[Sheena Tennant, Margot Asquith's cousin.] Autograph Notebook, containing a record of 'Concerts, Theatres etc' attended by her in London between 1916 and 1918.

An interesting piece of First World War London social history107pp., 12mo. In good condition, on aged paper, in aged and worn black cloth notebook. On first page: ''Sheena Tennant | 49 Wimpole Street | W. | Concerts, Theatres etc | 1916'. Carefully and neatly compiled, with the date, theatre, production, and often the cast and the names of those she went with. Tennant does not confine herself to plays and concerts; on 7 February she goes to the 'Motion Pictures' at the Philharmonic Hall, and sees a lecture by Leslie Paget on 'The Williamson Expedition Submarine', 'with Judith Sandbery & John Chaytor'. And on 13 February, at His Majesty's Theatre, 'with S. G. T.', she attends 'a Lecture by John Foster Fraser', titled 'What I saw in Russia'. A week later (20 February), at His Majesty's Theatre, 'with Mabel Shirley', she hears 'a Lecture by Sir A. Conan Doyle' on 'The Battle of Loos'. Her records can be detailed; with an account of Edward Sheldon's play 'Romance', giving a list of the cast and the settings for the various acts. At other times merely the name, date and theatre are given. Among those named are Somerset Maugham, Sir Henry Wood, Irene Vanbrugh, Sir Charles Villiers Stanford, Mrs Patrick Campbell, Seymour Hicks, Myra Hess. At the Wigmore Hall, on 24 February 1918, at a 'Concert in aid of the Mine Sweepers' Fund', she notes that Raymond Metcalfe 'sang four of my Songs - An Echo - The Lake Isle of Innisfree "I will make you brooches" & A Song of Friendship - & I accompanied them'. Sheena Lilian Grant Tennant came from a privileged Scottish family, being the youngest of the six children (five daughters and a son) of the wealthy Scottish industrialist James Tennant of Fairlieburne, Fairlie, Argyllshire, a nephew of Sir Charles Tennant of the Glen (father of Margot Asquith, wife of British Prime Minister H. H. Asquith, who was hence James Tennant's cousin). She was educated at Cheltenham Ladies' College, studied music composition in Munich (1904-1908) and then in Paris (1910-1912) under Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979), published eight piano pieces (including songs by W. E. Henley and W. B. Yeats) between 1908 and 1929, worked during the war and until her marriage as assistant to Major William Byam (1882-1963), Royal Army Medical Corps, at the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, Euston, and in Hampstead. On 31 July 1919 she married Herbert Moorhouse Kendall (1881-1941) of the P & O, previously of the 3rd Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry.