Straight on Till Morning
Page 43
It was a horrifying moment, and though it was quickly established that no bones were broken, Beryl was clearly in pain from the bruising her legs and ribs suffered in the tall. Her carrier had gallantly taken most of the impact and actually landed with Beryl on top of him, but it was an anxious little party who rushed Beryl back to her cottage and awaited the doctor’s arrival. Beryl was sedated and slept well, probably – according to friends – the best night’s sleep she’d had for a long time.
Although no damage was sustained her doctor thought it best to use the opportunity to get Beryl into hospital for X-rays and general care. Despite her dislike of hospitals, she did not appear to find this stay unpleasant. News of her accident brought her visits from many friends. Each day her two dogs were brought in by her servants and Beryl was allowed to have her customary glass of vodka and orange each afternoon. She was clearly seriously undernourished and the hospital used the opportunity to make sure she ate well and properly; she gained weight rapidly on a good diet and seemed happy and talkative. She even walked a little. On her discharge from hospital, bolstered by renewed vigour which came from a combination of good diet and lots of mental stimulation, she spent the summer happily enough. Paddy Migdoll wrote regularly to me saying that Beryl was in better health than she had been for a long time.
As the date of the fiftieth anniversary of her flight drew closer, plans were made by various bodies to celebrate the day. Beryl was almost the last of the great aviation figures in a line which had included Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart, Wiley Post, Amy Johnson and Jim Mollison. At Abingdon, the Royal Air Force particularly wanted to mark the anniversary, and with the help of the original sponsors of Beryl’s flight, Smith’s Industries and Castrol, and surprisingly, the Province of Nova Scotia, they commissioned a bronze model of the Vega Gull. This they hoped could be presented to Beryl in person at Abingdon on the anniversary of the flight. Though there was never really any hope of Beryl being fit enough to make the journey, she talked happily about her supposed trip, but also about an invitation through George Gutekunst to visit California. ‘I think I’d like to go back and see my lovely house,’ she said.
One day towards the end of July she was pottering around in her cottage – she managed to walk a little now and then – when she tripped over her dog Tookie, whom she had just stopped to pat. She broke her hip in the fall and was again rushed to hospital. Paddy Migdoll saw her there on 29 July, propped up with pillows and disagreeing violently with the theory that her leg was broken. Beryl was still experiencing the numbness that occurs after fracture and may also have been given pain-killing drugs. She and Paddy spent the time discussing the proposed trip to England in September. Beryl was still determined to attend if she could, and if Paddy had any doubts this was not the time to voice them.
The X-rays revealed a bleak picture. Beryl’s hip joint was badly shattered. It was not a clean break but a complex shattering of the joint. ‘The surgeon told me that if they did not operate she would certainly die. If they did operate, there was a fifty-fifty chance she’d make it,’ Jack Couldrey stated. ‘I had no option really.’44 Following the long operation Beryl showed signs of fighting back and the hospital were pleased with her progress. Paddy visited her in post-operative recovery and found her friend remarkably happy and mentally strong, and so she was surprised when two days after the operation she learned that Beryl had been moved into intensive care. It was pneumonia.
Even Beryl could not fight this killer of the aged, and in the early hours of 3 August she slipped quietly from life. She had been unconscious for most of the previous day and did not speak to anyone.
On 4 September 1986, the fiftieth anniversary of the famous flight across the Atlantic, a Thanksgiving Service for Beryl’s life was held at St Clement Danes Church in London. Unlike the day – fifty years earlier – when Beryl had lifted her little Vega Gull into glowering clouds and fitful stormy rain, this was a golden September day full of blue sky and autumn colours. The sunlight streamed through the stained-glass windows of the lovely Wren church, catching the massed white chrysanthemums which held knots of ribbons in Beryl’s racing colours.
A packed congregation of friends from every sphere of life in which Beryl had been involved – racing, aviation and literature, from Kenya, America and all corners of the British Isles – heard Beryl’s friend George Bathurst Norman read an eloquent tribute to the woman he had recognized as unique even as a small boy, being taught by her to play cards in her house at Naro Moru.
‘Around Beryl,’ he said, ‘life was never dull. Like a comet passing through the firmament she lit up all around her. None who came into contact with her could fail to recognize the genius of a truly remarkable person. I like to think that the place where she now is, is a happier and more interesting place because of her presence…Kwaheri, Beryl; God bless you and God speed.’
APPENDIX I
Published works by Beryl Markham
West with the Night
1942 Houghton Mifflin (USA)
1943 Harrap & Co Ltd (UK)
West with the Night
1983 North Point Press (USA)
1984 Virago Press Ltd (UK)
Short stories published in the USA:
‘The Captain and his Horse’
(first published August 1943, Ladies’ Home Journal)
‘Something I Remember’
(first published 29 January 1944, Collier’s Magazine)
‘Your Heart Will Tell You’
(first published January 1944, Ladies’ Home Journal)
‘Appointment in Khartoum’
(first published 22 April 1944, Collier’s Magazine)
‘The Splendid Outcast’
(first published 2 September 1944, Saturday Evening Post)
‘Brothers are the Same’
(first published 24 February 1945, Collier’s Magazine)
‘The Transformation’
(first published January 1946, Ladies’ Home Journal)
‘The Quitter’
(first published June 1946, Cosmopolitan)
Note: Beryl Markham’s short stories have now been compiled into an anthology for publication in 1987 under the title The Splendid Outcast, by Century Hutchinson (UK) and North Point Press (USA).
APPENDIX II
CLASSIC WINNERS TRAINED BY BERYL MARKHAM
Note: Beryl’s best season was 1963/64 when she achieved a total of forty-six winners (including the above classics). This represented a major number of winners at every meeting held during that year in Kenya.
NOTES
Unless otherwise stated interviews were conducted by the author.
CHAPTER 1
1 Correspondence with Secretary of Old Reptonian Society.
2 Archive Records, Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst.
3 Private correspondence between the author and Colonel Ward, Regimental Secretary, King’s Own Scottish Borderers.
4 Details extracted from the ‘Last Will and Testament of Richard Henry Clutterbuck who died on 29th June 1891 at Durran Hill, Carlisle’.
5 ibid., and information supplied by Mr Nigel Clutterbuck, Salisbury, September 1986.
6 Private correspondence between the author and Colonel Ward, Regimental Secretary, King’s Own Scottish Borderers.
7 English Fox Hunting, Raymond Carr, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1976.
8 Mrs Frankie Iceley, in private correspondence with the author, recalled that even in old age Clara’s voice retained its sweetness.
9 Clara’s father was Josiah William Alexander, late of the Indian Civil Service in Indore.
10 Each pack of foxhounds has its own territory in which it may hunt. This territory is defined by the Masters of Foxhounds, and is referred to as ‘the country’. At Melton Mowbray in Leicester the borders of The Quorn, The Belvoir and The Cottesmore countries come together – hence its place in foxhunting lore.
11 Entry in Parish Register, St Mary’s Church, Ashwell, Rutland. Technically, the county of Rutland no
longer exists; the village of Ashwell, three miles from Oakham and Whissendine, is now part of the county of Leicestershire, whilst the Cottesmore country with its copse-crowned hills and open rolling vales, is still considered to provide the cream of English foxhunting.
12 Interview with Mrs Doreen Bathurst Norman, Jersey, 1986.
13 Private (unpublished) hunting diary of Miss S. Chaplin, 1880–1900. Property of the author.
14 Kelly’s Directory for the Counties of Leicestershire and Rutland, 1904.
15 ‘Nearly ten thousand pounds a mile were expended upon its construction.’ See My African Journey, Winston S. Churchill, Hodder & Stoughton, 1908.
16 The Lunatic Express, Charles Miller, Macdonald, 1971; and J.J. Toogood mss, Rhodes House Library, Oxford. ref: AFR s.782.
17 Unpublished memoir, Miss Margaret Elkington, Rhodes House Library, Oxford, ref: AFR s.1558.
18 My African Journey, Winston S. Churchill, Hodder & Stoughton, 1908.
19 East African Standard, 30 July 1904.
20 My African Journey, Winston S. Churchill, Hodder & Stoughton, 1908.
21 African Rainbow, H.K. Binks, Sidgwick & Jackson, 1959.
22 White Man’s Country, Elspeth Huxley, Chatto & Windus, 1935.
23 East African Standard, 4 August 1904.
24 White Man’s Country by Elspeth Huxley (Chatto & Windus 1935) is the authorised biography of Lord Delamere and the standard work on white settlement in Kenya.
25 Beryl Markham, during interview March 1986, Nairobi.
26 White Man’s Country, Elspeth Huxley, Chatto & Windus, 1935.
27 Rhodes House library; Elspeth Huxley interview with C.B. Clutterbuck, Elburgon, Kenya, 1932: ref AFR s. 782 (the rupee equates to 20 new pence).
28 White Man’s Country, Elspeth Huxley, Chatto & Windus, 1935.
29 The Lunatic Express, Charles Miller, Macdonald, 1971.
30 For further reading see No Easy Way by Elspeth Huxley. This book was a commissioned history of the Kenya Farmers’ Association, and Unga Ltd, published in Nairobi by the East African Standard in 1957.
31 The Lunatic Express, Charles Miller, Macdonald, 1971.
32 East African Standard, 30 July 1927.
33 Interview with Mr Langley Morris, Herefordshire, 1986.
34 ibid.
35 ibid.
36 East African Standard, 21 January 1905. The term ‘hh’ refers to the height of a horse or pony, which is measured in ‘hands’.
37 ‘At the race meeting of February 4th C.B. Clutterbuck rode the following horses: “Dawn” and “The Toy” belonging to Lord Delamere; “Silver King” owned by R.J. Church; “Vivander” owned by W.H. Griers; “Wee Woman” owned by H. Cravens and “Gladys” owned jointly by R.B. Cole and C.B. Clutterbuck.’ East African Standard, February 1905.
38 Rhodes House Library, Elspeth Huxley interview with C.B. Clutterbuck, Elburgon, Kenya, 1932: ref. AFR s.782.
39 Unpublished memoir by Miss Margaret Elkington, Rhodes House Library, Oxford, ref. AFR s.1558.
40 Kenya Chronicles, Lord Cranworth, Macmillan, 1939.
41 Reports in both East African Standard and The Times of East Africa, 28 April 1906.
42 Kenya Diary 1902–1906, Richard Meinertzhagen, Oliver & Boyd, 1957; and republished by Eland Books, 1983. Charles Clutterbuck had gone up to Molo to buy some land for Lord Delamere when this incident took place.
43 ibid.
44 Unpublished memoir by Miss Margaret Elkington, Rhodes House Library, Oxford, ref. AFR s.1558.
45 East African Standard, 4 August 1906.
46 The Times of East Africa, 4 August 1906.
47 White Man’s Country, Elspeth Huxley, Chatto & Windus, 1935.
48 Rhodes House Library, ref. AFR s.782.
49 White Man’s Country, Elspeth Huxley, Chatto & Windus, 1935.
50 Interview with Mr Langley Morris, Herefordshire, 1986.
51 The Lunatic Express, Charles Miller, Macdonald, 1971.
52 The East African Protectorate, Sir Charles Eliot, Edward Arnold, 1905.
53 My African Journey, Winston S. Churchill, Hodder & Stoughton, 1908.
54 ‘Master Richard Clutterbuck (aged six years) sailed on s.s. Natal 28 August 1906 northbound for Brindisi and Trieste, thence overland to England via Paris and Calais.’ See East African Standard, I September 1906. Richard travelled in the company of ‘Mr and Mrs Cholmley and Miss Cholmley’.
55 Kenya Chronicles, Lord Cranworth, Macmillan, 1939.
56 ‘Mrs Clara Clutterbuck sailed on 28 November 1906, aboard s.s. Djemnah to Marseille and overland to England.’ East African Standard, 1 December 1906.
57 Reports in East African Standard: 22 July 1905: ‘Major H.F. Kirkpatrick came down [to Nairobi] from Kismayu by the s.s. Juba; subsequently went to England “on leave”.’ Returned to Kenya on 17 February 1906.
CHAPTER 2
1 Evanson Muwangi, who worked at Green Hills farm when Beryl was a child, interviewed by the production team of World without Walls, Njoro, 1984. Mr Muwangi lost a leg in Clutterbuck’s saw mill and has worked on the site ever since for a succession of owners. He is now employed as a wool-spinner.
2 Private correspondence between Doreen Bathurst Norman and the author.
3 ‘Something I Remember’ by Beryl Markham (c. 1944).
4 Private correspondence between Doreen Bathurst Norman and the author.
5 Interview with Beryl Markham, Nairobi, April 1986.
6 Mrs Tobina Cole (wife of Lady Delamere’s nephew) told the author that the two farms were about eight miles apart and as the only method of transport was riding, she doubted if the two families had daily contact as claimed by Beryl in her memoir. ‘Clutterbuck,’ Mrs Cole recalled, ‘could talk of nothing except horses and perhaps one would not wish to see that sort of neighbour every day,’ but she felt that Lady Delamere would have been very kind to the motherless little girl.
7 Kenya Diary 1902–1906, Richard Meinertzhagen, Eland Books, 1983.
8 Rhodes House Library, Oxford, notes on E. Huxley’s interview with C.B. Clutterbuck, Elburgon, 1932, ref. AFR s.782.
9 White Man’s Country, Elspeth Huxley, Chatto & Windus, 1935.
10 Interview with Mr Langley Morris, Herefordshire, April 1986.
11 Rhodes House Library, Oxford, ref. AFR s.782.
12 My African Journey, Winston S. Churchill, Hodder & Stoughton, 1908.
13 Isak Dinesen: The Life of Karen Blixen, Judith Thurman, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1980 (p 153).
14 Interview with Beryl Markham, Nairobi, March 1986.
15 ‘Something I Remember’, by Beryl Markham (c. 1944).
16 My African Journey, Winston S. Churchill, Hodder & Stoughton, 1908.
17 Interview with Doreen Bathurst Norman, Jersey, 1986.
18 Unpublished memoir by Miss Margaret Elkington, Rhodes House Library, Oxford, ref. AFR s.1558.
19 Extract from a short story by Beryl Markham entitled ‘Something I Remember’, written in 1943.
20 Extract from unpublished page of manuscript in Beryl Markham’s papers, by kind permission of the late Beryl Markham.
21 There were two sons of Richard Henry Clutterbuck’s first marriage: Henry Baldwin Clutterbuck, and Charles Baldwin Clutterbuck – Beryl’s father.
22 Interview with Mr Nigel N. Clutterbuck, Salisbury, 1986.
23 Beryl made this statement to Associated Press journalist Barry Schlachter during an interview in 1983.
24 Interview with Langley Morris, Herefordshire, April 1986.
25 Interview with Beryl Markham, Nairobi, March 1986.
26 Interview with Langley Morris, Herefordshire, April 1986. Mr Morris explained that it became customary to dose any farm animal which was dying of natural causes with strychnine. Prior to this practice the Africans would often deliberately injure or poison an animal in order to be given the meat. ‘They were not above breaking an animal’s leg, or feeding it with some herb which made it appear sick in order to provide meat for some feast. I even heard
that they poured boiling water down one cow’s throat.’
27 Interview with Langley Morris, Herefordshire, April 1986.
28 Mr Ian Quiller Orchardson, son of William Quiller Orchardson RA, eventually produced a huge manuscript entitled ‘The Kipsigis’. It is well written, highly readable and covers all social customs from birth to death, as well as a section on language. He says in the introduction: ‘Why write a book on the Kipsigis? Simply because it has not been done previously…if the well known book on the Nandi by Sir A.C. Hollis treats of an adjacent tribe – differing no more from the Kipsigis than Yorkshiremen do from the men of Kent.’ The manuscript is lodged at the Rhodes House Library, Oxford.
29 Interview with Miss Pamela Scott, Deloraine, Kenya, March 1986.
30 Interview with Mrs Doreen Bathurst Norman, Jersey, May 1986.
31 ibid.
32 ibid.
33 Out in the Midday Sun, Elspeth Huxley, Chatto & Windus, 1985; unpublished memoir by Miss Margaret Elkington, Rhodes House Library, Oxford, ref. AFR s.1558.
34 Even in those days, when the accounts of killing ‘big game’ read like unmitigated carnage, it was considered wrong or ‘unsporting’ to kill any animal ‘in milk’.
35 Unpublished memoir by Miss Margaret Elkington, Rhodes House Library, Oxford, ref. AFR s.1558.
36 West with the Night, Beryl Markham, Harrap, 1943 and Virago Press, 1986 (UK).
37 Unpublished memoir by Miss Margaret Elkington, Rhodes House Library, Oxford, ref. AFR s.1558.
38 ibid.
39 Interview with Mr Nigel N. Clutterbuck, Salisbury, 1986.
40 Short story by Beryl Markham, entitled ‘Brothers are the Same’ written in 1944.
41 Black Laughter, Llewelyn Powys, Macdonald, 1953.
42 Interview with Beryl Markham, Nairobi, March 1986.
43 ibid.
44 Interview with Beryl Markham, Nairobi, March 1986 and letter from Doreen Bathurst Norman to author, April 1986.