Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan was born in New York City in 1877 and was a member of the prominent American Vanderbilt family. She became the Duchess of Marlborough on her marriage to the ninth Duke of Marlborough in 1895, eventually separating in 1906. She remarried in 1921 and spent the remainder of her life involved in philanthropic projects, until her death in Long Island, New York in 1964.
