MS 768 01

MS 768 01

The Sitwells collection: Material relating to Osbert Sitwell

Series

Sitwell, Osbert (1892-1969)

Sir Francis Osbert Sacheverell Sitwell, fifth baronet, was born on 6th December 1892. He was the eldest child of Sir George Reresby Sitwell, fourth baronet, and Lady Ida Emily Augusta Denison, daughter of the first early of Londesborough.

Osbert spent his childfood at Renishaw Hall, Derbyshire, with his younger siblings Edith and Sacheverell. Between 1906 and 1909 he was educated at Eton College, but rather than attending Oxford he was persuaded by his father to join the Sherwood Rangers. He later transferred to the Grenadier Guards; his regiment was deployed to the trenches of the Western Front in 1914. He was promoted to the rank of captain and left the army in 1919.

It was during his active duty that Sitwell began to write poetry. Babel, his response to trench warfare, was published in The Times in 1916. On leaving the army he continued to write, journalism and art criticism as well as poetry, and in 1919 he published Argonaut and Juggernaut, a collection of poems written during his war years. With Sacheverell he devised an exhibition of modern fine art in London.

In 1921 a second collection of poems, At the House of Mrs Kinfoot, was published. Three years later Sitwell finished his first prose work, Triple Fugue. Further works of fiction, non-fiction and poetry followed.

In 1943 Sitwell succeeded to his father’s baronetcy. He had begun to prepare his autobiography, and the first volume, Left Hand, Right Hand, was published in 1945. In the second volume, The Scarlett Tree (1946), Sitwell recalled his time at Eton. In all, the autobiography ran to five volumes spanning his career, family and friendships. It was followed by Tales my Father Taught Me, an addendum to the autobiography, in 1962.

Sitwell received a CBE in 1956 and was made Companion of Honour in 1958. Suffering from Parkinson’s disease, he completed his last written work in 1963. He died on 4th May 1969 at Montegufoni, Florence.

References: The Eton College Register, 1899-1909; G. A. Cevasco, ‘Sitwell, Sir (Francis) Osbert Sacheverell, fifth baronet (1892–1969)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 2009 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/36114, accessed 10 Dec 2015]

1909-1958

1 volume and 5 envelopes within a box

Four autograph manuscripts of short stories by Osbert Sitwell, two autograph letters from Sitwell, a typed letter from Sitwell and a journal recording what books he read in 1909.