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Charles Sydney Gibbes

CHARLES SYDNEY GIBBES

Charles Sydney Gibbes was born on 19 January 1876. His birthplace was the small town of which is more or less in the centre of the United Kingdom. He came from Yorkshire which is the largest county in England. Yorkshire people profess that their county is the most magnificent in the kingdom. They sometimes allude to Yorkshire as ”God’s Own County.”

Gibbes grew up in an industrial town called Rotherham. His father, John, was a bank manager of the Old Bank in Rotherham. Gibbes had several siblings and some of them died young. Gibbes was raised in a Christian household. His family were Protestants like over 90% of the people in Great Britain at the time. Gibbes went to a local school. He then attended Aberystwyth University for a year before applying to Cambridge.

Gibbes was a bright boy and very sincere. His family thought that he should become a minister of religion. Gibbes went up to Cambridge University. This was no small achievement at the time for a middle class boy from a town without a tradition of university education. 

Gibbes enrolled at St John’s College on 27 April 1896. In those times it was not unusual to start university in the middle of the academic year. These days it would be impossible. St John’s was and is a fairly distinguished college. He studied Moral Science Tripos. Moral Science was Philosophy and some Theology. Tripos is the Cambridge way of saying a degree with public exams in all three years of the course’s duration. Gibbes came into contact with many upper class undergraduates. His mild Yorkshire accent was frowned on by the nobbier boys. He soon lost his accent and affected something close to a public school accent.  Gibbes added an ‘e’ to his surname. No one else spells Gibbs that way. He had no trouble graduating in 1899.

Gibbs then stayed on at Cambridge to do a course to prepare him for ordination. He was recognised as being high minded and morally upstanding. His appearance and manners were impeccable. There was a more light hearted side to his personality. He enjoyed the theatre. He expressed his attraction to women but nothing came of it.  He was also known to anger. He continued his seminarian studies in Salisbury. He came to believe that he was unsuitable to be a priest.

Gibbes cared about getting things right in every sense of the phrase. He was a little introverted. He was courteous, dependable, unassuming, pragmatic, morally upstanding, honest, austere, rigid, urbane, smartly attired, wise and very mature. He was so rigid in his habits that some wondered whether he bordered on Asperger’s syndrome.

Charles Sydney Gibbes was handy at languages. Having completed his theological studies but deciding against ordination he was unsure what to do with himself. He taught for a while in the UK. Caning was used very freely for minor misdeeds such as being late to a lesson. Gibbes was as ready as others to cane boys for trivial infractions of the rules. This was not seen as being at all inconsistent with the Christian ethic. In 1901 Gibbes, being an adventurous sort, took a position teaching English in Russia. He took ship for St Petersburg. He taught for two notable families there. Later he was employed at the St Petersburg School of Law. The Russian upper crust was coming to recognise the importance of English. Up until that time French had been regarded as by far the most estimable foreign language. However, in the years leading up to the First World War the popularity of English was growing partly due to the Imperial Family speaking it at home. Gibbes became vice-president of the St Petersburg Guild English Teachers. The fact that such a guild existed indicates how numerous such teachers were in the capital.

Gibbes was curious about the mystical side of Christianity. He also wrote down his dreams. He even had his palm read. He seemed to be on a spiritual quest. He attended the Anglican Church in St Petersburg. He found it pallid and unsatisfying. The Orthodox Church seemed to embody the splendid mystery of faith. It was dark yet colourful, it was headily atmospheric and it struck a chord with him.

The Tsarina Alexandra heard about Gibbes. In 1908 he was invited to improve the accent of the Grand Duchesses. As part of his contract he was accommodated in the Catherine Palace. He began with the eldest pair of the Tsar’s daughters. They already spoke fluent English but had slight Russian accents with Irish inflection. This Irish influence came from their Irish nanny Margaretta Eagar. In 1913 he was appointed English tutor to the Tsaervich. He worked together with the Swiss Pierre Gilliard who taught the family French.

Mr Gibbes was aware of his pupils’ shortcomings. He wrote of Olga, ‘she was easily irritated and her manners were a little harsh.’ Some historians such as Greg King and Penny Wilson had claimed that Gibbes was only mediocre as a tutor. 

Gibbes was an instant hit with the Tsarevich. Gibbes was old enough to be the boy’s father but would have been a fairly young father.  C S Gibbes later wrote of Alexei, ‘ Disagreeable things he bore silently and without grumbling. He was also kind heated and during the last period of his life he was the only one who liked to give things away. Influenced through his emotions he did what he was told by his father. His mother loving him passionately, could not be firm with him, he got most of his wishes through her.’

Gibbes wrote that the Tsar had ‘a very honest character, a compassionate heart and a hatred for any sort of familiarity.’

In February 1917 the Tsar was obliged to abdicate. The Provisional Government under Prince Lvov assumed power and abolished the monarchy. Incidentally despite his title Prince Lvov was not related to the Romanovs. The Romanovs were then confined to the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoe Selo. Gibbes wanted to live in the Alexander Palace to so he could be closer to the family but the Provisional Government declined his request. 

The Bolsheviks launched their revolution in October 1917. The Romanovs were removed to Tobolsk in Siberia.  Gibbes voluntarily accompanied the family. Indeed he had to apply to the Russian Prime Minister Alexander Kerensky for permission to move to Tobolsk. He did so out of a sense of duty. One of the Romanovs maids was Anna Demidova fell in love with Gibbes and made overtures to him. He ignored her and wrote she was ‘ a woman of a singularly timid and shrinking disposition.’ Because Gibbes demonstrated no attraction towards women. Itt has been speculated that he was gay. There is no evidence that he ever had a gay liaison. 

The Imperial Family had had all its wealth confiscated. The Romanovs kept some hidden jewels with them. The Romanovs were unable to pay for the services of Gibbes and others. Gibbes and his colleagues chose to serve their master solely out of devotion. Mr Gibbes was in a bad financial situation when another imperial retainer implored him to lend her some money. She was Baroness Sophie Buxhoevden. The baroness was a Dane who had been part of the Romanov household for several years. Gibbes unwisely lent her 1 300 roubles which she never repaid. She later claimed that Gibbes had not lent her anything. Gibbes mentioned this loan in correspondence with Gilliard. He was unlikely to invent this in a letter to a third party. 

In April 1918 the Tsar was taken away from his family. He was to be conducted to Moscow and put on trial by the Bolsheviks. The Romanovs put on a farewell party. They expected Nikolai to be executed. Gibbes recalled, ‘It was the most mournful and  depressing party I ever attended. There was not much talk and no pretence at gaiety. It was solemn and tragic: a fit prelude to an inescapable tragedy ‘ Anna Demidova said to him, ‘I am so frightened Mr Gibbes I do not know what to do.’ The Tsarina elected to accompany her husband. With the parents away an even greater responsibility fell on Gibbes’ shoulders. In fact after a few months the parents were returned to their children after a few weeks without a trial ensuing. 

Gibbes was later moved to Yekaterinaburg (Sverdlovsk) when the Romanovs were there. It was May 1918 when they travelled by the steamship Rus along the river to Yekaterinaburg. C S Gibbes recalled the last meal the children ate in Tobolsk. Gibbes managed to find some levity even in this grim situation. ‘       It was only on this last evening that we called for the two remaining bottles of wine. It was impossible to take them away and it was agreed that the next best thing to do was to drink them. While we were doing so the new commandant was heard sneaking down the corridor. We had only just time to hide the bottles under the table. He walked in and stood by the door. He gave a quizzical look all around. We felt like schoolboys caaught doing something naughty. Our eyes met and we could not contain ourselves any longer and fell about in wild laughter.      ‘

On the voyage Yekaterinaburg the predicament of the Romanovs became appreciably worse. The Red Army soldiers were openly hostile and insolent. They subjected the family to cat calls. ‘It was dreadful what they did.’ Gibbes adopted son later recalled his father telling him the screams of the grand duchesses haunted him for the rest of his life. ‘’It was his worst memory even more so than learning that the family had been marytred’’ said George Gibbes of his father.  Gibbes was implying that the soldiers fondled the princesses against their will. Was he even implying that they were raped?

However, C S Gibbes was not held in Ipatiev House which the Bolsheviks called the House of Special Purpose. He was not allowed into that house to meet his former employers. Mr Gibbes and Gilliard were housed in a railway carriage. He and Gilliard had come to Yekaterinaburg of their own free will but they were informed that they were not permitted to leave. 

Not all servants of the Romanovs showed such fidelity. Baroness Buxhoevoden was one who told the Bolsheviks were hiding their jewels. The jewels were then sequestrated by the Bolsheviks. In gratitude for her assistance the Bolshevisk let this woman go.  She returned to her native Denmark. The other servants of the Romanovs were held as prisoners. 

In May 1918 Gibbes and Gilliard were taken out of Yekaterinaburg and held in a nearby town. He and Gibbes had sent messages to the British consul and the Swedish consul pleading with them to intercede with the Bolsheviks to prevent the Romanovs from coming to harm. The British consul assured Gibbes that there was nothing to worry about. Gibbes had to spend a lot of time cooped up with his Swiss colleague Gilliard. Relations between the two frayed at this critical juncture. 

Gibbes found out about the liquidation of the Romanovs soon after it occurred. He was devastated. At first he could not believe it. He desperately wished to think that at least some of the family had survived. He went to Ipatiev House and gathered a few relics of the family. He was to treasure these oddments to the end of his days. When the Whites took the town he helped with the inquiry. C S Gibbes and his colleague Gilliard did their best to establish the truth of what happened the night of 17/18 July 1918. Were the Romanovs really killed? All of them? Where were they interred? Gibbes and Gilliard unwillingly arrived at the conclusion that all of the Romanovs had been shot dead. There were rumours within weeks of the killings that one of the family survived – that it was the tsarevich or one of the grand duchesses although not Anastasia. (The Anastasia canard was to come only a few years later.)Gibbes and Gilliard helped the White Russian commission of inquiry into the slayings of the Romanovs. Gibbes and Gilliard also conducted their own inquiry in case the White Russian investigation was tainted by bias. Moreover, an investigation by two foreigners might carry more weight abroad than a Russian one in the midst of a civil war where the two sides had every reason to exaggerate or invent crimes attributable to their enemies. Gibbes and Gilliard had also lost some of their colleagues. Dr Botkin and several of the household staff had also been murdered for the crime of working for the Romanovs. The Reds were  vindictive enough to kill Gibbes’ pet dog. Gibbes and Gilliard visited the Four Brothers Mine where the burnt remains of the Romanovs had been cast. They worked closely with Sokolov – one of the Romanovs’ servants – in investigating the killings. 

Charles Sydney Gibbes later fled east as the Reds looked poised to retake the town. He was later captured by the Reds but soon released. The British Army as well as several other armies intervened in Russia to assist the Whites. Gibbes was given an administrative position with the British Forces in Siberia. He left Russia by way of Manchuria. There as a large White Russian community there. He adopted a 15 year old Russian orphan there whom he named George Paveliev. Gibbes finally sailed back to the UK which had had not seen for years. His adoptive son came with him. He later bought a farm for George when the boy had grown up

Gibbes moved back and forth between Manchuria and England. It was not until 1928 that he claimed his MA from Cambridge. He was deeply impressed by the White Russians he knew. This caused him to be baptised into the Orthodox Church. C S Gibbes adulted his late pupil the tsarevich. Finally he was ordained as a monk. He had a tonsure. He wished to take the name Father Alexei but this was refused. He took the name Nicholas in religious contexts. This was in memory of the late Tsar. Gibbes helped to found an Orthodox Church in Oxford.  When he led prayers for the repose of the souls of the Romanovs he would weep before composing himself. Gibbes faith was not just about prayer. He devoted himself to helping the impoverished. He lived as a monk until his death in 1963.

There is still and Orthodox Church in Oxford but it is not in the building that Gibbes had.

 

C S Gibbes

CHARLES SYDNEY GIBBES

Charles Sydney Gibbes was born on 19 January 1876. His birthplace was the small town of which is more or less in the centre of the United Kingdom. He came from Yorkshire which is the largest county in England. Yorkshire people profess that their county is the most magnificent in the kingdom. They sometimes allude to Yorkshire as ”God’s Own County.”

Gibbes grew up in an industrial town called Rotherham. His father, John, was a bank manager of the Old Bank in Rotherham. Gibbes had several siblings and some of them died young. Gibbes was raised in a Christian household. His family were Protestants like over 90% of the people in Great Britain at the time. Gibbes went to a local school. He then attended Aberystwyth University for a year before applying to Cambridge.

Gibbes was a bright boy and very sincere. His family thought that he should become a minister of religion. Gibbes went up to Cambridge University. This was no small achievement at the time for a middle class boy from a town without a tradition of university education. 

Gibbes enrolled at St John’s College on 27 April 1896. In those times it was not unusual to start university in the middle of the academic year. These days it would be impossible. St John’s was and is a fairly distinguished college. He studied Moral Science Tripos. Moral Science was Philosophy and some Theology. Tripos is the Cambridge way of saying a degree with public exams in all three years of the course’s duration. Gibbes came into contact with many upper class undergraduates. His mild Yorkshire accent was frowned on by the nobbier boys. He soon lost his accent and affected something close to a public school accent.  Gibbes added an ‘e’ to his surname. No one else spells Gibbs that way. He had no trouble graduating in 1899.

Gibbs then stayed on at Cambridge to do a course to prepare him for ordination. He was recognised as being high minded and morally upstanding. His appearance and manners were impeccable. There was a more light hearted side to his personality. He enjoyed the theatre. He expressed his attraction to women but nothing came of it.  He was also known to anger. He continued his seminarian studies in Salisbury. He came to believe that he was unsuitable to be a priest.

Gibbes cared about getting things right in every sense of the phrase. He was a little introverted. He was courteous, dependable, unassuming, pragmatic, morally upstanding, honest, austere, rigid, urbane, smartly attired, wise and very mature. He was so rigid in his habits that some wondered whether he bordered on Asperger’s syndrome.

Charles Sydney Gibbes was handy at languages. Having completed his theological studies but deciding against ordination he was unsure what to do with himself. He taught for a while in the UK. Caning was used very freely for minor misdeeds such as being late to a lesson. Gibbes was as ready as others to cane boys for trivial infractions of the rules. This was not seen as being at all inconsistent with the Christian ethic. In 1901 Gibbes, being an adventurous sort, took a position teaching English in Russia. He took ship for St Petersburg. He taught for two notable families there. Later he was employed at the St Petersburg School of Law. The Russian upper crust was coming to recognise the importance of English. Up until that time French had been regarded as by far the most estimable foreign language. However, in the years leading up to the First World War the popularity of English was growing partly due to the Imperial Family speaking it at home. Gibbes became vice-president of the St Petersburg Guild English Teachers. The fact that such a guild existed indicates how numerous such teachers were in the capital.

Gibbes was curious about the mystical side of Christianity. He also wrote down his dreams. He even had his palm read. He seemed to be on a spiritual quest. He attended the Anglican Church in St Petersburg. He found it pallid and unsatisfying. The Orthodox Church seemed to embody the splendid mystery of faith. It was dark yet colourful, it was headily atmospheric and it struck a chord with him.

The Tsarina Alexandra heard about Gibbes. In 1908 he was invited to improve the accent of the Grand Duchesses. As part of his contract he was accommodated in the Catherine Palace. He began with the eldest pair of the Tsar’s daughters. They already spoke fluent English but had slight Russian accents with Irish inflection. This Irish influence came from their Irish nanny Margaretta Eagar. In 1913 he was appointed English tutor to the Tsaervich. He worked together with the Swiss Pierre Gilliard who taught the family French.

Mr Gibbes was aware of his pupils’ shortcomings. He wrote of Olga, ‘she was easily irritated and her manners were a little harsh.’ Some historians such as Greg King and Penny Wilson had claimed that Gibbes was only mediocre as a tutor. 

Gibbes was an instant hit with the Tsarevich. Gibbes was old enough to be the boy’s father but would have been a fairly young father.  C S Gibbes later wrote of Alexei, ‘ Disagreeable things he bore silently and without grumbling. He was also kind heated and during the last period of his life he was the only one who liked to give things away. Influenced through his emotions he did what he was told by his father. His mother loving him passionately, could not be firm with him, he got most of his wishes through her.’

Gibbes wrote that the Tsar had ‘a very honest character, a compassionate heart and a hatred for any sort of familiarity.’

In February 1917 the Tsar was obliged to abdicate. The Provisional Government under Prince Lvov assumed power and abolished the monarchy. Incidentally despite his title Prince Lvov was not related to the Romanovs. The Romanovs were then confined to the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoe Selo. Gibbes wanted to live in the Alexander Palace to so he could be closer to the family but the Provisional Government declined his request. 

The Bolsheviks launched their revolution in October 1917. The Romanovs were removed to Tobolsk in Siberia.  Gibbes voluntarily accompanied the family. Indeed he had to apply to the Russian Prime Minister Alexander Kerensky for permission to move to Tobolsk. He did so out of a sense of duty. One of the Romanovs maids was Anna Demidova fell in love with Gibbes and made overtures to him. He ignored her and wrote she was ‘ a woman of a singularly timid and shrinking disposition.’ Because Gibbes demonstrated no attraction towards women. Itt has been speculated that he was gay. There is no evidence that he ever had a gay liaison. 

The Imperial Family had had all its wealth confiscated. The Romanovs kept some hidden jewels with them. The Romanovs were unable to pay for the services of Gibbes and others. Gibbes and his colleagues chose to serve their master solely out of devotion. Mr Gibbes was in a bad financial situation when another imperial retainer implored him to lend her some money. She was Baroness Sophie Buxhoevden. The baroness was a Dane who had been part of the Romanov household for several years. Gibbes unwisely lent her 1 300 roubles which she never repaid. She later claimed that Gibbes had not lent her anything. Gibbes mentioned this loan in correspondence with Gilliard. He was unlikely to invent this in a letter to a third party. 

In April 1918 the Tsar was taken away from his family. He was to be conducted to Moscow and put on trial by the Bolsheviks. The Romanovs put on a farewell party. They expected Nikolai to be executed. Gibbes recalled, ‘It was the most mournful and  depressing party I ever attended. There was not much talk and no pretence at gaiety. It was solemn and tragic: a fit prelude to an inescapable tragedy ‘ Anna Demidova said to him, ‘I am so frightened Mr Gibbes I do not know what to do.’ The Tsarina elected to accompany her husband. With the parents away an even greater responsibility fell on Gibbes’ shoulders. In fact after a few months the parents were returned to their children after a few weeks without a trial ensuing. 

Gibbes was later moved to Yekaterinaburg (Sverdlovsk) when the Romanovs were there. It was May 1918 when they travelled by the steamship Rus along the river to Yekaterinaburg. C S Gibbes recalled the last meal the children ate in Tobolsk. Gibbes managed to find some levity even in this grim situation. ‘       It was only on this last evening that we called for the two remaining bottles of wine. It was impossible to take them away and it was agreed that the next best thing to do was to drink them. While we were doing so the new commandant was heard sneaking down the corridor. We had only just time to hide the bottles under the table. He walked in and stood by the door. He gave a quizzical look all around. We felt like schoolboys caaught doing something naughty. Our eyes met and we could not contain ourselves any longer and fell about in wild laughter.      ‘

On the voyage Yekaterinaburg the predicament of the Romanovs became appreciably worse. The Red Army soldiers were openly hostile and insolent. They subjected the family to cat calls. ‘It was dreadful what they did.’ Gibbes adopted son later recalled his father telling him the screams of the grand duchesses haunted him for the rest of his life. ‘’It was his worst memory even more so than learning that the family had been marytred’’ said George Gibbes of his father.  Gibbes was implying that the soldiers fondled the princesses against their will. Was he even implying that they were raped?

However, C S Gibbes was not held in Ipatiev House which the Bolsheviks called the House of Special Purpose. He was not allowed into that house to meet his former employers. Mr Gibbes and Gilliard were housed in a railway carriage. He and Gilliard had come to Yekaterinaburg of their own free will but they were informed that they were not permitted to leave. 

Not all servants of the Romanovs showed such fidelity. Baroness Buxhoevoden was one who told the Bolsheviks were hiding their jewels. The jewels were then sequestrated by the Bolsheviks. In gratitude for her assistance the Bolshevisk let this woman go.  She returned to her native Denmark. The other servants of the Romanovs were held as prisoners. 

In May 1918 Gibbes and Gilliard were taken out of Yekaterinaburg and held in a nearby town. He and Gibbes had sent messages to the British consul and the Swedish consul pleading with them to intercede with the Bolsheviks to prevent the Romanovs from coming to harm. The British consul assured Gibbes that there was nothing to worry about. Gibbes had to spend a lot of time cooped up with his Swiss colleague Gilliard. Relations between the two frayed at this critical juncture. 

Gibbes found out about the liquidation of the Romanovs soon after it occurred. He was devastated. At first he could not believe it. He desperately wished to think that at least some of the family had survived. He went to Ipatiev House and gathered a few relics of the family. He was to treasure these oddments to the end of his days. When the Whites took the town he helped with the inquiry. C S Gibbes and his colleague Gilliard did their best to establish the truth of what happened the night of 17/18 July 1918. Were the Romanovs really killed? All of them? Where were they interred? Gibbes and Gilliard unwillingly arrived at the conclusion that all of the Romanovs had been shot dead. There were rumours within weeks of the killings that one of the family survived – that it was the tsarevich or one of the grand duchesses although not Anastasia. (The Anastasia canard was to come only a few years later.)Gibbes and Gilliard helped the White Russian commission of inquiry into the slayings of the Romanovs. Gibbes and Gilliard also conducted their own inquiry in case the White Russian investigation was tainted by bias. Moreover, an investigation by two foreigners might carry more weight abroad than a Russian one in the midst of a civil war where the two sides had every reason to exaggerate or invent crimes attributable to their enemies. Gibbes and Gilliard had also lost some of their colleagues. Dr Botkin and several of the household staff had also been murdered for the crime of working for the Romanovs. The Reds were  vindictive enough to kill Gibbes’ pet dog. Gibbes and Gilliard visited the Four Brothers Mine where the burnt remains of the Romanovs had been cast. They worked closely with Sokolov – one of the Romanovs’ servants – in investigating the killings. 

Charles Sydney Gibbes later fled east as the Reds looked poised to retake the town. He was later captured by the Reds but soon released. The British Army as well as several other armies intervened in Russia to assist the Whites. Gibbes was given an administrative position with the British Forces in Siberia. He left Russia by way of Manchuria. There as a large White Russian community there. He adopted a 15 year old Russian orphan there whom he named George Paveliev. Gibbes finally sailed back to the UK which had had not seen for years. His adoptive son came with him. He later bought a farm for George when the boy had grown up

Gibbes moved back and forth between Manchuria and England. It was not until 1928 that he claimed his MA from Cambridge. He was deeply impressed by the White Russians he knew. This caused him to be baptised into the Orthodox Church. C S Gibbes adulted his late pupil the tsarevich. Finally he was ordained as a monk. He had a tonsure. He wished to take the name Father Alexei but this was refused. He took the name Nicholas in religious contexts. This was in memory of the late Tsar. Gibbes helped to found an Orthodox Church in Oxford.  When he led prayers for the repose of the souls of the Romanovs he would weep before composing himself. Gibbes faith was not just about prayer. He devoted himself to helping the impoverished. He lived as a monk until his death in 1963.

There is still and Orthodox Church in Oxford but it is not in the building that Gibbes had.

 

P Gilliard tutor

PIERRE GILLIARD – tutor to the children of Tsar Nikolai II.

Gilliard he was  was born in Switzerland in 1879. He grew up in Vaud which is a Francophone canton of Switzerland. He attended the University of Lausanne. Incidentally his surname is pronounced ”JEEL   yar”.

He moved to Russia in 1904 to be the French tutor to the Duke of Leuchtenberg. The duke was a cousin of the Tsar. Gilliard described his trepidation on first sighting Russia. It was a hair raising time to arriving in Russia. The country was reeling from defeat by Japan. The empire was in the throes of an attempted revolution. It took a valiant – or foolish – man to accept a post in Russia. He was initially brought to the Black Sea where the family was wintering. Later Pierre Gilliard travelled with them by train to St Petersburg which was then the capital of the country. They had a mansion at Peterhof  – the suburb that was the imperial residence. The ‘precepteur’ had very high status because the French language was considered more important in international intercourse than English at the time. 

The Tsar heard about Gilliard and hired him. Gilliard was at first to tutor the Grand Duchesses Olga and Tatiana. The others were considered too young to be tutored by a man of his intellectual calibre at that time.

Monsieur Gilliard described the first time he ever met the imperial family, ” I was taken up to a small room, soberly furnished in the English style, on the second storey. The door opened and the Tsarina came in, holding her daughters Olga and Tatiana by the hand. After a few pleasant remarks she sat down at the table and invited me to take a place opposite her. The children sat at each end.  ” M. Gilliard started residing at Tsarskoye Selo which lies 13 miles south of St Petersburg.

Pierre Gilliard was an astute judge of character. Any private tutor has to have some emotional intelligence. He quickly got the measure of Grand Duchess Tatiana, ‘She was essentially well balanced with a will of her own though less frank and spontaneous than her sister Olga. Tatiana knew how to surround her mother with unwearying attentions and never give way to her own impulses.’ 

Gilliard recalled that the grand duchesses took turns in keeping their mother company. They did not find the duty entirely congenial. Teenage girls are wont to clash with their mothers sometimes and this family was no exception. 

As the years rolled on Gilliard started to tutor the younger children as well. Gilliard later came to tutor the Tsarevich as in the Tsar’s son. Tsarevich was born with haemophilia. He advised against excessive frippery toward Tsarevich Alexei. Gilliard described the Imperial Family’s situation as being one of ”fatal isolation”. Along with just about every other commentator he castigated the impostor monk Grigorii Rasputin as a baleful influence. He wrote of Rasputin, ”This man’s evil influence was one of the principal causes of which the effect was the death of those who thought they could regard him as their saviour.” Gilliard was also adamantine in his insistence that there was no impropriety between Rasputin and Her Imperial Majesty.

Gilliard noted how the Tsarina showed him great respect notwithstanding her own exalted rank. ”   I will give one detail which illustrates the Tsarina’s anxious interest in the upbringing of her children and the importance she attached to their showing respect for their teachers by observing that sense of decorum which is the first element of politeness. While she was present at my lessons, when I entered the room I always found the books and notebooks piled neatly in my pupils’ places at the table, and I was never kept waiting a moment.      ” It is a superb example to follow. If parents wish their children to do well in their education the parents must lead by  being courteous to the tutor. If the parents treat the tutor in an offhand manner so will the pupils and their education will suffer.

Gilliard was later given a request. ‘That year the Tsarina informed me a few days before I left that on my return she proposed to appoint me tutor to Aleksey Nicolaievich, The news filled me with a mingled sense of pleasure and apprehension. I was delighted at the confidence shown in me, but nervous of the responsibility it involved. ” This sums up how many tutors feel when they are offered an assignment with a notable family. Try to bear this in mind if you are hiring a tutor.

Monsieur Gilliard got along well with the Tsarevich. Tsarevich Alexei became his main charge. This was partially because the education of boys was thought to matter more than that of girls. Furthermore, the elder sisters had reached marriageable age and their academic formation was considered complete. Gilliard recounted a typical day of tuition:   ” Lessons (at the time my pupil was learning Russian, French, arithmetic, history, geography and religious knowledge. He did not begin English until later, and never had German lessons) began at nine o’clock, and there was a break from eleven to twelve. We went out driving in a carriage, sledge, or car, and then work was resumed until lunch at one. In the afternoon we always spent two hours out of doors. The Grand-Duchesses and, when he was free, the Tsar, came with us, and Aleksey Nicolaievich played with them, sliding on an ice mountain we had made at the edge of a little artificial lake. He was also fond of playing with his donkey Vanka, which was harnessed to a sledge.. ”

Pierre Gilliard was sagacious enough to realise that not everyone is cut out for scholarly distinction. He also candidly admitted that he achieved only very modest success with the princesses. ”     With the exception of Olga Nicolaievna, the Grand-Duchesses were very moderate pupils. This was largely due to the fact that, in spite of my repeated suggestions, the Tsarina would never have a French governess.…  Olga Nicolaievna did not fulfil the hopes I had set upon her. Her fine intellect failed to find the elements necessary to its development. Instead of making progress she began to go back. Her sisters had ever had but little taste for learning, their gifts being of the practical order      ” To some extent their limited learning is due to their tutor. Perhaps M. Gilliard is seeking to shift the blame. However, we should partly take him at his word. Parents ought to take a tutor’s advice to heart. He proposed that the family engage a French governess and his suggestions was repeatedly rebuffed.

The Swiss gentleman tried to introduce a more informal regime for Alexei when in private.

”        I noticed that the boy was embarrassed and blushed violently, and when we were alone asked him whether he liked seeing people on their knees before him.

“Oh no, but Derevenko says it must be so!”

“That’s absurd!” I replied. “Even the Tsar doesn’t like people to kneel before him. Why don’t you stop Derevenko insisting on it ?”

“I don’t know. I dare not.”

I took the matter up with Derevenko, and the boy was delighted to be freed from this irksome formality.  ”

As if tutoring a future head of state was not daunting enough Gilliard had he added challenge of tutoring a boy with haemophilia.

As a little digression it is fascinating to read Gilliard’s closely observed analysis of Nikolai II’s personality: ”     The Tsar was shy and retiring by nature. He belonged to the category of human beings who are always hesitating because they are too diffident and are ever slow to impose their will on others because they are too gentle and sensitive. He had little faith in himself and imagined that he was one of the unlucky ones. Unfortunately his life seemed to show that he was not entirely wrong. Hence his doubts and hesitations.        ”

Gilliard married Alexandra Tegleva  in 1922. She had been the nurse of the Romanovs. 

 

In February 1917 the Romanovs were ousted. In October that year the Bolsheviks seized power. The Romanovs were state prisoners and were sent to Siberia. Gilliard was sent with them. They went to Tobolsk and later Yekaterinaburg. In the spring of 1917 the imperial children fell ill and their heads were shaved. This was a very great sacrifice for the grand duchesses in which girls were all expected to have very long hair. Gilliard was allowed to photograph them all like this. He was one of the only people permitted to take photos of the family. These photos of the front and back of their heads would later become crucial in identifying the skulls of the Romanovs. 

In the spring of 1917 Gilliard was living at Tsarskoye Selo – the imperial village near St Petersburg. Like the Romanovs he was a prisoner of the Provisional Government but well treated. ‘Our captivity did not seem likely to last long. There was talk of transfer to England.’

In 1918 the imperial family was moved to Yekaterinaburg. They were in the custody of the Bolsheviks. A civil war was raging in Russia between the Reds (Bolsheviks) and the Whites. The Red officer in charge of the Romanovs was Yakolev. He spoke excellent French and treated the Romanovs and Gilliard reasonably. Then he was replaced by someone much less sympathetic. 

Monsieur Gilliard was with the imperial family in exile in Yekaterinaburg. For a while in May 1918 the children were separated from their parents. Pierre Gilliard had to take over the role of father figure for a while without arrogating to himself any pretension of imperial status. The children and Gilliard were not informed by the Bolsheviks where there parents had been taken. In his diary on 3 May Gilliard wrote, ‘Where are they? They could have reached Moscow by now.’ That Easter was the first the children celebrated in the absence of their parents. Gilliard wrote in his journal ‘everyone is in low spirits.’  This was particuarly ironic since Easter was the most joyous time of year for ardent Orthodox Christians. After a few weeks the Tsar and Tsarina were brought back to Yekaterinaburg. Gilliard was alarmed at the attitude of the Red soldiers guarding the Romanovs. They were vulgar and drunk on duty. The Romanovs were subjected to many crude insults. Gilliard’s account has been disputed by other witnesses who claim that the Bolsheviks guarding the Romanovs treated them reasonably. 

Monsieur Gilliard was fortunate not to be executed along with the Romanovs. Several of their household staff were shot dead with them. Gilliard remained in Yekaterinaburg because he realised it was about to be recaptured by the Whites. The imminent recapture of the city was the reason the Bolsheviks had decided to wipe out the Romanovs. 

Pierre Gilliard wrote of the killings, ‘    The inevitable fulfilment of the climax of one of the most moving tragedies humanity has ever known… the last stage in their long martyrdom… death refused to separate those whom life had banded so closely together… All seven united in one faith and one love… It was the mercy of God that all died together… the innocents were saved from a fate worse than death       ‘ 

No one can fault Gilliard for lack of loyalty. However, he seemed to focus so much on the travails of the Romanovs that he ignored what everyone else in Russia was suffering. He does not appear to have asked himself why the Tsar was so detested. 

Once the Whites took the city Gilliard volunteered his services to help the White commander Sokolov with his investigations into the murder of the Romanovs. The corpses of the Romanovs had been partially burned and thrown down a shaft in the Four Brothers Mine. They had later been recovered and reburied. By the time the Whites were able to stage an investigation the cadavers were unrecognisable. Gilliard and other family retainers were given the unenviable task of trying to identify articles of clothing from the bodies to see if these corpses really were those of the Romanovs.

Russian was in bloody tumult due to the civil war. Public transport was virtually non-existent. The Red Army, White factions, the Green Army, foreign interventionists and many bandits roamed the country. Gilliard was trapped. He married a Russian who had been a nanny to a cadet branch of the Romanovs.

Gillard and other faitthful servants compiled their own report into the murders of the Romanovs. They took their boxes of files with them when they left Yekaterinaburg. They also had boxes of personal effects belonging to the Imperial Family. In January 1920 Gilliard and some of the Romanovs other staff managed to flee Russia by travelling to China. They spent time in Harbin. This city was a magnet for White Russians who had fled their country. There Gilliard wrote, ‘   They were in a state of great agitation for the situation grew daily more precarious and it was expected that any day the  Chinese Eastern Railway might fall into the hands of the Bolsheviks. Bolshevik spies were beginning to swarm all over the station and its surroundings. What was to be done with the documents of inquiry?   Where could they be put in safety. ‘  Gilliard implored the British consul and the French consul to assist him in taking these documents of inquiry out of the country. He was astonished that both refused. The Romanovs were widely reviled in Europe and the British and French governments had to take account of that. Finally a White general Janin took possession of the documents. China was also in turmoil. Warlords roamed the country. Gilliard and his party finally managed to take a train to Vladivostock – one of the last Russian cities in White hands. There he and his companions boarded a French ship Andre le Bon and sailed to Marseilles. 

In 1920 Gilliard was finally able to return to western Europe. He initially lived in Paris where he lived in Hotel du Bon Lafontaine. It was the same building as another retainer of the Romanovs, Sokolov. It was on Rue des St Peres. A few years later he moved back to his homeland Switzerland. He was deeply impressed by the fortitude the Romanovs had displayed in their terrible circumstances. Gilliard later published a book about his experiences entitled Thirteen Years at the Russian Court. He wrote in his autobiography, ” My mind was still full of the poignant drama with which I had been closely associated, but I was also still deeply impressed by the wonderful serenity and flaming faith of those who had been its victims.”

Thirteen Years at the Russian Court is a superb sources on the Romanovs. Gilliard heard countless private conversations. He knew them on a personal level. Despite his obvious regard for the family he did his best to remain objective in his book and largely succeeded. Gilliard wrote gorgeous prose that spills onto the page like a musical score. His diaries also providing an unparalleled insight into the final years of the dynasty.

Gilliard moved back to Switzerland. He became a professor at his alma mater.

Gilliard met the woman who claimed to be the Grand Duchess Anastasia. He at first suspended judgment. Having very carefully examined her he reached the certain conclusion that the claimant was an impostress.

1. Gilliard was a very good tutor. This does not mean he was a perfect tutor otherwise he would have done better with pupils of low ability and low work ethic. The fact that the family kept him for 13 years speaks for itself.

 

You can read Gilliard’s account in ‘Thirteen years at the Russian Court’ and ‘Le Tragique Destin de Nicolas II et sa famille .’

 

Kurt Hahn

KURT HAHN

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Kurt Hahn was a German educationalist.

Hahn was born in Berlin in 1886. He was from a liberal Jewish family. His education was conducted in Germany. He suffered sunstroke as a child and this affected him permanently. He had to avoid hot climates which is why he gravitated to the frigid north.

Kurt Hahn attended a number of universities as was common for German undergraduates at the time. These were Heidelberg, Frieberg and Gottingen. An undergraduate would go to one university for a year, to another for two years and perhaps another for a further year. He matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford University. Hahn perfected his English. He was very broadminded and happily attended chapel. At that stage he did not convert to the Christian faith. Like many Germans he raved about Shakespeare. He was convinced that Shakespeare’s works were better in  German than the original. In the summers of 1910-14 he took holidays in northern Scotland.

Hahn was in the United Kingdom when the First World War broke out. All voyages to and from Germany were forbidden. He attempted to reach the coast and take ship for the Netherlands. From there he planned to travel to his homeland.

Kurt Hahn was arrested an interned as an enemy alien. After two years an exchange of civilians was agreed between the UK and Germany. German civilians were repatriated to Germany by way of the Netherlands which was neutral.

Hahn then spent the war in a government office in Berlin. His task was to translate British newspapers into German so that his government would have an idea of what the Allies were thinking.

Kurt Hahn came to work for the Margrave of Baden as his private secretary. Max von Baden was a man of liberal nostra. This was unusual for a German nobleman. Von Baden had briefly been chancellor in 1918. He had been one of those who saw that the military outlook was utterly hopeless for Germany and the only sane thing to do was to seek an armistice immediately. The Margrave of Baden is credited as one of those people who ended the First World War.

Hahn had come to develop his own educational philosophy. This was predicated on the teachings of Plato. He wanted a school that provided an education that was both classical and modern. Pupils were to be taught integrity, teamwork and a respect for nature. He wanted to do away with the petty rules of most schools and the overemphasis on academic learning. He aimed to provide a holistic education encompassing sports, camping, music and theatre. Drama played almost no role in formal education at the time. He considered the example of Eton. He saw much that he admired in terms of scholastic achievement and sports. However, he looked askance at Eton’s snobbery, artificiality and frippery.

The Margrave of Baden invited Hahn to open at school at his palace in southern Germany: Schloss Salem. Salem is short for Jerusalem and means ‘peace’ in Classical Hebrew. The name is pronounced ”ZA – lem”.

Kurt Hahn opened his school at Schloss Salem. This has an idyllic setting by Lake Constance. The school was mixed. The uniform was unpretentious and allowed for ease of movement. He also promoted pupils to have power over the others. If a group of boys were found to be misbehaving and one of them was a prefect then only the prefect was punished. This was because he should have been responsible enough to stop it.Hahn was a very generous spirited person who despised national prejudices. He had remained friends with many Britishers despite the First World War.

Hahn used the hymn ”We kneel and appeal to the God of all justice” as the Salem school song. It was in German of course.

Hahn wanted to challenge pupils. He insisted that they must be made physically fit. They must all be imbued with manual skills. They must also provide a public service by learning first aid or helping the fire brigade. His ideas were too reformist for some. In 1923 a reactionary tried to assassinate him.

In the late 1920s the Nazi Party became prominent. Hahn admitted to having some respect for the Nazis discipline and energy but he was a centrist. He was horrified by the Nazism glorification of brutality. He was an outspoken critic of their mindlessness, their thuggery and their philistinism. Hahn recognised that after 2 000 000 deaths in the First World War the last thing Germany needed was another war. The Nazism virulent anti-Semitism worried him since he was Jewish by parentage. The increasing viciousness of the National Socialists alarmed Hahn. Hahn read about a left winger who was kicked to death by Nazis in the immediate presence of his mother. Kurt Hahn then wrote a letter to all past pupils of Salem and said they must either support Salem or the Nazis but they could not support both. The two philosophies were totally incompatible. It was a gallant thing to do but Hahn was a marked man.

Adolf Hitler became chancellor in January 1933. Hahn was immediately arrested and his school was closed down. He had notable friends iin the United Kingdom including the Prime Minister James Ramsay MacDonald. Ramsay MacDonald was contacted and he interceded for Hahn. After three days the Nazi Government released Hahn at the UK Government’s request.

Dr Hahn travelled to the United Kingdom. He cast around for suitable locations to set up a new edition of Salem. He visited Moray in Scotland. It was an area where he had holidayed before the Great War. He found out about an old stately home in Scotland called Gordonstoun. Gordonstoun House that had beloned to the Gordon Cumming family. Hahn had a look and decided it would be ideal. It was deep in the countryside and therefore far from the distractions and temptations of city life. The huge grounds provided plenty of scope for sports and camping. It was within walking distance of the coast.

Hahn opened his school in 1934. Gordonstoun School began with two pupils. Hats off to this parents who were courageous enough to take a gamble on Gordonstoun. The school grew rapidly.

The boys wore knee length shorts, grey shirts, blue jumpers. They did not wear ties expect on formal occasions. This was a marked contrast to the overly formal and restrictive uniforms of the time. Boys in almost every other school wore hats or caps. Gordonstoun was very go ahead right from the start.

Hahn tried to keep punishment to a minimum. Nevertheless he allowed caning and administered the punishment in person.

Sports were a major part of the time table. Everyone had to learn to sail. It was called seamanship. Everyone had to go on regular camping expeditions. There was also military training. This was perhaps the first outward bound school. Outdoor education was a crucial part of the curriculum. Kurt Hahn wanted sport to be non-competitive most of the time. Oddly he knew little of the Corinthian spirit himself. Hahn did not always practise what he preached and was a fiercely competitive tennis player well into his 50s.

Dr Hahn also made sure that design and technology was in the timetable. Many independent schools sneered at this as being something for the working class. Pupils who could afford Gordonstoun were middle class or upper class. Hahn disliked snobbery but financial reality meant that his school could take very few proletarian pupils.

All pupils were required to join a service. This could be the fire brigade or coast guard service for example.

The school was founded as a Christian school but did not align itself with any denomination. The great majority of pupils were Church of Scotland or Church of England.

Hahn brought some of his colleagues with him from Germany. The school had very little money so some of them had to work for bed and board for the first couple of years. They received no salary! Some of his Jewish pedagogical friends were especially eager to get out of Germany for reasons that do not need stating. The boys of Gordonstoun gained an excellent grounding in German because most of their masters were German!

Gordonstoun founded a preparatory school called Wester Elchies in 1936. This was 20 miles away. Boys would attend Wester Elchies from the age of 7 to 13. Thereafter they would go on to Gordonstoun.

Hahn invented a flag for the school with a white and a purple bar. The white denoted purity and the purple honour. The motto is ‘Plus est en vous’ – there is more in you (than you think). Plus est en vous had been seen written on a wall in Belgium and it inspired Kurt Hahn.

The buildings of the school were very widely dispersed over the estate. This compelled boys to walk fast to all activities. Hahn thought this was tremendous for their athleticism.

In 1936 the school welcomed a most distinguished pupil. He was Prince Philip of Greece. Prince Philip had left Greece as a baby and grown up in London and Paris. He was a second cousin of King George VI. Prince Philip was partly of German extraction.

The school was soon attracting pupils from all over the United Kingdom.

Dr Hahn became a British citizen. This was vital since it meant he was not interned in 1939.Dr Kurt Hahn converted to Christianity. He sometimes preached in the Church of Scotland.

Dr Hahn helped to bring more Jewish Germans to the UK. He saved their lives.

Although Dr Hahn’s English was impeccable he had an unmissable German accent. It caused him to receive many frosty stares when travelling by train during the Second World War.

 

At the outbreak of the Second World War many called for Adolf Hitler to be assassinated. Hahn showed his extreme perhaps inane degree of humanity in saying that Hitler should not be assassinated. Dr Hahn said that shooting people solves nothing. He cited the example of the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

Gordonstoun recruited a PE teacher who was a refugee from Russia. When he was exasperated with the boys he would recite gobbets of the Bible to calm himself down. This was the only thing they had been taught to do at school in Russia.

In the Second World War the army commandeered the school under the Defence of the Realm Act. The school was moved to Wales for a few years. It returned after the war.

Dr Hahn was prominent in seeking to restore amicable relations between Germany and the UK after the war. He reopened Salem as soon as was practicable. He visited his devastated native land. He arranged many exchanges between Gordonstoun and Salem. Except Salem was said to be haunted by a ghost named ‘Spookie’.

In 1947 Prince Philip wed Princess Elizabeth. This brought publicity to the school. This princess became queen in 1952.

In the 1950s it became the norm for Gordonstounians to spend one of their five years in Salem.

The Prince of Wales and other members of the royal family attended Gordonstoun.

With his former pupil Dr Hahn helped to found the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme. This awards people a bronze, silver or gold for achievement. Someone on the D of E scheme must participate in sport, serve their community and go on an expedition.

Dr Hahn also helped to set up the United World Colleges. These exist around the world and provide two years of pre university schooling. One of them is Atlantic College in Wales.

Altyre School was founded about 10 miles away from Gordonstoun. Altyre was very small. For some lessons they had to cycle to Gordonstoun. This arrangement did not last. Eventually Altyre School was closed and a house called Altyre was built at Gordonstoun.

Wester Elchies outgrew its size. So another house was purchased across the river Spey in 1947. It was called Aberlour House. Wester Elchies and Aberlour House were one school on two sites. They were 3 miles apart. Juniors would be at Wester Elchies for three years. They would proceed to Aberlour House for a further three years. Therefater they would go on to Gordonstoun for five years. The prep school began to take girls in the 1950s but Gordonstoun did not.

A levels started to be considered important after the Second World War. Prior to that pupils had sat the schools certificates exams. Gordonstoun took the fateful decision to take A levels which are not a Scottish qualification. Almost every other school in Scotland does Highers which are a uniquely Scottish exam.

The school’s fame spread rapidly. It took pupils from the United States, India, Australia and many other lands.

One of the houses in Gordonstoun is called Round Square. This is because there are no corners in it. Gordonstoun established fraternal links with many schools around the world. They meet at Round Square conferences.

Hahn was loaded with honours. He was made a Commander of the British Empire. He was given the cross of merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.

In the early 1970s Gordonstoun admitted girls.

Dr Hahn retired in 1953. Except he did not. He returned to Salem and ran a house but taught no lessons.He jogged into his 80s! He died in 1974. He had never married.

Dr Hahn was fondly remembered by his pupils and colleagues alike.

Gordonsount is known as ”Stoun’’ to its pupils. Kurt Hahn is the subject of a number of biographies.  A school in the United States is now named in his honour. 

 

Lady Bryan

LADY Margaret Bryan – Governess to Queen Elizabeth I.

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Lady Margaret Bryan was born in England. Her year of birth was approximately 1468. She came from an aristocratic family. Her brother was Lord Bourchier. She married Sir Thomas Bryan.

When Lord Bourchier died without sons his sister inherited his estates and moveables. This made her a woman of very considerable means.

Lady Bryan’s husband died when she was in her 40s. As a widow she was able to devoted more of her time to the king’s service.

Lady Margaret was the half-sister of Anne Boleyn’s mother.

Henry VIII had a son with his mistress Bessie Blount. This boy was name Henry FitzRoy. Fitz indicated his unwed birth. Roy is derived from ‘roi’ the French for king. Although no one contemplated Henry FitzRoy inheriting the Crown he was still a notable person. Lady Margaret was his governess when he was little.

From 1525 Lady Bryan was governess to Mary Tudor: the eldest daughter of Henry VIII. Lady Margaret was made a baroness as a reward. She did a superb job and the king was deeply satisfied with her. She was highly capable and managed to curry favour with the right people.

In 1533 Henry VIII declared that Mary Tudor was born outside of wedlock. His marriage to Catherine of Aragon was annulled. Mary Tudor was enraged. Her father told her to ”lay aside the name and dignity of princess.”

She refused to accept this and insisted that she was the king’s lawful daughter and heir. Lady Margaret had to manage the teenagers moods and fury. Mary Tudor felt rejected and humiliated. She bore herself with a dignity and defiance than inspired admiration even in her enemies.

At the age of 65 she became lady mistress to the baby Elizabeth. In those times the word ‘mistress’ denoted a woman with authority and not a paramour.

When Elizabeth was three months old she was taken away from her mother. Anne Boleyn had breastfed her baby for the first few weeks and was keen to continue. Henry VIII would not hear of this breach of protocol. The child was put into the care of a wet nurse. The woman really in charge was Lady Bryan. She was not the matronly battleaxe that some might fear. Elizabeth was taken to another royal residence in December 1533. Elizabeth spent most of her time at Hatfield House in Hertfordshire.

Anne Boleyn wrote to Lady Bryan very frequently with precise instructions for the child’s upbringing. Lady Bryan carried out her duties sedulously. Anne Boleyn sent her daughter the finest of clothes. The baby was dressed as a tiny adult. This was the way at the time. They made no allowances for children’s need to move more. About 40 pounds a month was spent on garments for Elizabeth. This approximates to 13 000 pounds today! Anne Boleyn seemed to be impelled to confirm her daughter’s legitimacy by making sure always appeared as regal as possible.

When Elizabeth was sent to live at Hatfield House this was also the residence of her half-sibling with Mary Tudor. The 17 year old Mary Tudor naturally resented her baby half-sister. Elizabeth had briefly replaced Mary Tudor in their father’s affections. Elizabeth’s mother Anne Boleyn had brought huge anguish to Mary Tudor and her mother Catherine of Aragon. Although Elizabeth spent most of the time at Hatfield House they sometimes moved to Greenwich Palace. Greenwich is now considered part of London. In those days it was a small port several miles from London.

Around this time Lady Bryan married for a second time. She wed David Soche. She was well past childbearing age so there was no chance that she was going to have a baby of her own to distract her from her job.

Anne Boleyn’s voluminous instructions also laid stess on the need to degrade Mary Tudor. Anne Boleyn emphasised that Mary Tudor was a bastard and had no right to inherit the Crown nor any right to style herself princess. Anne Boleyn’s volatile temperament was notorious. It would be foolish to provoke her. Lady Bryan had to walk a tightrope. She had to keep her mistress Anne Boleyn content because she was the queen. On the other hand it felt deeply wrong to insult Mary Tudor. It was plain that public sympathy was very much on Mary Tudor’s side. Too much aggravation in the family would make for a poisonous atmosphere.

Anne Boleyn’s spitefulness and pettiness did her no credit. She had enough enemies to begin with. She boasted how she would have Mary Tudor serving her as a maid. Her vindictiveness merely earned her more enmity. Anne Boleyn’s outbursts of furious shrieking made her deeply unpopular. Perhaps Lady Bryan was canny enough to see that Anne Boleyn’s haughtiness and mean spiritedness was setting her up for a dramatic fall. That was why it would have been unwise for Lady Bryan to carry out her order to humiliate Mary Tudor with too much zeal.

Lady Bryan’s son was Sir Francis Bryan. He spent much time at court. He knew a youngish woman from an aristocratic Wiltshire family named Jane Seymour. It was possibly due to Sir Francis that Jane Seymour came to the attention of Henry VIII. Henry VIII was infatuated with Jane Seymour. There is little doubt that Sir Francis Bryan kept his mother Lady Margaret Bryan informed of developments. The more the king fell for Jane Seymour’s feminine wiles the weaker Anne Boleyn’s situation became. That was why it would not do to be too closely associated with Anne Boleyn and her cruel treatment of Mary Tudor. Jane Seymour was canny enough to coquette with Henry VIII but she would not yield to her maidenhood. She parried his amorous advances with protestations of maidenly virtue.

Lady Bryan was also a regular correspondent of Lord Chancellor Thomas Cromwell. The lord chancellor was the king’s most important minister. Thomas Cromwell was no friend of the Boleyn family. Lady Bryan may well have been in the know about Anne Boleyn’s coming fall from grace.

Lady Bryan believed in expediency. She encouraged Mary Tudor to be kind to her half-sister. It was not the child’s fault. She tried to persuade Mary Tudor to accept her new diminished status. Mary Tudor was stubborn and held out for a long time. She eventually gave in and appeared to agree that she was downgraded. Her submissiveness caused her father to look more generously on her.

Lady Bryan had to supervise Elizabeth been weaned and put ont dry food. She of course received many very detailed orders from Anne Boleyn about how to do this. Lady Bryan had brought up her own children, grandchildren and royal children. She had vastly more experienced that Anne Boleyn.

When Elizabeth was two years and eight months old disaster struck. Her mother was accused of adultery and witchcraft. For a queen consort to commit adultery was high treason. It was also high treason for a man to have carnal knowledge of a woman of the royal family outside of marriage. The charges were very likely false. Nevertheless, three men were tortured into confessing to committing adultery with Anne Boleyn. The whole affair was probably cooked up by the scheming lord chancellor: Thomas Cromwell. He was a foe of the Boleyn family. Anne Boleyn and her supposed paramours were all put to death. At a stroke he removed Anne Boleyn, George Boleyn and Henry Norris who was Cromwell’s main political rival. There was also a musician called Mark Smeaton with whom Anne Boleyn had probably no more than flirted.

Elizabeth was suddenly downgraded to an illegitimate child. Her mother was declared to be an adultress and a sorceress. Her marriage to Henry VIII was annulled. Some of the Boleyn’s foes people suggested that Elizabeth bore a striking resemblance to her mother’s putative lover Mark Smeaton. In fact that is nonsense. Every unbiased observer noted that the similiarity between Elizabeth and Henry VIII was unmistakable.

This could all be a traumatising experience for a child. Fortunately, Elizabeth was so tiny that she can scarcely have been conscious of the gravity of the situation. She had seldom seen her mother anyway. It was very common for children to be orphaned then because life expectancy was so low. Many women died in childbirth. Therefore Elizabeth may not have been as severely psychologically damaged as we might imagine.

Anne Boleyn had gone to her death with fortitude and protesting her innocence with her very last breath. On the scaffold far from fulminate against her hypocritical, adulterous, vain and murderous husband she had praised him as the kindest king ever! No doubt Anne realised that she had better say something flattering about the man who had ordered her death. Otherwise her daughter Elizabeth would suffer.

As soon as her mother was killed Elizabeth was moved to smaller and less comfortable rooms. She was no longer a princess but a lady. Her clothing allowance was immediately stopped. Within a few weeks Lady Bryan was writing to Lord Chancellor Cromwell insisting that more clothes be sent for Lady Elizabeth. ”I beg you to be good to her and hers that she may have raiment.” The letter went on, ” for she has neither gown, nor kirtle nor petticoat. ”

In fact Lady Elizabeth had received a huge consignment of clothes just before her mother was accused of adultery. It is probable that Lady Bryan was overstating her ward’s lack of raiment to ensure that her complaint was taken seriously.

Shortly after Anne Boleyn’s execution. Lady Bryan approached the king with Elizabeth in her arms and asked if he wished to see his daughter. They king scoffed angrily and doubted that the child was his.

Lady Bryan took Elizabeth to Hatfield. She did her level best to shield the child from the horror that had unfolded. Some of those who had previously harboured a quiet loyalty for Mary Tudor were now only too glad to show their scorn for Elizabeth. As Anne Boleyn had been executed Mary Tudor was back in the king’s good graces. Mary Tudor’s mother had died of natural causes a few months earlier which only gained her even more sympathy.

Lady Bryan described Elizabeth as a ”succourless and redeless creature”. (Succour is help). Lady Bryan had been used to receiving very detailed instructions from Anne Boleyn. With Anne Boleyn dead Lady Bryan had a great deal more autonomy. She did not find this entirely to her liking.

Lady Bryan did not know Elizabeth’s exact status. She wrote indignantly to Thomas Cromwell asking for clarification, ” Now Lady Elizabeth is put from that degree she was in to what degree she is in now I know not but by hearsay ”

Sir John Shelton was in charge of Hatfield House. He insisted that Lady Elizabeth dine at the high table as though her status had not been lowered. Lady Bryan had received instructions that Elizabeth had to dine on a less exalted table. She complained that Shelton was disobeying these orders. ”Mr Shelton would have my Lady Elizabeth dine every evening at board of estate. It is not meet [appropriate] for a child of this age.” The real objection was not her age but her illegitimate status. Lady Bryan paid close attention to rank. The order of precedence was everything at court. It was only by being pedantic about such things that she gained favour at court.

Mr was such a high title that it was acceptable to call a knight ‘mister’. Ordinary men did not have the dignity of being called ‘mister.’ Lady Bryan found it very difficult to get along with Shelton. This appears to have been his fault and not hers.

Lady Bryan saw fit to bother the most important man in government with news of Elizabeth’s teeth. ”My lady has great pain in her teeth which come very slowly.” She showed her motherly concern with this sentence.

Lady Margaret Bryan commented on Elizabeth’s development saying she was ”as toward a child of gentle conditions as ever I knew in my life.” ‘Toward’ in those days meant advanced. She expressed a hope that Elizabeth be allowed to be seen on public occasions. The king was at that stage minded to hide Elizabeth as a reminder of the shameful Anne Boleyn.

Thomas Cromwell had much bigger fish to fry. However, Lady Bryan was so formidable that he felt compelled to answer her and take her complaints seriously.

One historian, Agnes Strickland, summarised it as:

”Much of the future greatness of Elizabeth may reasonably be attributed to the judicious training of her sensible and conscientious her governess.”

Eleven days after Anne Boleyn’s decapitation Henry VIII was feeling in the romantic mood! He wed Jane Seymour.

In 1537 Jane Seymour was delivered of a bonny baby boy: Edward VI. Almighty God chose to call the queen to his mercy. She died 12 days after giving birth.

Lady Bryan was made governess of the infant Edward VI. This was a step up because boys were considered much more valuable than girls. Furthermore, Edward VI was undoubtly legitimate whereas in 1536 Elizabeth was declared to have been born to an unwed mother.The infant Edward VI came to live with his sisters. Lady Bryan was in charge of all three of the king’s offspring. Although she clearly had a soft spot for the girls it was made very clear to her that her main responsibility was Edward. He was far more important to the king than both his daughters put together.

Lady Bryan took satisfaction in Edward VI’s luxurious lifestyle, ”His grace was full of pretty toys as ever I saw a child in my life”, wrote Lady Bryan to Thomas Cromwell. By ‘full’ she means he had plenty of them.

When Edward VI was two years old Lady Margaret wrote to Cromwell reporting on the prince’s every little achievement. There is no mistaking the grandmotherly delight in this missive,”The minstrels played and his grace danced and played so wantonly as he could not sit still.”

Lady Margaret still gave Elizabeth presents many of them made by her own hand.

In 1537 the Sheltons were removed from Hatfield. It was relief for Lady Margaret Bryan who has always found Sir John Shelton hard to get on with. It was also a vindication of her. She was superb at her job and he was not. It was a rare victory for a woman over a man.

Lady Bryan taught Mary Tudor and Elizabeth to be good to their brother. They could so easily have resented him for replacing them in their fathers affections. However, they doted on the child.

After a few years Edward VI was moved away to a grander household. Lady Bryan moved with him. He was her sole charge. Elizabeth and Mary Tudor then lived apart. Mary Tudor was well into her 20s and did not need a governess any longer.

Lady Bryan began education with these children. They learnt the rudiments from her. Later on their education was provided by erudite men. It was their general development that was her field.

It appears that she retired in 1452. Her pension was 20 pounds per annum which was handsome indeed.

Lady Bryan served Edward VI so long as her health allowed. She died in about 1552.

=============

CONCLUSIONS

Lady Bryan brought up three monarchs. By all accounts she was brilliant at her job. She was a disciplinarian who was also warm and reasonable. Her responsibilities were very serious indeed. She also had to navigate Tudor politics. Her wards were highly educated, worldly and courtly.

The three monarchs all turned out to be fairly successful in their way. Mary Tudor succeeded in restoring Catholicism though at the cost of her popularity. For Mary Tudor is was Catholicism that mattered so this was a price worth paying.

 

P Gilliard

PIERRE GILLIARD – tutor to the children of Tsar Nikolai II.

Gilliard he was  was born in Switzerland in 1879. He grew up in Vaud which is a Francophone canton of Switzerland. He attended the University of Lausanne. Incidentally his surname is pronounced ”JEEL   yar”.

He moved to Russia in 1904 to be the French tutor to the Duke of Leuchtenberg. The duke was a cousin of the Tsar. Gilliard described his trepidation on first sighting Russia. It was a hair raising time to arriving in Russia. The country was reeling from defeat by Japan. The empire was in the throes of an attempted revolution. It took a valiant – or foolish – man to accept a post in Russia. He was initially brought to the Black Sea where the family was wintering. Later Pierre Gilliard travelled with them by train to St Petersburg which was then the capital of the country. They had a mansion at Peterhof  – the suburb that was the imperial residence. The ‘precepteur’ had very high status because the French language was considered more important in international intercourse than English at the time. 

The Tsar heard about Gilliard and hired him. Gilliard was at first to tutor the Grand Duchesses Olga and Tatiana. The others were considered too young to be tutored by a man of his intellectual calibre at that time.

Monsieur Gilliard described the first time he ever met the imperial family, ” I was taken up to a small room, soberly furnished in the English style, on the second storey. The door opened and the Tsarina came in, holding her daughters Olga and Tatiana by the hand. After a few pleasant remarks she sat down at the table and invited me to take a place opposite her. The children sat at each end.  ” M. Gilliard started residing at Tsarskoye Selo which lies 13 miles south of St Petersburg.

Pierre Gilliard was an astute judge of character. Any private tutor has to have some emotional intelligence. He quickly got the measure of Grand Duchess Tatiana, ‘She was essentially well balanced with a will of her own though less frank and spontaneous than her sister Olga. Tatiana knew how to surround her mother with unwearying attentions and never give way to her own impulses.’ 

Gilliard recalled that the grand duchesses took turns in keeping their mother company. They did not find the duty entirely congenial. Teenage girls are wont to clash with their mothers sometimes and this family was no exception. 

As the years rolled on Gilliard started to tutor the younger children as well. Gilliard later came to tutor the Tsarevich as in the Tsar’s son. Tsarevich was born with haemophilia. He advised against excessive frippery toward Tsarevich Alexei. Gilliard described the Imperial Family’s situation as being one of ”fatal isolation”. Along with just about every other commentator he castigated the impostor monk Grigorii Rasputin as a baleful influence. He wrote of Rasputin, ”This man’s evil influence was one of the principal causes of which the effect was the death of those who thought they could regard him as their saviour.” Gilliard was also adamantine in his insistence that there was no impropriety between Rasputin and Her Imperial Majesty.

Gilliard noted how the Tsarina showed him great respect notwithstanding her own exalted rank. ”   I will give one detail which illustrates the Tsarina’s anxious interest in the upbringing of her children and the importance she attached to their showing respect for their teachers by observing that sense of decorum which is the first element of politeness. While she was present at my lessons, when I entered the room I always found the books and notebooks piled neatly in my pupils’ places at the table, and I was never kept waiting a moment.      ” It is a superb example to follow. If parents wish their children to do well in their education the parents must lead by  being courteous to the tutor. If the parents treat the tutor in an offhand manner so will the pupils and their education will suffer.

Gilliard was later given a request. ‘That year the Tsarina informed me a few days before I left that on my return she proposed to appoint me tutor to Aleksey Nicolaievich, The news filled me with a mingled sense of pleasure and apprehension. I was delighted at the confidence shown in me, but nervous of the responsibility it involved. ” This sums up how many tutors feel when they are offered an assignment with a notable family. Try to bear this in mind if you are hiring a tutor.

Monsieur Gilliard got along well with the Tsarevich. Tsarevich Alexei became his main charge. This was partially because the education of boys was thought to matter more than that of girls. Furthermore, the elder sisters had reached marriageable age and their academic formation was considered complete. Gilliard recounted a typical day of tuition:   ” Lessons (at the time my pupil was learning Russian, French, arithmetic, history, geography and religious knowledge. He did not begin English until later, and never had German lessons) began at nine o’clock, and there was a break from eleven to twelve. We went out driving in a carriage, sledge, or car, and then work was resumed until lunch at one. In the afternoon we always spent two hours out of doors. The Grand-Duchesses and, when he was free, the Tsar, came with us, and Aleksey Nicolaievich played with them, sliding on an ice mountain we had made at the edge of a little artificial lake. He was also fond of playing with his donkey Vanka, which was harnessed to a sledge.. ”

Pierre Gilliard was sagacious enough to realise that not everyone is cut out for scholarly distinction. He also candidly admitted that he achieved only very modest success with the princesses. ”     With the exception of Olga Nicolaievna, the Grand-Duchesses were very moderate pupils. This was largely due to the fact that, in spite of my repeated suggestions, the Tsarina would never have a French governess.…  Olga Nicolaievna did not fulfil the hopes I had set upon her. Her fine intellect failed to find the elements necessary to its development. Instead of making progress she began to go back. Her sisters had ever had but little taste for learning, their gifts being of the practical order      ” To some extent their limited learning is due to their tutor. Perhaps M. Gilliard is seeking to shift the blame. However, we should partly take him at his word. Parents ought to take a tutor’s advice to heart. He proposed that the family engage a French governess and his suggestions was repeatedly rebuffed.

The Swiss gentleman tried to introduce a more informal regime for Alexei when in private.

”        I noticed that the boy was embarrassed and blushed violently, and when we were alone asked him whether he liked seeing people on their knees before him.

“Oh no, but Derevenko says it must be so!”

“That’s absurd!” I replied. “Even the Tsar doesn’t like people to kneel before him. Why don’t you stop Derevenko insisting on it ?”

“I don’t know. I dare not.”

I took the matter up with Derevenko, and the boy was delighted to be freed from this irksome formality.  ”

As if tutoring a future head of state was not daunting enough Gilliard had he added challenge of tutoring a boy with haemophilia.

As a little digression it is fascinating to read Gilliard’s closely observed analysis of Nikolai II’s personality: ”     The Tsar was shy and retiring by nature. He belonged to the category of human beings who are always hesitating because they are too diffident and are ever slow to impose their will on others because they are too gentle and sensitive. He had little faith in himself and imagined that he was one of the unlucky ones. Unfortunately his life seemed to show that he was not entirely wrong. Hence his doubts and hesitations.        ”

Gilliard married Alexandra Tegleva  in 1922. She had been the nurse of the Romanovs. 

 

In February 1917 the Romanovs were ousted. In October that year the Bolsheviks seized power. The Romanovs were state prisoners and were sent to Siberia. Gilliard was sent with them. They went to Tobolsk and later Yekaterinaburg. In the spring of 1917 the imperial children fell ill and their heads were shaved. This was a very great sacrifice for the grand duchesses in which girls were all expected to have very long hair. Gilliard was allowed to photograph them all like this. He was one of the only people permitted to take photos of the family. These photos of the front and back of their heads would later become crucial in identifying the skulls of the Romanovs. 

In the spring of 1917 Gilliard was living at Tsarskoye Selo – the imperial village near St Petersburg. Like the Romanovs he was a prisoner of the Provisional Government but well treated. ‘Our captivity did not seem likely to last long. There was talk of transfer to England.’

In 1918 the imperial family was moved to Yekaterinaburg. They were in the custody of the Bolsheviks. A civil war was raging in Russia between the Reds (Bolsheviks) and the Whites. The Red officer in charge of the Romanovs was Yakolev. He spoke excellent French and treated the Romanovs and Gilliard reasonably. Then he was replaced by someone much less sympathetic. 

Monsieur Gilliard was with the imperial family in exile in Yekaterinaburg. For a while in May 1918 the children were separated from their parents. Pierre Gilliard had to take over the role of father figure for a while without arrogating to himself any pretension of imperial status. The children and Gilliard were not informed by the Bolsheviks where there parents had been taken. In his diary on 3 May Gilliard wrote, ‘Where are they? They could have reached Moscow by now.’ That Easter was the first the children celebrated in the absence of their parents. Gilliard wrote in his journal ‘everyone is in low spirits.’  This was particuarly ironic since Easter was the most joyous time of year for ardent Orthodox Christians. After a few weeks the Tsar and Tsarina were brought back to Yekaterinaburg. Gilliard was alarmed at the attitude of the Red soldiers guarding the Romanovs. They were vulgar and drunk on duty. The Romanovs were subjected to many crude insults. Gilliard’s account has been disputed by other witnesses who claim that the Bolsheviks guarding the Romanovs treated them reasonably. 

Monsieur Gilliard was fortunate not to be executed along with the Romanovs. Several of their household staff were shot dead with them. Gilliard remained in Yekaterinaburg because he realised it was about to be recaptured by the Whites. The imminent recapture of the city was the reason the Bolsheviks had decided to wipe out the Romanovs. 

Pierre Gilliard wrote of the killings, ‘    The inevitable fulfilment of the climax of one of the most moving tragedies humanity has ever known… the last stage in their long martyrdom… death refused to separate those whom life had banded so closely together… All seven united in one faith and one love… It was the mercy of God that all died together… the innocents were saved from a fate worse than death       ‘ 

No one can fault Gilliard for lack of loyalty. However, he seemed to focus so much on the travails of the Romanovs that he ignored what everyone else in Russia was suffering. He does not appear to have asked himself why the Tsar was so detested. 

Once the Whites took the city Gilliard volunteered his services to help the White commander Sokolov with his investigations into the murder of the Romanovs. The corpses of the Romanovs had been partially burned and thrown down a shaft in the Four Brothers Mine. They had later been recovered and reburied. By the time the Whites were able to stage an investigation the cadavers were unrecognisable. Gilliard and other family retainers were given the unenviable task of trying to identify articles of clothing from the bodies to see if these corpses really were those of the Romanovs.

Russian was in bloody tumult due to the civil war. Public transport was virtually non-existent. The Red Army, White factions, the Green Army, foreign interventionists and many bandits roamed the country. Gilliard was trapped. He married a Russian who had been a nanny to a cadet branch of the Romanovs.

Gillard and other faitthful servants compiled their own report into the murders of the Romanovs. They took their boxes of files with them when they left Yekaterinaburg. They also had boxes of personal effects belonging to the Imperial Family. In January 1920 Gilliard and some of the Romanovs other staff managed to flee Russia by travelling to China. They spent time in Harbin. This city was a magnet for White Russians who had fled their country. There Gilliard wrote, ‘   They were in a state of great agitation for the situation grew daily more precarious and it was expected that any day the  Chinese Eastern Railway might fall into the hands of the Bolsheviks. Bolshevik spies were beginning to swarm all over the station and its surroundings. What was to be done with the documents of inquiry?   Where could they be put in safety. ‘  Gilliard implored the British consul and the French consul to assist him in taking these documents of inquiry out of the country. He was astonished that both refused. The Romanovs were widely reviled in Europe and the British and French governments had to take account of that. Finally a White general Janin took possession of the documents. China was also in turmoil. Warlords roamed the country. Gilliard and his party finally managed to take a train to Vladivostock – one of the last Russian cities in White hands. There he and his companions boarded a French ship Andre le Bon and sailed to Marseilles. 

In 1920 Gilliard was finally able to return to western Europe. He initially lived in Paris where he lived in Hotel du Bon Lafontaine. It was the same building as another retainer of the Romanovs, Sokolov. It was on Rue des St Peres. A few years later he moved back to his homeland Switzerland. He was deeply impressed by the fortitude the Romanovs had displayed in their terrible circumstances. Gilliard later published a book about his experiences entitled Thirteen Years at the Russian Court. He wrote in his autobiography, ” My mind was still full of the poignant drama with which I had been closely associated, but I was also still deeply impressed by the wonderful serenity and flaming faith of those who had been its victims.”

Thirteen Years at the Russian Court is a superb sources on the Romanovs. Gilliard heard countless private conversations. He knew them on a personal level. Despite his obvious regard for the family he did his best to remain objective in his book and largely succeeded. Gilliard wrote gorgeous prose that spills onto the page like a musical score. His diaries also providing an unparalleled insight into the final years of the dynasty.

Gilliard moved back to Switzerland. He became a professor at his alma mater.

Gilliard met the woman who claimed to be the Grand Duchess Anastasia. He at first suspended judgment. Having very carefully examined her he reached the certain conclusion that the claimant was an impostress.

1. Gilliard was a very good tutor. This does not mean he was a perfect tutor otherwise he would have done better with pupils of low ability and low work ethic. The fact that the family kept him for 13 years speaks for itself.

 

You can read Gilliard’s account in ‘Thirteen years at the Russian Court’ and ‘Le Tragique Destin de Nicolas II et sa famille .’

 

Mr colour

MR COLOUR

 

[This is about Mr Edward Green. For ‘Colour’ read 

‘Greene] 

 

He was born in 1938. His father was so aghast at the slaughter of the First World War that he became a pacifist. He also joined the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) at that time. Colour’s mother was a conventional Anglican. Ben Colour had been to Russian with the Quakers’ Famine Relief Mission. He joined the Labour Party and even served as secretary to the Labour Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald.

In the Second World War colour’s father became was an outspoken opponent of military action. His principle stance alienated many of his dearest friends. Mrs Colour said it was tremendous because the Colours knew who their real friends were. Mr Ben Colour was even gaoled for two years for his anti war activism.

Colour moved to Scotland in 1942. He was soon enrolled in a prep school called Craigflower. It was whilst in North Britain that Colour became interested in presbyterian church governance. He was later to form the view that the Reformation in Scotland had been admirable since it originated in the broad mass of the populace and was enacted for lofty motives. He contrasted that with the English Reformation where the Crown imposed the Reformation on an unwilling majority and did so for the narrowest  and ignoblest of personal reasons.

Colour went to Eton at the age of 13. The school was of course Church of England. It came to the time when as an Etonian it was suggested that Colour should be confirmed. Colour told his housemaster that he would not be going forward for confirmation since he was a Presbyterian. His housemaster was very surprised and mildly disapproved. Most boys at Eton were Anglicans. There were a few other Protestants, some Catholics and Jews.

Colour was a self-confessed eccentric. Eton in the 1950s was a surprisingly broad-minded place.

Religious debate was heated in the Colour household. His elder sisters became Catholics.

Colour did his National Service. He enlisted in the Royal Navy. This was a highly unusual choice for an Old Etonian. He greatly enjoyed his three years in the senior service.

He then went up to Oxford. He attended Wadham. Again this was an uncommon choice for a boy from Eton. However, his subject was more predictable: Classics.

Wadham was then run by the legendary Maurice Bowra.

Colour applied to the Colonial Office. He was going to be a district commissioner in the New Hebrides. In the end that did not transpire.  Colonialism’s loss was education’s gain.

Colour finished his degree and was offered a position tutoring the son of a belted earl. This peer had a huge estate in North Britain. Colour travelled with his pupil between the United Kingdom and Sweden.

After a few years as a private tutoRr he became a schoolmaster. He taught at Magdalen College School. He was asked to do some private tutoring on the side. Therefore he started a little extra tutoring. He was asked to provide tutors for subjects he could not teach. He sourced such tutors.

Over time his tutoring business grew and grew. It came to pass that he was unable to discharge his duties to the school. He decided to resign from MCS and run his tutoring business fulltime. He had fallen into this career.

He set up the tutorial college that bears his name. The college was the first of its kind. It has many imitators but no equals. Its officeholders have antiquarian titles such as usher and same. Pupils pay bills called battels. These battels were calculated in the most wonderfully anachronistic units – guineas. A guinea was one pound and one shilling, i.e. GBP 1.05. The college seemed to founded on the premise that being old fashioned was a virtue.

He had handmade paper brochures. There were weekly tea parties – symbolic of the old world decency that pervaded the college.

Colour’s College was in its heyday in the 80s and 90s. In the Noughties Mr Colour was reaching retirement age. He was ably assisted by his registrar Nick.

Colour’s achieved outstanding results. This is not simply a matter of many A* s. The college took some very bright pupils, plenty of average ones and more than a few pupils with academic difficulties. For some pupils an E grade was a major accomplishment. Colour would take pupils of all levels of aptitude and do the best to enable that pupil to achieve the maximum that he or she could.

Mr Colour was unique. His tranquil demeanour and unfailing mannerliness won him many admirers. He is so devoted to his college that his is why he is a lifelong bachelor.

Colour College experienced a fillip in the 70s. Many pupils were expelled for taking drugs. Some boys had been booted out of public school for such trifling offences as growing their hair. Schools went mixed. This led to girls and boys getting into compromising positions. Some were kicked out of school for that. Colour took such pupils. Two-thirds of his pupils were boys. This is partly because they were more likely to be excluded from school. However, by no means all pupils there were expellees. Some chose to leave school because they preferred to enroll at Colour’s. Colour’s took an increasing number of pupils from overseas such as Russia. The college was unique and inimitable.

Mr Colour worships in the Free Church of Scotland. The nearest church is in London. He has no petty denominational prejudice. He worships in Oxford Cathedral. He is a strict sabbatarian and will  not answer the phone on Sunday. Indeed he is an adherent of the Lord’s Day Observance Society. He says grace before meals. His moral rectitude does not preclude enjoying wine as Our Saviour did.

To step into Colour’s abode is to step back in time. The decor and layout is decidedly old world. The ambience is unashamedly 19th century. It is like a time capsule of traditional decency. He lives in a multi storey flat on Pembroke Street. It is adorned with judiciously chosen and carefully arranged Victorian bric a brac. Portraits of Protestant divines grace the walls

 

 

M Eagar

 

MARGARETTA EAGAR. GOVERNESS to the Romanovs. 

Margaretta is known for having been governess to the last Tsar’s daughters. These were Tatiana, Olga, Anastasia and Maria. She published a book entitled Six Years at the Russian Court.

She was born in Ireland. She came from the city of Limerick.

Margaretta was a Protestant which made her a minority in Ireland and a tiny minority in Limerick. She was one of ten children. She spent some time in Belfast and qualified as a nurse. She ran an orphanage for a while.

She was recruited specifically to be a governess to the Grand Duchesses. She courageously moved to Russia despite never having been there and speaking not a phonem of Russian. Miss Eagar’s first impression of Russia was positive,

”I may say here that the Russians are sympathetic and kind to a degree, and they are always willing to help a stranger in any way in their power.”

She worked as a governess to the Imperial Family from 1898. At 35 Margaretta Eagar was considered middle aged. She had ample relevant experience. She was unmarried and at the age of 35 it was assumed that she would always remain unmarried. Being a spinster was a prerequisite of the position.

The Tsar’s four daughters picked up a Hibernian lilt from their Irish governess. Protestants were more acceptable than Catholics in Russia. This is because the Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church had an frosty relationship since the schism of 1054. The Russian imperial family sometimes wed Protestants but they never wed Catholics.  As Margaretta Eagar noted some Orthodox Christians even attended Protestant worship sometimes:

” Many Russian people go on Easter Sunday to the English and Lutheran churches. ”

She lived at Susvina Dacha which was 4 or 5 miles from the Peterhof Palace. She spoke French which she found useful in communicating with many officials. French was the principal foreign language in Russia at the time.

Miss Eagar’s role was childcare more than education at that stage. Their Imperial Highnesses were all very little. However, she spoke English to them which they knew from their parents. She also did some basic literacy with them. Looking at Margaretta Eagar’s own writing there is no doubt that she was a highly intelligent woman. University education was scarcely available in Ireland for women. Even then it was effectively impossible for all but the wealthiest girls to access tertiary education.

Nikolai II has gone down in History as uncaring towards his subjects who suffered horrifically under his misrule. Miss Eagar had a different take on him. She found him considerate towards the lowliest of his subjects:

”When an Imperial train stops at a station, a deputation of the principal persons, headed by one called the Stavosta or Elder, presents the Emperor with bread and salt. Shortly after the accession of Nicholas II., he found that the poorer villages and communities were unable to afford the expense of the gold plate, and yet could not bear to be outdone by the richer villages. He therefore issued a decree that henceforth bread and salt should be presented only on wooden or china dishes. This is very characteristic of his thought for his poorer subjects.”

Miss Eagar was a hit with the princesses. She writes with blatant fondness about her former pupils.  It is hard to remember that these people we see in sepia tinted photographs and who were so adulated were real people with foibles, fun and weaknesses. In her colourful prose the Grand Duchesses come alive as the little girls they really were:

”In the picture gallery here is the finest collection of Rembrandts extant. One of these represents the visit of the Trinity to Abraham. I was one day looking at it, trying to make out what it meant, when the little Grand Duchess Olga ran up to me, and, putting her hand in mine, asked me what I was looking at. I told her ; she then looked at it earnestly, and suddenly burst out laughing, exclaimed : ” Oh ! What a very funny picture a man holding a leg of mutton in his hand, and carving it with a knife, and a bird sitting at the table.” The bird, needless to say, was one of the angels.”

The daughters of the Tsar behaved badly sometimes like other children. It was their governess’s duty to deal with this. She recalled some squabbling between them:

” Once there was a cinematograph exhibition for the children and some friends. One picture showed two little girls playing in a garden, each with a table before her covered with toys. Suddenly the bigger girl snatched a toy from the little one who, how- ever, held on to it and refused to give it up. Foiled in her attempts, the elder seized a spoon and pounded the little one with it, who quickly relinquished the toy and began to cry. Tatiana wept to see the poor little one so ill-treated, but Olga was very quiet. After the exhibition was over she said, ” I can’t think that we saw the whole of that picture.”

Do not imagine that royalty are perfect. She recalled that the girls sometimes hit each other. Margaretta was fondest of Tatiana whom she found to be the most intellectually inquisitive. The governess read her charges many stories such asAlice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. Both of these tales are by the Oxford Maths don Lewis Carroll (real name: Charles Lutwidge Dodgson).

Margaretta came to speak Russian. She got along well with her Russian colleagues. She was much older than most of them and they came to her for advice.

”  The maids in the nursery used always to tell me if any man paid them attentions, More About the Children. 267 and just for all the world like an anxious mother, I used to make enquiries about his character, temper, position in life, and whether the would-be suitor could give his wife a home of her own  ”

She recalled that the princesses were very solicitous towards even their maids. When a maid left to get married they had a farewell party for her.

”         The other girls gave a little party to celebrate her leaving us, and the young man was amongst the guests. When the girl heard that he had arrived her grief broke forth again. She realised that the time of parting had come, and the children cried most bitterly. Little Tatiana Nicolaivna took a sheet of paper and a pencil, and wrote with great difficulty a letter which I trans- late : ” Vladislav, Be good with Tegla. Tatiana.” She placed this letter in an envelope and printed in large letters on the envelope, Vladislav, and sent it to him by the housemaid. ”

Margaretta Eagar accompanied the Imperial Household on voyages across the Baltic Sea to Denmark. Nikolai II’s mother was a Danish princess. She also went with them on the Imperial Train on journeys to Russian Poland. She also travelled with them to Yalta and cruised in the Black Sea with them. In Crimea she had the chance to visit some of the cemeteries that contained the mortal remains of British soldiers who had died in the Crimean War only 50 years before. Not a few of these Britishers were Irishmen.

Miss Eagar had an inquiring mind. She was conscious of complexity. She wrote that she was very aware of the ethno-religious diversity of the Russian Empire. She commented on the different habits of Tatars who were Muslims. Back then a lot of ethnic minority people in Russia did not speak Russian. Their religious customs made a huge difference at the time. She heard the anti-Semitic attitudes of the Romanovs to which she did not seem to object even privately.

Miss Eagar had the opportunity to observe some of the mightiest men in the world up close. Here is what she had to say about a remarkably cordial meeting between the Tsar and Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany:

” On our way to Poland we paid a visit to Potsdam, to the German Emperor and Empress. On arriving we found the troops drawn up in a line, and the Emperor himself met us at the station. The band played the Russian National Anthem, and the two Emperors walked along and inspected the regiments. The Emperor of Russia shook hands with the officers and congratulated them. He and the Empress then went off to lunch at the palace, but we stayed in the train till after lunch, when a carriage arrived and took us up to the palace. The German Emperor is very like his portraits  ”

She also got to meet an in-law of the Romanovs: King Edward VII of the United Kingdom. The Tsarina Alexandra was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria and therefore a first cousin of Edward VII. Margaretta Eagar was understandably timid about meeting her sovereign. Contrary to his uncaring public image she found her king to be benevolent:

”  The King frequently spoke to me, too, and called me ” My Irish subject.” He has very winning manners and great tact. He has a marvellous memory. This year he sent me, in memory of the birth of the Czarovitch, a brooch, in green enamel, because I am Irish. They say he never forgets any- thing, and I know he never forgets to be kind. ”

Margaretta was allowed occasional holidays back to Ireland. She then went to Kilkee, Co Clare which is a seaside resort.

Relations between the Hohenzollerns were very warm. Because of the First World War it is hard to remember just how well royal houses got on beforehand.

” The Crown Prince of Germany paid us a visit, and became very intimate with his little cousins.”

Do not misunderstand the word ‘intimate’ here. It is not hinting at any improper behaviour.

Though the overthrow the Romanovs was some years off Miss Eagar wrote of the increasing frequency of revolutionary violence. Even she made some criticisms of the way the Tsar governed. Naturally she sympathised with the family she worked for an denounced revolutionaries as demons.

She left the imperial employ in the summer of 1904. She stated that this was for personal reasons. It could be that she was dismissed because she was British. All Irish people were British citizens at the time since the whole of Ireland was a portion of the UK at the time.  In 1904 the Russo-Japanese War began. The United Kingdom openly sympathised with Japan. This made it impolitic for the Romanovs to employ a woman of that nationality.

She did not leave the Romanovs immediately after the outbreak of this war. It was a few months later. She recalled that the Romanovs were actuated by genuine patriotism and were prepared to make a few sacrifices themselves. Despite their extremely exalted statues they were not too grand to do war work:

”            After the war broke out the children, even little Anastasie, worked at frame knitting. They made scarves for the soldiers, and Olga and Tatiana crocheted caps indefatigably.” 

Yet the children were not above the vindictive feelings that war inspires:

”  It was very sad to me to witness the wrathful vindictive spirit that the war raised in my little charges. One of the illustrated papers had a picture of the baby children of the Crown Prince of Japan. Marie and Anastasie came running across to see the picture, and wanted to know who those queer little children were. I told them, and with a look of hatred coming into her sweet little face Marie slapped the picture with her open hand. ” Horrid little people,” said she ; ” they came and destroyed our poor ships and drowned our sailors.”  ”

 

Despite the unhappy circumstances of Miss Eagar’s departure the Romanovs faithfully paid her her pension. She corresponded with her girls for many years. There is no doubt about the genuine affection between them. Had the war not intervened she probably would have lasted many more years with them. She was an excellent governess for several reasons. Margaretta was respectable and smartly dressed. She knew how to behave. She was deferential and mannerly. Miss Eagar was able to take charge of these children despite their lofty rank. She handled bad behaviour with aplomb. A natural authority enabled her to win the respect of her wards. She was academically able and she could entertain children.  It helped that she was a nurse and solicitous for their health. Margaretta maintained warm and constructive relation with the Russian nannies and other servants. They perceived her as an ally and not an enemy. This is partly down to her tact and emotional intelligence.

Perhaps personal reasons did play a role in Miss Eagar leaving the Romanovs. She missed Ireland and frequently mentioned her native land in her book.

She published Six Years at the Russian Court.  This remarkable book is lively and closely observed. It is a superb window on the family life of the Romanovs. It is set before the haemophilia of Tsarevich Alexei was known. He was born only weeks before Margaretta left Russia. Therefore these were fairly carefree years for the family. They were not haunted by the fear of illness, death and revolution. This memoir is filled with charming apercus. She gives a whistle stop tour through Russian History and she describes the lifestyles of all levels of society. She treats her readers to her judgment on different members of the Romanov family. She had this to say about the Dowager Empress (mother of Nikolai II).

”  The Dowager Empress is a very attractive person. She has the full rich voice, and the excessive tact which belong to the Danish family, as well as their youthful looks. ”

The Tsarina approved of the idea of publishing Six Years at the Russian Court which came out in 1906. She said it was necessary to rebut many of the calumnies printed about the Romanovs. Whether she Tsarina saw the manuscript is doubtful. Presumably she would not have liked so much information about their private life being revealed. The book is almost entirely flattering but it mentions some shortcomings. Eagar defended her erstwhile employers on many points. She even said the government was not all responsible for the Kishniev Pogroms.

Maragretta Eagar never married.She moved to London and ran a boarding house their in Holland Park. Her business was not a success and she died relatively poor.