Family
Wren dedicated an early edition (no date known) of The Snake and the Sword to "my wife Alice Lucille Wren". An early edition of Driftwood Spars reads: "To the memory of my beloved wife."
Isabel was his second wife. She had previously been married to Cyril Graham Smith, a civil engineer employed in the Indian educational service at Poona. In 1927, Graham Smith filed for divorce, with Wren named as co-respondent. The divorce was granted, and a letter by Isabel to Ronald Colman (who played Beau Geste in the silent film) in 1929 on behalf of her "seriously ill" husband, suggests she and Wren had married at least as early as 1928 (actual date 03 Dec 1927). "Isobel" was the heroine of "Beau Geste". At his death, Wren was also survived by his son Percival Rupert Christopher Wren, born in Karachi, 1904. He was married to an American actress, Judith Wood. Wren also adopted Isabel's son from her first marriage, Richard Alan Graham-Smith, as his own. After many years in a successful teaching career, Graham-Smith, known to most people simply as Alan, retired to Devon, where he lived in the South Hams coastal village of Torcross until his death on the 31st December 2006 at the age of 96. Graham-Smith ended up becoming the sole administrator of Wren's estate for many years and possibly the last living person to have any personal acquaintance with Wren. He strongly maintained that Wren had indeed served in the French Foreign Legion and was always quick to refute those who said otherwise.
Read more about this topic: P. C. Wren
Famous quotes containing the word family:
“Providing for one’s family as a good husband and father is a water-tight excuse for making money hand over fist. Greed may be a sin, exploitation of other people might, on the face of it, look rather nasty, but who can blame a man for “doing the best” for his children?”
—Eva Figes (b. 1932)
“Of all the vices, lewdness is the worst; of all the virtues, family duty is the first.”
—Chinese proverb.
Rhyme.
“A family with the wrong members in control—that, perhaps, is as near as one can come to describing England in a phrase.”
—George Orwell (1903–1950)