Footnotes #30 : Brian Varley Remembered

FOOTNOTE #30 [by Philip Turner] | FOOTNOTES Page | Obituary Page |

Brian Varley Remembered

Brian Varley in 1995 wearing a teeshirt with a Harry Turner impossible object design
Born in the 1930s at the dawn of British SF fandom, Brian Varley became active in fandom in the post-war era, joining the London group of SF fans in 1952 and establishing contact with fans further afield. He attended the Medcon in 1953 and helped to organize the 1954 Supermancon.

In 2013, he recalled in an email to PHT:
“What a pleasant surprise to receive your letter, the Triad designs book and Now and Then Revisited. Together they revived many memories of my visits to Romiley and to the NW Science Fiction Club, the early ones of these taking place some 60 years ago, yet there are still sharp recollections of the Mancon and Supermancon and the curiosity that I raised by being the Treasurer even though I was living in London.
“Also odd things - at finding that Harry, in complete unexpectedness, had papered the wall horizontally in the front room. And, of course, that it worked.”

Both Brian Varley and Frances Evans, before their marriage, became part of the international league of visiting members of the Romiley Fan Veterans & Scottish Dancing Society, which grew around Harry Turner & Eric Needham's fanzine Now&Then.
Brian was a big man with a big sense of fun, which earned him a certain notoriety—of the debunking sort rather than anything malicious—with the encouragement of his wife, Fran, another SF fan. Thus artwork under the name Henry Ernst, e.g. in Science Fantasy in the 1950s, is the work of Harry Turner and fannish articles under this name are the work of Brian Varley.
Both Brian and Harry were more than ready to leap to the defence of SF fandom in the letters column of the then Manchester Guardian [13th November 1953] and offer a counterblast to an ill-informed attack by a member of the monstruous (sic) regiment . . .

Brian and Fran both remained active in fandom into the 1960s. For example, Brian contributed to the reports on the BSFA's 1963 convention @ the Bull Hotel in Peterborough, he offered a slide show at the Eastercon in 1964 and attended the 1965 London Worldcon, Loncon II. He wrote a regular column for Ethel Lindsay's Scottishe as Machiavarley, a nickname bestowed on him by Walt Willis.

PHT recalls:
    “I was able to enjoy the hospitality of 'Auntie Fran' and 'Uncle Brian' at their home in Wimbledon in the middle 1960s when I had exams in London.
   “They were just a decade or so older than me and following civil service careers in the Department of Trade. Brian went all the way to the top, becoming a regional Mandarin by reaching the exalted position of director of the West Midlands office of the British Overseas Trade Board.”

Fran's health became fragile in the later 1990s and she joined the ranks of pavement motorists; somewhat adventurously, shortly before her untimely death. Shared passions for bridge, gardening and travel provided Brian with a new partner, Carol, and they enjoyed 21 years together, 19 as man and wife, before Brian became a casualty of the Chinese pandemic at the end of March in 2020.
Brian's collection of fanzines and his fannish memories made him a valued source for 21st century chroniclers of SF fandom's past, such as Peter Weston, publisher of Prolapse/Relapse and his long-term friends such as Harry Turner, who had binned his fannish archives when he gafiated at the end of the 1950s.
    Typewritten letters gave way to much more ambitious correspondence when they both embraced the computer/colour printer era in the mid 1990s and Odds & Sods, Harry's contribution, reached over 260 issues.

PHT recalls:
    “Following my father's death, contacts with Brian and Carol continued by email, and I have a collection of the electronic Christmas cards which they sent to me. Brian will be remembered.

sources: Turner archives, Ansible, fancyclopedia.org, fiawol.org.uk

FOOTNOTES TO FANDOM #30
a series of occasional pieces published by the Septuagenarian Fans Association

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