03
Mar
2021

16 Woodbourne Road, Edgbaston

The first family home of the Noel and Molly Downing was 16 Woodbourne Road, a large house in Edgbaston. The house is situated within two miles of both the centre of Birmingham and the Downings’ Maltings in Smethwick. Continue reading →
Last updated on 4 March 2021 by JJ Morgan
07
Feb
2021

Joyce Mabel Foulds

Joyce Foulds was born in 1913, the daughter of a surgeon in the Royal Army Medical Corps. She married Archibald Agard Evans on 20 Aug 1938. Continue reading →
Last updated on 10 February 2021 by JJ Morgan
01
Feb
2021

Hélène Fruytier (née Cordier)

Hélène Cordier was born in 1917 and spent time in England in 1936 and 1937, some at the home of the Downing family. She became a lifelong friend of the eldest daughter Pamela Downing. Below are some photos that have survived. Continue reading →
Last updated on 12 February 2021 by JJ Morgan
22
Jan
2021

Aileen Mary Moriarty

Aileen Moriarty was a nurse, who served alongside Molly Evans and Clarice Molloy at the Queen Alexandra Hospital at Dunkirk, 1917-1918. Her father Arthur Stephen Moriarty, an Indian Civil servant, had died in 1900 when she was five. The Moriartys were Oxford educated, half Irish, born in France and Catholic. Aileen’s uncle, Louis Martin Moriarty (1855-1930) was French master at Harrow School and seemingly the only teacher who Winston Churchill got on with! Continue reading →
Last updated on 4 March 2021 by JJ Morgan
16
Jan
2021

Mary Elizabeth Segrave (née Dehane)

Mary Elizabeth Dehane was the first cousin of Henry Evans. After the Evans family left Pendeford Hall in about 1860, the bachelor Henry continued to live in the Tettenhall Road with his mother, Mary Evans, nee Shaw-Hellier. Mary Elizabeth Dehane had married Captain Henry Segrave of Ely House, Tettenhall Road on 21 Nov 1850 and were close neighbours as well as cousins. Continue reading →
Last updated on 16 January 2021 by JJ Morgan
13
Jan
2021

3 Paragon Buildings, Cheltenham

For nearly twenty years a number of the Marten family lived in Cheltenham, in a place they called ‘Lamberhurst’. It was in fact part of a Georgian Terrace in Bath Street called 3 Paragon buildings. Significantly, it was very close to Cheltenham College, the boys’ school. Continue reading →
Last updated on 14 January 2021 by JJ Morgan
10
Jan
2021

Mary Elizabeth Lloyd (née Edginton)

Mary Edginton was the youngest daughter of Robert William Edginton, an Edgbaston Doctor and Elizabeth Baker Showell, his wife. She was born on 10 Jul 1890 and married Ernest Robert Vivian Lloyd in 1918.  She was a first cousin to Noel Downing. Both their mothers were daughters of the brewer Walter Showell. Continue reading →
Last updated on 15 January 2021 by JJ Morgan
08
Jan
2021

Mary Lucy Segrave (née Harwood)

Mrs Segrave appears on two photos in the family albums. She was an American born in Baltimore, Maryland in about 1865 and married Charles William Segrave on 27 Apr 1893. Continue reading →
Last updated on 16 January 2021 by JJ Morgan
01
Jan
2021

Elizabeth Dekeuwer

Isbergue Marie Elizabeth Dekeuwer was born on 7 Aug 1900 near to Dunkirk, France and came to England as a Nanny to the young Downing family in Edgbaston in the 1920’s. She was affectionately known as ‘Nan’ and features in numerous family photos. Continue reading →
Last updated on 1 January 2021 by JJ Morgan
29
Dec
2020

Richard Evans’ Rummer and Toddy Ladle

Two items engraved in similar script bear the monogram ‘RE’ and are presumed to have belonged to Richard Evans (1797-1859). They are a late eighteenth century glass rummer and a slightly battered silver Toddy Ladle, hallmarked London 1727. Continue reading →
Last updated on 29 December 2020 by JJ Morgan