{"id":1560,"date":"2020-12-13T16:10:20","date_gmt":"2020-12-13T16:10:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/crimesofthecenturies.com\/?p=1560"},"modified":"2025-07-15T15:25:55","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T14:25:55","slug":"hubert-crackanthorpe-and-leila-macdonald","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crimesofthecenturies.com\/index.php\/2020\/12\/13\/hubert-crackanthorpe-and-leila-macdonald\/","title":{"rendered":"Hubert Crackanthorpe and Leila Macdonald"},"content":{"rendered":"

The last Crackanthorpe to be recorded on Cumbrian Characters was a tragic one. And the short version is that Hubert Crackanthorpe was an author who died young, likely as a result of suicide. With facts thin and sources far from impartial, the story is one to be approached with caution.<\/p>\n

Hubert Montague Crackanthorpe was born on May 12,1870, the eldest son, and heir, of Montague Hughes Cookson<\/a>, later Crackanthorpe, and his wife, Blanche Althea Elizabeth, n\u00e9e Holt.<\/p>\n

Journalist and writer<\/h2>\n

The Longman Companion to Victorian Fiction <\/a>says he was educated at Eton and partly in France. Though a contemporary says Eton and Lausanne.<\/p>\n

Baptised at Christ Church, Paddington as Hubert Montague Cookson, he was with his parents at 26 Devonshire Terrace, Paddington, on the 1871 census. In 1881, he was with his parents and youngest brother Oliver at Rutland Gate, London (middle brother Dayrell was at a college in Margate).<\/p>\n

Ten years later, he was visiting Roland Edmund Lomax Vaughan-Williams, then a law student, and his sister Sybil, in Abinger, Surrey.\u00a0 <\/span>Hubert\u2019s occupation at 20 given as \u2018journalist \u2013 writer\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>The Cooksons became the Crackenthorpes when they inherited Newbiggin Hall.\u00a0<\/span>As the eldest son, Hubert was next in line. But in 1896, he was found dead in Paris.<\/p>\n

Calling for reform<\/h2>\n

He \u2018pops up\u2019 in the Penrith Observer<\/em> in Jun 1891, at a time when the expulsion of Jewish families from Russia was causing a lot of debate. The anticipated arrival of destitute foreigners on British shores was greeted no differently from today: a mixture of pity for their terrible plight, and concern they would take jobs from the British poor.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Montague Hughes Crackanthorpe made an address at Newbiggin on the subject, with the Observer adding:<\/p>\n

\u2018..other cogent reasons (for reform) were forthcoming from Mr Hubert Crackanthorpe, who has had exceptional opportunities of becoming acquainted with the pauper immigration movement.\u2019<\/p>\n

Whatever that meant.<\/p>\n

Hubert Crackanthorpe was in Westmorland in 1891 for sure, attending the High Sheriff\u2019s ball in Kendal and September that year.<\/p>\n

A short-lived magazine<\/h2>\n

A NEW REVIEW. A new review, to be known as the “Albemarle,” is to make its appearance in the middle of next month (ie December 1891).<\/p>\n

The writers are to be allowed perfect independence of thought, and are to be free to express their opinions on all kinds of subjects. The periodical, which is to be illustrated, will consist of a number of short signed articles on literature, art, music, the drama, political, social, and economic questions, and sport, as well as a series of short stories by well-known English and foreign writers. The first number is to contain contributions from Mr Whistler, Sir Charles Dilke (\u201cforeign affairs and home defence”), the headmaster of Haileybury, Mr Oscar Browning, Mrs Lynn Linton, Mr Ben Tillett, Lady Greville, and others. A long list of other well-known magazine writers has been captured for the new venture, of which Mr W. H. Wilkins and Hubert Crackanthorpe are to be joint editors.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Despite some \u2018big names, it wasn\u2019t a commercial success, and only lasted nine months.<\/p>\n

Leila Macdonald<\/h2>\n

And then, in July 1892, Hubert Crackanthorpe announced his engagement to \u2018Miss Leila Macdonald, granddaughter of the well-known judge and scientist Sir William Grove FRS\u2019 and niece of Mrs Hills of Corby Castle\u2019.<\/p>\n

Mrs Hills was Anna Hills, n\u00e9e Grove, who had several nieces living or staying with her on the 1891 census at Corby Castle, near Great Corby (and nine servants). (Corby Castle belonged to the Howard family).<\/p>\n

Herbert Augustus Hills was born in Italy in 1837 \u2013 as was Anna\u2019s older brother, the mountaineer Florence Crauford Grove.<\/p>\n

As well as being a barrister,Queen\u2019s Bench judge, and privy councillor, William Robert Grove invented the Grove gas voltaic battery<\/a> in 1839.<\/p>\n

Anna (Grove) Hills\u2019 other siblings were Sir Coleridge Grove, and three sisters.It was Emily Cicely Grove (b 1850, d 1875) who married civil servant and mountaineer Reginald John Somerled Macdonald in 1868.\u00a0He was a descendant of Flora Macdonald, of Bonnie Prince Charlie fame.<\/span><\/p>\n

Reginald Macdonald ‘late of the Colonial Office Whitehall’ died, aged only 35, of chronic alcoholism<\/a> on 26 August 1876, at 2 Chapel Street West in Mayfair. He was survived by his two daughters, his wife having died of tuberculosis the previous year.<\/p>\n

Leila MacDonald was thus an orphan aged just five. Her sister Zeila (honestly) Flora was seven. (Zeila, as Mrs Flora Baker, was one of the nieces at Corby Castle in 1891).<\/p>\n

\u00a0Honeymoon and new publications<\/span><\/h2>\n

Hubert Crackanthorpe was at Newbiggin in August 1892, for the annual grouse shoot. He and Leila were married on Shrove Tuesday 1893, in Knightsbridge.\u00a0Among the nearly 200 presents \u2018none was more prized than the one from the tenants and villagers of Newbiggin\u2019.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The couple left for a honeymoon in Orthez, in the Pyrenees, for \u2018the next few months\u2019.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And in March 1893, he published\u00a0Wreckage, Seven Studies<\/i>.\u00a0Wreckage <\/i>received good reviews, with Hubert described as \u2018a deep student of human nature\u2019 and having the \u2018masterly art of describing human passions and emotions in a few words but with remarkable power\u2019.<\/p>\n

In 1894, he contributed six chapters of a serial called A Commonplace Chapter<\/i> to The New Review, and was described by one reviewer of the same as: \u2018that clever but somewhat morbid writer, Hubert Crackanthorpe\u2019.<\/p>\n

Hubert and Leila were at Newbiggin Hall at the time ofhis parents\u2019 Silver Wedding ball in April 1894. Hubert then \u2018dropped his work in connection with monthly reviews\u2019 in order to \u2018devote himself to drama\u2019.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He doesn\u2019t, by the way, seem to have been a fan of women authors, writing in 1894:<\/p>\n

the society lady, dazzled by the brilliance of her own conversation, and the serious-minded spinster, bitten by some sociological theory, still decide\u2026 that fiction is the obvious medium through which to astonish or improve the world.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hubert Crackanthorpe, in February 1896, contributed a \u2018sketch\u2019 of an adventure he\u2019d had involving a tramp, when riding a few days earlier through heavy snow from Newbiggin to Alston.<\/p>\n

The marriage sours<\/h2>\n

In December 1896, Leila Crackanthorpe inherited a quarter of her grandfather\u2019s estate.\u00a0At what point she had deserted Hubert isn\u2019t clear.\u00a0Various sources say she left him and ended up in Paris with a lover (a French artist), after miscarrying a baby early in 1896.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hubert went to Paris at some point later in the year, and had an affair with Sissie Welch, the married sister of (author and poet) Richard le Gallienne. It seems he and Sissie, and Leila and her artist lover, had something of a m\u00e9nage \u00e0 quatre in a Paris apartment. But then Leila demanded a divorce on the grounds that Hubert had (allegedly) given her a venereal disease.<\/p>\n

Mystery disappearance<\/h2>\n

In December 1896, Hubert Crackenthorpe was reported missing in Paris: he\u2019d last been seen there on November 5. Given his status in society, and that of his wife, the Press were fascinated by the mystery of his disappearance: it was \u2018the sensation of the day\u2019.<\/p>\n

Theories ranged from him seeking solitude on some Mediterranean island, to his having been murdered. It was suggested he had gone off with a \u2018slim, petite, exceedingly pretty lady, who was dressed somewhat loudly\u2019. There was a supposed sighting in Bayonne about November 26, others in Rouen, Le Havre and Rheims, and a later one in London.<\/p>\n

However, just before Christmas 1896, the Crackanthorpe family were given the tragic news that Hubert\u2019s body had been found in the river Seine, between Asni\u00e8res and St Denis. His brothers went to Paris to identify the body, which could only be done \u2018from the clothes, linen-marks and other articles upon the body\u2019.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

These were reported to have included a letter from his wife, though how that survived six weeks in the water isn\u2019t explained.<\/p>\n

Newbiggin mourns<\/h2>\n

At Newbiggin, the church bells tolled for the tragedy. On Sunday, December 29, the Dead March in Saul was played on the organ at both services, and \u2018appropriate hymns\u2019 were sung. The rector amended his pre-New Year sermon on the uncertainties of life to include the untimely loss of \u2018one beloved by all who knew him.\u2019<\/p>\n

The preacher spoke of Hubert\u2019s love for his parents and brothers, and of his \u2018pure and spotless life\u2019.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To know him was to live him for his ready sympathy and warm heart\u2026 Hubert Crackanthorpe was loving, loyal, brave and true.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

William Henry Wilkins, co-founder of the short-lived Albermarle review, described him as: \u2018a quick, ardent, sensitive nature, touched with the flame of genius\u2019. All hidden behind \u2018a quiet and somewhat shy manner\u2019.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hubert\u2019s body was brought back to England and cremated. A memorial service was held in London, then his ashes taken back to Newbiggin for interment. Leila lived on in Paris, dying in 1944.<\/p>\n

Footnote. Herbert August Hills and Anna (Grove) bought High Head Castle, in 1902, You can read about that Cumbrian ruin here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The last Crackanthorpe to be recorded on Cumbrian Characters was a tragic one. And the short version is that Hubert Crackanthorpe was an author who died young, likely as a result of suicide. With facts thin and sources far from impartial, the story is one to be approached with caution. Hubert Montague Crackanthorpe was born […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1562,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[291,52],"class_list":["post-1560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cumbria-history","tag-newbiggin-hall","tag-westmorland"],"yoast_head":"\nHubert Crackanthorpe and Leila Macdonald - Cumbrian Characters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Hubert Crackanthorpe was a young author whose life ended tragically. 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