{{Short description|English socialite}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Nancy Beaton | title = Lady Smiley | image = File:Nancy Beaton.jpg | caption = | birth_name = Nancy Elizabeth Louise Hardy Beaton | birth_date = {{birth date|1909|9|30|df=y}} | birth_place = London, England | death_date = {{dda|1999|6|6|1909|9|30|df=y}} | death_place = | occupation = Socialite | spouse = {{marriage|Sir Hugh Smiley, 3rd Baronet<br />|1933|1990|end=d.}} | parents = Ernest Walter Hardy Beaton<br />Esther "Etty" Sisson | relatives = Baba Beaton (sister)<br />Cecil Beaton (brother) }} '''Nancy Elizabeth Louise Hardy, Lady Smiley''' (née '''Beaton'''; 30 September 1909 – 6 June 1999) was an English socialite who, together with her sister, Baba Beaton, was known as one of the '''Beaton Sisters''' and was included in ''The Book of Beauty'' by their brother, Cecil Beaton.<ref name="Beaton">{{cite book|last1=Beaton|first1=Cecil|title=The Book Of Beauty|date=1933|url=https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.218224/2015.218224.The-Book#page/n65/mode/2up|accessdate=19 January 2018}}</ref>

==Biography== Nancy Beaton was born 30 September 1909, in London, the daughter of Ernest Walter Hardy Beaton (1867–1936), a timber merchant from Hampstead,<ref name="The Independent" /> and Esther "Etty" Sisson (1872–1962). Her paternal grandfather was Walter Hardy Beaton (1841–1904), founder of the family business "Beaton Brothers Timber Merchants and Agents".<ref>{{citation | first = Hugo | last = Vickers | title = Cecil Beaton: The Authorised Biography | year = 1985 | publisher = Phoenix Press}}</ref> On 4 December 1909 she was baptized into the Church of England as Nancy Elizabeth Louise Hardy at St Mary's Church, Kilburn, with her parents recorded as Ernest Walter and Esther Beaton.<ref>"Nancy Elizabeth Louise Hardy Beaton" in ''London, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1923'', citing "Baptisms Solemnized at St Mary's Church, Kilburn", no. 1410, 4 December 1909.</ref>

thumb|left|Cecil Beaton, and his sisters Nancy and Barbara, arriving at an Eton

Nancy was one of the first models of her brother Cecil.<ref name="The Independent">{{cite journal|last1=Vickers|first1=Hugo|title=Obituary: Nancy, Lady Smiley|journal=The Independent|date=1999|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-nancy-lady-smiley-1099015.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220618/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-nancy-lady-smiley-1099015.html |archive-date=18 June 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|accessdate=23 January 2018}}</ref>

Nancy Beaton was presented as a debutante at court in 1928, at the Queen Charlotte's Ball, in the presence of George V. She was part of a Bright Young Things' scandal when she, Stephen Tennant, and David Plunket Greene were thrown out from a party at the home of the Countess of Ellesmere they were crashing.<ref name="The Independent" />

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In January 1933 she married Sir Hugh Houston Smiley, 3rd Baronet (1905–1990). Constance Spry arranged the flowers and the wedding was a notable society event.<ref name="The Independent" /> The dresses were designed by her brother, Cecil Beaton. Baba Beaton, Margaret Whigham, Lady Bridget Poulett, and Lady Anne Wellesley were among the bridesmaids.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Wedding Style from England - 28 Jan 1933, Sat • Page 17|journal=Chicago Tribune|date=1933|page=17|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/16801397/chicago_tribune/|accessdate=23 January 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Miss Nancy Beaton Is Wedded to Sir Hugh Smiley at St. Margaret's, Westminster, January 18 - 04 Mar 1933, Sat • Main Edition • Page 25|journal=Honolulu Star-Bulletin|date=1933|page=25|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/16802631/honolulu_starbulletin/|accessdate=23 January 2018}}</ref>

According to her brother Cecil Beaton in ''The Book of Beauty'' (1933): "I am enthralled at the childish intentness and gaiety of Nancy when looking for a coral tiara in a curiosity shop, by the complexion that emerges from underneath the water after she has fallen off an aquaplane board, by her dazzling blondness when, like a Gainsborough, writing her diary on a haystack."<ref name="Beaton" />

She died on 6 June 1999.

==References== {{Reflist}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Beaton, Nancy}} Category:1909 births Category:1999 deaths Category:English female models Category:Wives of baronets Category:Models from London Category:People from Kilburn, London Category:Socialites from London