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Jul

2021

Hubert (Hugh) Broughton Showell

Hugh Showell was the son of John Henry (Harry) Showell, the younger brother of Hannah Pitt Showell. As such he was a first cousin to Noel Downing. His maternal grandfather was William George Webb of Wordsley, Stourbridge, famous and wealthy for the Seed Business that bore the Webb name. Continue reading →

Jun

2021

Manor House, Ratlinghope

Photographs show that the Downing family had a developed pattern of making visits to Ratlinghope in Shropshire from as early as 1899 right up to 1939. Continue reading →

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 →

Mar

2021

47 Selwyn Road, Edgbaston

The family of Noel and Molly Downing lived at three addresses in Edgbaston and Harborne from 1919 to 1945. For about eleven years, 1919 to 1930, they lived at 16 Woodbourne Road. Continue reading →

Feb

2021

Major Bill Shaw, DSO

William Shaw was born on 1 Jun 1878. He served in the Navy (to 1908) and the Field Artillery (First World War) and was a good friend of Noel Downing‘s family. Continue reading →

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 →

Feb

2021

Nancy Merrial Grazebrook

Nancy Grazebrook was the oldest child of Willie Grazebrook and Daisy Downing born on 5 Feb 1905. She lived to the age of 95. Continue reading →

Feb

2021

Rastit Family of Marseille, Sep 1938

Pamela Downing spent nearly four months in France between 1 September and 20 Dec 1938. A number of annotated photos have survived. Continue reading →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

Jan

2021

George MacPherson of Edinglassie Lodge

George MacPherson was born on 28 May 1851 in Edinglassie Lodge, Aberdeenshire. He became an Ironmaster and industrialist based in the West Midlands, living in Lloyd House, Penn. Continue reading →

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 →

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 →

Nov

2020

Susan Lee

Susan Lee was born on 24 Apr 1827 and was the second wife of William Downing, married on 5 Aug 1856. She was the mother of Thomas Lee Downing and Fanny Downing. Continue reading →

Sep

2020

Edgbaston High School for Girls, 1938

Pamela Downing and her two sisters, Hazel and Jill all attended Edgbaston High School in the 1930’s. Jill was evacuated to Stroud at the beginning of the war. Continue reading →

Sep

2020

Llandudno 1890s Photos

Amongst the Downing papers concerning the property in Tan Yr Allt in Llandudno are these three late Victorian photographs. Continue reading →

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