Hedley Hope-Nicholson (born William Hedley Kenelm Nicholson; 17 July 1888 – 18 July 1969), barrister and littérateur, was, with his wife Jaqueline, notable in English artistic and literary circles in the first half of the twentieth century.

Early life and education

(William) Hedley Kenelm Nicholson was born at Bowdon,

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

, son of Alfred John Nicholson (1858-1928), a woollen merchant and coat manufacturer (Nicholson's Raincoats, of

St Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

) from a family of

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

tailors, and his wife Mary (1856-1926), daughter of

currier A currier is a specialist in the leather processing industry. After the tanning process, the currier applies techniques of dressing, finishing and colouring to a tanned hide to make it strong, flexible and waterproof. The leather is stretched an ...

Thomas Cleghorn, of Bildeston, Suffolk. His twin brother, Sigismund John Nicholson, died aged two. The family later lived at St Albans. Nicholson was educated at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

Career

A barrister of the

Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional associations for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wal ...

, and heir to his father's "raincoat fortune", Hope-Nicholson counted among various eccentric hobbies a keen interest in King Charles I and was editor of the quarterly magazine of the

Society of King Charles the Martyr The Society of King Charles the Martyr is an Anglican devotional society dedicated to the cult of King Charles the Martyr, a title of Charles I of England (1600–1649). It is a member of the Catholic Societies of the Church of England, an Ang ...

. He kept a relic from the King's coffin and a piece of the shirt he wore on the scaffold in a box in the consecrated chapel in their London family home, More House, 34,

Tite Street Tite Street is a street in Chelsea, London, England, within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, just north of the River Thames. It was laid out from 1877 by the Metropolitan Board of Works, giving access to the Chelsea Embankment. Hist ...

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 ...

, formerly home 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 ...

. His other great passion was for the Russian ballet. He was the author of ''The Mindes Delight: or Variety of Memorable Matters Worthy of Observation'' (1928). Hope-Nicholson had joined the

Norfolk Regiment The Royal Norfolk Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army until 1959. Its predecessor regiment was raised in 1685 as Henry Cornwall's Regiment of Foot. In 1751, it was numbered like most other British Army regiments and named ...

as a private in 1916, but applied for discharge on medical grounds for lung trouble, and was discharged having been assessed as unlikely to make a good soldier.

Personal life

In 1916, Nicholson married Jaqueline Louise Rachel (1889-1972), daughter of Adrian Charles Francis Hope, descended from the

Earls of Hopetoun Earl () is a rank of the nobility in the United Kingdom. The title originates in the Old English word ''eorl'', meaning "a man of noble birth or rank". The word is cognate with the Scandinavian form ''jarl'', and meant "chieftain", particular ...

, subsequently changing his surname to Hope-Nicholson by deed-poll. Jaqueline Hope-Nicholson was a

genealogist Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinsh ...

, heraldic artist and impassioned costumier dealing with vast outdoor pageants and innumerable amateur theatricals but her greatest interest was in the Stuart kings, primarily Charles II. They separated amicably in 1937. Their children were the artist Mary Lauretta Jaqueline Carola Desirée Valentine Esmé ('Lauretta', 1919–2005) who married the artist

Jean Hugo Jean Hugo (19 November 1894 – 21 June 1984) was a painter, illustrator, theatre designer and author. He was born in Paris and died in his home at the Mas de Fourques, near Lunel, France. Brought up in a lively artistic environment, he began ...

in 1949 and worked as an assistant editor on the Burlington Magazine and with

Richard Buckle (Christopher) Richard Sandford Buckle CBE (6 August 1916 – 12 October 2001), was a lifelong English devotee of ballet, and a well-known ballet critic. He founded the magazine ''Ballet'' in 1939. Early life Buckle was the only son of Lieute ...

on his publication 'Ballet'; Marie-Jaqueline Albertine Dorothea Beatrice Alexina Romaine Adriana (9 August 1922 – 17 May 2010; married in 1945 war correspondent (Herbert) Maurice Lancaster and had two daughters), who compiled ''Brian Howard: Portrait of a Failure in 1968'', about Brian Howard; and (Charles)

Felix Felix may refer to: * Felix (name), people and fictional characters with the name Places * Arabia Felix is the ancient Latin name of Yemen * Felix, Spain, a municipality of the province Almería, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, ...

Otho Victor Gabriel John Adrian (1921–1990), genealogist and antiquarian.

Couplet

According to the art historian and writer

Bevis Hillier Bevis Hillier (born 28 March 1940) is an English art historian, author and journalist. He has written on Art Deco, and also a biography of John Betjeman, Sir John Betjeman. Life and work Hillier was born in Redhill, Surrey, where the family liv ...

John Betjeman Sir John Betjeman (; 28 August 190619 May 1984) was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster. He was Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death. He was a founding member of The Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture, ...

wrote a libellous couplet about Hope-Nicholson and his (at the time unusual for a man) habit of using make-up:

H is for Hedley, who lives in a Place.
What he makes on his bottom, he spends on his face''.

However, James Lees-Milne, in his Diaries, gave a different account and version of the poem: "John Betjeman quotes the following couplet composed by the Widow Lloyd about Hedley Hope-Nicholson, that painted- but delightful- old queen:

H is for Hedley, the pride of Old Place,
What he earned from his bottom he spent on his face''.Diaries 1971-1983, James Lees-Milne, John Murray, 2008, p. 243

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hope-Nicholson, Hedley 1887 births 1969 deaths English barristers English writers