My Grandfather, A Modern Medievalist The Life of the 8th Lord Howard de Walden by Thomas Seymour Family Tree Thomas Howard (15611626) = Katherine (c.15641638), dau. of Sir Henry 1st Lord Howard de Walden 1597, Knyvett of Charlton, Wiltshire and widow of 1st Earl of Suff olk Richard son of Robert, 2nd Lord Rich

Theophilus Howard, 2nd Lord Howard de = Elizabeth (15991633), dau. of George Walden, 2nd Earl of Suff olk (15841640) Home de jure, Earl of Dunbar

James Howard, 3rd Earl of Suff olk, = Barbara (162281), dau. of 3rd Lord Howard de Walden (1619/101688/9) Sir Edward Villiers

Sir Thomas Felton 4th Bt = Lady Elizabeth Howard Sir John Scot or Scott = Anne (d.1636), dau. of (16491708/9) (165681) (15851670) Sir John Drummond

John Hervey, 1st Earl of = Elizabeth (16761741), Sir James Scott d.1650 = Lady Marjory Carnegie, John Ellis (d.1706) = Martha (d.1698) Bristol (16551750/1) dau. of Sir Thomas Felton Bt, m.1695 dau. of 1st Earl of Northesk, m.1657

John Ellis (16751710) = Elizabeth Grace (d.1718), John Hervey Lord Hervey = Mary (170668), dau. of Brigadier David Scott of Scotstarvit = Elizabeth, dau. of John Ellis dau. of George Needham of Ickworth, (16961743) General Sir Nicholas Lepell (c.16441718) Elliston

George Ellis (170440) = Elizabeth (d.1746), Frederick Augustus Hervey, 4th Earl = Elizabeth (d.1800), dau. of David Scott of Scotstarvit = Lucy, dau. of dau. of Peter Beckford of Bristol, 5th Baron Howard de Waldon Sir Jermyn Davers Bt of (16891766) Sir Robert Gordon Bt of Fonthill Bishop of Derry, (17301803) Rougham, Suff olk of Gordonstoun, m.1716

George Ellis (d.1753) = Susanna Charlotte, John Ellis = Elizabeth (d.1782), John Augustus Hervey = Elizabeth (d.1818), John Scott of Balcomie = Margaret, dau. of dau. of Samuel Long (173082) dau. of John Pallmer Lord Hervey (175796) dau. of Colin Drummond of (172575) Robert Dundas of MeŸ inch Castle, Perth, m.1779 Arniston, m.1773

George Ellis (17531815) = Anne, dau. of Charles Rose Ellis 1st Baron Seaford = Elizabeth Catherine Caroline Hervey William Henry Bentinck later Scott-Bentinck = Henrietta (17741844), Sir Peter Parker Bt, (17711845) (17801803), m.1798 fi nally Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck, m.1795 m.1800 4th Duke of Portland (17681854)

Charles Augustus Ellis, 2nd Baron = Lady Lucy Joan Cavendish-Bentinck-Scott Seaford, 6th Baron Howard de Walden (17991868) (180799), m.1828

Frederick George Ellis 3rd Baron = Blanche (18551911), Reverend William Charles = Henrietta Elizabeth Ames other issue Evelyn Henry Ellis = Alberta Mary, (d.1942) Seaford, 7th Baron Howard dau. of William Holden, m.1876 Ellis (18351923) (d.1915), dau. of (18431913) dau. of General Hon Sir Arther de Walden (183099) Henry Metcalfe, m.1873 Edward Hardinge, m.1882

Thomas Evelyn Ellis later Scott-Ellis 4th Baron Seaford, = Margherita Dorothy (18901974) 8th Baron Howard de Walden (18801946) dau. of Charles van Raalte, m.1912

My Grandfather, A Modern Medievalist The Life of the 8th Lord Howard de Walden by Thomas Seymour

Contents

2 Preface 3 A Family Saga: 1685–1880 Ellises Herveys and Howards Bentincks and Scotts 5 Strange Inheritance: 1880–1901 8 A Pioneering Spirit: 1901–14 New inventions Sporting interests Society Painting and sculpture Literature and music Theatre Security for tenants 1 4 The Move to Wales: 1911–14 The Welsh National Theatre Movement Dylan: cowboys: war 17 Battle Music: 1914–18 19 Things British, Things Welsh: 1918–40 Drama British opera British music Seaford House Foreign ventures The tenant of Chirk The trilogies Welsh theatre 1927–40 24 Closing Years: 1940–46

never seeking thelimelight. machines, cheerfully making things happen, yet pipe, heisbeating thedrums and turning the wind a touch dishevelled and puffing his meerschaum audience of 10,000. Standing offstage, probably where heputonIbsen’s The Pretendersbefore an of himcomesfrom the1933 Holyhead Eisteddfod passions (Wales and drama). My favourite image pioneering experiment –harnessed histwo deepest contemporary art and theatre. cinematography, radio and flying: supported promoted early motorboats, motor traction, offered hisMarylebone tenants 999-year leases: restored during histenure. and at Dean Castle, Kilmarnock, bothmagnificently recreated thespiritof theearly Middle Ages at Chirk reading The Times in a suitof armour – Tommy by Augustus John as theman who breakfasted and opera. A romantic medievalist –immortalised Raalte, a talented soprano with a passion for music the auspices of Tommy and his wife Margherita van (1911–46), and enjoyed a cultural renaissance under ‘It is always the artist who helps art’. superbly for therole; as George Moore wrote of him sensibility and non-conformist spiritequipped him native genius. Hisown artistic endeavours and promote drama, music and opera, and encourage institutions inthe wake of theFirst World War to and Welsh performing arts, helping to craft new was pre-eminent inhiscommitmentto theBritish Dylan Thomas. A generous and discerning patron, he Guglielmo Marconi, Captain Scott and (years later), Craig, Harley Granville Baker, Thomas Beecham, figures of histime– Augustus John, Edward Gordon or influencing thelives of many of theprominent bewildering range of pursuits and interests, touching Square and Audley End,helaunched himselfinto a Basing himself at Seaford House,37 Belgrave including great estates inMarylebone and Ayrshire. bitter divorce; aged 19heinherited a vast fortune, disastrous marriage, a ward of court following a early life was a roller-coaster ride:only childof a Olympic sportsman, medievalist and pioneer. His polymath, poet and playwright, soldier and artist, wings with scaly appendages and a spiky tail. library –half-cat, half-goat, sprouting horns and droll as any mythical beast to befound in a herald’s as enigmatic as the Sphinx, as versatile as Proteus, as Howard de Walden (1880–1946), was a phenomenon: My grandfather, Tommy Scott-Ellis, 8thBaron Preface His crusade for Welsh theatre –hisgreatest Yet he also had a modern,pioneering edge: he Chirk Castle was taken onlease for 35 years An Englishmanturned Welshman, he was 8th Baron Howard de Walden Bookplate of Thomas Evelyn Scott-Ellis,

2 My Grandfather, A Modern Medievalist The Life of the 8th Lord Howard de Walden 3 My Grandfather, A Modern Medievalist The Life of the 8th Lord Howard de Walden was elevated to thepeerage as 1stBaron Seaford. George Canning, hemarried into the aristocracy, and Eton-educated, MP for Seaford and closefriendto and Elizabeth’s grandson, was upwardly mobile. plantations. Charles Rose Ellis(1771–1845), George the Ellisesresettled inEngland,retaining their Fonthill. Two generations on,riding highonsugar, Elizabeth Beckford, aunt of William Beckford of grass to theisland,became Chief Justice and married His grandson George (1704–40) introduced guinea- a sugar plantation, Ellis’s Caymanas, and a dynasty. pirate. Settling near Spanish Town, heestablished countryman Henry Morgan, but as planter, not new colony of Jamaica insearch of fortune like his captain from near Wrexham, emigrated to the since timeimmemorial.In1685 John Ellis, a Royalist The Elliseshad been yeoman farmers inDenbighshire Ellises father’s strange family history. Heir to a colossal fortune, hislife was shaped by his she gave birth to a boy, Thomas Evelyn, (‘Tommy’). Howard de Walden. Four years later, on9May 1880, a gruff, wayward ex-soldier, Frederick Ellis,7th Lord Lancashire accepted, and found herself married to a gentle, impoverished water-colour artist from proposed to a girl aged just20. BlancheHolden, In 1876 a bachelor of 46,inneed of an heir, A Family Saga: 1685–1880 by Sir Thomas Lawrence PRA (1769–1830) Charles Rose Ellis,1stBaron Seaford MP, Herveys and Howards Herveys and Mowbrays, to Edward I. Armada. The pedigree went back, through Howards of Norfolk’s second son,for gallantry against the I to Thomas Howard (1561–1626), the4thDuke barony of Howard de Walden, granted by Elizabeth Downhill and Ballyscullion. Heinherited the ancient to improve Ickworth, and building fine houses at of the arts, commissioning Soane and Flaxman after him),he was a prominent collector and patron to refectory (Hotels Bristol everywhere are named through Irishbogs. Tireless traveller from boudoir to compete for preferment by a midnightrun wicked prelate’ by George III, heforced hispriests Earl of Bristol and Bishop of Derry. Dubbed ‘that Frederick Hervey, was theflamboyant andlicentious a notoriously eccentric family. Her grandfather, Elizabeth Hervey, Charles Rose’s bride,came from of theDevis family, 1798 Elizabeth Hervey,attributed to a member insolvent estate. Lucy undertook to discharge the When Charles Augustus died, Frederick inherited an preserve theplantations as thesugar trade declined. father incurred enormousdebtsinstruggling to Lucy never got on with her eldestboy. He and his Earl-Bishop, was theheir to theEllisplantations. Charles Augustus’s ten children, named after the tunnels; Lord Henry hidhimselffrom public view. became preoccupied with building underground Lord John, later the5thDuke, known as ‘the Mole’, his hatred of Robert Peel and Corn Law reform. obsessive inhislove of gambling and racing, and Bentinck boys (Lucy’s brothers): Lord George was last teaspoon. These characteristics recurred inthe detailed inventories listing everything down to the Hermit-like and obsessive, theDuchesskept Duke’s great estates at Welbeck and inMarylebone. a phenomenally successfulgambler –to add to the by her father, General Scott of Balcomie, who was brought with her a vast Ayrshire estate – acquired Her mother, theDuchess,bornHenrietta Scott, had was renowned for her intellect, wit and originality. Duchess of Portland (oneof eightchildren), Lucy and Brussels. Daughter of the4thDuke and Bentinck and became British ambassador inLisbon Earl-Bishop’s death, married Lady Lucy Cavendish- who inherited thebarony as onthe an infant next generation. Charles Augustus (1799–1868), The Ellisescontinued their upward march inthe Bentincks and Scotts Frederick (1830–99), theeldestof Lucy and (1755–1842), 1790 by Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun of Bristol and Bishop of Derry, Frederick Hervey,the4thEarl or inspite. wondering whether hehad been conceived inlove marriage, in an atmosphere poisoned by hatred, his Bentinck grandmother, only childof a failing Tommy would grow upreceiving no affection from there was to benorapprochement with Frederick. charities, generous to her younger children, but lived on,England’s richest woman, bountifulto Dowager, frigid with displeasure. For 20 years she de Walden, along with thebaby boy, leftLucy, the ‘trumped hisbid’. a sonin1875, butFrederick, as theelder brother made haste to the altar. William married and had William Ellis,hitherto confirmed bachelors, now life, thento Lucy’s senior grandson. Frederick and Ayrshire –first to Lucy and her childlesssisters for estate would pass – along with Henrietta’s landsin children. Under the4thDuke’s will hisMarylebone die outontheMole’s death in1879: only Lucy had the Bentinck sonshad married: themaleline would reclusive gene had yielded strange results: noneof now had hiseye ontheBentinck-Scott estates. The into view. Deprived of hisEllisinheritance, Frederick never repaired. inheritance. The riftbetween mother and son was Frederick was outraged, feeling cheated of his she promptly gave to Evelyn, her youngest son. liabilities inreturn for theplantations which The arrival of Blanche as the‘new’ Lady Howard Just as onegreat fortune vanished, another hove

44 My Grandfather, A Modern Medievalist The Life of the 8th Lord Howard de Walden 55 My Grandfather, A Modern Medievalist The Life of the 8th Lord Howard de Walden vivid …’ virtue as incidents… important Their liesin value a little ‘There isnochronology in a young mind:things are 1880–1901 Strange Inheritance: Frederick, however, proved a flawed role model: a life of honour and distinction;noblesseoblige. weight of hisfather’s expectations, hisduty to lead Howard, builder of Audley End,theboy felt the Christened Thomas after the1stBaron, Thomas Tommy oneday, ‘you and I are of kingly descent’. quartered the arms of Plantagenet’, heboasted to tandem bicycles, betting and hispedigree. ‘We leisure to indulge inhisobsessions–the weather, tick’ – a barometer. notes while rapping ‘the only clock that didnot humming with clocks, he watched hisfather make ‘innate absurdity of theletter R’. In a drawing room pan’. Learning the alphabet, hechuckled over the whacked by her ‘large square handlike a frying called ‘T’a vu’; when ithaunted hisdreams, he was with hisFrench nanny, heimagined a blueman a droll, quirkily imaginative child.InFolkestone he fell, nosefirst, inthegravel. Tommy Ellis was Bowing to the Queen from hispram inHyde Park, Tommy as a boy Frederick, 7thBaron Howard de Walden, had the and elderly man.’ liked him as far as a smallboy couldlike a soured he liked me,thoughIfancy Idisappointed him. I that made himcling to hishate. In a of sort way, ... hating mostthings and people … with a pride proud as Lucifer inhis warped way and yet a man hard-drinking, savage, bitter and foul-mouthed, ‘with a face like Rodin’s Homme au Nez Cassé … ‘A queer distorted man’, Tommy recalled hisfather, T.E. Ellis and was a talented and witty caricaturist. wrote a triple-decker novel about theRisorgimento she befriended the Carlyles, Emerson and Mazzini, day, reacted against her upbringing: a free spirit, Newton, theleading Methodist preacher of his wife Betsy Newton (1806–79), daughter of Robert for Napoleon’, wrote Thomas Carlyle. Etienne’s fragment of thegreat Smuggler too strong even Marseilles, thenset upbusinessinLiverpool –‘a started as a silk merchant and contrabandiste in French father Etienne Paulet (1792–1850) had to Tommy, came from interesting stock. Her Swiss- Julia (1831–1911), a feisty and loving grandmother Pendle witches hanged in1612.Blanche’s mother, family’s descentfrom Alice Nutter, oneof the Holden, who died young, thoughherelished the rhubarb pillsfor minor ailments. sisters, over-protective of her son,prescribing marital stress, she would lieinbed, nursed by her remembered hismother. Her health broken under ‘The gentlest creature that ever lived’, so Tommy by Edward Clifford (1844–1907) Blanche, Lady Howard de Walden, fortune heinherited. reinforced hisdetermination to begenerous with the knew. Tommy recalled this as a ‘great advantage’. It were poor by comparison with other they families refused to maintain his wife. Blanche and Tommy few luxuries as a child.Frederick first neglected, then Frederick took lodgings inEastbourne. Tommy had from London to a modesthouseinFolkestone, while the marriage fell apart, Blanche and Tommy moved impatient of folly, undomesticated as a badger. As indolent, notoverly bright, hesharp, cussed, Frederick and Blanche were ill-matched: she anxious, Tommy never knew hisgrandfather William Brownsea Island began to show a taste for adventure. cruelty, Frederick countered by alleging adultery. for a decree of judicialseparation ongrounds of struggle between his parents. WhenBlanche applied fearsome headmaster coincided with a bitter final understanding of the animal kingdom. developed a deep love of horses and an intuitive close friendshipsinhis youth: incompensation he Reticent and wary of commitment, heformed few substitutes –knights and maidens,elves and fairies. providing a passport into a nether world of sibling human friendcan be’), nourished hisimagination, believe and illusion.Books, (‘better than any boats would berecurring features of hislife. of thetides,gulls and wildfowl; islands,castles and writings would hark back to theshore, therhythm Island and itscastle, homeof a Bentinck cousin.His in Bournemouth and intermittent visits to Brownsea of thesea: Folkestone, Eastbourne, pre-prep school Much of Tommy’s early life was spentonthefringes At home with hisfather, the12-year-old boy Three years boarding at Cheam School under a As an only child,heinhabited a world of make- fell upon a stone breaking hishead ... theriver. Tommy tried another aerial flight and 23 Aug inroom. everything Tommy tried aerial flight and fell into 22 Aug Aboutthehouse. Tommy upsetting 15 Aug 1892 (extract from Frederick’s diary) New York Times, 3March 1893 ‘De Walden Divorce Suit’ –columnfrom the Copyright ©TheNewYorkTimes Published: March3,1893

6 My Grandfather, A Modern Medievalist The Life of the 8th Lord Howard de Walden 7 My Grandfather, A Modern Medievalist The Life of the 8th Lord Howard de Walden receiving hisletters garnished with comicsketches, to recreate itschivalric spirit and traditions. Blanche, Ages, with a scholar’s eye and a romantic yearning above all to immerse himselfintheearly Middle admired Elizabethan poetry and drama, butloved first car, a Panchard Levesseur, into thecountry. He fascinated him;hisuncle,Evelyn Ellis,brought the ancient and modern.Mechanics and motors untidy and absent-minded. Interests burgeoned, said hisreports, thoughsometimes careless, often intelligence, prodigious memory and ready humour, fencing and swimming. Original, with a first-rate a keenly competitive sportsman, boxing, shooting, wrought a transformation. Sturdily built, hebecame ‘Know your native devil and you can laugh at him’. his family, Tommy developed hisown philosophy: and haunted by a brooding senseof ‘bad blood’ within was disgraced, theescutcheon blotted. Traumatised penny had to be accounted for. Howard de Walden The Dowager undertook to provide support, butevery battle for custody, Tommy was made a ward of court. abuse of his wife. Blanche was vindicated and after a shocking evidence emerged of Frederick’s brutish The trialcaused a sensation inLondon society as In 1893 he was sentto Eton. The next five years began themostscintillating phase of hislife. like a smoked orange’, and was invalided home. Now Paardenberg, hesuccumbed to malaria, ‘becoming great rideto Kimberley and Lord Roberts’ victory at Boers’). After two gruelling years inthe veldt, the refuge indrawings and verse (‘How Idestroyed the (13 commander] sendsthemhimself’ January 1900). are liesfrom beginning to end as French [theBritish disenchantment: ‘All the accounts of successhere war took itstoll, youthful exuberance gave way to trusty chargers, Bucephalus and Brown Windsor. As joining hisregiment in Cape Town along with his a Nursing Home.’ that grimfierce oldmandying without a friendin meeting with awe: ‘henever softened to the last … grave four monthslater. Tommy recalled their final the Dowager died. Frederick followed her to the and took to military life with gusto. In July 1899 joined the10thRoyal Prince of Wales Hussars and thetheatre with Irving and Terry intheir heyday. enjoyment of live entertainment –circus, pantomime saw a budding artist, while Frederick encouraged his He shaved hishead, grew whiskers and took With war imminent, heembarked for South Africa, Leaving Eton (1898), hepassed into Sandhurst, c. of the10thRoyal Hussars, Tommy intheuniform 1899 Frederick would have expected noless. stepping back into hisHoward ancestors’ shoes; death. Seizing themoment, Tommy took a lease, Scott-Ellis. changed hisname to Ellis-Scott, later reversing itto there. Inrecognition of his Scottish inheritance, he fifteenth to sixteenth centuries, to behoused arms and armour, principally European of the Joubert, he acquired a magnificent collection of to restore thecastle and keep. Assisted by Felix medieval and heinitiated a long-term programme of pairts’. Dean Castle appealed to hislove of the Kilmarnock welcomed thenew landlord as a ‘lad In Ayrshire, farmers, tenants and aldermen of Dean Castle encased inpale green. with entrance hall,doublestaircase and gallery transformed hisnew abode into a palace, complete an onyx mine,had 42 tons shipped home and House. On a tripto South America, hebought House, 37 Belgrave Square, and renaming it Seaford in fashionableBelgravia, taking a lease of Sefton away childishthings’. ‘Thank God’, herecalled later, ‘that Ihave never put proscenium lighting, footlights and movable wings. theatre installed intheLondon Library, with he had longed for as a boy. Then hehad a model bought all themodelboats, engines and soldiers first: at Basset Lowke, theHolborn toyshop, he one of therichestmeninrealm. First things Primrose Hill,theMarylebone estate made Tommy Stretching north from Oxford Street as far as ‘It is always that helps theart.’ artist A Pioneering Spirit: 1901–14 In 1904 Audley End fell vacant on Lord Braybrooke’s Next, heestablished himself and hismother Howard de Walden: Epistleto the Cymry, George Moore, inreference to Lord Confessions of a Young Man(19Ed.) centuries after Captain Ellis’s exodus, took holdof little theromantic notion of a homecoming, two home. InDenbighshire lay hisEllisroots. Little by made him yearn for a part of theland which felt like were at work. The insecurities of hischildhood from a different source. verse; butinspiration for Tommy’s writings came grandfather, thefirst Englishpoet to write blank Earl of Surrey (1511–47), Thomas Howard’s hose slashed with apricot satin. Sauber shows himincloak, black tights and trunk theatrical. A portrait by the American artist Robert This Elizabethan phase was self-consciously by Robert Sauber (1868–1936), 1903 Thomas Evelyn, 8thLord Howard de Walden, Underneath hisequable exterior, powerful forces Some spoke of a resemblance to Henry Howard,

8 My Grandfather, A Modern Medievalist The Life of the 8th Lord Howard de Walden 9 My Grandfather, A Modern Medievalist The Life of the 8th Lord Howard de Walden Fer deLance (front and back of photograph) some form of attainment …of myself only’. ‘the heavy pressure of my belongings made mecrave inheritance intensified hisdesire to prove himself: somewhere and Icannot find His where Iturned off’. narrow-mindedness … Ihave leftthenarrow path saw itdifferently. ‘Concentration is a form of man of his age’, The Daily Mirror reported. Tommy literature, painting and sculpture. ‘The most versatile and genealogy, drama andstagecraft, music and fencing and boxing, armour and heraldry, history and film,horseracing, sailing, archery,falconry, them were motor engineering and aviation, radio legion of interests and pursuits. Prominent among would be assigned Cymric names. Celtic legends. Boats, yachts, steamships, children translation of theMabinogionfired hisinterest inthe ancient Britons. Reading Lady Charlotte Guest’s Rome and rediscover the virtues and vigour of the Tommy, to cast off thedry models of Greek and Early EnglishMetrical Romances. It was time,believed migrations of the ancient Britons inhisSpecimens of Scott and Voltaire, had explored the Cambrian forbear George Ellis(1753–1815), friendof Sir Walter Principality. Inthedawn of the Gothic Revival his Tommy’s nomdeplume, would strike a chord inthe leader of the Welsh HomeRule Movement. T.E. Ellis, the star of theLiberal firmament andmuch-loved resonance. Thomas Edward Ellis(1859–99) had been his mind.Hisnamehad an unmistakeably Welsh Building onhisstudies as a child,hedeveloped a tanks which helped defeat the German armies in1917. misuse, in Antarctica, they were theforerunners of the ironically prescient: for despite their limitations, or was a great future for tracked vehicles. This was overheated. Tommy shared Scott’s beliefthat there sledges had been ‘sailing over thesnow’ before they Scott wrote from Antarctica describing how the attending trialsinFinchley, Paris and Switzerland. following the work of Skelton, theengineer, and financed thedevelopment of thesledges, closely motor traction for his Antarctica Expedition, Tommy friendship with Captain Scott. When Scott opted for Water in1908, aborted dueto stormy weather. Olympic powerboat race, heldon Southampton was oneof three competitors intheone and only steered by theprofessional Captain Fentiman. Dylan took thehelmof a companion to hisprincipal boat Daimler IIin1907. An experienced navigator, heoften record times with Napier IIin1905 (25.75 knots) and way inBritish International Cup races, achieving acquired a successionof motorboats which led the with enginesequipped for marinepropulsion, he Promoting thebestBritish firms to construct boats shirts for hisgrowing band of godchildren. It was a splendidfailure, itssilken wings providing a ‘flying machine’, Fer deLance , near Newmarket. commissioned HansKnudsento design and build since Tommy’s exploits ontheriver bank. In1903 he Experiments in aerial flighthad moved on apace New inventions Motor interests found another outlet inhis Marine endeavours proved more fruitful.

the British army. beneficiary of this relationship would prove to be developments in wireless telegraphy. The ultimate from hisfactory at Chelmsford to discussthelatest inventor would often come over to Audley End for Christmas, Tommy helped set themup. The Raalte children primitive radio contraptions through thefamily. When Marconi gave the Van knew the Van Raaltes well, and met his wife Beatrice Marconi, whose yacht Elettra was moored alongside, music, sailing, early motor cars and new inventions. Raalte children, and sharing thefamily’s passions for in thebay, warming to thethree high-spirited Van Every summer hepaid a visit, mooring his yacht Florence Van Raalte, were friendsof hismother. it, only to discover that thepurchasers, Charles and heard Brownsea Island was for sale, and tried to buy friendship with Guglielmo Marconi. Tommy had An interest inearly radio was stimulated by his Desborough intheear of Edward VII sealed thedeal. discussions onboard Branwen erupted causing Italy, thehostnation, to pullout; the 1908 Olympics came to London: Vesuvius had drawings with mock-heroic captions. Itreveals how minor classic, enlivened by Tommy’s miniature Theodore Cook’s account of the adventure, is a Branwen, Olympics, heescorted theteam outto Athens in fencing team led by Lord Desborough for the1906 distinction at foil, sabre and epee. Sixth maninthe An ambidextrous fencer, heperformed with the day. oblivious that hishorse had just won therace of one occasion he was found with hisnosein a book, Breeding horses interested him more than racing; on binoculars, chinthrustout and head tilted back. sporting monocle and meerschaum, boater and years hecut a distinctive figure onthe racecourse, the Ascot Gold Cup (1905). For upwards of thirty Jockey Club Stakes and Coronation Cup (1904) and Zinfandel, winning the Gordon Stakes (1903), the green of theturf. Hehad immediate success with colours, on Augustus John’s advice, to set off the Acquiring a racing stable, Tommy chosethe apricot Sporting interests hisnew yacht. The Cruise of theBranwen, Sketch introducing The Cruise of theBranwen and a word from Lord

Lord Howard de Walden, by Spy, 17May 1906 10 My Grandfather, A Modern Medievalist The Life of the 8th Lord Howard de Walden 11 My Grandfather, A Modern Medievalist The Life of the 8th Lord Howard de Walden Augustus John. rackety Greek Street outfit run withhissupport by Royale or saunter down to the Crabtree Club, the join the writers and artists who frequented the Café writing; bed at 2am.Ifhesoughtsociety hemight hat, stick and gloves: tea and reading: dinner and in a jacket buttoned too high, a too smallbowler slippers, seeing hissecretary, fencing, lunch, a walk House: late breakfast ingrey flannels andleather Unclubbable, heled a simpledaily life at Seaford know thephilosophic anarchist isintheir midst’. at Windsor in1908,he wrote, ‘Little dothey ‘that majesticmonstrosity theEnglishlaw’. Staying politicians, distrusted businessmen and abhorred of ‘The Establishment’. Hehad a visceral dislike of Nonconformist by nature, Tommy never felt part Society The Cruise of theBranwen, attributed to Tomaso de Simone Zinfandel, by Major Adrian Jones and, later on,portraits. the spectrum –humorous illustrations, landscapes a wide range of artists, whilst trying hishand across by hiscousin Ottoline Morrell, hebegan to promote member of the Contemporary Art Society started patron of theNew English Art Club and founder- impossible females, painted a delicate mauve’. As could not admire ‘pictures of three cornered ... everything unnatural is artistic’, and joked that he those who think that, ‘since Art isnotnature, Opening an art exhibition in1902, hecriticised Painting and sculpture young cousin,1907 Pirate in yachting costume; a sketch sentto Tommy’s to detect Rodin’s guiding hand. later exhibited hisown work in which Punch claimed Burlington Magazine as a talented sculptor, Tommy a certain majesty of purpose.Described by The study, suggestive of profound inner reflection and Rodin’s Howard de Walden is a striking character commission –four bronzes and two marble busts. and thesculptor received hislargest English discussed everything from crop rotation to heraldry, invited Auguste Rodin to Audley End, where they Zinfandel and subsequently The Winged Victory. He as Major Adrian Jones, a military vet who sculpted Epstein and Eric Gill to therelatively unknown, such The sculptors hesupported ranged from Jacob by Auguste Rodin (1840–1917),c. Bust of Lord Howard de Walden, 1905–6 Ricketts and armour designed by Edward Burne- set to musicby Poldowski, with sets by Charles romance. Performed at the Aldwych in1908,it was two, he wrote hisfirst play –Lanval, an Arthurian conversationalist and wit. Encouraged by these joined by Maud Burke, Lady Cunard, a brilliant mind and Tommy relished their discussions,often frequent guest at Seaford House,had a fertile support to them and their causes. Moore, a Bernard Shaw. Hegave generous and unstinting Kipling, J.M. Barrie, John Masefield and George Yeats, G.K. Chesterton, Hilaire Belloc, Rudyard the eminent writers of theday: George Moore, W.B. Tommy admired and was befriended by many of Literature and music 12 My Grandfather, A Modern Medievalist The Life of the 8th Lord Howard de Walden 13 My Grandfather, A Modern Medievalist The Life of the 8th Lord Howard de Walden tenaciously during theinter-war years. British composers – a campaign he would pursue encouragement hebegan promoting the work of diverse musical adventures. With Holbrooke’s Symphony Orchestra, hebacked Thomas Beecham’s effects. A stalwart supporter of thenew London from Bach to Macdowell, to recreate theoriginal later at Chirk, heenjoyed orchestrating musicranging where heplayed to entertain hisregiment. Here, and century. Tommy had oneinstalled at Audley End, esoteric philosophies. the occult, ranging from Gothic literature to the sets. The three menshared a taste for mystery and bizarre, commissioned by Tommy to designthe an artist with a predilection for fantasy and the retiring, equable peer were joined by Sidney Sime, known as ‘the Cockney Wagner’ and theerudite, the lean, loquacious, argumentative composer Nudd to hisfirst pianoconcerto. This unusual pair, poems to music, including The Song of Gwyn ap collaboration in which Holbrooke set many Ellis in the Wagnerian manner. So began a lifelong fashion thelegends into a grand new British opera would belibrettist; Ellis and Holbrooke would musician sincePurcell. Instead of playwright, he convinced that hehad met thefinestEnglish a young composer of dazzling virtuosity, he was a change of plan.Introduced to Josef Holbrooke, Dylan, Son of the Wave andBronwen. In1907, hehad of Annwn –inthree parts: The Children of Don, Mabinogion legends as a verse drama – The Cauldron side when hehatched theidea of reworking the seventh-century Byzantium. This was laidto one First, hebegan work on a dramatic trilogy set in be proud’ noted The Era. achievement of which Lord Howard de Walden may Jones for Irving’s 1895 production of King Arthur. ‘An christened her bewitching sets that hepainted hiscar blue and by thesymbolist fairy play with Sidney Sime’s (1909–11). Malcolm Campbell was so entranced the first run of Maeterlinck’s The BlueBird memorable production of King Lear was followed by Trench, taking a lease of theHaymarket Theatre. A began in 1909, when hecollaborated with Herbert Tommy’s seriouscontributionto repertory theatre Theatre Edward Gordon Craig and Harley Granville Barker. innovators of early twentieth-century theatre, role inthecareers of thetwo outstanding regarded it as Ibsen’s finest work. self-doubt inthetwo leading characters, Tommy in 1913.Intrigued by itsstudy of confidence and throne, was first staged in Britain at theHaymarket play about disputed successionto theNorwegian Aeolian Organs were all therage at the start of the His next two projects were splendidly ambitious. During thesame period heplayed an influential Bluebird. The Pretenders, an early Ibsen leaseholders any comparable protection. Decades would elapsebefore Parliament afforded No other urban landlord followed theinitiative. of histenants ranging from Lewis to H.H. Asquith. proved highly popular and was taken upby many lease, and provided loans onfavourable terms. This enfranchisement’, therightto buy a 999-year a schemeoffering hisMarylebone tenants ‘virtual damages. In a far-sighted response, heestablished on hishonour and thejury’s award of a farthing vindicated incourt, Tommy was hurt by the attack he could air hisgrievances before a jury. Though landlord, goading Tommy to suefor libel sothat then erected defamatory placards about his ‘wicked’ to campaign as a martyr for leasehold reform. He eventual committal to prisonfor contempt of court covenants, refused to compromise, and used his terms of hislease. Lewis repeatedly broke his at theedge of Cavendish Square contrary to the The elderly draper wanted to open a shop window enmeshed in a protracted struggle with John Lewis. enlightened landlord, Tommy found himself Having gained a modestreputation as an Security for tenants in itsentirety. best known soliloquy, hesuggested, shouldbecut enable each play to beread inside an hour. Hamlet’s evenings and had pocket volumes produced to Acton Bond,heorganised Shakespeare reading the diaphragm’ of thecolossus. Collaborating with with textual minutiae as Lilliputians‘dancing on him’, caustically describing German critics obsessed to read Shakespeare and forbidden to talk about he maintained that ‘Everyone shouldbeinduced In a magisterial lecture onThe Chronicle Plays (1911) be accessible to all, notthepreserve of scholars. Tale, Twelfth Night Aand Midsummer Night’s Dream. on his Shakespeare series at The Savoy –The Winter’s Bennett, Shaw and Schnitzler whilst setting to work (1912–13), where hestaged plays by Euripides,Ibsen, (1911), thentheKingsway and St James’s Theatres support hetook leases, first of theLittle Theatre direct at theHaymarket in1909, but with Tommy’s repertory theatre. Barker declined an offer to re-establish him and his wife LillahMcCarthy in Court Theatre (1904–7), Tommy was keen to achievements came to berecognised inBritain. the enterprise, Tommy would ensure that Craig’s across Europe. Although war brought an endto a short space of timeitdrew admiration from school at the Arena Goldoni, Florence. Within enabling Craig to open and runhisexperimental no fruituntil Tommy agreed to provide £5,000, funds for a new overseas venture. Hisefforts bore years’ self-imposed exile and was urgently seeking Craig had returned to London in1911 after several Shakespeare’s work, Tommy maintained, should After Barker’s inspiring spell as director of the forbears, hefelt hehad comehome. third in a decade. Close to theheartlands of hisEllis and set about a major restoration programme, his extended to 35), hesealed hisrelationship with Wales the Myddelton family. Taking a lease (25 years, later on theDenbighshire border, homefor centuriesto to let Chirk Castle, Roger Mortimer’s rugged fortress with thelandscape. Then hesaw an advertisement through Betws-y-coed and Harlech hefell inlove in search of their heroes’ graves and shrines.Passing first visit to North Wales, motoring withHolbrooke then a castle. Inthesummer of 1910hemade his he found an island(Eilean Shona inLoch Moidart), jumped through the wall past startled guests. So dog which cavorted round thebilliard table and direction. At Audley Endhe was haunted by a black Aged 30, Tommy felt inneed of a change of Chirk Castle, by Philip Wilson Steer (1860–1942), 1916 The Move to Wales: 1911–14 great epic’. Howard de Walden’ he wrote ‘may yet give us a whilst praising thelibrettist’s Homeric vigour: ‘Lord methods’. John Middleton Murry damned the music be a success,itmustnotbefounded on German Era found the work ‘quite unintelligible’, whilst The London Opera Houseon28 June 1912.The Times offspring, The Children of Don,performed at the pavement artists. in November 1912,became a popular subject for alone. The twins, John Osmail and Bronwen, born Mirror devoted two front pages to theengagement attracted extraordinary publicinterest. The Daily (29 December 1911) and marriage (February 1912) moonlit shores of Brownsea. Their engagement and dressing up as Brunnhilda to sing onthe of Wagner, joining hiscircle of friends at Bayreuth an opera singer inParis, sheshared Tommy’s love eldest Van Raalte child,had blossomed. Trained as Meanwhile, hisfriendship with Margherita, the No suchpopular acclaim greeted Tommy’s artistic thundered, ‘IfEnglishopera inEnglishisto 14 My Grandfather, A Modern Medievalist The Life of the 8th Lord Howard de Walden 15 My Grandfather, A Modern Medievalist The Life of the 8th Lord Howard de Walden in The Daily Mirror, 29 December 1911 Tommy and Margherita’s engagement hittheheadlines A good day’s fishing ontheRiver Dee, April1913; Tommy left, Harry Morritt, right enthused by Tommy’s Welsh theatre venture. Marconi, Diana Manners, and Shaw and Barker, singers, Joubert, Leopold of Battenberg, Epstein, visitors: Tommy’s fishing friends,Margot’sfavourite castle opened itsgates to a diverse stream of in theearly hours of themorning. Meanwhile the find thethree menin a heap at the gates of Chirk motor excursions inpursuit of Welsh whisky would imported a model. Wild carouses and whirlwind and Sime. Holbrooke installed a piano, John the hillsnear Harlech for theuseof John, Holbrooke white gloves. Meanwhile Tommy took a bungalow in insisting that she accompany himon walks wearing he attached himselfto Margot, sketching her and May 1912.Derwent Lees was putup at Chirk, where accompanied himon a painting tour of Spain in across themountains. Tommy supported Innes and and inchanging colours as thesunlightmoved landscape spontaneously from different angles painting Arenig Fawr and thesurrounding Australian artist – were roaming across Snowdonia, by Derwent Lees, a semi-deranged, one-legged John and John Dickson Innes–sometimes joined artistic viedebohèmeinNorth Wales. Augustus The move to Chirk coincided with a flamboyant lay inruins,dismembered by theEuropean war. happened. Weeks later theNational Drama project in preparation for thetour of North Wales. Itnever whilst a new moveable theatre was being assembled in support, thecompany took a summer break, reception in Swansea, where Barker added his voice not to strangle drama at birth. Heartened by the might bebornin Wales and urging the Welsh prophesying that thenext Shakespeare or Goethe Shaw wrote eloquently supporting theMovement, culture. As thecompany went onitssoutherntour, that drama would become a prime aspect of Welsh Lloyd George took thestage at theendto predict storm birds gathering round Llewellyn’s guards. Rock and provided overhead projection showing had a motion-picture taken of birds ontheBass of Prince Llewellyn. In an avant-garde flourish,he Orewyn, Tommy’s new one-act play about thedeath performance. A triplebill,itconcluded with Pont who had comedown by train to see theevening’s hundreds lined thestreets to greet Lloyd George, professional actors in a regular theatre. On Friday night and was thefirst Welsh play acted in Welsh by 1914 prize-winner) was performed onthe Tuesday to birth in Wales’; Ephraim Harris by D.T. Davies (a speech proclaiming that Goethe’s idea had ‘come May, generated great excitement. Moore made a Opening week at theNew Theatre Cardiff, 11–16 Company to perform prize-winning plays ontour. early in1914,heformed the Welsh National Drama difficult tofind theatres willing toperform it. So, in America. In South Wales however, itproved financed itsproduction at theHaymarket andthen of South Wales, won theprize in1912, Tommy Francis’s play about life intheindustrial valleys dealing with ‘things Welsh’. When Change, J.O. annual prize of £100 for a new or originalplay chapel movement would have to beovercome. entrenched oppositionfrom Calvinists and the as well as promoting drama for itsown sake. But concerned to preserve Welsh as a living language had cometoo late to save thelanguage; Tommy was is through thetheatre’. The Irish Theatre Movement that ‘the best way to interest a people in a language Moore recalled how they discussed Goethe’s insight to promote Welsh theatre. InEpistleto the Cymru encouraged by Moore and Yeats, Tommy decided Inspired by the Abbey Theatre inDublin and Theatre Movement The Welsh National In 1911hestarted a competition, offering an poetic name–Dylan. on 27 October 1914,hehad himchristened with a and familiar with theopera. When hisson was born a keen supporter of the Welsh theatre movement English master at Swansea Grammar School, was help in years to come.David John Thomas, senior making of a new Welsh genius whom Tommy would arts increasingly became hisprimeobjective. although henever gave up writing, promoting the flop, dashing Tommy’s hopes. From thistimeon, London stage. Inspite of all this,it was a resounding – thefirst instance of cinematography onthe projected onto a huge screen behindthe actors and a bass flute. The chorus of wildfowl was shown four saxophones and four saxhorns, tubaphones conducting a vast orchestra, including an organ, of the Wave was on a grand scale, with Beecham Performed on4 July 1914 at Drury Lane, Dylan, Son Dylan: cowboys: war afterwards ‘…thecowboys went off to war’. came thecurtain; ‘and so…’mused Chesterton long swords and rushed onto thestage; down At the appointed hour thefour menbrandished invited to supper at the Savoy for a hoax premiere. Asquiths and thecream of London society were Campbell as ‘the Wayside Flower’. That evening the William Archer, Howard de Walden and Mrs Patrick was a silent western, featuring Shaw, Chesterton, Men Love, written by Barrie and filmed by Barker, imaginary cliffs,being caught inbutterfly nets. How canoeing across roaring rivers, clambering up performing mad antics intheEssex marshes, the final folly of aninnocent age – four cowboys 5 July 1914. The morning after theperformance saw and George Bernard Shaw Walden, William Archer, J.M. Barrie, G.K. Chesterton How MenLove: From leftto right:Lord Howard de By a strange twist, theopera played itspart inthe 16 My Grandfather, A Modern Medievalist The Life of the 8th Lord Howard de Walden 17 My Grandfather, A Modern Medievalist The Life of the 8th Lord Howard de Walden form of communication. Intensive training by the one set at thetime;radio was still a little-known four pack-saddle loads. The British army had only Marconi Wireless Cavalry Pack sets, each comprising outstanding contribution was hisgiftin1910of two of Hillman Scout cars of hisown design;buthis weekends at Audley End,even presenting a couple sponsoring events, entertaining thetroops for regimental headquarters, supplying new swords, he supported it at every level, purchasing the virtues. Joining the Westminster Dragoons in1902, army’s inculcation of old-fashioned masculine As muchsoldier as artist, Tommy cherished the Battle Music:1914–18 A letter from Tommy to hisson John, 1915 frontline and secured a transfer to Gallipoli. combat service, Tommy was desperate to get to the from England. Though hiseyesight precluded ran a convalescent hospital staffed withnurses house outside Alexandria and intrepidly set up and child, Elizabeth, was born,Margot rented a large Dragoons. Joining himin Cairo after their next set sail for Egypt as Second-in-Command of the new yacht to thenavy, hishorses to the army and in Lawrence of Arabia’s campaign. stations east of Suez which played a significant role reinforced by seven further Westminster Dragoons at Sinai and Ismailia inNovember 1914,later regiment produced two efficient stations, installed When war broke out, Tommy handed over his unbuttoned himself, explaining hisheartfelt love for private notes, made for hissonshould hedie, nightingale sang firmly throughout’; butinhis some neighbours further south…onedetermined night …Fritz came over and paid a short visit to ‘considerable exhibition of fireworks theother Howard de Walden’. as ‘carrying thestrange knives furnished by Lord of Messines,the Lewis gunners were recorded trenches were raided inthebuild-upto thebattle certainly saw action. On 5 June 1917, as German reminiscent of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. It of Wales’ – and engraved with decorative motifs inscribed Dros Urddas Cymru –‘for thehonour Designed and patented by Joubert, theknife was a cledd distributed to Welsh archers at Crécy. the troops with a knife supposedly modelled on Then, with a touch of medieval romance, heissued to Margot: of band instruments and musicsentout. He wrote for ways to boosttheir morale. First he had a set 9th Battalion, Royal Welch Fusiliers. to the Western Front, as second-in-command of the he wrote to John –hetransferred inNovember 1916 Dabaa –‘all amongst thecamels and dustflies’, as rejoining hisregiment inthe western desert at El Essylt) their fourth child was conceived. After returned to Margot in Cairo where Pip (Priscilla time break away.’ confederacy of smallstates, someof which may in Britain henow perceived as ‘one of a very loose about thenation-state and itsfuture: the campaign foundered, heset down histhoughts the beaches with noconcernfor personal safety. As myopic major became a familiar figure traversing Landing Officer at Lemnos and at Suvla Bay the when Icomehome. Your loving Dad’. Serving as to visit him:‘Ihope you will be a big strong boy the sea and a big shipcarrying Mummy home On 5May 1915,hesent John a picture of Egypt, His letters home were jaunty, stiffupper-lip: Happy to be among Welsh comrades, helooked One of thelast evacuation staff to leave, he have split and to sendreplacements pronto. Rudall Carte and Co that boththeBb Clarinets They can manage a few marchesnow, Pleasetell The Bandcame out and played to us yesterday. British faults infrontof mehereeveryday. always tryingto organise fromthetop. Isee our from laws which operate uponmillions. We are individuals, what manner of resultcan beexpected it hardto supply principlesof justiceto single rapidly with everyextension of power …if we find makes injustice a certainty in a ratio increasing a diversityvast of occasions and complexities and [it] mustprinciples act oncertain which cover The very fact that a state musthave a government The War Memorialin Chirk rifle, anelegant tribute fallen. to the village: soldier ingreatcoat and helmet, bentover a Gill to construct a war memorial.Itstands inthe Waldens knew or employed. Tommy commissioned casualties, many from theHoward families de from shock.’ Chirk had borneitsfullshare of recalled, ‘taciturn, obviously unhappy, suffering men recently back from thetrenches’, Margot Back home after the Armistice, he was ‘like most his new homeland and itspeople: the Berwyns. through those wonderful tallstraight oaks from the fierce wind all warm andmisty isbooming up is driving the wet leaves against thepanes and Adams Tower looking upthe valley and the wind it loved inlife. I am sitting now inmy roomin spirit coming back often to follow thepaths little poolof the Ceiriog under the Gelli wood. to Tynant ... And often, too, Igo and sitbesidethe behind Chirk, roundthroughthe Warren and down possessed by someregionor tract. myself. Indeed, Ihave longed like a woman to be of the world with whose interests Icouldidentify with a great desireto have someplotor patch chance that I was a lonely and homelessIshmael of somefar away Cymric ancestor or justthe felt for theMabinogionor, perhaps,thestirring this people. Itmay bethepassionIhave always I have felt something always drawing metowards I think Ican understandnow the wandering I often walk inimagination as itisupthehill 18 My Grandfather, A Modern Medievalist The Life of the 8th Lord Howard de Walden 19 My Grandfather, A Modern Medievalist The Life of the 8th Lord Howard de Walden and visual arts. pre-eminent inhischampionshipof theperforming fore as a generous, discerning and influential patron, these intensely difficulttimes Tommy came tothe to keep these and existing institutions afloat. In talent, butfunds,tenacity and vision were required leagues and societies were set upto promote native established in1940. New, distinctively British and the Arts (precursor of the Arts Council) was until the Council for theEncouragement of Music arts institutionsreceived nogovernment funding accelerated thedecline inprivate patronage, yet years. Heavy taxation and economic depression The Arts faced something of a crisisintheinter-war Things Welsh: 1918–40 Things British, the HolbornEmpire for thefollowing season. offered hiscongratulations along with £1,000 to take a Drama League dinner, Tommy took him aside and vituperative attack onthetheatrical establishment at favoured a rebel spirit. When Lewis Casson made a run by theradical Terence Gray (1926–33). He always Barry Jackson, and the Cambridge Festival Theatre Birmingham Repertory Theatre founded by his friend new and experimental ventures such as the differently’. different scenes, and we acted our old andnew plays build our theatres differently, we set our stages with theatrical production. As Craig putit:‘We began to aware of therevolutionary changes taking place in For thefirst timethe British public was properly made Museum, accompanied by a prestigious lecture series. was displayed that summer at the Victoria & Albert to have theexhibition transferred to London. It League, Tommy initiated and led themovement work was given place of honour. As President of the from productions inEurope and America. Craig’s masks and marionettes, etchings and woodcuts culled held in Amsterdam, displaying models and designs, Walden ewer for thebestone-act play. drama contest every year, awarding theHoward de All-England Theatre Festival, which holds an amateur of 1926. The spiritof theLeague lives onthrough the be traced directly to theLeague’s experimental festival affiliated societies. The revival oftheone-act play can of amateur drama; by 1923 theLeague had 360 local pressed for a national theatre. This was theheyday League ran drama schools,established a library and Walden as president and Barker as chairman. The founded theBritish Drama League, with Howard de munition workers doing wartime play readings, In 1919 Geoffrey Whitworth, inspired by seeing Drama In hispersonal capacity Tommy strongly supported In 1922 a major international theatre exhibition was helping 1,500 people. challenge. Today theFund spends£2m a year aspiring to earn a living presented a constant when therapidly growing number of professionals musicians, he was itsprimesupporter at a time president. Alive to thefinancial needs of struggling Fund was founded and Tommy became its untimely death in1921, theMusicians Benevolent Tommy and Margot’s favourite singers. On his during theDepression. he funded a special LSO tour of the Welsh valleys Believing inthepower of musicto raise morale, prizes to buildup woodwind inlocal orchestras. its concert programmes. Within Wales heoffered the LSO including British composers’ works in music, hemade hisfunding conditionalupon 1920. Consistent with hischampionshipof British days, Tommy became itshonorary president in South and Vaughan Williams’s London Symphony. Albert Coates at Queen’s Hallplaying Elgar’s Inthe the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) under was celebrated with six dazzling concerts, including National Congress, inaugurated at Seaford House, published and performed. In1920 theBMS’s First meetings and arranging to have composers’ works 15-year existence, travelling thecountry to speak at Tommy was itstireless advocate throughout its 1918. Notonly itspresident and principal funder, Music Society (BMS) founded by Eaglefield Hullin This was oneof theobjectives of theBritish Musik’, needed to promote her own composers. Britain, long derided in Germany as ‘DasLand ohne British music British operas by Holst and Vaughan Williams. toured theprovinces performing contemporary complete opera broadcast inEurope. The company starring Teyte at Covent Garden (1923) was thefirst Nellie Melba and Maggie Teyte: Hansel and Gretel careers. ItsLondon seasons featured stars such as of British singers and conductors started their in Golders Green (16 April 1929), a new generation and ending with Cavalliera Rusticana and Pagliacci starting with AidainBradford (6February 1922,) National Opera Company. During itsseven-year life, continuing support, by theformation of theBritish The vacuum was filled, with Tommy’s backing and unsustainable and liquidators were appointed. a year Beecham’s fresh commitmentsmade it a phoenix venture to beset upin1919, but within Lady Cunard, Tommy and the Aga Khanenabled into debt. A major rescue operation mounted by a permanenttouring company, hadheavily fallen The Beecham Opera Company, founded in1916 as British opera Gervais Elwes, the acclaimed tenor, was one of A major supporter of theLSO sinceitsearliest (1878–1961) Lord Howard de Walden, by Augustus John and Alicia Markova, Violet Woodhouse onthe written full voice, Shaw holding forth onhow he would have observed ‘they domostof the work’. bring hisentire orchestra to dinner:‘after all’ he Toscanini came to London, Tommy invited himto as was thecast of theComédie Française. When League, BMS and LSO were lavishly entertained, Hospital, as well as for private parties. The Drama in order to raise fundsfor Queen Charlotte’s Orchestra would beinvited to play, poets to recite, whole of exquisite taste’. The Royal Philharmonic the glamour of wealth and art are combined into a ‘where marble,gold, oldtapestries, armour and all veritable palace’ recalled Marion Wright of theBMS charities supported by theHoward de Waldens. ‘A the venue for countlessparties to benefitthe arts or Throughout these years Seaford Houseserved as Seaford House Here you mightexperience Feodor Chaliapin in The Ring, ballerinas such as Tamara Karsavina contributions to thedesignof new vessels. builder of working models,heeven made occasional he took a special interest innavigation. A keen to Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina. As itschairman ran a passenger and cargo service from Antwerp acquired the South American Saint Line, which History Museum. specimens which hepresented to theNatural a precious collection of botanical and zoological into Uganda and the Congo in1930, returning with Zoological Society. In1930 heled an expedition an enthusiastic botanist and member of theRoyal to improve thebreed of cattle. Tommy was also (16 to a plough) and Englishbulls were imported coffee were grown, oxen worked onthegrand scale lava-rich slopesof MountElgon. Maize, wheat and cleared for use as farmland. The lay bestfarm onthe in Nairobi along with virgin forest which hehad Tanganyika, acquiring newspapers and businesses from Cairo to the Cape), heinvested inKenya and with Ewart ‘Lioneye’ Grogan (first man to walk African safari with Margot in1920. Collaborating Victoria, hefound hisinterest reignited by an East an early venture with a zebra near studfarm Lake be created in the‘Great African Continent’. After an essay at Eton described the‘Greater Britain’ to of Victorian schoolboys. Tommy was noexception: The imperialmission was drummed into theheads Foreign ventures in a green dress, another a piebald nude. recalled seeing himpaint a blonde Titian-like beauty and began to paint portraits and nudes;onechild him), he acquired a studioin Chelsea, took lessons water colour isnearly always a fluke’ Steer warned Whilst toiling away with landscapes at Chirk (‘a and was appointed a trustee of the Tate Gallery. John set up a Contemporary Art Society for Wales, the Empire.’ Late inthe1930s hehelped Augustus ‘to promote aid and unite all the Arts throughout object perhapsmore benevolent thanpractical: founded theBritish Empire Academy with an he and an Australian artist W. Howard Robinson Society (of which hebecame president). In1927 New English Art Club and the Contemporary Art Dudley Hardy – Tommy boughttheir works for the Lavery, Ambrose McEvoy, Frank Brangwyn and artists – Walter Sickert, Philip Wilson Steer, John Carpentier, thelightheavyweight boxer. to change therhythm’) to Tommy’s friend Georges (‘exciting to dance with’ recalled Margot ‘as heliked diversity of guests,ranging from George Gershwin variety of entertainment was matched only by the harpsichord or Louis Fleury ontheflute. The rich In 1935 a fresh interest developed when he Admiring a wide range of British contemporary 20 My Grandfather, A Modern Medievalist The Life of the 8th Lord Howard de Walden 21 My Grandfather, A Modern Medievalist The Life of the 8th Lord Howard de Walden a maninproperly fitted armour couldmove easily by Joubert, enabling Tommy to demonstrate that in fact, a brand-new suitmade to hismeasurements ancient armour and reading hisnewspaper.’ It was, find hishost at breakfast ‘clad, cap-a-pie, in a suit of suits of armour. Augustus John was bemused to had arrived. Tommy filled the Long Gallery with advent of a knightfrom theMiddle Ages. Now he and dark oak panelling, seems to anticipate the by Augustus Pugin, replete with heraldic designs The mid-Victorian makeover of Chirk’s East Wing The tenant of Chirk Helmet and feet of suitof armour through a porthole. Margot found himtrying to shunthislaundry valet, Tommy couldscarcely manage; on a voyage friend from Audley Enddays. Without Dean, his golfing partner, Albert Unwin, house carpenter, his from theDee. Harper, the butler, was hisregular helping Tommy and hisfriendMorritt landsalmon Fennel incharge of the ponies;Parry thegillie, employees: Bradd and Bob Slightham thefalconers, enthusiastic team, as muchcompanions as swooping down ontheir prey. the valley, watching her father’s peregrine falcons interest. Rosemary recalls days onthemoor across bred with an Arab stallion. Hawking was a special thoroughbred mares and foals, Welsh poniescross- Eland antelope from Africa; stables provided for by Norah Lindsay; a park set aside for deer with a magnificent herbaceous border was created clairvoyant wireless set. dodgy Germancommercial traveller and William, a series, features a tragicomic Ogre, McTavish, a imbroglio, while Jack and theBeanstalk, closing the blank verse, Puss and Brutes an American detective scale suit. and Tommy thesoft-hearted dragon in a green muted chatter, grease paint, dresses and argument’. King’s Bedroom served as Green Room ‘full of pantomimes (1923–30). Margot recalled how the gave more delight thanhisseriesof six Christmas the growth of whiskers inrural deans’. Nothing shortest route from Quito to Irkutsk’ or ‘Explain quirky quizzes with questionssuch as ‘Namethe fencing lessons and children’s pageants and devised In hisnew role as paterfamilias, Tommy arranged family orchestra, writing to Holbrooke in1928: laughter and music. Tommy describesthelittle Rosemary (1922), ensured an abundance of noise, robes and wreathed with oak leaves. took part inits annual bardic procession, clad inlong Honoured as Green Bards, theHoward de Waldens crowds. The Eisteddfod had a more primitive ritual. whilst Bobthefalconer showed off thehawks to the Margaret of Anjou with thetwins in attendance, he played theEarlof Plymouth,Margot was Queen arrange and fund.Inthe week-long pageant of 1920 historical pageants at Harlech Castle which hehelped and quickly. The armour came inhandy for three Tommy’s way of life depended on a loyal and Chirk’s austere surroundings were transformed: The Sleeping Beauty is a Shakespearean spoof in In The Reluctant Dragon John played St George The other two …thirsting to begin’ Essylt (2nd Violin (Good when she wants to be) Elizabeth Cello (Hot Stuff thisone) John Cello Bronwen Viola or Flute Mummy Voice on1st Violin ‘Pa Clarinet Six children, with the arrival of Gaenor (1919) and by bedtime, holding forth onElizabethan drama, till the afternoon, he would unwind and bein fullflow phenomenon than Tommy’s table talk. Often taciturn guests would gravitate for jazz and carousing. a piano inher bedroom where themore Bohemian Kutcher String Quartet. Margot’s sister, Poots, kept Lynn, Louise Edviner and Margot, closing with the accompanying ontheorgan, thensongs from Oggie concerto by thepianistIvor Newton with Tommy to theMusicRoom for a programme: perhaps a friends. Intheevening guests would beushered (Margot’s speciality) and Tommy’s sporting musicians, mingling with foreign royal families and theatre designers, artists, writers, singers and Chirk houseparties were gloriously eclectic, actors tennis-racket and hashisback to theroom. bull terrier, at hisfeet, talking to John who isholding a the dark red Spanish curtains, Tommy sits with Dick the armchair watching. And onthe window-seat, framed by Little Rosemary, in a yellow frock, leans against an over their chess-board, with Pip’s big dog besidethem. downlooks on Gaenor and Pip sprawled onthefloor seen at thepiano. A Flemishtapestry above thefireplace is playing the viola, Elizabeth the‘cello and my head is screens shows behindthegrand piano where Bronwen enormous glass bowl of gladioli; one of the Coromandel The sunisshining inonto a Chinese rug and the John Lavery’s painting of her family inthe Saloon: In her memoirs, Margot describes by Sir John Lavery (1856–1941),c. The Howard de Walden family at Chirk Castle, Night-time at Chirk brought nomore extraordinary 1932–3 Company. Its 1929 and taken on a northern tour by the Carl Rosa of theopera, was performed in Huddersfield in and yet a brave experiment’. Bronwen, thefinal part remain too mythical for our keener sympathies, large and noble intheconception…hischaracters in The Manchester Guardian detected: ‘something verse drama in1922, Edmund Gosse reviewing it When The Cauldron of Annwn was published as a The trilogies ‘You really should not ask thosesort of people’. Minister –to stay with his wife, Tommy observed: Kipling’s cousin, Stanley Baldwin–thenPrime courage and chivalry. But when Margot invited affection for Kipling’s work withitsemphasis on and speaking ontheir level. Tommy had a special He had an uncanny knack of understanding children would stay for thesheepdog trials near Llangollen. in a dilapidated Ford. Rudyard Kipling and his wife vast hot-air balloon which hechased across thehills Trinity onpaper, thenconstructing and letting off a sea-boots, delighted thechildren, proving the armchair. Hilaire Belloc, clad inblack and wearing painting Margot to her satisfaction, reclining in an He succeeded where other artists had failed,in paintings of thecastle indifferent lights andhues. Steer, quiet and brilliant, produced masterly phosphorescence inthe wave of talk’. though acknowledging that hecouldbe‘a glintof quiet child, a too talkative man,hesaid of himself, Russian music, Bayreuth or Englishopera. A too A few visitors meritspecial mention. Wilson Prelude and Birds of Rhiannon sequence 22 My Hero, My Grandfather The Life of the 8th Lord Howard de Walden 23 My Grandfather, A Modern Medievalist The Life of the 8th Lord Howard de Walden own right–to direct, whilst arranging a Welsh Reinhardt’s former assistant, now in his famous Flying to Vienna, hepersuaded Dr Stefan Hock – grand project for the1933 Eisteddfod at Wrexham. Hugo Von Hofmannsthal’s morality play hisnext air production of Everyman at Salzburg, he made actress, as director. Inspired by Reinhardt’s open- Company, appointing Evelyn Bowen, a young Welsh formed his own venture, The Welsh National Theatre beset by internal squabbles. Undaunted, Tommy inspire a play on a great themein Welsh history. applause, Tommy expressed thehopethat it would machines himself.’ At theend,greeting rapturous stage and even beat thedrums and turned the wind services as stage manager, directed themusicoff was struck by Tommy’s enthusiasm: he‘offered his on a cliff top overlooking thesea. Komisarjevsky an audience of 10,000 intheEisteddfod pavilion engaged to putonIbsen’s medieval pageant before Komisarjevsky, therenowned Russian director, was Pretenders and had ittranslated into Welsh. Theodor at Holyhead, heselected hisoldfavourite The world map. Accordingly, for the1927 Eisteddfod international repute couldhelpput Wales onthe productions of European plays with a director of with bilingualdrama. Hebelieved that spectacular aspired to secure a permanentnational theatre Welsh Drama League formed under hispresidency In 1927 Tommy returned to thefray in Wales. The Welsh theatre 1927–40 the strugglebetween Christianity andIslam. have nosurgeon butthesword’ –eerily foreshadow convert; theProphet’s closing words –‘the world will Heraclius and demandsthat he and hisfollowers a dramatic scenein which Mahomet confronts character and religious scepticism,theplay includes Theatre (1927). A psychological study of theemperor’s (1924) and subsequently at the Cambridge Festival Heraclius puton at theHolbornEmpire inLondon not last, inthesequence. might have fared better had Bronwen comefirst, ‘one of thegloriesof British opera’. Itsreputation and broadcaster, extolled theoperatic trilogy as Holbrooke’s birth (1978), Harold Truscott, composer of literature’. Years later, onthecentenary of Library of Wales, hedescribed it as ‘a curiosity Presenting hiscopy of thetrilogy to theNational of night. Tommy’s verse has resonances of Swinburne: contain someof Holbrooke’s loveliest music, whilst Within a few years theLeague had foundered, Completing hisByzantine trilogy, Tommy had Rings life reviving, radiant and released fromclasp Shaking hismaneof scarlet; at hisfeet The of Horse Dawn comesstriding fromtheeast, Fair and fast a national theatre. an integral part of Welsh culture, paving the way for achievement was to secure recognition of drama as he had changed theterms of debate: hisenduring as ithad Tommy’s previous campaign. Over 30 years in each lancet of theeast window. special lighting effects –three angels, one appearing Valle Crucis Abbey with a local choir and Tommy’s was thehighlight of 1937, performed intheruinsof Shakespeare play in Welsh. Meanwhile Llwyfan y Bud made history as thefirst recorded staging of a an all-Welsh cast at Llanellithefollowing year, it Macbeth. Nevertheless, when performed with refused to countenance an English actress as Lady shelved when theEisteddfod Executive Committee Williams, had been planned for 1937, but it had to be English actors. but theLiverpool Welsh were outraged by theuseof music. ‘A feast for eye and ear’ wrote onereviewer; Hock directing, and Holbrooke supplying incidental put oninLiverpool –inEnglish and Welsh – with full-time national bilingualcompany. The play was on 4 April 1936 in which heoutlined his aims for a World –provided thethemefor a radio broadcast language. ItstitleLwyfan y Bud – Theatre of the to enableside-by-side performances ineach Teatro delMundotranslated into English and Welsh adaptation of Calderón’s morality play El Gran Welsh nor National nor a Theatre’. Cynan who denounced thecompany as ‘neither to promote drama over poetry, enraging thebard but courted oppositionby urging theEisteddfod Meriel Williams helped reinvigorate the venture, company. When Bowen retired, her replacement, Wales felt little affinity with aLlangollen-based dialects of North and South Wales differed; South struggled to direct Welsh-language plays; the was an uphillbattle: English-speaking directors performances inmany different venues across Wales president of the Amateur Fencing Association. received fencing instructionfrom Tommy, now management, lighting and scene-design: actors alike; lectures and practice sessionsembraced stage train actors, directors, designers and technicians Llangollen, thecompany set up a drama schoolto official andthe Devil by a Wrexham chapel deacon. played by an undertaker, Mammonby a trade union Tommy noted with satisfaction that Death was seats. Addressing the audience inthenative tongue, Shaw, LilianBaylis and Sybil Thorndike infront row glorious spectacle enjoyed by thousands, including night, with a fullorchestra and Welsh choir, was a amateurs whilst learning elementary Welsh. Opening throughout thesummer, struggling to train 300 sent from Salzburg. Hock was ensconced at Chirk translation, and for theoriginalcostumesto be Two years later war brought the venture to an end, A Welsh Macbeth, starring Thorndike and Emlyn In 1935 Tommy had Von Hofmannsthal’s On tour thecompany found that staging Finding a homecloseto Chirk at Plas Newydd, Closing Years: 1940–46 became Dylan’s patron. On Christmas Eve 1940, homeless and broke, Dylan wrote him a moving letter, seeking further help and enclosing six recent poems. Tommy settled his debts and let him have the Apple House, a stone cottage in the garden. ‘A really excellent workroom’, Dylan wrote in thanks, towards the end of the War. There are echoes of Llanina in Under Milk Wood’s voices of the long drowned and the ghostly midshipman pacing the shore in long coat and soft-peaked cap. In February 1946, months before his death, Tommy received a touching present: a copy of the poet’s brand-new volume of poems, Deaths and Entrances, inscribed ‘To Lord Howard de Walden from Dylan Thomas with every gratitude’. As the Chirk lease expired, Tommy and Margot moved north to Dean Castle. Sad to depart, yet Photograph of Tommy with fellow soldiers delighted by his newly restored medieval home, he loved to visit his Scottish tenants, discoursing ‘Go to it my lad. Be topical for once’, wrote Tommy, seamlessly on every arcane subject. He retained his instructing Holbrooke to set Kipling’s poem, Hymn zest for life – ‘Thirteen grandchildren soon!!!!’ he before Action, to music. War had broken out again. ended his last letter to Holbrooke – but his health As Honorary Lieutenant Colonel, Tommy took pride was broken. Struck down by cancer, he died on 5 in his regiment which he had resurrected following November 1946 and was buried at the Dean. The the Great War as an armoured car company. Too Times obituary observed “More, perhaps, than any old for military service, he had to content himself man of our time he fulfilled Aristotle’s description of with running the local home guard with his friend the ‘magnificent man.’’’ and deputy Colonel Poss Myddelton. Shades of It is fitting that the National Trust celebrates Dad’s Army here: the horsebox placed in the castle the Howard de Walden era at Chirk in memory of gateway, housemaids taught to shoot, village Tommy and Margot, outstanding and life-enhancing women instructed to hurl methylated spirits at patrons of British and Welsh culture and the arts. enemy tanks. The castle provided a year’s refuge to How thrilled Tommy would be to see the Welsh two groups of 40 women evacuated from Liverpool language and culture brimming with vitality and a with their youngsters, a keen and captive audience national theatre in place. Throughout Wales and for Tommy’s displays of model boats on the lake. here at the castle let him be remembered by the As time passed, the war increasingly restricted simple bardic name he chose for himself, Ellis o’r Tommy’s life. Margot had left for Canada with Waun – Ellis from Chirk. a bevy of grandchildren; his theatre venture was closed down; Seaford House, his cultural headquarters, was requisitioned. Yet there was still much to do on the home front, not least maintaining the many institutions and individuals dependent on his support. In addition, he oversaw and substantially helped fund a majestic work of historical scholarship, The Complete Peerage; two of the five volumes which he co-edited were published during the war. A far-sighted gift to the Society of Antiquaries in 1945 helped make possible a definitiveDictionary of British Arms only now in course of completion. For light relief he took weekly Welsh lessons, taught his eldest grandsons fencing, tossed off a ballad about the disappearing Earl of Moray with a chorus of elves and asked Holbrooke to set it to music (‘Give the singing elf a miss’). Before the War Augustus John had brought the young Dylan Thomas to meet Tommy at Plas Llanina, an ancient manor he had acquired on the coast near Newquay. No doubt they discussed

Dylan, Son of the Wave, and Llanina’s ghosts and Walden de Howard the 8th Lord of Life The Modern Medievalist A Grandfather, My legends: the sailors drowned in Cardigan Bay, the 24 old village and church claimed by the sea. Tommy Tommy as an older man Cover: Tommy in military uniform, c.1914 Contents: A sketch by Tommy

Acknowledgements Richard Bowden, John and Tatiana Mallinson, Patricia Sinclair, Emma Thompson; The author is greatly indebted to Professor Hazel Walford Davies in relation to the sections on Welsh theatre.

Illustrations Avington Manor p.14; ©Courtesy of the Estate of Augustus John, the Artist’s Collecting Society p.20; The British Library p.16; The Courtauld Institute of Art p.12; The Daily Mirror Archives p.15 (above); Dean Castle p.8 (left); The Dick Institute pp.8 (right), 10 (above), 21 (above and below); Fine Art Photo Library p.11 (above); Howard de Walden Archives cover, pp.1, 2, 3 (above), 5 (left and right), 7, 9 (left and right), 10 (below), 11 (below left and right), 15 (below), 17 (left and right), 22, 24 (above and below); National Trust/Sue James p.3 (below); National Trust Images: Joe Cornish p.6, Angelo Hornak p.4; The New York Times p.7 (left); Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales (RCAHMW) p.18.

© National Trust 2012 The National Trust is a registered charity, no. 205846

Text written by Thomas Seymour, one of Tommy and Margot Howard de Walden’s 17 grandchildren and the son of Tommy and Margot Howard de Walden’s youngest and sole surviving child, Rosemary.

Edited by Claire Forbes Designed by Level Partnership