Queer Places:
4-5 Park Pl, London SW1A 1LP, UK

Dudley Jocelyn Persse (July 24, 1873 - March 3, 1943), who usually went by his middle name Jocelyn, was born on July 24, 1873, as the son of Major William Norton Persse and Rose Bennet Mesham. His siblings included William Arthur, Rose, Kathleen, Millicent, and Ione. He was also a nephew of the Irish playwright Lady Augusta Gregory.

Professionally and socially, Jocelyn Persse was a devoted theater aficionado and a close friend, inspiration, and romantic interest of the novelist Henry James. Following Henry James's intense, reciprocated semi-public infatuation with Hugh Walpole around 1909, James soon moved on to a relationship with the slightly younger Persse. Their close bond is famously documented in Henry James's letters to him, which reflect deep affection.

Later in life, on December 15, 1938, Persse married Aldyth Lorna Hutton (daughter of John Timothy D'Arcy Hutton) in Westminster, London. He passed away on March 3, 1943, at the age of 69 in Westminster, London, leaving no issue, and his probate was handled in London later that year.

Jocelyn Persse lived above the Primrose Club in Park Place, St. James, London, which he had inherited from his father.

References:

The Hub of the Gay Universe: An LGBTQ History of Boston, Provincetown, and Beyond Paperback – April 1, 2019 by Russ López

Other references:

• FreeBMD, Births Sep 1873, Dudley Locelyn Persse, District of Pancras, Vol. 1b, p. 45.
• "England Births and Christenings, 1538–1975," database, FamilySearch (christened 28 September 1873 at Marylebone, London, England).
• "England and Wales Marriage Registration Index, 1837–2005," database, FamilySearch (marriage registered fourth quarter 1938, Westminster St. Margaret, London, vol. 1a, p. 1340).
• FreeBMD, Marriages Dec 1938, Dudley J. Persse and Black (Aldyth Lorna Hutton), District of Westminster, Vol. 1a, p. 1340.
• FreeBMD, Deaths Mar 1943, Dudley J. Persse, age 69, District of Westminster, Vol. 1a, p. 499.
• "England and Wales Death Registration Index 1837–2007," database, FamilySearch (recorded March 1943 in Westminster St. Margaret, London).
• "England and Wales, National Index of Wills and Administrations, 1858–1957," database, FamilySearch (Probate granted on 8 May 1943 in London, England, listing beneficiaries Henry Edmund Sargant and Thomas Henry Owen).
• Gunter, Susan E. "You Will Fit the Tighter into My Embrace!": Henry James's Letters to Jocelyn Persse. GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, vol. 7, no. 2, 2001, pp. 335–354 (referencing collections housed at Harvard's Houghton Library).
• ThePeerage.com (Lineage data for Dudley Jocelyn Persse, citing BP2003).

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