Three non-Christian yogis lived in St Demetrios in the 1940s. The Indian Sushil Dutt, the artist Geoffrey de Selincourt, and Miss Black, who, being the only one with some income, paid the bills. Selincourt was the son of a wealthy businessman and president of the Bourne and Hollingsworth company, but ever since he decided to become an artist, his father had disinherited him.
When Miss Black died in 1944, Sushil Dutt returned to India and Selincourt took up lodgings with two sisters in Nicosia called Egyptiades, who taught the piano, while he taught English and painted. He painted portraits, including one of Mr. Congreve. Then he moved on to stay with Colonel and Ms Pain.
The Pains were a curious and vain couple who decided to become artists in their later years, and enjoyed having a quiet genius moving about their home. At some point, they all lived together in a caravan, named the “Trojan Horse”. Selincourt was nicknamed “the Hatter” after the known character in “Alice in Wonderland”. He was baptised as such by Doctor Pemberton, who lived in Karakoumi. When the Pains got bored with Selincourt, he was back on the list for “adoption”.
He finally died from tuberculosis in 1949, after having left Cyprus.
© Costas and Rita Severis Foundation
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