ROBIN FEDDEN, CBE 1908 – 1977
Writer, mountaineer, poet, worked for the National Trust
Robin has been described by friends as “the embodiment of civilised elegance”. He had infectious gaiety, enthusiasm and a laidback manner but underneath “was a fibre of resilient steel” that enabled him to successfully pursue his lifelong passions for travel, mountaineering, writing and his dedicated work for the National Trust. He was a committed pacifist and when the war came, had the moral courage to hold on to his beliefs.
Robin Fedden was born in Oxfordshire in 1908, son of Romilly Fedden and Katharine Waldo Douglas. He attended Clifton College, Bristol and Magdalene College Cambridge where he read English.
He travelled to Palestine, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt before joining the British Legation in Athens for some time as Cultural Attaché but resigned in 1940. He worked for a spell with the Quaker ambulance unit attached to the Free French in “the perplexing Syrian campaign” before taking up a post as lecturer in English at Cairo’s Fuad al Awal university.
He co-edited Personal Landscape with Lawrence Durrell and Bernard Spencer, one of the only literary periodicals to appear during the 2ndWW. “The title expressed our wish to emphasize the importance of personal life and values when the current of all thought and feeling around us set strongly in the channels of war…”
In 1943 Robin married Renée Catzeflis, an Alexandrian Greek whose family had been in Egypt since the 19thc.
In 1945 he joined the National Trust, becoming Historic Buildings Secretary and then Deputy Director general in 1968. He was awarded the CBE in 1973 for services to the National Trust.
He contributed on a wide range of subjects to newspapers, magazines and journals. Subjects as diverse as the Domed Churches of Armenia, Canoeing, the French Mandate, the Alpine High Level Route, an expedition in the Cordillera Real Peru, climbing in the Himalayas, the Kurdish Hakkari.
He was an active member of the Alpine Club and Ski Club of Great Britain.
Robin died in 1977. There is a plaque dedicated to him on the wall of the former family home at Chantemesle, Val d’Oise.
ROBIN FEDDEN – Main Books
As the Unicorn 1933 MacMillan
Suicide– a social and historical survey 1938 Peter Davies
Crusader Castles 1950 Art & Technics. Enlarged edition co-author with John Thompson 1957 John Murray
Alpine Ski Tour 1956 Putnams
Skiing in the Alps 1958 Edward Hulton
The Enchanted Mountains 1962 John Murray/2001 Ernst Press
Chantemesle 1964 John Murray/Eland 2002
Syria & Lebanon 1965 John Murray
The White Country (verse) 1968 Turret Books
Churchill at Chartwell 1969 Pergamon
The National Trust Guide (co-author) 1973 J.Cape
National Trust Past & Present 1974 J.Cape
Egypt Land of the Valley 1977 John Murray
The Country House Guide (c0-author) 1979 J. Cape
Chantemesle is still in print with ElandBooks and many of his other books are available on-line from companies like Abe Books or World of Books.
A list of Robin’s articles can be found here (link) see below
Links to me, Kathaine, Claude, Kilika, Eland , Bushey Art Gallery…..
ROBIN FEDDEN
‘Polesden Lacy. 1’, Country Life (103) 1948, p. 478
‘Polesden Lacy. 2’, Country Life (103) 1948, p. 526
Robin Fedden arranges a concert at Polesden Lacy. Tatler 27 October 1948.
Robin Fedden at Nostell Priory (picture). Yorkshire Post 15 April 1954.
‘The late Georgian country house’, Country Life (24) 1958, p. 828
Robin Fedden, Lord Jellicoe and Col. D.C.M. Mather to attempt Jebel Toubkal. Aberdeen
Evening Express, 5 April 19860.
‘The Saracens in the Alps’, History Today (11) (6) 1961 p. 401
‘The Battle of Navarino 1827’, History Today (11)(11) 1961 p. 786
‘Ski touring in the Austrian Alps’, Country Life (130) 1961 p. 1072
‘Skiing off the beaten track’, Country Life (132) 1962 p. 1093
‘The noblest cliff in Europe: the ridges of the Matterhorn’, Country Life (135) 1964, p. 69
Robin Fedden on skiing. Tatler 28 October 1964.
‘The lure of skiing at St Moritz’, Country Life (136) 1964, p., 1215
‘Too many people in the snow’, Tatler 22 September 1965
‘Zermatt: Whymper’s village today’, Country Life (138) 1965, p. 1720
‘Domed churches of Armenia’, Country Life (139) 1966, p. 137
‘Over the sands from Mont St Michel’, Country Life (140) 1966, p. 617
‘Discovering new skiing in Austria’, Country Life (140) 1966, p. 1153
‘Skiing in high summer’, Country Life (141) 1967, p.1312
‘The cradle of modern skiing’, Country Life (142) 1967, p. 1141
‘The ?Castle of Lacalahorra’, Country Life (144)( 1968, p. 1603
‘Skiing in the Voralberg Lech and Zers’, Country Life (144) 1968, p. 1130
‘Peaks and people in Eastern Turkey’, Country Life (145) 1969, p. 334
‘The attractions of the Orttler’, Country Life (146) 1969, p. 1110
‘Over Morecombe Sands on foot’, Country Life (152) 1972 p. 1672.
‘Madonna di Campiglio, Trento’, Country Life (156) 1974, p. 1276
‘La Couvertoirade and Conques’, Country Life (157), 1975 p. 74
‘The development of Flaine, France’, Country Life (158) 1975, p. 1788
‘Romanesque architecture in North-West Spain’, Country Life (159) 1976, p. 972
Robin Fedden with Pamela Mayor (daughter in law of Romilly Fedden) and John Betjeman
at Parkin Gallery, Motcomb Street. Westminster and Pimlico News 30 April 1976
Alpine Ski Tour, 1956
Anglesea Abbey, 1984. Pamphlet 3659 at the London Library.
Appendix, notes and introduction to Kinglake’s Eothen. c. 1948
As the Unicorn (novel) 1933
Castle Ward, c. 1971
English Travellers in the Near East. Pamphlet 3299 at the London Library
Knole, Kent, 1952 (with Victoria Sackville-West)
Oxburgh Hall, 1958
Personal Landscape, 1970. (Anthology of exile, with John Kenworthy-Browne)
Petworth House, 1953
Skiing in the Alps, 1958 (with Waddell and De Linde)
Some problems of conservation. Lecture to National Trust, Northern Ireland.
The Country House Guide (with Rosemary Jockes)
The Giant’s Causeway
The Ski Book. Published by Edward Hulton.
