The Real Mrs Miniver (43 page)

Curtis Brown, Anne, Jan's secretary

Curtis Brown, Beatrice (writer, Bea Horton)

Darling, Hon. Diana (fellow pupil and member of the Scratch Society, died unmarried, 1961)

Davis, Bette (1908–89, actress)

Dawson, Geoffrey (1874–1944, editor of
The Times
)

de Tapla, Anne (of NYC, benefactress of the Placzeks)

Dearmer, Revd Percy (1867–1936, Canon of Westminster)

Dolf,
see
Placzek family

Donne, John (1573–1631, the poet)

Douglas,
see
Anstruther family

Drummond, Gena (fellow pupil)

Duchess of Atholl
(Canadian Pacific liner, built 1928, 20, 119 tons, converted to a troopship, torpedoed 1942)

Dunkirk evacuation

Edinburgh; Bilston Lodge

Egypt, J's visit; Tony on active service in

Eisler, Fritz, doctor in Vienna, Dolf's stepfather

Eisler, Pauly, formerly Plazcek, Dolf's mother

Ernst, Morris Leopold (1888–1976, NYC attorney)

Eton College, Berkshire

Fadiman, Clifton (1902–99, writer, question-master of
Information, Please!
)

Fleming, Peter, OBE (1907–71, writer)

Forster, E. M., OM (1879–1970, author)

Fox, James (born 1939, as child actor played Toby in
Miniver Story
)

France

Franklin, Sydney, film producer

Froeschel, George (a screen writer of
Mrs Miniver
)

Garson, Greer (1904–96, actress, played Mrs Miniver, married Richard Ney, divorced)

Gascoigne, Kathleen (childhood friend)

George School, Newtown, Pennsylvania (Janet's school)

Getts, Clark H. (NYC lecture tour booking agent)

Golenpaul, Dan (1900–74, of 5th Ave., NYC, creator of
Information, Please!
)

Goebbels, Josef (1897–1945, Nazi propaganda minister)

Good, Annie ‘Mabel', ‘Nannie' (born in England, 1904, brought up in Canada, returned to London, worked as the Maxtone Graham nannie, 1931–40, and as caretaker at Wellington Square and Alexander Place, 1945–53; unmarried; died 1983)

Gordonstoun, Elgin, Morayshire (a house until 1934, then a school; Jamie's school after an unsuccessful start at Eton)

Gracie, J's maid, NYC

Gregory, Sir (John) Roger (1861–1938, solicitor)

Gregynog, Montgomeryshire, now Powys, Wales (a Sudeley property)

Gunther, John (1901–70, author of
Inside Europe
)

Hahn, Kurt, CBE (1886–1974, founder of Gordonstoun School)

Halifax, Earl of (1881–1959, British Ambassador to USA)

Halifax, Nova Scotia, and the VE day riots there

Hanbury, Ruth (1901–2000, J's cousin and childhood friend, married Gerald Tenison of Lough Bawn, Co. Monaghan, Eire)

Hanbury-Tracy,
see
Sudeley

Harcourt Brace Inc., publishers

Harvey, Harriet (fellow patient)

Harvey School, Westchester County, NY (Robert's school)

Haycock, Lizzie (J's grandparents' maid)

Hess, Dame Myra, DBE (1890–1965, pianist)

Hewitt-Myring, Philip (born 1900 in Paris; journalist, London; Robert's godfather)

Hilton, James (1900–54, author, main screen writer of
Mrs Miniver
)

Hirsch, Gladys (fellow pupil)

Holland, Mrs Martin, teacher

Horton,
see
Curtis Brown

Hudson, Lucy (‘Lala', J's nannie)

‘Indiana Compromise'

Information Ministry

Jackel, Dr (NYC psychiatrist)

Jamie,
see
Maxtone Graham

Jan,
see
Struther

Janet,
see
Maxtone Graham

Jessel, Vera Pearl (fellow pupil, later Mrs Clive Martyn, 1899–1928)

Johnson, Celia, DBE (1908–82, actress, Mrs Peter Fleming)

Joshua, Nell (fellow pupil)

Joyce,
see
Struther

Karloff, Boris (1887–1969, horror film actor)

Kieran, John (1882–1981, NYC sports journalist)

Kubie, Lawrence (Austrian-born psychoanalyst in NYC)

Lala,
see
Hudson

Launde Abbey, near Oakham (Col. Edward Dawson's house)

Lazarus, René (fellow pupil)

Lee, Canada (Lionel Canegata, 1907–52, welterweight boxer turned actor)

Lehmann, Rosamond, CBE (1901–90, novelist)

Levant, Oscar (1906–72, pianist and actor)

Lewis, Peggy (fellow pupil)

London, and,
passim

Albert Hall, Kensington; Alexander Place, South Kensington; Battersea Park; Bloomsbury House, Great Russell Street; Caroline Place (now Donne Place), Chelsea; Cheyne Walk, Chelsea; Curzon Street, Mayfair; Denbigh Street, Pimlico; Halsey Street, Chelsea; Imperial War Museum; Kilburn Polytechnic; King's Road, Chelsea; Little College Street, Westminster; Lloyds of London; National Gallery wartime concerts; Ormeley Lodge, Ham; Scotland Yard; South Street, Mayfair; Swan Walk, Chelsea; US Embassy and Consulate; Walpole Street, Chelsea; Wellington Square, Chelsea; the dining-room

Lord Baldwin's Appeal for Refugees

Lubbock, Cynthia (fellow pupil, later Mrs Alexander Wedderburn, 1899–1986)

Mason, Michael Henry (1900–82, yachtsman and travel writer, of Freeland, Oxfordshire; Janet's godfather)

Mardenn, Bennes, drama teacher, NYC

Margie, J's secretary, NYC

Marx Brothers

Maxtone Graham family, originally of Cultoquhey, Crieff, Perthshire

(Ellen) ‘Ann', 1899–1991, née Taylor, of Cape Cod, first wife of Patrick

Anthony George, 1854–1930, Tony's bachelor uncle

Anthony James Oliphant, ‘Tony', born Edinburgh, 23 July 1900, J's first husband: joined Scots Guards at Pirbright Camp; to North Africa; prisoner of war; POW life; impresario; camp theatre; post-war ambitions; liberated; reunited with J; effect of POW life; tries for Parliament; wants separation; unfulfilling work; irritated by J; described when asleep; leaves Wellington Square; ‘gentlemanly thing', and divorce; wedding reception for Janet at Cultoquhey; remarries; sells Cultoquhey; moves to Edinburgh and then to Aberlady, East Lothian; his death, India, 8 June 1971

Claudia, formerly Page-Phillips, née Tannert, Robert's wife, the author's mother

Diana Evelyn, née Macgegor, Jamie's first wife, J's daughter-in-law

(Margaret) Ethel, née Blair-Oliphant, 1861–1952, wife of Jim, family historian, mother of Tony

James (Jim), 1863–1940, Chartered Accountant in Edinburgh, Tony's father

James Anstruther (Jamie), J's eldest child, born 10 May 1924 at Walpole Street; later career, two marriages, and children; died November 2001

Janet Mary, J's only daughter, born 24 March 1928 at Sydney Street, married Patrick Rance, q.v.; career, marriage, seven children, and her death, 18 December 1996

Michael and John, born 1929, twin sons of Patrick

Mungo, Lt. Col. in the Jacobite army, 1719, died 1763; his ‘Litany'

Patrick, 1903–65, of 45 Tregunter Road, later of 17 Alexander Place, South Kensington; stockbroker; married twice; Tony's younger brother

‘Peggy', Margaret Louise Rosalind Barne, née Percival, died 1994, Tony's second wife

Peter, born 1927, died in New Guinea, 1963, eldest son of Patrick

Robert Mungo, J's youngest child, born 6 May 1931 at Wellington Square; career, marriage to Claudia, and their daughter Ysenda

Ysenda, of Edinburgh, ‘Os', J's sister-in-law, 1895–1990,
see
Smythe

Ysenda, of London, the author of this book, born 31 December 1962

Mayer, Louis B. (1885–1957, Hollywood film mogul)

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Monson, 9th Baron, died 1940, and his American-born wife, died 1943, described

Moseley, Miss, teacher

Munich crisis of 1938

‘Nannie',
see
Good.

Nash, Ogden (1902–71, humorous writer)

New York City, and onwards,
passim;
Beekman Place; Central Park South; Columbia University and Avery Architectural Library; East 49th Street; East 70th Street; Harlem; Hell's Kitchen; Public Library; Queen's; Radio City Music Hall; Social Register; Trinity School; West 62nd Street; West 82nd Street; West 68th Street; West 87th Street; West 101st Street; West 114th Street; World's Fair

Ney, Richard (born 1917, actor, played Vin Miniver, married Greer Garson, divorced)

Norton, Sir Clifford, KCMG (1891–1990, British Ambassador to Greece), and his wife Noel Evelyn ‘Peter', died 1972

O'Donnell, Cathy (1923–70, played Judy in
Miniver Story
)

Office of War Information (US)

Orde, Cuthbert (‘Turps', 1888–1968, portrait-painter, of Sydney Close, Chelsea)

Pardee, Dr, neurologist, NYC

Paris

Pan's Garden, Beaulieu, Hampshire, house built by Dame Eva Anstruther, later renamed Kelham

Patterson, Hope (fellow patient)

Pearl Harbor attacked

Philipp, Ernst and Franz (Dolf's cousins)

Pidgeon, Walter (1897–1984, actor, played Clem Miniver)

Placzek family, formerly of Vienna (pronounced ‘Plah-check'):

Adolf Kurt, ‘Dolf', J's second husband, from 114 onwards,
passim;
born Vienna 9 March 1913; student in Vienna; as a Jew, excluded from his University when Nazis take over; farewell photographs; refugee to London; meets J; with J at Brighton; sails to NYC; reunited with J; librarianship course at Columbia; crosses the campus; granted US citizenship, and joins US Army; in Army uniform; army service, promotion, manoeuvres, commended; demobilized, and works at Avery Library, Columbia University; promoted; his violin restored from Nazi Vienna; marries J; at picnic in Canada; on board ship; at J's death; remarries; Avery Librarian, and emeritus professor on retirement; edits major architectural reference books, and his Vienna memoirs published; his death, 19 March 2000

‘Bev', Laura Beverley, born 1913, née Robinson, then Mrs Kalitinski; Mrs A. K. Placzek, Dolf's widow, living 2001 on West 87th Street, NYC

concentration camp victims among Dolf's relations

Grand Rabbi of Moravia, Dolf's paternal grandfather

Susan, Dolf's sister

Potter, H. C. ‘Hank' (1904–77, film director;
Miniver Story
was his last film)

Rachel, née Maxtone Graham, J's sister-in-law,
see
Townsend

Rance, Pat (Major Patrick Lowry Cole Holwell Rance, 1918–99, Janet's husband, J's son-in-law)

Raphael, Elsie (fellow pupil)

Richardson, Miss, teacher

Rob, Robbie, Robert,
see
Maxtone Graham

Robeson, Paul (1898–1976, singer and actor)

Robinson, Bev (John Beverley Robinson, 1884–1954, Canadian uncle of Bev Plazcek née Robinson, and his wife Marian)

Roosevelt, Eleanor (1882–1945, the First Lady)

Roosevelt, Franklin D. (1882–1945, President)

Rose, J's maid

Russell, Sheridan (1900–91, musician and hospital almoner, of Cheyne Walk, Chelsea)

Rye, Sussex, and the cottage on the golf course

Sandars, Clare, played Judy Miniver, and her father Eric

Sandberg, Carl (1878–1967, poet)

Sanders, Peter (Arthur Thomas ‘Peter'), 2nd Lieut, Grenadier Guards, 1900–20, son and heir of the future Baron Bayford

Sandwich, Kent

Schmidt, Thomi, of Binghampton, NY

Schurr, Dr Max, of NYC

Schwarz, Gerhard, radiologist, NYC

Scots Guards, Tony's, Jamie's and Robert's regiment

Scratch Society, of London, for young writers

Severn, Christopher, played Toby Miniver

Shepard, Ernest H., OBE (1879–1976, artist); his illustrations

Sherriff, R. C. (1896–1975, a screen writer of
Mrs Miniver
)

Smith, Revd Sydney (1771–1845), quoted

Smythe family (pronounced ‘Smith') of 38 Heriot Row, Edinburgh:

Patrick Cecil, OBE, Writer to the Signet (1888–1969)

Ysenda Mabel, his wife (‘Os', née Maxtone Graham, J's sister-in-law, 1895–1990)

Patrick Mungo, their first son, jazz pianist (1923–1983)

(David) Philip, their second son (1925–1959)

Charles Maxtone, their youngest son (1928–95)

Spencer, Charles Nicholas, and his wife ‘Oscar' (artists, of Cheyne Walk, Chelsea)

Stevenson, Adlai (1900–65, presidential candidate)

Stirling-Home-Drummond-Moray family of Abercairny, Perthshire

Stowe School, Buckingham, Robert's school

Struther, Jan (Joyce Anstruther, Joyce Maxtone Graham, Jan Struther Placzek):

OUTLINE OF EVENTS
:

Born 6 June 1901, London

Parents,
see
Harry Anstruther and Dame Eva Anstruther; they separated

Photographed at age; with her mother; at age

Education

Writer, journalist and poet with pseudonym Jan Struther from age

Learns shorthand and typing; first job at Scotland Yard

The modern maiden

Her first love, Peter Sanders; his suicide

To Egypt with her father

Meets Tony and they fall in love; they marry

Balkan journey

Births of elder son Jamie; of only daughter Janet; and of younger son Robert

Photographed with the three children; with Jamie

Life at Wellington Square

Wrote hymns

Wrote in association with Ernest Shepard

Holidays in Scotland; shooting with Tony; at Crieff Games

They take a cottage on Rye golf course

Begins to be bored by Tony; and Tony's changed attitude to her

Start of mutual infidelity

Economising; they move to an unsatisfactory smaller house; and soon move again

First signs of depression

Peter Fleming suggests writing articles for
The Times
Court page

First
Mrs Miniver
article in
The Times