I did a double take when I read this as so far I had only considered Bryan Edgar Wallace and Penelope Wallace when it comes to Wallace offspring that left a creative mark.
To my shame I must admit that I had never heard of Tobias Frere-Jones who just happens to be one of most influential contemporary type designers and amongst other achievements had also created the “Gotham” typeface that was famously used by Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign.
Tobias’ brother is Sasha Frere-Jones (*1967), a music critic and essayist, best known for his long tenure at The New Yorker (2004–2015), where he wrote about pop, hip-hop, and indie music with a mix of cultural theory and personal reflection. (And yes, he too was a cultural black spot for me until now.)
So then I started digging a little deeper and fell into a little genealogical rabbit hole…
Their parents were Robin Carpenter Jones (April 01, 1933-March 7, 1997), an American writer for adverting agencies, and Elizabeth Frere who had moved from England to Brooklyn.
Elizabeth Frere was the daughter of Alexander Stuart Frere-Reeves (November 23, 1892 – October 03, 1984). He was a highly influential English publisher who had been responsible for looking after the likes of Noel Coward and Eric Ambler, Graham Greene and D.H. Lawrence, Thomas Wolfe and…. way too many other famous writers of the time. In 1939 he legally dropped the “Reeves” part of his surname.
In 1927 Stuart Frere married Patricia Marion Caldecott Wallace (September, 07, 1907 –September 1995), a journalist and Edgar Wallace’s daughter from his first marriage to Ivy Maude Caldecott, which makes Patricia Bryan Edgar’s younger sister and Penelope’s half sister.
Apart from Elizabeth they also had two sons: Alexander and Vice Admiral Sir Richard Tobias Frere KCB (June 04, 1938 – March 05, 2020) who had a distinguished naval career and served as Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic in NATO, yet another illustrious descendant!
Below a summary, of Edgar Wallace’s children and the Frere lineage in particular.
Please let me know if there are any corrections I need to make to this tree as at this stage my eyes are getting blurry from the dates and connections.
Given how much of a focus we (read: I) usually place on Bryan Edgar and Penelope Wallace, it is refreshing to see just how successful the descendants of Wallace’s other child, daughter Patricia, had actually become.
Super curious now to see if this tree cannot be expanded further in the future.
