Lindsay Duncan as Lady Rosalie Tamplin in Agatha Christie's Poirot
In the Hercule Poirot novel The Mystery of the Blue Train, Lady Rosalie Tamplin is the mother of Lenox and the wife of Charles Evans. She is described as a "golden haired, blue eyed lady", and she has a "pink-and-white complexion". At forty-four, Lady Tamplin could still rank as a beauty".
She is a cousin of Katherine Grey. She lives in Villa Marguerite, on the French Riviera. Rosalie is a well-known figure in the French Riviera because of the parties she hosts.
During the War, Lady Tamplin ran an Officers' Hospital at the Villa Marguerite. During this time, there was a robbery, and her jewels were stolen, including some very famous emeralds, which were heirlooms of the Tamplin family.
She has had four husbands so far: the first was "merely an indiscretion". After the latter died, Lady Tamplin married a rich manufacturer who died within three years. She then married Viscount Tamplin, and even though he died, Lady Tamplin kept his last name even after marrying Charles Evans. Her fourth husband is financially dependent on her.
Lady Tamplin is "very pleased and satisfied with life generally", but she occasionally has preoccupations about money. Her second husband had left her a considerable fortune. However, due to what she describes as "one thing and another", such as the depreciation of stocks because of the War, and the extravagant spending of the late Lord Tamplin, the fortune had become smaller. She is still comfortably off, but this is "hardly satisfactory" to her.
Lady Tamplin does not understand her daughter, Lenox, very well, and sometimes speaks to her with a "faint note of reproach". However, it is only a faint note, because she is used to Lenox's outspokenness and her "uncomfortable way of putting things".
When Lady Tamplin reads in the newspaper about Katherine inheriting a large sum of money, she decides to write to her, and invite her to visit them in Nice. According to her, it would be nicer for Katherine to be introduced to Society by her own relations, and it would be an advantage for both Katherine and themselves. She aims to come to "some financial arrangement" with Katherine.
Lady Tamplin is able to write a four page letter to Katherine "without pause or effort", and when she re-reads it, she finds no need to change anything.
When Lady Tamplin finds out that Katherine had talked to Ruth Kettering just a few hours before the murder, she thinks of it as an opportunity. She suggests to Katherine that newspapers would pay for an article written with a feminine touch, by someone of "really unimpeachable social position". She offers to manage the whole thing for Katherine, with the help of her friend, Mr de Haviland.
Although Katherine refuses to publish an article about her conversation with Ruth Kettering, Lady Tamplin still exploits her connection with the case for all it is worth. According to Lenox, Lady Tamplin is the kind of person who would "make a few pennies' profit out of her dying grandmother if she could".
At first, Lady Tamplin did not remember Major Knighton from his time as a patient at her hospital. She later claims that she did not remember him at first because there had been so many patients, but that now it had all come back to her. Lenox expresses the opinion that this is because Major Knighton was too unimportant to be remembered before, but now that he is a secretary to a millionaire, it is different.
When Lady Tamplin runs into Major Knighton in Monte Carlo, she overwhelms him with reminiscences. Katherine suspects that most of these are invented.
Portrayals[]
In the 2005 Agatha Christie's Poirot episode based off The Mystery of the Blue Train, she was portrayed by actress Lindsay Duncan. Unlike the original novel, here she was actually onboard the Train Bleu, whereas in the original novel she was in Villa Marguerite at the time of Ruth's murder.