Debutantes UK

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Vikki Aris

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I hope this is not one that has already been posted - if so, I apologise heartily. I did check first, but couldn't find anything of the like so far. I have, however, found that you are quite astoundingly knowledgeable :-)

Do any of you happen to know about the debut & presentation customs in England around 1912 (or shortly after, really, but I don't suppose they'd change much in just a couple of years, unless the War interfered...) ? I have done some research myself already but there are a few gaps that no-one seems (seemed) to see fit to mention! (Isn't it always the way with historical research?)

In particular I'm interested in finding out the age of debutantes, and if the age of the debut was a rigid one, or if it was more 'somewhere between age x and y'.

Aside from that, I also need to know when a girl would start preparing for the debut & presentation (in this case it is regarding an upper class girl, father in the military so therefore eligible for court presentation).
I know that preparations for court could take weeks - getting the gear together, practising walking with the train, practising the curtsey... But what about more generally for the society debut? Given that a girl's hair was not put up until she was of marriagable age, it must have been quite daunting for her not only to go from no society to having to dazzle them with her charm, elegance and grace, but to have to do this as well with unaccustomedly long skirts and hair put up. I know I'd be forever tripping over hems and checking for my hair coming down. Not very ladylike. I'd have thought it would make sense for a girl to start getting used to this sort of thing just a little in advance, at home. But then, it might not have made sense to the Edwardians! ;-)

Further to this, any other good sources you happen to know of would be very gratefully received :-) Thank you!!!
 
Thanks Bob, I saw that one. Unfortunately it still left me with questions!

Also - I've seen this "usually 18" referenced a couple of times, but it's not very specific. It implies that there were exceptions - but how frequent? Were exceptions to the norm older or younger (ie "usually at 18 but sometimes older" or "usually 18 but now and again younger")? How would a girl coming out at a different age to 18 be seen? And would it have been the London Season of the year she turned 18 (so potentially earlier) or the Season immediately after her 18th birthday?

Sorry for the flood of questions - just trying to get facts straight in my head!
 
I believe that those whose birthday fell very soon after the 'season' would often be included - ie aged not quite 18, but none younger. Also, the daughters of military and civil service families who had been living in 'foreign parts' might have their coming out delayed until the next period of leave in England, so anything up to early 20s might be possible. I should admit, though, that what I know of Edwardian society is mainly derived from people who lived at the other end of the socio/economic scale!
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Bob, that is wonderful. Thank you so much.
It gets the timeline straight for me. So now I just need to find out when preparations started, and I'm sorted. Any other takers?
 
Presentation at Court could take place at any time in a lady's life-not just the debutante phase. American-born Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor even managed to secure the great honor and went in "borrowed" finery, well before the affair with the Prince of course. What was a must was three white Prince of Wales feathers worn in the hair. Debutantes were usually launched at a grand ball, hosted by parents or a relative, and often there was a Deb ball for all the assorted lovelies making their entrance into society.

The girls in the old days wore a white gown, practiced their curtsey for a year ahead of time, and "came out" on the arm of their esteemed Papa, then later enjoyed the escort of some lucky military cadet in uniform. Generally there is a Deb waltz with the ladies all on the floor in white gowns with their presenter (Father, Uncle, Brother etc)and each lady has one shining moment when she parades regally centerstage with her escort and makes a deep curtsey. Various ladies of society, or organizations held Deb luncheons and other social occasions during the season.

This rite of passage was pretty much the same on both sides of the ocean, and in some Southern states, continues on today. Edward VIII, (who quickly became Duke of Windsor after abdication), then his brother Bertie (King George) did away with the Presentation at Court business as being archaic-and no doubt intensely boring for them and not appropriate during the war years.

Madeleine Force Astor had a fairly low-key debut herself, not actually coming from "First String" old money. Her Mamma gave her a Debutante Luncheon. All fascinating stuff indeed.
 
Thanks very much Shelley - excellent information, this should come in helpful. I had no idea the girls practised their curtsies for up to a year beforehand!

You might not believe this, but I actually read one of Harry MacLaughlin's pages over the weekend - about his grandmother's presentation to Edward & Alexandra, I believe, although she'd already been presented to Victoria some years previously.

Thanks also for the clarification on the ages - though I should probably have said I was really just looking for the lower end of the scale, the girls presented as part of their debut (it's for a character in a novel). But even if it isn't applicable to this particular character, it's still fascinating. I had no idea Wallis Simpson was presented... was she not excluded, being a divorcee?
 
Oh, well Wallis was the "injured party" you see. Win Spencer, her Navy aviator first husband was a real brute and an alcoholic. She was presented in her borrowed feathers and a beautiful if not overlarge aquamarine cross and white dress on June 10, 1931. I have rather an obsession with that old regal dame, being from Baltimore myself and passing her home on Biddle Street everyday.
 
Oh I see... well, that would explain it.
happy.gif

And she certainly was regal.
 
No so much for the debs, but there may be details in the following books about Anglo-American marriages that may describe the preparations:

Wharton, Edith. The Buccaneers. (fiction, but Ms. Wharton was of New York society.)

MacColl, Gail. To Marry an English Lord.

Balsan, Consuelo Vanderbilt. The Glitter and the Gold (She was the wife of the 9th Duke of Marlborough)

Although this one is pure silly fiction and set in the twenties or thirties, I can't resist recommending it. It is so funny:

Benson, E. F. Queen Lucia (where Lucia [Mrs. Emmeline Lucas], a social climbing snob from an English suburban village, crashes into society and knocks a few flakes off the English upper crust.)
 

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