her fifth-floor apartment in the Stanhope Hotel of New York City and landing in a courtyard of the hotel. According to her companion, Lillian Turner, Preston had been in poor health, depressed and nervous. Turner had just given Preston a glass of milk and then went into the living room of the apartment to read. When she heard no sounds coming from Preston's bedroom, she entered it, finding a window open and Preston gone. Preston's pyjama-clad body was discovered in an alleyway behind the hotel. Preston's mother, Helen Steele, was living at the same hotel at the time. Today, Preston's home on Lake Naivasha is inhabited by the 7th Earl of Enniskillen. Rumours of royal illegitimate birth It has been alleged that American publishing executive Michael Temple Canfield (1926–1969) was the illegitimate son of Prince George and Preston. According to various sources, both Edward VIII (later the Duke of Windsor) and Loelia, Duchess of Westminster, shared this belief. Canfield was born in 1926 and was the adopted son of Cass Canfield, American publisher of Harper and Row. Michael Canfield attended The Groton School, before serving in the United States Marine Corps during World War II and was wounded at Iwo Jima. He graduated from Harvard University in 1951 and worked as London representative of Harper and Row. He married twice, first to Caroline Lee Bouvier, younger sister of Jacqueline Kennedy, in 1953 (divorced in 1958) and then to (Frances) Laura Ward, Countess of Dudley in 1960. Canfield died on December 20, 1969, of a heart attack, while on a New York-to-London flight, at the age of 43. Dramatizations Preston is referenced in James Fox's best-selling investigative non-fiction book White Mischief (1982). Together with other personalities of the Happy Valley set, she appears as a fictional character in Paul Di Filippo's short story "A Happy Valley at the End of the World", included in the author's collection of short stories Lost Pages (1998). She also appears as a character in Clint Jefferies' play African Nights. The play is set in the Happy Valley community in Kenya, in the year 1928 and portrays, among other things, the romance between Preston and Prince George. From May to June 2004, the play was performed on the Wings Theater in New York. Preston was portrayed by actress Karen Stanion. References American socialites 1898 births 1946 suicides Suicides by jumping in New York City American people