The 'forgotten' model behind Rolls-Royce's Spirit of Ecstasy

The woman who inspired one of the world's most recognisable automotive mascots has been honoured with a blue plaque.

The Spirit of Ecstasy has adorned the front of every Rolls-Royce since 1911, its figure leaning into the wind with robes flowing behind.

At the heart of the emblem's story is Nelly Thornton and includes a secret love affair, a child and a life tragically cut short.

The plaque has been placed on a property in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, where Thornton had lived for a time with her family.

Born in 1880, she adopted the name Eleanor Velasco Thornton "to give her a bit of glamour" when she moved to London and started working for motoring magazine The Car Illustrated, said Jon Murden, chief executive of the National Motor Museum in Beaulieu.

"It called itself a journal of travel by land, sea and air and was like a Tattler for early motorists," he said.

It was established by John Edward Scott Montagu, who later became Baron Montagu of Beaulieu.

"She clearly made quite an impression because by the age of 22 she was John Montagu's secretary, and then became his mistress," he said.

"She was a secret muse, but not that secret," Murden explained.

"They had an illegitimate daughter and, the legend goes, in celebration of this he had Eleanor pose for Charles Sykes for a bonnet mascot sculpture to go on the front of his Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost - and that became known as The Whisper," he said.

"It's not that much of a secret if you decide to have a bonnet mascot of your mistress made, put on the front of your car, that presumably you then drive the rest of your family around in, which is a bit of a statement it would be fair to say."

John Montagu was one of the "most important pioneer motorists in Britain," Murden said.

"He was an MP at the time and he legislated for motoring rights and was one of Rolls-Royce's best customers.

"Charles Rolls saw this mascot, and asked him where he'd got it from and who had made it and who was the model, and it went from there," he explained, "and became the Spirit of Ecstasy that we know today."

Montagu displayed it on every Rolls-Royce car he owned until his death in 1929.

The blue plaque was unveiled on Thursday 4 June at a property on Charlotte Street in Leamington Spa.

The town's mayor Sarah Boad said Thornton's father had overseen the installation of electricity to the centre of Leamington.

"The fact that now she is immortalised forever, and she has this Leamington connection, was really exciting," she said.

Her great grandson and his two children had attended the unveiling, she said.

"He said she might have been a very lively, very excitable and exciting person," she added.

"His comment was that she might have been on Love Island had she been alive today."

What she was doing then was "quite exceptional" for that period, Boad added.

Thornton's life was cut short on 30 December 1915 when travelling to India in the SS Persia, the craft was torpedoed by a German U-boat south of Crete.

She had been accompanying Lord Montagu who was initially thought to have been killed too, but survived and was saved after several days adrift in a life raft.

"I think it's really important the town has decided to do this," Murden said of the plaque.

"As a woman her story was rather swept under the carpet, and there are lots of stories like this of women who played such an important role in motoring.

"They've been rather forgotten so it's brilliant that Leamington are celebrating Eleanor's life in this way."

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