See also
| Name: | Ernest Lewis Blakeman VESEY |
| Sex: | Male |
| Alt. Name: | Ernest LEWIS |
| Father: | Arthur Henry VEYSEY (1868-1945) |
| Mother: | Anna Blakeman LEWIS (1883-1968) |
| Birth | Oct 1907 (cal) | New York, New York, USA1 |
| Occupation | Writer | |
| Ernest Lewis was the pen-name of Ernest Blakeman Vesey. A keen sportsman, naturalist and animal lover who wrote a number of animal-themed novels featuring dogs, foxes and birds and also one featuring a horse. He had a short and rather tragic life. He was blind in one eye and later lost an arm in a motor accident. After his accident he undertook physically demanding research for his books to prove that he was not impaired at all by his disability: including travelling to Iceland (which resulted in his book In Search of the Gyr-Falcon) and learning about guide dog training for his book about a German Shepherd guide-dog, Beowulf. He died on the 23rd of January, 1937, aged only twenty-nine. Titles: The High Mettled Racer, 1933, Beth: A Sheepdog 1934,Beowulf, Guide Dog, 1936The Hill Fox 1937, In Search Of The Gyr-Falcon, 1938, |
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| Arrival | 2 Nov 1912 (age 5) | from New York; Liverpool, Lancashire, England |
| On the Baltic, travelling 1st Class with the family and servants. Arthur was 42, Anna was 29. Young Arthur was 7, Ernest was 5, Blakeman was 3, Mary was 1, Mary Saunders was 26, Teresa Fry was 34 | ||
| Census | 19 Jun 1921 (age 13 yrs 8 mns) | Horsington, Templecombe, Somerset, England1 |
| Stowell House Education: Whole Time |
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| Occupation | 19 Jun 1921 (age 13) | None; Horsington, Templecombe, Somerset, England1 |
| National or Tribal Origin | 19 Jun 1921 (age 13) | Resident1 |
| Census | 19 Jun 1921 (age 13 yrs 8 mns) | Langton Matravers, Dorset, England2 |
| Durnford School, High Street Education: Whole Time |
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| National or Tribal Origin | 19 Jun 1921 (age 13) | Naturalised British Subject2 |
| Education | 1922 (est) (age 14-15) | Eton; Windsor, Berkshire, England |
| Death | 23 Jan 1937 (age 29) | Wincanton, Somerset, England |
| Burial | 27 Jan 1937 | Templecombe, Somerset, England. |
| Stowell Church Service conducted by his brother Rev. Arthur Laurence Vesey |
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| Probate | 29 Jul 1937 | Bristol, Gloucestershire, England |
| Suddon Grange, Wincanton, Somerset Admiistration to Arthur Henry Vesey of No occupation. Effects £207 10s. |
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He lost the sight in one eye due to an accident aged 12, and later had his arm amputated following a motor accident.
A Tribute to Ernest Vesey (1907-1937)
Ernest Vesey was a naturalist, author, falconer and sportsman. Vesey had a passion for hawking, horses and hounds… He wrote “In Search of the Gyr-Falcon”, first published, 1938. Vesey made a trip to north-west Iceland to bring back some Gyrfalcon eyasses to hack, before taking them up to be trained. One of these Gyr tiercels he brought back was named “Agamemnon”. He was one of 6 Gyrs (4 tiercels and 2 falcons) taken as eyasses in Iceland by Vesey in the summer of 1936. They were hacked by the famous falconer Gilbert Blaine on Islay in the Hebrides. One of these falcons (this falcon is referred to as “The Gorgon”) ultimately found its way to the London Zoo, where it died in February 1939.
The book includes A Memoir of the author written by his father, Arthur Vesey. An extract: “Ernest lies in the little churchyard of the hamlet of Stowell. It slopes in full view of the Vale that he loved so much. It is rather an untidy little churchyard, and there are no pompous memorials to the rich and the great – mostly lichened and leaning headstones to farmers and their families. There is a pond opposite, and there are the ducks just as there used to be, when he and his brothers flung sods towards them to make them quack while their mother busied herself at the pious task of arranging flowers on the altar for Sunday service. Guinea fowl, ducks and hens often stray into this little churchyard, and this is just as Ernest would have wished.” A. V.
News Chronicle, 5 Oct 1938
At the age of 12 he was blinded in one eye. Before he was 20 he lost his left arm in a motor accident.
WINCANTON
Death of Mr.E.L.Vesey
A LOVER OF ANIMALS
The death took place after a very short illness, of only two days, on Saturday night, of Mr. Ernest Lewis Vesey, second son of Mr. and Mrs. A.H.Vesey of Suddon Grange, Wincanton, who was 29 years of age.
Mr. Vesey was passionately fond of animals, and was an exceptionally fine horseman. He was one of the best known figures in the hunting field, and he regularly followed the Blackmore Vale Hounds and Miss Guest’s hounds. He lived mostly with animals and had an extraordinary understanding of them. He had lived at Wincanton most of his life, but some years ago he went to Newmarket to a racing stable, where he assisted Mr. College Leader, the well-known race horse trainer, who now trains for Lord Derby,
He lost his arm in a motoring accident, and some time after this he commenced to write books about animals under the name of Ernest Lewis. “The High-Mettled Racer”, “Beth” and “Beau Wolf” were published, and another book is now in the hands of the publishers.
He was out hunting on the Tuesday previous to his death, which resulted from a combination of blood poisoning and influenza.
The funeral took place at the small Stowell Church on Wednesday, in the presence of a few relatives and personal friends. The service was conducted by his brother, the Rev. A.L.Vesey, curate of St. Mary’s, Portsmouth.
The Western Gazette, Friday, 29 January 1937.
In the early Thirties he went to Cumberland with his dogs with the idea of coursing deer on foot. This was not quite a success, but while there he became deeply interested in the working of sheep dogs. It was at this time he wrote the story of the shy fell collie "Beth: A Sheep Dog"
22 May 1934 . Newmarket. Assistant trainer Ernest Vesey was accused of keeping a dog without a licence. The summons was dismissed on payment of costs.
Country Life, Dec 3rd, 1938
In Search of the Gyr-Falcon by Ernest Lewis, (Constable, 12s. 6d.)
When Mr. Lewis went to Iceland in search of gyr-falcons, it was in the hope of bringing home some specimens of this noble bird for training for falconry. Ernest Lewis was an ardent devotee of the old sport of hawking, and the gyrfalcon was famed, in days gone by, as the finest of sporting hawks. His idea was to bring home half a dozen eyasses and get them trained, as was done in days of old. The account of his Icelandic travels, of birds and beasts and of wild life in general, of the finding of several eyries and the bringing back of the young birds, makes both interesting and pathetic reading: pathetic because this young sportsman and naturalist, he whose heart was with hounds and hawks, racehorses and hunters, and who wrote of them all with loving fun, has gone from us. Ernest Vesey (Lewis was a pen-name) died in 1937, but he lives again in these pages.
Child Of The Mist
The Hill Fox, by Ernest Lewis, with decorations by Clifford Webb. Constable
This book written under the pen-name of Ernest Lewis, was the work of Ernest Vesey, who died in the first days of this year at the age of 29. Mr. Vesey, shortly after leaving Eton met with an accident which lost him an arm, but in spite of that he became a great rider to hounds and a writer, as the present volume shows, of astonishing gifts of observation and expression. His Hill Fox was born in the Northern Highlands, and grew up to be a very big handsome animal, of a striking greyness which led him to be known later as “Child of the Mist”. His early years in that far-off corrie familiarised him with the birds (including seabirds) and beasts of these regions and all – skuas, divers, kittiwakes, deer, grouse and the rest – are here carefully described in their habits and appearance.
Then a change takes place in our fox’s fortunes. A hill farmer collects him on behalf of a Southern sportsman, and he is carried off by train to the other end of the island, to a Dorset cover. Here his adventures are mostly with the hounds, whom he evades to the end. The ways of the busy animal life in the teeming South country are splendidly described by Mr. Lewis with something akin to genius of instinct and observation. This is an unusually good book of its kind.
Liverpool Daily Post, Wednesday August 4 1937
BOOKS IN REVIEW
In Search of the Gyr-Falcon
Ernest Vesey, the author of this book, died last year at the age of 29. Though his life was so tragically short, his books on Nature still live. His last writings, a record of a trip to the north-west of Iceland in search of the Gyr-falcon, now published under his pen name of “Ernest Lewis” , are the best memorial a man can have. They breathe simplicity, justice, courage, determination and kindliness to man, bird and beast.
As a boy Vesey lost his right eye by an accident, later his left arm had to be amputated—cruel handicaps to one who loved an outdoor life. This meant loneliness and he turned to writing on Nature to help himself, and he wrote well, for he loved the things he wrote about. Birds were his favourites, and so he set off to Iceland in search of the Gyr falcon, noblest of them all. His aim was to locate a number of eyries, take an eyass from each, and bring them back to the Island of Islay where they could fly at hack before being trained. To do this on a very modest sum meant hardship—to climb the crags to those eyries, with only one hand to help him, meant great courage—to face the many disappointments meant determination—these difficulties he does not really mention, they were his problems, so whether you are interested in falcons or not, this book can be read as a month or two in the life of a courageous young man.
He succeeded. Six eyesses were safely collected and he hurried back to Islay with them. There they were placed in an open shed, each with its own block to perch on. Food was tied twice a day to each block and five of them developed perfectly. They had their freedom and soon began to fly, returning to where they knew there was always food for them. For three weeks after they had started to fly they were left at hack and so they developed their full power of flight exactly as they would have done had they been left in their own eyries. By then they were very wild and three of them were handed over to, as Vesey says, “a worthy falconer to train”. He did not feel that he had the experience or knowledge to undertake this himself. So modesty must be added to his memorial. It is a worthily produced book, with many photographs. (Constable, 12s. 6d.)
The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News 23 Sep 1938
BOOKS OF THE DAY
ICELAND FALCON
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A Naturalist’s Quest
In Search of the Gyr-Falcon by Ernest Lewis, (Constable, 12s. 6d.)
His father’s brief memoir in this book tells us that “Ernest Lewis” was the pen name of Ernest Vesey, who died last year, aged 29. Though deprived by accident of the sight of the right eye before going to Eton, and of the left arm soon after leaving it, he rode to hounds, coursed deer on foot, and shot ptarmigan with a rifle fired by the right arm from the left shoulder. A naturalist as well as a sportsman, he was a lover of animals as his published books prove him to have been, but his father says, “ It was the stoop of the hawk and the soaring flight of the eagle that gave him his intensest joy”. Flight and speed were his passions. Hence his last volume which is an excellent description of a trip in 1936 to North-West Iceland, in search of the ger- or gyr-falcon, bigger and heavier, yet faster than a peregrine, and superior to all hawks in its style of flying.
National Emblem
“Ernest Lewis” regarded this falcon as the queen of the sky. It is the national emblem of Iceland, and was protected a few years ago, but he was convinced that the grandest of the world’s birds of prey is in no danger of extinction, and he was able to bring back six eyesses of a little more than four weeks old.
The search for the gyrs’ eyries and the capture of their young form an exciting story against a most interesting background, for, though rich in bird-life, the North-West has been neglected by British ornithologists. “No-one ever goes to the North-West except a very occasional Dane – none of them had ever seen an Englishman there”; but the farmers willingly entertained him, and gave him the use of their wise little ponies.
In this way he collected first-hand information about gyrs and other birds such as the white-tailed sea eagle, which is the only species in Iceland; the king eider-drake, “the handsomest plumaged bird I have ever seen”; and the great skua, which will attack man at the nest. He discovered that the gyr falcon builds her nest in a place easily accessible without a rope; that the tierce (the male) brings the falcon her food from the time that she starts to incubate the eggs, and that the ptarmigan and puffin are their favourite quarry. He also noted that the collection of eiderdown in Iceland does not cause cruelty to the eider, and that birds their have no strongly inherited fear of man. This posthumous volume is not only a contribution of the first importance to ornithology, but it also gives a very good idea of the life and household economy in a region out of the beaten track. The illustrations are excellent, and there is a map at the end of the book.
The Scotsman, Thursday August 25th 1938
British Archives of Falconry ·
Brian Bird
·
23 February 2021
·
A Tribute to Ernest Vesey (1907-1937)
Ernest Vesey was a naturalist, author, falconer and sportsman. Vesey had a passion for hawking, horses and hounds… He wrote “In Search of the Gyr-Falcon”, first published, 1938. Vesey made a trip to north-west Iceland to bring back some Gyrfalcon eyasses to hack, before taking them up to be trained. One of these Gyr tiercels he brought back was named “Agamemnon”. He was one of 6 Gyrs (4 tiercels and 2 falcons) taken as eyasses in Iceland by Vesey in the summer of 1936. They were hacked by the famous falconer Gilbert Blaine on Islay in the Hebrides. One of these falcons (this falcon is referred to as “The Gorgon”) ultimately found its way to the London Zoo, where it died in February 1939.
The book includes A Memoir of the author written by his father, Arthur Vesey. An extract: “Ernest lies in the little churchyard of the hamlet of Stowell. It slopes in full view of the Vale that he loved so much. It is rather an untidy little churchyard, and there are no pompous memorials to the rich and the great – mostly lichened and leaning headstones to farmers and their families. There is a pond opposite, and there are the ducks just as there used to be, when he and his brothers flung sods towards them to make them quack while their mother busied herself at the pious task of arranging flowers on the altar for Sunday service. Guinea fowl, ducks and hens often stray into this little churchyard, and this is just as Ernest would have wished.” A. V.
This Memoir truly moved me. As I was living in Wiltshire, not far from his last resting place in Somerset – I decided to locate Vesey’s headstone (3rd October, 2008) within the churchyard of St Mary Magdalene, Stowell. I have always admired his writing style and zest for life, so thought it was only right to pay my sincere respects.
Vesey wrote extensively and another splendid book was “The Hill Fox” (1937). He published under the pseudonym of Ernest Lewis. Vesey died 23rd January 1937, aged 29. One would need to read “In Search of the Gyr-Falcon” to truly appreciate his achievements, whilst coping with his disabilities…quite inspiring!
| 1 | (RG15/11342 RD 310 SD 2 ED 8 SN57). |
| Text From Source: Census England 1921 Address: Stowell House Place: Horsington, Templecombe, Somerset, England Name,Relation,Age,Sex,Marr/Orph'd,Birthplace,Nationality,Education,Occupation,Employment,Place of Work,Chd <16,Children's Ages Arthur Henry Veysey,Head,53y 2m,M,Married,Taunton, Somerset, England,,,None,,,3,10,12,13 Anna Blakeman Veysey,Wife,38y 4m,F,Married,New York, New York, USA,Resident,,None,,,, CROSSED THROUGH Arthur Laurence Veysey,Son,16y 1m,M,Single,New York, New York, USA,Resident,Whole Time,None,,,,CROSSED THROUGH [He was at Eton] CROSSED THROUGH Ernest Lewis Blakeman Veysey,Son,13y 8m,M,Both Alive,New York, New York, USA,Resident,Whole Time,None,,,,CROSSED THROUGH [He was at Durnford School] CROSSED THROUGH Blakeman Veysey,Son,12y 3m,M,Both Alive,New York, New York, USA,Resident,Whole Time,None,,,,CROSSED THROUGH [He was at Durnford School] Mary Lewis Veysey,Daughter,10y 4m,F,Both Alive,New York, New York, USA,Resident,Whole Time,None,,,, There was a visitor - Mary Gwendolyn Hindesman, from Shropshire, a teacher, and three servants, Sarah Cousins, 45, Edith Coombes, 24 and Clara Harding, 16. |
| 2 | (RG15/10207 RD262 SD 1 ED 6 SN). |
| Text From Source: Census England 1921 Address: Durnford School, High Street Place: Langton Matravers, Dorset, England Name,Relation,Age,Sex,Marr/Orph'd,Birthplace,Nationality,Education,Occupation,Employment,Place of Work,Chd <16,Children's Ages Ernest Lewis Blakeman Veysey,pupil,13y 8m,M,Both Alive,New York, USA,Naturalised British Subject,Whole Time,,,,, Blakeman Veysey,pupil,12y 3m,M,Both Alive,New York, USA,Naturalised British Subject,Whole Time,,,,, Head master who prepared the return was Thomas Pellatt |