Edward Marsh

Edward Howard Marsh, the second child and only son of Frederick Howard Marsh (1839–1915), and his first wife, Jane, daughter of Spencer Perceval, was born in London on 18th November 1872.

Marsh's father was a surgeon who later became professor of surgery at the University of Cambridge and master of Downing College. His mother was a nurse who helped to establish the Alexandra Hospital for Children with Hip Disease.

Marsh was educated at Westminster School and at Trinity College, where he obtained first classes in both parts of the classical tripos (1893–5). While at university he became close friends with George Edward Moore, Bertrand Russell and Maurice Baring. Marsh was very interested in the arts and became a strong advocate of the work of Henrik Ibsen.

In 1896 Marsh was employed in the Australian department of the Colonial Office, where he served as assistant private secretary to Joseph Chamberlain. One of his fellow civil servants said it seemed fitting that this immaculately dressed and monocled gentleman "should spend his days in heavily-carpeted rooms, locking and locking Cabinet boxes with one of the four keys that dangled from a slim silver chain."

On the death of an uncle in 1903, Marsh inherited a large sum of money. Three years later he received a share of the government money paid to the descendants of Spencer Perceval. Marsh decided to use this money to start a fund for the patronage of the arts. With the help of his friend, Neville Lytton, he purchased some paintings by Thomas Girtin, Paul Sandby and John Sell Cotman. Marsh was also a great supporter of modern poetry. After writing a good review of the work of Rupert Brooke in the Poetry Review, the two men became close friends.

In 1905 Winston Churchill invited Marsh to become his private secretary. According to his biographer, Christopher Hassall: "For the next twenty-three years Marsh was at Churchill's right hand whenever he was in office. He toured British East Africa, Uganda, and Egypt with him in 1907–8, and served with him successively at the Board of Trade (1908–10), the Home Office (1910–11), the Admiralty (1911–15), and, from May to November 1915, the duchy of Lancaster."

In December 1911, he ignored the advice of Neville Lytton to buy a painting, Parrot Tulips, by Duncan Grant. Marsh later recalled that he decided to reject the advice of buying acknowledged masterpieces from the main Mayfair dealers. He said he found it much more exciting "to go to the studios and the little galleries, and purchase, wet from the brush, the possible masterpieces of the possible Masters of the future."

He also became interested in the work of Henri Gaudier-Brzeska. He later introduced Marsh to Mark Gertler and John S. Currie. Marsh gradually got to know a group of artists at the Slade School known as the Coster Gang. This included Gertler, Currie, C.R.W. Nevinson, Stanley Spencer, Maxwell Gordon Lightfoot, Edward Wadsworth, Adrian Allinson and Rudolph Ihlee.

Marsh was a homosexual and as David Boyd Haycock, the author of A Crisis of Brilliance (2009) has pointed out: "Marsh's keenness for painting was matched only by his passions for poetry and handsome young men." He became very attached to Gertler who he took to the theatre. He told Rupert Brooke: "Gertler is by birth an absolute little East End Jew. Directly I can get about I am going to see him in Bishopsgate and be initiated into the Ghetto. He is rather beautiful, and has a funny little shine black fringe."

Currie was invited by Marsh to dinner at Gray's Inn. He brought Dolly Henry with him and Marsh described her as "an extremely pretty Irish girl with red hair". The following day Marsh wrote to Rupert Brooke: "Currie came yesterday I have conceived a passion for both him and Gertler, they are decidedly two of the most interesting of les jeunes, and I can hardly wait till you come back to make their acquaintance."

Mark Gertler and John S. Currie now became Marsh's artistic mentors. They argued that he should buy the work of their friend, Stanley Spencer. Marsh told Brooke: "They both admire Spencer more than anyone else. Gertler was to have taken me to see him (at Cookham) tomorrow, but it's had to be put off... I shall be buying some pictures soon! I think I told you I was inheriting £200 from a mad aunt aged 90, it turns out to be nearer four hundred than two! So I'm going to have my rooms done up and go a bust in Gertler, Currie and Spencer."

Edward Marsh met Spencer and eventually purchased the Apple Gatherers for 50 guineas. Marsh told Brooke that he had hung the painting in his spare bedroom. "I can't bring myself really to acquiesce in the false proportions, though in every other respect I think it magnificent." He added that Spencer "has a charming face" and that "we got on like houses on fire." However, Marsh complained about his lack of output: "Spencer... only had about two things to show, he does work slowly." Brooke responded: "I hate you lavishing all your mad aunt's money on those bloody artists."

Marsh introduced Gertler to Ottoline Morrell and Gilbert Cannan. Morrell invited Gertler to tea at her home at Bedford Square. She asked him "if he didn't find it hard reconciling his home life with the life he lived at the slade, and with Mr Eddie Marsh". He admitted "that he could not but feel antagonistic to the smart and the worldly, while at the same time he felt depressed by the want of cultivation of his own people."

Marsh retained his interest in poetry. He joined forces with Harold Edward Monro to publish an anthology of modern verse, under the title Georgian Poetry. Marsh was the editor and Monro the publisher of these books. The first anthology appeared in December 1912 and eventually developed into a series of five volumes published over a period of ten years. Some of the poets featured in the early editions included Rupert Brooke, D. H. Lawrence, James Elroy Flecker, Lascelles Abercrombie, Gordon Bottomley, William H. Davies and Walter de la Mare. Later Marsh and Monro published the war poetry of Siegfried Sassoon, Robert Graves and Edward Blunden.

In August 1913 Marsh decided to spend an inheritance from an aunt on paintings by John S. Currie, Mark Gertler and Stanley Spencer. He also purchased the work of John Nash and Paul Nash. By 1914 he had one of the most valuable collections of modern work in private hands in his apartment at 5 Raymond Buildings, Gray's Inn.

Marsh became very close to Currie and Gertler who he believed had the potential to be great artists. Marsh wrote to Rupert Brooke: "Gertler is... only 22 - Currie I think a little older, and his pictures proportionately better, he can do what he wants, which Gertler can't quite yet, I think - but he will."

In March 1914, John S. Currie and his girlfriend Dolly Henry decided to move to Brittany. However, she returned after a few weeks. Currie explained to Marsh what happened: "She had gone away friendly, but she was very much out of place here. Peasant life made her long for cafes and clubs in London. There are many good things in her, but all mv recent trouble in various ways might have been avoided had she better sense. The emotional and sexual horror and beauty of the whole damned thing - the months of torment and waste of energy, my loss of control, seems like a hell to me now."

Dolly Henry took a flat in Paultons Square, just off the King's Road. When Currie returned to London he heard rumours that Dolly had modelled for pornographic photographs and was spreading rumours about him in an attempt to ruin his career. Currie wrote to Dolly: "A very fury of remorse and love and sorrow is raging in me. I blame myself for everything. I am over-whelmed with self-disgust... As the days go on the feeling of all I have lost in you becomes so frightful I cannot breathe. I am looking for a place I can bury my heart and forget."

On 8th October 1914, Currie murdered Dolly Henry. The Times reported the following day. "A young woman, whose name is said to be Dorothy or Eileen Henry, was found fatally shot in a house in Chelsea... At a quarter to eight yesterday morning shots and screams were heard. The other occupants of the house ran upstairs and found the woman on the landing in her nightdress bleeding from wounds. In the bedroom a man partly dressed was discovered with wounds in the chest. He was taken to Chelsea infirmary, but the woman died before the arrival of a doctor." Currie died three days later. His final words were: "It was all so ugly". Marsh was devastated by the news of the death of a man who he had so carefully nurtured.

Mark Gertler moved in with Edward Marsh in 1914. According to Gretchen Gerzina, "Marsh introduced Gertler to a new world: that of intellectuals, writers, and society. He was friendly with D. H. Lawrence, Katherine Mansfield and her husband John Middleton Murry, and Siegfried Sassoon; he had Gertler don evening dress for the first time."

Gertler refused to support Britain's involvement in the First World War. "I can never set out to please - my greatest spiritual pleasure in life is to paint just as I feel impelled to do at the time... But to set out to please would ruin my process." The two men argued about the conflict and on 19th October, 1915, Gertler decided to leave Marsh: "I have come to the conclusion that we two are too fundamentally different to continue friends. Since the war, you have gone in one direction and I in another. All the time I have been stifling my feelings. Firstly because of your kindness to me and secondly I did not want to hurt you. I am I believe what you call a Passivist. I don't know exactly what that means, but I just hate this war and should really loathe to help in it."

After the Battle of the Somme Gertler began work on Merry-Go-round (1916). He wrote that "I live in a constant state of over-excitement, so much do my work and conception thrill me. It is almost too much for me and I am always feeling rather ill. Sometimes after a day's work I can hardly walk." Considered by many art critics as the most important British painting of the war, it shows a group of military and civilian figures caught on the vicious circle of the roundabout. One gallery refused to show the painting because Gertler was a conscientious objector. Eventually it appeared in the Mansard Gallery in May, 1917. D. H. Lawrence wrote to Gertler: "I have just seen your terrible and dreadful picture Merry-go-round. This is the first picture you have painted: it is the best modern picture I have seen: I think it is great and true. But it is horrible and terrifying. If they tell you it is obscene, they will say truly. You have made a real and ultimate revelation. I think this picture is your arrival."

During the First World War Edward Marsh worked with Winston Churchill when he was minister of munitions. After the death of Rupert Brooke in 1915 he became the poet's literary executor. He continued working with Churchill when he became secretary of state for war (1919–21), at the Colonial Office (1921-24) and at the Treasury (1924–9). The 1929 General Election brought Ramsay MacDonald and the Labour Party to power. Marsh now worked under Jimmy Thomas. In November 1935 he became secretary to Malcolm MacDonald. March retired from the civil service in February 1937.

The artist, Graham Sutherland, who met him when he was a young student, recalled his "high, light, slightly lisping, withdrawn, yet infinitely persuasive voice - those extraordinary upturned eyebrows, the quizzical regard and the tensed elegant body."

Edward Marsh, who had forgiven Mark Gertler for his pacifism, continued to buy his paintings even though he admitted he no longer liked or understood his work. In 1939 Gertler had his last exhibition. It was not a great success. Gertler wrote to Marsh: "I'm afraid I am depressed about my show - I've sold only one so far... it's very disheartening." Marsh replied that he no longer liked Gertler's paintings. Gertler tried to explain his situation: "Obviously a number of other people feel as you do about my recent work... I can never set out to please - my greatest spiritual pleasure in life is to paint just as I feel impelled to do at the time... But to set out to please would ruin my process." The following month Gertler committed suicide in his studio.

Marsh was a trustee of the Tate Gallery and a governor of the Old Vic. He also served on the committee of the Contemporary Art Society and the council of the Royal Society of Literature. According to his biographer, Christopher Hassall: "His taste in contemporary painting advanced with the times with easier adaptability than his appreciation of verse, yet he remained loyal to the principles of representational art as against the various abstract manifestations which won favour in his time. His finely balanced aesthetic sensibility was everywhere evident, except at the theatre where, by his own admission, he enjoyed the play like a child, and showed it."

Edward Marsh, who never married, died on 13th January 1953 in his flat in Knightsbridge flat. On his death The Times described him as "the last individual patron of the arts".

Primary Sources

(1) Edward Marsh, letter to Rupert Brooke (26th August, 1913)

Currie came yesterday. I have conceived a passion for both him and Gertler, they are decidedly two of the most interesting of les jeunes, and I can hardly wait till you come back to make their acquaintance. Gertler is by birth an absolute little East End Jew. Directly I can get about I am going to see him in Bishopsgate and be initiated into the Ghetto. He is rather beautiful, and has a funny little shine black fringe, his mind is deep and simple, and I think he's got the feu sacre. He's only 22 - Currie I think a little older, and his pictures proportionately better, he can do what he wants, which Gertler can't quite yet, I think - but he will.

(2) Edward Marsh, letter to Rupert Brooke (August, 1913)

They both admire Spencer more than anyone else. Gertler was to have taken me to see him (at Cookham) tomorrow, but it's had to be put off... I shall be buying some pictures soon! I think I told you I was inheriting £200 from a mad aunt aged 90, it turns out to be nearer four hundred than two! So I'm going to have my rooms done up and go a bust in Gertler, Currie and Spencer.

(3) John S. Currie to Edward Marsh (April 1914)

She had gone away friendly, but she was very much out of place here. Peasant life made her long for cafes and clubs in London. There are many good things in her, but all mv recent trouble in various ways might have been avoided had she better sense. The emotional and sexual horror and beauty of the whole damned thing - the months of torment and waste of energy, my loss of control, seems like a hell to me now.

(4) Mark Gertler, letter to Edward Marsh (17th August, 1915)

I have come to the conclusion that we two are too fundamentally different to continue friends. Since the war, you have gone in one direction and I in another. All the time I have been stifling my feelings. Firstly because of your kindness to me and secondly I did not want to hurt you. I am I believe what you call a "Passivist". I don't know exactly what that means, but I just hate this war and should really loathe to help in it...

As long as I am not forced into this horrible atmosphere I shall work away. Of course from this you will understand that we had not better meet any more and that I cannot any longer accept your help. Forgive me for having been dishonest with you and for having under such conditions accepted your money. I have been punished enough for it and have suffered terribly. I stuck it so long, because it seemed hard to give up this studio which I love. But now rather than be dishonest I shall give it up and go to my cottage in the country. I have still a little money of my own from the Sadler portrait. On this I shall live. In the country I can live on £1 a week. I shall live there until there is conscription or until my money is used up.

Your kindness has been an extraordinary help to me. Since your help I have done work far, far better than before. I shall therefore never cease to be thankful to you. Also if I earn any money by painting I shall return you what I owe you. I shall send you the latchkey and please would you get Mrs Elgy to send me my pyjamas and slippers.

(5) Gretchen Gerzina, A Life of Dora Carrington: 1893-1932 (1989)

Marsh also introduced Gertler to a new world: that of intellectuals, writers, and society. He was friendly with D. H. Lawrence, Katherine Mansfield and her husband John Middleton Murry, and Siegfried Sassoon; he had Gertler don evening dress for the first time. Gertler was grateful, but not impressed, after a trip to Cambridge in November and his comments about the coterie he met there parallel his later reactions to Bloomsbury: "They talk well, argue masterly, and yet, and yet there is something - something - that makes me dislike them. Some moments I hate them! ... But if God will help me to put into my work that passion, that inspiration, that profundity of soul that I know I possess, I will triumph over those learned Cambridge youths. One of them argued down at me about painting!" These were exactly the sort of people among whom Carrington would spend her life, and for whom she would eventually forsake Gertler. Then she, like Gertler, would at first feel her lack of education keenly and would sit mute as the "learned Cambridge" people argued.

(6) Mark Gertler, letter to Edward Marsh (May, 1939)

Obviously a number of other people feel as you do about my recent work... I can never set out to please - my greatest spiritual pleasure in life is to paint just as I feel impelled to do at the time... But to set out to please would ruin my process - and you know me well enough to realize that I am sincere - and to paint to the best of my capacity is and has always been my primary aim in life - I have sacrificed much by doing so... You must remember that many works by artists of the past were considered unattractive during their life time - there is just a chance that some of my works may be more appreciated in the future.