Marconi and the part Roath played inventing the radio

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Who invented the radio? 

Well, as with many scientific breakthroughs it is often a case of an accumulation of small scientific advances by many different individuals and some good teamwork.

The man most often accredited with the invention of radio is Guglielmo Marconi.

Guglielmo Marconi (pic credit: Wikipedia)

On 13th May 1897 a message was sent by Marconi on Flat Holm island over to Lavernock Point near Penarth. It was heralded as the first time a message was sent over water. The breakthrough would quickly lead to wireless telegraphy and later the wireless radio.

It was hardly the most inspiring of messages.  It is reported to have said: ‘CAN YOU HEAR ME’.  It was sent in Morse code and it was picked up at Lavernock Point by Marconi’s assistant George Kemp, who replied ‘YES LOUD AND CLEAR’.   The recording slip for the first message is now kept at the National Museum of Wales.

Marconi Hut at Lavernock Point (although this is labeled as Marconi Hut on maps like OpenStreetMap I am uncertain of the foundation for saying this is exactly where the equipment was set up. It seems unlikely that such as building would have been built especially to house a short experiment)

The initial experiments were not successful.  It was only a few days later when the equipment had been modified by extending a wire down onto Lavernock beach that a signal was successfully received.  A report states:

On the 11th and 12th his experiments were unsatisfactory — worse still, they were failures — and the fate of his new system trembled in the balance.

An inspiration saved it. On the 13th May the apparatus was carried down to the beach at the foot of the cliff, and connected by another 20 yards (18 m) of wire to the pole above, thus making an aerial height of 50 yards (46 m) in all. Result, The instruments which for two days failed to record anything intelligible, now rang out the signals clear and unmistakable, and all by the addition of a few yards of wire!

A week later, on 18th May 1897 the same equipment was used to send a message between Lavernock Point in Wales and Brean Head, near Weston-Super-Mare in England. This was probably the first international telegraph message ever sent.

And here I make a bold claim.  That first ever international wireless message may have been sent by a man from Roath.

I haven’t found any pictures of Marconi or Kemp sending or receiving their messages. The picture most often associated with these events is below.  For years I assumed one of the men was Marconi or Kemp but apparently not.

The picture is in the National Museum of Wales collection and is labeled:-

The actual transmitting apparatus and Morse Inker used for the Lavernock – Brean Down demonstration of wireless telegraphy for the first time across water in May 1897, being inspected by three Post Office officials associated with the occasion.

By courtesy of the G.P.O. Cardiff, these officials have been identified as (from left to right) :-

Mr. G.N. Partridge, Superintending Engineer

Mr.H.C, Price, Engineer

Mr.S.E.Hailes, Linemen

Sydney Hailes

Sidney Edward Hailes

Sidney Edward Hailes (pic credit: Ancestry)

I believe the man sat down at the front is Sydney Edward Hailes. In 1891 he was 17 and living at 8 System Street, Adamsdown and working as a telegraph messenger. By 1901 he had married and was living at 26 Swinton Street, Splott and working as a GPO Telegraph Linesman. In 1911 the Hailes family were living 26 Alfred Street, Roath and Sydney an Inspector 1st Class working at the Engineering Department of the PO Telegraphs.  By 1921 he had worked his way up to be Chief Inspector Engineering Department G.P.O.

I was led to looking at Sydney Hailes and the Marconi story when I was researching one of his brothers, Frank Uriah Hailes, who was killed in WWI and remembered on the St James the Great Church war memorial, now at St John’s Church in town. On Ancestry there is a picture of the Hailes family with Sydney identified and looking remarkably like the man in the foreground of the photograph, sat down next to the telegraph equipment in the Brean Down photograph. The man on the right in the photograph appears to be the oldest and is probably Hugh Price (b.1858), who lived at Rectory Road, Canton. The man on the top left would therefore have been George Noble Partridge (b.1873) who lived at Llandaff Road, Cardiff.

What part these men played in the Marconi experiment is hard to tell. The caption describes them as ‘inspecting’ the apparatus. The family tree on Ancestry however describes Sydney was being a technician to Marconi.  In his retirement speech in 1934 Sydney Hailes described himself as the telegraphist in those early experiments.   So maybe he did indeed send that first international message or maybe he didn’t but he certainly appears connected with the event.

1934 Hailes says he was the operator

It remains a bit of a mystery as to why there are no pictures of Marconi or Kemp themselves but maybe they were keeping a low profile until the invention was patented a while later.

William Preece

William Henry Preece

William Henry Preece (pic credit: Wikipedia)

Let me introduce you to a couple of other men who played a big part.  The first is William Henry Preece (b.1834), engineer-in-chief at the British Post Office.  He was a Welshman from Caernarfon, Merionethshire. There’s a strong case actually for arguing that he was the first person to send a telegraph message over the water.  He did this at Loch Ness a few years prior to the Marconi experiment at Lavernock. In fact it seems from a newspaper report that William Preece himself has transmitted a message from Lavernock over to Flat Holm in 1894, three years prior to Marconi.  The William Preece apparatus however had no way of recording the Morse code message received.  What Marconi did was to add the last piece in the jigsaw, a method to record the Morse onto a paper tape.  To be honest there were probably other technological differences between what William Preece had been working on in 1894 and what Marconi ended up in 1897 with but they are beyond my comprehension.

March 1894 – three years before the Marconi experiments

Sir John Gavey

Sir John Gavey

Sir John Gavey (pic credit: Guernsey Society & Cardiff Naturalists)

Working alongside William Preece at Loch Ness and other events was another man who lived in Roath, John Gavey. He was originally from St Hellier, Jersey (b.1842) but at the time of the 1881 and 1891 census he was living at 152 Newport Road, Roath and working as ‘Superintendent engineer post office telegraph’. He was a prominent member of the Cardiff Naturalists’ Society, holding the office of hon. secretary for three years, and the presidency of the society in 1890.

Now here’s something I never knew.  In 1881 Gavey opened the first telephone trunk line connecting two British towns, namely, Newport and Cardiff.

In 1894 he worked with William Preece at Loch Ness and succeeded in establishing communication between the opposite sides.

He moved to London and would go on became Engineer-in-Chief and Electrician to the General Post Office.

It was Gavey who was responsible for the organisation of the complete telephone trunk system for Great Britain, and he organised the Post Office telephone exchange system for London. He was Knighted in 1907.

Marconi it seems was a prodigy of William Preece and both Preece and Gavey were involved in the Flat Holme experiments. Marconi was introduced to William Preece when he arrived in England in 1896 and the two worked together.

Link to article on John Gavey by Cardiff Naturalist’s Society

John Gavey 1907 newspaper article.

Guglielmo Marconi

So having looked at some of the others involved in the Marconi experiment it is time to have a look at the man himself.

He sounds Italian, and indeed he was, well, half-Italian. Guglielmo Marconi (b.1874) was born in Bologna, Italy   His mother was in fact Irish.  She was Annie Jameson, part of the Jameson Irish Whiskey family.   He lived part of his childhood in England and with it is believed paid periodic visits to Ireland.

He was home-schooled and coming from a wealthy family his parents hired personal tutors for him.  He never went on to attend university, and judging by his success he had no need to. He homed in on the idea of Wireless telegraphy.  This wasn’t a new idea and quite a few people were working in the area. What Marconi seems to have done is make a breakthrough in certain areas and have the vision and commercial sense to turn those ideas into something. 

There are a number of things that amaze me about this achievement. How on earth did he gain access to technical information.  It was the days pre-computer, pre-radio, and pre-telephone etc. Being home-schooled he would not have had access to academic libraries or alike. Fascinating to think how he managed, but manage he did to come up with lots of ideas.

When the Italian authorities didn’t appear receptive to his ideas his mother bought him to England and it was then that the association between Marconi and Welshman William Preece formed.

His mother Anne Jameson wasn’t Marconi’s only connection with Ireland.  He married an Irish lady, Beatrice O’Brien in 1905.  They had four children together and moved to Italy. Beatrice served as a lady-in-waiting to Queen Elena of Italy.  The marriage however ended in divorce in 1924.  He converted to Catholicism to enable him to marry his second wife, Maria Cristina, who was half his age.

Let’s rewind a few years.  After the 1897 Flat Holm experiment things moved on apace. Marconi demonstrated his apparatus in many places in Great Britain and Italy including both sets of Royal Families.  He patented the invention and his charisma and marketing acumen led to commercial success.  In 1909 he was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics.

His first commercial venture was the Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company (1897–1900), renamed Marconi’s Wireless Telegraph Company in 1900.  It became a mainstay of the British telecommunications industry.  It was acquired by GEC in the 1960s but the Marconi name lived on in subsequent subsidiaries all the way through to 2006.  Not a bad achievement for a man sat in a hut on top of Lavernock Point in 1897.

Marconi’s later years were less admirable. He joined the National Fascist Party and Mussolini appointed him President of the Royal Academy of Italy and the following quote is attributed to him. “I reclaim the honour of being the first fascist in the field of radiotelegraphy, the first who acknowledged the utility of joining the electric rays in a bundle, as Mussolini was the first in the political field who acknowledged the necessity of merging all the healthy energies of the country into a bundle, for the greater greatness of Italy”.  I’m guessing this is why the 2024 Radio sculpture on Cardiff Barrage makes no reference to Marconi himself.    

Other Players

I’d like to introduce you to a couple of other people who were involved in a small way with the wireless telegraphy and the arrival of the radio.

Fast forward a decade or so following Marconi’s Lavernock to Flat Holm experiment and his invention has been commercialized. Ships are making use of wireless telegraphy to communicate with the shore to relay important messages and save them having to dock.

It was in 1910 that Dr Crippen the notorious London murderer had been rumbled. The body of his music-hall singer wife Cora, had been dug up from under the kitchen floor in Holloway, London.  Dr Crippen and his lover Ethel le Neve went on the run, first making their way to Antwerp and then boarding a transatlantic steam ship S.S.Montrose to escape to Canada.  Ethel dressed as a boy to avoid being identified.  Unfortunately for them the Captain of the S.S.Montrose was very observant and identified Crippen and le Neve from a ‘Wanted’ poster he had seen posted.  His priority however was to get the S.S.Montrose to Canada on time.  As the ship was passing Cornwall he got his telegram operator to send a message ashore and alert the police as to who was aboard.  When the police received the message they promptly sent a party to Liverpool who boarded a faster trans-Atlantic vessel meaning that when Dr Crippen and Ethel le Neve disembarked they were promptly arrested about bought back to England for trial.  Dr Crippen was subsequently found guilty and sent to be hung.  So why do I tell you this?  Well, it was the first time that wireless telegraphy was used in a murder case and the person who sent the telegraph message from on board the S.S.Montrose was Mr Llewellyn Jones who had in Newport for two years (a somewhat tenuous link to our topic I admit).

The part Llewellyn Jones played in capturing Dr Crippen.

Dr J J E BiggsThe other story I like is that of Dr.J.J.E Biggs and he certainly was a local man and lived on Newport Road, Roath.  A lot of scientific advancement had happened between 1897 when Marconi sent his first message over water to Flat Holm and 1923 when wireless broadcasting first began in Wales from a little studio opposite Cardiff Castle. Have a look for the plaque on the wall next time you are passing. The man whose job it was that day to open the first BBC studio in Wales was Lord Mayor Dr.J.J.E Biggs. He gave a speech acknowledging the invention of radio and cleverly predicting the advent of TV. The only blip was he forgot the name of the BBC and then when turning to someone, asking them to remind him of the name, he forgot he still had his microphone on so everyone heard his blooper. I’ve written about him previously in Dr J.J.E.Biggs – the first man in Wales to forget the microphone was still switched on.

 

The Legacy in the area

There is a plaque on the wall outside St Lawrence Church in Lavernock celebrating the Marconi-Kemp transmission.  It was erected 50 years after the event in 1947 by the Rotary Club of Cardiff.  I still haven’t been able to find out anything about the shield on the plaque. The building attributed with the historic event is some 50 meters away, precariously perched on the cliff top.

Lavernock Point – Marconi and Kemp plaque outside the church. Can anyone help identify the shield/motif?

There is a sculpture on a roundabout at the entrance to Tesco in Penarth.  It is a representation of the equipment used by Marconi at Lavernock by the artist Ray Smith (b.1949 Harrow, London, d.2018), It was commissioned by Tesco Stores with Cardiff Bay Arts Trust and unveiled in 1996.

Marconi wireless telegraph equipment sculpture – Tesco, Penarth

The newest nod to the historic event of 13th May 1897 is a giant wooden radio sculpture on Cardiff Barrage. I think it was conceived and designed by artist Glenn Davidson and carved at Boyesen Studios in Llangranog, West Wales. The sculpture, titled ‘Radio Flatholm’, re-uses the heritage materials, configuring them through the modem CADCAM technique of 3D carving.  It is made from recycled Jarrah or Hornbeam ironwood railway sleepers, originally imported from Southeast Asia during the Victorian era.  I think it is a fine piece of artwork, very tactile.

Flat Holm Radio Sculpture (picture credit: Ted RIchards)

Conclusions

So whist I am sat here reflecting on the achievements of Marconi, William Preece and John Gavey and pondering the possibility that it was Roath man, Sydney Hailes, who sent the first ‘international’ telegraph message between England and Wales, I think it is time to celebrate it all and have a glass of Jameson’s Irish Whiskey.  Thanks for reading.

Additional Material you may find interesting

1 May 1897 – Announcement of forthcoming Marconi experiments.
17 May 1897 report
22 May 1897
27 May 1897
10 Jul 1897
1897 July
4 Aug 1897 – Italian Royal Family demonstration
21 Aug 1897 – Demonstation to Queen Victoria
Nov 1899 Adopted in USA
1899 Dec
1902: Sydney Hailes operating the equipment at telegraph boys concert with police present.

Refs: Newspaper cuttings – FindMyPast & Welsh Newspapers Online

Mary Agnes Pugh – Ophthalmologist and Eye Surgeon

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Ever since researching the history of Cardiff High School for Girls I’ve been keen to find an example of an ex-pupil from the early days of the school who became a successful scientist and I’ve just found her.  Mary Pugh was a very successful eye surgeon, specialized in correcting eye squint and developed the Pugh orthoptoscope.

Pugh Orthoptoscope (Pic credit – Welcome Collection)

She was born Muriel Agnes Pugh but later changed her name to Mary Pugh as she disliked the name Muriel.  She was born in Barry on 11 May 1900.  Her father was a commercial traveler in the drapery business and originally came from Aberdare.  Her mother, Agnes Mary Pugh née Jones was from Bath. When Muriel was young the Pugh family relocated from Barry and settled in Roath, living at 67 Bangor Street. Muriel attended Marlborough Road School before moving onto Cardiff High School for Girls in 1911.  They later moved to 9 Marlborough Road where they were at the time of the 1921 census.

The head teacher at Cardiff High School for Girls at the time was Mary Collin, an active suffragette. She taught her pupils to ride bicycles, seen as a symbol of the growing independence of women and their determination to cast off chaperonage.  The amount of science taught at the school was probably fairly limited when it started up in 1895 but by the time Muriel joined in 1911 things were probably beginning to change.

She left school in 1918 and went on to read medicine at Cardiff Medical School.  She then did her clinical training at Charing Cross Hospital and qualified in 1926.  She was initially employed at Birmingham and Midland Eye Hospital before moving back to London and working at Moorfields Eye Hospital in 1928 in the Squint Department where she was made Officer in Charge a short time later.  Her work in that department led her to developing the Pugh Orthoptoscope, an instrument to investigate and correct eye squint. Her work has been described as individual and pioneering and led to the development of modern day instruments.

She stayed as leader of the squint department at the famous Moorfields Eye Hospital until 1948 during which time she authored the book Squint Training in 1936.

Squint Training by Mary Agnes Pugh

In 1948 she moved to the Institute of Ophthalmology where she worked on a part time research basis until she retired as well as working privately. 

Pugh orthoptoscope by Hamblin, London

As well as a love of the arts she also enjoyed her cars and owned a Rolls Royce.

So why can’t I show you a picture of Mary Pugh?  Perhaps it is because of her shy nature revealed in her obituary on the British Medical Journal “Mary Pugh was a bright, friendly person, shy and self-effacing, and intensely interested in the arts, especially painting and literature.  She travelled widely and had an international circle of friends both medical and lay; indeed her ability to detach herself completely from her profession was remarkable.  She will rank as a pioneer in her field and will be remembered with warm affection by all who knew her and with gratitude by a host of patients”.

I’ve also been informed that Mary Agnes Pugh became eye surgeon to both the Queen Mother and Queen Elizabeth.

She died in London on 21 Jan 1972 aged 71. She left her estate to Audrey Russell.

It would be lovely to hear from anyone who does have a picture that could share of Mary Agnes Pugh. 

Her partner in life was Audrey Russell, the first lady of broadcasting, whom she met in war-torn London.  They shared a love of theatre and the arts. 

Audrey Russell was a pioneer of broadcasting.  She was born in Dublin and educated in England and France.  She trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama before becoming an actress and stage manager.  Audrey Russell joined the BBC in 1942 after being discovered by them when interviewed about her wartime work for the National Fire Service. She travelled to mainland Europe just after the D-Day landings and reported from Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and Norway. 

 In 1953, Russell gave a live commentary on the Coronation of Elizabeth II, from inside Westminster Abbey.  She also gave commentary on the funeral of Winston Churchill in 1965.  Martha Kearney on the BBC War Correspondent Audrey Russell.

Audrey Russell broadcaster (pic credit: BBC)

Article compiled with the greatful assistance and input of Ingrid Dodd née Pugh.

Henry Corn – Travelling Salesman, Photographer, Painter, Businessman and Spy?

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The following words and pictures have kindly been provided by Cardiff author Chris Butler along with premission to reproduce them.

The National Pageant of Wales took place in Sophia Gardens, Cardiff between 26th July and 7th August 1909. With 5,000 performers it was an expensive and swanky event reflecting the growth of Cardiff, its new city status (as of 1905), its new City Centre (as of 1906), its aspirations and the fact that it referred to itself as “The Modern Athens”. All this was built on the thriving export trade of coal and iron from its docks.

Coal had come down from the South Wales Valleys and made the Marquess of Bute, who owned Cardiff Castle and the docks, the richest man in the world. It had created a proud, rich city, too. In 1907 it was the largest coal port in the world and our Royal Navy depended solely on Welsh coal.

The official photographer of the National Pageant of Wales was a Mr Corn, trading as C. Corn from the Metropole Studios, 3 The Hayes in central Cardiff.

His trades directory entry shows him as being a portrait painter as well as a photographer. He is clearly a photographer of talent, demonstrable from the suite of 36 real photographic postcards which he produced for the pageant. They are so well composed that these postcards leave a collector of Cardiff wanting more. Participants in the pageant ranged from workers recruited en masse from Cardiff docks to the cream of Welsh society, including even the Marchioness of Bute, appearing as Dame Wales. Although described as “the charming chatelaine” of Cardiff Castle, she looks sternly regal in her postcard, and it is known that her understudy took most of the strain of the actual performances.

It was quite common for prominent local figures to participate in pageants though. Lady Ninian Crichton Stuart for example who was a supporter of Mr Corn, featured as Glamorgan, and both Lewis Morgan, the Conservative Lord Mayor of Cardiff and his wife, Lady Morgan, both had prominent roles.

Some of the performers of this pageant were even playing roles of their actual ancestors many generations before. Lord Mostyn, for instance played Richard ap Howel of Mostyn from the Battle of Bosworth. And even when a rare outsider was brought in, to play Henry V for instance, no expense was spared and an important and influential West End actor in the shape of Victor Wiltshire was hired.

Henry Corn’s Metropole Studios were in an up-and-coming part of Cardiff, the heart of its retail shopping and the scene of a titanic commercial battle between the two competitive drapers, James Howell and David Morgan. Morgan’s investment in shops and arcades had raised the social status of the Hayes buildings but James Howell was a prominent backer of the pageant. And, as we have already witnessed, Corn had made acquaintance with the cream of contemporary Welsh society, and must have spent quite some time with them in his studio. Indeed, his advert in the Pageant’s “Book of the Words” lays emphasis on how much he was patronized by the nobility as well as local political grandees. The list of patrons, as you can see from his advertisement, included The Duke of Argyll, the Marquis and Marchioness of Bute, Viscount Tredegar, Lord and Lady Crichton Stewart, the Lord Mayor and Mayoress of Cardiff, several Aldermen, JP’s and so on.

Mildly surprising though was the fact that, apart from his advertising of the studio Corn does not seem to appear in the local press. He keeps a low profile. The 1911 Census shows a Henry Corn living with his wife, Annie, and servant in 6 Ty-Draw Place in a 7 roomed property in Roath. This part of Roath would probably be considered upper middle-class suburb in the period, reflecting a comfortable lifestyle.

More mysteriously. his hitherto regular entry in trade directories suddenly disappears after 1914. Till this date he regularly advertised his studio.  Did he die? There are no relevant UK death records or probate records. As his profession is listed as photographer in the Census this must be him.

A key to all this though, turns out that he was born in Altona, Hamburg on 8th November 1875, information provided on his subsequent entry to America. This corresponds with a German birth certificate for Henry Cohn, son of Isaas Cohn, most probably Jewish.

The 1901 Census then shows him trading as a portrait painter and commercial traveller aged 27 living in digs in Linenhall Street, Londonderry in Northern Ireland and not far from the River Foyle which carried a very busy shipping trade. His religion by that time is recorded as Unitarian.

Thereafter he must have come over to Cardiff,established a respectableand profitable business and found his bride from Bargoed, Glamorgan…But the question remains, what took a young German from Hamburg to Londonderry in the first place?

When the Great War broke out in 1914 resentment against German nationals resident in Britain rose steadily and Henry seems to have found his way out in a narrow squeak before internment scooped him up in its net. Indeed he shows up on a passenger list from Liverpool to New York on a ship with a neutral flag on January 12th 1915.

This was just 4 months before the sinking of the Lusitania on the 7th May 1915, when Internment became much more universal, and his flit is reminiscent of the escape of Burgess and Maclean before they were rounded up as spies. Burgess and Maclean, of course, had been tipped off.

Corn’s “enemy” nationality is listed on the manifest as German. His wife, Annie, does not appear to be with him, unless she is travelling under an assumed name. There is an “Annie” travelling on board and listed as “enemy” but she bears a different surname. His occupation is not recorded like other passengers. Maybe he wanted to conceal it. There is no record of Corn’s wedding or divorce that I can trace, though an Annie “Corn” gets married in Cardiff for the first or second time in 1919 and resides in up-market Lake Road West for the rest of her life.

Henry Corn – Photographer

Then we can trace his naturalization record in the USA on 6th April 1916 – a year before the USA enters the Great War. He is 5’ 5” tall, 140lbs weight, dark brown hair, with a (fencing?) scar on his nose, his last foreign residence being Cardiff in South Wales, and he renounces all allegiance to the German Emperor. He states flatly: “I am not married”. Perhaps he never was – and the Census entry had been another deception. He lists an alternative surname as “Cohn”. He is now a fine art dealer…Corn ultimately died in the Jewish Hospital Brooklyn in 1933 and is buried in the Mount Olivet cemetery in Washington. His obituary records him as having been a manager of several manufacturing firms in Manhattan, latterly Automatic Linker. He left a wife, Rose, behind him.

There are two possibilities. One is that our talented Photographer, the man who captured the cream of Welsh society in the famous 1909 National Pageant of Wales, was a victim of circumstance, and lost his wife, home and business before escaping to a new life in the USA. However, conspiracy theorists may have a different concept. Here is a mobile, linguistically able, artistic young German who finds himself as a gifted photographer in two of the most important ports of Britain before the Great War. He mixes with local dignitaries whom he would have met during the pageant. Potentially, he might have been able to make observations and take photographs of Allied ships and port facilities. Cardiff would have been of critical importance to the war effort, fuelling the Royal Navy and sustaining the American Expeditionary Force (AEF). A war between the Central Powers and the Allies had long been predicted.

Is this a plausible theory? Well, “Defence of The Realm” the authorised history of MI5, revealed in 2009 that the German Admiralty’s intelligence service had set about developing a network of German agents in Britain for some years before 1914, to monitor shipping and provide information. Some of these agents were identified and tried before the war. MI5 records show that 65 German agents were arrested during World War I. This general approach was also captured by popular spy novels of the time such as “The Riddle of the Sands” and “The Invasion of 1910”, the latter predicting a German invasion assisted by a complex spy network, and as early as July 1908 the “Western Mail” posed the questions: “Are we prepared for war? What would happen in a fight with Germany?”

It would have been sensible of course for the Germans to have installed a sleeper agent with photographic skills, an ability to mix with the rich and powerful, and with easy access to the Docks in Londonderry or Cardiff, from his city centre studio.

And then, escaping in the nick of time and concealing his talent as a photographer, he might well have gained entry to New York – a vital port of the USA which was destined to join the war against Germany in 1917. New York was the Port of Embarkation for the American Expeditionary Force and having an observant and experienced agent in place would have been a real coup for the Germans.

So, unless there are some MI5 records available on the mysterious Mr Corn, we may never know whether he was a spy or not… But he certainly was in the right place at the right time, mixing with the right people – and a clear master in his craft, as his postcards bequeathed to us clearly demonstrate.

John Biggs – The Brewer who had Oldwell built.

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Towards the top of Pen-y-lan Road, on the corner with Bronwydd Avenue, there stood until the mid-1980s, a rather grand house called Oldwell. It was built the mid-1880s for owner of the South Wales Brewery, John Biggs.  It was one of the grand houses of Pen-y-lan along with its neighbour Wellclose and other nearby houses including Bronwydd, Greenlawn and Pen-y-lan House.

Oldwell, Pen-y-lan

I recall visiting Oldwell in the 1970s when it was a residential home for the elderly owned by the local authority.  The other owners are listed in an article by Glamorgan Archives. It was demolished in the 1980s and the land repurposed for flats.

Oldwell in 1980s.

Oldwell must have been an idyllic residence when it was first occupied by John and Emily Biggs and their six boisterous teenage boys back in the mid 1880s.  It had a snooker room to entertain them in times of wet weather and a stable at the back for them to learn horse riding skills. But the boy’s real passion was playing rugby.  All six would go on to play rugby for Cardiff and two for Wales.  There is a story associated with each of them.  One boy, John James Egerton Biggs went on to be Lord Mayor of Cardiff, Norman Biggs ended up being killed by a poison arrow and Geoffrey Biggs was captain of one of Britain’s first submarines, the A1. 

In this article we concentrate on John Biggs, the man who couldn’t stop brewing.  His name crops up in newspaper articles from the time and we are able to piece together bits of his life story but admittedly its an incomplete picture. 

John Biggs was born in St Mary Street in 1833 to John Biggs, a wine and spirits merchant, originally from Bristol, and Eliza Biggs née Jones, originally from Glamorgan. John and Eliza Biggs are worth a mention in their own right as they have a plaque in their name at St Mary the Virgin church in Bute Street, probably indicating that they were one of the benefactors who helped pay for the building of the church in 1843.  

Plaque to Eliza and John Biggs, St Mary, Bute Street,

John Biggs (our future brewer) was baptised at St John’s church in Dec 1833.  In the 1841, 1851 and 1861 census he was living in St Mary Street.  By 1861, aged 27, his parents had died and he himself was now working as a wine and spirit merchant and living with his three sisters. John Biggs (Snr) died in 1858 and was buried at St Margaret’s, Roath though virtually all the grave headstones at St Margaret’s have now been removed so I haven’t been able to identify his precise resting place.

In 1866 John Biggs (Jnr) married Emily Sophia Clark, originally from Usk.  She was daughter of a newspaper editor and publisher James Henry Clark.  Please allow me another brief aside. In 1850 Cardiff was growing rapidly and J.H.Clark came down from Usk and opened a branch of his business in Saint Mary Street. In 1853 he wrote and published ‘Cardiff and its Neighbourhood’ which was the first guide book about Cardiff to be published. After four years however he sold the business because of the inconvenience and expense of regular travelling down to Cardiff.

Cardiff’s first guidebook.
Engraving of Cardiff Castle from Cardiff and its Neighbourhood

By the time of the 1871 census John Biggs is now describing himself as a ‘wine merchant and brewer’. He’d realized that that the workers of the burgeoning town of Cardiff are thirsty people and enjoyed a beer or two.  An advert from 1872 identifies him as the owner of Trinity Street Brewery which would have been adjacent to the present indoor market.  Trinity Brewery was later sold, probably to cater for the expansion of James Howell, the department store.

Trinity Street Brewery, Cardiff, brewery owned by John Biggs, advert from 1872

With the proceeds of that sale John Biggs built the South Wales Brewery in 1876.  The drawings for the brewery offices are still in Glamorgan Archives with his signature on. The brewery was situated on a triangle of land on Salisbury Road between the two railways. The buildings would later be used for offices of the Taff Vale Railway and today the land is occupied by university accommodation.  

South Wales Brewery

In the 1870s things were going well for John Biggs.  Not only was his brewing business successful but he finds time to invest in buildings.  In the Western Mail of 22 Sept 1876 there is an article entitled ‘Street Architecture in Cardiff’ in which it congratulates John Biggs on a new building in High Street which from the description I have been informed was 6 High Street, now home of Temple Bar.  When I went to visit I looked up to the very top of the building and was surprised to see what looks like his initials, though the bottom of the J seems to have fallen away.

6 High Street, Cardiff with what could well be the initials of John Biggs at the very top.

John and Emily Biggs had ten children together, one girl and nine boys, though four of the children, including the daughter, died in infancy. The family lived in St Andrew’s Place in 1871 and Park Place in 1881 before their house Oldwell in Penylan was built in 1885.  I’ve tried to find the family at Oldwell in the 1991 census but have never succeeded (now there’s a challenge for you all) as both Oldwell and Wellclose seem to be omitted from the census.

The South Wales Brewery was owned by John Biggs and a John Vaughan Williams.  There would also have been a number of hotels/pubs owned by the brewery.  One was the Theater Royal Hotel at the southern end of Queen Street.  I have discovered an old picture of the hotel with an advertising hording for the South Wales Brewery. 

Theatre Royal Hotel, Queen Street with advert for the South Wales Brewery.

In 1888 the John Biggs and John Williams appeared in court charged with adding saccharine to their beer thereby increasing the specific gravity. They were found guilty and ordered to pay £100. One of those hearing the case was Dr Paine who is buried virtually next to John Biggs at Cathays Cemetery.  The following year, 1889, William Hancock buys South Wales Brewery.  It appears that as part of this deal John Biggs became a Director of Hancocks Brewery.

His stay on the Hancocks Brewery board was however short lived as in 1892 John Biggs resigns and takes over the Canton Cross Brewery on Cowbridge Road. The Canton Cross Vaults pub is still there to this day but no longer a brewery.

Canton Cross Vaults, Cardiff – used to be Canton Cross Brewery owned by John Biggs then Hancocks.

In 1898 the Theatre Royal Hotel in Queen Street is back in the news. Police object to a licence being renewed on the grounds had been frequented by prostitutes.  John Biggs objects saying the landlord at the time has been replaced. The hotel is sold later that year. 

It appears that the love of John Biggs’s love of brewing is coming to an end. In 1900, with the children by now having left home, Oldwell is put up for sale with son Selwyn Biggs, a solicitor, handing the sale.  In the 1901 census John Biggs is living with his in-laws in Usk giving his profession as a Retired Brewer.   The Canton Cross brewery is sold to Hancocks in 1904 together with 5 pubs.

In the 1911 census John and Emily Biggs have retired to The Laurels, London Road, Bath.  Emily Biggs died in 1919 and John Biggs in 1920.  Both their funerals are held back in Cardiff and they are buried in Cathays Cemetery (plots L1211/L1235).  What surprises me is that there is no headstone on the grave and no record of there ever having been one.  Four of their children were still alive at the time of the funerals; one, Selwyn Biggs was a solicitor and one John James Egerton Biggs becomes Lord Mayor of Cardiff in 1922. There is however large tree nearby so perhaps the headstone suffered damage over the years.  It remains a bit of a mystery.

Grave of John and Emily Biggs at Cathays Cemetery

28 The Parade – The Parade Community Education Centre

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28 The Parade was built around 1868 and has only ever had three occupants.  In the first two articles in this series we looked at the two earlier occupiers:

In this third article we look at the most recent occupants – The Parade Community Education Centre.

28 The Parade – The Parade Community Education Centre

In the summer of 1971 Cardiff High School for Girls vacated the building as part of their move up to Ty Celyn School on Llandennis Road.

When Ravinand ‘Ravi’ Mooneeram saw the vacated building he saw an opportunity. Teaching was in his blood and he already had a track record of teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) to some of Cardiff’s new arrivals at Fitzalan High School. The local authority gave permission for 28 The Parade to be used as a base for ESL teaching and called ‘The Parade Community Education Centre’.

The building had been vacated but not emptied.  The bins in the rooms were still full.  There was work to be done in preparing it.  One advantage however was that the caretaker from Cardiff High School for Girls days still lived in the top floor.

ESL evening classes began at the Parade in 1971.  Ravi Mooneeram became a teacher/adviser in immigrant education in the city and in 1974 he became county community tutor. Over the next few years he would liaise between schools and parents, leading to an expansion in ESL teaching. The Parade became the hub of a network of ESL classes throughout the city, initially targeting adults but later their children too. The Parade Community Education Centre had the advantage that it wasn’t tied to a specific school.

Staff and students at The Parade Community Education Centre
Teaching at The Parade Community Education Centre

 When Panasonic opened up a factory in Cardiff employees from Japan and their families came for English lessons to No.28.

A gesture of thanks from Panasonic Managers.

The work carried out in 28 The Parade however had another aspect.  The building provided a base for many thriving multicultural groups, enabling them to maintain their own identity and culture whilst at the same time facilitating integration.   Ravi’s whole philosophy and life’s work was one of Britain developing harmoniously into a multi-racial, multi-faith, multi-lingual and multi-cultural society.

Another aspect of the work was exchange visits with Cardiff’s twin cities such as Stuttgart in Germany and Nantes in France. Groups of pupils from schools in the Cardiff’s twin cities would meet and attend lessons at No.28.

In the 1970s all the Cardiff High School for Girls buildings along The Parade were vacated. The Parade Community Education Centre could therefore sometimes use the Assembly Hall in the adjacent building to No.28.  Even later when Ysgol Bryntaf School moved into No.27 it was still sometimes possible to use the hall for events. The South Glamorgan Youth Brass Band under Dewi Griffiths played there regularly.

The South Glamorgan Youth Brass Band under Dewi Griffiths.

Press cuttings over the years show the vast range of work that was carried out at The Parade Community Education Centre.

As well as ESL teachers other staff such John Scofield were recruited to help provide extra tutoring in maths and other subjects to pupils who were struggling in their own schools as they sought to be fully conversant in English.

Ravi Mooneeram in front of the class


In 1981, Ravi Mooneeram was appointed a magistrate.  A year later, his tireless work would be awarded with an MBE for his services to education and refugees.

He retired in July 1993 but unfortunately had poor health in retirement and sadly passed away in 2002.

His role at The Parade Community Education Centre was taken over by Samina Khan.  After 28 The Parade closed in the early 2000s Samina went on to be Equality Diversity and Community Development Manager at Cardiff and Vale College.

Ravi Mooneeram’s own life story is interesting.  He hailed from the island of Mauritius.  His father died when he was young and Ravi took over the role of father-figure to his siblings.  He was initially self-taught, borrowing many books from the local library but then he won a scholarship.  He subsidised his own high school education by tutoring younger boys at the school.  After leaving school he taught for 12 years at St Andrew’s School on Mauritius.

Ravi and his two brothers had planned to come to Britain and subsidise each other’s university education by working but it never quite worked out.  A cyclone hit and destroyed the family home. Eventually Ravi arrived in Cardiff and obtained a degree in Mathematics and Botany at Cardiff University.  Securing a teaching job however proved difficult and he ended up as a council worker.  

One day a friend spotted him cutting the grass at the Mansion House and through that contact Ravi managed to enter teaching.  He became warden at the Grangetown Centre, then, after teaching French at Cyntwell High School, Ely, for three years, he moved to Fitzalan High School to take charge of the immigrant reception class and from there to hid dream job at The Parade Community Education Centre.

Ravi Mooneeram in his office at The Parade Community Education Centre

28 The Parade is now 150 years old.  Let’s hope The Parade Community Education Centre were not the last occupants of this fine building. There are grounds for optimism.  It seems that the terms of a covenant  probably means the building has to be used for educational purposes. Cardiff Council has been exploring the feasibility of turning the building into a new integrated hub for young people.

Plasnewydd Labour Newsletter – Spring 2024

Some additional photographs showing 28 The Parade and the work that went on at The Parade Community Education Centre:

The Parade Community Education Centre
A group outside No.28 The Parade
28 The Parade undergoing renovations
Visit by Michael Roberts MP
Ravi Mooneeram receiving his MBE
Ravi and his wife Aheela

28 The Parade – Cardiff High School for Girls

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In the first article in this series we looked at 28 The Parade – The Billups Family and their pivotal role in the formation of the Salvation Army.  In this article we look at the next occupants of the house, Cardiff High School for Girls or Cardiff Intermediate School for Girls as it was originally called when it began in a large ground-floor room at No.28 The Parade back in Jan 1895 with 95 pupils.

The importance of child education was being quickly realized throughout the 1800s.  Private schools and church schools were established. By 1870, Board Schools were being established to provide free education for children up the age of nine.  Many of the Primary Schools we see in Cardiff today started as Board Schools and are often still using the same buildings.  Some are still inscribed with the original Board School stone inscriptions if you look carefully up at the roof apexes, such as on Albany Road Primary.

Cardiff Intermediate School for Girls in 1910 with 28 The Parage on the right

University education in Wales was also becoming established.  University College opened on Newport Road in 1883. The Intermediate Education Scheme, established in the Act of 1889 aimed to bridge the gap between the Board Schools and University education and provide education for the 9 to 17 year olds who were not able to afford the privilege of a private education. That’s not to say that attending an Intermediate School was free but the fees were not allowed to exceed £5 per annum and there had to be scholarships and bursaries available amounting to not less than ten percent of the total number of pupils in the school. The Welsh Intermediate Education Act of 1889 pre-dated similar legislation in England by a dozen years.  The Intermediate Act was also designed to cater for those not necessarily destined for university by providing a technical aspect to the curriculum too but to what extent this aim was born out at 28 The Parade I’m not sure.  A quarter of the cost of construction of an Intermediate School had to be raised by public subscription. Presumably the same applied if a school was purchasing an existing building.

The nearby Howard Gardens Higher Grade School was established earlier in 1885.  Again I think the aim was to bridge the gap between the Board Schools and University. Howard Gardens became a Municipal Secondary School from 1905 and abolished fees in 1924 somewhat disadvantaging Cardiff High School for Girls that still had an entrance examination and fees.

The original wish had been to have the girls and boys Intermediate school on the same site in Cathays Park but Lord Bute could not see his way to grant a site inside the park.  In the end the girl’s Intermediate school opened in The Parade before the boy’s school in Newport Road.

Cardiff High School for Girls – Lower School on Right

The money used to purchase 28 The Parade was presumably 25% public subscription with some or all of the remainder supplied public funds. Some or all of that funding it seems came from charities or endowment funds such as the Craddock Well Charity and the Howell’s Charity. 

The Craddock Wells Charity

Craddock Wells died in Cardiff in 1710 and bequeathed two houses in High Street, £28 in cash and a small close of land in Canton (~1¾ acres) to provide for the education of six girls and six boys in Cardiff.  The £28 cash was to be used to purchase 3½ more acres adjacent to his existing land. The trustees invested well and by 1895 some 17 acres of land was owned by the charity and income of £17,000 derived off it.  By 1955 it was worth £60,000 with an annual income of £3,800.  The money was used to award scholarships to those both in school and university education. During the 2020-2021 financial year the total value of assistance approved to former and current pupils was £96,897.84 and Pupils of Cardiff High School benefited generally from the provision of land and buildings by the Charity for the purpose of the school.  The Charity held investments valued at over £3 million and land and property valued at £21 million.

Howells Charity

The Howells Charity goes back even further than the Thomas Wells Charity.  Thomas Howell was a philanthropist.  In his will, published in Spain in 1540 he left 12,000 ducat.  That money was invested and some of the proceeds of which were used to set up Howell’s School in Llandaff.    .

In 1893, the two charities were combined for administrative purposes.  It appears it was money from these combined charities was used to in the setting up of Cardiff Intermediate School for Girls.  The money was used to purchase both 28 The Parade from Mr Billups and the freehold from Lord Tredegar.  

(In 1910 the combined charities were renamed the Cardiff Intermediate and Technical Education Fund. In 1955 they legally merged under the name of the latter and on 9 May 1966 the combined Charity was renamed the Cardiff Further Education Trust Fund).

In 1893 and agreement was set out whereby boys from places like Llandaff and Penarth would be allowed to attend Cardiff Intermediate School for Boys and  girls from Cardiff would be allowed to attend Howell’s School, Llandaff. Whether this was just a temporary agreement until the Cardiff Intermediate School for Girls was established is unclear.

The school proved a success and was quickly expanded to the purpose-built premises that included 24-25 The Parade and cost £30,000 and opened in 1900 by which time there were 250 girls on the books.   Nos 26 and 27 The Parade were still both private properties in 1910 so the school was just built around them.  It wasn’t until the late 1920’s that the leases of No’s 26 and 27 ran out and in 1930 that the building of the school as we finally knew it really took place. Part of the original gardens of 26 and 27 were retained, entered by a door at the end of the main corridor, just before the Hall. 

28 The Parade on right. No’s 26-27 in centre prior to demolition to make way for the school extension. Undated. (Photo Credit J H Dyer, Queen Street)

 The school was renamed Cardiff High School for Girls in 1910.

As the school expanded 28 The Parade became the Lower School.  In later years 28 The Parade became the sixth form. The caretaker continued to live on the upper floor which included the octagonal copula. One of the frequent memories ex-pupils have of No.28 is the smell of polish used to keep the floor and elegant staircase shiny.

The exterior appearance of 28 The Parade changed little over the 74 years Cardiff High School for Girls occupied the building. J.B.Hilling in the Glamorgan Historian described the building as ‘designed with a mixture of styles incorporating a Doric portico, Dutch gables, tall Tudor brick chimneys and a large octagonal copula over the staircase hall.

The first headmistress at the school was Miss Mary Collin.  Born in Cambridge in 1860 she was educated in Notting Hill School and Bedford College, London where she studied languages.  She then taught for seven years in Nottingham High School before moving to Cardiff.  At the time of the 1911 and 1921 census she lived in 29 The Parade, a property which at some stage became part of the school.

Staff of 1955. Photo presumably taken at the rear of No 28 The Parade. (photographer unknown)

Mary Collin was an English teacher and campaigner for woman’s suffrage during the early part of the 20th century.  She taught her pupils to ride bicycles, seen as a symbol of the growing independence of women and their determination to cast off chaperonage.

Mary Collin was active in the Cardiff Suffrage movement, which included Professor Millicent Mackenzie, founder of the Cardiff Suffrage branch.  Collin would host women at The Parade from the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies such as NUWSS organizer Helen Fraser when she visited Cardiff to speak.

Miss Mary Collin headteacher 1895-1924

Mary Collin had her work cut out.  When the girls and boys intermediate schools were set up it was deemed that among the subjects boys would be taught would be natural science but for the girls domestic economy and the laws of health were to be substituted. Similarly boys would learn iron moulding, modeling in clay and the use of tool whereas the girls would instead learn cookery, needlework, cutting out, and laundry work. Decades later when Mary Collin submitted plans for the expansion of what was then Cardiff High School for Girls she asked for a chemistry laboratory.  When the plans were returned the laboratory had been refused and substituted with a sewing room. Eventually she got her was and a laboratory was constructed.

She retired in 1924. She died at the age of 95 soon after the diamond jubilee celebrations of the school in 1955.

The school song was “Hail Glorious Sun”, written by Miss Woodward, who was a mistress at the school from 1896 – 1936.  The school motto was Tua’r y Goleuni (‘Towards the Light’).

The school playing fields for both the girls and boys High Schools were at the Harlequins ground off Newport Road. The ‘Spinning Wheel’ book describes the Harlequins being ‘gifted’ by Lord Tredegar. Whether the leasehold was gifted or sold I’m not quite sure but Lord Tredegar was held in high enough esteem that his portrait hung in the school in The Parade

The Old Girls Association (OGA) itself has a long history.  It was established in Nov 1899, just four years after the school itself opened.  It established a reputation for their dramatic entertainment. In 1932 it put on a performance of The Bat described as one of the most complicated and strangest stories imaginable but it made for fine entertainment with capable acting from every member of the cast. Two years later Jacqueline de Guélis played a leading role in a production of ‘The Aristocrat’ in front of a full house with the proceeds going to the Infirmary.  Tragedy was to strike a few weeks later when Jacqueline was knocked down and killed by a motor van on Penylan Hill.  Her brother, the spy Major Jacques de Guélis was also killed n a motor accident at the end of WWII.  Their story is told in our article The tragic coincidence linking the deaths of the De Guélis siblings.

By June 1955 there were 5,500 Old Girls, ranging from 15 to 70 years of age, scattered all over the world. The summary in of the archives say “Some held unique or important positions; for example, one was the first qualified woman engineer in the United Kingdom”. The OGA was officially wound up in October 2006, although informal gatherings continued.  The OGA archives are held in Glamorgan Archives.

The school remained in The Parade until 1970 when it merged with Cardiff High School for Boys and Tŷ Celyn Secondary School in Llandennis Road to form Cardiff High School as a new Comprehensive School and over the next three years transferred to the Llandennis Avenue site. The move to Ty Celyn was gradual with the Sixth form staying at The Parade for a number of years until new facilities were constructed at Llandennis Ave.

Headmistresses

It is amazing to think that in the 75 years Cardiff High School for Girls was at The Parade it only ever had three headmistresses:

Miss Mary Collin 1895-1924, Miss Frances Rees 1925-1949,  Miss Eluned Jones 1950-1970

Headteachers Frances Rees ( 1925-1949) and Harriet Eluned Jones (1950-1970)

Notable Old Girls:

Bernice Rubens, Author.

Bernice Rubens (1923-2004) was the first woman to win the Booker Prize for Fiction in 1970, and the second winner overall. She was born in 1923 of Jewish decent and attended the school in the 1930s where she was in the orchestra. A Purple Plaque has recently been erected on the Rubens family home in Kimberley Road to commemorate her life.  Our article Bernice Rubens – Booker Prize winner records her life.

The unveiling of the Bernice Rubens Purple Plaque in Kinberley Road in 2024

Irene Steer, Swimmer

Irene Steer, the first Welsh woman to win a Gold Medal at the Olympics. She struck gold in the 1912 Stockholm Olympics as the anchor leg swimmer in the victorious, world record breaking British 4×100 yards freestyle relay team. She was born at 290 Bute Street, Cardiff on 10 Aug 1889. Her father was a draper.  By 1901 the Steer family had moved to 32 The Parade. She attended Cardiff High School for Girls, a few yards from her home, from 1899-1906. 

Irene Steer Stockholm 1912 Olympics

Irene Steer at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics (pic credit: Wikipedia)

Gillian Gill, Author

Gillian Gill née Scobie (b.1942) is a noted writer of biographies including ones on Victoria and Albert, Florence Nightingale and Agatha Christie.   An insight into her early life comes in a 2020 interview Shelf Awareness: Reading with… Gillian Gill.  In it she describes: ‘My loving, secure and extremely boring childhood world, I lived mainly in and for books’.  The very first book she remembers owning was Flower Fairies of the Wayside by Cicely Mary Barker. She explains she could barely tell a daisy from a dandelion, but loved that book and acquired a taste for doggerel.   In the section of the interview ‘Book you hid from your parents’ she responded: If you can believe it, The Blue Lagoon, when I was about 14. Later, I took a secret gallop through Lady Chatterley’s Lover for the dirty parts which I found a lot less hot than The Blue Lagoon.

Gillian Gill (photo credit: Linda Crosskey and Penguin Random House)

Ann Beach – Actress

Ann Beach (1938 – 2017) had a varied career in film and on stage. Beach won a scholarship to RADA at the age of 16. After leaving, she toured with Frankie Howerd in Hotel Paradiso, and then came to London in the title role of Emlyn Williams’s Beth. She was Polly Garter in Under Milk Wood with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. She also starred in Notting Hill playing Hugh Grant’s mother.

Ann Beach, actress (photo credit: Wikipedia)

Joan Oxland, Artist

Joan Oxland (1920–2009), was born in Westville Road. After leaving school she attended Cardiff School of Art.  She also studied at Wimbledon School of Art and later attended Académie Julian in Paris, 1962–3, before returning to teaching in Wales.  She taught at her former school in The Parade and before becoming head of the design department at Llandaff College of Education. She was co-author with Betty Whyatt of the book Design for Embroidery – An Experimental Approach, published in 1974. The regions of France, especially Brittany, Provence and the Ardeche, featured regularly in Joan’s work, and her interpretation of a French market won the prestigious Derrick Turner Prize in Cardiff in 1990.

(picture: Evening Reflections, 1961 in the National Museum of Wales)

Mary Pugh – Ophthalmologist and Eye Surgeon

Eye surgeon to both the Queen Mother and Queen Elizabeth, as well as developing the Pugh orthoptoscope for measuring and correcting eye squint.  She attended Marlborough Road School before going on to Cardiff High School for girls in 1911.  One thing we are missing though is a picture of Mary Pugh. I wonder if anyone has one? For more information on Mary Pugh see our blog: Mary Agnes Pugh, Ophthalmologist and Eye Surgeon.

Pugh Orthoptoscope (Pic credit – Welcome Foundation)

Eira West – Pianist

The Royal Academy of Music awarded her a Scholarship in 1949.  In 1954 she was a member of the National Youth Orchestra for Wales.  She went on to be the pianist for the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

Eira West Pianist

Muriel Kennedy née Williams – head teacher

Muriel Kennedy became the head teacher for the first secondary school for women in Iraq in Baghdad which opened in Apr 1935.

Doreen Vermeulen-Cranch – Professor of Anesthesiology

Doreen Cranch (1915 – 2011) was born in Abertillery.  The Cranch family moved to Cardiff and Doreen attended Cardiff High School for Girls before going on to study Medicine in Cardiff and become a house physician at Cardiff Royal Infirmary.  She met Jan Vermeulin, of the Amsterdam Shipping Company in Cariff and moved to Holland after WWII where she became a pioneer of Dutch anesthetic science. With her charm. personality, and above all. her intellect Dr Cranch has overcome any opposition from doctors who were somewhat hurt in their pride to be lectured by a woman. They soon realised she was their equal in general medical knowledge and superior in that of anesthesia. She was awarded  Commander Order of the British Empire, 1971. Her valedictory lecture was titled “Emancipation process”. Herself a fully emancipated woman, who inspired many female professionals, she was responsible for the emancipation of anesthesia in the Dutch academic world.  Miss Collin would have been proud of her.

Professor Doreen Cranch

Further Reading

The history of the school is set out in two books:

The Spinning Wheel: Cardiff High School for Girls 1895-1955. Its story assembled by Catherine Carr (pubs: Cardiff Western Mail and Echo. 1955)

Full Circle: Cardiff High School for Girls 1950-1970 by Barbara Leech (pubs: Starling Press Ltd. 1986)

It must be said however that trying to extract the history of 28 The Parade from these book was not an easy task.  The books mainly concentrate on personal reminiscences, mostly concerning the staff, lessons, trips, events etc rather than the fabric of the school itself. When the classrooms are discussed they are usually not identified as being in a specific building etc.  For a past-pupil the task would have been easier but for an outsider I found it a challenge.  The following extracts from the books are ones that specifically refer to No 28 The Parade and I hope give the reader a sense of the building.  Readers of this blog may wish to contribute their own recollections of 28 The Parade if they attended the school.

Some of the plans in question at the end of the first chapter concerned the transformation of a big house, 28, The Parade, into a School, at first the whole School, now Lower School. Miss Rees had an interesting experience in the early summer of 1936, when General Evangeline Booth, daughter of General William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, called at School. Her visit was unexpected, or, as Miss Rees said, it would have been a privilege to invite her to take Prayers. She had come in order to renew acquaintance with Lower School, where she had stayed as a little girl with a Mr. and Mrs. Billup, friends of her father. She went into the Welsh Room (the tree-darkened Form room to the left as you go through the front door) and said that was the dining-room. Upstairs, she found that the little dressing-room where she had slept had joined with a bedroom to make the larger Form room on the first floor there are still the two doors plain to see.

General Evangeline Booth told Miss Rees that the house was well-known in those days as one of the finest in the neighbourhood and it is common now for master craftsmen in wood or stone, who for any reason pass through Lower School, to lay hands lovingly on the shining heavy doors and to contemplate the elegantly carved staircase and say: “Substantial, you won’t find wood or work like that nowadays”. ‘Then there are the crystal door-plates and knobs, the crystal bell-handles by the fireplaces, the inlaid floors, the ceilings, the marble mantelpieces.

The noblest mantelpieces are in the largest room, on the right as you go through the front door.  At present, it is the Music room, and the envy of other subjects; for with its platform and the big bay window behind it facing on to The Parade, and with its pleasant view of the garden through French windows that open on to a fine terrace at the opposite end, it is still, perhaps, the most attractive room in School. Miss Rees used to say what a beautiful library it would make.  Old Girls who had the fortune to begin School with it as their Form room remember it more vividly than any other: to Ursula Scott Morris it symbolizes her school life, with its stage at one end, flowers at the other, and the desks between. Ursula Lavery recalls the garden scene resting lightly on the glass; the massive fire-grates, the carvings, and, above all, the exciting little platform where one solemnly recited or acted across to the red may and the laburnum that once grew together in the Spring, or to the scarlet rowan tree that still lights up the early Autumn. 

There it was, after the opening date had been twice postponed because the builders could not complete the necessary alterations in time in the gripping winter weather, that Miss Collin took Prayers on the first morning, January 24th 1895, with 94 girls and a Staff of five Assistant Mistresses and four visiting teachers.

Cloakrooms were unfurnished, pipes were frozen, and girls and Mistresses, too, for the fires in the massive grates, so good to look at, warmed only the near rows with any adequacy. But discomforts were trifles, mere thorns to the rose, in the excitement and enthusiasm of beginnings. In Miss Collin’s words, “Staff and girls, like a large family, were ready to meet any emergency and share both in the difficulties and the joy of work”.

Some of the 94 girls assembled there were no doubt filled with trepidation for they came from private tuition in their own homes, to what would seem to them to be a large unfeeling community. Some came from Board Schools that had been established following the Act of 1870. The majority came from smallish private schools.   

Moreover, I was recalling the gloomy forebodings of the family, as from our house in The Walk, we saw the large house in The Parade, with its gardens and stables, being transformed into a school, where I was doomed to lessons in a classroom and sedate games on an asphalted playground.

At first the School Buildings consisted only of the large, double-fronted house, every room, cubicle and cupboard of which was put to use. A Hall of two rooms running the whole depth of the house was used for the assembly of the whole school for Prayers, entertainments, admonitions, physical exercises, and so on. I seem to remember that P.T. was then called Callisthenics, but the only sure memories are of the scratchy feeling of the serge gym suit and one exercise performed at the bidding of Miss Hoskins, our first Gym Mistress : “Hips firm, heels together, knees outward bend.” I can’t remember any Singing classes until a real hall had been built connecting the original house with two others acquired next door but two. There I do remember Mr. Aylward teaching us voice-production, and ‘ intervals’, but when I left in 1899 we had not reached the stage of learning a song.

In the basements were the Dining-room, Cloakrooms, with the mouse-trap lockers, and arrangements for shoes, shoebags, etc., and those name tapes decorating everything, and the atmosphere enriched with the smell of macintoshes and goloshes and wet shoes.

And Silence everywhere, with the minatory mistress in the corner to prevent the breach of this and other rules! Plumbing was what you would expect of a last century house. And a week or two after the school was opened, it was closed for three weeks as all the pipes were frozen! What joy! And how educational the experience; for three weeks, frost enabled us to become expert in ice sports.

The higher your Form, the higher up was your classroom, as the latter were the smaller rooms. I started in a spacious room, the Lower Fifth, the most adventurous of my Forms, as we were a mixed lot in many senses of the word. With my gradual ascent, I ended up in a quite small attic in one of the new houses, at first only to be reached by a tour round the playground, but later accessible through a hall connecting the two sets of buildings.

28 The Parade in 2024 currently unoccupied. It would be great to see this building saved and put to a new use.

Additional informaiton recived from readers of this article:

When the first formers moved into no 28 in September 1959 it was such an intimidating building, let alone the staff. The biggest room on the ground floor housed 1c initially and then went on to be the school music room.

The 6th form House in the 60s.

The third article in this series looks at 28 The Parade – The Parade Community Education Centre.

The tragic coincidence linking the deaths of the De Guélis siblings

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Jacques and Jacqueline De Guélis were brother and sister.  They led very different lives but were both to die young in motor accidents but in very different circumstances.  Jacques de Guélis  you may have heard of.  He was a spy in WWII. He has a blue plaque in his honour in Museum Place, off Park Place, in Cardiff.  Jacqueline you probably won’t have heard of, though there may still be a memorial desk in here memory somewhere at Cardiff Royal Infirmary. 

Home of the De Guélis family, 3 Museum Place (used to be called Richmond Terrace)

Before we look at Jacques and Jacqueline De Guélis in detail lets go back a generation and examine the Roath connection.  Jacques and Jacqueline were the only children of Raoul and Marie De Guélis. 

Raoul Gabriel Vaillant de Guelis as born on 26 Dec 1872 in Herry, Cher, France.  He came to Cardiff around 1900 and worked as a coal export agent, ending up as a business partner with Sam Powell coal exporter.  In the 1901 census he lived at 28 Ruthin Gardens, Cathays.  He was a member of the Cardiff Anglo-French Society where he delivered lectures periodically.  In Aug 1904 he married Marie Stephanie Barbier, daughter of Paul Barbier, French professor at the University. They went on to have two children together, Jaques (b.1908) and Jacqueline Marie (b.1911).  At the time of the 1911 census they lived at 3 Richmond Terrace (now called Museum Place). He joined the French army upon the call to arms in Aug 1914 and served as a Brigadier with the 11th Artillery Regiment. He died of pneumonia on 19 Apr 1916, aged 44, whilst serving in Argonne, France.  He is remembered on the Cardiff Coal Exchange war memorial. 

Raoul Gabriel Vaillant De Guelis

Marie De Guélis née Barbier was one of nine children born to Professor Paul Barbier originally from France and his wife Euphémie Barbier née Bornet, originally from Switzerland.  The family lived in Oakfield Street in Roath in 1891 and Fitzalan Place in 1901 before moving to Corbett Road. The Barbier family is well-researched and there is an archive of their family papers in Cardiff University Library.  In Nov 1914 Marie de Guélis and others were busy raising money for the establishment of a field hospital in France called the Glamorgan and Monmouth Hospital for French Soldiers.  In early 1915 she was coordinating the Belgium Soldiers Fund in Cardiff raising money for field kitchens in Belgium.  After her husband died in April 1916 in France Marie was left to raise her two children on her own.

Jacqueline De Guelis attended Cardiff High School for Girls in The Parade before going on the study Art. She was tragically killed on a dark December evening in 1934, aged just 22, after being knocked down by a motor van at the bottom of Penylan Hill, at the junction of Ty Draw and Kimberley Roads.  After the accident she was taken to a nearby doctor’s surgery where she sadly died a short time later.  Just a week earlier the paper reported that Jacqueline had played a leading role in a production of ‘The Aristocrat’ in front of a full house with the proceeds going to the Infirmary.  Her funeral was held a few days later at St John’s Church and she is buried at Cathays Cemetery.

A few weeks after Jacqueline’s death, her brother wrote a letter to the paper pleading for road safety improvements at the Penylan Hill, Kimberley Road, Ty Draw Road junction.  He describes the defective lighting leaving the corner in almost complete obscurity and how a few feet from the corner is a fire alarm box standing on the edge of the pavement blocking the view. He noted that most motorist passing do not blow their horns and have got up to maximum speed to negotiate the hill. This dangerous state of affairs was made worse by the fact that the bus stop at the time was on the corner of Kimberley Road.  Jacques said that the family agrees with the jury’s verdict exonerating the driver but pleaded with the authorities to improve lighting and placement of bus stops.

Death of Jaqueline de Guelis
Penylan Hill and Kimberley Road junction as pictured today

The proceeds of the production Jacqueline had taken part in prior to her death were used to purchase a litany desk for the Infirmary Chapel.  On the anniversary of her death a service was held at the Infirmary Chapel where the Bishop of Llandaff dedicated the desk in front of a large congregation.  The Infirmary Chapel lay empty and unused for a number of years but in recent years has been converted into Capel I Bawb; a library, café and meeting place. There are some pictures of the old chapel.  I don’t know if the litany desk is pictured in the old chapel or whether it has survived.

The old Cardiff Royal Infirmary chapel. The Litany desks are seen left and right next to the choir stalls.
Barbier grave at Cathays Cemetery with tragic death of Jaqueline Marie De Guelis remembered on the bottom three lines.

Jacques Theodoule Paul Marie Vaillant de Guélis was born on 6 Apr 1907.  Jacques went to school in Wrekin College, Shropshire before going onto Magdalen College, Oxford.  He had dual French/British nationality, and was therefore required to undertake French national service which he did with the French Cuirassiers in the 1930s.  At the time of Jacqueline’s death in 1934 Jacques was reported to be the director of the press advertising firm in Paris.  He married Beryl Richardson at St Augustine’s church, Kensington, London on 26 Feb 1938 after which both Jacques and Beryl worked in press advertising in London.  He had a handle-bar moustache and was 6 feet 4 inches tall.

In WWII Jacques initially served with the French Army. He was appointed liaison officer to the British II Corps, escaped via Dunkirk, but then returned to France.  He then found himself escaping the enemy again via the Pyrenees into Spain.  On returning to UK he was recruited to the Special Operations Executive (SOE). He undertook many missions behind enemy lines and saw service in France, Algiers and Italy.  He rose to the rank of Major, receiving many awards for his bravery including the Croix-de-Guerre with palms, Military Cross and MBE.  

Members of SOE in southern France in 1944. Jacques is centre of the back row (picture credit: Imperial War Museum)

After the liberation of France, he was assigned to the Special Allied Airborne Reconnaissance Force (SAARF) to help coordinate the resistance and to provide feedback information, mainly on the conditions of prisoners of war and concentration camps.  He was sent across Europe to search for information.  As Nazi Germany surrendered in May 1945, Jacques de Guélis arrived in Germany on an urgent mission to find captured agents and make sure they were not subjected to any last minute vengeance.  His investigations centred on a number of concentration camps, including Flossenburg in Bavaria.

Whilst in Germany, he was involved in a serious car accident with a car driven by a German soldier near Flossenbürg concentration camp on 16 May 1945. He was badly injured. Some reports say the circumstances of the accident were suspicious and speculate whether it was to stop Jacques carrying out his investigative work.

After the accident Jacques was immediately flown to Paris for an operation, and a while later repatriated to a hospital in Burtonwood, Staffordshire, but was to lose his life after further unsuccessful operations on 7 Aug 1945 at the age of 38.  His body was returned to Cardiff and cremated and the ashes buried in Cathays Cemetery (plot I.22E) alongside his sister Jacqueline.  His wife Beryl died in Paris in 1978.  His life has been recorded in the book ‘Jacques de Guélis SOE’s Genial Giant: His Life, His War & His Untimely End’ by Delphine Isaaman in 2018.  Other articles include those found in Wikipedia, the Western Mail and on BBC.  He is remembered on Wrekin College WWI memorial plaque and Magdalen College WWII memorial plaque as well as a blue plaque on 3 Museum Place.  Commonwealth War Graves Commission record.

There was one other accidental death that I stumbled upon when researching the family.  In 1915 Uline Barbier, sister of Marie de Guelis née Barbier, married Charles Hepburn in London. They had a son together called him Raoul Hepworth born in Cardiff in 1916, quite possibly named after Raoul de Guelis who died in France around the same time.  The marriage appears not to have lasted as Uline had returned to using her maiden name by 1921.  Raoul Hepworth had a military career and in WWII became a Major Raoul Paul Cuthbert Hepburn and served with the Royal Army Service Corps.  He died in Germany in Nov 1945, after the war had ended, as a result of an accident and is buried in Cologne.

Charles Leyshon – The first referee to dismiss a player in a Rugby Test Match.

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I hadn’t come across Charles Leyshon before.  In fact there isn’t a lot written about him. Much of the information in the following article comes from a series of tweets in May 2024 by Frederic Humbert @Frederic, Committee Member World Rugby Museum, which was supported by research from Herve Padioleau @HervP, historian of Stade Nantais, and Gwyn Prescott @rugbyhistorian who knows everything about Cardiff rugby, all to whom I am indebted.

In 1924 Welshman Charles Leyshon achieved his place in history by being the first referee to dismiss a player in a rugby test match.  

Charles Leyshon (pic credit: Frederic Humbert @Frederic)

The other remarkable, and much sadder bit piece of his history, is that he died in a German Concentration Camp in 1944 aged 69.

Charles Leyshon wasn’t a Roath boy but he did go to school here and lodged at Monkton House school, played rugby for Pen-y-lan juniors and married a Roath girl. 

Charles Isaac Leyshon was born on 18 Sep 1875 (see footnote) at 4 Cardiff Road, Mountain Ash, one of four boys born to Charles Ralph Leyshon, a station master with Taff Vale Railway, originally from Pontypridd, and Margaret Mary Leyshon née Thomas, originally from Mountain Ash.  In 1881 the Leyshon family were living in Windsor Villa, Miskin, Llantrisant.  His mother tragically died aged 25 in 1882 when Charles was just seven.

Charles initially attended school in Pontyclun but then his father received promotion and became station master in Cardiff at the Taff Vale Railway Station, now called Queen Street station.  In the 1891 census the family were living at 9 Howard Terrace.  Charles and his brother however were boarding at nearby Monkton House School in 18 The Parade with the school’s headmaster and founder Henry Shewbrook.

1. Howard Terrace, home of the Leyshon family. 2. Monkton House School 3. Taff Vale Station

Charles’s father died in Sep 1894.   The newspaper reports that he was a much respected stationmaster. His funeral cortege, consisting of ‘a beautiful Victorian car bearing a huge oak and brass coffin followed by numerous mourning coaches’, left Howard Terrace heading for ‘the sequestered churchyard at Talygarn, Llantrisant’.  

Charles continued to live in Cardiff.  He played rugby for Pen-y-lan Juniors (1893-4) which used to play on Roath Park, and then Old Monktonians (1894-7) the club that later became Glamorgan Wanderers. 

On 7 Nov 1897 Charles married Inès Clothilde Frédérica Griffiths at St Andrew’s church. She was born in Roath and lived at in James Street Roath, now called Talworth Street.  Quite what inspired her parents to name her Inès Clothilde Frédéricais uncertain as her siblings have more conventional names; Mabel, Lillian, Charles and Eleanor. Charles and Inès had a daughter together, Mary Carmen Leyshon, born in Penarth in 1900, who was baptized at St Augustine Church in Sep 1900.  

By 1901 they had moved to Llantrisant Road, Pontyclun, where Charles was worked as a railway clerk.

Sometime in the next six years they emigrated to France.  In the 1907-8 season Charles played scrum-half for the Stade Nantes Université Rugby Club (SNUC) before moving into refereeing.

1908 Stade Nantes Université Rugby Club (SNUC), Charles Leyshon in civilian clothes (Pic credit SNUC Archives)

In 1910, he became a member of the SNUC committee, at the same time as the Welsh star of the team Percy Bush who arrived after him.  Percy Bush had by that time won 8 caps for Wales and 4 for the British Isles. 

1910 Stade Nantes Université Rugby Club (SNUC), Charles Leyshon in civilian clothes, Percy Bush, 2nd row, 2nd from right (Pic credit SNUC Archives).

Charles Leyshon refereed matches in 1915 and 1916 suggesting he remained in France in WWI.

In 1918 he settled in Paris and continued his rugby refereeing, something he did until 1930. Quite what Charles Leyshon did for a living I have yet to discover.

In 1923 he was one of the founding members of the British Rugby Club of Paris which still exists today.  

In 1924 he was a referee in the Paris Olympics and in the match USA versus Romania in Colombes and sent off American Ed Turkington who was the first person to be sent off in a rugby international test match.  The newspaper reports that Turkington was sent off minutes before the final whistle for kicking a Romanian player whist the later was down.  Turkington argued that the kick was unintentional. The USA ended up winning the game 37-0.  Some British sources mistakenly indicate that the first expelled was the New Zealander Cyril Brownlie against England on January 3, 1925 but that was a year after the Olympics.

USA Rugby Team 1924 Olympics

What surprised me was that it took until 1924 for a player to be dismissed in a test match considering rugby had been a popular sport for the previous 50 years. I may be missing the subtleties of what is defined as a Test Match, or maybe ‘sending off’ had more recently gained some official status in the rules.

Charles Leyshon was arrested in Jul 1944 and sent to the Buchenwald Concentration Camp in Germany. He died there of broncho-pneumonia and heart failure on Nov 19 1944, aged 69. The reason for his arrest and being sent to Buchenwald is unclear. The Buchenwald Archives reference card for Charles Leyshon states “”Polit. England”, which he interprets as “Political Prisoner – English”. It appears the family had already moved to the South of France to escape initial German occupation.  Charles had been a Freemason when they lived in Paris, a member of the ‘Anglo-Saxon Lodge’ which may be a reason for his arest.

 Or maybe there are some Jewish connections which could explain his arrest.  Charles Leyshon was married in a Christian church (St Andrew’s) but his daughter Mary Carmen Leyshon is said to have married in a synagogue in Paris. She married Frenchman Rémi Louis Lamoureux and they had two children Gerard and Evelyn, but whether there are any Leyshon family still living in France is uncertain.

Buchenwald Memorial (pic credit Wikipedia / Creative Commons)

Although Charles Leyshon has no known grave there is a memorial at Buchenwald and he does have a Commonwealth War Graves Commission record.  He has now been included on the Roath Virtual War Memorial.

And what of his three brothers? 

  • Edward Thomas Leyshon (1874-1949) was landlord of the Miskin Inn before later becoming a Director of the Ely Brewery in Cardiff.  His son Trevor Leyshon became the brewer manager at St Austell Brewery which still going strong today.   
  • Thomas William Leyshon (1877-1910) also attended Monkton House school.  He married in 1897 giving his profession as an architect. When he died in 1910 he was living at the Butchers Arms in Llandaff.
  • Arthur Ralph Leyshon (1879-1940) married in 1898 but was widowed a decade later and moved to British Colombia, Canada and became a logger.  In WWI he joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force in 1916 and was demobilised in 1919 before he moved back to the UK and lived in Surrey and was employed as a road worker.

Footnote

Charles’s birth certificate records his birth as 18 Sep 1875 although he always appears to have celebrated his birthday on 8th Sept.  That is the day quoted on his school registration form in Pontyclun and his prisoner of war papers. Those same papers state he was born in 1873 rather than 1875 which appears to be an error.   

More information

If anyone has any more information about Charles Leyshon then I would be interested to know as I’m sure would Frederic Humbert @Frederic

28 The Parade – The Billups Family and their pivotal role in the formation of the Salvation Army

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The Billups family come to Tredegarville, Cardiff

Walking along The Parade in Tredegarville, Cardiff these days it’s sad to see No.28 looking empty and neglected. It is a fine building with a fascinating history.  In this article we look at the first people who lived there, the Billups family and uncover some of their past.  In future articles I hope to cover some of the educational bodies that were based there after the Billups moved on.

The sad looking 28 The Parade today.

Mr Jonathan Edwin Billups was not just a wealthy industrialist who could afford to have a grand residence like 28 The Parade built for him and his family. The Billups family history is also closely intertwined with the history of the Salvation Army. In fact there is even one newspaper article that claims Mr Billups devised the name The Salvation Army, but that’s probably going a bit far.  As we shall see however the Billups family were close friends and financial supporters of the founders of the Salvation Army, William Booth and his wife Catherine. The Booths even named one of their children Marian Billups Booth.  But let’s not jump ahead of ourselves.  Let’s start at the beginning.

Jonathan Billups was born in Chatteris, Cambridgeshire in 1820.  His father, Thomas Billups, was a fen farmer.  Looking back at old maps from the 1800s there was Billups Sidings Farm just south west of Chatteris.  

Billups’ Siding Farm, south west of Chatteris.

Rather than become a farmer Jonathan leaves Cambridgeshire and works in the burgeoning railway business in London as a platelayer, a person who maintains the railway track.  In 1842 he married Susannah Coutts Cooper at St Paul’s Church, Deptford one of London’s finest Baroque parish churches.

The inside of St Paul’s Church, Deptford where Jonathan Billups and Susannah Cooper got married in 1842 (pic credit: John Salmon)

Their first daughter Mary Coutts Billups was born in Deptford in 1844.  By 1849 the Billups family have moved to Newport where their second daughter, Susannah Coutts Billups, was born in 1849.  In the 1851 census the family are living on Cardiff Road, Newport with Jonathan still working as a platelayer.

Sometime over the next ten years Jonathan Billups’s entrepreneurial spirit must have mushroomed for in the 1861 census the family are living in  Cadiz House, Halswell Terrace, a large property on Roath Road (later renamed Newport Road), Cardiff and in between  the wealthy Cory brothers; John Cory, the ship broker and Richard Cory the coal merchant.  Jonathan Billups was by this time a ‘railway contractor’.  

Newport Road (previously called Roath Road) with West Grove going off to the left. The Billups family initally lived at Cadiz House, probably the second house on the left, next to John Cory.

The Salvation Army connection

The Billups family has a fascinating connection with the Salvation Army that was founded by William Booth with strong support from his wife Catherine Booth.

The Booths were strong believers in roaming evangelism which didn’t sit well with the Wesleyan Methodist church who he worked for. The church would have preferred he spend more of his time supporting his parishioners at home rather than roam the country with his fervent preaching in other parishes and possibly showing up the inadequacies of the incumbent minister. Things came to a head in 1862 when he split from the Wesleyan Methodist church and became an independent evangelist.

William and Catherine Booth had spent much of 1862 in Cornwall evangelising to Cornish fishermen with mixed results. In 1863 they acted on a suggestion received form Cornish fishermen working in Cardiff that they visit. They were no longer welcome or pride prevented them using Methodist churches so William Booth’s first venue in Cardiff was Tredegarville Baptist Church in The Parade where he preached for a week. William Booth however didn’t feel comfortable preaching in a Baptist church. It was then that they saw an advertisement for an abandoned circus in St Mary Street and decided to rent it.  Catherine voiced her concerns about such a venue prior to the first service there on 18 Feb 1862 but soon changed her mind when it became a success. The Booths no longer had to wait for invitations from local churches to carry out their work. This circus venue can perhaps be seen as a turning point in the history of what was to become the Salvation Army.  

Catherine and William Booth

But where was this circus?  It was not the circus that was to be built at a later date on the corner of Westgate Street and Park Street. By the 1860s the River Taff had been diverted by Brunel so that Cardiff station could be built. One newspaper article refers to some of the piles for the circus being in the river. The river in this case was probably the remnants of the River Taff which were probably not drained until the construction of Temperance Town. Thus would put the circus somewhere at the southern end of St Mary Street.

An extract of a newspaper cutting (3rd JAn 1863) referring to the circus in St Mary Street
An 1851 map of Cardiff showing that the Taff had by then been diverted, but the remnants of the old river remained along parts of St Mary Street (pic credit: Glamorgan Archives).

The Booths, having severed their ties with the Wesleyan Methodist church, had to raise sufficient money to support them and their children. Their target congregation was the poor and destitute, not the type of people who had money to give.  They therefore had to find benefactors.  Arriving in Cardiff in 1863 they were lucky to meet the Billups and the Cory families.

John Cory as a Wesleyan Methodist and used to preach himself at Roath Road Wesleyan Methodist church at the corner of City Road and Newport Road, the church destroyed in WWII. John Cory was able to see above the differences between the Methodist church and William Booth and became one of his benefactors as did his brother Richard.

 Jonathan Billups also became a key financial supporter of William Booth, but more than that, he and his wife Susannah became close personal friends of the Booths.  The closeness of these ties is evidenced by the fact that the Booths named their daughter born in 1864 Marian Billups Booth and their daughter born in 1866 Eveline Cory Booth.

Records of the Catherine and William Booth daughters birth registrations in 1864 and 1866.

The Cory brothers went as far was naming one of their new ships ‘William Booth’ and setting aside a proportion of the expected profits for the cause.  Unfortunately the vessel was soon wrecked off the coast of Bermuda but the Cory brothers still kept to their original intention to support the Booths. Some years later Cory was involved in helping set up the ‘Salvation Navy’, an idea beset with problems and a story recently told by BBC How the Salvation Army’s navy was sunk – twice.

But it was the Billups and the Booths that built up a strong personal friendship. After Cardiff revival the two families went on holiday together to Weston Super Mare.

28 The Parade

Let’s park the story of the Salvation Army there for a moment and take a look at the main subject of this article that of 28 The Parade.

28 The Parade in relation to the old Billups property, Cadiz House on Newport Road.

The house was built for the Billups family, there is little doubt about that. Their monograms are still there at the roof apexes.

The Billups monograms on 28 The Parade: JEB (Jonathan Edwin Billups) and SCB (Susannah Coutts Billups).

If you are asking me when it was built then I would estimate around 1868. The family seem to be living there at the time of the 1871 census, though the house at the time has neither a name nor a number (the properties in The Parade were not numbered till a later date).  Jonathan Billups was by then described as a Railway Contractor and he lived there with his wife, two daughters and two servants.  The 1871 Cardiff Directory however still has his old address of Halswell Terrace on Roath Road, which seems to indicate their move to The Parade was around that date.

28 The Parade is now a Grade 2 listed building.  The listing states it was probably built by W.G. Habershon, architect to the Tredegar Estate.  It is a Jacobean style 3-bay villa of 2 storeys and attic. The central stair hall has a fine Jacobean full-height open-well stair, which is the principal interior feature.

The ornate chimneys on 28 The Parade

In 1890 Cardiff council were looking to purchase an existing property for use a Judges’ Lodgings.  Mr Billups offered up 28 The Parade for a price of £7,000. There was 78 years to run on the ground rent and the rent being £18 9s per annum.  His offer was turned down in preference to an offer by Mr James Howell, (presumably his house at the corner of The Walk and West Grove which was later to become the first Mansion House).

In 1894 Mr Billups offers the house for sale to Cardiff Intermediate School for Girls at a price of £5,000 stating that it had originally cost £8,000 when built. The offer was accepted by the board of governors provided that the lease can be purchased from Lord Tredegar.

Jonathan Billups – the businessman

In twenty years Jonathan Billups went from being a plate layer to a railway contractor who could afford to have the grand house at 28 The Parade built for him. Newspaper cuttings over the years give us a clue as to his business.

He was a principal contractor for the Taff Vale Railway and in 1870 in charge of building a double line from Ystrad to Treherbert.

In 1874 he was the main contractor responsible for laying a new sewer under the Taff in Cardiff.

In 1877 he was the contractor for the Taff Vale Railway being built to Penarth and in 1880 for the Clydach Valley Railway.

There are quite a few references over the years to brickworks owned by Mr Billups.  In 1879 he had a brickworks in lower Grangetown.

In 1879 he was busy building houses, in this case Nos 1 & 2 Richmond Crescent.

In 1881 the newspaper reports that he is sinking coal shafts into the Nantgarw and Llantwit seams in the hope of realizing up to 100tones a week.  Whether he ever found coal we are not informed. 

There’s even reference in 1881 to Mr Billups being the first importer of cattle into Cardiff.

1883 has some interesting references in the newspaper to Mr J E Billups being the leaseholder on two farms in Barry which are needed for the construction of Barry Dock and railway.

In 1884 he was applying for a patent for the manufacture of hydraulic cement from local limestone called ‘Aberthaw pebbles’.

In 1885 he is masonry contractor of a new railway bridge in St Andrew’s Place, Cardiff.

Perhaps one of his largest jobs was the construction of the Dry Dock in Roath Basin 1885.

In 1888 we find him working much closer to home as the main contractor for the Roath branch of the Taff Vale Railway.  In a related article it mentions Billups as the owner of the Roath Brick Works where two fatalities occurred.  The brickworks were where the Sainsbury’s car park is now.

Just a year later he is a contractor on the Dowlais East Moors steel works.

1890 wins the contact for a giant 200 feet Portland cement chimney in Penarth.

In 1894 he sets up a company called Billups Brick Company at Roath and Llandough with a capital of £15,000 and £5 shares.

A Jonathan Edwin Billups brick

Also in 1894 he bid to be the contractor for the second phase of the development of Roath Park i.e. the construction of the Roath Park Lake.

His railway contract work it appears was not confined to this country.  His obituary states at one period he undertook large contracts in Sweden.

Jonathan Billups was responsible for constructing the railway line at The Salvation Army Colony and for starting up the brickworks in Essex.

Jonathan Billups – outside work

There are numerous newspaper references to Mr Billups outside his work sphere.  The most frequent references refer to him speaking at or chairing meeting or debates, often of a religious nature or associated with the subject of temperance. Public debates in the 1800s were could be noisy and sometimes riotous affairs with a police presence. In 1863 he chaired a debate on ‘Purgatory’ in the packed Music Hall in Cardiff, with hundreds locked outside. In 1874 he was present at a meeting supporting women’s suffrage. In 1876 he spoke in favour of Sunday closing for public houses.

He presided over a meeting of the Christian Mission (the original name for the Salvation Army), in 1876 at Stuart Hall in the Hayes.

He was evidently a keen gardener and would regularly win prizes in the amateur sections of competitions, ‘for gentlemen not having regular gardeners’. It begs the question as to what part Mrs Billups played in growing the prize winning blooms.

In July 1871 we learn Mr Billups from Tredegarville had lost his dog Fido, a black and tan King Charles spaniel.  Perhaps Fido didn’t like it at 28 The Parade and wandered back to his old house.

Susannah Coutts Billups – his wife

Susannah Coutts Billups was born Susannah Coutts Cooper in Deptford, London in 1821.

Mrs Billups and Mrs Booth had a very strong friendship bond and were in regular correspondence. These letters form a good resource for those researching the Salvation Army.  In one letter Mrs Booth displays her dislike of vaccines. ‘I would sooner pawn my watch to pay the fines, and my bed too, for the matter of that, than to have any of my children vaccinated. Who knows how much some of us have suffered through life owing to ‘the immortal Jenner?’   (Goodness knows what she would have thought of the relief sculpture of Jenner on the Cardiff University building on Newport Road close to The Parade, but that admittedly wasn’t unveiled till much later)

Mrs Billups died at 28 The Parade on 19 Nov 1883.  She had suffered a long illness.  During her illness the Salvation Army band would gather in the garden and Susannah would ‘convey to them her dying messages’.  Catherine Booth was at her bedside when she died.

Her funeral was large, attended by 1000 Salvation Army soldiers from Cardiff and beyond and augmented by a large crowd and carriages.  It set off from The Parade and would have progressed up along what is now City Road and Crwys Road to the new Cathays Cemetery. There were banners and flags waving and bands playing and lots of whoops. General William Booth had travelled from Scotland to lead the graveside service. Her grave is marked by one of the largest headstones in the cemetery and made from Aberdeen red granite on which is a Salvation Army shield and ‘Blood and Fire’ motto.  The stonework is said to have cost in excess of £400 (or £40,000 in today’s terms). Her husband Jonathan and sister Ann (Jonathan’s second wife), are buried in the same grave.

The Billups grave at Cathays Cemetery. The cemetery chapels can be seen in the background.
Grave inscription for Susannah Coutts Billups with the Salvation Army shield and motto, Blood and War.

Jonathan Billups maintained his support for the Salvation Army after Susannah had died.  In 1886 he is at a wedding in Glasgow of a prominent Salvation Army member alongside William Booth.

In 1889 Jonathan chairs a meeting of the Salvation Army where General Booth’s 22 year old ‘third daughter’ speaks on ‘Torquay Swelldom and  London Slumdon’.  The speaker would have been Eveline Booth, actually their fourth daughter, which adds weight to the theory that Marian Billups Booth was overlooked (see below).

Mary Coutts Billups – the elder daughter

Mary comes across as an interesting character.  She left the Billups home on The Parade in the 1870s and went to lodge with William and Catherine Booth in London. She was keen to learn a foreign language and wanted to learn from a tutor who was teaching one of the Booth sons. The move to London was however prior to her having converted to Christianity so lodging in the Booth household was difficult.  She found adhering to the practices problematic. All was solved however at a later date when she saw the light and had a dramatic conversion in a Christian Mission meeting in London.

In April 1875 she married Rev James Elliott Irvine in Cardiff in a packed Charles Street Wesleyan Chapel.  Reports describe him as an American Evangelical preacher but he was in fact born in Ireland in 1830. After the wedding the party retired to 28 The Parade for a reception where the cake was reported to have been 4ft tall.

There is an interesting description of Rev Irvine and Mary preaching in Leighton Buzzard in late Dec 1875.  She too by this stage is described as ‘an American lady’. It is written very much from the fear of outside evangelists coming into the town uninvited and pinching soles from existing churches in order to  form a new church. Mary was described as ‘the more powerful of the two evangelists’.  The report states they were part of an organization called ‘International Christian Association for the promotion of Scriptural Holiness’, which seems to be different to the Salvation Army which was at that time called ‘Christian Mission’.

James and Mary emigrated to America shortly after.  They were living in New Jersey in 1880 with James working as a clergyman. They later moved to Washington DC and Mary worked as a music teacher.   Mary died aged 58 on 26 Jun 1903 and is buried at the Congressional Cemetery in an unmarked grave.

James died in 1916 aged 86 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.  His obituary makes interesting reading:-

Rev. James E. Irvine, am ordained evangelistic minister for the Methodist Episcopal Church for over half a century, died at his home, 601 4th Street NW, Saturday, from the effects of a fall received about three months ago.  Interment was in Arlington Cemetery.  Rev. Irvine was born in Ireland and came to this country when a boy. He was ordained shortly before the civil war, and when hostilities began he enlisted in a New York regiment, in which he served as chaplain. During the war he rose to the rank of sergeant.
Rev. Irvine took up active evangelistic work at the close of the war, and traveled extensively over the United States and in England.  He was married but his wife died a number of years ago. He is survived by an adopted daughter, Mrs. Alamado Rivera, wife of Judge Alamado Rivera of Puerto Rico.

Rev James Elliott Irvine headstone in in Arlington National Cemetery

Susannah Coutts Billups – the younger daughter

Susannah married Edwin Palmer Lee, originally from Plymouth, in 1872 in Cardiff.  Initially they lived in 28 The Parade with Jonathan Billups but as their family grew larger with their eight children they moved next door to 29 The Parade. Edwin Palmer Lee was a managing director of a brickworks. Whether 29 The Parade was built for them I am not sure, but it is certainly brick built as opposed to stone built like others in the row.

29 The Parade, home of Susannah Coutts Lee nee Billups and family

The Salvation Army

In 1882 the Salvation Army took out a lease on Stuart Hall in the Hayes in the centre of Cardiff. It was still being used by the Salvation Army in the 1960s but was later demolished.

Stuart Hall in the Hayes on the right and what is now the Duke of Wellington pub on the left
Lease for Stuart Hall signed by William Booth

Another Cardiff connection with the history of the Salvation Army is seen in a newspaper article in 1891 reporting on a meeting held in Roath Road Wesleyan Chapel of the in connection with Salvation Army Homes for the relief and rescue of friendless girls. The meeting was attended by Bramwell Booth, son of William and Catherine Booth.  The Chair, Lewis Williams JP spoke of how he may lay claim, along with his friends Mr R.Cory, Mr Billups and Mr J.Cory who ‘fought the first battle that was fought in this country in relation to the right of the Salvation Army to preach the Gospel in the public streets of their country’.

General Booth visited Cardiff on a number of occasions to preach. In 1894 the venue was Wood Street chapel and he was a guest of Mr Billups that day.  The obituary of Mr Billups states that whenever William Booth visited Cardiff he invariably stayed with Mr Billups.

The Death of Jonathan Billups

Mr Billups died in Clifton, Bristol on 25 Nov 1896 aged 76 having moved there a few years before his death after 28 The Parade had been sold.

His obituary describes him as a man of considerable energy and force of character. He was a member of Charles Street Congregational church, his politics were liberal and did yeoman service in connection with elections in town.

His body was returned to Cardiff and a large funeral procession set off from The Parade to Cathays Cemetery consisting of more than 20 private carriages and 60-70 members of the Salvation Army marching behind the coffin. The service was conducted by the minister of Charles Street Congregational and Bramwell Booth, son of William Booth.  He was laid to rest alongside his first wife Susannah Billups.  

The following month a memorial service to Mr Billups was held at the Park Hall led by General Booth in which he was full of praise for Jonathan Billups and the support he had given to the Salvation Army describing him as an honest businessman, a saintly man and ever anxious to promote good works and not only in the cause of religion but of charity and befriending the working man. General Booth wished to correct the notion that had got aboard that the deceased gave a lot of money to the Salvation Army. Mr Billups did not give beyond his means, and helped other good causes beyond the Salvationists.’

Grave inscription for Jonathan Edwin Billups at Cathays Cemetery.

Some reports say that although he was very generous with his money some of his investment decisions may have been poor. His estate when he died was worth £600, not a lot considering probable prior earnings.  His Will makes interesting reading. It financially supports his second wife Ann and his children but in the case of his daughter Mary Ann Irvine in America it is made clear that the money should not be in the control of her husband and if Mary predeceases him and there are no children then the money be returned to, and held in trust, for the children of her sister Susannah.

Ann Cooper – Second Wife

After Jonathan Billups lost his first wife Susannah in 1883 he lived with her sister Ann Cooper. Whether they ever officially married is unclear.  His will refers to her as ‘my wife or reputed wife Ann Cooper….’ And there is no trace of there marriage being registered.  They had no children together and she outlived him, dying in Bristol in 1904 leaving £3000 in her estate.

Grave inscription for Ann Billups

Marian Billups Booth

Marian Billups Booth, known as Marie, the sixth child of William and Catherine Booth was born in Leeds on 4 May 1864, a year after the Booths and Billups family had become close friends.  Marie suffered from convulsive fits from a young age so unlike her brothers and sisters she did not go on to take a full part in Salvation Army evangelism. She was however assigned a rank of Staff Captain.

Marian Billups Booth and headstone (pic credit: findagrave.com ).

Unlike her siblings Marie led a largely private life. The exact nature of her disability is unknown. Some recent research of the Salvation Army archives has led to the question of whether she was in effect infantilised by her family. Marie herself may have felt undervalued as in one letter she wrote:

‘I think by so doing the officers of that establishment find me very useful & appreciate me being amongst them. But I suppose that is for others to say, only it is necessary to blow your own trumpet sometimes for I expect you don’t hear much about me or my good qualities’.

She died in London in 1937 aged 72 and is buried alongside her parents in Abney Park Cemetery, Stoke Newington, London. .

Barry Island visits and the Salvation Army name

Perhaps the most fascinating newspaper cutting I came across was in the Western Mail 28 Apr 1926 and about the history of Barry Island written by S A Tylke, a former owner of the island.  It says:

On the foreshore of the harbour, on the mainland, there were but one or two farm houses, and between them a house known as East Barry,’ then occupied by Mr.Billups, a well-known railway contractor. He was also well known in connection with the Hollyers and others then greatly to the fore as revivalists.

Mr. Booth, who was afterwards to be known as the Salvation Army general, sometimes stayed with Mr. Billups, and by their coming to muse on the island, we soon became known to one another. It was the Hollyers and Billups, I may here mention from whom the suggestion of the name Salvation Army first came.

Could it be true that the name Salvation Army was first suggested by Mr Billups? Possibly, but it does very much contradict the widely accepted theory that the name “The Salvation Army” developed from an incident in May 1878. William Booth was dictating a letter to his secretary and said, “We are a volunteer army.” Bramwell Booth heard his father and said, “Volunteer! I’m no volunteer, I’m a regular!” The secretary was instructed to cross out the word “volunteer” and substitute the word “salvation”.

A General Returns

In 1936, who should turn up at the doorstep of 28 The Parade, then Cardiff High School for Girls, but General Eveline Cory Booth, then leader of the Salvation Army. She had come for a look around the house she remembered staying at with her parents when she was a child.  She even found the little dressing room she had slept in as a child, now a form room.

Until the next time ……..

There was me thinking I would cover the history of this fine building all in one article, but no, there’s far too much to tell.  We’ll come back another day. In the meantime let’s all hope that 28 The Parade is somehow preserved and its history not forgotten. 

Ted RIchards, May 2024

References

The Short Life of Catherine Booth, The Mother of the Salvation Army – by F de L Booth-Tucker.

Blood & Fire, Wiliam and Catherine Booth and their Salvation Army – by Roy Hattersley.

The Grace of Giving – Richard Cory; the BIllups Family – Nigel Faithful

Further articles in this series

28 The Parade – Cardiff High School for Girls

28 The Parade – The Parade Community Education Centre

Lady Anne Mackintosh (1723-1787)

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To begin with the familiar, “our” Mackintosh of Mackintosh, Alfred Donald Mackintosh, who was born in 1851 and married Harriet Diana Arabella Richards was the 28th clan chief to hold the title.  This paper is about one of his predecessors, Captain Aeneas Mackintosh of Mackintosh, the 22nd holder of the title, his wife the Lady Anne and their parts in the last Jacobite Rising in 1745-46.

Lady Anne Mackintosh (image atribute: National Library of Scotland, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Background to the Jacobite Risings:

The Jacobites supported the claim to the throne of King James II of England and VII of Scotland and his descendants.  During his short reign, James II became increasingly unpopular, mainly because of his support for Catholicism.  He was eventually replaced by his daughter Mary and her husband William III, usually called William of Orange. King James escaped to Ireland.  He made an ineffectual attempt to regain the throne in Ireland then remained in France until his death in 1701.

William and Mary, who had no children, were succeeded by Mary’s sister Anne, who also died without heirs.  In order to ensure the Protestant succession, the Elector of Hanover, a great-grandson of James I, was proclaimed King of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in 1714, on the death of Queen Anne.  He ruled as George I.

In 1715 the first Jacobite rising against the Hanoverian monarchy in an attempt to restore the Catholic Stuart Kings to the British throne, James Francis Edward Stuart (“the Old Pretender”), only son of James II and his second wife, landed at Peterhead but left Scotland some weeks later.  Jacobite forces were defeated at Preston and the rebellion collapsed in 1716.  After this, James lived in Rome until his death in 1766.

In 1745 the second Jacobite rising started when Charles Edward Stuart (“the Young Pretender”), son of James, landed with seven followers at Eriskay in the Hebrides and raised his father’s standard.  The assistance he hoped for from France did not arrive, but the clansmen flocked to him.  Edinburgh surrendered and he kept court at Holyrood.  Following his victory at Prestonpans, he invaded England but turned back at Derby for lack of English support.  He was routed by the Duke of Cumberland’s forces at Culloden Moor in 1746.  The rebellion was ruthlessly suppressed and Charles was hunted for five months. Eventually, he escaped to Brittany, then lived in France and Rome until his death in 1788.

Charles Edward Stuart (“the Young Pretender”) (source – Wikipedia – picture in public domain)

The Political Position:

Whig propaganda identified Charles as a foreigner from Italy (the home of popery). Even in traditionally Jacobite areas, the elites of some clans such as the Mackintoshes and the Chisholms were terminally split in their loyalties. The most effective agents for the Government were the Presbyterian clergy of the west-central and south-east lowlands who encouraged fears that the return of the House of Stuart would bring in an autocratic papist regime.

Now back to the Mackintoshes:

The Mackintosh Clan, one of the members of the Clan Chattan Confederation, was prominent in the Jacobite Rising of 1715 under Brigadier Mackintosh of Birlum. Captain Aeneas Mackintosh of Mackintosh, the Clan Chief in 1745, was on service with General Loudon’s Highlanders when the Rising took place and continued to support the Hanoverian cause (reportedly, because the Elector could pay him “half-a-guinea today and half-a-guinea tomorrow”). His wife, Lady Anne, who was a Farquharson of Invercauld, raised the Clan for Prince Charles.  Her family were also part of the Clan Chattan Confederation.  In 1715 they fought and were defeated at Preston.

Following the landing of the Prince with his companions on the shores of Loch nam Uamh in Arisaig on 25 July 1745, two of Lord John Murray’s Black Watch companies, commanded by Captain Aeneas Mackintosh of Mackintosh and Sir Peter Murray of Ochtertyre were dispatched to Inverary “to assist the Civil Magistrates in seizing the boats in order to prevent the Rebels coming in from the Western Islands.”

After a Jacobite victory at the Battle of Prestonpans, General Loudon (Adjutant to Gen Cope) mounted an enterprising attempt to kidnap the Prince from his quarters at  Moy Hall, 8 miles from Inverness, where he was being entertained by Lady Anne. Gen Loudon took 1,200 men with him after throwing a security cordon around Inverness but word of the expedition preceded him and while his quarry bolted in his nightshirt the local blacksmith and 4 other men were sent out to delay any pursuit. The main force halted 3 miles short of Moy Hall and 30 men were sent to seal off the approaches.  In the dark, they stumbled over the blacksmith and his mates and briefly exchanged fire.  The noise of this exchange threw the main body into confusion and 5 companies retreated.  This engagement is known as the Rout of Moy.  In some accounts Lady Anne is represented as organising the Prince’s escape and instructing her men to shout war cries and fire their guns in order to confuse the enemy but Col John Sullivan, a Jacobite who was present, paints a picture of her running around in a state of panic dressed only in her shift.

Rout of Moy by Henry Justice Ford (1860-1940) (Source: wood engraving, scan by George P. Landow and Victoria Web )

The clansmen raised by Lady Anne are referred to in official reports as Lady Mackintosh’s Regiment and she became known as “Colonel Anne”. After the defeat at Culloden, she was imprisoned for 6 weeks for her support of the Jacobites.  General Hawley hoped to provide her with a “mahogany gallows and a silken cord” but his wish was not granted and she was released unharmed.

Sources — and a puzzle:

I first came across this incident in a novel, The Flowers of the Forest by Jan Carew, in which Lady Anne appears as a character (information about the imprisonment of Lady Anne after Culloden and the quote about Captain Aeneas’ “half-a-guinea today …” come from this book). The author, who was born in Dunfermline and now lives in Penarth, tells me that the Rout of Moy is a well-known part of Scottish history. I also consulted 3 reference books available in the Central Library: 1745: a Military History of the Last Jacobite Rising by Stuart Reid; The Scottish Nation 1700-2000 by TM Devine; The Clans and Tartans of Scotland by Robert Bain. In 3 of the books mentioned, the 22nd Mackintosh’s Christian name is given as “Aeneas” but The Clans and Tartans of Scotland calls him “Angus” I did check whether either name was also used by his descendants and find that the 28th Mackintosh had an elder brother named Alexander Aeneas and a son named Angus -…. not a lot of help!

This is a digitisation of a Roath Local Hisotry Society – Occasional Paper which was written in 2008 by Malcolm Ranson