Shaw met Irish heiress, Charlotte Payne-Townshend, 'a large graceful woman with masses of chocolate-brown hair' (Beatrice Webb) through the Webbs.
Shaw hesitated in marrying her, not wishing to be seen as a gold-digger, but on June 2nd, 1898, the following notice appeared in The Star newspaper: 'As a lady and a gentleman were out driving in Charlotte Street, Covent Garden yesterday, heavy shower drove them to take shelter in the office of the Superintendent Registrar there, and in the confusion of the moment he married them. The lady was an Irish lady named Miss Payne-Townshend and the gentleman was George Bernard Shaw'.
The 1930s saw Charlotte insist on them taking holidays, and they went on two world tours, visiting America, New Zealand, South Africa and Japan, among other places. Her preferred domain was 4 Whitehall Court (above) which had services provided and was convenient for West End theatres.
Charlotte gradually suffered more and more from a form of bone disease, osteitis deformans, dying at their flat in London in 1943.
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