Gerald Bernard Francis Hamilton (1 November 1890 – 9 June 1970) was a British memoirist, critic and internationalist known as "the wickedest man in Europe".
[''The Man Who Was Norris: The life of Gerald Hamilton'', Tom Cullen, Daedalus, 2014.] Hamilton counted among his friends
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...
,
Robin Maugham
Robert Cecil Romer Maugham, 2nd Viscount Maugham (17 May 1916 – 13 March 1981), known as Robin Maugham, was a British author.
Trained as a barrister, he served with distinction in the Second World War, and wrote a successful novella, ''The S ...
,
Tallulah Bankhead
Tallulah Brockman Bankhead (January 31, 1902 – December 12, 1968) was an American actress. Primarily an actress of the stage, Bankhead also appeared in several prominent films including an award-winning performance in Alfred Hitchcock's '' L ...
and
Christopher Isherwood, who wrote of Hamilton's remarkable personality and frequently shady dealings in his literary memoir ''
Christopher and His Kind
''Christopher and His Kind'' is a 1976 memoir by Anglo-American writer Christopher Isherwood, first printed in a 130-copy edition by Sylvester & Orphanos, then in general publication by Farrar, Straus & Giroux. In the text, Isherwood candidly e ...
''.
Early life
Born Gerald Frank Hamilton Souter in
Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...
on 1 November 1890, he was educated at
Lambrook
Lambrook is an independent preparatory school for 615 boys and girls, aged 3–13, set in of Berkshire countryside.
History
The school was founded in 1860 by Robert Burnside, in a large country house built in 1853 by William Budd. Burnside ini ...
preparatory and
Rugby School
Rugby School is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) in Rugby, Warwickshire, England.
Founded in 1567 as a free grammar school for local boys, it is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain. ...
in England. Hamilton's father, Frank Thomas Edward Souter (1863–1941), was a businessman of Scottish descent with commercial interests in China, and his mother, Edith Minnie, ''née'' Holliday (1860–1890), was English.
Hamilton converted to
Roman Catholicism. He hinted that his lineage was "faintly ducal", but it is unknown if he was directly related to anyone with a title. According to
Anthony Powell
Anthony Dymoke Powell ( ; 21 December 1905 – 28 March 2000) was an English novelist best known for his 12-volume work ''A Dance to the Music of Time'', published between 1951 and 1975. It is on the list of longest novels in English.
Powell' ...
, all that had to be done to disprove that claim was to look up his named father and grandfather, who were not to be found in any title registry.
World War I
Hamilton was interned in the United Kingdom during the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
because, he claimed, of his association with
Roger Casement
Roger David Casement ( ga, Ruairí Dáithí Mac Easmainn; 1 September 1864 – 3 August 1916), known as Sir Roger Casement, CMG, between 1911 and 1916, was a diplomat and Irish nationalist executed by the United Kingdom for treason during Worl ...
, the
Irish nationalist
Irish nationalism is a nationalist political movement which, in its broadest sense, asserts that the people of Ireland should govern Ireland as a sovereign state. Since the mid-19th century, Irish nationalism has largely taken the form of c ...
later executed for treason. Hamilton's own homosexuality was only a thinly veiled secret.
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...
had the
Communist-sympathising Hamilton temporarily interned during the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
because of his vocal opposition to the conflict.
Sales representative, informer, and prisoner
Hamilton was employed at various times by ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...
'' as its German sales representative. He was known as a fixer for
Willi Münzenberg
Wilhelm "Willi" Münzenberg (14 August 1889, Erfurt, Germany – June 1940, Saint-Marcellin, France) was a German Communist political activist and publisher. Münzenberg was the first head of the Young Communist International in 1919–20 and est ...
, "the notorious communist, who presided in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
on behalf of
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...
over the doings of the
League Against Imperialism
The League against Imperialism and Colonial Oppression (french: Ligue contre l'impérialisme et l'oppression coloniale; german: Liga gegen Kolonialgreuel und Unterdrückung) was a transnational anti-imperialist organization in the interwar period. ...
and
Friends of Soviet Russia
The Friends of Soviet Russia (FSR) was formally established in the United States on August 9, 1921 as an offshoot of the American Labor Alliance for Trade Relations with Soviet Russia (ALA). It was launched as a "mass organization" dedicated to r ...
" (as
British Intelligence
The Government of the United Kingdom maintains intelligence agencies within three government departments, the Foreign Office, the Home Office and the Ministry of Defence. These agencies are responsible for collecting and analysing foreign and d ...
described him), and as a go-between or informer by various agencies, including
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur G ...
,
Special Branch, and the British Military Mission in Berlin. At one time, he shared accommodation with "the Great Beast",
Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley (; born Edward Alexander Crowley; 12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947) was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, painter, novelist, and mountaineer. He founded the religion of Thelema, identifying himself as the pr ...
.
Hamilton served prison sentences for bankruptcy, theft,
gross indecency and being a threat to
national security.
Memoirs
Hamilton served as the model for Isherwood's character Arthur Norris in his novel ''
Mr Norris Changes Trains
''Mr Norris Changes Trains'' (published in the United States as ''The Last of Mr. Norris'') is a 1935 novel by the British writer Christopher Isherwood. It is frequently included with ''Goodbye to Berlin'', another Isherwood novel, in a singl ...
'' (1935) (published in the U.S. as ''The Last of Mr Norris''). Hamilton derived from this the title for his own memoir ''Mr Norris and I '' (published in 1956). An earlier memoir by Hamilton, ''As Young as Sophocles'', was published in 1937, and a third memoir, ''The Way It Was with Me'' was published in 1969, all three books giving wholly different versions of even the most basic biographical information. Other accounts of Hamilton's life provide further
obfuscation;
Robin Maugham
Robert Cecil Romer Maugham, 2nd Viscount Maugham (17 May 1916 – 13 March 1981), known as Robin Maugham, was a British author.
Trained as a barrister, he served with distinction in the Second World War, and wrote a successful novella, ''The S ...
's five-part "exposé" in ''
The People
The ''Sunday People'' is a British tabloid Sunday newspaper. It was founded as ''The People'' on 16 October 1881.
At one point owned by Odhams Press, The ''People'' was acquired along with Odhams by the Mirror Group in 1961, along with the ...
'' was in fact concocted in collusion with Hamilton, while
John Symonds
John Symonds (12 March 1914, Battersea, London – 21 October 2006) was an English novelist, biographer, playwright and writer of children's books.
Biography
Early life
He was the son of Robert Wemyss Symonds and Lily Sapzells. At the ag ...
's ''Conversations with Gerald'' (1974) allowed Hamilton to spin yet more yarns.
Life in Berkshire
In 1940, Hamilton became the lover of jazz bandleader
Ken "Snakehips" Johnson
Kenrick Reginald Hijmans Johnson (10 September 1914 – 8 March 1941), known as Ken "Snakehips" Johnson, was a swing band leader and dancer. He was a leading figure in black British music of the 1930s and early 1940s before his death while perf ...
, who was 20 years his junior. They moved in together at 91
Kinnerton Street
Kinnerton Street is in the district of Belgravia in the City of Westminster, London, England. It had modest origins as a service street for wealthy areas of the Grosvenor Estate and was originally occupied by the animals, servants, shopkeepers and ...
in
Belgravia
Belgravia () is a district in Central London, covering parts of the areas of both the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.
Belgravia was known as the 'Five Fields' during the Tudor Period, and became a dang ...
and later bought a cottage called "Little Basing" in Vicarage Road,
Bray, Berkshire
Bray, occasionally Bray on Thames, is a large suburban village and civil parish in the English county of Berkshire. It sits on the banks of the River Thames, to the southeast of Maidenhead of which it is a suburb. The village is mentioned in th ...
, where Johnson could go sailing, which was one of his hobbies.
Hamilton was at that cottage when he received a phone call on 9 March 1941, informing him of Johnson's death in a
bombing raid
Strategic bombing is a military strategy used in total war with the goal of defeating the enemy by destroying its morale, its economic ability to produce and transport materiel to the theatres of military operations, or both. It is a systemati ...
, and asking him to come and identify the body. He later recalled: "Again that awful feeling of
nausea
Nausea is a diffuse sensation of unease and discomfort, sometimes perceived as an urge to vomit. While not painful, it can be a debilitating symptom if prolonged and has been described as placing discomfort on the chest, abdomen, or back of the ...
which I had felt when France fell, and again that sensation of the ground slipping from beneath my feet." From then on, Hamilton kept a picture of Johnson in a white tuxedo with white satin facings at all time with him, calling him "my husband."
Marriages of convenience
In addition, he had a picture of "My wife", Suzanne 'Suzy' Renou, a close friend whom he had wed in a
marriage of convenience
A marriage of convenience is a marriage contracted for reasons other than that of love and commitment. Instead, such a marriage is entered into for personal gain, or some other sort of strategic purpose, such as a political marriage. There are ...
at
Chelsea Register Office
Kensington and Chelsea Register Office is an office for the registration of births, deaths, marriages and civil partnerships located in Chelsea Old Town Hall in Chelsea, London. It has hosted the weddings of many notable people.
According to '' ...
on 29 April 1933 for a payment of £20,000.
Renou was the daughter of Alphonse Renou, a company director. Hamilton had previously been married and divorced from Diana Parker, daughter of Captain Alfred Parker. This was also a paid marriage of convenience, and took place on 31 August 1929 at
St Jude's Church,
Kensington.
Far-right supporter
In the
post-war period, Hamilton drifted towards the
far-right: he was active on behalf of
Oswald Mosley
Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet (16 November 1896 – 3 December 1980) was a British politician during the 1920s and 1930s who rose to fame when, having become disillusioned with mainstream politics, he turned to fascism. He was a member ...
, and in 1948 travelled to the United States, with the intention of procuring a loan for the
Franco
Franco may refer to:
Name
* Franco (name)
* Francisco Franco (1892–1975), Spanish general and dictator of Spain from 1939 to 1975
* Franco Luambo (1938–1989), Congolese musician, the "Grand Maître"
Prefix
* Franco, a prefix used when ref ...
government from the
Knights of Columbus
The Knights of Columbus (K of C) is a global Catholic fraternal service order founded by Michael J. McGivney on March 29, 1882. Membership is limited to practicing Catholic men. It is led by Patrick E. Kelly, the order's 14th Supreme Knight. ...
. In 1959, Hamilton accepted South African money to write a
travel book
The genre of travel literature encompasses outdoor literature, guide books, nature writing, and travel memoirs.
One early travel memoirist in Western literature was Pausanias (geographer), Pausanias, a Greek geographer of the 2nd century CE. In ...
, ''Jacaranda'', which is said to have portrayed
apartheid
Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
in a favourable light.
Historical works
His other books include ''Emma in Blue'', about Lady
Emma Hamilton
Dame Emma Hamilton (born Amy Lyon; 26 April 176515 January 1815), generally known as Lady Hamilton, was an English maid, model, dancer and actress. She began her career in London's demi-monde, becoming the mistress of a series of wealthy me ...
and particularly her friendship with
Marie Caroline of Austria while in
Naples
Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
, and ''Blood Royal'', a history of
Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...
's immediate descendants and relatives in Europe, and the
haemophilia
Haemophilia, or hemophilia (), is a mostly inherited genetic disorder that impairs the body's ability to make blood clots, a process needed to stop bleeding. This results in people bleeding for a longer time after an injury, easy bruising, ...
that afflicted the family.
Old age
Hamilton's latter days saw him living in a
bedsitter at 518A
King's Road
King's Road or Kings Road (or sometimes the King's Road, especially when it was the king's private road until 1830, or as a colloquialism by middle/upper class London residents), is a major street stretching through Chelsea and Fulham, both ...
, London, above a
Chinese restaurant
A Chinese restaurant is an establishment that serves a Chinese cuisine. Most of them are in the Cantonese style, due to the history of the Chinese diaspora and adapted to local taste preferences, as in the American Chinese cuisine and Canad ...
called The Good Earth. Of this, he liked to say "Better above the Good Earth than below it".
Death
Hamilton died on 9 June 1970, aged 79, in
St Stephen's Hospital in
Chelsea
Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to:
Places Australia
* Chelsea, Victoria
Canada
* Chelsea, Nova Scotia
* Chelsea, Quebec
United Kingdom
* Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames
** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...
, as a result of
heart failure. He was cremated.
[Symonds, John. Conversations with Gerald, pg. 209 Duckworth, 1974; ]
In popular culture
Later in his life, Hamilton became friends with
John Symonds
John Symonds (12 March 1914, Battersea, London – 21 October 2006) was an English novelist, biographer, playwright and writer of children's books.
Biography
Early life
He was the son of Robert Wemyss Symonds and Lily Sapzells. At the ag ...
, author and editor, who wrote ''Conversations with Gerald'' about their acquaintance. There is a classic account of Hamilton in later life in Robin Maugham's second volume of autobiography, ''Search for Nirvana'' (1979). Hamilton was portrayed by
Toby Jones
Tobias Edward Heslewood Jones''Births, Marriages & Deaths Index of England & Wales, 1916–2005.''; at ancestry.com (born 7 September 1966) is an English actor. Jones made his film debut in Sally Potter's period drama '' Orlando'' in 1992. H ...
in the BBC production ''
Christopher and His Kind
''Christopher and His Kind'' is a 1976 memoir by Anglo-American writer Christopher Isherwood, first printed in a 130-copy edition by Sylvester & Orphanos, then in general publication by Farrar, Straus & Giroux. In the text, Isherwood candidly e ...
'' (2011).
"Christopher and His Kind"
BFI. Retrieved 6 June 2021
Works
*''As Young as Sophocles'', Secker & Warburg, 1937
*''Mr Norris and I'', Allan Wingate, 1956
*''The Way it Was With Me'', Leslie Frewin, London, 1969,
*''Jacaranda'', Sidgwick & Jackson, London, 1961
*''Emma in Blue'', Allan Wingate, 1957
*''Blood Royal'', Times Publishing/Anthony Gibbs & Phillips, 1964
Further reading
*Cullen, Tom. ''The Man Who Was Norris: The life of Gerald Hamilton''. Daedalus, 2014;
*Page, Norman. ''Auden and Isherwood: the Berlin Years''. Palgrave Macmillan, 2000.
*Symonds, John. ''Conversations with Gerald'', Duckworth, 1974;
''Bureau of Military History''
External links
*
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamilton, Gerald
1890 births
1970 deaths
20th-century English criminals
20th-century English LGBT people
20th-century English historians
20th-century English memoirists
20th-century travel writers
Writers from Shanghai
English people of Scottish descent
LGBT memoirists
English LGBT writers
People convicted for homosexuality in the United Kingdom
Date of death missing
Place of death missing
Converts to Roman Catholicism from Anglicanism
The Times people
English prisoners and detainees
British people convicted of theft
English travel writers