Articles | Page 8 of 22 | Morgan Web Site

Mar

2018

RAF Band Concert in Dunkirk, 4 Oct 1918

The Royal Air Force was formed on 1 Apr 1918. On 15 Apr Walford Davies was granted a temporary commission as Major to become the RAF’s first Organising Director of Music. In Molly Evans‘s Scrapbook there is a programme for a concert given by the RAF Band at the Casino in Malo-les-Bains, Dunkirk on 4 Oct 1918. Continue reading →

Mar

2018

John Astley of Bushbury

John Astley of Bushbury died and left a will written on 6 May 1679. It is clear from this will that he is the John Astley who signs William Dugdale’s Visitation on 27 Apr 1664 as head of the Astley family of Wood Eaton in mid Staffordshire. His age in 1664 is given as 70. Continue reading →

Mar

2018

Wilmot Evans’ Service Records, 1909-1916

This is a timeline of Wilmot Evans‘ military career. He was commissioned into the South Staffordshire Regiment at the age of 19. He served in Gibraltar and South Africa during peacetime and fought on the battlefields on the Western Front during the First World War until he was killed at the age of 25. Continue reading →

Mar

2018

Clare Coleborne of Dudley

Clare Coleborne married Richard Jones of Dudley in about 1520. They were a wealthy burgher family in Dudley and she died and left a will probate date 19 Oct 1568 in which she names her three daughters and their respective husbands. She is thus demonstrably the common ancestor of both James Shaw and Sarah Bendy who marry on 22 Oct 1734 in Pattingham. Continue reading →

Feb

2018

Wilmot Evans at Shrewsbury School, 1903-1909

Wilmot Evans was an Old Salopian. He was at Shrewsbury School from 1903 to 1909. His School House was Haydon’s now Rigg’s Hall. Captain C.W. Evans MC is remembered by the School among those who were killed in the First World War. Continue reading →

Feb

2018

John Burke’s Afghan Military Photograph, 1880

Among the photos in the Evans’s family archive is a formal group portrait of British Army Officers by John Burke known for his photographs of the Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878-1880). Most likely it came from General Charles Richard Ogden Evans‘s military memorabilia. Continue reading →

Feb

2018

Robert Smyth of Wombourne

Robert Smyth of Wombourne is referred to as his father-in-law in the will of the young Thomas Shaw of Dudley in 1583. Thomas Shaw and his wife Katherine are the parents of Richard Shaw of Pinfolds in Dudley and the putative direct ancestor of Rev Thomas Shaw-Hellier, who inherited the Wodehouse Wombourne in 1786. Continue reading →

Feb

2018

A.K. Gibbs to Mary Downing Letter, Nov 1917

Annie Katharina Gibbs’s letter to Mary Downing dates from 17 Nov 1917. She congratulates Mary on receiving her decoration (Royal Red Cross) and as an ‘old friend’ uses the opportunity to catch up with the family’s news. The letter is part of a number of congratulatory letters preserved in Mary’s Writing Box. Continue reading →

Feb

2018

Richard Shaw of Pinfolds

Richard Shaw of Pinfolds is a significant but very hard member of the Shaw family of 16th century Dudley to pin down, as his life parallels that of his putative first cousin Richard Shaw of Netherton. Continue reading →

Feb

2018

Women’s Suffrage Society, Stourbridge

In April 1913 Mary Downing became an active supporter of the national campaign for women’s suffrage and is recorded as being Stourbridge NUWSS Secretary. Continue reading →

Jan

2018

Elizabeth Bendy

Elizabeth Bendy was buried on 15 Mar 1607/8 in St Mary’s Kingswinford and left a will probate 26 Apr 1608. She must have been born in the 1530’s Continue reading →

Jan

2018

Thomas Bissell

Thomas Bissell of Lyndon Green was born in about 1699 and left a will dated 28 Sep 1763 and executed in 1765. Continue reading →

Jan

2018

WW1 Artworks

Molly Evans‘s scrapbook contains a number of artworks, created not only by professionals like British artist Ernest Procter or Flemish artist Joseph Dezitter, but also by her fellow servicemen, patients and herself. Continue reading →

Jan

2018

John Thompson

John Thompson was a locksmith from Coseley in the parish of Sedgley, near Dudley. He was probably baptised on 24 Feb 1716/17 and was buried on 27 Apr 1807, both in All Saints Sedgley. This would have made him 90 years old. Continue reading →

Jan

2018

Isaac Whitehouse

Isaac Whitehouse, a farmer in Coseley in the Parish of Sedgley, was born in about 1711 the son of Joseph Whitehouse. He died in 1786. Continue reading →

Dec

2017

Joseph Whitehouse

Joseph Whitehouse, nailer, of Coseley left a will written on 14 Mar 1727/28. He was probably baptized on 11 May 1682 in All Saints Sedgley, the youngest son of Thomas Whitehouse, a yeoman and nailer. Continue reading →

Dec

2017

Thomas Whitehouse

Thomas Whitehouse, Yeoman of Coseley in the Parish of Sedgley left a will, probate 13 Feb of 1710/11. Continue reading →

Dec

2017

Richard Shaw of Sedgley

Richard Shaw of Cinder Hill in Sedgley left a will dated 5 Jan 1753/4. This gives a number of strong indications that he is the grandfather of the Rev Thomas Shaw-Hellier. Continue reading →

Dec

2017

Joseph Dezitter’s Pictures of Bergues

During the First World War, Joseph Dezitter (1883-1957), a Flemish artist, was mobilised and participated in the Belgian campaign where he was seriously wounded in 1914. After recovering he joined the ambulance auxiliary services in Northern France. Travelling between military hospitals, he took the opportunity to paint the places he visited. Continue reading →

Dec

2017

Friends’ Ambulance Unit, Dunkirk

The Quakers ran the Friends’ Ambulance Unit including the Queen Alexandra Hospital in Dunkirk for most of the duration of the First World War. One of its purposes was that members of the Society of Friends should be able to carry out their patriotic duty without having to serve in the Military on conscientious grounds. However, it also recruited from beyond the Quaker community. Continue reading →

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