Babette Louisa Valerie Hobson (14 April 1917 – 13 November 1998)[1] was a British[2] actress whose film career spanned the 1930s to the early 1950s.

The latter half of the 1940s saw Hobson in perhaps her two most memorable roles: as the adult Estella in David Lean's (1908-1991) adaptation of Great Expectations (1946), and as the refined and virtuous Edith D'Ascoyne in the black comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949).

[citation needed] Hobson's last starring role was in the original London production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical play The King and I, which opened at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, on 8 October 1953.

[citation needed] After Profumo's ministerial career ended in disgrace in 1963, following revelations he had lied to the House of Commons about his affair with Christine Keeler, Hobson stood by him, and they worked together for charity for the remainder of her life, although she did miss their more public personas.

[8] Hobson's eldest son, Simon Anthony Clerveaux Havelock-Allan, was born in May 1944 with Down's Syndrome, and died in January 1991.