Jesmond, St. Andrew's Cemetery, grave of Eileen Maud Blair

HER Number:
13208

District:
Newcastle

Site Name:
Jesmond, St. Andrew's Cemetery, grave of Eileen Maud Blair

Place:
Jesmond

Map Sheet:
NZ26NE

Class:
Religious Ritual and Funerary

Site Type: Broad:
Grave Marker

Site Type: Specific:
Gravestone

General Period:
Modern

Specific Period:
C20

Form of Evidence:
Structure

Description:
Eileen Maud Blair (1905-1945) was the first wife of George Orwell (real name Eric Arthur Blair), journalist and novelist. Eileen was the daughter of a customs collector. She was born Eileen O' Shaughnessy in South Shields and attended Sunderland High School then went to Oxford University. She later managed a typing bureau. Eric Arthur Blair married her in 1936. During World War Two Eileen produced the BBC radio programme The Kitchen Front. Her husband was a BBC war correspondent for the Indian Service. In 1945 Eileen died of a heart attack following a routine operation at a private clinic in Fernwood House, Clayton Road, Jesmond. George Orwell's most celebrated novels were Animal Farm and 1984. He died in 1950 in London aged 47 from tuberculosis.

Easting:
2498

Northing:
6621

Grid Reference:
NZ24986621

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
Alan Morgan, 2004, Beyond the Grave - Exploring Newcastle's Burial Grounds, page 88