Nadine, Countess of Shrewsbury


Nadine Muriel, Countess of Shrewsbury, known professionally as Nadine Talbot and later as Nadine Credi, was an English opera soprano and the first wife of John Chetwynd-Talbot, 21st Earl of Shrewsbury. They married in 1936.

Biography

Her father was Brigadier-General Cyril Randell Crofton-Atkins, of Crediton, and her mother was Mary Ruth Josephine Emily Lyne Evans, daughter of Arthur Henry Lyne Evans, of the colliery and foundry-owning Evans family of Haydock, Lancashire.

Career

She promoted two seasons of Opera at Ingestre in 1957 and 1958, an opera festival at Ingestre Hall, the couple's home. She was one of a series of society beauties photographed as classical figures by Madame Yevonde.

Personal life

In 1936, Nadine was married to John Chetwynd-Talbot, 21st Earl of Shrewsbury, the son of Charles John Alton Chetwynd-Talbot, Viscount of Ingestre, and Lady Winifred Constance Hester Paget. Together, they had six children, four daughters before the birth of an heir, Charles, in 1952.
Lord Shrewsbury sued for divorce in 1958, claiming that Nadine had been sexually involved with their daughter's tutor, Anthony Lowther, but in 1959 judge Charles A. Collingwood rejected the divorce suit, finding that Lord Shrewsbury had committed adultery with Nina Mortlock. In a subsequent proceeding, a divorce was granted.
Lady Shrewsbury died in Bedford, Bedfordshire, in 2003, aged 90. Following the death of her ex-husband in 1980, her son Charles succeeded to the earldoms.