Grisewood, Harman, 1906-

Harman (Joseph Gerard) Grisewood was born on Feb. 8, 1906, at Wormleybury, Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, England, the son of Lieutenant-Colonel Harman Grisewood and Lucille Geneviève (Cardozo) Grisewood. He was educated at Ampleforth College , as was his friend and contemporary René Hague, and at Worcester College, Oxford, where he received a degree in English literature in 1927. Mr. Grisewood began his long association with the BBC in 1929 as a member of the repertory company. From 1933 until his retirement in 1964 he was successively an announcer; assistant to the program officer; assistant director of program planning; assistant controller of the European Division; acting controller of the European Division; director of talks; planner and then controller of the Third Programme; director of the spoken word; and, lastly, chief assistant to the director-general. He was editor of 'The Dublin review' from 1949 to 1952 and vice-president of the European Broadcasting Union from 1953 to 1954. He also served on several official government bodies, including the Lord Chancellor's Committee on Defamation and the Younger Committee on Privacy. Among the awards and honors given Mr. Grisewood were the King Christian X Freedom Medal, 1946, Commander of the Order of the British Empire, 1960, and Knight of the Order of Malta, 1960. Mr. Grisewood was the author of an autobiography, 'One thing at a time' (1968), and two novels, 'The recess' (1963) and 'The last cab on the rank' (1964). In addition he edited several works by his friend David Jones: 'Epoch and artist : selected writings' (1959), 'The dying Gaul, and other writings' (1978), and, with René Hague, 'The Roman quarry and other sequences' (1981). Harman Grisewood died on Jan. 8, 1997 at Eye, Suffolk, England. He was survived by his wife, Margaret, neé Bailey, and a daughter, Sabina.

David Michael Jones was born in Brockley, Kent, England, on Nov. 1, 1895. His father was James Jones, a printer's manager, and his mother was Alice Ann Bradshaw, the daughter of a mast and block maker. His mother encouraged his artistic interests and he began sketching at an early age. Some of these childhood sketches not only attracted public attention but also were exhibited at the Royal Drawing Society. From 1909 to 1914 Jones attended the Camberwell School where he was introduced to modern trends in art. His education was interrupted by the First World War, during which he served with the 15th Battalion of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers. From 1919 to 1921 Jones attended the Westminster School of Art in London. In 1921 he was received into the Roman Catholic Church and in 1922 began his artistic association with Eric Gill at Ditchling, Sussex, later following him to Capel-y-ffin, Wales. During this period, after studying wood and copper engraving with Desmond Chute, Jones began producing book illustrations for St Dominic's Press, The Golden Cockerel Press and other publishers. Disappointed with the published reproductions of some of his engravings, Jones turned his attention to watercolor, which would become the dominant medium of his work for the remainder of his life. In 1937 Jones published 'In parenthesis', a volume written in a mixture of poetry and prose and inspired by his experiences in World War I. This was followed in 1952 by 'The anathemata', which was intended to be part of a longer poem, parts of which were collected in 'The sleeping lord, and other fragments' published in 1974. A posthumous volume, 'The Roman quarry, and other sequences', edited by Harman Grisewood and René Hague, appeared in 1981, followed in 2002 by 'Wedding poems', three previously unpublished short poems edited by Thomas Dilworth. In poor health for many years, Jones suffered a stroke and fall in 1970. His last years were spent at the Calvary Nursing Home of the Blue Sisters, Sudbury Hill, London, where he died on Oct. 28, 1974.

René Hague was born of Irish parents in London, England, in 1905. According to Barbara Wall, little is known of his father except that he was a university lecturer in Ireland and France and died young. Not much more information is available about his mother. Wall describes her briefly in her memoir of Hague as becoming a nun shortly after she was widowed. Hague was educated at Ampleforth College, Yorkshire, as was his friend Harman Grisewood. He was an outstanding pupil and won a scholarship to study classics at Oriel College, Oxford, but did not remain there, and in 1924, at age 19, went to live at Capel-y-ffin, Wales, with Father Joseph Woodford, OSB, a monk of Caldey. In Aug. 1924 Eric Gill arrived with his family at Capel-y-ffin, having left Ditchling, Sussex, where he had lived and worked since 1907 with fellow Catholic craftsmen such as Hilary Pepler, printer and founder of St. Dominic's Press. Hague spent another year at Cape-y-ffin, during this period meeting David Jones through Gill and falling in love with Gill's daughter Joan. The next five years, from about 1924 to 1929, Hague spent in London where he worked in George Coldwell's second-hand Catholic bookshop in Red Lion Passage, Holborn. While in London, Hague's friendship with David Jones grew. He was introduced to Jones' circle, which included Jim and Helen Ede, Dr. Charles Burns and his brother Tom Burns, as well as Bernard Wall and Harman Grisewood. Hague's developing interest in printing coincided with Gill's growing desire to produce his own work as an engraver and essayist. In 1930, Gill moved to a farmhouse at Pigotts in Buckinghamshire and set up the Pigotts Press with Hague. At this time René Hague married Joan Gill, and with the Gill family, they would reside at Pigotts until 1963. The Pigotts Press was closed in 1941 after Gill's death. During the war Hague served in the Royal Air Force. In 1946 the press was reestablished, but in 1956 was discontinued permanently. Its records show that it printed for nearly twenty publishers including Faber & Faber, J.M. Dent, Sheed & Ward, The Harvill Press, Rupert Hart-Davis, Cassell, and Collins. In the words of Barbara Wall, "The most outstanding printing achievement of Hague & Gill was David Jones' book ... 'In parenthesis', published by Faber & Faber in 1937." During the post-war period, Hague also worked for the Third Programme of the BBC, which was established in 1946 with Harman Grisewood as controller. Hague made adaptations and translations of Old French literature for broadcast on the Programme. After the Pigotts Press was shut down Hague sustained his family by taking odd jobs, including proof-reading for the Cambridge University Press; revising the Greater Oxford Dictionary, and indexing books for authors. In 1958 Barbara and Bernard Wall settled at Pigotts. The latter was an accomplished translator of French and Italian texts. His special interest was in the Continental Catholic thinkers such as Jacques Maritain and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, the French Jesuit and paleontologist. It was through Bernard Wall that Hague became the translator into English of the works of Teilhard. In 1963 Joan and René Hague moved from Pigotts to Shanagarry, Cork, Ireland, where they resided until their respective deaths on Dec. 25, 1980 and Jan. 19, 1981.

Christopher Hugh Sykes was born at Sledmere near Malton, England, on Nov. 17, 1907, the second son of Mark and Edith Violet (Gorst) Sykes. His father, Sir Mark Sykes, was elected a conservative member of Parliament in 1912 and later served as an adviser to Lloyd George on Middle Eastern affairs. The father's Orientalist interests helped nurture the lifelong interest of the son in the Middle East. Christopher Sykes was educated at Downside School, the Sorbonne, and Christ Church, Oxford. During 1928-1929 Sykes was an honorary attaché at the British Embassy in Berlin, Germany, followed by a posting to the legation at Tehran, Iran, in 1930-31. He embarked in 1933 on a two years' journey through Persia (Iran) and Afghanistan with his friend Robert Byron, who recorded their experiences in the now classic travel memoir, 'The road to Oxiana'. On Oct. 26, 1936 he married Camilla Georgiane Russell, with whom he had a son, Mark Richard. His service in the British Army during World War II included assignment to Middle East Headquarters in Cairo during 1940-41. From 1941 until 1943 Sykes' military career was interrupted by his appointment as second secretary to the British Embassy in Tehran. During 1946 he reported on the Persian Azerbaijan Campaign for the 'Daily mail' of London. In 1948 he joined the British Broadcasting Corporation as deputy controller of the Third Programme and for the next twenty years worked in the Features and Talks departments of the BBC. Sykes's most memorable career, however, is not as diplomat or broadcast journalist but as biographer. His first venture into biography was 'Wassmuss, the German Lawrence' (1936). This was followed by 'Four studies in loyalty' (1946), 'Two studies in virtue' (1953), 'Orde Wingate' (1959), 'Troubled loyalty', a biography of Adam von Trott (1968), 'Nancy: the life of Lady Astor' (1972), and, most notably, 'Evelyn Waugh' (1975). He was also the author of several works of fiction, including 'Answer to question 33' (1948), 'A song of a shirt' (1953), and 'Dates and parties' (1955). Christopher Sykes died at Sledmere, his childhood home, on Dec. 8, 1986.

From the description of The Harman Grisewood papers, 1916-1989 (bulk 1950-1980). (Georgetown University). WorldCat record id: 191850715