Olive, Lady Baillie

She was the elder daughter of the Englishman Almeric Paget (1861–1949), a Member of Parliament for Cambridge who later became the 1st Baron Queenborough, and the American heiress Pauline Payne Whitney (1874–1916), who married in 1895.

Both girls were already legatees under the will of their mother's uncle, Col. Oliver Hazard Payne, an early Standard Oil investor who never married.

[21] When the Wilson Filmers bought Leeds Castle it was in poor condition,[2] having not been lived in since 1924, and parts of the grounds were overgrown.

[22] For the remainder of her life, the future Lady Baillie spent a large portion of her inherited fortune on the restoration of the castle and its associated buildings, and on the park and estate.

She initially employed Owen Little, a Surrey architect, to carry out work on the entrance lodges and the stable yard.

[23] Later, between 1936 and 1967, Lady Baillie worked with the French designer Stéphane Boudin in planning further restorations and improvements to the castle.

The Baillies lived during the week in London and held house parties at Leeds Castle at the weekends.

Lady Baillie was a lover of the cinema and her guest list during that decade included the film stars Douglas Fairbanks senior and junior, Fredric March, Charlie Chaplin, Errol Flynn, Lili Damita, Robert Taylor, James Stewart[26] and Gertrude Lawrence.

[27] Other guests were Margaret, Duchess of Argyll, Barbara Hutton, the author Ian Fleming, and the singer Richard Tauber and his wife Diana Napier.