Charles Ashton Jonson. A Tribute From Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

From The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia

Charles Ashton Jonson. A Tribute From Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is an article written by Arthur Conan Doyle published in the magazine Light on 1 february 1930.


Charles Ashton Jonson

Light (1 february 1930, p. 54)

A Tribute From Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Sir, — The cause has sustained a severe loss in the death, in his 69th year, of C. Ashton Jonson. He was a man of the highest culture, deeply-read, and with a practical knowledge of books which enabled him, as Honorary Librarian, to make the collection at the Royal Automobile Club a noteworthy one. He was also a fine musical critic, and his Life of Chopin is among the standard works upon the subject. As a Spiritualist he brought certain gifts to the movement which were invaluable. His gentle and yet forceful personality together with his absolute grasp of the subject and his power of clear exposition made him a wonderful propagandist. Both in South Africa and in the far Continental countries (Holland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway), where he and Mrs. Jonson were our companions, the success which we achieved was greatly aided and increased by their fine team-work, Ashton Jonson, with his charming personality , interviewing all comers, while his wife did splendid unselfish anonymous work, preparing the answers for the whole pages of catechism which used to appear in the papers each day. He had a way of disarming and converting opponents by his courteous and convincing answers to their difficulties, which put him in a class by himself among our propagandists. Instead of losing his temper in the fact of rudeness and stupidity he would write so polite and reasonable a letter that the culprit would be compelled to alter his tone. He has left a gap behind him which it will indeed be hard to fill though we way try to console ourselves with his wife's beautiful words, in the first flush of their grief. "We have lost nothing and we have gained an angel."

ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE.