The Daily Telegraph from London, Greater London, England • 33

a a a a a a a a THE DAILY TELEGRAPH THURSDAY, JUNE 19, 1997 33 OBITUARIES Lady d'Avigdor-Goldsmid hostess who smoked cigars, swam in her pearls, bought Hockneys and was adored by generations of guests LADY D'AVIGDOR-GOLDSMID, who Violet Powell regularly signed the visi- Kenneth Rose writes: Almost to the end has died aged 86, exhibited the exuberant tors'! book. of her years, Rosie d'Avigdor-Goldsmid spirit of the 1930s while a quiet 1955 Sir Henry became the Conser- lived a life that had scarcely changed from pleasure in her social duties; she vative for Walsall South. Rosie Golds- the days of her youth. Whatever hour waltzed with Fred Astaire and she sat as mid took to canvassing as though at an she was rarely seen without a cigar in one chairman of the local primary school for extended cocktail party. Their guest-list hand, a glass of champagne or a very dry more than 50 years.

now included Enoch Powell and Duncan Martini in the other (she had arranged a To guests at her country house, Somer- Sandys, but Somerhill remained a house supply of gin from a diplomatic source, hill, in Kent, she was known as a beauty for entertainment, not political double the strength of the ordinary brew). with expressive eyes and a joyful laugh. advancement. During her years of marriage to Sir She carried off with style things that in Rosie Goldsmid developed a taste for Henry d'Avigdor-Goldsmid, she enterothers might have been extravagances. modern art and later joined the Council of tained at a village than She smoked cigars, and was the Friends of the Tate.

Her collecting a house, as described a swimming in her pool, straw hat on, cigar habit had been given impetus by a birth- century ago with warmth and panache. in mouth. Swimming in the sea, she wore day present from her daughter Sarah. It Its glorious garden did not always sucpearls on the grounds that salt-water was Kaiserian in Alexandria, Full of Radi- ceed in tempting the houseparty out of hets good for them. ant Charm painted by David Hockney, doors.

Staying there some years ago when Somerhill, an imposing Jacobean then a student at the Royal College of Art. at work on a book, I asked one Sunday house, was the family house of her hus- Sarah had paid £12 for it, the first picture morning whether I could have a card table band, Sir Henry d'Avigdor-Goldsmid. A Hockney ever sold. Rosie Goldsmid went in my bedroom instead of the bulbous Disraelian figure, Sir Henry was a soldier, on to buy more Hockneys, as well as piece of gilt furniture that made writing a banker, farmer, writer, collector and works by Dubuffet sandhi Rothko. The physical penance.

"Sorry, she MFH. rooms of Somerhill, as as the smaller replied, all in use. Rosemary Margaret Nicholl was born walls of a house in St Leonard's Terrace, When she married Harry, Rosie craved on July 22 1910, the eldest daughter of began to become a little crowded. the Turner view of Somerhill which his Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Nicholl. She In 1963 Sarah Goldsmid was drowned in father had declined to buy because it cost was educated, briefly, at St Margaret's, a sailing accident.

Her parents were £7,000 (perhaps £300,000 in today's curBushey, where her friends included Lady never the same again. Rosie Goldsmid, rency). Instead it had gone to the Silvia Coke and Penelope Chetwode, who though, continued the constituency National Gallery of Scotland. With charlater married John Betjeman. work and her many interests in Kent.

At acteristic persistence, she persuaded the She married Henry d'Avigdor-Golds- the bottom of the drive was the Cottage gallery to exchange it for another Turner mid in February 1940, and that summer Hospital, which if closed would have of equal value. This time the substitute she lay on the lawn at Somerhill, with its reverted to the Somerhill estate, a valu- cost £33,000. "I would rather spend it on ancient cedar, watching the dog-fights in able asset. Rosie Goldsmid fought hard to yearlings," Harry replied, and the deal the Kent sky. keep it open, and won.

fell through. The guests at Somerhill included the She worked for Sir Henry's Jewish or But Rosie was immensely proud of her pianist Sam Chotzinoff, his sister Pauline Israeli causes, sometimes even claiming collection of avant garde pictures, which and her husband Jascha Heifetz, the vio- she was Jewish, "because it's easier that disconcerted her more fashionable linist. SJ Perelman wrote a comic Towards the end of her life, she friends. She also commissioned Chagall account of a weekend there in the New became an enthusiastic racehorse owner. to design a window for the local church in Yorker; he had not enjoyed playing cha- Many people owe her much: she paid memory her daughter Sarah.

rades after dinner. for those who had fallen on hard times, or A friend who had just been painted by Better pleased was another lifelong for the education of their children. Annigoni was eager to show the portrait friend, Bauer, who described the She married first, in 1931 (dissolved to Rosie. She peered at it in silence, with wonders of Somerhill in his column in Le 1934), Peter Horlick. Sir Henry d'Avig- deep concentration.

At last, through a The Sitwells, Deirdre and Cyril dor-Goldsmid died in 1976; they are sur- cloud of cigar smoke, the oracle spoke: Connolly, John Betjeman, Anthony and vived by their daughter, Chloe Teacher. "Darling," she said, "it's a bugger. Lady d'Avigdor-Goldsmid Chief Petty Officer CGN 'Nutty' Anscomb Submariner who survived a catastrophic depth-charge attack and later escaped from a PoW camp encountered the Italian destroyer Circe, who had a very able captain and was equipped with German asdic (ultrasonic detection equipment) and depthTempest's own asdic was out and she was thus onastion, follow her opponents' movements overhead. prolonged depthcharging, which did severe internal damage and caused the gas boat from to the fill main with chlorine battery, Tempest's CO decided to surface and abandon ship. Circe picked up 23 of Tempest's ship's company of 62.

Tempest was trying later to sank take while her Anscomb in several PoW camps in Italy, but escaped after the Italian armistice in September 1943. He made a cross-country journey, displaying great stamina and resolve, until he was found by British soldiers south of Lake Trasimene in the spring of 1944. He was awarded the BEM for his escape, and for aiding other Author of a fine account of submarine life: Anscomb looking out to sea escapees. Going home in August 1944, he joined the "Crap" Myers, a future VC patrol, she sank the Italian part in operations along the staff of the Escape Training winner. In February 1939, he U-boat Diamante off Tobruk Syrian coast, and sank Tank at HMS Dolphin, and went to the China Station for on June 20 1940.

Anscomb another submarine, the left the Navy in 1948. the fourth time, as coxswain was awarded the DSM. Souffleur, off he published his of Parthian, who returned to The and Class boats Beirut on June 25 1941. Ans- autobiography, Submariner, the Mediterranean with the from the China Station were comb was mentioned in des- which is one of the best rest of the "China" boats in too big, took too long to dive, patches. Anscomb went accounts of submarine life April 1940.

and were too easily seen home in Parthian, and in and a testament to AnsParthian was then 10 years Mediterranean waters. Sev- October 1941 joined the sub- comb's own beliefs in the valold and showing her age. She eral were sunk in the first marine Tempest, building at ues of duty, discipline and resented any violent move- months of the war, with Cammell Laird. Birkenhead, training in engendering ments of helm or hydro- grievous losses. as coxswain.

esprit de corps which surplanes, and gave her ship's But Parthian survived. In On Feb 13 1942, on her first vived even in captivity. company some interesting her seventh and final Medi- Mediterranean patrol, in the He leaves a wife Julie. moments. But, on her first terranean patrol, she took Gulf of Taranto, Tempest There were no children.

animated skulls, wicked kings and magic cowries drew Tutuola: startled Western audiences with African legends not afford to continue Amos's education. The family found him a post as houseboy to a government clerk, who sent him to school at Ipose-Ake. When the clerk was transferred to Lagos, Tutuola accompanied him and attended the High School. Later he trained as a blacksmith, and in 1942 joined the RAF in that capacity. In 1948 he became a messenger with the Labour Department in Lagos, where he was thoroughly bored.

To occupy his mind, he began to jot down stories on odd scraps of paper, perfectly reproducing the manner of his own slow speech. He wrote The Palm-Wine Drinkard in 48 hours. A few days later he saw an advertisement for the United Society for Christian Literature, and sent the work off to them. Through the Society's intercession the manuscript ended up with Faber Faber CHESS Adams is No 1 for England By Malcolm Pein THE new FIDE ratings see Michael Adams unseat Nigel Short as England Nol and Garry Kasparov reach record heights. Adams has gained 20 points to rise to a personal best of 2680 and a world ranking of Noll.

Short has also been surpassed by Matthew Sadler, who rates 2665, Nol6, three places higher than Short. England has three players in world top 20 for the first time, though Russia has six. Kasparov has reached 2820 a clear 50 points ahead of Vladimir Kramnik, who has overtaken Vishy Anand as No2. Kasparov and Kramnik are gaining more points at Novgorod, Short will rue losing on time after confusion over a clock display against Alexey Alexandrov at the European Team Championships in Pula as it cost him 10 points. Alexandrov is one place above him in the rankings.

Gata Kamsky has retired, temporarily, to study medicine but remains at No7. 1, Garry Kasparov. Russia, 2820: 2, Vladimir Kramnik. Russia. 2770; 3.

Vishwanathan Anand. India, 2765; 4, Veselin Topalov. Bulgaria, 2745; 5, Anatoly Karpov. Russia. 2745: 6.

Vassily Ivanchuk. Ukraine. 2725; 7, Gata Kamsky, USA. 2720; 8. Alexander Beliavsky, Slovenia, 2710: 9.

Alexei Shirov, Spain, 2700: 10. Boris Gelfand. Belarus, 2695; 11. Michael Adams. England, 2680; 12, Valery Salov.

Russia. 2680; 13. Kiril Georgiev, Bulgaria, 2670: 14, Judit Polgar. Hungary. 2670; 15.

Evgeny Bareev. Russia. 2670: 16. Matthew Sadler, England. 2665; 17.

Vladimir Akopian, Armenia. 2660: 18. Alexei Aleksandrov, Belarus. 2660: 19, Nigel Short. England, 2660: 20.

Peter Svidler, Russia, 2660... 40. Jon Speelman, 2630; 48. John Nunn 2620: 75. Tony Miles 2595: 81, Julian Hodgson 2590.

Woe betide the player who faces Kasparov the day after he has lost. In the sixth round at Novgorod. Boris Gelfand was the victim as Kasparov rejoined Vladimir Kramnik in the lead. Novgorod Rd6: Gelfand 0-1 Kasparov, Queen's Indian Defence, System: Short draw Bareev. French Defence, Advance Variation: palov draw Kramnik.

Sicilian Defence. Scores: Kramnik Kasparov Topalov 3: Bareev 2:5: Gelfand 2: Short GM John Emms. of Norwich, leads the Drury Lane Grandmasters after two rounds. His 100 per cent score includes a positional win over GM Neil McDonald. Gelfand Kasparov Novgorod (6)' I d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nf3 b6 4 a3 c5 5 d5 Ba6 6 Qc2 exd5 7 cxd5 g6 8 Nc3 Bg7 9 g3 0-0 10 Bg2 d6 11 0-0 Re8 12 Rel Nbd7 13 h3 b5 14 e4 Qc8! 15 Bf4 b4 16 Na4 b3! 17 Qxb3 Nxe4 18 Qc2 Ndf6 19 Qd7 20 Nh5 21 Bh2 f5 22 Nc3 Rab8 23 Rabl Bxc3! 24 bxc3 Rxb I 25 Rxbl Bc4 26 Nd2 Nxd2 27 Qxd2 f4 28 Rel Re5 29 Re4 Rxe4 30 Bxe4 Qxh3 31 Bg2 0g4 32 Qel Ng7 33 f3 Qxg5 34 Qb1 Nf5 35 Kg7 36 Kh6 37 Qf7 Bf1 38 Kxfl 39 Kel 40 Ke2 Qxh2 41 Kd3 Nf5 0-1 Kasparov watching a fashion show at Somerhill in 1972 Lord Banks CHIEF PETTY OFFICER ANSCOMB, who has died aged 88, served in submarines for 16 years, during which he rose to the top of his profession as a submarine coxswain and was decorated for bravery.

One of his submarines sank two enemy submarines, but another sunk. Anscomb became a PoW, escaped, and reached Allied lines. Charles Graham Norton Anscomb was born on Dec 12 1908. Aged and much against his parents' will, he went to the Marine Society's training ship Warspite at Tilbury, and then to HMS Ganges, the boys' training establishment at Shotley. As a boy seaman, he served in the light cruiser Danae on the China Station.

He qualified as a torpedoman at HMS Vernon in 1928. but he had decided he disliked "big ship' life and volunteered for submarines. After three more years on the China Station in the sloop Magnolia, he joined HMS Dolphin, at Gosport, for his submarine course in 1932. Anscomb served in L56 and Sturgeon before going to China again in Pandora, in 1934. He rose steadily, to leading seaman and petty officer, and to coxswain the senior rating in a submarine, combining the duties of chief police officer, catering manager and medical officer.

His first submarine as coxswain was Sterlet, under Writer whose stories of AMOS TUTUOLA, who has died aged 77, was a Nigerian writer whose style and subject matter, drawn from the oral traditions of story-telling in his country, initally owed nothing at all to European influences. His. most celebrated book, The Palm-Wine Drinkard (1952), was described by Dylan Thomas as brief, thonged, grisly and "I was a palm-wine drinkard since I was a boy of ten years of the book opens, "I had no other work more than to drink palm-wine in my life. When my father noticed that I could not do any work more than to drink, he engaged an expert palmwine tapster for me, he had no other work than to tap palm-wine every day." But the servant dies, and the young goes to search for him in "Deads' where people walk backwards. On the way a man asks him to rescue his daughter, who has followed a complete gentleman from the market.

He finds her sitting on a bull-frog with a magic cowrie round her neck which screams. The complete gentleman, for his part, turns out to be a skull which had hired limbs so as to look interesting for market day. John Betjeman, reviewing The Palm-Wine Drinkard in The Daily Telegraph, found himself in a quandary; he had been glad to read the book, he declared, but hoped it would not set a fashion. "Taken out of the jungle of the mind from which it came, with its unusual use of English. "Bound it in seems boards lost and and with frightening.

all the Western paraphernalia of dust-wrapper, print and paper, this weird book makes me think of an alarming piece of African carving set on a shiny table in a smart London flat. I feel it would have been more appropriately scratched on the bark of a tree in the jungle." Amos Tutuola was born in 1920 at Ipose-Ake, Abeokuta, a Yorubaspeaking town 50 miles north of Lagos. In childhood he loved to lisfolk tales related by his mother and his aunt; and when, at 10, he went to a Salvation Army school, he longed for the holidays, when he could sit in the dark and tell ghost stories to his friends. His father, a cocoa farmer, could Liberal Party stalwart THE LORD BANKS, who has died aged never won a seat in the House of Commons but served as both president and chairman of the Liberal Party before becoming. a respected spokesman in the Lords; outside politics, he was a successful life assurance broker and pensions consultant.

Meticulous rather than flamboyant, Banks came closest to cutting a dash as a moustachioed Royal Artillery officer, following war service, which he greatly enjoyed, as an anti-tank officer. He was amused when, after the war, a newspaper urged him shave off his moustache because it gave him an electorally disadvantageous resemblance to Hitler. Behind the scenes Banks was concerned, as selfstyled 'Leftish Liberal', with the party's development the 1950s. Very much ideas man, he 'an lamented the snaffling by Labour or Conservatives of sensible policies pioneered by his own party. Desmond Anderson Harvie Banks was born at Ascot on Oct 23 1918.

Despite his English birth which he owed to his father's service in the RAF Banks was a Scot and proud of it. The family soon moved back to Scotland, enabling the young Banks to develop a lifelong affection for the Clyde and its steamers; in 1947 he published Clyde Steamers which, to his delight, went to a second printing. His Scots Calvinist roots were also evident in his membership, as an elder, first of the Presbyterian Church and subsequently of the United Reformed on Nigerian folk-tales Church. When he was seven, the little rich girl who leaves home in family moved south again, to search of "poverty and punish- Kenton, Middlesex. He was Subsequently she is floated educated at Alpha Preparadown-river in a coffin, kidnapped, tory School, Harrow, and petrified, turned into a water-beetle University College School, and shut in a bottle ordeals which Hampstead, where he she survives to marry a woodcutter, became a Liberal in the sixth behead the wicked king with his own form and a very young secresword, and come home safe to moth- tary of the Kenton Liberal er.

The author's studies bore fruit in Association. After school he a phoenix a satyr which seemed joined the business run by to be borrowed from classical his father, who had invented mythology. a new kind of laundry The range of Amos Tutuola's machine. sources continued to widen, and On the outbreak of war he according to one African schoolgirl joined the King's Royal Rifle even included Latin Today, Part One. Corps as a rifleman, soon By the time of The Brave African being commissioned into the Huntress (1962), The Daily Tele- Royal Artillery.

War service graph's Peter Green was bemoaning took to most corners of hint "the steady decline of Amos Tutuola the Middle Eastern theatre into and eventually to Italy; his Reviewing Feather Woman of the final posting, with the rank Jungle (1962) Bamber Gascogne of Major, was as chief public described the book's mood as a com- relations officer to the milibination of the Book of Genesis. the tary government in Trieste. labours of Hercules. The Arabian Demobilised in 1946, Banks Nights, the Arthurian legend, The briefly rejoined his father Golden Bough, Punch and Judy, the before taking a full-time post Brothers Grimm and Baron with the Liberal Party. In The conviction with which Tutuola ency of Harrow 1950.

in his home constitute told his stories made it easy for the fought the first of his three reader to enter the illusion but elections; along with 400 increased the author's own concern other Liberal candidates, he that they clashed with his strong lost his deposit. He fared litChristian belief. Ajaiyi and his Inher- tle better at St Ives in 1955 ited Poverty (1967) was a kind of Pil- though he would live just grim's Progress transposed to Nige- long enough to relish the seat ria, in which a brother and sister falling to the Liberal Demoseek to discover why, however hard crats 42 years later or at they work, they remain poor. This South West Herts in 1959. quest involves meeting terrifying Meanwhile his business gods, visiting the town of the Cre- career was thriving.

He ator, being threatened by the Spirit became a successful life of Fire, and carrying around a lump assurance broker from of talking iron. 1959 with Canada Life and Pauper, Brawler and Slanderer an astute pensions consul(1987) followed the adventures of tant: a director first of Twedthree tricksters, until the protago- dle French and subsequently nist discovers "the destiny of pov- of Lincoln Consultants. Durerty and wretchedness that I chose ing 15 years as social security from Creator on the day that I was spokesman in the Lords he born." contributed much to the Tutuola's last book, The Village detail of pensions Witchdoctor Other Stories (1990), legislation. was a series of fables of magic and An admirable committee revenge, drawn from the Nigerian man, precise but never myths in which his work was tedious, Banks was much in grounded. in the counsels of his Amos Tutuola married, in 1947, sometimes chaotic party.

He Victoria Alake; they had four sons chaired the Liberal Party and four daughters. executive between 1961 and under seven leaders 1963, revelling in the dramatic -election victory at Orpington, and again from 1969 to 1970, when the party's fortunes reached their nadir. He did not take up the option of a second year in the chair; nevertheless his popularity was evident in his second placing to Richard Wainwright in the ballot for the party council. He had the misfortune to be President of the party in 1968 and 1969 when the anarchic Young Liberals were doing their best to destroy its electoral appeal; more than once he warned warring factions to "stop slanging each Among many other offices. he excelled as chairman of the Liberals' working party on the machinery of govern- Amos Tutuola in London; and its publication in Britain was followed American and French editions.

The success of the book in the West was by no means universally replicated in Nigeria, where intellectuals deprecated Tutuola's language, and suspected its Western admirers of condescension. Tutuola himself wanted to revert to being a blacksmith, and continued to spend his time with his old friends fellow blacksmiths, carpenters, tailors and other tradesmen. Yet he did not relinquish literature. My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, which had actually been written before The Palm-Wine Drinkard, was published in 1954. And he began to attend evening classes, to become what he termed "a real Simbi and the Satyr of the Dark Jungle (1955) was a fairy tale about a ment in the early 1970s.

and as director of policy promotion from 1972 (the year he was appointed CBE) to 1974. From 1981 to 1993 he was an active President of the National Liberal Club. though he was unable. as a trustee, to prevent the club's majority shareholder selling a large part of its building to the Royal Horse Guards Hotel. Banks was also a keen European.

Having shared the chair of the party's unsuccessful European elections committee in 1979. he was elated when it finally won two seats at Strasbourg in 1994. Banks was created a life peer in 1974 on the nomination of Jeremy Thorpe one of the seven Liberal leaders. from Sir Archibald Sinclair to Paddy Ashdown, whom he loyally served. Inevitably he was up in the scandal over Thorpe's connection with the male model Norman Scott.

One of the earliest warnings that Thorpe might be liable blackmail was made to Banks by Scott's at the close of 1973: the warning was very unspecific, and after consulting senior Liberal peers he let the matter rest. When the National Liberal Club commissioned a portrait of Banks in 1992. it was Thorpe who was invited to unveil it. Authoritative and relatively youthful Liberal spokesmen in the Lords were at a premium, and within a year Banks was allocated the social security brief. doubling from 1977 to 1983 as deputy chief whip.

In this latter capacity he was an early and important backer of the Lib-Lab pact (though he soon changed his mind), and played a role in the delicate development of the alliance with the SDP. In 1984, on the death of Lord Byers, he stood for the eral leadership in the Lords, but was defeated by Lady Seear. He retained the social security portfolio until 1989. Desmond Banks married, in 1948. Barbara Wells, one of his pre-war Sunday-school pupils at Kenton, whom he met again on leaving the Army; they had two sons.

Banks in 1977 8 My 8 2 8 2 a Gelfand Final position. 42.Bf1 BRIDGE HAND Surprise from East By Tony Forrester Dealer West Vul A 03 Q103 AK 97 A 64 7 K62 J9872 AK 65 QJ 10 8 6 54 K01097 109854 4 418552 South West North East Pass Pass 14 2NT(1) Dble 34 Pass Pass 34 44 Pass Pass Dble Pass Pass Pass (1) for the other suits Contract 44 Doubled Declarer South Opening Lead 4K THE man of the moment in English Bridge is David Price. After victories in Easter Tournament and the Spring Fours. he has now added Crockfords to the list. He was sitting East on today's deal and showed what can be achieved when confidence is high.

Playing with Tom Townsend, he engineered a sizeable penalty for his side with the aid of a rather strange-looking manoeuvre. Townsend came rushing into the auction on the second round to show a two-suited hand in hearts and clubs. North's double suggested that he was keen to get involved, so East took the chance to ensure that he received a club lead. His 34 bid would have gone badly wrong had North passed, but he could hardly be blamed for pressing on to 34. Now Price emerged from the bushes with 49, causing South to have a rush of blood to the brain.

Maybe he was confident that his partner was void in clubs, even so the vulnerability should have suggested caution. Anyway, East doubled 44 and duly received his club lead. He ruffed out dA. cashed A and switched to a diamond. In the fullness of time.

South had to lose OK and two club tricks. A rather expensive but credit East with assist..