The Wall

allways-1200Allways at Glatton is home to the famous “autograph wall”, located on the east wall of the north room of the cross wing. The wall features signatures of the many famous visitors to Allways  in addition to illustrations and cryptic symbols.

In February 2018 Terry Brignall MBE was able to take photos of the wall and undertake the task of identifying the autographs. The gallery below, itself a work-in-progress and incomplete, depicts the famous visitors to Glatton.

Please note that Allways is a privately owned property and is not open to the public.

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Joseph Montague Kenworthy 
1886-1953

10th Baron Strabolgi. Active supporter of the movement for the independence of India, and wrote numerous articles on the Second World War especially the war at sea. His book “Peace or War” was introduced by H.G. Wells.

Doris de Strabolgi
1889-1988

Wife of Baron Strabolgi. Became Doris Whitley after their divorce.

David George Brownlow Cecil
1905-1981

6th Marquess of Exeter. English athlete, sports official, peer, and Conservative Party politician. He won the gold medal in the 400m hurdles at the 1928 Summer Olympics.

Colonel Eric Sawyer
Former officer in the British Army was the lover and lifelong companion of American architect, Barry Dierks.

Baroness Marie Rose Antoinette Catherine d’Erlanger
Society hostess; wife of Baron Emile d’Erlanger. Nichols dedicated “Down the Garden Path” to her.

Rosita Forbes
English travel writer and explorer

Ivy St. Helier
British stage actress, composer and lyricist.

Michael Morris
3rd Baron Killanin

Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton
English fashion, portrait and war photographer, diarist, painter, interior designer and an Academy Award–winning stage and costume designer for films and the theatre.

Oliver Hilary Sambourne Messel
English artist and one of the foremost stage designers of the 20th century.

Emily Maria Borie Ryerson
American first-class passenger who survived the sinking of RMS Titanic. The sister of John Borie who sold “Allways” to Beverley Nichols.

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Sir David Bowes-Lyon
His elder sister Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon married Prince Albert, Duke of York, the second son of King George V.

Sir Edward Seymour Hicks
British actor, music hall performer, playwright, screenwriter, actor-manager and producer.

Dame Nellie Melba GBE
Australian operatic soprano.

Milly Isabella Louisa Soltau-Symons
Wife of John Powys, 5th Baron Lilford, near Oundle, Northamptonshire.

Raymond Hart Massey
American actor. Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for Illinois (1940).

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Betty Askwith
Writer and biographer

Eleanor Theodora Roby Benson
Writer (collaborator with Betty Askwith) and author of travel books, an edited collection, and during the Second World War (when she worked as a ghostwriter on official speeches) an information book.

Rowland Leigh
1903–1963

American lyricist, screenwriter, and librettist. He has worked with many famous actors and musicians in his career on Broadway and in Hollywood.

Gerald Hugh Tyrwhitt-Wilson
14th Baron Berners. British composer, novelist, painter and aesthete. He is usually referred to as Lord Berners.

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The Very Rev, Sir Albert Victor Baillie KCVO, DD
A Church of England clergyman during the first half of the 20th century, ending his career as Dean of Windsor. He was the Registrar of the Order of the Garter (1917-1939). In addition, he was a godchild of Queen Victoria. He was educated at Marlborough and Trinity College, Cambridge.

Earnest Hollingworth
Most Probably – the person who bought “Allways” from Beverley Nichols.

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Beverley Nichols

William Clark Gable
American film actor and military officer, often referred to as “The King of Hollywood” or just simply as “The King”.

Dennis Price
English actor, best remembered for his roles in Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) and as Jeeves in 1960s television adaptations of P. G. Wodehouse’s stories.

Eric Mowbray Knight
English novelist, screenwriter and creator of the fictional collie Lassie.

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Hermione Ellis
Sister of Vivian John Herman Ellis, CBE

Mary Ellis
American actress and singer appeared on stage, radio, television and film, best known for her musical theatre roles, particularly in Ivor Novello works.

Auriol Lee
British stage actress who became a successful West End and Broadway theatrical producer and director.

John William Van Druten
English playwright and theatre director, known professionally as John Van Druten.

Reginald John “Rex” Whistler
British artist, designer and illustrator.

Henry Maxwell Andrews
Banker husband of Dame Rebecca West.

Dame Rebecca West
British author, journalist, literary critic and travel writer. Time called her “indisputably the world’s number one woman writer” in 1947.

Sir Hugh Seymour Walpole, CBE
English novelist.

Edward Knoblock
American-born British playwright and novelist most remembered for the often revived 1911 play, Kismet.

Cyril George Butcher
English actor and director, longtime companion of Beverley Nichols.

Geoffrey Harmsworth
Co-owner of the Harmsworth Publishing empire that owned the Daily Mail, Daily Mirror & The Times.

Sir Basil Hardington Bartlett, 2nd Baron
Actor, screenwriter and writer, and in the 1950s the head of the BBC’s script department.

Colin Bancroft Davidson
Land surveyor and Captain in the Australian Military Forces during World War II who was awarded the US Medal of Freedom in 1948.

Dorothy Warrender
Wife of Victor Alexander George Anthony Warrender, 1st Baron Bruntisfield MC, known as Sir Victor Warrender.

Madge Garland
Fashion journalist and editor working for, among others, Vogue and Women’s Wear Daily. Helped form the London Fashion Group – a forerunner to the British Fashion Council.

Barbara Nash Back
Wife of Dr Ivor Back, a surgeon at St Georges’ London. She was a close friend of Somerset Maughan keeping him informed of London “gossip” and regularly entertained for him, particularly before his west end plays. Beauty columnist for the Daily Mirror.

Robert Byron
British travel writer, best known for his travelogue The Road to Oxiana.

Alexander Peregrine Fuller-Acland-Hood, 2nd Baron St. Audries
The son of Alexander Fuller-Acland-Hood, 1st Baron St. Audries and Hon. Mildred Rose Evelyn Eveleigh-de Moleyns. He died on 16 October 1971 at age 77.

Rev. Charles Bernard Mortlock
Treasurer and Canon of Chichester Cathedral from 1950 until his death. Westminster clergyman, writer & novelist.

Cecil Mornington Roberts
English journalist, poet, dramatist and novelist.

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Jose Collins
English actress and singer celebrated for her performances in musical comedies and early motion pictures.

Victor (Peter) Spencer
Son of Victor Charles Spencer, 1st Viscount Churchill and Lady Verena Lowther. Cousin to Winston Churchill & good friend of Beverley Nichols.

Vivian John Herman Ellis
English musical comedy composer best known for the song “Spread a Little Happiness” and the theme “Coronation Scot”.

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A Denton
Probably added to the wall by the current owner (Denton’s or their brother Alan?).

Miss Meig Herridge
Beverley Nichols former governess whom he held in high esteem. She taught Nichols how to play the piano and to appreciate composers like Chopin. She visited Nichols at “Allways” when she learned that the fictional “Miss Hazlitt” in “A Village in a Valley” was modelled on her.

Nicholas de Nolas
Theatre director & designer

Every moment of this strange and lovely life from dawn to dusk, is a miracle. Somewhere, always a rose is opening its petals to the dawn. Somewhere, always, a flower is fading in the dusk.
Beverley Nichols

The Parish of Glatton

The Fenland Trust

Sawtry History Society

University of Reading

University of Delaware

Penguin Random House