Susanna de Vries - Nell: The Australian Heiress who Saved her Husband from Stalin & the Nazis

NELL

THE AUSTRALIAN HEIRESS

WHO SAVED HER HUSBAND FROM STALIN & THE NAZIS

A biography based on the lives of
Nell Tritton & Alexander Kerensky

SUSANNA DE VRIES

Text copyright worldwide 2020 Susanna de Vries

This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of study , research, criticism, review or otherwise permitted under the Copyright Act, no part whatsoever may be reproduced by any process printed or digital without written permission . Inquiries for reproduction rights in any form whatsoever or queries regarding photography, digital rights, film or foreign rights should be addressed to the publishers.

First published in 2020 by Pirgos Press

Bookshop distribution in Australia through Pirgos Press, Brisbane.
Digital distribution by Ebook Alchemy

ISBN 978-0-9806216-6-2 (p/b - b&w)
ISBN 978-0-9806216-7-9 (p/b - colour)
ISBN 978-0-9806216-9-3 (ebook)

Nell Tritton Kerensky, 1899-1946
Brisbane history, 1890 1926
Trittons Store, George Street, Brisbane
Spanish influenza pandemic, Brisbane, 1919
Alexander Fyodorovich Kerensky, 1881 1970
Sexual harassment of Nell by publisher Ford Maddox Ford
Jews, persecution of, in Tsarist Russia
British Lockhart plot to assassinate Lenin
Robert Bruce Lockhart, 1887-1970
Artist Marie Bakshirtskeff, 1858-1884
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin 1870-1924
Josef Stalin (1878-1953)
Flora Benenson Solomon, 1895-1984
Author Nina Berberova, 1901-1993
Stanford University Library
New Canaan, Connecticut, USA

Cover by Bernard Milford, Brisbane using a 1910 Baedeker Map.

Nell Tritton in a dress of white French lace photographed before a dance at her home Elderslie, given in honour of her 21st birthday.

Elderslie, Christmas, 1924.

For years Christmas celebrations at Elderslie, the Trittons family home, had been subdued. This undercurrent of sadness was caused by the fact that two of Nells siblings had died just before Christmas 1919 from the Spanish influenza pandemic that killed over 50,000,000 people worldwide.

Still in their early twenties, Charles, the brother Nell adored, and her asthmatic elder sister, Lillian fell victim to Spanish influenza and died within weeks of each other. Their deaths were horrific and painful. The lungs of both siblings filled with thick viscous fluid due to pneumonia and they died choking for breath. Horrific memories of their final days haunted Nells nightmares and her mother took years to recover from the deaths of two of her four children.

The coroners report confirmed that Nells elder brother and sister had died from pulmonary influenza, their immune systems and kidneys weakened in childhood. The cause of this was the Trittons first home, a weatherboard cottage south of the Brisbane River which had a lead-lined water tank. Lead from the tank and from water pipes had a detrimental effect on their elder childrens immune systems, making them much more vulnerable to the Spanish influenza virus and other diseases.

Doctors warned Nells parents that their two youngest children Nell and Ida (known as Idie) could have also been affected by lead poisoning. As Nell grew up she became aware of the significance of this diagnosis which could shorten her life.

A strong-minded intelligent young woman Nell was determined that, if her life was to be brief, she would live it to the full. She would fulfil her ambition, spend time in France and learn to speak French like a Parisian. Nell was unusual for girls of her era in becoming a journalist and champion rally driver.

After two years as Brisbanes first female cadet journalist she became a journalist in Sydney but never abandoned her dream of spending few years in Paris. Years earlier her parents had promised her a year in the French capital when she finished school but the outbreak of World War 1 made this impossible.

Nell knew her mother would not be happy when she broke the news she was finally going to Paris. Her mother wanted her to marry her partner in rally driving who had proposed marriage on several occasions, but Nell merely liked him as a friend not as a husband. When her mother learned Nell was to spend a year overseas she pointed out that eligible men were in short supply as so many had been killed in the Great War. Her mother said it was time for Nell to settle down and marry rather than go gallivanting around Europe.

Nell replied she would only marry someone she loved passionately. As yet had not met the right man. She had saved enough money to rent a studio in Montparnasse and live among writers and artists, perfect her French and write a book or a collection of short stories.

His youngest daughters wish to live overseas worried Nells father who had never forgotten the deaths of his two oldest children from the Spanish flu. On a business trip to Europe, her father had spent time in Paris and heard about artists living in rat-infested studios with buckets for toilets. This was not something he wanted for his beautiful and adventurous daughter. He reminded Nell that at the age of 25 she had access to the family trust he had set up to secure the future of his children and grandchildren. She should use that money to rent a comfortable apartment in Paris, rather than a chilly studio with primitive plumbing and remember if she fell sick in Paris she had no family to care for her.

Nell was touched by her fathers concern, aware that his own childhood had been difficult due to his parents poverty. Fred Tritton had left school before completing his education. Her grandfather; William Tritton had lost his job due to poor health. In spite of this setback, Nells father, a new migrant worked hard and eventually became Queenslands wealthiest businessman, respected for his probity and his contributions to charities.

Nells paternal grandfather, William Tritton had left the small French-speaking island of Jersey in the late 1870s. He had worked as an Inspector of Weights and Measures in London before he developed a chest infection that left him too ill to work.

In his fifties, with four teenage sons still to find jobs, William Tritton had been warned foggy London air could lead to tuberculosis which, before the discovery of antibiotics was a death sentence. He was advised to move to a warmer climate and decided to immigrate to Queensland which, in 1889, was offering grants of bush land to adult migrants of good standing.

The four Tritton boys and their parents made the 10,000 mile uncomfortable voyage on the migrant ship SSSirsa in the late 1880s. They landed at Townsville where William Tritton realised that work opportunities for his four sons were limited. He decided it was best to continue their journey to Brisbane, the capital of Queensland. Landing here Charles Tritton, Freds elder brother, was offered a job with good prospects in Sydney which he accepted. They received temporary family accommodation in a government hostel.

Under the terms of the Crown Lands Act, William Tritton was entitled to what was known as a selection of virgin bush land. It had to be cleared and fenced within twelve months of taking it up. The Trittons land grant was on what is now Blunder Road in Oxley, then on the extreme outskirts of Brisbane. Nells grandfather was not well enough to help with the physical work of clearing their land grant, so Fred Tritton and his two brothers Joe and Jack built a small cabin and lived rough while they cleared and fenced their land.

Having secured what was their sole asset, Nells father found a job as a warehouseman. He was determined to set up his own business, but needed capital. Aged 21, with the consent of his family, Fred Tritton used the Blunder Road land as security to obtain a bank loan. He leased commercial premises in South Brisbane and opened a shop from which he sold furniture and household goods, importing household items from England as there was very little manufacturing in Brisbane, which in the late nineteenth century was only a large country town lacking sewerage and other amenities.