Lessons in Nursing Care from the Early Years of the NHS

20/02/2012 by Emma Jolly.

 

The first series of Call The Midwife ended last night on BBC 1. The show was a huge ratings success, with its final episode being watched by 9 million viewers. Much of its appeal lies in the fairly accurate recreation of 1950s Poplar and of its realistic scenes of childbirth.

Today, with UK healthcare under threat from the NHS bill, this portrayal of the Service’s successful early years may hold some clues as to how it could more simply be reformed. There have already been calls for the NHS to go ‘back to basics’, with the return of matrons and a focus on patients’ essential needs. Could a return to 1950s methods of nursing care, whilst retaining 21^st century scientific and technological advancements, be the answer?

Decades before the NHS was created the founder of modern nursing, Florence Nightingale, regarded open windows as the hallmark of a healthy hospital ward. Open windows were much in evidence on Call The Midwife, both in the hospital wards and in houses of the East End.

This basic policy is supported by an article in today’s Independent, which reports on a microbiologist who believes air conditioning and an ultra-sterile environment are harming patients by contributing to infections. Jack Gilbert of Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago and head of the Earth Microbiome Project, explained the science behind his theory:

“Open windows let bacteria in from outside and you will either dilute out the pathogens, or you are not allowing the pathogens to establish themselves because there is too much competition for the nutrients and energy that the bacteria need to survive. . . There’s a good bacterial community living in hospitals and if you try to wipe out that good bacterial community with sterilisation agents and excessive antibiotic use, you actually lay waste to this green field of protective layer and these bad bacteria can just jump in and start causing hospital-borne infections.”

Contemporary scientists are not alone in their praise of basic practice, as seen on Call The Midwife. My godmother, a retired chief midwife, was impressed by the authenticity of the breech birth scene in episode two. Mothers on the babycentre.co.uk webchat, agree. They believe that the 1950s method of covering the baby’s head with a towel, in order to keep it warm and prevent it taking a breath in the birth canal, was preferable to their experiences, which had resulted in lung pumps and incubators.

Having been through childbirth twice, I agree that the birth scenes in this programme are the most realistic I’ve seen on any television drama. Happily, like mine, most of the births shown in the series ended successfully. However, one of the most tragic scenes was that in episode 4 where middle-aged headmaster David loses his beloved wife Margaret after she suffers eclampsia. Eclampsia and pre-eclampsia remain dangerous conditions. As now, good ante-natal care is key to identifying present and prospective complications. Sadly, Margaret was shown to have left her ante-natal appointment before being seen by the midwives.

In the early 1970s, my mother saved the life of a farmer’s wife from a remote area who was admitted with pre-eclampsia:

“We had to take her into a single room with the blinds down and keep her sedated. Suddenly she began fitting and her heart stopped. With no second to spare, I had to give heart massage until we felt a pulse. After this, she was given an emergency caesarean section, and both she and her premature baby survived.”

My mother, who began her training in 1963, warmly remembers the camaraderie of the early years:

“There was much more of a family feel than there is in today’s nursing. There were many people aged 18, mostly young women, with very very few men in general nursing. We were all enthusiastic, really loved the patients and all the young ones felt we were in it together.”

Like the midwives who lived together at Nonnatus House, my mother and her colleagues lived in a nurses’ home where hierarchy was much in evidence:

“We were awe of the sisters, and the matron could sometimes be quite terrifying! We were issued with so many dresses, so many hats and so many aprons. There were the hospital laundries which did all the laundry and starched your hats. This helped keep infections down. The matron and sisters were very strict about hair being kept back, and absolutely no wearing of jewellery.”

Community and personal relationships are seen as central to nursing care in the television series, and were very much key values for nurses of my mother’s generation:

“Everything was about caring for people, the care of the person. Especially as young nurses, we got to know the patients and their families. Great emphasis was put on nutrition - also the going out. The fluids in and the fluids out, as it were. Anyone who wasn’t up and about, we had their charts and went around making egg and milk drinks, making sure they were all well-nourished.

I trained in a big hospital where we rarely saw the matron, but the assistant matrons did daily rounds. We had to make sure that we knew everything about our patients. The senior staff would walk round and ask any question at all. We had to be particularly alert with one, who asked the blood results of each patient, which we had to know without looking. Also, we looked after the whole ward so we knew every patient there.”

This later changed, with nurses only being assigned a small number of patients on each ward.

Some viewers have expressed relief that they do not have to give birth, drug-free, in a bug-infested slum in the bomb-shattered East End of post-war London. But many more are attracted to the positive experiences shown on Call The Midwife: the strong community, inexhaustible humour, and, above all, the patient-centred nursing care. On a day when so many are criticizing and heckling the Prime Minister and the Health Minister for their planned reforms, it seems appropriate to remember the value of high quality nursing in those early years of our National Health Service.

The Guardian’s obituary of Jennifer Worth (Jenny Lee), who died shortly before the series was filmed, can be read at http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/06/jennifer-worth-obituary

For more on the local history aspect of Call The Midwife, see the The Sugar Girls’ blog: http://www.thesugargirls.com/call-the-midwife/ 

 

 

Posted in NHS Bill, NHS, Nun, David Cameron, Andrew Lansley, matron, back to basics, Midwives, Nurses, London, Emma Jolly, Genealogy, social history, History, Poplar, Call The Midwife, Family History | No Comments »

A British Christmas in India 1780

24/12/2011 by Emma Jolly.

Eliza Fay (1756-1816) is one of the best-known female chroniclers of European life in India during the late eighteenth 

century. Although she was no Jane Austen, Eliza’s writing was fresh and perceptive. What her letters lack in finesse, 

they make up in directness and humour. And, whilst she was not sophisticated, Eliza was adventurous and keen to learn

 about India, its cultures and people. Her enthusiasm is conveyed through the letters she wrote after her arrival  in India 

with her lawyer husband in May 1780. 

More than a century later, it was this freshness and eye for detail that inspired EM Forster to arrange for the British 

publication of Eliza Fay’s letters in 1925.

After their arrival in India, Eliza and her husband settled in Calcutta. It was there that she was living at the Christmas of 

that year. Eliza detailed her first Christmas in India in a letter to her sister on 27th January 1781 (Letter XVIII):

My Dear Sister,— Since my last we have been engaged

in a perpetual round of gaiety. Keeping Christmas, as it is

 called, though sinking into disuse at home, prevails here with

all its ancient festivity. The external appearance of the

 English gentlemen’s houses on Christmas Day is really

pleasing from its novelty. Large plantain trees are placed

 on each side of the principal entrances, and the gates and

pillars, being ornamented with wreaths of flowers fancifully

 disposed, enliven the scene.

All the servants, from the Banian down to the lowest menial,

bring presents of fish and fruit ; for these, it is true, we are

obliged in many instances to make a return perhaps beyond

the real value, but still it is regarded as a compliment to our

burrah din. A public dinner is given at Government House

to the gentlemen of the Presidency, and the evening concludes

with an elegant ball and supper for the ladies. These are

repeated on New Year’s Day and on the King’s birthday. I

should say have been, for that grand festival happening at the

hottest season, and every one being obliged to appear full

dressed, so much inconvenience resulted from the immense

crowd, even in some cases severe fits of illness being the

consequence, that it has been determined to change the day

 of celebration to the 8th of December which arrangement

 gives general satisfaction. I shall not attempt to describe

 these splendid entertainments further than by saying that they

were in the highest style of magnificence. In fact such grand

parties so much resemble each other that a particular detail

would be unnecessary and even tiresome.

Eliza then goes on to describe a social event of ’some time ago’ giving further insight into the social mores of the Georgian 

British abroad:

Mrs. Hastings was of the party. She came in late, and

happened to place herself on the opposite side of the room,

beyond a speaking distance: so strange to tell, I quite forgot

she was there ! After some time had elapsed, my observant

friend, Mrs. Jackson, who had been impatiently watching

‘ my looks, asked if I had paid my respects to the Lady

Governess? I answered in the negative, having had no

opportunity, as she had no chance to look towards me when

 I was prepared to do so. ” Oh !” replied the kind old lady,

” you must fix your eyes on her, and never take them off till

she notices you. Miss C— dy has done this and so have I.

It is absolutely necessary to avoid giving offence.” I followed

her prudent advice, and was soon honoured with a complacent

glance, which I returned, as became me, by a most respectful

bend. Not long after, she walked over to our side, and

conversed very affably with me, for we are now, through

Mrs. Jackson’s interference, on good terms together.

She also introduced me to Lady Coote and her inseparable

friend, Miss Molly Barrett. It was agreed between them

when they were both girls, whichever married first, the other

was to live with her : and accordingly when Sir Eyre took his

lady from St. Helena, of which place her father was

Governor, Miss Molly, who is a native of the island, accom-

panied them to England and from thence to India, where

she has remained ever since. Thus giving a proof of steady

attachment not often equalled and never perhaps excelled.

A few months after this was written Eliza Fay and her husband separated. The split left her struggling to maintain her 

social status. She tried her hand at a number of dubious business investments, several of which required her to continue

her travels. She was later to record journeys to England, New York and India. 

Sadly, after several bouts of bankruptcy, Eliza died insolvent on 9 September 1816 in Calcutta, where was buried 

the following day (British Library ref. IOR:N/1/9-10).

 

Posted in EM Forster, letters, Eliza Fay, Calcutta, Georgian, Christmas, social history, Genealogy, Genealogic, Emma Jolly, India, Family History | No Comments »

Dickens and London

08/12/2011 by Emma Jolly.

… the great heart of London throbs in its Giant breast. Wealth and beggary,

vice and virtue, guilt and innocence, repletion and the direst hunger, all treading

on each other and crowding together, are gathered round it. Draw but a little

circle above the clustering house-tops, and you shall have within its space,

everything with its opposite extreme and contradiction, close beside.

Master Humphrey’s Clock, 1841

Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth on 7 February 1812, but lived much of his life in London. Although he died in Kent, his remains lie in the Poets’ Corner of Westminster Abbey where he was buried on 14 June 1870. The city fed his imagination and Dickens spent decades reproducing London’s streets, sights, smells, sounds and people in his many written works.

As part of the 2012 bicentennial celebrations mentioned in the previous blog, the Museum of London has created a stunning exhibition celebrating Dickens’ links with the capital. Exhibits are drawn not just from the Museum’s own extensive collections, but from museums and archives across Britain. There are also particularly notable items, such as Dickens’ writing desk, from private collections.

              Copyright Museum of London

From 1822, when the Dickens family settled in Camden, to 1860 when the author took permanent residence at his Kent home of Gad’s Hill Place, London was his home. He explored it by day and, often, by night. As he walked mile after mile he planned stories in his head. Visitors to the Museum can hear a reading of Night Works, Dickens’ description of London after dark, whilst watching William Raban’s 19 minute specially-commissioned film, The Houseless Shadow, made in October 2011.

Throughout those four decades, Dickens’ life changed dramatically. He went from schoolboy and then impoverished son of a prison inmate to the greatest celebrity of his time. His peers changed from workhouse orphans working alongside him at the blacking factory by Hungerford Stairs to famous authors, millionaires and aristocrats from across Europe and the United States.

Hungerford Stairs 1830 by John Harley. Copyright Museum of London

It is thus remarkable that the Dickens and London exhibition captures so much of his own varied life along with the lives of his characters. We see blacking pots, for example, like those Dickens’ worked with in his childhood employment, sitting not far from the author’s bank ledger - a reminder of his later riches. There are displays on the theatre, which Dickens adored, including a footlight from Wilton’s Music Hall. Also featured are themes of childhood, death, transport, wealth and poverty.

Copyright Museum of London

The full geographical area of the capital is covered: there is ‘A copy of Verses from the Year 1835, humbly presented to all the worthy inhabitants of the Parish of St Pancras’ in the north to household items excavated in 1996 from Jacob’s Island in Rotherhithe in the south east. St Pancras parish included Camden where Dickens lived and which inspired scenes from David Copperfield, A Christmas Carol and A Tale of Two Cities. Jacob’s Island is probably most associated with scenes from Oliver Twist, particularly that of the dramatic death of villainous Bill Sykes.

Unlike in the British Library exhibition, the displays here are concerned with Dickens’ world - what many refer to as ‘Dickensian London’ - rather than a detailed focus on what he wrote. However, this does not detract from its success. And those who are interested in how Dickens wrote will delight in the presence of three original manuscripts: Dombey & Son (1847) and Bleak House (Nov 1851) from the Victoria & Albert Museum,

Bleak House manuscript. Copyright V&A Images

and Great Expectations (1861) lent by the Wisbech and Fenland Museum. Visitors can also experience Dickens’ work like its first readers by flicking through a replica copy of an instalment of Little Dorrit (Copyright V&A Images).

 

 

 

 

 

I once researched a family who lived around the corner from Charles Dickens in Holborn. One of my first thoughts was did he ever know them or see them? Did they inspire any of the characters in his novels or short stories? Although it is almost impossible to find out, this reminded me that many of those who inspired Dickens are the ancestors of people living today. That specific family would have recognized a watchman’s box in the centre of the exhibition, that stood outside Dickens’ old home at Furnival’s Inn - the home that neighboured theirs.

For family historians who have at least one ancestor who lived in London between 1820 and 1870, therefore, Dickens’ writing is a unparalleled source of relevant social and domestic detail. This exhibition provides an extension of that. The exhibits bring Dickensian London alive.

Overall, for anyone with even a passing interest in either Dickens or the social history of Victorian London, this exhibition is not to be missed.

Useful Links 

www.Dickens2012.org

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/dickens

http://www.dickensmuseum.com/

http://charlesdickenspage.com/dickens_london.html

http://charlesdickenspage.com/ruth_richardson-cleveland_street_workhouse.html

http://www.bfi.org.uk/whatson/bfi_southbank/film_programme/january_seasons/dickens_on_screen

http://twitter.com/Dickensbookclub

Dickens and London tickets

Adult £8 (£7 advance booking);Child/concession £6 (£5 advance booking);Under 5s FREE; Friends of the Museum FREE; Flexible family tickets are also available

Posted in Wilton's Music Hall, Jacob's Island, The Homeless Shadow, Night Works, Gad's Hill Place, Rotherhithe, David Copperfield, Wisbech and Fenland Museum, Victoria & Albert Museum, V&A, Dickensian London, Oliver Twist, Museum of London, Westminster Abbey, London, social history, Emma Jolly, Genealogic, Genealogy, Theatre History, Charles Dickens, Christmas Carol, Master Humphrey's Clock, exhibition, Pancras, St Pancras, Family History | No Comments »

Here and There: The Story of the Bangladeshi Community in Camden

28/10/2011 by Emma Jolly.

I was lucky enough to be invited to a private view last night (Thursday 27 October 2011) of the latest exhibition at Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre .

The exhibition, Here and There, details the lives of members of Camden’s Bangladeshi Community through their experiences in both Bangladesh and London. Curated by the Bengali Workers’ Association, the exhibition focuses on the Community’s life in Camden from the 1950s to the present day.

Today the Bangladeshi Community is well-integrated into Camden life and many members now work as professionals in the area. Bengalis are well-represented politicially too: Councillor Nasim Ali OBE, the Leader of Camden Council, is featured in the exhibition; and Councillor Tulip Siddiq gave an introductory talk at the launch.

The exhibits themselves are comprised of oral testimonies, recorded as part of a history project by members of the Oral History Society. Robert Wilkinson of the Society told us how few recordings have been made of Bangladeshi memories. He welcomed the Lottery funding that enabled this exhibition and the opportunity to keep these stories alive.

One of the highlights of the evening was a fascinating talk by the founder of the Bengali Workers’ Association, Abdul Momen. Mr Momen is featured in the exhibition, and related to the audience some of his memories of growing up in Bengal and his esteemed work in Camden, which led to him saving lives through community action and welfare support.

Born near Calcutta in 1938, Mr Momen’s childhood was disrupted by his father’s career in the postal service. The regular moves across Bengal meant Mr Momen attended eight schools: the saddest part of this, he told us, was that he couldn’t play football as he was never at a school long enough to join the team. He also remembered dark times, such as the horrendous Bengal Famine of 1943. Mr Momen was horrified by the sight of extrememly thin women begging for the starchy water from cooked rice. Happier memories included those of summer holidays at his grandmother’s rural house, where every morning he ran out to collect the ripe mangoes that had fallen from the trees. His life changed completely in 1969 after he received a scholarship to do a doctorate in English at Leeds University. In 1971 he was appointed Asian Community Officer in Camden.

In February 1976 Mr Momen founded the Bengali Workers Action Group, now the Bengali Workers Association. This acted as an advice centre for issues such as immigration, accommodation and welfare. Today the Association continues to act as a support for members of the Bengali community as well as working closely with NHS Camden, the police, and local and national government. I met Tahmina Khanom who works with senior members of the community, helping to alleviate problems of isolation and language difficulties.

A wide range of topics are covered in the exhibition, including the themes of village life and education in Bangladesh, migration and the lives of Bangladeshi women; and aspects of life in the UK, such as community, marriage and employment.

Beside talks, we were also treated to poetry readings, Bengali dancing and wonderfully tasty samosas from the excellent caterers Ambala in nearby Drummond Street.  I thoroughly enjoyed the evening and learning more about my Bangladeshi neighbours.

The exhibition runs from 8 October to 19 December 2011, and is warmly recommended to anyone visiting central London over the next couple of months.

Posted in Robert Wilkinson, Oral History Society, Bengal Workers' Association, Bengal, Abdul Momen, Bengal Famine 1943, exhibition, Ambala, Bengali Workers Action Group, Bangladeshi Community, Bangladesh, Emma Jolly, Genealogic, Genealogy, India, London, Camden Council, Camden Local Studies, social history, Family History | No Comments »

Not on ancestry: London parish registers #3 St Benet and All Saints Church

19/09/2011 by Emma Jolly.

This continues the description of Camden parishes not found on www.ancestry.co.uk To help visualise where in London these are, take a look at the outline map of St Pancras parishes in 1903 at http://homepages.gold.ac.uk/genuki/MDX/StPancras/outline.htm

Walk from St Mary Brookfield downhill into Kentish Town and you will find St Benet & All Saints in Lupton Street, towering over the backstreets. Like St Mary’s and St Anne’s Brookfield it is a High Victorian church with a High Anglican heritage. Situated at the north end of Kentish Town, bordering the modern borough of Islington, the church was originally part of the civil parish of St Pancras and the Pancras registration district. At the front of the church is a small raised garden, which is open for public use. The church is also referred to as St. Benet and All Saints Lady Margaret Road, Kentish Town. [1881/85] but it is not included in London Metropolitan Archives’ (LMA) records.

The reason for the confused date of 1881/85 is that the parish has its origins in a mission church built on a small field given by St. John’s College, Cambridge “near a pond just off the Brecknock Road”. Father Frank Rowland opened the original church on 17^th July 1881, but it was soon outgrown by its congregation. Eventually, this chapel became the church hall.

The main church was designed by Joseph Peacock of Bloomsbury in 1884 and built quickly, with the foundation stone being laid on 13^th June 1885. The saint’s name was chosen with reference to the Church of St. Benet’s, Paul’s Wharf, Queen Victoria Street – itself a corruption of St Benedict. The then vicar, Frank Oakley Rowland, consecrated the church only months later on All Saints’ Eve. Within a few years, the church’s hastily constructed foundations and a spring under the church, were creating several structural problems.

In October 1908, the architects, Bodley and Hare, built a permanent chancel. But by 1925, the foundations of the whole were so unstable that the decision was made to take down the nave and rebuild it. London County Council condemned the old nave in November 1927. However, thanks to a legacy from a rich investor, Jeannette Elizabeth Crossthwaite (1845-1923), and “gifts of the faithful”, a new nave, with no aisles, was built in 1928 – again by Cecil G Hare. This was consecrated in November of that year by the Bishop of Willesden.  By the time of her death, Miss Crossthwaite was living at 51 St Charles Square, Notting Hill, but in 1871 she had been living at 106 Brecknock Road – not far from the site of St Benet.

Today St Benet’s is the parish church of Kentish Town. Kentish Town CofE Primary School in Islip Street (originally Kentish Town National School) is connected, and there are some records relating to this school at LMA http://search.lma.gov.uk The parish registers for St Benet and All Saints continue to be retained by the church. The church’s own website http://www.saintbenets.org.uk/ contains further details.

For more on the social classes of the parish in 1898-9, see the following page from Charles Booth’s Archive is at http://booth.lse.ac.uk/cgi-bin/do.pl?sub=view_booth_only&args=528970,185490,2,large,1 

Vicars:

1881 Frank Oakley Rowland (perpetual curate)

1887 Herbert Edward Hall

1901 George Villiers Briscoe

1906 Henry Tristram Valentine

1913 Robert Caledon Ross

1925 Harry Herbert Coleman Richardson

1947 Cecil Eskholme Charlton

Sources: the history section on http://www.saintbenets.org.uk/; Survey of London: volume 24: The parish of St Pancras part 4: King’s Cross Neighbourhood , Walter H. Godfrey and W. McB. Marcham (editors), 1952; John Richardson, A History of Camden: Hampstead, Holborn and St Pancras (Historical Publications Ltd, 1999); Bridget Cherry & Nikolaus Pevsner, The Buildings of England: London 4: North (Penguin) 1998; Camden Listed Buildings website; http://www.londongardensonline.org.uk

 

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Posted in Lupton Street, Brecknock Road, Pancras, St Pancras, Islip Street, Joseph Peacock, Frank Oakley Rowland, Kentish Town National School, Charles Booth Archive, Cecil G Hare, Jeannette Elizabeth Crossthwaite, Bodley & Hare, St Benet, St Benet & All Saints, London, social history, Emma Jolly, Genealogic, Genealogy, Camden Local Studies, LMA, Census, Kentish Town, Camden Council, London Metropolitan Archives, John Richardson, Family History | No Comments »

NAMING NAPOLEON: how exploring first names can give an insight into Victorian world history.

21/06/2011 by Emma Jolly.

Napoleon’s Bodyguards at Waterloo 2010

A recent trip to the battlefield of Waterloo in Belgium reminded me of a friend who had found a Napoleon Bonaparte JASPER/JESPER (1854-1918) in her family tree. As I explored the relics of Napoleon in the Waterloo Visitor’s Centre and watched films of his defeat by the Duke of Wellington, I began to wonder why any British parents of the 19^th century would wish to name their son after this great enemy of Britain and Europe. As Napoleon Jasper’s siblings had traditional English forenames like John and Mary, there seemed no obvious answer. By investigating further, I discovered that the reasons behind naming a son Napoleon were more complex than I could have imagined.

‘Napoleon Bonaparte’ Ancestors

According to the GRO indices, since 1837 there have been ten boys registered with the forenames, Napoleon Bonaparte. This does not include Napoleon Louis Charles Bonaparte NEALE (1857-1857), Napoleon Buonaparte Money (1827-1888), Napoleon Buonaparte Pugh (m. 1865, Liverpool), Napoleon Bonaparte/Buonaparte Smith (b. 1831, Hull), or Napoleon Buonaparte Soult Jones (b. 1838, London) – the last of whom appears to have been named after the Emperor and one of his leading generals. Beside Mr. Jasper (born in Dudley), the others were:

• Napoleon Bonaparte Clarke (1839-1917), who became a dock worker in his native Hull.
• Napoleon Bonaparte Farmer (1841-1889), who was later known as Napoleon Louis Bonaparte FARMER. His father worked as a farmer in Kent, but Napoleon and his brother, Beversham, became brewers.
• Napoleon Bonaparte Coldwell (1848-1904), who grew up in a weaving family in Huddersfield. The names of his brothers - Edwin, Wellington, Wallace and Albert - show clear military enthusiasm on behalf of someone in the family, but certainly not a complete lack of patriotism.
• Napoleon Bonaparte Gibb, who was born in Newcastle in 1850.
• Napoleon Bonaparte Johnson, who was born in Kent in 1853 to a Plate layer from Nottinghamshire. The family migrated to Australia a few months later.
• Napoleon Bonaparte BOTTOMLEY (1860, Keighley), who sadly died in 1869, but was clearly the child of imaginative parents. As well as Napoleon, Mr and Mrs Bottomley’s children included Inkerman, after a dubious success for the British and French in the Crimean War, and Harriet Beecher Stowe, after the American abolitionist and author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, who lived June 14, 1811 – July 1, 1896. Mr Bottomley worked as a paper maker, possibly involving the books from which he gained inspiration for his children’s names.
• Napoleon Bonaparte Beaumont (1870, Durham), who died shortly after birth.
• Napoleon Bonaparte Burrows (born 1881 in Leicestershire), who became a carman and named one of his sons Arthur.
• Napoleon Bonaparte Soloman/Solomon (1890-1975), who was the son of Napolean (sic) [Bonaparte] Soloman (b. 1859), whose brothers included Wallace William (after the Scottish hero of Braveheart fame), Arthur Wellesley, and Charles Napier, born 1856 (apparently after Sir Charles James Napier [1782-1853], the British general and Commander-in-Chief in India). The Solomon family continued the tradition with further births of Napoleons in Suffolk.

Leaving aside the Bonaparte part of the name, there were even more Napoleons. I particularly like Napoleon Nathaniel Coffee (b. 1855, Westminster), and Napoleon The Great Lambeth (b. 1853, Chichester). Although Napoleon Lambeth was born in 1853, during the reign of Napoleon III, the epithet ‘The Great’ undoubtedly refers to Napoleon I.

It is interesting that only seven years after the Battle of Waterloo, the Boulton family of East London, chose to baptise their son after the defeated Emperor. The family clearly liked the name so much they used it twice: John Napoleon Boulton (bap. 1822) and Webber Napoleon Boulton (bap. 1829). Several of the Napoleons were also named after their fathers - perhaps indicating that being named Napoleon had done them no harm. Napoleon Bonaparte Jasper named his son, Henry Napoleon (1879- 1967). And there was also Napoleon Alfred Bowler (bap. 1853, Greenwich) son of Napoleon Alfred Bowler, and Napoleon Edward Bembridge (bap. 1872, Southwark St Saviour) son of Napoleon George Bembridge. Napoleon John Atkins, son of the same, was baptised in 1890 in Hoxton; Napoleon George Anderson, son of the same, was baptised 1854 in Lambeth; and Napoleon Edward Ainger, son of Napoleon Ainger (a Gentleman and sometime mercantile clerk), was baptised at St Luke, Old Street in 1848. Napoleon Ainger senior had been born in the City of London to a gentleman, William Ainger in 1817– just two years after Waterloo.

Could this naming, so close to the date of Wellington’s victory, indicate a lack of patriotism? Perhaps not, when you consider the number of Napoleons who are also named after feted British military heroes, like Nelson and Wellington: viz Napoleon Horatio Robert Wortley (b. 1854, Salisbury). Arthur was a common name in the 19^th century, but one of the main reasons for this was the popularity of long-lived war hero, Sir Arthur Wellesley (1769 – 1852), the 1^st Duke of Wellington, who later became both Commander-in-Chief and Prime Minister.

I found five Napoleon Arthurs in the GRO index:

Births Dec 1859 - Napoleon Arthur Jones, Salford  

Births Mar 1862 - Napoleon Arthur Murrell, Steyning

Births Dec 1869 - Napoleon Arthur Dubois, Holborn 

Births Sep 1876 - Napoleon Arthur Good, Pancras  

Births Dec 1902 - Napoleon Arthur B Shepperd, Southampton

And this does not include the many Napoleons with brothers named Arthur, including Napoleon Reybord of Lambeth (who also had a sister named Josephine), and the aforementioned Napoleon Bonaparte Soloman. Unsurprisingly, looking at English and Welsh birth registrations overall, there were many more Arthur Wellesleys than Napoleon Bonapartes. 

War heroes in general were popular, with a number appearing to be named after the ancient Greek conqueror, Alexander the Great - Napoleon Alexander Spicer, born to a Paper Manufacturer in Buckinghamshire in 1841 who went onto be a Naval Officer; there was also Napoleon Alexander Matley of Ashton (1842-1845) and Napoleon Alexander Cravino, who was born in the Lambeth area in 1842. Napoleon Cravino’s name can probably be explained by his father’s former career of Captain in the French Army. The Alexander theme was also clear in the 1840 naming of Arthur Wellington Alexander Nelson Hood of London. Not all Napoleons were influenced by military heroes, however. Some parents showed a sense of humour when naming their children, such as the artist who, in 1839, named his son Napoleon Tristram Shandy Inskipp, after the bawdy comic novel of 1760.

Who was Napoleon Bonaparte?

The great Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was born Napoleone Buonaparte on French-owned Corsica in 1769. Although a Corsican Nationalist and consequent hater of the French, Napoleon became an officer for the French Army at 16. Aged 20 at the time of the French Revolution, Napoleon witnessed the scenes first hand. He was also present when France became a Republic on 10 August 1792. Ascending swiftly through the French military ranks, Napoleon made his name repelling the British-supported Royalist invasion of Toulon in 1793. He later defeated Italy in 1796 (he became its King in 1805) and Austria in 1797. By 1799, he had overthrown the French Directory, become First Consul of France, and styled himself Napoleon I. In 1804, France became an empire and Napoleon its first emperor.

By 1812, Napoleon had conquered most of Europe and his strategic skill was evident to the world. Within the next two years, however, his power was to slip away amidst attacks by other European nations (notably, Russia, Britain, and Prussia), and he was forced to abdicate on the 6th April 1814. Despite being exiled on the tiny island of Elba, Napoleon managed to escape to France, gather supporters en route and march to Paris. Meanwhile, the Prussians and the Allies (the British Army, the King’s German Legion, plus several thousand troops from the Netherlands, Hanover, Brunswick, and Nassau), led by the Duke of Wellington, were marching to meet him. This ‘Hundred Days’ period culminated in Napoleon’s final defeat on the 18^th June 1815 at the Battle of Waterloo. After this, Napoleon was exiled to St Helena, where he died almost seven years later - possibly as a result of breathing arsenic from green wallpaper. Eventually his body was returned to France, where he was reburied in glory at Les Invalides, Paris.

So, why would anyone in Britain choose to name a child after him? European migrants made up some of the families of Napoleons, such as the 1838 Napoleon Joseph De Veaux born into cosmopolitan Holborn, or Napoleon Eugene Deshormes [De Cloislin], who was born in Shropshire in 1840 to a Professor of Languages from Paris. The defiantly named Napoleon Victor Renieuville was born in East London in 1856 to a Carpenter and Joiner from Normandy, France.

Although Napoleon was clearly a hero to the French, many British people also respected his achievements. Even Wellington described him as “the greatest general in the modern world”. Napoleon’s military prowess and qualities as a statesman were undoubtedly impressive - particularly as his success came from talent rather than privilege. His men admired him for guiding them to victory despite a lack of supplies, and for ensuring that they were paid fairly. Napoleon was also hailed in France for the end of revolutionary discord, and his introduction of a fair tax system, and an education system based on social equality. Across Europe, he was celebrated for his legal reforms: the Code Napoleon extended across Europe and is the basis of legal systems in many European countries today. Magnanimously, he also showed great personal qualities by forgiving those who betrayed him.

The Other Napoleon Bonaparte: Napoleon III

Confusingly we cannot be certain whether all the above Napoleons were named after the same person. Although Emperor Napoleon I (1769-1821) is the most famous today, there were other Napoleons in his family. Napoleon I’s son, Napoleon II (1811-1832), became titular Emperor of the French on his father’s abdication in 1815. However, he never returned to France after his exile in Austria, and died soon afterwards of tuberculosis.

More significantly for the births in the 1830-1870 period, there was Napoleon III (1808 – 1873) - son of Napoleon’s brother, Louis (1778-1846), who had been born in Corsica as Luigi Buonaparte. Luigi later changed his name to Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, and became a French Prince and King of Holland. In the 1840s and 1850s, contemporary newspaper reports reveal how French and European politics was dominated by the figure of Napoleon III, also known as Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, but originally born Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte. The clue to his influence on the names can be seen with Napoleon Louis Charles Bonaparte Neale. It appears that Master Neale was named after this man in 1857. There was also the 1871 birth in London’s St Pancras area that included the names of both the recently deposed Napoleon III and the Prussian architect of his downfall - Napoleon Bismarck Du Cann.

After an early career in the Swiss Army and a brief exile in England, Louis-Napoleon took advantage of the family reputation and won a popular vote in 1848, becoming President of France’s Second Republic.  In 1851, demonstrating the ambition of his uncle, he then overthrew the state, and seized the French throne. He finally became Emperor Napoleon III on the 2^nd December 1852 (ruling until 4 September 1870). He is remembered as the last monarch of France.

Britain’s Armies had fought hard to prevent Napoleon I from seizing power across Europe, but in the 1850s, Britain united with France (and Turkey and Sardinia) against the Russians for the infamous battles of the Crimean War. Thus, in this period, the name Napoleon represented a friend of Britain, and a support in a notorious conflict. The Crimea is known today for the Charge of the Light Brigade (quickly immortalized in 1854 by the then Poet laureate Alfred, Lord Tennyson), the balaclava, and the innovatory nursing of Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole. Napoleon III, showing the military zeal of his uncle, participated in several other wars, including the Second Opium War, the Second Italian War of Independence, the Franco-Mexican War, the Taiping Rebellion, the 1866 campaign against Korea, the Boshin War, and the Franco-Prussian War. However, the 1870 Battle of Sedan was a battle too far, and proved the end of Napoleon III’s reign. In the aftermath of defeat, the territory of Alsace-Lorraine was ceded to the newly-formed German Empire – reinforcing an enmity between France and Germany that was to continue into the 20^th century.

Napoleons Today

Births of Napoleons continued to be registered in Britain throughout the twentieth century. The name has recently acquired a new audience through the cult film, Napoleon Dynamite. I spoke to a Mr Napoleon Russell Hill about why he was called Napoleon. He told me that his mother liked unusual names - his sisters having grand names also. When his younger brother was born, however, his father said “enough of the silly names”, and insisted the baby be called George. Mr Hill has no real problem with the name - other than its being so distinctive that everyone always knows who he is. Within the family, however, he is known as Leon.

 Naming Napoleons in the past seems to have been inspired by a variety of motivations. Clearly, Napoleon Bonaparte III had some influence on the Napoleons born in the 1830s through to 1873 (when he died - in England). Many Napoleons were named during the period of the Crimean War (1853-1856), when Napoleon III’s name regularly appeared in British newspapers. And the French participation in that war is probably also significant; especially when we consider the Bottomley family with their sons, Napoleon and Inkerman. On the other hand, regarding that same family’s admiration for the abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe, they may also have respected Napoleon I’s civil policies of social equality. Furthermore, some parents may have been inspired by tales they had heard when themselves children some twenty, thirty or forty years previously. Recruitment propaganda for the Armed Forces, and history lessons of military conquests by the likes of Alexander, Wellington and Napoleon, may also have contributed towards the names. Victorian society and culture held military heroes and reforming statesmen in high esteem. This regard is evident in the names the British Victorians chose to bestow upon their children.

Posted in Horatio, Alexander, Emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte, Napoleon I, Napoleon III, Nelson, Tristram Shandy, Code Napoleon, Inkerman, Harriet Beecher Stowe, French Revolution, Corsica, French History, Charles Napier, Arthur Wellesley, Napoleon, Waterloo, social history, Emma Jolly, Genealogy, Genealogic, Victorian history, Names, Census, William Wallace, GRO, Wellington, Crimea, Family History | 2 Comments »

Postal Museum & Archive

14/06/2011 by Emma Jolly.

Earlier this year, I was researching for a client at the Postal Museum & Archive in Farringdon. At the time, the Archive, around the corner from the vast postal headquarter’s of London’s Mount Pleasant, was in the process of updating its website and adding new material.

The new website is now ready for use at http://postalheritage.org.uk

There are some great features to the website such as a blog (http://postalheritage.wordpress.com/2011/06/13/women-in-the-post-office/), history of the post office (http://postalheritage.org.uk/page/history), galleries (http://postalheritage.org.uk/page/144/Online-Exhibitions) and the updated online catalogue (http://catalogue.postalheritage.org.uk/).

Family historians will probably be most interested in the Family History Research section (http://postalheritage.org.uk/page/genealogy) which includes examples of appointment books (http://postalheritage.org.uk/page/appointments).

If you are planning a visit to the Archive, I recommend ringing in advance and remember to take some ID! Overall, the Archive and its new website are excellent resources for anyone researching Post Office ancestors.

Posted in Farringdon, Mount Pleasant, Appointment books, History of the Post Office, Post Office, Post Office Museum & Archive, Genealogy, Emma Jolly, London, social history, Family History | No Comments »

Save Camden Local Studies and Archives

06/06/2011 by Emma Jolly.

 On 19 May 2011, Dan Carrier reported in the Camden New Journal (link to online article) that Camden Local Studies and Archives (Camden LS Homepage) is under threat of closure following the publication of the results of the Council’s library consultation.

The article stated: “as the results of a library consultation are number-crunched and the Town Hall considers how to cut about 25 per cent of the service’s budget, the archives look likely to be merged with Islington’s or closed.”

John Richardson, Chairman of the Camden History Society (http://www.camdenhistorysociety.org/) argues the consultation suggested that respondents “were in favour of spending less on local studies, not closing it.”

It is not likely that Camden can merge its archives with that of Islington as Islington’s Local History Centre (Local History Centre) does not have the space to retain the vast resources that Camden LS currently holds (believed to be 180,000 items). Recent rumours suggest the archive could move to London Metropolitan Archives (http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm) However, critics of this move, such as the Camden History Society, point out that staff at LMA do not have the Camden-specific knowledge and experience that current researchers find so useful.

As Dan Carrier wrote, the collection includes muskets from “the Napoleonic wars to maps of every drain in the borough”. With the bicentenary of Charles Dickens’ birth in a few months time, it is important to note that three Dickens unpublished letters are also held in Camden LS. Many of these items are uncatalogued. In London, the only archive larger than Camden’s is that of Westminster City Archives (http://www.westminster.gov.uk/services/libraries/archives/).

It is ironic that councillors are looking to closing the Archives as part of a cost-cutting exercise. On numerous occasions, the Archives have, in fact, helped Camden Council to save money. Former chief archivist Malcolm Holmes told the New Journal of one example whereby using some of the old maps in the collection enabled the Council to save “around £150,000 in 1970s money”.

It is also odd that Camden’s Council should choose to close the archive whilst in nearby Hackney a new state-of-the-art Archives is currently being built (http://www.hackney.gov.uk/ca-archives.htm) The borough of Hackney is just as badly affected by the cuts, and it is unclear why  investments in local history can be made by its Council but not by Camden’s.

Camden Local Studies and Archives helps a wide variety of people - many of whom live outside the borough and were not party to the consultation. Those who currently use the Archives include: social, economic & house historians, genealogists, economists, journalists, teachers, schoolchildren, students, council employees, lawyers, builders, and authors. For family historians, its collections of parish rate books (dating from 1726),  local newspapers, electoral registers, theatre programmes, the registers of Highgate Cemetery and the photographs of local interest are invaluable. It also holds the unique Heal Collection on St Pancras and the Kate Greenaway Collection.

Those who have voiced concern about the impending closure, include best-selling author of The Fields Beneath, Gillian Tindall, as well as Camden New Journal readers from London and beyond. In a letter to the newspaper, Camden resident, Lester May, wrote that, “Camden Council seems set on closing the local studies library and archives service in order to save around £135,000 . . . Thus one of the best resources of its kind in London, perhaps in the country, will be lost and this at a time when more people are interested in their family and local history than ever before. . . The loss of the local studies collection and archive would be permanent. There is sufficient in the council’s reserve of £95.8million for consideration to be given to funding the local studies library and archive service such that it is retained as a local service within the borough, ideally where it is currently located in Holborn.”

John Richardson states that the Camden History Society “is particularly concerned . . . [about] its closure and its contents [being] shipped elsewhere . . . Camden are taking £135,000 out of the Local Studies budget, in effect making it impossible to function.” He argues further that this not what the consultation response indicated.

The collections cover the area of the present London Borough of Camden. This includes the history of Hampstead, Holborn, St Pancras, Camden Town, Somers Town, Kentish Town, parts of Highgate, and the parishes of Hampstead, St Andrew Holborn above Bars, including the Liberty of Saffron Hill, St George the Martyr Queen Square, St Giles in the Fields, St George Bloomsbury, and St Pancras. The earliest parish records date from 1618.

Update 7 June 2011

Yesterday, on Monday 6 June, I attended a Camden Council scrutiny meeting of the library report. The Town Hall was packed with library and archives supporters. Gillian Tindall, author of The Fields Beneath, spoke as part of the deputation on behalf of the Camden History Society. She said that if Camden Local Studies is closed, it will be “a great loss for future generations” and “would be a black stain” on Camden Council’s record. Holborn Library Users Group was also represented (the Archives are housed in Holborn Library’s building). The group’s deputation argued that the loss of the Archives to Camden would be irreplaceable, and condemned the report’s suggestion that Local Studies provision be outsourced. The speaker further said that no library buildings in whole or in part should be sold without full public consultation. This was greeted with cheers and clapping from the gallery.

Tudor Allen, Senior Archivist at Camden Local Studies & Archives, told the Councillors present that he would like to publicize the value of the material they hold. He reminded those present that the collection is invaluable.

One councillor announced that she had to contact the Archives that very day about the oldest Market in Camden for a press release. This only goes to show how essential Camden Local Studies is to the smooth running of the entire council.

Fiona Dean, the Council’s Assistant Director of Culture, said that they had spoken with the British Library, local university libraries, LMA & Islington about housing the records. However, they were agreed that keeping the archives within Camden is preferred option. Near the end of the meeting, Councillor Tulip Siddiq, the cabinet member for Culture, stated that the Archives will stay in Theobalds Road until suitable accommodation is found for them within the borough of Camden.

The decision on Camden’s libraries & archives will be announced at Town Hall on this Wednesday, 8 June. Supporters of the Archives are urged to telephone their councillors before next Wednesday to ask them to vote for Option D.

A full list of Camden’s councillors can be found on the Camden Council website.

 

Posted in Lester May, London Metropolitan Archives, Westminster City Archives, Gillian Tindall, rate books, Camden Council, Charles Dickens, Islington Local History Centre, Camden History Society, John Richardson, social history, London, Genealogy, Camden Local Studies, 1911 Census, Dan Carrier, Camden New Journal, Family History | No Comments »

The Obituary of Miss Lily Knight: 29 May 1952

26/05/2011 by Emma Jolly.

Lily Florence Knight 1893-1952, seen here in 1940, around the time war forced her departure from the Palladium.

A number of twitter users expressed interest when I tweeted recently about finding an obituary for my great grandmother, Lily Knight, in The Stage Archive (https://archive.thestage.co.uk).

Although my great grandmother was not on the stage, our family knew that she had always worked in the theatre world. Her daughter, my grandmother, grew up around the theatre, and Lily’s grandchildren were treated to notable performances at the London Palladium. The tradition continued when my cousins and I were taken for our annual trip to West End theatres during summer holiday visits to Grandma in London.

Lily adored her work: she became privy to all manner of backstage secrets and met the toast of the London stage. Her life in the theatre covered the music hall period from Marie Lloyd through the years of variety and the emergence of cinema, into the dance craze, the light comedies of Noel Coward, Repertory theatre, and the dominance of classical actors such as John Gielgud, Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh, Peggy Ashcroft, Michael Redgrave and Alec Guinness.

The discovery of the obituary filled the gaps in my knowledge of Lily’s career, pinpointing the exact theatres in which she worked and identifying some of her colleagues and employers.

Lily Florence Knight began life in 1893, in a laundry in Stoke Newington. By the time of the 1911 census, Lily was working as a clerk in the establishment of a ‘Musical Agent’. Although Lily was just 17 years old, she had used all the intelligence, charm and looks at her disposal to make a career for herself away from the laundry in which most of the female members of her family worked. Her ambition was spurred by the contrast between the laundry she called home and the glamour of the early twentieth century stage.

The obituary revealed that Lily had begun her career even earlier than 1911, when she ‘in her early teens’, working in the office of a ‘William Henshall’ – the aforementioned musical agent. Around this time, Lily married Sydney Spencer and gave birth to two children. In order to keep on working Lily retained her maiden name and was always known professionally as ‘Miss’. According to the obituary, Henshall gave up the agency in the 1920s and it was then that Lily began working as a secretary at the Alexandra Theatre in Stoke Newington. During the twenties, the Alexandra housed pantomimes, films (it had been a early cinema for a short period) and circus performances. More details about this theatre can be found at the Music Hall and Theatre History Website: http://www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/AlexandraTheatreStokeNewington.htm Some of its posters and programmes 1897-1935 are held at Hackney Archives (currently being moved to a new location) http://www.hackney.gov.uk/ca-archives.htm

A few years later, possibly after the closure of the Alexandra in 1935, Lily transferred to the London Palladium - then one of the most celebrated theatres in the world, and in the heart of the West End. The Palladium was celebrated for its variety acts, and from 1935-39 saw a number of performances from the group later known as The Crazy Gang, which featured the composers Flanagan and Allen, as well as Jimmy Nervo, Teddy Knox, Charlie Naughton and Jimmy Gold. Here Lily worked as a secretary for the managers George Rhodes Parry and (later) Charles Hutchinson. Other acts of the 1930s who played the Palladium were the comedian Jack Benny, singer Paul Robeson, the musicians, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Cab Calloway, the actress Ethel Barrymore, the dancer and singer Josephine Baker, and the singer and entertainer Fats Waller (http://www.reallyuseful.com/theatres/london-palladium/history-1 ). It was during this period that Lily befriended the man in charge of bookings and, from 1945, the Managing Director of the Palladium, Val Parnell.

Valentine Parnell (1892-1972), had begun his career as an office-boy, and later became a famous theatrical impresario and television producer. Val had been born in Hackney, and married firstly Dorothy O’Connell in 1913. In 1911 he was living with his ventriloquist father at 7 Wiltshire Road, Brixton. A biography and photographs of Val Parnell, can be seen at http://www.teletronic.co.uk/val_parnell.htm

When war intervened, leading to the temporary closure of the Palladium in 1940, Lily took a position at the BBC. A few years later, in September 1943, she moved to the head office of the theatre owners, Moss Empires, working for Charles Henry, the head of the Press department and the chief of production. From 1946, Moss Empires owned the London Palladium, enabling Lily to keep in touch with old friends. More detail on how Moss Empires was run by a small staff at Cranbourne Mansions in Leicester Square can be read at http://glasgow-empire.webs.com/howmossempiresworked.htm

Jack Sullivan, who had had been away serving in war, returned to Moss Empires and separated the Press department, taking Lily as his secretary. After he moved on, she continued to work for his successor John Carlsen.

However, this happy period was soon to end. In 1952, Lily was struck down by cancer of the oesophagus. The obituary stated that, “After a short illness, during most of which she felt it her duty to carry on until it was impossible for her to continue. She was admitted to the Wanstead Hospital, where, after an operation, she died last Friday, May 23.” Although it was known she was ill, she had been expected to return home after the operation. Lily’s death in hospital at the age of only 58 was a huge shock to her husband, children and grandchildren. And, as the obituary shows, Lily was to be deeply mourned by her beloved theatre world:

Her great knowledge of the business and unfailing helpful attitude to the many inquirers day to day were invaluable, and her loss is grievously felt. . . . Val Parnell said: “I knew Lily Knight personally for a great number of years. She was a most likeable person, and we shall all miss her very much indeed.”

The Stage, May 29, 1952, p4

 Further Reading: Christopher Woodward, The London Palladium: The Story of the Theatre and Its Stars (Jeremy Mills Publishing, 2009)

 

 

Posted in Stoke Newington, Alexandra Theatre, Val Parnell, Moss Empires, William Henshall, 1911 Census, The Stage Archive, Theatre History, Emma Jolly, Genealogy, London, social history, London Palladium, Hackney Archives, Family History | No Comments »

The Urban Genealogist on Holiday: The Clive Collection at Powis Castle, Wales

26/04/2011 by Emma Jolly.

Whilst writing a book on tracing ancestors in British India, I explored the character and actions of one of the most notorious Britons in India, Robert Clive (1725-1774). Later he became Baron Clive of Plassey but was popularly known as ‘the conqueror of India’, or simply ‘Clive of India’. Clive is central to the history of British involvement in India for, without him, it is unlikely that the British East India Company (EIC) would ever have gained the power that they did.

Throughout the eighteenth century Britain waged war with age-old enemy, France. The conflict spread beyond Europe, affecting EIC trade in India. Clive, the son of a Shropshire squire, rose to prominence in India after he defeated a French-Indian force at the siege of Arcot in 1751. The Indians nicknamed him Sabit Jang, Steady in War.

Clive was appointed Governor of Bengal on two occasions: once from 1757-60 and secondly in 1765. The first time was after he had defeated the Nawab of Bengal, Siraj ud Daula, at the Battle of Plassey (Palashi) in June 1757. This battle is regarded as the turning point in Indian history: the time when the British changed from being traders in India to becoming landowners and rulers. The battle was fought in response to the Nawab’s attacks on EIC factories and their base in Calcutta in 1756. During these attacks, the Nawab was assisted by the French.

It was at the EIC’s trading post at Calcutta, Fort William, that the Nawab’s armies captured between sixty and one hundred and fifty British prisoners, imprisoned them in a tiny cell and left many of them to suffocate to death. The size of the cell and the number of Britons who died is disputed by historians, but the incident became remembered as the legend of the Black Hole of Calcutta. Clive drew from the horrified reaction of Britain to this incident to justify his consequent aggression.

As a man, he is remembered for his military prowess, cunning and greed. Clive had showed his cunning prior to the Battle of Plassey, when he persuaded Siraj ud Doula’s rival and uncle, Mir Jafar, to defect to the British side. He was also accused of corruption: despite defending his actions, he committed suicide in London shortly afterwards.

It was from Mir Jafar that Clive was given £234,000 (equivalent to £34 million today). Despite this, during his second term as Governor of Bengal, Clive reduced the Bengali treasury by some 5 million dollars. Clive also put up rents in Bengal, leading to famines and displacement. The Bengal famine of 1769-70 particularly increased antipathy against nabobs like him: Walpole wrote, ‘What think you of the famine in Bengal, in which three million perished, being caused by a monopoly of provisions, by the servants of the East India Company?’ (Walpole Letters, V, 378)

The nabobs of the Georgian age, men like Clive and Thomas Pitt, were senior officials in India who took vast riches back to Britain. The Age of Enlightenment was opening eighteenth century minds and encouraging an intellectual curiosity in all cultures and philosophies, including those in India. Amongst the nabobs this curiosity manifested itself in collecting Asian art and antiquities. During 1760-1830 many great collections were formed in India, notably that of the later impeached Governor General Warren Hastings (1732-1818). The nabobs preferred collecting miniature paintings and small, but valuable, items of furniture. These were easy to transport around India and back to Britain, where they would be displayed in the grand setting of magnificent stately homes. Some collectors even brought foodstuffs: when the Indian treasures of Thomas Alexander Cobb (1788-1836) of the 37^th Native Infantry were sold after his death, several of the mango and guava jellies and chutneys he had brought back sold for more than some of his paintings (Christie’s 24 & 26 May 1837).

Robert Clive brought many of his Indian treasures to Claremont, his great house near Esher in Surrey. However, a large part of what is on display at Powis Castle today was brought to Wales by Robert’s eldest son, Edward, 2^nd Lord Clive (1754-1839). In 1784, Edward married Lady Henrietta Antonia Herbert (1758-1830), daughter of the Earl of Powis. Later, in 1798, Edward became Governor of Madras and was thus well-placed to receive and bring back his own treasures. Lady Clive kept extensive diaries during their time in Madras, which reveal her own passion for collecting and give an insight into the history of the objects.

One of the most dramatic events that occurred during Edward’s governorship was the defeat and death of Tipu Sultan, the Tiger of Mysore, in 1799. Following this, the spoils of his treasury were divided between the soldiers, apportioned according to rank. Colonel Arthur Wellesley (later the Duke of Wellington) was ordered by his older brother, the Governor-General, Lord Mornington, to ‘preserve the most significant contents of Tipu’s palace’. Mornington then presented a small part of the Sultan’s throne to Lady Clive – a bejewelled tiger’s head from the arm rest, covered in rubies, emeralds and diamonds. This and other items from the Sultan’s palace at Seringapatam made their way back with Lady Clive to Britain. It was on her way home in 1801 that Lady Clive was told of the death of her brother, the Earl of Powis, who was unmarried with no heir. After this, Powis Castle was inherited by Lady Clive’s husband, Edward. He became Earl of Powis in 1804, after his own return to Britain, and the Castle became home to the Clive Collection.

Besides paintings, this collection of ‘Indian Jewels, Curiosities, Arms etc.’ includes ‘India’s indigenous traditions’ such as bronze gods; ‘objects signalling the preoccupations and life styles of India’s nobility’ such as the ‘paraphernalia of the aristocracy with whom Clive came into contact’ like Mughal fly-whisks and Robert Clive’s jewelled hookahs; and ‘European-style furniture’. Many items of armoury and weaponry are also featured, including the sword of Tipu Sultan and the iron tusk defences of elephants. The remaining pieces of the enormous elephant armour are held in the Royal Armouries in Leeds http://www.royalarmouries.org/about-us/

Source: Mildred Archer, Christopher Rowell, Robert Skelton, Treasures from India: The Clive Collection at Powis Castle (The National Trust, 1987)

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/w-powiscastle_garden.html

Posted in India, Emma Jolly, Genealogic, Genealogy, Family History | 5 Comments »