The letter

My stepfather’s loves rivers and birds. Living almost his whole life in Olney in Buckinghamshire, which is still just about separated from the rest of Milton Keynes, he has spent almost ninety years near to one of England’s greatest rivers in the same semi rural retreat that so charmed and comforted the poet, William Cowper. Skylarks can be heard from the gardens of his care home. Our shared love of nature has made it unavoidable that I have to be custodian of many of his books, including collections of the beautiful paintings of Gordon Benningfield and a celebration of rivers by that other Great Ouse lover, H E Bates. But so far the most intriguing book I have come across is a tiny volume of sonnets by a poet I had heard of, Richard Elwes.

It seems that these ‘First Poems’ were to be his last. On the cover there was high praise from Desmond MacCarthy of the Sunday Times, and the collection was dedicated to Anthony Eden, who was Foreign Secretary when they were published, in 1941. There are no biographical details in the book but there is a photograph of the author, which provides some clues about him. He is in full military uniform, and his neatly moustachioed early middle-aged face has an aura of steadfast intensity.

However, it is what was written in the front of the book and what was tucked inside the back that made me realise how special it was

‘ For Nurse Sargent. Richard Elwes- February 1942.’

This would be my stepfather’s aunt.

And in the back , typed in what is now indigo ink, was a letter from Richard Elwes LT:col. to Miss Sargant(sic) thanking her for writing him for writing to him in appreciation of a recent broadcast of his father’s records. He promised that Vaughan William’s song cycle ‘ On Wenlock Edge ‘ would be broadcast in three months time, and signed off with an acknowledgment of a geographical connection.

‘ It was very kind of you and so pleasant to hear from someone who belonged to Billing in the old days’.

All this gave me enough information to take a deeper look. I began with the father whose records had inspired the correspondence in the first place, and thanks to some scratchy recordings available on Spotify was able to hear his voice. Gervase Elwes was the first man ever to be recorded singing ‘ On Wenlock Edge’, ‘ The Dream of Gerontius ‘ over a hundred times, and was the leading English performer of the Brahms Lieder in his time. He was greatly admired by Stanford and Parry. However his career was relatively brief as it began late , in the main due to family expectations, and ended when he was killed aged only 54 in a tragic train accident. Born in Billing Hall in Northamptonshire, he came from a social background where singing professionally was unheard of, so he had no singing training until he was 28, having previously fulfilled family expectations by training in law and becoming a diplomat.

His son Richard’s career also involved a significant swerve . Born in 1901 he became a barrister , working on some historically significant cases, but when war broke out in 1939, he was immediately called up by the Northampton Yeomanry, which he had joined shortly after graduating. Being determined to see action he joined the 69th Infantry Brigade, and was made a captain in the Expeditionary Force, so experienced Dunkirk. Two of the sonnets in his little volume were written about that moment.

One is angry and defiant about the enemy in words which still land today.

‘ God’s pity on you, regimented slaves,

who work your master’s foulness

on the land,

pollute with treachery the friendly waves

and taint the heavens with murder at

command…’

By the time he wrote to Nurse Sargent he was based at the War Office , where he was in charge of matters relating to English prisoners of war, but afterwards he returned to his career in law, and ended up as a Justice in the High Court.

I know little about my stepfather’s aunt apart from that she spent her whole working life as a nurse and midwife, which enabled her to travel the world. She never married.

And if you think the name Elwes is familiar Sir Richard, as he became, had a brother, Simon, who was a portrait artist, who was the grandfather of the actor Cary Elwes, best known for starring in ‘The Princess Bride.’