Sometimes one blog leads to another.
I am reading An Orderly Man, the third volume of Dirk Bogarde’s autobiography. It’s his fiftieth birthday and Marie (the cook) has made “mince, sprouts and mashed” for lunch. Tony Forwood (pronounced Ford) Dirk’s lifetime companion thinks he might rather go out. I scent a surprise party.
”So to the Colombe d’Or, lunch in the sun under the budding fig tree with Vivienne and Paddy Glenavy (Patrick Campbell), the former a very old friend from the early Ealing Studios days and now happily rediscovered as a close neighbour, Simone Signoret and Yves Montand and, later, James Baldwin who very sensibly suggested champagne for such a rare occasion.” (An Orderly Man, Dirk Bogarde)
I remember Paddy Campbell (1913 – 1980) from reading his column in The Sunday Times and his stuttering performances on Call My Bluff with Frank Muir. I have two collections of his columns: Life in Thin Slices (1951) and The Coarse of Events (1968). They were funny when I first read them but seem dated today.
The Glenavy title is a 1921 UK Barony created for his grandfather, James Campbell (1851 – 1931). He had a distinguished legal and political career serving as a British MP; in 1898 he was elected as an Irish Unionist for St Stephen’s Green and in 1903 he was elected to represent Dublin University. (After Home Rule this constituency returned TDs to the Irish parliament until 1937.) In 1905 he was appointed Attorney General in Ireland and in 1916 became Lord Chief Justice of Ireland. His rise continued: in 1917 he was created a Baronet and in 1918 Lord Chancellor of Ireland. In the middle of the civil war in 1922 he was appointed to the Upper House of the Irish Parliament. His own house on the south side of Dublin was promptly burnt by the anti-Treaty IRA, as part of their campaign against representatives of the new state. He soldiered on in the Senate, retiring in 1928.
Paddy, the third baron, was not an over-achiever like his grandfather but a better choice for a birthday luncheon at La Colombe d’Or.
Surely you mean St Paul de Vence and your PC has auto corrected to Venice.
Thank you and I’ve fixed it.
I have a memory that Paddy Campbell fought for Franco in the Spanish civil war. I was surprised when I came across it in a military history book