Father Hearn

Charles Bush Hearn: 1818-1866.
Father of Lafcadio and James Daniel Hearn

First Husband of Rosa Cassimati, the brother's mother

Charles Bush Hearn c. 1848 when he met Rosa Cassimati

The green shores of County Armagh, Northern Ireland, Hearn’s isle of birth

Major Hearn deployed to Kythria Greece 1848
Marriage registry of Charles and Rosa with birth registry of Lafcadio
Marriage registry of Charles and Rosa with birth registry of Lafcadio, 1849
Charles and Rosa wed at Lafkada Greece
Hearn presents marriage annulment from Rosa 1856
Oct 1850 Posted to Dominica, British West Indies
26 Mar 1855 Awarded the Crimea Medal with clasps for Alma and Inkerman — War Office Medal Rolls, WO 100
Hearn at military hospital during Crimean War 1854

“Then I remember this: –  Then a lady came down [the stairs] to meet us, all white-robed, with very bright hair – quite slender. I thought her beautiful as an angel, perhaps partly because she kissed me and petted me, and gave me a beautiful book and a toy gun … She was the woman who after-ward became my father’s second wife and died in India.” >Lafcadio Hearn

1857 JUL 18 Marriage Solemnized Charles B Hearn and Alicia A Crowford
July 18, 1857, Marriage Solemnized Charles B Hearn and Alicia A Goslin

In 1857 Hearn and his second wife, Alicia Goslin, deploys with the English Army 1st Royal Regiment of Foot to Secunderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India, when he was 39 years old.

Hearn caring for patients while in India

Charles Bush Hearn’s adult children by his second wife, Alicia Goslin

portrait-Posey-Gertrude-Hearn-half-sister-fotor-20231230101923
Posey Gertrude Hearn Half Sister of Lafcadio and James Daniel Hearn
portrait-Minnie-Hearn-Atkinson-half-sister
Minnie Hearn Half Sister of Lafcadio and James Daniel Hearn
portrait-Lilla-Hearn-half-sister
Lilla Hearn Half Sister of Lafcadio and James Hearn

lands and lives

Trials and Tragedies

Both brothers, Lafcadio and James Daniel, were born in Greece. Their mother was Greek and their father Irish. Both brothers lived for a time in Ohio. Yet their adult worlds became as far apart literally as East is from West, or as Japan is from Michigan. 

Both brothers longed for an image of their estranged mother. But their father was rarely home. Surgeon-Major Charles Bush Hearn, of the 76th Regiment in the  British Army, traveled extensively. He was stricken with malaria in India. In transit from India to England, Hearn finally died 1866 on board the screw steamer SS Mula during his traverse through the Gulf of Suez.

Brothers Bain: painfully few paternal memories

Surgeon Major Charles Bush Hearn-fotor-20240102101713
Their Father: Surgeon-Major Charles Bush Hearn
Lafcadio Hearn 1873
"I can remember seeing father only four times – no, five. He never caressed me; I always felt afraid of him, He was rather taciturn, I think." > Lafcadio Hearn
James Daniel Hearn in 1874 AI Enhanced
"I never saw father but twice in my recollection. I was almost a waif and Lafcadio was the same." > James Daniel Hearn