The date is 31 December 1954 at St.Columba’s Church in Chelsea, London.

Film star Valerie Hobson marries MP John Profumo

All film fans will remember that she  played the slender, virtuous Edith D’Ascoyne in ‘Kind Hearts and Coronets’ – competing for the hand of Denis Price, against  her suburban rival in the film, played by Joan Greenwood. She had also portrayed  Estella in David Lean’s ‘Great Expectations’, showing a very cold and icy  front to John Mills who played the grown-up ‘Pip’.   Without doubt these were her two most famous roles on screen

In the 1950 s  she played opposite Herbert Lom on the London stage in ‘The King and I’ at the famous Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in the West End.  I note from the above that it is billed as a ‘new musical play’ so this must have been one of the first London productions – and on looking further indeed it was and opened in October 1953

I had never associated her with the stage but it seems that she was very much at home there and this was a very big prestigious production. She stayed in her role for quite a few months before deciding to retire from acting to concentrate on her family.

It opened on 8 October 1953 and ran for 926 performances.

I wonder if she regretted this and missed the acting world – my guess is that she would have done. Her first husband Anthony Havelock-Allen, with whom she remained on friendly terms was all his life a Film Produce / Director of some note – so a lot of her life had been connected in one way or another with film life