ABSTRACT
The story of Fanny Ronalds, as her friends called her, is linked with that of Jennie Jerome, later Lady Randolph Churchill and mother of Winston Churchill. The magnificent ball which Fanny gave in the early 1860s passed into New York’s chronicles of extravagance. When Mrs Jerome aid her three daughters moved to Paris in 1867, Fanny Ronalds followed them. It was probably Juliette Conneau, Sullivan’s patroness in Paris and a lady-in-waiting to the Empress Eugénie, who introduced Arthur Sullivan to Fanny Ronalds in Paris. Helped no doubt by her position in the Emperor’s circle, Fanny Ronalds seemingly had no difficulty along with two of her children in establishing herself in London. In a letter written late in life to his nephew Herbert, Arthur Sullivan actually dated his first acquaintance with Fanny Ronalds. Fanny may have crossed the Atlantic and briefly visited London as early as 1862 but no evidence of such a visit is forthcoming.
