The Devastating Fate of the Real Peter Pan
The story of Peter Pan has been told countless times in adaptations on stage, film, and literature. It is the classic story of the boy who never grew up who whisks his new friends Wendy, John, and Michael Darling to Neverland to countless adventures with the Lost Boys, pirates, and Indians. The story almost always ends the same way: the Darlings return home to London and their parents. Peter Pan returns to Neverland.
In 1904, Sir James Matthew Barrie wrote this classic play titled Peter Pan, or the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up. It was a critical and commercial success. Unfortunately, the story of the real Peter Pan and the boys who inspired him was not a fairy tale.
Sylvia Llewelyn Davies (maiden name Sylvia du Maurier), the daughter of a famous cartoonist, was married to Arthur Llewelyn Davies, a successful barrister, in 1892. Together, they had five children: George, John (Jack), Peter, Michael, and Nicholas (Nico). George, Jack, and Peter met J.M. Barrie in Kensington Gardens when they were with their nanny. He became a popular fixture in the Llewelyn Davies household. George, the eldest, was Barrie’s favorite for years, inspiring the precursor for Peter Pan, The Little White Bird (1902). When Michael was born, he became Barrie’s favorite of the boys.
Barrie stated that Peter Pan was not inspired by any of the Llewyn Davies children, but “by rubbing the five of you violently together, as savages with two sticks produce flame. That it is all he is, the spark I got from you.”
Peter Pan was an instant success among adults and children when it premiered on stage in 1904. But the tragedy of the Llewelyn Davies family started not long after the success of Pan. In 1906, Arthew Davies was diagnosed with cancer that would take his life a year later. Barrie stood by the family, visiting whenever he could, and taking care of most of their costs with his small fortune from the success of Peter Pan. Sylvia Llewyn Davies was diagnosed with untreatable cancer and died by Barrie’s side in 1910. He gained custody of the boys (along with their two uncles), paying for their schooling, hobbies, sports equipment, and holidays.
In 1914, when Britain joined the First World War, George — now 21 and in his first year of University — and Peter — now 18 — signed up immediately to defend their country. George kept in touch with his guardian through letters back and forth. He is said to have written to Barrie every day. But tragically, George was shot in the head by a German sniper on March 15th, 1915, only six days after his uncle, Colonel Guy du Maurier (and the original Captain Hook on stage) was also killed in battle. This devastated Barrie.
Peter came home from the war in 1919 and developed severe depression and PTSD. More disaster struck as Barrie’s favorite child — Michael — who had been studying at Christ Church in Oxford, died in 1921 in a drowning accident with his best friend (and possible lover) Rupert Buxton. There was much speculation about the relationship between the two boys, who were best of friends and died together in Sandford Lasher. Brothers Nico and Peter, along with Barrie, believed that Michael had committed suicide.
With George and Michael gone, a devastated Barrie continued to write and travel until he died in 1937 from pneumonia. He left the rights and trust of Peter Pan to Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. Peter, Jack, and Nico continued to receive royalties as well.
A celebrated Navy veteran, Jack died at the age of 65 from lung disease, leaving behind a wife and two children. Peter still suffered from severe depression. He married Margaret Leslie Hore-Ruthven and they had three children together. With funds from Barrie, he started a publishing house: Peter Davies Ltd. With the ever-looming label of “the real Peter Pan” which never seemed to leave him and the knowledge that his wife and three children had the fatal Huntingtons disease, Peter killed himself by jumping in front of a train at Sloan Square station in 1960. He was 63 years old. His three sons all agreed to not have children, thereby not passing down the Huntington’s gene. The youngest of the boys, Peter Jr., committed suicide like his father in 1990 at the age of 47 years old.
The last Llewelyn Davies brother, Nico, consulted with Andrew Birkin in 1978 for the book and BBC mini-series The Lost Boys. He died in 1980, the last of the original boys who inspired the magical Peter Pan.
Barrie believed that erecting a statue in Kensington Gardens, where he had originally met the boys, would keep Peter Pan from completely fading into obscurity. But he was wrong. Peter Pan has never faded into obscurity. He is still an inspiration for hundreds of adaptations of his story. He has and always will be on the minds and in the hearts of those who fear the unknown of growing up and the responsibilities thrust upon us. No matter what age.
