for her to become Queen as wife of George V.

The Hammersleys - Gluttons for punishment?

Interestingly, if the latter scenario is the correct one, it would have been the third time that the Hammersley family suffered as a result of helping the royal family. Hugh Hammersley's grandfather, Thomas Hammersley (1747-1812), was banker to the Prince Regent (later King George IV). At the time of Thomas Hammersley's death in 1812, his bank, Hammersley & Co, was in deep financial trouble and it was eventually taken over by its main competitor, Coutts & Co., on the death of Thomas Hammersley's eldest son, Hugh Hammersley (1774-1840). There is a Hammersley family legend to the effect that Hammersley & Co. lent money to the royal family on the security of the crown jewels. This appears to be a slight embellishment but it is true that Hammersley & Co. lent money to the Prince Regent (later King George IV) and held a casket of royal jewels as security, as evidenced by a letter from the Prince Regent to William Morland and Thomas Hammersley dated 10 May 1791, which states: '... in order to secure the payment of the said sum of £25,000 … his said Royal Highness hath delivered to the said William Morland and Thomas Hammersley … a casket covered with red morocco leather containing a diamond epaulette, a diamond star, a diamond George, a diamond garter and sundry diamond trinkets and ornaments belonging to his Royal Highness …'. £25,000 in 1791 is equivalent to well over £3 million today. Furthermore, Thomas Hammersley's brother-in-law, Charles Greenwood (1748-1832) of Greenwood, Cox & Co. (later Cox & Co.), banker to Frederick, Duke of York (1763-1827), was also effectively bankrupt for the same reason (lending money to the royal family) when he died. Hammersley family notes record: 'Mr. Greenwood was believed to have amassed a very large fortune, as indeed he had done, but his contributions to impecunious Royalty, the lavish hospitality which the necessities of his peculiar position entailed upon him, his generosity towards all who claimed his help, and above all the great sacrifices he made to avert the fall of his brother-in-law's bank, ultimately so reduced his means that his nephew Charles Hammersley [father of Hugh Hammersley (1819-1882)] who had been led to expect a large inheritance, found himself a loser of £25,000 by having accepted the trust bequeathed to him under Mr. Greenwood's will as sole Executor and Residuary Legatee.'

Lombardi's place in Society

Lombardi certainly occupied a place in the highest echelons of British Society as a close friend of, amongst others, Edward, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII), Winston Churchill and Hugh Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster. She was, through her mother's second marriage, the step-daughter of George FitzGeorge (1843-1907), the eldest son of Prince George, Duke of Cambridge (1819-1904), uncle of Queen Mary, and therefore the half-sister of George FitzGeorge's three children by Rosa Baring: Mabel Iris FitzGeorge (1886-1976), George Daphne FitzGeorge (1889-1954) and George William Frederick FitzGeorge (1892-1960). This connection is unlikely to have counted in Lombardi's favour because George FitzGeorge's financial irresponsibility, his abandonment of his military career and his marriage to a divorced woman (Rosa Baring) were disapproved of in royal circles; he was also illegitimate.

Lombardi's firm status as an illegitimate daughter of Prince Adolphus

Axel Madsen, in his 'Chanel: A Woman of Her Own' (1991), says of Lombardi:

'Though Vera had married an Italian cavalry officer and was living in Rome, she was British and her connections with the royal family and the nobility were as firm as her status as illegitimate daughter of the Marquess of Cambridge.'

The evidence that Lombardi was indeed the illegitimate daughter of Prince Adolphus would therefore appear to be persuasive. The assertion has however been dismissed by some, including Anthony Camp in an addendum to his 'Royal Mistresses and Bastards: Fact and Fiction 1714-1936', where he concludes, largely on the basis of the witness statement of Frank Arkwright, Lombardi's legal father, in the divorce proceedings of 1885: 'The sensational stories of a royal illegitimacy and cover-up thus have no basis in fact. It is equally clear that Vera Nina Bate Lombardi (1883-1948) and her daughter Bridget Bate Tichenor (1917-1990), both of whom have biographies on Wikipedia, had no royal descent through the FitzGeorge connection.' In the first place, this is something of a red herring since the assertion is that Lombardi had a royal descent through the Teck connection, not through the 'FitzGeorge connection'. It is also worth bearing in mind that husbands very often did not tell the truth in divorce proceedings and that many instances are known where the husband would go so far as to allow his wife to petition for divorce on the grounds of his own fictitious adultery in order to protect her reputation. Indeed, in the 1885 divorce proceedings both Rosa Baring and George FitzGeorge denied committing adultery - and we know that this was a false assertion. Witness statements in divorce proceedings should therefore be treated with caution. Furthermore, Anthony Camp was unaware, at the time, of the fact that Lombardi was described as 'adopted' in the 1891 census.

World War I

During World War I Lombardi worked as a volunteer Auxiliary Nurse with the Voluntary Aid Detachment, American Ambulance Auxiliary at the American Hospital of Paris, Neuilly-sur-Seine, Paris. She is mentioned in Marie van Vorst's 'War Letters of an American Woman' (New York, 1916), as follows:

Extract from a letter of 15 October 1914 to her mother, Mrs. Van Vorst, Edgware (London), England.

'Now I want to speak of Vera Arkwright, who replaced me in the gangrene ward. She is perfectly beautiful, full of sympathy and sweetness, and a warm friend of Bridget Guinness. I got her into the hospital with a vague feeling that she was simply going to flirt with the officers and perhaps make me regret. Well, well! Vera has been in that ward now from eight in the morning until half-past six every night. I wish you could see her — with crimson cheeks and a floating veil, carrying the vilest of linen and oilcloth, not to throw away, but to wash it herself with a scrubbing brush. She has a keen sense of humour, and even amid the horrors it shines forth.

Yesterday she was heartbroken over Hern, and told me that the bullet in one of his wounds had severed a vein, and when she came in on duty this terrible haemorrhage had flooded the bed and the floor, and it was she who cleaned all that up. Yes, and she gathered up his little treasures to save for his people, and going into the linen room, from under all the filthy bandages extracted the poor little tin cigarette case which had been thrown out as rubbish.

Last night, at half-past ten, my bell rang, and poor Vera blew in asking for a morsel of food, as when she came out from duty every restaurant in Paris was shut. So my maid and I fed her up and sent her home. She certainly is a brick, and Glory Hancock, if she comes, will be another.' (pp. 69–70)

Extract from an undated letter to Miss Ann Lusk, New York.

'I am prepared every day to be thrown out of my smart ward, and if I have to go back to that charnel house I hope that God will give me grace. Vera said to-day, "It Is discouraging to work for people whom you know will all be dead in a week." You remember in the Roman games how the gladiators used to cry, "Ave Caesar, those who are about to die greet you." So those poor creatures seem to salute the country for which they have fought, and surely we can help them as they go.

My lieutenant with the amputated leg in the other ward has gone to-day. That is four out of that infected ward, and three nurses are sick in bed with violent fever from it. Yet Vera is going on like a house on fire at her job. The poor lieutenant died as she was feeding him, and that girl did all the solemn and dreadful offices for him. She is wonderful.' (pp. 74–75)

Extract from a letter of 11 November 1914 to Mrs. Victor Morawetz, New York.

'Last night, at the end of the hospital day, I brought down with me in a tiny motor belonging to Vera Arkwright, the head nurse of the hospital, Miss Devereux, who has charge of the American Hospital in times of peace. She was so exhausted and worn out with the terrible day that she could hardly speak. The fresh air and the drive down began to rest her, and when she got here in my little study, before the fire, so quiet and so sweet, with a good little dinner, and with Bessie's society and mine to cheer her, she bloomed out like a flower. She is a New York hospital nurse, and gave me another picture to remember in the little study, under the war map, all in snow white, with no cap, and just the gold medal of the New York hospital round her neck. Such a fine spiritual face; such a strong, dignified woman! We didn't talk much of the hospital, but we talked, all three of us, of spiritual things, and it was a wonderful thing to find her one of those simple Christians, full of the very light of God, strong in the best sense of the word, living by faith. I don't think I have enjoyed any evening half so much for a long time. I am sure that you will respond to this note and care too. It is fine to feel that the hospital there is under the spell of this noble woman who believes in fairies," as Barrie's play says — who believes in miracles. There wasn't a discordant second in the long evening and she went back with pink cheeks and bright eyes to those wards where three were to die that night and she had to go on her noble watch. She spoke in an especially kindly way of the auxiliaries and of their extraordinary powers of endurance. She said that she would not have believed that women of the world unused to discipline or to concentrated effort, could have been what these women have been at the Ambulance. Vera Arkwright, for instance, has not missed a single day since she went there. The dressing carts are so picturesque. You see, I naturally see the notes of colour that things make — I can't help it — and when I went out from the hospital, Vera stood there in her blue dress, with her tiny little cap on her head — she is faultlessly beautiful, and very celebrated for her looks — and all around her was a pile of the most dreadful bandages you ever saw. (I won't describe them.) She was gathering them up to destroy them and to prepare her cart for the next trip. Both she and Madelon are able to do their dressings themselves.' (pp. 108–109)

For her war service Lombardi was awarded the 1914/15 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.

Marriages

Lombardi married, firstly, in 1916, Frederick Blantford Bate, an officer in the American Ambulance service in Paris who she met while working as a volunteer nurse in the American Hospital of Paris. They had one daughter, Bridget, born in 1917. Lombardi introduced her husband to Edward, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII), and the two became close friends. This allowed Bate, then NBC representative in London, to produce up-to-the-minute reports for NBC during the Abdication Crisis of 1936. Lombardi divorced Bate in 1929 and then married Italian Cavalry Officer, Alberto Lombardi, a member of the Italian Fascist Party held in high esteem by Benito Mussolini (and possibly the Alberto Lombardi who was a member of the Italian equestrian team that won a bronze medal at the 1924 Olympics in Paris). Lombardi joined her husband in Rome and became a member of the Fascist Party. She wrote enthusiastically to Churchill about Mussolini and Churchill publicly expressed admiration for Mussolini and Italian Fascism during this period. In Rome, Lombardi and her husband 'reveled in la dolce vita' at his villa at 31 (some sources say 32) Via Barnaba Oriana, situated in the exclusive Parioli area of the city.

Association with Coco Chanel

English 'High Society'

Lombardi was a popular member of the British elite who, in her youth, attracted the attention of a string of suitors; it was said of her that "No one was more keenly appreciated by London high society…". She was an enthusiast of the sporting life, an avid participant in the outdoor activities so favoured by the upper classes. The wealth and status enjoyed by the rarified circle in which she moved gave them the means and leisure to engage in hunting, sailing and other activities and to lead lives dedicated to pleasure and self-gratification.

Introduction of Chanel into English 'High Society'

Lombardi gave Chanel entrée into the highest levels of the British aristocracy. It was in Monte Carlo in 1923 that Lombardi introduced Chanel to the vastly wealthy 2nd Duke of Westminster, Hugh Richard Arthur Grosvenor, known to his intimates as “Bendor” or, more usually, "Benny" (a pun on the Grosvenor coat of arms, which included a 'Bend Or' before the famous legal case of Scrope v Grosvenor in 1389), who became Chanel's lover for the next ten or more years. Lombardi also introduced Chanel to Edward, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII), and they were reported to have had a brief affair.

Chanel's Muse - The Origin of Chanel's 'English Look'

Adapting traditional British sporting clothes to her modern vision of dress, Chanel found in Lombardi and her social set an inspirational template for a new design concept; Chanel's signature 'English Look'. Linking Lombardi’s promotional value to her own business success, Chanel hired the thirty-seven-year-old Lombardi as public relations representative for the House of Chanel in 1920. The Chanel look worn by Lombardi was the visible daily attire, the casual yet chic style that became identified with the modern ease and elegance of Chanel couture. The Lombardi/Chanel friendship was a close one, sustained over many years. Their formal business association, however, ended in 1930 when Lombardi left Chanel to work for couturier Edward Molyneux.

World War II

Suspicions of espionage and arrest

Lombardi's English background and habits, her high-born affiliations and her frequent presence at social functions held at the British Embassy in Rome, made her a person of interest to the Fascist police and various intelligence agencies. Her activities were monitored accordingly. In 1936, the Chief of Staff of the Italian Political Investigation Service reported to the Italian Interior and War Ministries: "This lady’s mysterious and varied lifestyle makes us suspect that she is in the service of Great Britain without the knowledge of her husband, who is a highly respected person and sincere patriot…" Surveillance of Lombardi was suspended on two grounds; no evidence was ever uncovered that proved her to be involved in espionage and her husband's military status as the commandant of a cavalry regiment and loyalty to Fascism made such activities implausible. In addition, Alberto Lombardi's brother, Giuseppe Lombardi, was Head of the Italian Naval Intelligence Service. Nevertheless, in the coming years, and throughout World War II, suspicions surrounding Lombardi would continue. In addition, her association with Chanel would later bring Lombardi to the attention of British Military Intelligence, MI6, who suspected her of being a Nazi spy. Thus Lombardi was suspected by the Axis powers of being a British spy and suspected by the British of being a Nazi spy.

Lombardi was, through her grandmother, Elizabeth Hammersley (1825-1897), a second cousin of Sir D'Arcy Osborne (1884-1964), later 12th and last Duke of Leeds, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Holy See from 1936 to 1947, a close personal friend of the Queen, who, in 1940, was involved in a plot to overthrow Hitler involving Pope Pius XII and certain German generals, including General Ludwig Beck, who was to replace Hitler as Head of State. D'Arcy Osborne was also involved with, supported and helped to run (through his appointee, Major Sam Derry), the escape movement run by Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty, "The Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican", which concealed thousands of Allied escapee soldiers and Jews in safe houses and on farms in and around Rome. There is no evidence that Lombardi herself was involved in this movement but her husband, Alberto Lombardi, ended the war in hiding on an old Papal estate. Lombardi was also, through the same family connection, a second cousin of Sir Ronald Hugh Campbell, PC, GCMG (1883-1953), Ambassador to France (1939-1940) and Portugal (1940-1945), so she was well-placed to act as a channel of communication to the British Foreign Office. Sir Ronald Campbell's son, Captain Robin Campbell, took part in Operation Flipper in North Africa in 1941, an attempt to assassinate General Erwin Rommel.

In 1943, she was arrested and held for a week in a women's prison in Rome on suspicion of having spied for the British Secret Service "for the last ten years". She was released on orders of the German Police Headquarters in Rome. According to 'Hitler's Intelligence Chief: Walter Schellenberg' (1991), the Germans expected her to work as an agent for them, intending to bring her to Paris to rendezvous with Chanel. Accompanied by her friend, "Eddie" Bismarck (Count Albrecht Edzard Heinrich Karl von Bismarck-Schönhausen), Lombardi joined Chanel and her lover, Baron Hans Günther Von Dincklage, a German agent, in Paris. Lombardi was then issued with a passport on the orders of the Paris Gestapo chief, Karl Bömelburg, allowing her to travel to Spain.

"Operation Modellhut" - a plan to end World War II

In this way Lombardi unwittingly became embroiled in a political intrigue involving Chanel and Von Dincklage, and orchestrated by Nazi intelligence at the highest levels (up to and including Heinrich Himmler), which required Lombardi to travel to Madrid, with Chanel and Von Dincklage, to act as an intermediary between Germany and Great Britain by delivering a letter from Chanel to Winston Churchill via the British Ambassador in Madrid. The plan, code-named "Operation Modellhut" ("Model hat"), was an attempt to persuade Great Britain to end hostilities with Germany in order to prevent post-war Russian domination in Europe (and also to save the senior Nazis involved from potential prosecution for war crimes), but Lombardi was led to believe that the journey to Madrid would be a business trip to explore the possibility of establishing the Chanel couture in Madrid. The mission failed because Lombardi, on her arrival in Madrid, denounced Chanel and her travelling companions as Nazi spies. No evidence has been found that shows that Lombardi herself was ever involved in actual espionage activity, though it is acknowledged that she was an informer.

Although, on one level, "Operation Modellhut" appears to have been a somewhat lightweight means of trying to achieve such a vital diplomatic and political objective, the Germans could not have found anyone in the whole of Occupied Europe with closer personal connections to Churchill and the British Royal Family than Lombardi and Chanel, bearing in mind that the operation was carried out without Hitler's knowledge or approval and would have amounted, in Hitler's mind, to clear treason on the part of those involved. In 1945 Himmler tried to negotiate with the Allies again; this time through contacts in Sweden. This attempt also failed.

Appeal to Churchill

In March 1944, Lombardi, still stranded in Madrid, wrote an appeal to her friend, Lady Ursula Filmer-Sankey, a daughter of the 2nd Duke of Westminster, to intercede with Churchill and ask him to use his influence to reunite her with her husband in Rome. It was not until early in January 1945, that Lombardi was finally allowed to leave Madrid, after the British Foreign Office had notified the British Embassy in Madrid: "Allied Forces have withdrawn their objection and the lady is free to return to Italy…". Churchill had ultimately come to Lombardi’s rescue, as verified by a classified communication sent four days later from Downing Street (Churchill's official residence as Prime Minister) to Allied Headquarters in Paris. Lombardi expressed her gratitude to Churchill in a letter to him of 9 May 1945 (addressing him as "My Dear Winston"): "Thank you with all my heart for what you found time to do for me..." In April or May 1945, she was reunited in Italy with her husband, who, by the end of World War II, had managed to rehabilitate his reputation with the Allies.

The Churchill/Mussolini correspondence

Main article: Death of Benito Mussolini

Although it is a subject almost entirely ignored by British historians, the question of whether Churchill and Mussolini corresponded before and during World War II, and the nature of that correspondence, has been a matter of widespread speculation in Italy over the years and the subject of numerous books, articles, TV documentaries and so on. Notable amongst these are Luciano Garibaldi's 'Mussolini - The Secrets of His Death' (Enigma Books, 2004), which has an extensive bibliography, and Frank Joseph's 'Mussolini's War' (Helion, 2010). The allegation is broadly that such correspondence did take place and that in it Churchill made various proposals and agreed to certain things (including a proposal that Great Britain, USA, Germany and Italy should unite against Russia and a proposal that French territory, including Nice, should be handed over to Italy) which would have been highly embarrassing to Churchill if revealed after the war, and possibly even fatal to his political career. It appears that Mussolini did in fact possess documents which he believed (and told his close associates) would clear his name in any postwar trial and that copies of these documents were made and passed to trusted people. It is alleged that Churchill ordered the assassination of Mussolini in order to prevent these documents, or knowledge of them, becoming public (a view held by Italy's most celebrated and respected historian of the Fascist period, Professor Renzo De Felice of Rome's La Sapienza University), that strenuous efforts were made by the British secret service to track down and destroy all copies of these documents and that many (possibly hundreds of) people who had knowledge of these matters were tracked down and killed or otherwise silenced in the years after the war. Many people, including Italian Communists, had their own reasons for keeping this matter secret (in their case, the theft of Mussolini's treasure, worth many billions of dollars).

This issue is relevant to any assessment of Lombardi's life for the simple reason that there appears to have been no-one better-placed to have acted as a go-between between Churchill and Mussolini. Clearly, the most important characteristics of a go-between are that he or she should (1) be in the right place at the right time (as Lombardi was - at least until 1943) and (2) trusted by the individuals concerned. Lombardi was a long-standing personal friend of Churchill, she was related to (second cousin of) the one person in Rome who had a secure channel of communication to the British Foreign Office (D'Arcy Osborne, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Holy See) and she was married to a man known to and admired by Mussolini, being a senior Italian army officer and Fascist who was the brother of the head of Italian Naval Intelligence. Although no evidence has emerged that Lombardi was the go-between (possibly because it hasn't been looked for), such a possibility should not be excluded and, of course, there is no evidence that Lombardi's death shortly after the war was in any way suspicious. If her death had in any way been suspicious, it would give rise to a shocking possibility; namely, that Churchill was complicit in the assassination of a member (even if an illegitimate one) of the British royal family.

Later years

Lombardi died in Rome in 1948 after a severe illness.

Sources

• Doerries, Reinhard R.; Weinberg, Gerhard L. (1 July 2009). Hitler's intelligence chief: Walter Schellenberg. Enigma Books. ISBN 978-1-929631-77-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Lundy, Darryl (September 2011). "Sarah Gertrude Arkwright". thePeerage.com. {{cite web}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help); Missing or empty |url= (help)
• Madsen, Axel (1 September 1991). Chanel: A Woman of Her Own. Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-8050-1639-0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Picardie, Justine (21 September 2010). Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Life. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-196385-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Vaughan, Hal (16 August 2011). Sleeping with the Enemy: Coco Chanel's Secret War. Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 978-0-307-59263-7. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Vaughan, Hal (August 2012). Sleeping with the Enemy: Coco Chanel's Secret War. Vintage Books. ISBN 978-0-307-47591-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)