Eccentric Life
Der englische Aristokrat war in der europäischen High Society für seine seltsamen, doch durchaus liebenswerten Marotten bekannt.
English aristrocrat Gerald Hugh Tyrwhitt-wilson, better known as Lord Berners
In the early 1930s, Gerald Hugh Tyrwhitt-wilson wanted local planners to accept his idea of building a tall tower on Folly Hill — a local beauty spot near his Faringdon country estate. The planners asked Tyrwhitt-wilson, better known by his title of Lord Berners, what exactly the point of the tower was. “The great point of the tower,” replied Berners, “is that it will be entirely useless.”
Somehow, Berners got permission to build Faringdon Folly Tower. Knowing that his architect friend Lord Wellesley hated Gothic design, he asked for a Gothic tower. Wellesley ignored his friend and — while Berners was away in Europe — had it built in a simple classical style. When Berners returned from Italy, there were just a few metres left to finish at the top of the tower. He demanded — and got — a Gothic turret.
By now, Berners’s quirky behaviour was well known in European high society. His Faringdon country house, in Oxfordshire, attracted many famous visitors in the 1930s. Regular guests included artist Salvador Dalí, photographer Cecil Beaton, poets Edith Sitwell, Siegfried Sassoon and John Betjeman, writers such as Evelyn Waugh, H. G. Wells and Gertrude Stein, musician Igor Stravinsky, philosopher Isaiah Berlin and fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli.
Berners lived a fantasy life. He dyed his doves pink, dressed his dogs in pearls and invited a horse that belonged to a friend to tea in the drawing room.
He once took out an advertisement in The Times newspaper selling two pet elephants and a rhinoceros. He is said to have ridden around his estate wearing a pig’s mask to frighten locals and declared he would no longer attend the House of Lords because someone there had stolen his umbrella.
Though known mainly as an eccentric, Berners was actually a multitalented — if restless — individual. He painted and wrote novels and poetry. Sadly, his work has not stood the test of time. Berners was more successful as a classical composer, writing around 30 compositions. The most famous include commissions for Sergei Diaghilev’s avant-garde Parisbased Ballets Russes dance company.
Faringdon Folly Tower opened in 1935. True to Berners’ eccentric style, the tower had a notice at the entrance: “Members of the public committing suicide from this tower do so at their own risk.” The notice has since been removed. However, the tower, its classical design topped with a Gothic crown, is a testament to a strange personality.
Berners remained eccentric to the end. He even wrote his own rather nonsensical epitaph:
Here lies Lord Berners One of the learners His great love of learning May earn him a burning But, Praise the Lord He seldom was bored!