Lydia Ellen Tritton

Lydia "Nellé" Tritton was born in Brisbane, Australia on 19 September 1899 and died on 10 April 1946.[3]

As a young woman in her mid twenties, Tritton sailed to London and toured Europe, gaining a reputation for knowledge of international affairs, which brought her into contact with Russian expatriates living in Paris.[2] In 1928 she married a former officer of the White Russian Army, Nicholas Alexander Nadejine, 43, in Kensington registry office. Nadejine, a professional singer, was unsuccessful in joining the Covent Garden Opera Company and reportedly had affairs with various rich Englishwomen.[2] The couple divorced in 1936.

In 1939 Tritton married exiled Russian prime minister Alexander Kerensky in Martins Creek, Pennsylvania and lived in exile in Pennsylvania.[4][5][6] Following their wedding, the Kerenskys lived in Paris briefly before moving to New York. In February 1946, while visiting her parents in Brisbane, Australia, Nell had a stroke and died of chronic nephritis on 10 April.

The story of her life was turned into a play Motherland, in 2016 by playwright Katherine Lyall-Watson.[7]

• Kesteven, Sophie; Whitfeld, Anna (22 July 2020). "The extraordinary life of Nell Tritton, an Australian heiress who saved her husband from assassins". Late Night Live. ABC Radio National. Retrieved 22 July 2020.