In Hobart with Errol
1924-1927
Flynn returned to Hobart in May 1924 with Errol in tow, and the pair moved into a house in the Glebe.
The house in Aberdeen St Glebe.
Errol spent a year at Hobart High School before being expelled. With Marelle and Rosemary now living in France, Theo had less personal need to be in Sydney, but having a large collection of material there was a strong incentive to use that as his research base. In October 1924 Flynn’s frustration with the library at the University of Tasmania and the cost and inconvenience of travelling to Sydney and Melbourne prompted him to seek a meeting with the Ralston Trustees to discuss how he could better meet their expectations of his research. His request was granted.
Soon afterwards Flynn applied for leave until July 31 1925, remarking there were no second and third year students in Zoology. He was also still trying to finish the work promised to Mawson after the Antarctic expedition. Taxonomic research depends on the availability of type specimens for comparison or at least published descriptions of related groups. The literature on the Pycnogonids was specialised and not readily available so Flynn had sought the assistance of the British Museum of Natural History. He received generous help from the Museum’s crustacean expert, William Calman, in 1919 but had more difficulty with other European experts until his visit to Bouvier in Paris in 1922. During his stay in Sydney in the summer of 1922-3 he did some more work on Pycnognid paper while still progressing with his marsupial research. He delayed his return to his students in Hobart by a week or so, sure in the knowledge that he would catch up in term III. He decided not to return to England in 1925 despite hearing from Hill that another grant was possible. His growing commitment to his fishing business was the likely reason as shall appear.
In November 1925 he told the Vice Chancellor that he was ‘transferring his research work from Tasmania to Europe where I will be working in the University College London with Prof J P Hill and in the University of Paris with Profs. Perez and Verne.’ Apart from his salary in advance he did not seek funds for this trip, presumably because it was being paid for by his fisheries project and because Hill had arranged a grant of £100. He wrote to his sister–in-law Betty Glover, now living in Los Angeles, saying he might visit them early in 1926.[Elizabeth Flynn to Harry Young 5 Jan 1926 Mitchell Library] But his son’s troubles intervened.
A troublesome son.
Errol’s autobiography is not a reliable record of his upbringing neither are most of the biographies written by others. Don Norman provides a factual account of the Flynns family life in Hobart from 1909 to 1920 and Conrad’s reflections in the Errol Flynn Memoir give a much deeper understanding than he was allowed to write in Errol’s ‘autobiography’ My Wicked Wicked Ways. Moore’s study of the pre Hollywood Flynn also shows evidence of diligent research. Myers otherwise excellent biography of Errol, and his son Sean, is also not truly reliable as he too was dependent of Errol’s own account and those who knew him only as an adult.
Like very nearly all of my generation who grew up in Hobart in the 1950s, I ‘knew all about Errol Flynn’. Not Flynn the famous film-star but Hobart’s most famous schoolboy. When a student at Hobart High I had been shown the desk where he carved his initials before he was expelled. One of my teachers, Nancy Collis, had been in his class at the school; in fact I had been a pupil at three of the four Hobart Schools which Errol had attended. I used to pass one of the houses where he lived on my way to Friends School and much later lived next door to the house in Davey Street where he said he lost his virginity.
Theo Flynn found Errol a handful from an early age. He escaped from a nursemaid when he was little, and was sent home from a party at the Bishop’s residence for pushing girls into the fountain.[Australian Women’s Weekly (AWW) (1)] He ran away from home after being heavily chastised by his mother when caught exploring his own sexuality, and that of the girl who lived next door in Davey Street. His father found him three days later at a dairy farm in the foothills of Mount Wellington.
Punishment by his mother in no way deterred him, for it seems his first experience of sexual intercourse took place with the Flynn’s maid a year later. Contrary to his mother’s intention Errol embarked on a career devoted to exploring female sexuality from then until his untimely death in 1959. Although he was very intelligent and even precocious as a child he was not going to follow his father’s career. He liked dressing up and acting just as much as reading his father’s books and tagging along on trips to collect animals to be studied. He wrote well and earned a living as a journalist but adventure and the stage won the battle for his attention. In 1962 Theo said –
There was never any chance of his following my footsteps in an academic career – school to him was a place to let off his high spirits, not a place where knowledge could be gained.
We had no particular theories about bringing up children. I suppose we were not stern enough with him.
When he was small he used long words and loved dressing up and play-acting.[Saturday Evening Mercury (SEM) 21 April 1962 p. 6]
The relationship between the famous son and his parents has been the subject of much printers ink. Errol Flynn’s biographers have constructed some colourful theories and numerous myths. Readers will find an assessment of them in Kerry Edwards recent article entitled Errol Flynn: A Case Study in Historiography.[THRA. Vol 53 no 2, June 2006.] To what extent Errol’s rebelliousness and ‘adventurous spirit’ was due to neglect by his parents is a matter of conjecture. During Errol’s early childhood it seems likely that his mother was restless, probably lonely and miserable in Hobart and his father was hellbent on building his career. Later Theo did his best as a single parent.
Errol was only 15 when expelled from Hobart High so his education had to continue elsewhere. A boarding school would be best, and Theo turned to a friend in Sydney. The headmaster of North Shore Church of England Grammar, LC Robson agreed to give the ‘Tasmanian Devil’ another chance.[Norman p 52.] Errol became a boarder in the same house as John Gorton, later Prime Minister of Australia. His father’s discovery of the fossil whale received some coverage in Sydney and for a short time Errol basked in the reflected glory. He was very successful in sport, but study was a foreign land. The lad set about practicing his developing skills in seduction. Theo was still in England when Errol’s schooldays ended with another expulsion, for sexual dalliance with one of the school’s domestics. He may have been too ashamed to admit his expulsion to his grandmother but he had a number of other relatives to call on for help. Without consulting his father Errol now fended for himself. Handsome, clever and self-assured he felt quite able to live independently. He borrowed money from an uncle and left Australia for Rabaul, New Guinea on 1 October 1927.
By now Theo had returned from his third European venture. Henceforth he was to be a free agent in Hobart, spending most of his time at the University before taking the short walk to his new lodging at Pressland House in Melville Street with the occasional diversion for a quick drink at Heathorn’s Hotel. His father had died in Sydney the previous October having apparently parted from Mrs Carter and apparently married again.[Armstrong op.cit]
Pressland House where Flynn later boarded and the nearby Heathorn’s Hotel.