Post-War
In 1920, Bickerton joined fellow Antarctic veterans, Frank Wild and Dr James McIlroy, on an expedition to East Africa. Having heard what Wild called "wondrous accounts of the possibility of making rapid and colossal fortunes in Portuguese East Africa by growing tobacco", the three men planned to become farmers. Having found the Portuguese authorities "impossible" they moved on to Fort Johnstone in British Nyasaland where they cleared 250 acres (1.0 km2) of forest. During this process, however, Bickerton contracted malaria and was forced to return to Europe.
Having spent some time in Paris with his friend, the artist Cuthbert Orde, he travelled in Newfoundland, where he joined a colony of ex-pats established by Antarctic veteran Captain Victor Campbell. During the late 1920s, Bickerton regularly travelled between Newfoundland and England, combining the lives of a Canadian backwoodsman with that of a fashionable party-goer in the London of the Roaring Twenties. It was during this period that the English novelists Stella Benson and Vita Sackville-West both became acquainted with the explorer. The former fell passionately in love with Bickerton and asked him to become the father of her child (an honour which Bickerton declined), while the latter took Bickerton as the model for Leonard Anquetil, the hero of her best novel, The Edwardians (1930).
In 1928, Bickerton abandoned his farm in Newfoundland and decided to invest capital in a company founded by the US equestrian and golfing champion, Marion Hollins. Ultimately, he would become heavily involved in the development of the Pasatiempo Country Club in Santa Cruz, working closely with both Hollins and the world-famous golf-course designer, Dr Alister MacKenzie. It was also during this period that Bickerton commenced what would ultimately become a disastrous love-affair with Marion Hollins's niece, Hope Hollins. The acrimonious break-up of the affair saw Bickerton quarrel with his business partner and, with the onset of the Wall Street Crash, he eventually fled the US and returned to England, a disillusioned and unhappy man.
During 1932–1933, Bickerton embarked on a world tour in company with William Rhodes-Moorhouse and Tom Hanbury. Having travelled from England to New York and then through British Columbia shooting grizzly bear, the trio sailed from the East Coast of America to South Africa on board a cargo ship. They then travelled by train, plane and automobile from Cape Town to Cairo, frequently pausing to hunt.
Back in England, Bickerton took up a role within the British Film Industry, working as screen-writer and film-editor on a range of films, including My Irish Molly with Maureen O'Hara and a film adaptation of Jack London's Mutiny of the Elsinore with the future Oscar-winner, Paul Lukas.
On 27 May 1937, Bickerton married Lady Joan Chetwynd-Talbot, granddaughter of the Earl of Shrewsbury, by whom he had one daughter.
With the outbreak of the Second World War, Bickerton immediately volunteered for service and was sent to France with the air contingent of the British Expeditionary Force. He served with distinction throughout the war, ending with the rank of Wing Commander, mentioned-in-despatches.
Frank Bickerton died on 21 August 1954 in the Welsh town of Borth, Ceredigion.
Read more about this topic: Francis Howard Bickerton
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