» Mrs. Aickman: Edith Ray Gregorson
» by Adam Walter

A couple of years ago I carried on an e-mail correspondence for a few months with a woman who had been a close friend of Edith Ray Gregorson. Since then I have not been able to reach her. However, she supplied me with some wonderful information, which helped me to track down a copy of one of Gregorson's children's books, "Lemuel : The Tree Kangaroo." From this correspondence I have compiled a number of facts about Gregorson and Sir Peter Scott, illustrator of "Lemuel." Nearly all of this is information I have not been able to substantiate, other than a few supplemental facts from David Bolton's "Race against Time: How Britain's Waterways Were Saved."

Edith Ray Gregorson (born July 23, 1914) was married to Robert Aickman from 1941-1957, during which time the two of them ran the Richard Marsh Literary Agency and were instrumental in starting the Inland Waterways Association. The marriage was such a painful one that in later years Gregorson did not even refer to it among very close friends. After leaving Aickman, Gregorson became a devout Christian and entered a High Anglican convent in Hertfordshire. She spent some time as an assistant chaplain for an Oxford college and died in 1983 at the Convent of all Saints, Oxford.

She wrote and published at least two children's books early in life. One was "Lemuel : The Tree Kangaroo, " 1947, Owl Press Limited, London. The other was "Timothy Tramcar," for which fellow Aickman fan Doug Anderson provided this bibliographic information: "Illustrated by Barbara Jones. Published by Railway World, 35 pages. No city, no date, but probably 1940s." Interestingly enough, Gregorson was also mentioned in Brian Sewell's biography of Reverend Wilbert Awdry as the literary agent instrumental in placing the first manuscripts for Awdry's popular "Thomas the Tank Engine" books.

"Lemuel," the only one of Gregorson's books which I have seen, is a sweet story about a New Guinea tree kangaroo who is adopted by a family and taken home to England, meeting friends along the way—a cat named Sammy, Mona the goat, and Dusters the binturong. The book, however, might have been unexceptional if it were not for Peter Scott's many charming illustrations.

Sir Peter Scott (1909-1989), son of explorer Robert Falcon Scott, was one of the influential figures attached to the Inland Waterways Association. As the IWA vice-president, he worked closely with Aickman for several years. In "Race against Time," David Bolton notes that Scott was a well-known naturalist and painter, once married to Elizabeth Jane Howard. Gregorson's friendship with Peter Scott is mentioned in Elspeth Huxley's biography, "Peter Scott, Painter & Naturalist." Biography.com notes the additional information: Scott did work as a broadcaster, was an Olympic sportsman (dinghy sailing), and after serving in the navy during World War 2, he led several ornithological expeditions—Iceland, 1951, 1953; Australasia and the Pacific, 1956-7. He received a knighthood in 1973.

According to Gregorson's acquaintance with whom I corresponded, Scott also named a "Ray Island" and "Aickman Island" for his friends.

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