Ronald Tree
Encyclopedia
Arthur Ronald Lambert Field Tree (September 26, 1897 – July 14, 1976), was an American-born British journalist
, investor
and Conservative
Member of Parliament
(MP) for the Harborough
constituency in Leicestershire
.
developer and son of Lambert Tree, a former British minister to Russia. His mother, Ethel Field, was a daughter of Marshall Field
, a co-founder of Marshall Field's
department store in Chicago, Illinois. Born in the United States, he was educated in England. Two months after his parents' divorced in 1901, Tree's mother married her lover, Capt. David Beatty
, the future 1st Earl Beatty and First Lord of the Admiralty. His half-siblings were David Beatty, 2nd Earl Beatty, and the Hon Peter Beatty; he also had two full siblings, both of whom died in infancy.
Tree edited Forum Magazine in New York from 1922, and in 1926 became involved in investment on the New York Stock Exchange
, before the Wall Street Crash of 1929.
(the widow of his cousin Henry Marshall Field) in 1927, where they had two sons and a daughter, who died at birth. At first the couple took a 10-year repairing lease on Kelmarsh Hall
near Market Harborough
, Northamptonshire
which Nancy redecorated with help from Mrs Guy Bethell of Elden Ltd.
In November 1933 Ronald was elected Member of Parliament
for Harborough
in Leicestershire
. In the same year, the couple bought Ditchley House and Park
near Charlbury
, Oxfordshire
as their home, and it was the decoration of this house which earned Nancy the reputation of having "the finest taste of almost anyone in the world." She worked on it with Lady Colefax
and the French decorator Stéphane Boudin
of the Paris firm Jansen.
Tree was among a small group who saw the rising Nazi party in Germany as a threat to Britain, and using his home as its base he became friends with the group's leader, Winston Churchill
. Churchill and his wife Clementine dined at Ditchley on numerous occasions from 1937.
In February 1938, after Anthony Eden
resigned as foreign secretary from Neville Chamberlain
over the conduct of foreign policy, Tree himself became a follower of Eden, known then as the "Glamour boys," a pejorative term used by the Conservative Party whips' office, headed by David Margesson.
, its high topographical location and the fact it was south of London making it an easy target for German bombers returning from raids on the capital. The Prime Minister's official retreat of Chequers
was also deemed vulnerable to attack. Churchill had use of the Paddock bunker
in Neasden
, but only used it on one occasion for a cabinet meeting, before returning to his Cabinet War Room
bunker
in Whitehall
. However, this created additional difficulties on clear nights when a full moon
was predicted (or as Churchill romantically termed it 'When the Moon is High') - so the authorities looked for an alternate site north of London. Tree offered Churchill use of Ditchley, which thanks to its tree coverage and no visible access road made it an ideal site which Churchill was happy with. Churchill first went to Ditchley in lieu of Chequers on 9 November 1940, accompanied by Clementine and his daughter Mary. By late 1942, security measures at Chequers had improved, notably including covering the road with turf. The last weekend Churchill attended Ditchley as his official residence was Tree's birthday on 26 September 1942. Churchill's last visit was for lunch in 1943.
Churchill gave Tree a job in the Ministry of Information
, where he met a married American co-worker Marietta Peabody FitzGerald and began a romantic relationship.
Marietta moved into Ditchley, but found herself bored with English country life. Tree and most of his friends were conservatives, and Democrat
Marietta found herself isolated. Recognising his wife's unhappiness, and for the first time in his life short of money due to the taxation of Foreign Trust income enacted by the 1945 Labour Government, Tree sold Ditchley and agreed to return to New York with Marietta, her daughter Frances FitzGerald, their daughter, and his butler
Collins.
Marietta immediately joined the Lexington Democratic Club, and two years later was elected the county chairwoman. She was elected to the Democratic State Committee in 1954. In 1952, Marietta became involved in the Presidential election campaign of Adlai Stevenson, and in the later 1956 campaign - both defeats. This did not put her off politics, and John F Kennedy appointed her to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights
in 1961.
Marietta had started an affair with Adlai Stevenson between his two failed presidential campaigns, but her husband was unfazed by this, as the couple's marriage had largely disintegrated to a friendly separation, with Tree spending much of his time at Heron Bay, his house in Barbados. Marietta had turned down the option of returning to her earlier lover, the director John Huston
, even when he had given her a role in his 1960 movie "The Misfits
." It was while walking in London with Marietta that Adlai suffered a heart attack, and later died at St. George's Hospital. That night in her diary, Marietta wrote, "Adlai is dead. We were together."
Ronald Tree died of a stroke on July 14, 1976 in London, England.
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, investor
Investor
An investor is a party that makes an investment into one or more categories of assets --- equity, debt securities, real estate, currency, commodity, derivatives such as put and call options, etc...
and Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
(MP) for the Harborough
Harborough (UK Parliament constituency)
Harborough is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.-Boundaries:...
constituency in Leicestershire
Leicestershire
Leicestershire is a landlocked county in the English Midlands. It takes its name from the heavily populated City of Leicester, traditionally its administrative centre, although the City of Leicester unitary authority is today administered separately from the rest of Leicestershire...
.
Biography
Tree's father, Arthur Tree, was an English real estateReal estate
In general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...
developer and son of Lambert Tree, a former British minister to Russia. His mother, Ethel Field, was a daughter of Marshall Field
Marshall Field
Marshall Field was founder of Marshall Field and Company, the Chicago-based department stores.-Life and career:...
, a co-founder of Marshall Field's
Marshall Field's
Marshall Field & Company was a department store in Chicago, Illinois that grew to become a major chain before being acquired by Macy's Inc...
department store in Chicago, Illinois. Born in the United States, he was educated in England. Two months after his parents' divorced in 1901, Tree's mother married her lover, Capt. David Beatty
David Beatty, 1st Earl Beatty
Admiral of the Fleet David Richard Beatty, 1st Earl Beatty, GCB, OM, GCVO, DSO was an admiral in the Royal Navy...
, the future 1st Earl Beatty and First Lord of the Admiralty. His half-siblings were David Beatty, 2nd Earl Beatty, and the Hon Peter Beatty; he also had two full siblings, both of whom died in infancy.
Tree edited Forum Magazine in New York from 1922, and in 1926 became involved in investment on the New York Stock Exchange
New York Stock Exchange
The New York Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located at 11 Wall Street in Lower Manhattan, New York City, USA. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed companies at 13.39 trillion as of Dec 2010...
, before the Wall Street Crash of 1929.
Politics
Tree returned to England with his wife, the former Nancy Keene PerkinsNancy Lancaster
Nancy Lancaster was a 20th-century tastemaker and the owner of Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler, an influential British decorating firm that codified what is known as the English country-house look.-Biography:...
(the widow of his cousin Henry Marshall Field) in 1927, where they had two sons and a daughter, who died at birth. At first the couple took a 10-year repairing lease on Kelmarsh Hall
Kelmarsh Hall
Kelmarsh Hall in Northamptonshire, England is an elegant, 18th century country house about south of Market Harborough and miles north of Northampton....
near Market Harborough
Market Harborough
Market Harborough is a market town within the Harborough district of Leicestershire, England.It has a population of 20,785 and is the administrative headquarters of Harborough District Council. It sits on the Northamptonshire-Leicestershire border...
, Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...
which Nancy redecorated with help from Mrs Guy Bethell of Elden Ltd.
In November 1933 Ronald was elected Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
for Harborough
Harborough (UK Parliament constituency)
Harborough is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.-Boundaries:...
in Leicestershire
Leicestershire
Leicestershire is a landlocked county in the English Midlands. It takes its name from the heavily populated City of Leicester, traditionally its administrative centre, although the City of Leicester unitary authority is today administered separately from the rest of Leicestershire...
. In the same year, the couple bought Ditchley House and Park
Ditchley
Ditchley is a country house and estate about northeast of Charlbury in Oxfordshire.-Archaeology:There are remains of a Roman villa on the Ditchley Park estate at Watts Wells, less than southeast of the house...
near Charlbury
Charlbury
Charlbury is a small town and civil parish in the Evenlode valley, about north of Witney in West Oxfordshire. It is on the edge of the Wychwood forest and the Cotswolds.-Place name:The origin of the town's toponym is obscure...
, Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
as their home, and it was the decoration of this house which earned Nancy the reputation of having "the finest taste of almost anyone in the world." She worked on it with Lady Colefax
Sybil Colefax
Sibyl Colefax, Lady Colefax was a notable English interior decorator and socialite in the first half of the twentieth century....
and the French decorator Stéphane Boudin
Stéphane Boudin
Stéphane Boudin was a French interior designer and a president of Maison Jansen, the influential Paris-based interior decorating firm.Boudin is best known for being asked by U.S...
of the Paris firm Jansen.
Tree was among a small group who saw the rising Nazi party in Germany as a threat to Britain, and using his home as its base he became friends with the group's leader, Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
. Churchill and his wife Clementine dined at Ditchley on numerous occasions from 1937.
In February 1938, after Anthony Eden
Anthony Eden
Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, KG, MC, PC was a British Conservative politician, who was Prime Minister from 1955 to 1957...
resigned as foreign secretary from Neville Chamberlain
Neville Chamberlain
Arthur Neville Chamberlain FRS was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. Chamberlain is best known for his appeasement foreign policy, and in particular for his signing of the Munich Agreement in 1938, conceding the...
over the conduct of foreign policy, Tree himself became a follower of Eden, known then as the "Glamour boys," a pejorative term used by the Conservative Party whips' office, headed by David Margesson.
World War II
On the outbreak of war, the security forces were concerned by the visibility of Churchill's country house ChartwellChartwell
Chartwell was the principal adult home of Sir Winston Churchill. Churchill and his wife Clementine bought the property, located two miles south of Westerham, Kent, England, in 1922...
, its high topographical location and the fact it was south of London making it an easy target for German bombers returning from raids on the capital. The Prime Minister's official retreat of Chequers
Chequers
Chequers, or Chequers Court, is a country house near Ellesborough, to the south of Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, England, at the foot of the Chiltern Hills...
was also deemed vulnerable to attack. Churchill had use of the Paddock bunker
Paddock (war rooms)
Paddock is the codeword for an alternative Cabinet War Room bunker for Winston Churchill's World War II government located in Dollis Hill, North West London under the Post Office Research Station. It was constructed in 1939 but only rarely used during the war, with only two meetings of the War...
in Neasden
Neasden
Neasden is an area in northwest London, UK. It forms part of the London Borough of Brent.-History:The area was recorded as Neasdun in 939 AD and the name is derived from the Old English nēos = 'nose' and dūn = 'hill'. It means 'the nose-shaped hill' referring to a well-defined landmark of this area...
, but only used it on one occasion for a cabinet meeting, before returning to his Cabinet War Room
Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms
The Churchill War Rooms is a museum in London and one of the five branches of the Imperial War Museum. The museum comprises the Cabinet War Rooms, a historic underground complex that housed a British government command centre throughout the Second World War, and the Churchill Museum, a biographical...
bunker
Bunker
A military bunker is a hardened shelter, often buried partly or fully underground, designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks...
in Whitehall
Whitehall
Whitehall is a road in Westminster, in London, England. It is the main artery running north from Parliament Square, towards Charing Cross at the southern end of Trafalgar Square...
. However, this created additional difficulties on clear nights when a full moon
Full moon
Full moon lunar phase that occurs when the Moon is on the opposite side of the Earth from the Sun. More precisely, a full moon occurs when the geocentric apparent longitudes of the Sun and Moon differ by 180 degrees; the Moon is then in opposition with the Sun.Lunar eclipses can only occur at...
was predicted (or as Churchill romantically termed it 'When the Moon is High') - so the authorities looked for an alternate site north of London. Tree offered Churchill use of Ditchley, which thanks to its tree coverage and no visible access road made it an ideal site which Churchill was happy with. Churchill first went to Ditchley in lieu of Chequers on 9 November 1940, accompanied by Clementine and his daughter Mary. By late 1942, security measures at Chequers had improved, notably including covering the road with turf. The last weekend Churchill attended Ditchley as his official residence was Tree's birthday on 26 September 1942. Churchill's last visit was for lunch in 1943.
Churchill gave Tree a job in the Ministry of Information
Ministry of Information
The term Ministry of Information may refer to the following:* Ministry of Information , part of the Cabinet of Egypt* Ministry of Information , part of the Cabinet of Equatorial Guinea...
, where he met a married American co-worker Marietta Peabody FitzGerald and began a romantic relationship.
Marietta
Although Tree was bisexual and twenty years older than Marietta, at the end of World War II, Tree and Peabody divorced their respective partners, and then married on July 26, 1947; they had one child, Penelope (born 1949), who became a celebrated fashion model in the 1960s.Marietta moved into Ditchley, but found herself bored with English country life. Tree and most of his friends were conservatives, and Democrat
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
Marietta found herself isolated. Recognising his wife's unhappiness, and for the first time in his life short of money due to the taxation of Foreign Trust income enacted by the 1945 Labour Government, Tree sold Ditchley and agreed to return to New York with Marietta, her daughter Frances FitzGerald, their daughter, and his butler
Butler
A butler is a domestic worker in a large household. In great houses, the household is sometimes divided into departments with the butler in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantry. Some also have charge of the entire parlour floor, and housekeepers caring for the entire house and its...
Collins.
Marietta immediately joined the Lexington Democratic Club, and two years later was elected the county chairwoman. She was elected to the Democratic State Committee in 1954. In 1952, Marietta became involved in the Presidential election campaign of Adlai Stevenson, and in the later 1956 campaign - both defeats. This did not put her off politics, and John F Kennedy appointed her to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights
United Nations Commission on Human Rights
The United Nations Commission on Human Rights was a functional commission within the overall framework of the United Nations from 1946 until it was replaced by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2006...
in 1961.
Marietta had started an affair with Adlai Stevenson between his two failed presidential campaigns, but her husband was unfazed by this, as the couple's marriage had largely disintegrated to a friendly separation, with Tree spending much of his time at Heron Bay, his house in Barbados. Marietta had turned down the option of returning to her earlier lover, the director John Huston
John Huston
John Marcellus Huston was an American film director, screenwriter and actor. He wrote most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered classics: The Maltese Falcon , The Treasure of the Sierra Madre , Key Largo , The Asphalt Jungle , The African Queen , Moulin Rouge...
, even when he had given her a role in his 1960 movie "The Misfits
The Misfits (film)
The Misfits is a 1961 American drama film written by Arthur Miller, directed by John Huston, and starring Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, Montgomery Clift, Thelma Ritter, and Eli Wallach. It was the final film appearance for both Gable and Monroe...
." It was while walking in London with Marietta that Adlai suffered a heart attack, and later died at St. George's Hospital. That night in her diary, Marietta wrote, "Adlai is dead. We were together."
Ronald Tree died of a stroke on July 14, 1976 in London, England.