For those of you interested, here is the full text of the poem by Geoffrey Anketell Studdert-Kennedy, Roses in December, quoted in JMB's St Andrew's address Courage (and often misattributed to Barrie).


God gave His children memory
That in life's garden there might be
June roses in December.
But sin the Father's goodness scorns,
And weaves of them a crown of thorns,
That wounds when they remember.
Sharp, stabbing points of vain regret
Around my soul forever set,
Turn June into December.
Ah, Christ, Who wore my crown of thorns,
Have mercy on the heart that mourns,
Forgive, when I remember.

For more information on its author, see his Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Studdert_Kennedy
 

I have uploaded photos I took a few years ago of Leinster Corner, inside and out, with the then current owners' permission.

JMB and Mary Ansell moved to Leinster Corner, a now Grade II listed Regency semi-detached villa, in 1905 and lived there until their divorce in 1909. Mary Ansell had the walls of the rooms downstairs knocked down to create a large sitting room area, and installed a glass veranda overlooking the garden. The Art Nouveau fireplace came from Glasgow.

In the 1920s, the house was bought by Kathleen Bruce, widow of Captain Scott, and her second husband Edward Hilton Young (later Baron Kennet) and their descendants lived there until 2015, when it was sold after Lady Young's (Kathleen Young's daughter-in-law) death.  Peter Scott, the renowned ornithologist and conservationist, was brought up here. The house has since been refurbished and altered by the new owners.

Since the Young family no longer live there, I am able to share these photographs.

I would take anything said by Piers Dudgeon with a very large pinch of salt. His first book on Barrie and the du Mauriers, Captivated was full of weird conspiracy theories, plagiarisms, misquotes, citations out of context and complete fabrications. I haven't bothered reading his book on Michael LD as I suspected it was full of the same, trying to fit events around his own theories. If he doesn't say where he saw the initials on the tree, I doubt he's actually seen them.

I don't think anyone would know the answer to your first question, except Cynthia Asquith who most likely helped draft the will. Same with the question of the rights - yes, they probably  should have gone to the boys, but they didn't. Did you read Nico's letter to Andrew? Peter and Nico were thinking of challenging the will but in the end, decided not to.

The Adelphi Terrace flat was most probably leased, and the executors would have sold it off for the remaining years. Or it might have been rented and in that case, no-one got anything.

Do you mean the Campden Hill Square house where the Llewelyn Davies lived? The lease was sold in 1918 after Jack got married. If the house had been in Sylvia's name, the money would have gone to the boys. If it was still in Barrie's name, we don't know where the money went but it's likely it was put towards the boys' education.

Which Mary do you mean? Mary Ansell or Mary Hodgson? The former received £1000 and an annuity of £600 from Barrie's will (he had previously bought a house for her in Biarritz where she lived comfortably until her death). The latter received a legacy of £500.

The £30,000 legacy to Cynthia Asquith and all the other many legacies to various people would have come out of Barrie's estate after probate and after death duties have been paid (and legal fees), so there probably wasn't much left after that.  Any residue would have gone back into the estate and it would have been allocated to the main beneficiaries at the discretion of the trustees and executors.

Cynthia also inherited all rights to JMB's works (except for Peter Pan)(Clause 7), so that set her up for life as royalties were quite significant and provided her and her husband with a steady income (after her death, her children would continue to enjoy the benefit of these royalties).

Additionally, she and Peter LD were bequeathed all Barrie's furniture, manuscripts, papers, pictures, books etc (Clause 8 ) which were sold off and raised a considerable sum of money.

It's not published, but Andrew has scanned it and you'll find it on the database.

This is great, Lynn! That collection of old photos was quite a find. Thanks for sharing your research.

I have photos of Mary's grave and house in Biarritz, if you're interested. Her villa is still there and lived in by the the descendants of Mary's housekeeper/companion, who inherited her estate. 

The name "Mary Cannan"on the tombstone is hardly decipherable because the family who inherited her estate  took over the plot for their own dead members, and have now probably forgotten who Mary Cannan was.