Dorothy JACKSON- Part I – her early life

There were several unmarried women living in Co. Cork in the mid-1900s, who had all been born into privilege and had all grown up with one foot in Ireland, and one foot in many other countries. Several of them had either a proven or a likely connection to Dorothy St. Felix JACKSON (1887-1964). Like them, she had no children of her own to act as the custodians of her life story. Since Dorothy’s father Sir Thomas JACKSON (1841-1915) – aka TJ - was one of my great-grandmother’s brothers, many of my cousins’ archives helped me to tell her story. We are her custodians.

The parents of Dorothy's father, Sir Thomas JACKSON (1841-1915), were tenant farmers in Co. Armagh, and they worked their farm at Urker, in the Parish of Creggan with some hired help. In 1864, after learning the trade of banking, TJ left at age twenty-three to press his fortune in Hong Kong and Japan. By the late 1800s, he had risen to become head of what we now know as HSBC and was famous as one of the most influential international bankers of his era. At one point, there were so many Irish working at HSBC – or the old cow as the JACKSONs referred to it - that an HSBC archivist and I once joked that the bank initials could just as easily have stood for the Hibernian Shanghai Banking Corporation.

His childhood home at Urker in Creggan Parish had no indoor plumbing or electricity until the 1950s, long after his death, but it had remained the home of Sir Thomas’ heart.

Urker Lodge. A 1970 photograph, taken when the building was very dilapidated.

A decade before his youngest daughter Dorothy was born, the seventh of nine children, Thomas built a home for his family in Hong Kong and named it Creggan. One of his nieces, Kathleen Major, recalled a conversation with him, a few years before he died, on a weekend when she had visited him at his family home at Stansted in Essex:

[TJ] Ireland is a land of small houses and big hearts.
[KM] …. What a lovely place this is! [Stansted]
[TJ] I’d rather have Urker.
[KM] Really, Uncle, how could you compare the two? Urker is a small house with many inconveniences.
[TJ] It’s not the size that matters, it’s where one’s roots are.

Had TJ lived to see his youngest daughter settle in Glengarriff, his first question might have been: when can I visit? While the impact of colonization needs to stay front and centre on its impact on the natives of the colonized countries, there also continues to be the impact of rootlessness on the lives of the colonizers and their children. Perhaps this was part of what drove Dorothy to choose Glengarriff, and then to stay. She could finally be rooted in Irish soil. She chose to live in the Republic, not in the north, at a time when most mobile Protestants were moving in the opposite direction. Was this a statement of loyalties to the Republic, or did politics have nothing to do with her choice?

A window into the frequency and extent of the family’s relocations as a result of TJ’s career can be seen by tracking the birthplaces of the children of Sir Thomas and his wife Amelia Lydia DARE (1851-1944). NOTE: Amelia was born in Singapore to English merchant parents based in Singapore and Cape of Good Hope. Her brother, John JULIUS DARE (1841-1879) was captured by Singapore pirates in 1841 when he was a baby. SEE: Amelia and the Pirates:

1.      1872: Kathleen McCullagh JACKSON born in Yokohama

2.      1874: Amy Oliver JACKSON (twin) born at 119 Adelaide Road, London

3.      1874 Edith Bradford JACKSON (twin) born at 119 Adelaide Road, London

4.      1876 Thomas Dare JACKSON born in Yokohama

5.      1879 Beatrice Minnie JACKSON born in Hong Kong

6.      1883 George Julius JACKSON born in Hong Kong

7.      1887 Dorothy St. Felix JACKSON born at Chiselhurst, Bromley, Co. Kent

8.      1890 Walter David Russell JACKSON born at Chiselhurst, Bromley, Co. Kent

9.      1892 Claude Stuart JACKSON born at Chiselhurst, Bromley, Co. Kent.

DOROTHY’S IRISH FAMILY CONNECTIONS AS A CHILD

Even though the JACKSONs mostly lived in Japan and Hong Kong and England when the children were young, their Irish family connections were strengthened by weekly letters. When Dorothy was born on July 26^th, 1887, her grandmother, Eliza JACKSON née OLIVER (1815-1903), wrote – probably by return post after having received a birth announcement in the mail.

Urker August 10th 1887. My dear Tom – In the first place I must congratulate you on the birth of your daughter. May God bless her, and all your children and make them as great comforts to you, as you have been to your Parents. By the last account, Mother and child were doing well. I never feared for your family; you went to the East on a purely unselfish errand; and I knew that God would watch over the dear ones that you left behind. … [Thomas had returned to work in Hong Kong, while his wife and children stayed primarily at Chislehurst.]

In the mid 1900s, sixty-four of Eliza’s letters were found (unbelievable, but true) in a tin box in a bog at Urker. When Sir Michael Rowland JACKSON (1919-2016), one of Dorothy’s nephews, and his wife Hazel Mary EDWARDS invited me for an overnight at their home at Jolliffe in 2006, Michael shared them with me. That evening, Hazel prepared fish for our supper, fish that she herself had caught earlier in the day. Several of these letters mention Dorothy:

·         Urker May 2^nd 1888.   … Ere you receive this, you will have heard from Minnie of her visit here. She was with us a fortnight save one day. I was astonished at the growth of the children. … I would have liked to have seen little Dorothy; [she would have been 10 months old] but I did not ask Minnie to bring her, as she is too young for comfortable travelling; but when you and Minnie come together, I hope to see her.

·         Urker June 4^th 1888 I would have greatly liked to have seen the little one [Dorothy] that I never yet saw; but both Minnie and I thought she was too young to be brought; and it was so best; for the others had a stormy and troublesome passage in returning; but there were no permanent ill effects. Please God, you and I will have met before your next birthday; and never more to part in this life; for it is only the name of a parting, when we will be within a few hours each of each other. We will not feel the time passing till that day comes; and even if I was dying the hope of that meeting w^d keep me alive.

·         1888 Oct 10. Minnie sent a likeness of dear little Dorothy; and said they were all well. As far as I can judge, Dorothy resembles Julius more than the others. What a meeting you will have with them all please God.  Oh if you were only safe home I would have little in this world to wish and I daily entreat God to bring you safe. Your Father and I both entreat that you will not come by America, if you can avoid it. We both dread that route.

·         Urker Oct 17 1894. I am thankful to hear that dear little Dorothy has recovered and that the rest are well.

·         Urker Oct 23^rd 1895. My dear Tom, For a wonder I have not got a letter from you this week; and I was particularly anxious to hear from you as your last (Sept 18^th) brought an account of dear little Dorothy’s illness. I must only comfort myself with hope, till I hear from you again; and then I trust it will be rejoicing instead of hopes. God has been very good to you in hitherto sparing all your children; and I have firm belief that he will bless them; and what you say is true, that you seldom have had bad news to give me.

·         Urker March 11, 1896. … Your children in England are well; I am looking forward with great delight to seeing them and Minnie and Dorothy, and the two youngest that I never yet saw. I wish they were safe off the sea. NOTE: This implies that Eliza must have seen Dorothy some time before March 1896. Not all of her letters that were found in the tin box have survived – ther were likely hundreds of them. In the mid-1900s, a couple of her daughters did a culling of them and decided what to save and what to bin

·         Urker August 18^th 1896. Dorothy is all alive; I believe she does no know what fear is.

On at least one of these trips, the children’s Amah accompanied the family to Urker:

The Jacksons that time was big people out there an' there was this oul woman was nursin' Jackson - it was him was the one was very charitable. He went out to China.

It was in he's house I seen the first Chinese woman ever I seen. She was in Cross' with him an' she'd be only that height (maybe four feet) an' the lovliest wee feet on her an' two pigtails down her back - an' very sallow. SOURCE: Mary Daly’s recollections. SEE: Two 19th Century Catholic Chapels in Creggan

DOROTHY’S CHILDHOOD HOMES SEE ALSO: Photos of Hong Kong Houses.

Our childhood homes shape us. Inevitably. The effects might not be visible on the surfaces of our lives, but they are akin to the first layer of paint on a canvas before the subsequent layers begin to take form and create the visual image of a life. Sometime between 1877 and 1880, hence a decade before Dorothy’s birth on July 26^th, 1887, their Hong Kong home - Creggan - was built. TJ's initial intention had been primarily for their summer use since it was a good 14 degrees cooler and much less humid on The Peak than it was downtown at the HSBC manager’s residence at St. John’s near the bank. In one letter, Eliza commented on retaining Creggan:

Now I will not advise you not to part with Creggan till the last day you are in Hong Kong. I think Creggan is to be thanked under God for the good health you have all enjoyed in a trying climate nor do not finally give up your situation till after you are at home. You might possibly regret the loss of it. It will be easy to write your signature at any time. Urker Jan 7^th 1885.

Thanks to cousin Pat ROBERTS (1928-2018), a grandson of Amy Oliver LLOYD née JACKSON (1874-1962) for the two photos beneath of the exterior and interior of Creggan in Hong Kong, and also for the third photo of St. John’s.

Creggan exterior

Creggan interior

St. John’s Place

In England, the first home to house them on their frequent breaks from Hong Kong, was at Oakbank, Chislehurst, Bromley, Co. Kent. Dorothy was the first of their children to be born there, and two more followed.

The JACKSON home at Oakbank, on Lubbock Road, Chislehurst, Bromley, Co. Kent.

In the early years of going back and forth to Hong Kong, the family continued to keep Chislehurst and were still living there when Dorothy’s older sister Amy Oliver JACKSON (1874-1962) was married on August 4^th, 1900 at St. Nicholas Church. A news clipping from Annabel MEADOWS’ archives  shows that young Dorothy was Amy’s only bridesmaid:

The youngest sister, Miss Dorothy Jackson, officiated as the only bridesmaid, and wore an empire costume of white muslin and lace with hat to match. NOTE: empire-style day dress made of white cotton muslin and lace features a high-waisted silhouette, square neckline, short puff sleeves, and delicate lace trim along the bodice and hem

Diary entries from Dorothy’s older sister Amy also mention the family at Chislehurst:

·         1900: We left Chislehurst at 4 for Sonning on Thames which we reached in time for dinner. We stayed at the French Horn Inn. We stayed a week, very wet weather. Tom and Willie came down one day. On the 11th [August 11, 1900] we left and picking Dot up in town, went straight to the new vicarage. Bulford. The vicarage was left to us by the Vicar Arnold, a mile from camp. Nearest town Amsbury, 10 miles from Salisbury. I came back to Chislehurst on 20 August to say goodbye to Father and Kathleen who were leaving for Hong Kong the next day. I left Dot at Barbank and returned to Bulford on the 22nd.

·         1900-1901: Dot returned [from Oakbank, Chislehurst] with us & stayed until January 3^rd 1901 when mother came for a night to fetch her away.

·         1901 Visit & came back to Chislehurst  Nov 7^th. J. Went up to Aldershot next day & took up Adjutants work again. I followed Nov. 17^th Sat when we had got this house – [Drincong] Alexandra Road Farnbow [Farnborough, Hampshire, England]. Bee came for a fortnight in December & hunted Tommy’s ponies – Tommy being away on leave – We, Tommy & [Morral] went to Oakbank for Christmas, stayed two nights. I got fish carvers, breakfast dishes, crumb scoop, 2 table centre [d’oyleys] & from the little boys hat pins & a dog letter weight.  Dot returned with us & stayed until January 3^rd 1901 when mother came for a night to fetch her away. [Dermot] came for one Sat to Monday

·         1901 Baby [John Godfrey LLOYD] was born on Sunday June 30^th at 8:45 PM [?] big boy weighs 9 lbs. Mother was staying & John was turned out to Barracks. Mother left & Bee came. Carried downstairs July 17. Went out for a drive 22 & Sonnie & I went to Chislehurst Sat 27^th-28^th. Baby weighed 11.3.

·         1901 Nellie came to stay September 25^th we moved to St. Elmo Cross Street – much nicer house looking over Cove Common – got orders for Malta [Amy’s husband John Henry LLOYD served in 1st Batt. King's Own Regt]. Sonnie & I are to stay behind. Dot & Billy staying here while the move is being made from Oatbank to Stansted, then Mother came for 10 days.

The 1891 Census records Dorothy, age 4, at Chislehurst, and also later in the 1901 Census. Her older sister Kathleen JACKSON (1872-1959) was not mentioned in the 1901 census, but she was likely in Hong Kong SEE: 1902 May 19. The Hong Kong Weekly Press. Later in the year, the family moved to Stansted. SEE: 1901 November 28 The China Mail :

A Home paper says: -- Sir Thomas Jackson of Hong Kong, is taken Stansted Hill, the charming seat in Essex which belonged to the late Mr. H.A. Blyth. Lady Jackson has already taken up her residence at the hall, and will be joined shortly by Sir Thomas. We understand that Sir Thomas Jackson leaves for England in March or April next.

Dorothy was 14 years old when the 1911 Census recorded her at Stansted with her parents and several others including 13 servants –two chauffeurs, a cook and a scullery maid, a butler, two footmen, a ladies maid, three housemaids and one houseboy. Given the size of the house, and the expected level of hosting, this level of household help would have been essential. They were also recorded living at Stansted in various news announcements of the 1910 marriage of Dorothy’s older sister Kathleen McCullagh JACKSON (1872-1959).

Thanks to my cousin Venetia Bowman-Vaughan for this postcard of Stansted.

Dorothy’s brother Claude's marriage at Brompton Church on May 5, 1916 suggests at least some ongoing family connection to Chislehurst. Even so, they were still living at Stansted when Sir Thomas Dare JACKSON (1876-1954), Dorothy's eldest brother, married in 1919 (four years after TJ’s death in 1915).

 

… son of the late Sir Thomas and of Lady Jackson, Stansted House, Essex.

One of the last family addresses in England with connections to Dorothy was at 8 Sussex Square. In 1917, this address was recorded as the residence of Claude Stewart JACKSON’s mother Lady Jackson, of 8 Sussex Square; London, W.2. in Claude’s obit. [SOURCE: Commonwealth War Graves Commission]. Claude had been serving as a Captain in the 3rd. Bn. Coldstream Guards when he was fatally wounded in a battle at Ypres on October 9, 1917, a year after his marriage. Claude was the youngest of the nine JACKSON children, and his brother-in-law Lt. Col. Raymond John MARKER (1867-1914) D.S.O., Coldstream Guards, of Combe,Honiton, Devon, had died three years earlier on November 13, 1914, from wounds received in action. This was not a family that flinched from putting their lives on the line. In 1914, Amy’s diary had recorded:

Beatrice heard news of the leg being amputated on 7th. She and Kathleen went over to Boulogne where he was in hospital. He died Nov 13th & was brought back to Combe Honiton to be buried.

The bravery of both Beatrice and Kathleen to get to Boulogne, and the strings that they must have pulled to make this possible, speak volumes:

FROM AI (verbatim): At this exact time, the brutal First Battle of Ypres was raging nearby on the Western Front, directly impacting the entire region. The primary risks of making this cross-Channel journey included. Germany had begun indiscriminately sowing thousands of naval mines across shipping lanes. Any vessel crossing the English Channel risked striking a drifting or hidden mine. German submarines were actively patrolling the Channel. While unrestricted submarine warfare had not yet reached its absolute peak, German U-boats were already actively torpedoing and sinking Allied military and merchant ships. Because Boulogne served as the main base port and a massive hospital hub for the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), it was a primary target for German intelligence and aerial bombing raids. The port was under constant logistical strain. By mid-November 1914, Boulogne was inundated with thousands of wounded soldiers arriving directly from the Ypres front lines to the newly opened 13th Stationary Hospital. The port was under constant logistical strain. By mid-November 1914, Boulogne was inundated with thousands of wounded soldiers arriving directly from the Ypres front lines to the newly opened 13th Stationary Hospital. Under Britain's newly implemented Defence of the Realm Act (DORA), all recreational or unapproved travel was strictly banned. Trying to board a vessel without specific, high-level military clearance or permits would result in immediate arrest.

On September 3^rd, 1939, Britain and France declared war on Germany, and on September 29^th, a “census” was taken, not a formal census, but a wartime population survey used to issue identity cards, organize rationing, and manage conscription. In it, Dorothy and her mother were both recorded at 8 Sussex Drive. Under occupation both were recorded as private means. It seems that that while the family retained their home at Stansted, that Sussex Drive had also been an ongoing family residence, likely dating back to when TJ started working in the London offices of HSBC on a regular basis. Sometime between Oct. 7, 1940 and June 6, 1941, 8 Sussex Square was bombed.

Interestingly, this 1939 census also records Honor Beryl HAMILTON (1893-1961) resident with Dorothy at 8 Sussex although as early as the late 1920s, the two of them had been living at Barony House in Glengarriff. Shortly after the 1939 census, Honor had parted from Dorothy and was recorded elsewhere in London. Also, sometime after that census, Dorothy had returned to Glengarriff, likely with her new partner Dorothy Mary FITCH. [NOTE: The relationship of the Dorothy JACKSON & Dorothy FITCH will be covered in a future post]. After the census but not long before the bombing. Dorothy’s mother moved in with Dorothy’s eldest brother Sir Thomas Dare JACKSON (1876-1954) at Herringfleet Hall, Blocka Road, Herringfleet, Suffolk.

AI SOURCE: The original houses along Sussex Square—including Number 8—were heavily compromised by bomb damage or completely destroyed. Rather than being restored to their 19th-century appearance, the properties in the square and its surrounding mews were entirely redeveloped, primarily during the 1960s.

The post-bombing reconstruction of 8 Sussex Place

A current satellite view of the location. Images at London Pictures Archive indicate a more modest building. There are conflicting versions of whether it was totally or only partly destroyed  & then rebuilt with the facade retained.  The latter looks likely to me – note the likely access for horses.

In some earlier posts, I described some of the places mentioned above:

·         Urker Lodge. Archival photos compared with contemporary photos and maps.

·         Creggan on the Peak. Sir Thomas JACKSON of Creggan parish in south Armagh built a home in Hong Kong that he named Creggan.

·         Location of Creggan in Hong Kong. This is the house built by Sir Thomas JACKSON (1841-1915) in the late 1870. I have created several maps with descriptions. Photo of fellow researchers, Annelise Connell, and David Bellis

·         First Houses on the Peak in Hong Kong. Some history and photographs to give context.

LIFE IN HONG KONG

In between the 1891 and 1901 census, the family enjoyed long bouts of living in Hong Kong. It is hard to track all their comings and goings, but thanks to various family archives held by Pat ROBERTS, and his son Jack STOOKS, as well as by Christine WRIGHT of Gilford Castle Co. Down, we can fill in some of the blanks. For example, a photograph from 1894, shows Dorothy at age seven dressed as a pawn in a human-sized chess game.

Mr. LANDALE, unnamed child, Dorothy JACKSON [age 12], Mr. PLATT (seated), Capt. STEWART R.E., Miss MURRAY, Miss BOYES, Mr. BERGER H.K.R.

The next two photos are from the collection of Christine WRIGHT (1941-2022), my mentor and host for my many annual stays at her home at Gilford Castle in Co. Down. They fit with Dorothy’s grandmother’s assessment of her: Dorothy is all alive; I believe she does not know what fear is.

The irrepressible Dorothy Jackson, age about 12, hence late 1890s. I do not know who the men are. They may have been on the Wayfoong, the HSBC boat. Like her father, Dorothy was totally comfortable in the company of all kinds of people. NOTE: For more examples see: Outings.

Another snap from about the same time shows some of their staged childhood play. It makes me think of staged plays that the ARBUTHNOT put on in the 1890s [SEE: Queens University Archives and The Childhood Homes of Joan Arbuthnot]:

Dorothy JACKSON (1887-1964) and brothers - probably Walter David Russell JACKSON (1890-1956) & Claude Stewart JACKSON (1892-1917) - a mode of transport they were well aware of. Beneath is a photo of their father on his way to work. Picture from the collection of Pat Roberts, England.

This next photo, including Prince Henry of Prussia, was taken March 30, 1998 - the year of Germany's annexation of Tsingtao. Although intended to last 99 years, German rule ended abruptly in 1914 in the early years of World War I, when Japanese and British forces laid siege to the city and forced a German surrender.

Dorothy age twelve is with Prince Henry of Prussia & (on the extreme right) her older sister Kathleen. Prince Henry was a German naval officer who fought against Russian naval forces on the Baltic sea, not against British forces. His primary operational mission was defensive - protecting the German Baltic coast and keeping the Russian Navy on the defensive

Note Dorothy’s bare feet – part of her unbounded and fearless nature.

Prince Henry (1862-1929), was not only the brother of the Kaiser of Germany but was also -through marriage - a grandson of Queen Victoria. As a frequent visitor at the JACKSON's in Hong Kong in the late 1800s, he shared their love of sport and appreciated their unpretentious style of entertaining. Once TJ even ran down to the dock - still dressed in his pyjamas - to welcome early morning guests.

With the start of WW I, the ease of such relationships came to an end. The JACKSONs grieved the death of son-in-law Raymond John MARKER (1867-1914) from wounds sustained near Ypres, and then the death of Dorothy’s youngest brother Claude Stewart JACKSON (1892-1917), also from Ypres. Thomas Dare JACKSON, her older brother, suffered life-long lung issues after being gassed. Another brother, Major Sir George Julius JACKSON (1883–1956) had sustained significant combat wounds while serving on the Western Front, and family letters had mentioned his lengthy convalescence. News coverage of his father’s funeral mentions: Captain Julius Jackson King’s Royal Rifles, who was severely wounded in September 1914, and is only now convalescent.

Although I have not nailed this all down, Amelia and the children probably left Hong Kong shortly after this previous photo but then returned on June 23, 1899.

In 1899, a Passenger list records that on June 23, Amelia and her younger children, including Dorothy departing from New York to Queenstown on the SS Campania (Cunard Line) travelling first class. Presumably they were on their way to Hong Kong..

 Twenty days earlier, on June 3, 1899, Thomas had been knighted for his distinguished services as the chief manager of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC), and included in Queen Victoria's 1899 Birthday Honours. Dorothy was twelve years old. He received the actual letters patent for his knighthood later that year during a ceremony in Hong Kong on October 31, 1899, and then in 1903 was made a Baronet.

END OF PART ONE – PART TWO (LATER LIFE) TO FOLLOW

Although Dorothy’s early life was privileged, and her family gave her the freedom to be true to herself, her life was not all smooth sailing. She experienced major losses in her late twenties, including the death of her father and a younger brother. A letter from Alfred Markham TOWNSEND (1847-1939) to Ethel M. TOWNSEND describes the family at TJ’s funeral:

I went with Aunt Josie & Kitsy to Stansted. …  it was about a miserable a funeral as could be; cold and pouring with rain – there were a good number of people there – …  Lady Jackson was not there  – the family came strolling in – Tommy & Pat were expected from the front, but did not arrive in time – poor Julie came in on his crutches. He lately had another operation – so he was looking very delicate & then – but they are hopeful that he will now get on, better.

Dot Jackson marched up the church alone with a good swinging gait – poor Bee looked very ill – Russell, & Kathleen’s husband were there looking very well in uniform.

When we went outside to the grave. It was pouring cats & dogs & I was sorry for the poor clergyman and choir boys – it did not much matter to us, with umbrellas  – & so home.

 It will, I fear be a sad breakup for the family – though I expect Tommy will be generous to them all – until a lady Tom takes charge.

For close to two decades, I couldn’t find the images I had of several photos from my cousin Julian CURRIE’s collection. He had shared them with me when we lunched together in Kensington with his son Silas and his sister Caroline in 2006. At that lunch, Julian had also told me that Dorothy was the first lady to have a driver’s licence in UK and that Phyllis Keyes, a well known potter was also one of her girl friends. KEYES was part of the Bloomsbury group. More on that later.

Although I have yet to verify the date of Dorothy’s first driver’s licence and her connection to Phyllis Keyes, I did find the missing images of Julian’s photos, and here she is holding what I suspect was a rook rifle used for hunting grouse. Clearly, her childhood was not limited to girlish pursuits such as dressing up like a pawn in a chess game, or serving as a bridesmaid in muslin and lace. This would have been a blessing - in her opinion - I suspect.

 

Joan Arbuthnot - her fame and her later life

Recently, while visiting Glengarriff, I learned a great deal more about the life of my cousin Dorothy St. Felix JACKSON (1887-1964). Some of the stories that I was told by local people who had known her rekindled my curiosity about her social circle. This led me to take a closer look at the life of Joan ARBUTHNOT, and she turned out to be a close friend of one of Dorothy’s close friends. I have already covered some of Joan’s backstory in my post on The Childhood homes of Joan Arbuthnot, and in a later post, I will explore what can be gleaned from looking at their shared three degrees of separation.

Joan Arbuthnot aka Irene Joan Grace ARBUTHNOT (1904-1997) was famous – in her time – for her memoir/travelogue More Profit Than Gold. It told the story of the year and a half spent seeking gold and diamonds with her uncle Major Maurice Bernal BLAKE (1878-1934), his wife Gwendolyn White BLAKE née RICHARDSON (1894-1944) and her close friend Rachel Veronica Rose LEIGH-WHITE (1906-1985) - of Bantry House, Co. Cork - in the jungles of British Guiana (as it was called then). Before they had even set out, newspaper coverage about all this went viral. In the opening chapter, Joan mentions the impact of these early articles:

At last, shortly before Christmas, an appalling headline appeared in the evening paper. ‘Society gold rush! Mayfair girl tired of parties!’

Aware that some announcement impended but never suspecting anything so silly and inaccurate I had gone out, leaving instructions with my sister to remove the offending page before anyone else saw it. This she had done, and nobody noticed its absence until one of my brothers walked in and picked up the paper.

‘What has become of the middle page he asked. There is a long account on it of Joan’s expedition.’

So another copy was sent for and then the talk began.

‘The idea is insane they told me.’

‘The British Ghana has the worst climate in the world and everyone knows the forest is the white man's grave.’

‘If you go up there you will certainly never come down.’

‘… Or if you do,’ someone else amended, ‘you will be riddled with fever and look forty.’

It did not sound a cheerful prospect.

SOURCE: More Profit Than Gold. p19. NOTE: She was 26 years old at the time.

Many such articles are online thanks to: British Newspaper Archive.

February 2, 1930. Sunday Sun, Newcastle.

February 13, 1930 Irish Times. – two days before they left on their trip

Two days after this piece was published, Joan and Rachel, sailed from Dover to Trinidad. Her uncle and aunt had headed out earlier.

Joan and Rachel, both residing at 42 Grosvenor Place, London, left from Dover on February 15, 1930 sailing for Trinidad on the S.S. Van Rensselaer

After their year and a half away, and when Joan had only just arrived back in England, the viral news coverage picked up where it had left off, all agog that one so beautiful, wealthy and wearing an oyster-satin dress at her sister’s coming out party, had just spent a year and a half in the jungle.

July 8, 1931. Evening News London.

July 9, 1931. Dundee Courier

July 10, 1931. Dundee Courier

July 17, 1931 Wilmslow Advertiser

July 18, 1931 Sport Dublin.

October 9, 1931 Otawago Daily Times

The publication of her memoir received rave reviews in England, Australia and even in the New York Times, but not long after its reissue in 1937 coverage quickly petered out. She had returned on a subsequent trip, but the news of not finding gold wouldn’t have had the same sizzle power. Peaking at such a young age can be challenging, so, how did the rest of her life play out? In some ways, she would have had the support of a family which included many powerful and accomplished women, several of whom were also writers. At the same time, her lifetime of restlessness and travel had a shadow side. It was also a bid for independence from the clutches of her redoubtable mother. In his memoir The Broken Boy, a memoir about his family as well as his experiences with childhood polio in the mid-1950s, her nephew Patrick COCKBURN framed it:

Aunt Joan had also written a book. It was about an expedition she had made-up the rivers of British Guyana into the Amazonian forest looking for gold in 1930. It's title More Profit Than Gold, was a clear indication that she did not find any. I later saw photographs of her in pith helmet and semi military brown uniform at her jungle camp with long canoes drawn up at the riverbank. My mother [Patricia Evangeline Anne COCKBURN née ARBUTHOT (1914-1989)], who had once made a language map in the forests of the Congo, spoke of Aunt Joan’s expedition as a tragic comedy because it was the demise of her sister's most rigorous attempt to escape the predominant influence of a redoubtable mother.

Aunt Joan had pitched her camp on the edge of the forest canopy and was busily digging for gold, believing her mother to be safely distant in the Bahamas or Jamaica. Olive's father Sir Henry Blake had been governor of both islands and the family still kept up a connection. Then one day a canoe appeared around a bend in the river. It moved fast through the water and in the back, beating time for the oarsman with her parasol, was my grandmother [Olive BLAKE (1875-1953)], dressed like a Victorian lady in full regalia. She did not stay long. She said: “Joan dear, I was getting a bit worried about you so I just thought I'd come to see how you were getting along. But I can see that everything is going splendidly.” She gave a few brisk instructions about re-pitching the tents to avoid drips from trees and, after a few hours, climbed back into her canoe to return to the mouth of the river. “She never realized,” my mother would say sadly, “that she had ruined poor Joan's bid for independence.” p80.

Joan does not mention this episode in her memoir, but later when she returned to New Guinea several ships’ manifests recorded her and her mother’s travel – always separate – on dates which align with Joan’s and her uncle’s later trips to the region to again seek gold. After that, Joan frequently visited Youghal and other family homes, visits which were fondly recalled by her nephew, Patrick Oliver COCKBURN where he also mentions Monica BALDWIN (1893-1975), one of Joan’s significant close friends:

Extremely good looking and with a strong mellow voice Joan never married. She lived for many years in a cottage in Oban in Scotland with Monica Baldwin, a nun who had fled her convent after 28 years and was a niece of Stanley Baldwin, the British Prime Minister before the war, with whom she exchanged frequent letters. Monica wrote a memoir, which did well, called I Leap Over the Wall, and was known in our family as ‘The Show Jumper’. p 79. 

MONICA BALDWIN & Joan ARBUTHNOT – the impact of their friendship.

The 1967 Edition in Nun on the Run.	Monica BALDWIN National Portrait Gallery London

Although I found no record that Monica and Joan had stayed at Oban, it is quite likely that they did. According to Pauline Annis, Monica did go to Scotland for three months [in 1942] to stay with her friend “Nikki” in Cueil Bay. Nikki’s husband was Laird of Duror of Appin. [SOURCE: Searching for Monica Baldwin Part III. Pauline Annis, Stourports Civic Society Newsletter Newsletters #46-20, 2009-2010: (later published as a chapbook). NOTE: Nikki might have been a nickname for Marjorie Descarrieres STEWART (1890-1980), the widow of Allan Winslow STEWART (1865-1953), 11th Laird of Ardshiel 14th Chief of Ardshiel, Appin & Lorn. The distance between Cuild Bay and Oban is about 41 km.

In 1946, four years after her stay in Scotland, Monica relocated to a cottage in Lamorna Cove, on the Penwith peninsula in west Cornwall, England, about 4 miles (6 km) south of Penzance. This stay was followed by four months in Ireland, and later by five months in a flat in London with her sister Frieda who was working at the BBC. It is at this point in my research that I began to feel as befuddled as the researchers portrayed by Ian McEwan in What We Can Know.

·        Who did Monica visit with in Ireland in 1946, and did she stay at Myrtle Cove or elsewhere while there? Was this visit to Ireland before or after Joan had stayed with Monica in Oban? Unfortunately, Monica burned all her personal papers before her death, so there is much that we are unlikely to ever know.

In spite of the Arbuthnot’s joke about the title of Monica’s book, it is a good fit. The family trees of the BALDWINs, like the ARBUTHNOTs, included several knights and such, including many who were active in politics, and as a result had earned (or paid for) family crests and mottos which had been passed down for generations. For example, one of the ARBUTHNOT family mottos was I move as a wave, but I flow on, while Monica’s family motto was Per deum Meum Transilio Murum - By the help of God I Leap over the Wall. The BALDWIN motto came about because of a key event in England and Scotland’s history. SOURCE: Pauline Annis:

The origins of the Baldwin family motto are interesting. Thomas Baldwin leaped to freedom from the Tower of London having been imprisoned for a plot to free Mary Queen of Scots c 1585 and his escape gave the family their motto.

In spite of their itinerant habits, connections to family homes mattered to both Joan and Monica. In Joan’s case, she often stayed with family in both Ireland and England, while Monica did likewise. While Monica was writing her first book, she stayed with a distant relative, Angela Thirkell in Pembroke Gardens, London. Thirkell’s first published book, Three Houses, was a memoir of houses she knew when young, starting with her Kensington childhood, and including portraits of some of her famous relatives. [SOURCE: Angela Thirkell’s A Writer’s Life].

In 1950 she [Monica] received an invitation to share a house with “a lady in Devon who apparently knew, slightly, somebody that I knew. Monica tells us nothing of her time in Devon but, one suspects as so often in her life, she did not stay very long. SOURCE: Pauline Annis Part Three. 

If Monica had already met up with Joan in 1946 when she was in Ireland, and if they had begun a close friendship at that time, then it is no surprise that we find them together on December 29^th, 1951, on a ship’s manifest, sailing from England to Jamaica - each recorded as authoress – and each sharing the same departure address: Byre House, Northium, Sussex. [SEE: The Byre House. It was where many illustrious creative people either lived or visited.]. They stayed together for less than half a year. A later manifest records Joan sailing to Bristol from Jamaica via Dominica, on June 13, 1952, this time sans Monica. Her declared destination was Myrtle Grove. What came next? As they say, Mind the Gap.

Between 1963 and 1964 Monica embarked on a world tour. Edward Baldwin, the current Earl Baldwin, remembers Monica inviting him when a young man to join her in order to get the views of both the old and the young. He declined, probably wisely, as Monica soon fell out with the woman who accompanied her on her tour. The end-product of Monica’s world tour was, Goose in the Jungle: A Flight Round the World with Digressions, published in 1965.

There may have been a disruption in Monica and Joan’s relationship, but their shared bond outlasted most of Monica’s other friendships:

The day before her death, 16th November [1975], Monica drew up a new will, witnessed by the local vicar and his wife (Rev and Mrs Herbert). The whole of her estate, which amounted to just over £20,000 was left to Irene Arbuthnot, a friend. Monica was last seen alive on 17th November. She was found dead in bed on the morning of 18th November, “slumped on the bed, a bottle in her right hand and tablets in her left”. The coroner’s verdict was that death was due to: “poisoning by a combination of alcohol and barbiturates.” He further recorded that Monica Baldwin took her own life while the balance of her mind was disturbed. [SOURCE: Pauline Annis]

Monica’s life ended sadly, according to Sunday Express, November 23^rd 1975: Turbulent life of ex-nun Monica Baldwin:

At 82, a cantankerous old woman, she committed suicide in an old people’s home by drinking half a bottle of whiskey with a handful of barbiturate tablets. She had systematically destroyed her collection of letters and diaries which chronicled many years of a strange, troubled existence.

What had brought Monica and Joan together? One thing is that they shared a passion for experiences of spiritual transcendence. Joan recorded some of hers in More Profit than Gold:

Once again I felt, as I had felt when I was in the Sahara, an overwhelming sense of rightness - a rapturous consummation. Where the landscape is broken by trees, rock, hills, the attention is distracted. You admire or you do not. In either case - unless the admiration is so great as to obscure everything else, you are conscious of an irritation with these details that get between you and the something you must reach. They are small agitating objects, you feel, powerless and unimportant, that you could easily demolish if you were to take the trouble. Only when you are alone on a desert with nothing about you but the flat earth on the sky, do you feel this rightness, and with it a rising exhilaration, a sense of abiding peace, for here at last is the ultimate reality. You have done with refuge and protection, with a fearful hugging of illusion; You are face to face with that which you dreaded as emptiness, and the strange thing is that you are not appalled at its immensity.; You are not even afraid, for rising strong over everything else is a knowledge of its essential rightness, and of the rightness of the revelation between you and it. p. 61 

The water was still as glass, and the sunset threw long shadows upon it. On either side the forest spread like an impenetrable wall - over everything a feeling of unbrokenness. It is hard to describe, or even to explain exactly what I mean, but I have felt it ever since we left Morocco. It is not silence, but rather sounds within silence, intensely real, yet like a dream. As we passed the bank as we passed along close to the bank, from among the mangrove trees with their curious twisted roots growing through the water, there came a strange music, like the notes of an organ. Startled by our approach a Kingfisher rose from its perch and skimmed rapidly along the surface of the water, occasionally touching it with a wingtip. Screaming harshly, parrots winged their agitated flight two by two overhead. But no words, no mere recital of the sights and sounds can give any notion of the loveliness and wonder of the river, and of gliding up it in that strange evening light. It is all so still, and remote, and untroubled. p. 103

Surely an age of trouble would be more than requited by an instant's vision of such exceeding beauty. At first the wonder of it is almost unbearable, and sends stabs of pain through you, and then, as though a veil were suddenly lifted, the gulf, the feeling of discrepancy is gone and you know beyond any need of telling that you are utterly at one with the trees and the sky and all the wonder. There is no break, no pause between you and it; You are no emanation of life, you are life itself. Here, at last, is utter peace, utter comprehension. p. 105

I sat down on a tacuba and gazed about me. Just now the silence was unbroken - profound. I felt that I was in an immense cathedral, so strong was the impression of spaciousness, and this in spite of the fact that actually I could not see more than ten or fifteen yards in any direction. But the feeling of space and distant persisted, and I cannot account for it unless it is that the intertwining branches high above me gave the illusion of arches, and the shafts of sunlight that occasionally pierced their way through the dense mass of foliage were like the beams that strike through a stained glass window, illuminating the inner darkness. One such beam, penetrating the deep green gloom, lit upon a large brown leaf which was hanging from one of the lower branches. This leaf was behaving in the most extraordinary manner, twisting and waving violently to and fro, as though blown by an imperceptible wind. I examined it carefully but could not discover any cause. Maurice tells me that he's frequently seen the same thing but has never heard an explanation. p. 112

FINAL DAYS

I have not been able to find the address for the Sacred Heart Nursing Home in Youghal where Joan died, but am hoping that others can nail this part down. At least - unlike Monica, whose final resting place is unknown - Joan was buried close to her much-cherished family, family that she had never broken with, at the Collegiate Church of Saint Mary, beside Myrtle Grove.

In grateful and loving memory of
Major John Bernard Arbuthnot M.V.O. Scots Guards 1875 – 1950
and of his wife Olive Arbuthnot 1875 – 1953 of Myrtle Grove Youghal
also of their youngest son
Major Myles Henry Arbuthnot M.B.E. Royal Signals
died on active service in Italy 1943
and elder daughter
Irene Joan Grace Arbuthnot 1904 – 1997.

SOURCE: Historic Graves.

What we do know, when all is said and done, is that Joan was cherished.

What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others," This quote is widely attributed to Pericles (c. 495–429 BCE)

CONNECTIONS: There will be more to come in future posts.

Honor Beryl HAMILTON, whose life I explored in an earlier post, was one of Dorothy JACKSON’s earlier long-term partners. They had started living together in Glengarriff at least as early as 1929, but by the early 1940s, they had ceased to be a couple and Dorothy Mary FITCH had begin living with Dorothy at Barony House, Glengarriff. In the same way that Monica’s probate to Joan speaks volumes, so too does Honor’s probate to Rachel. The theory of three degrees of separation begs to be applied here.

Rachel Veronica Rose Leigh-White of Ahakista Durrus Co. Cork. The townland of Reenacappul, Parish Kilcrohane, Barony West Carbery (West Division) [SEE: Map]