Julius Beerbohm

Julius Beerbohm (26 September 1854 – 21 April 1906) was a Victorian travel-writer, engineer and explorer.

He was the son of Julius Ewald Edward Beerbohm (1811–1892), of Dutch, Lithuanian, and German origin, who had come to England in about 1830 and set up as a corn merchant. His nieces were Viola, Felicity and Iris Tree.

Travels in Patagonia A European engineer, Beerbohm travelled to Patagonia in 1877 as part of a group sent to survey the land between Port Desire and Santa Cruz. His 1881 book Wanderings in Patagonia; or, Life among the Ostrich Hunters is the account of the time he spent there. In the book he describes the natural history and geography of the country that he labelled "the last of nature's works".

Beerbohm travelled across deserts and through jungles with the native Indians, the people Ferdinand Magellan had come upon in 1520 when he discovered the country. Beerbohm details a trek through the hostile terrain and overcomes snowstorms and mutiny, survives a flood and encounters ostrich hunters, puma, and swans. Beerbohm had no previous knowledge of the land, its flora and fauna. For the most part of the journey he travelled with several old hands at ostrich hunting: the memorable Isidro, the Frenchman Guillaume, and the Austrian Maximo.

Character In a volume of reminiscences collected on the death of Herbert Beerbohm Tree by Max Beerbohm, Herbert's widow Helen Maud Tree recalled Julius:

With his wife he had two children: Clarence Evelyn Beerbohm (1885–1917), a musical comedy actor and soldier who married Elizabeth H. Anderson in 1909 and who was killed in action during World War I; and Marie Marguerite Beerbohm (born 1890), who married Ernest Alexander Stuart Watt (1874 - 1954) on 22 February 1912 at the register office, Hanover Square. The marriage was dissolved in 1913.

Beerbohm spent much of his time travelling around Europe losing all his money at casino after casino. Every now and then he would try to recoup his lost money by thinking up some project, such as an idea to dredge the River Nile to attempt to find the lost jewels of the Pharaohs, or setting up a luxury hotel at Marienbad. This latter was a short-lived venture for after paying the deposit on the hotel Beerbohm left Germany and totally forgot about the entire enterprise until reminded of it by his creditors. He soon lost all of his money and much of his wife's also, and could only continue to live to the standard to which he had become accustomed by borrowing from others. Although facing financial ruin, he continued to keep cabs waiting for him all day at his door, and to attend supper parties where he would entertain the company by reciting one of his poems. He wrote the words to a song, Blue-Eyes, Berceuse, which was set to music by Lord Duppin. He had his linen sent from his London home to Paris to be washed.

As he lay dying in April 1906, "exhausted by a life of adventure and failure", Beerbohm managed to maintain the strict standards of his dandyism. His brother Herbert Beerbohm Tree came to see him dressed in a reddish-brown suit that offended Julius's taste. "Ginger!" he said disgustedly, and turned his face to the wall.