THE ERROL FLYNN SOCIETY OF TASMANIA

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LONSDALE HOUSE

What a find Bob Casey one of our Errol Flynn society of Tasmania members went to visit Lonsdale House and suggested we go take a look so we went to Kempton to see for ourselves Lonsdale  House. Thank you Bob.

LONSDALE HOUSE VISIT BY MEMBERS Four members of our society took advantage of the hospitality of Alan, the new owner of Lonsdale House at Kempton. He generously showed us around the property and house where Errol stayed on many an occasion. Below is a story of Errol on one of those visits.

The room where Errol slept whilst he stayed at Lonsdale was Cecil's room. It is the attic room on the right

LONSDALE HOUSE

Lonsdale, the original home of Edmund Williams, passed to Frank Johnson. The two Lonsdale children, Cecil and Winifred, shared in the social and recreational life available to young people in the years following World War I. Cecil Johnson contributes an anecdote of such activities involving his cousin Edith and Linda from Castle Hill and the late Hollywood actor Errol Flynn whom Cecil knew from school days in Hobart. THE HUNT CLUB BALL The Midland Hunt Club were cunducting a point to point steeple chase at Melton Mowbray on the Saturday of the next weekend, to be followed by the annual Hunt Club Ball at Jericho that evening. Errol and I decided to attend the steeple chase for it's social value, which had been upgraded by the presence of Prince Maximilliam Mellikof and his Princess. The Prince was directly connected to some of the more famous Russian Nobility, While his wife had until recently been Miss pauline curran of Hobart. Their attendance was made even more interesting as they had just returned from a visit to Europe. "Having spent a quiet afternoon with the Hunt Club we had made arrangements to travel to the ball at Jericho, some fifteen miles north along the Launceston Road from Kempton, with my two cousins from Castle Hill, my uncles farm not far away. To get to Castle Hill Errol and I had to travel by pony and trap. We had not long started on our travels when my mother recieved a telephone call from an extremely irate Professor Flynn. It appears that the good professor had to attend a most important function requiring the donning of his best formal attire. I would not have liked to be present when he opened his wardrobe only to find the cupboard was bare! Howeve it was by now too late to make amends and in fact it was only a short time later that Errol, a picture of sartorial splendour in his fathers white tie and tails, could be seen gliding around the dance floor with the most attractive girl in the room nestled against his manly chest. At a later stage in the evening a rather agitated guest loudly announced that a bottle of whiskey had been stolen from his car. Errol, ever ready to help in times of trouble, immediately rushed out to take charge of the search party. Half on hours diligent searching failed to produce any result. the only spot that Errol failed to search was a certain briar bush in which he had concealed the whiskey about half an hour previously! I am proud to say that I took no part in this dastardly crime, but must admit to giving assistance in disposing of the evidence later that eveining." from "Johnsons of Castle Hill" by Edith and Lois Calvert

LONSDALE HOUSE PT2