The Curse of the Earls of Craven

Eliza kept in touch with Nancie all her life and with myself, when Nancie was no longer able to write letters. Nancie shared in all the ups and downs of Eliza's life and gave her moral support from afar.
In 1939 Eliza had fallen in love with 'Bobbie', otherwise known as William Robert Bradley, the Earl of Craven. In 1939 some of his friends thought it was a big joke to get him drunk and take him to the Register Office where he married Irene Meyrick. Her full name was Gwendolyn Irene Meyrick . Irene (pronounced Ireenee) was the daughter of the notorious London nightclub owner, Kate Meyrick.
Several of her daughters married aristocrats, often accompanied by controversy.
Unfortunately the situation was not easily resolved as Bobbie Craven was a practicing Roman Catholic and as such could not get a divorce. It took fifteen years for him to get free of Irene and to be able to marry Eliza who had waited patiently for him.
The well-documented 'Curse of the Earls of Craven' stated that every Earl was destined to die before his Mother. Certainly none of the previous Earls lived beyond the age of 56 and poor Bobbie was to die from leukaemia at the early age of 47. He and Eliza had three children: two sons and a daughter.
Tom, the eldest, became the Earl of Craven in 1965 on the death of his Father. Very sadly, Tom suffered from schizophrenia and he committed suicide in 1983, leaving a young son, also Thomas, the child of his scottish girlfriend, Anne Nicholson.
His younger brother, Simon, became the eighth Earl of Craven but tragedy struck once more when Simon, a student nurse, crashed his car in Eastbourne and was fatally injured in 1990. His son, Benjamin Robert Joseph Craven born 13th June 1989 became the ninth Earl.
Eliza and Bobbie's daughter married Lionel Tarassenko and had three children but their marriage eventually failed, much to Eliza's distress.
Eliza corresponded with Nancie throughout all these tragic events and the close bond that they formed back in France in the 1930s never faltered. I kept her up to date with Nancie's life until she died in 2004 and Eliza herself not long after.