Osbert Sitwell Dead

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31981, 7 May 1969, Page 17

Osbert Sitwell Dead

(N.Z.P. A. -Reuter —Copyright; FLORENCE, May 6. Sir Osbert Sitwell, who died in Florence on Sunday aged 76, was a member of the famous Sitwell family of writers. He made a major contribution to literature with his five-volume autobiography and, in another role, helped to settle the British General Strike in 1926. I His sister, Dame Edith Sitwell, who died in 1964, and his brother, Sacheverell, were the two others in the aristo- ! cratic trio who startled and I refreshed the British intellec- I tual life soon after World i War 1. I They fought battles against cultural prejudice, promoted 1 their own works, and for several decades constituted an iconoclastic force in literature. Evelyn Waugh, ah eminent

novelist once summed up the impact they made with the words: “By 1939 English soci

ety had been revolutionised, lightened and brightened, very largely through the Sitwell influence.” Sir Osbert Sitwell, a goodlooking man with an aquiline nose and the appearance of a wise patrician, was born in London on December 6, 1892, the son of Sir George Sitwell, a rich, eccentric and scholarly baronet, whose title he inherited. After unsuccessfully standing for Parliament as a Liberal candidate soon after the 1914-1918 war, he plunged into a literary career, and his London home, which he shared with Sachevereil, became the meeting place of intellectual leaders. When Britain was gravely threatened by the 1926 General Strike, he helped to arrange meetings between the two sides and suggested ideas which played a part in the eventual settlement.