81 items of personal correspondence of the social worker and founder of youth clubs Sir Basil Henriques, consisting of Autograph Letters Signed by him from childhood into early manhood, and a number of letters to him, mainly from his family.

Sir Basil Henriques was born in London on 17 October 1890, the youngest of the five children of David Quixano Henriques (1851-1912), whose family, originally Sephardi Jews from Portugal, owned a substantial import and export business, first in Jamaica, and then in Manchester and London, and his wife Agnes (née Lucas; 1849-1919), a great-niece of Sir Moses H. Montefiore. Basil was educated, first, under the headmaster the Rev. Edgar Stogdon (1870-1951) at Elstree preparatory school, and then, from 1904 to 1907, at Harrow. His older sister Sybil Elizabeth (d.1939) married in 1901 David Lionel Beddington of 4 Sussex Square, W2. The correspondence gives a unique insight into the youth of a youth worker, revealing Henriques to be the charming and affectionate child of a loving and cultured family. The collection contains 81 items: 53 items of correspondence by Henriques (hereafter ‘BH’), and 23 to him, with a further four letters relating to him, and his 1902 school report. It comprises: 49 ALsS and 2 ACsS from BH to members of his family, dating from c.1900 to 1915 (with one item from 1924) [of these 46 ALsS and 2 ACsS are to his parents (23 to his mother, 8 to his father, 17 to both) and 3 ALsS are to his sister Sybil], together with 20 ALsS to BH from members of his family, c.1900 to 1909 [9 from his mother, 5 from his father, 3 from his grandmother ‘E. C.’, 2 from his uncle Harold, and 1 from his sister Sybil]. Also present are ALsS from BH to ‘Dearest’ and ‘Ronnie’, and ALsS to him from E. Cecil Lane and Fred Smewin, with a TLS to him from Broadwood & Sons. Together with 4 ALsS to BH’s mother: 3 from BH’s Versailles landlady Marguerite Minssen, 1 from his Elstree headmaster the Rev. Edgar Stogdon. With BH’s 1902 school report. Also present are five envelopes, all addressed to his father D. Q. Henriques (to whom Basil was 'Dear little Nipper') at 17 Sussex Square, Hyde Park, London. The collection is in good condition, on aged paper, with only a handful of items showing wear and tear at the edges. The first letter is written by a nine-year-old Basil to his mother, on her fiftieth birthday, and reads: 'My Dear Mother / I wish you very very very many happy returns of your Birthday. I know that it is your 50th one but I hope you will live for a good many more years again wishing very many many happy days from your dear little son Basil'. A postscript read 'love love love do I you till my face is turning Blue'. The letter contains drawings of his parent's wedding ('this is you been marred and the wine glass') and of the 'angles [sic] of happy Land'. Letters follow, with rapidly-maturing handwriting, as Basil gives news of his life at preparatory school, acknowledges present, discusses family news. On 7 March 1901 he goes 'to see our good old Queen really the crush was as bad as the time she reaned reaned reigned 60 years. (I cant spell the word so wont say it)'. A letter headed 'Not to be read to anyone only father Sybil and yourself' describes a 'very interesting cricket-match [at Harrow] against the Americans Mann made 134 and was caught out Cookson and Mann not out beat their score'. Later the same years he begins a new term: 'I am in the same dormetry as last term and also in the same bed. There is an Indian Prince or at least his Father is the Raja secertry. [sic] In other words King of all the Indian Secetrys. He is now sitting with me as he does not go to chaple it is awfully funny he has an Indian servant comes and looks after him. He also sleeps in the same dorm as me. Good lumy!! He has just come in speaking broken English to me and can't understand.' In December of 1902 Basil's headmaster at Elstree the Rev. Stogdon assesses him in his final school report. He has 'always been a very pleasant boy to teach’, and has produced ‘Good sound capable work without being brilliant. He is a boy of good taste – and is not without a sense of humour. We shall miss him dreadfully.’ Around this time his sister Sybil (having recently become a mother) writes to tell Basil 'how delighted I was to hear the splendid news of you coming out Top of the school'. There is a gap in the correspondence between 1904 and 1907, and by 1908 Basil is at Harrow School, receiving two playful letters from his father's brother Harold. A number of letters in that year are written by Basil from Versailles, and also present are some letters to his mother from his landlady the scientist Marguerite Minssen. The following year Basil thanks his parents for another continental holiday, in terms indicative of his growing maturity: 'I think you know how truly I am sensible of your great generosity to me, how much I appreciate the loving way in which you are offering it to me. That I shall profit by the voyage both in health and experience, I have but little doubt. That I shall enjoy every moment of it, I have still less'. In 1910 he writes to his father from University College, Oxford, expressing dissatisfaction and a desire to 'touch the heart of some parental publisher who would be willing to allow me to try and learn something during that short time in his office'. David Henriques has docketed the letter 'Aims to be admired, but B. is wrong in his idea of the means of reaching them -'. By 1912 Basil is a man, discussing serious matters with his father in a close, neat hand. In April of 1912 he writes of English Jewry: 'I ask myself every day, is it the religion that has made these people the despicable, mean type that they are? Can Christianity really have had such an influence on the character as to make such a tremendous difference between the men of the two religions? Is it that we are foreigners and incapable of being anglicised? If it is, then for heaven's sake let us go back to Zion, and found a Kingdom there. It really is ridiculous to be in a country where we appear in such hideous, I feel I cannot use a strong enough adjective, contrast to the inhabitants.' By this time the letters indicate a tendency pointed out by E. Cecil Lane in a letter from Oxford to Basil's mother (22 May 1913): 'I have no reason really to change my opinion as to Basil's chances in the Schools; I do not think that he will find them very easy, but I think that he will take a degree. The one thing which might prevent him doing so is the fact that, as you know, he tends to worry.' Among the final letters is one to his mother from the Oxford & St George's Jewish Lads' Club in London's East End, 2 September 1915: 'This will be the first year that I have not broken the fast with you and I shall miss it very much. [...] I am going to try an experiment, which rather fascinates me, and ask one of my boys if I may break it with his parents. They are not poor, so that it will not put any extra strain on their purse'. The final letter in the collection is written from Fred Smewin (c.1915-2005) of Somerset to Basil in 1939, and addressed to ‘Dear Gaffer’: ‘The Arundel, the Rubbish Dump; Biscuits and bathes, Long Furlong; song; laughter; Prayers in the wood; at the miller’s tomb and in the rich dusk; - all these memories and heaps of others combine to make Highdown as dear a place to me as to any other member of the O. St. G.’