Kathleen was educated at Gumley House Convent School in Isleworth, west London. By the age of 16 it had been arranged, with the help of one of her brothers, that she would return to India to marry a surgeon, Isaac Newton, who was many years her senior. On the journey outwards she formed a relationship with Commander Henry St Leger Bury Palliser (1839-1907), an officer in the Royal Navy who was travelling out to join HMS Forte in Bombay. Kathleen's marriage to Isaac Newton nevertheless went ahead on 3rd January 1871 at Hoshiarpur in the Punjab. Immediately afterwards Kathleen confessed her relationship with Palliser to Newton, who sued for divorce and she returned to England a little later in the year. The decree nisi was issued on 30th December 1871 and became absolute in July 1872.
Kathleen gave birth to a daughter, Muriel Violet Mary Newton, at Conisbrough on 30th December 1871, officially stating Newton to be the father, but it was probably Palliser. Kathleen gave birth to a second child, Cecil George Newton, on 21st March 1876, again improbably stating Isaac Newton as the father. By this time Kathleen was living with her sister in Hill Road, St John's Wood in north London. At some point in 1876 Kathleen had started modelling for the successful French artist James Tissot, who lived nearby in fashionable Grove End Road. She eventually moved in with him and they lived together as man and wife – although they could not marry because of Tissot's Catholic faith. It has been accepted in recent times that Tissot may well have been Cecil George's father, but it has never been firmly established, and it is quite possible that Commander Palliser continued to see Kathleen until the mid-1870s.
Kathleen Newton and James Tissot enjoyed 6 years together despite being to some degree shunned by Victorian polite society; she appeared in many of Tissot's paintings of the late 70s and early 80s. Sadly, Kathleen contracted tuberculosis and died, aged just 28, at the house in Grove End Road on November 9th 1882; the funeral took place at the Church of Our Lady, Lisson Grove, St John's Wood on the 14th November
Kathleen was educated at Gumley House Convent School in Isleworth, west London. By the age of 16 it had been arranged, with the help of one of her brothers, that she would return to India to marry a surgeon, Isaac Newton, who was many years her senior. On the journey outwards she formed a relationship with Commander Henry St Leger Bury Palliser (1839-1907), an officer in the Royal Navy who was travelling out to join HMS Forte in Bombay. Kathleen's marriage to Isaac Newton nevertheless went ahead on 3rd January 1871 at Hoshiarpur in the Punjab. Immediately afterwards Kathleen confessed her relationship with Palliser to Newton, who sued for divorce and she returned to England a little later in the year. The decree nisi was issued on 30th December 1871 and became absolute in July 1872.
Kathleen gave birth to a daughter, Muriel Violet Mary Newton, at Conisbrough on 30th December 1871, officially stating Newton to be the father, but it was probably Palliser. Kathleen gave birth to a second child, Cecil George Newton, on 21st March 1876, again improbably stating Isaac Newton as the father. By this time Kathleen was living with her sister in Hill Road, St John's Wood in north London. At some point in 1876 Kathleen had started modelling for the successful French artist James Tissot, who lived nearby in fashionable Grove End Road. She eventually moved in with him and they lived together as man and wife – although they could not marry because of Tissot's Catholic faith. It has been accepted in recent times that Tissot may well have been Cecil George's father, but it has never been firmly established, and it is quite possible that Commander Palliser continued to see Kathleen until the mid-1870s.
Kathleen Newton and James Tissot enjoyed 6 years together despite being to some degree shunned by Victorian polite society; she appeared in many of Tissot's paintings of the late 70s and early 80s. Sadly, Kathleen contracted tuberculosis and died, aged just 28, at the house in Grove End Road on November 9th 1882; the funeral took place at the Church of Our Lady, Lisson Grove, St John's Wood on the 14th November
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