Jane Carr was the stage name of English stage and film actress Rita Brunstrom.
Background
Her first husband was James Bickley, a civil engineer, the eldest son of a farmer and wheelwright, born on 4 October 1896 at Wythall, Warwickshire, to whom she was married on 14 September 1931 at the Register Office, Marylebone, London. According to The Times dated 2 December 1936, Jane was engaged to Major A. J. S. Fetherstonhaugh, D.S.O., Medical Corps, the only son of Colonel and Mistress Fetherstonhaugh of The Hermitage, Powick, Worcester.
However she subsequently married John Donaldson-Hudson, the grandson of Charles Donaldson-Hudson, from Cheswardine Hall, Shropshire, England on 7 January 1943 at the Registry Office, Westminster.
Education
Carr attended Harrogate Ladies College.
Career
Jane was divorced from John Donaldson-Hudson before September 1947. Jane and John had a daughter, Charlotte Donaldson-Hudson, who relates the details of Noël Coward visiting her mother"s flat in London at about the time of the Festival of Britain preparations in 1950. She said: lieutenant may have been frivolous, but was in my opinion immensely amusing, starting with a stanza I can"t quite entirely remember.
I only learnt it sitting on his knee 60 years ago!" Jane Carr"s daughter, Charlotte Donaldson-Hudson, the great granddaughter of Charles Donaldson-Hudson talked about Noël Coward writing the song and playing it on the pianos at her mother"s flat in a British Broadcasting Corporation radio broadcast from 4 May 2011, about the festival of Britain.
The programme is available at British Broadcasting Corporation iPlayer: Random Edition. Jane Carr died on 29 September 1957 at Middlesex Hospital, London and is buried in an unmarked grave at Mendham, Suffolk.
Carr had worked in theatre since 1928, and had appeared in a number of films through the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. She can be seen in one of her early films, The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes which is available on the Internet at Archive.org: The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes (1935).
She appeared in one of the earliest of British Broadcasting Corporation television broadcasts on 15 November 1932.