Arthur Ransome
Connection between Ransome, Collingwoods and Altounyans.
Ransome came from the Leeds area. He died 3 June 1967.
Arthur Ransome wrote Swallows & Amazons and 11 other books of the series. He also wrote books based on the Norfolk Broads.
He was educated at Windermere and was there when the lake froze over in 1895. Another freeze in Feb 1929. As a young man he had lodgings in Cartmel and would enjoy a beer in the Hark to Melody pub at Haverthwaite, no longer an inn. He wrote on an antiquated Remington Portable typewriter.
He lived first at Low Ludderburn for 10 years, then at ‘The Heald’ on the east side of Coniston Water, about level with Fir Island. He later lived at ‘Hill Top Cottage’, Haverthwaite. Electricity arrived in Nov 1963, so they tended to spend winters in London, at 40 Hurlingham Court, SW6, overlooking Putney Bridge. By 1962 he could hardly walk. He and Evgenia were both large. Evgenia was almost 6’ tall, a huge, cheerful woman with her hair in a bun. She had a good command of English, but always spoke with a thick accent. At one stage they lived at Lowick Hall. They had no children, though he did have a daughter, Tabitha, with his first wife, Ivy Walker.
He spoke in pedantic tones of a pre-war news broadcaster! He smoked a pipe and Evgenia smoked small cigars. She was quite dominant. He had a younger brother, who had been killed in the trenches in WW1.
He was child-like in some ways, not domesticated, did not set the table or do the washing up! S & A turned into a film in 1962. Evgenia moved to Aynhoe, near Banbury in 1968. Due to move to Girton, Cambridge, but died before the move, 1975.
Ramp Holme on Windermere and Peel Island on Coniston both became Wild Cat Island. The ‘Secret Harbour’ was on Peel, with a narrow harbour entrance and submerged rocks. Ransome camped on Peel Island. Ursula, Dora’s youngest sister, cycled from Lanehead with the proofs of his book on Edgar Allen Poe. She tied these carefully to her head, swam across to the island, Ransome corrected the 160 page proof, and then she swam back with them for posting!
Various Ransome relatives in the Coniston area: Miss Lucy Ransome, a half aunt, lived at Emlin Hall, Torver. Arthur’s younger sister, Cecily, lived in Bank House, Blawith. Another sister, Joyce.
From 1928 Dr Ernest Altounyan lived at Bank Ground Farm (Holly Howe), Lanehead with his wife, Dora Collingwood, and their children: Taqui, Susan, Titty and Roger. Brigit was born later. (Ransome used Bridget). Titty was a nickname for Mavis. It came from Jacob’s English Fairy Tales: Titty Mouse and Tatty Mouse. It was a name only used by family and close friends. He and his wife worked as a surgeon in Aleppo, leaving their 4 eldest children with a resident Armenian housekeeper, Elmast, near Coniston. T E Lawrence was a friend in Aleppo and he owned 2 paintings by Dora. Agatha Christie sat for Dora and so did Freya Stark, who refers to the Altounyans in her books. She also painted Ransome.
Dora was the daughter of W G Collingwood, and she was born in 1886. Dora died 1964?
Dr Ernest Altounyan was half Armenian with a Scottish/Irish mother from Armagh. He went to Rugby school with Ransome. He worked as a surgeon at the Altounyan Hospital. He lost their home and land in Alexandretta was ceded to the Turks in 1939. Vichy French then took over and they fled to Jerusalem, but could return in 1941 when the British occupied Aleppo. They returned permanently to the Lakes in 1958. He had been injured by shrapnel during WW1. He was awarded the MC in France for gallantry in action. Dr Ernest Altounyan died 13 March 1962, aged 72.
Head down to the lake from Lanehead, via Bank Ground Farm ‘Holly Howe’ of the Walker family in the books. ‘Holly Howe’ boathouse. Boat was called ‘Mavis’ by the Altounyans, ‘Amazon’ in the book.
In the summer of 1928 Ernest and Dora decided their children should learn to sail. As they settled in at Bank Ground Farm, Ernest (some say Ransome too) went to Walney Island and bought 2 fairly new and heavy 13-14’ fishing boats, built for the shallow waters of Morecambe Bay. They cost £15 each and were delivered by a large lorry to the lakeside.
The boats were simply rigged in a similar way, but Swallow was wider, with a substantial full-length keel rather than a centre-board, so was roomier. Mavis (means Song Thrush) was narrower, with an extra thwart (seating plank across the boat) and an iron centre plate that was difficult for the children to raise and lower. Ransome joined Ernest in the sailing lessons. Once the children could swim they were allowed out on their own. It is 7 miles/11 kms in a straight line from the Lanehead/Bank Ground jetty to Peel Island and back, but it could be a long row home if the wind dropped. The children were taught not to stand up in the boat and they had to jump in to the lake fully clothed without drowning. It is amazing the young Altounyans survived. Taqui was 11, Susie 9, Titty 8 and Roger 6!
They would sometimes camp on the island spontaneously. Today the children would be on the ‘At Risk Register’!
Mavis had a very short rudder handle, replaced later with a shortened axe handle! There was a notch cut in the transom, so that they could use an oar for sculling into the secret harbour. There was also a rough notch carved to the side of this, cut by Oscar Gnosspelius (husband of Barbara Collingwood), which was to fit an outboard motor. Oscar was an expert on mining and geology, used in Pigeon Post.
Taqui and Roger sailed Swallow, and Susie and Titty sailed Mavis. Ernest sheathed Mavis in fibreglass. This was removed in 1990 when she was restored, her hull was repainted in white with a dark-green top strake, just as Ransome knew and sailed her.
Nancy and Peggy the other children in the books. His books were translated into foreign languages, plus English and American editions.
Coniston Old Man was Kanchenjunga. The Dog’s Home in The Picts and Martyrs was on the East side of Coniston Water.
The ‘North Pole’ building in Winter Holiday was probably near Galava. A slate disc in the grass at Borran’s Park marks the site. Winderemere was frozen over in Feb 1929, allowing skating and Winter Holiday was published in 1933.
Beacon Tarn was ‘Trout Tarn’ in Swallowdale. The Beacon was ‘Watch Tower Rock’.
Taqui (1917-2001) the eldest ‘Swallow’ and the ‘Capt John Walker’ in the books. (There was a John Walker of Ferry Nab Boat Yard who looked after Swallow for £5 p.a. Ransome’s first wife was Ivy Walker). She married Robert Stephens and they had children.
Susan (1919-2003) ‘Mate Susan’ the efficient one. She married Franck Villard, in Nantes, in 1946 and had 3 children, Lucine, Eric and Hugues.
Titty (1920 – 1998) christened Mavis. She stayed with the Ransomes when she was 13 and they were interested in adopting her as they had no children. Ernest refused and Dora gave them her portrait of Titty instead. She studied under Henry Moore at the Chelsea School of Art. Titty had married Melkon Guzelian in 1954, but he could not return home to Syria either. He worked for Perkins Diesel in Peterborough and became a diesel authority in Windermere. He suffered from back problems. They had 2 children Asadour and Rahel, followed by Ani, who was severely disabled. Money was tight, so they started a B & B. She saw Donald Campbell’s water speed attempt Jan 1967. Asadour was a renowned photographer. Rahel had 4 lovely children. Ani died in 1989.
Lanehead was left to Titty by her parents. They had to sell in 1967 due to lack of money and moved to Haws Bank in Coniston, and later to Bradford in 1991 to be near the children.
Roger (1922 – 1987) was the ‘ship’s boy’. Born in Aleppo, educated in England. The 4 children would climb past the copper mines to the top of the Old Man of Consiton with their uncle, Robin Collingwood. Coniston, or ‘Cuniston’ as pronounced by the Altounyans, frozeover in the winter 1939/40. Roger served with distinction in the RAF during the war, training in Rhodesia, flying Hurricane fighter aircraft and awarded the AFC. He spent some of his leaves with Aunt Ursula (Collingwood) and family in Troutbeck (Windermere). Ursula’s elder daughter Sara was in the WAAF, her younger daughter Philippa was studying Art at Lancaster University. They would meet their cousin Janet, daughter of Oscar Gnosspelius and Barbara (Collingwood).
Roger suffered from asthma. After the war he followed his father – Emmanuel College, Cambridge and Medical School at Middlesex Hospital. He fell in love and married the German au pair Hella, employed by Taqui and Robert Stephens, 1951. They honeymooned on Peel Island and were forced to retreat into the reeds when a megaphone ordered ‘clear the course’ and Campbell flashed past in Bluebird! Roger worked at the Altounyan Hospital in Aleppo, but returned to England in 1954 depressed. He worked for the Benger Laboratories at Holmes Chapel, later bought by Fisons. He invented INTAL, a drug for asthmatics and the ‘spinhaler’. He lived at Wilmslow with Hella and their 5 children. Kite maker and flier.
When his mother Dora became bedridden for a time, he invented a weight and pulley system to help her sit up in bed. He also invented a strange metal ‘crane’ to help raise and lower the heavy centre board on Mavis/Amazon, still in place today*. After Lanehead was sold they holidayed at Nibthwaite and Mavis lived in an old boathouse before her restoration.
Brigit (1926-1999) was married to John Sanders, 1953. He was a diplomat. They retired to Nibthwaite in 1980, eventually moving to Devon with views over Bideford Bay. Name spelt as ‘Bridget’ in the books, she takes an active part in We Didn’t Mean to go to Sea and centre stage in Secret Water. She studied Arabic and was the administrator of the Altounyan Hospital.
The Memorial Services for Titty, Melkon and Brigit were all held at St Andrew’s, Coniston.
Famous scientist and inventor George Constantinesco lived at Oxen House, just across from Peel Island. He developed ‘Sonics’ (a new science using impulses through liquids, solids and gases to transmit power) and the instigator of ‘Feron’ (a new type of reinforced concrete). He was born in Craiova in 1881 and was an accomplished pianist, outstanding mathematician, radical builder of reinforced concrete bridges, buildings and early tarred road, and he left Roumania aged 29. He invented the synchronising gear for fighter aircraft, so they did not shoot their own propellors. Churchill once described him as “a wizard who in earlier days would have been burnt at the stake”. 133 spectacular inventions.
George was worried about Bluebird and had written to Campbell about gyroscopic reactions, which would make it steer like a gigantic spinning top.
The Vikings made their first sortie from the sea up the R Crake and used Peel Island as a base, described by W G Collingwood in Thorstein of the Mere. He and Robin excavated the island and found evidence of a small Roman settlement.
Desmond and Dick Kelsall were young boys who knew Ransome. Dick may be ‘Dick Callum’ in the books. Their parents retired to the Winster Valley. In 1925 Arthur and Evgenia moved to Low Ludderburn, on the western slopes of Cartmel Fell. Ransome was writing fishing articles for the Manchester Guardian. Fishing trips together. In 1929 Ransome’s doctor gave him a health warning, so he gave up writing for the newspaper and concentrated on his books. S & A published 1930. No telephones, so Kelsall and Ransome rigged up a series of signals to organise fishing trips, etc.
Dick and Desmond designed the electric bell rung by the returning homing pigeons in Pigeon Post.
Clifford Webb (1894 – 1972) Born in London of artisan parents. Grenadier Guards, wounded during WW1. Gallipoli, Mesopotamia, retreat from Kut el Amara. He took up painting while recovering in India, discharged with a small disability pension. Illustrations for Swallowdale and Swallows & Amazons by Clifford Webb. Ransome illustrated the other books. S & A first published without illustrations.
John Berry: knew Ransome. Painted the background in Windermere Steamboat Museum for Amazon. Also did the backdrop for Coch-y-Bonddhu, Ransome’s successor to Swallow.