scholarly journals Ralph Ambrose Kekwick. 11 November 1908 – 17 January 2000

2002 ◽  
Vol 48 ◽  
pp. 233-249
Author(s):  
J. Michael Creeth ◽  
Leon Vallet ◽  
Winifred M. Watkins
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
English Literature ◽  
County Council ◽  
World War ◽  
Society Of Friends ◽  
School Certificate ◽  
The Family ◽  
University College London ◽  
Church School ◽  
Administrative Post

Ralph Ambrose Kekwick was born on 11 November 1908 at Leytonstone, Essex. Records of the Kekwick family go back to 1750, when they were living near Warrington in the parish of Daresbury. They were then Quakers and were involved in the local dye industry. In about 1800 they started to move south, and Ralph's grandfather, John Kekwick (1815–82), lived first in Abingdon and then, after the death of his first wife, moved to Bromley-by-Bow, where he worked as a corn factor. A second marriage outside the sect made him unacceptable to the Society of Friends and thus broke the family association with the Quakers. John Kekwick had two daughters and six sons by his second wife; of these, Ralph's father, Oliver A. Kekwick (1865–1939), was the youngest but one. He eventually became a managing clerk in a firm of ships' chandlers in Albert Docks, London. Ralph's maternal great-grandfather, James Price (1820–1900) had an administrative post at the Guildhall, London, and was responsible for the organization of the Lord Mayor's procession and banquets at the Guildhall. His eldest son, James Price (1840–1911), Ralph's grandfather, followed his father into employment at the Guildhall. James Price had three daughters and a son; Ralph's mother, Mary E. Price (1868–1958) was his eldest child. At the age of 13 she became a pupil-teacher at Bromley St Leonard's Church school, Bromley-by-Bow, where she had been a scholar. She was compelled to give up teaching when she married in 1898, in accordance with the regulations then in force, but she was called back to teach in Leyton during World War I at a boys' elementary school and, although Essex reinstated their ‘no married women’ rule after the war, London County Council had less strict regulations and she continued to teach until she reached retirement age. Ralph was the youngest of her three children; she had an elder boy, Leslie Oliver (1899–1975) and a girl, Phyllis Mary (1902–78); with her strong character and interest in education she was a considerable formative influence in Ralph's early life and had taught him to read before he started school. Ralph attended infants' and elementary schools in Leytonstone and then in 1919 gained a scholarship to Leyton County High School for boys. He remembered two outstanding masters, W.F. Woolner-Bird, who taught mathematics, and W.E. (later Sir Emrys) Williams, who aroused his interest in English literature. Ralph enjoyed his schooldays and was keen on all forms of sport. His elder brother, Leslie, lived at home while studying for a degree in chemistry at University College London (UCL), and it was his accounts of the experiments that they were doing that excited Ralph and firmly set him on a course towards a career in science. .In 1925, aged 16, Ralph passed the School Certificate with a sufficient number of subjects and distinctions to make him immediately eligible for university entrance. His father was in poor health at the time and it was decided that Ralph should go up to university rather than stay on at school for two more years to take the Higher School Certificate.

Leslie Crombie. 10 June 1923 — 3 August 1999

2001 ◽  
Vol 47 ◽  
pp. 125-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald Pattenden
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Grammar School ◽  
Legal Practice ◽  
World War ◽  
Isle Of Wight ◽  
School Certificate ◽  
The Family ◽  
Part Time ◽  
The City ◽  
Three Sisters

Leslie Crombie was born in York on 10 June 1923, the second eldest, and only boy, of Walter Crombie and Gladys (née Clarkson). On his father's side his great-grandfather had kept a tobacconist shop in York and his grandfather, George, had founded a prosperous legal practice in the City of York. On his mother's side, Leslie's great–grandfather originated from London and settled in York after helping to build the York Railway Station. Leslie's father qualified as a solicitor and practised law in his grandfather George's office. However, he disliked the profession and, after his marriage and the death of his father, Walter passed over the practice to his brother Norman and took the lease of a hotel in the Isle of Wight. Unfortunately, the hotel did not prosper and was given up after a few years, and the family, which included Leslie's three sisters, Ivy, June and Molly, moved to Portsmouth. Although Leslie's father had a small allowance from his brother Norman and the legal practice in York, and he had various small intermittent incomes from teaching, the family was desperately poor during the 1930s. Leslie received little encouragement from his parents, but he passed the 11+ examination and entered Portsmouth Northern Grammar School in 1934, where he was awarded a very respectable School Certificate when he was 16 years old. However, it was now 1939 and World War II was about to start, and his school was evacuated to Winchester. With poor living conditions and little facilities for study, the young Leslie was determined to take a job and study part-time. He was appointed in 1940 as an assistant in the analytical laboratory of Timothy Whites and Taylor at their head office in Portsmouth under the supervision of Ron Gillham, who greatly influenced his further career; he was paid 13 shillings and 6 pence (in decimal terms, 67½pence) per week. In the evenings, Leslie studied at Portsmouth Municipal College for a London University Intermediate BSc. Alas, after a heavy bombing raid in January 1941, Timothy Whites and Taylor's laboratories were removed from the map, along with a great deal of the centre of Portsmouth—but fortunately not the MunicipalCollege.

Robert Allan Smith, 14 May 1909 - 16 May 1980

1982 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 479-504
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
High School ◽  
Public School ◽  
World War I ◽  
World War ◽  
Secondary Schooling ◽  
Strong Bond ◽  
Village School ◽  
Infant School ◽  
The Family

Robert Allan Smith, always known as Robin to his close associates, was born on 14 May 1909 in Kelso, Roxburghshire. Professionally, during Robin’s time first names were rarely used except between close friends. Surnames were in common usage except for Smiths, Joneses, etc., who had to be distinguished. Hence, he was often called ‘R.A.’. The combination of charm and determination, characteristic of a Borderer, was always present with Robin. He was the elder brother to (William) Allan, in the family of two, born to George J. T. Smith, tailor, a native of Kelso, and his wife, Elisabeth( née Allan), a ladies’ dressmaker and native of Eccles village, Kelso. The family ancestry was mainly in farming and business. His childhood was spent in the country in and around Kelso together with his primary and secondary schooling. On the outbreak of World War I, his father, who was a member of the Territorial Army, was called up, and his mother, Robin and Allan moved to Heeton Village near Kelso to stay with relations. A strong bond was formed between Robin and his uncle and aunts which endured throughout their life. Robin’s first school was therefore Heeton Village School where he spent a year before the family returned to Kelso. There after schooling continued at Kelso Infant School, Kelso Public School, and a Bursary to Kelso High School gave him the opportunity to go forward to higher education.

scholarly journals Sir John McMichael, 25 July 1904 - 3 March 1993

1995 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
pp. 282-296
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Medical Service ◽  
Major Influence ◽  
World War ◽  
Interest In Science ◽  
Indian Medical ◽  
The Family ◽  
The Village ◽  
Broad Interest ◽  
Good Manager

A quote that says much about John McMichael comes from his own autobiographical notes: ‘I come from a materially poor branch of a Galloway family’. He was born on 25 July 1904 in Gatehouse of Fleet, Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland, son of James and Margaret McMichael. There were two older sisters and two elder brothers, and he was something of an afterthought. His father ran a farm on the edge of the village and was also the local butcher. A ‘God-fearing, generous man’, he was not a good manager of his limited resources. Until he was ten years old John McMichael went to a school run under the patronage of the Lady of the Manor; but in 1914 this school was closed and he transferred to Girthon public school under its headmaster, William Learmonth, who was to have a major influence on the young McMichael. Learmonth’s son, eight years McMichael’s senior, became Sir James Learmonth, the well-known surgeon. Learmonth was an exceedingly capable teacher to find in a small village school and his pupils clearly felt the benefit. At the age of 14 there was a debate in the McMichael household about the next stage in John’s education. His mother, supported by Learmonth, decided he must continue and he moved to Kirkcudbright Academy, eight miles away, a hard and hilly bicycle ride. Here he blossomed, taking first place in most subjects, and ending up as Dux of the school. His decision to read medicine was influenced by two chance factors. He often spent his holidays with a fisherman on an island in the Fleet Bay where the solitary house was occupied by a doctor from the Indian Medical Service during his leaves. On wet days his medical books opened up exciting prospects in the schoolboy’s enquiring mind. During World War I a maternal cousin, Col. George Home, C.B.E., M.D., of the New Zealand Army Medical Corps, spent his leaves with the family and kindled a broad interest in science and medicine.

Racist Hysteria to Pragmatic Rapprochement? The German Debate about Rhenish ‘Occupation Children’, 1920–30

2013 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
JULIA ROOS
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
World War I ◽  
Mixed Race ◽  
World War ◽  
Weimar Germany ◽  
The Family ◽  
Illegitimate Children ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Policy Discourses

AbstractThis essay revisits 1920s German debates over the illegitimate children of the Rhineland occupation to examine hitherto neglected fluctuations in the relationship between nationalism and racism in Weimar Germany. During the early 1920s, nationalist anxieties focused on the alleged racial ‘threats’ emanating from the mixed-race children of colonial French soldiers. After 1927, plans for the forced sterilisation and deportation of the mixed-race children were dropped; simultaneously, officials began to support German mothers’ paternity suits against French soldiers. This hitherto neglected shift in German attitudes towards the ‘Rhineland bastards’ sheds new light on the role of debates over gender and the family in the process of Franco–German rapprochement. It also enhances our understanding of the contradictory political potentials of popularised foreign policy discourses about women's and children's victimisation emerging from World War I.

scholarly journals William Valentine Mayneord, 14 February 1902 - 10 August 1988

1991 ◽  
Vol 37 ◽  
pp. 341-364 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Brain Tumour ◽  
Educational Opportunities ◽  
The Other ◽  
Chess Player ◽  
Older Children ◽  
World War ◽  
Western Front ◽  
The Family ◽  
Foreign Correspondent

William Valentine Mayneord was born 14 February 1902, the last child of Walter and Elizabeth Mayneord, in Redditch, Worcestershire. Walter Mayneord, who worked first in a fishing-tackle factory in Redditch and later as agent for the Pearl Assurance Company, was clearly a man of many parts. As a youth he was an enthusiastic amateur runner, a very able chess player, playing for Worcestershire, and a well-known figure riding his bicycle aged over 80 and singing in the choir at 90, the year of his death. He was a devoted Gladstonian Liberal and a founder of the Liberal Club in Redditch. Walter and Elizabeth had two older children, Ewart and Gilbert. Ewart the eldest, though largely self-educated, had a great facility for languages and served as an interpreter on the Western Front in World War I. After the war he taught himself Russian and became foreign correspondent for a firm trading with Russia, which he visited on business. Unfortunately Ewart died from a brain tumour at about the age of 34. The other brother, Gilbert, was to some degree mentally deficient and worked as a labourer. But clearly, despite the meagre educational opportunities of the time, the Mayneord family had talent and ability: still earlier, grandfather William Mayneord had been a well-known local preacher. The family books also showed that they were surprisingly well read.

Dietrich Kücherman, 11 September 1911 - 23 February 1976

1980 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 304-326
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Maternal Lineage ◽  
World War ◽  
Western Front ◽  
German Army ◽  
12Th Century ◽  
The Family

Dietrich Küchemann was bom in Gottingen on 11 September 1911; he died, a naturalized British subject, on 23 February 1976. His family on his mother’s side had a history that could be traced back to the beginning of the 12th century, when the Archbishop of Bremen made over part of his estate, Stedingerland, giving rise to the family name of Steding, to those willing to drain and cultivate it, presenting him, in return, with one-tenth of their harvests. Later, many generations of Stedings became schoolteachers, or married schoolteachers, a tradition that was continued when Dietrich’s mother, Martha Egener, married Rudolf Küchemann in 1910. The maternal lineage also contained considerable musical talent and included accomplished organists and ’cellists. Indeed, from one of his ancestors, Johann Friedrich Steding, Dietrich inherited a clavichord built in 1791. As a schoolboy, he repaired the instrument, after having discovered that the strings had been removed by somebody who wished to make a zither with them. Proud of his success, he showed it many years later in England to a professional restorer, who declared the repairs to have been imperfect and undertook the work himself: only, in Dietrich’s words, ‘to make the instrument more difficult to play; His father, Rudolf, was a descendant of another line of schoolteachers. He was a forthright man, dedicated to teaching, outspoken in his radicalism: a characteristic that was to have a profound effect on Dietrich’s life. During World War I, Rudolf Kuchemann served as an infantry captain in the German army and took part in many engagements on the Western Front, including Verdun.

scholarly journals Derek Ainslie Jackson, 23 June 1906 - 20 February 1982

1983 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 268-296
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
National Museum ◽  
World War ◽  
Material Wealth ◽  
Twin Brother ◽  
The Family ◽  
Family Finances ◽  
Parental Guidance ◽  
History Of

Derek Ainslie Jackson was born in Hampstead, London, on 23 June 1906. His father, Sir Charles James Jackson, F.S.A., was a barrister, also a landowner and art collector. He was well known as an authority on English silver and author of books on this subject: English goldsmiths and their marks (1905) and Illustrated history of the English plate (1911). His collection of silver is now at the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff. Derek and his twin brother Vivian greatly admired their father; although they were only 14 when he died, Derek’s life-long interest in art probably owed much to his father’s influence. The mother, Ada Elisabeth, daughter of Samuel Owen Williams, appears to have taken little part in the education of the twins; she died when they were only 18. The only other child was their sister Daphne who was 10 years older than the twins and had little contact with them; she died during World War I. The twins thus grew up almost like orphans, in conditions of material wealth and in surroundings of culture and select taste, but apparently with little parental guidance. After their father’s death a guardian was in charge of the family finances, and up to the age of 30 Derek and Vivian Jackson depended on him for the income from the trusts established by their father.

scholarly journals Percival Albert Sheppard, 12 May 1907 - 22 December 1977

1979 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 534-553 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
United Methodist ◽  
Sunday School ◽  
Educational Opportunities ◽  
Maternal Grandmother ◽  
World War ◽  
Home Life ◽  
Material Resources ◽  
The Family ◽  
Set Up

Percival Albert Sheppard, Peter to his family and all who knew him well, was a leading academic figure in world meteorology through the 1950s until his death. He was the only son of Albert Edward Sheppard of Box Hill, Wiltshire, who had left school at the age of 12, not of course being exceptional in that, and had become an ornamental and monumental mason. He was a sober-living and serious craftsman who in 1913 or thereabouts set up on his own account, although after initial successes was unable to overcome the difficulties arising in World War I. Accordingly in 1916 he took up munitions work and moved to Bath, seven miles away, so securing better housing and better educational opportunities for his children. Albert Edward had known unemployment and his material resources were limited but he and his wife found enrichment through their church. They were pillars of the United Methodist Chapel, he as superintendent of Sunday School, his wife as organist and choir master, and the family were aware of wider horizons. In Sheppard’s words: ‘Names like Ruskin, Carlyle, Emerson became familiar.’ Home life with two sisters seems to have been happy enough, and the family attachments endured through life, but up to the age of 10 Peter’s life at Box Hill had little excitement in modern terms: ‘An occasional visit to Bath (seven miles), perhaps including a Mary Pickford film, was a highlight.’ He remembered that once when about seven years old he had ‘been walked’ all the way to Bath and back by his maternal grandmother, ‘a great walker for her age’.

scholarly journals Francis Arthur Freeth, 2 January 1884 - 15 July 1970

1976 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
pp. 104-118
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Doctor Who ◽  
World War ◽  
Long Line ◽  
The Family ◽  
Active Service ◽  
Peninsular War ◽  
The Military ◽  
Military Tradition

Francis Arthur Freeth died on 15 July 1970 in his eighty-seventh year, having been a Fellow of the Royal Society for 45 years. He was born on 2 January 1884 in Birkenhead and, as he was fond of telling, ‘The Irish doctor who was assisting at my birth and celebrating the New Year—to put it mildly—held me out of the window on the frosty night for luck’. Freeth’s father was a well-known Liverpool master mariner with a Commission in the Royal Naval Reserve who took his son five times across the Atlantic before he was 6 years old. There was a strong military tradition in the family; his great-grandfather was a Peninsular War veteran, General Sir James Freeth, who became Quartermaster General from 1851 to 1854; three of his sons became Major-Generals, including F. A. Freeth’s grandfather. Freeth, who sometimes liked to say that he ‘was descended from a long line of Major-Generals’, was in the Territorial Army, was mobilized on 4 August 1914 and remained on active service until summoned home in March 1915 to solve some grave problems in the supply of munitions. In the years after World War I Freeth was well pleased to be known as Major Freeth, only becoming known as Doctor Freeth 20 years later. To complete the military story, Freeth’s son became a naval officer and it was always his cherished wish that he would live to see his grandson commissioned. On his mother’s side his descent was from a Lancashire family called Hinde which died out at the beginning of this century.

Politics and Feminism in “Outcast London”: George Lansbury and Jane Cobden's Campaign for the First London County Council

1991 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Schneer
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
County Council ◽  
British Politics ◽  
House Of Commons ◽  
World War ◽  
Labor Politics ◽  
Political Agent ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Socialist Movement

This article examines Jane Cobden's campaign for the London County Council (L.C.C.) in 1888–89 and its controversial aftermath. Cobden's effort, a pioneering political venture of British feminism, illuminates late-Victorian concepts of gender. It provides at once an anticipation of, and a distinct contrast to, the militant suffragism of the Edwardian era. In addition, it suggests new ways of thinking about the connection between women's-suffragist and labor politics. Perhaps because the campaign was a comparatively obscure incident when measured against the broad sweep of British political history, however, no scholar has done much more than sketch its bare outline. Hopefully, the fuller depiction provided below will accord it the treatment it really deserves.This article approaches the subject from a tangent, however. Cobden's campaign was a significant if little-known episode not only in the history of British suffragism but also in the life of a man who went on to play a major role in British politics long after the first county council elections had been forgotten. This was George Lansbury, Cobden's political agent during 1888–89 and secretary of the Bow and Bromley Radical and Liberal Federation. Lansbury eventually became one of the main architects of the socialist movement in East London and a chief male supporter of the militant suffragettes during the Edwardian era (in 1912 he temporarily lost his seat in the House of Commons and went to prison on their behalf). He also became a founder and editor of the quintessential “rebel” newspaper, theDaily Herald(which was designated Labour's official organ after Lansbury left it in 1922), a pacifist opponent of World War I, and, from 1931 to 1935, leader of the Labour party itself.

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