The Council of The Chelsea Society elected Dr. James Thompson to be its twelfth Chairman, as from 21st November 2016.

Dr. Thompson is an Honorary senior lecturer in psychology at London University, and has lived in Chelsea since 1982. He has been a member of The Chelsea Society since 1983.
He was drawn to Chelsea by the architecture, individual shops, mews houses, bohemian crowds, music, history, river views along the Embankment, and the exciting mix of cultural past and vivid quirky present. Within a year of moving to Chelsea he opposed a major planning application in his street, and since then has been Chairman of his local Residents’ Association in the streets between the Physic Garden and the Royal Hospital.

In 2006 James led the “Save Sloane Square campaign, and since 2011 has chaired the King’s Road Association of Chelsea Residents (KRACR) – campaigning particularly against large basement developments. He will retire from that Chairmanship in February 2017.

James holds membership card no. 20 at the Chelsea Physic Garden, and would have had an even lower number if he had responded more promptly to the first-ever membership application, hand-delivered by the Garden Curator to nearby streets in 1983.

James taught psychology and held clinics at the Middlesex Hospital Medical School, later University College London Medical School. His first job was as a researcher on brain-damaged children. He was clinical psychologist at Guy’s Hospital Medical School, and later at the Institute of Psychiatry. He continues to publish academic papers.

He was depicted as a character in a play at the Royal Court, as a psychologist explaining the motivations of terrorists!

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Damian Greenish was the eleventh chairman of the Society, from 1st April 2012 until 21st November 2016

Sarah Farrugia, former Vice-Chairman, pays her own tribute to Damian Greenish, and has garnered the thoughts of others

Damian has a style of leadership that works in an invisible, imperceptible way. He is not an overt, controlling character. He doesn’t demand attention nor push his own-personal views in any loud way. He allows. He forms. He considers. He is thoughtful.

Let’s be in no doubt that the role of Chairman is not an easy one. To lead the Chelsea Society demands something fairly unique. It blends friendship with policy and difficult discussions amongst friends, neighbours and those in local government. Competing interests and conflicts arising from external change have to be managed. Crossrail2 was a particularly difficult moment in which to be on the Council. I know there have been other difficult times in the past and there will surely be more to come in a fast-changing London.

To have a view on things from the ground floor whilst taking up a long term perspective is virtually impossible. Yet something that must be done. For everyone’s sake.

Damian was regarded by one and all as someone who epitomises the qualities of a timeless Chelsea – qualities not forgotten by those in the know and not unnoticed by those who come to know. It is often hard to make sense of many of the unspoken rules and regulations that build up over the generations. He has been, for me, and now we see for many others, a guiding light in demonstrating the very best of these. He speaks well, with poise and grace. Has a presence of character, a quick wit, a sharp mind, a genuine interest and a kind word. He is open and generous with everyone, always. He is forever curious.

Many members and onlookers like to think of Chelsea as a world apart. An old village full of traditions and quirks, which are as alive today as they have ever been. Beyond any architectural delight or infrastructural dilemma, a pleasant society is about the people and the way they live, the values by which they live.

It’s the manners and everyday encounters that go to make a place feel like home. Damian reflects them and lives them in a congenial manner, unconsciously but with tremendous skill. For Geoffrey Matthews, Secretary of the Chelsea Arts Club,  Damian seems to be the archetypical Chelsea gent: “kindly, courteous and liberal; thoughtful and wise; but also informal and lively-minded with a wicked sense of humour.”

Roddy Baldwin of Green and Stone, observes, “It has been really refreshing to liaise with someone who is passionate about Chelsea and its environs.” Sue Medway of the Chelsea Physic Garden explains: “When my career brought me to Chelsea, Damian immediately set about helping me to settle in, ensuring that I understood the organisations and the people that go into making the area so vibrant and unique, and gently stewarding introductions along the way. That help and support was invaluable to me.”

One issue that dominated the latter part of Damian’s leadership was Crossrail2, which in fact threatened to derail the 2015 AGM, as feelings were running so high. Council member Michael Bach says, “He dealt diplomatically with the conflicting views on Crossrail2 and steered the Society through the challenges.  He managed to avoid any potential conflicts of interest and maintained a consensual approach within the Council.”

The Society’s Council members had the pleasure of seeing Damian’s style in action. Nigel Stenhouse observes that during his tenure, there were considerable changes including the modernisation of the website and membership data. We are grateful to him for his role in achieving much of this and for his help in promoting the Society’s work.”

According to Michael Stephen, Damian steered the Society with care and skill. ” It has been a great pleasure to work with him and we hope that he will continue to take an interest in the Society as a Vice President.”

For Camilla Mountain, the producer of two of the very best exhibitions the Society has ever delivered, Damian has a talent – “expressed very quietly”- for seeing the bigger picture. “While at the helm, he has always managed to see beyond the detail to understand what is right for the long-term future of the whole of Chelsea.”

Jane Dorrell notes that he has been an extremely hardworking chairman and delightful to work with: “I am sure he charmed many people into joining the Society. And his farewell flourish- the cricket match- was a triumph.” Another Council member simply texted “I will miss Damian.”

I finish with contributions from two people who know both Chelsea and Damian very well. Society President, John Simpson, observes: “For me, Damian Greenish is Chelsea: not the noisy, clattering, overpriced place it has become, but the Chelsea of my boyhood, many decades ago, when it was quiet and arty and highly civilised and people wore ties and suits to work. You can have an excellent conversation with Damian about anything, from the distant foreign travel he loves, to painting and the state of the country. He knows a great deal about a lot of subjects, but wears his knowledge lightly and pleasantly; and yet you can see the lawyer in him when he makes a speech or sums up a debate. Then he is as sharp as a knife, but witty and charming at the same time; and everybody listens, and knows that the discussion is over.

“But there is another side of Damian which only made itself felt in September, when he went in to bat almost last at the Society’s cricket match against the Chelsea Arts Club and laid about them like Attila the Hun in battle. He turned out to be the best batsman on the team, but he didn’t tell us that beforehand; and if some of us-me in particular – had batted more effectively, and hadn’t thrown their wickets away, he might not have batted at all. That was Damian as I have come to know him: quiet, modest, self-deprecating, yet immensely effective when the moment came. ”

Hugh Seaborn, Chief Executive of the Cadogan Estate, notes, “Looking back it seems dear that a pre-requisite for being Chairman of the Chelsea Society is to have a certain style and flamboyance. In this respect Damian has been eminently suitable for the role but there is much more besides. Damian has demonstrated many of the characteristics for which I know him so well – these include his flair and eloquence, immense charm, highly civilised manner and willingness to hold his own views with conviction even when contrary to consensus and to express them eloquently and objectively. All these are important characteristics for a leading lawyer practising in a contentious arena and who is senior partner of his firm.

It turns out that they have proved valuable characteristics for the Chelsea Society at a challenging time in its history. Above all, it is that Damian meets brilliantly that unspoken requirement for flamboyance and panache whether it be expressed by a bright pastel scarf, Le Corbusier round spectacles or his long stride as he heads along King’s Road, that somehow is so very much of the essence of Chelsea.”

All that remains to be said is that we all wish Damian a very enjoyable retirement from the daily business of The Chelsea Society. For he really is a jolly good fellow, and so say all of us.

Damian Greenish with John Simpson CBE (President of the Society)

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Stuart Corbyn was invited by David Le Lay to join the Council of the Society in 1993, and was Chairman from 2009 to 2011.  His first experience of Chelsea was in the late 1960s when he was attracted to the vibrancy, theatre and individuality of the King’s Road.

He was Chief Executive of the Cadogan Estate from 1986 until 2008. During that time Cadogan evolved from being a traditional ground-rent estate, becoming an active property owner with an emphasis on forming direct relationships with residential and commercial occupiers. Substantial investment was made in the buildings, with several major refurbishments and developments undertaken as well as additions to the portfolio, an example being the Harvey Nichols building.

Some of the more significant projects were the re-establishment of Sloane Street as a location for luxury retailers, the creation of a concert venue, Cadogan Hall, following the acquisition and conversion of a former church, and the purchase and adaptation of the TA Headquarters to become Duke of York Square with a mixture of educational, office, residential, restaurant and retail uses, a home for the Saatchi Gallery and extensive new areas of public realm.

Working at Cadogan meant being involved on a daily basis with Chelsea’s history, in particular its continuing development since Hans Sloane’s purchase of the Manor of Chelsea at the beginning of the 18th century.

Stuart Corbyn is a Chartered Surveyor and past President of the British Property Federation.  He has been a Commissioner of the Royal Hospital Chelsea and a trustee of the Chelsea Physic Garden. Also, a Commissioner of the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, a Member of the Council of the Royal Albert Hall, Chairman of the Property Development Committee of the Royal Brompton Hospital’s Charitable Fund, and a Director of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

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David le Lay was the ninth Chairman of the Society and served from 1987 to 2009 , becoming a Vice-President in 2010. His love of Chelsea, his great historical knowledge, his guided walks and his lectures, made him a much-loved member of the community.  He died on 17th January 2017.

An account of his work as an architect, and his huge contribution to the safeguarding of Chelsea as we know it today, is in an obituary published in the Society’s Annual Report for 2017 as follows:

“My name is David Le Lay and I am Chairman of the Chelsea Society”. The gleeful look which always accompanied these words as David opened yet another exhibition, or welcomed members to a party, will be long remembered by those of us who were there. But his infectious enthusiasm was not only for the Society, it was for Chelsea, where he lived and worked for 50 years.

David was born and brought up in Jersey, where his artistic talent was soon recognised. While still at school he won a prize for a ‘festive float’ at the annual Jersey Battle of Flowers. After that he wasted no time. Aged 18 he went to the Canterbury School of Architecture. The three year course was followed by a year with the conservation practice of Purcell, Miller and Tritton, then a two, year stint at the Regent Street Polytechnic and finally a year with Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe’s practice. He had come to live in Chelsea when he was 21: four years later, he set up his own practice here.

Happily, his life-long partner John Thacker, whom he had met at Canterbury, joined him in Chelsea. They rented a room in Christchurch Street, then in 1970 leased a house from Cadogan in Oakley Gardens. This doubled as David’s office until he expanded into Old Church Street some years later and where, for some 40 years, he ran a highly successful architectural practice. Working mainly in London and the Home Counties he designed many large award-winning housing schemes.

He gained a reputation for his ability to get planning consent for the development of sensitive sites that had a history of refusals. Perhaps one of the most interesting was the development of the parkland of Henry VIII’s palace at Oatlands. Nothing remained of the actual palace but this important site is on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. David’s design of crescents and terraces which frame and complement the landscape won him yet another award. Its success led to many other similar projects for the practice.

And here, it must be said, during his years as Chairman of the Chelsea Society, he would never question its decision when any of his designs came up before the Committee. There was never any question of a conflict of interest. Although he had acted for Cadogan since the early 90’s, it was not unknown for him to make sharp comments about some of their schemes in the Annual Report or Newsletter.

Stuart Corbyn, then the Chief Executive of Cadogan, said in his eulogy, ‘He was an excellent professional advisor and we never had difficult moments, other than as a result of a comment I made after the first project that perhaps more cupboards could have been provided. It was a comment I came to regret as after that David created cupboards out of every available nook and cranny.’

What will he be most remembered for? For him maybe it would be Dovehouse Green. In 2009, in the Sloane Square magazine, he wrote: ‘My relationship with the Chelsea Society started 32 years ago. I was asked to put forward an idea for a forlorn and. partly-fenced off space on the King’s Road known as the old burial ground. The Society wanted to celebrate the Queen’s silver jubilee and its own golden jubilee.

They liked the idea I put forward, it went ahead and we created Dovehouse Green.’ But there were disappointments too. Despite the Society’s strong objections, planning consent was granted for various schemes, including the tower development at Lots Road Power Station and for Battersea’s Montevetro. On a couple of occasions there was some conflict between members over the re-configuration of Sloane Square and the design of the Royal Hospital’s new Infirmary.

Many will remember David for the walks he led for those interested in Chelsea history. Stuart Corbyn said: ‘I will always retain the image of David in a white suit marching purposefully ahead of a small group trying to hear him above the roar of traffic.’ For me, the scholarly reconstructions of ancient Chelsea houses, which were published year after year in Annual Reports, are the most important part of his legacy. One day perhaps they will be collected and published.

David retired as Chairman in 2009 and was elected as a Vice-President in 2010, the year in which he was presented with the Mayor’s Award for services to the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the Chelsea Society. Never can the recipient of the Award have been so worthy of it.

David’s wide-ranging interest in architecture and the environment was reflected in the 21 organisations of which he was a member. He was a church warden of Christchurch Chelsea, and a life member and former council member of the Chelsea Arts Club. In 2012 he founded the Whistler Society and remained its chairman until his death. He was a member of the London Sketch Club, hosting regular designers’ and architects’ evenings. He founded the annual Chamber Music in Chelsea Festival which features graduates from London music schools. The list is long.

David Le Lay died in January 2017 of lung cancer triggered by asbestos. He is survived by John Thacker, his partner of 52 years with whom he had entered into a civil partnership.

His funeral was at St. Luke’s church, Chelsea on Saturday 4th February. In the absence of the Chairman abroad, The Chelsea Society was represented by the Vice-chairman, Michael Stephen, and the congregation included many members of the Society.

On 21st April 2017 an Obituary appeared in the Daily Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2017/04/21/david-le-lay-chairman-chelsea-society-obituary/

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She came into the world unexpectedly early. Two months premature she was hastily christened in a rose-bowl at home, it being feared she would not survive the journey to church, and it could be said she left it unexpectedly late – just two months before her 101st birthday – leaving her family and many friend with unforgettable memories of an erudite and engaging companion.

Born in 1909 she was one of four children of a well-to-do Lincoln’s Inn solicitor. She was brought up in the family home, Pilgrim’s Hall near Brentwood in Essex, which she described in a book published in 1991, “The Private Life of a Country House” written in part to record the traditions and mores of an ordinary upper middle-class family which might be unfamiliar to future generations.  She mentions only in passing that in the gardens there were two ponds, where, as a 10-year-old, she played with a little boy of the same age, David Lewis, the son of the local Rector, who even at that age had what she later described as ‘a hopeless addiction to ponds’.

Taught by a succession of governesses she said she had received ‘quite a useful substitute for an education’.  It was the last of these governesses who inspired her interest in art history.  In 1928, aged 18, she came home from the obligatory French finishing-school and was presented at Court.

Lesley in 1928

Then in 1931 her quiet life of picnics, tennis, house parties and involvement in local good works was to change dramatically.  She read in The Times that a new honours degree in the History of Art was to be established at the University of London, and she persuaded her reluctant father to let her try to matriculate by means of a correspondence course.  With this qualification – for, as we would expect of Lesley, she passed – she was accepted as one of the first four students at the newly formed Courtauld Institute.  She followed her undergraduate degree with a post-graduate thesis on ‘The rise of neo-classical architecture’.  But she once said ruefully in later life, ‘Although I did belatedly acquire  university degrees, true academics always smelt a rat instantly and I knew that I was not one of them.

Her first job in 1939 was as Registrar of the City and Guilds of London Art School. Then after war broke out she worked as a ‘stop-gap’ managing clerk in the family law firm replacing the staff who had been called up.  She commuted daily to London from Essex throughout the Blitz – volunteering as a firefighter through much of it, then in June 1944 as the first flying bombs, the V1’s began terrorising London, she received an aerogramme from her old friend David Lewis. His passion for pond life undiminished – he would become one of this country’s most distinguished entomologists – he was then working for the Sudan Medical Services, carryout out research into the transmission of tropical diseases from insects to humans.

Six years since she had last seen him, he was coming home on his first leave.  This is her laconic record of what happened next ‘He came to see me and after a few days we got engaged to be married.’ And, so after a few days spent dodging the doodlebugs, they were. Lesley accompanied him back to the Sudan at the end of his leave, where she was offered a job as Librarian at the Agricultural Research Institute at Wadi Medani.

They were based in Sudan for the next eleven years,  David’s research involving much arduous travelling through inhospitable terrain. It was particularly arduous for Lesley as she was required to act as a ‘biting service’ – offering her arms to lure mosquitoes and sand flies to be captured in test tubes.  One of these unfortunate insects is apparently still to be found in the British Museum (Natural History).

But these were happy years and the source of some of the stories she loved to tell: the night they nearly shot their canvas bath in the mistaken belief that it was a leopard slithering down the side of their tent; the night they were camped in a village where it was rumoured two missionaries had been eaten by cannibals.  Contemplating a similar fate she wondered how long it would be before the Lewises ceased being a family tragedy and became a family joke. ‘Not long’, she decided. Surviving such vicissitudes with her customary aplomb, in the last years before Sudanese independence she felt she had time on her hands and ‘to stop her brain from atrophying’ she embarked on yet another correspondence course, this time in law.

Much to her surprise – because, not knowing the answer to one question, she wrote that it she were in chambers she would just look it up – she passed.  She was called to the Bar in 1956 when she and David finally returned to England and settled in Whitelands House on the corner of the Kings Road and Cheltenham Terrace.

The years in the Sudan had not dimmed her interest in art history. She found a mass of unpublished material in the Public Records Office about chicanery in 18th century Rome. She wrote to Anthony Blunt, then at the Courtauld, telling him she was planning to write a book about homosexual art connoisseurs spying for the  Court of St James’s in the eighteenth century and asking for his help with her research. Not a good idea as it turned out!  Fifteen years later she understood why he had ignored her request.  Her book, “Connoisseurs and Secret Agents in 18th Century Rome” was published in 1961, and its success led to her election to the Society of Antiquaries in 1964.  In 2002 she was awarded the Society’s medal for outstanding services.

She never practised law, but for fifty years she was to give generously of her time and expertise to the societies and causes that were so important to her. The Chelsea Society was extraordinarily lucky to have such a doughty and talented figure as its chairman.  Two particular achievements stand out. In 1987, the year in which David died, she organised a charity auction for the Physic Garden which raised £31,000. Then when Crosby Hall, which had previously been a hostel for Women Graduates, was sold to a private individual, the Society was concerned about the future ownership of a painting it had given to the Hall.  This was a copy of Holbein’s paining of Sir Thomas More and his family. With great tact Lesley diffused what might have become a difficult situation by setting up an independent trust to care for the paining. As a result, the huge canvas was moved to the Chelsea Town Hall, where it still hangs for all to see.

These verses, taken from her Memorial Service recall, delightfully, some of the organisations she was associated with for so long, and some of the things closest to her heart.

For civilising institutions, the Courtauld, the Physic Garden, Sir John Soane’s Museum, and the Society for Antiquaries.

For Georgian architecture, for great art, for Thomas More and for Chelsea

For good stories, for a sense of the ridiculous, and for peals of laughter

Obituary by Jane Dorrell  – The Chelsea Society’s Annual Report for 2010

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Quentin Morgan Edwards was chairman from 1975-1980, and died in September 2012

Quentin, took over as Chairman from Noel Blakiston when the Chelsea Society was still a coterie of friends most of whom had been part of it since its beginning in 1927. Blakiston introduced Quentin in the hope that he would broaden its appeal and open its doors to a much wider public. This he did.

David Le Lay described him as ‘an innovator who gave a new lease of life to the Society’. He introduced architects, people with an active interest in local history and planning matters and he started the lectures which continue to be popular today.

There are three Chelsea landmarks which would look very different today if it had not been for him. First, The Pheasantry in the King’s Road – now a Pizza Express. In the 70s it was threatened with demolition. Quentin led the fight to preserve it. The addition of the ‘wings’ at the side was accepted but the centre is unchanged, adorned by the blue plaque commemorating Princess Serafina Astafieva the dancer who taught there from 1916 to 1934, and the dramatic archway leading into the courtyard still stands.

The second campaign was a great deal more sensitive. Having failed to find a site in central London the large Polish community in Chicago set their hearts on erecting a memorial in the St. Luke’s Church Gardens to the victims of the Katyn massacre. This was a huge moral dilemma: to respect the wishes of the Poles or refuse to allow the Church and its gardens to be swamped by a towering black marble obelisk surrounded by pine trees. In the end, largely due to Quentin’s diplomacy- and obduracy- the Katyn Memorial found a home in Gunnersbury Cemetery in 1976.

And thirdly, on a happier note, there is Dovehouse Green. In the 70s this, the former burial ground, had become a dangerous haunt of drunks and druggies. For the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Quentin asked David Le Lay to design the new lay-out which you see today, and it was officially opened by Joyce Grenfell in 1977.

After Joyce Grenfell’s death, her husband gave daffodil bulbs to be planted in her memory. They survived for several years but sadly they are no more.

But Quentin had another Jove besides Chelsea. He had begun his career as a wine-merchant before training as a solicitor – a training which was to prove invaluable to him as Chairman – and his knowledge of wine and his widely regarded expertise led to him becoming Master of the Vintners’ Company in 1995, an honour which, his widow Helen says, probably gave him more satisfaction than any of his other notable achievements.

(Obituary by Jane Dorrell)

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He died in 1984, and the following obituary by Lesley Lewis appeared in the Society’s Annual Report for 1985.

“When Noel became chairman he asked me to help the two then joint secretaries, Alex Orde and Iris Medlicott, with planning matters. We all saw a great deal of him and it was I think a tribute both to him and to all honorary secretaries that we always worked together so harmoniously without crossed lines. We got him to use carbon paper, which he claimed not to know about, and his scribbled notes would fly around between us, rapidly and often hilariously.

Whatever he did bore his personal stamp of originality and humour and I never ceased to be impressed by his solid professionalism in everything to do with printed matter. He could read quickly and accurately the paper which flows into amenity societies, and he edited many of the Annual Reports himself, apparently effortlessly.

He was an excellent Chairman of the Society, with a deep love of Chelsea and a knack of keeping on good terms with people who did not necessarily share his views or see his more subtle jokes. He was a far from cloistered scholar, enjoying to the full country pursuits, foreign travel, club life and the company of the young. He spent nearly all his married life at 6 Markham Square, a happy family home for him and Giana and their two daughters, where the door always seemed open to persons distinguished in the arts, or to old friends not particularly distinguished in anything.

I first met Noel when, as a quite young man, he sat at a high desk in the Round Room of the Public Record Office, supervising and helping the readers there. I cannot have been the only young female reader to be bowled over by his outstanding good looks and I was soon to learn that these were more than matched by the courtesy and constructiveness of his professional advice. Those happy years of research however ended for me with the war, and it was not until 1955 when my husband and I came to live in Chelsea, that I again picked up the friendship with him and Giana.

Noel Blakiston died on 22 December 1984. Many members must however have read the obituaries in the Times and elsewhere which recorded his distinguished career on the staff of the Public Record Office. Many too must have read his books- The Roman Question /858-/870, edited from Odo Russell’s despatches from Rome; A Romantic Friendship composed of letters from Cyril Connolly, and his volumes of delightful short stories. Others will know of his Italian studies and his contributions to learned journals.

The Chelsea Society, although a venerable institution, remembers with affection and gratitude its wonderfully uninstitutionalized Chairman.”

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served in World War I; naval advisor to White Army, Russia (1919-1920); Imperial Defence College (1936); Chief Staff Officer, Malta (1937-1939); World War II; Second Naval Member, Australian Commonwealth Naval Board (1941-1942); Director, RN Staff College (1944); Director of Naval Training, Admiralty (1945-1947).

He served in HMS Argyll, HMS Shannon and Submarine P 39 (1914-1918). He was the Commanding Officer of HMS Suffolk (1939-1940) and of the battleship HMS Resolution in the Indian Ocean 1942-1943.

HMS Resolution

Married to Marie Durnford, He retired in 1948 to More’s Garden, Chelsea, where he served as Mayor 1962-63.  He served as Chairman of The Chelsea Society 1964-66 and a member of its Council for ten years.

In addition to his love for Chelsea, and a staunch protection of her interests, the duties of Chairman of the Society require special qualities of leadership and capacity for exacting work.  All of these, John Durnford possessed to a remarkable degree combined with an objectivity and patience in all personal dealings.  He also had another great quality which made him so suitable for his service to the Society – that of humanity.

On every issue which confronted the Society, he took pains to ascertain the views of every member of Council and to achieve a consensus of opinion.  At meetings of the Council he made effective use of open discussion which he never sought to dominate, and seldom checked, but which in practice led to an acceptance of conclusions that rarely ran contrary to his own judgement.

Naval career:  Papers at the IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM, LONDON: Papers, chiefly 1924-1952 (ref: P142, 143), including; semi-official correspondence 1924-1949; including two letters from V Adm Sir Thomas Hope Troubridge on the importance of training 1945; also two letters from AF Sir Algernon Usbourne Willis on the progress of operations in the Mediterranean 1943; typescript unpublished autobiography, written after his retirement in 1948, covering his career 1904-1948; photograph album relating to Durnford’s career 1911-1920, including; photographs relating to his service in HMS ARGYLL, HMS SHANNON and Submarine P 39 1914-1918; photographs of the British Military Mission to South Russia 1919-1920: photographs relating to the Allied Control Commission, Constantinople, Turkey 1920.

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The following obituary by Noel Blakiston appeared in the Society’s Annual Report for 1974 at page 25.

“The death of Lord Conesford is deeply regretted by this Society.  He was one of  our most  doughty  champions in  the  causes for which we do battle. He was on the Council  of the Chelsea Society 1946 to 1951 and was elected  again in  1955. In April  1957, Basil  Marsden-Smedley   became   Mayor  and   felt  it inappropriate  to hold  both  that office and  the chairmanship of The Chelsea Society,  Lord  Conesford  agreed  to  become  our chairman until  Basil  was  ready  to  come  back,  which  he  did  in 1959. Lord Conesford  then stayed on another two years as a member of the Society’s Council.

It is not possible here to enumerate the many occasions on which the Society benefited greatly from his knowledge or architecture, planning and the law, and those powers of lucid expression which went straight to the point. Let me mention three issues which, from his house in Cheyne Walk, were particularly close to his heart. Only a few weeks after he had become Chairman, the London County Council, without consultation, decided  to demolish  and  reconstruct  Albert  Bridge. The letter that the Society sent the L.C.C. (see Annual Report 1957)and the words of our Chairman at a meeting with the L.C.C., will surely have done much to cause the latter to abandon its plans.

Then there was the matter of the Pier Hotel site (Annual Reports 1965 and 1966) when Lord Conesford added to that of the Chelsea Society his private   representation   at  a  Public  Inquiry, without however obtaining happy results.

There   followed   the   West   Cross   Route   proposal   and   the subsequent Inquiry. The present Chairman owes an immense debt to Lord Conesford for his backing and professional  advice in this affair.  It was indeed an encouragement to have such a hard- hitting ally, and to hear Lord Conesford ask in the Lords, “Is the Minister aware that the proposals regarding Battersea Bridge are completely insane?”

And finally we were grateful to him for adding the weight of his authoritative voice to the evidence submitted at the Inquiry.

He remained  interested   in  our  affairs  to  the  end,  and  was always ready to have a talk about them. He will indeed be missed.”

*********************

Henry George Strauss QC, 1st Baron Conesford (24 June 1892 – 28 August 1974) was a British lawyer and a Conservative politician.

Background and education
He was born at 19 Pembridge Gardens, Kensington, London, on 24 June 1892. He was the only son of Alphonse Henry Strauss, general merchant, and his wife, Hedwig Aschrott. He was educated at Rugby and Christ Church, Oxford, and was called to the Bar, Inner Temple, in 1919.[1][2] He briefly served during World War I, but was discharged because of health problems and continued working in Whitehall.

Political career
Strauss sat as Member of Parliament for Norwich between 1935 and 1945, for the Combined English Universities between 1946 and 1950 and for Norwich South between 1950 and 1955. He was Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Attorney General, Sir Donald Somervell, between 1936 and 1942 and a government member as Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Works between March and December 1942 and as Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Town and Country Planning between 1942 and 1945, when he resigned from the government in protest at Churchill’s treatment of Poland at the Yalta agreement. He was once again a government member as Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade under Churchill between 1951 and 1955. The latter year he was raised to the peerage as Baron Conesford, of Chelsea in the County of London.

In 1946 he published the book “Trade Unions and the Law”. From 1964 – 1970 he was the Chairman of the Association of Independent Unionist Peers. He also was the President of the Architectural club.

Lord Conesford was Chairman of The Chelsea Society from 1956-59.  He became a Queen’s Counsel in 1964 and a Bencher of the Inner Temple in 1969. He was also a governor of Norwich High School for Girls and a vice-president of the Girls’ Day School Trust.

He was well known for his speeches in which he criticised the improper usage of the English language, especially in the United States, as can be seen in a Time Magazine article from 1957.

Lord Conesford married Anne Sadelbia Mary, daughter of John Bowyer Buchanan Nichols, in 1927. He died in August 1974, aged 82, and the barony became extinct.

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Basil Futvoye Marsden-Smedley (1901 – September 1964) was a barrister and local politician active in Chelsea.

The younger son of John Marsden-Smedley of Derbyshire, Basil was born and lived his entire adult life in Chelsea.

He was educated at Harrow School and the University of Cambridge and was called to the bar at the Inner Temple. At the age of 16 he lost the use of his right arm.

In 1927 he married Hester Harriet, eldest daughter of Major-General Sir Reginald Pinney.

From 1928 until his death he was a Municipal Reform Party (later Conservative Party) member of Chelsea Borough Council, and served as Mayor of Chelsea for two consecutive terms in 1957-59.

He was also a long-term member of the London County Council, elected unopposed to fill a casual vacancy in the representation of Chelsea on 23 February 1933. He was re-elected twice, retiring from the County Council at the 1946 elections.

He was awarded the OBE in the 1944 Birthday Honours for his work as “Adviser to Postal and Telegraph Censorship, Ministry of Economic Warfare”.

When the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea was formed as a shadow authority to replace the Borough of Chelsea from 1 April 1965, Marsden-Smedley was chosen as an Alderman.

The following tributes were paid to Basil Marsden-Smedley at the Society’s 1964 Annual General Meeting

Lord Normanbrook said:–

“We in the Chelsea  Society had  suffered  a grievous loss by the death  of  our  late  Chairman,  Basil  Marsden-Smedley. In his wide  circle  of  his  friends,  and  indeed  in  Chelsea  as whole, it left a gap hard to fill.

The  social  life  of this  country  had  been  based  for many generations  on the principle  of voluntary  public service, and Basil was a shining example of the application of this principle.

The greater part  of  his adult  life was devoted  to the service of the community in which he lived. He loved Chelsea but he was not content to live in it and enjoy it. He worked actively and ceaselessly  to keep it as a place in which we could all be proud and happy to live. This was an absorbing interest in his life and he pursued  it with selfless devotion.

To further the interests of Chelsea  and  to preserve  its amenities, he was always ready to undertake any duty however laborious, any task however  tedious,  any research  however  meticulous and detailed, any negotiation  however difficult or delicate. No time was too long for him to spend, no trouble too great for him to take so long as he was working for the good of Chelsea as he saw it.

As members of the Society, we owed him a great debt. He was tireless in his work for it.  Indeed it was not too much to say that he became in himself a personification of the Society. He will long be remembered  in Chelsea, not only for his record of public  service to the community,  but  also as a well-loved and loyal   friend. A  gentle and kindly man, unmoved by personal ambition or  private  interest, he  was always ready to help others, and to give his advice or assistance in the furtherance of a good cause.

Lord Conesford said:

The  Chelsea  Society  is  37 years  old.  I do  not  know  any Civic  or  Amenity  Society  which  has  had  a  more  precious place to serve or protect, or which has fought  harder  to serve and protect it. Sometimes it has succeeded and sometimes it has failed. Whatever follies the vandals have committed, this, I think, is certain: but for the work of the Chelsea Society, one of the most beautiful and far-famed parts of our capital would today be incomparably poorer. Such success as we have had we owe to a few devoted and remarkable men, Reginald Blunt, our founder, St. John Hornby, our Chairman for 16 years, Richard Stewart Jones and Basil Marsden­ Smedley.

Of all these great servants of the Society, Basil served it longest.  He was a  member  of  the  Council   for  30  years  and its Chairman for the  last  19,  with  the  exception  of  the  two years  when  he  was  Mayor  of  Chelsea,  during  which  l  served as  Chairman.  I served on  the  Council  from  1946  to  1962, with  the exception   of  the  years  when   I  was  a   Minister,  and I   thus  had   the  experience   of  working  with   him   for  twelve years.

What were his qualities, as I see them? First, an immense love of Chelsea and the most intimate knowledge of it. He knew its architecture, its trees, its squares and terraces, its history, its industries, past and present, and its arts. Secondly, he was vigilant, well informed and immensely hard-working. Aided by a large number of friends in all sections of Chelsea society, he frequently had the earliest intimation of possible threats to the things he loved and took timely and appropriate action. Let me quote, and apply to Basil, a few sentences from St. John Hornby’s beautiful tribute to Reginald  Blunt.

“As the years went by he could not help looking with a sad eye on the passing away of many an ancient land-mark and cherished building. For to him Chelsea was something almost sacred, and though he realised that changes must come and that some destruction of what was old was inevitable for he was in no sense narrow-minded -he was, so far as Chelsea was concerned, like a jealous lover with his mistress, and could not bear to see wanton hands laid upon her. Like a knight of old he sprang at once to arms when she was threatened and waged a doughty fight for her deliverance.”

Thirdly. Basil was indefatigable in attending public Inquries and the like and representing our views.

Fourthly, he was very good at writing a timely letter to the Press, where needed, and in giving information to friends of Chelsea in Parliament, when it seemed that a Parliamentary Question or Parliamentary action might help.

Lastly, he produced a series of admirable and attractive Annual  Reports, which  I believe members greatly value, and which are among the rewards of membership .

None of these things, I know, can convey the  man  we knew. Many of his qualities would  be  rare  in  themselves; they are rarer still in such happy combination.

The other day I was reading Thucydides and came to a passage which I had almost forgotten.  Early in the Funeral Oration Pericles said “It is difficult to say neither too little nor too much; and even moderation is apt not to give the impression of truthfulness. The friend of the dead who knows the facts is likely to think the words of the speaker fall short of his knowledge and of his wishes; another who is not so well informed, when he hears of anything which surpasses his own powers, will be envious and will suspect exaggeration.”

Today, in describing Basil’s work, I  have not exaggerated. I would  say this in conclusion.  If a  man  can  be as widely known as Basil was in an area us small as Chelsea, where he has long lived and worked, and if he can there command such general  respect  and  affection,  he  has  achieved  one  of  the rarest of honours that our present civilisation can bestow.

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