Esme Langley
| Esme Langley | |
|---|---|
| Born |
August 26, 1919 Guisborough, Yorkshire, UK |
| Died | August 20, 1991 (aged 71) St Albans City Hospital, Hertfordshire, England. |
| Cause of death | Complications following a stroke |
| Nationality | British |
| Other names | Ann Bruce |
| Occupation | Writer |
Esme Ross-Langley (née George, pseudonym Ann Bruce) (26 August 1919 Guisborough, Yorkshire – 20 August 1991 Hertfordshire, England), was a British writer, best known as the founder of the Minorities Research Group and Arena Three (magazine). She died on 20 August 1991 in St Albans City Hospital; of complications following a stroke.
Esme was the only child of Ivy George, who named her Esmé after a character in a book.
Her father William Gwyn Thomas was an international rugby player. He emigrated to the USA in 1923 but Esme's mother declined his invitation to follow later. Esme was brought up by her maternal grandparents Charles Henry George and Annie George (née Langley) in Preston, Lancashire. She enjoyed cycling and swimming; a childhood hero was Johnny Weissmuller in the Tarzan films.
At school Esmé took an interest in languages, English in particular; she learned Latin, French and German and wanted to study Ancient Greek too but there were no classes available to her at the time.
After passing her Matriculation (University entrance) in 1935 at the age of 16 her formal education ended. According to her semi-autobiographical novel, Esmé was enjoying life in London with a friend's family and refused to return to school for her final year of English Honours. The son of the family proposed marriage but his mother did not approve so they broke up. At the age of 17 she was on her own, living and working in London, and through necessity living a frugal life. She volunteered to serve in the Army in 1939 and after the war, as a single mother, was unable to take up her university place.
Later Esmé studied Italian for fun, Swahili and Chichewa while working in Malawi, Spanish during her retirement in Spain and, just before her final illness at the age of 72, she was studying Russian.
Esmé served in the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) during World War II, teaching typing and shorthand. While grateful that her typing prowess kept her in work, she was irritated by employers who ignored her other skills. For example, she regularly completed difficult crosswords like Ximenes and Azed, but when she applied to join the Bletchley Park team working on the German Enigma cipher, her military unit would not release her.
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