A. E. Housman by Richard Perceval Graves

Author:Richard Perceval Graves [Richard Perceval Graves]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780571309474
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Published: 2014-03-14T16:00:00+00:00

He had been helping her for several years with research for a history of King Edward’s School, Bath, which she was writing, and he generously paid for her to become a Life Member of the London Library.

In 1926, Alfred and the other Housmans heard of the death of their uncle Joseph Brettell Housman, the man who had helped to save their father from financial ruin in 1879. Joseph was nearly eighty-four years old when he died. Kate had always been devoted to her ‘Uncle Joe’,42 and he in his turn had taken a friendly interest in her and her children. He died childless, leaving his money to his wife, with the provision that, on her death, it should go to Kate or Kate’s children.43 So when Joseph’s widow died only two years later, Kate inherited a house in Exeter, and a good sum of money to go with it. She and Edward soon moved into the Exeter house, and she repaid £200 to Alfred, who wrote, thanking her: ‘I am glad that you have come to comparative opulence, and that you like your last new mansion.’ One of her sons later said of Kate that she ‘spent her whole life giving’; she had worked unceasingly over the years for her husband and her children, and now that she had inherited some money she very unselfishly offered to share it with Basil and Jeannie, and so helped to put an end to their financial worries as well as to her own.

Despite those worries, Kate had found time, over the years, to keep Alfred very well informed about the activities of her children. Herbert had been continuing with his successful career in the Navy, and was now married. Denis had been for some years an assistant medical officer in Shropshire; but he and his wife Phyllis had lunched with his uncle Alfred in Trinity on at least one occasion;44 and they now had three sons, so that Kate was a grandmother and Alfred a great-uncle. Jerry, with his usual bravery and good humour, had made light of his artificial arm; and was also happily married. Alfred, who took a special interest in the nephew who had suffered so badly on his country’s behalf during the war, was always pleased to see Jerry’s letters to his mother; and once Jerry stayed in Cambridge for a few days when he was home on leave.45

Between Alfred and his brother Laurence, there was a continuation in these years of the same more or less friendly rivalry which had characterised their earlier correspondence; and people were still confused about which brother had written what. On one occasion, for example, Laurence wrote to tell Alfred that he had made a great deal of money by selling some copies of A Shropshire Lad which he had persuaded Alfred to sign. Laurence offered Alfred the proceeds; but Alfred declined, replying that the Dean of Westminster had recently thanked him for the amusement he had derived from Alfred’s writings, ‘especially about Queen Victoria and her Ministers – so if I bring you money, you bring me fame’.

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