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Antonia White Letters to George Brendon Collection

Collection — Box: GTM Shared Box 40, Folder: 13

Identifier: GTM-20250310

Scope and Contents

A collection of nine romantic letters from author Antonia White to George Brendon, dated 1946.

Dates

1946

Creator

White, Antonia, 1899-1980 (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Most manuscripts collections at the Georgetown University Booth Family Center for Special Collections are open to researchers; however, restrictions may apply to some collections. Collections stored off site require a minimum of three days for retrieval. For use of all manuscripts collections, researchers are advised to contact the Booth Family Center for Special Collections in advance of any visit.

Conditions Governing Use

Researchers are solely responsible for determining the copyright status of the materials being used, establishing who the copyright owner is, locating the copyright owner, and obtaining permission for intended use.

Biographical Note

George Brendon was born in 1918, the eldest son of Rundle Brendon, a Cornish farmer, hotelier and racehorse breeder, and his wife Dorothy, née Tilley. As a boy he was sent to board at Falconbury preparatory school in Croydon, and then to public (i.e. private fee-paying) school at Cranleigh. From the age of seventeen he worked as a junior advertising copywriter in London until he was called up in 1939. In September that year he married Sydney Frances Cook, who produced two sons, Piers (1940- ) and Rupert (1943- ).

George served initially in the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, gained a commission and eventually rose to the rank of Captain. As a Spanish speaker, he was stationed for a time in Gibraltar, ready to be infiltrated into Spain as a secret agent should General Franco join the Axis powers. Later he served in Africa, learned Swahili and trained Kenyan troops to fight the Japanese. He commanded a unit in Burma until the end of the war, subsequently writing a fictionalised account of his experiences in his only published novel, The Charm of Mambas (Heinemann, 1959).

On being demobilised George worked in advertising, with the Lintas agency in London, and it was during this time he had a brief, passionate but unconsummated love affair with Antonia White. In 1948 he took his family to Port Elizabeth, in South Africa, returning in 1950 to take yet another job in advertising, with Erwin Wasey, Ruthrauff & Ryan. During the 1950s his marriage collapsed and, after a divorce, he went back to South Africa, living and working as a copywriter, again with Lintas, in Durban. As an active member of the Institute of Race Relations who had close social and business relationships with non-whites, he was under constant surveillance by the Bureau of State Security. In 1969 he married Veronica Sheppard (1947- ) and they had two children, Dominic (1972- ) and Morwenna (1975- ). In 1972 George and his new family returned to England and he took over the management of the Falcon Hotel, Bude, which his father had owned and bequeathed to his offspring. George described his role in a long article in the New York Times (13 August 1972) entitled “There’s a Small Hotel in England … And I Run It.” Always a heavy smoker, George contracted lung cancer and he died in 1979.

[Supplied by the collection's donor]