Though Norah Turner was born in
a flat about a butcher's shop in Derby she was used to wealth by the time she
was in her teens. Her dad owned a car showroom and there were servants at home.
However when he suffered a nervous breakdown and threw himself from the ferry
between Holyhead and Dublin things turned sour. The showroom business was sold
and soon the money was gone through her mum’s poor investment in pubs. This
brief flirtation with poverty made Norah determined to never know it again. She
was vivacious and beautiful and would only marry millionaires. There were three
and the last one was a knight. She’s better known as Lady Docker
and here I am at the hotel where she died alone with money running low.
Aged 18 Norah left home for London to find
fortune. This happened quickly as she soon met her first husband London's in
Cafe de Paris where she was a hostess. He was the boss of a wine and spirit
merchants (and already married) and struck by Norah’s striking looks and a perkiness.
They set up home in Maidenhead and over the years a son and daughter were born
(the latter dying a nine months old.) Her husband died and aged 40 and Norah
married his friend who was the boss of Fortnum & Mason and 69. He soon died
and quite quickly she married wealthy Sir Bernard Docker
who was chairman of Birmingham Small Arms, Daimler and a director of the
Midland Bank, Anglo-Argentine Tramways and Thomas Cook and Son.
For the next thirty years the gossip columns crackled
with tales of their colourful life. Lady Docker loved
publicity and lapped up the thousands of squares miles of newspaper and
magazine articles about her wanton spending. Sir Bernard commissioned a series
of Daimlers to be built to her wife’s specifications (they're now in museums)
One had zebra skin upholstery because Lady Docker
said "Mink is too hot to sit on." The Press loved her due to an
undeniable charm and sense of frivolity. After the monochrome post-war years they
seemed to forgive her anything. The Dockers were the reality superstars of
their day, dripping in wealth and glitz. Not many weeks passed without The
Dazzling Dockers reaching the newspapers. At parties they rubbed shoulders with
the aristocracy, Marilyn Monroe, Ian Fleming, Prince Rainier and Grace Kelly.
They had holiday homes all over the world and a yacht anchored off the Riviera.
Having a trim figure and bonny face was one thing but Lady Docker
had the common touch. In 1954 after a
visit to a coal mine she invited several of the miners to a champagne party on
the Dockers' yacht Shemara where she danced the
hornpipe. She won a marbles championship at a charity event while wearing a
sequin dress and diamonds.
As Sir Bernard’s health declined she appeared
less in front of the Press’s camera bulbs. Sir Bernard was sacked from his
chairman role at BSA for spending company money to fund his own luxuries. In
the Sixties the couple moved to Jersey to escape the taxman. In 1978 Sir
Bernard died and Nora moved to Majorca, often flying back to the UK to visit
her son. As money was getting low she moved into the Great Western Hotel in
Paddington and lived there for a few months. At the time it was a downmarket
hotel and a bit budget for her. One Sunday morning in December 1983 the 77-year-old
socialite was found dead in her room. It was sad and lonely end for a woman who
was once seemed to have it all.
It was difficult to get a good
photograph of the hotel as the street was built-up and busy. I did a salute to
a bit of glitz well-needed in austere times and then left.
Claridge House
in Mayfair where the Dockers had once lived (behind the famous hotel)...
The Dockers liked their play toys...