John d Green photographed 23 year old Jacquetta Lampson (Lady Eliot) on 7 July 1966 at his Kensington studios.
He shares his memories of the shoot: “Once news got round London that we were doing the book, people were always ringing up and recommending this girl or that as “ideal”. As often as not they were completely wrong. However, one name kept cropping up – Lady Eliot. “A face like an angel”. She’s got fabulously long silky hair” So I rang up her husband Lord Eliot to ask if I could have the honour of photographing his wife for my book. After all, her name was Jacquetta and his was Peregrine, so you couldn’t quite treat them just like anybody else.
The image I had built up in my mind was of the most traditional and starchy example of the English aristocrat. Ten minutes after the appointed time a slightly battered motor scooter came careering down the mews, driven by Lord Eliot in a polo-necked sweater. Lady Eliot was on the pillion clutching her nine-month-old baby. She was dressed in what looked like a football jersey.
What happened to her long flowing hair? She had a complete urchin cut. She looked just like a 13-year-old boy off to play his first game of football – and so that was just how I decided to photograph her. We went down to the studio with me clutching a pint of beer and a football that was one of the studio props. Lord Eliot was left upstairs with a glass of beer in one hand and the baby in the other.”
On 9 October 1964 Jacquetta Lampson married Peregrine Nicholas Eliot, 10th Earl Of Saint Germans, becoming Lady Eliot. Jacquetta was the daughter of Sir Miles Lampson, later the first Baron Killearn, the ambassador to Egypt who oversaw the abdication of King Farouk. She was a socialite and noted beauty and who sat for various artists and photographers including Horst P. Horst – who featured her in Vogue’s Book of Houses, Gardens and People – and Richard Avedon.
Between 1969 and 1978 she sat for Lucian Freud and featured in nine of his paintings including the 1973 work Large Interior W9 and has been featured in various documentaries about the artist’s life and work.
