BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, [9 FEB. 1917]
BRACERS 19121. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

Manchester1^, 2
Friday3

My Beloved

Just one line to say I love you and keep thinking about you all day. It is exciting about Gilbert and Mary4 — I hear he has had a break-down and gone queer. I should like to know the truth.

Last night I spoke on education5 with my uncle Ld. Sheffield6 in the Chair. He spoke after me, at great length, explaining how visionary I was — but he was not objectionable. Tonight I speak to the I.L.P.7 — I met yesterday an American College youth8 who says there are lots of C.O’s among such — not pacifists à la Ford,9 but men willing to be shot. I hope to see more of him and find out about them.  I had known nothing of it before.

Tomorrow I get home to G.S.10 at 2 for a short time and then go to Leith Hill11 till Monday — Goodbye my Darling.

B.

• 1

  [document] Document 200094.

• 2

  [envelope] The Lady Constance Malleson | 43 Bernard Str. | Russell Square. Pmk: MANCHESTER | 5 30 PM | 9 FEB | 1917

• 3

  [date] Colette wrote “9 Feb. 1917” on the envelope.

• 4

  Gilbert and Mary (George) Gilbert Aimé Murray (1866–1957), classical scholar, was professor of Greek at Glasgow University 1889–1899 and Regius Professor of Greek at Oxford University 1908–1936. A passionate supporter of international cooperation, Murray founded the League of Nations Union in 1918 and served as chairman of its executive council until 1938. In 1889 he married Lady Mary Howard (1866–1956), eldest daughter of BR’s maternal aunt, Rosalind Stanley, and George Howard, 9th Earl of Carlisle, at Castle Howard. BR was mistaken about Murray having a break-down in 1917, although he did have a long-standing health problem with his esophagus.

• 5

  spoke on education To the Women’s International League in Macclesfield, Cheshire. The talk was titled “Education and Prejudice” and was reported at length under that title in the Macclesfield Times and East Cheshire Observer, 9 Feb. 1917, p. 5 (B&R D17.00a).

• 6

  Ld.  Sheffield  Edward Lyulph Stanley (1839–1925), BR’s maternal uncle, was a barrister, Liberal  M.P., and was elected a member of the London School Board. In 1873, He married Mary Katherine Bell, daughter of the great steel magnate, Sir Lothian Bell. In 1903, Lyulph became the 4th Baron Stanley of Alderley and 4th Baron Sheffield. BR described him as “witty, encyclopaedic, and caustic” (Auto. 1: 34).

• 7

  I.L.P. The Gorton branch. The Independent Labour Party was created in 1893 under the guidance of Keir Hardie. A socialist democratic party, it favoured pacifism during the First World War.

• 8

  an American College youth In his next letter (BRACERS 19122), BR refers to this youth by his last name, Black. Thomas E. Black, a student representative of the American publication Challenge was in touch with BR at this time (BRACERS 347, 5506), asking him to write “a letter to the thinking men of American colleges”. The article, “War and Individual Liberty” (B&R C17.14; 19 in Papers 14), did not appear in Challenge for reasons unknown. Black had founded Challenge in 1916 “to stimulate the free discussion of opinion among American students”; it ceased publication in 1919.

• 9

  Ford BR, reporting what Black said, probably refers to Henry Ford (1863–1947), founder of the Ford Motor Company. In December of 1915 he leased Oscar II, dubbed “the peace ship”, to sail from New York to Europe in attempt to end the war. However, by the time this letter was written he had announced that if America entered the war, he would turn one of his factories over to the American government for war production.

• 10

  G.S. Gordon Square, where the home of his brother Frank was located.

• 11

  Leith Hill In Surrey, where he was to spend the week-end with Catherine Marshall and her parents.