1896-11-04

NAPIER G.H.S. ALINGTON, 3rd Baron Alington, born (d: 1940); a British peer, the son of Humphrey Sturt, 2nd Baron Allington. Actually I can find two other dates that purport to be his birthdate, 11/1 and 11/13. He succeeded to the Barony on  July 30, 1919. He married Lady Mary Sibell Ashley-Cooper, daughter of Anthony Ashley-Cooper 9th Earl of Shaftesbury, on November 27, 1928. They had one child. Mary Anna Sibell Elizabeth Sturt; As he had no male heir, on his death, the title became extinct. He dated Tallulah Bankhead in the 1920’s.

Bankhead (the “Liza” or “Liz” of the day when it comes to being a beard) first met Napier when she was appearing in Nice People and they later resumed their affair when she moved to England. Napier was charming, reckless and bisexual. He proposed to Tallulah shortly after they met, but she was more interested in her career than marriage. Napier was killed in action during the Battle of Britain in 1940. In his Diaries, Cecil Beaton described a Tallulah “Walpurgisnacht,” during a visit in May, 1937. At a small private party, “Tallulah danced frenziedly, throwing herself about in a mad Apache dance with Napier Alington. After he left, she wept and bemoaned the fact that he had never married her,” but then changed course and in front of the guests “threw off all her clothes, performing what she called ‘Chinese classical dances.'”