Randolf Fitzwilliam
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Contents |
His Basics
Name
Name: (Sir) Randolf Walter Jackson Fitzwilliam
Titles: KBE
Nickname(s): Andy
Dates
Birth Date: 5th March, 1910
Death Date: 19th August, 1983
Cause of Death: Undiagnosed lung cancer and complications from pneumonia
Marriage: 14th February, 1933
Places
Birth Place: Corsham, Wiltshire, England
Places of Residence: Corsham, Cape Town
Family
Parents: Frederick Fitzwilliam, Elizabeth Fitzwilliam
Siblings: Nigel Fitzwilliam, Anne Westin
Raised By: Parents and his governess, Mary Trudy Flaherty
Significant Other(s): Married to Isabella Fitzwilliam
Children: Charles Fitzwilliam, Scott Fitzwilliam, Alice Fitzwilliam
Education
School(s): Nursery school, Ludgrove School, Eton College, Royal Air Force College Cranwell.
First Language(s): English
Additional Language(s): French, passable German, some Afrikaans
Occupation: CEO of the Fitzwilliam Diamond Company from 1933 until 1960
Footnotes
His Self
Physical Appearance
Height: 6'4" (at death, 6'2")
Haircolor: Dirty blond (at death, silver and dark grey)
Eye color: Dark blue
Weight: Between 180 - 200lbs over the course of his life (at death, 130lbs)
Memorable marks: Tattoo of Isabella on his left bicep he had done during WWII. He could make it dance and referred to it as the Dancing Izzy. Scars on his leg from shrapnel.
Description: We're going with what he looked like when he was younger.
Randolf was very tall but very lithe, almost willowy until he fought in WWII, at which point he bulked up somewhat. During the war, he got a green ink tattoo of a pin up picture of Isabella done on his bicep. He could make her dance. When his children were younger, he'd make them laugh with it, but it was a terribly inappropriate picture and Isabella hated that he showed them.
He had fair hair (light brown, just about blond), which was rather wavy so it would stick up somewhat easily. He had a fair complexion, not many freckles (he burned and tanned awkwardly in contrast with his hair color). As a younger man, he tended to look very boyish. After he hit his thirties, he looked a bit more masculine.
He had dark blue eyes and a very charming smile.
His personality, like his wife's, helped enhance his appearance. He was really quite the handsome young man. In old age, he turned quite silver and was even more handsome.
Personality
Interests and Uncategorized Facts
Randolf, like his sons, was a master craftsman. He was a skilled painter, but he invested his time into the company, which, during his marriage, shifted its focus to creating exquisite jewelry. Unlike his younger brother, he wasn't interested in politics and decided to take the new route his family had created. Instead of going into the House of Lords, he went into the company.
He also hunted fairly frequently, and rode as well. He did everything a rich English boy would have done in the early 20th century, so I shouldn't have to get into too much detail (crew, archery, dancing lessons--he was a damn good dancer, language study, painting, music lessons, cricket, etc.). He was very into his studies and very learned by the time he was off to university at eighteen. He loved to study dead languages but was also fluent in French and German, which came in handy during WWII.
After finishing at Eton, he enrolled in the Royal Military College like his father before him. But Randolf's personality, though disciplined, was hardly militaristic. He was very laid back and easy to please.
Randolf also had a bit of a romantic streak, just like his wife. He courted nonstop during his years at Eton (quite a feat), but when he left school, he took a break and America caught his eye.
When he met and married Isabella, they became the poster couple of the 1930s. Both were flirts with each other and with others and Randolf's natural personality was quite suave and cheeky. He was not as much of a clown as his children, but he loved to tell jokes and was always laughing.
During WWII, he sustained a few injuries, one of which left him with a limp that came and went, and another left him with poor hearing that corrected itself over time but degenerated early. He also endured flashbacks associated with PTSD, as well as nightmares. These also faded over time only to return in intensity near the end of his life.
He also smoked a pipe.
His Life
Born to a Sir and a Lady, Randolf and his younger siblings, Nigel and Anne, were raised in the lap of serious Edwardian luxury. The country house had been freshly renovated for the first time in a few hundred years, virtually changing it from a castle to a court, and they lived on acres and acres and acres and acres of garden and pond and lake and river and privacy.
In any case, being the oldest, he was held to a stricter standard than his younger siblings, but they had loving parents who raised their children to make their own way, despite their wealth. Naturally, things come a little easier for a Fitzwilliam, especially during a time when anyone with enough money could essentially buy their blue blood (of course, the Fitzwilliams had blue blood already and were one of the wealthiest families in Britain for the past couple of centuries, but if you tack on 'sir' or 'lady', you're instantly cooler), but all three children went into the company.
During the early twentieth century, the company itself was still focused on its diamonds and mines and buying up the other companies (most notably De Beers, which made them the epitome of rich--thanks, Oppenheimers and the American Depression!). They were slowly getting into creating jewelry at the insistence of Lady Elizabeth ("Betsy"), who was friends with Lady Duff Gordon and thought it would be terribly fashionable to start an elite business to use the best diamonds. Lady Duff Gordon was the first to use the new Fitzwilliam diamonds in her wears and this began the company's reputation for fineries. Their fortune, already huge, skyrocketed as Randolf reached his teens, and his parents were both honored by the King for various reasons (they probably both bought their titles, anyway).
So, by the time Randolf was born, both Frederick ("Freddy") and Elizabeth were at the top of high society and making frequent trips between England, France, South Africa, and America. Unlike many other companies, Frederick's family had been in South Africa for a century and his extended family members were directly involved in mining and managing the local businesses, giving them a distinct advantage. Frederick was deeply involved in learning the craft of cutting and jewelry making, at which he became incredibly gifted. It helped that their mines produced excellent quality diamonds, giving them more freedom to create luxury pieces for royalty. Randolf, Nigel, and Anne grew up in a family that had two estates in the English countryside and a posh home in London (as well as a holiday home in Southern France and an old estate in South Africa that was unlived in because of a family conflict).
Randolf and his younger siblings had a young governess called Mary Trudy and were incredibly close to the personal maids of their mother. Freddy and Betsy were at parties, cotillions, galas and jubilees with a measurable degree of frequency, so Mary Trudy was an important figure in the children's lives. Randolf, being the first born, was closest to her. Recognizing this, Freddy and Betsy incorporated Mary Trudy into their family as much as they could, and whenever the children went out, Mary Trudy came, too.
All three children were privately tutored at nursery schools and a prep school, and the boys were shipped off to Eton when they reached thirteen. At home, they were still trained under the instruction of their father and Anne was deeply involved in the more fashionable side of deciding what jewelry looked nicest. Frederick always asked her opinion. Randolf was destined, from birth, to take over the company, and he refused to take his job for granted.
The family itself was close to all of the most powerful names in the world at the time. With Betsy a close associate of Lady Duff Gordon and Frederick a close associate of the Astors, the family was at Southampton to bid their friends goodbye on 10 April, 1912--they had no personal reason to sail to America on the famed Titanic, and Randolf was only two years old, but no one of their standing would dare miss the event.
In any case, Frederick fought in WWI. The children were so young that this prompted both boys to take an interest in the army when they were old enough to enlist. Both did following their educations at Eton and shipped off to the Royal Military College, though Andy would change his mind and go to the Royal Air Force. Anne, when she was old enough, attended nursing school. She, like her brothers, would have an active role in WWII.
During his time at Eton, Randolf was a very popular student. This came as no surprise to anyone, as he had always been a bit of a charmer at home and was generally easy-going and mild-mannered. Nigel was a bit more of the mischievous one. Well-liked and well-respected, as well as one of the richest boys in the school, Randolf, who was called Andy, earned a reputation for being both fun to be around and very studious. He had a soft spot for jazz clubs, variety shows, and pretty ladies. He courted many, many girls during his time there, including some quite a bit older and some royal. At around the age of seventeen he began a serious relationship with a girl he loved very deeply. Her name was Miriam Rogers, though she went by Mimi. She was of average height, a pretty brunette, and loved to go to dance halls with Randolf. Unfortunately, she took a shine to another man just before he was going to propose, and this turned him off relationships for quite awhile.
Though he was preparing to go to military college, Randolf decided to travel instead, and took a gap year. At nineteen, he went to America, eventually finding himself at vaudeville theatres in Chicago, where Isabella Radcliffe was the star attraction. He fell virtually in love with her and requested to meet her. The managers were thrilled and allowed him to eat with her nearly every day until he had to leave. She could barely talk to him, being unable to speak much English (and the amount she did speak was so informal and so backwater American that he didn't know how to handle it), but she was very animated and very excited and very much attracted to him as he was to her. He knew she was two years younger despite being billed as eighteen, but was still fascinated by her. They stayed in touch through letters during his absence.
Two years later, after a year of military school, Randolf went to New York City for the New Year, traveling with some friends. He went to the Ziegfeld Ball to see Isabella again. Randolf had always been a very skilled dancer, having had numerous lessons as a boy and then spending most of his time in jazz clubs. He and Isabella stole the show with their rather raunchy ballroom dancing and electric chemistry. Randolf still flirted and danced with other girls, making Isabella incredibly jealous, but at midnight, their romance was sealed. They had written numerous love letters, though hers were less well-worded and his were rather sexual at times (he loved that she would have to research half the words on her own and enjoyed imagining the look on her face when she realized what he was saying), so their courtship was not unexpected when it finally happened.
Their romance was very passionate. They had to be shooed away from having sex in public on several occasions.
A year later, they were engaged. A year after that, they married in Cape Town. A year after that, Charlie was born. During this period, Hope In Alms was founded and Randolf took over as CEO of the company. They returned to England in 1935, as Randolf knew he would have to serve his country and they weren't sure about South Africa's alliance.
The return to England, however, saw a tremendous jump in their social life. Fitzwilliam parties began to have an air of notoriety around them for being rather extravagant and no-holds-barred. They had heaven/hell parties and gambling parties and parties that lasted until morning. Guests were from all walks of life but primarily upper class, and most were encouraged to let loose their inhibitions.
When Isabella became pregnant in 1937, the parties became slightly more refined. They never stopped attending and hosting parties and galas, but with two young children, they had to shift course. After Scott's birth, their lives had to take a more serious shift and parties were forgotten altogether.
First, Randolf went to continue his training at Cranwell. The night before he left for war in 1939, he and Isabella conceived their youngest child and only daughter, Alice. She didn't tell him before he left.
He kept in constant correspondence with his wife and two boys, one of whom was only two. He was worried for their safety during the occupation and the Blitz, but the family remained safe in the country at his parents' house.
Isabella went through the pregnancy and birth without her husband, who was sent a photograph of the infant as a surprise. Stationed elsewhere but winding up at Dunkirk and suffering through the devastation, the letter actually ended up in the hands of a friend who then found him during the evacuations just before they headed back to England. Needless to say, Randolf was quite surprised. Isabella didn't tell him she was pregnant, not wanting him to regret fighting. She didn't name her daughter until she had told Randolf, so Alice wasn't called anything but Baby Josephine Fitzwilliam until Randolf was evacuated from Dunkirk and arrived home. He chose Alice, the name of a young girl whose family had been killed in the attacks. She had died of fever before the evacuations began.
But he was back to fight soon after, suddenly hating that he was missing his children growing older. That he had missed his wife's entire pregnancy was a horrifying revelation. He became angry and driven, determined to do the whole thing right if he was sacrificing his own family connection to defend his country and the world. He got himself a pin-up tattoo of Isabella drawn at one point and often showed her off (she was placed so she could wiggle her hips). While he got to return home now and again, he stayed in the war for as long as he could.
Then, in early 1945, he received a bad leg injury that finally ended his service. While he was angry he couldn't be there for the end of it all, he also wanted to go home and stay home and be a regular presence in his children's lives.
The war hardened him. He was always a clown, as his oldest son would become, but the things he saw, the horrors he experienced, changed him. He suffered from nightmares and a temporary limp (and extreme hearing loss that also corrected itself over time), and Isabella took obsessive care of him. She still operated as though no one she loved would ever die. He mostly shook of the effects by the time Alice was about ten years old, but he hid from his children how traumatized he was. It was necessary.
They stayed in England until 1950, when Alice was diagnosed with TB and the family decided to move to Cape Town to take advantage of the climate. Charlie was very much in love with a girl he knew in London, but at that point, there was no sign they would ever have a successful relationship (Charlie was very persistent and poor Ruth was overwhelmed). In any case, Randolf and Isabella wanted a break from England and focused their energies on the South Africa estate for four years, during which their daughter's health took a turn for the worst, then slowly recovered. By 1954, however, it became obvious Charlie was going to marry Ruth. Randolf returned with Isabella and the other two children, moving back into the manor in Corsham until Scott went off to university and married. Alice lived with them for quite some time more, moving relatively near by, in a small cottage covered in flowers and vines, when she was in her early 20s.
Randolf's aging began to be obvious when his sons started to marry. Where Isabella had been able to keep up with him, he now had occasional difficulty keeping up with her. By the 1970s, he was turning grey. By the 1980s, the war injury that had caused his temporary limp began to bother him again, his flashbacks and nightmares returned, and his hearing faded. In 1981, his health took a hit and he was hospitalized several times and put on oxygen. Lung cancer (though he refused the diagnosis) had spread through his body. In 1982, he suffered from viral pneumonia and was bedridden for weeks. Isabella was terrified. She had never considered his mortality until it stared her in the face.
And then, in 1983, he died.
