Granville Roland Fortescue

Fortescue was the son of U.S. Congressman Robert Roosevelt (1829–1906),[3] and Marion Theresa "Minnie" O'Shea Fortescue, his mistress. At the time of his birth, his father was still married to his first wife, Elizabeth Ellis. After Ellis' death, Robert married Minnie. His father then adopted the three children that he had conceived with Minnie before their marriage, Granville, Kenyon, and Maud, and they were known as his stepchildren, although they were his biological children.[4] At the time of their birth, their father had been listed as "Robert Francis Fortescue," and all maintained the Fortescue name throughout their lives, even though they were born to Robert Roosevelt.[5]

His father, Robert Roosevelt, was the brother of Theodore Roosevelt, Sr., the uncle of President Theodore Roosevelt and the great-uncle of Eleanor Roosevelt.[3]

Fortescue's undergraduate education began at Yale College; then he transferred to the University of Pennsylvania. His college years were cut short when he volunteered in 1898 for the 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry.[4] He completed his education when he graduated from the Army Staff College in 1904.[6]

Fortescue was a Rough Rider wounded at San Juan Hill in Cuba and serving in the Philippines during the Spanish–American War.[1]

Fortescue was posted as a U.S. military attaché in Japan during the Russo-Japanese War.[1] Along with other Western military attachés, he had two complementary missions—to assist the Japanese and to observe the Japanese forces in the field during the Russo-Japanese War.[7] Service as an artillery officer during World War I was the capstone of Fortescue's military career.[1]

In 1910, Captain "Rolly" Fortescue married Grace Hubbard Fortescue (née Grace Hubbard Bell) (1883–1979), a niece of the inventor Alexander Graham Bell and an heir to the Bell Telephone Company fortune. The wedding party included Captain Archibald Butt, who served with the groom in the White House as a Presidential aide.[9] The couple had three daughters:

• Thalia Fortescue (1911–1963), who married Thomas Hedges Massie (1905–1987), a Navy lieutenant.[10]
• Kenyon Fortescue (1914–1990), an actress whose stage-name was Helene Whitney; she married J. Louis Reynolds in 1936.[11]
• Marion Fortescue, who married Daulton Gillespie Viskniskki in 1934[10]

The couple's eldest daughter, Thalia Massie, was allegedly raped in 1932, and this embroiled her mother, Grace Fortescue, in a case of murder. The trial for murder, conducted in Hawaii in 1932, came to be known as the "Massie Affair". Afterwards, Grace returned to a quiet life with her husband as they moved seasonally between family homes on Long Island and in Palm Beach.

Fortescue died on April 21, 1952, and was laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery,[8] the only Roosevelt to be buried there.[4]

His journalism experience led to further writing:

• 1914 – At the Front with Three Allies: My Adventures in the Great War. London: A. Melrose, Ltd.[12]
• 1915 – Russia, the Balkans and the Dardanelles. London: A. Melrose, Ltd. OCLC: 1562062
• 1915 – What of the Dardanelles? An Analysis. London: Hodder and Stoughton. OCLC: 2736904
• 1916 – Fore-armed: How to Build a Citizen Army. Philadelphia: John C. Winston Co. OCLC: 406647
• 1917 – France Bears the Burden. New York: Macmillan. OCLC: 1183757
• 1937 – Front Line and Deadline: The Experiences of a War Correspondent. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. OCLC: 987696

• Military attachés and observers in the Russo-Japanese War

• Spinzia, Raymond E. and Judith A. Spinzia. (2006). Long Island's Prominent North Shore Families: Their Estates And Their Country Homes. College Station, Texas: Virtualbookworm. ISBN 978-1-58939-785-9; ISBN 978-1-58939-786-6 OCLC: 74029682
• Stannard, David. "The Massie case: Injustice and courage," The Honolulu Advertiser. October 14, 2001.

• 1905 Biographical Sketch
• PBS American Experience: "The Massie Affair".