John Willoughby Layard Papers, 1897 - 1974 (MSS 84)

John Willoughby Layard, English psychologist and anthropologist, was born in London on November 28, 1891. His parents were George Somes Layard and Eleanor Gribble Layard, he from a genteel parson's family; she from a wealthy mercantile household. The Layard family were minor nobility, descended from French Huguenots. John's great uncle was Sir Austen Henry Layard (1817-1894), a noted archaeologist and diplomat who had excavated the ruins of Ninevah. John's branch of the family had gone through most of its money by the time of his birth, and what funds remained went into the care of John's father, who was sickly. John had a sister Nancy, five years older; and a brother Peter, five years younger. Another brother died at age three, one year before John's birth. According to John, his home life was the most repressed of Victorian households, and he attributed his emotionally troubled young adulthood to this family background.

Raised in Malvern, John was sent at the age of seven to the Priory School, a Malvern boarding school. At about eleven, his family moved to Felixstowe and he was transferred to Bedales, where he attended a co-ed school, then considered "progressive". In 1909 his family sent him to study in Paris and Berlin for a year. He then attended Cambridge University, where he became active in folk music and anthropological clubs. Most of his free time was apparently spent collecting the words of folk music.

In 1914 W.H.R. Rivers, a Cambridge anthropologist, offered Layard the opportunity to go to the New Hebrides Islands in Melanesia with a group headed by Rivers and A.C. Haddon. Rivers and Layard split from the rest of the party and went to the island of Atchin, in Malekula. After a short time, Rivers left Layard alone on the island with the natives, in a small house which had been built by Catholic missionary priests who had been killed by the natives. Layard spent a year in Melanesia, mostly on Atchin, with three weeks on Vao and a few weeks in Australia. For most of the time he lived completely alone with the natives, teaching himself their language and songs, and making copious notes on all facets of their life. From the notes of his three weeks on Vao came his Stone Men of Malekula. His other notes have not been published.

World War I had begun while Layard was en route to Melanesia. His brother Peter became an officer and was killed in France. When John returned to England he suffered a nervous breakdown, tried to enlist, was refused, was accepted into a government agricultural program, but was too ill to continue. His parents sent him to live with a Dr. Greer in Cornwall, who accepted "live-in patients." He then went to live with the Bagenal family, where he almost committed suicide (there is a suicide note in Bagenal file, Correspondence series).

At this point Layard was introduced to psychologist Homer Lane, with whom Layard began his first psycho-analysis. Layard was making great progress until Lane was arrested and charged with immorality for having sexual relations with female patients. Lane died shortly thereafter, and Layard tried to continue his analysis and therapy with other analysts - first Stekel in England, then in Vienna in 1926, then to Wittels in Berlin.

In Berlin, he joined David Ayerst, an English friend and the future editor of the Manchester Guardian. Layard then became part of the Berlin homosexual literary scene, and his friends included writers W.H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood. Having been introduced to Auden by David Ayerst, Layard "promptly fell in love." In 1929, Layard attempted suicide by shooting himself through the mouth. When he did not immediately die, he took a taxi to Auden's apartment and asked him to "finish the job." Auden called an ambulance and Layard survived.

It was at this point, according to Layard's autobiography, that his life began. Back in England, Layard moved to Oxford and was introduced into the Department of Anthropology as "the best field man." He became part of the literary/professorial/artistic group surrounding Mansfield "Manny" Forbes, a well-known patron of the arts. Layard lived at the Forbes' home Finella for part of this time.

At Oxford Layard met Doris Dingwall, wife of anthropologist Eric Dingwall. The Dingwall's had an open marriage. Layard and Doris fell in love and took up housekeeping together. On March 15, 1934, Doris gave birth to a son, named Peter Richard Granville Layard (known as Richard). Richard was to become a noted economist, and now teaches at the London School of Economics. Eric Dingwall refused at first to give Doris a divorce, but he relented in 1943, when Richard was nine years old.

In the early 1940s Layard published his two best known works, Stone Men of Malekula and Lady of the Hare - the two monographs that appeared during his life. At the same time he started seeing patients as an analyst, and continued his own analysis with Baynes in Oxford, Jung in Zurich, and Gerhard Adler in Oxford.

By the mid-1940's John and Doris were bitterly unhappy with each other. Both had converted to the Roman Catholic church. John returned to Zurich to work with Jung. There he began a seven-year love affair with Baroness Vera von der Heydt, also a therapist. Doris, who later became a psychotherapist herself, studied briefly with Jung's wife.

Returning to England, Layard continued writing, publishing and lecturing, both in Great Britain and abroad. He became a sought-after analyst, yet remained unhappy with himself. In the early 1950's he began a second long-term love affair, this time with Dr. Lola Paulsen, another psychologist. John and Doris were eventually divorced, but continued a relationship. Lola Paulsen often called herself "Mrs. Layard," although she and John were never married.

Despite his youthful illnesses, Layard lived in fairly good health until the late 1950's, when he was diagnosed as diabetic. In 1961 he was involved in a serious multi-car auto accident, for which he may have been partly responsible. Suffering a severe leg injury, he spent the following year in physical therapy. His eyesight grew worse, as did his hearing.

In 1970 he bought property in Megavissey, intending to found an institution for "third-world" health. By "third-world" Layard meant a union between the mental and the physical worlds. His plans were interrupted by a violent physical attack from a neighbor, Lionel Miskin, who had become enraged over certain aspects of Layard's psychoanalysis of him and his wife. This incident was symptomatic of the extreme emotions that Layard often inspired in those who knew him well. Layard sued Miskin for assault and abandoned his plans for the institution. He then retired to Wardington House until his health improved.

In 1972 John and Doris reconciled, and they lived together, apparently happily, until Doris' death in November, 1973. She was followed a year later by John, who died at Cowley Road Hospital, Oxford, on November 26, 1974, two days short of his 83rd birthday. Attending John Layard's funeral were Vera von der Heydt and Lola Paulson, his two long-time lovers besides Doris, who had remained friends with him and with each other, a sign of the intense feelings he often aroused in others.

At several times during the last ten or fifteen years of his life, Layard had tried to retire from practice and write. He accomplished little, however, since many people continued to seek his professional help. It was not until after his death that A Celtic Quest and Atchin Dictionary were both published. His Lady and the Hare has been re-printed twice since then.

Provenance

Prior to its acquisition by UC San Diego Library, the collection had been stored in the London home of Layard's son, Richard. When originally received by the Library, the collection had been arbitrarily packed into 33 boxes. Although the original order was difficult to ascertain, it was apparent that Layard had maintained his files in several alphabetical series, each covering approximately a decade. He had maintained his research materials and drafts of his books more or less by subject matter.

In general, the processors have maintained the integrity of each file at the item level, but at the folder-level they have reorganized the materials in accord with the underlying intellectual order of the papers. For example, subseries containing family and financial correspondence were created, and drafts of a particular book were brought together. Un-annotated publications by others have been separated to the Library's general collection.