The Autobiography...

What ever the reason for the non-appearance of Reggie's autobiography under the imprint of the Obelisk press I can now reveal that it was indeed written. Whilst in Paris in 1934 Reggie discussed the book with a local journalist. The journalist described the book as 'widely seen but not published'! Perhaps a reference to a much handled manuscript curling at the edges and smelling of rejection letters?

In any case Reggie had an anecdote about his friendship with a very famous actress and one gets the feeling that the anecdote was one of the more presentable ones in the book.

There is always the (very) outside chance that a copy of Reggie's scurrilous remembrances are lying in a university archive somewhere but at the moment my guess is that when his rooms in Paris were cleared, these and any number of other signifiers of his life were tossed in the trash. 

Time will tell and I am sure that there are a few people out there who would love to see them.

Until then we have to content ourselves with the fictionalised Reggie as described by Roy Horniman in the Magnificent Bellamy and perhaps one day the account of the Maidenhead drag party as referred to by the Judge in the Billie Carleton trial.

The grit in the oyster...Reggie irritates again

Raoul Reginald DeVeulle  (1882 - 1956) has a deserved footnote in history as a protagonist in one of the first 'dope scandals' of the 20th century. His short career on the stage was as more than a dilettante, he lasted 12 months of twice daily performance of 'The Queen of the Moulin Rouge' the second 6 of which were in Chicago in 1909.

We know also that he was apt to make an impression on those who met him. At least one of whom has  left us a written record. There is an unflattering portrait by Roy Horniman in 'The Magnificent Bellamy' in which Reggie becomes - or is reflected as -  a craven shallow and unmanly creature.

Reggie also spent time with the American writer Elizabeth Banks who, for a period, was a London neighbour of no less a literary giant than George Bernard Shaw. Shaw was of course a prodigious writer of letters. His collected correspondence fills several volumes. His genius is still celebrated by a number of Shavian societies. I cannot imagine 2 characters who were less likely to cross paths than George and Reggie.

But if George Bernard Shaw did not actually meet Reggie DeVeulle he had at least heard enough about him to use him as part of an extremely unflattering comparison.
In September 1921 Shaw wrote to the British writer and playwright St John Ervine. In correspondence about Shaws recently published play 'Back to Methuselah' Shaw described how he tried to imagine a life as long as that of Methuselah:

"...by carrying a little further the difference that exists at present between the child and the adult, or between Reggie de Veulle (or whatever his silly name is) and Einstein"  

It is fanciful to imagine that they did meet. It is much more probable that Shaw had set on Reggie as the epitome of idiocy from the court reports. However, the trial had been more than 2 years previously. Why would he jump to mind? Did perhaps Reggie inspire George Bernard Shaw to imbue one of his less respectable characters with his traits? Or perhaps Ervine?

After further research I am disabused of the idea that a character like Reggie would have been of any interest to Shaw. In his set of articles published as 'Impressions of my Elders' by St John Ervine (1922) the writer categorises Shaw as a playwright interested in doctrine for whom a cast of characters was unnecessary "I doubt whether there are more than 12 distinct persons in the whole of Mr. Shaw's work". So perhaps, for this purpose at least, the old copy of the complete plays of Shaw can remain on my bookshelf.

"a very bad girl and very restless"

Ada McGlashan was one half of the Sino-Scottish couple convicted of providing the drugs that killed the actress Billie Carleton. The trial in 1919 was sensational and she was given the relatively heavy sentence of 5 months hard labour.

Recently I have uncovered evidence of Ada's life in Scotland. She was born in the Paisley poorhouse in February 1884. The town of Paisley was, in Victorian times, relatively prosperous. There was ample but poorly paid work to be had in the cloth factories and in the production of sugar amongst the many other enterprises in the towns around Glasgow 'the second city of the empire'.

However, Sarah, Ada's mother, had been deserted by her husband 2 years previously. She had borne 2 children by him, Margaret and Isaac and in 1883 found herself pregnant again by a man called 'Samuel Clay' who played no further part in her life.

The town of Paisley made provision for the poor and the records show that Sarah and her 2 children were admitted to the poorhouse because she had no income.

Sarah left the poorhouse the following year but by 1887 she had abandoned all 3 of her children to 'the Parish'. Isaac eventually went to live with an uncle but Maggie and Ada (then known as Sarah and only 3 1/2 years old) were 'boarded out' at 3 shillings a week.

Many years later Ada applied for poor relief after the birth of her own daughter. A Mrs Turnbull, with whom Sarah had once boarded was interviewed by the parish officer. She remembered Ada well and described her as "A very bad girl and very restless".

The parish were good at keeping tabs on their claimants and especially good at recording their residence and workplaces. This gives a fascinating insight into Ada's life at the turn of the century.

The responsibility of the parish to house and school Ada ended when she was 13 years old. By this age she was expected to find a job.

Her marriage record shows that she had been a boot saleswoman,The poor law records show that Ada variously worked in a dairy and many other jobs considered suitable for a girl from her background.

Sarah applied for poor relief again after the birth of her child. She gave the little girl the surname of her future husband - Debrovitz but her middle name 'Urquhart' seems to have come from the name of someone she lived with at the time of the birth. He, or she, was mentioned in passing in the poor low records.

Reggie DeVeulle 1919 - 1956

After his release from prison Reggie disappears from the public record almost entirely. He was in his late 30’s and his acting days were behind him. 

Reggie and Pauline, certainly appeared to be able to hold on to some aspects of their former lifestyle. They retained a Mayfair telephone number staying at number 13 Lancashire Court near Hyde Park from 1919 until 1923. After this date Pauline disappears entirely from the record and Reggie can only be glimpsed.

Reggie was still in London in 1926 when he designed some dresses for a production of Yvonne at Daly’s theatre. These can been seen on the V&A site. Judging by these few drawings Reggie did have some skill in dressing woman.

Reggies brother Frederick H De Vaulle was an pioneer of the motor car. He died on the 24th January 1924 in Birmingham aged 49. Frederick left 3500 pounds to his widow. Could he also have supported Reggie or made him a beneficiary of the will? 

It appears likely that Reggie then moved to Paris. As noted by Marek Kohn in Dope Girls the Obelisk press in Paris announced in 1933 that they would shortly be publishing his scandalous memoirs. No further record on these has been found to date. Unfortunately the papers of the Obelisk publisher Jack Kahane, who went on to publish Tropic of Cancer in 1934, have been lost.

14 Rue De La Chaise

Then Reggie disappears into the tumult of the 1930’s and 40’s. Whether he risked life in Paris under the occupation or returned to the anonymity of London I cannot say but when he can next be placed it is, 14 Rue de la Chaise, Paris circa 1953. 

This 200 metre long street in the 7th Arridisement was to be Reggie’s final home. It is from this address that Reggie returned to London and was admitted to the Mildmay Memorial Hospital, Newington Green, Islington. The Mildmay closed in 1958 and was demolished shortly afterwards. However after the formation of the NHS in 1948 this former general hospital became an NHS acute care hospital. It was a small facility with only some 50 beds. 

Reggie appears in the 1954 electoral register as a patient at the Mildmay. Given the closing date for the registers it is likely that he had been admitted there by October 1953. Reggie never left the hospital. On 15th June 1956 he died, aged 75. His niece, M. Lee was the informant. The cause of death was Haematemesis, gastric ulcer and Rheumatoid Arthritis.

Mildmay Memorial Hospital

Right to the end Reggie demonstrated a taste for the theatrical. On his final electoral registration in October 1955 he gave himself a final round of applause: He recorded his name as ‘The Marquis R. DeVeulle’.

1911 The perpetual visitor, the Aristocrat and the American

The night of the 1911 census saw Reggie DeVeulle again as a visitor in the home of someone 'of note'. In 28 Half Moon Street Reggie was the guest of the 47 year old Rowland Richard Clegg, The 4th Viscount Hill was a member of the London County Council and was otherwise notable only for overseeing the break up of the families estates  including Hawkstone Hall and Peplow hall due to the debts built up by his Grandfather. He died without issue in 1923 and was suceeded by his brother.

The other house guest on that evening was Elizabeth Banks, the American born author and journalist. Born in Wisconsin in 1865 she moved to London at the turn of the century. According to the Wikipedia entry on her life:

“In London, she became a regular contributor to publications such as The Daily News, Punch, St James' Gazette, London Illustrated, and Referee. She created a sensation in London by recording her observations on the plight of the lower classes, which she researched posing as a housemaid, street sweeper, and Covent Garden flower girl. Her journalistic writing under several pen names including pseudonyms of "Mary Mortimer Maxwell" and "Enid", unceasingly promoted women's right to vote and denounced prison conditions for jailed suffragettes.”

Interestingly the property at 28 Half Moon Street appears to have been a ‘Private Hotel’ run by a Mrs Adelaide Banks Burlie also an American. The resident staff consisted of a German Butler and a Scottish cook.

Reggie would later become a resident of Half Moon Street himself and indeed the 1911 census shows his future wife Pauline Gay living at number 24 Half Moon Street in a household full of dressmakers like herself.

New York nights

Reggie DeVeulle had tried his hand at acting in London with little lasting effect. Perhaps by 1908 he get that he had outstayed his welcome in the West End but in any case he decided that London's loss would be New Yorks gain. In September 1908 he sailed on the S.S. New York from Southampton to New York city. The authorities registered all arriving aliens including of course, Reggie who was required to answer a number of questions about his situation and intentions.

This was Reggie's first visit to the USA and his final destination was New York. He had paid for his own ticket and had funds of at least $50 in his possession.

Reggie was English, of fair complexion, 5 feet 9 inches in height with brown hair and grey eyes. For some reason I imagined Reggie would have been a smaller man.

I don't know whether Reggie had already arranged a theatrical engagement in New York. However he had already been denied the intriguing possibility of playing himself on the London stage.

In early October 1908 Sir Charles Wyndham the legendary actor manager appeared as Lord Bellamy in the stage version of 'The Magnificent Bellamy' at his own Wyndham Theatre. This was the play chosen to reopen the theatre and was well received. Sir Charles Wyndham was over 70 in 1908 and playing a Lord Bellamy much younger than his own years. Lord Bellamy, his valet Stevens, Lady Bellamy and the double dealing, blackmailing detective were all present but there was one prominent character from the novel who was missing from the cast list at the Wyndham Theatre: Reggie Vandeleur.

Is is too much of a leap to suggest that a slighted Reggie, knowing that a character so obviously based on himself had been edited out of this extravaganza 'showed them all what he was made of' and headed off to the promised land of Broadway?

Instead of the Wyndham theatre Reggie found himself an engagement in a farcical musical that caused quite a sensation on Broadway. Although it went on to be toured across the USA it so outraged the Mayor of Boston that after he honourably and selflessly viewed it himself on Broadway he decreed that it could not be seen on any stage in Boston due to its impropriety.

"Queen of the Moulin Rouge" ran at the Circle Theatre on Broadway from December 1908 to April 1909. This small theatre on Columbus Circle was built as a music hall but hosted some short lived musicals. It was demolished in 1954.

Circle Theatre,  Columbus Circle

Finally Reggie could read his name in a review. The New York Times reviewed the show on December 8th. However the Broadway reviewers were as sniffy in 1908 as they are today:

"MOULIN ROUGE SHOW AIMS TO BE NAUGHTY; It Is Chiefly a Girl Exhibit and All Kinds Are Represented. SOME CLEVER DANCING Also Some Indelicacy and Many Fine Feathers -- Funny When It Tries to be Serious."

Reggie was not in the cat list but was mentioned in the review for his dancing of 'The Mattiche' or 'Kicking Polka'. This dance was familiar to the reviewer but: 

"not with such abandon as marks its dancing by Mme Auber and M. De Veulle, its allurement too has been somewhat discounted by its familiarity." 

Perhaps Reggie toured with the show perhaps not but there is again an intriguing glimpse of Reggie at '26 years and 9 months' as he claimed at immigration. Perhaps he was most flattered that he had been assumed to be a genuine Frenchman given the title of 'M' for Monsieur...

Benjamin Horniman

Reggie DeVaulle had another host in Westminster on that March night in 1901.

Benjamin Horniman, the younger brother of Roy was also an author and journalist.

His output was of a more serious minded nature than that of his elder brother. Similarly he was active in the campaigns to change the position of India in the empire and was also an ardent anti-vivisectionist. However he had no acting or other theatrical aspirations and after a spell at the Indian Statesman was appointed in 1913 as founding editor of the Bombay Chronicle. Here his radical views made him enemies in the colonial government and in 1919 he was banished from India. He is still remembered in India as a passionate supporter of Indian Independence. 

Benjamin Horniman 1920

Reggie, Roy and 'The Magnificent Bellamy'

“Reggie Vandeleur was unique. He was perhaps the most amazing combination of shrewdness and stupidity it is possible to conceive, the apotheosis of the superficial. The word "smart" hovered perpetually on his lips. Woman, as God made her, he did not understand ; woman recreated by the modiste and the hairdresser fascinated him. He lived on a small allowance from his mother, which was a chronic cause of dispute between them”

- Roy Horniman - The Magnificent Bellamy (1904)

The night of Sunday the 31st of March 1901 in set in amber. Those who were truthful and obedient of authority recorded their overnight companions and other intimate details for the vague purposes of good civic governance in the national census.

That is how we know  that Reggie De Vaulle spent the night of the census as a guest of Roy and Benjamin Horniman.

Whatever happened between them and however they were subsequently connected them may never be known.  However the author Roy Horniman left us with what appears to be an excoriating portrait of Reggie Devaulle as the character ‘Reggie Vandeleur’ in his rumbustious comic novel “The Magnificent Bellamy - An Extravaganza”.

Published just 3 years after that night in Westminster, The magnificent Bellamy concerns Lord Bellamy, a man of 45 years and a 'perpetually young' married womaniser.  He meets his match when he tries to woo Mrs Henriette, who is (Unbeknown to him) the wife of his manservant of 20 years, Mr Stevens. This proves to be a fatal mistake and the novel ends with his social undoing and the sound of a single gunshot!

This is a novel of it’s time but has lasted remarkably well. Horniman appears to have his tongue firmly in his cheek as he describes the affairs and obsessions of the early Edwardian upper classes.

There is hardly a redeemable character amongst them. However their real peccadilloes have to be described in the most discreet terms. These erring couples have 'dinner together' when they go away for the weekend without their respective spouses.

One of the principal characters is ‘Reggie Vandelour’ an acquaintance of Bellamy and perpetually broke hanger-on. Even if the name that Horniman had given to the character had not been so similar there are so many other indicators of interests and character that I am convinced that this is an extremely unflattering portrait of Reggie DeVeulle as he was in his 20‘s when he was known by Roy Horniman. 

Reggie is portrayed as a Mamma’s boy whose only source of income is an allowance from his mother who, having sold her tiara to send him to college is now in perpetual dispute with him over the amount and timing of his allowance.

Reggie needs money and the prospect of paid employment being beyond the pale he decides to ‘sell himself for money’ by finding a suitably moneyed wife. He settles on the sum of £500 as the required amount by ‘ a brilliant mathematical feat’. Reggie is portrayed as a scheming idiot who has no skills, no intellect and no integrity. In fact Reggie’s social standing is as insubstantial as his character “in fact, Reggie's claim to social recognition lay in any number of distant relationships to great folk.”

Reggie has settled on a young woman called Pamela Gray and has ‘maneuvered himself into an invitation to the next weekend do at Bellamy’s stately home, Lanham Towers. He has written to his own mother that "She says that she feels like a mother to me," he had written. " Do you think this is a good sign ?"

However Bellamy himself doesn’t give Reggie much of a chance in the marriage stakes. 

“I don't think she'll marry you, Reggie. You wouldn't be very useful to her. She would want a man whose career she could influence? she's just that sort of girl?and as you're not going to have any career "

" I don't know, I'm sure," said Reggie. " I could advise her about her dresses. Mamma always says that she is never so well dressed as when she takes my advice."

"I don't think that would appeal to Pamela Gray, Reggie. If you were only a great sinner, she might think it worth while to take you in hand ; but you're not even wicked."

Reggie giggled. " Well, nobody's ever called me good before."

" I didn't say you were good, Reggie. You're vicious enough, but you're not wicked."

It is surely a coincidence that when Reggie DeVeulle finally did marry in 1915 it was to a woman with the same initials ‘Pauline Gay’ who was 5 years his senior.

Physically Reggie is portrayed as an unappealing specimen. He notes that: “I suppose I am delicate," he reflected, rolling up the sleeve of his pyjama and gazing at a skinny and wholly undeveloped arm. " I wonder if they'd change their minds if I went through a course of physical culture." He manipulated his arm, vainly searching for a non-existent muscle. Then it struck him that he might develop so rapidly that the plea of inability to work would be considered futile.”

Reggie is a vain creature obsessed with his clothing and appearance who can spend the entire morning preparing to leave his one room flat “The tying of his tie was an anxious and almost terrible moment, for a tie is a question of inspiration, and depends for its success on a mood which will not be forced. It either comes right the first time, or, in most cases, not at all. But the occult forces were propitious, and it knotted itself with absolute precision at once”

In the end Reggie is one of the survivors of the tale. He gets his £500 for getting the social climber Dawlish invited to Lanham Towers but not marriage to Pamela. We are left with the impression that, despite the loss of his benefactor, he will land on his feet and live well until his next financial crisis and opportunity to live on his wits.

The figure of £500 appears in the life of the real Reggie. It was the sum received by him in the 1917 blackmail case which he used to travel to America. In the absence of the biography promised by the Obelisk press, Roy Horniman  has left us with a picture of the young Reggie what may have more than a grain of truth to it.

You Can download ‘The Magnificent Bellamy - An Extravaganza’ complete and for free here: http://archive.org/details/bellamymagnifice00horniala  

1901 - The Horniman Connection

Whatever befell the young Reggie in the 10 years after life in his grandmother's home in Jersey in 1891. It is fair to say that by March of 1901 his circumstances were very different. Reggie attended the Kensington school of art circa 1899 but his sights were set on a theatrical career.

Reggie spent night of the 1901 census at an address in St. Stephens mansions which was near Smith Square in the City of Westminster. He was recorded as a visitor and was presumably the guest of one of the other 2 occupants of number 33. Roy Horniman and his brother Benjamin.

Roy and Benjamin Horniman were the sons of the Paymaster in Chief of the royal Navy and distinguished sailor William Horniman. Their mother was from an aristocratic Greek family. Their father had died 6 years earlier. Roy and Benjamin, aged 31 and 27 respectively lived well. Neither were then married. Indeed a contemporary described Roy as "a well-to-do batchelor who knew what did and did not suit him, marriage being in the latter category and the social round in the former"

Roy had already achieved some success in the arts. He had gone on the stage at 19 and described himself as a Actor, vocalist and author on his census return.  He would shortly go on to lease and manage the Criterion theatre in London. In 1901 he was a rising star in the literary world. In the previous year one of his early novels 'The Sin of Atlantis' had been published by Chatto and Windnes and had sold well. By 1904 he would have added 'The living Buddha', 'That fast Miss Blount' and 'The Magnificent Bellamy - An Extravaganza' to his canon. The last of those novels was filmed three times , firstly as 'A gentleman of Paris in 1927 in which featured 'The Marquis of Marignan as a seducer who flirts with every girl he meets...' 'The Magnificent Bellamy' and it's excoriating portrait of one 'Reggie Van Deleur' is a suitable subject for a post all of it's own.

Kind Hearts & Coronets 1949

Roy Horniman went on to write 'Israel Rank' in 1907. Long out of print it has recently been made available by Faber. It is of course better known as the fabulous film 'Kind Hearts and Coronets' featuring Alec Guinness.  You can buy it here as a paperback or here at a bargain price on Kindle.

Roy Horniman embraced the cause of India. He was a member of the British committee of the Indian National Congress and was an eloquent speaker for the anti-vivisection movement.

He died in London, in the Autumn of 1930 aged 62.

Glimpses of the past

Reggie DeVaulle had a life on the fringes of London and New York High society. I imagine that his relatively well to do background and education would have allowed him a degree of access which perhaps he craved. However when his fall from grace came he appears to have fallen out of the public record all together.

There are however some intriguing glimpses of his life through the census records for 1891 as a child in Guernsey Then in the 1901 and 1911 censuses as a young man in London.

The 1891 census of the Channel Islands sees Reggie 'aged 10' living in the wonderfully named 'Sans Ennui',St. Aubin, Jersey with his Maternal Grandmother Betsey Devaulle aged 83 and Aunt Elise Manual aged 43. Both women were widowed and 'living on her own means'.

It appears the house still existed in 1912 when it was rented to Arthur Hellyer, a well known Jersey Horticulturalist until the outbreak of the war.

St. Aubin Early 20th Century

I don't yet know why Reggie was separated from his family at this time. Perhaps his father had returned to foreign service and Reggie was to be schooled at home in Jersey.

Starting the search

I first encountered the story of Reggie DeVaulle via this story on the BBC Website from January 2012.

"100 years of the war on drugs". The article featured the Billie Carleton case in which Reggie DeVaulle was charged with manslaughter. At first my attention was grabbed by the 'Scottish woman Ada' and her Chinese husband Lau Ping You, the Limehouse dealers frequented by Reggie. 

I have discovered a lot more about Ada and her life. She is a tragic figure at the periphery of this tale. I'll return to her story at a later date.

Billie Carleton c. 1918

A book that I can't recommend highly enough is 'Dope Girls' by Marek Kohn. It's an excellent analysis of the birth of the British drug underground from the liberal late Victorian era to the moral outrage that arose during and after the First World War leading to the prohibition of previous legal drugs. You can get it here.

Reggie DeVaulle - a brief biography

Reginald Raoul De Veulle was born into a well to do De Veulle family who trace their roots in Jersey back to the 1500's. He was born in 1881 in LeMans, France where his father was posted as British consul.

Reggie does not appear to have been particularly academic young man and the first decade of the 20th Century found him treading the boards as an actor and dancer in review both in London and New York.

His background and connections allowed him to move in elevated circles living as the guest of a number  wealthy people in London. After his stage career ended he became a costumier designing stage costumes for a number of West End and touring shows.

His private life was marked by scandals. He was implicated in the blackmail of the son of an industrialist over his relationship with another man. It is generally assumed that Reggie was himself gay but in 1915 he married Pauline Gay, a Frenchwoman 5 years his senior who lived just a few doors away from him in Half Moon Street.

The most lasting scandal in which Reggie was involved as the 1919 death of the aspiring actress 'Billie' Carleton shortly after an armistice ball. Public opinion was highly charged over the subject of illegal drugs immediately after the First World War and Reggie was charged with manslaughter for allegedly supplying Miss Carleton with the drugs believed to have killed her.

After the trial Reggie faded form the public consciousness. His society connections broken he continued to live in London working as a costumier until the late 1920's. After then he disappears from the public record until the mid 1950's. Reggie had been living in Paris until 1955 when he was admitted to a private hospital in London where he died aged 75 in 1956.