LOUNGE LIZARD MULTNOMAH VILLAGE DRIVER

He served as a volunteer Red Cross ambulance driver early in the First World War, was mentioned in dispatches, won the Mons Star and retired – apparently still quite early on in the War – with the honorary rank of Captain.In return Jefferson Davis stood as godfather to the grandchild and the parents gave their son the American statesman’s name”Įvidently Cohn’s larger-than-life-ness started from birth. “when Jefferson Davis came to England after the Civil War in America, he was aided in this country by Cohn’s grandfather.

According to Cohn’s obituary in The Times of 23 rd February 1951, this rather strange connection between the enormously grand and notorious American traitor Davis and the London Jewish baby Cohn came about as follows: Here are some of the snippets about his colourful life, gleaned from various sources:īorn in London in 1881, Cohn got his distinctive forenames by being the godson of Jefferson Davis (1808-1889), who served as the first and only President of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War from 1861-1865. It seems that Jefferson Davis Cohn (1881-1950) was a charismatic and larger-than-life character. Although we don’t have evidence of his visits to racecourses after 1901, we can see that now in the 1930s he maintained his interest – or otherwise, why would he have paid a visit to one of the most celebrated racehorse breeders of his time? We know from my previous blog piece ( ) that the Scottish gentleman was an aficionado of The Turf, a devotee of the ancient and noble sport of horse-racing.

By the 1930s, when our gentleman came to stay with Mr Cohn – no, sorry, from now on we must call him Captain Cohn – we can assume from the address on the envelope that the house had been divided into superior apartments, and that the Captain lived in Apartment number 9. The house was originally built in 1908 as an hotel particulier, a majestic private residence. Today, number 9 Rue Octave Feuillet is a Lyc ée Professionel – an exclusive vocational high school specialising in preparing its pupils for craft careers in the haute couture industries: embroidery, millinery, making of artificial flowers. Rue Octave Feuillet is just off the Avenue Victor Hugo and a couple of blocks from the Bois de Boulogne. Just the sort of district where we would expect our gentleman to keep his friends. “with its ornate 19th-century buildings, large avenues, prestigious schools, museums, and various parks … has long been known as one of French high society’s favourite places of residence (comparable to London’s Kensington and Chelsea), to such an extent that the phrase le seizieme has been associated with great wealth in French popular culture.” Starting with the address, we note that Rue Octave-Feuillet is in Paris’s 16 th arondissement, which, according to Wikipedia: Let’s see what we can find out about him. Someone with a not-French name who took the trouble to have expensive personalised stationery printed. Our Scottish gentleman was staying in Paris with another gentleman. It only starts to get interesting when we read what is printed on the flap of the envelope:Īha! So the envelope didn’t belong to a hotel. He places the envelope in the cigar box which he keeps for just this purpose, and he places the cigar box in his travelling dressing case. So he takes a small handful of leftover Italian lire coins out of his pocket and places them in an envelope which he has taken from a neat pile of stationery on the desk or writing table of the room in which he is staying. He leaves Italy and arrives at his next destination, where the local currency is the French franc. A very rich gentleman is travelling through Europe. When the envelope was found within a cigar box in the suitcase it contained a dozen or so Italian coins of small denominations, the latest of which was dated 1932. Instead, written in faded ink on the front in cursive script are the words “Italian Change”. I don’t think it has ever been used for correspondence or sealed, because there’s no address or stamp on the front and the gum on the flap appears intact. It was a good-quality piece of stationery in its day, but now it’s dirty, crumpled and has a big tear. The envelope in question is 15 x 11 cms, made in thin off-white paper with a blue tissue paper lining.

Lounge lizard multnomah village