Who is This ? ? ?

[David Ridgus]

[quote name="ridgus" post="2392940" timestamp="1461613740

David

Cathleen Nesbitt, lover of Rupert Brooke (and the first actress to play Yasmin in Flecker's 'Hassan' on the English stage).

You have it seaJane. Reading up on Miss Nesbitt I was astonished to discover that she played Henry Higgins' mother both in the film 'My Fair Lady' and on stage in 1980 at the age of 91! I wonder what she thought of the extraordinary position 'The Soldier' had come to occupy in the years since his death. To have Brooke's fiancée still alive in the 1980s seems one of those strange dislocations of time that early death juxtaposed with long life can create.

His recently discovered love letters to her show him completely besotted.

David

[seaJane]

She was also Lady Catherine De Burgh to Olivier's Darcy in the film of Pride and Prejudice, if I recall correctly.

I wrote to her in August 1982, as I was going to be involved in a stage production of 'Hassan' at Oxford, to ask if she had any memories of the original production - only to have a letter back from her agent saying that she had died three days before I sent the letter ...

[seaJane]

Uncle George, is that perchance Eleanor Farjeon?

[neverforget]

VAD nurse, Annie Nelson Drummond?

[Uncle George]

Uncle George, is that perchance Eleanor Farjeon?

Not her Jane, no.

VAD nurse, Annie Nelson Drummond?

Yes! Lover of Ivor Gurney: it is said that losing her contributed to his breakdown in 1918.

"Until recently, little was known about Annie Drummond, the woman Gurney dreamed of getting to settle down with and make 'a solid rock foundation for me to build on - a home and a tower of light', and whose 'beautiful simplicity' reminded him of 'the kind of fundamental sweet first thing one gets in Bach, not to be described, only treasured.' "

http://www.geneva.edu/~dksmith/gurney/contemporaries

[neverforget]

To continue the LOTWP theme; who is this???

[Uncle George]

To continue the LOTWP theme; who is this???

mw114449.jpg

Is this Stephen Tennant, another of Siegfried Sassoon's lovers and said to be the model for Sebastian Flyte in 'Brideshead Revisited'?

[neverforget]

Is this Stephen Tennant, another of Siegfried Sassoon's lovers and said to be the model for Sebastian Flyte in 'Brideshead Revisited'?

Not him.Both poet and lover were Fabians, and pacifists. The poet's brother was also a pacifist, who was imprisoned as a conchie.

[Michelle Young]

Doesn't look like Stephen Tennant, is it Kyrle Leng?

[neverforget]

Doesn't look like Stephen Tennant, is it Kyrle Leng?

Sorry, not Leng either. He is a writer, who became an active socialist. Will post a poem if you're still stuck.

[Uncle George]

Sorry, not Leng either. He is a writer, who became an active socialist. Will post a poem if you're still stuck.

Is he G.D.H. Cole, husband of Margaret Postgate?

[neverforget]

It is indeed Uncle, well played. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._D._H._Cole

The Falling Leaves Related Poem Content Details

BY MARGARET POSTGATE COLE

November 1915

Today, as I rode by,

I saw the brown leaves dropping from their tree

In a still afternoon,

When no wind whirled them whistling to the sky,

But thickly, silently,

They fell, like snowflakes wiping out the noon;

And wandered slowly thence

For thinking of a gallant multitude

Which now all withering lay,

Slain by no wind of age or pestilence,

But in their beauty strewed

Like snowflakes falling on the Flemish clay.

[Uncle George]

Certainly the friend of a War Poet. Believed to be the inspiration for a famous poem. Possible lover. Who is he ? ? ?

[neverforget]

Certainly the friend of a War Poet. Believed to be the inspiration for a famous poem. Possible lover. Who is he ? ? ?

Alexis Helmer ? who`s death inspired McCrae to pen "In Flanders Fields".

[Uncle George]

Alexis Helmer ? who`s death inspired McCrae to pen "In Flanders Fields".

Yes indeed.

Inspiration:

http://www.greatwar.co.uk/poems/john-mccrae-in-flanders-fields-inspiration.htm

Possible lover:

http://www.seankheraj.com/heterocentrism-in-canadian-history-the-john-mccrae-controversy/

[Uncle George]

This lover of a war poet is not that well-known (though she has her Wikipedia page). The poet's correspondence with her has been noted for its eroticism and for its frank description of life in the trenches. Who is she ? ? ?

[Knotty]

UG

She is Madeleine Pagès, she was the fiancée of the French poet, Guillaume Apollinaire, formerly the Russian known as Guglielmo Alberto Wladimiro Alessandro Apollinare de Kostrowitzky . He first met her on a train in January 1915, and wrote a series of letters of an erotic nature to her, he became engaged to her but his "love" wained after a final meeting Christmas 1915,his final letter to her being sent in 1916.

He served initially with the 38th Artillery Regiment,but requested a transfer to the French 96 Infantry, and as a 2Lt he was severely wounded on 17/3/1916, he survived but succumbed to Spanish flu on 9/11/1918.

John

Edited 27 April , 2016 by Knotty

[Uncle George]

UG

She is Madeleine Pagès, she was the fiancée of the French poet, Guillaume Apollinaire, formerly the Russian known as Guglielmo Alberto Wladimiro Alessandro Apollinare de Kostrowitzky . He first met her on a train in January 1915, and wrote a series of letters of an erotic nature to her, he became engaged to her but his "love" wained after a final meeting Christmas 1915,his final letter to her being sent in 1916.

He served initially with the 38th Artillery Regiment,but requested a transfer to the French 96 Infantry, and as a 2Lt he was severely wounded on 17/3/1917, he survived but succumbed to Spanish flu on 9/11/1918.

John

Another [EDIT: near-] perfect answer John. [!]

http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2015/08/26/a-new-kind-of-refinement/

[Knotty]

Just noticed I entered the wrong date to his wounding which came 8 days after he became a French citizen. I have amended my original post to 17/3/1916

As an aside he was also a minor Latvian-Polish aristocrat

John

[Ron Clifton]

As an aside he was also a minor Latvian-Polish aristocrat

John

I think that "minor" is perhaps unnecessary here. I don't think there are any major ones!

Ron

[seaJane]

Not so much LotWP as WotWW - Wife of the War Writer.

[Uncle George]

Not so much LotWP as WotWW - Wife of the War Writer.

Image.jpg

Is she Jutta Ilse Zambona, wife of Erich Maria Remarque? His other wife was Paulette Goddard, and I believe he also had an affair with Marlene Dietrich.

[seaJane]

Good heavens, he got around!

But no, she isn't. No such shenanigans in that couple as far as I know.

[neverforget]

Good heavens, he got around!

But no, she isn't. No such shenanigans in that couple as far as I know.

Is she Agnes Mary, (Lady Gibbs) ?

[seaJane]

No, although she was a Lady eventually (mind you, she was nobly connected beforehand, so she might have been anyway).