Latest news from the Society.

2008

July

The Society’s eighth annual conference will be held at the Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, on 5 July 2008. Papers will include ‘Heron-Allen’s Westminster Fire Office Chairs’ by Lucy Wood; ‘A Cornucopia of Treasures and Trivia: Heron-Allen’s Miscellanea in the Royal College of Music Collection’ by Pam Thompson; ‘The Heron-Allen Collection of Egyptian Scarabs’ by Joann Fletcher, and ‘Tea at the De Keyser Hotel – Edward Heron-Allen’s Colleagues at M.I.7(b)’ by Peter Scott. During the symposium the Heron-Allen Library door will be officially opened and there will be an opportunity for attendees to visit Heron-Allen’s room at the Museum (The Gavin de Beer Room) and ‘The Purple Sapphire’ in the exhibition in the Vault.

May

Gyles Brandreth’s novel, Oscar Wilde and the Ring of Death, in which Edward Heron-Allen plays a significant part, was published by John Murray.

April

The Society’s Newsletter No.12 was published. The Newsletter included
the following articles: ‘Opening the Vault’ by Samuel J.F. Jones; ‘Constance Mary Foy and Edward Heron-Allen: A Cheiromantic Friendship’ by Timothy J. McCann; ‘Edward Heron-Allen in America: A rare Photograph by Napoleon Sarony’ by Joan Navarre; ‘A Photograph of Edward Heron-Allen at the Royal Society’ by Timothy J. McCann and ‘Remembering Edward Morton Barford, Godchild of Edward Heron-Allen’ by Joan Navarre. The Newsletter also included a notice of the annual Heron-Allen Lecture at Lady Margaret Hall, the programme for the Society’s eighth annual symposium at the Natural History Museum on Saturday 5 July 2008, a note on the Heron-Allen family graves at Church Norton, Selsey and reports on some new books.

March

The Annual Heron-Allen lecture was held on Friday March 10th at Talbot Hall, Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. Dr Neil M Ferguson OBE, Professor of Mathematical Biology at Imperial College, London spoke on "Planning for the unpredictable: how modelling can aid preparations for the next flu pandemic".

A Catalogue of the Treasures of Marie Anna Heron-Allen, dated January 1902, was offered for sale as Lot 125 at Henry Adams sale at Chichester on 20 March 2008. The list of jewellery, silver etc of Heron-Allen’s first wife, was signed by Edward Heron-Allen. The catalogue was beautifully bound in blue morocco, with silver roses to the front and back. The catalogue was illustrated in Henry Adams, General Antiques & Furniture Sale, including the Holleyman Collection of Books and Effects, Thursday 20th. March 2008

On the 28th of March at Indiana State University, Joan Navarre delivered the keynote lecture at an Oscar Wilde Symposium, on "Edward Heron-Allen and Oscar Wilde's 'Lord Arthur Savile's Crime': A Study of Influence."

2007

Heron-Allen's Cursed Amethyst on show at The Vault, Natural History Museum

Murder, suicide, bankruptcy and ruin have all been associated with Heron-Allen’s amethyst. Known as the purple sapphire, Heron-Allen’s amethyst was “cursed and stained with blood” according to Edward Heron-Allen who, himself worked at Natural History Museum as a researcher in the early 20th Century. The stone had been looted during the Indian Mutiny in 1855 and brought to England by an officer of the Bengal Cavalry who mysteriously lost his health and his money. After receiving the amethyst, the officer’s son suffered such ill fortune that he gave the stone to a friend, who then committed suicide, returning the stone back to the officer’s son in his will.

Heron-Allen received the amethyst from the Cavalryman’s son in 1890 and he too began to experience misfortune and so he had it bound round by a “double-headed snake” that had been a finger ring of an astrologer and two amethyst scarabs of Queen Hatasu of Thebes. Heron-Allen even threw the amethyst in the Regents Canal after he suffered disaster, only for it to be returned to him three months later by a Wardour Street dealer who bought it from a dredger.

Finally Heron-Allen packed the stone in seven boxes and gave it to his bank with the instructions that it should not be opened again until thirty three years after his death. The stone was donated to the collections of the Natural History Museum by Heron-Allen’s daughter, together with a letter he wrote to accompany the stone warning anyone against handling it:

“This stone is trebly accursed and is stained with the blood, and the dishonour of everyone who has ever owned it….I am now packing it in seven boxes and depositing it at my bankers, with directions that it is not to see the light again until I have been dead thirty three years. Whoever shall then open it, shall first read this warning, and then do as he pleases with the jewel. My advice to him or her is to cast it into the sea.”

Heron-Allen’s amethyst can be seen at The Vault which opens on 28 November 2007.

Links:
The Purple Sapphire at "the Vault", The NHM
The BBC online
Sunday Times Online
The Luxist
DNA India
IBN Live

November

The Society’s Newsletter No. 11 was published. It includes the following articles: ‘Seventh Annual Symposium: An Australian Impression’ by  Peter William Edward (Bill) Coleby; ‘Helene Elizabeth Bargman – “The Last Lady”, by John E. Whittaker; ‘Hélène Héroys (alias H. Du Coudray alias M.W. Waring), 1906-1971’ by Claude Héroys; ‘Dr. Strode, Veronica Gotch and Heron-Allen’s Guarnerius Violin’ by Phillipa Boston; and ‘Reflections of Venice, & Extracts from EH-A’s Holiday Journals (1898 & 1901): Part II by Venetia Jones.

In an article in the News Review section of The Sunday Times of 26 November, Steve Farrar, with the help of stories from Ivor Jones and John Whittaker, tells the story of the ‘Purple Sapphire’. The stone, which Edward Heron-Allen presented to the Natural History Museum, is the subject of the opening story in The Collected Strange Papers of Christopher Blayre, and forms part of the new Mineralogy exhibition ("The Vault") at the Natural History Museum opening on Wednesday 28 November.

October

The October issue of Sussex Life (No.110) contains an article by Tom Creedy entitled, ‘Yesterdays’, which details the acquisition of Large Acres in Selsey by Edward Heron-Allen and the building of the family home there. The illustrated article includes a number of quotations from the Large Acres Visitors Books.

July

During the month, ‘A Book of Verse: The Biography of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam’, by Heron-Allen Society member Garry Garrard will be published. The book tells the story of how a book of poetry has provided delight and fascination for centuries and brings to life the evocative world of early Islamic Persia and the literary and artistic scene in England in the second half of the nineteenth century.. The book is available from Sutton Publishing Sales Dept., The Mill, Brimscombe Port, Stroud, Gloucestershire. GL5 2QG for £20 post free (in the UK)

The Society’s 7th. Annual Symposium was held in The Old Library at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, on Saturday 7 July. The theme of the symposium was ‘Armorel Heron-Allen and Oxford’. Papers delivered at the Symposium included: ‘Armorel Daphne Heron-Allen: The early Years’ by Ivor Jones’ , ‘Off the Shelf: Armorel Heron-Allen and Umar Khayyam’ by Brian Hulan, ‘’Woman of the World’: Armorel Heron-Allen and Lady Longford’ by Joan Navarre and ‘’Men of Pre-vision’: Edward Heron-Allen, John Johnson, and the John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera at the Bodleian Library, Oxford’ by Timothy J. McCann. At the AGM provisional agreement was given to holding the 2008 Symposium at Mulranny in Ireland.

June

The Society’s Opusculum IX  - ‘Edward Heron-Allen and Music’: Proceedings of the 6th. Heron-Allen Symposium, 2006, edited by Peter Horton of the Royal College of Music, was distributed. It contained the following article: ‘Edward Heron-Allen – Violin Historian and Maker Extraordinary’ by Brian Harvey; ‘The Edward Heron-Allen Collection in the Royal College of Music Library’ by Pamela Thompson; ‘Edward Heron-Allen and the Royal College of Music’ by Peter Horton; ‘’An Afternoon with Chanot’: Remembering George Chanot, Edward Heron-Allen and 157 Wardour Street’ by Joan Navarre; and ‘Edward Heron-Allen and the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam’ by Garry Garrard.

May

On 18 May 2007 Elgar, Vicat Cole and the Ghosts of Brinkwells by Society members Carol Fitzgerald and Brian Hardy was published. The book tells the story of Elgar’s holidays at Brinkwells, a cottage in West Sussex, which he rented from the artist Vicat Cole, during which he wrote his mature chamber music and much of his cello concerto. The book is illustrated by unpublished photographs and reproductions of Vicat Cole’s paintings and makes use of Heron-Allen’s war diaries. The book is available from bookshops or from Phillimore & Co., Ltd, at Shopwhyke Manor Barn, Chichester, West Sussex. PO20 2BG for £25 plus £3.50 p&p.

On 9 May 2007, Pam Thompson, Chief Librarian at the Royal College of Music in London, gave a talk to the Annual Meeting of Academic Music Librarians, Birmingham Conservatoire on the the Heron –Allen Collection at the Royal College of Music.

March

The Grave at Church Norton in Selsey, West Sussex, where Edward Heron-Allen, his wife Edith and their daughter Armorel are buried was restored by Messrs F.A. Holland of Selsey at the direction of the Society. The stonework was cleaned and the lettering repaired.

The Heron-Allen Lecture was held at Lady Margaret Hall on Friday 2 March 2007. The speaker was Professor Georgina Mace FRS, the Director of Science at the Institute of Zoology in London. Professor Mace is renowned for her work in conservation biology, in particular for identifying criteria to rank species according to their risk of extinction. In a talk entitled 'Biodiversity, ecosystems and human well-being' she discussed the evidence that we are rapidly losing biodiversity on a global scale, the implications that this has for people, and some possible solutions. The Lecture was held in Talbot Hall, Lady Margaret Hall, at 5.15pm.

On the 5th of March J V Arnoso posted an article: ‘Edward and Edith Heron-Allen’ on his blog – Ex Libris/Bookplates.

Newsletter no. 10 was published. As well as the draft programme of the seventh annual Heron-Allen symposium held at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford on 7 July, and details of the Heron-Allen Lecture at LMH, the Newsletter contains four main articles, and some short notes. The articles are: Timothy J. McCann, ‘Edward Heron-Allen, Joan Maude and the Gods of the Fourth World’; Garry Garrard, ‘ A Fortunate Find’; John E. Whittaker, ‘Heron-Allen, A Cow and the Selsey Tram’, and Venetia Jones, ‘Reflections of Venice & Extracts from EH-A’s Holiday Journals (1898 & 1901). The short notes include an obituary of Bryan Burrough, MBE, JP, 1941-2006 by Joan Navarre and a discussion of the EH-A quote: ‘A Filthy Mind is a continual Feast’ by Timothy J. McCann.