Alexander Rolls Major Alexander Rolls ( 18 July 1818 – 22 April 1882 ) was a native of Swansea , Glamorganshire , Wales . A member of the renowned Rolls family of The Hendre at Llangattock - Vibon - Avel near Monmouth , Monmouthshire , his life in public service included four terms as Mayor of Monmouth . He was an officer in the Royal Monmouthshire ( Light Infantry ) Militia and the 4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards . Rolls married twice ; the widower ' s second marriage was to a divorcée , English actress Helen Barry . Family . Alexander Rolls , second son of John Rolls ( 20 October 1776 – 1837 ) and his wife Martha Maria Barnet Rolls ( d . 28 October 1858 ) , was born on 18 July 1818 in Swansea , Wales . He was one of five children . His siblings were John Etherington Welch Rolls , Martha Sarah Rolls Macready , Jessy Rolls Harcourt ( d . 1842 Paris ) , and Louisa Elizabeth Rolls Vaughan ( d . 1853 ) . As a child , Alexander Rolls was educated at the Harrow School in Harrow , Middlesex , England . He left there in 1834 and attended the University of Göttingen in Göttingen , Germany . Alexander ' s paternal grandmother Sarah Coysh Rolls had been the sole heir of the estates of the Coysh , Allen and James families . Included in her large inheritance was The Hendre which passed to her son John Rolls . Following the death of Alexander ' s father John Rolls in 1837 , his older brother John E . W . Rolls inherited the family home at Llangattock - Vibon - Avel , near Monmouth . Alexander ' s father had undertaken the first of three expansions of The Hendre , which had originally been a hunting lodge . That first expansion was performed by architect George Vaughan Maddox in 1830 . The second enlargement of The Hendre was under the direction of Alexander ' s brother John E W Rolls and was performed by architect Thomas Henry Wyatt . The third expansion was undertaken by Alexander ' s nephew John Allan Rolls , the future Lord Llangattock , in 1872 , again using Wyatt as architect . The family home underwent its final enlargement in 1896 by architect Aston Webb , again under the direction of J . A . Rolls , then Lord Llangattock . The Hendre was Grade II * listed on 4 November 1985 . Public service . Alexander Rolls spent a substantial portion of his life in public service . On 30 March 1838 , Rolls purchased his commission as a junior officer , Cornet , in the regiment of the 4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards . The following year , on 3 May 1839 , he purchased his commission as Lieutenant in the 4th Dragoon Guards , and eventually reached the rank of Major . The London Gazette of 15 December 1848 reported that Alexander Rolls was a Captain in the Royal Monmouthshire Militia , his commission signed by the county ' s Lord Lieutenant . On 3 May 1853 , he was commissioned as a Major in the Royal Monmouthshire ( Light Infantry ) Militia , by the Lord Lieutenant . He was also Justice of the Peace for Monmouthshire . Rolls became a Deputy Lieutenant for Monmouthshire on 24 July 1867 , again receiving his commission from the Lord Lieutenant . Major Alexander Rolls was elected Mayor of Monmouth in 1870 , and in each of the next three consecutive years . In 1873 , he donated a water pump to the town . The pump , which had a round trough at the base , stood in St James Square , previously an area of Whitecross Street . It was the former site of a weighing machine and , before that , a stone cross which had given Whitecross Street its name . The pump had the inscription , " This Pump was presented to the public by Alexander Rolls , of Croft - y - bwla , in the third year of his Mayoralty of this Borough , 1873 . A merciful man is merciful to his beast . " Marriage and later life . On 18 May 1839 , Lieutenant Alexander Rolls married Kate Steward , third daughter of Ambrose Steward of Stoke Park , Ipswich , Suffolk . The ceremony took place at St Mary ' s , Bryanston Square , London , in the Parish of St Marylebone . The couple resided in Monmouth in 1841 . By 1861 , Rolls and his wife had moved to Croft - Y - Bwla , a classical villa northwest of the town centre of Monmouth , positioned such that it had a view of the town . Croft - Y - Bwla had been designed by George Vaughan Maddox for Thomas Dyke about 1830 . Dyke was a Grocer of Monmouth , and became mayor of the town in 1832 , serving two more terms in 1838 and 1839 . Croft - Y - Bwla was grade II listed on 15 August 1974 . At the time of the 1871 Wales Census , Rolls and his wife were still living at Croft - Y - Bwla . However , he was widowed in 1876 , his wife ' s death registered at Monmouth in the first quarter of the year . Kate Steward Rolls died on 23 January 1876 at Croft - Y - Bwla . The following year , Rolls married divorcée Helen Elizabeth Brandon , née Short . The English actress was twenty - two years his junior , and better known by her stage name , Helen Barry . The day before that marriage , however , Rolls appeared before officials of the Diocese of London . His address at that time was the Parish of Saint George , Hanover Square , Middlesex . Rolls signed an affidavit that his fiancée had married Joseph Brandon on 3 May 1855 ( at age fifteen ) at the Parish Church of Saint Luke , Charlton , Kent . He also acknowledged that , on 2 June 1870 , the marriage had been dissolved at Westminster , upon the petition of Joseph Brandon , with the divorce finalized on 29 February 1876 . The marriage between Rolls and Barry ( as Helen Elizabeth Brandon ) was registered in the third quarter of 1877 , with the ceremony performed on the 1st of September at the Parish Church of St Mark at Regent ' s Park in Middlesex . Actress Helen Barry was born Elizabeth Short on 5 January 1840 in Lee , Kent , England , the daughter of Charles Henry Short and his wife Mary . Her daughter Esther E Brandon was born in Greenwich , Kent in the second quarter of 1855 , around the time of Elizabeth ' s marriage to Joseph Brandon , a native of Belgium . Elizabeth began acting as Helen Barry in 1872 , after her divorce , and after her daughter Esther had been put out as an apprentice . Helen Barry first appeared in " Babil and Bijou " at the Covent Garden Theatre . The actress also performed in " The Happy Land " at the Court Theatre , and " Arkwright ' s Wife " at the Leeds Theatre Royal and , following its move , London ' s Globe Theatre . She appeared in " Heart ' s Delight " in 1873 – 1874 , and " Led Astray " at the Gaiety Theatre in 1874 . After touring outside London , she returned to star in " Around the World in Eighty Days " and " Heartsease " , both at the Princess ' s Theatre , London . In 1876 , Barry starred in " L ' Étrangère " and , later , " True Till Death " . Helen Barry continued to perform in the theatre after her second marriage . Less than two years after his marriage to Barry , the London Gazette of 11 April 1879 indicated that Alexander Rolls of 82 Regent ' s Park Road , Middlesex County , had declared bankruptcy . By 1881 , he was lodging in the Parish of Saint George , Hanover Square , London , and his wife was not recorded at that address . Alexander Rolls died on 22 April 1882 in London . His widow moved to the United States following his death , where she appeared in theatrical performances in New York . Less than one year after her second husband ' s death , Barry was married and widowed again . Helen Barry ' s third husband Harry George Bolam ( 1845 – 1883 ) , a land agent and mining engineer , died at Westminster Flats in New York City from pneumonia on 23 March 1883 , shortly after their marriage . The actress continued to perform in both New York and London . " Helen Rolls Bolam of New York " died on 20 July 1904 in Norwalk , Connecticut , USA . The date of probate was 24 April 1906 . Family tree . Sources