Tragic Tale of a Young Cyclist: Will Cornwell's Untimely Death in 1923

Will Cornwell, for whom the gravestone was initially erected, was killed whilst cycling home from work one April evening in 1923. He was the third son of Henry & Ada Minnie Cornwell who lived in Sangley Road, Catford, and who would later be buried beside him, and commemorated on his memorial.

Will was born in Catford and lived there all his brief life. His first job out of school was as an office boy with Charles Dodson, a coachbuilder in Victoria where his Father worked, but in 1923 he was working as an Engineer’s fitter in Vauxhall for Messrs Adam, Grimaldi & Co. of the Albert Embankment. They were manufacturers of aircraft parts, and at that time also manufacturers of a short-lived car called the “Albert”.

He was a keen cyclist and in March 1923 he had once again begun cycling to work after the winter. Thursday 12th April was a showery day, his ride home to Catford that evening took him over Camberwell Green and onward down Peckham Road. At that time the tram ran down the middle of the road with the area between the tracks and the central conduit paved. As he approached the junction with Talfour Avenue he overtook a steam waggon proceeding at a walking pace, and with a tram approaching from behind he pulled out onto the tram tracks to overtake, his bike slipped on the wet roadway, and he fell under the steam waggon. His clothing caught up under the vehicle and he died instantly from a fractured skull.

At the ensuing Coroner’s Inquest witnesses stated that Will “possessed a kindly and charming disposition”, and made friends everywhere. His employer wrote to Will’s parents that he had “always thought very highly of your son. In his conscientiousness to his work and in the progress he was making, I regarded him as one of the best boys we have ever had”.

Henry & Ada Minnie Cornwell had been living in Catford for nearly twenty years but neither were local. Henry was a shopkeeper’s son from Kedington in the South of Suffolk, but in the early 1890s his Father took up farming near Castle Hedingham, Essex. When Henry was 16 his Father tripped whilst walking in his fields and was accidentally killed after falling on the shotgun he habitually carried with him. Henry apprenticed as a wheelwright to a coachbuilder in the nearby village, where he met Ada Minnie Smith, an orphan living with her Grandmother. They married in 1900 and moved to Chadwell Heath in Essex where their first child, Stanley, was born. He died of whooping cough in 1903, aged just 10 months and was buried in Ilford. His name appears in remembrance on the grave in Ladywell Cemetery.

A further son, Arthur, was born in Chadwell Heath in 1903, after which the family moved to Sangley Road, Catford, where three further sons and a daughter were born. Henry worked for Dodson’s until in 1927 he was hired by Hovis Motor Garage on the corner of Bradgate Road and Rushey Green in Catford. Although known as a baker of bread, the company had an associated business repairing and selling motor vehicles. The family lived in a flat above the garage until he retired in 1943.

Their daughter Gladys had married Harold Lambert, who just before the war bought Davenport Garage in Catford, so upon retirement Henry & Ada Minnie moved to Davenport Road on the other side of Rushey Green. They remained there for the rest of their lives.

If you delve deep enough, many families have famous relatives. Henry Cornwell’s Great Grandfather Richard Cornwell had a 4 x Great Grandson called David John Moore Cornwell, who was the successful author better known as John Le Carré. Born more than fifty years apart, Henry was a 2nd Cousin 3 times removed from the younger David Cornwell.

Thanks to Trevor Ralph, Great Grandson of Henry & Ada Minnie Cornwell, who kindly penned this article and for the use of the family photos

Photo of grave. Phill Barnes-Warden

Posted by,  Phill Barnes-Warden. FoBLC,  committee member.

Art, Loot and Empire: The Benin Bronzes

Located aside the pathway close to the thorn laden berm between the two Ladywell and Brockley cemeteries lies the recently discovered headstone of Charlotte Mabel Alleyne d.1961. Her grave now features as a stopping point for guided history walks. Mabel achieved a modest fame in the art world from her career as an artist and a wood engraver who was active at the beginning of the twentieth century. She studied wood engraving at the London County School of Photo-engraving and Lithography in Bolt Court, London, where teacher was R. John Beedham and exhibited with the Society of Wood Engravers. Born in Southampton in 1896 , the daughter and only child of Bouverie Colebrooke Alleyne, a scion from a wealthy family originally from Barbados, and Ada Clements ( buried in Ladywell cemetery in 1935). Mabel appeared not to have married, studied at Goldsmiths College and the Royal Academy Schools. In 1926 the Saint Loup Press, San Remo , published an edition of 100 copies of Nursery Rhymes, written and illustrated by Alleyne with hand coloured wood engravings. 

The faded headstone of Mabel Alleyne is to be found in Ladywell cemetery (photo taken by Mike Guilfoyle)

Mabel exhibited with the Society of Wood Engravers in 1933, 1936 and 1938. Her wood engravings were reproduced in the London Mercury ; the September 1933 issue reproduced Flower Study. The 4 th edition of Beedham's Wood Engraving ( 1935) reproduces Autumn Rain. Many other book jackets were illustrated by Mabel Alleyne and she was included in Sara Gray's 2009 edition of The Dictionary of British Women Artists. 

In 1928 Mabel produced a wonderful dust jacket for The Way the World is Going by H.G.Wells.

Mabel died in Forest Hill and was interred in Ladywell cemetery on the 21st August 1961.

The Alleyne family were elite politicians and among the largest land owners on Barbados. Sir Reynold Abel Alleyne (Mabel's great-grandfather) was the owner of four plantations and 525 enslaved people. The Alleyne family received about £8,370 compensation for the loss of their slaves from the British Government in 1834. The slavery payments are recorded in a digital database by University College London called the Legacies of British Slave-ownership

Bouverie Colebrooke Alleyne was the son of Bouverie Alleyne and Charlotte Colebrooke. He was born on the Island of Saint Vincent in what was then the British West Indies on the 14th January, 1861.His father Bouverie Alleyne, died later that year on the 25th October, 1861 and was a Colonial Secretary of Grenada and later St. Vincent. In 1871, Bouverie was living with his mother in New Windsor, Berkshire. Bouverie C. Alleyne married Frances Ada Clements 1892 in Southampton . As noted above, they had one child, a daughter, Mabel Charlotte Alleyne. He was in the Royal Naval Reserve and gained the rank of Lieutenant.

Stylised British image of the 'Benin Massacre ' From a disbound volume of The Graphic, March 20, 1897

Significantly for the purposes of this post in 1897 he was part of the Benin punitive Expedition , when a British force under General Sir Harry Rawson, in response to the ambush and massacre of a previous British party under Acting Consul General James Phillips of the Niger Coast Protectorate, launched a three-way simultaneous attack on Benin City, an attack now called the Punitive Expedition.  In what appears to have been a desperate attempt to stall the British advance, the defenders performed human sacrifices. The killings were still being carried out when the British entered the city. They rounded up and executed those Benin chiefs who fought against them, looted about 3,000 valuable bronze and ivory works of art, burned the Queen Mother’s and other palaces, publicly humiliated Oba Ovonramwen, King of f Benin up until the British punitive expedition of 1897 who was exiled him to Calabar, the furthermost town in the territory within the British sphere of influence.  The Oba‘s palace was razed, but this fire seems to have been accidental  

The British Admiralty auctioned off most of the looted objects to pay for the military expedition, reserving some as gifts for officers of the Expedition  As a result, Benin bronzes fanned out primarily into Western museums, with large numbers now residing at the British Museum, London, Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, and Ethnological Museum, Berlin  -

Bouverie Colebrook Alleyne died at the young age of 40, on the 13th February, 1901 at Brighton, Sussex,

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The Horniman Museum said on Sunday August 7th 2022 that  it would return 72 artefacts, including 12 brass plaques known as Benin Bronzes, looted from Benin City by British soldiers in 1897 to the Nigerian government. Created from brass and bronze in the once mighty Kingdom of Benin in what is now southwestern Nigeria from at least the 16th century onwards, the Benin Bronzes are among Africa's most culturally significant artefacts. London’s Horniman Museum has recently announced the return 72 Benin treasures to Nigeria. The items were taken from Benin City by British troops in February 1897.

For readers keen to know more about the background to the Benin expedition -Paddy Docherty's 2021 book offers a critical and incisive new history which tells the real story behind the British invasion and destruction of the Kingdom of Benin in 1897, explaining how the famous Benin Bronzes came to be stolen from their homeland. One startling historical revelation arising from the above account - Benin's walls were "four times longer than the Great Wall of China, and consumed a hundred times more material than the Great Pyramid of Cheops," and reportedly took the Edo people an "estimated 150 million hours" to complete. The Guinness Book of Records noted Benin's walls were "the world's largest earthworks prior to the mechanical era."

Fredrick William Winder (1817-1912) - An Old Thames Postman.

Browsing through old newspaper cuttings, seeking interesting stories on Brockley and Ladywell Cemeteries, I struck gold with this interesting article on the life of Frederick William Winder, an old Thames Postman. 

Postman’s Adventurous life. 

The Funeral took place at Lewisham Cemetery on Saturday of Mr. Frederick William Winder, who has terminated a remarkable career at the age of 95 years. He was an old Thames Postman, and handled the Crimean mails. In the terrible winter of 1855, which stands out as one of most awful memories of the Crimean campaign, he carried the bags of letters over the Thames ice to the troopships lying opposite the old Deptford Victualling yard. 

The story of his career is a romantic one. He was the son of an army surgeon who went through the battle of Waterloo, serving in the 36th Regiment, who as the results of the terrible sights he witnessed, lost his reason. Only a short time before his death. Mr Winder chatted upon his remarkable experience with a representative of the Press. “I was named Frederick after Blucher,” he said. “I was been at Harwich, and when I was quite a kid I ran away to sea. I was always fond of the sea, when I was still a youngster I remember being frozen up for four months off Newfoundland. I went to Australia, and used to see the chained gangs of transported convicts hard at work on the land. It was in 1840 – the year the penny post came in that I first become a Thames Postman. My predecessor was on the river for 42 years. For about 30 years I used to deliver the letters to the ships lying between Limehouse and East Greenwich. They were all timber built ships in those days, and it was a wonderful sight to see them all on the water. I have counted as many as 300 “sail of ships” between Deptford Creek and Deadmans Dock. When the Crimean War was on, the Thames used to look like a forest with all the transport vessels and there big masts lying of the Deptford Victualling Yard” 

Clipping from the Aberdeen Press and Journal, 9th April 1912

The family grave of Frank William Winders Lies to the side of the Columbarium in Brockley Cemetery, Frank passed away on the 31st March 1912, his address at the time of his death, 106 Albacore Crescent, also interred with him, his first wife Hannah, and their infant sons and daughters, Hannah, Elizabeth, Samuel and Joseph. Sadly I can find very little of his parents. 

 Put together by FoBLC member Phill Barnes Warden

Greek-American Tycoon's grave found in Ladywell cemetery!

Located close to the Cross of Sacrifice in Ladywell cemetery is the final resting place of a truly remarkable man who 'spoke twenty languages'. Indeed Nicholas John Coundouris who died in 1929 whilst residing in Forest hill is perhaps the only Greek-American buried in the cemetery? His gnarled cruciform headstone is presently entwined in summer undergrowth. Sadly, to date I have not been able to locate any extant photographs of Nicholas and have had to rely mainly on contemporary newspaper clippings to piece together his life story.

Headstone of Nicholas John Coundouris in Ladywell cemetery,

( Source ; Find a Grave)

Born on the Greek Ionian Island of Cephalonia c.1835, at the time part of a British protectorate, his enterprising outlook and sharp witted business sense resulted in him becoming one of a small group of Near Eastern merchants who 'taught Englishmen and Americans the pleasure of smoking cigarettes'. At the invitation of the Duke of Cambridge he sent bales of Turkish tobacco into this country in the 1850's befriending the future King Edward V11 and his then mistress, Lady Mordaunt (offering her a special brand of customised cigarette!)  A proprietor of over twenty shops of the Ottoman Tobacco Company, his fortunes dipped after becoming an American citizen and his expanding business empire fell foul of US customs for putative fraudulent declarations and as a consequence he found himself imprisoned for a brief period in 1894 in New York's Ludlow Street Jail.

 

His earnings from his tobacco business were estimated at one time to measure in the tens of thousands of pounds and he owned properties in Smyrna and Constantinople as well as 200,000 acres of land in the Near East. The outbreak of the Greco-Turkish War in 1919 betokened a dramatic collapse in his business interests in the area, culminating in the burning down of his bonded warehouses (ostensibly by Greek forces ) in Smyrna in 1920* The great conflagration which ended the War in 1922 was the destruction and massacre of many parts of the city of Smyrna, mainly impacting on Greek and Armenian areas by Turkish forces.

Dramatic depiction of the burning of Smyrna -September 1922

A dark day in Greek history with the burning in Smyrna (modern day Izmir, Turkey) costing over 200,000 lives and sending hundreds of thousands of Greeks to a homeland they had never known. The Greek Orthodox Archbishop Chrysostomos of Smyrna (insert) was brutally hacked to death by a frenzied mob.(Source: A History of Greece.Com)

In 1923, Nicholas found himself in the Bankruptcy court in Greenwich, 'white-bearded and grave with the dignity of his eighty-seven years'. Such a fall from grace, valued as worth two million pounds in 1914 his saleable assets were recorded  as showing  a surplus of under a thousand pounds in 1923! Although Nicholas' international fame ensured an article on his life in the second edition of Time Magazine in the same year, in which he bemoaned the fact that 'I taught the English how to smoke cigarettes, made a fortune in tobacco, and now at 88 am declared bankrupt.'  

Nicholas spent his final days living in a small rented property in Forest Hill, where he died at a venerable age of c92 years. He was interred in Ladywell cemetery on the 13th February 1929. His posthumous fame was however recounted in a picaresque novel written by Constantine Rodocanachi,  called ‘No Innocent Abroad’ and originally published in the USA as ‘Forever Ulysses’ (Viking Press, NY, 1938),it was translated into English by the travel writer, Greek scholar and Cretan WW2 hero Patrick Leigh Fermor. It was his maternal grandson , Robert Hamilton Boyle who claimed that Nicholas was one of the models for the character of ‘Ulysses’.

 Nicholas grandson, was a prominent American writer and environmental campaigner, called Robert Hamilton Boyle d. 2017 -this posts offers the reader a link to his achievements -https://www.hrmm.org/history-blog/robert-boyle-hero-of-the-hudson

* By a curious cemetery coincidence , a few yards from Nicholas headstone , the name of another Greek born naturalised British citizen is visible on a faded headstone - although buried elsewhere. Themistocles Ados Parvanoglu ( 1832-1869 ) He was born in Smyrna ( now called Izmir, it lies on Turkey's Aegean coast)

Burt Lancaster, Zulu Dawn and Colonel Durnford link uncovered in grave find in Brockley cemetery

Burt Lancaster as Colonel Durnford. In the film Zulu Dawn he used an authentic break frame Webley revolver. He had to do all this acting and action with a crippled left arm and he devised a way he could handle and reload this type of weapon.. He proved a fit and skilful rider and comes over well as the doomed Colonel.

Source : Zulu Dawn , behind the scenes ( 2021)

Link to the original film trailer.

Anthony William Durnford was born in County Leitrim, Ireland in 1830 but spent his formative years in Germany. In 1848 after cadet training at Woolwich he entered the Corps of Royal Military Artificers (in 1856 they became the Corps of Royal Engineers). He served in Ceylon from 1851 to 1856 building the harbour at Trincomalee and later saving it from burning. He was then in Malta, returning to England in 1858. From 1861 to 1864 he was in Gibraltar then spent 6 years in England and Ireland, with the rank of captain, before going to South Africa. During his time in Cape Colony, he was part of the pursuit of Langalibalele ( during the 1873 rebellion) at Bushman's River Pass during which he was wounded by an assegai spear. The wounds healed but a nerve had been severed and he permanently lost the use of his left hand. In a report on him, a superior officer wrote that he had 'a commanding presence, untiring energy and undoubted powers of leadership'.

Colonel Anthony William Durnford, Royal Engineers, killed in action during a last stand at Isandlwana, in Zululand, South Africa, on 22nd January, 1879. Source -Durnford blog

 Lord Chelmsford regarded him as headstrong. When the British and colonial army was sent into Zululand in 1879 for the first invasion it was divided into 5 columns and Brevet Colonel Durnford was placed in command of no.2 Column with the intention of starting from the Middle Drift. This column was made up 6 Troops of Natal Native Horse, 3 battalions of the 1st Natal Native Contingent and a Rocket Battery. In the event Chelmsford combined Columns 2 and 3 to proceed towards Isandlwana.

At the fateful battle of Isandlwana on 22nd Jan 1879, Durnford was technically in command of the camp while Chelmsford took half the force 10 miles forward. But he and his mounted troops were 4 miles to the east of the camp when the Zulus began to attack. Although some of the 24th Regiment were deployed eastwards to help Durnford they had to be pulled into the camp area. Durnford's men were dismounted and firing to hold off the left horn of the Zulu impi (regiment), however, they ran out of ammunition and when Davies and Henderson were sent to get more from the Quarter Master of the 24th, they were refused. Durnford's men had no option but to mount up and ride to the camp. This allowed the encirclement of the camp to continue and contributed to the final tragic outcome. Most of the native troops escaped towards the Natal border, including Durnford's mounted men. Durnford himself was part of a last stand near the nek (pass) at the southern end of Isandlwana mountain, where he was killed.

Incontrovertibly the senior officer present, history has blamed him for the disaster for failing to exercise effective command and control!

Located alongside the outer cemetery pathway aside the busy Brockley road lies a truckle shaped headstone , which until recently this astute local cemetery historian had overlooked! Partly as it was often covered in vegetation and is conveniently situated close to the graves of other more ' notable ' residents of the cemetery who have featured in past guided walks.

The headstone is that of a Arthur Hamilton Durnford d.1915 . Closer genealogical scrutiny discloses that Arthur who was born in Waltham Abbey ( Essex) in 1856 hailed from a truly remarkable family background that had around 13 generations in the military, mostly the Royal Engineers, holding prominent positions throughout the world, some were governors, some built forts in Bermuda, Quebec City and the further reaches of the British Empire and one particular family member's heroic death was cinematically celebrated in the 1979 film ' Zulu Dawn' portrayed by none other than the famous Hollywood actor , Burt Lancaster!  Anthony William Durnford of Zulu fame was his 3rd cousin.

Arthur's occupationally hazardous employment was no less than that of a manager, at different times ,of several gunpowder mills , one in particular factory known as the Kames, being located on the scenic Kyles of Bute( Firth of Clyde, Scotland) which is the subject of a fascinating article for those keen to know more about the gunpowder industry : https://www.secretscotland.org.uk/index.php/Secrets/ArgyllGunpowderIndustry

Arthur later worked in Hounslow ( 1902) and was cited as a witness in various patent disputes , centred on improvements in the manufacture of gunpowder. He married an Emily Thomson in Lewisham in 1886. Arthur died at the relatively early age of 58 in London and was interred in Brockley cemetery on the 19 th February 1915. Emily who died in 1943 is also interred here. The couple appear not to have had children.

Headstone of Arthur Hamilton Durnford d. 1915 in Brockley cemetery ( Image : courtesy of Find a Grave)

The historical reach of the Durnford's is simply too vast to reasonably encompass in a brief post - but another of Arthur's ancestral links merits a worthy mention 

Elias Durnford and Rebecca Walker ( wife) undated. Source : Encyclopedia of Alabama.

Born in Ringwood, England in 1739, Elias Durnford joined the Royal Engineers in 1759 and was promoted to Lieutenant in 1762. During the Seven Years’ War, he was part of the expedition to Havana intended to cripple the Spanish West Indian colonies. The force landed at Havana and attacked its main fort,  Afterwards, in London, he produced a series of six engravings with views of the city of Havana, which - together with the series of 12 engravings of the siege operations by - form the some of the earliest in situ representations of the island of Cuba.

In 1764, Durnford earned a commission to design new plans for British West Florida and was made Lieutenant-Governor of the area. He laid out the city of Pensacola in the Seville Square district and created a new town design based upon a classic pattern. There were separate squares built for government, public affairs, and military drills. Streets were set at right angles and named for the royal family and principal personages in government. He developed a thoroughfare along a long row of family gardens which was logically called Garden Street. The name still applies. Elias Durnford died from yellow fever at Tobago on June 21, 1794. *

* Andrew  Durnford (1800– 1859), free man of colour, planter, and physician, was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, the son of Thomas Durnford, an English immigrant and merchant, and Rosaline Mercier, a free woman of colour. Thomas Durnford was a cousin of Colonel Elias Durnford

Readers who wish to know more about this remarkable family should follow this link - a website which offers an extensive research on the Durnford family - courtesy of Cynde Durnford ( personal communication)

Adelaide Clunies-Ross, the Cocos Islands and Joshua Slocum the first person to sail solo around the world

The Cocos Keeling Islands -' extraordinary rings of land which rise out of the ocean' (Charles Darwin, Voyage of the Beagle), are situated in the Indian Ocean about 700 miles S.W. from Sumatra and 1200 miles from Singapore.

'If there is a paradise on this earth, it is the Cocos Islands."    

Captain Joshua Slocum, 1897.

Located close to one of the inner pathways in Ladywell cemetery is the stunted remnant of a headstone inscribed with the name, Adelaide Clunies-Ross ( d.1924) Adelaide's (she was sometimes known as Addie) final resting place has featured in recent guided cemetery walks as her unusual background, growing up on the idyllic Cocos( Keeling) Islands in the Indian ocean, provides a fascinating link to two significant historical events which are referenced below. Although in 1836, HMS Beagle under Captain Robert Fitzroy, arrived to take soundings to establish the profile of the atoll as part of the survey expedition of the Beagle.

The Cocos islands were discovered in 1609 by the British sea captain William Keeling. One of the first settlers was John Clunies-Ross, a Scottish merchant and much of the island's current population is descended from the Malay workers he brought in to work his copra plantation. The Clunies-Ross family ruled the islands as a' benevolent' private fiefdom for almost 150 years before the British annexed the islands in 1857, although the family retained complete control of the Island's institutions, a fact which was recognized by a royal grant in 1886. With some governmental oversight via Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and later Singapore before the territory was transferred to Australia in 1955.*

Photograph of Adelaide (undated) kindly provided by family historian Linda Hargreaves.

Adelaide, who was of mixed heritage, was born to George and his wife, Inin Malarat at Cocos in 1870. She was the second child of 13 and the eldest daughter. Being particularly close to her aunt Eliza, George's sister, she accompanied her for an extended visit to England, Scotland and Guernsey shortly after her 2nd birthday. In 1885 she was back in England and appears to have remained here, with frequent visits to Europe, including recuperative trips to Rapallo, on the Italian Riviera. Adelaide lived mostly in the East Grinstead area of West Sussex, before moving to London in the 1920's. During the Great War she provided support for Canadian soldiers encamped nearby. Adelaide never married and died aged 54 years in 1924. She was interred in Ladywell cemetery on the 8th October, 1924. Her aunt Eliza (d.1915), is also buried here..

Alfred Clunies-Ross (1851– 903) Adelaide's uncle, was a rugby union international who represented Scotland in the first international rugby match in 1871. He was the first non-white rugby union international player.

Captain Joshua Slocum, one of the 19th Century's most successful sea captains salvaged a 100 year old rotting oyster boat, he named 'Spray' and decided to use it to become the first person ever to sail around the world - alone. On April 24, 1895, at the age of 51, he departed Boston in his tiny sloop Spray and sailed around the world single-handed, a passage of 46,000 miles, returning to Newport, Rhode Island on June 27, 1898.

In 1897 he reached the Cocos Islands, where he was greeted by George Ross (Adelaide's father) noting that 'Though the winds and seas were fairly idyllic on our way to the Cocos Keeling Islands, our arrival wasn't as pretty. The wind screamed, the sea was grey and crashed around us and the rain poured down in torrents." In 1909 Joshua Slocum set sail from New England in the Spray to spend the winter in Grand Cayman and was lost at sea. He was assumed to have been the victim of a collision; he and the Spray were never found, and in 1924 he was declared legally dead.

Joshua Slocum on his "Spray". the first man to sail single-handedly around the world.He was a Nova Scotian-born naturalized American seaman, adventurer and a noted writer. His classic tale "Sailing alone around the world with the spray" was published in 1900. ( source; Sailing Spirit)

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The Royal Australian Navy's first victory at sea - HMAS Sydney's destruction of the German cruiser SMS Emden on November 9, 1914. The Sydney was in a convoy escorting 29,000 Australian troops to Europe when it encountered the feared light cruiser Emden, which was intent on destroying the telegraph station on the Cocos Islands. The Emden was much feared by the allies and had been wreaking havoc on trading ships in south-east Asia since the outbreak of war. The battle was a huge victory for the Royal Australian Navy, which was then less than three years old; 136 Germans and four Australian sailors died in the battle.

In a spectacular footnote to the battle, around 50 German sailors, including their commander, Lieutenant Hellmuth von Mücke who had been stranded on the nearby Direction Island, commandeered the schooner Ayesha, owned by the Clunies-Ross family, to make their getaway. They embarked on what can only be described as a one of the most remarkable naval odyssey's of all time, sailing via the Red Sea, their 5,000-mile adventure ending in freedom in Constantinople in 1915!.

Wreck of the Emden, some time after the battle of 1914, HMAS Sydney's defeat of the infamous German raider SMS Emden during Australia's first naval battle of Cocos in World War I.

(source : Allan C. Green 1878 - 1954 - State Library of Victoria)

 Below is You Tube video on the impressive Clunies-Ross family dynasty. 

Inline image

* For readers interested in finding out more of the Clunies-Ross family - the 1950 book 'Kings of the Cocos' by John Scott Hughes is recommended

Culloden, Thomas Hastie Hay, a public beheading and the last battle to be fought upon British soil

A recent and striking discovery of a familial link to the last battle to be fought on British soil at Culloden moor, which is located close to Inverness, on the 16 April 1746, was uncovered when tracing the ancestral links to a Glasgow born oil company merchant called Thomas Hastie Hay ( d.1891) whose headstone lies close to the Dissenters Chapel in Ladywell cemetery. Thomas who died at the relatively young age of fifty, had been living in Catford at the time of his passing and was married to a Maud Annie Greenstreet (d.1933)*

With the 276th anniversary of the Battle pending, which battle saw forces loyal to Bonnie Prince Charlie defeated by the Duke of Cumberland's government army, it seemed apposite to relate the fascinating historical link to the event, set within the 1745–46 final Jacobite uprising, and a direct link to its gory aftermath.

The Battle of Culloden took place on Culloden Moor, near, Inverness on the 16 April 1746. It was the final battle of the 1745 Jacobite Rising and the last battle to be fought on British soil. The Battle on Culloden Moor, was both quick and bloody, it started with an unsuccessful Jacobite Highland charge across flat boggy ground, totally unsuitable for this previously highly effective manoeuvre. The Jacobite troops were soon routed and driven from the field, the battle only lasting about an hour.

The Battle of Culloden saw some 1500 Jacobites killed or wounded, while government losses were lighter with 50 dead and 259 wounded. Culloden Battlefield and Visitor Centre is a first class resource for those visiting the battle site. Jacobite derives from the Latin as 'supporters of James' -James the VII of Scotland, the last Roman Catholic monarch to reign over the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland.

Headstone of Thomas Hastie Hay, Ladywell cemetery -

 Source: Billion graves

Thomas Hastie Hay's ancestral connections are particularly interesting as he is a distant relative on his fathers side to William Boyd, 4th Earl of Kilmarnock. He was a Scottish peer who joined the 1745 Jacobite Rising, was captured at Culloden and subsequently executed for high treason on Tower Hill. His family were supporters of the government and Kilmarnock had not previously been involved with the Stuarts; he later stated "for the two Kings and their rights, I cared not a farthing which prevailed; but I was starving." His title was declared forfeit and his heavily mortgaged estates confiscated; they were later returned to his eldest son James, later Earl of Erroll, who fought at Culloden on the government side.

William Boyd, 4th Earl of Kilmarnock c. 1746

William Boyd was captured on the battlefield and there is a very poignant account of him being dragged bareheaded in the rain by his captors. At this moment his son James emerged from the redcoat ranks embraced his father and placed his own hat on the Earl’s head. His broken-hearted wife was said to have retired to Kilmarnock where she wept herself to death.

Execution of the Earl of Kilmarnock and Cromarty, and Lord Balmerino at Tower Hill, 1746 - Image:  National Library of Scotland.

In a macabre postscript to the Earl's beheading, his only wish was that his severed head be caught in a large cloth as he couldn’t stomach the idea of it rolling around in the dirt. His wishes were duly carried out but it seems his head is still around !!. People have reported seeing the ghostly skull rolling along the floor of the corridors, at Dean Castle ( Kilmarnock, Scotland) which was home to successive generations of Boyd's until the 4th Earl – William – was captured at the Battle of Culloden. The family surname changed from Boyd to Hay in the 1750's.

Another Jacobite executed at Tower Hill ( in 1747) was Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat, who was dubbed the 'Old Fox' and,will be familiar to fans of the historical drama television series Outlander as the grandfather of the hero Jamie Fraser. Shortly before the execution, a scaffold for spectators viewing the beheading had collapsed and left 20 dead, much to his amusement. Apparently Lovat was laughing about the spectacle as the executioner's axe fell. So ended the life of Simon Fraser and the phrase ‘laughing your head off’ was born!

* Thomas' brother in law was the genealogist James Harris Greenstreet (1846-1891) who was born in Brixton, the son of a traveller in the wine trade and started life as a clerk in an insurance office but by 1881 when living at Camberwell was describing himself as a record agent. In 1883 he helped Walford Selby to form the Pipe Roll Society. In 1888 at Catford he was recommended by Walter Rye and by 1891 when at Lewisham was a literary agent. He wrote a number of articles for Archaeologia Cantiana, was editor of the The Lincolnshire Survey (1884) and author of Memorials of the ancient Kent family of Greenstreet (1891). He did not marry until 1887 and had no children. At his early death in 1891 he left £290. He is also buried in Ladywell cemetery.

Absalom Dandridge and the Captain Swing Rioter Transported to Van Diemen’s Land

Nestled away in a section of Brockley cemetery  sometimes dubbed  the ' Mini-Valhalla' for it's grander funeral headstones, is the last resting place of the wonderfully named Victorian, Absalom Dandridge (d.1904) who is buried alongside his wife, Sophia Caroline (d.1906). Absalom who was described in the 1858 Directory of Kent as a 'Marine Store Dealer' and operated later as part of a family an established business partnership called J & A Dandridge. He had been living in Shardeloes Road, New Cross when he passed away. His not insubstantial effects of over £8,000 were cited in probate documents.

Headstone of Absalom and Sophia Caroline Dandridge [Find A Grave]

But what particularly intrigued me when researching Absalom's family history was discovering that his father, John Dandridge, a Buckinghamshire farm labourer, had been sentenced to be transported to Van Diemen's land (now Tasmania) for seven years in 1831, having been commuted from a death sentence, together with others, for having ' unlawfully, riotously and tumultuously assembled at the paper mill of Mr William Robert Davies and having destroyed machinery at the mill'. He arrived in Hobart aboard the convict ship, HMS Proteus. A fuller account of John Francis' Dandridge's life can be found here 

Nocturnal rick-burning was one of the features of the Captain Swing riots ( Source: Dorset Life)

Curiously enough before he obtained his ticket of leave in 1835 John had been assigned to the 'care and tutelage' of the Rev. Philip Connolly, Hobart Town's first Roman Catholic chaplain and who opened up the first Catholic Church in Australia. He also performed the last rites for Alexander Pierce, dubbed 'Australia’s first cannibal' prior to his hanging in Hobart prison in 1824. 

John Dandridge had married a Susannah Davies in 1810. He died in New South Wales (Australia) in 1853. It is unclear if he ever returned to England.

The historical background these pivotal historical events are briefly referenced. By the late 1820s, landowners and farmers had begun to introduce threshing machines to do farming work. Large numbers of labourers found themselves out of a job, without the money to buy food, clothes or other goods for the winter months. The final blow was the poor harvests in 1829 and 1830, resulting in hunger, protests and disturbances in many country areas, especially in southern counties. The protesters used the eponymous name ‘Captain Swing’, a made-up name designed to spread fear among landowners and to avoid the real protest leaders being found out. No doubt it was also chosen, to some extent, as a form of morbid humour that echoed the gallows fate that could await apprehended rebels involved in his movement. The uprisings had started in Kent some time in June 1830 and spread across the south of England and were met with severe and repressive penal measures from the authorities.

Susannah Dandridge who died in Mill lane, Deptford in 1867 (Absalom's mother) is also buried in Brockley cemetery. But a remarkable early photograph of his mother 'looking resolute if careworn' having given birth to sixteen children and suffered the loss of a husband transported to Van Diemen's Land is shown below.

Undated daguerrotype of Susannah Dandridge (Source : Ancestry UK)

For readers wanting a greater historical understanding of the Swing Riots -The classic 1969 social history of the Great English Agricultural Uprising of the 1830's by two of the country's greatest historians Eric Hobsbawm and George Rude is a good place to start.

Mike Guilfoyle, Vice-Chair, FOBLC

Lieutenant Gilbert Price, a pivotal figure in the Anglo-Irish War of Independence Talbot Street gunfight, is remembered in the latest podcast by Mike Guilfoyle

This bonus podcast by Mike Guilfoyle tells the forgotten story of Lieutenant Gilbert Price and his pivotal role in one of the most memorable and bloody events of the Anglo-Irish War of Independence - the dramatic Talbot Street gunfight and the killing of Republican leader Seán Treacy. 

You can stream this on the Tempest website https://www.tempestproductions.net/podcasts/episode/91435d12/london-epitaphs-12-lieutenant-gilbert-price or on Soundcloud https://soundcloud.com/user-986948053/london-epitaphs-12-lieutenant-gilbert-price

Find out more on Lieutenant Gilbert Price

For all Mike's previous podcasts please check out the list in the right hand column of our website

Love, Life & Death: The Art of Beatrice Offor - Talk by Deborah Hedgecock, Saturday 12th March at 2.15pm

On Saturday 12th March at 2.15pm there will be a talk by Deborah Hedgecock, Curator, Bruce Castle Museum, Tottenham, London on Love, Life & Death: The Art of Beatrice Offor

Beatrice Offor (1864-1920) was an extraordinary painter of women. Born in Sydenham, she was one of the first women at the Slade School of Art. There she studied with fellow students Annie Horniman, the tea heiress, and Moina Bergson, sister of the philosopher Henri Bergson. Beatrice went on to become, against the odds, one of the most popular – and commercially successful – artists of her day. She is buried in Ladywell Cemetery.

Book for free via Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/love-life-death-the-art-of-beatrice-offor-talk-by-deborah-hedgecock-tickets-263747875997

FOLLOWED BY

3.30pm approx

Guided walk to the grave of Beatrice Offor and other notable women, led by a member of the Friends’ group.  

Meet at the Ladywell Chapel.

Booking not required for the walk.

George Maydwell Holdich and the haunted church organ of Wiggenhall

The final resting place of the famous Victorian organist and organ builder George Maydwell Holdich lies close to the pathway alongside the boundary wall in Ladywell cemetery with only the residual border containing a faded inscription on a curbstone visible to the knowing observer.

George Maydwell Holdich 

[The only known photograph of George is from the collection of John Maidment]

Intriguingly when researching George's life for this article I lighted on a news report from 2018 appearing in the Eastern Daily Press which seemed an appropriate coda to the traditional Christmas ghost story which referred to a haunted organ built by George Maydwell Holdich at St. Mary the Virgin Parish Church, Wiggenhall, Norfolk which I thought readers would find of interest!

George 's pipe organ inside St Mary's Church at Wiggenhall St Mary. Picture: Ian Burt - undated.

Weird Norfolk: The haunted Victorian pipe organ at Wiggenhall

In the heart of the Fens is a fourteenth-century church which, legend has it, makes its own entertainment thanks to a haunted Victorian pipe organ

An article in Norfolk Fair in the summer of 1986 recalls the strange story of St Mary's haunted Victorian organ. Built by George Maydwell Holdich, the organ was donated to the church by the village squire, George Helsham. 'Quite a different kind of ghost is said to haunt the church of St Mary the virgin at Wiggenhall,' the article reads, 'Now redundant, it is no longer used for services but an atmosphere of unease was said to pervade it when it was in use. What was so astonishing was not any spectral apparition but the fact that strains of organ music would be heard, as if some outstanding performer were seated at the instrument. Upon investigation, however, no-one could be found, although the organ felt warm. In fact, the generation of heat seemed to be one of the manifestations of whatever moved within the building as it would become warm for no apparent reason. This was especially marked at a wedding at which guests became uncomfortably hot and one bridesmaid fainted, yet outside the weather was autumnal and chilly. Sometimes the organ behaved so erratically the organist had to give up playing. Yet two or three days later it would perform perfectly.

On one occasion, workmen carrying out repairs to the fabric were scared out of their wits when the organ started playing of its own accord. They fled the church in panic and only with great difficulty were they persuaded to return. 'Later visitors to the church have spoken of the strange atmosphere inside the church, which is only open to the public at certain times and which is world-renowned for its exceptional collection of early 16th-century wooden benches with ends carved with likenesses of saints, the detail on which is breathtaking – many believe the endearing faces may well have been based on parishioners of the time. Perhaps today they are entertained by spectral music.

George Maydwell Holdich

George was the fourth son of the Reverend Thomas Holdich and his second wife Elizabeth (nee Maydwell). He was born in August 1816 in Maidwell, Northamptonshire. His father, Thomas, was rector of the parish church, St Mary the Virgin. George attended Uppingham School from February 1829 until December 1832 after which it is said he went to Cambridge, although there is no record of this at the University.

However, he became apprenticed to the organ builder James Chapman Bishop of Marylebone and in 1837 started up in business by himself. In 1842 he moved to share a factory with another organ builder, Henry Bevington at 12 Greek Street, Soho. Running off Greek Street is Manette Street, described in Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities as “… where church organs claim to be made…”

The earliest Holdich organ known of is that at Southwick Northamptonshire. Redenhall is also an early example as is All Saints’ Laxton, Northamptonshire  the organ dating from c1843 and having connections with the Holdich family. The organ at Sparham, Norfolk is another early organ likely to be by Holdich and it was originally in a former school in Laxton.

Between 1848 and 1851 a fire destroyed the Greek Street factory and George moved to 4 Judd Place East, New Road, King’s Cross, which was renumbered and renamed 42 Euston Road in 1858.

In 1851 George built an organ for The Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace, now in Wiveton. 1861 saw George build his magnum opus for Lichfield Cathedral – an organ of 52 stops. This organ was quite radical for its time, including a comprehensive pedal division of which the cathedral organist, Samuel Spofforth, observed “You may put them there, but I shall never use them!” Sadly, little of this organ survives at Lichfield.

George remained in the Euston Road factory until 1866 when the site was acquired by the Midland Railway Company, and so he moved to 24 Park Place West, Liverpool Road, again renumbered to become 261 Liverpool Road, Islington in 1869. It was from this factory that he built the Hinckley organ in 1867, although of course its original destination was much closer to home – Union Chapel, Islington. It was planned to move this organ to the new chapel, but George seems to have objected to the proposed site. George removed the organ and in 1878 installed it at the Borough Congregation Church, Hinckley. George built well over 400 organs during his career, including one for the English Cathedral on Mount Zion in Jerusalem, as well as instruments for South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, India and Mauritius. His organs were generally conservative, certainly from a tonal perspective, but as indicated by the Lichfield instrument, at times he could also be forward-looking – he introduced a type of octave-coupler called a diaocton.

George nonetheless enjoys a reputation for building fine Victorian organs. Many of his smaller works survive, particularly in East Anglian rural churches. George retired on 10th January 1894 and his business was sold to the organ builder Eustace Ingram. The business traded from the same premises for a while under the name of Holdich & Ingram before being sold to Gray & Davison. On his retirement George lived in a nursing home at Forest Hill where he died on the 30th July 1896 aged 79. George who never married was interred in Ladywell cemetery on the 1st August 1896.

( Source : The Holdich Family History Society)

For a fuller account of George's life and work as an organ builder this 2013 biography most likely offers the definitive account.

Footnote :

George is in good musical company in this section of Ladywell cemetery as two other noted organists are buried nearby :

Dr William Joseph Westbrook (1831-1894) Composer, who for many years was the organist at St. Bartholemew's Church, Sydenham. His arrangement of In dulci jubilo ( In sweet rejoicing) one of the most recognisable and joyful melodies of the middle ages became a huge festive hit when released as an instrumental version by musician Mike Oldfield in 1975.

Elizabeth Stirling /Bridge ( 1819 -1895) Organist and Composer, who in 1856 passed the examination for the degree of Mus.Bac. at Oxford (her work was Psalm 130 for 5 Voices, with Orchestra.) but, ironically, her earned degree could not be granted to a woman!

Article by Mike Guilfoyle, Vice-Chair FoBLC

The grave of Inventor Alfred Charles Brown located in Ladywell cemetery

One of the singular delights of undertaking cemetery research are those serendipitous moments of discovery when the headstone of a long forgotten luminary is located. Such was the experience of finding the broken headstone of Alfred Charles Brown ' Inventor of the London fire alarm' in Ladywell cemetery.

Born in Holborn in 1858, Alfred Charles Brown completed his education at the City of London College and worked for four years in the telegraph section of the London, Brighton & South Coast railway. Leaving in 1878 to take up experimental work with Alexander Graham Bell (best known for his invention of the telephone). Alfred subsequently worked for Bell Telephone Company entering the service of the inventor Sir James Anderson, who captained the SS Great Eastern on the laying of the Transatlantic submarine telegraph cable in 1865 and 1866. His collaborations with Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison led to him spending time in America.  It was whilst there that he superintended the laying of the first telephone line between New York and Chicago.

Letter from A.C. Brown to Alexander Graham Bell, October 4, 1878 ( Library of Congress)

In 1880 he married Georgina Alice Maude Cole and for many years lived at 129 Algernon Road, Ladywell with his wife and daughter.

But Alfred Charles Brown's chief invention was the street fire -alarm which originated when he became increasingly troubled at the tardy response of the London Metropolitan Fire Brigade when attending blazes in the capital. The fire alarm system became known as that of ' Saunders and Brown',

The first public alarms had a direct line to the fire station, where a bell would ring showing which alarm had been set. A ‘watch room attendant’ at the fire station could then get the Vestry Hall to ring its bell for the volunteers, and when they arrived he could tell them where the alarm had been set off. This system was an invention of A.C. Brown and was widely adopted across London. By 1936, the London Fire Brigade area had 1,732 fire alarm posts. Of the 9,000 calls made with these posts, around 6,000 were genuine and 3,000 false. Of the false alarm calls, nearly 1,000 were due to electrical faults!

Alfred laid claim to a number of other inventions in motor vehicle design and became an expert in horology (clocks) inventing one of the earliest machines for ' clocking -in' in the workplace! The first person in the country to take out a wireless licence, he also made improvements in gramophone technology, introducing a 'pick up' to enable radio loud speakers to be used to reproduce sound. During World War One he joined the London Electrical Volunteers and his improvements to the transmission of the vibrating telegraph were greatly welcomed by the War Office.

Noted for his many philanthropic endeavours he appears to have been a modest and self-effacing inventor whose his final recorded words were 'I think I have been of some use to the world'!

Alfred was living in Granville Park , Blackheath at the time of his death in February 1931. He was interred in Ladywell cemetery in March 1931 and is buried in the same grave as his wife Georgina ( d.1931)

Alfred deserves to be better known for his pioneering work - Maybe a campaign to have a maroon plaque in Ladywell for this gentle genius could feature as part of Lewisham Borough of Culture 2022?

Mike Guilfoyle , Vice -Chair of Foblc next to the toppled headstone of the Inventor Alfred Charles Brown in Ladywell cemetery- (Photo courtesy of Phil Barnes-Warden)

Alexander Graham Bell Invents the Photo phone, the First Wireless Communication System ( 1880)

Significantly Alexander Graham Bell accorded the credit for the first demonstrations of the transmission of speech by light to a Mr A. C. Brown of London 'in September or October 1878.

The essential ideas underpinning Alexander Graham Bell's photo phone were not his own, as in a paper read before the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Boston on August 27, 1880, he freely attests to the fact that following a confidential correspondence from London, with a Mr A. C. Brown of Ladywell and others who had all anticipated his invention!

Dudley Granville Brown World War One fighter pilot

Dudley Granville Brown was a Royal Air Force (RAF) pilot who died in December 1918 when his plane crashed. Unlike most casualties of war, he is honoured in the Ladywell section of Brockley and Ladywell Cemeteries with a grand civil memorial. 

Dudley Granville Brown World War One fighter pilot (photo courtesy of Findagrave)

Dudley Granville Brown was born on 2 July 1899 in Norwood, South East London, the only son of  Cecil Reyner William Brown (1874-1928) and his wide Emily (nee Dye 1874-1930). The couple also had three daughters Joyce (older than Dudley), Ilene and Cecily Millicent (younger sisters). Cecil was a clerk in the hydrographic department at the Admiralty, as was his father James Joseph Brown, before him. He married Emily in 1897 and he was also declared bankrupt the same year. Despite this, he continued to work at the Admiralty. 

In 1901, the family lived at 26 Clifton Road, Croydon. By 1903 the family had moved to 159 Wellmeadow Road, Catford where Cecily was born, and by 1914 the family were living in Granville House, 56 Lewisham Park, Lewisham.

After leaving school, Dudley became a bank clerk. He enlisted in the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) on 8 August 1917 as an Air Mechanic D.G. Brown 3rd class. 

Initially the RFC only accepted men who were already qualified pilots as flying officers. This limited the intake to well-off individuals, often aristocrats. But this changed due to the increased demand for pilots as the air war developed and the pilot’s role changed from reconnaissance to an offensive one. As a result, army officers were sometimes trained for the role and air mechanics like D.G. Brown also had opportunities to become pilots. 

Air Mechanics usually maintained their aircraft, so men with technical skills were often recruited to this role. However, they were not only ground crew. Some of them volunteered to act as air crew which meant they flew in the planes, usually as a gunner. Part of the appeal of flying was that they would receive “Flying Pay” on the days they flew. (The pay for ranks was much lower than for officers). But doubtless the prestige and let it be said, the glamour, of being a pilot was also attractive to many.

He became a flying officer, 2nd Lieutenant, on 12 December 1917.  He flew a Sopwith Camel-a single seat biplane fighter aircraft- introduced on the Western Front in 1917. On 30th March 1918 he was wounded in combat (wrist injury) while flying in France. This incident is mentioned in passing by Guy Mainwaring Knocker in his diary, subsequently published as The Diaries and letters of a World War One fighter pilot in 2008 by his grandson Guy Burgess. Knocker flew with No 65(Fighter) Squadron, so it seems that D.G. Brown was also in 65 Squadron. 

Dudley Granville flew a Sopwith Camel-a single seat biplane

The squadron had been formed in June 1916 as a fighter squadron, and was sent to France in March 1917 where the pilots were involved in the Battles of Arras. By the time D.G. Brown was wounded, the squadron was involved in the Third Battle of Arras trying to hold back the German army’s first major offensive, Operation Michael, for two years. 

By December 1918, he was back in England at Feltwell Norfolk, which holds an R.A.F. base 10 miles west of Thetford. On 20 December, Dudley was killed in a mid-air collision with another machine during fighting practice near Hethwold. He lost control of the aircraft and it dived into the ground. He was just 19 years old. His instructor Captain Philip Everard Graham March M.C. was also killed. He was 23 years old. Air Mechanic 1st class Alfred Charles Sellwood was also killed with Captain Marsh. 

Dudley Granville Brown was buried in Ladywell cemetery and both his parents were later buried with him. 

A few months later, Captain Marsh’s daughter was born. 

{FoBLC thanks Julie Robinson for this article]