Engagement Party Given at Biltmore. . . Betrothal of Miss Cornelia Vanderbilt to Hon. John Cecil Announced
By the Associated Press
Biltmore House, Asheville, N.C., March 8—Engagement of Miss Cornelia Vanderbilt, only daughter of the late George Washington Vanderbilt and Mrs. Edith Stuyvesant Dresser Vanderbilt, to the Honorable John Francis Amherst Cecil, first secretary of the British embassy in Washington, was announced at 10 o’clock tonight at a party given at the Biltmore house for that purpose.
No definite date for the marriage, except that it will be solemnized in the early spring and after Easter, was named. The event will take place at Biltmore house and is expected to be an overshadowing social event. Men and women in diplomatic and military circles, as well as prominent official and social personages, are expected to attend.
The announcement party was not as elaborate as was at first planned, due to the death in New York on Wednesday of Mrs. Elliott Shepard, last sister of the late George W. Vanderbilt.
Mrs. Vanderbilt and Miss Vanderbilt, accompanied by Mr. Cecil, Mrs. John Nicholas Brown, sister of Mrs. Vanderbilt, and her son, John Brown, and Henry B. Anderson of New York, and the Hon. McCormick Goodhart of the British embassy, arrived at Biltmore house this morning at 11 o’clock for the announcement party.
Invitations had gone out to about 250 friends, only a few of them outside of North Carolina, to attend the function, which Miss Vanderbilt insisted be held at her birthplace, the mansion which she will next year become the mistress of, under the provisions of her father’s will.
Whether or not Mr. Cecil will continue in diplomatic service or give up what is looked upon as a promising career, it is not definitely known, but Miss Vanderbilt has made it known that she intends, finally, to make her home here and will retain American citizenship. An extended honeymoon, probably spent in Europe, is also one of the indefinite announcements.
When Miss Vanderbilt reaches her 25th anniversary in 1925, the estate here and a trust fund, all valued at about $50,000,000 left by her father and grandfather, William H. Vanderbilt, will become her possession. Mr. Cecil is the third son of Lord William Cecil and the late Lady William Cecil, Baroness Amherst of Hackney. He has been a member of the British embassy in Washington about a year, having formerly been connected with the British embassy in Madrid, with Sir Esme Howard, the new British ambassador to this country. He is expected to continue at his post for a time, at least.
From the front page of the Durham Morning Herald, Sunday, March 9, 1924.
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