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Next: Evalyn Isobel Peverley Up: No Title Previous: Alice Smith-Johannsen ---

Alma

 

B.
23 Oct. 1913
M.
  1. 10 June 1939 Patrick Rolleston
    B.
    22 Oct. 1902, Dublin, Ireland
    D.
    9 Sept. 1947, Banbury, England

  2. 17 Jan. 1958 Michael Ebert
    B.
    5 Nov. 1914, St. Petersburg, Russia
    D.
    28 Dec. 1982, Seefold, Tirol, Austria

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Alma of the CREEPS: i.e., ``Courageous and Rather Independent Pipe Smokers'' organized in definite opposition to the Penguins who were good skiers. The original nucleus consisted of Peggy Jenkins, Ragnhild Tate, ``Dimp'' Thompson, Alma. Hazel was sort of Honorary because she was older. Among the hangers on were Duncan Williams, Bill Haslet, Corky, etc. At first there was a rented house in St Sauver (?) and then we occupied a cottage on the Thompson Estate in Ste. Adele.

(To the Tune ``There is a happy land far, far away'')
   Where e're o'er hills you roam
        or on the steeps
   As long as you're not too far from home
        you'll find the ``Creeps''.

Of course there were other songs we sang on those wonderful ski trains! such as ``The plumbing on the C.P.R. is so notoriously poor ''

When Alma knew that I was doing this Scrap Book she wrote answering some of my questions, one of which was, ``Do you remember the snap of you and Galdys Robinson?'' () and she says: ``Yes, I remember the photo. My pants are hanging down. I always had trouble with the elastics on those things. I suppose I didn't have much shape and, also, I kept stretching them by shoving those awful skirts into the pants so I could climb trees better.'' She goes on to say:

Daddy certainly did create (an) environment for us and I think the most remarkable thing about it was the freedom we had. It was not so fashionable in those days to give children freedom, and I don't think mother would have contemplated it if Daddy had not set the pace in all things. There were only three rules, as no doubt you remember:
  1. No bare feet in the stable or barn-yard (tetanus);
  2. No swimming within two hours of a meal and NEVER if you were alone;
  3. No screaming --- that could be done only if you were in serious need of help.
Apart from these rules we did as we liked, although Daddy did remind us not to upset Mother by being late for meals, etc. But those were good manners, not rules, and to keep the domestic peace. gif

I remember once breaking rule No 3. Sylvia and I were coming up from the Lake to the old farm-house and for some reason I was showing off how convincingly I could cry in distress if I wanted to go on the stage. Iput on quite a performance, I suppose, but just as we got to the little white gate, Daddy appeared running down through the field. When he saw that we were alright he turned aside without a word but I saw that his face was red and he was breathing hard, and I suddenly realized that he had thought that I was in distress. When we got to the house Daddy did not appear for quite a while and Mother said, `you really frightened him with all that noise.' I was so ashamed that I was never able even to say I was sorry to Daddy. It has haunted me ever since.

And continuing she notes that the little white gate (it doesn't show in the picture top Right () --- just off to the left somewhere) was central to a lot of things in our young lives.

(It), I think, disappeared when the sheep were discontinued and it was no longer necessary to have the fenced-in pasture, but we wnet right on calling the spot the L.W.G. There was a big glacial boulder beside it (to the south).

She remembers, apart from the Glacial Boulder, the ``Orange Tree'' which was a big maple.

One day Uncle Fred put 3 oranges at its foot and told me they had dropped from the tree. I sort of believed him --- anyway for a long time I always looked under that tree hoping for oranges.

There was a big silver birch between it and the L.W.G. which was special for Alma. Also wild ginger grew near the waterfall below the pool in the stream, and there was a field of Oxalis, and lots of other exciting rare plants.

Alma was always fascinated by plants. Even as a little girls she spent as much time as she could wangle in McKenna's greenhouses on Cote des Neiges, and, in company with Daddy, the Farm was a perpetual source of discoveries for her.

Alma's response to my enquiries about her scholarships and bursaries and things which got her through McGill was as follows:

Mr. Francis McLennan paid my McGill fees during the whole of my undergraduate four years. (His wife was my god-mother.) Then in 1934 after I got my B.Sc. and after Daddy's death I just about gave up hope of doing a graduate degree, which I was very keen to do, and then Wilbert phoned one day and said that Aunt Mary had left $350. for `any nephew or niece who wanted to complete a college education' (NOTE: Aunt Mary was Daddy's youngest sister. She was a school teacher and never married.) and as far as he could see --- he was the executor --- I was the only possible candidate. So was I interested? You bet I was! But $350. was not much more than the fees and if it had not been for you (Hazel) I could not have managed that first year. You were working for the Southams and I remember when you got your job you were paid the fabulous sum of $27. a week --- untold wealth, I thought, and I think you did too. So you financed Grosvenor Avenue, with some help from lodgers, and I lived for free.

Then [she continues,] for the next three years I got scholarships from the National Research Council (Ottawa) which gave me $440. the first year, $550. the second and $660. the third. In 1938 I got my PhD and then I had two yearly fellowships from the Finney-Howell Cancer Research Foundation in Baltimore, which kept me going as a research assistant and demonstrator in Genetics without cost to the University. After francis arrived they did not renew the fellowship. Huskins (one of her professors at McGill) was really responsible for getting these grants for me and for putting me up for the Gov. Gen's silver medal when I got my doctorate.

Alma worked during the summer (Aug. & Sept.) of 1932 for the Heinz Factory (Leamington, Ont.) testing --- as far as I can remember --- batches of Tomato Soup. As it was a late summer the last crop of tomatoes were still ripening when Alma was supposed to be writing an exam for mcGill so McGill sent it up to the local clergy who invigilated as, Alma says, he also rehearsed the church choir in the room next door. She passed the exam. gif On May 11 of 1933 she sailed in a Manchester Line freighter (``The M. Commerce'') to Liverpool. Freeman Sveningsen, Duncan Williams, two other passengers and lots of cows were also on board. Mother was visiting Jane and Chris in Oxford that summer, so Alma, of course, visited too. When she was in London she stayed with Chris' aunt Mrs Lenwood. On July 24 she went to Ettal, Bavaria to take part in an International Student Conference and then on to Switzerland where the conference continued. On August 4 she was in Geneva staying with Duncan Williams' mother. Thus she missed Evelyn's wedding on July 29.

The house on Grosvenor Ave. was sold in the summer of 1937. Actually, it would be more accurate to say that it was given back to its former owner and holder of the mortgage for the amount of the mortgage because it didn't sell and we couldn't in any way afford it any longer. I had been married in April 1937. So Mother and Alma moved into the Grosvenor Apartments at the corner of Guy and Sherbrooke Streets. And when Jane and Chris and David came on furlough in 1938 Alma moved into the ``Roach'' (cockroach, of course) House on Milton Street so that the Brysons could live with Mother. A lot of people at various times lived in the Roach House such as Peggy Jenkins and Dick and Ragn Tait and Jack Carter. Jack was a friend of Patrick Rolleston and it was through him that Patrick and Alma met --- I don't know at what date but, whatever, they were married at the Farm in June of 1939.

Alma says, because I asked her to tell me how she met Patrick:

You thought P. and I met at your flat --- Stanley St. where you had asked him for a drink because Brooke Claxton told you to: but I don't remember that. I think it was the Roach Club in spring 1938; or rather P. standing on the street with Jack Carter and me looking through the window and deciding in second that that was the man I had to marry. Just like that. It took me quite a time to hook him.

P. was Corpus Christi (Oxford) (1923 to 1926 about) and he did Engineering, but all his friends and real interest were in literature.

The following is her background for Patrick:

T. W. Rolleston, Patrick's father, was a writer and poet whose work was mainly concerned with Irish mythology and legends. The family lived in Dublin until 1907 when they moved to London and TWR beame German critic on the Times Literary Supplement. Patrick's mother was a daughter of Stopford Augustus Brooke, a writer and literary scholar who left the Church of England, in which he was ordained, to found his own chapel, with unorthodox theology, in London.
(For more see ``Portrait of an Irishman'' by C. H. Rolleston --- a son.)

Eleven years after Patrick died (of a heart attack) Alma married Michael Ebert whom she met through her work in London. This was what she says about his background:

Michael's father came from the eastern part of Switzerland, and his mother from Denmark-Germany. Both families had lived in St. Petersburg for several generations and his parents narrowly escaped in 1917 when the Revolution broke out. They lived in Finland, Switzerland and Berlin. Michael immigrated into Britain in 1950.

Patrick in 1939 was Vice-President in charge of European Operations, The Aluminum Co. of Canada.

Michael was a radiation Chemist at Hammersmith Hospital when Alma met him. gif

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When Francis was notified of Michael's death in Austria on the 28 December 1982, he telephoned me and we decided to take the first flight available so that we could be with Alma when she got back to Chinley. We flew on the next evening via Dorval, Boston, London and Manchester (where Francis rented a car) and arrived at White Hall to find Veronika Meyer and (Dr.) Ulrick Eikhoff there. They were looking after the place while Michael and Alma were away. This was a marvellous stroke of good luck because Ulrick could drive exhausted Francis and me that evening to Manchester to meet Alma's plane from Zurich and, as an M.D., could listen to Alma's account of Michael's death (epileptic attack) with intelligence and sympathy. And, of course, Veronika just went straight ahead looking after chickens and cooking meals.

Paddy came back with Alma so she had her two sons with her and during the next week they set about planning the immediate future together as well as addressing, with many notes, about 300 death notices.

Francis stayed a week having seen Paddy off and having met Tim before he flew home. Tim stayed a week and he and I flew home together --- the same route only reversed and starting at 6 a.m. on 13 January 1983.

The important things that were decided were that White Hall should be sold and that Alma must not be left alone. Isabel Boag moved in for a week on the day that Tim and I left, to be followed by Barbara Rolleston and Thomas for a month; then Susan Rolleston, etc., etc. Evelyn and Corky were there for May. And so it went. All these months were spent sorting out the contents of the house: what should be kept and by whom; selling some things; lots of gifts (I came home with the David Milne print and a couple of books and some pottery --- Paddy's)

Francis spent the last two or three days with Alma and drove her away to Paddy's in Dorset on the 4 July with, as she put it, her precious ferns on her lap.

In the meantime Paddy had applied for and got a teaching job in Sevenoaks, and, so, they had to find a new house which would be large enough to have a ``granny'' wing for Alma. They found and bought ``Copper Beech'' into which they moved on about the 20 August.

It took ages to remodel Alma's wing (skilfully planned by Jack Boag). In fact she never did actually live in it. She spent a lot of time with the Boags in Surrey. She was in Switzerland for the month of October visiting ``the nurses'' (Ruth Quenzer, Sylvia Käppeli, Veronika Meyer, etc.). She was with Gwenna Howard in March 1984 while she gave a lecture in Oxford. She was staying with the Boags when she died very suddenly on the 1 April. Both Francis and Paddy were with her and so was Ruth Wood, whom she loved, and Ruth's husband, Humphrey. gif

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next up previous contents
Next: Evalyn Isobel Peverley Up: No Title Previous: Alice Smith-Johannsen ---



Prof. T.H. MERRETT
Fri Oct 17 12:03:53 EDT 1997