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Gertrude Legendre - The High Life to Spy Life, and Back

Photos 53Issue September 2017
Gertrude Sanford Legendre—the internationally known globetrotter, socialite, and big-game hunter—as photographed by George Platt Lynes for Harper’s Bazaar in 1938A young GertrudeGertrude’s father, John SanfordHer brother, Stephen (aka “Laddie”) became a renowned polo playerWith siblings Stephen and Sarah JaneGertie’s graduation day at Foxcroft School in 1920The 1938 movie Holiday was based on her family.Hunting in Wyoming, 1920Camping in Alaska, 1926On safari in EthiopiaOn safari in Kenya, 1927Gertrude and Sidney’s wedding portrait, 1929With Sidney in Palm Beach, 1930An undated Christmas card picturing her in French PolynesiaA museum trophyA 1929 portrait shot by Man Ray in ParisThe Legendres purchased Medway in 1930 and restored and updated the 18th-century Dutch-gabled manse. Its 6,700 acres served as a playground for family and guests to ride, hunt, fish, and lounge with the dogsGertrude with LandineHolding Bokara, 1943Sidney and Gertrude, undatedA riding lesson for Landine, March 1935A photo shoot with Toni Frissell for Harper’s BazaarSidney with his brothers Morris and ArmantGertie and Sidney with beloved spaniel ClippyA picnic on the groundsIn July 1944, Gertie sent a snapshot of herself at work in London to Sidney with a letter describing the windows as “glued over” with netting “for Buz-bomb [sic] protection.”A shelter entrance...and a “blitzed” building.Newspaper headlines announce Gertrude’s capture by the Nazis.A telegram sent to Gertrude’s familyThe 13th-century castle in the German village of Dietz where Gertie was imprisoned for six weeks; it was there that she met Lieutenant Gosewich.The housekeeper who regularly stole Gertie’s foodGertie spent two months under 24-hour watch in Wansee under Himmler’s jurisdiction; she charmed a number of her guards, including Ursula (above).The police headquarters in Wansee, where she was held in November and December 1944The Nazi-held resort, where she was imprisoned for two months with French officers.Kreuzlingen, the Swiss border town where Gertie escapedOtto Ragganbass, chief of the Swiss Police, detained her to confirm her story and identityShe secreted a list of the French captives in the lining of her coat.In her WAC uniform with Mrs. Ragganbass and her son in SwitzerlandHer passport and dog tagsAnother guard, Tony May in Stalag VI at Flamersheim, drew her likeness and gifted it to her in October 1944; She would incorporate the image into her Christmas card the following year.SS Lieutenant William GosewichGertie during her National Geographic expedition to Africa in 1952 (the name Weeks refers to her brief marriage to Dr. Carnes Weeks)Leading a trek to an African kingdomFor more than a half century, “Charleston’s Grandest Dame” hosted a New Year’s Eve masquerade ball at MedwayGertie as a show girl, circa 1950With Bokara, 1955.With daughters Landine and Bokara (seated) in Medway’s “Trophy Room,” undatedBefore she died, Gertrude placed conservation easements on the property to protect it from commercial development forever.A recent shot of the houseAfter the war, she wrote her first memoir, The Sands Ceased to Run (1947), followed by The Time of My Life in 1987.With her ever-present dogs in 1973Sidney’s grave at Medway; when Gertrude died in 2000—just shy of her 98th birthday—she was buried next to him.

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