Gerald Hugh Tyrwhitt-Wilson, 14th Baron Berners
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Gerald Hugh Tyrwhitt-Wilson, 14th Baron Berners
(18 September 188319 April 1950), also known as Gerald Tyrwhitt, was a British
composer
of classical music
, novelist, painter and aesthete. He is usually referred to as Lord Berners.
, Shropshire
, in 1883.
His father, a naval officer, was rarely home. He was raised by a grandmother who was extremely religious and self-righteous, and a mother who had little intellect and many prejudices. His mother ignored his musical interests and instead focused on developing his masculinity, a trait Berners found to be inherently unnatural.
The eccentricities Berners displayed started early in life. Once, upon hearing that you could teach a dog to swim by throwing him into water, the young Gerald promptly decided that by throwing his mother's dog out the window, he could teach it to fly. The dog was unharmed, though the act earned Berners a beating.
After devising several inappropriate booby traps, Berners was sent off to a boarding school in Cheam
at the age of nine. It was here that he would first explore his homosexuality
; for a short time, he was romantically involved with an older student. The relationship was abruptly ended after Berners accidentally vomited on the other boy.
After he left prep school, Gerald continued his education at Eton College
. Later, in his autobiographies, Berners would reflect on his experiences at Eton, claiming that he had learned nothing while there, and that the school was more concerned with shaping the young men's characters than supplying them with an education.
As well as being a talented musician, Berners was a skilled artist and writer. He appears in many books and biographies of the period, notably portrayed as Lord Merlin in Nancy Mitford
's The Pursuit of Love
. He was a friend of the Mitford family and close to Diana Guinness
.
Berners was notorious for his eccentricity, dyeing pigeons at his house in Faringdon
in vibrant colours and at one point having a giraffe
as a pet and tea companion. His Rolls-Royce
automobile contained a small clavichord
keyboard which could be stored beneath the front seat. At his house he had a 100-foot viewing tower constructed, a notice at the entrance reading: “Members of the Public committing suicide from this tower do so at their own risk”.
He was also subject throughout his life to periods of depression
. These became more pronounced when Berners, who had lived in Rome
from 1939 to 1945, found himself somewhat out of favour after his return to England.
He died in 1950 at Faringdon House, bequeathing his estate to his companion Robert ('Mad Boy') Heber Percy, who lived at Faringdon until his own death in 1987.
His epitaph
on his gravestone reads:
s, including The Triumph of Neptune (1926) (based on a story by Sacheverell Sitwell
) and Luna Park (1930). In later years he composed several songs and film scores, notably for the 1947 film Nicholas Nickleby
.
His friends included the composers Constant Lambert
and William Walton
and he worked with Frederick Ashton
. Walton dedicated Belshazzar's Feast
to Berners, and Lambert wrote a Caprice péruvien for orchestra, on themes from Lord Berners' Le carrosse du St Sacrement.
Berners obtained some notoriety for his roman-à-clef The Girls of Radcliff Hall
(punning on the name of the famous lesbian writer
), published under the pseudonym
"Adela Quebec", in which he depicts himself and his circle of friends, such as Cecil Beaton
and Oliver Messel
, as members of a girls school. This frivolous satire, which was privately published and distributed, had a modish success in the 1930s. The original edition is rare; rumour has it that Beaton was responsible for gathering most of the already scarce copies of the book and destroying them. However, the book was reprinted in 2000.
His other novels, including Romance of a Nose, Count Omega and The Camel are a mixture of whimsy and gentle satire.
Baron Berners
Baron Berners is a title in the Peerage of England.-From creation to first abeyance :The title was created in 1455 for Sir John Bourchier, youngest son of William Bourchier, 1st Count of Eu, and younger brother of Henry Bourchier, 1st Earl of Essex and William Bourcher, Baron FitzWarine...
(18 September 188319 April 1950), also known as Gerald Tyrwhitt, was a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
of classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
, novelist, painter and aesthete. He is usually referred to as Lord Berners.
Life
Berners was born in Apley HallApley Hall
Apley Hall is an English Gothic Revival house located in Stockton, Shropshire. The building was completed in 1811 with adjoining property of of private parkland beside the river Severn. It was once home to the Whitmore , Foster and Avery families...
, Shropshire
Shropshire
Shropshire is a county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. It borders Wales to the west...
, in 1883.
His father, a naval officer, was rarely home. He was raised by a grandmother who was extremely religious and self-righteous, and a mother who had little intellect and many prejudices. His mother ignored his musical interests and instead focused on developing his masculinity, a trait Berners found to be inherently unnatural.
The eccentricities Berners displayed started early in life. Once, upon hearing that you could teach a dog to swim by throwing him into water, the young Gerald promptly decided that by throwing his mother's dog out the window, he could teach it to fly. The dog was unharmed, though the act earned Berners a beating.
After devising several inappropriate booby traps, Berners was sent off to a boarding school in Cheam
Cheam
Cheam is a large suburban village close to Sutton in the London Borough of Sutton, England, and is located close to the southern boundary between Greater London and Surrey. It is divided into two main areas: North Cheam and Cheam Village. North Cheam includes more retail shops and supermarkets,...
at the age of nine. It was here that he would first explore his homosexuality
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
; for a short time, he was romantically involved with an older student. The relationship was abruptly ended after Berners accidentally vomited on the other boy.
After he left prep school, Gerald continued his education at Eton College
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
. Later, in his autobiographies, Berners would reflect on his experiences at Eton, claiming that he had learned nothing while there, and that the school was more concerned with shaping the young men's characters than supplying them with an education.
As well as being a talented musician, Berners was a skilled artist and writer. He appears in many books and biographies of the period, notably portrayed as Lord Merlin in Nancy Mitford
Nancy Mitford
Nancy Freeman-Mitford, CBE , styled The Hon. Nancy Mitford before her marriage and The Hon. Mrs Peter Rodd thereafter, was an English novelist and biographer, one of the Bright Young People on the London social scene in the inter-war years...
's The Pursuit of Love
The Pursuit of Love
The Pursuit of Love is a novel by Nancy Mitford, first published in 1945. It is the first in a trilogy about an upper-class family in the period between the wars...
. He was a friend of the Mitford family and close to Diana Guinness
Diana Mitford
Diana Mitford, Lady Mosley , was one of Britain's noted Mitford sisters. She was married first to Bryan Walter Guinness, heir to the barony of Moyne, and secondly to Sir Oswald Mosley, 6th Baronet, of Ancoats, leader of the British Union of Fascists; her second marriage, in 1936, took place at the...
.
Berners was notorious for his eccentricity, dyeing pigeons at his house in Faringdon
Faringdon
Faringdon is a market town in the Vale of White Horse, Oxfordshire, England. It is on the edge of the Thames Valley, between the River Thames and the Ridgeway...
in vibrant colours and at one point having a giraffe
Giraffe
The giraffe is an African even-toed ungulate mammal, the tallest of all extant land-living animal species, and the largest ruminant...
as a pet and tea companion. His Rolls-Royce
Rolls-Royce Motors
Rolls-Royce Motors was created from the de-merger of the Rolls-Royce car business from Rolls-Royce Limited in 1973. The original Rolls-Royce Limited had been nationalised in 1971 due to the financial collapse of the company, caused in part by the development of the RB211 jet engine...
automobile contained a small clavichord
Clavichord
The clavichord is a European stringed keyboard instrument known from the late Medieval, through the Renaissance, Baroque and Classical eras. Historically, it was widely used as a practice instrument and as an aid to composition, not being loud enough for larger performances. The clavichord produces...
keyboard which could be stored beneath the front seat. At his house he had a 100-foot viewing tower constructed, a notice at the entrance reading: “Members of the Public committing suicide from this tower do so at their own risk”.
He was also subject throughout his life to periods of depression
Clinical depression
Major depressive disorder is a mental disorder characterized by an all-encompassing low mood accompanied by low self-esteem, and by loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities...
. These became more pronounced when Berners, who had lived in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
from 1939 to 1945, found himself somewhat out of favour after his return to England.
He died in 1950 at Faringdon House, bequeathing his estate to his companion Robert ('Mad Boy') Heber Percy, who lived at Faringdon until his own death in 1987.
His epitaph
Epitaph
An epitaph is a short text honoring a deceased person, strictly speaking that is inscribed on their tombstone or plaque, but also used figuratively. Some are specified by the dead person beforehand, others chosen by those responsible for the burial...
on his gravestone reads:
- "Here lies Lord Berners
- One of life's learners
- Thanks be to the Lord
- He never was bored".
Music
Berners' musical works included Trois morceaux, Fantasie espagnole (1919), Fugue in C minor (1924), and several balletBallet
Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
s, including The Triumph of Neptune (1926) (based on a story by Sacheverell Sitwell
Sacheverell Sitwell
Sir Sacheverell Sitwell, 6th Baronet CH was an English writer, best known as an art critic and writer on architecture, particularly the baroque. He was the younger brother of Dame Edith Sitwell and Sir Osbert Sitwell....
) and Luna Park (1930). In later years he composed several songs and film scores, notably for the 1947 film Nicholas Nickleby
Nicholas Nickleby (1947 film)
Nicholas Nickleby is a 1947 British drama film directed by Cavalcanti. The screenplay by John Dighton is based on the 1839 novel The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens...
.
His friends included the composers Constant Lambert
Constant Lambert
Leonard Constant Lambert was a British composer and conductor.-Early life:Lambert, the son of Russian-born Australian painter George Lambert, was educated at Christ's Hospital and the Royal College of Music...
and William Walton
William Walton
Sir William Turner Walton OM was an English composer. During a sixty-year career, he wrote music in several classical genres and styles, from film scores to opera...
and he worked with Frederick Ashton
Frederick Ashton
Sir Frederick William Mallandaine Ashton OM, CH, CBE was a leading international dancer and choreographer. He is most noted as the founder choreographer of The Royal Ballet in London, but also worked as a director and choreographer of opera, film and theatre revues.-Early life:Ashton was born at...
. Walton dedicated Belshazzar's Feast
Belshazzar's Feast (Walton)
Belshazzar's Feast is an oratorio by the English composer William Walton. It was first performed at the Leeds Festival on 8 October 1931. The work has remained one of Walton's most celebrated compositions and one of the most popular works in the English choral repertoire...
to Berners, and Lambert wrote a Caprice péruvien for orchestra, on themes from Lord Berners' Le carrosse du St Sacrement.
Literature
Berners wrote several autobiographical works and some novels, mostly of a humorous nature. His autobiographies First Childhood (1934) and A Distant Prospect (1945) are both witty and affectionate.Berners obtained some notoriety for his roman-à-clef The Girls of Radcliff Hall
The Girls of Radcliff Hall
The Girls of Radcliff Hall is a roman à clef novel in the form of a lesbian girls' school story written in the 1930s by the British composer and bon-vivant Gerald Berners, the 14th Lord Berners, under the pseudonym "Adela Quebec", published and distributed privately in 1932...
(punning on the name of the famous lesbian writer
Radclyffe Hall
Radclyffe Hall was an English poet and author, best known for the lesbian classic The Well of Loneliness.- Life :...
), published under the pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
"Adela Quebec", in which he depicts himself and his circle of friends, such as Cecil Beaton
Cecil Beaton
Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton, CBE was an English fashion and portrait photographer, diarist, painter, interior designer and an Academy Award-winning stage and costume designer for films and the theatre...
and Oliver Messel
Oliver Messel
Oliver Hilary Sambourne Messel was an English artist and one of the foremost stage designers of the 20th century....
, as members of a girls school. This frivolous satire, which was privately published and distributed, had a modish success in the 1930s. The original edition is rare; rumour has it that Beaton was responsible for gathering most of the already scarce copies of the book and destroying them. However, the book was reprinted in 2000.
His other novels, including Romance of a Nose, Count Omega and The Camel are a mixture of whimsy and gentle satire.
Fiction
- 1936 - The Camel
- 1937 - The Girls of Radcliff Hall
- 1941 - Far From the Madding War
- 1941 - Count Omega
- 1941 - Percy Wallingford and Mr. Pidger
- 1941 - The Romance of the Nose
Non-fiction
- 1922 - Lord Berners
- 1934 - First Childhood
- 1945 - A Distant Prospect
See also
- Lord Berners profiled in Loved OnesLoved Ones (book)Loved Ones is a 1985 collection of pen portraits by Diana Mitford. It was published by Sidgwick & Jackson. In 2008, three of the portraits were republished in the collection, The Pursuit of Laughter.-Synopsis:...
, book of pen portraits by close friend, Diana MitfordDiana MitfordDiana Mitford, Lady Mosley , was one of Britain's noted Mitford sisters. She was married first to Bryan Walter Guinness, heir to the barony of Moyne, and secondly to Sir Oswald Mosley, 6th Baronet, of Ancoats, leader of the British Union of Fascists; her second marriage, in 1936, took place at the...
.