The Dandy
Peregrine Worsthorne
I’d never heard Peregrine used as a first name until I read the latest issue of The Oldie magazine this morning. The name was in an article about Peregrine Worsthorne, better known as Perry. I’d never heard of him either.
Peregrine was a name that fascinated me. I realised it must be derived from peregrino, pilgrim. What’s true for every other pilgrim is also true for me; every pilgrim is a friend of mine.
It’s a shame that Peregrine Worsthorne passed away in 2020. He lived to a blessed age, and from what I gather from his widow, Lucinda Lampton, had a blessed life. In her article, she described her search for the right headstone for her late husband. As far as I’m concerned, she found it. It’s a gem.
Worsthorne had an exciting career as a journalist. He started as a reporter for The Times. This was just after the Second World War when it was the most eminent English newspaper of the time.
Worsthorne was the son of a Belgian banker with the surname Gooreynd. Somehow, this was Anglicised to Worsthorne. (The more accurate translation would be Ugly-end.) His mother was of English noble descent and, after quickly divorcing his father Worsthorne, remarried Montagu Norman, then the governor of the Bank of England.
His boss at The Times pointed out to Perry that he hadn’t landed at exactly the right place as a journalist. His editor-in-chief told him “we’re all ‘hacks,’ but you’re a ‘real thoroughbred.’
Worsthorne ignored them both. He became a correspondent in Washington, where, in the eyes of his bosses, he was a little too enthusiastic about the anti-communist Joseph McCarthy. They fired him. That gave him a reason to move to The Sunday Telegraph, where he remained for the rest of his professional career. He served as editor-in-chief until 1991.
That was also the year he married Lucinda Lambton, the author of the article in The Oldie. Howthorne was in his sixties, Lambton in her forties. It was her third marriage, his second; his first wife had died a year earlier.
They seem to have been happy. Lambton explained why she chose the five words to commemorate him. Knight – Howthorne had been knighted and was very proud of it. He was a Journalist through and through. He was a Thinker, but one who, according to a wonderful obituary by Christopher Howse in The Daily Telegraph, would rather be “laughed at than ignored.”
Lambton also described him as a Sweetheart, because she clearly loved him. However, the last word on the stone was chosen by Worsthorne himself. Dandy, “that’s the word I’ll most like to be remembered by” - very English and also, as the Belgians say, een beetje zot (a little nonsense).
Never take yourself too seriously. There’s something beautiful about that. Lambton concluded her article, "Hurrah for Perry.” I echo that.