02
Nov
2021
Rev William Glenn of Bishop’s Castle
Amongst the many Downing family photos there are a few references to Bishop’s Castle in Shropshire. The connection is all a bit of a mystery. Continue reading →
Photos
22
Oct
2021
Fishing Party, Parkhill, Dyce, c 1898
A group of early photos in Mary Downing‘s collection depict a Fishing Party in Aberdeenshire. Mary spent time throughout the decade around 1900, with her Aunt Dolly Crombie (nee Florence Showell) at her Scottish Estate at Parkhill House, Dyce. These photos are the only few where she identifies her grandfather, Walter Showell, the Oldbury brewer who was to die in 1901. As such they are the only surviving likenesses of him. Continue reading →
12
Sep
2021
Ratlinghope 1899
A small packet of loose photos, labelled ‘Ratlinghope 1899’ exists among the box of Downing archives. 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 →
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
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 →
18
Jun
2020
Beryl Margaret Brodribb White
Beryl White was born in Crouch End, London in 1891 and was a long-standing friend of Molly Evans. It is not entirely clear how the two met but it would seem to be likely it was around the activities of Miss Rawlins, principal of the school at Beach Court, Walmer. Continue reading →
16
Jun
2020
Beach Court School, Walmer
Both Molly Evans and her friend, Edith Mathews, were involved with Miss Rawlins and her school in Walmer, Kent based in Beach Court. A number of photographs and correspondence have survived. Continue reading →
16
Jun
2020
Edith Turney Mathews
Edith Turney Mathews was born on 11 Oct 1889 and was a school friend of Molly Evans at Beach Court School Walmer. Their families both lived in the Stourbridge area. Continue reading →
15
Jun
2020
Randle Mathews family
A group of seven photos has survived in a an envelope marked ‘Randle Mathews Photographs’. The writing on the envelope and on the back of three of the photographs is in the hand of Molly Evans. Continue reading →
08
Jun
2020
Pamela Downing
Pamela Downing was born on 16 Jul 1920, a year after the marriage of her parents Noel Downing and Molly Evans. The attached sequence of photos was taken at roughly yearly intervals throughout her growing-up. Continue reading →
10
May
2020
Bletchley Park Picnic in Brickhill Woods, Summer 1945
After VE Day, code-breaking operations at Bletchley Park entered a new and final phase. Some staff were transferred to the continuing Japanese sections. Pam Downing and her Hut 6 colleagues seem to have embarked on a period of much needed respite and relaxation. Continue reading →
28
Apr
2020
VE Day at Hut 6, Bletchley Park
Pamela Downing served in Hut 6 at Bletchley Park as a civilian from 13 Oct 1941 to 29 Aug 1945. Hut 6 was at the heart of German Army and Air Force Intelligence Code Breaking. She was engaged with a team working round the clock in an intense environment repeatedly processing and entering coded messages directly into Enigma/Typex machines.
We have three photographs of her and her colleagues from Hut 6 (and a few from Hut 3) celebrating VE Day. These are rare examples of the very few taken at Bletchley throughout the period. Continue reading →
30
Sep
2019
Allen Basil Bratton
Allen Basil Bratton was born in Shrewsbury in 1890 the son of Doctor James Allen Bratton. His father died when he was 3. Continue reading →
10
Jun
2019
Beacon Lodge Photos, 1920s
Here is a collection of 1920s photos from Mary Downing‘s album “Beacon Lodge & Surroundings”. After the First World War the Beacon remained a shooting lodge for William Edmund Downing. But more pictures of picnics and walks suggest that it also became a regular place to visit for Noel and Molly Downing and their young family until 1939. Continue reading →
27
Jan
2019
First Western General Hospital, Birkenhead, 1917
On 15 Mar 1917 Molly Evans resumed her nursing service at the First Western General Hospital in Birkenhead. She was joined there by her two friends and colleagues Clarice Molloy and Frances Ashlin. All three had already been working together in France for the best part of a year at the No 2 General Hospital, Le Havre. Continue reading →
06
Jan
2019
The Grosvenor Family of Broome House
George William Grosvenor, the head of Woodward Grosvenor & Co, Kidderminster Carpet Manufacturers, and his family lived in Broome House in Broome to the West of Hagley from about 1875 to 1899. He was a JP, Deputy Lieutenant and in 1897 High Sheriff of Worcestershire.
Broome House was sold in 1904 for £6500 and the family then moved first to Elmley House in Blakedown and finally to Park House, Hagley, where he died in 1923. The four children feature in some of the photos and correspondence held by the Downing and Evans family of Hagley. Continue reading →
30
Dec
2018
The Hatton Family of Hagley House
The family of George Hatton moved into Hagley House in about 1912. Hagley House was a large Georgian building on the corner of the Birmingham and Stourbridge Roads. The previous occupant recorded in the 1911 census was Henrietta Moore, the grandmother of Hal Barlow. Henrietta’s husband Joseph Moore, a brick manufacturer, had died there in 1901. Continue reading →