Frederick Gerald Haxton (1892 – November 7, 1944), a native of

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, was the long term secretary and lover of novelist and playwright

W. Somerset Maugham William Somerset Maugham ( ; 25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965) was an English writer, known for his plays, novels and short stories. Born in Paris, where he spent his first ten years, Maugham was schooled in England and went to a German un ...

.Hastings, Selinia. ''The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham'', New York: Random House, 2010 He and Maugham met at the outbreak of

World War I 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 ...

when they both began serving as part of a

Red Cross The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million Volunteering, volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure re ...

ambulance unit in

French Flanders French Flanders (french: La Flandre française) is a part of the historical County of Flanders in present-day France where a dialect of Dutch was or still is traditionally spoken. The region lies in the modern-day region of Hauts-de-France and r ...

Secrecy and arrest

Maugham, and to a lesser extent Haxton, had been affected by the trial of

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...

. Common to men who were either homosexual or in the case of Maugham who had sexual relationships with both men and women (Maugham had had an affair with the actress Sue Jones before meeting Haxton and later had a child with Syrie Wellcome whom he married), neither spoke of their situation for fear of recrimination. However in November 1915 Haxton and another man, John Lindsell, were arrested in a

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist si ...

hotel in London and charged with gross indecency. Military policemen, whilst looking for deserters, had burst into the hotel room of Haxton and Lindsell to find them committing a homosexual act that was not buggery. On December 7 that same year both men were indicted under the same law that had been used to prosecute

. However, unlike Wilde, when the two men appeared in the Central Criminal Court at the

Old Bailey The Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, commonly referred to as the Old Bailey after the street on which it stands, is a criminal court building in central London, one of several that house the Crown Court of England and Wales. The s ...

on December 10 they were both acquitted.

Deportation

Haxton left England shortly thereafter. After touring the South Pacific islands, Haxton was aboard the ''Hitachi Maru'' en route to South Africa when the ship was captured by the German raider SMS ''Wolf'' in September 1917. Haxton was a prisoner aboard the ''Wolf'' until February 1918 when the ''Wolf'' returned to Germany and he was transferred to a German prison camp. He was reunited with Maugham in 1919. On attempting to return in February 1919 he was deported from

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

as an undesirable alien and was never allowed to enter the country again. Haxton's Home Office file, containing the reason or reasons for his banishment, was sealed until 2019.

Robert Calder Admiral Sir Robert Calder, 1st Baronet, (2 July 174531 August 1818) was a British naval officer who served in the Seven Years' War, the American Revolutionary War, the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. For much of his career ...

speculates that

Syrie Maugham Gwendoline Maud Syrie Maugham (''née'' Barnardo, formerly Wellcome; 10 July 1879 – 25 July 1955) was a leading British interior decorator of the 1920s and 1930s who popularized rooms decorated entirely in white. Birth Syrie Maugham was born ...

may have used her high connections in the British government to have Haxton deported.Robert Calder, ''Willie: the Life of W. Somerset Maugham'', p. 161 Because Maugham and Haxton traveled abroad and chose to live on the

French Riviera The French Riviera (known in French as the ; oc, Còsta d'Azur ; literal translation " Azure Coast") is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France. There is no official boundary, but it is usually considered to extend fro ...

in the "

Villa La Mauresque The villa ''La Mauresque'' is located in cap Ferrat (Alpes-Maritimes) and was remodeled in 1927 by Henri Delmotte, Marcel Guilgot, and the American architect Barry Dierks (1899–1960) to serve as the main residence of the British novelist S ...

", they were able to carry on their relationship despite Haxton's deportation. They lived in Villa Mauresque at Cap Ferrat almost exclusively until they were forced to flee the advancing Germans at the commencement of

World War II 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 opposin ...

. It is thought that Haxton's flamboyant nature, said to be portrayed in the character Rowley Flint in ''

Up at the Villa ''Up at the Villa'' is a 1941 novella by William Somerset Maugham about a young widow caught among three men: her suitor, her one-night stand, and her confidant. A fast-paced story, ''Up at the Villa'' incorporates elements of the crime and s ...

'', was the key to Maugham's invitational success with the members of society wherever the pair traveled.

Later years and death

Haxton continued as Maugham's constant companion for 30 years, until he died in a private room in the Doctors Hospital,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. Maugham later placed the following dedication in his 1949 compilation, ''A Writer's Notebook'': "In Loving Memory of My Friend Frederick Gerald Haxton, 1892–1944".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Haxton, Gerald 1892 births 1944 deaths LGBT people from California People from San Francisco World War I civilian detainees held by Germany 20th-century LGBT people