(In addition to her own four children and two legally adopted, Frances was in the habit of fostering male infants. Most were sent into other care as infancy passed. A few were retained for varying periods in a variety of settings. These boys were known outside the family as “Mrs. Penry’s boys.”)
“ONE OF MRS. PENRY’S BOYS”
Part One: Gordon’s story
When I first read Gordon Forbes' account of his childhood, published in England by the Book Guild in 1992 as The Adoptive Boy, I was struck by the paucity of information he was able to demonstrate concerning the circumstances of the woman, Frances Phelps-Penry, who was primarily responsible for him during most of his formative years. While she took him into her care in August of 1929 as an infant a little more than two-years-old, shortly thereafter formalizing the arrangement with the National Adoption Society, she never legally adopted him. This, despite her arrangement in the same year to have him baptized bearing the family's name. Following two or so uneventful years, Gordon was abruptly and without explanation plunged into a cruel and inexplicable ordeal, involving changes of identity and a passage through fifteen or more homes and schools devoted to unwanted children, where emotional, physical and sexual abuse were frequently the order of the day. At the end of this period, which lasted five years, he found himself legally adopted by a couple whom he had come to hate and who were principally motivated by the yearly stipend they received from a trust established by Frances, initially for Gordon but later changed to compensate any into whose care he might come. While Gordon's writing style is undeveloped and his narrative repetitious in parts, the unvarnished nature of his account combined with an unwavering and uncritical expression of affection for the woman, Frances Phelps-Penry, who was principally responsible for his misery, enhance the book's credibility for the average reader. For myself, the dearth of information concerning Frances, in addition to descriptions of her behavior, was no surprise, for I had come into the care of the same woman some years later as one of her two legally adopted sons and, though my experiences were considerably muted in comparison, their flavor remains the same.
Gordon writes that, in later life, he discovered he was born Gordon Patrick, March 15, 1927, at Queen Charlotte's Hospital, London. His mother, Isabella MacFarlane Forbes, was an unmarried Scottish parlor maid, then employed at a house in Hampstead, a city borough; his father is presented as "a medical student."
For two years, Gordon remains in his mother's care, supported by funds channeled through the National Adoption Society to her from an unidentified benefactor - a domestic servant's pay would have been an inadequate sum on which to raise a child at that time. In August of 1929, Isabella with Gordon takes the train from London to Bournemouth on the Channel coast in Sussex. There she is met by Frances Phelps-Penry and her chauffeur, Tony Britton, and taken to a nursing home on West Cliff Road, where she leaves her son, before being returned to the station for her journey back to the city. A week later, Gordon is transferred to Priory Dene, Frances' home just up the road. Passing from infancy into childhood in her care, he believes that she is his "mummy."
Gordon's 'parents' are described as wealthy and owners of a substantial property maintained by a large staff. In addition, there is an old rectory where horses are kept. His 'father' is a distant figure, a doctor who works in London and whom he sees only on the weekend. There are two older children, Arthur "Sandy" and William "Billy." In 1930, Frances gives birth to a daughter, Marian; then, in 1932, another son, John.
It was Frances' custom as a parent to raise her children in the care of nannies and, for the first two years of Gordon's life with her, his principal caregiver is one, "Banky" Smith. Gordon's memories of this period are happy, revolving around the nursery where his meals are taken and walks in the surrounding countryside. Deemed old enough, he is allowed to join the other children at mealtimes and, in all respects, is treated as, and believes that he is, a member of the family. In 1932, he is sent to a local day school. This, too, reflects Frances' habitual approach to educating her children, which involved private boarding schools from the age of four or five, following a brief initial stint in a day school.
At first, all goes well for Gordon. After a short while, he is transferred to Haileybury Prep school for a term as a day boy, following which he is enrolled as a boarder at St Wulfram's Prep school, which Billy has just left. At the end of his first term, Gordon is brought home by the chauffeur and, reunited with his family, expresses all the enthusiasms that happy five or six-year-old boys customarily do on such occasions.
The next day, however, while Gordon is playing in the garden with the others, he is summoned by Frances and told that he is to be taken to a home in the country where there are other children his age. He sees that his suitcase is already packed and, in answer to his anxious query of the whereabouts of his nanny, is told that she is detained elsewhere. Before he has time to digest this unexpected turn of events any further, he is taken out to the car by the chauffeur and ushered into the rear seat. As the car moves out of sight down the driveway, the chauffeur brings it to a halt and, making a game of it by suggesting that Gordon pretend to be the chauffeur, sympathetically invites Gordon to come and sit up front with him. When Gordon asks where he is being taken, the chauffeur consoles him with his understanding that it will be a short holiday with other children. With far too few exceptions, this is to be the limit of comfort and support that Gordon will experience over the next few years. In fact, he will never again as a child know the pleasures of a secure home life.
The home that Gordon arrives at presents a large, fat lady in a pinafore and curlers who tells him that she is his "new mother" and that he will be going to the village school nearby, adding as an afterthought that they are all Catholics. Shocked beyond words, he feels as if he has entered a nightmare. When he attempts to correct her as to his parentage, he is told that his mother is not his real mother, who has disappeared, but a foster parent. There is no further explanation and darkness closes in around Gordon as he climbs the stairs to a cramped bedroom he has been shown, there to await the return of the other children from school.
The daily regimen involves classes at the local village school, a distinct step down from St Wulfram's, and ill-prepared meals at the home, which Gordon frequently finds unpalatable. His weight declines and he develops sores on his arms and legs. On Sundays, the children must learn a text from the Bible before they may have dinner. Frequently, Gordon purposely fails this test in order to avoid the food. He and the others steal vegetables from neighboring gardens and eat them raw.
Gordon soon discovers that all the other children are just as confused about the reasons for their presence in the home as he is. He yearns for his nanny, his own bedroom, and his mother, from whom he never hears despite a weekly letter he is required to write to her. These are vetted by his new mother to ensure that only sentiments of happiness are expressed.
With two others, Gordon attempts an escape from the home. As might be expected from a trio of six and seven-year-olds, the details are rudimentary and they are soon apprehended by a local policeman. Back at the home, Gordon takes responsibility for their behavior and, with a slap across the face, is sent to bed. Later, he is visited by the local priest who, praying with him, invokes the image of the Devil, threatening Gordon with his appearance should he misbehave again. Gordon is terrified.
Gordon has now been at the home for six months. Suffering from malnourishment, he is subject to fainting spells, which are ignored. Christmas comes and with it numerous church attendances and an improvement in the food. Then, Tony Britton, the chauffeur, makes an unexpected appearance. Gordon's case is packed and, to his delight, he is led down the garden path to the waiting car. Britton bids him say farewell to his "stepmother" and, as they drive through the village, apparently affected by Gordon's undernourished appearance, stops to buy him a bar of chocolate. Gordon's excitement soars as they near Priory Dene, his home.
However, Gordon is shocked when Britton fails to complete the last leg of the journey and, in response to the young boy's anxious questioning, tells him that he is going to another home. On arrival there, Gordon is presented with another "mother" and, with a kindly pat on the head, the chauffeur departs.
In varying degrees this pattern is to be repeated numerous times in the next few years. There are the same unexpected and unexplained transfers from one home to another, including also boarding schools, the same poor food and lack of care, the same physical abuse and emotional neglect, the same silence from Frances or "Mrs. Penry" as he now calls her. He attempts further escapes. The only consistent kindness is that of the chauffeur, who reveals himself to be increasingly troubled by events in which he is a largely involuntary agent.
Following two more homes - "Mrs. Sparks," which he likes, and "Sandybanks," from which he attempts to run away unsuccessfully - Gordon finds himself enrolled at Talbot Woods Church Home. Under the auspices of the Church of England, Talbot Woods is more of an institution than Gordon has known. There is no "new mother," but "Master," who tells Gordon that he may not use the name of Phelps-Penry anymore. Henceforth he is to be known as Forbes. "Matron" takes him up to a dormitory, where the windows are covered with bars, and puts him in the charge of an older boy named Speed.
Each day Speed marches the boys to the village school. At the end of Gordon's first day, he is introduced to the systematized brutality of his new environment by Speed who, with the assistance of two other boys, suspends him for a period from a beam in the playroom by means of a rope about his wrists. Later, the resultant weals are examined with curiosity by the other boys, all of whom have suffered similar fates.
One day while at school, having been apprised of a visitor, Gordon is thrilled to see Banky Smith, his old nanny. In the ensuing exchange, while Gordon gobbles up the food Banky has thoughtfully brought him, he learns that she is no longer employed by Mrs. Penry. She explains gently that Mrs. Penry is not his mother but his adoptive mother and that she doesn't know who his mother was. Faced with Gordon's concern, she tries to reassure him with the thought that Mrs. Penry may yet decide to adopt him. Telling him that she has arranged with the headmistress to visit him weekly, she binds him over to secrecy about her visits to the Home.
Over the course of several visits, the nanny expresses her dismay at the treatment Gordon has received, but can offer nothing more than a vague hope that matters will improve. Then, their secret is betrayed and the Home forbids any further visits. Confronting Gordon, Master punches him in the face.
Six months or more pass and Gordon feels that he has become institutionalized. Despite this, he still expects that one day the chauffeur will appear, again, to take him away.
At this juncture, "Uncle John" makes the first of numerous appearances at the school. He is a friend of Master and, with his connivance, selects two boys to go out to tea with him. On their return, they tearfully explain that he fondled them and exposed himself. Later occurrences suggest aggravated sexual assault. Speed tells the boys that Master will be angry if they complain to him and, when one tells a teacher in the village, he is disbelieved.
It becomes evident that Master drinks and, one afternoon, Gordon encounters him sprawled out drunk in the wash house. Master's response is to send him headfirst into the wall with a stinging blow. While Gordon is half-conscious with blood from a head wound, Master fills a basin with water, into which he thrusts Gordon's head until, half-drowned, he recovers. Master then leaves. The cook, whose job it appears to be to address injuries at the Home despite Matron's presence, later treats Gordon's battered head, muttering her disgust with Master. As Gordon tells the others of his experience, feeling a deep hatred for Master, it becomes evident that they all share similar feelings.
That night, as Gordon lies in bed, he hears voices drifting up from the greenhouse directly below his window. Amidst these is the laughter of the hated Master. Enraged, Gordon forces his mattress through the bars and it drops onto the greenhouse, shattering glass and, in the process, effecting a serious cut on Master's head, causing him to be hospitalized. A member of the staff, a woman, comes in search of the culprit and Gordon, admitting his guilt, is subjected to a series of blows, one of which opens up the cut he had incurred earlier in the wash house.
Saved for the moment by Master's hospitalization, Gordon has every reason to fear the dreaded authority's return. Then, as usual out of the blue, the chauffeur appears to whisk him away - no doubt, a truly merciful intervention, whatever its inspiration.
Gordon's next stop is the Stones, a generally benevolent couple with whom he is happy. Before long, he is once again taken away - even his temporary guardians are unaware of Mrs. Penry's intentions, expressing their surprise at the chauffeur's appearance.
Gordon is taken to the old rectory, where Frances keeps her horses. This is inhabited by "Mrs. Bowden" and her husband, who is a doctor. There are two other boys there, Eric and Tony. From what Tims, the groom, conjectures, Gordon gathers that they are in Mrs. Penry's care - more directly, the Bowdens, who are caretaking the rectory for her.
Life at the old rectory is congenial and the three boys become friends. Even Mrs. Penry shows up, one day, with Sandy, Billy and Marian. It is Billy's birthday and Mrs. Penry's wish that it be celebrated at the rectory with the boys. Billy has been given a cine camera and he directs a movie in which he is Billy the Kid and the other boys bandits whom he kills. Later, Gordon wishes to write a letter to the Stones, telling of his agreeable new life, but the Bowdens forbid this on Mrs. Penry's instructions.
From his text, it is not easy to determine the exact dates of Gordon's unsettling passage through these homes and schools. However, in the latter part of his sixth year, he and the other boys are sent to Tattenhall Boy's Home for Waifs and Strays in the Midlands, another Church of England institution. This time, there is an exception to the customary pattern, in that they are escorted to the school by the doctor, who evinces dismay on discovering the nature of the home, having been led to understand that it was a conventional boarding school. Ominously, Gordon notes that they are announced as "the new boys with their keeper" by the boy who leads them to the new "Master." He fears a repeat of Talbot Woods.
Still accompanied by the doctor, Eric and Gordon - Tony has been left behind in the study - are led to the dining hall by Master. There, in circumstances which conjure up Dickens' David Copperfield, sit thirty undernourished boys up to the age of fourteen, each with a mug which appears to contain water and a plate with a slice of dry bread, apparently awaiting the signal to eat. Deliberately, Master separates Eric and Gordon, placing them at adjacent tables. Eric, lacking Gordon's prior experience, is overcome by the poverty of his surroundings and begins to cry. When Gordon rises to go over to comfort him, he is stopped by Master, who orders him to sit down, again. The doctor, clearly alarmed, talks quietly to both Eric and Gordon, assuring them that he will talk to Frances with the expectation that she will surely not permit them to stay there much longer.
Gordon soon learns that Tattenhall is indeed every bit as bad as Talbot Woods. In place of Speed, there is Matthews to do Master's bidding and break in the new boys. Every day, Gordon and Eric have to scrub a stretch of floor, and meals, such as they are, are taken outside, except when it rains or snows. Master believes in toughening the boys. In time, most boys develop chilblains and Housemaid's Knee, an inflammation caused by working on the knees without a mat, a visible condition which distinguishes them from the village boys and which, in an act of defiance, they sport proudly as a status symbol. Early on, Gordon, who finds it hard to eat the dismal fare, faints from hunger. When a kindly master gives him a bar of chocolate, he is obliged to share it with the others. Master is a sadist. When Eric tells him that he is unhappy, he asks him if he would like to return to the rectory. When Eric says yes, Master tells him that he will never see the rectory again, but live forever at Tattenhall. Gordon looks out for Eric and the two form a fast bond.
As at the Catholic home, on Sundays, Bible text must be learned, otherwise no food. There is church attendance in the village, to which the boys are marched. No one dares utter a word for fear of being reported and, in the years which Gordon spends at Tattenhall, no villager ever addresses him or any of the others.
Once a week, the boys take a bath in a large concrete tub - ten at a time. Master supervises and Gordon finds his presence embarrassing, especially when Master occasionally takes a boy into his lap.
The only relief the boys experience is on Monday evenings when they spend an hour with the local Cub Scouts. The Cub Mistress, kindly and evidently dismayed by their pinched faces, distributes broken biscuits, a discounted item at the local grocery store.
Continual exposure to these harsh conditions has adverse consequences for Gordon. He falls behind in his school work and his eyesight deteriorates. Despite this, he continues to write to Mrs. Penry, although she is now but a memory. There is never a response.
Neither Gordon nor Eric has seen Tony since their arrival, but now they discover that, because he is distantly related to Master, he has been allowed to live in the main house with Master and Matron and share their food which, of course, is much better. His healthy appearance is a telling contrast to that of the rest of the boys and he has been forbidden to mix with them.
Because Gordon has difficulty memorizing the biblical texts on Sundays, he learns to cheat by scrawling them on the inside of his hands. One day, the Master discovers this deception. Gordon is spread-eagled across a table, his wrists and ankles tied to the legs. In front of the other boys he is whipped by the master, suffering deep cuts and bleeding.
A couple of weeks before Gordon's first Christmas at Tattenhall, that of 1934 as far as can be ascertained, he and Eric are shown Christmas packages sent by Mrs. Penry. Each has a card with the sole inscription, "Love Frances Phelps-Penry." Because the other boys will be jealous, Master decrees that they must share their presents with them on the day. Angrily, Gordon gives away all of his, save for a dummy banana which produces a 'raspberry' when blown through. Despite this, Christmas proves a brief respite from their grim reality. The food is temporarily better - Gordon and Eric are given tea by Matron and Master accompanied by Tony - and the local postmaster donates for every boy a small bag containing fruit, sweets, and a sixpence. This last is retained by Master who, later, to Gordon's disgust, uses the sum to purchase a flagpole for the Home.
Despite the lack of proper nourishment, the boys learn to eat whatever is set before them, fearing sickness and a trip to the sick bay. To them it is known as the "Dying Room," because rumor, based on the instance of a boy sent to the sick bay who never reappeared, has it that anyone sent there may never come out alive. While inquiry of Master as to the boy's fate yielded the response that he had been sent away to work on a farm, one of the boys tells the others that he has seen an undertaker's car pulling up outside the Home. They are frightened even more by the implications inherent this contradiction. Then, Gordon falls seriously ill.
While it is not clear as to the exact nature of Gordon's illness, we may surmise that his immune system has broken down in the absence of proper care. At first, he faints and his body is found to be covered with sores. Confined to the sick bay, but without proper medical attention, his condition deteriorates and, after a couple of weeks, he develops a fever. He hallucinates, imagining a return to Mrs. Penry, his nurse Banky, Tony Britton the chauffeur, and all the rest of his life and family at Priory Dene. He is seen by a doctor who, later, after the fever has passed, remarks on the smile that hovered about Gordon's lips during his unconscious state.
For two months, Gordon remains in the sick bay, following which he is slowly eased back into life at Tattenhall. Proudly, he tells the others about the Dying Room. They have been told nothing of Gordon's fate since he was taken sick. One of the boys, who has been at the Home for five years, observes that Gordon is the only one he has ever known return.
There are breaks in this grim narrative. At Christmas, the postmaster pays for them all to go to the cinema and, one January, a trip to Bertram Mills Circus. In the spring they all attend a local fair, where rides and other diversions provide moments of laughter and pleasure. There is a similar excursion to a neighboring castle. There are cricket matches in the village, which provide a chance to escape the confines of the Home. Then, there is the annual Holiday. For two weeks the boys are lodged at a seaside resort in North Wales. Here, Gordon and Eric and a dark-skinned boy known as "Nigger Thompson" decide to beg for money on the beach in order to buy food. Master discovers this activity and they are beaten. Master's heavy hand is never far away and Gordon has come to see himself and his fellows as "the unlucky children."
Towards the end of 1935, Master promotes Gordon into a position of authority, similar to Matthews. Gordon becomes as tyrannical as those by whom he has been abused, until Eric successfully counsels a gentler style, persuading him that he will be more popular.
In March of the following year, Gordon learns that he is going home. The clothes with which he entered the Home three years previously are given to him and he finds that, not surprisingly, they no longer fit. Eric is to take Gordon's place and there is a teary farewell, in which the latter promises to get Mrs. Penry to withdraw his companion-in-adversity from the Home. Tony is to stay with Master and Matron. In Master's company Gordon goes out the front door of Tattenhall for only the second time since he arrived. The first was during his lengthy illness. Boys are never allowed to enter or exit by the front door and it is said that only death permits such a passage. Gordon feels particularly proud that he has triumphed twice.
At the railway station, with name and destination identified by a tag on his coat, Gordon is placed in the care of the guard on the train to Bournemouth. Making a face at Master as the train pulls out, he says goodbye to the miseries of life at Tattenhall. During the journey, the guard, noticing the sores on Gordon's legs and the swelling about his kneecaps, in addition to the way in which he wolfs down the food he shares with him, takes pity on the neglected youngster and sees that he gets a good meal in the dining car. At Bournemouth, Gordon is met by Tony Britton who, shocked, barely recognizes the pinched nine-year-old whose fate is inextricably linked with his.
Gordon returns to Priory Dene full of hope. Whatever misgivings may have crossed his mind in the intervening years, he retains faith in the ultimate benevolence of Mrs. Penry. Her response to Gordon's appearance is to gather him in her arms, while expressing dismay, whereupon he promptly bursts into tears. A meal is brought for him and, while he eats, she explains that she thought the Home was "a very good boarding school" and all his letters supported this. Explaining that the letters were censored, he finds it hard to accept that she could have believed this. When he says that neither he nor Eric ever received a letter from her, there is no response. Expressing concern about Eric, she explains that it was very hard for her to get Gordon's release, because the Church of England Society for Children were loath to forfeit the sixty pounds a year she paid them for his care. Gordon tells further of his experiences at Tattenhall and Mrs. Penry expresses her regrets. Tired after the long and eventful day, Gordon asks which will be his bedroom. Mrs. Penry says nothing for a moment. Then, busying herself with the blazing log fire, she announces that she has arranged for him to stay at yet another home. Gordon exclaims disbelief, at which she reassures him that it is to build him up and that it will only be for a short while. Accepting her word, he allows himself to be handed over to the chauffeur who, once again, drives him away.
The home where Gordon's health is to be restored is located over a small grocery shop, Empire Stores, run by a middle-aged couple, the Thornalleys. They have a fostered son, Alex, a year or so older than Gordon, who tells him to be careful of "mum's" bad temper. Despite this caution, life is agreeable for Gordon. He is outfitted with new clothing and sent to a private day school, with the express purpose of eradicating the accent he has acquired in the Midlands. On Saturdays, Britton takes both boys to Bournemouth, to ice-skate, go to the cinema, or just spend time at Priory Dene.
As time passes, Gordon discovers that the Thornalleys are an unhappy couple. At night, he and Alex hear them arguing. The wife accuses her husband of having an affair with her sister and there is bitter invective. Mrs. Thornalley is also subject to unpredictable rages in which she physically attacks the boys for no apparent reason. Her husband seems helpless and there is a suggestion that their barren state may be a cause of her behavior.
Gordon tells Mrs. Penry of the Thornalleys, to which she responds that she hopes in time he will come to like them. He desperately wants to return to Priory Dene, but dares not tell her, fearing that it might have an adverse effect on her attitude towards him. She is the ultimate authority in his life, just as the two Masters have been, and he cannot risk prejudicing her. He wishes to write to Eric, but the Thornalleys forbid it on Mrs. Penry's instructions.
Once again, unannounced, Britton arrives, this time with Eric. Gordon is to take up residence at Priory Dene. He is overjoyed. Eric, whom Gordon observes resembles his own appearance just a few months before - thin, sores and swollen kneecaps - is to stay with the Thornalleys. Rather than telling him about the Thornalleys, Gordon decides it is better to let Eric discover them for himself. He is to return to the one place he feels he belongs - nothing is more important.
Back at Priory Dene, Gordon is treated to an elaborate homecoming. There is a new bike. Waited on hand and foot by the staff, he eats alone with Mrs. Penry - the other children are off at school. He is told that henceforth he is a member of the family, no longer to be known as Forbes, but Phelps-Penry. He is to return to St. Wulfram's as a day boy, where he is to carry the honor of the family, now that Sandy and Billy have left. At the school he is presented as the younger brother of the pair and his three year absence is noted without explanation.
Life at St Wulfram's is very different from Tattenhall and Talbot Woods. Gordon's work improves and he makes the school football team. He worries at clouds in the sky, for this Matron does not allow the boys to play in inclement weather, fearing for their health. At Priory Dene, too, Gordon blossoms, though he fears, understandably, that life may change at any moment and he is unable to call Mrs. Penry "mother."
One day, Gordon comes home to find Mrs. Penry talking to a tall, fair-haired man, who is introduced to him as "Herr von Ribbentrop." She speaks both English and German with her guest. Gordon, who is impressed by the visitor, feels important when he is included at the dinner table.
The summer holidays arrive and Gordon spends them alone at Priory Dene, except for a number of fostered infants with whom Mrs. Penry is constantly preoccupied. Sandy, Billy and Marian have been sent elsewhere. The autumn term is a big success for Gordon, who makes captain of the football team and whose exams show him to be top of the class in all but one subject. Mrs. Penry is very pleased and there are lots of presents at Christmas for him and his brothers and sister. The following year she will invite the Bournemouth football team to tea for Gordon to meet. One afternoon, when he is playing in the garden after school, he is alarmed to see the arrival of the Thornalleys. When he learns that they have come to discuss Eric, he feels relieved. He is glad to see them go. Halfway through the spring term, Mrs. Penry asks Gordon if he would like to be a boarder. Agreeing happily, Gordon becomes a boarder for the last half of the term, at the end of which he is collected by Britton and taken home.
Mrs. Penry has arranged for the family to spend two months in Devon at Woolacombe. The staff, twelve maids, two cooks and a gardener, travel third class on the train, while Mrs. Penry, Billy, Marian, a new baby named Tommy, of whom Gordon feels jealous, the housekeeper, and Mr. Underwood, a tutor, travel first. At Woolacombe, the train is met by Britton and a fleet of taxis. The family are taken to a house near the beach, next to which is a rectory at which the staff are lodged.
The time passes wonderfully for Gordon. He explores the beach, which he finds endlessly fascinating, and acquires a suntan. Billy teaches him to surf and there are treasure hunts and Punch and Judy shows put on by the Children's Special Service Mission, a group of visiting religious university students. At four o'clock every afternoon two maids bring tea to the beach in a large hamper.
One day, after about three weeks, a "tall, striking looking woman with dark hair parted in the middle and a strong American accent" makes an appearance. She is presented as Mrs. Penry's sister, Rose, from America, who has just come over on the Queen Mary. This is the first time Gordon has heard of such a relative. She has gifts for everyone except Gordon, whose presence in the house, she announces, she had not expected. She promises to buy him one and later presents him with a tin of toffees. Gordon keeps them in his bedroom and Mrs. Penry permits him to have one a day. At first, he abides by her injunction, and then, thinking himself unobserved, increases his daily consumption until they are soon all gone. Two or three weeks pass in summer fun, until Mrs. Penry unexpectedly confronts Gordon with his misbehavior. She is angry and sends him to his room. Next day, his suitcase is packed and Mrs. Penry announces that he is to be sent to Bournemouth to stay with, and be tutored by, a Mrs. Blackbee, a teacher at St Wulfram's who has, in the past, been hired to take Billy on holiday. When Gordon asks if it is because of the toffee incident, she denies it, but he doesn't believe her. Once again, Britton takes him to the station. In Bournemouth, Mrs. Blackbee collects Gordon and shames him on the bus by loudly broadcasting his disgraceful behavior, of which she has learned from Mrs.. Penry. Miserably, Gordon protests the triviality of his offense.
Despite Mrs. Blackbee's initial encounter with Gordon, his time with her proves a welcome change from his past proxy mothers. She is a well-known local eccentric, a punter who favors horses and cards, and she teaches Gordon the rudimentary aspects of these hobbies, while tutoring him in a comparably superficial manner. She also entertains a string of men, some of them equally eccentric. There is "Buffalo Bill," for example, who carries photographs of America and tells stories of the Wild West. In reality, he is a tramp. Nevertheless, Gordon delights in his tales. When Britton arrives after several weeks, Gordon is sorry to go, even though he is returning to Priory Dene.
Gordon expects to return to St Wulfram's but, as the time passes and nothing is said, he begins to have misgivings. One afternoon, as he plays at the beach accompanied by Mrs. Penry, in an unwise moment he alludes to Mrs. Blackbee's gambling habits. Mrs. Penry is not pleased. There is a lengthy pause. Then, for the first time, she proceeds to explain Gordon's origins. Gordon is not a family member. She took him out of a foster home, as she did Eric, when he was two-years-old, and she has been trying to find a home for him ever since. Gordon confesses that he knew this from his nanny, Banky Smith, adding, with tears in his eyes, that it has always been his hope that he would continue to live at Priory Dene. She puts her arms about him by way of offering comfort, as he asks if he is going back to St. Wulframs. There is another long silence and he senses that a major decision has been made. When she suggests that he visit the Thornalleys, he cannot believe his ears. Looking for relief, he asks if it is just to be a brief encounter and is reassured when she nods, encouraging him with the prospect of seeing Eric and Alex, again. With this, he mounts his bicycle for the ride.
At the Thornalleys, it is clear that everyone knew he was coming and his doubts increase. Twilight approaching, he proposes to leave, but is told that he is to stay and that, from now on, this will be his home. He is devastated, but there is little that a ten-year-old can do in Gordon's situation. He realizes he has been tricked. Cruelly, he is reminded that he is illegitimate and has no rights. He is told that he is no longer Phelps-Penry, but Forbes, once again. As he ponders his fate in the ensuing days, he resolves to solve the mystery of his origins.
Even though Gordon has been betrayed by Mrs. Penry, he continues to hope that he will find favor with her once again. He is encouraged in this thought by weekend treats, when Britton collects him and Eric for visits to Priory Dene. There, he tells Mrs. Penry of his dislike of the Thornalleys, in response to which she counsels patience, insisting that he will come to like them in time.
Gordon has to work in the Thornalleys' grocery business, and this highlights the confusion surrounding his identity: St Wulfram's boys who have been waited on hand and foot never work in grocery shops. In addition, he is unable to look on the Thornalleys as his parents for, while he has been worse off elsewhere, there is no love in the house. To make matters worse, his friend Eric has been sent off to Dr Barnardo's Home, another institution for unlucky children. Gordon's school work suffers and it is clear that he is becoming chronically depressed as a consequence of the continual disruptions in his life.
Uncustomarily, Britton makes a visit to the Thornalleys on a weekday. He is accompanied by a new housekeeper, Miss Sweitzer, who talks with them, while Gordon is sent out to play. At last she leaves and he learns that Mrs. Penry has issued an ultimatum: either they adopt him at once, or he will be sent to Dr Barnardo's, like Eric. They have had to sign a paper of intent. While he says nothing, he determines to beseech Mrs. Penry one more time, on the coming weekend when he expects to see her. When Britton fails to arrive and Gordon queries this, he is told that there are to be no more visits to Priory Dene. It is for his own good, he is told.
Undaunted, Gordon hatches a plan to see Mrs. Penry. Arriving at Priory Dene, he is refused admittance rudely by Miss Sweitzer. Insistent, he slips into the house as she consults Mrs. Penry, who is washing a baby, Timothy. Seeing Gordon approach, she agrees to speak to him in the study. He tells her that he would prefer to go to Dr Barnardo's, to which she replies that they no longer have a vacancy, he must try to get used to the Thornalleys. Gordon finally faces defeat. As he leaves, his despair is mitigated when Mrs. Penry tells him that she has established a trust fund for him, which will be his when he is of age. It is a handsome enough sum, but its prospects are qualified by the news that those who care for him are entitled to annual payments from it. She adds that she hopes that nobody will exercise this option and binds him over to secrecy concerning its existence.
On Gordon's return to the Thornalleys, his trip to Priory Dene has been revealed by a phone call from Miss Sweitzer. He is hit about the face by Mrs. Thornalley, who is enraged, and a row ensues. After this, he abandons any further attempts to beg relief from Mrs. Penry.
At the local grammar school Gordon now attends, the Headmaster, one morning, summons him into his study. There he tells him that he is to be taken to Juvenile Court, where will be adopted by the Thornalleys. Even though he has had every reason to anticipate this move, its reality strikes him as a terrible blow. As he waits in the court with Mr. Thornalley, he shakes with fear and anger. With the merest process and no personal consultation, he is adopted and given the surname Thornalley. He is ten-and-a-half-years old.
Though there are still occasional visits to Priory Dene, Mrs. Penry has a new response when Gordon complains of his home life, "There is nothing I can do, they are your legal parents." Whatever the reasons for his fractured and fracturing existence with her, which has included in the space of five years nine homes apart from Priory Dene and seven schools, she is no longer liable for him.
While Gordon has been legally adopted by the Thornalleys, thereby relieving her of any responsibility for him, Mrs. Penry, the woman who took him out of the custody of the National Adoption Society and had him baptized with her name, only to abandon him to the cruel vagaries of a careless institutionalized existence, remains in his life.
Gordon's existence with the Thornalleys is little changed following his adoption, except that he is obliged to work, without pay, more often in the shop. His schoolwork declines and he loses his place on the football team.
The advent of war changes everyone's life, and for Gordon, as for other boys his age, it is often an exhilarating experience. He joins the Civil Defence, as a messenger, and the Air Defence Cadet Corps. The Battle of Britain is won and German bombers returning from night-time raids on London sometimes unload their unused bombs on coastal towns. In one such episode, friends of Gordon are killed in a neighboring house. He learns that Mrs. Penry has been detained under Detention Order 'B,' which applies to aliens, and released, on condition that she move away from the south coast. She has gone to Worcestershire. Later, she will deny this to Gordon and say that she moved for health reasons - she suffers from asthma. Despite her absence, Gordon sometimes cycles over to Priory Dene to stand outside the gates and dream of the past. He visits the rectory and, when Tims, the groom, now retired, asks after the family, he lies that everyone is fine, as if he were still living with them.
In 1942, Gordon, now fifteen, runs away from the Thornalleys. Life with them has become insupportable. He tries to join the Merchant Navy, but is rejected because of his age. Homeless and penniless, he wanders about Bournemouth for several days, stealing vegetables from gardens and eating them raw, as he and the others had done at the Catholic home, ten years before. Priory Dene, he discovers, has been commandeered by the army and, one night, he curls up to sleep in the garden shed.
At last, in desperation, he decides to fall on the mercy of the Stones, one of his few good home experiences. They, taking him in affectionately, explain that they would have adopted him, except that Mrs. Penry considered them too poor. Prevailing wartime conditions oblige them to report his presence in the house to the police and, in this way, the Thornalleys, who have reported his disappearance, discover his whereabouts. In a most unfortunate incident, Gordon is betrayed to them with the complicity of the Stones and is obliged to return. While he extracts a promise of improved conditions in the process, nothing is changed.
For no apparent reason, Mrs. Penry calls the Thornalleys to inquire after Gordon. When they tell her of his bad behavior, they take particular delight in conveying her disgusted response to Gordon. Nevertheless, she announces that she will underwrite his enrollment at a prestigious Public School, Millfield, which is, in fact, a crammer. Needing additional school clothes gives him the opportunity to visit her at her home near Malvern. There, in reply to questioning concerning life with the Thornalleys, he reminds her that he had begged her not to send him to them. She admits her mistake, while saying that there was nothing she could have done legally. It is not stated whether she refers to before or after his adoption. When he presses her as to the reason for his adoption by them - clearly it wasn't love - she disingenuously expresses surprise at the outcome, as she has done before when confronted with his persistent questioning.
Life at Millfield duplicates many of the experiences Gordon has already had, bullying and corporal punishment amongst them. He has learned to absorb such instances of adversity and developed ingenuity in combating the system, with one exception. Gordon's background makes him a fish out of water at this institution for the sons of the wealthy and, making up a story of an equally privileged existence, he is obliged to be forever vigilant for fear of slipping up in the details. By and large he is successful, but it is a constant strain. When he meets some American soldiers stationed nearby, he is impressed to learn that there are no class barriers in America. Later, he and another school friend will barter bread for cigarettes with the servicemen, who complain of hunger.
Gordon writes to Mrs. Penry every week and, unlike the past, she now replies regularly. When he inquires of his parents, she denies any detailed knowledge of them, but something makes him doubt her.
The war draws to a close, it is the spring of 1945, and Gordon faces his last term at Millfield, at the end of which he will sit the examination for the valued school certificate. He plans to sign up with the Fleet Air Arm. Most of his holidays have been spent with the Thornalleys, but he has passed the previous one staying with a school friend, Euan. Now, he asks Mrs. Penry if he can bring Euan to stay for this final holiday. She agrees. At first, all goes well. Billy is down from Oxford and the three boys pass the time in organized shoots and drinking in Malvern. Mrs. Penry has told Gordon to call her "Aunty," which enables him to continue the myth of his identity for Euan's sake. Still, he looks forward to the near future when he can, at last, dispense with this. When Mrs. Penry hears of Gordon's plans to join the Fleet Air Arm, however, she is upset, thinking he should go to Oxford. When he insists, in face of her efforts to dissuade him, she loses interest and walks out of the room. Depressed by this encounter, he joins Euan and Billy, who are drinking in the drawing room. There, he finds his glass continually refilled, until he passes out. On waking, next morning, he is horrified to learn from Euan that his "Aunt" is very angry with him, that she went upstairs and locked herself in the bathroom when he began to shout and curse all manner of crazy things about his past life. Euan is interrupted by the appearance of the housekeeper, now Mary McGinley, who conveys "Madame's" wishes that they both leave the house. Billy has already gone. Gordon, knowing that the truth has come out, feels horribly disgraced and places much of the blame for it on his friend and Billy, who, he feels, should have restrained him.
Back at the dreaded Thornalleys, Gordon awaits notification from the Fleet Air Arm, having achieved his school certificate. The Thornalleys want him out of the house and, when several weeks have passed without word from the Navy, they force him to join the Army. Following basic training, he serves as a paratrooper with the Airborne Forces until the war ends. Seeking a release from the Army, he joins the Palestine Police Force, from which he is medically discharged with "nervous disability" after two years, as a result of a direct hit on an armored car in which he is traveling.
It is 1948 and Gordon is twenty-one. He is resolved to discover the nature of his origins. Convinced that Mrs. Penry knows something, he approaches her discreetly, certain that she is covering up the truth. During a visit, in which he perceives her as a lonely figure - Sandy has run away eight years previously with a housekeeper, Billy is sailing in the Greek islands, Marian has married a Swiss doctor and moved there, and John is training to be a doctor - he asks why she had him moved so many times. She replies, unconvincingly, that she was trying to find the best place to give him a good chance in life. Gordon has also come of age to receive his inheritance, only to receive a tiny sum, a little more than five per cent of that which he had been led to anticipate. He asks if she had expected the various agencies and individuals connected with his care to take the money, apparently having learned of the withdrawals. Evasively, she responds that it was for his own well-being. What of the payments made to the Thornalleys for six years, when he wasn't resident in their home? These are the years, 1942-'48, during which Gordon was either principally at Millfield or in the services. She expresses disbelief, claiming that they had told her that the money would be left in the trust. He leaves and, though he makes no comment on his encounter, he can only have left with increased and alarming doubts as to the very significant part Mrs. Penry has played in his fate.
Over the next twenty-five years, during which he marries, is briefly a policeman, then works in the security business, Gordon pursues his quest. He approaches the National Adoption Society and the Church of England Incorporated Society for Waifs and Strays, only to be met by an inefficient bureaucracy, which is empowered by statutes prohibiting the release of adoption information to stonewall his queries. Even when persistence pays off in the form of some answers, they are frequently inconsistent. He also writes several times to Mrs. Penry, the last in the early Sixties when she has moved to Switzerland. Her answers are always the same, leaving him doubting her integrity and, finally, she replies no more. When he discovers that the National Adoption Society papers releasing him into her care listed her as Mrs. "Korth," whereas she was in fact Mrs. Penry at the time, this only serves to heighten his suspicion of her motives.
Gordon has three principal lines of inquiry. Is he an illegitimate child of someone in Mrs. Penry's family? Was the woman, announced as Mrs. Penry's sister Rose, who visited Woolacombe in 1937 and gave Gordon a tin of toffees, in fact his mother? Who was the man who, until he was adopted by the Thornalleys, made repeated efforts to maintain knowledge of him? These last two questions introduce new information not included by Gordon in the preceding text.
One connection Gordon makes in his search for answers proves extremely revealing. This is his discovery of the whereabouts of Mrs. Britton, the chauffeur's wife, now his widow, and Mrs. Penry's former housekeeper. She is delighted to see Gordon and tells of her bitterness at Mrs. Penry, in connection with their abrupt dismissal for no reason just prior to the war after ten or more years' service. Then, in a lengthy exchange, she offers information which not only deepens the mystery but reveals Mrs. Penry's capacity for lying.
While first at St Wulfram's, when Gordon was a boarder, he was visited in the presence of the headmaster by a man who showed him photographs of a large country house with Georgian pillars. The man asked Gordon if he would like to live there. The wide-eyed six-year-old nodded eagerly at the prospect. Then, he was taken out to tea. A similar visit occurred during Gordon's second stay at St Wufram's in 1937. The visitor is described as "aged about forty, slim, well dressed, fair hair and very well spoken" and an executive of General Motors, the American car manufacturer. Mrs. Britton, now, relates two further encounters with the same presumed individual at Priory Dene, also in 1937.
On the first occasion, Mrs. Britton is instructed by Mrs. Penry to take an infant she is bathing named Robin and identify him as Gordon to a man who has called at the house looking for Gordon and is waiting at the front door. Despite her unwillingness, the housekeeper, fearing the loss of her and her husband's jobs, does as she is told. The man's appearance is in every respect similar to that of Gordon's school visitor, the man from General Motors. When the inquirer is offered this fabrication, he is clearly not taken in, noting that he knows Gordon is ten years old. Relieving the housekeeper of responsibility for the deception, he leaves.
The second and last visit from the General Motors man occurs not long after Gordon has been adopted. Presenting himself to the housekeeper, he inquires of Gordon's circumstances. When she tells him of Gordon's adoption, he explains that he needed to ascertain the truth before seeing Mrs. Penry. No more is heard of him.
Gordon thinks this man may have been a friend of his father, keeping an eye on him. However, there is an undeveloped suggestion, in connection with Gordon's response to his first encounter with him at St Wulfram's, that he might have been interested in adopting Gordon himself.
One other thing Mrs. Britton tells Gordon is that Mrs. Penry made sure that no photographs were ever taken of him with her, the implication being that she wished to avoid any such record of association with him.
In respect of Gordon's line of inquiry regarding the identity of Rose, who visited Woolacombe and gave him a tin of toffees, Mrs. Britton has some provocative information. After the family and numerous staff have been settled at Woolacombe, the Brittons have returned to Priory Dene. There, one day, a taxi draws up and a lady steps out of it, announcing that she is Mrs. Penry's sister and needs directions to Woolacombe. The chauffeur recognizes her as the same woman he and Mrs. Penry met off the train from London carrying Gordon seven years earlier, in 1929. Reasonably, he concludes that Rose is Gordon's mother.
Later, when Gordon obtains a photograph of his mother, he recognizes the same woman who gave him the toffees.
If Gordon is, indeed, an illegitimate offspring of Mrs. Penry's family, to which conclusion he is drawn by the wealth of circumstantial evidence, he is unable to discover any positive proof. He states that he has heard that his father went to South Africa. His mother, he surmises, was supported anonymously by Mrs. Penry, through the National Adoption Society, for the first two years of his life. Following his transference into Mrs. Penry's care, he concludes, she paid for his mother's passage to America to get her out of the way. Evidence indicates that his mother applied for a visa to go to Canada in September of 1930, but then changed her mind, telling the embassy that she was going to visit a sister in America. However, Gordon traced all candidates for this relative, finding that there was no indication any had ever left the country.
In 1972, Gordon sees Mrs. Penry for the last time. He is walking past the Reubens Hotel in Kensington, London, when "a frail old lady," whom he recognizes as Mrs. Penry, gets out of a taxi nearby. In response to his greeting, she stops, turns toward him and, with a frightened expression in her eyes, mutters, "I can't stop," before shuffling off. The one person who might have been able to answer his soul searching questions dies in April, 1980.
(In 1926, Frances, at the age of thirty-one, left her first husband, Arthur Korth, and taking their two boys, Arthur “Sandy” and William “Bill,” sailed for France, soon after to settle in England. Born in Bonn, Germany, of a German father and American mother, she was raised at Teaneck, New Jersey, by the latter. She would never set foot in her native land again.)
Part Two: Gordon and Frances
Frances' choice of destination, England, may have been attributable to simple Anglophilia or more specifically related to her family's distant heritage. Certainly, there was something of the English Puritan in her character. Little is known of her earliest actions on arrival, but at about the time of Gordon Forbes' conception in 1926 she became registered with the American Women's Club in London.
In February of 1928, Frances received a divorce from Arthur in Reno, Nevada. It is not clear if she or her husband initiated proceedings and, because of state residency requirements for divorce, if the former, she would have been obliged to travel back to America. There is, however, corroboration as presented by Gordon Forbes, from her housekeeper and chauffeur, the Brittons, that in the same year, she was established on the south coast at Priory Dene, 33 West Cliff Road, Bournemouth, and was engaged in the first of the many male infant fosters she would pursue in the course of the next twenty years.
Aside from the domestic matters of running her large household, including management of the fosters, and her attendance at the opera, concerts, and theater, Frances indulged a passion for horses. Allergic to them in close proximity, her engagement was necessarily vicarious, requiring the hiring of professionals. During the early years, there would be the showing of hackneys; following the Second World War, hunters; then, Welsh Mountain ponies and three-quarter thoroughbreds, which she raced. It was my experience in going to races with her in the Fifties that, given a winning horse, she would approach, pat the animal and congratulate the jockey, to suffer an immediate allergic reaction which sent her back to the car where she was obliged to use a messy aerosol inhaler. Only winners were deemed worth the sacrifice attending such attention. In community affairs, like her mother, Frances gave generously to charities and involved herself in church activities, while remaining aloof from group activities.
Research indicates that Dr. John Penry, Frances' second husband, was the unnamed child of Rose Penry, a domestic servant, and Richard Jones, a farmer. He was born, June 11, 1903, in Cardiff, Wales. In the marriage certificate relating to his marriage to Frances and elsewhere, his name is given as John Penry Penry. A Wellesley Alumnae questionnaire made out by Frances gives his name as John Jones Penry and states that he attended the universities of Wales and London. How he managed this coming from such humble origins is unknown. Neither is it known when or where the pair first met. However, it is reasonably safe to assume that, given the educational requirements to practice, Penry would not have been a doctor long. Was this the "medical student" whom Gordon Patrick, born to Isabella MacFarlane Forbes, March 15, 1927, at Queen Charlotte's Hospital, London, understood initially was his father?
John Penry, in addition to the surname being a common Welsh name, is also the name of a Puritan author, the first Welsh Congregationalist martyr who was hanged for his beliefs in 1593. Whether or not Frances was aware of this historical fact, it is a provocative coincidence, given her heritage and rectitude.
In attempting to establish Frances' relationship with Gordon, it must be noted that the latter's narrative of events suffers from the vagaries of memory impacted by childhood trauma. While he presents a clear enough accounting of each location and their sequence, in trying to reconstruct the circumstances of his early life in light of information discovered much later, he commits the reader to some confusion in respect of the timeline. His difficulty is not surprising, given the nature of his experiences and the fact that the greater part of them occurred before he was ten. My goal has been to address all information in the light of what I have been able to establish, while 'listening' as keenly as I may to the participants in the drama.
On June 28, 1929, as the Dow is making its last advance before the Crash, John and Frances are married at Richmond Hill Congregational Church in Bournemouth. Within two months, in August, Frances meets Gordon and his mother off the London train and, following a week in the nursing home on West Cliff Road, takes him into her care. On Oct. 11, he is adopted from the National Adoption Society by Frances Penry, giving her surname as Korth. In addition to using a name that is no longer hers, she also fails to legalize this action. On Oct. 24, Frances has Gordon baptized as Gordon Phelps Penry, the certificate giving she and John as his adopted parents. On Nov. 9, a one thousand pound assurance policy is taken out for Gordon, due to him on his maturity and giving Frances as the trustee.
Gordon sees little of the man he, at first, takes for his father, because Frances establishes her husband financially in a London practice, where he is engaged during the week. Family lore has it that Frances disliked physical intimacy and, no doubt, the distant relationship suited her temperamentally. However, her personal feelings overruled by a sense of duty, she bears two further children: Marian in 1930, named after her mother, and John Richard, 1932, named for his father.
In 1931, when Gordon is four, he is sent to a day school. The following year, he attends Haileybury Preparatory school as a boarder, being transferred to St. Wulfram's. It is here that he is visited by the man from General Motors, who, showing him a picture of a house with Georgian pillars, asks if he would like to live there.
Up until this point, Gordon has had no reason to doubt that he is a member of Frances' family, but now, with his abrupt, unexplained removal to the disagreeable Catholic home for the illegitimate and the crude announcement that he is a fostered child, he is launched into a world that will become increasingly confused and frightening.
His health suffering neglect and a poor diet obliging him to seek nourishment in stolen raw vegetables, he engages in an unsuccessful attempt to escape. There are two more homes - at "Mrs.. Sparks" and "Sandybanks" - and another village school, before he tries again.
Gordon, six, is transferred into the care of the Church of England Children's Society, to which is signed over his assurance policy, now reconstituted to allow for the withdrawal of funds for his upkeep. He is placed in one of their homes, Talbot Woods Church Home, where he encounters the alcoholic "Master," who tells him that his name is no longer Phelps-Penry but Forbes, the bullying Speed, and the child molester "Uncle John," and is visited by his old nurse, Banky Smith, who attempts to comfort him, before her visits are denied. He tries once again to escape.
Meanwhile, on Oct 24, 1933, a petition for divorce is presented by Frances to the High Court. It claims adultery by her husband on the 10th and 11th of the month at the Charing Cross Hotel, Strand, Middlesex, involving an unknown woman. John Penry is now living in the city at 42 Cholmeley Park, Highgate. On Feb 27 of the new year, the divorce petition is denied. While there is no explanation, it may be that her inability to name a co-respondent invalidated the action.
During this period, following Gordon's ambush of Master with a mattress, he is transferred to the Stones for a brief congenial stay, before being taken to the old rectory and the Bowdens, where he is engaged in "Billy's" birthday party and meets Eric. On Frances' instructions he is forbidden to write to the Stones. Clearly, while he may have been placed in care of the Church of England Children's Society and his name changed, Frances still has an interest in his progress. What might that have been?
The exact dates of each of Gordon's stays in the homes and schools is not known. However, his initial abandonment to the Catholic home comes at a time when the indications are that Frances' marriage to Penry is failing. Likewise, his removal from Talbot Woods and eventual semi-return to the family in the context of the old rectory and the Bowdens coincides with the period in which her divorce petition occurs. Was Frances' concern for Gordon driven by appearances, reflecting her grandfather William Walter's trait? Did she fear that her treatment of Gordon might invite public scrutiny, bringing shame? Did she forbid Gordon to communicate with the Stones for this reason?
From the old rectory, Gordon and Eric are taken by Dr. Bowden to another Church of England institution, Tattenhall School. One look at the boys' fate is enough to alarm the doctor, but he evidently feels powerless to intervene. They will spend the next two years or so subject to the bullying of Matthews - the new Speed - and the sadism of another "Master." There will be the same dreadful food and lack of health care as at Talbot Woods, and Gordon will become very ill.
In 1935, Frances learns of John Penry's adultery with an unknown woman on the 19th and 20th days of October at the Manor Hotel, Hindhead, Surrey. The next year, she will learn of his adultery with a woman named Dorothy Thomas on the 9th, 10th, and 11th days of January at the Silverdale Private Hotel, 15 - 19, Silverdale Rd., Eastbourne, Sussex.
In 1936, in March, two months following her discovery of Penry's adultery with Dorothy Thomas, Frances brings Gordon home again and places him with the Thornalleys with the express purpose of rehabilitating his health. Though he finds the Thornalleys disagreeable - she has a terrible temper and the couple continually fight - he clearly understands that it will be a temporary stay. He is justified in this assumption when he recommences life at Priory Dene, where the family name is restored, a great fuss is made of him, and he is sent to his old school, St. Wulfram's, as a day pupil. Echoing Frances' former refusal to allow Gordon to communicate with the Stones, she, now, refuses his request to be allowed to write to Eric who is still at Tattenhall.
During the summer holidays, Gordon is alone at Priory Dene, except for a number of fostered infants with whom Frances is preoccupied - Arthur, William and Marian have been sent elsewhere. One afternoon, he is introduced to "Herr von Ribbentrop," the German ambassador. Returning to St. Wulfram's in the fall, he distinguishes himself at football and Frances is pleased. Christmas, with Arthur, William and Marian, is an unreservedly enjoyable event.
On January 13th of the new year, Frances' petitions the court for divorce a second time, citing the unknown co-respondent and the woman identified as Dorothy Thomas. The next day, the court issues a summons to appear to Penry, whose address, now, is Hendy, Tyn-y-Gongl, Anglesey, Wales. It also issues a summons to Dorothy Thomas, of 171 Sinclair House, Thanet Street, London W.C1.
Gordon returns to St. Wulfram's as a boarder. On March 15, he is ten years old. Unbeknownst to him, in May, Frances informs the Church of England Children's Society that he is to be sent to Dr. Barnardo's Homes, another institution for the orphaned, separate from the Church. Meanwhile, the man from General Motors makes another appearance at St. Wulfram's. In addition, he visits Priory Dene, inquiring after Gordon, only to be shown the infant Robin in his stead.
In the summer, Gordon goes with the family to spend two months at Woolacombe Bay. There, he feels jealous of Frances' new baby, "Tommy." Thomas is in fact the first of Frances’ two fomally adopted boys. Visited by her "sister," Rose, from America, he is given a gift of toffees. When he disobeys her instruction regarding their consumption, he is angrily banished from the house for the rest of the holiday and sent to stay with Mrs.. Blackbee, a teacher at St. Wulfram's. There, he is taught how to bet on the horses and play cards by his erstwhile teacher, whom he discovers entertains a string of men, including the colorful "Buffalo Bill."
At the end of the summer, Gordon is returned to Priory Dene, but not to St. Wulfram's. Indeed, it is not clear what his fate is to be. Then, one day, out of the blue, as Gordon is playing at the beach accompanied by Frances, she encourages him to bike over to the Thornalleys and visit Eric and the other boy, Alex, who lives there. Suspicious of her intentions, Gordon reluctantly agrees, only to find that he has been trapped. Clearly the Thornalleys knew from Frances that he would be coming: he has been betrayed by her.
Eric is sent to Dr. Barnardo's, while Gordon and Alex are indentured in the Thornalley's grocery business, Gordon being schooled at a local grammar school as a day boy. Despite her betrayal of Gordon, Frances has the two boys over on the weekends for "treats." One day, the unpleasant Miss Sweitzer, one of Frances' housekeepers, arrives with an ultimatum from her employer to the effect that, failing the Thornalleys' immediate adoption of Gordon, he will be sent to Dr. Barnardo's. All visits to Priory Dene are ended.
Desperate, in a clandestine visit, Gordon makes one final effort to appeal his fate to Frances - if he must be sent somewhere else, he would rather be with Eric than the feuding Thornalleys, who, he has learned, intend to adopt him. She rejects his request, telling him of the trust she had established for him as an infant. Explaining that money from it goes to his upkeep, she attempts to mollify him with the prospect of his eventual receipt of the balance. Miserable and admitting defeat, he returns to the Thornalleys.
On September the 22nd, Sir Gavin Turnbull Simonds, one the Justices of the High Court sitting at the Royal Courts of Justice, Strand, Middlesex, grants Frances a divorce. On the same day at Poole Juvenile Court, Gordon, referred to as Gordon Patrick MacFarlane, is adopted by the Thornalleys, becoming Gordon Patrick Thornalley. In response to his complaints, voiced during subsequent encounters with his erstwhile mother, Frances now replies: "There is nothing I can do, they are your legal parents.
Before the year ends, Mrs. Britton, the housekeeper, visited by the General Motors man, in answer to his query of Gordon's status, informs him of his adoption. The inquirer explains that he needs to know before speaking with Frances. He is never heard of, again.
What, exactly, has been going on?
Occurring during the space of less than five months, events involving Frances' relationship with Gordon in respect of her first initiative to divorce Penry present more simply and clearly in their likely motivation. Her second attempt, however, evidently requiring the harder-to-obtain specific evidence of Penry's adultery to be successful, occurs over a time period of almost two years, during which her extended struggle, with its inevitable cycles and reactive phases, has the effect of obscuring her actions. Despite this, it appears very much that once she had the hard evidence - the name of Dorothy Thomas - she felt confident of her eventual success. It was then, according to the facts, that she undertook to rehabilitate Gordon, for the same reasons, I propose, as she expressed in her first attempt - to avoid scrutiny of her cruel neglect of Gordon and present the appearance of a good mother, so as to promote her interests.
Almost certainly, Frances felt some momentary guilt for her treatment of Gordon, but it competed unsuccessfully with the vigorous resentment she harbored towards men, born of the childhood insults suffered at the hand of fate. In relations with male children, anger was never very far from the surface. As infants, they offered a source of unconditional love, satisfying an immature yearning born of her conditional childhood; once children, they became a potential threat and perceived challenges to her authority were punished remorselessly. Her struggle to produce a successful male - and the fosters including Gordon, the adopted children, Thomas and myself, in addition to her own children were all potential candidates - was directly challenged and undercut by this.
To address the role of the man from General Motors, it seems possible that he may have known Gordon's mother in America and made his visits while on business in England. This assumes that Isabella did, indeed, go there, of which there is proof neither one way nor the other. Certainly, such a scenario would account for his apparently secondary interest in Gordon. The evidence also suggests that he knew Frances, while the fact of his visits only to the respectable St Wulfram's suggests her direction. Once he knew of Gordon's adoption, he might have reasonably been led to the conclusion that Gordon was at last secure, obviating any further need for his services.
In the Phelps family, there were but two possible Roses for Frances' "sister." Advanced age rules out Janet Rose Hutchinson, John Jay's wife, who would have been seventy-two in 1937. Her unmarried daughter, Rose, Frances' cousin, forty-two in that year and a Wellesley graduate, class of 1919, is the most likely candidate. While it is known that Rose paid visits to her cousin in England, there is nothing further to substantiate one at this time. As for Gordon's and the Brittons' identification of her as Gordon's mother, a photograph of Isabella in The Adoptive Boy demonstrates clearly that this was not so.
In respect of Frances' complicity in the fate of Gordon's mother, one other connection presents as possible. Frances told Gordon that Isabella emigrated to America in 1930. According to the National Adoption Society, she applied for a Canadian visa in September, but changed her mind two days later, deciding instead to go to her sister in America. The sister's name was Mary Anne Julleston Forbes, but Gordon's investigations showed that she had never gone to America. More to the point is how Isabella could have paid for such a trip. In the circumstances it seems reasonable to speculate that Frances may have provided the fare and even some connections on her arrival. This could explain the man from General Motors.
If "sister" Rose was in fact Gordon's mother and Frances lied about her identity, of which she had shown she was capable in the instance of the lie involving the infant Robin, then the General Motors man's appearances would present consistently to demonstrate Frances' complicity in this grotesque deception - Isabella would be left with the impression that her son had been well taken care of. In such a situation, the General Motors man, sensing a larger plot, might reasonably have decided not to involve himself any further than was necessary - a truthful word to Isabella that her son had been adopted, without mentioning his suspicions, would relieve him of any further responsibility in the affair in which he had become involved as a Good Samaritan.
As to the identity of Gordon's father, circumstantial evidence points to John Penry as the "medical student." While Gordon considers the possibility of a Phelps' paternity, there are simply no likely candidates and none of the male members of the family are known to have been in England at the time of his conception. Was Frances Gordon's anonymous benefactor through the agency of the National Adoption Society during the first two years of his life? Such would assume her assumption of John Penry and his illegitimate child. If so, perhaps she was motivated in part by a sense of duty, that in time was revealed as misplaced. If she were not the benefactor, the discovery of Penry's secret would surely have been shocking.
The consideration of John Penry as Gordon's father presents another conceivable explanation of the identity of "Rose " - Rose Penry, John's mother. Her appearance with, let's say, her grandchild, Gordon, at the station in 1929 seems a reasonable supposition. Why she should make a visit to the household in 1937 when her son was about to be divorced by Frances is less easy to account for, though it would explain the chauffeur Britton's identification of her as the same woman he had seen at the station. There is also Rose's announcement in 1937 that she had not expected to find Gordon at the house, leading one to assume that whoever this was had prior knowledge of him.
In all this, there is Frances' own trait of secrecy and the consequent confusion which served to hide her well. A further consideration in respect of her conscious manipulation of events is the fact presented by Gordon that she was careful never to have a photograph taken of the two of them together.
For all that Frances successfully rid herself of Gordon in 1937, she continued in the background of his life, unable to completely let go of him, just as he continued to hold her in esteem despite her actions. Each was caught in the other's cycle of despair, destined to confirm their tragic roles. When Gordon visits Frances at Little Malvern during the war, he is subtly made to feel that it is all his fault that things have not worked out; when, on another visit, he announces his attention to join the Fleet Air Arm, she is upset that he is not going to Oxford University; and, when he asks her of his past in a post-war visit she is evasive, while telling him that the trust has all been used up by the Thornalleys. When he greets her for the last time in a street encounter in London in 1972, she will no longer recognize him.
Extract from “Dear Gordon: Speaking of the Past”
© Alex Phelps, FranKanTru Productions, 2001
Library of Congress: TXU001034757
(Bibliography and sources available.)