I have learnt that many people came to live locally during World War Two, in order to escape from the bombing in London. According to Canon Jefferies, the Vicar of Chipperfield 1915-46, the population increased by 500 during the war years. Some people told me that James Mason, star of both stage and screen in America and Britain, was among that number.
So I could find out more. Peggy Harpley was the recipient of one of my many, “Do you know?” phone calls! Within twenty four hours she had produced a copy of James Mason’s autobiography*. He was born in Huddersfield and came from a family of textile merchants. He was educated at Marlborough and studied classics at Peterhouse, Cambridge. His aim was to join the Indian Civil Service. He switched to architecture and gained a first but by 1932, the bottom had dropped out of the trade. So he looked for work in the theatre, where he played many minor Shakespearian roles, working with famous names such as Roger Livesey, John Gielgud and Charles Laughton.
In 1937, many stars were leaving England and going to American but James Mason and his friends, Pamela and Roy Kellino, decided to stay and make a film of their own. James and Pamela wrote the script and Roy, as director and principal cameraman, knocked it into shape. By the outbreak of the war, Pamela and James were living together, much to the horror of James’ parents. Being a conscientious objector, James was subjected to a protracted tribunal. Pamela who had become addicted to the “good life”, grew copious amounts of vegetables for themselves and the locals and kept numerous poultry at their Maidenhead home. They moved to a smallholding at Beaconsfield, hoping that farming, as a reserved occupation, would keep James out of the war.
In 1941, they got married at Amersham Registry Office. The occasion was not without humour because the Registrar insisted on calling Pamela Kellino by the name Pamela Gislingham. Apparently the forbears of Pamela’s first husband Roy, being circus people, had switched names from Gislingham to the Italian sounding Kellino for publicity purposes. Anyway, for legal purposes, Gislingham it had to be!
In 1945, after the war in Europe had ended, the Masons moved to a place that James described as “A lovely house near Kings Langley, with the attractive name of Olleberrie Farm, which was neither very big nor very expensive”. (It is in fact, at Belsize, behind The Plough and is currently occupied by David Seaman, the former England goalkeeper.) James went on to describe the garden which had some lovely trees, a terrace and a rather neglected orchard at the bottom end.
By this stage James Mason was an international star and famous producers visited Olleberrie Farm bearing gifts and offering contracts. After a lot of discussion, the Masons decided to move to America, leaving Roy Kellino and his second wife in charge at Olleberrie Farm, with particular instructions to look after the three geese which had been inherited with the property. The Masons’ maid Gladys, who was also a good cook, declined their invitation to go to America as well. Does anyone recall Gladys? Coincidentally, we learnt from the December issue of Chipperfield News that another employee of the Masons was Dorothy Gilbert (nŽe Burgess) who worked at Olleberrie Farm as a waitress.
Three and a half years later, Pamela and James returned to Olleberrie Farm, whilst using the house as background for a scene in a film. They feared that they might fall in love with the house all over again and want to buy it back from the Kellinos but the alterations made to the garden broke their hearts, so they were spared any yearnings to return to their former home and went back to California quite happily.
*Before I Forget by James Mason. Published by Hamish Hamilton.
Mary Nobbs