It always surprises me where I happen to stumble upon local history stories.  I have recently started a beer appreciation group in Cardiff u3a called ‘Hops R Us’.  The idea being that we visit local hostelries, socialise and discuss the ales on offer.  Having an interest in local history I find myself wanting to know more about the pub we intend to visit.  In this instance we were heading for the Pen & Wig, 1 Park Grove, Cardiff.

Park Grove is a quiet street of Victorian houses close to the city centre.  The relatively new Pen & Wig opened in 1994 so the house had a lot of history prior to that.  A mirrored plaque inside the pub lists some previous inhabitants including pioneering ophthalmologist  Sir Tudor Thomas.  I did a bit of my own research and came up with some additional interesting people who had occupied 1 Park Grove.

In 1939 it was home of cinema organist Idris Thomas, originally from Bargoed.  He moved to Cardiff when he was appointed organist at the Empire Theatre.  Let the Wurlitzer music begin!

The 1911 census tells us it was home of Richard John Hopkins, Solicitor and Superintendent Registrar of births, deaths and marriages in Cardiff. 

Unfortunately, the life of Richard John Watkins came to a tragic end in 1924.  By that time the family had moved to Penarth and Richard died of gas poisoning one night.  He had gone to the bathroom in the middle of the night and accidentally tuned on a gas pipe.  A verdict of accidental death was delivered by the coroner.  

He is buried not in Penarth but in Cathays Cemetery, Cardiff.

Returning to the 1911 census for 1 Park Grove, I was keen to find the other child of Richard and Susan Watkins.  It turns out to have been a daughter, Edith Winifred Watkins. She was baptized at St Margaret’s, Roath in 1890 when the family were living at 173 Castle Road, now called City Road.  She married in 1910 which explains her absence from on the 1911 census.  She married at St Andrew’s Church, a stone’s throw from their home in Park Grove.  She married Charles Gilbert More, a civil engineer from Kenley, Surrey.

I’d been building up a family tree for the Watkins family in Ancestry.co.uk as I’d been gathering information and by now it was beginning to make suggestions as to other family members. And lo and behold what should I discover but that Edith and Gilbert More had two children one of whom was Kenneth More the actor!  So Kenneth More’s mother used to live in what is now the Pen & Wig. 

For the younger readers Kenneth More was a highly popular British actor, recognized as one of the UK’s biggest film stars during the 1950s and 1960s. Known for his charming, heroic, and dependable screen persona, he starred in classic films such as Genevieve (1953),  Doctor in the House (1954) and Reach for the Sky (1956),   He later starred in  BBC’s The Forsyte Saga (1967) 

I got hold of a copy of Kenneth More’s autobiography called ‘More or Less’. It makes interesting reading. He says his mother didn’t possess the solemnity of a solicitor’s daughter but ‘bubbled with vivacity like a glass of campaign’ and perhaps because of this was never called Edith but ‘Tops’, ‘Topsy’ or ‘Toppy’.  She liked dressing up and had a wonderful infectious laugh. 

Kenneth More describes his mother ‘Topsy’ and being free-living. I can imagine she was quite different to her father Richard Watkins who would have required an eye for detail in his job as Registrar for Cardiff.   Kenneth More was born in Gerrards Cross. His birth certificate reveals that his birth was registered some nine months after his birth and his name registered as Gilbert Kenneth More.  I can’t imagine his grandfather being impressed by such a late birth registration.

Kenneth More’s father Charles Gilbert ‘Bertie’ More inherited a considerable sum when his father died early meaning that Bertie didn’t need to seek a career. They had a high standard of living including employing three servants. Just as that first inheritance was running out and the lawyers circling, a second inheritance arrived.  Kenneth More describes it as being from a friend of an aunt of his fathers.  It was however around the time of Richard Watkin’s tragic death in 1924 and I’m left wondering if the money referred to was in fact his which the probate indicates he left to his two children one of whom  was Edith ‘Topsy’.

Bertie More wasn’t that fond of children so Kenneth and his sister got sent off to boarding school at the age of six which Kenneth recalls as being a most miserable time in his life.

Bertie More served in the Royal Naval Air Service during WWI after which he continued his hobby of trying to invent things.  He ‘invented’ a liqueur called Vespatrio at one stage, mixing spirits together and rebottling and relabeling them.  It wasn’t a success.  

Bertie More did find employment eventually as engineer of the Jersey Eastern Railway.  I must confess I hadn’t even realized that Jersey had a railway at one stage. The More family, including Kenneth, moved over to Jersey in the summer of 1924 so his father could manage the eight mile long railway from St Helier to Gorey Castle.

Kenneth More’s father Bertie died young at aged just 46, of kidney failure. His mother Topsy and grandmother, who they called ‘Dear One’, moved to Weston-Super-Mare before both returning to live in Penarth.  Susan ‘Dear One’ Watkins died in 1942 and Edith ‘Topsy’ More in 1950.  I haven’t yet been able to find their burial place. Kenneth More described his mother’s funeral as being on a Welsh hillside.  I wondered if it was St Augustine’s in Penarth but I can’t find her grave there. 

One of the most popular talks I give is ‘Captain Scott and the Cardiff Connection’.  In it I explore the reason why the Scott’s South Pole expedition left from Cardiff.  As an active member of Friends of Cathays Cemetery I am keen to find connections between the Scott expedition and people buried in the cemetery but nobody on the expedition came from Cardiff, not even second in command Lieutenant ‘Teddy’ Evans.  His claims to be Welsh appear dubious.  He was born in London, his father in March, Cambridgeshire and his grandparent in Lancashire.  His mother was from Kent.

It was therefore a relief to discover that in the film Scott of the Antarctic, Lieutenant Teddy Evans was played by none other than Kenneth More.  So having discovered that Kenneth More’s grandfather is buried in Cathays Cemetery I think we can claim to have a connection to the Scott Expedition in the cemetery.

Loose ends:

If I haven’t already sent you to sleep here are some other odds and ends and some unanswered question I came across looking at the Kenneth More story:

It wasn’t just his grandfather Richard Watkins who was registrar for Cardiff.  His great-grandfather Richard Reece Watkins (1824-1903) was also Cardiff Registrar as was his uncle Richard John Henry Watkins (1888-1954).

Kenneth More’s cousin Leonard John Stewart Watkins was also born in Gerrards Cross on 4 Nov 1914, a couple of weeks after Kenneth More was born (but at a different address).  So I wonder what Edith ‘Topsy’ More and her brother Richard John Henry Watkins were doing both living in Gerrards Cross in 1914?

On Bertie More’s WWI papers he gives details of his next of kin i.e.his wife Edith ‘Topsy’ More.  In 1914 he states she lives in Stanwell Road, Penarth and then later in the war in 1918 at the Marine Hotel, Porthcawl.  If true, this seems to infer that Kenneth More spent some of his very early years in Wales.

I’ve described how the Watkins family were living at 1 Park Grove in 1911 and that’s also the address Edith gives on her wedding certificate in 1910.  But at the time of the 1901 census and the 1921 census and the time of Richard Watkins tragic death in 1924 they lived at 47 Stanwell Road, Penarth.  In 1911, 47 Stanwell Rd was occupied by another family.  Did the Watkins family sell 47 Stanwell Rd, more to Cardiff and then re-purchase it later I wonder?

Anther question I haven’t answered is how 20 year old Edith met 25 year old Charles Gilbert More.  Was it in Cardiff or in London or elsewhere.  I looked for evidence of him having been in Cardiff.  I have found a Charles Moore living in at 7 Park Street, Cardiff in the 1909 Cardiff Directory and described as a ‘designer and engineer’ whom I suspect may well be him with surname spelt differently.

Of special interest to Roath:

Richard John Watkins (grandfather of Kenneth More) was also baptized at St Margaret Church, Roath, like his daughter Edith, though in his case it was at the original St Margaret Church which was later rebuilt  He was baptized on 16 Jan 1861 when the family were living in Wordsworth Street, one of the early Roath streets.

The Watkins Family of Cardiff

Cardiff was a small town in the early 1800s with a population of just 2,000.  The building of the Glamorganshire Canal and later the railways led to a burgeoning population and a lot of arrivals from other parts of Wales, Ireland and the West Country.  Few families could claim to have their roots in Cardiff but the Watkins family did.  One member, William Bradley Watkins (b.1812), became Mayor of Cardiff in 1865 and when he died in 1898 was described as ‘the oldest resident in Cardiff’.  So Kenneth More, if he ever knew or chose to do so, could have described himself as having true Cardiffian roots.

One of Kenneth More’s cousins was named William Bradley Watkins (1917-80), presumably after his ancestor, the Mayor of Cardiff.  

Feeling Thirsty?

So next time you are in town and feeling a little thirsty you may consider a visit to the Pen & Wig, grabbing a drink and sitting at the front of the bar next to the old fireplace and wondering if that is where vivacious Edith ‘Topsy’ Watkins, future mother of Kenneth More used to dress up and entertain the family.

Additional Information

Kenneth More’s Family Tree

Kenneth More interview mentioning his youth.

Another Kenneth More interview.