Early Life

Katherine was born in 1871 in British Columbia, Canada. She was the daughter of the Canadian Premier, the Honourable Robert Beaven (1836-1920) and his wife Susan Sibbald Ritchie (1840 – 1919). Her father was the 6^th Premier of British Columbia between 1882 and 1883. Throughout her life she was referred to by a range of titles and names including: Katherine Emily Beaven AKA ‘Kathleen’ , ‘Katherine Ellis’, ‘Lady Katherine Churchill’, ‘2^nd Viscountess Churchill’ and ‘Baroness Churchill of Whichwood’.

Marriages

Katherine (who seems to have also been known as Kathleen, or ‘K’ amongst closer circles), had two marriages:

• Marriage 1: Stanley Venn Ellis (1875-1916). They were married at Victoria, Canada on the 23^rd August 1900. She was 27 and he was 26-years-old. The marriage ended when Stanley died on the HMS Defence at the Battle of Jutland in WW1.
• Marriage 2: Victor Alexander ‘Peter’ (Peter was a nickname) Spencer, 2^nd Viscount Churchill (1890-1973). Peter was a distant relation of Winston Churchill.) They were married at Little Stanmore, England on the 15^th July 1916 – only a month and a half after the death of Katherine’s first husband, Stanley. He was 26 and she was 45. The marriage ended upon her death. It was believed to be a sham marriage and the two of them never lived together.
• Katherine had one child – from her first marriage with Stanley – a daughter called Kathleen Brenda Venn Ellis (1904-1967). Kathleen settled in France and married in a Frenchman. 

An unusual relationship

Katherine’s other key relationship, it is speculated, was with her second husband’s mother, Lady Verena Maud Lowther, 1^st Viscountess Churchill. Verena became interested in spiritualism – Katherine was a spirit writer and painter.

Article from Yorkshire Evening Post 1919 about Katherine's spirit painting

Verena abandoned the first Viscount Churchill (later it was proclaimed a legal desertion), taking their children and going into hiding at the behest of a medium – possibly Katherine. The first Viscount tried to kidnap the children back many times, without success. Verena often moved them around, thanks to letters from Katherine which, through her spirit writing, said her husband’s men were near. As time went on it seems that Verena started to ‘lean’ heavily on Katherine, the latter holding a dominating influence on Verena (whether or not due to love or a spiritualistic hold can only be guessed on)

The reason behind the desertion, in Peter Churchill’s autobiography, states that his parents were miserable together… but there is a hint that it was more. The first Viscount Churchill spread rumours in social and aristocratic circles about Verena and Katherine’s relationship. To quash the rumours Verena begged her son to marry Katherine, which he did. The rumours seemed to persist. Verena then suggested she, Katherine and Peter live together. Peter declined and his mother never spoke to him again.

Widely travelled

Katherine seems to have travelled reasonably widely, having come from BC. She lived in England, Scotland, France and Malta – at least – as mentioned in various newspaper cuttings and Peter’s autobiography. Upon her marriage to Stanley Venn Ellis in 1900 she was living at ‘Burdett House’ in Victoria, BC. In 1910 she was living in Kensington with her daughter, Stanley away at sea

Verena died in 1938. Katherine died in 1943, alone and broke, living in Bath, her only maid recently having left her employ. Katherine died by suicide, unable to continue living with invalidism, due to a disease of the pelvis.