DLA123-0217 Transcription

Saturday.

[in another hand] To Paul at Twyford / 23rd February 1918

How is my little man getting on? This very week we shall be together I hope! You must have a fine day for me, so that we can have a good walk –

I shall engage a room at the [Bridle?] Hotel.

We had v. nice letters from the boys – Stephen^[1] seems to like Rugby v. much – I am going to

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see them on Tuesday, & we shall send you a card from there. We shall stop with Mrs. [Rudge?], & probably Auntie Giraffe^[2] will go with me.

+ John^[3] is still at Willows,^[4] & keeps talking about the raids! Poor little man, I think they frightened him a lot. You don’t say how your music is getting on?

Tell me how you get on with the new master whom you did not like at first?

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Doll Livingstone^[5] is here to stay for a week – She would much like to see you, & was looking with great interest at your pictures.

Dear Daddy^[6] is much the same. He had such a nice picture ready for me, painted in water colours of some flowers I had brought him [5231, assumed]!^[7] I brought

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home with me the flying machine, which you will enjoy in the hols =

If only dear Daddy will be free by Easter!^[8]

How did your photos succeed?

A big hug to my dear red man

From Mummy.

Mme [Champeix?] was in this evening & we had a little French chat.

Editorial Note:

Mrs Philip de László, née Lucy Madeleine Guinness (1870-1950), the artist’s wife; for biographical notes, see [11474].

19/05/2020

[1] Stephen Philip de Laszlo (1904-1939) [4375], second son of Philip and Lucy de László

[2] Pet name for Gerrard Eleanor Little (c.1868-1957) [6062], a lifelong friend of Eva Frances Guinness (1868-1930) [5440], elder sister of Lucy de László

(see DLA047-0035, letter from Gerrard Eleanor Little to de László, signed “Giraffe”.

[3] John Adolphus de Laszlo (1912-1990) [11622], fifth and youngest son of Philip and Lucy de László

[4] ‘The Willows’, near Tilford, Surrey, was the home of Lucy’s elder sister, Eva

[5] Dorothy ‘Doll’ Livingstone, a cousin of Lucy through her father, Henry Guinness

[6] Philip Alexius de László (1869-1937) [9724]

[7] Pink Sweet Peas and Yellow Freesias [5231], a still life in watercolour, is inscribed in red ink, lower right: To Lucerl / This delightful signal of / the emerging spring which you ... / ...... old spirit / 1918. II.17.

[8] In the autumn of 1917, de László was arrested and interned on unproven suspicion of being an enemy alien. It was not until June 1919 that de László’s case, at his own insistence, came up before the Naturalisation Revocation Committee. The Committee ruled that, “there has not been on the part of Mr de László any conduct which would merit or justify the withdrawal from him of the British citizenship which he enjoys”. For further details of de László’s internment, see: ‘De László's Internment: A Summary’: https://www.delaszlocatalogueraisonne.com/de-laszlo/internment; Giles MacDonagh, ‘Philip de László in the Great War’: https://www.delaszlocatalogueraisonne.com/de-laszlo/the-great-war [accessed 13 January 2023].