Ancestry and True Tales

( “ God`s gift to young women, Greetah”  said my Clacton St Clare Convent School class autumn 1945/1947 when Colonel X WIDOWER  (left with 2 tiny boys-their dead mother & 2 dead half-bros.)   flew into Ipswich airbase & came every 2/3 weeks to take Sherry mid-morning with Reverend Mother Benedict & across the seafront at Montfort Lodge the Priests House with the super library – ( All 2<sup>nd</sup> World WAR it was wisely nodded that the old 18<sup>th</sup> Smugglers route to `the Jay-Wick` lingered with Portugal :  more likely  `The VAT`  had some connections ) My great-aunt Miss Bessie Martha Carroll Williams speaks at Westminster Diocese Catholic `bun fights` the war years with General and Mrs de GAULLE – they are `sanctuary` a house in Suffolk & a London apartment needed for War urgent matters & discussions :

 

Nota bene :   There are similar histories about HARWELL families – call on the very old quickly with your recording equipment :   

 

 

BOSLEY the HARWELL butchers :   

... are very cheerful when you step in the shop & there is an account of the week`s happenings   :    1968 next door the Pillar House the Butchers welcome me a young wife with first child & 2 `steps` ages 6 & 7   ( their mother Mavis SRN - dies suddenly 1968 June in Southern Ireland :  1953 she married in Northern Ireland the eminent young Kenyan Barrister Clem Ardwings Kodek Minister of Game & Tourism KENYA slain Mombasa crossroads 1969 )  

I hear one morning buying sausages ( asked if I want the head on the chicken & the bits = or Mrs so-&-so makes delicious soup and stuffings with the bits ... )  an account of their ANCESTRY ...

 `we have a Grandpa 4 times back in a French village - went over to see our cousins - got slaughtered with red wine – Now we take our own beer... ... name `BOUZLIE ` ?  Ask the present generation ... came over 18^th century as paper makers (not silk weavers I think who settled along the Thames)   & went farming possibly Norfolk ...  draining of the Fens happening ...

 

HARWELL the BOSLEY BROTHERS butchers  :   AM (George-Andre) 1968-1976 went to a sing-song or two or three with them – As they see matters they are French-English, of course ..and “ our Andre” is English-FRENCH  :   He has done well, become Minister of Culture over there – where we Bosley came from 18^th century ... we visit our village taking our own beer – got slain once with our cousins on that red wine ... they have come over here visiting us ... Our Andre his mother English same place where we came over – troubles, wars & religions you know ... but he is now French ...   :

 THE old BOSLEY family thought of `our ANDRE`  as same NATIONALITIES as themselves – BOTH SIDES OF THE CHANNEL – they FRANCE & ENGLAND – he ENGLAND & FRANCE ... sad about his two boys 1961 ... hear more about young deaths when MI5 come for the great 100 seater HARWELL ATOMIC luncheon 1969 ... Everyone championed ANDRE & valued his intelligence and kindness : 

Some pieces of white marble from their shop counter is here in FRANCE - I turned it into a kitchen side table ... JIM FROUD helped direct what would be useful for craft work when packing up the Pillar house 1992-93 :  The old BOSLEY brothers would have liked to know the counter fate ...

 

1945 July, to help him come to terms with 3 family War deaths he joined our Clacton choir to sing at the Seas Edges East Anglia : Young Pacifist Ben Britten is up the coast at ALDBOROUGH – I develop these Britain seashores `ships that pass in the night` in my Pierre Drieu la Rochelle 1944-1946 ... young men of that horrendous 1^st World War - how hideous experiences & scenes can linger in the memory the rest of life –

 

FOOD :   HARWELL 2,000 years COOK BOOK would be nice – and MUSIC down the centuries – remember that Feast 13^th century given in `Lime-tree House` High Street when the Norman French Bishop came to impress his Anglo-Saxon churls – and collect taxes –  :

 

 MARY FREEMAN cooked at Winterbrooke House into her 80s :  She made preserves – invented a pear & Vanilla jam -  I have used last year 2014 AD the jam labels her mother bought 1914 - WOMEN wanted to keep the table supplied as their Victorian grandmothers did :  The influence of late 19^th century early 20^th THE SOULS Movement had them easily use buses, go to the kitchen themselves, use wild flowers in house and table ... they paint these things - Roger FRY his chocolate cake : wild flowers in a glass jam jar ... :  1890s ARTS CRAFTS Movement influence on painters, poets, welfare workers musicians dancers :  Examples in Ashmolean Museum, V&A, Geoffrey Museum – Reading ?     

 

MARY FREEMAN  (Miss Mary Cotton Dudley-Short)   ROMAN CATHOLIC CONVERT  in the 1920s with many of her friends & acquaintances :   

1920s-1930s   for TEACHING CHILDREN from :  she would borrow original paintings for the afternoon from various galleries & young friend Kenneth Walker `gone ON HIGH`:   

She wished to borrow a REMBRANDT for her class at the Convent of the Sacred Heart Hammersmith – they would be asked to paint using colours or atmosphere from these excellent paintings :  Young Master Walker knowing she wrapped paintings up in newspaper safely BUT took them on the BUS to save taxi fare for ` The poor box ` ...  bashfully said

 

... ` dear Mary, yes you may borrow a Rembrandt for your Class  for the  afternoon ... but the National Gallery would wish to honour you by paying for a TAXI on this occasion ` :

No doubt he begged to be allowed to put the bus fare & the taxi fare in the Poor Box of the nearest Catholic Church – which would be Westminster Cathedral perhaps ...he could look at their paintings again  ...

 

THUS HOW HER AGE THOUGHT = it should be remembered that many of these upper middle class working young women had families that GAVE GIFTS of PAINTINGS for FREE to 19^th century early 20^th century galleries !  Her age as children were used to seeing famous paintings on walls in their families homes  :

 

MARY FREEMAN her collection of CHILDRENS PAINTINGS ...

 

LONDON  OXFORD HARWELL 1920s-into 1950s she taught in several schools - gave her salary for Scholarships in 2 London Schools, Bethnal Green  & another :   – the big collection is safe  – Many paintings have the names of the children on them :  she was uncertain HISTORY of CHILDHOOD could be  understood – great pile wheel-barrowed over the road to The Pillar House from Winterbrook House : 

 

LAGOS :   including the collection 1939/41 from the Missionaries Broadbent when in LAGOS ... I alerted ASHMOLEAN 2 years ago – said I was photographing them to a web site : www.ancestryandtruetales.jimdo.com ...

 

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Wing Commander MICHAEL MORRIS both Wars –DSOs –

They lived at the Malt House after the end of 2^nd World War ... Jill used to make beer as clear as glass ... she had worked for WAR OFFICE 2^nd W.W. – late 1970s went back to work – was assistant in Cabinet Falklands war ...

1969  :  WING-COMMANDER 2 world Wars MICHAEL MORRIS speaking at The Malt House, Towns End, Harwell ...

  “  You should understand Greetah- Greta ? how do you prefer ? Before you were born many of us, then young people,  were involved in a WAR ... called The Great War when it ended ... it was believed there could never be a War like it again ... ... ”

1969 leaving HARWELL in 3 cars-full a Sunday morning we went to a curious luncheon in the biggest LUTYENS house ... it was my 1920s American mother-in-law surveying the curious gathering with  “tables laid for the dead”  who said   “ I hev bin mad all mah life deearrh, but are ain`nt MAD any more ... they hes their crowns in their handbags ... ah heard about sum orve this when I come ova here in 1928 ... then we went orff to KENYA ...”  She played old blind woman with her white stick – that evening and next days she and Michael had `big pow-wow` out of HARWELL & on Golf course and open spaces ... Grown up matters of 2 World Wars :  He had already helped her make phone calls across Atlantic to the niece & husband of MARY FREEMAN who ran a hospital for Children with leukemia ...`  :  Dr Elizabeth Godenne & husband Dr Edward MacCracken ...

 

1969 HARWELL  VILLAGE :

- I had already been told by Michael & other villagers & the encircling area to beware &   “ not to take a cup of tea or coffee from a certain Miss CIRCE – village has experience here ... she takes `stuff` and smokes dope ... searches your handbag ... calls herself a black witch & says she is to punish somebody every day to keep the globe on its axis ...  ”    She had brought drugs into the village yelled KNAPPER newsagent at PJPW one evening on the Pillar House doorstep ... before you came to live here ... :

It was necessary to keep the young safe – Police had a scheme that they came in an evening – called a KITCHEN TABLE meeting – showed photos of drug victims Oxford hospitals & other towns – asked please get in touch with us if you are approached – a phone number given – call in on `Cop Shop` if you like ... “  

Harwell circles & Oxford academia warned me that WITCHCRAFT of a primitive punishing sort did exist Cheltenham into Gloucestershire :  Concerned villagers felt it was  `what was treated lightly & encouraged in the newspapers – it came from bad education & GREED & from the top lot ...`

  

1969 - so we of Harwell & environs attend a LUTYENS House `luncheon at the table of ancient Roman Tombs with places laid for the dead `  :  

Michael Morris 2 World Wars RAF DSOs said  “ ...  invitations from the delicate ANDRE ... a man who has never been left alone by a certain breed of men and women ... ”  

 I did not receive my invitation although MALRAUX had sent it and asked several persons to see I attended :    I likened it to  `a  luncheon at a table of ancient ROMAN TOMBS  ... `   Michael liked that description & would not let me forget it  :     He too belonged to that world of young people about & encountered by MARY FREEMAN after the 1^st World War ...

 

The HARWELL READER here SHOULD UNDERSTAND that our Elders were once young –

they were not quite half-witted :   and they WON 2 WORLD WARS  - but others were there to pack their saddle bags full of GOLD & go for GLITZ & blood around the earth ... which went on : 

    “ Remember the earth the blue seas, the skies, and  “ spring doth comth ” ...  At the END of his life MICHAEL MORRIS sent me a message by impeccable persons   “ ... tell Greta not to ever forget the man called MALRAUX whom she knew from a child, and whom we all admired ... ... ...  ”

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20^th century HARWELL  1^st & 2^nd WORLD WAR people ...

... they are friends, acquaintances, worked & fought together,  or have passed one another as SHIPS in the DARK, met along the SEAS EDGES and by star light SKIES  ... all have experiences that contribute to the civilizing of the mind – of use to the young  :

 

A HARWELL working visitor from `GAUL`  :   autumn 1967– October 1976 walking in the village lanes is sometimes Georges-Andre MALRAUX Minister of Culture for France (until 1969) :   he sometimes pulls a grey wig on :  he knows Wing Commander Michael Morris both world Wars from the 1920s – the first wife of Michael a friend of Malraux`s friend Countess Louise Vill :   MICHAEL retired plays Golf, is handy man at home, but with friends is active in Club for Burned FLYERS & other community activities :

 

ARCHIVES :    MICHAEL - WAR RECORDS both WARS :   Inter-net & Royal Air Force Archives  :  drawing by Rothstein British airmen  (?)

 

1970 HARWELL the MALT HOUSE  :   Michael 1970 explains to me a type of WOMAN of Britain & Europe 1920s/30s :   Michael having just encountered MY MOTHER to his surprise in Harwell High Street –

He believes he should tell me not to be embarrassed by her : ...  she Teresa Elizabeth Gordon born 1906 in the early 1920s (age 15-16 ?)  rode into WESTMINSTER HALL on a big black horse crying out she was  “ RICHARD the 1^st returned from THE HOLY LAND ”

 

He knew that young ANDRE MALRAUX 1924 had encountered she and a Miss Plunket Greene Deauville Races ... had their company in Paris with his friends over some days Christmastide  –  Christmas day he to his mother Bertha & Aunt Marie – his older wife Clara with her friends - The girls  (my future Mum) to the BRITISH EMBASSY for REVELS Christmas Eve-Christmas Day into dawn Boxing Day  !

I showed my embarrassment nevertheless  :    MICHAEL FELT he should GIVE ME A SERMON on the 1920s WOMAN –he has experience of them : then thank goodness he met Jill his 2nd wife in Wartime Alexandria :  

 

MICHAEL MORRIS now began to ease my embarrassment & improve my education upon the 1920s PARIS-LONDON bar rats, flies, butterflies of high society HIGH on dope and liquor  :  ...  only Margaret Sweeting an untitled girl, very rich, was acceptable – and she tried help educate the young WILD titled of British Society 1920s onwards – she could have the LOUVRE kept open in the evening for she and her party – after taking them out in the countryside in a comfortable coach to look at paintings in great places – feeding  them deliciously lunch and supper  :   “ She gets the wrong husbands – they marry her for her money”  was the opinion of people you can trust : 

“ you have to understand Greta – these women were more like men – Many a time my first wife, a BOY in Paris with Countess Louise  would return from PARIS and KNOCK ME DOWN THE STAIRS OF OUR CASTLE ... we had a small Castle in Rutland shire – I lived in a turret with winding stairs with my big dog –

...  Now I am a big Chap but I want you to know THESE WOMEN fought-carried guns-DRANK-wore male attire or the most expensive evening frocks  ... When my wife returned from PARIS only our eldest son could calm her – she had a marvellous voice like the Woman who used to sing RULE BRITANNIA at the end of THE PROMS ... he would rush to the piano and call out  `SING MATER ... Oh DO SING` ... and she would give us a splendid recital – if she had needed to she could have sung in Opera ...”

 

1970 Wing Commander Michael Morris of a MOST SPLENDID RAF career -  so, nightmare, had met my mother again  !    Her 1940s wartime activities too were 1920s crazy – & she & old chums all took bits of the RATIONS for nice TEAS with dear OZ  (Sir Oswald Mosley) in Holloway Prison ... where all of these MEN-WOMEN should have been ...

... 1937 my father had to telephone Oz Sir OSWALD  to “ GET THAT TRUNCHEON OFF HER or she will be back in Prison again ”  !  He went in her Prison during THE 2^nd World WAR– the pair of them were proud of having shared it :   1937 she had rolled his ISSUED TRUNCHEON for the BLACK SHIRTS in a newspaper & was swinging it at people she did not like – including her own family  :  

MICHAEL now tried not to make me blush too much in future – he avoided the more shocking Roaring 1920s Tales of THEIR PARIS days  :   I had to agree that `these women were more like men` ... They may have got hold of the FUTURIST MANIFESTOS ?  

 

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1967-1976 to his death :  HARWELL & round about :   Everyone civilized liked George-Andre & tried to keep him safe – his sons had been killed in a car May 1961- MI5 old workers were in mourning for  “ an accident just waiting to happen  - RULES said we had to withdraw COVER on them when the youngest Vincent got to 18 in March – if we had thought about it a bit more we would have found a way to get round the new RULES”  :  Summer 1969 visit to HARWELL & the Atomic Site  :  

1947 July at Clacton-on-Sea : - My ex-ATS Roman Catholic Aunt  said   “  ANDRE - he is raised by 3 Graces, his dear mother, grandmother and aunt are ALL in heaven  ...  Clara is NOT a lady & she has been living immorally since she married him when he was scarcely out of his teens :    I would not have her in the sitting room – I took her to the kitchen for whatever she had to say  !   ”  

 

FOOD :  2^nd World War :  If age 10-12 years you must be in charge of the KITCHEN then a nice High Tea for a winter day after School is FRY very thick slice BREAD in some LARD – add chopped mint, O`Daddy Sauce,  or Tomato sauce from USA food parcels & eat fiercely  – TEA , avoiding German Subs,  comes from Kenya & there is usually milk & sugar : 

 

AM-X also calls on Madam Mimi by Harwell church – they speak French – MARY FREEMAN has known Andre in Ceylon 1929  slightly :  She and friends did not like Robert Graves – he would dominate the supper table :

Dr JOHN FLETCHER – talking about Edward Black Prince – Chronicles - somewhere that he came to Harwell – as a child liked his Manor Harwell best – came on a stretcher before his death ... Johanna his wife ... Dr Fletcher saying `much to do here` :  He knew I had been at Colchester Museums – Andre was my Guardian from age 4 years – knew RANSOM Suffolk and SEAS EDGES everywhere ...  :  

( ... & the genealogy done by my father & older members of our family – including Alfie Charles Rear Admiral RANSOM 1^st world War  ( saying 1946  “ ... had to be called out at the end of this last ... Admiralty short of Rear Admirals ...”    )

With a great Genealogy people would call one another `cousin` even from 800 AD !  Cleopatra Ransom (her father retired got into Egyptian history ! )   saying 1938   “ we have not had a Christmas I see since 800 AD – then it is time we did ... ”   It is a force for good & the world is quickly OPEN  ... 

GENEALOGY :  it was a Victorian pastime before Television :  There were magazines-journals :   Inter-net has genealogies by surnames – & connections in genealogies may be done with ease

Remember DNA does not yet care for women ... a male line can take you back B.C. :

 

 

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MEMO :   ART & working PHOTOGRAPHERS :

Ranger Cottage, father & mother working scientists HARWELL ATOMIC – Dr Spence became Director -HHarwell   

ALAN SPENCE, his brother and sister grew up knowing MARY FREEMAN very well & taught art in Primary School by her :  After her death in 1986 he was allowed photograph the interior of Winterbrooke house before it was dismantled : permission her nephew Charles Freeman scholar writer Oxford University :  With Janet, & us P. & G. Whitehead, JIM FROUD,  we chose 11 pm and with glasses a good sherry her sister PHIL deposited in the CELLAR 25 years before we walked through the rooms and climbed the stairs to the other floors ... capturing the soul and spirit & meaning of the place into the dawn hours – An Artists house of the early 20^th century late 19^th century shadows ... ALAN did the PICS – I had to write memories for her friends ... PJPW & nephew Charles gave readings in HARWELL CHURCH at her Service :  Burial ashes in the grave of her husband Percy Peter Freeman Harwell cemetery :

 

THE WORLD OF MARY FREEMAN – edging into my Roman Catholic world  :   Was she at that last great MASS & afternoon in Saint Magnus the Martyr the Seamen Church, City of London, on the Thames ... ?

 I knew a lot of people branching into her decades in my first years up to 6-7- before WAR CAME :   my grandpa Frederick Charles Frobisher RANSOM had his last school teach him Latin, Greek,  conversational French – & EARLY ENGLISH  – he could lecture on Beowulf and other Sagas – he was useful to the aesthetes !  We also attended with the always solemn Catholic Converts lectures given by Indian poets – one with Teilhard de Chardin in a white shirt prancing up and down on a Colchester school stage – everyone adored him but fell asleep from a big supper - I thought he said if you concentrated you could put your MIND on a STAR = Georges the BLESSED ANDRE (Malraux) would often ask me to GET HIS MIND BACK FROM THAT STAR where I put it 1937 demonstrating - our 6 weeks Holiday Clacton & trekking Lincoln-Kings Saxmundham about in steps of his ancestors = his father`s line are `Maljaow` from Ostend but sail with us RANSOM 1600=1630 from Bordeaux :  Somehow France thinks he is French ! 

 

MARY FREEMAN and the Dudley-Short parents – her mother a Bowdler & a Cotton families :    The Indian poets and Teilhard de Chardin were known to her and her friends – A PHOTO of her in INDIA a member of a Group of Indian-Western ladies to assist relationships – I will photocopy it off – its in a book – she told me about this little group of Anglo-Indian women they were having dialogue with to try improve understanding & education :

 

(  I go to a lecture March 1937 Colchester given by Teilhard de Chardin an evening in a School – I liked him !  The party taking me all fell asleep having had a good supper :  I had to explain the lecture next day to my clever father & others :   He said  “ NO you have not understood it all ... but I will go and ask so-and-so as he was there & would never fall asleep ”     : 

THUS that Summer 1937 with help of Josette we put the BRAIN of ANDRE MALRAUX on a STAR ... 1957 he asked me to get it back for him ... he had missed it he felt ... we then tried to have me recall was it to the left or the right of the ANDROMEDA Nebulae ?  1937 I am 4 – 5 years and travelled POLES Nord-Sub and all that is in between in our airplanes and ships including an Argentine ship where they had me steer a few minutes as the newest Weddell-Frobisher of the families !

 

MARY FREEMAN - her Catholic circle of friends Harwell area :

Lady AGNES EASTON – family have a private Catholic chapel :

Knew Poet Christopher Cauldwell – SPAIN – Civil War 1936 :

Ask others about these links to her work :   I only see Lady Agnes in the kitchen at Winterbrooke House when they are exchanging preserves and thinking about shopping and letters & Easter and Christmas plans - & Convent `Retreats` :  A friend a Nun is a fine printer at a Convent - their world as English Catholics & Converts :  My pre-war Roman Catholic world is the world with visits – “ Young Pacelli ”  a friend coming from 1920s Germany to Vatican administration :  1933 Pacelli is my Guardian - not the Vatican – Andre Malraux my guardian 1937 October onwards – both Guardians to the Family philanthropy worldwide :

MARY FREEMAN & some of her circle knew my grandmother Mary Helena b 1870-1944 – she of Irish families who can go into `the VAT` to talk face-to-face – a dangerous world 20^th century – rise of racism – Aunt Margareth nee Ransom Mrs Tiggy Grote 1864, Jacopsholmen, West Greenland has been visiting the Popes with her family of MONTROSE Basin since she was 11 years in 1852 – In those days people liked to meet to exchange news about the world ... not with formality but as human beings : 

·      1937 VIOLET ARTIST nee Lindsay b c 1860 widow Lady Rutland

·        (cousin to my great-grandmother Millie Frobisher) pupil of Frederick WATTS  & Granny Mary Helena Gordon are worried – that autumn Violet comes by train & they have serious talks with ANNIE Artist (= my great-aunt Annie Agnes Carroll Williams – worked with Manzoni & with him went to help out Harold Rathbone & his Della robbia Works 1890s ...)  They belong to the older circle of `HUMANITAS`  – I am among these older people often  – MARY FREEMAN and her friends are a generation later  :

 

1942 - Young JAN KARSKI slipped out of POLAND - comes to talk with us at the Seaside Clacton-on-Sea :   Granny will write to Irish cousins immediately – may phone if she can – ask them to go into VATICAN – `but difficult to get to him`  (the family friend `young Pacelli`)  now he has `gone on High` :    1920s to 1939 he actually phones she & her sisters from Rome – 1929 his old friend is in charge of our great new Clacton-Holland Church :

 

MARY FREEMAN  and her Catholic friends drift in and out of this older world about me – War came & they had duties England  :   Bodley`s Head had sister Brenda working in the ALPS taking airmen & others to safety – this is a world of Roman Catholics best not to say deeds and names – WALLS HAVE EARS ... the QUAKERS knew this world, the NONCONFORMISTS ... our Weddell relatives are Quaker – I still retain 17<sup>th</sup>-18<sup>th-</sup> century Suffolk Essex accent :   BOSLEY family will have acquired it when they arrive fleeing Continental ills to East Anglia – English learned from seeing it written down ... Berkshire HARWELL had its accents when I came end of the 1960s ... People frowned at me when I said  `sub-arc`tic`  =  at a nearby trendy village gin & tonic sloshup & small bits nosh-up gathering of the new FAST SET  ...

 

1930s WAR WAS COMING :   “ WORLD GREED”  said Hirohito with a young family,  a Marine Scientist & an Emperor  !   1936 Pacelli & I had a tea party planned next time I come to ROME  – he knows where there is a hurdy-gurdy ... he does sketches and water-colours about ROME wearing an old robe so as to not be noticed :     THUS 1939 ANOTHER WAR CAME ! 

  

MARY FREEMAN & her early years as working teaching artist  :   EASY GUIDE first half 20^th century & a quick grasp of the DEPRESSION years between the 2 Wars is   `THE DARK VALLEY – a panorama of the 1930s –

Author - archives research & hearing family & friends as a young child – born 1940 PIERS BRENDON publ. 2,000 AD :  He is presenting & describing events my family & I am involved in & people we know of all races & nations :  Times when you knew to never say too many names – Mary Freeman & her circles will know this too ... !

 Think of HARWELL in Tudor times - religious mania ! – Scary when you cannot fly or sail away ... Records for HARWELL ?   :

 

 ( GRANNY Mary Helena (mother a Classicist Dublin Uni. ) cousins are Murphy-Carroll-O`Brien-O`Grady etc etc. the last a diplomat post – have titles (DEBRETT)  from 1859 when they are for PEACE and civilized progress freeing IRELAND – but RED HOT CATHOLICS – send me presents for Xmas and  21^st birthday presents  )

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MARY FREEMAN her many FRIENDS :   ALAN SPENCE may recall more : 

? The name of a nice middle-aged couple who go into Vatican library for research :   And DAVID RODGERS retiring BODLEY Head does this too - visiting ROME 2 weeks for work :  His sister Brenda was a 2^nd World War resistance worker France into the Alps – took people over into Switzerland – they lived in The Mill, Blewbury - I did not know them until the early 1980s :  he gave me my Library membership = old catholic network !  

CATALOGUE – photographs village France, Paris :

 exhibition France – & given by cousins Australia and Greece :   Earlier ideas for further work his   “4 portraits end of 20^th century”  has 3 local friends – Dan Grimshaw & 2 girl friends `Othona` and JO – & a philosopher beggar met in India – with text  :

 

`ACE,  ACE  & ACE ` 

stories for young Pete ... & the Whitehead children

Life in the Pillar House & HARWELL village, & roundabout = WANTAGE Burnt Cake Shop and SALISBURY Bishop of the Rolling Stones :  1970s-1980s – three are on my web sites – I print them out –  ( author-compiler is me – I forget to put this ) 

Young PETER my son has a File on my web site www.ancestryandtruetales.jimdo.com – named  `P.R.W.  Peter Rathbone Ransom Whitehead – some of his photographs – more to come and his text his plans  ... 

 

Whitehead family came to The Pillar House 4 February 1968  leaving 30th April 1993 :

Within 7 years we put back house as it was built  `a farmhouse with most elegant staircase, great inside shutters and windows of 1800s` :   the village builder Mr Jordan said  “ ...  the 18^th century features are because they wanted their house back after the fire in 1852 – so the village builder put up something like they were used to building ... much of late 18^th century in Pillar House – that’s why you have the 5 feet bread oven – later they put a very big Victorian range in  ... ”   :

 

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1985 - Pilgrimage of American descendants of  2 HARWELL brothers who landed USA Block Island  1660 =

A family owned Nashville Press & kept records their histories from English ancestors   = they may have printed these records up :  they were very proud of their ancestry – letters  ... 

I GRW prepared a big tea in The Pillar House dining-room and gardens – many biscuits and cakes from my centuries of cook books  - these on display in the big kitchen with the L.Leslie Brooke books for children pictures drawn in house, other houses and HARWELL ... BRIAN LINGHAM the librarian at DIDCOT warned me 1985 in the big garden  “ this will all go the moment you leave – I knew we were doomed when I came 1969 and saw the railway station ... what that would mean for the villages ...” :

Dr LINGHAM continued  “ That`s why I began my books on Harwell and around ... before it was all gone ... ”   Do not miss his books – he may have a web site – if not all should be in Westgate Local history section Library : 

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HARWELL – history research by Dr JOHN FLETCHER and colleagues – he lived in Pillar House 1940s – Son ANTHONY FLETCHER is a well known historian – he age 18 wrote the little book on John LODER Black Prince Farm - help from father – who said he found him with nothing to do - having lost a girlfriend :  

I read reviews TLS on AF books & he seems to keep busy nowadays :   He will know of the work on HARWELL done by his father – and may have heard more about Black Prince Farm and he of Crecy dwelling there as a child & calling in at the end of his life :

 “ CAPITALISM began in HARWELL you could say ...  ”  said his father Dr John Fletcher to me  (when he had told me I had to find the time to help with coming celebrations for 985 AD)    “ ... when an impoverished knight required money to go to war with the KING – he wrote 6 churls FREE – they immediately sent 6 eldest sons to the new College MAGDALEN Oxford ... more followed ... ”

I must have earlier explained to the eminent Dr John Fletcher my life at Colchester Museums 1950s and the great Harold Walter POULTER deputy curator ... the Curator Mr Mark `Rex` HULL solemnly stating shaking his head wisely  “ what old Poulter does not know is not worth knowing ... and the Society of Antiquaries now agree ...

 ”  Dr Fletcher, of course, knows George (ANDRE MALRAUX) & they trot about the globe looking at what pictures are painted on ... MEMO :   when they are looking at paintings stolen 2nd World War from the THOMAS Imm. GROTE HOMES for Children worldwide - educating into their teens-20s then they are aware that ` WALLS HAVE EARS` ... Only one flag needs to be raised by those who encountered this tragedy, “HUMANITAS”   (www.greta-ransom.com et al :

 

1920s-1976 :  In humanist societies Georges-ANDRE is a man whose mother was still in touch with her relatives 9^th century AD Family HISTON Norfolk, Kings Lynn, Suffolk a branch owning SAXMUNDHAM HALL 19^th century where she and her sister would come and stay ... ( they gave her a little dowry house there we visit 1937 & 1945 :   MONEY came into her from these ancient family lines – she put it aside for her only son Georges-ANDRE MALRAUX ... it was to be given to him when he had a family and children of his own ... she died early 1930s a young woman ... he returns from Asia to find her dead ...

NOTA BENE :  the sneers from bar-rat writers, hackers,  never stops about his  L O W  background from the down-town end of northern PARIS :   at any time 1930s-21^st century Clara & Company could have printed his most interesting ancestry & placed this income in civilized progress – especially after the most unnecessary death May 1961 of his two young sons his Catholic marriage to Josette a young LADY writer of TOULOUS ... :

 

I Greta Ransom first travelled through HARWELL on our way to a meeting SALISBURY (Roman Britain SORBIDUNUM) January 1954 a winter morning with Georges-ANDRE Colonel  X – we stopped to buy milk-lemonade-bread & cheese from a corner grocers – outside a short hearty looking man in a white-blue striped overall cheerfully bad us Good Day – the sign I believe said DEARLOVE ...

1945-1950s :    Joke amongst End of War participants was `what`s that X doing at the end of Andre`s name :   Answer – because he has always seen himself on a WANTED LIST : 

 

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MARY FREEMAN CAREER :

Information can be added by Hilary /Jim /Alan /Anthony F ... her great-nephew-in-law Charles Freeman, et al ...   

PAINTINGS – I & my children bought paintings from MARY FREEMAN :    6 or more – photo-copy here –

I have histories, photos drawings, a few meaningful books from her :  2 yellow box files plus a box gathering this-that  :  my web sites have begun  MARY FREEMAN & her collection of CHILDREN `s paintings – Her life, letters, the 3 Obituaries I know of tell some of her early learning & career :  She features in Art publications, Press, other nations :

2013 – via ASHMOLEAN Friends – Director informed of her collection of Children`s paintings from late 1930s-1950s =

(  NB:   Her housekeeper after her death says   `some paintings have been taken by her friends and were intended to be returned but have not come back ... I would remind them when they were overdue ... the paintings are for her future work ...   `)  :

 

MEMORANDUM  :   MARY FREEMAN bought a painting from artist BEN  `ONWU`WU` -  she attended many art exhibitions LONDON and abroad, PARIS – she said she “ ... attended the pre-war Exhibition where DALI came in a diving suit ...”  – see Press/Art journals/etc :   She would visit her sister Olive and her children Jacques, Elizabeth, Ghislaine in Belgium :  The painting done in LAGOS  (?)  is at sometime in Winterbrooke House ?  ASK others :    JIM knew of the artist & how she came to purchase it  :

 

MARY FREEMAN her interesting friends  : 

LAGOS :   Protestant Mission School - to 1939/41 =

 2^nd  collection she wished kept safe is made by husband and wife BROADBENT – dated 1939-1941 (& some letters) MARY FREEMAN to me Greta Ransom (1967-1992 widow of PJP Whitehead)  “ They ran in LAGOS a MISSION School for The London ? Missionary Society – Mr/Dr Broadbent tells how he could cross over the lane to philanthropy run by a family  (my Ransom-Grote families since 1864 ) – children taught 4 languages, Classics, to go into medicine, sciences, arts =  the MISSIONARY society could not be expected to fund anything similar at that time :  he may have put some bright students to take a class or languages during the week ... or he may have felt it could be frowned upon ... I do not know ... ”

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MARY FREEMAN :   her welfare-artist minded friends we know  have visited-stayed at Thomas Grote HOMES the globe:  VATICAN approved since 1870  ( VAT said  “ TIG you are ON ” we are told by relatives -  spoken in LATIN ? )  in nations A-Z outside the British Empire

(NB :  The Sailor King George V approved the HOMES - his mother Alexandra of Denmark (she gambled nervously =horses-Poker-Pontoon/dominoes)  nagged Queen VICTORIA his grandmother to close them – but Victoria & Queen of Spain & a Queen of Burma liked them – saw medicine, home inventions, etc. improving :

After travelling & getting away from GLITZ his heir Edward VIII saw this American Institution of TIGGY USA born citizen as of benefit to the globe & Germany never destroyed the HOMES 2^nd World War :  President Franklin Roosevelt when young man would go camping with GROTE children 2 weeks or more exploring the wonders of great nature )  Tiggy & wife (our Aunt Margareth nee Ransom)   “girl of the snows”  & her in-laws the Frobisher descendants were all young people together last quarter of 19^th century : The HOMES taught the religions of the nation & all religions and respect :

HOMES  Russia 7, France 5, South & N. America very many – Adelaide DEMANDED & got !  Iceland, Asia-Arabia-surprising places–Marsh Arabs & Borneo &  `the island that had no clothes  in 15 years had the highest learning anywhere but were content to grow their vegetables & discuss finer points of Greek Classics weekends & wore happily cotton trousers & frocks :   

 

MARY FREEMAN - VISITORS who had known the value of the HOMES worldwide visited Winterbrooke House 1968-early 1970s= there is deep mourning : 

Certain Aristocrat SCOTS Tribes are culled by The British Territorial Army -they saw barbarism done 2^nd World War - knew these Aristocrat Silurian-Jurassic bog-trotters grew a dangerous narcotic in sheltered Glens –( KEW Botanical Gardens lost 2 men attempting to investigate 1920s-30s )  :  

MARY FREEMAN – her parents generation – readers of `NORTH-SOUTH` by Mrs Gaskell & earlier & later writers- John RUSKIN `Letters to Working Men of Great Britain` & a wealth of literature looking at the pitiful state of G.B. and England its green & pleasant lands  :  The Religious Tract Society published what it dared !   GROTE children had the religion of their nation BUT EVERY OTHER RELIGION – they travelled by 12 years – Ecuador visited China 1900s & were pen-friends when we visited 1936 = newspapers and literature was exchanged – telephones were used from 1890 & GROTE children were the first to phone around the globe :

Below is an indication of what was and what could be done – others copied our HOMES and quietly did their own piece of philanthropy – but never twice around the globe – It was exceptional we owned little bits of world seashores because of marrying 2,000 years of foreign brides :  It was important to pull the ship in – have a bit of a farm – but we kept up with our ancestors – Aunt Mag went to stay 1929 with family of AURORA her father an eminent BERBER farmer, scholar, on the TOWN Committee CASTILE 6^th-7^th centuries A.D.

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LAGOS - drawings children –

Dr & Mrs BROADBENT Missionaries :  OXFORD 1970s

TIG`s HOMES gave an EDUCATION EVERY CHILD HAS A RIGHT TO :

Below our Family PHILANTHROPY in LAGOS :  

MARY FREEMAN speaking

“  Dr BROADBENT could call in – it was across the lane - another piece of philanthropy – a Home for orphans & children needing support ... he came to hear that the British Government did not now approve this Home giving  high learning ...”  (1937 the new Reign ... ) 

 early 1970/s - MARY FREEMAN – very solemn :   I heard that Dr Broadbent had just been found dead in Oxford – he is supposed to have cut his own throat while shaving – perhaps he was ill – had a fit – they had lived abroad in a hot climate :  she went into Retreat after she and friends saw the widow with support  :  

LAGOS DRAWINGS :   children 4 years to 20s perhaps :   pencil, water-colour,  crayon pencil ... `father coming home – his bicycle etc. 

 

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( beginning 1864 TIG put his HOMES, real HOMES, around the globe twice  A–Z  : by 1870 – VATICAN  said `5 years trial ` but  gave thumb up after 2 years :

 

1960 January Colne Engaine :  Dr John RAY (Ransom)  :

 “ 1864/5 he headed across the PACIFIC after beginning Ohio, San Francisco – To know what it was like at that time read the book `BEN HADEN` – he is full of God but it’s the nearest we have come to a good idea of what Tiggy found out there – Missionaries educated children to 12-16 but he felt he could do better – Age 23/4 he left his father`s New York firm and us `shoeless` :   The de Beer ladies sent the bride (Aunt Margareth nee Ransom)  a diamond hairnet – shoeless she would look neat about the head at least – her father old Fred had designed them labour saving devices for the Mines that lessened considerably the work of the labourers :   By the end of the 1860s Tig had cheques & monies fall from the skies – people called and lectured – composers could work with the young musicians & the choirs – VARESE used to sling a hammock South America visiting the HOME”  : 

“The children were raised as humanists – civilized careers – teaching - research medicine – some will stay HOME and run their HOMES – Aunt Mag began to put around the HOMES agriculture, crafts, TIG added hospitals – students stayed until 18 or early 20s – but could always come HOME – some had a parent or grandparents or a distant relative – these were drawn in and many came to work in the homes & take safe retirement – aim was to give the children family life – many were abandoned from birth – He was showing that intelligence does not come from ruling classes – When flight came in Aunt Mag got into planes – all the HOMES would have 3 little planes each – they helped locally, sick, freight... can you remember going up to West Greenland – Len on his Flying Test – 3 planes always over water the rule” : 

“You visited the Leper home Jacksonville – we bought the seashore in the 18^th century so we could pull in the ships :  a cure came in but some stayed as they regarded it as HOME & went on with their work – Before the cure the plan had been 2 years general education and then night work THE SKY – it was more comfortable for them at night – They studied a piece of the sky – we still use their work at NASA ...”

“ Old Fred and his brother got into transport early 1800s & we had our seashore lands – come in with our Brides – Canada was developing fast & railways needed everywhere round the globe – then flight – not just shipping as we had down the centuries ... 1904 his murder Scotland the TIGGY Homes had to be kept quiet ... but every nation welcomed them & wanted them to continue ... some trouble by turn of the century with Gross Britain ... more since the end of the 1930s ... ”

Uncle Dr John RAY R.  3 degrees/Astro-Physics-Animal Management-LAW – failed to report Christmastide 1969/1970 for SENATE WORK Washington :   I am asked & told 1988 USA/Mexico about a tragedy :

 

 

Art by Children – her teaching lessons -  with friends began posting www some of the big paintings !   I included some of the Pillar House work of the 4 children other children 1960s-1980s :   The SEA LETTERS drawn by Victoria-A are very popular –I & others print them off to us with RANSOM-Frobisher-Weddell-Gronlander-INCA et al files :  It is I save all their early life – school books etc.  Convent schools like V-A`s illustrated lettering `GENESIS` :  she was encouraged with art & music at Abingdon Manor Prep age 5 to 11 years - head Miss Welch :

HARWELL PRIMARY SCHOOL – Childrens paintings :  I think that JIM FROUD took his early paintings done at Harwell Primary School – & ALAN did too – the bulk are safe on Apple phone :

 

1989 – MARY FREEMAN the paintings by CHILDREN : 

FRIENDS  - Professor William Russell & wife Dr Clare Russell ethnologist :   Friends of Desmond Morris when they were all young :

Dr Russell (Reg. Professor READING Uni. Sociology)  & his wife Dr Clare Russell, Austria, told me to keep the paintings safe – “ do not let people take originals of what they consider `GOOD` :  Unless it is the actual young ARTIST – then make a photo-copy for this collection ... ”

Ten are framed in big Victorian frames & are very pleasant to live with : Some paintings were in the travelling EXHIBITION 2^nd World War British Children`s Art`  organized by her friends acquaintance HERBERT READ & friends 1940/42 – Mary had a catalogues :   She showed me in Catalogue the photo of my work the INDIAN playing drum - I had embroidered on a cushion cover – my name Greta Ransom age 7 years :

3 years ago 2 friends put them all on this Apple phone – from there some transferred to my history web – we may need a bit of soft ware as Microsoft/Orange changed something-or-other 2014 when I had to take a year off - need a slave :

 

MARY FREEMAN – Paintings by children :   1989/90 Professor Russell`s Austrian wife Clare Russell ethnologist begged to give an important Institution the 2 pieces of work done from a psychiatric institution – I think she may have also taken 1 or 2 pieces of the HOLLOWAY Prison work of women to place in appropriate Institution – she feared their FATE !  Even though I assured her that having worked in COLCHESTER MUSEUMS I knew you kept EVERYTHING !    1994 a letter to Holloway Prison has the reply that ALL records had been destroyed 1960/61 :  it was felt unnecessary to keep archives – I then remembered this in a newspaper – knew which two women mauled the Archives !  :

 

MARY FREEMAN :  Professor Bill Russell published work Population Studies :  work published FOLKLORE SOCIETY - & worldwide Society Against Animals used in Experiments :   Both he and his wife had heard of MARION RICHARDSON & her Prison work :  ( file given me by M.F. -  she felt a man asking for information on Marion Richardson did not understand the decades & the limitations put on such pioneer social workers – As women they felt they could get nowhere by shouting in these matters – they could draw attention to them :  they might express their findings & offer solutions on social conditions to male members of their families & their friends where they were in a position to do something :  she said she needed to think this whole area of her working life out – 1939 WAR came & she & friends were immediately with much extra work – many men went away to the War :  she had now to recognize she was getting older & SHE HAD SO MUCH SHE STILL WISHED TO DO !  She could not make headway with this man who wished to do perhaps a book on MARION RICHARDSON – ( NB:  her sister Kathleen early 1970s was poorly then dead )

  

MARY FREEMAN  said that Marion had been allowed to go into the prison to give needlework lessons ONLY early 20^th century :  she decided that the Prisoners should see art books and make sketches – then embroider  :   Mary Freeman gave me a little purse or handkerchief sachet embroidered by one of the Prisoners – I thought Holloway might have a Museum of its Past – `they left all this for old Madam Tussards` :

1970s MARY FREEMAN described how she went in a few times to HOLLOWAY Prison to see how her friend MARION RICHARDSON  taught – An old woman they called `Grammarian` would correct the prisoners English – she had been in & out of the Prison for many years – they tried make her life as comfortable as possible :   Mary felt all these times should not be lost – they were after all history ... she said they all went to the Funeral of `Grammarian` - there is a note in big lettering in M.F.`s handwriting on an envelope ... This is all photo`d on the Apple :

 

MARY FREEMAN :    A world described by MARY as `changing – “  but we as women from our backgrounds could not speak out – but we could to our brothers, their friends especially where they had gone into WHITEHALL or Government ... that change was needed was recognized ... However Kathleen young sister of MARION worked in the the WHITEHALL – she virtually ran the FINANCES of the BRITISH EMPIRE when they were short of trained people ... ... ... 

 

(   GRW    NB:   I met KATHLEEN RICHARDSON c 1971/2  ( sister of Marion Prison Reform ) before she died (she would have known Herbert Charles Ransom running the Crown Office c 1920s cousin to my great uncle Alfred Charles Rear Admiral – DEBRETTS 1953 Companionage ) – I am told I have met her before the War - she talked to 2-3 years old Victoria-A about drawing & Mary`s paintings :

 Result V-A has here a little sketch book of K.R. – not much – but some sketches of rehearsals at ALDEBOROUGH – a conductor - people Kathleen stayed with - and some cut outs from newspapers 1950s :   THIS is to transfer to  INTERNET – will be of some little interest to the new BENJAMIN BRITTEN web site :

 

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 NOTES :  

BROOKE FAMILY - 2 sons = Leonard studying history at Oxford – killed RAF 1^st World War /some photo-copy 1900s LLB :

`Little enh H    H

 

 

 Henry` survived = MP-Home secretary/Lord Brooke ...  Excellent biography of his father LLB 1982 gives family, paintings, book illustrations, village life etc ...

 

1970s :  Letters written by `Little Henry` Lord BROOKE to 4 children The Pillar House – Amanda Oonagh, Paul James, Victoria-Augusta, PRW `little Peter` Whitehead : PHOTO-copy available :  

                                                G.R. W.

      MORE NOTES to follow – photo-copy & 2 files HARWELL METHODIST CHAPEL  ... & HARWELL VILLAGE versus destruction of the village ... with friends we appear to have been very busy - sometimes MARY FREEMAN helping ...