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 →
Last updated on 26 October 2021 by JJ Morgan
12
Sep
2021

Ratlinghope 1899

A small packet of loose photos, labelled ‘Ratlinghope 1899’ exists among the box of Downing archives. Continue reading →
Last updated on 23 October 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
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 10 October 2022 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
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 →
Last updated on 12 August 2022 by JJ Morgan
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 →
Last updated on 4 March 2023 by JJ Morgan
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 →
Last updated on 30 September 2019 by JJ Morgan
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 →
Last updated on 5 January 2021 by E Morgan