HART-DAVIS, (Peter) Duff 1936-2025

[Richard R]

From the Telegraph of 18 July 2025: HART-DAVIS Duff died at home on July 10th 2025 aged 89 years. Beloved husband of Phyllida, proud father of Alice and Guy, and loving grandfather of Molly, Beth, Rob and Ted. Thanksgiving Service at St Mary's, Beverston on Tuesday July 29th at 2.30 p.m.

He was s of Capt Sir Rupert Charles HART-DAVIS 1907-99 ostensibly scion of that gentry family of Nether Stowey (see below, as well gt gs of 5^th Earl of FIFE 1814-79 (who was f of 1^st Duke of FIFE 1849-1912 who m EDWARD VII’s eldest dau The Princess Royal 1867-1932), 2xgt gs of 18^th Earl of ERROLL 1801-46 by his w a dau of King WILLIAM IV by his mistress Dorothy BLAND 1761-1816)  and his 2^nd wife (his 1^st of 4 wives was the actress Peggy Ashcroft) (Catherine) Comfort BORDEN-TURNER 1910-70 d of George Douglas TURNER 1887-1946 and as her 1^st h Mary BORDEN 1886-1968 (Lady Spears). He m 22 April 1961 (Times 24 April) (Diana) Phyllida b 1937 reg Q4 London d of John Anthony Tristram BARSTOW 1906-86 of Fforest Farm, Builth Wells, Brecknockshire (only surv. s of Sir George Lewis BARSTOW KCB 1874-1966 (4xgt gs of 6^th Earl of HADDINGTON 1680-1735, 5xgt gs of The Countess of ROTHES d 1700, etc) and Hon Enid Lilian LAWRENCE 1882-1970 d of 1st Baron TREVETHIN 1843-1936) by his 24 Oct 1934 m (St Margaret’s, Westminster) to Diana Yarnton 1914-2001 d of Robert Henry Davis MILLS 1853-1921 by his 6 July 1898 m (St George, Hanover Sq) to Elsie c1876-1967 d of John Hanson WALKER d 1933 (artist) by his 8 Jan 1867 m (Lyncombe St Mark, Som.) to Frances Elizabeth WHITAKER d 1924, and had a son and a dau:

1. Guy E. P. b c1965 reg Q1 Oxon: m 8 June 1991 (Reno) Michele Christine b 19 May 1965 d of George BATCABE of Reno, Nevada

1. Alice b 1963 reg Q3 Builth: m 1989 reg Q3 Glos Matthew William b Aug 1958 s of Andrew HINDHAUGH of Low Coniscliffe, Durham 

Sir Rupert (according to his ODNB entry) “ostensibly was the son of … Richard Vaughan Hart-Davis (d. 1964), a stockbroker, for whom he never greatly cared; but he himself gradually became certain that his true father was Gervase Beckett (1866–1937), brother of the second Lord Grimthorpe, and his contemporaries among the Beckett family tended to agree with him.”

[S R Eglesfield]

Per her biography on wikipedia, the late Mr Hart-Davis's daughter Alice has three children. These would appear to be Molly, Beth and Rob, the first three grandchildren listed in Mr Hart-Davis's death notice. I have found three Hindhaugh births in the GRO index where the mother's maiden surname is given as Hart-Davis, for Felicity Mary HINDHAUGH (birth registered Q1 1995 - Westminster; presumably, she is "Molly"), for Elizabeth Rose HINDHAUGH (birth registered Q4 1996 - Westminster; presumably, she is "Beth") and for Robert John HINDHAUGH (birth registered Q3 1999 - Westminster; presumably, he is "Rob").

 

I cannot find any Hart-Davis births with Batcabe as the mother's maiden name. However, it seems possible that the late Mr Hart-Davis's other grandchild, Ted, may be the Edward HART-DAVIS whose birth was registered in Q3 2000 in North Yorkshire.

 

Mr Hart-Davis's son-in-law, Matthew Hindhaugh, is the younger son of (William) Andrew (Clark) HINDHAUGH (born 21 III 1932) and his wife (married 1955), Jenneth SCOTT (c.1931 - 13 VI 2024; see Richard's posting with the news of her death at https://groups.google.com/g/peerage-news/c/EBE_WYX2ESI/m/5WUmibsVCQAJ).

[colinp]

Obit in the Daily Telegraph 19 July 2025 -  Duff Hart-Davis, historian, countryman and much-loved journalist at The Sunday Telegraph – obituary

EXTRACTS:

Duff Hart-Davis, historian, novelist, countryman and much-loved journalist at The Sunday Telegraph

‘A man with a huge extrovert personality with a body to accommodate it’, he wrote an outstanding biography of the adventurer Peter Fleming

Duff Hart-Davis, the author and journalist, who has died aged 89, was for many years a distinctive and bracing presence on the editorial staff of The Sunday Telegraph; his multivarious output of books included novels, historical studies and a much-admired biography of his godfather, Peter Fleming, and he was an outstanding commentator on country matters and natural history.

Hart-Davis was much liked by his colleagues on The Sunday Telegraph – fortunately so, as he was a difficult man to ignore. The paper’s assistant editor Desmond Albrow recalled him as “a man with a huge extrovert personality with a body to accommodate it, built for the action he loved and the action that he loved to write about. He loved and gloried in physical exercise – deerstalking, walking, running, climbing, sawing logs, cycling. He was a splendid cricketer, and when the ball was in his vast hands it seemed to shrink to the size of a mere red cherry.”

Hart-Davis proved to be the perfect biographer of another figure in the Byronic literary action-man mode, the adventurer and writer Peter Fleming (1907-71). Fleming was the oldest friend of his father, the publisher Sir Rupert Hart-Davis; Duff grew up in a farmhouse on Fleming’s Nettlebed estate in Oxfordshire, and later moved back into the house with his own family[…..]

Fleming’s widow, the actress Celia Johnson, had wanted Duff’s father Sir Rupert to write the biography, but he insisted that his son be given the job: “I think it would be an excellent thing for him, putting him on the map as a serious writer.” The book, which was praised by Antonia Fraser in the Evening Standard for “exactly the right combination of intimacy and detachment”, duly made Hart-Davis’s literary reputation.

Peter Duff Hart-Davis was born on June 3 1936, the son of Rupert Hart-Davis and his second wife, Comfort Borden-Turner (his first had been Peggy Ashcroft). Duff had an older sister, Bridget, who married the eminent QC Lord Silsoe, and a younger brother, Adam, who became a television presenter.

Duff was named in honour of his great-uncle Duff Cooper, the politician and writer who was known for attending social events in the company of both his wife, Lady Diana, and his mistress. (“Cheer up,” Lady Diana said to the mistress when he started chatting up another woman, “He still loves you.”) [……]

His literary career was less remunerative for a time than that of his wife, Phyllida Barstow, whose success as a writer of popular fiction entailed their moving to Co Tipperary as tax exiles in 1978. He liked to recount the remark made by a Sunday Telegraph compositor when he learnt that Hart-Davis was leaving the paper: “I don’t know, Mr Hart-Davis, you come here knowing f--- all. We teach you all you f---ing well know. And now you f--- off.” […..]

In the 1980s Hart-Davis settled on a farm in Owlpen, Gloucestershire, and from 1986 to 2001 wrote a cherished column for The Independent on country life, delighting readers with his experiments in ostrich-rearing and expressing trenchant views on government interventions in rural affairs. He published two collections of his Country Matters columns, as well as a handsome volume on British domestic and wild animals, Fauna Britannica (2002). Although never one to frown upon the fleshpots of London and Continental capitals, he was always a countryman at heart.

Above all, there was a joyous sense of life and constant activity about Duff Hart-Davis; he escaped the taints of cynicism so endemic of the Fleet Street he graced.

He married Phyllida Barstow in 1961; she survives him with their daughter, the journalist Alice Hart-Davis, and son Guy.

Duff Hart-Davis, born June 3 1936, died July 10 2025