James Pope Hennessy CVO (20 November 1916 – 25 January 1974) was a British biographer and travel writer.

Early life

Richard James Arthur Pope-Hennessy was born in London on 20 November 1916, the younger son of Ladislaus Herbert Richard Pope-Hennessy, a soldier from

County Cork County Cork ( ga, Contae Chorcaí) is the largest and the southernmost county of Ireland, named after the city of Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. Its largest market towns a ...

, Ireland, and his wife,

Una Una and UNA may refer to: Places * 160 Una, the asteroid "Una", an asteroid named after the Faerie Queene character * Una River (disambiguation), numerous rivers * Una, Himachal Pradesh, a town in India ** Una, Himachal Pradesh Assembly constit ...

, the daughter of Arthur Birch, Lieutenant-Governor of

Ceylon Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

. He was the younger of two sons; his elder brother, John Pope-Hennessy, was an English art historian, museum director and writer of note. James, as he was generally known, came from a close-knit Catholic family and was educated at Downside School and at

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the ...

, but generally showed a lack of interest in formal education and did not enjoy his time at either Downside or Oxford.Lees-Milne, James, ''Fourteen Friends'', 1996, John Murray Publishers, London, p. 201.

Writing career

Largely owing to his mother's influence, he decided to become a writer and left Oxford in 1937 without taking a degree. He went to work for the Catholic publishers

Sheed and Ward Sheed and Ward was a publishing house founded in London in 1926 by Catholic activists Frank Sheed and Maisie Ward. The head office was moved to New York in 1933. The United States assets of Sheed and Ward have been owned by Rowman & Littlefield ...

as an editorial assistant. While working at the company's offices, in

Paternoster Row Paternoster Row was a street in the City of London that was a centre of the London publishing trade, with booksellers operating from the street. Paternoster Row was described as "almost synonymous" with the book trade. It was part of an area ca ...

in London, he worked on his first book, ''London Fabric'' (1939), for which he was awarded the Hawthornden Prize. During this period, he was involved in a circle of notable literary figures including

Harold Nicolson Sir Harold George Nicolson (21 November 1886 – 1 May 1968) was a British politician, diplomat, historian, biographer, diarist, novelist, lecturer, journalist, broadcaster, and gardener. His wife was the writer Vita Sackville-West. Early li ...

, Raymond Mortimer and

James Lees-Milne (George) James Henry Lees-Milne (6 August 1908 – 28 December 1997) was an English writer and expert on country houses, who worked for the National Trust from 1936 to 1973. He was an architectural historian, novelist and biographer. His extensi ...

. He left the publishers in 1938 when his mother found him a job as private secretary to Hubert Young, the Governor of

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

. Although his time abroad provided the material for his later ''West Indian Summer'' (1943), he disliked both the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...

and the atmosphere of Government House.Quennell, p. xv. The outbreak of 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 ...

gave him an excuse to return to Britain, where he enlisted as a private in an anti-aircraft battery under the command of Sir

Victor Cazalet Colonel Victor Alexander Cazalet, MC (27 December 1896 – 4 July 1943) was a British Conservative Party Member of Parliament for nineteen years. He came from a prominent, wealthy English family. In his political career, he was a noted autho ...

. Rising through the ranks, he was transferred to military intelligence, given a commission and spent the latter part of the war as a member of the British army staff at

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

. Pope-Hennessy enjoyed his time in the United States and made many friends there. After the end of the war he wrote an account of his experiences in America. On his return to London in 1945 he shared a flat with the British intelligence officer

Guy Burgess Guy Francis de Moncy Burgess (16 April 1911 – 30 August 1963) was a British diplomat and Soviet agent, and a member of the Cambridge Five spy ring that operated from the mid-1930s to the early years of the Cold War era. His defection in 1951 ...

, who later defected to the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

. He had a brief spell as the literary editor of ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world. It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''Th ...

'' between 1947 and 1949, before he decided to travel to France and write ''Aspects of

Provence Provence (, , , , ; oc, Provença or ''Prouvènço'' , ) is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which extends from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the Italian border to the east; it is bo ...

'', which was published in 1952. He would eventually establish himself as one of the leading biographers of his time; his first effort in this direction being a two-volume biography of Monckton Milnes that appeared in 1949 under the titles ''The Years of Promise'' and ''The Flight of Youth''. This was followed by further biographies of the Earl of Crewe and of Queen Mary, for which he was created

Commander of the Royal Victorian Order The Royal Victorian Order (french: Ordre royal de Victoria) is a dynastic order of knighthood established in 1896 by Queen Victoria. It recognises distinguished personal service to the British monarch, Canadian monarch, Australian monarch, o ...

in 1960. He also wrote a life of his grandfather, the colonial governor

John Pope Hennessy Sir John Pope Hennessy (; 8 August 1834 – 7 October 1891), was an Irish and British politician and colonial administrator who served as the eighth Governor of Hong Kong and the fifteenth Governor of Mauritius. Early life John Pope Hennes ...

, under the title ''Verandah'' (adapted as a documentary for BBC Television under the title "Strange Excellency", 1964), followed by an account of the Atlantic slave traffickers, ''Sins of the Fathers'' (1967). In 1970, he took out Irish citizenship and went to live at

Banagher Banagher ( or ''Beannchar na Sionna'') is a town in Ireland, located in the midlands, on the western edge of County Offaly in the province of Leinster, on the banks of the River Shannon. It had a population of 3,000 at the height of its econ ...

County Offaly County Offaly (; ga, Contae Uíbh Fhailí) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster. It is named after the Ancient Ireland ...

, where he took rooms at the Shannon Hotel, and during the next few years produced authoritative biographies of both

Anthony Trollope Anthony Trollope (; 24 April 1815 – 6 December 1882) was an English novelist and civil servant of the Victorian era. Among his best-known works is a series of novels collectively known as the '' Chronicles of Barsetshire'', which revolves ar ...

and

Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as '' Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll ...

. Trollope himself had chosen James' grandfather, John Pope Hennessy, as the basis for the character

Phineas Finn ''Phineas Finn'' is a novel by Anthony Trollope and the name of its leading character. The novel was first published as a monthly serial from October 1867 to May 1868 in ''St Paul's Magazine''. It is the second of the " Palliser" series of novel ...

in his novel of the same name. ''Robert Louis Stevenson'' was published posthumously and without revision in 1974. He became a popular figure in Banagher, evidenced by the fact that he was asked to adjudicate at a local beauty pageant and the

horse fair A horse fair is a (typically annual) fair where people buy and sell horses. In the United Kingdom there are many fairs which are traditionally attended by Romani people and travellers who converge at the fairs to buy and sell horses, meet with ...

, the oldest in Ireland.Quennell, p.xviii. On being given a large advance he returned to London in 1974 to begin work on his next subject,

Noël Coward Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 189926 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what ''Time'' magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and ...

Death and commemoration

Despite being a successful professional writer, Pope-Hennessy was careless with money. He suffered a series of financial crises and often relied on the goodwill of friends to get him by. He was a heavy drinker and frequented back-street bars and shady pubs where he mixed with a rough crowd, associations that eventually contributed to his death when he was brutally murdered on 25 January 1974 in his London flat, at 9 Ladbroke Grove, by three young men. He had been acquainted with one of them. He is buried at

Kensal Green Cemetery Kensal Green Cemetery is a cemetery in the Kensal Green area of Queens Park in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London, England. Inspired by Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, it was founded by the barrister George Frederick ...

in London.Notable personalities at Kensal Green Cemetery.

Bibliography

*''London Fabric'' (Dustjacket by

Eric Ravilious Eric William Ravilious (22 July 1903 – 2 September 1942) was a British painter, designer, book illustrator and wood-engraver. He grew up in Sussex, and is particularly known for his watercolours of the South Downs and other English lands ...

; 1939, revised 1941) *''History Under Fire – 52 Photographs of Air Raid Damage to London Buildings'', 1940–41 (With

Cecil Beaton Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton, (14 January 1904 – 18 January 1980) was a British fashion, portrait and war photographer, diarist, painter, and interior designer, as well as an Oscar–winning stage and costume designer for films and the t ...

; 1941) *''West Indian Summer'' (1943) *''The Houses of Parliament''. Photographed by Hans Wild. (Introduction; 1946) *''America is an Atmosphere'' (1947) *''The Years of Promise'' (1949) *''Beautiful London''. 103 photographs by

Helmut Gernsheim Helmut Erich Robert Kuno Gernsheim (1 March 1913 – 20 July 1995) was a historian of photography, a collector and a photographer. Early life and education Born in Munich, Germany, he was the third son of the academic librarian Karl Gernsheim an ...

. (Foreword; 1950) *''The Flight of Youth'' (1951) *''Aspects of Provence'' (1952) *''The Baths of Absalom'' (1954) *''Lord Crewe, the Likeness of a Liberal'' (1955) *''Queen Mary'' (1959) *''Queen Victoria at Windsor and Balmoral'' (1959) *''Verandah'' (1964) *''Sins of the Fathers'' (1967) *''Half-Crown Colony: A Hong Kong Notebook'' (1969) *''Anthony Trollope'' (1971) *''Robert Louis Stevenson'' (1974) *''A Lonely Business – A Self Portrait of James Pope-Hennessy'' (1981). Edited by

Peter Quennell Sir Peter Courtney Quennell (9 March 1905 – 27 October 1993) was an English biographer, literary historian, editor, essayist, poet, and critic. He wrote extensively on social history. Life Born in Bickley, Kent, the son of architect C. ...

. *''The Quest for Queen Mary'' (2018). Edited by Hugo Vickers.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pope-Hennessy, James Military personnel from London English biographers 1916 births 1974 deaths 1970s murders in London Burials at Kensal Green Cemetery English murder victims People educated at Downside School People murdered in London 20th-century biographers 20th-century travel writers British travel writers English male non-fiction writers 20th-century English male writers British Army personnel of World War II Royal Artillery soldiers British Army officers Male murder victims