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Constance Alice (Barnicoat) Grande (1872 - 1922)

Constance Alice Grande formerly Barnicoat
Born in Richmond, Nelson, New Zealandmap
Ancestors ancestors
Wife of — married 29 Mar 1911 in London, England, United Kingdommap
[children unknown]
Died at about age 50 in Geneva, Switzerlandmap
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Profile last modified | Created 4 Dec 2014
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Biography

Graduated B.A. from the University of Canterbury

: A HUSBAND'S TRIBUTE - Constance Grande by Julian Grande; London

A memorial of a New Zealand woman of genius who came to England in the end of last centuary and became the most influential of British women journalists in the present century. This is how Professor J. Strahan, a well known author and scholar has described Mr.
Julian Grande’s biography of his wife - "Constance Grande" can hardly be called a biography. It is rather an autobiography Constance Barniooat, as she was before she married Mr. Grande kept a diary until a day or two before her death on 16th September, 1922. Her papers were always in scrupulous order, and Mr. Grande has thus been able to draw very largely on her private writing and her public utterances for the substance of his book. The London correspondent of "The Post'" in reviewing the work, remarks that, the life of oven an; eminent journalist is necessarily an obscure one. His greatest work is generally done under the unassuming title of "Our Correspondent." Although the name of Constance Barnicoat or Mrs. Julian Grande was well known to various readers of certain New Zealand nowspapers, especially during the war, the actual work she accomplished during twenty-five years of active journalism can only be known and judged by means of such a volume as is now published. Even her nearest friends will be surprised to find how much she crowded into her life in England and Switzerland and what a power she wielded during the years of war in what has been called tho plotting ground of Europe. She is described by Professor Strahan, in the introduction as a woman gifted with remarkable qualities of mind and spirit, a 'beautiful soul,' immensely interested in the whole life of the world, eager to go everywhere and sea everything, yet with an astonishing power of concentration on any task which she took in hand, faithful and true in every fibre of her being, quietly and.inevitably giving her best to the highest." Mr.Grande is able to place before his readers a very exhaustive account of his late wife's activities. Certain articles written for various journals in the Dominion and in England by Miss Barnicoat give a faithful impression of her childhood. Indeed, in "A Pioneer Colonist's Story," which appeared "in the "National Review" of August 1909, we gain a peculiarly interesting insight into the life of the pioneers who carried out the spade work (metaphorically and literally) of the colony. After taking her degree with honours at Canterbury College, Miss Barnicoat spent three years in the office of the Crown Solicitor in Wellington, and then set out for London in 1897. She encountered all the vicissitudes of the newcomer to London, but eventually became private secretary to the late W. T. Stead. How much the great journalist depended on Miss Barnicoat is told in this volume. She continued as confidential secretary for four years and then was editorial assistant for seven years more. When Stead died she was able to write the most trustworthy appreciation of the journalist's character. No one knew him better, both his great points and his weaknesses. The book deals in detail with Constance Barnicoat's mountaineering experiences in the Alps, the Caucasus, the Pyrenees, and she was naturally drawn towards unconquerod peaks. Mr. Grande quotes extensively from her articles on many mountaineering expeditions, and devotes a section of the book to travel sketches. In 1912 Mrs. Grande said to her husband "Switzerland will be either the battlefield or the plotting-ground of Europe; let us go there and we shall be at the centre of things." There they made their home, first at Berne, and then in Geneva, and it is this period of Mrs.Grande’s life which is absorbingly interesting. Quite early in the war she realised the damage that was being done by the outspokenness of some of the English papers. Germany was quoting extensively from these London papers, which resented the British censorship. The "Yellow Press" was her next target. She accused them, above all, of obscuring and belittling the real issues at stake, thus blinding the public to the seriousness of the situation. Probably the most important work undertaken by Mr. and Mrs. Grande was the counteracting of enemy propaganda. Mrs.Grande was a veritable thorn in the side of those who were influencing the pro-German Press of Switzerland. When the enemy began their peace offensive Mrs.Grande in her letters to London depicted very clearly the widespread activities of this colossal intrigue. To put it briefly (she wrote three months before the' Armistice) the Austrians and Germans realise that for them the war is lost from a military point of view and that the only hope now remaining is in a peace offensive. That peace offensive is now being vigorously conducted and by men as well equipped for it in their way as were the German soldiers in theirs in 1914. The Allies must realise that the Austro-German peace offensive is now as dangerous as was their war offensive four years ago. The section of the book dealing with the plotting, intrigue, and propaganda gives a remarkable insight into that other phase of modern warfare which for the most part is carried on in secret, but which none the less is one of the great deciding factors in a world struggle. Mr. Grande in producing this book, has undoubtedly accomplished a labour of love. Proud as he is of the brilliant woman who was his companion and fellow-worker during so many years, he has restrained his natural enthusiasm and permitted others who knew her to bear testimony to her work and worth. Perhaps one of the most remarkable testimonies is that tendered by one of the chief agents of German propaganda in Switzerland. He acknowledged when she died that she had been the force he feared most of all. Of the genuineness of her patriotism Mr.Grande shows there is no doubt. She craved no orders or other honours, but out of her own hard earned savings in the sweated profession of journalism she spent some thousand pounds in assisting the Allies by her voluntary and unrenumerated literary propaganda." Finally, says Mr. Grande New Zealand has never produced a greater lover of nature and especially of flowers, than my wife was, and I venture to commend to the same Government and to all the people of New Zealand, these words of hers - "'Should the Dominion ever adopt a national flower like the lily of France or the Shamrock of Ireland, it must surely be the Manuka.[1]

Sources

  1. Evening Post 6.6.1925 P:17




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Categories: England, Journalists | New Zealand, Journalists