Our American Duchess

LONDON
My grandmother Minerva was an uptown girl who didn’t know what uptown was until she lived in London.  She and her husband Harry grew up in German-speaking Pennsylvania Dutch farming country northwest of Philadelphia.  They were the first in their families to go to college.  Minerva’s father owned a GM dealership until it went bankrupt in the 30’s.

Hartzells arrive in England on the Europa, 1937

Harry began his career as a Chemical Engineer with Hercules Powder Company straight out of Penn State.  He made a risky career choice to manage a Hercules plant in Yorkshire as a way of getting off the night shift in his plant in Richmond, VA.  The family arrived in England in 1937 on the ocean liner Europa.  Harry Jr. was 6.  In 1939 with London under air bombardment by German planes, Harry Jr. and Minerva were evacuated back to the US with other non-essential US personnel.  Harry Sr returned to the US after Dunkirk in 1940.

Minerva and Harry Sr. were sent back to London after the war and Harry assumed the lead role for Hercules for the next 20 years.  They rented an apartment in Chelsea two blocks from posh King Road and became fixtures in the US expatriate community of 1950’s-60’s London.  For several years Harry was President of the American Chamber of Commerce, as a result of which they were invited to tea at Buckingham Palace and regularly met the US Ambassador and visiting dignitaries.

Gran's Chelsea, 1969

Minerva took to the life in London.  She found a dressmaker, Mrs. A., the widow of a former Yugoslavian ambassador and acquired a closetful of bespoke suits for every season and occasion.  She studied silver hallmarks and purchased a collection of Georgian silver – similar pieces of which we recently saw in the Victoria and Albert Museum.  She studied art appreciation at the adult school in London and would frequent the Sotheby and Christies auction houses.  She and Harry Sr enjoyed subscriptions to the Symphony and Opera and traveled extensively throughout Europe and Asia.  I remember her mentioning her Hong Kong tailor, bringing us toys from Sydney, telling us about St. Petersburg.

In 1969 Harry retired and they moved to California to be near us. A couple of years later they returned to London to visit for a month, staying in Chelsea near their old apartment.  Early in their visit Gran went to the laundromat that she had frequented for years.  The owner approached her, saying “Where have you been?  My other patrons have asked, ‘What happened to our American Duchess?’”

Peter