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Herbert Edward Dunhill: Difference between revisions
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It is known that the Dunhill brothers were especially susceptible to female charms and had difficulties to control these inclinations, getting involved with extramarital relationships throughout their lives, which resulted in the divorce of both. As we can see in mary's relates and In an article called "Weird and wonderful" for The Telegraph, published by David Burgess-Wise on 16 Aug 2003. | It is known that the Dunhill brothers were especially susceptible to female charms and had difficulties to control these inclinations, getting involved with extramarital relationships throughout their lives, which resulted in the divorce of both. As we can see in mary's relates and In an article called "Weird and wonderful" for The Telegraph, published by David Burgess-Wise on 16 Aug 2003. | ||
<blockquote><q>Uncle Bertie was about fifty at this time and had grown a full Imperial beard that seemed to have banished the affectations of his youth and to make the relaxed, confident manner of the mature man even more impressive. After what must have been as many love affairs as Father had had, though Uncle Bertie conducted his with rather more discretion, he had separated from his wife, Violet, and was now living with a charming, dark-haired woman called Isobel. She was a fellow sufferer from tuberculosis whom he had met at the Mundesley hospital and brought to Merano and whom, in the few years they lived together and before her death in this very Villa, he obviously adored, bringing her presents and nosegays every time he left her for more than a few minutes. Uncle Bertie had taken a keen interest in my own love affairs and was particularly anxious to meet Geoffrey. To my delight they took to one another at once.</q> Dunhill, Mary, Our Family Business (The Bodley Head - Great Britain, 1979) p-90.</blockquote> | <blockquote><q>Uncle Bertie was about fifty at this time and had grown a full Imperial beard that seemed to have banished the affectations of his youth and to make the relaxed, confident manner of the mature man even more impressive. After what must have been as many love affairs as Father had had, though Uncle Bertie conducted his with rather more discretion, he had separated from his wife, Violet, and was now living with a charming, dark-haired woman called Isobel. She was a fellow sufferer from tuberculosis whom he had met at the Mundesley hospital and brought to Merano and whom, in the few years they lived together and before her death in this very Villa, he obviously adored, bringing her presents and nosegays every time he left her for more than a few minutes. Uncle Bertie had taken a keen interest in my own love affairs and was particularly anxious to meet Geoffrey. To my delight, they took to one another at once.</q> Dunhill, Mary, Our Family Business (The Bodley Head - Great Britain, 1979) p-90.</blockquote> | ||
<blockquote><q>If Dunhill's had become the "ultimate lifestyle brand", Alfred's bushy-bearded brother Bertie believed in living the ultimate lifestyle, | <blockquote><q>If Dunhill's had become the "ultimate lifestyle brand", Alfred's bushy-bearded brother Bertie believed in living the ultimate lifestyle, directing the company's by now international empire from his villas in the Italian alps and at Monte Carlo, where he dallied with a succession of exotic mistresses, one of whom – the lovely Frederika Agnes Stodolowksy – was the wife of a Dunhill employee who had conveniently been given a one-way ticket to Australia. Alfred, too, fell under the spell of the high life and ran off one day with a fisherman's daughter in his Rolls-Royce...</q> David Burgess-Wise - Telegraph.</blockquote> | ||
Mary on one of her business visits tells us a little about these meetings and about her uncle's last days. | |||
<blockquote><q>He became more and more out of touch with modern commercial practice in England, and when he died, the directors, particularly | <blockquote><q>In the evenings we played roulette for as long as Uncle Bertie’s strictly limited stake-money would last, not to mention our own. The afternoon was reserved for going through our business papers, discussing every development and staff appointment I had on my list, with Uncle Bertie cross-examining me until he had every detail. Sometimes he would talk about the will he had been working on with his lawyers but, being fond of him and reluctant to think seriously about his death, I paid little attention to this subject. Once, when I complained of our financial frustrations more vigorously than usual, he quietly said, "Never mind, my dear. You’ll soon have it all your own way."<br><br> | ||
His generosity as a host was usually boundless yet, in contrast, there were sudden moments of stinginess, possibly to impress Zee with the notions of thrift that he and Father had had dinned into them in their youth. There were occasions when he persuaded the children to drink citronade rather than pay an extra franc for the orange juice they preferred. Once he expressed shocked amazement because, still in the days of sweet rationing, I had paid £2 for chocolates to take home as presents. Nor have I any doubt that his health rapidly deteriorated in 1950 after he had waited in the rain for a ’bus rather than pay a taxi fare.</q> Dunhill, Mary, Our Family Business (The Bodley Head - Great Britain, 1979) p-107.</blockquote> | |||
Balfour reported that Herbert died suddenly on 8 November 1950 not from the tuberculosis which had plagued him for so long, but from a brain hemorrhage. But according to Mary's, it wasn't that sudden - he passed away one year after the cerebral hemorrhage. A month later his company’s balance-sheet total passed the £1 million mark for the first time. | |||
<blockquote><q>We then had to persuade a Dr. Boland, the Dean of Guy’s hospital and a friend of Geoffrey’s, to visit him after a haemorrhage when, after lying prone and apparently waiting for his end, Uncle Bertie had been persuaded to sit up and drink a glass of whisky. Yet within a year he was dead. He died in Milan in 1951 after a visit to Turnerschlossel which he still owned and where he was buried.</q> Dunhill, Mary, Our Family Business (The Bodley Head - Great Britain, 1979) p-107.</blockquote> | |||
Richard Dunhill reported that he became more and more out of touch with modern commercial practice in England, and when he died, the directors, particularly his uncle Alfred Henry Dunhill and his Aunt Mary, were soon able to make changes to improve the running of the company.</q> Richard Dunhill - Forewords of Balfour, Michael. Alfred Dunhill, One Hundred Years and More (Weidenfield and Nicolson, London, 1992). | |||
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[[User:Yang|Yang]] ([[User talk:Yang|talk]]) 09:21, 17 December 2019 (CST) | [[User:Yang|Yang]] ([[User talk:Yang|talk]]) 09:21, 17 December 2019 (CST) | ||