Violet Van der Elst - Husband, Jean (Jack) Julien Romain Van der Elst

• vde/4/1 Photograph of Jean Van der Elst, 1915. [8.5 x 13.7 cm; sepia original]
• vde/4/2 Correspondence from Paul Mengal dated 20 May and 30 June, 1975 to Professor Jeremy Rusk, Principal, Harlaxton College (in French), and response from J. Rusk dated 16 July 1975. Lists various items which were donated to the archives. Unfortunately this provenance was lost by the items being split up.
• vde/4/3 Christmas card, December 1975 from Paul Mengal, Sales Manager, Coles (mobile cranes), Antwerp. There was a Coles Cranes factory in Grantham (Autumn Park Indusrial Estate, Dysart Road). The card features a line drawing of Harlaxton Manor and description and brief history on the reverse. Correspondence from Paul Bulger, Principal, Harlaxton College dated 9 January 1976.
• vde/4/4 Photocopies of Van der Elst family documents:
• vde/4/4/1 Cinquantenaire du Corps des Sapeurs-Pompiers Communaux Armes [50th Anniversary of the Communal Fire Brigade] includes photographs of Jean Van der Elst's grandfather and father
• vde/4/4/2 Copy of Marriage certificate Jean Van der Elst's grandparents
• vde/4/4/3 Copy of Marriage certificate Jean Van der Elst's parents
• vde/4/4/4 Copy of Death Certificate, Julien Vander Elst, 1933 age 29
• vde/4/5 Mengal, Paul (1974) Un grand seigneur de la fin du XVIIIe siecle, Guillaume-Joseph, 4e duc de Looz-Corswarem (1703-1803) L'intermediairie des Geneaolgistes , no. 172.

At age 17, Violet Dodge married Henry Arthur Nathan, a civil engineer 13 years her senior. Four months after her first husband died on 15 November 1927, she married Jean (Jack) Van der Elst, a Belgian artist who had been a Captain in the First World War, worked for Henry Nathan and lived with them at 30 Belsize Park. Jean Van der Elst died in 1934 and Violet mourned his passing for the rest of her life, reportedly holding séances in the Manor in an attempt to contact him. She mistakenly sold the urn that held his ashes in an auction.

This collection of item was donated by Paul Mengal, nephew of Violet Van der Elst, in 1970s.

Van der Elst box

By appointment

Paul Mengal, nephew of Violet Van der Elst, donated 1975-6

Added by Linda Dawes, College Librarian, March 2017