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

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.