Sir George Reresby-Sitwell
The Sitwells made their fortune in the 16th and 17th centuries, and Sir George Reresby Sitwell, 4th Baronet (1860-1943), who inherited the title and lands aged 2, spent much of his life restoring the ancestral home of the Sitwells, Renishaw Hall. This was, in part, due to George’s pride in his ancestry, and partly to accommodate 7 separate studies to facilitate his antiquarian studies. George was a prolific historical writer, and at his death he had plans for such riveting works as ‘Pig Keeping in the 13th Century’, ‘Leper’s Squints’, and, best of all, ‘The History of the Fork’.
For a man so dedicated to the past, it is remarkable how many things George invented. He was most proud of the Sitwell Egg, intended to make a nutritious and easy meal for travelers. This comprised smoked meat encased in white rice with a synthetic lime shell, and George unsuccessfully tried to sell it to Selfridge’s on Oxford Street, London. Other inventions designed to further man’s progress included a musical toothbrush that played ‘Annie Laurie’ while its owner brushed their teeth, and a miniature pistol for killing wasps. Sadly, George died before his proposed work, ‘My Inventions’, could be written.
George was hilariously out of touch with modern life. He once fumed to his long-suffering son, Osbert, about the rudeness of a friend who had promised, but failed to deliver him, some jewelery. After all, the friend had explicitly stated that ‘I’ll give you a ring, Sir George, on Thursday’. When briefly interested in farming, George used his knowledge of 14th-century agriculture, and often tried to pay his children’s school fees in pigs and potatoes. Electricity was banned altogether at Renshaw. It will come as no surprise that the opening quotation of this article was written by his daughter, Edith.
What shines through the life and times of Sir George Sitwell is his overwhelming and stubborn force of personality. Indeed, he had a sign at Renshaw simply reading: ‘I must ask anyone entering this house never to contradict me in any way, as it interferes with the functioning of the gastric juices and prevents me sleeping at night’. As a parent, he opposed all of his children’s plans, once writing to Osbert: ‘it is dangerous for you to lose touch with me for a single day. You never know when you might need the benefit of my experience and advice’.