GISBORNE LINKS: DECEASED AUTHOR R. S. BRIFFAULT

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22821, 16 December 1948, Page 6

GISBORNE LINKS: DECEASED AUTHOR R. S. BRIFFAULT

News of the death of the former New Zealander and world-famous author, R. S. BrifTault, was noted with interest yesterday by many Gisborne people who knew of the late Mr. Briffault's family connection with this district. The deceased author, who as a young man qualified as a surgeon and practiced in New Zealand from 1894 to 1914, served with the British Expedi tionary Force as a member of tho Medical Corps, taking his discharge overseas at the conclusion of hostilities He made London his headquarters for a time, but later became a cosmopolitan. with connections in many European countries and a more or less permanent resident in Nice, on the Mediterranean Coast. Gained World Fame

He gained world fame with his novels, and scored decisively with “Europa” and “Fandango,” neither of which could be regarded as a tribute to the existing order or to the social background of bourgeois government. His books were published by a leading American house, and their reception in official circles in Britain were decidedly cold, but he had a wide public which read with keen relish his sardonic analyses of prevailing conditions. It was perhaps characteristic of the cleavage between his literary themes and his general outlook that the novelists, having himself known the hardships and dangers of war service on Gallipoli, and in France and. Belgium and having taken issue with the British authorities on their foreign policy and their conduct of international affairs, should yet have approved wholeheartedly participation by his son and grandson in the First and Second World Wars. Trapped in Paris At the outbreak of the Second World War he was residing at Nice, and it was not until the fall of France was imminent that he endeavoured to reach England. En route across France he was trapped in Paris by the German in vaders and he spent the rest of the war years as a refugee civilian there, suffering severely bv reason of the exhaustion of his immediate funds and his inability to tap the substantial resources which his royalties were piling up in the United States. He was seriously undermined in health when the liberation enabled him to return finally to Great Britain. He had never fully recovered from the ordeal of the occupation vears. He leaves two children, Mrs. J. Hackleburg, residing in Valparaiso, Chile, and Mr. H. L. BrifTault, now of Whakatane, but formerly for many years employed by the Gisborne office of the Public Works Department. Two of his grandchildren are members of the Public Service in Gisborne.