Dilke (55 page)

Yet Dilke was not a bore. He not only talked about a wide range of people, but a wide range of people were fascinated to listen to him doing so. Frederick Whyte, then Liberal M.P. for Perth, first met him in 1910. Dilke accosted him in a corridor of the House of Commons and congratulated him in rather unorthodox terms upon a speech. “From that first moment,” Whyte wrote later, “Charles Dilke's magic and magnetism caught and held me; and such was his vitality and naturalness that I was quite unaware of the long gap of the years between us.” Upon Lord Beaverbrook, too, also at that time a young member of Parliament, Dilke made an equally forceful although somewhat more venerable impression. Lord Beaverbrook remembered him as a figure of mystery who was at the same time a fountain of information upon the intricacies of parliamentary procedure. He recalled with particular vividness pacing up and down the sea-front at Nice with him while Dilke discoursed with authority upon this subject. In the same way, William Tuckwell on the one hand, an old radical parson of great scholastic distinction, and the band of young female social reformers whom Lady Dilke had left behind her on the other, were always delighted to listen to Sir Charles.

He also preserved an engaging streak of eccentricity. In these later years he much enjoyed going to plays in Paris, but however satisfying he found the performance he always left after the first act. He was not bored, but thought that one act of a play was enough. He liked to maintain exactly the pattern of life which he had built up, and whether in London or in the country nothing would divert him from the most accurate and minute apportionment of his days. This gave
him the gift of almost unparalleled punctuality and in the Paris fencing establishment which he patronised until the last year of his life he was remembered primarily for his habit of announcing at the end of each visit the precise date on which he would return to Paris, perhaps nearly a year ahead, and the exact hour at which he would arrive to fence; and for the fact that he could be counted upon to keep his engagement, not merely to the hour, but probably to the minute.

In 1910 his health again deteriorated. The two general elections of that year were a heavy strain upon him. His seat was still safe, but he insisted on fighting a full campaign on each occasion. During the second engagement at the beginning of December he was manifestly ill and could hardly keep going. As soon as his result was announced he left for Paris. He spent several weeks there as a semi-invalid. He then travelled on to Hyères. He had no doubt that his life was near its end, and he wished to see again the Provençal countryside in which he had spent so much time at the full tide of his success. At Hyéres he was unable to leave his bed, but he continued to read, to write book reviews, and to talk with occasional gusto.

In mid-January he returned to London. He had travelled as an invalid and he went straight from the station to his bed in Sloane Street. For nearly a week his strength held. He worked, he saw friends and he planned meetings. On the afternoon of January 25th he prepared some papers for the Women's Trade Union League. They were delivered on the following morning, but by that time he was dead. His heart had failed soon after four o'clock on the morning of January 26th, 1911.

At eight o'clock, Hudson, the secretary whom Chamberlain had found for Dilke in 1887, went out to the post office in Pont Street and sent a telegram to the editor of the local paper in Coleford. “Sir Charles Dilke died this morning”, it ran. “Please tell his friends of the Forest whom he thought of and worked for to the last.” It was an appropriate epitaph on Dilke's later life, but for many the news of his death took them back, in varying ways, to Victorian
Liberalism and the days of his mounting success. Bodley, walking with his small daughter at Brighton, saw “with brutal suddenness” a telegram announcing the death in a shop window. “Yet it was not quite unexpected,” he wrote, “for I saw him last night just as he used to look in his room at the Local Government Board. I suppose the explanation is that in the last moments his memory took him back to those happy days, and that I was in the picture which came before his fading sight.”
¹²
Chamberlain, a helpless invalid for the past five years and separated from Dilke not only by political bitterness but by two decades of personal indifference, received the news at 40, Princes Gardens. He wrote no letter—he would have been barely capable—but he sent his son, Austen, to the funeral.

For those whose recollection of Dilke at his zenith might have been less lively than that of Bodley or of Chamberlain,
The Times
attempted to fill the gap. It no longer wished to ignore him, and the note which it sought to strike was that of dispassionate appraisal. But a leading article was harshly disparaging towards his political talents, and the long obituary notice revived in pejorative form almost all the details of the Crawford case. Even after his death Dilke retained his enemies.

THE END

BALL, GEORGE. Butler to Mr. and Mrs. Robert Harrison.

BALLARD, MRS. MARY. Housekeeper at 9, Hill Street.

BARNETT, CANON SAMUEL. Vicar of St. Jude's, Whitechapel.

BARZETTELLI, MRS. WINIFRED. Servant at 9, Hill Street.

BIRCH, WALTER DE GRAY. Assistant in Manuscript Department of the British Museum. Called as handwriting expert in the second trial by Crawford's counsel.

BODLEY, J. E. C. Private Secretary to Dilke from 1881 to 1886.

BUTCHER, EX-INSPECTOR. Detective employed by Crawford to watch Mrs. Crawford.

BUTT, MR. JUSTICE. Judge at first trial.

GASTELL, MRS. Lodging-house keeper at 28, Earls Court Gardens.

CHATFIELD, MRS. Dilke's grandmother. She lived with him at 76, Sloane Street until her death in 1880.

CHESSON, F. W. Chairman of the committee which after the second trial continued to investigate the case on Dilke's behalf.

COLLINS, DONALD. Beadle of Trinity Church, St. Marylebone, and lodger at 65, Warren Street.

CRAWFORD, DONALD. Husband of Mrs. Crawford and petitioner at both trials. Aged about 45.

CRAWFORD, MRS. DONALD. The respondent. Born Virginia Mary Smith. Daughter of Mrs. Eustace Smith. Younger sister of Mrs. Ashton Dilke and Mrs. Harrison. Elder sister of Mrs. Priestley. Aged 23.

DALGLEISH, ELLEN. Lady's maid to Mrs. Rogerson.

DALGLEISH, ALICE. Housemaid to Mrs. Rogerson.

DESSOUSLAVY, MRS. ANNA. Sometimes known as Mrs. Davies. Former servant and pensioner of Dilke and his father. Lodger at 65, Warren Street. Aged 49.

DESSOUSLAVY, ROSALIE. Sister to Anna. Nursemaid to Dilke when he was a child. Died 1876.

DILKE, MRS. Ashton. Born Margaret Maye Smith. Sister to Mrs. Crawford. Married Ashton Dilke, younger brother of Sir Charles, in 1876. He died in the autumn of 1882. Mrs. Dilke later re-married, after the conclusion of the case, and became Mrs. Russell Cooke. Aged 29.

DILKE, LADY. Formerly Mrs. Mark Pattison. Second wife of Sir Charles Dilke, whom she married in the autumn of 1885.

DRAKE, ELLEN. Dilke's under-housemaid from april, 1880, to March, 1883.

DUNN, EDWARD JOHN. Private in Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry Called to give evidence against Captain Forster in the second trial.

ETHERIDOE, MRS. SUSAN. Replaced Mrs. Ballard as housekeeper at 9, Hill Street.

FORSTER, CAPTAIN HENRY. Army officer who admitted to being Mrs. Crawford's lover. Aged about 35.

GIULIANO, MR. Swiss jeweller. Friend to Mrs. Dessouslavy.

GOODS, SAMUEL. Footman to Dilke from August, 1880, to August, 1882.

GOODE, WILLIAM. Brother to Samuel Goode. Footman to Dilke from August, 1882, to August, 1885.

GOUDGE, MRS. Landlady at 65, Warren Street.

GRAHAM, CAPTAIN ERNEST. Suggested lover of Mrs. Crawford.

GRANT, CHARLES. Coachman to Dilke.

GRAY, FANNY. Became Mrs. Stock in autumn of 1885. Younger sister to Sarah Gray. employed for a short time as nursery-maid in Dilke's household. Aged 21.

Gray, Mary ANN. Niece of Sarah and Fanny Gray. Replaced Ellen Drake as under-housemaid in Dilke's house for two years from March, 1883.

GRAY, SARAH. Upper-housemaid in Dilke's household, 1873-1885. Aged, 41.

HALLET, MRS. EMILY. Temporary housekeeper at 9, Hill Street.

HANNEN, Sir JAMES. President of Probate, Divorce and Admiralty. Division of the High Court. Judge at the second trial.

HARRISON, MRS. ROBERT. Bora Helen Smith. Elder sister to Mrs. Crawford and younger sister to Mrs. Ashton Dilke. Married Robert-Harrison, partner in the stockbroking firm of Hickens, Harrison and Co. in 1877. Aged 28.

HARVEY, WILLIAM. Private in Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry. Witness against Captain Forster.

HILLIER, GEOROE. Tailor who lodged with his family at 65, Warren Street, from April, 1882, to July, 1884.

HILLIER, MRS. MARY. His wife.

HILLIER, EMILY. His daughter.

HUMBERT, ERNEST. Dilke's solicitor in the case.

INDERWICK, Q.C. Counsel for Crawford. He led in the first trial, but was second to Matthews in the second trial.

INGLIS, G. S. Handwriting expert called on behalf of the Queen's Proctor.

IRELAND, WILLIAM. Clerk to Bodley, Dilke's private secretary.

JAMES, Sir HENRY, Q,.C. Counsel for Dilke at both trials.

JAMIESON, ANNE. Mrs. Crawford's parlourmaid.

DE JERSEY, MR. Friend to Captain Forster.

KENNEDY, H. G. Bodley's predecessor as private secretary to Dilke.

KINGSCOTE, MR. Son-in-law to Mrs. Rogerson.

LEE, H. A. Dilke's Foreign Office private secretary.

LEWIS, GEORGE. Later Sir George. Partner in Lewis and Lewis. Solicitor to Mrs. Crawford.

LOGKWOOD, Q,.C. Leading counsel for Mrs. Crawford in the second trial.

MCARTHUR, W. A. Member of Dilke's investigation committee.

MACCOLL, CANON. Another member of the Committee.

MARSHALL HALL, EDWARD. Junior counsel for the Queen's Proctor at the second trial.

MARTIN, CAPTAIN ERNEST. Friend of Captain Forster.

MATTHEWS, HENRY, Q.C. Leading counsel for Crawford At the second trial.

MEDLAND, MRS. JULIA. Lodging-Housekeeper at 32, Earls Court Gardens.

MEDLAND, MISS JULIA. Her Daughter.

MURPHY, Q.C. Counsel for Forster at the second trial.

PAUNCEFOTE, Sir JULIAN. Permanent under-secretary of state, Foreign Office. Witness to Dilke's morning habits.

PHILLIMORE, Sir WALTER, Q.C. Leading counsel for the Queen's Proctor at the second trial.

PRIDHAM, C. J. C. Solicitor to Dilke in investigation subsequent to the second trial.

PRIESTLEY, DR. ROBERT. Suggested lover of Mrs. Crawford. Married her younger sister. Ida, in 1884.

PRIESTLEY, MRS. ROBERT. Born Ida Smith. Sister to Mrs. Ashton Dilke, Mrs. Harrison and Mrs. Crawford. Aged 22.

ROGERSON, MRS. Born Christine Stewart. Sister to Charles Stewart, Crawford's solicitor. Friend to Dilke. Aged about 42.

RUDDIMAN, CATHERINE. Mrs. Crawford's parlourmaid.

RUFFLE, MRS. Farmer's wife in Essex with whom Fanny Gray stayed.

RUSSELL, Sir Charles, Q.C. Counsel for Dilke.

SEARLE, MR. Junior counsel for Dilke in both trials.

SHANKS, HENRY. Footman to Dilke from March, 1882, to April, 1885.

SMITH, CLARENCE. Member of Dilke's investigation committee.

SMITH, MRS. EUSTACE. Mother to Mrs. Ashton Dilke, Mrs. Harrison, Mrs. Crawford, Mrs. Priestley, etc. Aged 49.

STEAD, W. T. Editor of
Pall Mall Gazette
.

STEAVENSON, D. F. Legal Member of Dilke's investigation committee.

STEWART, CHARLES. Crawford's solicitor. Brother to Mrs. Rogerson.

STEWART, MR. Lodger at 32, Earls Court Gardens.

TALBOT, ALBERT. Mrs. Rogerson's footman.

THOMAS, HOWEL. Member of Dilke's investigation committee.

THOMAS, JOHN. Friend of Mrs. Harvey, keeper of 9, Hill Street.

THOMAS, MRS. SARAH ANNE. Wife of John Thomas.

THOMPSON, H. F. Junior counsel for Mrs. Crawford in the second trial.

THORPE, MRS. ANNE, Landlady at 14, Grafton Street, where Fanny Gray lodged for a time.

TUCKWELL, MISS GERTRUDE. Lady Dilke's niece.

WARNER, DR. FREDERICK. Suggested lover of Mrs. Crawford.

WILLIAMS, GEORGE. Artist friend of Fanny Gray.

WILLIAMS, MR. AND MRS. Lodgers at 65, Warren Street.

WRIGHT, R. S. Junior counsel for Crawford in both trials.