WW1 Personalities

page created by P J Tipton, 29 June 2013, revised 28 Sep 2013

On this page I shall give a brief summary of personalities, living in Yateley in WW1, whom we have researched before for different purposes.  Only a brief summary is given if these people appear on another page on this website. Click to open that page.  If you are a researcher, or a family historian (member or not) working on a particular person, please contact me via Twitter.  I shall endeavour to find any previously researched information about them. However none of these people have been researched in the context of WW1, so further research will be necessary. 

Beardall, Rev John

The Rev Beardall was Yateley's vicar from 1905 to 1917. In the first weeks of WW1 he immediately volunteered the Vicarage to the Red Cross to be a military hospital.  There is a plaque at his house (now Glebe House, Vicarage Lane) to commemorate this hospital.  Miss Anne Grant Tindal at Fir Grove, Eversley, quickly followed, volunteering her house as a 10-bed extension ward to this Yateley hospital.

Bettesworth, William Bellingham (1861-1944)

Best known as the manager of Gadd & Co stores who employed Flora Thompson (then Flora Timms) as telegraph operator, William Bettesworth continued as Yateley's Postmaster right through WW1, In 1903 he transferred the Post Office over the main road to Trythes, but when Nora Stilwell wanted to end his lease he moved his business back across the road, building a new bungalow and a wooden building to house the Post Office. In 1897 he had married Jessie May the elder sister of Frank Bridge, the composer who privately tutored Benjamin Britten.

Bunch, Cyril (1 Feb 1894 - 26 Mar 1972)

Cyril Bunch was already in the Territorials at the outbreak of WW1.  He volunteered for service with the 2/4th Hants (Territorial) Battalion. At the end of September 1914 he was posted to Quetta then in India, but now on the borders of Pakistan and Afganistan.  He took with him his Box Brownie and his son, a society member, has the photographs he took.

Brown, Mrs Jesse Doris (1859-1941)

Widow of Col F D M Brown VC she came to Yateley so her boys could attend Wellington. They all had illustrious military careers and her daughter was Miss J V L Brown.  Mrs Brown lived on Cricket Hill and died in 1941 aged 82.

Brown, Miss Jesse MBE (1888-1983)

Best known in Yateley for founding Yateley Industries for the Disabled Ltd in the 1930s, when it was called Yateley Textile Printers. The country's first orthopaedic aftercare sister she later worked at the Nuffield Hospital. In WW1 she served in hospitals in France, and in WW2 she was called up aged 56 just before D-Day to work in a military hospital.

Coleridge, John Duke FRIBA (10 Nov 1879 - 9 Sep 1934)

A pupil of Sir Edwin Lutyens he built Darby Green House for his own use. He designed Hascombe Court, Surrey, redesigned the gardens of Doddington Place, Sittingbourne and several wellknown churches. After serving in the Royal Navy in WW1 he published The Grand Fleet - A Wartime Sketch-book. He married the Hon Katherthine Euphemia, the daughter of Sir Arthur Godley (Minley Military Hospital) 1st Lord Bracken, and their daughter Nancy Katherine married Gen Llewellyn Brown, son of Mrs Jesse Doris Brown, and sister of Miss Jesse V L Brown.

Campbell, Howard

Cope, John Hautenville (1867-1942)

The youngest son of Sir William Cope (12th Bart) of Bramshill and his second wife, J. Hautenville Cope appears to have devoted his whole life to Local History. After living briefly at Little Croft, Handford Lane and then The Cottage in Blackwater his wife Emma bought them a house in Finchampstead. An editor of the Berkshire Victoria County History and substantial contributor to the Hampshire VCH he may have had a more general role in the management.

Cope, Emma Elizabeth (1860-1949)

Born Emma Elizabeth Thoyts in 1860 she was the wife of John Hautenville Cope and the elder sister of Caroline Mary Thoyts of The Grange, [Potley Hill] Yateley.  Her family was seated at Sulhampstead, Berks. Like her husband she was an avid local historian and contributor to the Berkshire Archaeological Society's Journal.  She is best known for her book How to read Old Documents published in 1893, and still used by the Yateley Society in the 1980s.

Darewski, Herman (12 Apr 1883 - 2 Jun 1947)

Herman Darewski brought his family to live at Barclay House towards the end of the war to avoid German bombing. He was a prodigious writer of West End musicals and popular songs. Born in Minsk, where his father was a Polish singing professor, he moved to London studying music and the London College of Music and then in Vienna. In 1917 his most successful revue, The Better 'Ole opened, playing for 800 performances.  One of his best know WW1 hits was Sister Susie's Sewing Shirts for Soldiers which he wrote in 1914 in Australia when he was visiting with his wife, the famous musical comedy star who was doing shows there. 

de Winton Corry, Miss Margaret (1859 - 26 Dec 1943)

Miss de Winton Corry had inherited Yateley Hall from her parents.  Having 20 rooms and extensive grounds running it required a large number of staff, mostly female.  In order to generate income she sold off parts of the estate, which had been one of Yateley's largest in the 18th and 19th centuries.  It also appears that she fostered children, in particular the two daughters of the disastrous first marriage of General F. Gordon Guggisberg.  Nancy and Rowena (Ena) Guggisberg were teenagers during WW1.

FitzRoy, Sir William Almeric (12 Nov 1851 - 31 May 1935)

From 1898 to 1923 Almeric FitzRoy was Clerk to the Privy Council.  He was the son of Horatio and the Hon Gertrude FitzRoy of Frogmore Park. In 1887 Almeric FitzRoy married Katherine Farquahar, daughter of Sir Henry Thomas Farquahar, 4th Bart, and they had a son, and a daughter Yvonne.  After retiring he wrote several books including a History of the Privy Council, still referenced today.  Keen on fox hunting, he would return to Yateley each weekend for a day's hunting with Mr Garth's hounds, even when living in Wiltshire.

FitzRoy, the Hon. Gertrude (4 Apr 1827 - 24 Feb 1916)

Born Gertrude Duncombe, daughter of William, 2nd Lord Feversham, and Louisa his wife, daughter of the 8th Earl of Galloway and Lady Jane Paget.  Lady Jane was the sister of the Marquess of Anglesey, of Peninsular and Waterloo fame. In 1849 the Hon Gertrude Duncombe married Francis Horatio Fitzroy, son of Admiral Lord William Fitzroy KCB.  About 1862 they bought Frogmore Park, one of Yateley's largest houses in WW1.

FitzRoy, Miss Yvonne (17 Oct 1891 - 1971)

The daughter of Sir Almeric Fitzroy, and granddaughter of Horatio and the Hon Gertrude FitzRoy of Frogmore Park, Yvonne FitzRoy joined the Scottish Women's Hospital Units serving as a volunteer nurse on war fronts in Roumania and Serbia.  After the war she became private secretary to the wife of the Viceroy of India, the Marchioness of Reading. In India she met Sir Victor Sassoon when he was a member of the Indian Legislative Council. About 1931 she joined the Dowager Duchess of Wellington (widow of the 3rd Duke) living at West Green House, Hartley Wintney. In 1939 Victor Sassoon bought West Green House, allowing both ladies to live there until their deaths.

Forman, Jesse Anne

Miss Jesse Forman was a daughter of Richard Forman (1795-1880) who came from a prominent family of ironmasters (ODNB). In 1830 the ironworks in South Wales in which the family had major shareholdings produced 40% of the iron made in Britain. Richard Forman was part of the family which worked in Royal Ordnance, being chief storekeeper in Gibraltar. He died at his house in Langley Road, Watford. Jesse Forman had lived in Yateley since before 1881, and her sister Mary who lived with her, had both been born in Gibraltar.  Jesse died in 1918. Her aunts were Jane Fulkes of the White House and Jane's sister, Mary Forman. Mary had been the third wife of Henry Rush, widower of Dorothea, the Dowager Lady Cope of Firgrove, and had lived next door at Barclay House..

Fullbrook, Bertie Alfred (1876-1957)

Geaves, Richard Lyon

Captain Richard Geaves was the first Mexican-born footballer to represent England. He only played one international, on 6 Mar 1875, against Scotland as outside left. At the time he was playing for Clapham Rovers. He purchased Yateley Manor after the death of George Mason in 1887, having previously served in the 14th Prince of Wales Yorkshire Regiment, captaining their football team. During WW1 he and his family moved out of Yateley Manor, letting it to Sir Charles Stewart-Wilson, but they moved back in again after WW1.  His family continued to live at Yateley Manor after his death in 1935, and in WW2 they moved across the road to Manor Corner so that the Manor House could become a WVS centre for the aircrews at RAF Hartfordbridge.

Gibson, Vice Admiral Herbert S.

Gulland, John Perfect

Hill-Climo, William

Howell, Rev Arthur James

Howell, Miss Sybil

Kirkpatrick, Brig Gen William Johnstone, CB

Loader, Sydney Ireson

Macrae, Col Alexander William (15 Jun 1858 - 1 Feb 1920)

MacCormac, John

Mason, Miss Emily Mary

Masterman, Capt John

Mills, Dr John (1820 - 1913)

Incredibly we do not have a page devoted to a mini-biography of John Mills. He is however mentioned on many pages. His diary from 1876 to 1880 was one of the main resources for our exhibition on the year 1878. He died just before the start of WW1, but his legacy lived on in Yateley, particularly the mission church in Darby Green.

Murray, Maj. Gen. Robert Hunter (1847-1925)

Nash, Paul (11 May1889 - 11 Jul 1964)

Paul Nash, the famous war artist, did not live in Yateley at any time in WW1. However he was sent to stay with his Aunt Susan at Harpton House Yateley when he was a small boy in the 1890s.  She arranged for him to attend the school on Cricket Hill run by Mrs Catherine Wilding.  He was the only boy.  There seems to have been a strong emphasis on art, so there is good reason to believe that it was from this school in Yateley that he got his early love for painting. 

Oakshott, Rev George Herbert

Petrie, Dr Alexander Sturrock

Shakespeare, William

Shute, Miss Florence

Stewart-Wilson, Sir Charles

Stilwell, John Packenham

Stilwell, Capt John Grant "Jack"

Stilwell, Beatrice

Templar, Arthur Henry

Tice, William Burrows (1860-1941)

Tindal, Miss Anne Grant (23 Dec 1858-26 Feb 1928)

Thoyts, Miss Caroline Mary (1862-1954)

Wood, Mrs Constance Catherine (1852-1916)

Mrs Wood lived at Yateley Lodge during the first years of WW1. She was born at Herriard, a daughter of Francis Jervoise Ellis-Jervoise JP DL and Mary Louisa Marx.  She married firstly George Francis Marx in 1877, and then in 1885 Arthur Hardy Wood, the son of John Wood, a rich industrialist who owned Thedden Grange.  Her second husband survived her, but she left her own will proved by two of her brothers. It is interesting to note that a Mrs Marx is mentioned in the contect of the Yateley Red Cross.  It is also interesting that I first obtained all this information from the Halhed family website.

Wood, Lieut Commander Christopher John Frederick, RN

Names in Green recommended for further research by Barry Moody