Everywhere

The motto of the Royal Artillery is the single word ‘Ubique’, ‘Everywhere’. It would serve as well for my family, whose members seem to have a talent for being on the spot whatever is going forward, wherever something is happening. Recently, in a series of British Empire posts I found relatives, distant and close, in all the red parts of the map. Today, I’m pleased to say, I’ve turned up a cousin who was part of an expedition to Antarctica.

This was Hugh Mainwaring Millett (1903–1968), my first cousin twice removed. He was born in Gibralter in 1903, the son of Helen Millett née Cavenagh (1877–1918) and Thompson Horatio Millett (1870–1920), a Royal Navy paymaster. Hugh had one brother, Guy (1907-1978).

The 1921 census records Hugh Mainwaring Millett as a naval cadet at Rosyth near Edinburgh on HMS Thunderer, a decommissioned Orion class Dreadnought used a training ship.

He did well. In 1934, Hugh Millett, now an Engineer Officer with the rank of Lieutenant-Commander (roughly equivalent to an Army Major), joined the British Graham Land Expedition. This small group of sixteen men under the leadership of an Australian John Rymill , was the first full-scale British expedition to winter in the Antarctic since Shackleton’s expedition of 1914-1917. Graham Land is an Antarctic peninsula, the closest point to continental South America.

Research yacht Penola under sail from Southern lights; the official account of the British Graham Land expedition, 1934-1937 by John Rymill published 1938. Image from State Library of South Australia.

The seven members of the crew of S.Y. Penola. Lieutenant R E D Ryder was Captain and Lieutenant-Commander H Millett the chief engineer. To the right are the other nine members of British Graham Land Expedition
From Southern lights; the official account of the British Graham Land expedition, 1934-1937, by John Rymill published 1938. plate opp. pp. 28 and 28. Images from State Library of South Australia.

Hugh Millett was responsible for the expedition’s engines, an important and technically challenging task. A fellow member of the expedition described him as “a man of great mechanical ingenuity”, in the circumstances no doubt highly valued.

From the introduction to British Graham land expedition, 1934-37. Scientific reports volume 1:

THE British Graham Land Expedition, 1934-37, under the leadership of Mr. John Rymill, an Australian, was the first full-scale British Expedition to winter in the Antarctic since Shackleton’s men returned in 1916. It was mainly financed from funds at the disposal of the Colonial Office. In addition, it received substantial monetary help from the Royal Geographical Society and many private benefactors, chief amongst whom was Lord Wakefield.
The Expedition sailed in the three-masted topsail schooner, R.Y. Penola, of 150 tons nett, which was manned entirely by the members of the Expedition, who were all volunteers. The following in brief is the story of their travels. On 10 September, 1934, the Penola sailed from the Thames; a fortnight later she touched at Madeira and reached the Falkland Islands at the beginning of December. 
Port Stanley was left at the new year and the Argentine Islands on the west coast of Graham Land were finally reached on 14 February, 1935, after considerable trouble with the ship’s engines, troubles which had far-reaching effects on the Penola’s subsequent capabilities. At the Argentine Islands a base was established and there too the ship wintered.
Owing to poor winter ice conditions work during that first year was limited, apart from flights by a small Fox Moth aeroplane, to the islands and mainland coast within a hundred miles of the base. Then, in January 1936 the Penola, with the ship’s party on board, visited Deception Island. Her next task was to transport the whole Expedition in mid-February to the Debenham Islands in Marguerite Bay where a new base was erected. Here the shore party was left while the ship sailed north to the Falklands and South Georgia for a refit.
The main geographical work of the Expedition was carried out from this southern base between March 1936, and February 1937. The chief result of this part of the work was the proof of the peninsularity of Graham Land and the discovery of King George VI Sound.
The Penola returned to Marguerite Bay in February 1937, and the whole Expedition sailed for home.
A general narrative of the Expedition has been provided by its leader in his Southern Lights, published by Chatto & Windus in 1938.

Graham Land map from the State Library of South Australia

In 1939 members of the expedition including Hugh received the Polar Medal, awarded by the Sovereign, worn higher than campaign Medals and Stars. In 1955 a glacier was named after him.

from the UK, Naval Medal and Award Rolls. The Polar Medal is octagonal in shape and features an image of the monarch on the obverse. It’s accompanied by a clasp that’s placed on the ribbon of the medal in order to signify which region or regions service was completed.

The Millet Glacier from Google Maps

Hugh served in World War 2. He was mentioned in despatches in 1942 and received an O.B.E. in 1944 for distinguished service during the landings of Allied Forces in Normandy.

Hugh retired from the navy with the rank of Commander.

Related posts and further reading

• N is for Naval husbands: Hugh’s mother Helen was one of six daughters, five of whom including Helen married naval officers

• Rymill, John (1938) Southern Lights through archive.org
• Bertram, C., & Stephenson, A. (1985). Archipelago to Peninsula. The Geographical Journal, 151(2), 155–167. https://doi.org/10.2307/633530 
• TWO ANTARCTIC YEARS. (1937, August 28). The Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 – 1954), p. 12. Retrieved May 9, 2023, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article205576014

Wikitree:

• Hugh Mainwaring Millett (1903 – 1968)
• John Riddoch Rymill (1905 – 1968)

200th birthday of Wentworth Cavenagh 1822 – 1895

My great great grandfather Wentworth Cavenagh (1822 – 1895) was born 200 years ago on 13 November 1822 at Hythe, Kent, England to James Gordon Cavenagh and Ann Cavenagh nee Coates, the fifth of their eight children. He was baptised on 12 March 1823 at St Leonard’s, Hythe.

Wentworth’s father James Gordon, born Irish, was a surgeon of the Royal Staff Corps, an army engineering corps with its headquarters in Hythe, responsible in part for supervising the construction of static defence measures including the Royal Military Canal against Napoleon’s threatened invasion.

After their marriage in March 1815, the Cavenaghs lived at Hythe. In 1825 Cavenagh retired on half pay.

The Cavenagh family returned to Wexford in Ireland in 1837 and lived at Castle House. Wentworth Cavenagh attended the Ferns Diocesan School. It is believed he began training as a pharmacist in Wexford, but after the potato famine struck in the 1840s the economy was so bad he realised there was no future for him in Ireland and emigrated.

Wentworth Cavenagh emigrated to Canada, hoping to become a farmer there. He later moved to Ceylon to take up coffee-planting, then to Calcutta where he unsuccessfully sought a Government appointment. In 1852 he sailed from Calcutta to Australia and joined the gold rush to Bendigo then moved to South Australia to farm at Peachey Belt some twenty miles north of Adelaide.

Map of Wentworth Cavenagh’s travels

In 1863 Cavenagh was elected to the South Australian House of Assembly for the District of Yatala. He served in the Legislature for nineteen years, including period as Commissioner of Crown Lands from 1868 to 1870 in the Strangways Ministry, and Commissioner of Public Works from 1872 to 1873 in the Administration formed by Sir Henry Ayers. At the time Darwin was surveyed in 1869 Cavenagh was Commissioner of Crown Lands; a main street is named after him.

In 1865 at the age of 42 he married Ellen Mainwaring, the daughter of a neighbouring farmer. They had ten children.

Portrait of Wentworth Cavenagh, from the collection of a cousin

Wentworth Cavenagh returned to England in 1892. On his departure the Adelaide Evening Journal of 27 April 1892 published a brief biography:

PASSENGERS BY THE BALLAARAT.—The following. are the passengers booked to leave Adelaide by the Ballaarat to-day:—For London —Mr. and Mrs. Wentworth Cavenagh-Mainwaring, Misses Eva, May, Kathleen, Helen, Queenie, and Gertrude, and Master Hugh Cavenagh-Mainwaring, and Misses Herring, Schomburgk, and Horn. For Albany—Messrs. Green, Richards, and Radcliffe.

THE HON. WENTWORTH CAVENAGH-MAINWARING.—This gentleman, accompanied by his wife, six daughters, and one son, leaves by the Ballarat to-day for England, where he is about, to take up his residence at Whitmore Hall. He is a son of James Gordon Cavenagh, who was army surgeon in the Royal Staff Corps. He served in the army for thirty-five years, and went all through the Peninsula War. while he was also present at the Battle of Waterloo and the taking of Paris. He was a brother of General Sir Orfeur Cavenagh, K.C.S.I., lately deceased, who served in India in various campaigns, and who, as Town Major of Fort William, is supposed to have saved Calcutta during the mutiny. He was afterwards for several years Governor of the Straits Settlements. Another brother, General Gordon Cavenagh, served in various actions in China and India. The Hon. Wentworth Cavenagh-Mainwaring was born at Hyde, Kent, on November 13, 1822. He was educated at Ferns Diocesan School, County Wexford, Ireland, and when eighteen years of age he left home for Canada, where he was engaged for some years farming. He subsequently relinquished this occupation and started coffee planting in Ceylon. Afterwards he tried to obtain a Government appointment at Calcutta, but was unsuccessful. Attracted by a Government advertisement he came to Australia, arriving in Melbourne in 1852. Thence he went to the Bendigo diggings, and from there he came to South Australia and started farming at Peachy Belt. He stopped there for several years, and in 1863 was elected to Parliament with the late Hon. L. Glyde for the District of Yatala. For nineteen years he remained in the Legislature without a break, and during that period he was Commissioner of Crown Lands in the Strangways Ministry, and Commissioner of Public Works in the Administration formed by Sir Henry Ayers. In the elections of 1881 he was rejected when the Hon. D. Murray and Mr. Gilbert (the present member) were elected On February 16, 1865, he married Ellen Jane, the eldest daughter of Gordon Mainwaring, an officer in the East Indian Civil Service, who was at one time Inspector of Police in the early days of South Australia, and on the death of his father, Admiral Mainwaring, he succeeded to the family estates in Staffordshire. On the death of her brothers without heirs Mrs. Cavenagh-Mainwaring became entitled to the estates and adopted the name and arms of Mainwaring.

Wentworth Cavenagh died at the age of 72 in Southsea. He was buried in Whitmore, Staffordshire.

Related posts

• N is for neighbours
• W is for Wexford
• E is for Eden Park, home of Wentworth Cavenagh
• 1892 journey on the ”Ballaarat”

Wikitree: Wentworth (Cavenagh) Cavenagh-Mainwaring (1822 – 1895)

Remembering Wentworth Rowland Cavenagh-Mainwaring (1869 – 1933)

Wentworth Rowland Cavenagh-Mainwaring (1869 – 1933), an Adelaide surgeon, was my great grand uncle. He died 89 years ago on 27 June 1933.

He was the fourth of ten children of Wentworth Cavenagh and Ellen Cavenagh née Mainwaring. He was very close to his sister Kathleen, my great grandmother, and her husband, another surgeon, Arthur Murray Cudmore. My grandmother always remembered him fondly and knew him as Uncle Wenty.

Photograph from the Virtual War Memorial of Australia

Following his death the Adelaide newspapers published obituaries and reminiscences.

Obituary in the Adelaide Advertiser of 28 June 1933:

DEATH OF WAR SURGEON
Dr. Cavanagh-Mainwaring's Fine Record
CAREER OF SERVICE
One of Australia's most able war surgeons, Dr. W. R. Cavanagh-Mainwaring, died yesterday at Palmer place, North Adelaide. He was 64 and a bachelor. For about 25 years he was associated with the Adelaide Hospital, and from 1900, until he retired through ill-health about three years ago, had a practice on North terrace. He was one of the most distinguished of the many accomplished old boys of St Peter's College.
Conscientious skill and courage made Dr. Cavanagh-Mainwaring's war record one of many successes. He enlisted 15 days after the declaration of war, and finished his military work in 1919, being one of the few South Australian doctors to go through the whole of the campaign. While on duty he worked untiringly. No situation was too dangerous for him to tackle, and he became so attached to the 3rd Light Horse that he let chances of promotion pass so that he could remain with that unit. At one stage, when he was in hospital with an injured knee, he obtained transport to Cairo in a hospital ship, joined his regiment and went with it on an expedition as a passenger in a transport cart.

At Anzac
When he left South Australia on October 3, 1914, he was regimental medical officer to the 3rd Light Horse, a position he held until October, 1916. With this unit he reached Gallipoli in May, 1915, a few weeks after the landing, and remained until the evacuation. Late in 1916 he became attached to the 2nd Stationary Hospital in Egypt, which was in close touch with fighting at Magdaba and Rafa, and later moved to El Arish, where almost all of the casualties from the first two battles of Gaza were dealt with. From El Arish the 2nd Stationary Hospital was transferred to Moascar, and Dr. Cavanagh-Mainwaring went to the 14th General Hospital, first at Abassia and later at Port Said. In 1918 he returned to South Australia, but after a short leave returned to Egypt. For his work during the Gaza fighting he was mentioned in dispatches. He was also awarded the Order of the White Eagle, a decoration given by Serbia for good work in the common cause to specially chosen men in the service or the Allies. He left Australia with the rank of captain-surgeon, and returned as major-surgeon.

Academic Achievement
Dr. Cavanagh-Mainwaring's academic career was successful from the time he entered St. Peter's College until he earned the degree of F.R.C.S. He won many scholarships at St. Peter's, and passed at the first attempt every examination for which he sat, whether at college or university. His medical studies were begun at the University of Adelaide and finished in London.

He was a son of the late Mr. Wentworth Cavanagh-Mainwaring and Mrs. Cavanagh-Mainwaring, and was born at "Eden Park," Marryatville. Whitmore Hall Staffordshire, England was the property of his parents. It is now held by a brother, Mr. J. G. Cavanagh-Mainwaring. Mrs. A. M. Cudmore, wife of Dr. A. M. Cudmore, of North Adelaide, is a sister.

“Passing By” column from the Adelaide News of 28 June 1933:

Helping the Wounded
FEW men in the 1st Division of the A.I.F. were more loved, I was told today, than Dr. W. R. Cavanagh-Mainwaring, who has just died at the age of 64. Mr. H.M. Bidmeade, who was one of the first men in the British Empire to enlist (he wrote in offering his services in the event of war, on August 3, 1914), was closely associated with Dr Cavenagh-Mainwaring in Gallipoli and Egypt. He told me today that often the doctor, in his eagerness to help the wounded, had to be dragged out of the danger zone. On Gallipoli, when he had established rest bases for his men in one of the gullies, he would never stay with them and rest, but always hurried off to help the other front line doctors with the wounded. It didn't matter what the danger was, he would go anywhere to help the wounded.
Often, so Mr. Bidmeade said, he would be fixing up the wounded before the stretcher bearers arrived to carry them into safety. And whenever he found stretcher-bearers running short of food he would share his superior rations with them.
Saved From Grave
THERE is one man who, has to thank Dr. Cavanagh-Manwaring that he wasn't buried alive. It was at Quinn's Post, on Gallipoli. About 50 dead Australians and Turks were being temporarily buried in a big trench. The burying party was just going to cover up the bodies when Dr. Cavanagh-Mainwaring stopped them. "Take that man out," he said, pointing to an Australian. "I don't think he's dead. He wasn't. The doctor attended to him: and he re-recovered.

From the Adelaide Advertiser of 29 June 1933 page 10:

Out among the People
By Rufus.
Dr. Cavenagh-Mainwaring
YESTERDAY I met dozens of men who expressed regret at the passing of Dr. Cavenagh-Mainwaring. He was known to his friends as "Cavy," and he was loved by all who knew him. Members of the 3rd Light Horse swore by him. One of them said to me, "If ever a man earned the V.C. it was Dr. Mainwaring." A doctor pal of mine who was at the war said to me:—"Cavy should have been knighted for what he did at the war." Mr. Jacobs said:— "Cavy was a splendid character. Although he could express an opinion in a courageous way, I never heard him say a nasty thing about anyone. With all his worth and knowledge of life he was modest almost to a fault. He was first and last an English gentleman." Cavy was a wonderful mixer, and he always had regard for the under dog. In addition to all his other qualifications, he was one of the best bridge players in Adelaide. He was an excellent field shot, and he loved a good race-horse. In recent years he was motored to the races by Joe Netter, who is at present touring the East with Mrs. Netter. Joe and his wife will be sorry to hear of the passing of their old friend.

From the Adelaide Chronicle 13 July 1933:

The "Old Doc" And His Spurs"
ONE of the Old 3rd,' Glenelg, writes: —'Dear Rufus— The passing of Dr. Cavenagh-Mainwaring will be regretted by all members of the old 3rd Light Horse Regiment. He was a lovable old chap, and long hours on duty meant nothing to him. He had a habit of leaving his spurs attached to his boots on retiring, and as he often conducted the 7 a.m. sick parade in his pyjamas, the spurs looked a little out of place, and did not meet with the approval of his batman. As was usually the case with the rigid discipline of the A.I.F., the batman often issued the orders to his superior. In this case (so the story went at the time) the batman was heard to say to the old Doc. one morning. 'Haven't I told you often enough not to wear those damned spurs with your pyjamas?' Doc, rather sheepishly, explained he did not know he had them on, to which the batman replied, 'Well, if you're not more careful in the future I'll hide the cows on you, and you won't have any at all.' This was a great joke among some of the boys."

Wentworth Cavenagh-Mainwaring (right) at Gallipoli with his brother-in-law, Arthur Murray Cudmore, also a surgeon from Adelaide. The seated man is probably Bronte Smeaton, a fellow doctor from Adelaide.

RELATED POSTS:

• Sepia Saturday: First World War faces – Wentworth Rowland Cavenagh-Mainwaring at Gallipoli
• German flag from Fast Hotel Jerusalem

Wikitree:

• Wentworth Rowland (Cavenagh) Cavenagh-Mainwaring (1869 – 1933)

Portmore Lodge, Cheltenham

Yesterday when I wrote about the 1921 census record for my great great uncle J G (Gordon) Cavenagh-Mainwaring, I remarked that I could find no trace of Poolmore Lodge, the Cheltenham house of my great great uncle J.G. Cavenagh-Mainwaring.

Today, however, in digitised newspapers available through Findmypast, I discovered what I think is the explanation. ‘Portmore’ was mistranscribed as ‘Poolmore’ on the 1921 census record.

The Gloucestershire Echo of 2 October 1920, for example, lists Mrs Cavenagh-Mainwaring of Portmore Lodge as a member of the Local Save the Children Famine Fund Committee. 

Returning to the image on the cover of the 1921 census return for the Cavenagh-Mainwaring family it was clear that the address can indeed be read as Poolmore Lodge. The handwriting is poor; it would have been easy to make the mistake.

Front of 1921 census return by J G Cavenagh-Mainwaring (retrieved from FindMyPast: Archive series RG 15 Piece number 12175 Schedule number 117 Schedule type code E Schedule type England household, single page, 10 entries District reference RD 333 RS 2 ED 38)

There is still  a Portmore Lodge, now divided into flats, on St Georges Road Cheltenham. A two-bedroom apartment on the top floor was sold in the last few years. I found an advertisement for it at
<https://charleslear.co.uk/property/st-georges-road-cheltenham/> through a Google search. 

Portmore Lodge is at 97 St George’s Road. The advertisement says it was built in about 1830 and was the residence of the first Mayor of Cheltenham. It was converted into a small number of self-contained apartments in 2003. The real estate describes it as:

Standing on the crest of the hill on St. George’s road alongside a row of similar detached villas, Portmore is within 5 minutes’ walk of the vibrant Montpellier district which offers a range of bespoke boutiques, restaurants, hotels and bars. Cheltenham’s Promenade is also within a short stroll as is Waitrose. There are a range of excellent schools in close proximity including Airthrie, Cheltenham Ladies’ College and Dean Close whilst Cheltenham Spa Railway Station is within walking distance just 1 mile away and the M5 motorway junction is only 2 miles distant.

https://charleslear.co.uk/property/st-georges-road-cheltenham/

(Waitrose and the motorway obviously postdate the 1921 residential experience of the Cavenagh-Mainwaring family.)

97 St Georges Road Cheltenham as photographed by Google street view in December 1921.

In Whitmore Hall From 1066 to Waltzing Matilda Christine Cavenagh-Mainwaring (wife of the grandson of JG C-M) wrote that the  J.G. Cavenagh-Mainwaring family moved to Cheltenham in 1917 in order to be nearer to schools for the children. The oldest son Rafe went to Cheltenham College; the two girls, Joan and Mary, went to Cheltenham Ladies’ College; and the second son Maurice went to Dartmouth Naval College (250 km away in Devon!). Cheltenham College was a mile and the Ladies’ College only a third of a mile from the house.

Gordon Cavenagh-Mainwaring from Whitmore Hall: from 1066 to Waltzing Matilda

The Cavenagh-Mainwaring family lived in Cheltenham from about 1918 to December 1928 when they moved to Whitmore Hall, a story for another post.

I am pleased to have found the Cheltenham house. The England & Wales census transcripts can be amended, so I have decided to submit corrections to the transcript. The poor Poms have had a dreadful time at the cricket lately; I will be glad to do my little bit to lift their morale.

Correction of transcription errors for the 1921 census on FindMyPast

Sources:

• 1921 census return by J G Cavenagh-Mainwaring (retrieved from FindMyPast: Archive series RG 15 Piece number 12175 Schedule number 117 Schedule type code E Schedule type England household, single page, 10 entries District reference RD 333 RS 2 ED 38)
• Cavenagh-Mainwaring, Christine and Britton, Heather, (editor.) Whitmore Hall : from 1066 to Waltzing Matilda. Adelaide Peacock Publications, 2013. Page 129.
• Advertisement for Flat 5 Portmore Lodge https://charleslear.co.uk/property/st-georges-road-cheltenham/

Related post: 1921 census return for JG Cavenagh-Mainwaring and family

Wikitree:

• James Gordon (Cavenagh) Cavenagh-Mainwaring (1865 – 1938)

1921 census return for JG Cavenagh-Mainwaring and family

Today Findmypast published indexes and digitised images of the 1921  Census of England & Wales.

The census was taken on 19 June 1921. Thirty-eight million people in eight and a half million households were surveyed. Household by household the census recorded the number of rooms, the occupants’ age, birthplace, occupation and usual residence, their place of work, and their employer. For the first time the census gave ‘divorced’ as an option for marital status.

To try it out I searched the Findmypast 1921 census records for my great  great uncle, James Gordon Cavenagh-Mainwaring (1865-1938), whom I knew  was living in England at the time.

Screenshot of search results from FindMyPast

Only six people were recorded with that surname, all of them in the same household: Gordon, his wife and their four children. The return for their household has these six family members and two young servants. Their house had 14 rooms.

Image of 1921 census return for James Gordon Cavenagh Mainwaring retrieved from FindMyPast: Archive series RG 15 Piece number 12175 Schedule number 117 Schedule type code E Schedule type 
England household, single page, 10 entries District reference RD 333 RS 2 ED 38

The address is not given, so I downloaded a copy of the original transcript. It was recorded as Poolmore Lodge, St Georges Road, Cheltenham. The transcript came with a useful historical map.

Historical map provided with the 1921 census result for JG Cavenagh-Mainwaring

The transcript did contain some minor errors, for example St Georges Road had been mis transcribed in one instance as “Nr Gloyes Road”, and the person making the return was “Major Maireveaing”.

Linked to the main image of the return were extra materials which were related images:

• the front of the return which had the address and the name of the person making the return
• the cover of the book containing the return
• census collector pages
  • a map of the district (in this instance noted as wanting at the time the records were transferred to the Public Record Office in 1977)
  • notes describing the district – the boundary and streets within the district

A search on Google  gives no results for Poolmore Lodge, but Google streetview shows that though some houses in the area appear to date from 1921 there has also  been some redevelopment: the Cavenagh-Mainwaring house probably no longer exists. (Update Have found Portmore Lodge was mis transcribed – see later post Portmore Lodge, Cheltenham. Coincidentally the house appears in the Google street view I screenshotted – it is the darker house one house in from the right.)

Google Streetview of St Georges Road, Cheltenham.

To recover the costs of digitisation and indexing, Findmypast charges  for retrieving records. It cost me AU$5.94 to view the image and another AU$4.32 for the transcript.

Looking at the English census household return gave me a good sense of James Gordon Cavenagh-Mainwaring’s family at that time. Unfortunately this sort of information is not available in Australia, where individual census returns are destroyed. By 1921 most of my family lived in Australia, but so far as census records are concerned I now know a little more about my English uncle.

Wikitree:

• James Gordon (Cavenagh) Cavenagh-Mainwaring (1865 – 1938)

Travelling north with lunch at Whitmore

On Wednesday 8 May we drove north from Bath, calling in at the village of Whitmore in Staffordshire, near Stoke-on-Trent, to visit some of my cousins. On the way we stopped at Tewkesbury, near Cheltenham in Gloucestershire, to look at the abbey there. From Whitmore we went on to West Didsbury near Manchester, our next base.

One of my fifteenth great grandfathers, William Vaux (1435 – 1471), who fought in the War of the Roses for the Red Rose of Lancaster, was killed at the Battle of Tewkesbury on 4 May 1471. He is said to have been buried at the Abbey, but I have been unable to find any record of this in the Abbey archives, and the list of inscriptions in the Tewkesbury Abbey church does not mention his name. This didn’t matter, for if you had an untraceable ancestor said to have been buried somewhere you couldn’t do better than not have him in Tewkesbury. It’s a lovely old church, said to be the one of the finest Norman abbeys in England.

 

We drove on to Whitmore and had lunch and an edifying chat with my cousins about Brexit, which turns out to be a plot to deprive England of its sovereignty, like 1066. At least one Australian present was reminded of the joke about a headline in an English newspaper that read, ‘Fog in Channel. Continent cut off’. On the other hand, the German car we had hired was showing unmistakable signs of having been designed and assembled by a committee of bureaucrats in Brussels, so who knows?

The Eureka flag was flying, a present we had sent to England some time previously. There is a family connection other than cousins from Ballarat; a Cudmore cousin fought at Eureka (on the Government side).

Lunch was served on the family’s Minton china, commissioned by my great uncle Rafe Cavenagh-Mainwaring (1906 – 1995), a copy of a setting that his great great grandfather (my fourth great grandfather) Rowland Mainwaring (1783 – 1862) had ordered. Time moves slowly in the pottery towns, and Minton apparently still had the records from the first commission to run up a second one. When you got to the bottom of your plate, there was the family crest, an ass’s head on a crown. The motto is ‘Devant si je puis’ [Forward if I Can], a useful reminder to wait for the next course.

We had a tour of the house and stables and saw many family portraits. The house, now listed with Historic Houses, is open to the public. Our guide seemed very knowledgeable on the family history. In one or two places a section of the modern wall had been removed to expose the original structure. This had an interesting consequence. Breaching the wall had allowed a ghostly lady from an earlier era playing ghostly old music to wander into the present. There has been a house on the same site for over 900 years and it has belonged to the same family since the time of the Domesday Book in 1086, so I suppose you’d expect an apparition or two.

 

 

 

My fourth great grandfather Rowland Mainwaring kept a diary, now stored and displayed in an upstairs sitting room. Several volumes have been stolen unfortunately, probably souvenired by visitors. While we were at Whitmore my son Peter photographed some pages of the diary for me, including, sadly, the last entry, written by Rowland Mainwaring on the day he died.

 

 

Before we left we visited the churchyard and some family graves.

 

 

Related post

• D is for Domesday

D is for Domesday

It’s hard to answer the question `Where is your family from?’. People move, which part of the family are we talking about?, and how far back do you want to go?

However, one line of my descent that goes back a long way very definitely has had an enduring association with a particular place for many centuries. The place is Whitmore, a Staffordshire manor. Where am I from? I can say that my family is from Whitmore.

A watercolour painting of Whitmore Hall which was probably owned by Kathleen Cudmore nee Cavenagh-Mainwaring, my great grandmother. My father now has the picture.

My paternal grandmother’s mother’s side of the family have lived at Whitmore for nearly a thousand years. The estate has remained in the family since the Domesday Book was compiled in 1086, in the reign of William the Conqueror. The inheritance has sometimes passed through the female line, most recently to my great great grandmother Ellen Cavenagh nee Mainwaring (1845 – 1920). My father’s first cousin is now the 34th Hereditary Lord of Whitmore. Thirty-four generations have inherited Whitmore since a Saxon called Ulfac owned Whitmore and was usurped after the Battle of Hastings by a Norman knight who had supported William.

The Domesday Book was a survey of England answering the questions:

How many hundreds of hides were in the shire, what land belonged to the
king himself and what stock upon the land? What dues did the king have
by the year from the shire?

Whitmore is the second entry of Staffordshire page 10. The tenant in chief was Richard the forester.

The Open Domesday Project has transcribed the information about Whitmore:

• Hundred: Pirehill
• County: Staffordshire
• Total population: 5 households (very small).
• Total tax assessed: 0.5 geld units (dry small).
• Taxable units: Taxable value 0.5 geld units.
• Value: Value to lord in 1086 £0.5.
• Households: 3 villagers. 2 smallholders.
• Ploughland: 3 ploughlands (land for). 1 lord’s plough teams. 1 men’s plough teams.
• Other resources: Meadow 1 acres. Woodland 1 * 0.5 leagues.
• Lord in 1066: Ulfac or alternatively spelt  Wulfheah.
• Lord in 1086: Nigel (of Stafford).
• Tenant-in-chief in 1086: Richard the forester.
• Phillimore reference: 13,2

The name Richard the forester, the tenant in chief was associated with no places before the Conquest and 21 after the Conquest. There may have been more than one man who bore that title but all the places associated with the name are either in Staffordshire or neighbouring Warwickshire.

In 1212 during the reign of King John there was a Great Inquest of Service. Randolph de Knutton held Whitmore with other land and paid £4. 11s. 6d. of “antient right”, that is, from the Conquest of England. It is thought that Ralph de Knutton was the lineal heir or co-heir of Richard the forester.

In the 1930s my great great uncle James Gordon Cavenagh-Mainwaring (1865-1938) wrote a family history of Whitmore, supported by the citations of original deeds and documents. These he later deposited in the Staffordshire archives

• Reference: D 1743
• Description: Staffs (Whitmore, Biddulph, etc) deeds, family and estate papers
• Date: 13th cent-20th cent
• Held by: Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Archive Service: Staffordshire 
  County Record Office
• NRA catalogue reference: NRA 25297 Cavenagh-Mainwaring

My much read copy of “The Mainwarings of Whitmore and Biddulph in the County of Stafford. An account of the family, and its connections by marriage and descent; with special reference to the Manor of Whitmore. ” This copy had been owned by my grandmother. The book was written by her uncle James Gordon Cavenagh-Mainwaring and published about 1935.

Whitmore is one of very few properties in England that have not been sold in the last 933 years. One of my cousins wrote to me, “I was told some time ago that there are only nine estates in the same family since the Domesday book, that have never been sold. I read since then that one of them had been sold, so I suppose there are only eight.”

I look forward to visiting Whitmore again in May and seeing my cousins there.

Related posts

• Burke’s family records can be wrong
• Trove Tuesday: Obituary for Admiral Mainwaring
• A shipboard romance aboard the SS Ballaarat
• N is for Naval husbands
• A quiet wedding in Staffordshire
• Family stories

Sources

• Cavenagh-Mainwaring, James Gordon The Mainwarings of Whitmore and Biddulph in the County of Stafford. An account of the family, and its connections by marriage and descent; with special reference to the Manor of Whitmore. J.G. Cavenagh-Mainwaring, about 1935
• Cavenagh-Mainwaring, Christine and Britton, Heather, (editor.) Whitmore Hall : from 1066 to Waltzing Matilda. Adelaide Peacock Publications, 2013.
• https://opendomesday.org/place/SJ8140/whitmore/

Trove Tuesday: 35 years ago

It is disconcerting to see personal experiences fading into the historical past.

Yesterday, 18 February, was my wedding anniversary; Greg and I have been married for 35 years.

My memories, of course, are of the church, the bells, the gown and so forth, while the historical fact is now an item in the National Library’s digitised collection of Australian newspapers (most cease at 1956, but the Canberra Times, where our wedding news was reported, has been digitised up to 1995).

(1984, February 19). The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 – 1995), p. 18 (SUNDAY EDITION). Retrieved February 19, 2019, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article116390954

In the newspaper wedding photograph I am wearing a Honiton lace veil that my grandmother wore at her wedding and was worn by various ladies of the Cavenagh-Mainwaring family. My English cousins kindly sent it to Australia for me to continue the tradition.

Greg and me on our wedding day with his nieces Cassandra and Jodie and my cousin Vanessa.

Me on my wedding day with the veil

my grandmother Kathleen Cudmore on her wedding day 10 June 1933

Yesterday, 35 years later, Greg and I had lunch with friends and spent an enjoyable afternoon at the National Gallery of Victoria. These events will not reach the newspapers, though perhaps this blog might help to make them discoverable, a (very little) part of history.

Greg at the National Gallery of Victoria on our wedding anniversary

Q is for Queenie

My great great aunt Alice Magee née Mainwaring formerly Cavenagh-Mainwaring (1879-1952) was known as Queenie.

Alice was the ninth of ten children of Wentworth Cavenagh (1822-1895) and his wife Ellen Jane Cavenagh née Mainwaring (1845-1920).

The family lived in Adelaide, South Australia, two miles from the city centre in the suburb of Marryatville. Wentworth Cavenagh was a member of the South Australian Parliament, elected in 1862 to represent Yatala, part of the Adelaide metropolitan area north of the River Torrens. He served as Commissioner for Crown Lands and Immigration from 1868 to 1870 and Commissioner of Public Works from 1872 to 1873.

In 1887 Alice and some of her sisters attended a children’s fancy dress ball. A photographer took pictures of many of the children in their costumes. Alice, aged 8, was dressed as “Wee Wifie”. (Wee Wifie was a novel for children by Rosa Nouchette Carey first published in 1869.)

Queenie Cavenagh : age 8 dressed as ‘Wee Wifie’. Part of Children’s Fancy Dress Ball, 1887 Collection. Image from the State Library of South Australia B 7723/72

 

In 1892 the family surname was changed, and the name and arms of Mainwaring was assumed in addition to Cavenagh in acknowledgement of Ellen’s inheritance of the family property of  Whitmore in Staffordshire. In 1892 when Alice was 13 the family left Australia for England. Whitmore was leased and the family settled at Southsea near Portsmouth in the south of England.

A cousin has told me that Queenie and Gertrude, known as Kiddie, the two youngest children were sent to school in France, possibly because it was cheaper than England.

 

My grandmother wrote on the back of the photograph that it was taken in 1908 and the names: Back row, left to right: Queenie Magee; Kate Cudmore; Nellie Millet Middle row, L to R: Eva Gedge; May Gillett Front centre: Kiddie Bennett

 

In 1911 Alice and Gertrude, neither of whom had yet married, were living with their mother in Southsea.

Alice married William Edward Blackwood (Bill) Magee (1886-1981) on 14 August 1913 at St Simons, Southsea.

In December 1910, W.E.B. Magee gave his future mother-in-law a book of the first two operas of the Ring Cycle.

In 1917 and again in 1918, as Lieutenant Commander, William Magee was mentioned in dispatches as part of the honours for the Destroyers of the Harwich Force. In 1920, for services in the Baltic in 1919, Lieut.-Cdr. William Edward Blackwood Magee, R.N. was made Companion of the Distinguished Service Order, for distinguished services in command of H.M.S. Watchman.  William Edward Blackwood Magee became a Captain in 1929.

Alice and Bill had two children, Richard (1915-1937) and Jean, known as Moll (1917-1996).

Between the wars Alice and Bill lived in Dinan, France.  Dinan, a spa town in Brittany, had a thriving colony of English expatriates. Alice and Bill’s daughter Moll wrote a book about their time there.

On 20 January 1937, Richard Magee, a sub-lieutenant on HMS Anthony, was
lost overboard and drowned in the Gulf of Lion. He was only 21.

In 1939, at the outbreak of World War 2, the National Register, a census, was compiled in the United Kingdom. At the time of the 1939 register, Bill, by then a retired Naval officer was in Hastings, Moll was a volunteer and living with her aunt May Gillett and May’s children in Dorset (Mabel known as May 1868-1944 had married Francis Gillett but had been widowed in 1938.)

Alice is not on the 1939 register, presumably because she was still in France in 1939.

During World War 2 Bill went back into the navy.

Robert Capa, the war photographer was on board the Magee’s ship when he was in command of a convoy crossing the Atlantic. Magee was the commodore in charge of the convoy.

W.E.B. Magee photographed by Robert Capa. Magazine of 13 June 1942 annotated “Mrs Magee”.

Commodore Magee DSO, RNR first greeted me with “Now, don’t expect any scoops for your blasted photography on this trip! Our job is not to fight but to run and dodge. We’d rather have a hundred freighters safe in port than a hundred Victoria Crosses any day”.

Capa continues Commodore Magee retired in 1933 and in August 1939 he was figuring on redecorating the little house in Dinan where he had lived for eight years and meant to settle there indefinitely. Bill asked how it felt to be back at sea said – “After eight year’s retirement, the first time I was on the bridge I felt just like Toscanini would feel if, after eight year’s rest, he returned to the concert platform – looking around, discovered an orchestra responding as well as any he had conducted before”

In 1945 Captain (Commodore second class, R.N.R.) William Edward Blackwood Magee, D.S.O., R.N. (Ret.), was appointed Commander of the Military Division of the Order of the British Empire for Distinguished Service in the War in Europe.

On 6 April 1952 Alice, of Rosecroft, Titchfield, Hampshire, died aged 76. She outlived seven of her siblings.

On 3 April 1981 Captain William Edward Blackwood Magee, CBE, DSO, RN, retired, died at Fordingbridge, Hampshire. He was 94.

The photo album of Queen Cavenagh-Mainwaring now in the possession of a cousin

Queenie

Queenie

Related posts

• N is for Naval husbands
• Trove Tuesday: Kathleen Cavenagh dressed for a children’s ball in 1887
• E is for Eden Park, home of Wentworth Cavenagh
• A Christmas Gift
• 1892 journey on the Ballaarat
• A shipboard romance aboard the SS Ballaarat

Sources

• Name change from Cavenagh to Cavenagh-Mainwaring London Gazette March 4 1892 page 1274
• 1911 census retrieved through ancestry.com Class: RG14; Piece: 5551; Schedule Number: 147
• William Magee’s career:
  • London Gazette 22 June 1917 and Edinburgh Gazette 25 February 1919
  • Edinburgh Gazette 10 March 1920
  • London Gazette 7 December 1945
  • 1939 Navy List
• Death of Richard Magee: “Deaths.” Times [London, England] 27 Jan. 1937: 1. The Times Digital Archive.
• 1939 register retrieved through FindMyPast
  • William E B Magee 09 Jul 1886 Male Capt Royal Navy Retired Married schedule 93 sub schedule 16 address 28, 30, 31 Eversfield Place , Hastings C.B., Sussex, England
  • Jean M Magee [Moll] 26 May 1917 Female Volunteer W 2061340 Dorset C St A Single 114 4 address Conygar , Dorchester R.D., Dorset, England. At the same house were Mabel A Gillett [nee Cavenagh-Mainwaring] Anne M Barrett [nee Gillett] and Michael C Gillett.
• Death of Bill Magee: Brief obituaries Times, 11 Apr. 1981, p. 14. The Times Digital Archive, http://tinyurl.galegroup.com/tinyurl/6MW6n6.
• I am grateful to my cousin Gay Doggart for the images of the photo album of Queenie Cavenagh-Mainwaring and some pictures of Queenie from within. Also for the image of Commodore Magee on the cover of the Illustrated magazine.

Further Information

• information about Dinan – The English Colony by Diane Moore published in 2017
• Alex Kershaw (1 July 2002). Blood and Champagne. Pan Macmillan UK. p. 143. ISBN 978-1-74328-434-6. Mentions Capa’s journey across the Atlantic in 1942 in a convoy commanded by Magee.
• Robert Capa colour photograph of Commodore Magee on an Allied convoy across the Atlantic from the U.S. to England
• Richard Woodman (6 July 2011). The Real Cruel Sea: The Merchant Navy in the Battle of the Atlantic 1939-1943. Pen and Sword. pp. 565–. ISBN 978-1-84468-975-0. Mentions that a convoy led by Commodore Magee consisted of 48 merchant ships under the protection of a rather mixed A3 sport Group.
• Convoys commanded by Magee include Convoy ON 166 in February 1943

 

 

E is for Eden Park, home of Wentworth Cavenagh

My great great grandfather Wentworth Cavenagh (1822-1895) was a member of the South Australian Parliament, elected in 1862 to represent Yatala, part of the Adelaide metropolitan area north of the River Torrens. He served as Commissioner for Crown Lands and Immigration from 1868 to 1870 and Commissioner of Public Works from 1872 to 1873.

 

Portrait of Wentworth Cavenagh, member for Yatala. This is one of 36 portraits of members of the South Australian House of Assembly, 1872-1875, in a composite compiled in 1872 (Picture from State Library of South Australia reference B1288-38)

James Shaw, oil-on-canvas painting ‘South Australian Parliament; the House of Assembly‘, c. 1867. Painting in the collection of the Art Gallery of South Australia. I am not certain which of the parliamentarians portrayed is Wentworth Cavenagh.

Wentworth Cavenagh had arrived in South Australia in January 1853 on the Queen of Sheba. On 16 February 1865 he married Ellen Jane Mainwaring (1845-1920) at St Paul’s Church, Adelaide. They had ten children.

The Cavenagh family lived at a house called Eden Park in Marryatville two  miles from the city centre. Their oldest daughter Eva was born there in 1867. Their first child, James Gordon Cavenagh, had been born at Norwood in December 1865.

St Matthews Church is close to Eden Park. The Cavenaghs were involved in fundraising for the church. My grandmother, Kate (1874-1951), was running the bran pie (lucky dip) when she was 12. This was the beginning of a long career in fundraising for good causes.

 

CHURCH NEWS. (1886, December 13). The South Australian Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1858 – 1889), p. 6. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article37164097

St Matthew’s Church Marryatville

In 1892 Ellen Cavenagh inherited the Mainwaring estate at Whitmore in Staffordshire, and the family left South Australia for England. The house at Eden Park was sold. With it went the grounds covering 21 acres and a tennis court and stables.

Advertising (1892, March 9). South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA : 1839 – 1900), p. 8. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article48219128

In 1900 the house was purchased by Thomas Roger Scarfe who pulled down most of the old home and rebuilt it. Today the house is the Year 11 and 12 centre for Marryatville High School.

Marryatville High School occupies the grounds of Eden Park

The stables are now the music centre

The house, which is not the one the Cavenagh family lived in as this was built in 1900 by the Scarfe family, is now the year 11 and 12 centre.

Related posts

• Trove Tuesday: Kathleen Cavenagh dressed for a children’s ball in 1887
• 1892 journey on the Ballaarat
• A shipboard romance aboard the SS Ballaarat
• N is for Naval husbands
• F is for fundraising