"[3] Her father was Judge Advocate General in the Crimea and India, Legal Advisor to the Board of Admiralty, and Minister in Egypt.

She could, however, as a result of her travels abroad, speak fluent Egyptian Arabic, Turkish, two Hindustani dialects, French, Italian, Spanish, and some German.

She climbed out of her bedroom window clutching a shilling and made the journey to the Gaiety Theatre, London to see a production of The Forty Thieves.

Climbing beneath the legs of the waiting crowd, Enthoven was picked up by a large navvy who placed her upon his shoulders and pushed his way through the throng of people to find them a seat on the front row of the gallery.

In 1921, Enthoven was staying in New York with Cecile Sartoris, with whom she had translated The Honeysuckle, a play by the Italian writer Gabriele D'Annunzio.

Recalling his stay with the two women, he wrote: "they said that when I sold a play, or made some money somehow, I could pay rent, but until then I was to be their guest […] I accepted and moved in immediately, grateful not only for their kindness, but for their company.

"[9] During Enthoven's stay in New York, in a flat on Washington Square South, she spent time with many influential people within artistic and theatrical society.

The American poet and playwright Mercedes de Acosta wrote about Enthoven's stay in New York in her 1960s memoir Here Lies the Heart].

In 1948, Enthoven presented the British Library with a pamphlet containing four prose poems of Wilde's that she had had printed and bound under the title Echoes.

This group included women such as the writer Radclyffe Hall, best known for writing the banned lesbian classic The Well of Loneliness, the sculptor Una Troubridge, the painter Romaine Brooks, and the tennis player and fencer Toupie Lowther.

The group referred to themselves as 'The Circle' and would regularly meet to have dinner parties at their homes in the exclusive London borough of Kensington and Chelsea, visit the theatre, or dance at clubs in Soho such as the "Cave of Harmony" and "The Orange Tree".

[13] The women lived a privileged lifestyle of grand houses, villas in the sun, inherited incomes, successful careers, and stylish lovers.

[16] Enthoven was a keen playwright and had her first play, Montmartre, produced at the Alhambra Theatre, London in 1912 as part of a revue called Kill That Fly!.

In 1921, Enthoven and Cecile Sartoris's translation of Gabriele D'Annunzio's The Honeysuckle played at the Lyceum Theatre (Broadway) in New York, as well as at "Playroom 6" in Soho, London on 9 May 1927.

[26] In November 1911, it was announced that the London Museum was to devote a section to a permanent exhibition of theatrical objects that would chart the developments and phases of theatre both in Britain and abroad.

Enthoven's vast collection of playbills would remain at her home, but she asked the public to lend or give any theatrical objects they possessed to the museum to ensure the exhibition's success.

A visitor to the museum wrote to the Pall Mall Gazette to declare that "those looking for enlightenment must go away sadly baffled, and those who, having a regard for the sentiment and charm of what such a collection should be, must blush indeed as they see this scanty, mediocre, and careless assortment.

However, she continued to face difficulties and received a letter from the museum stating that "there is so little chance of your scheme being adopted that we should scarcely be justified in asking you to come here, as you suggest, to discuss it.

"[30] In 1922, the Victoria and Albert Museum held the International Theatre Exhibition: Designs and Models for the Modern Stage and displayed a number of items from Enthoven's enormous collection.

In 1924, after more than a decade of campaigning, the Victoria and Albert Museum finally agreed to house her collection, at this time containing more than 80,000 playbills, prints, books and engravings.

[31] An appeal for financial aid to contribute to the cataloguing of the collection was launched in the national press, with theatrical personalities such as Sybil Thorndike supporting the campaign.

At the age of 81, the "Grand Old Lady of London theatre first-nighters" still arrived at the Victoria and Albert Museum at 10 o'clock every morning to sort and index her playbills.

[16] In 1921, Enthoven visited New York as a Red Cross representative to raise funds to build schools for children in devastated areas of France.

Hall had attended Red Cross lectures, learnt first-aid, and transported library books to casualty wards but felt this was not as heroic as the work undertaken by Enthoven.