02
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 →
24
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 →
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 →
07
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 →
06
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
05
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 →
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 →
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 →
03
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 →
16
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 →
05
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 →
30
Aug
2020
Tom Kendrick’s Letters
A folder of letters and photos concerning the estate of Ida Downing, who died in 1946, has survived. Most concern the Downing property in Llandudno called Tan-yr-Allt. Amongst the correspondence are 11 letters from Tom Kendrick to Noel Downing, his cousin. The two were residual legatees of Ida’s will. Continue reading →
28
Aug
2020
Fanny Downing
Frances Susan Downing was the older sister of Thomas Lee Downing, and eldest daughter of William Downing by his second wife Susan Lee. She was baptised on 17 Apr 1865 and was known by the name Fanny. Continue reading →
15
Jul
2020
Pamela Downing’s Fashion Design Drawings 1940-41
Pamela Downing attended the Birmingham College of Arts and Crafts from 1938 to 1941. After an initial period of basic training in a full range of Artistic methods and techniques, she seems to have moved in the latter part of these studies to a period where she was studying in the Handsworth School of Dress design. Continue reading →