| Admin History | Olive Katherine Parr was born in Harrow-on-the-Hill on 05 July 1874. She took up the pen name Beatrice Chase as a novelist in 1914. She was educated at the Convent of the Holy Child in Cavendish Square. In the early 20th century, she contracted a lung disease. Parr was strongly religious and, after moving to Devon with her mother in 1902 to improve her health - initially to the Dartmoor village of Widecombe-in-the-Moor, and from 1908 on a farm at Venton - she built her own chapel, which she had consecrated by the Catholic Bishop of Plymouth. During the First World War, Parr formed a 'Crusade for Moral Living', which attracted a large following. Soldiers and their partners or relatives at home would write to Parr, pledging to be 'true to honour'. In return, Chase prayed for their souls in her small chapel. Parr's popularity continued to grow throughout the war years, and she received many visitors at Venton where she sold books from the window of her house. Her next attempt at the White Crusade at the outbreak of the Second World War was largely met with indifference. Parr is best known for her novels set on Dartmoor. In addition to novels, she also wrote poetry. Her first book 'The Voice of the River' was published under her birth name in 1903. She used her birth name for seven more books before starting to use the pseudonym, Beatrice Chase, with The Heart of the Moor' in 1914. From then on she tended to use her birth name only for factual and religious writings. Parr was the heroine in John Oxenham's novel 'My Lady of the Moor', and she adopted the title. Olive Katherine Parr died at Newton Abbot Infirmary on 03 July 1955 and was buried in the churchyard at Widecombe-in-the-Moor. The granite cross on her grave is inscribed with 'Beatrice Chase 18741955' on one side and 'Pray for Olive Katharine Parr' on the other. It was erected in 1959 and is a reduced-size copy of Nun's Cross, the largest and oldest recorded cross on Dartmoor. |