Nancy Elizabeth Louise, Lady Smiley (née Hardy Beaton; 30 September 1909 – 6 June 1999) was an English socialite who, together with her sister, Baba Beaton, was known as one of the Beaton Sisters and was included in The Book of Beauty by their brother, Cecil Beaton.[1]
Biography
Nancy Beaton was born 30 September 1909, in London, the daughter of Ernest Walter Hardy Beaton (1867–1936), a timber merchant from Hampstead,[2] and Esther "Etty" Sisson (1872–1962). Her paternal grandfather was Walter Hardy Beaton (1841–1904), founder of the family business "Beaton Brothers Timber Merchants and Agents".[3]
Cecil Beaton, and his sisters Nancy and Barbara, arriving at an Eton
Nancy was one of the first models of her brother Cecil.[2]
According to her brother Cecil Beaton in The Book of Beauty (1933): "I am enthralled at the childish intentness and gaiety of Nancy when looking for a coral tiara in a curiosity shop, by the complexion that emerges from underneath the water after she has fallen off an aquaplane board, by her dazzling blondness when, like a Gainsborough, writing her diary on a haystack."[1]