1 Oscar Wilde's Friend and Benefactor, Helen Carew

Oscar Wilde’s Friend and Benefactor, Helen Carew (c. 1856 – 1928)

James Robinson, M. Phil.

The year 2004 marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Oscar Wilde (1854-1900). It is fitting then, to recall a woman who is barely referenced, if at all, in published biographies of Oscar Wilde. Helen Carew was a stalwart friend to Oscar and his writings. She educated his sons to their father’s literary works, from which they had been kept apart, after Oscar’s imprisonment. Chiefly, she provided the funds for the magnificent monument that adorns Wilde’s grave in Père Lachaise cemetery, Paris. This paper also makes reference to Helen’s family, and in particular, to her son Coleridge, who was a friend of Vyvyan and Cyril Holland – Oscar’s sons. Much of what follows is quite simply stranger than fiction.

Helen was born (circa 1856) and became the heiress to her parents James Wyllie and his wife (whose name is not known) who lived at Eilen Roc at Cap D’Antibes, France. The main street of Antibes, ‘Avenue James Wyllie’, is named after her father. Helen’s first husband was Hugh Downing Kennard, born (May 15 1859), a subaltern in the Coldstream Guards. They were married on September 7, 1883. Hugh’s father was Coleridge Kennard (1828-1890) who was conservative M.P. for Salisbury and owner of the Evening News. He married Ellen, only child of Captain John Wilkinson, and niece of Sir Joshua Rowe C.B., late Chief Justice of Jamaica. This line descends from John Kennard, born January 20 1775, of Clapham, Surrey – banker in the city of London. He married Harriet Elizabeth Pierse of Windsor on June 3 1797 and was the son of John Kennard (1732 – 1791) and Mary Hewitt, his wife.i

Evidence of the circumstances in which both families lived is seen from a letter dated March 30 1883. In it, James Wyllie, Helen’s father, wrote to his prospective son-in- law’s father outlining his proposed marriage settlement on his daughter. He indicated his willingness to make an annual allowance to Helen of not less than £3,000 per year - a sum similar to that proposed to Hugh Kennard’s father on his son’s marriage. Wyllie also proposed to pay £50,000 plus securities over to his daughter, providing that Kennard senior did the same. Subject to these proposals being accepted, James Wyllie was quite willing that the young couple should consider themselves engaged. Coleridge Kennard did so approve and in a letter dated April 7 1883, Helen wrote to her prospective father-in-law a most heartfelt reply. It read:

My dear Mr. Kennard,

I do not know how to find words to thank you for the letter I received this morning, but I very deeply feel and appreciate the great kindness with which you tell me that you will accept me as a daughter and can only say how much I hope, in the days to come, to try and repay it by doing everything in my power to be a good and loving one to you.

The future seems too bright, almost too good to be true! For I love Hughie with all my heart and long for the time when I can devote my life to make his a happy one and pray and trust that I may succeed.

Believe me, every yours very affectionately,

Helen Wyllie

However, Helen’s aspirations were not to be realised. After marriage and the birth of their son Coleridge Arthur Fitzroy Kennard in 1885, the couple quarrelled incessantly over trivialities. Hugh went on a long voyage to get away from it all and was drowned, aged 23, on April 9 1886. The young widow Helen Kennard, with her infant son, returned to live in Antibes, France.

The death of their son Hugh was a dreadful loss to the Kennards. Ellen, his mother, Victorian and virtuous, went into wearing heavy black. She only emerged from this when she heard that her husband was to be honoured with a baronetcy. His chief parliamentary claim to fame was that he proposed a bill giving policemen the vote. He probably obtained the title because of his newspaper ownership while supporting Lord Salisbury. According to Frank Harris, editor of the Evening News, Coleridge Kennard told him that ‘he only wanted the baronetcy for his wife’s sake and that he had spent £70,000 to get it, though he was told £40,000 would suffice’. Harris was considered a hypocrite by Helen’s grandson, Sir George Kennard, who quoted a self- damning couplet.

Now, as of old, men themselves are priced For silver Judas sold himself, not Christ

Harris was one of a number of Wilde’s biographers who was considered to have betrayed Oscar with vivid sensualisation and questionable accuracy. Shortly after hearing of his baronetcy, Coleridge Kennard died. Again garbed in black, his widow Ellen fought long and hard until Queen Victoria capitulated to permit ‘the style, place and procedure of a baronet’s widow’ to be bestowed upon her and on her death, the title to be passed to her grandson, Coleridge Kennard. The motto with the title read, ‘At Spes Non Fracta’, which translates as ‘Hope Remains’.ii

Thus Helen Kennard’s son was titled Sir Coleridge Arthur Fitzroy Kennard at the age of six. Most of his boyhood years were spent at Eilen Roc, France, where he was to inherit many miles of seafront from Juin-les-Pins to Antibes. In these opulent surroundings many distinguished visitors passed, including royalty and the leading political figures of the day, such as Salisbury and Gladstone. Educated at Eton and taking up service in the British Foreign Office, Sir Coleridge Kennard made his friends in England. These included; Duff Cooper, Beardsley, Lord Alfred Douglas, Ronald Firbank and Harold Nicholson. Kennard became a great dandy. His son George considered that his father’s title, money and brilliant friends could not disguise the fact that beneath his grand exterior, an uncertain artistic temperament struggled. Sir Coleridge was a member of the Bloomsbury Set, a group of self- appointed artists and intellectuals who were renowned for their bohemian attitudes to food, sexuality and art. Another famous member of this group was Virginia Woolf, who committed suicide in 1941.iii Few of Kennard’s beautifully written elegant volumes were commercially successful and he considered that authors who sold books for money were to be frowned upon. Somerset Maughan, who later lived nearby in France, was described as ‘that hack who wrote for money’.

Coleridge Kennard, along with Ronald Ross, Oscar’s literary executor, and Oscar’s son Vyvyan Holland, attended the re-interment of Wilde’s remains from Bagneux to Père Lachaise in 1909. The French authorities insisted that the remains be moved in a

2 cemetery workshop coffin. The silver plate inscription on the plain oak coffin read: ‘Oscard Wilde, 1854 – 1900’. ‘Oscard’ rhymed with discard, as described by Vyvyan Wilde and when noticed, the letter ‘d’ was scratched out.iv

Early in his diplomatic career, Sir Coleridge Kennard was posted to Bucharest where Sir George Barclay was British Ambassador. The latter’s daughter Dorothy captivated the young diplomat whose approaches were disapproved of by the ambassador. Elopement was followed by marriage to the same Dorothy Barclay. They had two sons, Laurence (born 1912) and George (born April 27 1915). However, Sir Coleridge and Lady Dorothy quarrelled frequently and he took up residence in Persia. He wrote Persian poetry and consumed hashish and opium while losing heavily at casino gambling. Their residence at Eilen Roc was gambled away in one night. Then, Sir Coleridge Kennard fell in love with Mary Graham Orr Lewis, for whom he built a house. It was named ‘The Villa Mary Graham’ and built on the remaining piece of coast that he had retained. Mary succeeded in weaning Sir Coleridge off both drugs and gambling. Tragically, while bathing in the nearby sea, she scratched herself on a jagged rock, developed lockjaw and died. Five months later, in November 1931, Sir Coleridge Kennard wrote her a broken-hearted letter, which included the following:

Darling,

I write these notes to try and ease the heartache, but all I really want to write, all I want to say, is just this and this alone:- I loved you more than I ever knew I could love anyone: from 7pm on July 6th 1931, everything for me ended; there can never be anything for me in this life again.

Sir Coleridge again succumbed to drugs and gambling and he was minded by a dope nurse. When the Germans overran France, the British Government sent a vote to evacuate the residence. Sir Coleridge refused to leave and was subsequently arrested and interned in a concentration camp in Compiègne. His German captors considered his Persian transcripts were coded reports! Kennard’s request to have his nurse accompany him was refused and so he promptly married her, circa 1940, thereby allowing her to travel with him. Unlikely as it may seem, he survived the transition from ‘caviar to potato peelings’, as his son George put it, and was respected by the inmates. He latterly returned to his estates in Antibes and died in 1947, without making a will. Under French law, his estates passed to his second wife, who intended to leave his estates to his two sons Laurence and George. Incredibly, she too died within a few weeks and Sir Coleridge’s property, diminished by his drugs and gambling, passed to her sister.

His first wife Dorothy, from whom he had separated, was too proud to ask for alimony and found it a struggle to rear her two sons. She substituted toughness and constraint for love and affection and her sons found it impossible to love her. Their contact with her was minimal and a collection of nurses, governesses and tutors raised the children. Following a car accident, which deprived her of the use of her arm, Dorothy Kennard gave up tennis and golf and took up bookkeeping. She became fixated with figures and considered that the figure four would bring the world to an end. Also, she believed one was really two! Briefly, before the outbreak of World War II, she had a reconciliation with her husband in Paris. When they met, she found Coleridge, whom she had always adored, prostrate from drugs with the dope nurse in attendance. Three weeks later she returned to her children a violent lunatic. She

3 spent the final fifteen years of her life in an expensive and soulless nursing home, believing, happily at the end, that she was a dog!

After a succession of disastrous schools, Dorothy’s sons Laurence and George – Helen’s grandchildren – were sent to St. Peter’s Court, a preparation school for Eton. George was dismissed from college for selling the library books to a local second- hand bookshop. He often visited his father, Sir Coleridge, who showed little interest in his welfare. George often holidayed in Germany with relations of his mother, where he witnessed the rise of fascism. He described a Nazi rally that he attended with his host family thus:

“Hitler was due to appear at ten. We stood in a darkened arena, waiting as the tension mounted and sharpened. Suddenly, there he was, to a million ‘Ach mein gotts’. He stepped on to the stage as ten thousand lights blazed and a thousand banners waved. The massed brown-shirted arms shot into the air as the ‘Seig Heils’ deafened the dead. A pin drop hush fell on the worshipping multitude as the little man began to speak. He held that throng as surely as any puppet-master holds his marionettes. He whispered, cajoled and screamed and they were with him all the way.” v

On his return to England, George Kennard, although accepted for Trinity College Cambridge, did not attend there, as his parents decided they couldn’t afford it. After a stint as a part-time reporter, he received a commission in the Fourth Queen’s-Own Hussars, Winston Churchill’s old regiment. George was appointed ADC to General Wavell, who had just been appointed G.O.C. in the Middle East. He saw service in Syria, Beirut, Aden, Jerusalem and Cairo. When Wavell ordered two blackouts to test Egyptian defences, Kennard had to initiate them. The first resulted in 123 murders in Alexandria and in Cairo, King Farouk fell down the steps of his palace when the lights went out!

Recalled to England on the outbreak of war, George married Cecelia Maunsel in 1940, his first wife. Posted overseas once more, Kennard did not see his pregnant wife, who subsequently had a daughter Zandra, for another four years. The German panzers overcame the Queen’s Hussars in Greece and George became a Prisoner of War. Transportation to Germany was followed by escape and recapture in Holland. He was liberated by the American forces. Following recuperation in England, George Kennard rejoined his regiment and was stationed in Italy, where he represented the British Army Jumping Team and won steeplechases. Service in Malaya followed and George commanded a squadron. He returned to England as Second-in-Command to the Shropshire Yeomanry, a post he held for two years. His brother Laurence was demobilised. Although he had been demoted to Lance Corporal, Laurence later became a major in the intelligence corps where he had been badly wounded. In 1955, George Kennard took command of his regiment. He and Churchill were friends until Winston’s death in 1965. Churchill’s coffin was borne by bearers from his old regiment to his final resting place at Bladon near Oxford, England.

In 1957 a fellow officer fell in love with George Kennard’s wife Cecelia, who reciprocated the feeling. George was shattered and the marriage was dissolved in 1958. About this time, the Fourth Hussars were amalgamated with the Eighth Hussars to form the Queen’s Royal Irish Hussars. Redundancies were inevitable and

4 George Kennard oversaw the placement of surplus army personnel in civilian life. In 1958 Lt. Col. George Kennard relinquished command and retired from army life. In this year also, he married for a second time to Jesse Rudd Miskin. This marriage was dissolved in 1974, by which time George Kennard, civilian, had invested in broiler farming and was selling cooked chickens (cooked in the back of a van), at equestrian events. This venture failed and George Kennard next made a living as a representative for Blue Circle cement, a career that lasted for ten years. By 1967, both Sir Laurence Kennard (George’s brother, who inherited his father’s title) and his wife, had died and as they had no issue, the title passed to George. In 1985, ‘Loopy’ (for that was Sir George Kennard’s army name) married for a third time to Nichola Breitmeyer, nėe Carew, who had four sons from her previous marriage, and went to live on her inherited property in Devon with her extended family.vi However, the marriage was dissolved in 1992, after which Sir George Kennard married Mrs. Georgina Phillips on December 14 of the same year, his fourth wife. She was the eldest daughter of Sir Harold Wernher, Bt. and the mother of the Duchess of Abercorn and the Duchess of Westminster. Lt. Col. Sir George Kennard, third baronet, died on December 13th 1999, aged 84. His dynamic life was summarised in his obituary in the Daily Telegraph as follows:

With his extraordinary parents and the repeated setbacks he experienced throughout his life – ‘Loopy’ Kennard might have easily become an embittered and frustrated man. Instead, he was brave, debonair, adaptable, un-snobbish and philosophical.

When a P.O.W., he gave great comfort to his friends; in the army he was much admired and liked; in civilian life, he gained respect and many friends.

A memorial service for Lt. Col. Sir George Kennard was held on February 14 2000, at the Royal Hospital Chapel, Chelsea. The attendance included Prince Philip and Sir Angus Ogilvy, husband of Princess Alexandra. General Sir John Hackett wrote the foreword to Kennard’s memoirs, which were appropriately entitled Loopy and in them he described his old friend as probably ‘more widely known and better loved than any other regular British office of his generation’. The baronetcy to which George Kennard, Helen Carew’s grandson succeeded, became extinct on his death in 1999.vii

To return to the subject of my paper, in 1896 Helen Kennard married a second time to James Laurence Carew (1853-1903), a nationalist M.P. for Kildare north. They lived in London at 54 Hans Place South West. Born at Kildangan, Ballinabracky, Co. Meath, Carew represented; Kildare North (1885 – 1892), Dublin College Green (1896 – 1900) and finally, Meath South, which he represented at Westminster from his election in 1900 to the time of his death. Born to Laurence (1790 – 1870) and Anne Carew nėe Robinson (1813- 1886), James Laurence Carew attended Clongowes Wood College,Kildare, Trinity College Dublin and the Middle Temple, London before being called to the English bar. In 1885 he bought up the Leinster Leader and became its proprietor, and was also one of the founders of the Irish Daily Independent. During his representation of North Kildare, Carew became a whip of the Irish Party at Westminster. During this parliamentary term, he was a close confidant of C.S. Parnell (1846 – 1891) and W.E. Gladstone (1809 – 1898). Carew also co-directed the work of the Irish Press Agency, an organisation established to educate English opinion on Home Rule in Ireland. When the Nationalist party split in 1890, Carew staunchly supported the Parnellite side. He was the main benefactor of the Parnellite wing of nationalism. Known as the ‘milch cow’ of the Parnellite home

5 rule party, Carew was estimated to have contributed £12,000 to this cause. It is probable that his wife Helen’s funds were his financial source. James L. Carew was jailed twice for his political activities during a turbulent time in Irish political life. When out of Westminster politics, Carew lobbied in America for the Parnellite cause. When ‘the Chief’ died, Carew went to Holyhead and escorted the cortege home to what was a memorable funeral. On Parnell’s coffin was a floral emblem composed of lilies and laurel leaves, which bore the inscription,

My own true love, best, truest friend, my husband. From his broken-hearted wife

James Carew was appointed High Sheriff for County Kildare in 1903 and he died suddenly on 30th August of that year in the Engadine, Switzerland, while on holidays with his wife Helen and stepson, Sir Coleridge Kennard. The cause of his death was apoplexy. His remains were buried in Castlejordan cemetery, Co. Meath, on September 5 1903. The soul executrix to the will of J.L. Carew was the testator’s widow, Mrs. Helen Carew and to her he left his entire estate, valued at £10,292 in Ireland, with some £182 in England. Helen sold the Leinster Leader after her husband’s death for £5,000 and the new directors included J.L. Carew’s brothers, Thomas Maurice and Bernard William Carew.

After James L. Carew’s death, with whom she had no issue and having been twice widowed, Helen retired to live in a suite in Claridge’s Hotel, London.

An interesting reflection on J.L. Carew is observed from a letter written by James Wyllie, Helen’s father, to the Leinster Leader. In it, he states that William Gladstone, Liberal Leader and Prime Minister, who was a personal friend, wrote him the following:

It was unfortunate for the Irish Party that Mr. Carew was laid aside by typhoid at the time of the ‘grave crisis’ and I believe his kind and conciliatory ways would have averted the split that took place.

Oscar Wilde said of Parnell, ‘the greatest men fail – or seem to have failed’. It is ironic that J.L. Carew and his wife Helen whole-heartedly supported great men who were brought down by sexual scandal.viii

Her grandson, Sir George Kennard, in his memoirs, described this sad, reclusive woman, Helen Carew, thus; ‘In Claridge’s she lived, was badly loved and died, surrounded by parasites whom she maintained at the expense of a disappointing son.’

A great admirer and friend of Oscar Wilde, Helen Carew possessed autographed copies of the great man’s books and ‘The Happy Prince’ was signed;

To the happy princess, from the unhappy prince. With the devotion of the author, Oscar Wilde ix

These were the first of his father’s book seen by Vyvyan Holland when he visited Helen’s home in 1907 with Sir Coleridge Kennard, Helen’s son. Both men had been students together at Scoones, studying for foreign office examinations. Indeed, this was the first time Oscar’s son became aware of his father’s literary legacy. Helen arranged for Vyvyan, then aged 20, to meet Robert Ross – Oscar’s literary executor –

6 and he thus became aware of the latter’s efforts on behalf of Oscar’s estate. It was to Mrs. Carew that Ross dedicated the shortened the version of ‘De Profundis’, which he published in 1905. In 1908, Vyvyan Holland met most of the literary and artistic elite of the day through Robert Ross and Helen Carew. These included; Henry James, Thomas Hardy, Sir William Richmond, H. G. Wells and Arnold Bennett. There was one person whom Oscar’s son was never asked to meet and that was Lord Alfred Douglas. One evening when at the theatre with Mrs. Carew, someone behind attracted her attention and held a conversation with her. Later, she told Vyvyan, ‘I did not introduce you because I thought it better not to do so. That was Bosie Douglas’.

Coleridge Kennard, later in 1908, after taking his diplomatic service examination, went on holiday to Venice with Vyvyan Holland. He suggested the latter should call himself Vyvyan Wilde as an experiment. This he did, but found himself constantly hounded by Italian reporters to give interviews. Vyvyan soon abandoned the idea. After the holiday, Helen Carew met both men in Paris and showed them the city, in particular bringing them to Hôtel d’Alsace, where Oscar Wilde died and Bagneux Cemetery where he was buried.x

Helen Carew, friend and admirer of Wilde, was an outstanding collector and connoisseur of art. She also published two volumes of poems. In 1915 she published a collection of poems entitled ‘Red Roses’. One poem from the collection reads;

A Toast

I drink to the eyes that brilliant Shine Reflecting the light that flashes from mine! (Ah! Who would not stay at love’s banquet to sup?) With my soul do I pledge thee and raise high the cup

Another poem seems to yearn for happier days – gone and never to be repeated. It is entitled ‘Ah! Crimson Rose!’:

Oh crimson rose! The vision of thee calling Out from the past the dreams of happier days, Enwreathed in pearly mists of time enthralling, Behold the haunting memories of flower–strewn ways

Sweet – yet with sadness, Oh so gently blended – Within my memory’s garden heart’s – ease grows Watered with tears – the blossoms careful tended – Oh emblem of unfading love – thou red, red rose! xi

Another collection of poems entitled ‘Orange Blossoms’ was published in 1916.xii A review of this publication in The Times stated that Helen Carew had the ‘trick of rhyme and runs of easily rhapsodical commonplaces to admiration’.xiii

Nine years after Oscar Wilde’s death in 1900, his remains were removed from Bagneux to a grave in Père Lachaise cemetery. Robert Ross received an anonymous gift of £2,000 to erect a suitable monument over the grave, on condition that the work was carried out by ‘that brilliant young sculptor – Mr. Jacob Epstein’. Helen Carew may have been inspired to support Epstein by the public controversy over his work for the British Medical Association Building in 1908. A frieze of 18 naked or semi- naked figures caused outrage and the work is still visible today on the walls of

7 Zimbabwe House on The Strand, London. Jacob Epstein (1880 – 1959) was born in New York and was of Polish origin. He went to Paris in 1902 and his earliest supporters were Bernard Shaw and Augustus John. Shaw introduced his to his friends and British contacts, while John gave him a modelling job at his newly founded Chelsea Arts School.xiv Inspired by Assyrian and Egyptian depictions of the Spinx, Epstein carved a flying demon – angel across the stone’s face. On the back, the inscription, including lines from ‘The Ballad of Reading Gaol’, read:

And alien tears will fill for him Pity’s long broken urn, For his Mourners will be outcast men And outcasts always mourn’.

This tomb, the work of Jacob Epstein, was given by a lady as a memorial of her admiration of the poet.

November 30th, 1900 Hôtel d’Alsace 13 Père des Beaux Arts, Paris

This monument was completed in 1912.xv

French officialdom banned the monument’s public viewing because of the figure’s prominent genitalia, which were subsequently covered in plaster and the entire work hidden under a tarpaulin. Epstein refused to modify the carving and the figure remained wrapped until the outbreak of World War I. In August 1914, when unveiled, the monument’s offending angel’s genitalia were encased with a butterfly- shaped bronze cover. This object disappeared and within weeks, the comedian Aleistar Crowley appeared in the Café Royal in London, wearing it as a codpiece! The sculpture remained undisturbed until it was vandalised in 1961, when the angel’s testicles were hacked off. The culprits were said to be ‘two English ladies’, offended that Wilde’s tomb was a place of pilgrimage for homosexuals. In 1942, Jacob Epstein unveiled his later work ‘Jacob and the Angel’ at the Leicester Gallery.xvi Robert Ross died in his sleep on October 5 1918 at the age of 49. His will instructed that his ashes be placed in Oscar Wilde’s tomb. This took place in 1950 on 50th anniversary of Wilde’s death.xvii

In 1904 a portrait painting in oil, on canvas, by Jacques Emile Blanche (1861 – 1942) of Helen Carew’s son entitled ‘Sir Coleridge Kennard sitting on a sofa’ was strongly disapproved of by Helen. The English-style portrait, influenced by Gainsborough, depicted the sitter exemplifying the image of the English aristocracy with his elegance and luxurious taste. It was not exhibited, because of Helen’s objections, between 1908 and 1924. It was then shown in Paris. The portrait was exhibited on condition that the sitter’s name should not be shown in the catalogue and the exhibitor named Charpentier simply invented the title ‘The Portrait of Dorian Gray’. How curious that the name should be chosen, give Sir Coleridge Kennard’s subsequent life.xviii

In her will dated December 9 1927, Helen Carew specified that her son, Sir Coleridge Kennard, should not be an executor or trustee to her will and that her (Helen’s) body ‘should be cremated as soon after my death and as quickly as possible and that my ashes be scattered’. Her will also made provision for her mentally ill daughter-in-law, Dorothy Kennard. Helen’s estate was valued at £232,759-11-8. She died on April 21 1928, aged 72 years.xix

I have been unable to locate a photograph of this sad, lonely woman. It is doubtful if one exists and I feel she probably destroyed any that she had. This paper has told of vast wealth, power and influence, not to mention wanton waste, unbelievable bad luck and not least, tragedy and great unhappiness. It would have been fitting, had Helen Carew’s ashes been interred in the tomb of Oscar Wilde like those of Robert Ross. Her life-long friendship with Oscar, her admiration of his works and support of his sons, not to mention her payment for Wilde’s tomb, surely entitled her to this honour.

Bamfylde Moore Carew (1693 – 1759), known as ‘King of the Beggars’ was a kinsman of Nichola – Sir George Kennard’s third wife and also a probable kinsman of James Laurence Carew, Helen’s second husband. The story of Bamfylde’s travels, particularly in America where he told of the Native American’s lifestyle and also a dictionary of cant language as used by mendicants, was published in 1782. His suggested epitaph, written by John Clare, is as fitting an epitaph as the words that inscribe Oscar Wilde’s tomb:

No flattering praises daub my stone, My frailties and my faults to hide. My faults and failings all are known. I lived in sin – in sin I died.

But oh! condemn me not I pray, You who my sad confession view But ask your soul if it can say That I’m a viler man than you xx

9 References

i Burke’s Peerage, 1914, p. 311 ii Sir George Kennard, Loopy – An Autobiography, Leo Cooper, London, 1990 p.1- 8 iii The Irish Times, ‘Who’s Afraid of the Real Virginia Woolf?’, February 1 2003 iv Vyvyan Holland, Son of Oscar Wilde, Robinson, London, 1999, p. 196 &197 v Sir George Kennard, Loopy – An Autobiography, p.8- 26 vi IBID p.32- 133 vii The Daily Telegraph, December 14 1999, p.25 viii James Robinson, ‘James Laurence Carew1853- 1903), Parnellite MP’, Irish Family History Society Journal, vol. 19, 2003 ix Sir George Kennard, Loopy – An autobiography, p.5 x Vyvyan Holland, Son of Oscar Wilde, p.185- 194 xi Helen Carew, Red Roses, Longmans Green & Co., 39 Paternoster Row, London, 1915 xii Helen Carew, Orange Blossoms, C. Cambridge & Co. Ltd., Grafton St. Dublin, 1915 xiii The Times(London), Literary Supplement, August 3 1916 xiv Philip Wilson, The Wilde Years– Oscar Wilde– the Art of His Time, TCD Library Ref No. HX58- 827 xv Barbara Belford, Oscar Wilde- A Certain Genius, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, London, 2000, p.309- 310 xvi Edward Lucie-Smith, Forbidden Culture- Index for Free Expression, U.K., 1942 xvii Barbara Belford, Oscar Wilde- A Certain Genius, p.310 xviii Philip Wilson, The Wilde Year – Oscar Wild – The Art of His Time, TCD Ref No. HX58-827, Ref. 95 xix Index of the Principal Probate Registry, Helen Carew, 1928, Somerset House, London xx B.M. Carew, King of the Beggars, National Library of Ireland, Ref No. 92- CA-R5

I am deeply indebted to Joan Carew Richardson of London who has researched and published on the genealogical ancestry of the Carew family, for her generous assistance.

James Robinson published a history of his family in 1997. In subsequent years he has lectured on matters relating to genealogical and social history. In 2003 he obtained an M. Phil. on his family history. A paper he read to the 2003 Parnell Summer School on James Carew M.P. has led to this current publication.