things. Having cut his ‘horological teeth’ some years earlier by building a
quartz clock, he turned his hand to a ‘grandfather’ clock which he built from
bits and pieces, housed it in a ‘contemporaneous’ case (according to Richard),
and embellished the clock face with the makers name; ‘Robert Le Rossignol
Beaconsfield’. The clock kept remarkably good time and even Chirnside
recalls seeing it on his visit there in March 1976. But there were more
practical things for Robert to attend to. He bought a lift for Emily to reach
the upstairs. He installed it himself and built a false floor to make sure that
no-one could get trapped below it. Robert delighted in demonstrating its
effect; as the lift descended, he would stand underneath it. As soon as it
touched his head the lift would stop! John and Richard also recall the tale of
Emily’s ‘Parker Knoll’ chair. Robert had bought an electric tilt chair for
Emily. The design of the original supplied by a specialist company was not to
the couple’s taste and so he asked if the tilt motor could be fitted to his wife’s
‘Parker Knoll’. This was deemed too impractical by the company, so ‘Bob’
did the necessary re-fitting himself in the garden workshop. It gently tilted her
favourite chair until she could comfortably rise out of it. Richard and John
also recall ‘Bob’ driving the ‘must have’ vehicle of the comfortable middle
class in those days viz, the classic 1960s Rover 80, and the couple’s benevolence to their father and mother who, on having a new house built in North
Devon in 1963, received a financial gift from the couple which they used to
landscape their new garden.
Robert’s workshop was important to him—his wishes were such that its
contents were the first thing offered to friends after his passing in 1976. Little
is known of Emily’s interests during retirement, these would have been
dictated by her disability, but what we do know of this couple suggests that
the tragic events they had experienced were used positively by them during
their retirement, enabling a number of acts of benevolence from which they
were able to draw comfort and make some sense of their lives. In this respect
the couple followed Hemingway’s maxim; not wallowing in personal tragedy
but finding the positive, and using it to the good. Chirnside’s obituary of
Robert ‘Robert Le Rossignol, 1884–1976’, Chemistry in Britain, 13, 269–
271, (1977), recounts a conversation he had shortly before Robert’s passing in
which Robert said, ‘I hope I have been able to make use of some of my
rewards to help those less fortunate …’. Clearly a wealthy couple, the
financial bedrock of Robert’s ‘rewards’ were undoubtedly his share of Haber’s
royalties, carefully managed and invested over the years. Through their
benevolence over their retirement years, the couple were to give all of their
460
D. Sheppard
quartz clock, he turned his hand to a ‘grandfather’ clock which he built from
bits and pieces, housed it in a ‘contemporaneous’ case (according to Richard),
and embellished the clock face with the makers name; ‘Robert Le Rossignol
Beaconsfield’. The clock kept remarkably good time and even Chirnside
recalls seeing it on his visit there in March 1976. But there were more
practical things for Robert to attend to. He bought a lift for Emily to reach
the upstairs. He installed it himself and built a false floor to make sure that
no-one could get trapped below it. Robert delighted in demonstrating its
effect; as the lift descended, he would stand underneath it. As soon as it
touched his head the lift would stop! John and Richard also recall the tale of
Emily’s ‘Parker Knoll’ chair. Robert had bought an electric tilt chair for
Emily. The design of the original supplied by a specialist company was not to
the couple’s taste and so he asked if the tilt motor could be fitted to his wife’s
‘Parker Knoll’. This was deemed too impractical by the company, so ‘Bob’
did the necessary re-fitting himself in the garden workshop. It gently tilted her
favourite chair until she could comfortably rise out of it. Richard and John
also recall ‘Bob’ driving the ‘must have’ vehicle of the comfortable middle
class in those days viz, the classic 1960s Rover 80, and the couple’s benevolence to their father and mother who, on having a new house built in North
Devon in 1963, received a financial gift from the couple which they used to
landscape their new garden.
Robert’s workshop was important to him—his wishes were such that its
contents were the first thing offered to friends after his passing in 1976. Little
is known of Emily’s interests during retirement, these would have been
dictated by her disability, but what we do know of this couple suggests that
the tragic events they had experienced were used positively by them during
their retirement, enabling a number of acts of benevolence from which they
were able to draw comfort and make some sense of their lives. In this respect
the couple followed Hemingway’s maxim; not wallowing in personal tragedy
but finding the positive, and using it to the good. Chirnside’s obituary of
Robert ‘Robert Le Rossignol, 1884–1976’, Chemistry in Britain, 13, 269–
271, (1977), recounts a conversation he had shortly before Robert’s passing in
which Robert said, ‘I hope I have been able to make use of some of my
rewards to help those less fortunate …’. Clearly a wealthy couple, the
financial bedrock of Robert’s ‘rewards’ were undoubtedly his share of Haber’s
royalties, carefully managed and invested over the years. Through their
benevolence over their retirement years, the couple were to give all of their
460
D. Sheppard