Dora Carrington; Ralph Partridge; Lytton Strachey; Oliver Strachey; Frances Catherine Partridge (née Marshall), 1923

Reginald Sherring Partridge, (1894 – 30 November 1960), generally known as Ralph Partridge, a member of the

Bloomsbury Group The Bloomsbury Group—or Bloomsbury Set—was a group of associated English writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists in the first half of the 20th century, including Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes, E. M. Forster and Lytton Strac ...

, worked for

Leonard Woolf Leonard Sidney Woolf (; – ) was a British political theorist, author, publisher, and civil servant. He was married to author Virginia Woolf. As a member of the Labour Party and the Fabian Society, Woolf was an avid publisher of his own work ...

and

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born i ...

, married first

Dora Carrington Dora de Houghton Carrington (29 March 1893 – 11 March 1932), known generally as Carrington, was an English painter and decorative artist, remembered in part for her association with members of the Bloomsbury Group, especially the writer Lytton ...

and then Frances Marshall, and was the unrequited love of

Lytton Strachey Giles Lytton Strachey (; 1 March 1880 – 21 January 1932) was an English writer and critic. A founding member of the Bloomsbury Group and author of ''Eminent Victorians'', he established a new form of biography in which psychological insight ...

Biography

Partridge was born in 1894, the son of (William) Reginald Partridge, magistrate and collector of the

North-Western Provinces The North-Western Provinces was an administrative region in British India. The North-Western Provinces were established in 1836, through merging the administrative divisions of the Ceded and Conquered Provinces. In 1858, the nawab-ruled kingdom ...

and

Oudh The Oudh State (, also Kingdom of Awadh, Kingdom of Oudh, or Awadh State) was a princely state in the Awadh region of North India until its annexation by the British in 1856. The name Oudh, now obsolete, was once the anglicized name of ...

for the

Indian Civil Service The Indian Civil Service (ICS), officially known as the Imperial Civil Service, was the higher civil service of the British Empire in India during British rule in the period between 1858 and 1947. Its members ruled over more than 300 million ...

, and Jessie (née Sherring). His father was the son of a Devon solicitor while, on his mother's side, the Sherring family were clerics and Christian

missionaries A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...

working in India at

Varanasi Varanasi (; ; also Banaras or Benares (; ), and Kashi.) is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world. * * * * The city has a syncretic t ...

. In his childhood Partridge had been known as 'Rex'.Frances Partridge: The Biography, Anne Chisholm, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2009 He was educated at

Westminster School (God Gives the Increase) , established = Earliest records date from the 14th century, refounded in 1560 , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , head_label = Hea ...

where he was

Head Boy Head boy and head girl are student leadership roles in schools, representing the school's entire student body. They are normally the most senior prefects in the school. The terms are commonly used in the British education system as well as in Aus ...

. Partridge won a scholarship to read Classics at

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church ( la, Ædes Christi, the temple or house, '' ædēs'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, the college is uniqu ...

, and rowed for Oxford University. He was commissioned during

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 ...

, joining the

Royal Warwickshire Regiment The Royal Warwickshire Regiment, previously titled the 6th Regiment of Foot, was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in continuous existence for 283 years. The regiment saw service in many conflicts and wars, including the Second Boer War ...

, and was seconded to the 48th Division Cyclist Company, returning to his Regiment after a year. He reached the rank of

Major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

by the age of twenty-three, winning a

Military Cross The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level pre-1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth countries. The MC i ...

and

bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (u ...

and the

Croix de Guerre The ''Croix de Guerre'' (, ''Cross of War'') is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was first awa ...

. Partridge was an Oxford friend of

's younger brother Noel. They met in 1918. Partridge fell in love with Carrington and eventually, in 1921, Carrington agreed to marry him even if she was in love with

. Strachey was himself more interested in Partridge. An added complication was Dora Carrington's intermittent affair with one of Partridge's best friends,

Gerald Brenan Edward FitzGerald "Gerald" Brenan, CBE, MC (7 April 1894 – 19 January 1987) was a British writer and hispanist who spent much of his life in Spain. Brenan is best known for '' The Spanish Labyrinth'', a historical work on the background t ...

. Carrington, Partridge, and Strachey shared a Wiltshire farm-house, Ham Spray, in a complex triangular relationship later recorded in the 1995 film '' Carrington''. Though Strachey spoke openly about his homosexuality with his Bloomsbury friends, and had relationships with a variety of men including Partridge, details of Strachey's sexuality were not widely known until the publication of a biography by

Michael Holroyd Sir Michael de Courcy Fraser Holroyd (born 27 August 1935) is an English biographer. Early life and education Holroyd was born in London, the son of Basil de Courcy Fraser Holroyd (a descendant of Sir George Sowley Holroyd, Justice of the King' ...

in the late 1960s.Holroyd, Michael, ''Lytton Strachey: A Critical Biography'', 447. PartridgesStrachey

In 1926, Partridge left Carrington to live with Frances Marshall, whom he had met while she was working at the London bookshop owned by

David Garnett David Garnett (9 March 1892 – 17 February 1981) was an English writer and publisher. As a child, he had a cloak made of rabbit skin and thus received the nickname "Bunny", by which he was known to friends and intimates all his life. Early ...

and

Francis Birrell Francis Frederick Locker Birrell (17 February 1889 – 2 January 1935) was an English writer and bookseller. Birrell was the son of Augustine Birrell and Eleanor Tennyson (born Locker-Lampson). It was the second marriage for each of his parent ...

; at that time Partridge was working for

and

at the

Hogarth Press The Hogarth Press is a book publishing imprint of Penguin Random House that was founded as an independent company in 1917 by British authors Leonard Woolf and Virginia Woolf. It was named after their house in Richmond (then in Surrey and now ...

. Meanwhile, Carrington had an affair with Bernard 'Beakus' Penrose, who was a friend of Partridge. After Carrington died by suicide in 1932, shortly after Lytton Strachey's death, Ralph and Frances married in 1933. The couple had one son, (Lytton) Burgo Partridge (1935–1963). They lived in London during the week and repaired to Ham Spray at weekends. They lived happily at Ham Spray until Ralph's death in 1960. Frances, the last surviving member and diarist of the Bloomsbury Group died, aged 103, in 2004.

In popular culture

Books

*''A Pacifist's War'' (Hogarth Press, 1978) by

Frances Partridge Frances Catherine Partridge CBE (née Marshall; 15 March 1900 – 5 February 2004) was an English writer. Closely connected to the Bloomsbury Group, she is probably best known for the publication of her diaries. She married Ralph Partridge (1 ...

is an account of Ralph and Frances' life as pacifists during the

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 ...

, when Ralph refused to join the

Home Guard Home guard is a title given to various military organizations at various times, with the implication of an emergency or reserve force raised for local defense. The term "home guard" was first officially used in the American Civil War, starting wi ...

, finally being recognised as a

conscientious objector A conscientious objector (often shortened to conchie) is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, or religion. The term has also been extended to object ...

by the Appellate Tribunal.

Films

Steven Waddington Steven Waddington (born 30 December 1967) is an English film and television actor. He is best known for his supporting role in Michael Mann's ''The Last of the Mohicans''. Early life Waddington was born in Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, the ...

portrays Partridge in the 1995 British biographical film '' Carrington'' written and directed by

Christopher Hampton Sir Christopher James Hampton ( Horta, Azores, 26 January 1946) is a British playwright, screenwriter, translator and film director. He is best known for his play ''Les Liaisons Dangereuses'' based on the novel of the same name and the film ...

based on the book ''Lytton Strachey'' by

. *

Christian Coulson Christian Peter Coulson (born 3 October 1978) is an English actor known for playing young Tom Marvolo Riddle in the 2002 fantasy film ''Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets''. Early life Coulson was born in Manchester. He attended Arnold Ho ...

portrays Partridge in the 2002 British-American drama film '' The Hours'' directed by

Stephen Daldry Stephen David Daldry CBE (born 2 May 1960) is an English director and producer of film, theatre, and television. He has won three Olivier Awards for his work in the West End and three Tony Awards for his work on Broadway. He has received thr ...

based on the 1998 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name by

Michael Cunningham Michael Cunningham (born November 6, 1952) is an American novelist and screenwriter. He is best known for his 1998 novel '' The Hours'', which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award in 1999. Cunningham is a senior lectur ...

. *

Laurence Fox Laurence Paul Fox (born 1978) is a political activist and former actor, most well-known for playing the supporting role of DS James Hathaway in the British TV drama series '' Lewis'' from 2006 to 2015. A grandson of the actors Robin and Ange ...

portrays Partridge in the 2003

Goya Award The Goya Awards ( es, Premios Goya) are Spain's main national annual film awards, commonly referred to as the Academy Awards of Spain. The awards were established in 1987, a year after the founding of the Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sci ...

winning Spanish film ''

Al sur de Granada ''South from Granada'' ( es, Al sur de Granada, links=no) is a 2003 Spanish comedy film directed by Fernando Colomo which stars Matthew Goode as Gerald Brenan (author of ''South from Granada''), a demobilized British soldier who in 1919 rents a hou ...

'', written and directed by

Fernando Colomo Fernando Colomo Gómez (born 2 February 1946) is a Spanish film producer, screenwriter and film director. He has also acted in small roles in his own and other's films. He is regarded as the father of the so-called '' comedia madrileña''. Fil ...

, based on the 1957 autobiographical book ''

South from Granada ''South from Granada: Seven Years in an Andalusian Village'' is an autobiographical book by Gerald Brenan, first published in 1957. Brenan, a fringe member of the Bloomsbury Group, moved to Spain in 1919 and lived there on and off for the rest ...

'' by

. *

Nathan Stewart-Jarrett Nathan Lloyd Stewart-Jarrett (born 4 December 1985) is a British actor, best known for starring as Curtis Donovan in the E4 series ''Misfits'' and as Ian in the Channel 4 series ''Utopia''. Early life Stewart-Jarrett was born in Wandsworth, ...

portrays Partridge in the 2018 film ''

Vita & Virginia ''Vita & Virginia'' is a 2018 biographical romantic drama film directed by Chanya Button. The screenplay, written by Button and Eileen Atkins, is adapted from the 1992 play ''Vita & Virginia'' by Atkins. The film stars Gemma Arterton, Eliz ...

'', directed by Chanya Button. The screenplay, written by Button and

Eileen Atkins Dame Eileen June Atkins, (born 16 June 1934), is an English actress and occasional screenwriter. She has worked in the theatre, film, and television consistently since 1953. In 2008, she won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress and the Emmy Aw ...

, is adapted from the 1992 play ''Vita & Virginia'' by Atkins.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Partridge, Ralph 1894 births 1960 deaths British Army personnel of World War I Recipients of the Military Cross Recipients of the Croix de Guerre 1914–1918 (France) Royal Warwickshire Fusiliers officers Army Cyclist Corps officers