Walter Phelps Dodge (1869-1931)

He was born at Beirut, then in Syria, where his father founded a Protestant College. He grew up in Hartford and Weetogue and as part of his education he spent two years studying under private tutors in Greece and Germany. Returning to America in 1887 he attended Yale University but left in January 1888 after publishing a rumor that he'd attempted to elope with his first cousin, Lily, daughter of Thomas Stokes. He was sent to Europe where in 1889 he continued his studies at St. John's College, Oxford, but did not graduate. After travelling for three years, mainly in the south of Europe, he was admitted to the Middle Temple in London and was called to the English Bar in 1898. In 1909, he was called to the Bar in New York after which he specialised in international law, practicing in both London and New York. He was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (1896) and a member of the American Geographical Society.

Despite his legal calling, he spent most of his time involved in literary pursuits. He was the author of: Three Greek Tales (1892); As the Crow Flies from Corsica to Charing Cross (1893); A Strong Man Armed (1896); The Sea of Love (1898); The Life of Piers Gaveston (1899); From Squire to Prince (1901); That Disdainful Maiden (1901); The Crescent Moon (1910); King Charles I - A Study (1912); The Purple Iris (1915); Red Gold and Other Verses (1915); Studies of the English Sovereigns (1921); Types (1921); a biography of his second wife, Ethel Phelps Dodge (1929); and, The Real Sir Richard Burton (1907), highly praised by Norman Penzer. He was described as, "a man of high ideals, somewhat aloof in manner, and with firm opinions which he stoutly defended. With these qualities he combined a lively sense of humor and a love for children. His hobby was the collecting of first editions and old coins. For recreation he enjoyed hunting, tennis, golf and above all travel."

He was married four times: In 1888, at Edinburgh, he eloped with an English circus equestrienne, Ida Rosa Lina Cooke, whose irate father "The Magnificent Eugene" Alfred Eugene Godolphin Cooke, of Manningham Hall, Yorkshire, was the owner of Cooke's Royal Circus. The marriage was eventually dissolved. In 1905, at Sioux Falls, South Dakota, he married Mrs Ethel Beatrice Coles, daughter of Percy Harmer Adlard, of Staverton Court, Gloucestershire & Rangoon, Burma. She died at Kissingen, Germany, in 1908. In 1910, at St. George's Hanover, London, he married Helen, a 19-year old chorus girl in "Havana" whose father, Edward Milton Steck, was a millionaire coal-operator of Philadelphian & New York. She obtained a divorce for "cruel and barbarous treatment" just one year later, claiming that "she was haunted out of her marital happiness by the 'ghost' of the previous Mrs Dodge. She averred that more than $50,000 worth of jewellery which had been given to her by Dodge had been gradually taken away from her because, as she said, her husband told her that he had been commanded to do so by the wraith of his second wife". His last wife was another English lady, Anne St. John, the former Mrs Robert Manners.

He travelled extensively and at various times lived between an estate at Aiken, South Carolina; "The Grange" at Simsbury, Connecticut (purchased by the Ethel Walker School in 1917); and, 46 Green Street off Park Lane in London's Mayfair. In London, he was a member of the Reform and Wellington clubs, and in New York he was a member of the Authors, Players and Racquet clubs. He had three surviving children (Stuart, Ellen and Rosemary) and expatriated himself from America circa 1920. He died in Paris.