Black Diamonds (67 page)

44. The Kennedy family at Buckingham Palace, c. 1938

45. Kathleen ‘Kick’ Kennedy with her brother Jack

46. Kick and Billy, Marquess of Hartington, flanked by the Duchess of Devonshire and Joe Kennedy Jnr, at their wedding at Chelsea Register Office, May 1944

47. Vesting Day, 1 January 1947, the day the National Coal Board took control of Britain’s 1,647 mines

48. The wreckage of the plane in which Peter and Kick were killed in May 1948

49. Students of the Lady Mabel College of Physical Education are coached in badminton in the Marble Salon at Wentworth. The priceless stone-inlaid floor has been covered by protective flooring

50. Eric, 9th Earl Fitzwilliam

51. Tom, later 10th Earl Fitzwilliam

52. Mourners at the 9th Earl Fitzwilliam’s funeral in April 1952. Leading the procession (right to left) are Tom Fitzwilliam, his brother Toby, Lady Juliet Fitzwilliam (Peter’s daughter), and her mother, ‘Obby’, Countess Fitzwilliam. Lady Mabel Smith follows behind

53. The desecration of the landscape around Wentworth House after the open-cast mining

Notes

PREFACE

p. xvii ‘
He had left
…’: ‘Richest by century’,
Sunday Times
, 26 March 2000. £3.3 billion, the contemporary value of £2.8 million, was calculated on the basis of Britain’s GDP in 1902.

‘In the century to come …’: ibid.

p. xviii ‘
the train bored
…’: Roger Dataller (pseud.),
Oxford into Coalfield
, J. M. Dent & Sons, 1934, p. 11.

p. xix ‘
A feeling of awe
…’:
Sheffield Daily Telegraph
, 26 February 1902.

‘The workmen on the various estates …’: ibid.

INTRODUCTION

p. xxi ‘
I’ve never seen him
…’: author’s interview with Joan Steele, spring 2004.

p. xxii ‘
The Fitzwilliams had a secret life
’: author’s interview with Peter Diggle, November 2005.

‘My grandmother made me promise …’: author’s interview with Lady Ann Bowlby, March 2004.

‘That generation of the family were very proud …’: author’s interview with Ian Bond, April 2006.

CHAPTER ONE

p. 3 ‘
In addition to the main family seat
…’: the will of William, 6th Earl Fitzwilliam, Probate Registry, London.

‘Milton looked very tall and good-looking …’: Charles, Viscount Halifax, to his sister, Emily Meynell Ingram, 25 February 1902, Borthwick Institute for Archives, University of York, A2.267.3.

p. 4 ‘
He had a perfect horror
…’: Fitzwilliam v Fitzwilliam, Royal Courts of Justice, February 1951.

CHAPTER TWO

p. 5 ‘
Gold and green
…’: Wentworth House furniture inventory, 1902. Private Collection.

p. 6 ‘
As late as the 1920s, a boy from Greaseborough
…’: Roger Dataller (pseud.), A
Pitman’s Notebook
, Jonathan Cape, 1925.

p. 7 ‘
There was no electric light
…’: conversation with Elfreda, Countess of Wharncliffe, recorded in 1977 by Roy Young.

p. 8 ‘
They did nothing else except lamps
…’: ibid.

p. 9 ‘
Agnes and I were over at Wentworth
…’: Charles, Viscount Halifax, to his sister, Emily Meynell Ingram, 2 March 1902, Hickleton Papers, Borthwick Institute for Archives, University of York, A2.267.3.

‘Affairs at Wentworth seem in a most wretched state …’: Mary Sutton to Edward Wood, 9 March 1902, Hickleton Papers, Borthwick Institute for Archives, University of York, A2.140.

‘Agnes tells me the rows …’: Charles, Viscount Halifax, to his sister, Emily Meynell Ingram, 7 March 1902, ibid., A2.267.3.

p. 10 ‘
I think in my yesterday’s note
…’: Kathleen Doyne to her Aunt Berta, 21 February 1902. Private Collection.

‘They’d done nothing …’: conversation with Elfrida, Countess of Wharncliffe, recorded in 1977 by Roy Young.

p. 11 ‘
She made the milk go sour
…’: ibid.

‘They wanted to kick him out …’: ibid.

p. 13 ‘
Tied with a pink silk ribbon
…’: Sheffield Archives, Unlisted Material, Wentworth Woodhouse Muniments, Box 236.