Eliza Sheffield

rdf:langString Eliza Sheffield

rdf:langString Eliza Dinah Sheffield (née Fairchild; 6 September 1856 – 28 November 1942) was an English entrepreneur, socialite and forger. Born into a working class family in Southampton, England, she rose through the ranks of society through marriage to Henry Digby Sheffield, a minor aristocrat. Since Fairchild was a barmaid at the time of their marriage, they had to invent a more prestigious background for her and she took the name Evelyn Diana Turnour Sheffield, presenting herself as the child of a British naval officer and a Spanish aristocrat. After her husband died in 1888, Sheffield continued to engage with high society and through both romantic and friendly relationships inherited large sums of money, allowing her to pursue her own interests. In the 1890s, she was a co-inventor of the Tallerman–Sheffield hot-air treatment (or human bake oven), a medical contraption in which patients were baked alive to cure various ailments. Her social standing took a great hit in 1905 following a court case in which she attempted to sue John Townshend, 6th Marquess Townshend for withdrawing an offer of marriage. Sheffield's aristocratic identity was revealed as a forgery during the trial, though she continued to go by her assumed name until her death. Sheffield was a member of the occult Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.