The Trials of Radclyffe Hall by Diana Souhami (surface ebook reader .TXT) 📗

John rehearsed for it with Una. On the day, they breakfasted in bed together, got the ten-fifty train to London, did book tests, then dressed for the lecture at four-thirty. Sir Oliver Lodge was in the chair. Mrs Visetti, Una’s mother, Cara, her daughter Honey and Dolly Clarke were in the audience.

John read beautifully, Una said. Isabel Newton called it a flawless paper. It was to be published in the Society’s journal and John was nominated for election to the council. Well pleased, she and Una took the train home to Datchet and in the evening cycled to Old Windsor in divine weather on the Sparkbrook bicycles John had bought.

But not all those who heard the paper thought it flawless. Quite a few knew the drama of sex, guilt and jealousy that underpinned it, bleached though it was into pseudo-science. ‘Outrageous gossip’ was not easily pushed aside. Radclyffe Hall was telling the world about herself and her life with Mabel Batten and Una Troubridge. The mausoleum at Highgate, the pews, plaques and inscribed roods in churches and now this monolithic effort at resurrection testified publicly to the same thing – an outspoken declaration of lesbian love.

In June, Cara complained to Helen Salter at the Society. She said the paper was a pack of lies. Radclyffe Hall was separating her from her mother. Una had abandoned her husband and child and was mentally unbalanced, which was why she was treated by Crichton-Miller. Mabel Batten had resented Una. Quarrelling about her with Radclyffe Hall had precipitated her stroke. Cara wrote an ‘infamous letter’ to John, who in turn wrote to Oliver Lodge:

Mrs Salter now has the matter in hand and we believe intends to inform Mrs Harris that she must either put her accusations in black and white and affix her signature thereunto, or else withdraw them, also in black and white, in toto. If she does the former, the matter will be dealt with by our solicitor as it will constitute a very grave slander, but we both pray that she will not compel us to such steps. I can never forget who she is, and Una feels as I do. On several occasions relations of Mrs Harris’s have told us that we had no right to encourage her to take an interest in Psychical Research as they considered her unbalanced to the extent of being mentally deranged … I think her lack of balance and excitability are perhaps the kindest and truest explanation of what she has done … To have to admit such things about the daughter of the most wonderful friend a woman ever had is painful beyond all words.

It was not so painful as to stop Radclyffe Hall making such admissions or from threatening legal action. Cara did not put anything in black, white or in toto, but nor did she withdraw her accusations. Mabel Batten had, in her will, asked them to stay friends. Their loathing for each other lasted a lifetime.

The war ended in November 1918. John looked for a large house for herself and Una. In January 1919 she bought Chip Chase in Hadley Wood, Middlesex, a mock castle, quite outside the financial reach of Troubridge. She arranged for builders to refurbish it. As a gift for Mrs Leonard, she bought Hampworth Cottage at Oakleigh Park nearby. She wanted her medium available for daily sittings.

Troubridge, who had been promoted to ‘full Admiral with seniority’, arrived that month unannounced at the Datchet house. There was ‘an unpleasant scene’. Una refused to see him except in John’s presence. They told him of Chip Chase and their plans to live together. He threatened legal action and accused John of having wrecked his home.

Una saw Alfred Sachs, Crichton-Miller and on three consecutive days Mr Hastie, John’s solicitor. She provided medical evidence that Troubridge had infected her with syphilis and that as a consequence she suffered neurasthenia for which she needed psychiatric help. Hastie ‘thought he could settle things’. He prepared a deed of separation which gave Una custody of Andrea. Troubridge signed this on 8 February. Radclyffe Hall thought he did so ‘in the full understanding that should he refuse, the scandal would be made public and Una would sue publicly for a judicial separation’.

Troubridge had received enough adverse publicity. He had no desire for any more of his life to be made public. Nor could he afford litigation. But that same day he made a new will with a clause about Andrea:

In the event of my wife Una Vincenzo Troubridge formerly known as Margot Elena Gertrude Troubridge predeceasing me I appoint my sisters Laura Hope and Violet Gurney to be the guardians of my infant daughter Andrea Theodosia Troubridge during such period or periods as I shall be on foreign service and I direct that my said daughter shall under no circumstances be left under the guardianship or care of Marguerite Radclyffe-Hall.

He hated Radclyffe Hall and thought her influence pernicious. Enraged and humiliated, he intended revenge. But he did not know what to do about Andrea. He could not provide her with a home, but he would sooner she was on the streets than with her. Una countersigned the deed of separation on 10 February. She talked to her mother and sister about it and ‘explained’ matters to Andrea. ‘Great peace and relief upon me’, she wrote. ‘Deo Gratis.’

Troubridge made another angry move. On Una’s birthday, 8 March, a letter arrived that he was now seeking custody of Andrea. John took Una to her own solicitor in Holborn, Sir George Lewis, head of the firm Lewis & Lewis. He told them ‘the deed signed by the Admiral was binding’. ‘He could not take the child, and his letter was a mere subterfuge written with a view to intimidating Una into making certain statements to his advantage.’

Una made no statements to Troubridge’s advantage. She did not see him again. In April she moved with John into Chip Chase. Troubridge agreed to pay maintenance for