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Vera Chapman 

Written and compiled by George Knowles 

Vera Chapman is perhaps best known as the founder of the Tolkien Society of Great Britain, founded in 1969 to promote the works of the author J.R.R. Tolkien.  Later she became an accomplished author herself, best known for the Arthurian Trilogy:  The Green Knight (1975), King Arthur’s Daughter (1976) and The King’s Damosels (1976).  However, less was known about her interest in Woodcraft and Paganism, for she was an early member of the Kibbo Kift Kindred, a movement founded by John Gordon Hargrave in 1920, a member of the Ancient Druid Order, and later Pendragon of the Order of Bards, Ovates & Druids founded by Ross Nichols in 1964. 

Born Vera Ivy May Fogerty in Christchurch, near Bournemouth, England, on the 08^th May 1898, Vera was the youngest of three daughters (sisters - Dulcie W. and Geraldine E.) born to John Frederick Fogerty and his wife Kate Isabella Veronica Fogerty (nee Morse).  John Fogerty was a wealthy architect and engineer of Irish descent, best known for East Cliff Hall (completed in 1907), a new “home/museum” he designed for wealthy Sir Merton Russell-Cotes and his wife Lady Russell-Cotes in Bournemouth.  Today the building is known as the Russell Coates Art Gallery and Museum, a popular cultural attraction in Bournemouth open to the public.

East Cliff Hall in 1907  -  As it was in 2008

Shortly before 1914 her parents emigrated to South Africa, apparently for the benefit of her mother’s health.  There at the start of WWI her father enlisted in the army as an Officer, throughout which he served in South West Africa, the Isle of Wight, Palestine and Poona in India.  By the end of the war he had been wounded several times and had received various decorations.  After the war he returned to South Africa and worked as a public engineer in Pretoria until 1926, before moving on to Lusaka in Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) as a Borough Surveyor.  He later died at Kilfinane in Lusaka in 1938.

Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford

During her time in Oxford, Vera also became a dedicated member of the Kibbo Kift Kindred, a ‘back-to-nature’ orientated Woodcraft movement founded by John Gordon Hargrave (the White Fox).  Vera’s woodcraft name was ‘Lavengri’ meaning ‘Woman of Letters’, reflecting her University status.  After graduating from Oxford in 1924, Vera married a Church of England clergyman, Charles Sydney Chapman, and went to live in Lourenco Marques in Portuguese East Africa.  A year later they returned to England, where they lived for many years in country vicarages and together raised two children (names and birth dates not yet known). 

John Gordon Hargrave (the White Fox)  -  The Kibbo Kift Logo 

Throughout the war years 1939-1945 it is thought that Vera worked as a teacher/civil-servant in London, and then after the war she joined the Colonial Office as a student welfare officer.   At about this time she also joined the Ancient Druid Order (ADO), then the largest Druidic order in the UK with a lineage that can be traced back to 1717.  It was perhaps through the ADO, or through London’s academic and literary circles, that she made the acquaintance of Ross Nichols.  Nichols was the Principal of a private teaching college in London (known as Jimmy’s); he was also an author, poet, artist and naturist.  In 1954 he had helped a fellow naturist and member of the ADO, Gerald B. Gardner to produce his first non-fiction book on witchcraft called “Witchcraft Today”.

Gerald Gardner (third from left with bagpipes) at Stonehenge in 1951.  

Taken from a Festival Souvenir Brochure produced for the Festival of Britain in 1951. 

That same year 1954, more interested in the ancient history and practice of Druidry, Nichols was introduced into the ADO by Gardner, and quickly advanced through the ranks to the office of Scribe, a position that suited his academic and literary abilities.  Later he was elected Chairman of the Order, in which capacity he lectured on its history.  In 1963 together with Robert A. F. MacGregor-Reid, then Chosen Chief of the ADO, Nichols was invited to the Breton Gorsedd in Brittany and ordained as ‘Archdeacon of the Isles’ (Isles of Britain) by Archbishop Tugdual of the Ancient Celtic Church.

Ross Nichols - Gerald Gardner - Robert MacGregor-Reid - Dr Thomas Maughan 

Sadly over the following two years his friends Gerald B. Gardner, Robert MacGregor-Reid and Archbishop Tugdual all died.  Each had played a major role in his life and to lose them all naturally devastated Nichols, but he was aided and encouraged by his friendship with Vera who provided him with the peer support and intellectual stimulus he needed to move on.  With the death of MacGregor-Reid, a schism soon developed among senior members of the ADO and as a result the Order split into two factions.  The first group elected Dr Thomas Maughan as the new Chosen Chief of the ADO, while the second group elected Nichols as the first Chosen Chief of the Order of Bards, Ovates & Druids (OBOD), a newly reconstructed Order focusing on the same three grades  -  Bard, Ovate and Druid.  As the senior officer in the new Order, Nichols appointed Vera his first Pendragon, a position she would hold until 1991.

OBOD Triumvirate:  Chosen Chief – Ross Nichols (center), Pendragan – Vera Chapman (left), and Scribe - John Brant (right), laying hands on a sword during the Spring Equinox ceremony of 1967 at Parliament Hill in Highgate, London.

“Whilst this sword is unsheathed, promise you all that the England our home and mother shall be protected and illuminated by the swords of our spirits and wills.”

Into the 1960’s fearing that the hippie cult-culture was undermining the literary value of books like The Hobbit (1937) and The Lord of the Rings (1954) by J.R.R. Tolkien, Vera founded the first Tolkien Society of Great Britain dedicated to restoring a more scholarly appreciation of his works.  In 1969 taking the name Belladonna Took from The Hobbit, she placed an advertisement in the New Statesman, an influential weekly magazine published in London, announcing the creation of the Society.

J.R.R. Tolkien - Gandalf played by Ian McKellen in The Lord of the Rings

Acting as Secretary of the Society, new members initially met at her flat in Camden, North London, from where they produced a newsletter called the Belladonna Broadsheet, named after her Middle-earth alias.  Later on the 27^th June 1972, she was invited to a party given by Tolkien’s publisher Rayner Unwin, and there met Tolkien himself and persuaded him to become the Society’s Honorary President.  After his death in 1973, Tolkien was elected President of the Society “in perpetuo”.  Vera remained Secretary of the Society for six years before she handed it over to other enthusiasts, during which time it had expanded rapidly, as did the newsletter, which today is a bimonthly publication called Amon Hen.

Amon Hen the bulletin of the tolkien society

By this time, perhaps inspired by Tolkien, but focusing on the myths and legends associated with her roots in paganism, she had been writing herself.  In 1975 at the aged of 77, Vera published her first fictional novel The Green Knight (1975).  She followed this with King Arthur’s Daughter (1976) and The King’s Damosel (1976) completing an Arthurian trilogy, the last of which Warner Bros. bought the film rights to be used as the basis for a 1998 animated feature film called Quest for Camelot.  Robert B. Wyatt, editor of Avon Books, described her at that time as “elegant and energetic, in a long red cape:  her conversation was crisp and witty.” 

The current Chosen Chief of the Order of Bards, Ovates & Druids (OBOD)

Philip Carr-Gomm

Philip Carr-Gomm who had studied Druidry with Nichols before his death, and thereafter knew Vera personally, has kindly shared some recollections about her: 

“In the late 1980’s, I used to visit Vera in her council flat in Camden and she would talk about her life, the Order, and a book she was trying to write on the history of the Women’s Freemasonry movement.  For some curious reason (which I have forgotten if I ever knew) her small, simple flat was either the same flat, or at least was in the same block, in which the previous Chief of the ADO, Robert MacGregor-Reid, had lived before he died:  Harrington House in Stanhope Street.

Although she was lucky to have had three books published and the film rights for one sold, she recounted her misfortune in not receiving much of the royalties, due to the financial difficulties of her first literary agent. 

After the death of Ross Nichols there had been few OBOD events for her to attend, but she had maintained her interest in Druidry and later supported me when I was asked to lead the Order.  Later she gave me the manuscript of the last book Ross Nichols had been working on - “The Book of Druidry” - and encouraged me to publish it.  She also gave me various papers and memorabilia associated with the Order, together with some of her published work and a complete set of A. E. Waite’s rituals for his ‘Fellowship of the Rosy Cross’ (which included handwritten notes and associated papers).

In 1991, at the age of 93, she was due to attend the Order’s summer solstice ceremony on Primrose Hill, there to hand over her title as Pendragon of the OBOD to her successor the artist Will Worthington.  However, she had suffered a stroke on the previous day and was admitted to a nearby hospital.  Just before the solstice ceremony, in a moving scene at the hospital, after receiving the last rites from the chaplain, Vera signed a certificate, clasped Will Worthington’s hands in blessing, and officially handed over her title to him."

Pendragon of the OBOD (1991 – 2010)

Will Worthington

A year later having recovered sufficiently from her stroke, Vera was able to attend the Tolkien Centenary Conference in commemoration of the 100^th anniversary of J.R.R. Tolkien’s birth in 1892.  This was to be her last meeting with the Tolkien Society, after which her general health began to fail and she was rarely seen in public again.  Toward the end of her life when she was no longer able to cope on her own, Vera was moved from her flat in Camden, to a nursing home in Croydon, Surrey, and there she died on the 14^th May 1996, just a few days after her 98^th birthday.

Philip Carr-Gomm again share’s his recollections: 

Five years later, when I attended her funeral, we heard beautiful singing in the service held in what is known as the 'Zoo Church' (St. Mark's in Prince Albert Road - by Primrose Hill, and just across from the entrance to London's Zoo).  For the wake we went to The Queens pub in Primrose Hill.  There an opera singer sang the funeral lament from The Lord of the Rings in Elvish.  There we were - Vera's family, her Tolkien Society friends, her masonic friends, her publisher, and her Druid friends - all sitting in a pub just by Primrose Hill, with its Druid associations, listening to that beautiful lament, and thinking fondly of a truly remarkable woman.”

End.

A Partial Bibliography:

The Green Knight (1975)

King Arthur’s Daughter (1976)

The King’s Damosel (1976) – Film rights bought by Warner Bros. for a 1998 animated feature film called Quest for Camelot.

Judy and Julia (1977)

Blaedud the Birdman (1978)

The Wife of Bath (1978)

Three Damosels (1978)

Miranty and the Alchemist (1983)

Around Darlington in Old Photographs (1990)

The Notorious Abbess (1993)

Croft, Hurworth, Neasham, Middleton And Dinsdale in Old Picture Postcards (1996)

The Enchantresses (1998) (with Mike Ashley)

Sources:

Private communication with Philip Carr-Gomm

The Book of Druidry by Ross Nichols

Biographical notes in the Introduction to The Notorious Abbess by Vera Chapman (Academy Chicago, 1970)

http://www.kibbokift.org/who.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vera_Chapman

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/c/vera-chapman/

http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/The_Tolkien_Society

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G2-2588804496.html

http://www.tolkiensociety.org/ts_info/folk/vera-chapman.html

http://www.druidry.org/druid-way/other-paths/influence-italy-wicca-and-druidry

http://www.druidry.org/druid-way/other-paths/wicca-druidcraft/origins-wicca-druidry

Written and compiled on the 06^th July 2012  ©  George Knowles

This biography can also be seen at:

http://www.druidry.org/library/vera-chapman

Best wishes and Blessed Be

Gods and Goddesses (Greek Mythology) /  Esbats & Full Moons /  Links to Personal Friends & Resources /  Wicca/Witchcraft Resources /  What's a spell? /  Circle Casting and Sacred Space /  Pentagram - Pentacle /  Marks of a Witch /  The Witches Power /  The Witches Hat /  An esoteric guide to visiting London /  Satanism /  Pow-wow /  The Unitarian Universalist Association /  Numerology:  Part 1  /  Part 2  /  Part 3 /  A history of the Malleus Maleficarum:  includes:  Pope Innocent VIII  /  The papal Bull  /   The Malleus Maleficarum  /  An extract from the Malleus Maleficarum  /  The letter of approbation  /  Johann Nider’s Formicarius  /  Jacob Sprenger  /  Heinrich Kramer  /  Stefano Infessura  /  Montague Summers  /  The Waldenses  /  The Albigenses  /  The Hussites /  The Sun Dance /  Shielding (Occult and Psychic Protection) /  The History of Thanksgiving /

Articles and Stories about Witchcraft:

Murder by Witchcraft /  The Fairy Witch of Clonmel /  A Battleship, U-boat, and a Witch /  The Troll-Tear (A story for Children) /  Goody Hawkins - The Wise Goodwife /  The Story of Jack-O-Lantern /  The Murder of the Hammersmith Ghost /  Josephine Gray (The Infamous Black Widow) /  The Two Brothers - Light and Dark

Abramelin the Mage /  Agrippa /  Aidan A. Kelly /  Albertus Magnus “Albert the Great” /  Aleister Crowley “The Great Beast” /  Alex Sanders "the King of the Witches” /  Alison Harlow /  Amber K /  Anna Franklin /  Anodea Judith /  Anton Szandor LaVey  / Arnold Crowther /  Arthur Edward Waite /  Austin Osman Spare /  Biddy Early /  Bridget Cleary /  Carl Llewellyn Weschcke /  Cecil Hugh Williamson /  Charles Godfrey Leland /  Charles Walton /  Christina Oakley Harrington /  Damh the Bard (Dave Smith) /   Dion Fortune /  Dolores Aschroft-Nowicki /  Dorothy Morrison /  Doreen Valiente /  Edward Fitch /  Eleanor Ray Bone “Matriarch of British Witchcraft” /  Dr. John Dee and Edward Kelly /  Dr. Leo Louis Martello /  Eliphas Levi /  Ernest Thompson Seton /  Ernest Westlake and the Order of Woodcraft Chivalry /  Fiona Horne /  Friedrich von Spee /  Francis Barrett /  Gerald B. Gardner /  Gavin and Yvonne Frost and the School and Church of Wicca /  Gwydion Pendderwen /  Hans Holzer /  Helen Duncan /  Herman Slater "Horrible Herman" /  Israel Regardie /  James "Cunning" Murrell /  Janet Farrar & Gavin Bone /  Jessie Wicker Bell “Lady Sheba” / John Belham-Payne /  John George Hohman /  John Gerard / John Gordon Hargrave (the White Fox) /  John Michael Greer /  John Score /  Johannes Junius the Burgomaster of Bamberg /  Karl von Eckartshausen /  Laurie Cabot "the Official Witch of Salem" /  Lewis Spence /  Margaret Alice Murray /  Margot Adler /  Marie Laveau the " Voodoo Queen of New Orleans" /  Marion Weinstein /  Matthew Hopkins “The Witch-Finder General” /  Max Ehrmann and the Desiderata /  Monique Wilson the “Queen of the Witches” /  Montague Summers /  Nicholas Culpeper /  Nicholas Remy /  M. R. Sellers /  Mrs. Grieve "A Modern Herbal" /  Oberon and Morning Glory Zell-Ravenheart /  Old Dorothy Clutterbuck /  Old George Pickingill /   Paddy Slade /  Pamela Colman-Smith /  Paracelsus /  Patricia Crowther /  Patricia Monaghan /  Patricia “Trish” Telesco /  Philip Emmons Isaac Bonewits /  Philip Heselton /  Raymond Buckland /  Reginald Scot /  Robert Cochrane /  Robert ‘von Ranke’ Graves and "The White Goddess" /  Rudolf Steiner /  Rosaleen Norton “The Witch of Kings Cross” /  Ross Nichols and The Order of Bards, Ovates & Druids /  Sabrina - The Ink Witch /  Scott Cunningham /  Selena Fox /  Silver Ravenwolf /  Sir Francis Dashwood /  Sir James George Frazer /  S.L. MacGregor Mathers and the “Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn” /  Starhawk /  Stewart Farrar /  Sybil Leek /  Ted Andrews /  The Mather Family - includes: Richard Mather, Increase Mather, Cotton Mather /  Thomas Ady /  Vera Chapman /  Victor Henry Anderson /  Vivianne Crowley /  Walter Brown Gibson /  William Butler Yeats /  Zsuzsanna Budapest

Many of the above biographies are brief and far from complete.  If you know about any of these individuals and can help with aditional information, please cantact me privately at my email address below.  Many thanks for reading  :-)

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