This website
is dedicated to the history of the Ashbrittle Quickes, and biographical
contributions are very welcome. The
first entry is a portrait of Diana Quicke (nee Harris) as a young woman, posted just after
her ninetieth birthday. Diana now lives
at the Upland Nursing Home in Streatham; her memory has failed, and her home
for the past forty years at 45 Ladbroke Road in Nottinghill,
Please send any biographical conbtributions to
Professor Andrew Quicke at andrqui @
regent.edu
DIANA ELENA
QUICKE (nee Harris)
Note:
This story posted in December 2001 but was
dictated to Andrew Quicke on
Diana Elena Harris was born 19
Legend: the story goes that the baby was late and Oscar wanted to go tiger shooting; he insisted on taking his wife and her amah (servant) with her. The tigers only came out at night, so Marjorie and Amah were put up a tree. The tiger duly turned up buy Grandfather was unable to shoot it because it insisted on walking round and round Marjorie’s tree, and he was worried he might shoot her instead. Baby Diana was born the next day, presumably delivered by the amah since the English nurse had resigned.
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Marjorie had decided to call her daughter Jemima, but on
the way to the Christening her father Oscar decided against the name Jemima and
said he wanted to call her Diana, since he had a polo pony of that name. Christened “Diana Elena” in champagne at the
mess party, Diana traveled back to
UPOTTERY MANOR 1912-1916
Diana’s next four years were spent at Upottery Manor where
she was brought up by her grandmother Ethel, who she always called “Din”, and
by her grandfather Gerald, who died in 1915.
Diana had a nursemaid called Ida, and shared a nanny with her cousin
Ruth, older daughter of Marjorie’s older sister Ursula. Gerald, Marjorie’s eldest brother assumed the
title of Lord Sidmouth in 1915; he met Mary Johnston in
Diana’s father, OSCAR MARK HARRIS, was born in
In 1903 at the age of 16 Oscar ran away from
Her
father Oscar and his Jewish background.
Oscar was utterly fearless, dashing, perfectionist, impatient, a great military leader who fought with the Russian Cossacks in 1914; they awarded him a cuirass; Oscar was also awarded the DSO and the French Croix de Guerre on the field; he was probably the last man to lead a cavalry charge against the Germans in the first world war.
Oscar was not really approved of by his parents in law,
because he came from “trade”, and true gentlemen had parents who were
gentlefolk too. Marjorie snubbed her Jewish in-laws and did not allow Diana to
have much contact with them. Oscar’s
father was an officer in the Queen’s Dragoon Guards which was socially acceptable,
but he and Henriette were divorced and he lived in the
Oscar was a life-long conservative and active in local politics; his great friend was Dr Archie Orr-Ewing, a local doctor and dedicated Conservative who always spat when he had to enter houses owned by patients who voted liberal.
Her
mother Marjorie Ruth Addington & her Sidmouth background.
Marjorie Ruth Addington, the youngest daughter of Gerald
and Ethel Addington was born at Pukituku Cottage, Marton, in the North Island
of New Zealand, but she returned to live at UpOttery Manor in
As the youngest of the four children, Marjorie was regarded as “naughty”; she claims to have been egged on by Raymond, the younger brother who loved terrifying her. Raymond joined the Indian cavalry; he was a wonderful rider, as was Marjorie herself. Later he married a Roman Catholic, Gladys, which created a rift in the family because Gladys openly disapproved of the heretical Addington protestants.
Raymond had eight children, John, (in 2002 the present
Lord Sidmouth) plus Prudence, Hiley (died Canada 2000) Leslie,
As a young woman Marjorie was breathtakingly beautiful as
her portrait proves. She was also very delicate, very headstrong and very
determined. She insisted on marrying a
dashing cavalry officer who came from an inferior class, she was “the Honorable
Marjorie Addington” being the daughter of a peer; while Oscar was the son of a
Jewish immigrant. The family told her she was far too delicate to marry a
serving soldier fighting on the
Ethel Sidmouth was a devout
member of the Church of England and when in
Diana’s childhood: first school “the
Study” in
Seldom was Diana raised by her parents; she was always
being farmed out to others. The first
four years she grew up in the security of her grandmother ‘s
love. Then aged four she was taken to
Second school: kindergarten with “the
In 1919 she was sent away to a family boarding school with
only eleven pupils
run by the Reverend Hudson and his wife
Mary Hudson in Huntsham Rectory.
Huntsham was a
tiny
Diana learnt to ride early; she first went hunting at six
years old. M Previously she rode on her father’s saddle pommel, which must have
been very uncomfortable. Her parents
rented ponies for her in the holidays; by the age of ten she acted as her
father’s groom. Riding her small pony, she would lead a couple of sixteen to
seventeen hand hunters (very large horses) to the meet of the
While at Southlands she hunted on Saturdays, but spent
Sundays with Elizabeth Bernayes, or with the Marden family. From the age of twelve she spent a lot of
time with the Acland family at Sprydencote, then Killerton House, so much so
that some felt they had almost adopted her after the death of their own
daughter in a bicycle accident. Her
greatest friend was Cubby Acland. Together Cubby and Diana built a boat out of
a drawer which they named Edwina and
which they sailed on the Killerton lake. The Aclands always spent their Summer holidays at Duneahhy in
Later Richard Acland stood as Liberal MP for
As an only child, her dog Sport was a great consolation. Sport came from the UpOttery kennels where they kept long haired cocker spaniels. Sport got distemper, so Alfred the estate kennel man offered it to Mrs. Harris, and Diana nursed Sport back to health. Sport was the perfect shooting dog, and Diana let Sport go shooting with her father. Sadly Sport died in 1922, when Diana was eleven years old; she was heartbroken.
Diana saw her first black and white movie when she was eleven with the Ware boys at Sidmouth. Captain Henry Ware had always wanted a daughter, so Diana served as a kind of surrogate sister to Jan, dick and Tom. Tragically the two elder boys were killed falling off the cliffs at Sidmouth while looking for birds’ nests. Tom lost his power of speech after the accident, but Diana got him talking again.
At age eleven in 1922 she was taken away from the
Other friends were Eleanor Foy and Gertrude Coates (later Borrodaile). Her favorite subjects were gym and dance; she played laccrose for the school. In the holidays her home was at Broadclyst Rectory; it was a big house separated from the A38 by a wide field. The house she remembered as having a big hall, sitting room, large dining room, study and her mother’s bedroom at the top of the back stairs; Diana always thought the house was haunted. There was a large garden and a grass tennis court suitable for tennis parties. A large house required a large staff to run it; the Harris family employed a cook, a maid, a batman who doubled as a groom, and the groom’s wife who helped with the cleaning. Grandfather kept his hunters in Topsham barracks where presumably the army fed them. As his wife had lost her riding nerve after India, Diana frequently went riding with her father.
The Coming Out Ball
Diana was living as a paying guest in Lorna Carew’s
Knightsbridge flat when it was decided that she should “come out”. All girls of
her class were “presented” to the Queen as seventeen year olds at the Queen
Charlotte Ball in
After being presented to the Queen, Diana like all girls of her class “came out” at the same party as her cousin Ruth Hope-Wallace; Gerald Lord Sidmouth had UpOttery Manor equipped with electric light for the dance and Ben Bathurst and his brother Hiley flew down to the ball. Unfortunately Lord Sidmouth’s cows ate part of the wings of their parked bi-plane. Like all girls of her class she went to Mrs. Francillon’s Domestic Training School to learn domestic science. She took her own car to that school, and when there declined to learn to dust or wash. In the Spring of 1929 she spent a year in Paris with her cousin Ruth, staying with Madame de la Countesse de la Chenelliere. When she first went to Paris she was accompanied by her governess, who professed herself unable to control Diana. She then went to Trier to stay with Yvonne de Cruz where Yvonne ran the French Red Cross. She got to know French officers, part of the occupying forces in Alsace Lorraine, and she frequently rode on the backs of their motorcycles. Finally she completed her “finishing school” experience in Switzerland. Looking back on her childhood, what did her parents teach her? She answered that her father taught her to ride and to hunt, and a little bit about carpentry.
Employment
Girls of Diana’s class did not normally work, but Diana who was kept almost devoid of money by her parents resolved to work whenever she had the opportunity. Her first job was to work for a missionary family home on furlough for the Summer holidays; she was paid sixteen pounds a week. Next she worked at a PNEU school in Brighton as an infant teacher. Her secondary reason for working there is that she would be close to Frank Twiss, Royal Navy, who had been posted to Portsmouth.
Diana’s next job was as Lady in Waiting to Lady Bledisloe, and personal private secretary to Lord Bledisloe, Governor General of New Zealand, and her distant cousin, who sailed to New Zealand to take up his post. When the job was over, Diana spent six months touring New Zealand with an airforce widow. She learnt to fly a plane, and got to fish with Uncle Harold, her father’s elder brother, who had Maiori women to provide for his every need. Herbert had explored New Guinea at a time when many tribes were still cannibals. She explored part of the jungle area in the far South of South island by herself, which was brave; she and her friend were short of money, so always slept in their little car.
Romantic Attachments
At 16.17 her first love was Derek Puttnam; they danced a lot together. But he was the son of a tradesman who experimented with television in those early days of the Baird System; his background would never have been approved by her mother, a peer’s daughter. Then she met her first serious boyfriend, Lieutenant Frank Twiss who ended up as Admiral Sir Frank Twiss, Commander in chief of the Far East, and later Black Rod, an important ceremonial parliamentary post. Andrew drove Diana down to Wiltshire to have tea with him in 1996/97, shortly before he died, and the friendship clearly still flourished. As a naval officer, Frank was away at sea a lot, but he made sure he saw Diana every time he got shore leave. He owned a big Alvis open tourer, and he carried around a big wind-up gramophone with a big horn which he placed on the bonnet (hood) of the car; they would stop at crossroads, wind up the gramophone and dance to the swing music of the time, while passing cars hooted. Frank was an excellent dancer and a good tennis player.
Other childhood friends who escorted her to dances were the Acland brothers Geoffrey and Cubby. On one occasion while camping on Exmoor with them both (they were then up at Cambridge University) she kissed Geoffrey. “Aunt” Eleanor Acland called her in and said gently “ I have an idea that you are a bit stupid with Geoffrey”.
Social customs of the day demanded that Diana was always chaperoned by her mother Marjorie, but Marjorie was frequently ill.
So as neither parent liked to go to dances, they allowed Diana to use their car, and later she had a succession of very cheap cars (like an Austin 7 or a Morris Minor) that she owned herself. The rules were that she had to report to her father before she went out and when she returned, but actually both parents went to bed and Diana could ask her friends back to Allerwash, their home near Collumpton, for tea and sandwiches after dancing. Holding hands with a boy was really as far as you could go; if a man touched your shoulder strap, that was “too fast.” Once she remembered kissing a young ADC, John Tweedy, at Government house in New Zealand. Diana hid behind the curtains to do this. John Tweedy probably wanted to marry her, but as Frank Twiss was still around, Diana was not free. It seems that John Tweedy called her father to ask for her hand, and Oscar took his daughter to the phone to speak to John, but she remained completely unable to speak to him, so Oscar said to John Tweedy, “the answer is no.”
Diana was sad when Geoffrey Acland got married; his brother Cubby still loved Diana from afar, and in fact remained a bachelor all his life. Cubby became her eldest son Andrew’s godfather and Andrew remembers with great pleasure staying with him in the Lake District where he was in charge of all the National Trust properties.
When Diana first met John Quicke in 1922, he was staying at the Old Parsonage at Ashbrittle as a Hunt Ball guest, and Diana was a leggy twelve year old who taught him the new dance the “Charleston” before the hunt ball. They also met each other out hunting with the East Devon foxhounds, and Diana’s only thought was how badly he rode. She gave him a lead over the jumps, which were mostly banks. Later John’s cousin Gladys Acland Troyte (nee Quicke) arranged that both John and Diana would be invited to a Hunt Ball party at Huntsham.
As the romance developed between them, John Quicke feared
that he would be posted to
Marriage and children.
The marriage took place at
To be continued