Alice Askew, née Leake (18 June 18746 October 1917)Death notice in The Times, 15 October 1917, p. 11Two news clippings from the Daily Express, Tuesday, 16 October 1917, and Thursday, 18 October 1917 (page numbers unknown) – the first reporting Alice Askew and her husband Claude "drowned in a torpedoed vessel in the Mediterranean on October 5"; while the second that "the Italian steamer Bari, (...) was torpedoed by a German submarine off the Ionian Islands at 4 a.m. on October 6". "These clippings are among the family artefacts now in my possession – previously in that of my aunt, Alice Askew's youngest child, G.M.A. (the late Gilian Margaret Askew)" —R.C.A. (Robin Cary Askew)Probate notice in The Times, 19 October 1917, p. 4 along with her husband, Claude Askew (27 November 18656 October 1917)GRO Birth certificate – registered 1 January 1866 were British authors, who together wrote "over ninety novels, many published in sixpenny and sevenpenny series, between 1904 and 1918".Edwardian Fiction – an Oxford Companion, Oxford University Press, 1997 by Sandra Kemp, Charlotte Mitchell and David Trotter, p.10
Alice Askew
Alice was born on 18 June 1874 at No. 3 Westbourne Street, near Hyde Park in London, England; and christened Alice Jane de Courcy on 5 August 1874 at the church of St. Michael and All Angels in Paddington, London. She was the eldest daughter of Jane Leake, née Dashwood (1844–1912) and Lt-Col. Henry Leake (1829–1899).The Times, 20 June 1874, p. 1The Times, 11 January 1882, p. 8 At the time of her birth he was a captain, on half pay, late of the 70th (Surrey) Regiment of Foot. She had two younger siblings: Henry Dashwood Stucley Leake (17 Feb 1876 – 2 June 1970),GRO Birth certificate – registered 25 April 1876Certified Copy of an Entry of Death – General Register Office (GRO) – registered 2 June 1970 and Frances Beatrice Levine Leake (27 May 1878 – 29 Aug 1884).GRO Birth certificate – registered 22 June 1874GRO Death certificate – registered 30 August 1884.
It has been said that she began writing solely or almost entirely "for her own amusement" before her marriage but she did have one short story published under her own name alone (or rather initials), "A. J. de C. L." = 'Alice Jane de Courcy Leake': 'A Modern-Day Saint', which appeared in 1894 in Belgravia of London.Jack Adrian's 'Introduction' to: Alice and Claude Askew’s Aylmer Vance: Ghost-Seer, edited by Jack Adrian, Ash-Tree Press, Ashcroft, British Columbia, 1998, p. xi Containing the article from Woman At Home October 1912: 'Wives Who Work With Their Husbands' by Rudolph de Cordova (illustrated from photographs), in which: "Indeed, Mrs Askew, ... may be said to have written almost entirely for her own amusement. Until the time of her marriage she had had only one story published. It was called 'A Modern Day Saint,' and appeared in Belgravia."Belgravia: A London Magazine, Volume 85 (September to December 1894), London: F.V. White & Co., 14, Bedford Street, Strand, W.C.,1894, pp. 279–287.
Claude Askew
Claude was born on 27 November 1865 at No. 4 Holland Park, Kensington in London and christened Claude Arthur Cary. He was the second son and youngest of five children of Fanny Georgiana Charlotte Askew, née Browne (1830–1900) and Rev. John Askew, M.A. (1804–1881).The Times, 2 December 1865, p. 1 Claude's older sisters and brother were: Amy Ellen Cary Askew (10 June 1857 – 29 April 1945), Isabel Emily Florence Askew (16 November 1858 – 30 October 1928), Mabel Fanny Mary Askew (23 February 1861 – 21 August 1941), and Hugh Henry John Percy Cary Askew (18 September 1862 – 14 April 1949).
Claude Askew was educated at Eton College – an 'Oppidan' (non-scholarship pupil) in Rev. Charles James' House, 'The Timbralls', Slough Road, near Windsor, then in Buckinghamshire (transferred to Berkshire in 1974). He entered in September 1879 and left in July 1883. It was probably during this period — certainly after 1877 and before 1883 — when Claude was taken on a holiday to Vevey (between Montreux and Lausanne) on Lake Geneva, where he met the future King Peter I of Serbia – then in exile in Geneva. "I was a small boy, spending my holidays with my people at Vevy on the Lake of Geneva, and at the hotel we struck up an acquaintance with Prince Peter Karageorgevitch. He was then in the prime of life, tall, dark, handsome—not yet married." He wrote this many years later recalling this childhood encounter when he met up with him once more – this time with his wife Alice and during the much darker circumstances of the 'Great Serbian Retreat' during World War I (see below). "At Koshumlja to-day we saw the King. Curiously enough, this was the first time that I have come across him since I have been in Serbia, though Alice has seen him at Topola. He is a fine old man, and neither trouble, sickness, nor age has bowed him." This from their jointly written book, The Stricken Land: Serbia As We Saw It, published in 1916. For access to the full book see:
There is some evidence that, after leaving Eton, he briefly studied medicine. "Claude Askew Born Nov. 27th 1865. Studied medicine." This from a hand-written history of the Askew family, written sometime in the early 1900s, by his cousin, Mary Elizabeth Stirling.This hand-written and unpublished history of the Askew family is in the possession of a great, great granddaughter of Mary Elizabeth Stirling — who, in turn, was the daughter of Joseph Holden Turner and Elizabeth Susannah, eldest daughter of Major Thomas Askew and Lucy Elizabeth née Cary — Claude's grandparents. And this detail is corroborated by notices in The Times, that between 1891 and 1893, Claude Askew, "of Guy's Hospital," passed a series of examinations by the 'Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons'.The Times, Saturday, September 5, 1891, p. 12 – Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons "The following gentlemen passed the first examination of the Board in Chemistry at the quarterly meeting of the examiners: Messrs. ... Claude A. C. Askew, of Guy's Hospital ...." > The TimesThe Times, Tuesday, March 8, 1892, p. 4 – Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons "The following gentlemen passed the first examination of the in Meteria Medica and Pharmacy :— Messrs. ... Claude A. C. Askew, Guy's ...." > The TimesThe Times, Friday, April 29, 1892 p. 14 – Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons "The following gentlemen passed the first examination of The Board in elementary anatomy and elementary physiology :— Messrs. ... Claude A. C. Askew ... Guy’s Hospital ...." > The TimesThe Times, Saturday, October 14, 1893 p. 4 – Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons "The following gentlemen passed the second examination of the board in anatomy and physiology: —Messrs. ... Claude C. Askew, Guy's ...." > The Times There is no evidence, however, that he took those studies any further. And there is certainly no record of him ever becoming a doctor. Nonetheless, those studies may well have stood him in good stead when, during the First World War, he volunteered his services with a British field hospital attached to the Serbian Army, which both he and his wife (as a nurse) accompanied during its 'Great Retreat' across the mountains of Montenegro and Albania to the Adriatic coast, during the winter of 1915-1916 (see below).
Marriage and partnership Miss Alice Leake and Mr. Claude Askew were married on 10 July 1900, at Christ Church, Lancaster Gate, London.The Times, 13 July 1900, p. 1Certified Copy of an Entry of Marriage – General Register Office (GRO) A PICTURESQUE WEDDING: “There was a large and fashionable congregation on Tuesday afternoon at Christ Church, Lancaster Gate, to witness the marriage of Mr. Claude Arthur Cary Askew, second son of the late Rev. John Askew, M.A., to Miss Alice Jane de Courcey Leake, only surviving daughter of the late Lieut.-Colonel Henry Leake, late 44th and 70th Regiments, and of Mrs. Leake, 3, Westbourne Street, Hyde Park. The bridegroom, who is the proprietor of the Anglo-American Exchange, of London, New York, and Paris, has a host of friends and acquaintances among American visitors now in London, many of whom were present at the ceremony. ....”Newspaper clipping with neither the name of the newspaper nor the date it was published, under the heading: A Picturesque Wedding. "This clipping is among the family artefacts now in my possession – previously in that of my aunt, Alice Askew's youngest child, G.M.A." —R.C.A.
At the time of their marriage, Claude Askew was living at 4D Hyde Park Mansions in the borough of Marylebone; while Alice Leake was still living with her mother at No. 3 Westbourne Street, where she had been born. Claude was also given as residing there at the time of the 1901 Census (March 31). However, by the time of the birth of their first child, they were together at his flat, 4D Hyde Park Mansions, where their son Geoffrey was born on 12 April 1901. By the time of the birth of their daughter, Joan on 5 July 1903, they had moved just around the corner to another flat in another building, 11B Oxford and Cambridge Mansions. Both of these mansion buildings north of Hyde Park, between Edgware Road and Marylebone Road, have a very distinctive and similar architecture. « Built in 1885, the Hyde Park, Oxford and Cambridge mansions are some of the capital’s most enduring examples of Victorian architecture. The buildings highlight a unique period in the nation’s history when the upper-middle class longed for expansive flats and substantial leases, but without the responsibilities of a house and access to porters to service the property. »'The Mansions near the Marylebone Flyover' > marble-arch.london/culture-blog Accessed 08 July 2019.
Sometime after the 1911 census (April 2), in which they (together with their two children and Alice's mother) were found living at Bridge House in Elstead, Godalming in Surrey, the Askews took possession of a house called ‘Botches’ in Wivelsfield Green, Haywards Heath in Sussex. « CLAUDE and ALICE ASKEW, who wrote popular serial novels in the daily papers, lived in a rambling old home at Wivelsfield Green, in Sussex, known as "Botches." This they enlarged and modernised; they developed the gardens and filled the grass with bulbs. Then came the War. Mr. and Mrs. ASKEW threw themselves into foreign work, and on one of their voyages were drowned through an enemy torpedo, and "Botches" became tenantless. It is "Botches" which has now (1919) been given to the Heritage for the reception of Southwark children. »Punch, or The London Charivari, Vol. 161, April 9, 1919
It was not long after their marriage, that Alice and Claude Askew had begun writing together. The first novel under their joint names, The Shulamite, was published in 1904.Alice & Claude Askew, The Shulamite, Chapman & Hall, London, 1904 It is set in South Africa, where an Englishman comes to the rescue of an unhappily married woman from ‘the lash’ of her authoritarian and violent husband, a Boer farmer. Here it must be remembered that this was pretty soon after the Boer War (also known as the Second Boer War, which ran from 11 October 1899 to 31 May 1902). Afterwards Claude Askew, together with Edward Knoblock, wrote a stage adaptation of it, which was first produced in 1906 at the Savoy Theatre, London starring Lena Ashwell, and a little later with Miss Ashwell in the same role in New York City.The New York Times, 3 June 1906 'The Stage Abroad'Wilson, A.E.: Edwardian Theatre, Arthur Barker Ltd., London, 1951, pp. 119, 154 In 1921 Paramount Pictures produced a silent film version with the title Under the Lash starring Gloria Swanson, and directed by Sam Wood.