Notes for my wife or my successors in case of my death in war time.
T.G.Usborne                                                                                                                       28:8:1939
                                                                    

   
For the second time within a year we are on the verge of war. If it comes I shall, no doubt, be called to military service. At present I am on the waiting list of the 51st Battery Territorial Army Anti-Aircraft. I have been training for several months but have not yet been formally accepted. I am no pacifist. For I believe it is right to fight, if necessary, not for one’s wealth or possessions but against autocracy and international anarchy and for the ideal of building in this world a better order. I do not defend the present system, but it is no cure if it merely allows one’s property and rights to be transferred to an aggressor by superior force. If I fight, it will be to enable the world afterwards to accept a bigger and better form of international organisation that the last war brought forth. The League of Nations was a great but unsuccessful attempt to defeat international anarchy. The idea of a Federal Union must be its successor, but perhaps the world will never be sufficiently chastened or receptive of this ideal until it has passed through the fires of war. And if that is necessary I believe it is worth fighting for. In any case until some supra-national organisation has been formed I am so old-fashioned as to believe it right to fight for my country against domination by autocracy and against the extinction of the rights of man and democratic government.
In any case, whether we are participants or not, we shall all be liable to sudden extinction in the next war and I want to make a few notes for Gerda as to what to do in particular cases and how I should like her to act in general in case I should be killed.
First finance! In 1936 my securities were worth about £6,500. I invested in fairly speculatie stuff around that time and as I have been an optimist ever since they have remained substantially un-altered. I have worked on the principle that fixed interest securities were likely to suffer most in wars and inflation and that industrial shares would profit most in those circumstances……………………
My present annual income from investments amounts to about £200 -£250 gross from which about a quarter is taken in income tax. In bad times you could not rely on more than £150 a year. I have an account at the Westminster Bank, St Mary’s Axe totalling £127.15s.6d.. You can draw on this at any time by cheque. My salary is now £400 a year net of income tax. After deductions which I pay twice a year to a Schroeder Life Insurance Fund, I get only £380. If I die you are entitled to get something from my insurance. It won’t be much as my salary is small. The other property I have is either at 8b.Lawn Rd. or in Windrush, Berks. In the flat I have a fair amount of silver most of which is packed up in the iron bound silver box which I intend to deposit at the bank. I have lots of books and a little furniture. My photographic instruments are worth about £60. I also own a twelve bore shot-gun, an ancient rifle, a 20 bore single barrel shot gun and a colt revolver. I pay about £13 p.a. to uncle Hubert as a contribution to the upkeep of Windrush.
As regards the more distant future, if I die, you alone will decide what shall be done and it is my intention not to bind you in any way. But I should like to make a few suggestions which may help to guide you.		 In case of war with Germany, England will be extremely hostile to all that Germany stands for. You will have to bear this. But there are already so many Germans refugees in this country that you and your countrymen may be treated with more understanding than in the last war. But try in any case to keep yourself to yourself when in strange company. This is merely a matter of ordinary tact. Officially I am sure you will be extremely well treated. That at any rate was the case in the last war. Stay with the family as long as you can and in any case stay at Windrush till the baby is born. Don’t try to be independent. You would have found it difficult enough in peace time: in war you will find it impossible.
What of Peter’s future? His education will be the first real trouble. In this country it is very expensive. It costs about £150 to £200 a year at prep school. I went to Summerfields, Banbury Road, Oxford and liked it very much. My father was there too. We boys were, I know, taken on reduced terms. Exactly what, I don’t know. But, in view of the falling birth rate and of family connections with Summerfields, I am sure they will help you as much as possible. I understand that John Evans is now head-master. I know him well and like him very much. I also know many other masters at S.F. The school is or was run on a very vigorous and practical basis. Work hard and play hard was their motto. Considering they catered for the sons of the very rich, most of whom went on to Eton, I think the school’s keenness on results is rather surprising and admirable. The class of boy at the school was high but there was an awful atmosphere of snobbishness. However one learnt a great deal and produced, in my year, eleven scholarships! I still think that other things being equal the attraction of a scholarship for Peter should be the deciding factor. Of course there are a great variety of scholarships to all the various public schools and some are very much easier to win than others.
I am not, in principle, very particular where Peter goes to school so long as he learns to behave and speak like a gentleman. I am however particular that he should go to Balliol or in any case a university, since I believe that a boy’s mental development from 18-21 is more important than all his schooling. I think that Peter should go to the best Public School at which he can get a scholarship. I should especially like him to go to Eton if he could achieve the distinction of getting a scholarship there. For I believe that a “college” education at Eton is probably the best of any public school. His colleagues there will not by any means all come from rich families.
I have written the forgoing on the assumption that Peter will have an English education . But I realise that you may want to go back to Germany. In that case there is no reason why he should not be partly educated abroad, But in any case I should like Peter, if possible, to maintain sufficient contact with England to be able to speak the language perfectly and thus not to be prejudiced in this regard in his essential choice of nationality. You are at present both British, but I believe you could both become German in course of time if you wanted. Peter should at least maintain contact with England although perhaps living in Germany and he should be able to go up to Balliol when he is 18.