born: 1887
died: 1972
lived: ±85 years
An accomplished concert pianist and music teacher. She eventually became one of the music teachers to the children of the last Russian Tsar, Nicholas II, in St Petersburg. There is no consensus in the family as to how this happened. Some have suggested that she was jilted after following her lover to Russia. Others argue that she was recommended to the Tsarina by the letter of a Russian nobleman who had been visiting South Africa. In any event, Adriana was with the royal family from 1910 till 1917. There is no record of how Adriana might have felt as revolution broke out around her in October 1917. No evidence of what a loss the deaths of her pupils might have been to her, nor of how near she may have come to death herself. It is only known that she was able to flee, reaching Odessa on the Black Sea, where she gained passage on a ship bound for France. There she was taken under the wing of a Polish nobleman, Count Bellinski (or Belinksi), whom she had known during her time in St Petersburg. They married, moving to a house near Regent’s Park in London. Adriana remained there until her death in 1972. Her will gives insight into how she might have lived, for she left the house to her housekeeper and its furniture to the head maid. She had no children, nor did she have any relatives nearby. All of her money and jewellery was bequeathed to her spinster sister, Joey. However, Joey (and her other siblings) had predeceased Adriana and therefore her estate was divided among the sons and daughters of her brothers and sisters. In South Africa, Victor, Aubrey and their cousin Toni each received a share of the estate. Most of the jewellery ended up with Aubrey, though he gave some items to Victor and Kathleen.
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