Page 2 - HGS Suburb News 140 - Autumn 2019

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Bilingualism

– a good thing? Lutyens’ anniversaries

Bilingualism means knowing and concentration. The mental
and being able to use two gymnastics needed to constantly Three anniversaries of Suburb architect Sir Edwin Lutyens were
languages. It has been estimated manage two or more linguistic marked with a dinner at the Royal Institute of British Architects
that more than half the world’s systems increases cognitive on October 2. Organised by The Lutyens Trust, the event marked
population is bilingual. In the flexibility and makes learning the 150th anniversary of Sir Edwin’s birth on 29 March 1869,
Suburb, while the majority of that much easier.” the 75th anniversary of his death on 1 January 1944, and the
people speak English, 43% of There is also some fear that centenary of the unveiling in 1919 of the temporary Cenotaph,
school children in the Garden children who are raised bilingual precursor of the permanent memorial in Whitehall.
Suburb primary schools do not will mix their languages. In reality, It took place in the presence of HRH The Duke of Gloucester
have English as their first they adapt to the situations who has recently become the President of the Trust. Guests Guests at the anniversary dinner were given a Celebration
language. Hebrew, Persian-Farsi they are in. If, for example, they were welcomed by great-nephew Martin Lutyens and addressed booklet which included an article (from Country Life 1942) by
and Polish are the most common are talking to a grandparent by author, broadcaster and cultural campaigner Loyd Grossman the architect’s son Robert Lutyens which explained the origins of
languages spoken by Garden who does not speak the other before a backdrop of slides showing examples of the architect’s the Cenotaph. Lutyens had designed a garden seat – “a massive
Suburb pupils (barnet.gov.uk). language, they will always work including several from the Suburb. The Suburb was affair consisting of an immense balk of timber supported on
There is a perception among respond in the language the represented by HGS Trust’s Life President, Dr Mervyn Miller, masonry” – for the Surrey garden of his collaborator Gertrude
some parents and teachers that grandparent understands. author of Hampstead Garden Suburb: Arts & Crafts Utopia Jekyll. A friend remarked that it looked like a ‘cenotaph’, a (then)
growing up bilingual is not only Parents who speak different ‘(1992/2006), the Reverend Alan Walker, Vicar of St Jude’s and obscure term unknown to Lutyens which meant “a monument
fraught with challenges but could languages should therefore HGS Archives Trustee, and Mrs Lucrezia Walker. erected to a deceased person whose body is buried elsewhere.”
even be a risk to educational encourage their children to speak Edwin Lutyens was appointed Consulting Architect to When, in 1919, Lloyd George asked him to design a catafalque
development. This perception both. They can do this by providing Hampstead Garden Suburb in May 1908. He was commissioned for the anniversary of the Armistice, Lutyens immediately
needs to change as research systematic exposure to both with the task of designing the centrepiece: the churches and remembered the garden cenotaph and evolved a design, not as
conducted both in the UK languages and by so doing they Institute on Central Square and the private houses around it. a catafalque, but as the empty tomb – the ‘monument of
(Cambridge) and in Canada should be safe in the knowledge Because of his departure for New Delhi in 1912 many of the millions buried elsewhere’. Interestingly, a wooden model
(Toronto) indicated that the that knowing the language of houses were completed by others to plans based on his original (perhaps an original design) of the Cenotaph stood in the Free
reverse holds true. one’s parents is an important designs. St Jude’s and the Free Church are two of only five Church as part of a war memorial scheme until the 1930s.
The research showed that and essential component of churches designed by Lutyens and the only Grade 1 Listed The Archives Trust (suburbarchives.org) possesses several
bilingual children ‘notice’ better children’s cultural identity and buildings in the London Borough of Barnet. plans of actual and proposed schemes by Lutyens.
how language works and, as a sense of belonging.
result, outperform monolingual There is one more reason to Torpedoed engineering. However, he came to greatly admire the Anglo-
children in tasks linked to encourage bilingualism. A recent Catholic ‘slum priest’ Father Basil Jellicoe, discovered his own
language awareness. For example, article in the journal of Neurology Torpedoed: The True Story of the vocation, and was about to commence theological training in
they can distinguish whether a reported that bilingual patients World War II Sinking of the Cambridge when the war broke out.
sentence is grammatically correct with Alzheimer’s had been “Children’s Ship” by Deborah On the Benares, Michael, the youngest of the escorts, soon
from whether it is truthful. In diagnosed 4.3 years later and Heiligman has just been became a favourite with the children. He organised games of
one experiment, children were had reported the onset of published by Godwin Books/ tennis and tug-of-war and taught them how to lasso deck chairs.
asked if the illogical sentence symptoms 5.1 years later than Henry Holt in New York. It tells A few minutes after midnight on 18 September the Benares
“Apples grow on noses” was the monolingual patients. the story of the final trip of the was torpedoed by the German submarine U-48. 258 passengers
grammatically correct. The mono- All of the above should passenger liner SS City of and crew (of 406) died, including 77 of the 90 evacuee children
lingual children couldn’t answer. indicate that there are two Benares which set sail in and six of their ten escorts. Michael Rennie repeatedly dived into
They’d say: “That’s silly”, but the major reasons for people to pass September 1940 from the sea from lifeboat No. 11 to rescue drowning children but
bilingual children would say, in their heritage language to their Liverpool for Canada with one died of exhaustion himself before the rescue ships arrived. He is
their own words, “It’s silly, but children. Firstly it connects hundred evacuee children on memorialised in a mural in St Jude’s church. Deborah Heiligman
it’s grammatically correct.” children to their ancestors and board. Many of the children notes that the overwhelming majority of the crew were South
Bilingual children manifested secondly bilingualism is good came from the Harrow area, Asian Muslims whose stories were not collected after the disaster.
a cognitive system, which allowed for you. It makes brains stronger. but one of their escorts was Torpedoed tells the story of the Benares in a meticulously
them to attend to important Remember it is never too Michael Rennie, the son of paced and handsomely designed volume illustrated with
information and ignore the less late to learn another language, the then vicar of St Jude’s contemporary photos and documents as well as original
important. The benefits go even only think of the advantages it Church, Hampstead Garden Suburb. drawings by Lawrence Lee. Heiligman writes for children.
further, as Dr Alexopoulou of would give you. The Holy Roman Rennie was 23 and a recent graduate of Keble College, Torpedoed is aimed at 10-14 years olds but it is the most
Cambridge University department Emperor Charles V (1500-1558) Oxford. A former pupil of Christ’s Hospital and Gordonstoun deeply-researched and complete account of the tragedy, and
of Theoretical and Applied famously said, “I speak in Latin (where he was close to the then Prince Philip of Greece), includes an index, detailed references and bibliography. The
Linguistics explained: “Studies to God, Italian to Women, Michael was a keen sportsman and self-taught motor mechanic. 80th anniversary of the sinking of the Benares will be marked
show that a bilingual child is French to Men, and German to As an undergraduate he invented and patented a device to with a special commission at Proms at St Jude’s in 2020.
better able to cope with tasks my Horse.” immobilise cars and he was originally heading for a career in The Reverend Alan Walker
that involve attention, memory MARIE-CHRISTINE O’CALLAGHAN
OBITUAR Y took the house on the Suburb. Edda worked as a correspondent
Edda Tasiemka – for German magazines and TV while Hans (who died in 1979)
Brownhill Insurance Group have been insuring came to concentrate on building up the archive and turning it
the residents and businesses of Hampstead the ‘Human Google’ into a commercial enterprise. A feature on the Culture Show in
Garden Suburb for over 30 years. 2014 in which Lyn Barber introduced Alan Yentob to Edda (the
‘Human Google’) brought the Tasiemka collection to a wider
Edda Tasiemka who lived in Temple Fortune Lane died on March audience. By then the internet had transformed information
We understand the uniqueness of this area and 30 this year. Although she lived relatively quietly in her latter gathering but the value of access to material in its original
therefore can provide the most appropriate years, her home was a destination for historians, writers and printed form in providing context and perspective remained.
cover for both residents and businesses. journalists because it contained what was probably the most Happily, the collection has now been transferred in its entirety to
extensive newspaper cuttings library in London. Every room the London-based Hyman Archive, the world’s largest collection
(apart perhaps for the elegant sitting room) was filled with of periodicals.
visit us online: meticulously sorted and labelled files of clippings. Murder, Edda Tasiemka had a great dislike of religion but was happy
www.brownhillgroup.co.uk bigamy, the Russian Revolution, Lord Lucan, the Beatles all had to offer the vicar a large glass of sherry on his visits and to talk at
their folders and dossiers. Edda daily took her scissors to every
length about her life and adventures. A recording of a
email us: national newspaper and many a magazine. As most newspapers conversation with the Reverend Alan Walker – mainly about her
info@brownhillgroup.co.uk disposed of their own clippings collections, and before scanned childhood and youth in Nazi Germany – is held by the HGS
archives became readily available, her cross-referenced collection
Archives Trust.
call us: was an essential resource for researchers.
020 8353 8907 communist activist, but she was brought up solely by her
Edda Hoppe was born in Hamburg in 1922. Her father was a
mother in a left-wing milieu. She was excluded from her local
school at the age of 11 for refusing to participate in Nazi youth
Join hundreds of Hampstead organisations and had to travel to another in the city. This of
Garden Suburb residents course aroused the suspicions of the Gestapo who began a
and businesses by insuring series of interrogations and apartment searches which
with Brownhill Insurance culminated in her mother’s arrest in 1938. Edda herself
Group. managed to train as a draughtswoman and survived the war in
Hamburg. She then worked for the British Army of Occupation
and in 1949 met Hans Tasiemka, a journalist who was working
as an interpreter and reporting on war crimes trials. The later
When it comes to insurance,
collection had its origins in the newspaper cuttings he stuffed
we've got you covered. into his pockets for preparing his articles.
Edda and Hans came to London and married at Hampstead
Registry Office. They lived for a time in Finchley and in 1962 The Hampstead
Garden Suburb Archives Trust
insurance exists to preserve the history and culture of the Suburb
Website: www.suburbarchives.com · Contact: 020 8455 8813 or 8455 2877 · Email: suburbarchives@gmail.com

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