Ancestry and True Tales

Enlarged PHOTOGRAPHS of paintings by George Ernest GORDON  :  good copies sent to family spring 2012 AD  - several sent earlier years :

Also some old family photographs - 1-15A
 
And photo-copy of GEG original paintings … `SNOW` given to his grand-daughter Greta Ransom, and `FLOWERS Thorpe garden in blue pot chosen by Georges-ANDRE Colonel MALRAUX = gift of sisters of his wife Mary Helena Gordon, Bessie & Annie Misses Williams 1947 :   and 3 paintings given by cousin Eileen Gordon 1989 to Greta Frobisher Weddell RANSOM Whitehead, Victoria-Augusta Gordon Williams Rathbone Whitehead, & little Peter Rathbone Ransom Gordon Williams Whitehead …    



14  Paintings of George Ernest GORDON -
born 1868 married Mary Helena Carroll Williams 1890 at Manchester `Polka Dot wedding` of Manchester newspapers :  his elder brother Frederick Henry Gordon learned painting from a fashionable Master - young George learned by sitting by his brother  ( he exhibited painting of daughter Betty Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 1939 … )  


1.    Farmyard, oil/ George Ernest Gordon/for size & details ask John Gordon Ransom  - damage from damp wartime  :   given to John Gordon Ransom b 16 August 1935 by his mother Teresa Elizabeth Gordon born 24 Nov. 1906 (1932 Mrs F.J. RANSOM ) she is put to a well-known London Riding School age 6 and a half years - at 14 years rode as female jockey for Earl of Athlone, a kind man who helped save her foot from amputation when age 16 she had been reckless taking a spirited horse into a town … thrown at a lamp post her foot for 2 weeks was feared to be amputation - Jockey Club banned her for safety of everyone - female jockeys were few and this was the first serious offence - because of her age they banned her :   Her father loved horses, and all nature - did his sketches from life when he could …



2.     3 horses, oil/guache / George Ernest Gordon/  horses drinking … oil - possibly Eileen gave it to a Police Society … ?   
NB :  Letter from Jennifer Potter Hat`Jiaggelis 8th May 2011 -
 `… grandfather`s excellent painting of three horses drinking water from a trough was in my Mother`s hands, and then given to Richard, so the painting is at Silverstone`  (family of R.P wife and twin sons-grandchildren …)
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MEMORANDUM :    ( NB :   size 18 inches by 11 inches ? - this is, having seen it once, Eileen holding it for me to photograph in her garden 1989   approx. same as ` FLOWERS 1928 in garden at Thorpe-le-Soken` /  =  FLOWERS  painting given by Bessie & Annie Misses Williams to Colonel Georges-Andre Malraux 1947/chosen by himself for the ancient house Holland-on-Sea that Army Captain Frederick John RANSOM and his family were coming to restore and build a HIGH STUDY with VIEW of SEA for ANDRE MALRAUX =   Family history from a life begun a week 17th April-21st April … then swept away by the violent family member and her bastard 1924 and her noble fiends … all at Robberies from the great worldwide family Estate GROTE HOMES and RANSOM `Joyous Venture` Estate in 3 Parts administered USA and ARGENTINE, ASIA  :  

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 NNB :    NECESSARY FAMILY HISTORY of the ONE MEMBER often criminally insane with violence :     disturbances by  Teresa Gordon Ransom & her bastard of 1924 Ed du Cann halted matters MAY 1947  :   Decision to give painting to Greta R.W. by he and Annie Agnes Carroll Williams after death of Bessie for The Pillar House HARWELL 1968   :   MALRAUX French Man of Letters calls BESSIE & ANNIE 1970, The Pillar House Harwell,   ` MY INTELLECTUAL EQUALS, Peter … my Aunts - for this is my family too`   :   c 1972/3 … Two paintings that she specifically ordered be delivered to GRETA `Flowers in garden of Thorpe` and `GOING TO CHURCH IN THE SNOW`  delivered to The Pillar House by RICHARD POTTER after the death of  Annie = he told by Cousin Julie Butler of intention of Annie & Andre … they had to be got off Teresa Gordon Mrs Ransom who had them in the upstairs flat 57 Oxford Crescent Clacton ,,, Richard said to me Greta,  his Dad and Win had helped him get them off `Aunt Terry` your mother … she said she would deliver them … Dad said I was to bring them to you at The Pillar House …`  

…  I was amazed to receive the two paintings - ANNIE had remembered that they were to go to a house in a life entered into 17th April 1947 … Bessie and she present in church and at the tea afterwards - Annie in her dark green straw bonnet with bramble leaves and flowers on, of course, made by her sister Mary Helena 8 years a trained Milliner …  Annie had remembered what should have been - even after Teresa attacked her June 1968  - my visit with the new born Victoria-Augusta (named after the Ancient Roman 2nd Legion   =

 1968 June - Annie is speaking the forbidden name -   She says ` ANDRE  has no sons`   as she held Victoria 2 months old in her arms  :    From the house of Rita and John,  Teresa Gordon R. escorted us like a Nazi Camp Guard having tried stop me calling on Great Aunt Annie - she now surged forward like a big mad rearing horse … calling to JGR who had his car parked outside the house - he had brought Teresa on her orders - I with my new family insisted that big Peter drive us to `Stella Maris` - I have been told by other family members `to call on ANNIE as she is lonely since the death of BESSIE`   :   Teresa thundered over her shoulder to JGR   ` the OLD FOOL - the OLD FOOL`  …  Quick get them away from here at once …
`
1968 :   Teresa Gordon R, who has made life HELL for Andre Malraux and staff and me, at St Edmund House, 50 Lancaster Gate Square, 1957-1959 … is still speaking of  `your bloody father -
…. I had to marry beneath me` … …
… The young of the families have grown up, on advice of Elders, not knowing her terrible violent past - but she is allowed to insult and run down me … She has acquired a new name since the 1950s to hide TERESA E. GORDON of the big Old Bailey Case 1926/27 and her 6 years imprisonment Sentence … the 1941/42 Prison sentence is to be hidden too … Her new name is  `Terry Ransom`=  

She has 2 long prison terms 1920s & 1940s - and many, many,  2-nights in cell Emergency Police Arrests 1932 - 1954 … always FOR VIOLENCE :     Here it is June 1968 and she dragged her Aunt Annie Miss Williams born 1880 by her arm up to her own door `Stella Maris` a HOLY HOUSE -    ((( this is the violent niece who hit Bessie on her head and stole the gold cross her father made for her mother TERESA CARROLL after Bessie and Annie had given her a tea party for her 16th birthday !  November 1922 … THIS IS THE REAL HISTORY OF THE FAMILY PROBLEM …
 
1968 June - this violent ex-con is hissing   `AUNTIE AUNTIE … I want to speak with you - A WORD WITH YOU  !!!  `    Annie looked so startled … big Peter swiftly said we would leave and I should not have bothered the old lady …   Amanda and Paul noticed, did not forget,  and said  `Grandma` almost knocked the old lady Aunt Annie over … then we had to leave without seeing the house with the gold piano and the painting on the stairs you said was promised you when a little girl …`   

((( (  … The painting is `Going to Church in the SNOW `  - it delights everybody - it is described as cosy/memorable/Christmas feeling and other phrases - I have sent prints, double the size, to the family and many friends who have asked for a copy … I never thought I would receive it - thank you Cousin RICHARD for daring to enter THE GATES OF HELL …  I am sending copies double size to the CARE HOMES where Esther is now spring 2012 - they say they will be delighted to receive the work of a local Clacton painter … ))))


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2  continued …  THE 3 HORSES oil/gauche  - bought by Nellie nee MAXTED Mrs Arthur Gordon married 1919/1920 =  & given to our eldest cousin Eileen Gordon daughter of Arthur Gordon born 1891 in Southern Ireland, first child of George & Mary Gordon  (  EILEEN worked all her life for Reuters Fleet Street - 42 & half years employment)   

Seen and photographed by Greta Ransom Whitehead 1989/ I have a photo of Eileen holding the painting/  I believe she said she was giving it to a Police Society/? …    Cousin Eileen Gordon said Grandfather loved horses and animals and could not be bothered to paint people but the tiny human figures in his landscapes are real people he knew there … her mother Nellie nee Maxstead, Birmingham area, would commission her father-in-law GEG to paint flower pieces and she would buy from him anything he might sell … she had bought a wall full of them from father-in-law George but would give an occasional painting as a present, birthday or wedding,  if it were admired …

… Eileen said Grandfather Gordon always had a painting on the easel … the last one was drying for my birthday - Grandpa painted me, grand-daughter Greta Ransom,  some baby ducks in a tiny pool that we had seen on one of our walks : his daughter Teresa my mother did not like it - he was not famous she said  …

… this was the last painting before his early death March 1937 … my mother destroyed the painting - it is only in my memory … ( a little pool, trees over-hanging the background and dipping into the pool & tiny ducks paddling … for my 4th birthday 11.3. 1937 - MALRAUX & Josette came for 6 weeks that summer & this helped Granny Gordon Mary Helena cope with her widowhood … www.greta-ransom.com `a scaffolding of 20th century history & PAST PRESENT and FUTURE … 3,000 pps plus pictures are appreciated by historians and sections are given on this and my other several web sites  )  
    


3.    FLOWER PIECE  `flowers in the garden at Thorpe-le-Soken in a blue pot` / oil /George E. Gordon - size 18 & half inches by 11 and a half inches
  the back of painting in writing of painter GEG says ` flowers in the garden at Thorpe-le-Soken `  :
It is a gift to his sisters-in-law the Misses Bessie Martha Williams and Annie Agnes Carroll Williams artist, living at `Stella Maris` 10 Granville Road, Clacton, since 1923 - he and his family will move to `Crail` Skelmersdale Road Clacton-on-Sea and celebrate the 40th Wedding anniversary `Ruby Wedding` there = MENU restored by Win and Esther for Greetah - somewhere in the vast `Document in 3 Parts`  www.greta-ransom.com  :   

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NB :  -  Art & Craft in the families :    Annie trained at 18 years at the Granville Marble Works Liverpool in urns and sculpture - her work was in a graveyard and a church Liverpool/Manchester = Saint Anne and figure & a Virgin and child :   then with the owner Professor Manzoni she goes with him to do some terra-cotta work at the Della Robbia Workshop Birkenhead of Harold Rathbone/ her potter marks are A Cl/ACW/AW = Annie says there were others with same initials working for Rathbone at times … Little Peter & Victoria and Greta met the elderly daughter of Professor Manzoni in 1982 when we attended an Exhibition and family gathering of RATHBONE (including Whitehead families) and other lines and families of the artist craft workers of the firm - it closed in 1906 :  a big piece of terra cotta called THE SYMBOL done by our Great-Aunt Annie Williams was sold … it could not be traced …

Victoria and little Peter own some Della Robbia work and a set of tiles of `Mr Rathbone`s 3 sisters Alice, Edith, Elfrida ` had Miss Annie C.W.  and Miss Cassandia Annie do the lilies in the corners of the tiles - the portraits were done by Professor Manzoni = the tiles are set in a wooden frame as decoration for over a fireplace - presented to the children by Israel Brenda Fairrie Rathbone 1930s and some other pieces … The Williamson Art Gallery Birkenhead Liverpool holds a great collection of the work of the Della Robbia firm :

 In 1944 Annie sketched for me the tiles and the lily decorations she and Cassandia Annie had done … She said that Mr Rathbone was not a good business man and sadly the Arts & Crafts project funded by his mother Jane had to close down … I will send photocopy/photo of this only piece of work we have done by Great Aunt Annie … but a Catholic Irish card handed to me by Auntie Win Gordon may have been designed by Annie - Win said that Annie was quiet about her Art work and only admitted to designing gravestones for friends and once making a watercolour of gravestone she designed with a bunch of flowers on … and colouring it as a wall painting when the sad Widower asked her to do this … I recall seeing this late 1940s …

Bessie and Annie have a long close friendship with Georges-ANDRE MALRAUX beginning briefly 1937 Summer … they gave him immense help from June 1945 when he WIDOWER of 5 months of Josette/2 tiny sons Pierre & Vincent/  he returned to us at THE SEAS EDGES hoping to speak again with their sister Mary Gordon … but finding she dead … His mother could trace her ancestral line easily to HISTON/Castle Rising/Kings Lynn/ from 9th century - like RANSOM they are SEA TRADERS & when winter comes and ships pull in they have little farms … Summer 1937 we go to visit his ancestral lands - in 19th century a branch of the family arrived at Saxmundham Hall/Photos/we see his mother Berthe her little `dowry house` 1937 and 1945 with Uncle Harry Gordon :   

ANDRE called these daughters of TERESA CARROLL CLASSICIST Mrs John Williams,   `MY INTELLECTUAL EQUALS ` … His two younger brothers Roland and Claude were dead in the 2nd World War and Josette fell from a train 9 Nov 1944 TULLES and had her legs crushed by the wheels - she died 9 hours later after much pain leaving the two tiny boys - Bessie and Annie and the Church choir, the schools were to give him the will to live … he began work with General de Gaulle 1946 - Bessie had met the General 1941/43 and called him `Saint Charles` … many Catholic old ladies were very approving of him … and of Andre Colonel MALRAUX … he had a big circle of friends and acquaintances in Clacton and area from 1937 summer … (( this is all in my long `scaffolding` work of 20th century history on www.greta-ransom.com /WORDPRESS -FACEBOOK - TWITTER etc also carry my Family histories …))


Nota bene :   A young English-French=Spanish friend is translating into French from the English records the happy holiday of the SUMMER Clacton  the visit 1937 of Andre & Josette and Greta with them for 6 weeks … Granny Gordon just widowed in the March spoke Irish politics with Andre and about mutual friends France with he and Josette … sometimes I took a snooze above … We had Uncle Harry to drive us about when he was free… and stayed in the little house by the town, with the vegetable garden to gather our salads from, the home of the grandparents of an artist friend of everybody and her daughter Unity … they lived in Paris part of the year … You can read a lot of this in the Family history I am preparing with its account of our great-grandmother TERESA CARROLL - she studied PLATO and Harmony … and my APPRECIATION of Cousin Richard Potter died Xmas Day 2011 AD - our wartime years Clacton …

THIS FLOWER large PAINTING by George E. Gordon  WAS CHOSEN BY ANDRE MALRAUX 1947 … he and Annie Agnes left it to me Greta Ransom Whitehead - Annie dying 1970 and Andre 1976 … Cousin Richard delivered it to me with the painting by my grandpa that I had chosen for my `bottom drawer` as a small child . `Going to Church in the Snow by moonlight ` …



4 .   Flowers in a basket - George E. Gordon - ( no date shows but will be 1920s ) oil/gauche - bought from him by his daughter-in-law Nellie nee MAXTED Mrs Arthur Gordon =  gift to Aunt Esther from niece Eileen Gordon and Esther Mary nee Gordon to Kathryn Potter her youngest daughter  :  


5 .   JAPANESE scene -  1924 - George E. Gordon - gauche - size 17 inches by 11 half inches - Greta & Victoria from Eileen  :  things from Asia, especially Japan after 1867 The PARIS World Fair were the fashion late 19th century early 20th  :  Grandpa may have copied this or it is an imagined scene -  Bought from him by Nellie Gordon his daughter-in-law - gift from her daughter cousin Eileen Gordon to Victoria-Augusta and little Peter R. Whitehead 1989 :

I Greta remember hearing from Uncle Harry Gordon, Great Aunt Annie, and our families generally that Grandpa was asked to paint a Japanese scene by many friends and acqaintances & that the Japan Holy Mountain with the snow peak had to be painted several times by him - also Scotland scenes with stages …
 


6   .      Seascape, fishing boats & two figures & lighthouse
George Gordon  (no date I can see on the photo - perhaps on back of painting - a good size ) - gauche/watercolours ?   Eileen said 1989 this was regarded as one of his best paintings … May have gone to Richard Potter ?   Letter Jennifer Potter Hat`Jiaggelis Greece 8 May 2012 - ` With my sister Kathryn Potter Lloyd `



7  .      Going to CHURCH by moonlight in the snow - 1924 - George E. Gordon - given to Bessie & Annie The Misses Williams his sisters-in-law for their house `Stella Maris` 10 Granville Road, which they bought and moved into 1923, coming from Liverpool Welfare work and Welfare work London -   They changed the name to `Stella Maris` , 10 Granville Road,  after the wife of the
Australian painter Charles Conder who had died in a fire in her home - they had known them a little in London :   their house is close to the great Catholic church, begun building in 1921 -  commissioned by two Widows  ` we would like a Church as we see in Rome` -   Bessie and Annie Williams had been invited to an exhibition in the London home of the Painter and then had commissioned a Silk Painting for the death of their niece Elizabeth Gordon age 13 years c 1904/1905 - this painting was hung in the Church of Saint Anne Soho … and was seen in 1946 at a Memorial mass for the talented musical daughter of George & Mary Helena Gordon … but then disappeared …  

News of a great church begun building 1921 brought Bessie & Annie Carroll Williams on a day outing by Steamer from London to Clacton Pier  :    This church is finally finished 1929  -  The Papal Nuncio from Germany called by their families `Young Pacelli` is  an acquaintance of the families - and he sent his old Italian friend from Rome to be Priest in Charge  :     This painting given to Greta (Greetah) Frobisher Weddell Maureen Caecelia Ransom  ( West Greenland & Clacton christenings )  by great-aunts Bessie & Annie for her `bottom drawer`  1947   :   

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TERESA Elizabeth GORDON born 1906 24th November :    COURT COSTS
 Because of Gordon & Irish family fortunes tumbled by the cost of Old Bailey Case DEFENCE  (a Catholic Lord Grey Barrister)  of Teresa 1926/1927, the paintings on good canvas by her father cease - this one  ` GOING TO CHURCH IN THE SNOW BY MOONLIGH ` is on a 14 inches by  9 inches very stiff cardboard from a packing case saying ASTORA Beef Suet - and all its virtues in the kitchen … The Misses Bessie and Annie Williams, sisters of Mary Helena his wife will have paid for the framing …


MEMORANDUM :  … 1927 the George E. Gordon family moved from Woodford Green,  two doors from son Arthur and family,  to the tiny ancient village of Thorpe-le-Soken
 ( Thorpe Hall is written in Little Doomsday Book, as near to CLACTUNA )   which is 5 miles from Clacton … it was near the good sisters and aunts in the pleasant seaside town … This history is recorded in my work & that of others -  ANDRE MALRAUX December 1957 went with a sympathetic detective to Holloway Prison to see records - Arthur Malone Law Detective  ( our faithful Politan who came to Greece with us 1966 ) had access to the Court records … Teresa and others had gone quite mad on a dope grown in Scotland called Divinorum Salvia Scotland or `purple plum` & other names … Teresa asked to speak by the Judge blamed a friend and others … she got the longer sentence of 6 years ( Teresa served 4 years and some months ) …

… THE FAMILIES saw that school child ESTHER did not know & she lived away from the family with relatives  - Harry Gordon, youngest son, had to know … The shock to the families was immense = her father GEG age 58 years her mother MHWG 56 years old = eldest son Arthur born S. Ireland 1891 …  NB :  people could lose jobs and properties and moneys in those days by having a convicted criminal in the family = & Teresa moved in circles Imperial & Lordly and with their sons and daughters …

She had two bastard sons called Ed du Cann & another Harry refers to as   `Henry Hall King of Sweden - sit counting a Million dollars in dimes ` (it’s a popular song)  =  I liken him to the Sea Captain in the German film DAS BOOT =   ( I saw him 1944 and his mother (my Mum) told me I could sign over to him THE AIRPLANE INDUSTRIES of de Havilland & another I forget - I ran away out of he `Pearly` house 112 Vista Road into the Clacton Recreation Grounds rolling away at the bottom of the garden- these reach down to the Valley Road to the sea and safety !    I do know these matters are for my father & our GUARDIANS & they include `Young Pacelli gone on High` … )      

1926-1927 … Complications may have arisen early here for Winifred Mary Gordon, born Nov. 1910 educating at the Convent Woodford Green,  :   She had been visiting this secluded house Hill Drop Crescent Highgate since 14 years of age - supposedly to help her sister - the PARTIES were many and HIGH LIFE :   It perhaps hung over her at the time that by 16 years of age she ought to have told her parents things she experienced on her visits to her sister Teresa given in this gracious home an ACTING HOUSEKEEPER role at nearly 17 years - she may have thought she would marry a title of note …

 A man born 1898 called by the families and many other good families
 ` Mr JIM JONG PIMP - he works for certain SCOTS LORDS by MOONLIGHT `
…  ( referred to by a distraught Mary Gordon as  `a bit of vermin` had him around me since the Great War, when Teresa began at that Riding School …  wanting Irish horses for FREE from my cousins = Murphy/O`Brien/Carroll - 3 baronetcies Dublin 1859  ) …

… was living in this comfortable house FREE of rent for two years before Teresa Gordon is arrested   NB :   there are two Cases where she,  Teresa Elizabeth Gordon born 1906,  is CHARGED at the Old Bailey 1926/1927 :   matters considered serious & No Bail granted  (Custody 3 months)   -  Mr JIM PIMP slithered away and never a word was heard of him in the Old Bailey Courts …

MEMO :    Records from 2011 AD  www.greta-ransom.com  do explain this histories down the years 19-teens to 1980s … )     - Cousin Julie youngest cousin did not learn many things until she and Uncle Fred Potter managed awful difficulties for the families from 1950s onwards … 1946 SEPTEMBER my father Army Captain Fred. John Ransom born 1911 got custody we three, Greta, John, Colin, Clacton Marital Court but Miss Win did not behave as ordered by the Clacton Marital Court, and recommended by a Chelmsford Crown Court, ` to make arrangements to put her sister Teresa in the Asylum by October 1946 & she to remain until we three had finished our education =  meaning until at least 1956  when Colin born 1938 is 18 years of age :    

…  Peace at the SEAS EDGES would have happened - Miss Win Gordon Spinster had her bastard nephew b 1924 Ed du Cann `son of a penniless lawyer` says Winston S. Churchill,   persuading her to disobey the 2 Courts for the next 6 months - then the ORDER would be NULL - He had been creeping about her calling her PORTIA - it quite went to her head - but he may have been conveying THREATS from a Third Party of her complicity in the 1926/1927 Old Bailey Trial of her sister - his mother :   

… REASON :    He, MP twice failed,  expected his mother Teresa to fraudulently sign him properties RANSOM Grote Estate in Malaya and Philippines  :   He is a nasty little brute who has wanted I and Colin killed 1957 autumn when we were given SANCTUARY by our Estate GUARDIAN Andre MALRAUX in the Charity Mission & his home at 50 Lancaster Gate Square London … The madness also began to fester about young RICHARD at Imperial College :   Uncle Potter Lifeboat Association & Town newspaper and Philip Hine Insurance City of London (= future father-in-law of Richard)  were able to get help from BIG GUNS about the City - Richard got protection -

My `scaffolding` 3,000 pp Document in 3 Parts called `1937 SUMMER etc. ` tells all this  www.greta-ransom.com …   Appearing on this and my other web sites are shorter pieces from the RECORDS & they are perhaps a better introduction for the beginner to this 20th century histories of high dope users becoming criminally insane …

… ` Oh Teresa Gordon and her Lords and Sons ` was one phrase about her Prison sentences … memories lasting into the 1970s  :     In the  2nd World Wartime her friend OZ Sir Oswald Mosley was in her Prison … they of the Roaring 20s and the 1930s BLACK SHIRTS & truncheons had cheerful tea parties in the Prison … perhaps they all wore their black shirts … ?     

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8  .     LOVERS WALK, Tottenham - 1918 - George E. Gordon - present from the painter George E. Gordon to young Nellie Maxted engaged to his son Arthur Gordon b 1891 Southern Ireland first child of the marriage of George & Mary Helena  :   Back of painting in writing of painter is   `From G.G. & M.G. to Nellie MAXTED 3.9.1919  :    The painting oil/gauche is on good canvas nailed to a frame and  is framed by H. WESTON, 5, The Market, George Lane, WOODFORD, ESSEX ( OIL PAINTINGS CLEANED, LINED & RESTORED, Old frames re-gilt equal to new ) and frame has inscription `1918 Lovers Walk TOTTENHAM` …

In this quite famous Tottenham Walk,  Nellie & Arthur used to `woo` =  their courtship   :  Arthur has been in Royal Navy RN then in  Merchant Navy World War I 1914-1919  ( shrapnel injuries )  and is now working City of London with his Uncle Arthur Gordon INSURANCE Firm, he brother of his father GEG  -  

…  Their daughter Eileen Gordon gives it 1989 to the children of cousin Greta Ransom, Victoria-Augusta & little Peter R. Whitehead -   ` painted by their great-grandfather a man who loved Natural History`   :


9  .      A shepherd at sunrise brings his sheep to pasture - 1920 George E. Gordon - on pale cream colour card - Cousin Eileen Gordon dau. of Arthur his eldest child,   says it is either Epping or countryside Birmingham where her mother`s family come from -  their name is spelt  M A X T E D

(NB:  I will have given name spelt as `Maxstead` in web work 2011/2012 )   Painting from Aunt Esther Gordon Potter to niece Greta Ransom W. 1980s for the children Victoria-Augusta b 1968 and little Peter R. Whitehead 1970 - gift after the death of her husband Uncle Frederick Potter -
Our eldest cousin Eileen Gordon said the little figures our Grandpa painted were always someone he knew … they are portraiture …  but he could not be bothered to paint big conventional portraits of people,  even in the family … But his brother Frederick Henry Gordon who took lessons from a fashionable Painting master when they were boys could do very good portraits :   an oil painting of his daughter Betty was in the SUMMER EXHIBITION ROYAL ACADEMY 1939  (?)   :  
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( below - information come from Jennifer Potter Hat`Jiaggelis Greece
… Letter  8 May 2012 - no sizes or what on - usually flower pieces are done on canvas as they are bought by his daughter-in-law Nellie nee Maxted  Mrs Arthur Gordon 1920s … after Trial/cost of Barrister Lord Grey/ 1926=27 he will use card … but some for gifts are on canvas as the `FLOWERS in the Garden at Thorpe-le-Soken for Bessie and Annie` written by him on back of this big oil painting / …  Numbers 10, 11, 12, 14 … )


10 .      A SEASCAPE of a river boat and a smaller boat on a river … in probably Egypt   :   with Jennifer Potter Hat`Jiaggelis, Greece
(Letter from J.P.H`  Greece -  8 May 2012 - she says this is with her … gift from her mother widowed Esther Mary Gordon Mrs Fredk. Potter  … )  

11 .     ROSES IN A VASE  -  with Jennifer Potter Hat`Jiaggelis, Greece …   (letter from J.P.H. Greece  8 May 2012 - from her mother widowed Esther Mary Gordon Potter … )   


12 .      `Country cottage, where the garden is full of flowers and there is a pathway leading up to the front door `


13 .      ROSES in a VASE - with Elisabeth Hat`Jiaggelis
            ( … almost certainly this and the above No 11 are commissioned by daughter-in-law Nellie nee Maxted Mrs Arthur Gordon who always paid her father-in-law to help with the family of young children and then the COURT BILLS for Teresa Gordon born 1906 a sister of her husband Arthur born 1891 … )   Letter 8 May 2012 from Jennifer Potter Hat`Jiaggelis - gift from her mother Esther and via Eileen Gordon her niece … )  


14.      COUNTRY COTTAGE, FLOWERS IN GARDEN … a path to the door … this was painted for Winifred Mary Gordon probably her 21st birthday   (she Auntie Winnie also had the small good new piano for her 21st birthday 3rd November 1931 from her parents and perhaps Bessie and Annie helped to buy this piano … )
Jennifer writes 8 May 2012 from Greece that her painting, , is smaller than her SEASCAPE …  I recall that the  Auntie Winifred country cottage was quite a big painting … I recall seeing it 1940s … Grandfather Gordon would do similar paintings if asked …  So that Nellie and Arthur could have on their wall of paintings the one gone to Jennifer = and Winifred could ask for a copy or something similar for her birthday …
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WE SHOULD KEEP IN MIND THE PAINTINGS WE HAVE ARE A FEW OF HIS OUTPUT … the popularity of LANDSEER and similar painters had George asked to make copies … I knew as a tiny child that he had hated doing this … but it paid the bills when the family lived at Woodford Green and had young children … The terrible loss of three of children 1004-5 Elizabeth 13 years, Edward 9 years, Anne 8 years had Granny Gordon continue having children … she also loses three more before 1910 = little Mary age 2 , Cyril age 4 who fell off a gate , and a Thomas or a Stephen  :    In 1916 she had twins Gerald and George who both died before 3 months of age … She lost her nerve and continued to have children, Harry and Esther her last are born 1912 and 1913

 …  When Professor WINNCLEMANN asked me February 1947  `When you marry Colonel Andre, Greetah, how many children would you like ?   I said without thinking  `Oh 15 I think … you see you always lose some `    Professor WINNCLEMANN had begun to crease his face - he was never known to smile … at the surprise of my saying the figure of 15 children … No doubt he visualized the  Hero Archangel Andre Malraux with this column taking them to church, plus Pierre and Vincent born 1940 and 1944 …

…  but when I added  `you always lose some - Granny Gordon had 16, their were twins, but she lost so many of them … ` he said  `AH - you believe a big family brings happiness` …   And I counted how many of my aunts and uncles, lost, and alive, telling him who grew up … Kitty dead too, age 29 in 1929 …

DEAD CHILDREN were not lost to me … on their birthdays we always put their photos out on Auntie Winnie`s` piano and had a MASS said for them, going to Montfort Lodge the Home of the Fathers and carefully booking it and choosing the hymns and we paid for this and gave some extra for THE POOR BOX  …  There would be a nice tea and perhaps someone, a couple, who had known them would come from London and the old days,  and we spoke on the children and remembered their very nice natures and what pleasure they had given …

…  It was Great Aunt ANNIE taught this attitude of  `BEING GRATEFUL FOR THEIR LIVES UPON EARTH`  to Colonel Georges-Andre Malraux … when he came back to Clacton May 1945 bearing his dead, Josette and his two brothers … (by chance his old friends Professor & Mrs WINNCLEMANN (she of Shropshire) had retired here at the seaside, taking on `Murrays Chemist` by the Catholic Church …

…  Andre Malraux returned hoping to speak with Mary Gordon as in 1937 SUMMER … he found her dead … but became the lifelong friend, and relative, to Bessie and Annie Miss Williams - three daughters of TERESA CARROLL CLASSICIST … he calls them ` MY AUNTS, my  INTELLECTUAL EQUALS ` … he dies too early, November 24th 1976 :   Teresa Gordon R. was on the telephone saying  `GOD HAS DONE THIS FOR ME - IT IS MY BIRTHDAY` the 24th …

MEMO :    It reminded me that in the Wartime she Treasa Gordon Mrs R.  would insist   `GOD HAS DONE THIS - THIS WAR - taking your bloody father away from me`  … In 1944 Cousin Julie Butler ATS began to hear this and smote many kitchen tables near breaking them in half …` YOU MEAN WIN,  GOD HAS STARTED THIS WAR FOR HER … LISTEN TO WHAT SHE IS SAYING !   …  up in Manni they`d lock her up … she is insane … Why can`t anyone say what she is like … where she has been … I am bloody sick of this … I am going to ask Cousin John Butler  WHAT THE HELL GOES ON DOWN HERE … You Southerners … `

…   Miss Auntie Win ATS would say  `you need to go to Confession with that language`   Julie fuming at this ignorance, this danger,  would respond with   `THIS IS YOUR bloody SISTER … WIN GORDON ~    these children hear her …`    Miss Auntie Win would say  `YOUR COUSIN …`    At which Julie would throw a kitbag … later Julie twice packed a case to return to MANNI … she would GIVE UP THE GUEST HOUSE …  !!!    By about 1950 Uncle Potter could soothe Julie … We all three tried have her locked up in 1954 ..

1961  =   then ANDRE MALRAUX  had the horror of losing his two sons 1961 May in a car crash … Annie here was again helping keep him stay balanced … and he was then with the Duties of a MINISTER of FRANCE …  ( His notebook read out 1970   `I CAME IN ON A WAVE OF HATE ` … features a woman he met December 1924 Deauville and Paris … Teresa Gordon … she moved in very high Imperial society Noble and Racing …`     

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PAINTINGS by George Ernest Gordon 1868 - 1937 March
… known to have been made, destroyed, lost  :  some may exist … he did paint some for Police officers or for Police Stations …

Are there any around - it is not whether they are good or bad - he paints scenes now vanished, even flowers grown in his garden or another garden …

Copies of Landseer paintings for people asking him to make them :
And similar paintings of deer, Scotland scenery, the countryside …
 
He did not like making copies but had to do so for friends or to help pay bills - after the death of his father John Frederick Gordon died 1891 and he and his brothers had to leave the Army - he in Lancers … with Thomas he entered the Mounted Police … But especially after the death of 5 children 13 years to 2 years 1904-1905 an epidemic London he had to use his talent to churn out a copy painting a week… Mary Helena Carroll Gordon his wife could not continue making her expensive unique millinery - she broke down as children ages 13, 9, 8, 4, 2 years died … but she continued to have children to replace (thus 15 are born including the twins Gerald and George) 8 children reach maturity - the blood line descends to-day from Teresa Gordon RANSOM and Esther Mary Gordon POTTER …
 
1900s after the older children die Professional stage acquaintances and singers kept her going into the future - her voice magnificent was only used for Catholic Choirs she never became a professional -  but for two or three years she sang to help others … she would not leave her home and children except to appear in an emergency - thus she is told to `stand by` for Pell & Mell - but she was not needed … she knew Mary Garden and many people that could be found in the Radio Times in the 1930s when I was a child …She sang c 1916 the first performance Britain, at Westminster meeting,  `WHACK fol de DIDDLE` - because she knew the composer in IRELAND - the Police broke up the meeting but she walked out with a child giving the Police number of her husband George E. Gordon Mounted Police … I never saw her smile about this but many people chuckled of her being born in Sackville Street and she got an IRISH PASSPORT in 1932 - one of the first ( I think her grandchildren and great-grandchildren can also claim an Irish Passport because of her parents Teresa Murphy Carroll and husband John O`Brien Williams … We would need to get her birth certificate of 1868 and proof of her Irish Passport 1932
       

G.E.G. did two great paintings on canvas  :   

1930 :    1.   for the North wall of the sitting room `Crail` that made the room feel twice as large - a friendly cow looking over a farm gate with trees and the RISING SUN … destroyed October 1939 - when Granny Gordon is moved from `Crail` to Walton Road house … while ill - information is from the old occasional gardener : he said ` that Teresa and JIM JONG did the clearing out - there were signs of big bonfires in the garden - he was called to bury SOOTY now a dead cat - SOOTY that belonged to Miss Winnie who had just left to go into the ATS with her cousin Miss Julie at Manchester` …  :   

2.   ( perhaps 19-teens or 1920s ? )   A second, the biggest painting he had ever done she heard -  was destroyed when a house was bombed in 2nd World wartime London - Eileen says 1989 that the remains were fragmentary and it was not saved by the owners … the owners had asked him to paint this for him … she did not know them but went with her parents to see the damage … the house wrecked by the bomb :   Eileen said he might have painted other big paintings to pay bills  … but she and her parents only knew of these two :    she said he presented paintings to the Police but these may have been for fellow Officers or perhaps asked for by a Police Station …
She did not know what else was destroyed in the 2nd World Wartime in the bombing  …

Perhaps the families have more information to add here ?  

     

LIST of early PHOTOGRAPHS of family descending from WILLIAMS - GORDON marriage 1891  :   … WILLIAMS/GORDON/RANSOM/POTTER/ Hat`Jiggelis-Greece/ and Whitehead  :  

1.     1934 - George E. Gordon and sister Edith nee Gordon Mrs Tad hunter - Edith just widowed with George in the back garden at `Crail`, Clacton …

2.     1944 May -  PHOTOGRAPH of Granny Gordon, Mary Helena, in back garden Walton Road just before her death in June - this is the only photograph we have survive :  …
… The wickerwork chair is present from her son-in-law young Fred J. Ransom who waded into sea by Pier to fetch it as things came in from the sinking Japanese Liner September 1939 on the Goodwin Sands …

…  Mary Gordon is wearing a modern ring that Harry youngest son sent her … he says he bought it from a fellow worker WAR Engineering when  `getting any old crates, wrecks on the road again … vehicles were needed urgently … we got them out of old farms and barns … some not been driven since 1920s … we worked 17 hour stretches sometimes and fell into the warm bed of the man getting up to take your place …  `    Harry said he was told the ring was by a modern designer - I talking with Peggy & Harry at our late afternoon Christmas Day dinner 1959, young Jane and friend with us awhile,  none of us knew what happened to the ring after her death or to about a thousand and a half pounds Harry had sent her to Bank as he could not leave the War Work  :  I recalled the money coming & Granny was to put it in the Co-op Insurance … it disappeared …   

 ( … all Gordon/Williams photo albums were burned in garden of `Crail` October 1939 as reported by the old gardener … he says Teresa and JIM Jong suddenly become an Army Major working in Buckingham Palace made the bonfires … 1944 Miss Win was grieved over the loss of the family photographs Gordon Williams which went back to the 1850s …

It is ANDRE MALRAUX who makes a list of the family photos he remembers and describes them in the 1950s -  for he sat afternoons   ( I  Greetah Ransom taking my nap above drifting off hearing some of the talking )  with Mary Gordon Summer 1937 talking about Ireland and Politics and the Catholic Church and her family, especially the awful matter of Teresa going to Prison … Andre had met Teresa with a young friend a Miss Plunket-Green in 1924 December at Deauville - they had been robbed at Calais by JIMMIE JONG    ( his widowed Chinese Indonesian mother has an apartment with her sister in Paris ) … Andre tells me Greta 1950s/1970   `  … your mother can speak French - she has enough to get around with … `

…   ANDRE and young French friends loaned the girls some money took the girls up to Paris for CHRISTMAS, they had acquaintances in the Embassy and aristocratic friends (incidentally a mutual friend is Margaret Sweeting called EVIL DUCHESS by British Press - a non-noble ultra RICH girl she was very kind and would take the RACY crowd out for the day and have a MUSEUM (the Louvre) kept open for her after 8 pm and she was very well educated & kind but she kept getting THE WRONG HUSBANDS who wanted her vast fortune not her intelligent life - ANDRE talks with her quietly late 1950s & Sir Philip Whitehead (my father-in-law) also called her A VERY NICE PERSON but men wanted her money & she was not a Noble only a Scots girl with some education : )     -  Well, December 1924 at Deauville ANDRE tells Mary Gordon 1937, later I grown up,   that the two  girls  were with aristocratic Racing figures far above him - and they spoke a language about HORSES that was SPIRITUAL  …

The girls spent some time with he and his young friends and returned by the New Year … and the money was returned swiftly to he and friends with a friendly thank you note from Teresa saying they had a very enjoyable time … He then left Europe to go to ASIA again to work with his wife Clara Goldsmidt Malraux … 1927 he publishes a book written by he a 26 years old - THE CONQUERORS … this shows his young mind & his thoughts forming - the year I am born 1933 he publishes `STORM IN SHANGHAI`/ La Condition humaine  … Mary Gordon and young Harry have read this by 1937 …  & lots of people in our families speak upon his thoughtful books   …    (more information is in `scaffolding` in 3 Parts  `1937 Summer etc`  on www.greta-ransom.com … )  

 

3.    1880s -  One surviving PHOTOGRAPH of George Ernest Gordon b 1868  in his Army Uniform  (Lancers mounted)  - either he is 17 when he entered or a little older  - he has coloured it himself  :  

  ( MEMO :       George one of 6 sons of Matilda nee Kellow Gordon and John Frederick Gordon  (plus 2 daughters Edith & Alice)   signed up in Greenwich one morning with a Recruiting Agent at a desk in the street …  against the wishes of his father who was unsuccessful in getting him out !  

  NB :   Father MINE HOST of Trafalgar Tavern the great beautiful building on the Greenwich Waterfront had put him in a Wine Shop with young LOVIBOND … they were to LEARN the BUSINESS … George hated it … he was already into Natural History and painting birds and animals … He told his father he liked the uniform !!!   George had been educated with his brothers on Greenwich Heath at the Academy of DR BELL - a school with the heir to SIAM and his brother in their Class - put there by the famous ANNA …


4.    PHOTOGRAPH of elder brother FREDERICK HENRY GORDON b 1860s of George Ernest Gordon   (given by his 2nd wife Annie, Kingston upon Thames 1961 - daughter Betty = two children, Gordon and Sandra just joined London Police :     The first Detective novel THE CASK publ. 1920 is written by a friend and fellow worker with Frederick Henry :     ` One morning he author came into work and said `I needed a character last night … so I have written you in as Henry Gordon of Glasgow   :  they had to get the timing right - trains and boats - they all had a lot of fun and help was forthcoming `       ( 1961 Summer :  Information :   from Mrs Annie Gordon widow to Frederick Henry Gordon d 1939, to great-niece Greta Ransom, and Detective Arthur Malone Politan  - the faithful Detective employed from October 1957 by Andre Malraux, colleagues and friends of the Gordon family -

he remained in this post until 1971/1972 - he realised that the REMOVAL of GROTE HOMES Records was to shield the criminally insane who had killed the children to get the lands A-Z around the globe :   )

FREDERICK HENRY GORDON had a fashionable painting Master to teach him painting in the 1880s - his young brother George sat beside him in some lessons … later he began to paint :   FREDERICK HENRY had a painting of his daughter BETTY GORDON accepted and shown at the ROYAL ACADEMY SUMMER EXHIBITION before the outbreak of the 2nd World War -  

(  I think this may have been in 1939 the year he dies - Teresa Gordon Ransom and her companion the ancient French sounding named Baron were at the funeral and came to the Kingston-upon-Thames house for the gathering of families and friends afterwards   =  ( I recall him 1939 looking at our Greenland library in the drawing room 112 Vista Road -   He may be a Baron No  9th ?    Gets killed in Netherlands 1944 :   he marries in his 40s and has three little girls so the title ceases … My mother Teresa G.R.  would visit the widow in the late 1940s  … I am 6 and a half years at the outbreak of War … my father swiftly made Warrant Officer is important September 1939 organising STORES for War Office - he becomes full Officer then Captain F.J. RANSOM in 1943 - he was recalled by the War Office FOR HOME DUTIES  in 1942 - but another department did not have this carried out … He returns September 1945 … a shattered young man … I had little memory of him - I saw no letters or photographs during the War - my mother and her Noble friends were in charge of our family …   )      
 
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RECORDS :   This is information for which there were big records kept by the families and photographs, letters, memorabilia of important occasions until 1939 … everybody in the families knew the histories into the 1960s … Oh what a pity the family could not type on a typewriter - or that computers were not yet invented …   

…  I Greta Ransom W.  do my best not to let anything be forgot - Great aunts Bessie and Annie would tell me family histories 1930s and 1940s - and they told ANDRE MALRAUX too in the 1940s-1950s - Bessie used to go to Tea with her old friends at The Oblate Saint Charles a Retirement Home for Priests behind us 1950s at the Catholic Charity and Mission run by General de Gaulle & Westminster and the London home of Andre Malraux 1952-1961, St Edmund House   50 Lancaster Gate Square … ANDRE WOULD GO WITH BESSIE to lunch or tea  - I record that he sees her to the train by taxi one January 1959 evening … and returning says to me Greetah …


…  ` my aunts Greetah MY INTELLECTUAL EQUALS … & Mary Gordon your grandmother was too … `   
…   That is a great compliment from this French MAN of LETTERS …
They called him  `our dear Andre` … & summer 1945 helped him survive his grief from his War dead, Josette mother of his two tiny sons and her legs crushed by a train November 1944 and his two half-brothers killed by Gestapo 1943 & 1944/5 :  
 … He would say Bessie Martha and Annie Agnes artist did him the compliment of long hours speaking upon the Universe and we who dwell upon the EARTH …   

There are many photos of we grandchildren and our children from 1950s … But very few from the 1930s & the few early ones came to Auntie Esther from the Manchester cousins - I had been able to keep a few photos safe from the 1940s …

I am sending large photo-copy to you all with this list of paintings and its family histories :   The family history beginning with great-grandmother TERESA CARROLL CLASSICIST is almost ready for web and printing - Also APPRECIATION of Cousin RICHARD who died Christmas 2011 AD which is blended amongst our histories … I have recorded RICHARD a sunny boy in the Wartime at Clacton-on-Sea … & a little earlier history        

Greta Ransom   April 2012