Winifred Gerin Part I

Winifred Gerin was born in Hamburg, Germany in 1901, but she was English and her family moved back to England when she was a child.  They grew up in a London suburb which was virtually the country.   Her father was Frederick Bourne... When she became a writer, Winifred wrote under the name of her first Husband Eugene Gerin, a Belgian.

Frederick Bourne was from a “good” family, with connections to the gentry.  He had been working in Germany as a manager for a chemical business.

Winifred is best known for her historical biographies, and particularly her biographies of the Bronte family. I love the Bronte legend, and hope someday to write a biographical novel about them, particularly Emily.

So I was interested to find that there was now a biography of Gerin herself.  She and her second husband, John Lock moved to Haworth in the 1950s and immersed themselves in Bronte history.  They were very active in the Bronte Society, and Gerin wrote biographies of all four Brontes, Charlotte, Emily, Anne and Branwell.  She also wrote a biography of Horatia, Nelson’s daughter, another of Mrs Gaskell, Charlotte Bronte’s biographer and one of Anne, Thackeray’s daughter.

I have just started reading Gerin’s life, and will blog more about her later, but I was intrigued to find that she had tragedies in her early life which may have drawn her towards an interest in the Brontes.  One of her brothers died when she was young... just as 2 of the Bronte daughters died…

In addition, her brother Roger’s life was tragic.  He was a highly intelligent young man, and was expected to do well at college.  However, he was also both shy and arrogant, and did not fit in well, though he was academically capable.   

He began to act erratically, falling in love with a girl whom he hardly knew and claiming that he was going to marry her. Certainly there were some echoes here of Branwell Bronte... who was also intelligent but awkward and clumsy in his social relations, especially with women. Roger had a severe and catastrophic breakdown and was unable to continue with his education.  He was taken to a mental hospital where he spent the rest of his long life, never speaking after the first year or so.  He was suicidal, had delusions and believed that he had done something terrible.

So these are issues that may have made Winifred feel a kinship to the Bronte sisters.   It is well known that the Bronte children created  imaginary worlds, writing down and acting out fiction, which was their chief leisure activity as children.  The Bourne children also had a vivid imaginary life, making up plays which they acted out, based on Dickens and historical events.

I hope to write some more about Winifred later…..