Lydia Cecilia Hill

Her maternal grandfather was George Henry Benge, a dairyman born around 1862 in Hastings, Sussex, and retired by 1910.

Her maternal grandmother was Cecilia C. Benge born around 1866 in Aston Clinton; Cissie's grandparents married in the second quarter of 1886 in Blean.

Cissie's father was George Hill, R.N., born 11 December 1882 in Portsea: a leading seaman in 1910; a petty officer in 1913; made lieutenant commander in 1915; retired in 1932.

Living with them were their four sons, their daughter Florence Cecilia born in Canterbury in the first quarter of 1889, and George's married sister.

In 1901 the Benge grandparents were living at 32 Radigund Street (now St Radigund Street) in Canterbury Northgate.

Cissie's mother was Florence Cecilia Hill nee Benge, married at the age of 21 on 20 December 1910 at St Gregory's Church, Canterbury.

In 1911 Florence was twenty-two and living at 2 Kitchener Terrace, Sturry Road, Canterbury; her husband was absent, presumably on tour.

Cissie had an elder sister Etta Florence V. Hill, born 13 January 1912.

Lydia Cecilia Hill (20 July 1913 – 11 October 1940), known as Cissie Hill or Cecily Hill, was an English cabaret dancer notable for being a favourite of Ibrahim, Sultan of Johor and for being briefly engaged to him.

A new Art Deco house, Mayfair Court, was funded for her in Herne Bay, Kent, by the Sultan.

She was killed during World War II in her native Canterbury at the age of 27 in a German airstrike.

There is an elaborate, marble monument on her grave in Herne Bay cemetery, Eddington, paid for by the Sultan.

Cissie's paternal grandfather was Joseph Hill, a 'gentleman', possibly of Portsea, Portsmouth, Hampshire.

Cissie was born at 2 Kitchener Terrace in Canterbury on 20 July 1913.

Her family moved to Herne Bay by 1917 and lived at 4 Kingsbury Villas in Kings Road, Herne Bay, until 1927.

She attended Kings Road School which has now been replaced by Herne Bay Junior School.

She was crowned May Queen at the school around 1923–1924.

She would have left school in the summer of 1927, 14 years being the national school leaving age at the time.

Between 1927 and 1934 the family lived at Hyacinth, Queensbridge Drive, Herne Bay.

She trained as a dancer and joined the Grosvenor House cabaret, but has also been described as a minor actress, with platinum hair and blue eyes.

She was known as Cecily or Cissie.

The Herne Bay Press said: "'She had a talent for dancing, and linked with it was a charming personality, so that for some years she enjoyed much popularity locally, appearing in dancing displays at the old Pier Theatre and elsewhere. Her attractiveness won her success as a dancer in London, where she appeared for several seasons in the West End.'"

According to local historian Harold Gough, she and the Sultan travelled frequently to Johor and Europe in the 1930s.

On 25 June 1934, it was announced in the Court Circular that Ibrahim, Sultan of Johor had arrived at the Grosvenor House Hotel in Park Lane at the West End of London, during part of his world tour that year.

He left for continental Europe, but returned to the Grosvenor House Hotel on 6 September.

Cissie was appearing as a dancer in the floor show at the same hotel, and first met him there.

The Sultan funded a new home for Cissie in Herne Bay in 1934 or 1935, and by 1935 she was living in the newly built Mayfair Court.

S.I. was Sultan Ibrahim, but Cissie's personal life had been private, and local rumour had invented an Indian maharajah to account for the Hill family's rise in fortune and for the building of Mayfair Court by a resting dancer in 1934.

The publicity embarrassed the family, and Cissie's mother Florence Hill told a Press reporter that "Lydia" had gone into hiding under medical care due to shock at public attitudes, and that they knew no maharajah.

He was called up from the Retired List in 1935 and served until 1946.

She became his favourite, and the Sultan was "fabulously wealthy": in 1935 he gave £500,000 to the British Government for the defence of Singapore, and in 1940 he gave £250,000 towards the cost of World War II.

He was also a six-foot-six-inch-tall playboy, whose playgrounds included Sumatra and London, and the relationship with Cissie continued.

She is recorded as living there in 1935; also in 1936 when her father, Lieutenant Hill, retired and came to live with her and her mother.

On 20 July 1936, Cissie and her mother Florence Cecilia Hill arrived at Southampton from Colombo on the ship Sibajak.

Sometime in 1937, robbers broke into Mayfair Court and stole £5,000-worth of jewellery from Cissie's bedroom; this brought the affair with the Sultan into the public eye.

Descriptions of the stolen items were published, and it was disclosed that two of them were inscribed, "With all my love, S.I."

On 12 May 1937 the Sultan attended the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in London, and is said to have renewed the relationship with Cissie then, divorced his Scottish wife Helen née Wilson in March 1938, and sailed home in the same month to Singapore and Johor with his new companion and her mother.

As they left England it was observed that Cissie was wearing a large diamond engagement ring.

It is not known whether the pressure of this publicity incited the Sultan to announce an engagement in May, 1938.

By May 1938 the young girl from Kent was back in Colombo where there were rumours of an announcement of an engagement before 9 September 1938 between the "platinum blonde" and "former glamour girl" Cissie and the 64-year-old divorcee Sultan, but on reaching Singapore the Sultan promptly denied any engagement.