Enid by Robert Wainwright

Author:Robert Wainwright [Robert Wainwright]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Published: 2020-05-09T00:00:00+00:00

19

RIVIERA REFUGEES

When German Panzer tanks rumbled beneath the Arc de Triomphe and down the Champs-Élysées on 14 June 1940 the reality of Adolf Hitler’s power finally hit home to the foreigners living in the south of France.

Until now, life under the cloud of war on the Riviera had been pleasant enough. Rationing had been less severe than in Paris or London and, as the weather warmed toward summer, the bars, casinos and hotels began to reopen to a clientele of French holidaymakers, British and American tourists and soldiers on leave. Such was the optimism that city officials even ran competitions to attract visitors while the English fashion designer Edward Molyneux released a new pleated frock for the season.

But the fall of Paris changed everything. The forlorn hope that Hitler could be stopped had gone. The French Army had been decimated and 338,000 British soldiers rescued from the beaches of Dunkirk by a flotilla of 800 boats.

The world was dark, even on the beaches of the Riviera, which would soon be under siege. The bright lights of Nice, Cannes and Monte Carlo were flicked off and the usual sound of revelry was replaced by the noise of warplanes and heavy gunfire from the Italian coast.

Somerset Maugham was still in his villa at Cap Ferrat when the news broke. It was time to leave. The British Government was sending two ships to Cannes to bring back its last 1300 or so citizens from southern France and he intended to be on it.

Maugham was worried that others, including Duke and Enid, with whom he had become close, might hold out. He pleaded with Enid to join him, insisting that the risk to Duke’s health was not as great as the likelihood that they would be interned. And she also had her daughter’s safety to consider.

The novelist would recall his increasingly desperate conversations with neighbours at this time in Strictly Personal, a memoir he wrote the following year: ‘When I was asked, point-blank, what I thought was the likelihood of our reaching England safely, I was obliged to say that I didn’t think there was more than a fifty-fifty chance; but I pointed out that if they stayed there was the risk of internment; it would be impossible for them to get money and there might be a shortage of food. I left them to decide for themselves whether they thought the risk was worth taking. I went home.’

Maugham’s entreaty worked. Enid and a reluctant Duke agreed to leave. Restrictions on the boat from Cannes meant they were allowed only one suitcase and a blanket each, as well as provisions for three days. For a woman who often travelled with a dozen cases, it meant that most of Enid’s possessions would have to be left at La Fiorentina in the care of their local staff and in the faint hope that she might one day be able to return.

On the morning of their departure, Furness was carried to the Bentley by his chauffeur and slumped in the back, drinking from a hipflask.

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