As promised on my post about the de la Pasture family, here’s a separate post about EMD’s uncle, Gerard de la Pasture. Gerard was the second child of Henri Pierre de la Pasture and his wife Ellen Crawford. There was a six-year gap between him and their oldest child, Elizabeth, but he and his two brothers, Charles and Henry, were very close in age; Charles just a year younger and Henry three years younger. Henri Pierre died in 1840, before his son Henry was born, so none of the brothers would have had any memory of him. The de la Pastures seem to have been mostly based around Cheltenham, where Ellen had grown up, during their childhood and Gerard and Charles Edward, were educated Cheltenham College in the late 1840s. While his younger brother Charles was educated for the priesthood in Dublin, Gerard did not pursue any higher education after school. Instead, in his early twenties, he travelled to New Zealand with his brother Henry to farm. In the local press, Gerard has more prominence than his younger brother: he took an active part in the English colony, working as a magistrate and coroner on occasion. Historical accounts describe the two brothers as popular among English society in New Zealand. Gerard is variously referred to as Count and Marquis in the press. His official title was 4th Marquis, but - especially in New Zealand - he seems to have been known as Count de la Pasture.
In 1864 Gerard married Léontine Standish, known as Lilly. There is confusing information about Lilly’s background online, but it seems most likely that she was the daughter of Charles Henry Widdrington Lionel Standish (1823-1920) and his French wife Alexandrine Leontine Marie Sabine de Noailles (1819-1870). Alexandrine was a member of the French aristocracy and a niece of the statesman and diplomat Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord. Lilly seems to have been brought up in France, and would have had her French ancestry and presumably also the Catholic religion in common with her husband. They were married in the Catholic church of St Mary Magdalen in Mortlake, Surrey; Lilly had been living in nearby East Sheen with her aunt, Monica Gerard, the widow of John Gerard of Bryn. His family were Catholic recusants during the Elizabethan period; presumably Gerard came to know them through the networks of English Catholics in the nineteenth century. The newlyweds arrived in New Zealand in 1865 and set up home. Almost immediately, Lilly’s Aunt Monica died and left her a bequest of personal possessions, jewellery and books. Despite her privileged upbringing, Lilly was not afraid of a little discomfort. She made at least one trip out to see her husband’s sheep farm, travelling by horse and buggy over difficult roads and tracks; her buggy overturned at a point that was subsequently known as Countess’s Creek. Lilly lived in a boarding house for a while in Nelson, entertaining the other guests by playing and singing, and was also asked to distribute prizes to schoolchildren, a consequence of acquiring the title Countess, no doubt. In 1868 the de la Pastures moved to Springfield, a rather grand house in Christchurch; Lilly was expecting her first child. Sadly (and like so many other women in the history of EMD’s forbears) Lilly died the day after her daughter Monica Lily (1869-1967) was born, on 8 April 1869. She is buried in the Catholic cemetery in Christchurch. In May 1869 Gerard sold all of the furnishings of Springfield, some horses and and a buggy. But he remained in New Zealand and took his part in local society, acting as a magistrate and presiding over inquests.
In 1874, Gerard married again. His wife was Georgiana (sometimes spelled Georgina) Mary Loughnan (1844-1934), the daughter of another English settler. They lived for a while in Opawa, but then moved to her father’s home. Their first child, Mary, was born in 1878 but died in infancy. By 1880 they had returned to England; Gerard seems to have retained some land holdings in New Zealand, as they were left in his will to Georgina.
In England they lived at first in Caley Hall, Pool-in-Wharfdale, Yorkshire. This house was near Otley, where sister Elizabeth and her husband Thomas Constable were living in the Manor House, which perhaps explains the choice of location. In the 1881 census the family comprises Gerard’s daughter Monica Lilly, their baby son Charles Edward (1879-1914) and brother Henry, with seven servants including a French governess and a valet. Like his brother Henry, Gerard seems prone to house moves. By 1883, the de la Pastures were living in Great Munden in Hertfordshire, as three of their children were born there. By 1891, they had moved to Walsingham Terrace in what is now Hove, living next door to Henry and Betty and their little daughter Edmée. Gerard and Georgiana’s family had grown: living at home were Helen (sometimes Ellen or Nell, 1883-1928); Margaret (1884-1981), and Hubert, known as Hugh (1886-1962). Charles Edward was away at school; he was educated at St Hugh’s School in Hertfordshire and then at the Catholic public school Downside, as was his younger brother.
By the 1901 census the figdety de la Pastures had moved again, this time to West Pennard in Somerset. By now only the two younger girls, Helen and Margaret, were living at home, and only two servants were in attendance. They probably moved here in the mid-1890s, after all the de la Pastures had left Hove. West Pennard House is in a small Somerset village near Glastonbury, a “late 19th-century Gothic building of good quality” according to the Victoria County History, and not far from his brother Henry’s house at East Butterleigh in Devon. But this would not be their final home. Around 1905, Gerard and Georgiana moved to Cefn Ila, Usk. The Victorian house had large grounds, and here Gerard seems to have played the role of local squire, farming and taking part in local society. He was a sportsman, and is frequently mentioned in the hunting press, on the field and at hunt balls. By the 1911 census, all the de la Pasture children seem to have left home.
Monica, the eldest, had a complicated personal life. Aged just 19, she married Charles Charrington (of the brewing Charringtons) in 1889; their daughter Dorothea, EMD’s cousin and exact contemporary, was born in 1890. Monica was also a sportswoman, written about in the hunting press; the Sporting Gazette wrote a short profile of her, including a picture of her sitting sidesaddle on a docked, grey, nameless horse. But the marriage did not last, and by around 1900 she was in a relationship with Sir George Bullough, the six-foot-five heir to an immense textile industry fortune, owner of the Scottish island of Rhum where he built Kinloch Castle. He shared her love of outdoor pursuits and the couple were photographed together on his yacht. The Charringtons divorced in 1902, with Sir George named as a correspondent, and Monica married him in 1903. They had one child, Hermione (1906-1990), who married the 5th Earl of Durham. Her first daughter Dorothea was a regular visitor to the de la Pasture sisters at Llandogo. Charles Edward, the oldest son, fought with the Scots Guards, and was decorated for bravery, in the Boer War and was then aide-de-camp to the Governor General of Gibraltar. In Gibraltar, he met Agatha Mosley and they married in 1911. Hugh, his younger brother, became a coffee farmer in East Africa for a while, served in the East Africa Rifles and would marry Agatha’s younger sister Ida in 1918. Both Gerard’s sons served in the First World War and both would receive the Military Cross. Charles Edward was reported missing in November 1914 and his death in the Battle of Ypres was confirmed in July 1915. Perhaps the death of his son was too much to bear. Gerard died at Cefn Ila in January 1916; he was buried in the churchard of St Madoc’s, Llanbadoc, just south of Usk. His grave has a rather imposing Celtic cross; this may have been commissioned after the death of Charles Edward, who is also memoralised here. Gerard’s funeral was conducted by his brother Charles, a Catholic priest. Georgiana lived on until 1934, and saw the birth of her five grandchildren. Her daughter Margaret (1884-1981) married Hugh Bampfylde and they had two sons, Antony and David. Hugh de la Pasture seems to have worked in finance; he and Ida de la Pasture had four children, Anne, Pierre, Gerard and Bernard, settling in Worcestershire, as did Georgiana in later life.
You can see echoes of Gerard in some of the patriarchal, horse-and-hound types who occasionally pop up in Delafield’s writings. Monica’s colourful life also perhaps helped inspire some of EMD’s novels dealing with divorce and infidelity, like Mrs. Harter and Nothing is Safe.
The cover image, to reflect Gerard’s sporting interests, shows William J. Shayer’s Foxhunting- Coming to a Fence (1863), via Wikimedia Commons.
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