Fatal Glamour

Fatal Glamour

T
HE
L
IFE OF
R
UPERT
B
ROOKE

PAUL DELANY

© McGill-Queen's University Press 2015

ISBN
978-0-7735-4557-1 (cloth)
ISBN
978-0-7735-8277-4 (e
PDF
)
ISBN
978-0-7735-8278-1 (e
PUB
)

Legal deposit first quarter 2015
Bibliothèque nationale du Québec

Printed in Canada on acid-free paper that is 100% ancient forest free (100% post-consumer recycled), processed chlorine free

McGill-Queen's University Press acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund for our publishing activities.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Delany, Paul, author
Fatal glamour : the life of Rupert Brooke / Paul Delany.

Includes bibliographical references and index.
Issued in print and electronic formats.
ISBN
978-0-7735-4557-1 (bound). –
ISBN
978-0-7735-8277-4 (e
PDF
).
–
ISBN
978-0-7735-8278-1 (e
PUB
)

1. Brooke, Rupert, 1887–1915.  2. Poets, English – 20th century – Biography. I. Title.

PR
6003.R4Z628 2015
821'.912
c2014-907647-9

c2014-907648-7

Acknowledgements

Illustrations

Introduction

1
Rugby, August 1887–September 1906

2
Cambridge: Friendship and Love, October 1906–May 1909

3
The Fabian Basis, October 1906–December 1910

4
Apostles, and Others, October 1906–October 1909

5
Grantchester, June–December 1909

6
Ten to Three, January–September 1910

7
Couples, October 1910–May 1911

8
Combined Operations, January–December 1911

9
Hungry Hands, December 1911–January 1912

10
To Germany with Love, January–April 1912

11
The Funeral of Youth, May–August 1912

12
Raymond Buildings, August 1912–May 1913

13
Stepping Westwards, May 1913–May 1914

14
The Soldier, June–December 1914

15
Gallipoli, January–April 1915

Notes

Bibliography

Index

My first debt is to those members of the Rupert Brooke generation, or their children, who have now passed away: Quentin Bell, Bob Best, Christopher Cornford, David Garnett, Richard Garnett, Catherine Gide, Sophie Gurney, Angela Harris, Sir Geoffrey Keynes, Cathleen Nesbitt, Frances Partridge, Dr Benedict Richards, and Mary Newbery Sturrock. For access to family archives I am specially grateful to Val Arnold-Forster, daughter-in-law of Ka Cox, and to Pippa Harris and Tamsin Majerus, granddaughters of Noel Olivier.

I thank those who provided invaluable insights through personal reminiscences, private documents, or other help: Val Arnold-Forster, Anne Olivier Bell, Michael Hastings, Elizabeth Hollingsworth, Lucilla Shand, Michael Holroyd, H.A. Popham, Sophia Popham, and Julia Rendall. Many others have added pieces to the story, whether in letters or conversation: Peter Ackroyd, Anna Anrep, Nicholas Barker, Lorna Beckett of the Rupert Brooke Society, Alan Bell, Justin Brooke, Keith Clements, Sophia Crawford, Jenny Dereham, Helen Duffy, George Gomori, Keith Hale, Dr Tony Harris, Paul Levy, Ann Radford MacEwan, Angus Macindoe, Perry Meisel, Howard Moseley, Lois Olivier, Peggy Packwood, Tristram Popham, David Pye, Mark Ramage, S.P. Rosenbaum, the Laird of Rothiemurchus, John Schroder, Frederick Schroder, Robert Skidelsky, David Steel, and James L. West III. For archival sources, I am specially indebted to Peter Monteith at the Modern Archive, King's College, Cambridge.

Stephane Roumilhac provided a memorable lunch and tour of the Château de Prunoy, Yonne; Mr and Mrs J. Finlinson showed me their home, formerly The Champions, at Limpsfield; Mary Archer invited me
to the Old Vicarage, Grantchester. The librarians of Rugby and Bedales, and the housemaster of School Field, Rugby, took me over their ground.

In Tahiti I should thank Mareva Poole at the Mairie de Teravao, Moorea; Tipari Gooding; John Taroanui of the Académie Tahitienne; and my partner in detective work, Colette Colligan.

For ideal surroundings in which to work, I am grateful for residencies at Clare Hall, Cambridge, and Playa Summer Lake, Oregon.

For permission to quote from copyright materials, I am indebted to the Trustees of the Rupert Brooke Estate, Jon Stallworthy, and Andrew Motion.

At Simon Fraser University, Dean John Craig gave financial support to my research. Helen Wussow helped with the Virginia Woolf connection. My agents, Georges Borchardt and Andrew Gordon, kept the book on course with their confidence and sound advice. Jonathan Crago and Joanne Muzak at McGill-Queen's University Press recognised the need for speed.

In these times we are reminded constantly of the nightmare of 1914–18, and especially what it meant for British civilians and combatants alike. All living memory of those times has now gone, and it is disappearing daily for those who came after them in the Second World War. In memoriam Paul Lawton, 4th Battalion, Coldstream Guards, 1944–45.

Vancouver, British Columbia

October 2014

Mrs Brooke with Rupert (left) and Alfred, 1898. (Modern Archive, King's College, Cambridge)

Hillbrow School, c. 1901. Mr Thomas Eden, the pedophile headmaster, at centre. Rupert in fourth row, second from right; James Strachey in third row, sixth from right. (Hillbrow School)

Rupert at Rugby School in 1903, hair still cut short. (National Portrait Gallery, London)

Rupert in the Rugby Cadet Corps, 1906, at age eighteen. The antelope badge belongs to the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. (National Portrait Gallery)

School Field House, Rugby, autumn 1906 (detail). Denham Russell-Smith, fifth from right in top row. Alfred Brooke, second from right, top. Charles Lascelles may be below Denham to right, with broad collar. (Rugby School Archives)