Lydia Ellen Tritton

Lydia "Nellé" Tritton (Russian: Лидия Тереза ("Нелль") Керенская (Триттон), 19 September 1899^[1] – 10 April 1946) was an Australian journalist, poet, and self-declared "public elocutionist".^[2]

Tritton, c. 1929

Early life and education

Tritton was born in Brisbane on 19 September 1899.^[3] Her parents, Fred Tritton, was a prominent Brisbane furniture warehouseman.^[2][4][5] In her mid-20s, she sailed to London and toured Europe, gaining a reputation for knowledge of international affairs, which brought her into contact with the Russian expatriates then living in Paris.^[2]

Personal life

In 1928, Tritton married a former officer of Russia's White Army, Nicholas Alexander Nadejine, then 43-years-old, at the marriage registry office in Kensington, England. Nadejine was a professional singer, but was unsuccessful in joining the Covent Garden Opera Company and reportedly had affairs with various wealthy Englishwomen.^[2] The couple divorced after eight years of marriage in 1936.

Three years later, in 1939, Tritton married exiled Russian prime minister Alexander Kerensky in Martins Creek, Pennsylvania, and they lived in exile in Pennsylvania and then in Paris and New York City.^[6][7][5]

Death and legacy

In February 1946, while visiting her parents in Brisbane, Tritton had a stroke and died of chronic nephritis on 10 April.^[5]

In 2016, the story of Tritton's life was adapted into a play, Motherland, by playwright Katherine Lyall-Watson.^[8]