VERY SPECIAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS to Paul Dahlquist (great-great-grandson of Thomas and Lucy), who very kindly lent me Thomas’s unpublished journals of his Russian travels, and to his wife Charlene who was good enough to type out some of his correspondence for me and photocopy the rest.
My particular thanks too to the Atkinsons’ other descendants in the UK, the USA and New Zealand, who have been most helpful: the late Marjorie Whitehead (who visited Alatau twice in Hawaii), her daughter Belinda Brown, Belinda’s husband Peter and son William, Paul Dahlquist’s sister Molly Fay in the US and especially the ever-helpful Pippa Smith in the UK, while her sister, Rose Whitehead, in New Zealand, kindly had the only known image of Thomas specially photographed for me. (Alas, there is no photograph of Lucy.) I also want to add Marianne Simpson in Australia, descendant of Lucy’s brother William York Finley, who has researched assiduously into that line and Alatau’s life and written (February 2017) the authoritative but as yet unpublished 37-page text ‘To a Higher Destiny: Alatau Tamchiboulac Atkinson (1848–1906)’.
I am also most grateful to Maria Bardina, née Markova, of St Petersburg, who did valuable research for me in that city (resulting in her diploma on the subject), and her parents Vladimir and Irina for their help and warm hospitality.
I owe special thanks, too, to a long line across many years of part-time secretaries-cum PAs: Ashley Cockrill, Jane Gowman, Louise Hooley, Julia Hughes, Maria Lenn, Dafne Ter-Sakarian and above all Maria Bogomolova for her intelligence, dedication and loyalty for so long and her understanding of her own country. This book could not have been written without her.
Grateful thanks also to the following:
Russia. St Petersburg The State Hermitage Museum’s deputy director Prof. G.V. Vilinbakhov and its curators Elizaveta Renne and Galina Printseva; Galina Vasilyeva, Museum of the History of St Petersburg; the Central State Archive of St Petersburg; the State Russian Museum; the State Historical Archive; the Russian Geographical Society; the late Prof. Nikolai Vereshchagin and family; Zoya Belyakova, writer of history. Moscow Lenin Library; Galina Andreyeva, Tretyakov Gallery; Dr Dmitry Fedosov; Dr Elena Gagarina, now Director, Kremlin Museums, formerly Pushkin Museum of Fine Art; Ekaterina Popova; Dr Dmitry Shvidkovsky; Dr Leonid Sitnikov; Prof. Sergei Gorshkov for his friendship and hospitality across many years. Ekaterinburg Boris Petrov; Dr Vladimir Shkerin; Sergei Shumilo. Irkutsk Sergei Arzhannikov, Institute of the Earth’s Crust; Irkutsk State University, Rare Books Department; Jennie Sutton. Ulan-Ude Dr Sergei Shapkhayev; Dr A.V. Tivanenko; Gennadiy Yefirkin. Krasnoyarsk Krasnoyarsk Krai Museum of Local Lore, History and Economy.
United Kingdom. The British Museum, Print Room; the Tate Gallery; the Victoria and Albert Museum; the Courtauld Institute of Art; the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; Christie’s; Colnaghi’s; Sphinx Fine Art; the Geological Society; the Linnean Society; the Royal Academy; the Royal Geographical Society, particularly Alasdair MacLeod, and Eugene Rae and Joy Wheeler of the Library; the Royal Institute of British Architects; the Royal Society; the Royal Society of Asian Affairs; the Society of Antiquaries; the Society of Genealogists; Leeds Russian Archive (Richard Davies), Brotherton Library, University of Leeds; Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston; Dr Williams’s Library (Library of Protestant Dissent); National Archives, formerly Public Records Office; the School of Slavonic and East European Studies; the Society of Authors (Kate Pool); the Bodleian Library, Oxford; Cambridge University Library and Wren Library, Trinity College; the British Library, particularly Christine Thomas; the Family Record Centre, Guildhall Library; the International Genealogical Index; the London Library, particularly Yvette Dickerson and Guy Penman. Public Libraries Westminster Reference Library. Local History Libraries Ashton-under-Lyne, Barnsley, Bradford, Leeds, Sheffield. Local Studies Libraries Essex County Regional Office, Hammersmith, Kensington, Stalybridge, Tameside, Walmer, Westminster & Chelsea; William Salt Library, Stafford. Manchester David Taylor and colleagues, Manchester Central Library; Arnold Hyde, compiler of biographical files, Manchester Art Gallery; the Victorian Society, particularly Mark Watson, Neil Darlington for his expertise and Warren Mitchell, one of the key figures who saved St Luke’s, Cheetham Hill, from demolition and is now its unofficial custodian. Yorkshire: Barnsley Hugh Polehampton and his colleagues, particularly Sally Hayles. Cawthorne Cannon Hall Museum, Cawthorne Village Museum, Barry Jackson, local historian. Stalybridge Astley Cheetham Art Collection (Tameside, Metropolitan Borough Council).
Greece. Museum of the City of Athens. New Zealand. Vivian Mantel-French; Dr Peter Russell. Norway. Anka Ryall, The Arctic University of Norway. Poland. Dr Agnieszka Halemba, Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, University of Warsaw. USA. Bishop Library, Hawaii; Cornell University; Library of Congress, Washington, DC; New York Public Library.
Individuals. I thank the following for their help in many different ways: John Archer, Stockport; Megan Bick; Martin Bonham-Carter; Ben Carey; Rev. Bob Coles, St Mary’s, Minster in Thanet, Kent; David Collins; Emeritus Prof. Anthony Cross; Maya Donelan; Prof. Paul Dukes; Françoise Durrance; Rosanna Eadie; Nick Fielding; Simon Francis; Prof. Simon Franklin; John Gash; Adrian and Shena Gobelman; Adrian Goodman; Edmund and Jane Gordon; the late John Gordon; Keith Hill; Susanna Hoe; the late Ken Horne, Churchwarden, St Mary’s, Walmer, Kent; Andrew Horton; A.G. Lees; Marina Mitko; David Morton; Virginia Murray, then at John Murray, the publishers; Prof. Leonée Ormond and her son, Marcus Ormond; Prof. M.H. Port for kindly assessing Appendix I on architecture; Sergei Proskurin; Ken and Sally Richardson; Philip Robinson; Stuart Thompstone, University of Nottingham; Bill Thomson; Geoff Welch, RSPB; Suzanne Zack, Fine Art Consultant, for kindly assessing Appendix II on art.
Prof. Janet Hartley and Dr Natalia Murray for their much-appreciated comments on the jacket and for the latter’s contribution to Appendix II.
To Unicorn, my publishers: my thanks to Ian Strathcarron, chairman, for having faith in this book, to Elisabeth Ingles, editor, for her skill, experience and endless patience, and to Felicity Price-Smith, designer, for her artistry.
Lastly, my family: my sister-in-law, Anthea Dutot, who read through and gave advice on the unabridged manuscript, my late mother, late sister Margaret and brother-in-law, Reg Bliss; my son Hamon for his useful research, son-in-law Karl Grupe for his excellent support, photography and so much driving, and especially his wife, my daughter Julia, who made a crucial and time-absorbing contribution on the illustrations: photography, digitisation, and other skills. Finally, my late wife Penelope for her forbearance and lasting encouragement and support.
My apologies to any whose names have inadvertently been omitted after a long period of gestation. I would be glad to include them if there is any later edition.