The Tribune

A relentless quest for money, status and power defined Pamela Digby Churchill Hayward Harriman's extraordinary life from infamy to respectability and acceptance by the establishment. In the first of a two-part series Sir Christopher Ondaatje looks at how the English socialite used her feminine wiles to entrance the rich and famous through the war years and beyond.

Although too early for her infamy to be recorded in history, Pamela Digby Churchill Hayward Harriman will certainly be recognised as being the last great courtesan of the 20th century. When she died in 1997 aged 76, this English-born socialite, the daughter of Edward Digby, the 11th Baron Digby, and perhaps influenced by the life of her great-great aunt – the notorious 19th century romantic adventurer Lady Jane Digby - she achieved her ambition of obtaining both money and power by allying herself with wealthy men.

It was no mean achievement. And whereas Lady Jane’s scandalous life involved kings and lovers and an eventual marriage to an Arab Sheikh 20 years her junior, Pamela Churchill achieved both status and power in her own right.

Raised in her ancestral home at Minterne Magna in Dorset, she was educated by governesses and became a fine horsewoman competing at international level. At 17 she was sent to a Munich boarding school for six months, after which she attended classes at the Sorbonne in Paris. She returned to England in 1937. Two years later, on a blind date and while working in the Foreign Office, she met the young army officer Randolph Churchill – the son of Winston Churchill.

The following night at dinner he surprisingly proposed to her. She didn’t hesitate. Love was not an issue: it was her way of escaping the dull English country life she feared. They were married that October in 1939. Britain had been at war with Germany for barely two months.

Although they had a son, Winston, named after his grandfather, the marriage only lasted five years. Randolph was a philandering alcoholic who accumulated enormous gambling debts which he asked his young wife to honour. The marriage was clearly in trouble and she began to realise the importance of money. Isolated in a small London apartment she became a close confidant of both Lord Beaverbrook and her father-in-law, Winston Churchill. Both had noticed the fragility of her marriage but had also noted that the young bride had unusual qualities that could be useful to them. She learned quickly how to use her powerful allies.

Introduced by the flamboyant socialite Lady Cunard at a Dorchester dinner to Averell Harriman – Franklin Roosevelt’s “Lend-Lease” expediter – she found herself instantly attracted to the handsome and rich American. Thirty years her senior, Harriman was the heir to the Union Pacific Railroad fortune. Leaving his wife behind he had arrived in London in March 1941 and they began an instant affair.

She knew everybody who was anybody in London and was able to introduce Harriman to this new English world. She also kept Churchill and Beaverbrook informed as to Harriman’s thoughts on America’s vital pre-war position. This was before Pearl Harbour and although little recognised in public, the Harriman-Churchill relationship indirectly drew the US and Britain closer. Pamela spent more time with the elder Churchill in his bunker than with her wayward husband Randolph. She was tireless in catering to Winston’s demands and always willing to eke out crucial “pillow-talk” information.

She was no fool: they used her and she used them. She knew exactly what she was doing. She was also not a one-man girl. Although her marriage did not end until December 1945 she entertained lavishly from a flat at 49 Grosvenor Square which was financed by Averell Harriman and partly by Beaverbrook. Her energy and optimism drew men to her and she often took them home. Her affair with Harriman lasted until October 1943, when Franklin Roosevelt named Harriman Ambassador to the USSR and he left London.

Although she kept in touch with him throughout the war she eased her sense of loss with other American romances, notably Frederic L Anderson, in charge of the Eighth Air Force Bomber Command, Bill Paley, the powerful CBS American broadcaster, John Hay “Jock” Whitney (a man much wealthier than Harriman), and Edward R Murrow, the charismatic self-made American broadcaster – all vital in getting Britain’s war-time support from America.

She was calculating, independent and opportunistic – and always managed to take care of her men. She also always managed to get something in return. Her affair with Murrow began almost immediately after Harriman left for the USSR and lasted until 1946.

A smitten Murrow asked her to marry him and she would have accepted but guilt and his new-born son ended the romance. For a time her American dream seemed to be over. Japan surrendered on May 8 1945 – the same year her divorce from Randolph was made final. Then, in 1946, Averell Harriman returned to London as Ambassador and her wartime affair was renewed with the same intensity. But there was no discussion of Harriman ever leaving his wife.

That September however Roosevelt died and the new president, Harry Truman, appointed Harriman to be Commerce Secretary and he was returned to the US. Beaverbrook, always ready to help in return for information, gave Pamela a job in New York with his Daily Express office but this caused too much dissent. It was one thing to have a wartime romance in London with your wife back home in America, but to resume the romance in America was politically dangerous.

So Beaverbrook returned her to London where he asked her to write a column for the Evening Standard – not exactly how she wanted to be treated. London after the war just wasn’t the same: it was a depressing post-war scene with Churchill out of power and a Labour Party trying hard to run a victorious but battered country. She seemed strangely out of place - 28, divorced, not attached or involved with anyone and not meaningfully employed.

The war had turned a young country woman into a talented social sophisticate, but now that it was over few people in England had much sympathy for the opportunistic siren. She was lonely in London with her young son Winston. She would certainly have gone to the US, where many of her lovers lived but she now appeared abandoned. Uncomfortable with her writing assignment for the Evening Standard she again turned to Beaverbrook.

Ever ready to help - and hungry for international gossip - he offered Pamela a job in Paris reporting on the social activities of the rich shipping magnates Stavros Niarchos and Aristotle Onassis, as well as Prince Aly Khan – the son of the fabulously wealthy Aga Khan – spiritual leader of the Imami Ismaili Muslims. Aly Khan was at that time the world’s most notorious playboy with a keen interest in horse racing and women. So the ever ambitious Pamela changed her focus entirely and moved to Paris, a city enjoying a more exotic revival after liberation from German occupation. She was uncomfortable reporting on her friends’ personal activities - but she needed the job and Beaverbrook needed the information.

Always good at taking instructions from the men that mattered in her life Pamela headed for Longchamps, where Aly Khan’s horse Avenger won the prestigious Prix de L’Arc de Triomphe. At the jubilant festivities that followed he asked Pamela to dance, and his reputation for pleasing women had an immediate effect on the young English socialite. He asked her to dinner in London – and the intimacy began.

She learned a lot from him. He was dark, extremely good looking and able to zone his attention on his female quarry to the exclusion of everyone else – no matter how beautiful or how important. Pamela’s reputation too had preceded her and she learned in their short entanglement to apply all her considerable social skills by catering to a man’s needs. Pamela also had the stamina to keep up with her dusky lover. For a while they were inseparable but then Rita Hayworth entered Aly’s life and his focus shifted.

So did hers: one evening a motor launch pulled up at the foot of Aly Khan’s terrace in the south of France and she saw the chiselled head of Gianni Agnelli. She had no idea who he was or that he was heir to the Fiat auto empire. But she soon found out. He was then 27 – a year younger than she. Leaving her young son Winston behind with a friend she accepted Agnelli’s invitation to go to Monte Carlo, from where she continued on his yacht “Tomahawk” to Capri.

She was in love again. Agnelli’s Fiat empire at that time was estimated to be worth over $50 billion, with his own personal stake at $3 billion. He was probably the richest man in Italy. Ignoring the fact that Fiat had made trucks for Mussolini during the war Pamela concentrated her entire attention on pleasing the young and dashing Agnelli.

It was said that Pamela Churchill could smell out a rich man in a crowded set of rooms – blindfolded. By 1948 she had acquired a worldly wisdom. Her relationship with Agnelli was a perfect match. She had a name and had class; he was rich. Pamela loved Paris and the life. Although she kept 49 Grosvenor Square as her London base she was offered two residences in Paris by the wealthy industrialist Paul-Louis Weiller, who seemed to collect homes and titled “friends”.

This was before the smitten Agnelli bought her the spectacular 4 Avenue de New York overlooking the Seine and the Eiffel Tower. Young Winston was tucked away in Le Rosey – a Swiss boarding school – while she flitted with Agnelli from Paris, to Rome, St Moritz, the south of France, London and to Turin (the Fiat headquarters). She learned about art and decoration and worked hard looking after her man.

She always said that the five years following 1948 were the happiest of her life. Agnelli later bought La Leopolda, a spectacular villa in Cap Ferrat, and turned over the decorating responsibilities entirely to Pamela. She had learned to be and was the perfect hostess and was so determined to marry Agnelli that she converted to Catholicism. She even became pregnant by him but was forced to have an abortion in Switzerland.

By the fourth year of their affair the relationship became strained. Agnelli was incapable of fidelity and had no intention of marrying a woman with her background – even though she nursed him after a bad car crash which almost resulted in a leg amputation. In 1953 both knew the affair was over and Agnelli married the Italian princess, Marella Caracciolo di Castagneto. Nevertheless they continued to meet and kept in touch throughout her life.

Rejected again she toyed with the idea of returning to England, but that would have been an admission of defeat. Instead, with no invitation to go to the US, she decided to stay in France where she searched around for a new patron. She soon found one in the wealthy and willing Baron Elie de Rothschild – one of the richest men in France from the powerful Jewish banking dynasty. He was the right man at the right time as his wife, Lilianne, had just lost her sister and was living a life of almost total seclusion. Rothschild was not only rich but an avid art collector, a connoisseur and the prestigious owner of the famed Chateau Lafitte vineyard in Pauillac. He too was taken by the bubbly character of the young English aristocrat now in her mid 30s and her ease and ability to cater to all his needs, not just in his bedroom but also in his expansive love of the arts.

She improved her knowledge of furniture, art, wine-making, history and horses during these years with Rothschild. People often wondered how she could manage her luxurious lifestyle on her humble £400 a year inheritance but the wise had observed how the ambitious lover had learned how to have her life sponsored by her past and present admirers. She may have been born with taste, but she acquired business acumen.

Pamela Churchill benefitted enormously from her relationship with Baron Elie de Rothschild, and probably always knew that the affair would never lead to marriage. Frenchmen do not leave their wives for mistresses. She continued to see other men: the Greek ship owners Stavros Niarchos, Aristotle Onassis, the Spanish nobleman and racing car driver Marquis de Portago, and Charles Wrightman – a Texan millionaire. Rich men seemed to like her, and she did not have to have affairs with all of them.

She befriended Ben Bradley, Irwin Shaw and Bob Capa – the photographer, as well as Art Buchwald and the author Theodore White. She worked hard and she played hard and was given some important pointers from Diana Cooper, the wife of the British Ambassador to France, who became a sort of role model for Pamela. They both took money and didn’t always pay bills.

The Duchess of Windsor too gave her some useful pointers of how to live in an expensive world – clothed by Dior, Balenciaga and Chanel - and getting others to pick up the tab. Louise de Vilmorin too, who convened a salon south of Paris and collected both husbands and lovers, fascinated Pamela. She was a fast and keen student.

In 1958 Pamela was 40 and the affair with de Rothschild had lasted six years. She had had a good run in Paris and it was time to look after her future. Her ten years in France had been fun and profitable and she had learned an awful lot. By the end of the 1950s however events had switched to the United States.

Sir Christopher Ondaatje is an adventurer and writer resident in the Bahamas. A Sri Lankan-born Canadian-Englishman he is the author of several books, including Journey to the Source of the Nile.

Tomorrow

Part two - the making of an American and finding respectability in Bill Clinton’s presidency