There are plenty of gossipy tales about the Reverend Rudolph Baron von Hube, vicar of Greasley during DH Lawrence's time, about his mysterious past and foreign ways. Lawrence himself also embellished the truth about von Hube, as he did with many locals, but at least one of Lawrence's early poems pays an honourable tribute to him...
He was a soldier once, our fierce little Baron, a Pole fleeing in exile to England at the end of the fight. He was a soldier always; in church it was a sight to see him flash and tremble with the fire of his soul. From The Death of the Baron by D H Lawrence.
Truth from Fiction
But was he really a soldier? Was he even a Baron? What was he fleeing from? Picking the facts from the fiction, sometimes exaggerated by von Hube himself, is tricky. Lawrence used von Hube as the basis for several larger-than-life characters in his books, plays and poems, often using humour at the poor vicar's expense. In one of his most famous novels, The Rainbow, von Hube has a sympathetic and barely-disguised cameo as Polish exile "Rudolph, Baron Skrebensky, Vicar of Briswell... author of The History of the Parish of Briswell." The real von Hube wrote a history of the parish of Greasley called "Griseleia in Snotingscire."
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| DH Lawrence - used von Hube as basis for several larger than life characters |
Search For The Facts
In our search for the truth about von Hube's life we stand on the shoulders of two local history legends, Clive Leivers of the Haggs Farm Preservation Society and Donald Webb of Kimberley who made the same fact-finding journey as myself some 30 years ago & whose splendid pieces of research can be found in Nottingham Local Studies library & the Hopkin Collection in Eastwood library.
We'll start with von Hube's 1910 obituary in the Nottingham Guardian, the basis for many subsequent references including the Nottingham Archives' biographical background of him. It states that..
"Rev. Rodolph Baron von Hube, son of a Polish nobleman, participated in the uprising against the Prussian tyranny, later went as a missionary to the Cape of Good Hope, and in 1863 came to England, knowing no English. Curate at Eastwood, 1863-4, and then Ironville, 1864, became vicar of Greasley in 1866, resigned 1907. Wrote Griseleia in Snotingscire, 1901. Died 23 Nov. 1910 'upwards of 80'. (obituary in Nottingham Guardian, 24 Nov. 1910) [so born sometime before 1830]"
Debunking his Obituary - Application for Naturalisation
Clive Leivers has examined von Hube's application for naturalisation in Great Britain from September 1866 and concludes that the Guardian biography is "romance" leaving out a crucial period of his life between Poland & South Africa. In the application von Hube declared...
“I am a native of the Kingdom of Poland [a very specific term for part of Russia that native Poles wanted to gain independence]. I first arrived in England in October 1853 [and] resided in London until March 1857 when I left for The Cape of Good Hope. I returned from there to England in October 1863.”
So here we have irrefutable evidence of a prior spell in England, almost four years from 1853-7 which was to determine von Hube's future life and about which, thanks to Donald Webb’s research, we know a good deal.
Von Hube's Life - piecing together the evidence
We'll review von Hube's life in four sections - Poland; his first period in England; South Africa; and his return to the UK and to Nottinghamshire. Finally we'll consider his place in DH Lawrence's work and his own literary & antiquarian output.
1 - Early Life in Poland
This is probably the most romantic part of the story, the Polish nobleman and patriot, forced to flee his country. But also the most difficult period for which to establish the truth, partly due to political situation in Poland at the time and the non-survival of the sort of archival material which can establish some verifiable facts. The hard evidence we have comes from UK records. Census returns state a few "facts":
Born 1828 [so aged 53 in 1881] in Warsaw [not just the city but a district & province] in "Kingdom of Poland" or in 1881 "Poland (Russia)". Marriage 1873 - son of Godfrey [ Gottfried?], gent.
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| Warsaw's former Roman Catholic Church converted to Russian Orthodox |
Poland as a country - Poland as a country did not exist during von Hube's life there. On three occasions in the 18th century the independent and self-governing Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth had been partitioned between Prussia, Russia and to a lesser extent Austria. The Kingdom of Poland was created at the Congress of Vienna in 1815 after the Napoleonic wars. It was centred round Warsaw but essentially a Russian puppet state with the Czar as king. Poland and Lithuania were not re-established as independent countries until 1918, eight years after von Hube's death.
Religious persecution - One reason for von Hube fleeing his birth country could have been his Roman Catholic religion. Religion was a key element of the Russification in the Kingdom of Poland. The Roman Catholic Church in Warsaw was seized and converted into a Russian Orthodox Church while Warsaw was a part of the Russian Empire. However von Hube soon converted to Anglican Church of England after he emigrated.
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| 1863 - "The January Uprising" by the Polish nationalists against Russian tyranny. Von Hube had already gone to England but an intriguing gap year could still place him here. |
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| "The Battle" from the cycle of paintings "Polonia" dedicated to January Uprising of 1863 – Artur Grottger |
Uprising Against Tyranny - According to Polish historian Norman Davies... "The Polish national movement had the longest pedigree, the best credentials, the greatest determination, the worst press and the least success… the principal actions were directed from the Congress Kingdom against Russia" - most notably in 1831 when von Hube was aged 2 and 1863 "The January Uprising" when von Hube was probably living back in England.
This leads to certain tales about him being (almost) debunked, that he.. "fought in the January insurrection of 1863 against the Russians, swimming the Vistula to escape & then fled to South Africa." [from The Park residents association and Mark Kinkead-Weekes's DH Lawrence bio]
Was he in Warsaw for the 1863 January Uprising? - It's possible, but there is no evidence to positively place him there. He'd left his missionary job in South Africa in April 1862 but there's no evidence of him back in England until October 1863, an intriguing and mysterious gap year when he could have gone back to Warsaw and been part of the 1863 January Uprising. Von Hube would have been aged 35, young, free and single with time on his hands.
The only other significant uprising in which Hube could have participated, according to Clive Leivers, was the Poznan uprising of 1848 when he would have been 19 and perhaps at university. However this was centred in an area which had been annexed by Prussia since 1793 and was some distance from Warsaw, although protests were held in Polish inhabited areas of Silesia. Donald Webb records that Breslau, in Prussian Silesia, was a centre of agitation in this 1848 rising and von Hube claimed to have a degree from the university there. But if von Hube was involved and then had to flee, would he have completed his degree at the age of 19?
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Leiver's concludes that the overall judgment has to be one of "not proven" both as to his claim to nobility and patriotic rebel. Webb accepts that, as a student, he had probably been involved in the political struggles in Poland but as a German speaking Pole, latterly educated in Prussia, there must be some question over whether he would take part in rising against Prussia.
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| Von Hube arrived in London in October 1853 |
2 - Von Hube in London
We are on safer ground from now on, thanks to the survival of records and Donald Webb’s research. Von Hube arrived in England in October 1853, a Polish Catholic speaking French, German and Polish but no English. Over the next four years he had become a member of the Anglican church, sufficiently devout to be recommended as a missionary to the German settlers in the Cape Province of South Africa and with his command of English, good enough to carry out the duties of a bookkeeper & auditor.
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| William Weldon Champneys |
When he first arrived in Whitechapel, von Hube reportedly joined a travelling German band. When the band visited Hastings he happened to meet Henry Smith, whose widowed sister lived in the town. Smith was impressed by the young man, took him to meet his wife, who spoke German [she had been born in Germany] and introduced him to other friends in Hastings, who gave him clothes and English lessons. Smith later gave von Hube a part-time job assisting with the college accounts and in 1856 he was appointed as an auditor of the college. Von Hube later acquired a portrait of Smith which he kept until his death and told a later treasurer of the college that Smith was "like a father to me."
Both Champneys and Smith were instrumental in von Hube securing the missionary post in South Africa and Smith was also to introduce von Hube to his future wife of which more later.
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| 1857 - Southern Africa during von Hube's time. His mission in East London is arrowed. |
3 - South African Mission
Evidence for this period in von Hube's life comes from mission society records.
During the Crimean war, Britain recruited a group of German soldiers which became known as the British-German Legion. By the end of 1856 the legion was disbanded having seen little or no action. Queen Victoria was particularly concerned about their future with return to their homeland being seen as problematical since they had sworn allegiance to the British crown. The solution was seen as resettlement of the legionnaires in the Eastern Cape Colony in South Africa known as British Kaffraria which had been annexed to the Cape Colony in 1847 after the latest war with the native Africans, the Xhosa. When the initial arrangements were made to bring out the British-German Legion in 1856, one chaplain was promised for every thousand soldiers. However on his arrival in Grahamstown in 1856, Bishop Cotterill found that there were in fact no clergymen at all to care for the German settlements. He requested help from the Commonwealth church and school society in finding a pastor. The man recommended was von Hube.
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| 1852 - East London gets colonized by the British |
Arrival - He arrived in South Africa (Grahamstown) in May 1857, and was ordained a deacon on 7 June that year. He served at Panmure, East London as a deacon until his ordination as a priest on 3 June 1860. He provided monthly reports of his progress to the missionary society and his letters give the impression of a missionary who was struggling continuously to make ends meet on a mission station which was not considered to be of very great importance.
Murder and workload - His work was complicated by the fact that, after the murder of a fellow clergymn and the transfer of another, he was also expected to provide for the pastoral care of the English speaking community at East London on the western bank of the river. The East London historian Dr Keith Tankard, recounts the history as follows.. "East London’s very first school was established in 1859 in Panmure by a Reverend Rodolph von Hube. However, the school closed three years later when Von Hube, who was the resident Church of England missionary at Panmure, left the region in 1862".
By mid-March 1859, he had opened his Grace Chapel and commenced immediately with a Sunday School. A day school came into operation in April 1859 and he was anxious to provide adult evening classes. He had to prepare 5 weekly sermons - 3 in German, 1 in French and 1 in English.
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| The wild east coast of South Africa, British Kaffraria where von Hube was a multilingual missionary. |
Chartable work - Von Hube paid great attention to charitable work, organising such things as a burial fund for the destitute. He paid domiciliary visits and visits to the hospital which could take at least 2 days a week. Ironically, his concern for others did not resolve his personal financial difficulties. His salary was £150 sterling per annum. The problem, however, was not that his salary was inadequate but that he was paid per quarter in arrears, whereas most of the other missionaries received their salaries in advance. Furthermore, von Hube had financial troubles over the running of his school, partly because of a misunderstanding as to who would pay the costs. As a consequence, payment for the school usually came out of his own pocket. Moreover, although the Grahamstown diocese paid £50 of his salary, [the rest came form the mission society] this money began to decrease after 1860 as Government funding to the Anglican Church began to dry up. The financial problems culminated in 1862 with a decision by the Bishop of Grahamstown that he could no longer provide an adequate salary.
Leaving South Africa - Von Hube left Panmure in April 1862 arriving back in England in October 1863. Among his papers in the Nottinghamshire Archives is a testimonial from his Bishop...
"Reference provided by Bishop of Grahamstown, Cape of Good Hope, South Africa DD/B/1/4 28 July 1863I certify that the Rev Rodolph von Hube, who was ordained by me as both deacon & priest, has for the last 6 years been resident in this diocese & has been ministering among the Germans at Panmure in British Kaffiristan. Mr von Hube is leaving the diocese only because I have no longer the means of providing him with a sufficient salary. I believe him, during the period of his ministry, to have lived piously, soberly & honestly & to have held, written & taught, nothing contrary to the doctrine or discipline of the Church of England, but also to be a zealous & truthful minister of the gospel & to possess high qualifications for his office. Henry Grahamstown 28/7/1863"
His mysterious gap year - after leaving Panmure in April 1862 and arriving back in England in October 1863 there is a gap in his records. Where did he go? There is one intriguing possibility that he went back to Warsaw and took part, as his legend suggests, in the 1863 January Uprising and swimming the Vistula river to escape persecution. Sadly we have no evidence for this and it is just as likely that, as a financially challenged priest, that he returned to his mentors in London.
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| 1863 January Uprising - von Hube's mysterious gap year coincided with this significant insurrection again Russian rule. Artist - Tadeusz Ajdukiewicz |
4 - Back to England
On his return to England, von Hube gave a number of lectures on his experiences in South Africa. At Sawley in 1864, at Bingley in 1866 and Ilkeston in 1881 for the church Mutual Improvement Society. This last lecture shows evidence of von Hube's wide ranging interests. He described being carried ashore on the backs of the natives; the flora of the countryside and the difficult travel across the rugged terrain. He was full of praise for the local tribesmen, describing their varying decoration and physique and concluded that the Kaffir was one of the finest specimen of the human family, totally trustworthy with remarkable powers of endurance and suggested that an ordinary Kaffir lad, with due education, would surpass the intellectual prowess of any English boy. So von Hube returned to England after another romantic episode in his life. But he had clearly proved himself as a Church of England priest and it was not long before he was appointed to a post in England, in the East Midlands, where he was to remain for the rest of his life.
To the Midlands - Leivers tells us that Von Hube probably owed his first two church appointments to two vice-presidents of of the Colonial Church Society, John Plumtree and Francis Wright. Plumtree had the advowson of Eastwood church to which von Hube was appointed curate at the beginning of 1864 with a stipend of £100. Wright similarly had a role in the appointments at Ironville, a few miles away in Derbyshire & von Hube was appointed curate there in November the same year.
Greasley and Naturalisation - In November 1866 he was appointed vicar of Greasley on the presentation of Lady Palmerston and served the parish for the next 40 years. As soon as he learned of his appointment von Hube applied for naturalisation. His application was supported by the incumbents of Osmaston near Ashbourne, Claypole near Newark, Eastwood and his two mentors from London, Champneys and Smith.
The grounds for his application were threefold :
- that he was a clergyman of Church of England
- that he is about to be presented to the vicarage of Greasley
- and that he “contemplates a matrimonial alliance with a lady of British birth & parentage." His application was granted in October 1866.
Local myth about his "Barber" marriage - One of the myths surrounding von Hube comes in Richard Syson's memories of life in Cossall c.1920 and was that he obtained the living of Greasley through the influence of the Barber family since he was promised to marry to one of the daughters but having obtained the appointment he immediately married a Polish woman! That is wrong on every count - there was not a Barber daughter of marriageable age and his relationships with the family were close and amicable throughout his time in Greasley.
Marriage - He did not marry for another seven years and then to "lady of British birth".
In July 1873 he married Mary Doran, then aged 47, at Lee in Kent. Mary had been the ward of HW Smith, von Hube's supporter from Morden College. Smith had died in the preceding November but his widow was one of the witnesses and it was from her house in Lee that the marriage took place.
The marriage settlement provided that Mary’s funds should return to her family after the death of her husband if there were no surviving children and this turned out to be the case. It seems likely therefore that von Hube and Mary had become acquainted during his time in London and that for whatever reason she felt unable to marry before 1873.
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| Greasley House, the new vicarage built in 1869 now for sale at £1.5 million (June 2025) |
Greasley's long-serving vicar - So what do we know of his long service as Greasley's vicar? As he proudly mentions in his parish history, "Griseleia in Snotingscire", he oversaw two restorations of the church. In 1882 a partial restoration was carried out costing £900, removing galleries in the nave and a partition that separated the nave from the tower. All windows were re-glazed and the nave re-floored. But a few years later mining subsidence caused the nave to break away from the tower and the chancel from the nave.
This damage led to a major restoration in 1896 which, apart from the chancel and the tower, involved an almost total rebuild of the church. This cost £2000 which was met in full by Earl Cowper, the patron, the Duke of Rutland and the Barber and Walker mining company. Within a year of his appointment he had clearly taken his place among the local elite.
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| 1889 Watnall Hall wedding - is that von Hube and wife in black with matching white crosses? It is easy to see the comedy, fun-poking potential they drew from certain locals looking like extras from a Blackadder episode! |
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| 1901 - a studious von Hube |
A fiery preacher among the local elite - In October 1867 he was among the guests at the annual dinner of the Greasley & Selston Agricultural society in the company of the Barbers & Colonel Rolleston of Watnall Hall. At the same function a year later, he mounted a passionate defence of the Church of England in the light of proposed disestablishment. The report of his speech gives a flavour of his address...
- that the Church of England was a bulwark against popery; that he looked to his own country Poland, Ireland & Spain and found them demoralised by this superstition. In England, where the open Bible prevailed he found the freedom and prosperity which had made her position among the nations of the world. He expressed thanks to his parishioners for the generous manner in which they had responded to the appeals he had made to them and promised to remain in the vessel of the church as long as he could and endeavour to weather the storm.
That perhaps gives a flavour of his oratory and this was probably reflected in his sermons. In Lawrence’s poem "Death of the Baron" are the lines we started the article with...
”he was a soldier always; in church it was a sight to see him flash and tremble with the fire of his soul."
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| Willie Hopkin - poet, writer and local news reporter |
"an eccentric old chap, he used to like his whiskey, used to call the bottles the "little black devils." Very overbearing & wanting to dominate the vestry meetings. He decided that there would be no burials on Sundays but on one occasion the funeral party threatened to leave the coffin in the church unless he came to conduct the service."
This echoes a tale from Willie Hopkin recorded in Harry T Moore’s biography of DH Lawrence, The Intelligent Heart. Hopkin remembered von Hube as...
“a rum bloke who wouldn't bury anyone after four in the afternoon. Once a body arrived late, at half-past four because of slippery roads and von Hube refused to conduct the burial service till next day. The men who had brought the coffin took it out of their cart and propped it against the door of the vicarage, saying loudly, “So we’ll leave the old booger ’ere till morning” at which the baron popped out at once to attend to the burial".
Both Syson and Hopkin mention his liking for drink. In another Hopkin tale about von Hube, which he also insisted was true, the vicar, after a dinner with the Barbers at Lamb Close House on a foggy night, set off across the fields for Greasley. He had been imbibing and he lost his way, wandering into Moorgreen Reservoir up to his knees. He began to cry out, “Lost! Lost!” Two passing colliers who heard him said, “Oh, ’e’s not wanted till Sunday,” and walked on. The people at Lamb Close finally responded to the alarm, rescued von Hube, and sent the pony cart to take him home.
Kind-Hearted - In a letter in the Evening Post 19/12/1942 from W B S, Trent Bridge, the author tells us that von Hube was a clever doctor and often served his parishioners in this capacity. Leivers wonders if this was likely with a well-established medical practice in Eastwood headed by Dr Forbes who would have known von Hube well. His wife was a Barber and attended von Hube's funeral. Both Forbes and his wife are buried at Greasley. It says that von Hube was most eccentric in manner but very kind-hearted.
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| c.1901 - von Hube and his wife. The picture was found inside a copy of his book on the his parish history of Greasley called "Grisleia in Snotingscire" Courtesy of K.Kenneth. |
Resignation and retirement - In 1907 von Hube resigned his living partly due to the deteriorating health of his wife and himself. The couple moved to the Park Estate in Nottingham. A couple of years later in November 1909 he wrote to one of his former parishioners, Mr Adlington of Moorgreen Manor Farm which gives an intimation of his fondness for Greasley...
"I revive myself a little to think of friends in the old country as it were. I cannot & shall not forget dear old Greasley & its associations. I have had some very happy half hours with you & have always taken comfort with you walking up the aisle of the church to your seat so sturdily….and cheered with your wrapped attention during the sermons. I had also the pleasure to see you at my farewell sermon & to feel the hearty grasp of your hand.”
He then complains of constant traffic on Lenton Boulevard but…
“we shall get used to all things even to eating roast beef. The baroness, I am happy to say to my comfort, likes her new home “
Within the next month the baroness died in December 1909 and less than a year later von Hube himself was dead. The couple were both buried in Nottingham General cemetery. The mourners at the old man’s funeral give a final glimpse of the esteem in which he was held by the local great and good :
- Col Rolleston, three Barbers, Mrs Forbes, three clergymen, the churchwardens and other members of his Greasley congregation. In 1914 a memorial to von Hube and wife was placed in Greasley church, established by the parishioners and unveiled by Colonel Rolleston.
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| Greasley St. Mary's was rebuilt by Von Hube with the old vicarage to the right |
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| Von Hube's memorial in Greasley St.Mary's church |
4 - Von Hube's his own writings and his portrayal by DH Lawrence
Von Hubes's own literary work - Like many another Victorian clergyman he was an antiquarian and became an early member of the county's historical society, the Thoroton Society formed in 1897. He was on the organising committee for the Victoria History of Nottinghamshire. In 1899, for an exhibition mounted by the Thoroton Society, he loaned some of his collection of old coins including ancient British and Anglo-Saxon coins and English coins from 1066-1897. He was described as..."one of our best known numismatologists.”
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| Mr. Straw's copy of von Hube's book |
Grisleia in Snotingscire - In 1901 he produced his parish history of Greasley called "Grisleia in Snotingscire" an unnecessarily archaic title which he dedicated to Lancelot Rolleston and to his parishioners... "Inscribed with my esteem to Lancelot Rolleston of Watnall Hall, Esqr.,and Colonel South Notts Hussars, and To my parishioners with sincere wishes for their best future and highest welfare by their faithful friend and pastor, Rudolph Baron Von Hube"
This work has tended to be too readily dismissed. For example by DH Lawrence scholar Harry T Mooore... "that scramble of history, anecdote & sycophancy to the vicar’s leading parishioners."
But whilst derivative, it relies heavily on Thoroton’s 17th century history of Nottinghamshire, it is a typical product of the antiquary dealing with church, its patrons and local gentry. It is a valuable source in those aspects of the parish history. It is now available on line on the Nottinghamshire history website. A copy can be seen in the National Trust's "Mr.Straw's House" in Worksop, Notts.
DH Lawrence and the Baron - Von Hube provides the basis for characters in :
- the novel "The Rainbow"
- the short story "A Fragment of Stained Glass"
- the play "The Merry-Go-Round"
Skrebensky and Lydia Lensky are not of course the only Poles to appear in Lawrence’s work. The governess at the vicarage, Paula Jablonsky who appears in "Love among the Haystacks" is variously described as Polish & German. Perhaps the Polish characters do show the von Hube influence. Lawrence author John Worthen has pointed out that one of Lawrence's wife Frieda’s grandmothers was also of Polish descent.
It is interesting that the first version of "A Fragment of Stained Glass" was titled "A page from the annals of Gresleia" which Lawrence entered in the Nottingham Guardian short story competition of 1907. The narrator of the story is "the vicar of Beauvale, the largest parish in England" (like Greasley) who takes archaeology as his hobby. He has discovered the tale in 15th century Beauvale records. This at least has a passing reference to von Hube's antiquarian interests.
The Merry-Go-Round caricature - The most direct references to von Hube appears in "The Merry-Go-Round" Lawrence's curious comedy play. It is notable for the realism of the local dialect but as John Worthen remarks it is... "scrappy, uneven , too long with a contrived ending."
Von Hube is lampooned as Baron von Ruge who with his wife are the comic characters who are the terrors of lovers Lane going out every Monday night to whack the shrubbery with cane and umbrella to discourage courting couples. You get the general idea from this dialog...
"BARON: We haf done good work this night. BARONESS (tall and spare, in an antique cloak and bonnet): Seven couples, Baron and we have only been out an hour. Isn’t it terrible! BARON: These miners are not men, they are animals that prowl by night. BARONESS: The girls are worse, with their faces of brass. It is they who entice the young men into these naughty holes and crannies."
They think they are being attacked by "a band of ruffians" whereas the couple hiding in the bushes are their maid and a female friend. The depiction is unconvincing but Lawrence does use von Hube's German influenced English... "we haf narrowly escaped" emphasised by stage directions "he chokes with gutturals & consonants" and "he sputters into German” and he lapses into a foreign fizzle.
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| A Polish maid and a German-speaking vicar are characters |
A sympathetic ending? - Even the more sympathetic-seeming Lawrence work, the early poem "Death of the Baron" (a celebratory verse from which we opened this article) soon descends into the vicar's foreign-ness and failure. A harvester is finishing his day’s work when he hears the church bells "beating out the funeral knell.." Inside is the vicar...
"The Baron had hoped to die in the pulpit, to conquer in death. For his mission had cruelly failed, while his passionate foreign breath Refused to be moulded in arrows of English words.
Sunday after Sunday they carried him trembling to his place In the pulpit, where, shrivelled and ghastly, in unintelligible speech
He preached to the stolid farmers, till at last he could preach
No more, and he lay at home, unutterable despair in his face.
The fierce black eyes are closed, they will open no more, Startled, and full of agony to find he had but slept. Eyes where his hot, imprisoned soul has kept A fiery sign of the chained power that wasted him to the core.
Slow, infirm Death has at last gathered up the waste Of Godhead in Man despised, carelessly thrown over. There are enough of great souls to complete an efficient Jehovah,
And behold them deplorably dead, by wrong usage defaced.
Conclusion
I have to agree with Clive Leivers's conclusion on Von Hube's life and the search for the truth.
I don’t know that we've have been completely successful in untangling legend from reality. However the facts of von Hube's life do, I think, justify his description of "an extremely romantic career". They certainly show his intelligence and diligence. It was no mean task for a 30-year-old recent Anglican convert to go out to South Africa and successfully provide pastoral care to the German community. And he clearly made an early and very favourable impression on his mentors in London, who were successful and prominent members of the community.
He quickly settled into the Greasley community and whilst perhaps a figure of fun for some with his foreign background and accented English, he proved to be conscientious and ardent in performing his pastoral duties for a period of 40 years.
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Notes and Sources
Reference: HO 1/134/5214
Description: Naturalisation Papers: Von Hube, Rudolph, from Poland. Certificate 5214 issued 5 October 1866.
Date: 1866 Held by: The National Archives, Kew
Donald Webb's archive; Clive Leiver's archive and notes for his presentation on von Hube kindly supplied by his son; DH Lawrence scholars Harry T Moore, John Worthern; Notts Archives; 1881 census and marriage records; Nottingham Guardian archives.
East London Community Facebook group
https://www.facebook.com/profile/100063638317504/search/?q=hube.
https://www.ru.ac.za/media/rhodesuniversity/content/corylibrary/documents/Cory_Library_List_of_Accessions_no_29.pdf
https://www.jstor.org/stable/44233242
JOURNAL ARTICLE
LAWRENCE'S DEBT TO RUDOLPH, BARON VON HUBE
William Latta
The D.H. Lawrence Review
Vol. 1, No. 1 (spring 1968), pp. 60-62 (3 pages)
Published By: D.H. Lawrence Review
Online copy of Grisleia in Snotingscire
http://www.nottshistory.org.uk/books/vonhube1910/titlepage.htm
Items donated to Nottinghamshire Record Office by Messrs. Barber and Sons, 20 Woodhouse Road, Mansfield, via Norman Summers, Nottingham University. Acc 1437 on 14th January 1975, and Acc 1588 on 15th June 1976
Ten Years in South Africa: Only Complete and Authentic History of the British German Legion in South Africa and the East Indies by William Westphal
Picture credits - Polish Institute, East London Community Facebook group; Notts Archives, Town and Country estate agents, K.Kenneth; National Trust.
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