Life
1913-1980 [Patrick Gordon Campbell; 3rd Lord Glenavy, Baron; pseud. ‘Quidnunc’];
b. 6 June, Dublin; son of 2nd. Baron and Governor of Bank of Ireland and
Beatrice Lady Glenavy [née Elvery]; ed. Ossall, Pembroke College,
Oxford, in Germany, and at the Sorbonne; succeeded 1963; left Oxford without
degree; visited Germany and France; taken on Irish Times by Robert Smyllie and
reported on “Courts Day by Day”; inaugurated parliamentary
sketch of Dáil in which TDs were caricatured - or caricatured themselves;moved to London, but returned at declaration
of war; took up residence in river-boat nr. Carrick-on-Shannon, with the
intention of writing; joined Irish chief petty officer in Irish Marine
Service (Dublin Port Control) during World War II; re-joined Irish
Times on personal appeal to Smyllie and given charge of “Irishman’s
Diary” as “Quidnunc”, the entries being separated by
days, weeks and occasionally months; m. Sylvia Willoughby, 1941; worked
with Frank Launder on script of Captain Boycott (with Stewart
Granger and Kathleen Ryan); appt. weekly columnist for Irish edn. of Sunday
Dispatch; established reputation as comic with pieces such as ‘Mr
Smyllie, Sir!’; and ‘How to Become a Scratch Golfer’; divorced
Sylvia, 1947; worked on Sunday Dispatch in London, 1947-49, and
asst.-ed. Lilliput, 1947-53; m. [Chery] Louise Monro, 1947, divorced
1966; joined Sunday Times, 1961, sustaining a whimsical column
throughout the sixties; m. Vivienne Orme, 1966, by whom a dg. Margaret
Brigid; participated in popular TV show Call My Bluff;
retired to S. France; 16 books include an autobiography; The p-p-Penguin
Patrick Campbell (1950); A Short Trot with a Cultured Mind,
ill. Ronald Searle (1950), and 30 Years on the Job: The Best of Patrick
Campbell (1976; 1st ed. 1973); d. Cannes, 10 Nov., DIB OCIL
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Works
An Irishman’s Diary (London: Cassell & Co. 1950), 141pp.,
illustrated by Ronald Searle; [ded. to Robert Maire Smyllie]; entries
from May 30th, 1944 to August 5th, 1946; My Life and Easy Times,
produced by Vivienne Knight (London: Blond 1967; rep. edn. Star 1979;
another edn. Pavilion 1988), 215pp.; Ulick O’Connor, ed. & intro.,
The Campbell Companion: The Best of Patrick Campbell, intro. by
Ulick O’Connor [1987] (London: Pavilion 1994) 148pp.
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Notes
Brian Inglis, Downstart (Chatto & Windus
1990), p.275, &c.
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)