Kit Dealtry

Kathleen Clarice Louise Cornwell was born on 11 March 1872 in Melbourne,Australia. She was the daughter of Jemima Ridpath and George Cornwell,married in 1850. Her father was a railway guard who became a successful goldprospector in Australia, operating several mines, her eldest daughter, AliceCornwell (1952), did a great deal to assist him, and the familybecame spectacularly rich by the 1890s, and they returned to England,where Alice Cornwell (Stennard Robinson) bought the Sunday Times newspaper.

On 19 February 1890, at 17, Kathleen Clarice became the second wifeof Herman Klein (1856-1934), an English musical author, teacher and critic,who was 16 years older than her. He had a daughter Sibyl Klein, from aprevious marriage, and they had two sons: Adrian Bernard Klein(1892-1969) and Daryl Klein (1894) and a daughter Denise Naomi Klein(1897-1985). During her marriage with Klein, Kathleen Clarice began anaffair with a young man, Herbert Arthur Berkeley Dealtry (1878), who was aWorcestershire Regiment officer. When Herman Klein became aware of it hefiled a petition for divorce, which was granted in December 1901. After thedivorce Kathleen Clarice married with Dealtry in 1902. The marriage wasgoing through financial difficulties and Dealtry had to declare bankruptcyin 1905, and they left for America with her daughter, Denise Naomi. Someyears later, Kathleen Clarice returned to London, and in 1918, she marriedfor a third time with Sydney H. Groom.

Kathleen Clarise, who wrote several short stories in Magazines and novelsunder diferent pseudonyms (playing with her diferents names and surnames),started a saga of popular writers. Her eldest son Adrian Bernard Klein,changed her name to Adrian Cornwell-Clyne, and became an artist, who wrotebooks on photography and cinematography, and her daughter Denise NaomiKlein also followed in her footsteps and became the popular romance writerDenise Robins, who was the first president of the Romantic Novelists'Association (1960-1966). Her granddaughter Patricia Robins (aka ClaireLorrimer), who is Denise Robin's daughter, is also a popular romance writer.

Kathleen Clarise pased away in the Brighton/Hove area in 1954, aged 82.