100th death anniversary of Walter Christmas. 100 years ago, on 20 March 1924, the Danish newspaper Politiken announced the sudden and unexpected death of the author Captain Walter Christmas.
Two days earlier, Christmas had been attending the premiere of the play Blændværk at the Royal Theatre. Even before the curtain went up, he was suddenly seized by a coughing fit and thus told the ticket inspector to let his wife (sitting on a seat further away) know that he was going home in order to not disrupt the performance. At home, Christmas, feeling a pain in the region of the heart, called the doctor, Dr. Malling, who diagnosed a sudden attack of influenza. The doctor went to get a pain killer, but when he returned, his patient had already died, probably of a heart attack. Christmas’s wife Ellen heard of his illness only after the end of the first act, but came home too late to see her husband alive.
Who was this man who had so suddenly died at the rather young age of 63?
As the obituary explained, Captain Christmas had been an iridescent figure, a well-known and honoured member of Copenhagen society and yet, at the same time, an outsider who had never fully belonged.
Born into the city‘s highest circles, the son of chamberlain and premier lieutenant Walter von Christmas-Dirckinck-Holmfeld and of Tusky Baroness Holmfeld had had the best of possible starts. Handsome, nice and clever, he had entered the illustrious Royal Danish Navy with prospects of a good career. „Yet, an inner restlessness, a thirst for bigger adventures drove him off course“.
Following an expedition to Greenland, he left the Danish Navy, went into Siamese (1891-93) and later Greek services (1896-97) where he actually experienced combat. He travelled the world and became a journalist and author, he tried to sell the Danish West Indies, he became the director of the Dagmar Theatre for one season and harboured plans of opening a cinema the next. At the start of the First World War, he offered his services to the Royal Danish Navy again as a security officer (Sikringsstyrken) stationed at Skagen and watching the Danish coast (his famous „Skagen summer“). He went on travels to the entente countries and then returned to his books.
“Some say about Christmas”, the obituary continued with words that explain why this man makes such an intruiging subject, “that he experienced adventures while he was hunting his fortune.“ But unlike others rising from an even lower station, he did not manage „to grasp and hold his luck“. The reason for this, so the journalist mused, was a flaw in his character that was also a virtue and its deeper cause was Cristmas’s multinational pedigree (he was of Danish, Norwegian, Dutch, English and Irish descent). He was outspoken and honest where he should have held his tongue. Although he had the education and the habits of a Danish gentleman and was comfortably at home in Copenhagen‘s military, literary and even aristocratic circles, he also had an Irish tongue that sometimes made him enemies.
What the obituary alluded to, among other things, was probably Christmas‘s involvement in the so-called Paknam incident and the war of words that followed it. In the year 1893, Christmas was disgracefully dismissed from the Danish Navy because he had allegedly taken part in actions of war in Siam. In his defense, he pusblished several articles as well as a book about his “Year in Siam”, which de-glorified eminent Danes engaged in royal Siamese services such as Admiral Andreas du Plessis de Richelieu and the shipping magnete H.N. Andersen. A public fight between the two camps ensued which brought Christmas lingering publicity.
Another of the many incidents when Christmas got into trouble because of his temper was when he was discovered to have been a secret agent for the British MI6 in 1916. The “travels to the entente country” mentioned in the obituary were actually part of an escape from Danish authorities. (more to follow)
As becomes evident from the obituary, though, Walter Christmas, despite his many misfortunes, was like a tumbler toy who would always get back on his feet. He was praised for his wit, his social skills and his good comradeship – all qualities that gathered around him a large circle of friends. In being taken so suddenly from the midst of life and the midst of so many friends, the obituary concluded, he had died a good death.
Further Reading
This is part of a small series of blog posts commemorating the #100th death anniversary of Walter Christmas:
Man between the spots – Why I am writing about Walter Christmas
The last resting place (upcoming)
Find out more about Walter Christmas and his works on this website:
Further online biographies of Walter Christmas:
https://www.svendborghistorie.dk/historier/personalhistorier/285-walter-christmas
https://scandasia.com/walter-christmas-the-fox-in-the-hen-house
https://www.fredericiashistorie.dk/html/erritsoe/biografier/walter_christmas.html
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