Sublime Tobacco - Compton Mackenzie

[huntertrw]

Here is a link (Sir John Anstey) to his obituary from The Telegraph dated October 6, 2000.

 

[jaingorenard]

Just as a funny little end note to this, I picked up a book of Ted Beckwith's poetry which includes a handwritten letter to the recipient of the volume (Neale). There is a poem in the volume about tobacco shipments, but unfortunately it contains views that are, very much, 'of their time'.

 

[ParkitoATL]

Just as a funny little end note to this, I picked up a book of Ted Beckwith's poetry which includes a handwritten letter to the recipient of the volume (Neale). There is a poem in the volume about tobacco shipments, but unfortunately it contains views that are, very much, 'of their time'

Is your signature quote from Dr. Samuel Johnson?

 

[jaingorenard]

Is your signature quote from Dr. Samuel Johnson?

It is indeed, quoted by Boswell in A Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides.

 

[olivejunkie]

Absolutely right. To add a bit more, Edward George Chichester (EGC) Beckwith was born in Barnstaple, Devon on February 27 1905 to Richard Hornby Beckwith (1863-1921) and Janet Chichester (1884-1966). EGC was one of a family of two sons and three daughters. The father, Richard, was not in the tobacco trade, but his son EGC was by the age of 24 when his marriage record lists him as manager of a tobacco factory. Ditto the manifest eleven years later for a 1935 sailing to NY. During WW2 EGC achieved the rank of Captain and was interned in a German POW camp after being captured in Norway in April of 1940. He eventually received the Territorial Decoration for his long service with the Sherwood Foresters, and as jaingorenard notes wrote and published much poetry related to the war. In a May 1957 manifest (just a few months before the letter posted in the thread above) EGC is listed as a Director, and while there is no other evidence I suspect it was of a company in or associated with the tobacco trade. EGC died in the Cotswolds district on April 8, 1981 in Moreton-in-Marsh.

@jguss Edward George Chichester "Ted" Beckwith was my Grandfather on my Mother's side. He died in 1981 in Blockley, Glos from Cancer of the lungs. He didn't recognise me when I came to see him on his death bed and I was 19 then. I'll always remember him with a pipe in his mouth as he smoked it constantly... When his widow Jean Beckwith died about 3 or 4 years ago, quite a lot of the information relating to his time with Imperial Tobacco was destroyed, but he, like much of his Edwardian Generation kept photographs and press cuttings. My brother James knows quite a lot about Ted, who used to buy tobacco for Imperial Tobacco in Virginia. Of course by the time I was born (1962) He was not working in the tobacco industry, he'd retired. But his cousin, Lord Dulverton (Tony Wills) lived up the road from Bourton-on-the-Hill, in Batsford until He died. In the picture below, Ted is flanked by two of his Grandson's - me on the RHS and James in the LHS. You will notice he has a pipe in his mouth!

 

[shanez]

As an amateur book collector I must say that book is a score.

As a pipe aficionado I must say that book is a jackpot.

All in all, I must admit I'm just a bit envious. Congratulations and enjoy!

 

[BingBong]

I am somewhat gratified by the fact that the letter is dated the day after I came into this world. Somehow a comforting connection, however tenuous.

 

[jguss]

A nice reminder that our posts are all messages in bottles. We never know when or if they’ll be found.