Walters, Catherine (1839–1920)

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Walters, Catherine (1839–1920)

British courtesan. Name variations: Skittles Walters. Born 1839 in Liverpool, England; died 1920; dau. of a junior customs officer at the Liverpool docks.

Moved to London sometime before 1859 and caused a stir because of affairs with powerful men, including the Liberal politician Lord Hartington, as well as Napoleon III and the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII); was the subject of the sonnet sequence Esther by poet Wilfred Scawen Blunt, with whom she had an affair and a lifelong friendship.

See also Henry Blyth, Skittles: The Last Victorian Courtesan, The Life and Times of Catherine Walters (Newton Abbot, 1972).

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