A CAR which once belonged to a woman who was born over a butcher's shop in Derby has fetched more than £110,000 at auction.
Norah Royce Turner, who was better known as Lady Norah Docker, originated the idea of celebrity in the 1940s to 1960s when she lived a champagne lifestyle.
When two marriages ended after her husbands died, Norah married third husband, Sir Bernard Docker, and became the wife of one the wealthiest men in the country.
They had five cars known as Docker Daimlers and no expense was spared in making them lavish. The one sold by Bonhams at a Goodwood auction near Chichester on Saturday – the Daimler Stardust – was made in 1954 and carries a mascot modelled on Norah's naked body.
The car had been expected to fetch up to £160,000 but fell short of that at £110,140.
Norah was born in 1906 and was the daughter of Amy and Sydney Turner, a mechanical engineer with a small business in London Road, Derby.
When her father later committed suicide and the family were on their uppers, Norah moved to London, aged 18, to make her fortune.
She loved to dance and decided to pursue it as a career, studying with Santos Casani in Regent Street and later working at London's most fashionable society haunt, the Cafe de Paris.
There she was one of the most popular "young ladies" employed to dance with unaccompanied gentlemen. She had a talent for attracting the attentions of extremely wealthy men – one admirer even bought her an hotel.
At the Cafe de Paris she met, and fell in love with, Clement Callingham, head of Henekeys wine and spirit merchants, whom she later married.
Clement died in 1945 and, a year later, Norah married his friend, Sir William Collins, chairman of Fortnum and Mason and the Cerebos Salt Co Ltd. She died in 1983.
