Tag: ancestry

Architect, Naval Architect

Captain Lewis Pash Renateau (1887 – 1978)

In 1953, Lewis Pash Renateau donated forty-seven artworks by Charles Conder (1868 – 1909) to Glasgow. These included prints and drawings and two oil paintings. 1

Fig. 1 The Trellis (Charles Conder (1868 -1909)
© CSG GIC Glasgow Museums Collection/ArtUK
(Accession Number 2989)

Fig. 2 The Bridge (Charles Conder (1868 -1909)
© CSG GIC Glasgow Museums Collection/ArtUK
(Accession Number 2990)

Lewis Renateau’s mother, Florence Pash, was born in Kingsland, Middlesex in 1863.2 She was the daughter of Daniel John Pash (1823 – 1914) a boot manufacturer, and Martha Fassett (1829 – 1906).3.4 In 1887, having gone to France apparently to study art, Florence gave birth to a son in Tours on 11 December that year. Details are contained in a notice of birth:

Fig. 3 Notice of a Birth. 5

The gist of this is that,
On 12th December 1887 at two o’clock in the evening, a midwife called Angele Passelin appeared before the deputy mayor of Tours, to inform him of a male born yesterday at 11 o’clock in the evening at Rue Nationale No. 2, the son of John Pash, aged thirty-four Lieutenant (absent) and Florence Pash his wife aged 25 no profession (married in London, England) given the first name Ludovic.
(Notes in the margin suggest that John Pash was in the English Navy and was ‘passing through and that their home was in London).

Another version is that,

Florence had an illegitimate child born in Tours, France on December 11, 1887, while she was in the country studying art. The father was Albert Carl Gustav Ludovici who was born in Prague in 1852. Lewis (Ludovic) was raised in France by foster parents named Renateau. This version seems to have been verified by Lewis’ grandson. 6
That Albert was Lewis’ father is possibly borne out by the fact that in 1889 Albert Ludovici opened a studio at 132 Sloane Street, London ‘under the management of Florence Pash’. This was a studio where lady artist pupils would be able take life classes, etc.7
Florence was with her parents and siblings at 94 Fordwich Road, Hampstead, London at the time of the census in 1891. She was now an ‘artist painting’. There is no mention of her son.8 In his biography of Walter Sickert, Matthew Sturgis has a description of Florence.

‘(She) was a forceful and handsome figure: tall, dark-haired with heavy-lidded eyes. At 28 and two years younger than Sickert when she met him when they were both showing at Suffolk Street’. ‘She had established herself with remarkable assurance in the London art world. The daughter of a successful North London shoe retailer, she had studied painting briefly at South Kensington and in France’. Sickert painted her portrait and ‘it is possible, even likely, that the friendship with Florence became an affair’. 9

Florence became a successful portrait artist exhibiting at the Royal Society of British Artists, the Paris Salon and the Royal Academy of Arts. A portrait she painted of Walter Sickert was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1924 and subsequently at the Louvre. She also sat as a model for Charles Conder and Walter Sickert. 10
In 1898, Florence, now thirty-eight, married Albert Anthony Humphrey, aged fifty-four, an ‘advertising news agent’ who had been born in Quebec, Canada. Florence and Albert were living at 122 Victoria Street, Westminster, London in 1901 along with Lewis Renateau who is listed on the census, as a ‘visitor’, born in France but now a British citizen.11
Later that year Lewis was in the lower fifth at Borden Grammar School in Kent. He was awarded prizes for being first in mathematics, languages and divinity and second in science. 12  
Lewis attended Dulwich College, London between September 1903 and July 1905. He was listed as living with a guardian, Mrs Humphrey, who was his aunt, at 122 Victoria Street, London.  His final form at the College was the Remove Engineering (roughly equivalent to modern Y12 in England, the penultimate year of school).  In his final term he placed 10th in a class of 18 overall.  In French he came 3/19; workshops 7/25; and in drawing he came 4/26.13
In 1904, Florence Humphrey gave birth to a son, Cecil Albert Humphrey. 14 (Cecil later became a Balliol Scholar and joined the Indian Civil Service. He and his wife had a daughter born in Bengal in 1937. Cecil died in Hampstead, London on 5 September 1949).15
After college, Lewis must have undertaken courses in naval architecture as this turned out to be his profession. However, in 1909, along with his stepfather, he took out a patent on ‘Improvements in and Connected with Aeroplanes’ dated 15/25 December.16
On 4 April 1913, Lewis emigrated to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Canada. He sailed from Liverpool aboard the Corsican giving his occupation as ‘draughtsman’. 17 The following year on 23 September he volunteered for the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force, Royal Highlanders of Canada. He stated that he was born in London (?) and was unmarried. His next of kin was a cousin, Cecil Albert Humphrey of 122 Victoria Street, London. (Actually, his half-brother). Lewis’s occupation was as a naval architect, and his previous military experience was in the officer training corps. 18
In 1915, having previously been reported missing, 19 it was confirmed that Lewis, (now Lieutenant Renateau of the 13th Battalion, Royal Highlanders of Canada) had been taken prisoner at St Julien, near Ypres, on 24 April 1915. He had been transferred to the Giessen POW camp.20 While there, a fellow prisoner, Raphael Drouart (1894 – 1972) painted his portrait.

Fig. 4 Lieutenant Lewis Pash Renateau
13th Battalion, Royal Highlanders of Canada
Raphael Drouart, 1916
National Army Museum, London/ArtUK

The same artist later (1917) completed a painting of the camp under snow. This was done on a box lid of a food parcel originally sent to Renateau. The lid still listed the contents of the original parcel: ‘Margarine/Potted Meat/Biscuits/Prunes/Cherries/Camp Pie/Golden Syrup/Lemonade Powder/Service Rations/Cocoa/Milk/Sugar

Fig. 5    POWs at the Giessen POW Camp, Germany Autumn/Winter 1917
Raphael Drouart
National Army Museum/ArtUK

 In September 1916, The Burlington Magazine published a letter from Lewis.

THE CAMP AT GIESSEN, HESSE – [We have received from a Canadian artist, Mr. Lewis Renateau, with whom we are otherwise unacquainted, the letter published below, which may relieve the anxiety of the friends of prisoners in one German camp. We have also received from Mr. H. Walter Barnett, as specimen of the work of this imprisoned society of artists, a photograph of a very pleasing pencil drawing of our correspondent, Mr. Renateau, by one of his fellow-prisoners, Mr. Albert Venelle. Mrs. A. A. Humphrey, 122 Victoria St., S.W., desires us to say that she will gladly receive any gifts on behalf of these interned artists. -ED]

GENTLEMEN, – We have received many numbers of The Burlington Magazine from Mrs. A. A. Humphrey (122 Victoria St., S.W.), and she writes to me that you were the kind donators. We appreciate them greatly and send you our most grateful thanks and best wishes,
The “we” consists of about twenty men of many various talents and qualities, from theatrical scenic painters to wood-carvers. The best artists here are Raphael Drouart (Parisian), A. Nantel (on“The Standard” Montreal), Tisseire, caricaturist (Parisian), and as students of art, A. Venelle (Brussels), Patoisseaux (Nantes), Beddoe (Ottawa). The rest are architects, decorators, furniture designers, etc.
We are very well treated and can work as we can work as we like and get in any materials from the town we need that we can afford, so that we are really very well off.
Thanking you again for your, kindly thought and gifts on behalf of the Giessen Art Fraternity,
I remain, Yours truly,
LEWIS RENATEAU.

The pencil drawing referred to above by Albert Venelle was offered for sale during the London Art Week on 6 December 2023 priced at £1200.00.

Fig. 6     Lewis Renateau by Albert Venelle 1916, Blue chalk on paper
londonartweek.co.uk Forgotten Masters/Enduring Images III 6
December 2023

Lewis’ stepfather died in 1917 and on 12 May 1923, his mother married Major C. T. Holland in Kensington Registry Office, London. 21

Fig. 7 Marriage of Florence Humphrey and Charles Holland. 22

However, the marriage ended with the death in London of Major Holland aged sixty-nine in 1927.
After the war, Lewis returned to Canada to be demobilised and on 8 April 1919 he married Ruth Meryl Smith in Montreal.

Fig. 8 Marriage Certificate 23
Lewis Pash Renateau, bachelor, son of John Renateau and Florence Pash and Ruth Meryl Smith daughter of Samuel Smith and Jane M Roberts both of the City of Montreal united by me by Authority of License in the holy bonds of matrimony on the eighth day of April nineteen hundred and nineteen.
Ruth Meryl Smith was born in Dorking, Surrey in 1882. Her family was living in Amhurst Road in Hackney in 1891 24 suggesting that her parents emigrated to Canada later. Sometime in the early 1900s she worked for six years for a Scottish engineering company, 25 but by 1911, aged twenty-seven, she was living with her sister Alice Margaret in Greenwich, London. 26 She moved to Canada in 1912 27 where she met Lewis but returned to England in 1915 to engage in war related work. She became secretary to Sir Frank Sanderson the then Controller of Trench Warfare, National Shell Filling Factories and Stores at the Ministry of Munitions. After the armistice, she returned to Canada in arriving at St. John’s Newfoundland on 1 March 1919 28 on her way to a job in Manchuria. However, she got a cable from Lewis asking her to marry him. 29
The couple returned to England, initially to Kensington in London where a son, John Pash Renateau was born on 6 November 1919. A daughter, Ann Meryl Pash Renateau, was born on 29 January 1921 at 9 Highland Road, Upper Norwood, London, the family home. From the census of that year, Lewis, aged 33 years and 6 months, born in Tours, France but a British subject was employed by the Port of London Authority as a naval architect. Also listed were Ruth Renateau aged 39 years and 2 months and their children. 30 9 Highland Road remained their address throughout the 1920s. Ruth must have returned to Canada after the birth of her daughter (possibly to introduce her children to her parents?). She returned in 1922 to resume her role as secretary to Sir Frank Sanderson after he became MP, a position she retained until 1940.31
An entry for Lewis (possibly in a list of foreign nationals) appeared in the London Gazette on 5 April 1929.
Pash, Ludovic (known as Lewis Pash Renateau); Doubtful Nationality;
Naval Architect; 39, Sylvan Road, Upper Norwood, Croydon. 18 March 1929.

 Lewis joined the Port of London Authority as a naval architect and remained with them for forty years.  His pastimes included swimming, tennis and cricket: he was for a time secretary of the Port of London tennis club. 32 He was also a talented amateur artist as this review of a Painting Exhibition held at the Port of London Authority indicates.

‘The best paintings are those of Mr. L. Renateau, an engineer’s draughtsman, whose normal occupation has scarcely any influence upon his pastime. Mr. Renateau’s portraits are virile and to the point, although their colour is often unsound.’ 33
The family moved to The Nutshell on Hamhough Island in the Thames and were there from 1936 until at least 1946. In 1939, Lewis was a ‘shipbuilding draughtsman and Ruth a ‘private secretary’ while Ann Reniteau claimed to be, single and an unpaid domestic, living at The Nutshell, Sunbury on Thames, with her parents. 34 During WW2, Lewis saw service in the War Office until 1947. He was in the Corps of Royal Engineers (Transportation) involved in design and construction of ports and opening up rivers etc. He was made second lieutenant on 3 March 1941 (later promoted to captain in 1944). 35
After the war, the family moved to 21 Bowes Road, Walton-on-Thames. In 1950 the occupants at this address were, Lewis, Ruth, their son John and Ruth’s sisters Alice and Frances. 36 In the same year, Ann Renateau married Arthur Douglas Eade in Cornwall and John Renateau married Gwendoline D. Fleet. 37
Lewis’ mother, Florence Pash Humphrey Holland who was still actively exhibiting in her 80s, died on 25 June 1951 aged eighty-nine. 38 His wife, Ruth Meryl Renateau died in October 1952 at 21 Bowes Road, Walton-on-Thames. She was buried on the 27th at Brookwood Cemetery, Woking, Surrey. 39 The following year, Lewis married Avalon Ethelston Osborne in Surrey. 40
(Perhaps as a result of moving house after his marriage, Lewis decided to clear out some items. Ruth may have been employed by a Glasgow firm during her time in Scotland and would have been acquainted with Kelvingrove Art Gallery. This may have prompted Lewis to deposit the Charles Conder materials there.)
In 1958, Lewis penned a letter to his local newspaper.

To the Editor Sir, – Like Major Kirkpatrick, M.C., I suffered for many years from dyspepsia and indigestion and was treated with many medicines and diets. I had all my teeth extracted and appendix removed, all of which was quite unnecessary, as I found out the cause and cured myself. Tannin in tea and food fried in a pan was the cause. Lewis Renateau, Common Moor Cottage, Burley Street, Burley. 41                    

Lewis Pash Renateau died on 9 October 1978 at Couch Hill Lane, Burley Ringwood, Hampshire. His funeral was held at Bournemouth Crematorium on 17 October. He was survived by his wife Avalon, two children and two grandchildren. An obituary was published in a local newspaper. 42 According to Sturgis, he left a manuscript, ‘Life of Florence Pash’ which is to be found in Islington archives in London. 43

Lewis Renateau and Charles Conder
Alexander H. MacAdams, a lumber merchant, married Sarah Emma Humphrey about 1858 in Quebec, Canada. Sarah was a sister of Albert Alexander Humphrey who married Florence Pash. The couple had a daughter Stella Maris MacAdams born in 1862. 44 In 1889, Stella married George Noel Belford in Kensington, London but she was widowed within ten years. In early summer 1901, Florence Humphrey invited Stella, her niece, to tea to meet Charles Conder.

Fig. 9 Charles Conder, Stella Maris Belford (MacAdams) and Florence Pash

The couple seem to have hit-it-off immediately so much so that Conder was heard to declare at that first meeting, ‘I’m going to marry that woman’. 45 After a holiday in Normandy with her sister Annie and Florence, Stella married Charles Conder in the British Embassy in Paris in 1901.  Condor suffered from syphilis and died in a mental home in Virginia Water on 9 February 1909. 46 When Stella died three years later, it is probable that some of Charles’ artwork would have passed to Florence and thence to Lewis.

References

  1. https://collections.glasgowmuseums.com/mwebcgi/mweb?request=jump;dtype=d;startat=17
  2. FamilySearch, England Census 1871; artbiogs.co.uk
  3. FamilySearch, England and Wales, Marriage Registration Index, 1837-2005
  4. ancestry.co.uk, England and Wales Census 1881
  5. www.jtrforums.com
  6. Sturgis, Matthew, Walter Sickert: A Life, , HarperCollins, London, 2005 (Sickert and Ludovici, both artists, met while painting in St. Ives, Cornwall). This version is also quoted in www.jtrforums.com
  7. www.jtrforums.com
  8. ancestry.co.uk, England and Wales Census 1891
  9. Sturgis, Matthew, Walter Sickert: A Life, , HarperCollins, London, 2005
  10. Wikipedia, Florence Pash
  11. ancestry.co.uk, England Census, 1901
  12. Sittingbourne East End Gazette, 14 December 1901
  13. Information from Dulwich College Archivist
  14. FamilySearch, England and Wales Births, 1837 – 2006
  15. FamilySearch, England and Wales, National Index of Wills and Administrations, 1858-1957
  16. GB Patents Number GB190930194A, econterms.net
  17. ancestry.co.uk, Uk and Ireland, Outward Passenger Lists 1890-1960
  18. ancestry.co.uk, Canada WW1 CEF Personnel Files, 1914-1918
  19. Ottawa Free Press, 9 July 1915
  20. FamilySearch, National Archives, Military Prisoners of War, 1715-1947
  21. ancestry.co.uk, England and Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916-2005
  22. The Graphic, 26 May 1923, p 5
  23. ancestry.com, Canadian Marriages
  24. ancestry.co.uk, England and Wales Census 1891
  25. London Evening News 2 April 1940
  26. ancestry.co.uk, England and Wales Census 1911
  27. ancestry.com, Canada Incoming Passenger Lists, 1865-1935
  28. ibid
  29. London Evening News, 2 April 1940
  30. ancestry.co.uk, England and Wales Census 1921
  31. London Evening News 2 April 1940
  32. New Milton Observer 21 October 1978 p5
  33. Daily News and Westminster Gazette, 26 November 1929 p9
  34. ancestry.co.uk, National Register, England and Wales, 1939
  35. London Gazette 2 May 1941
  36. ancestry.co.uk, London, England, Electoral Registers, 1832-1972
  37. FamilySearch, England and Wales, Marriage Registration Index, 1837-2005
  38. Pash, Florence 1863-1951 Artist Biographies Ltd. Quoted in Wikipedia.
  39. Herald and News, 24 October 1952
  40. FamilySearch, England and Wales, Marriage Registration Index, 1837-2005
  41. New Milton Advertiser & Lymington Times, Saturday, 1 March 1958
  42. New Milton Observer 21 October 1978, p5
  43. Walter Sickert: A Life, Sturgis, Matthew HarperCollins, London, 2005. Florence Pash Papers, S/SFC/2/1/9, !896-1999
  44. FamilySearch, Canada Census 1871
  45. Charles Conder the last bohemian, Galbally, Anne, Melbourne, 2002, pp.224-25
  46. ibid

Clothier/Politician, Uncategorized

Sir John Roberts (1876 – 1966) Alexander Thomas Roberts (1885 – 1972) Mrs John Roberts nee May Belle Elsas aka Mary Ellis (1897 – 2003)

Fig. 1 Mrs. Roberts
Alexander Ignatius Roche (1861 – 1921)
Accession Number 2967, 1895 © CSG GIC Glasgow Museums Collection
The painting was presented by (Mrs.) John Roberts, Wellwood, Selkirk (on behalf of an American cousin). *
It was exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy in 1896 and at the Glasgow International Exhibition in 1901.

*There would seem to be a doubt as to who donated the painting. The Paintings’ Register at Glasgow Museums’ Resource Centre (GMRC) states that it was Mrs John Roberts while a record card in the Object File at GMRC says John Roberts.

The Roberts Family
George Roberts (1798 – 1877) was a clothier in Selkirk. In October 1838, he purchased Forest Mills in the town to build a spinning mill in partnership with Andrew Dickson a manufacturer in Galashiels. In January 1843, George married Agnes Scott Fowler (1871 – 1901) in Melrose. The couple had a daughter Eliza and six sons. The company prospered and expanded. When George died in 1877, he was succeeded by his sons George, Alexander and Thomas James Scougal and his nephew Frank. Another son, John (1845 – 1934) emigrated to New Zealand but his son, also John (1876 – 1966), returned to Scotland and in 1894 joined the firm and played a major role in its development. The firm became very prosperous and up till the outbreak of WW1 was one of the leaders of the Scottish woollen industry. The two relatives associated with this painting are John junior and Thomas Scougal Roberts. 1

Thomas Scougal Roberts (He commissioned the painting)
Thomas Scougal Roberts was born in Selkirk on 24 January 1850, the son of George Roberts and Agnes Scott Fowler.2 In the 1861 census he was aged 11, a scholar living at Wellwood Park, Selkirk with his parents, brothers and a sister.3 On 31 March 1875 he married Hyndmer Rutherford Crawford aged eighteen of Caddenfoot, Selkirk.4 The couple moved to Byethorn House in Selkirk and had two children, George Crawford born in 1878, and Alexander Thomas born in 1885.  (Alexander became the ‘American Cousin’ mentioned in the donation). In 1881 Thomas was 31, a tweed manufacturer living at Byethorn House, Selkirk.5 By 1891, he had moved with his wife and son Alexander aged 5, to the Mansion House, Stow, Caddonfoot, Selkirk.6 (His son George had died in 1885.) It was possibly here that he commissioned the present painting of his wife, Hyndmer, from Alexander Roche in 1895. In 1901, the family was living at Drygrange, Melrose, Roxburghshire, with eight servants.7 Hyndmer Roberts died in 1911. The following year, Thomas travelled to Canada arriving in Victoria aboard the Makura in May 1912 8 and then on to Vancouver in June 1912 aboard the Empress of Japan.9 Thomas Scougal Roberts died on 3 February 1921 in Edinburgh. 10 Probate was granted in Edinburgh on 16 May 192111, on 16 June in London.12 and in Otago and Wellington, New Zealand in the same year. Among his executors were his brother Alexander Fowler Roberts, Fairnielee, Galashiels, and his son Alexander Thomas Roberts. His will was dated 4 March 1920 and recorded in Jedburgh on 16 May 1921. The value of his estate was £253,246.4s.2d.

Fig. 2 Label from the reverse of the painting.

This label indicates that the painting was owned and exhibited in 1908 by Thomas James Scougal Roberts who was now living at Drygrange, Melrose.

   Fig. 3 Record card for the painting (GMRC)

This record card states that the subject of the painting is the mother of the ‘American cousin’. This is Alexander Thomas Roberts who was born in Selkirk but emigrated to America in the early 1900s. The card gives the donor as John Roberts.

Sir John ‘Jack’ Roberts – Mill owner and Provost of Selkirk.
(Possible Donor of the painting)
John Roberts (1845 – 1934), a brother of Thomas Scougal Roberts emigrated to New Zealand from Selkirk and married Louisa Jane Kettle (1848 – 1922) on 26 January 1870. Their son, John Roberts junior was born in 1876. He was educated at Otago Boys High School from 1888 to 1892 and then emigrated to Scotland where he attended Merchiston Castle School from 1892 to 1894. After leaving school, in 1895 he joined the family firm of George Roberts and Co Ltd.13 At the 1901 census he was lodging at 4 Marion Crescent, Selkirk, and was a ‘manufacturer of wool.14 Later the same year, on 18 September, he married Agnes Amelia Muir, daughter of Dr. John Stewart Muir the local GP in Selkirk.15 This was the same year that his grandmother Agnes Scott Roberts (nee Fowler) died. She had occupied the house and lands around Wellwood in Selkirk which had belonged to her husband, George, and then to her son, John Roberts senior, who, in 1902 was listed as the proprietor of Wellwood and Haugh, Railway Station Lands and in 1903 of a house with garden and stable at Wellwood, Ettrick Terrace, Selkirk.16 These properties were passed on to John junior by at least 1914.
In the census of 1911, John and Agnes were boarding at the Gordon Arms in Selkirk with their children, Andrina Barbara Henderson Roberts, 8, John Stewart Roberts, 6, Louisa Jane Roberts, 4, Stewart Muir Roberts, 3, and George Edward Roberts, six weeks.17 In 1914 he gave ‘an interesting lecture’ in the Masonic Hall in Motherwell in which he described a trip to New Zealand.18  In the same year he subscribed to a fund for the relief of the Belgian People.19
John Roberts was Provost of Selkirk three times, the first of these in 1908 and then in 1915-1920 but he resigned from the latter term for health reasons and stated in a letter to the local newspaper that he would remain in office until the new Council was elected. 20 He was again Provost in 1935 until 1941 when he resigned both as Provost and Councillor. 21 He does not appear on the 1921 census, but he was the proprietor/occupier of Wellwood House at 52 Ettrick Terrace, Selkirk.22

   Fig. 4 Wellwood House. Selkirk 23

John Roberts was a prominent member of the Roxburgh and Selkirk, Unionist Association, 24 later becoming vice-chairman.25 He was made a Freeman of the Royal Burgh of Selkirk in 1952. The following year, he received a knighthood in the Coronation Honours ‘For political and public services in Selkirkshire.’ 26 Sir John Roberts died at the age of ninety at Craigallan, Heatherlie Park, Selkirk on 23 January 1966 having outlived his wife by eighteen years. His son Stewart reported his death. 27

Alexander Thomas Roberts (Inherited the Painting and donated it remotely)
Alexander Thomas Roberts was born on 8 May 1885 in Byethorn House, Selkirk to Thomas James Scougal Roberts and his wife Hyndmer Rutherford Crawford who had married on 31 March 1875 at Mountainview, Duns(e). Perhaps his parents had second thoughts about his name as it was Thomas Alexander Roberts on his birth certificate, later changed on 23 July. 28 At the age of fifteen, he was a pupil at Fettes College, Comely Bank, Edinburgh.29 In the early 1900s Alexander emigrated to America. He is recorded as arriving at Ellis Island, New York in 1913 aboard the S.S. Campania. His place of residence was Melrose, Scotland.30 This was probably a return trip from Scotland as on 15 June 1913 he married Evelyn Laura Henderson, 22, in Detroit. On the marriage license he was described as a ‘manufacturer’.31 It is possible that his father attended the wedding as he had been travelling in Canada the year before.32 In 1916, Alexander and Evelyn visited Scotland and stayed at Drygrange, Melrose with Alexander’s widowed father. They returned from Liverpool to New York aboard S.S. St. Louis on 25 November. He did not list an occupation. 33 On 12 September 1918 Alexander provided the following details for a draft registration card. He was a British citizen, living with his wife at 10 Longfellow Avenue, Detroit and was an officer in the British War Office on sick leave. He was of medium build and height with blue-grey eyes and black hair.34 (According to his obituary, he had attained the rank of Captain in pre-war service in the King’s Own Scottish Borderers).35 Alexander and Evelyn again travelled to Scotland to stay at Drygrange, Melrose with Alexander’s father. They returned to Detroit by way of Liverpool and the S.S. Orduna on 19 December 1919.36
Thomas Scougal Roberts died on 3 February 1921. Alexander and Evelyn may have spent most of that year in Scotland. Alexander was in Edinburgh on 9 May for the reading of his father’s will. As an only child he would have inherited the bulk of his father’s £253,246.4s.2d estate. This enabled him to purchase the Park-Ward company of London which manufactured automobile bodies for Rolls-Royce and Bentley. He retained ownership of the company until 1939 when he sold it to Rolls-Royce.37 Alexander and Evelyn arrived back in America on 2 December 1921 having sailed from Liverpool aboard the S.S. Baltic. Both had ‘nil’ under ‘occupation’ and both listed an aunt, Mrs. A. F. Roberts of Fairnielee, Galashiels, as their nearest relative in Scotland.38 In April 1922, Alexander and Evelyn again travelled to Scotland for an extended stay in Melrose.39 They returned to New York from Southampton travelling first class aboard S.S. Mauretania on 19 October 1923.40 Sometime afterwards, Alexander and Evelyn were divorced. Evelyn married William Frue, ten years her junior on 22 June 1931 in Fulton, Ohio.41
It seems that Alexander also remarried about this time as on 2 February 1935 he sailed from Southampton aboard S.S. Bremen presumably bound for New York. His place of birth was given as ‘Selkirk’ and his last permanent residence ‘London’. He was accompanied by Mary Elizabeth Roberts who was 37 and born in Toronto. Both were listed as ‘married’. 42 They must have returned to Britain later that year as on 26 February 1936 they again left Southampton aboard S.S. Bremen and while Alexander lists his occupation as ‘none’, Mary is a housewife. 43
On 25 April 1940, Alexander flew from Havana in Cuba where he had been staying at the Hotel Plaza to Miami. He was now fifty-five and retired. His home address was 11 Keofferam Road, Old Greenwich, Connecticut. 44 In 1941 he was required to complete a Draft Registration card. His address was now 5 Grant Avenue, Old Greenwich, Connecticut. His ‘named person’ was David Rosen of 105 Bedford Street, Stamford, Connecticut, possibly suggesting that he was now widowed or divorced. 45
In any event, on 14 February 1946, Alexander now aged sixty obtained a licence to marry Emily Wright Johnston who was thirty-nine from Buffalo, New York. According to the licence, obtained In Marlboro County, South Carolina, Alexander was an American citizen.46 After their marriage, and possibly as late as 1952, the couple moved to Pinehurst, North Carolina.47 Alexander had been a frequent visitor to Pinehurst since travelling there to play golf in 1917. 48 This is about the time he gave instructions for the painting of his mother to be given to Glasgow. Alexander Thomas Roberts died of a cerebral thrombosis on 14 May 1972 aged 87, at the Moore Memorial Hospital, Pinehurst, North Carolina. His wife Emilie Wright Roberts reported his death and gave his occupation as ‘owner, auto body manufacturer’. 49 He was buried at the Mount Hope Cemetery, Southern Pines, North Carolina. Still apparently a Scottish citizen. 50 He was survived by his wife and a stepdaughter. 51

Mary Ellis (Possible Donor)

Fig. 5 Mary Ellis about 1936 (Archiveradio1930@archiveradio1930-dw5kg, YouTube)

May Belle Elsas was born on 15 June 1897 in Manhattan, New York to Herman and Caroline (nee Reinhardt) Elsas. Her father had emigrated from Germany; her mother was born in Texas to a German father. In 1900 the family was living at 88th Street, New York. Herman was a paper manufacturer. 52 As a child, May made several trips to Europe with her family. For example, on 28 September 1909 aged 12 she, along with her parents and twenty-one-year-old sister Lucile who was born in Texas, arrived back in New York from Southampton aboard the S. S. Kronprinz Wilhelm. Her father was forty-five and her mother forty-one. All were U.S. citizens. 53 Herman Elsas was a manufacturer in the paper industry. 54 Caroline Elsas was a talented pianist. May began studying music and taking singing lessons in her teens. She made her professional debut, with her name now Mary Ellis, in December 1918 at the Metropolitan Opera in the world premiere of Puccini’s triptych Il trittico , creating the role of Suor Genovieffa in Suor Angelica and understudying Florence Easton in the role of Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi . She was only the second singer to perform the aria ‘O Mio Babbino Caro’ when Florence Easton became ill. Her performance was very well received and was followed by roles as Gianetta in L’elisire d’amore with Enrico Caruso and in Charpentier’s Louise with Geraldine Farrar. 55
During the war years, Mary met a young airman, Louis G. Bernheimer, who had been ‘sent home from France with medals and a nervous breakdown’. 56 After the first season of the opera, he persuaded Mary to marry him and on 6 February 1920, escorted by her parents, Mary married Louis in City Hall, Lower Manhattan. The subsequent honeymoon in Paris proved to be ‘traumatic’ as Mary recounts in her autobiography. ‘Louis told me he longed to see his mistress of the war days, Marie Delorme. Finally, I had the sense to tell him to go and visit her. He said that if he did not come back to the hotel by six that evening, he would be staying with her and that we would take it from there’. After a day spent on a bench on the Champs Elysees, Mary returned to the hotel to find Louis there. However, he was inconsolable as Marie had died months before. ‘Added to this he was suffering unromantically from piles, to which I had to apply some healing ointment every few hours. The Paris honeymoon was over’. The couple divorced within the year.
Mary’s next venture was in to classical theatre, possibly while waiting for her voice to mature. She signed up with David Balasco to appear as Nerissa in The Merchant of Venice. This opened in the Lyceum Theatre, New York on 26 February 1923. Perhaps because of the staging and although it ran for several months, it was not a success. However, Mary later said ‘it gave me an experience the like of which I have never had again’.  Later that year, on 30 April 1923, despite misgivings and advice from friends, Mary married Edwin Harris Knopf in Manhattan, New York. 57 Again, the marriage was short-lived. The following year on 2 September at the Imperial Theatre in New York, Mary appeared in the title role in the operetta Rose-Marie ‘and the ‘Indian Love Call’ became theatre history. All I remember of that first night is sitting cross-legged on the table in Act One and reaching a pianissimo high B-flat which brought the house down’. After a successful year, Mary felt she had had enough and persuaded the producer Arthur Hammerstein to let her leave. However, he made her sign an injunction which prevented her from singing for any management but his. This meant she never sang professionally in the United States again. In a return to the stage, Mary played Leah in The Dyubbuk in 1925 and in 1927 she played Kate in The Taming of the Shrew opposite the British actor Basil Sydney. The play ran for thirty-two weeks, the longest ever consecutive run of a Shakespeare play! In 1929, in New Milford, Connecticut, Mary and Basil were married and subsequently settled in Britain. Her first London appearance was in Knave and Quean opposite Robert Donat at the Ambassadors Theatre in 1930, and she played Nina in the British premiere of Eugene O’Neill’s Strange Interlude a year later. Her marriage to Basil Sydney ended in 1934 when Basil left her to live in New York with a young actress who had appeared in his play Dinner at Eight. Mary was offered a two-year contract with Paramount to do three films in Hollywood including All the King’s Horses ‘a pretty mediocre effort’ and Paris Love Song.
In 1935, she travelled back to London to star as Militza Hajos in Ivor Novello’s musical Glamorous Night at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. When it closed, she completed her contract in Hollywood with a third film Fatal Lady. While there, she obtained a divorce from Basil in Nevada. Back in London, Glamorous Night was made into a film in 1937 at Elstree Studios with Mary in the leading role.

Clip of Mary Ellis performing in Glamorous Nights 58

In January 1938, Mary met Jack ‘Jock’ Roberts the oldest son of Provost and Mrs Roberts of Selkirk (above) while she was appearing in The Innocent Party at the Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh. 59 It was just after Mary had learned that her father had died. Jock told her that he had been so excited to see her that he had crashed his car on leaving the theatre. As a result, he had stayed overnight and was still in his evening clothes and a bit dishevelled. He asked for her to forgive him which of course she did but also told him she was in deep distress. ‘An hour later my room at the hotel was filled with flowers from him’. After six months of ‘the most hectic and instructive courtship’ during which Mary met Jock’s family ‘(his mother had her doubts about me, but his father liked me)’ the couple announced their engagement on 28 June that year although they had been engaged for some weeks. 60

 Fig. 6 Dundee Courier 28 June 1938 p2

Mary Ellis married Jock Muir Stewart Roberts on 1 July 1938 at Westminster City Register Office (Caxton Hall). Miss Ellis’s mother and two friends were the only people present. 61 They spent their honeymoon in Norway.
Mary co-starred again with Novello in The Dancing Years which opened in March 1939 in Drury Lane. After that she gave up the stage temporarily during the war years to engage in ‘Welfare and occupational therapy work in Emergency Hospitals’. Her first posting was to an RAF Coastal Command unit on the Isle of Islay in the Inner Hebrides. This was followed, months later, by a posting to an emergency hospital near Peebles. After a spell in Iceland, Jock was posted back to London and Mary Joined him. On 9 November 1943 she returned to the stage at the Phoenix Theatre in Ivor Novello’s Arc de Triomphe. When this closed in 1944, she returned to Scotland to stay with Jock and his family until he was called away on war duty. ‘I loved his family, and I could talk for hours to his father about Edwardian life and listen to his Scottish stories.’
Post war, Mary’s created the roles of Millie Crocker-Harris in The Browning Version and Edna Selby in Harlequinade in Terence Rattigan’s Playbill in September 1948. The following year she was asked to appear at the Edinburgh Festival in a Peter Ustinov play The Man in the Raincoat. This gave her the opportunity to meet Jock’s family again and they all came to the theatre. However, relations with Jock were strained. She also appeared in several television plays; all broadcast live. On 6 March 1950 while preparing for a trip to Switzerland, Jock Roberts was killed in a climbing accident in Thornbush Quarry on Selkirk Hill.
In 1952, Mary appeared as Volumnia in Shakespear’s Coriolanus at Stratford-Upon Avon and in Mourning Becomes Electra, directed by Peter Hall in 1955. Her final musical role was in 1954 as Mrs Erlynne in After the Ball, Noel Coward’s musical adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s Lady Windemere’s Fan. Her final West End performance was in Look Homeward, Angel in 1962 at the Vaudeville Theatre and her last theatre appearance was in Mrs Warren’s Profession at Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford in 1970.
In the same year as she published her autobiography, Mary was interviewed on the Christmas Day edition of Desert Island Discs. She made two appearances on television in The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes, 1993 and The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes 1994.
Mary Ellis died on 30 January 2003 at her home in Eaton Square at the age of 105 ‘as a snowstorm flurried around SW1: a friend told me that Miss Ellis had given a drinks party in her bedroom only the previous day’. 62 At the time of her death, she was believed to have been the last surviving performer to have created a role in a Puccini opera.

Hyndmer Rutherford Crawford (The Sitter)
Hyndmer Rutherford Crawford was born on 27 February 1857 in Newtown Street, Dunse, Berwickshire. Her father, Alexander Crawford, was a writer. Her mother was Agnes Hewat. 63 In 1871 she was living at Mountview Villa, Dunse aged fourteen with her brothers William, 33, Richard, 21 and David, 16 and sister Agnes, 28, and three servants. 64 After her marriage to Thomas Roberts the couple moved to Byethorn House in Selkirk where Hyndmer gave birth to two sons, George Crawford Roberts on 20 August 1876, 65 (Tragically, George died of Bright’s disease on 30 March 1885 aged eight 66), and Alexander Thomas Roberts on 8 May 1885. Hyndmer Rutherford Roberts died on 6 September 1911 aged 54 at Drygrange, Melrose. 67 She was buried in Wairds cemetery. The inscription on her headstone reads:
In memory of Hyndmer Rutherford Crawford, Wife of TJS Roberts of Drygrange, Born 27th February 1857 Died 6th September 1911. Also, of his son George Crawford Born 30th August 1876. Died 30th March 1885. 68

References

  1. http://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/data/gb582-hwuagr
  2. ancestry.com. Scotland, Select Births and Baptisms, 1564-1950
  3. ancestry.com. 1861 Scotland Census
  4. Scotland’s People, Marriage Certificate
  5. ancestry.com. 1881 Scotland Census
  6. ancestry.com, 1891 Scotland Census
  7. Scotland’s People, 1901 Census
  8. Canada, Passenger Lists, 1881-1922, FamilySearch
  9. ibid
  10. Scotland’s People, Death Certificate
  11. ancestry.com. Scotland National Probate Index
  12. ancestry.com, England and Wales National Probate Index
  13. https://www.calmview.eu/HUBCAT/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Persons&id=DS%2FUK%2F9193
  14. Scotland’s People, 1901 Census
  15. Scotland’s People, Marriage Certificate
  16. Scotland’s People, Valuation Roll, Selkirk
  17. Scotland’s People, 1911 Census
  18. Berwick Advertiser, 30 January 1914
  19. ‘The Brave Belgians’ Provost Allan’s Relief Fund, Southern Reporter, 3 September 1914
  20. Southern Reporter, October 1919
  21. Hawick News and Border Chronicle, 17 October 1941
  22. Scotland’s People, Valuation Rolls, Selkirk 1916 – 1920
  23. Morrab Library Photographic Archive, accessed 13 November https://photoarchive.morrablibrary.org.uk/items/show/20615
  24. Southern Reporter, 7 May 1925
  25. Hawick News and Border Chronicle, 11 May 1934
  26. Supplement to the London Gazette, 1 June 1953, page 2941 and Jedburgh Gazette, 5 June 1953
  27. Scotland’s People, Death Certificate
  28. Scotland’s People, Birth Certificate and Register of Corrected Entries
  29. ancestry.co.uk, Scottish Census, 1901
  30. New York Passenger Arrival Lists (Ellis Island), 1892-1924, FamilySearch
  31. Return of Marriages in Michigan, FamilySearch,
  32. Canada, Passenger Lists, 1881-1922, FamilySearch
  33. New York Passenger Arrival Lists 1892-1924, FamilySearch
  34. United States World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918″, databasewith images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:7T6S XCMM:8July 2024), Alexander Thomas Roberts, 1917-1918.
  35. Greensboro Daily News (Greensboro, NC), 15 May 1972, p20 (On findagrave.com)
  36. New York Passenger Arrival Lists 1892-1924, FamilySearch
  37. Greensboro Daily News (Greensboro, NC), 15 May 1972, p20 (On findagrave.com)
  38. New York Passenger Arrival Lists 1892-1924, FamilySearch
  39. Ibid
  40. ibid
  41. Ohio County Marriages, 1789 – 2016, FamilySearch
  42. United Kingdom Outgoing Passenger Lists, 1890 – 1960, FamilySearch
  43. Ibid
  44. Index to Aliens Arriving by Airplane at Miami, Florida, 1930 – 1942, FamilySearch
  45. United States World War II Draft Registration Card, 1941, FamilySearch
  46. South Carolina, County Marriage Licenses, 1911 – 1953, FamilySearch
  47. Greenwich Directory, 1952 states that ‘Roberts, Alex. T. and Emilie W. removed to Pinehurst, N.C’. FamilySearch
  48. Greensboro Daily News (Greensboro, NC), 15 May 1972, p20 (On findagrave.com)
  49. Death Certificate, North Carolina State Board of Health, Family Search
  50. Find a Grave Index, Database, FamilySearch
  51. Greensboro Daily News (Greensboro, NC), 15 May 1972, p20 (On findagrave.com)
  52. Family Search, United States Census, 1900, Manhattan, New York
  53. Family Search, List of Alien Pasengers for United States
  54. Family Search, United States Census, 1910, Manhattan, New York
  55. Some of the material here and subsequently is adapted from the Mary Ellis Archive in the V&A Theatre and Performance Collections, https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/data/gb71-thm/307
  56. Here and elsewhere, quotations are taken from Mary Ellis’ autobiography, Those Dancing Years, John Murray Ltd., London, 1982
  57. Family Search, New York City Marriage Records, 1829-1938
  58. https://www.youtube.com/embed/1maNU3NVJtE?feature=oembed
  59. Southern Reporter, 30 June 1938
  60. Dundee Courier 28 June 1938, p2
  61. Dundee Courier, 2 July 1938, Southern Reporter, 7 July 1938
  62. https://lessenteurs.wordpress.com/
  63. Scotland’s People, Birth Certificate
  64. Scotland’s People, 1871 Census
  65. Scotland’s People, Birth Certificate
  66. Scotland’s People, Death Certificate
  67. Ibid