Haft Kel Anglo-Persian Oil Company Complex 1936

Nancie travels to Persia in 1936

Her is the actual pass provided for one of  her trips on shore as a 'crew member'! After leaving Antwerp they spent two days in Rotterdam and then continued to Dunkirk where Nancie, Mrs Rodgers and Ann went ashore to do some shipping. Nancie, being a fluent French speaker after so many years living in France acted as interpreter.
By this time the weather had calmed down and they had a good sail along the English Channel. When they reached the Bay of Biscay there was 'a bit of a swell' but Nancie would later report proudly that she only missed one meal!
She must have found the 'No smoking on board' rule quite difficult. As children we remember her telling us how careful they all had to be on board the oil tanker as even a spark from metal on  a shoe sole could cause a disaster.
The journey took 6 weeks in all. As they sailed through the Straits of Gibraltar they were 'shadowed' by fighter planes with machine guns aimed at them. From there they had a lovely sail across the Mediterranean to Port Said in Egypt where, in beautiful weather, the ladies went ashore to shop and Nancie went off on her own in a 'gharri' (horse-drawn cab) to explore the Arab and Egyptian quarters  and saw much more of the area than the others.
The British Commodore then sailed down the Suez Canal and round the Arabian Peninsula, up to Abadan in the Persian Gulf.

Nancie goes to Haft Kel, on the Persian Gulf in 1936

Nancie's next job, in 1936, was with an English family called Rodgers. She went out with Mrs Rodgers and her young daughter Ann, to live on a complex on the Anglo-Iranian oilfields, at Haft Kel, on the Persian Gulf.
They travelled out on the British Commodore, one of the fleet of oil tankers belonging to the company. Sailing from Newcastle they got caught in a terrific storm. There were four other passengers, in addition to Nancie, Ann and Mrs Rodgers. The boat got as far as Deal, Kent and had to anchor off shore as the weather was too bad to risk the crossing to Antwerp. Nancie's Mother was going frantic, at home in Scotland, ringing the Anglo-Persian Oil Company for news. Apparently
ships were sinking all over the English Channel.
In her memoirs Nancie said that the Goodwin Lightship overturned , not far from where they were but I can find no evidence of this. There was, however a German lightship that overturned at that time in  the mouth of the River Elbe, with the loss of 25 of her crew in what was described as a 'hurricane'.
Eventually the British Commodore made it across to Antwerp where Nancie went ashore as 'one of the crew' with the First officer, the Radio Officer and another crew member. She introduced them to Pernod, which they had never heard of, with 'disastrous' results. They probably wanted to celebrate having ridden out the storm safely. Back at home, Nancie's Mother was mightily relieved to hear that they were still afloat!

More on Sholto Johnstone Douglas 1871 - 1958

Sholto Johnstone-Douglas and his wife and family moved into the Villa Marie in 1926. Their children were Elizabeth Gwendolen Teresa and Robert Arthur Sholto born 1916 and 1914 respectively. Sadly Robert (Robbie) was never able to look after himself and Eliza took over his care after the death of her parents. Sholto had married Miss Bettina Grisewood in 1913.
Sholto was well established as a portrait painter by this time, often being compared with Whistler. He painted the sisters of the painter Millais (see previous post about him) and his own sisters (of which he had eight!).
He  became an official war artist during the First World War, painting British battleships. As a member of The Royal Naval Reserve he was stationed on the Isle of Skye as part of the Coastguard Service. He was also commissioned to paint pictures of the camouflaged ships for the Imperial War Museum.
Living in Provence inspired Sholto to paint landscapes in oil and watercolour. He also did pastel and charcoal sketches of people that he observed, working in the olive groves and fields.
This idyll was brought to an abrupt halt at the start of the Second World War. The family had to return to London and endure the Blitz. After several moves, Sholto ended up living in Suffolk, where he had a stroke which unfortunately affected his eyesight. He carried on painting, however, until his death in 1958, leaving the wonderful bequest of his art to the rest of us. 

F.Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda, his wife

F.Scott Fitzgerald was staying in the Villa Marie at Valescure in 1924 when he finished writing his most famous work 'The Great Gatsby'. They rented the villa for five months in the summer and while he was busy writing, his wife, Zelda, amused herself with a young man called Edouard Jozan. Her husband was not happy when they embarked on an affair but she had become bored as he didn't pay her enough attention. Zelda and Scott both died relatively young. She was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1936 and died in 1948 aged 47. F.Scott Fitzgerald had died in 1940 aged 44. Rather a sad ending for such a glamorous couple.

Sholto Johnstone-Douglas and the Villa Marie in Saint Raphael

Eliza, Countess of Craven was the daughter of the painter Sholto Johnstone-Douglas (1871- 1958). Some years after his death she put on an exhibition of his paintings in Abingdon, Oxfordshire. Nancie received an invitation but was unable to go.
It was a sort of 'tradition' that she was invited to such events, including the weddings of her 'grandchildren' but she was never able to attend in person. It meant she remained close to all the children she looked after and felt involved in their lives for many years later.
Sholto's wife, Bettina, Eliza's Mother, was the greatgranddaughter of the Count of Messina in Sicily. The Johnstone-Douglases spent the years  1926- 1938 in France, staying in the Villa Marie at Saint-Raphael, where incidentally, a couple of years earlier, F.Scott Fitzgerald finished his famous novel, 'The Great Gatsby'. He clearly observed the local English aristocracy in Saint Raphael quite closely.

The Curse of the Earls of Craven

Eliza kept in touch with Nancie all her life and with myself, when Nancie was no longer able to write letters. Nancie shared in all the ups and downs of Eliza's life and gave her moral support from afar.
In 1939 Eliza had fallen in love with 'Bobbie', otherwise known as William Robert Bradley, the Earl of Craven. In 1939 some of his friends thought it was a big joke to get him drunk and take him to the Register Office where he married Irene Meyrick. Her full name was Gwendolyn Irene Meyrick . Irene (pronounced Ireenee) was the daughter of the notorious London nightclub owner, Kate Meyrick.
Several of her daughters married aristocrats, often accompanied by controversy.
Unfortunately the situation was not easily resolved as Bobbie Craven was a practicing Roman Catholic and as such could not get a divorce. It took fifteen years for him to get free of Irene and to be able to marry Eliza who had waited patiently for him.
The well-documented 'Curse of the Earls of Craven' stated that every Earl was destined to die before his Mother. Certainly none of the previous Earls lived beyond the age of 56 and poor Bobbie was to die from leukaemia at the early age of 47. He and Eliza had three children: two sons and a daughter.
Tom, the eldest, became the Earl of Craven in 1965 on the death of his Father. Very sadly, Tom suffered from schizophrenia and he committed suicide in 1983, leaving a young son, also Thomas, the child of his scottish girlfriend, Anne Nicholson.
His younger brother, Simon, became the eighth Earl of Craven but tragedy struck once more when Simon, a student nurse, crashed his car in Eastbourne and was fatally injured in 1990. His son, Benjamin Robert Joseph Craven born 13th June 1989 became the ninth Earl.
Eliza and Bobbie's daughter married Lionel Tarassenko and had three children but their marriage eventually failed, much to Eliza's distress.
Eliza corresponded with Nancie throughout all these tragic events and the close bond that they formed back in France in the 1930s never faltered. I kept her up to date with Nancie's life until she died in 2004 and Eliza herself not long after.