First generation •
Lawrence Samuel Durrell (born 23 September 1884,
Dum Dum,
Bengal, today
West Bengal; d. 16 April 1928,
Dalhousie,
Chamba, today
Himachal Pradesh). The son of Samuel Amos Durrell (1851–1914), an official in the British Army's Ordnance Department in
Bengal, and his second wife, Dora Maria Johnstone (1862–1943). Lawrence Samuel was a civil engineer working mainly on railway and construction projects in north-east India, eventually founding his own company of Durrell & Co. in
Jamshedpur. •
Louisa Florence Dixie (born 16 January 1886,
Roorkee,
North-Western Provinces, today
Uttarakhand; d. 24 January 1964,
Bournemouth,
Dorset). Her father George Dixie was head clerk and accountant at the Ganges Canal Foundry in Roorkee.
Second generation •
Lawrence George Durrell (born 27 February 1912,
Jalandhar,
Punjab; d. 7 November 1990,
Sommières,
Gard). A writer and diplomat, Lawrence is best known for
The Alexandria Quartet, in addition to his poetry and travel writings. •
Margery Ruth Durrell (born 12 November 1915,
Mymensingh,
Bengal, today
Bangladesh; d. 10 April 1916,
Bengal). Succumbed to
diphtheria. •
Leslie Stuart Durrell (born 10 March 1917,
Mymensingh,
Bengal, today
Bangladesh; d. 13 August 1982,
Kensington,
London). Remembered for his fascination with guns and shooting — as depicted in Gerald Durrell's
Corfu trilogy — Leslie was also a talented painter, but lacked the application to develop his gift. Rejected by the
Royal Air Force due to his defective hearing, he spent the war living in Bournemouth with his mother and working in an aircraft factory, a disappointment he always remembered with bitterness. He also continued his unacknowledged relationship — which had begun on Corfu — with the family's Greek maid, Maria Condos, ten years his senior. In September 1945 the liaison produced a son, Anthony Leslie Condos. By 1947 Leslie had moved in with the genial Bournemouth divorcee Doris Irene Hall née Wheeler (1905–1990), who ran the local
off-licence, and for whom he had sometimes done beer deliveries. They married in 1952 and by year's end had emigrated to Kenya, where Leslie was to manage a farm. They fled the country in June 1968 "with only the clothes they stood up in and £75 between them", after Leslie, lately working as bursar at a school near
Mombasa, was accused of misappropriating "a substantial sum". while
Gordon Bowker describes Leslie as "prone to confidence trickery" and "dicing with the law".) After a period living with, then near, Margo, and receiving no comfort from his brothers, and may have been planning an autobiography. At the height of summer in 1982 Leslie died of a heart attack at a pub near
Notting Hill Gate, where he told regulars he was a civil engineer. was incapacitated by
Alzheimer's disease, and none of his siblings attended the funeral. •
Margaret Isabel Mabel (Margo) Durrell (born 4 May 1919,
Kurseong,
Bengal, today
West Bengal; d. 16 January 2007,
Bournemouth,
Dorset) She had two brief marriages. The first was in 1940 to
Imperial Airways flight engineer John N. Breeze, known as Jack, whom she had met on
Corfu. Jack was immediately posted to South Africa, and the couple spent the war years gradually advancing north to Mozambique, then Ethiopia, then Egypt, before returning to England at war's end. Along the way they had two sons, Gerry and Nicholas. In 1947, after their divorce, Margo used her inheritance from her father to establish a boarding house across the street from her mother's house, with a view to supporting herself and her sons. Her guests included musicians, and her second marriage in 1951 was to Malcolm Lawrence Duncan (1930–1981), known as Mac, who at the time combined his
National Service as a corporal in the
Life Guards stationed at
Bovington with evenings as a member of Ron Weldon's band in Bournemouth, playing jazz trombone. Duncan would go on to have some success as a jazz musician, playing with
Ken Colyer and visiting Americans such as
Red Allen and
George Lewis, as well as leading his own bands. Margo describes her life as a single mother, member of the Durrell clan, and boarding-housekeeper in
Whatever Happened to Margo?, which was published in 1995, decades after she wrote it.
The Times described it as a "charming book" with "the full quota of the Durrell wit". •
Gerald Malcolm Durrell (born 7 January 1925,
Jamshedpur,
Bihar and Orissa, today
Jharkhand; d. 30 January 1995,
St Helier,
Jersey). A popular naturalist, best-selling writer, television host and conservationist, Gerald founded the
Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and is credited with redefining the modern
zoo. His first wife,
Jacqueline Sonia Wolfenden (b. 1929), is an author, naturalist and television host; the couple divorced in 1979. His second wife,
Lee McGeorge (b. 1949), is an author, naturalist and honorary director of the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust. ==References==