14 Dec 2004
Husband: Richard Patrick RUSS nickname: Pat died at age: 85
Born: 12 Dec 1914 in Walden, Packhorse Rd, Gerrards Cross Bucks 1,2
Died: 2 Jan 2000 in Fitzwilliam Hotel Dublin 3
Resided: 1923 - summer 1924 at Melbury Lodge, Kempsey 4
Resided: 1924 - 1926 at 146 Kenilworth Court, Lower Richmond Road, Putney 5
Resided: 1926 - 1929 at 10 Priory Crescent, Lewes 6
Event: 1927 failed to secure a place at Dartmouth 7
Resided: 1929 at 54 Sutherland Avenue, Maida Vale 8
Event: Oct 1930 "Caesar: the Life Story of a Panda Leopard" published by Putnam 9
Resided: 1932 at 144 Albany Street 10
Resided: Feb 1936 at 2a Oakley Street Chelsea
Resided: 1936 at 24 Gertrude Street Chelsea 11,12
Resided: Apr 1937 in Dublin - completing Hassan 13,14
Event: Jun 1937 obtained his first passport 15
Event: July 1937 in Locarno - unfaithful to Elizabeth 16
Event: Autumn 1938 in probable first meeting with Frieda Tolstoy 17
Resided: Feb 1939 in 301 King's Road Chelsea 18
Resided: 1939 in Gadds Cottage Suffolk 19,20
Resided: Sep 1940 in Chelsea, living alone 21
Resided: Autumn 1942 in The Cottage, off Upper Cheyne Row, Chelsea 22
Event: 20 Aug 1945 in London: change of name to O'Brian 23
Event: 20 Sep 1945 leased Fron Wen, Cmw Croesor, Wales
Resided: 6 Oct 1945 moved into Fron Wen 24,25
Event: Aug 1945 granted custody of his son RIchard 26
Event: 13 Aug 1946 in met the Ynysfor Hunt
Resided: 1948 at Moelwyn Bank, Cwm Croesor, Wales 27
Resided: Sep1949 moved to Collioure 28,29
Event: Nov 1949 lost care and control of his son Richard 30
Event: 13 Jul 1949 arrived in Collioure
Event: Jan 1970 "Master & Commander" published in UK by Collins
Event: 17 Jun 1995 CBE 31
Event: his work discussed here - http://www.patrickobrian.com/
Education: 1924 - 1926 St Marylebone Grammar School 32
Education: Sep 1926 - Jul 1929 Lewes Grammar School 6
Education: 1932 - 1934 Birkbeck College 33
Education: Jan 1934 matriculated 34
Military: 14 Sep 1934 RAF - Acting Pilot Officer to 1 Dec 1934 35,36,37,38
Occupation: Jun - Sep 1937 Locarno - tour guide 39
Occupation: 1940 London Auxiliary Ambulance Service 40
Occupation: 26 Sep 1941-20 Sep 1 Political Warfare Executive, Foreign Office
Father: Charles RUSS
Mother: Jessie Naylor GODDARD
Other Spouse 2
MJH: These two quotes from Dean King amuse me:
King p378: 'He had named a new minor character General Harte, duplicating for
no apparent reason the name of Aubrey's nemesis of earlier novels, Admiral
Harte'
King p99: 'Patrick, at least in part inspired by a reading of the Irish
novelist Laurence Sterne's The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy (1760),
desired to turn his longcase clock (which had no case) from one that needed
frequent winding to one that, like Shandy's, needed winding only once a month.
To do this, the two friends [Walter Greenway major in RA] devised a plan to
attach a series of pulleys and a much heavier weight to the clock. They melted
lead in a saucepan over the fire to make the hefty weight (on the order of
fifty pounds), and they mounted the clock at the top of the stairs, so that
the weight could hang down the stairwell. But no matter how they tinkered with
the system, they never succeeded because the friction of the rope through the
pulleys overrode their improvements to the clock.' [Tristram Shandy is my own
favorite novel]
Wife: Sarah Elizabeth JONES age: 92
Divorced: 25 Jun 1945 41
Married: 27 Feb 1936 in Chelsea Register Office his age: 21 her age: 24 42
Born: 1912 in Pen-y-Cae North Wales 43,44
Resided: Feb 1936 at 2a Oakley Street, Chelsea 45
Resided: 1940 - 1942 in 28 Thorpe Avenue, Thorpe-next-Norwich 46
Resided: Spring 1942 in 237 King's Road, London 47
Event: 20 Mar 1944 petitioned for divorce 48
Event: 18 Dec 1944 decree nisi 49
Occupation: c 1920 London as domestic servant and seamstress 50
Occupation: 1942 electrical factory in Earls Court and then in haberdashers in King's Road 47
Father:
Mother:
M Child 1: Richard Francis Tudor RUSS age: 67
Born: 2 Feb 1937 in St Mary Abbotts Kensington 51
Education: Spring 1942 the Servite School, London 52
Education: 16 Jan 1945 Southey Hall prep school, nr Exeter 54
Education: Apr 1946 - Aug 1946 educated by his father at home 55
Education: Sep 1947 - Jul 1949 educated by his father at home 56
Occupation: 2000 London Screen Printing 57
Spouse: Mimi PAROTTE
Married: 1 Jul 1964 58
F Child 2: Jane Elizabeth Campaspe Tudor RUSS died at age: 3
Born: 8 Feb 1939 in St Mary Abbotts Kensington
Died: 31 Mar 1942 59
Cause of death: Spina bifida
Sources:
(1) DK, 'On 12 December, in the big bedroom at the back of the house
[Walden]....Jessie gave birth to a boy, her fifth', 18.
(2) ABR, 'Patrick arrived when I was about three, the last of the children to be
born at "Walden". I recall being with Mother in the big upstairs bedroom before
the event and clutching hard to her hand as a huge and noisy bird flew right
over the house - the first aeroplane I had ever seen. Afterwards, allowed back
into the room, I duly inspected my new brother and was put to work crawling
about on the floor, smoothing out large sheets of brown paper. My infant mind
led me to believe that these were the wrappings for the new baby, although I
could not for the life of me understand why such a large parcel was to be made
out of such a small infant', 9.
(3) DK, 'O'Brian died in the Fitzwilliam Hotel, Dublin, on 2 January 2000'.
(4) Nikolai Tolstoy, Patrick O'Brian - the Making of the Novelist (Century
2004), NT, 49.
(5) NT, 58.
(6) NT, 72.
(7) NT, 80.
(8) NT, 106.
(9) NT, ... his juvenile first novel Caesar, which was published in October 1930.
80.
(10) Nikolai Tolstoy, Patrick O'Brian - the Making of the Novelist (Century
2004), NT, 117.
(11) DK, 68.
(12) NT, In May 1936, three months after their marriage, Elizabeth became
pregnant, and at about the same time they moved from Oakley Street to 24
Gertrude Street behind St Stephen's Hospital in Fulham Road, a couple of streets
away from that house in Redcliffe Road which probably provided the scene of
their first meeting in the previous year. Since they shared the three-storeyed
house with another couple and three further people, they are unlikely to have
occupied more than a single room. 157.
(13) NT, 81.
(14) NT, It seems likely that Patrick's abrupt departure to live away from home
for two or three months after registering Richard's birth ..... first
destination after crossing the Irish Sea was Belfast ..... he wrote Hussein at
the rate of at least a thousand words a day .... the last section that was
written in Dublin. He moved there at the beginning of April .... "I finished it
on a bench in St Stephen's Green with a mixture of triumph and regret." The
date was 29 April 1937, 174.
(15) NT, The Workers' Travel Association arranged for its customers to stay at
the small hotel Quisiana [Locarno], where Patrick's duties involved arranging
the visitors' reception, accompanying them on trips to neighbouring beauty spots
and places of historic interest, and looking after them generally. On 23 June
he obtained his first passport, so he did not stay long in Gertrude Streeet with
Elizabeth and their baby Richard before setting off abroard once again. 183.
(16) NT, The sisters Beryl and Joan Ainsworth were then aged twenty-one and
eighteen respectively. The younger of the two was of a type familiar to Patrick
from the world he frequented in Chelsea. As King describes her, 'Joan, a perky
graduate of an arty private school in Ealing .... was fond of the theatre and
now had a job selling theatre tickets for Keith Prowse on Bond Street.'
Though the sisters only stayed at the Hotel Quisisiano for a fortnight, in no
time at all Joan was creeping down each night to join Patrick in his bed. 183.
(17) NT, 223.
(18) NT, She [Elizabeth] gave her address as '301 King's Road', while Patrick was
described as 'Author of 245 Gertrude Street Chelsea'. .... Shortly afterwards
Patrick himself left Gertrude Street for good to join Elizabeth at their new
flat at 301 King's Road. 196.
(19) DK, 88.
(20) NT, Godfrey and Victor charitably arranged for the poverty-stricken young
family to leave London and live in a small semi-detached dwelling in the Suffolk
countryside, which lay within reach of Godfrey's home at Thorpe-next-Norwich and
whose rent they paid. 198.
(21) NT, 208.
(22) NT, It seems that my mother somehow discovered (perhaps through a well-placed
contact) that the tenancy would shortly become available, and arranged to obtain
it for herself. The rent was a mere £70 a year, and the prospect of living for
the first time in such a delightful house with her beloved Patrick proved too
strong to resist. 275.
(23) DK, 'On 20 July [1945] Patrick signed the document to change his...surname to
O'Brian', 104.
(24) NT, 342.
(25) NT, The entrance to the valley of Cwm Croesor proved to be blocked by a
romantic if impractical pseudo-medieval gatehouse, through which Patrick had
earlier passed on his journey to visit the home of his landlord, Clough
Williams-Ellis. Typically he had failed to register the obstacle it might
present to a large vehicle. ... Unfortunately this placed the O'Brian's removal
van in the uncomfortable situation of the camel attempting to thread the
needle's eye. 344.
(26) NT, when Patrick was granted custody in August 1945 he had seen Richard for
three afternoons that year. 405.
(27) NT, At teh end of 1947 the O'Brians were able to takae over the lease of
Moelwyn Bank in the following spring. 444.
(28) DK, 'He had found their new home: Collioure, the village along the escape
route from Vichy France to Spain'.
(29) NT, At the beginning of the second week of September the couple set off for
France. 499.
(30) NT, Elizaberth was eventually allotted custody on 14 November, when the court
granted her 'care and control' of her son 'until further order'. 491.
(31) DK, 'On 17 June [1995], in the Birthday Honours of the Queen, he was
appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire'.
(32) ABR, 'Connie, Nora and I were also withdrawn from college at this time
[1924], the fees for private education proving more than the family finances
could support. Both twins entered nursing chool, and young Pat and I went to
St Marylebone Grammar School', 23.
(33) NT, The fees at Birkbeck College were £5 a term, and Patrick began his
studies there in the autumn of 1932. The purpose of the course was to gain the
matriculation, which required a pass in five subjects. A restricted choice was
permitted, from which Patrick selected mathematics, Latin, French, English and
English history. 119.
(34) NT, 123.
(35) DK, 'for whatever reason, Acting Pilot Officer Patrick Russ's commission was
terminated on 1 December [1934]', 63.
(36) London Gazette, London Gazette, 'Royal Air Force: The short service
commissions of the undermentioned Acting Pilot Officers in probation are
terminated on cessation of duty - 29th November 1934: William Ocock Pridham,
Douglas George Scott; 1st December 1934: Basil Stuart Francis, Richard Patrick
Russ, Thomas Brisbane Yule'.
(37) NT, Having passed his interview and medical examination, he was accepted as
an acting pilot officer on a probational six-year commission. On 14 September
he arrived with other young recruits at the RAF Inland Area Depot at Uxbridge,
Middlesex. There he was issued with his uniform and other equipment, and a
fortnight later he and his companions were posted to No. 5 Flying Training
School at Sealand, five miles north-west of Chester. 129.
(38) NT, "Very backward pupil who appears to be temperamentally unsuitable.
Unlikely to make an efficient service pilot", 134.
(39) NT, 185.
(40) NT, my mother arrangeed for Patrick to be enrolled at the same ambulance
station as herself, 248.
(41) NT, 493.
(42) NT, They were married on 27 February of the following year [1936] at Chelsea
Register Office. Witnesses: Jose Birt and E.H. Taaffe, 156.
(43) DK, 'Elizabeth was an orphan from the village of Penycae Rhosllanerchrugog in
north-east Wales. her mother had been killed, probably by influenza, in 1914,
when Elizabeth was just three. Her father - a clay miner - died four years
later', 64.
(44) NT, Elizabeth Jones was an attractive twenty-four-year-old, who was born in
the little village of Pen-y-Cae near the mining town of Rhossslanerchrugog in
north-east Wales, where her father worked as a collier. Tragically she had lost
both her parents in early childhood, and found herself an orphan at the age of
seven. Her education had been rudimentary, and Welsh was her first language.
153.
(45) NT, At the time of their marriage the young couple were registered as living
together in a basement flat at 2a Oakley Street, at the corner of King's Road.
(46) NT, some time after Patrick left home in 1940 his brother Godfrey and his
wife Connie, who were devout Christians, provided a home for his wife Elizabeth
and their two small children at their home outside Norwich.
(47) NT, 260.
(48) NT, On 20 March 1944 she [Elizabeth] submitted a petition for the dissolution
of her marriage. It was not contested by Patrick, and in due course a decree
nisi was issued by the High Court on 18 December. 284.
(49) NT, On 18 December a decree nisi was granted to Elizabeth Russ The judge
awarded her custody of Richard, allowing Patrick drastically reduced access to
his son: 'Three to four days during the Christmas holidays, Two days during the
Easter holidays, and one day at school during each school term all such access
to be during the daytime only.', 293.
(50) NT, 153.
(51) DK, 'On 2 February 1937, at St Mary Abbots Hospital in Kensington, she gave
birth to a baby boy. They named him Richard Francis Tudor; Richard after his
father, Francis for the couple's good friend Francis Cox, a Chelsea painter,
and, because of Elizabeth's pride in her Welsh heritage, Tudor for the royal
house of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, which was Welsh in origin. His mother
called him 'Ricky'', 68.
(52) NT, Elizabeth 'came to London with Richard to find employment. I then
decided to send Richard to a Roman Catholic School', 259.
(54) NT, Despite the fact that he would now barely see his son from one year's end
to another, Patrick's concern for Richard's education led him to commit himself
to the financial sacrifice of sending him to boarding preparatory school. Seven
was generally the age when boys were sent away to school and Richard would be
eight in February. Southey Hall was situated in the countryside near Exeter.
The fees amounted to 45 guineas a term. with additional expenses required for
travel, clothing, equipment, and pocket money. The Michaelmas term of 1944 was
the last that Richard spent at the Servite School, and on 16 January 1945 he set
off from Waterloo station with his new companions to begin a fresh life at
Southey Hall. 293.
(55) NT, '[Richard] From my point of view he was teaching me mainly useless
things. Arithmetic was OK. English was fine. But I couldn't see the point of
Latin. He was a pretty rigorous teacher. He didn't like mistakes. If I made
one, I would be told to put it right, and if I went on getting it wrong, he
would cane me, but not heavily'', 415.
(56) NT, 420.
(57) DK, 'O'Brian's son, Richard Russ, now sixty-three, lives in London with his
wife Mimi. A mechanical engineer by training, Russ owns a company called London
Screen Printing', 391.
(58) DK, 'Richard married Mimi Parotte on 1 July [1964]. Elizabeth had said she
would not attend if Patrick did, so Richard and Mimi did not invite Patrick and
Mary to the wedding. The breach was complete. Patrick and Richard never spoke
to each other again.'
Mimi 'daughter of a Belgian father and an English mother ...hidden downed RAF
pilots in their attic', 136, 196.
(59) DK, 'On 31 March 1942....Patrick's three-year-old daughter, Jane, died of
complications caused by spina bifida', 93.
Name Index