Introduction

John Ruddick was the father of one of KM’s greatest childhood friends, Marion Ruddick. On the return journey home, following a trip to England from March to November 1898, KM’s parents had met a Canadian couple called Ruddick, who were also sailing to New Zealand, John Ruddick being the new representative of the Canadian Dairy Board in Wellington.

They had brought with them their young daughter, Marion, who was to be enrolled at Wellington Girls’ High, the same school as the Beauchamp sisters. Marion and KM instantly became friends. In later life, after KM’s death, Marion wrote down her memories of the now celebrated writer in a long article called ‘Incidents in the Childhood of Katherine Mansfield’, which remains a rare account of KM as a young girl. Marion recorded her impressions not just of KM, but of the Beauchamp family as a whole. The girls were friends for a few precious months, before Marion was sent to boarding school in Nelson for a short time, and then finally returned to Canada with her parents. The letter below to John Ruddick recalls KM’s many happy memories of her childhood friend.

[30 July 1921] [HRC]

Chalet des Sapins

Montana-sur-Sierre

(Valais)

Switzerland

30

vii

1921

Dear Mr Ruddick,

By this afternoon’s post I received from my sister, Chaddie, two old and quaint photographs that you had very kindly asked her to send me. Is that so? Were they really sent to me?

Thank you most sincerely. I cannot tell you how I love a glimpse into the past, even if its such a dreadfully unflattering one! But Leslie looks such a darling little fellow, and I think they are both sweet of Marion. (I wonder if she does …)

I hear often of you all from Chaddie & Jeanne, & I always think lovingly of Mrs Ruddick because she was such a friend of Mother’s. I remember her very well too, & Marion was one of my first ‘great friends’. I wonder if she has forgotten our games at Miss Partridges, or old Miss Partridges way of saying: ‘Oh, Im so tired!’ or the cream buns we were given for tea.