‘Not the kind to die’: Katherine Mansfield and the Unquiet Ghost of ‘little brother’

Abstract

This article documents the longstanding and special bond of affection between Katherine Mansfield and her brother Leslie Heron Beauchamp (known as ‘Chummie’ and ‘Bogey’ by family) and the often oblique but artful ways this bond is reflected in her stories. With the aid of War Office records, contemporary New Zealand newspaper reports, and Beauchamp family letters in the Alexander Turnbull Library, the essay specifically addresses hitherto unknown, yet biographically significant, issues concerning Leslie’s education, his social life and military training in England, and his accidental death in Flanders. In so doing, the essay thereby corrects some misapprehensions about Leslie and the nature and extent of Mansfield’s relationship with him.