The Life of Edward Moreton Palin, 1900 - 1977 (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Monday, June 10, 2013, 01:19 (4263 days ago) @ slowhands

Thanks Slowhands for reminding us about the interesting Palin family story during the week Michael was deservedly awarded his BAFTA Fellowship, I hope I can add a little to it, sorry it's a few weeks late.

I'm a huge fan of British alternative comedy particularly the crazy Goons who started it all, but the Python Flying Circus passed me by largely as they wern't considered suitable TV viewing by my parents ! I loved their later films though, after all "what did the Romans do for us ???".

Recently I was amazed to find my father-in-law was a huge fan too before his premature death; I say "amazed" as his adoring wife was and still is a very "good" Catholic lady with similar TV views to my mum, so her husband took his daughters to see "The Life of Brian" at the cinema in secret, she still doesn't know this !! :-)
Sadly he passed away before I met him or his daughter, but I think we'd have got on well !

When I grew "old enough" I immensely enjoyed Michael's "Ripping Yarns" series, his film acting and travelogues so enjoyed reading his biography; his father in particular was an interesting character who made a great impression on young Michael, who surprisingly believes “my life has been a series of lucky accidents”.

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Edward Moreton PALIN was born Walshingham Norfolk in 1900 and studied engineering at Shrewsbury Public School and Cambridge University. He married Mary Rachel LOCKHART in Henley On Thames Oxfordshire in 1930. Mary was daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Lockhart Ovey, DSO, who had been High Sheriff of Oxfordshire in 1927. As Slowhands suggested the Palins have ancestral roots in Letterkenny, County Donegal, Ireland.
Edward & Mary settled in Sheffield where Edward became the manager of a toilet paper factory. Their first child was Angela b1934 and then Michael b1943. Despite their limited income even after becoming export manager of the steel company Edgar Allen and Co., Edward managed to provide Michael with a private education, first locally at Birkdale Preparatory School, then Shrewsbury and finally Brasenose College Oxford.

I was pleased to read it wasn’t just me who didn’t understand some of the Monty Python work !
Edward Moreton Palin passed away in 1977, Michael was asked if his father liked the show ?.
"No, I don't think he quite got Python. Also, he was developing Parkinson's and the medication was giving him hallucinations. [Fellow Python] Graham Chapman was a medical man and was fascinated by the fact that my father was seeing hamsters running up his trouser leg. In fact, my mother would have to retrieve them and put them in a bag." Graham found it extraordinary that it was so surreal and Pythonic. My mother, bless her, defended Python. I don't know how much she understood it."

Young Edward had hopes of becoming a church organist, but appears – after a bright start – to have felt that his life failed to proceed as he'd wished. Although popular and witty even Edward’s friends describe him as a sometimes intimidating figure; a man whose frequent irritation was exacerbated or even caused by his painful lifelong stammer.

As Michael says, “If you stammer, life is different for you. Simple things that the rest of us take for granted become potential minefields of embarrassment. No wonder my father had a short fuse. For him daily dialogue was an ordeal, frustration a way of life.”
"He was always confronting people, bus conductors, waitresses: he felt everyone was laying traps and should be treated with suspicion. There was always tension when he was around. I found it deeply embarrassing. That's why I hate rows and try to avoid confrontation. I couldn't say I was frightened of my father, but I never felt totally comfortable with him. When you just can't get the words out, it distances you."
"And it placed me – an articulate child – in the awkward position of being able to do something which he, the adult, couldn't. I imagine that could be enervating”.

"Edward was quite dour," recalls a lifelong friend of Michael, while mother Mary was "wonderful. A tiny woman, but so full of love and laughter. I think a lot of Michael’s character comes from that."