John Moffat (1879 - 1966)

Born 13 May 1879 in Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom

Husband of Hazel Neilson (Taasinge) O'Neill — married 31 Mar 1911 (to 1914) in Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States

Husband of Fern Clarisse Dorothy (King) Moffatt — married 19 Jan 1926 in Paris, Île-de-France, France

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Biography

John was born 13 May 1879. His father was the superintendent of the Harbor of the Ardrosssan seaport, and had accumulated a fair amount of wealth in land and minerals. He drowned when John was only four years old. The death was suspected by some to be a suicide. His mother, Jessie Arther Moffat was the daughter of Jane Glen, a noted suffagette and activist. John's mother remarried to an English aristocrat, Charles Edward Hay of Somerby House in Leicestershire, the younger son of a baronet. John was schooled at Cheam School and Eton College, and Trinity Hall at Cambridge.

He tried to enlist in the British army to serve in World War I but was rejected for flat feet. Both his brother and half-brother died in battle during the war.

John met his first wife, Hazel Nielsen Taasinge (later Carlotta Monterey) at Herbert Beerbohm Tree's of Academy Dramatic Arts, where he was studying fencing. She had gone to London to study acting. As she was still a teenager, Hazel's mother kept a tight reign on their courtship. John convinced her mother to send her to a finishing school.

John Moffat

Sources

• "The Real John Moffat" by Madeline C. Smith and Richard Eaton. The Eugene O'Neill Review Vol. 31 (2009), pp. 17-39. https://www.jstor.org/stable/29784868
• "New York, New York City Marriage Records, 1829-1940," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:243Z-DS7 : 10 February 2018), John Moffat and Hazel Nielsen Taasinge, 31 Mar 1911; citing Marriage, Manhattan, New York, New York, United States, New York City Municipal Archives, New York; FHL microfilm 1,613,076.
• http://www.chateau-lafayette.com/Lafayette-Memorial.html
• "Family Tree," database, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org : modified 09 June 2022, 00:41), entry for John Moffatt (PID https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/4:1:GXD7-BGM ); contributed by various users.
• https://www.theworldwar.org/sites/default/files/2022-03/English_version.bassdef.pdf (see page 17)