Long roll-call of brief lives

Press, 31 December 1982, Page 19

Long roll-call of brief lives

The Concise Dictionary of National Biography: Part 11, 1901-1970. Oxford University Press, 1982. 747 pp. $58.75. (Reviewed by Naylor Hillary) The British "Dictionary of National Biography” is one of the world's great reference books. Its daunting size was reduced to two "Concise" volumes 20 years ago. Now the second of those concise volumes has reappeared in a new edition dealing with the lives of people who died between January, 1901, and December, 1970; from the death of Queen Victoria to the death of Sir Winston Churchill. The new volume contains more than 6000 brief biographies, many of only a few lines, but some (Lord Salisbury, Lord Curzon) of more than a page. Queen Victoria gets almost five pages. Queen Victoria’s entry is followed by three other English princesses of the same

name - the daughters of the Queen, her son (Edward VII) and her grandson (George V). Then comes Eugenie Julia Ena Victoria (1887-1969), wife of King Alfonso XIII 'of Spain and also a granddaughter of Queen Victoria. The Queen’s entry is preceded by that of the cartoonist "Vicky,” who also appears under his

proper name, Victor Weisz (19131966).

That is a fair representation of the sweep of this book. Its oddities include such characters as Dan Leno (1860-1904), a notable vaudeville clog dancer who once appeared before Edward VII, and August Dupre (1835-1907), a German chemist who

settled in Britain and became the father of today's bomb-disposal squads. One of his tasks for the British Government in 1882 was to examine "Fenian infernal machines." He would find work stil' in Northern Ireland.

Although the book announces an intention to cover the range of British achievement, the limits are loosely observed. A host of notable soldiers and administrators of the old Indian Empire appear, and so do a handful of Indian nationalists. New Zealand politicians such as Sir Walter Nash and Dick Seddon are here (but not Michael Joseph Savage). A. F. Wilding (1883-1915), whose name was given to Wilding Park in Christchurch, is credited with his New Zealand birth, but his tennis achievements, before he died in

the First World War. were for England. Here, too, is Sir George Julius, the Australian engineer who was born and educated in New Zealand, and who conferred on a grateful world the invention of the totalisator. To produce a book of manageable size, many of the entries have had to be ruthlessly pruned from the extensive essays that appear in the full “Dictionary.” Even so, glimpses of strange and touching lives, now all but forgotten, shine through. For instance. George Athelstane Thrupp (1822-1905), a coachmaker of high repute in England and on the Continent, and author of “History of the Art of Coach-Building.” This is a book for browsing. The American artist Whistler manages to creep in on the strength of his long residence in Britain. General Freyberg earns half a column and the note: “moulded the New Zealand division into superb fighting machine.” There is a reminder that Rupert Brooke visited New Zealand in 1913. Some of the names are magnificent. Baroness Orczy (Hungarian creator of the Scarlet Pimpernel), gets all her names: Emma Magdalena Rosalia Marie Josepha Barbara. One entry enjoys the splendid roll of Sir Reginald Aylmer Ranfurly Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax (he was an admiral who had fought at Jutland). In all, from E. A. Abbey, artist, to Francis de Zulueta, lawyer, a delightful and useful work of reference..