Forgotten Local Histories: Theodore Roosevelt's visit to south Warwickshire

A very enjoyable SundayA ‘very enjoyable Sunday’ is how Theodore Roosevelt described a visit to Welcombe House, Stratford-upon-Avon in a letter to Sir George Otto Trevelyan, dated 1 October 1911.By this time, the recent, but now former, President of the United States was a firm friend of Sir George, a former British cabinet minister and sometime resident of Stratford-upon-Avon. This is the story of their relationship, culminating in Roosevelt’s visit to Stratford in 1910.Caroline and George Otto Trevelyan used Welcombe House as their winter home for nearly 40 years, until their deaths in 1928 (when it passed to their second son, Robert – a correction of an erratum from the ‘Welcombe Hotel’ article in the previous Forgotten Local Histories series, 28 July 2021).As we saw last week, George Otto Trevelyan was a politician who served as a both a Minister and Secretary of State in multiple Gladstone governments.

Presents from the PresidentBeyond the political sphere, Trevelyan was also an author and historian. He wrote on several subjects, including a six-volume history on the ‘American Revolution’. It was this series that ignited his friendship with Theodore Roosevelt.The then Governor of New York, and future President, first wrote to Trevelyan in January 1899, after the latter had sent him a copy of the first volume of his ‘American Revolution’ as a thank you present for Roosevelt’s kind reception of Trevelyan’s eldest son, Charles, during his visit to the United States.The precedent of gift giving was set.Later in their relationship, Roosevelt (jointly with Elihu Root and Henry Cabot) sent Trevelyan a silver loving-cup, inscribed to the ‘historian of the American Revolution’, as a Christmas present in 1907.Trevelyan humbly responded that he looked forward to Roosevelt ‘seeing it on our dinner table’ at Welcombe House.Their correspondence continued regularly for 20 years, throughout the rest of Roosevelt’s life, and even during his time in the White House (1901-1909).

In conversation with Theodore RooseveltAmongst many cultivated subjects, the pair discussed the comparative advantages and flaws of the British and American political systems, and (post-1914) their opinions on the First World War.Another subject of conversation was the philosophy of history, and the shift in the discipline away from literary history and towards history as a science.‘The great historian must, of course, have the scientific spirit which gives the power of research’ wrote Roosevelt in February 1904, ‘but unless his finished work is literature of a very high type, small will be his claim to greatness’.This was a view that George Otto Trevelyan, and his historian son, George Macaulay Trevelyan (both related to eminent literary historian Lord Macaulay) ‘entirely concurred’ with.George Macaulay, in a memoir of his father, recorded how the two friends ‘fairly delighted in one another, each having something the other had not but was well to admire, and each being passionate readers of the same kind of history and literature’.Indeed, the correspondence included sending each other books. Roosevelt sent Trevelyan the third copy of his “American Hunter”, whereas Trevelyan sent Roosevelt copies of “Sponge’s Sporting Tour” and his own “Cawnpore”.

Roosevelt in StratfordA high point in the relationship was when Roosevelt came to visit Stratford-upon-Avon. The visit arose as an extra stop on Roosevelt’s post-presidency grand tour of Africa and Europe.Roosevelt arrived in Stratford on the first weekend of June 1910. The first stop on the tour was Shakespeare’s Birthplace, followed by a visit to the Grammar School and Holy Trinity Church.The striking element of the former president’s visit is that it broadly followed in the same footsteps that many of us in the modern world have traced during our own visits to Stratford.Roosevelt was especially impressed with Shakespeare’s Birthplace. He admired the graffiti left behind by Sir Walter Scott and delighted to see 70 different nationalities represented in the 1909 visitor’s book.Afterwards, a motor-tour around Charlecote Park and Snitterfield was conducted before returning to Welcombe House for the evening.

Fulfilling a promiseJ. Bucklin Bishop, the editor of the 1920 edition of Roosevelt’s published letters, described the President’s visit as ‘cheerful and joyous’. Roosevelt himself stated that he ‘was charmed’ by his visit to Stratford.Sixteen months later, in October 1911, Roosevelt sent Trevelyan a 25,000-word letter (referenced at the head of this article), describing in detail the former’s tour of Africa and Europe in 1910.Roosevelt had promised, on the Sunday evening at Welcombe, to write an account of the intimate interactions he had had on the tour with various crowned heads, including Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, and share it with Trevelyan.This letter was the fulfilment of that promise. The friendship was as strong as ever.Author’s Note:In the final instalment of this series, I would like to thank the Leamington Courier team for their help throughout the creation of these articles and for giving me considerable freedom to write about my interests. Thank you also to dad, my stepdad Adam and mum.I hope to return with another series in the near future. Until then, I wish you a prosperous new year, and thank you for reading.