English socialite and writer Violet Trefusis was BOTD in 1894. Born in London into an aristocratic family, her mother Alice Keppel was the favourite mistress of the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) who called regularly at the family home. When Violet was ten, she met Vita Sackville-West, attending school together and declaring their love for each other as teenagers. After the King’s death in 1910, Violet and her mother took a two-year “discretion leave” before re-establishing themselves in London society. In 1913, Sackville-West married Harold Nicholson, with whom she had two children. She and Violet continued their affair, disappearing regularly on holidays to the French Riviera. Under pressure from her mother, Violet became engaged to Denys Trefusis in 1918, making him promise never to have sex with her as a pre-condition of their marriage. They married the following year, though news of her continuing affair with Sackville-West became a public scandal. In 1920, Violet eloped with Sackville-West to France, pursued by Nicholson and Trefusis, who claimed (falsely) that Violet and Trefusis had slept together. A furious Sackville-West disowned Violet, though they reconciled in 1921 and again attempted to flee to France. Sackville-West was persuaded to return to England after Nicholson threatened to divorce her, effectively spelling the end of the affair. Violet remained in France, forming a more stable relationship with American heiress Winnaretta Singer, and published the novel Broderie Anglaise, a fictionalised account of her relationship with Sackville-West. As World War Two broke out, Violet returned to England, participating in broadcasts to French Allied forces, for which she was awarded the Legion d’honneur. After the war, she moved to Italy, settling at a villa in Florence and publishing novels and two volumes of memoir. She died in 1972 aged 77. The following year, Sackville-West’s son Nigel Nicholson published Portrait of a Marriage, a biography of his parents including Sackville-West’s unpublished writings about her affair with Violet. A surprise bestseller, it was adapted successfully for television in 1988, starring Cathryn Harrison as Violet. She is also thought to have inspired the Russian princess Sasha in Virginia Woolf‘s novel Orlando, and the imperious Lady Montdore in Nancy Mitford’s Love in a Cold Climate. In the 1980s, Violet’s grand-niece Camilla Shand continued the Keppel family tradition by becoming the mistress of Prince Charles the Prince of Wales, continuing the affair after his marriage to Diana Spencer.