Alastair Hugh Graham (27 June 1904 – 6 October 1982) was an honorary attaché in Athens and Cairo, an Oxford friend of

Evelyn Waugh Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (; 28 October 1903 – 10 April 1966) was an English writer of novels, biographies, and travel books; he was also a prolific journalist and book reviewer. His most famous works include the early satires ''Decli ...

, and, according to Waugh's letters, one of his "romances". He is, together with Hugh Lygon and Stephen Tennant, considered the main inspiration for Sebastian Flyte in ''

Brideshead Revisited ''Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred & Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder'' is a novel by the English writer Evelyn Waugh, first published in 1945. It follows, from the 1920s to the early 1940s, the life and romances of Charles Ryder, esp ...

''.

Biography

Alastair Hugh Graham was born on 27 June 1904 to Hugh Graham (1860-1921), of Barford House, Barford, Warwickshire, and Jessie, daughter of Andrew Low, of

Savannah A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) biome and ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach th ...

, Georgia. His father was the younger son of Sir Frederick Ulric Graham, 3rd Baronet (1820–1888), of the Graham Baronets of Netherby in

Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is an area of North West England which was historically a county. The county was bordered by Northumberland to the north-east, County Durham to the east, Westmorland to the south-east, Lancashire to the south, and the Scottish ...

, and Lady Jane Hermione Seymour (1832–1909), daughter of

Edward Seymour, 12th Duke of Somerset Edward Adolphus St. Maur, 12th Duke of Somerset, (20 December 180428 November 1885), styled Lord Seymour until 1855, was a British Whig aristocrat and politician, who served in various cabinet positions in the mid-19th century, including that ...

. Jessie Graham, a cotton heiress, would later appear as Lady Circumference in ''Decline and Fall'' and as Mrs. Kent-Cumberland in ''Winner Takes All'' both by Evelyn Waugh. Alastair Hugh Graham attended a day school in Leamington Spa and was at Wellington College, Berkshire for a very short time, leaving at fifteen. He subsequently studied at

Brasenose College Brasenose College (BNC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It began as Brasenose Hall in the 13th century, before being founded as a college in 1509. The library and chapel were added in the m ...

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

,Mosley, Charles, editor. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes. Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003 At Oxford, he met Evelyn Waugh around Christmas 1923 or slightly before. There, Graham was part of the Hypocrites' Club with Waugh. Graham sent Waugh a

nude Nudity is the state of being in which a human is without clothing. While estimates vary, for the first 90,000 years of pre-history, anatomically modern humans were naked, having lost their body hair, living in hospitable climates, and no ...

photo of himself near a waterfall, asking Waugh to ''"Come and drink with me somewhere"''. The Graham family's early 19th-century country house, Barford House, Barford, Warwickshire, between Warwick and Stratford-upon Avon, was where Alastair entertained Waugh as a guest. Graham was Waugh's closest friend from 1924 to 1929. In ''

'', Waugh has Charles Ryder revisiting Brideshead Castle, and remembering "I had been there before, first with Sebastian more than twenty years ago on a cloudless day in June...". According to Philip Eade and others, Waugh is here remembering his own love affair with Graham, started at Barford House in 1923 when Graham was 19. In his memoirs, Waugh stated that Graham was the inspiration of Lord Sebastian Flyte even more than Hugh Lygon. In the manuscript of ''Brideshead Revisited'', the name "Alastair" sometimes occurs instead of "Sebastian". In Waugh's autobiography, ''A Little Learning... an autobiography'' (1964), Graham appears under the name of Hamish Lennox, and Waugh said of him he was "the friend of my heart". When Waugh left Oxford one term short of the degree requirements in August 1924, he went to live with Graham in a caravan in a field near Beckley, and from there they went on holiday to Ireland. It was after this trip that Graham converted to Roman Catholicism (September 1924). When Graham went to visit his sister and her husband in Kenya in mid-September 1924, the friendship between Graham and Waugh took a step back, but in August 1926, Graham, his mother and Waugh went to Scotland; and on their return, Graham and Waugh went to France together with Richard Plunket Greene. Around this time, Graham, who owned a small printing press and was then apprenticed at the Shakespeare Head Press, printed Waugh's essay ''P.R.B.: An Essay on the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood 1847–54''. Graham was an honorary attaché in

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

between 1927 and 1929, where Waugh visited him for the Christmas holidays. Graham wrote to his friend Claud Cockburn on a number of occasions during this time. In Greece, Graham lived with another attaché, Mark Ogilvie-Grant. In 1929, both were transferred to

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

with Vivian Cornelius until 1933. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Graham participated in the

Dunkirk evacuation The Dunkirk evacuation, codenamed Operation Dynamo and also known as the Miracle of Dunkirk, or just Dunkirk, was the evacuation of more than 338,000 Allied soldiers during the Second World War from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, in the ...

, joined the Royal Observer Corps and was a liaison officer with the US Navy. From 1937 he lived privately – because of his homosexuality – on the Welsh coast, at Plas-y-Wern Lodge, Gilfachrheda, moving subsequently to a house in nearby

New Quay New Quay () is a seaside town, community and electoral ward in Ceredigion, Wales; it had a resident population of 1,045 at the 2021 census. Located south-west of Aberystwyth, on Cardigan Bay with a harbour and large sandy beaches, the town ...

itself. He bought a yacht called ''The Osprey'' and was a member of the New Quay Yacht Club, as well as president of the New Quay branch of the

RNLI The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is the largest of the lifeboat services operating around the coasts of the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man, as well as on some inland waterways. Founded in 1824 ...

. He was on familiar terms with

Dylan Thomas Dylan Marlais Thomas (27 October 1914 – 9 November 1953) was a Welsh poet and writer, whose works include the poems " Do not go gentle into that good night" and " And death shall have no dominion", as well as the "play for voices" ''Un ...

, another New Quay resident, and appeared as a prosecution witness when Captain Richard Killick was accused of attempting to murder Thomas.For more on this incident, see D. N. Thomas (2000) ''A Farm, Two Mansions and a Bungalow'', ch. 4, Seren. This book also contains a good deal more material on Graham and his life in New Quay, as does the following website
Post card from New Quay
Graham is thought to have been the original of Lord Cut-Glass in Thomas' play ''

Under Milk Wood ''Under Milk Wood'' is a 1954 radio drama by Welsh people, Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. The BBC commissioned the play, which was later adapted for the stage. The first public reading was in New York City in 1953. A Under Milk Wood (1972 film), f ...

''. He died in

Machynlleth Machynlleth () is a market town, community and electoral ward in Powys, Wales and within the historic boundaries of Montgomeryshire. It is in the Dyfi Valley at the intersection of the A487 and the A489 roads. At the 2001 Census it had a po ...

Hospital in October 1982 from cancer of the pancreas.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Graham, Alastair Hugh 1904 births 1982 deaths 20th-century English LGBTQ people LGBTQ Roman Catholics Alumni of Brasenose College, Oxford Younger sons of baronets Deaths from pancreatic cancer in Wales British expatriates in Greece British expatriates in Egypt