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 Born in
Southampton in 1859. Joined
the Royal Navy in 1872. Served in the Egyptian War in 1882 and appointed as
Rear Admiral in 1888. In 1887 he was second in command on board the ill
fated HMS Camperdown, a battleship cruiser. The leader of the flotilla was HMS Victoria the flagship of Admiral George Tryon.
The bridge officers unsuccessfully managed to persuade Admiral Tryon to change
the order that all the fleet should anchor in choreographed
anchoring manoeuvres off Tripoli, as the space proposed was dangerously
too close together. The Victoria rammed HMS Camperdown which sank immediately. Jellicoe survived but 358
of his shipmates drowned. Many years later Alec Guinness starred in the film
"Kind Hearts and Coronets" which as its ending replicates the
disaster.
At the
start of WW1 Jellicoe was appointed as Commander in Chief of the Grand Fleet
and organised defences against U boat attacks. Made Admiral of the Fleet in
1919 and in 1925 was created an Earl. He was Governor-General of New Zealand
from 1924 to 1929. He died in 1935.
Edwin
Jones
 Edwin
Jones established his drapery business which later merged with United Drapers
Trust and traded as Debenhams.
During
the conflict leading to the American Civil War he had the business acumen to
purchase large stocks of raw cotton and ship to England for the Lancashire
cotton mills. This meant that during the war he was able to continue to
supply linen and cotton goods whilst several of his competitors struggled to
find stocks.
Edwin Jones
lived at Harefield House which he purchased in 1887. In 1915, then in the
residency of his widow the house caught fire and was raised to the ground.
Later Harefield school was built on the site [Yeovil Chase].
Edwin's
first wife Annette is buried at Southampton Old Cemetery and he then married
the widow of a doctor and is buried in the West End Old Burial Ground. After
the death of Edwin, his widow Fanny Louisa [nee White] married Dr Thomas who
had been left with 4 children when his wife died and the new family all moved
into Harefield House. After the fire the family sold off the estate and Mrs
Thomas lived in Midanbury Lane until her death in 1918.
In his
capacity of mayor of Southampton, Edwin Jones boarded the ship carrying the
coffin of the explorer David Livingstone as a mark of respect and to ensure a
dignified transfer to a train to take the body on its onward journey.
Edwin
Jones was regarded as a fair employer and the company flourished and set up
facilities for the staff including a sports ground and pavilion.
The
premises in East Street were bombed in World War II and new premises which took
5 years to build were erected and opened in 1959, at first trading under his
name but then in 1973 the decision was made to use one single brand of Debenhams.
The original premises were known as Manchester House in recognition of the long
connections with the Lancashire Mills.
Locals
recall that in WW II that in a jingoistic gesture the store had an upper
display window and the appearance of a RAF aircraft wing with the union flag
and a dejected German pilot was portrayed has having been captured. The fact
that his store was bombed a few weeks later brought about the local folklore
that Hitler had found the display to be offensive.
Captain
John Treasure Jones
 Popular
amongst both passengers and crew on the Cunard liners, John eventually was
given the nickname "The Undertaker" as he was chosen on three
occasions to be master of three ships ending their service with Cunard. These
were the Mauretania, the Saxonia and the Queen Mary. The final trip of the
Queen Mary was his own as he then went into retirement.John went
to see at the age of 15 and worked his way up to gain a master's ticket but
even that achievement meant very little in the depression of 1929 when White
Star Line sacked all masters with less than 15 years of service.
During
WWII served in the RN and was on a ship that was torpedoed and spent 4 hours on
a raft before being rescued.
Joining Cunard
in 1947 he served on the Queen Mary for 10 years as Staff Captain.
John had
a distinguished career and in 1968 was awarded an honorary degree by the
University of Wales.
Popular
amongst both passengers and crew on the Cunard liners, John eventually was
given the nickname "The Undertaker" as he was chosen on three
occasions to be master of three ships ending their service with Cunard. These
were the Mauretania, the Saxonia and the Queen Mary. The final trip of the
Queen Mary was his own as he then went into retirement.
Before
the final departure of the Queen Mary certain artefacts were auctioned off for
charity and the late Frank [Sammy] Powell a customs officer bid for the ship's
brass chronometer which he lovingly cherished. After years of continuing service
by the clock, Frank decided that it deserved a service and clean up of the
works. It was much admired by the clock smith who completed the service and
returned it. Ten days later it stopped and Frank slightly miffed took it back
to be checked over but apparently there was nothing wrong. However both Frank
and the clock smith had an eerie feeling when they discovered that the date
that the clock stopped was the exact hour and minute of the death of Captain John Treasure Jones. He died in May 1993 at his home in Chandler's Ford in Hampshire age 87.
John Grove [acknowledgement to Charles Gordon-Clark]
John Grove of the parish of
Holy Rood was a Southampton merchant, a linen draper who also imported wine
from France. He also had a long career of public service in Southampton in the
early 18th century.
He was a magistrate from 1723
till his death in 1744, and during that time was for different periods auditor,
petty customs clerk, keeper of the crane, weigher of the wools, constable of
the staple. He was mayor in 1726 (and may have been so earlier in 1714) and after
that alderman.
It was as wharfinger and
farmer of the petty customs from 1723 to 1737 that John Grove did his best
service to his town, which was falling on hard times. The French wine trade was
dwindling, the share in the Newfoundland fisheries fading away; the town was
getting considerably into debt, and one of the problems was a failure to
collect properly the “petty customs and wharfage” due from importers. John, a businesslike and resolute man,
grappled at once with the growing number of refusals to pay. As a “farmer”, he
had taken an initial ten years lease on the customs, so the more he got for the
town the more he could keep for himself. He said he would prosecute at his own
cost anyone refusing to pay – did so, and scored a succession of resounding
victories. The most notable were against the proprietor of the Itchen
Navigation in 1727 and two years later when he brought the townsfolk of
Lymington to heel, to the great joy of the Southampton authorities.
He was warden of the poor
hospital for the last two years of his life and ran other hospitals in
Southampton. One was for the military under the very imperfect system, if such
it can be called, which prevailed before the construction of Haslar Hospital
for the navy.
Sir Sidney Guy
Kimber OBE JP FRPS [1873 -1949]
 First
became a Councillor in 1910 and was elected Mayor 1918-1920. Later he was
elected Alderman.
Under his
leadership he promoted the building of the Civic Centre, law courts and
Northguild with its concert hall and superb John Crompton organ and the
Art Gallery. Kimber also acquired the land for the Southampton Sports
Centre at Lordswood and with great foresight the land for the city's
municipal golf course. As the use of the site raised some opposition, he did a
deal with his Labour opponents [leader Thomas [Tommie] Lewis that land for
social housing [to be known as the Flowers Estate as each street was
appropriately named after a flower] would be allocated in exchange of the
building of the Civic Centre. He was knighted for his services in 1935.
Kimber published his autobiography Thirty Eight Years of Public Life in
Southampton.
Kimber welcomed
the Duke and Duchess of York [later King George and Queen Elizabeth] in 1932 to
open the Civic Centre and this event is available to view on newsreel footage
on the British Pathe website. In 1938 on a wet showery day, the
Duke and Duchess of Kent opened the Sports Centre.
In the SCC Archives there is material on Kimber's council service including photographs
of the building of the library and Civic Centre.
During WWII the boys from Taunton's School were evacuated to Bournemouth and as chairman of the governors, Kimber used to address the assembly with the same opening remark each year "I have travelled from Souampton" always omitting the 'th' which caused the boys after ward to mimic the expression and wonder as to why he so pronounced the word.
John
Edgar Mann
John
Edgar Mann has touched the lives of many Sotonians as a journalist, follower of
jazz and folk music and as a prolific author of books on local history.
Born in
Thornhill Park the octogenarian lived in Southampton for most of his life
except during WWII when his school was temporarily transferred to Bournemouth.
John
spent a 42 year career in journalism with the Southern Evening Echo [now the
Echo] ranging from office boy, reporter, sub editor, cinema and theatre critic,
feature editor and probably his endearing role as the columnist "Tom
Bargate".
In 1963
John co-founded the Fo'c'sle Club now one of the longest surviving folk music
clubs in the UK. In 1975 John released his concept album Folk Songs from
Hampshire for Forest Tracks.
Anyone
interested in the heritage and local history of the city will at one time or another picked up one of his many published books. These
include Hampshire Customs, Curiosities and Folklore, Highfield-a
village remembered [with Peter Aston], Story of Bitterne Park and reflecting
his great interest in music, For the love of Mick -Ha-ha's amongst the trumpets
[with Toni Goffe].
John was a vice president of Bitterne Local History Society and Friends of
Southampton Old Cemetery.
In his later years John resided in a care home and died after a short illness in 2012.
Charles
Rawden Maclean [John Ross]
This man
died on the s.s. Varne in 1880 when heading to Southampton and is buried in
Southampton Old Cemetery. The unmarked grave in fact holds the life and story
of a remarkable pioneer entwined with the history of Durban in South Africa.
Maclean
was born in Fraserburgh, Scotland in 1815 the son of a retired sea
captain. He was apprenticed at the age of 10 to James Saunders King master of
the Mary and set sail for Africa.
The ship
was wrecked off the Natal coast and the boy survived and settled at Port Natal
[later known as Durban]. With his red hair and Scottish accent he was soon
noticed by the Zulu chieftain Shaka ka Senzagakhona and he befriended him.
Charles remained in the community until 1828 and then returned to a life at
sea. Prior to that he set out on a trek which was to last for 6 months from
Port Natal to the Portuguese settlement of Delagoa Bay. The settlers at Port
Natal were struck down with sickness and lacked supplies and medicines. Maclean
escorted by 30 warriors from the tribe set out with ox carts on the 300
mile journey each way. It is fairly certain that without this help that the
small community of settlers would not have survived.
Later in
1836 Maclean's experiences were recounted by one of the settlers Natheniel
Isaacs in a series of tales of his experiences at the settlement. It is said
that Isaacs could not remember Maclean's name and used the name "John
Ross" for his hero. Oddly though his memory lapsed on the name he gave the
boy's age as about 15 years which in reality seems more probable against a 12
year old undertaking the trek. The book sold well particularly back in
Maclean's homeland in Scotland but Maclean himself never relished the hero
status or his assumed identity of John Ross.
After 10
years at sea, Maclean gained his master's certificate but unfortunately on his
first command his ship went onto rocks when he fell asleep at the wheel after
long deprivation of sleep. He survived and continued his sea career and was
noted for his anti-slavery views.
In Durban
there is a large commemorative statue to John Ross, a large commercial
building and a highway are named after him. There was a famous salvage tug
built 1976 [at the time one of the most powerful tugs in the world] named John
Ross. It is open to question as to which John Ross the ship took its name
as Sir John Ross RN the famous arctic explorer [Ross Strait] is an equal
contender.
 At the
Old Cemetery there appears that there was no headstone and the Friends of
Southampton Old Cemetery and the Fraserburgh Heritage Centre have worked
closely together to raise funds for a commemorative headstone to be placed on
the grave. On 2nd May 2009 a service of rededication of the grave was
held, the unmarked grave was draped with the flag of South Africa and the new
headstone with the flag of Scotland, The Sea Cadets attended and a kilted
bagpiper played a lament and the Mayor Councillor Brian Parnell introduced the
event.
Congratulations
to the Friends of Southampton Old Cemetery and Fraserburgh Heritage Centre for
arranging this historic commemoration.
Sir
John Everett Millais
 Millais
was born in Southampton in 1829.
Famous as an artist his works included the Gambler's Wife [1869] The Boyhood of
Raleigh [1870], Cherry Ripe [1879] and Bubbles [1886] was famously used by
Pears Soap for many years as an advertisement.
He became
the co-founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Movement.
On his death in 1896 he was buried in St Paul's Cathedral.
Charles William Miller [1874-1953]  Charles was born in Sao Paulo in 1874 to a
Scottish father and a mother of Brazilian/ English descent. At the age of 10
years he was sent over to Southampton for schooling and soon picked up the
skills of soccer and cricket. He played in a match of the MCC v Hampshire but
luck was not on side as he scored but 12 runs.
On
completion of his education he worked for a shipping line, the Royal Mail line,
and in 1894 returned to his homeland and worked for the Sao Paulo Railway but
continued his association with shipping as he acted as the Royal Mail Steamship
Company's agent. In 1904 he was appointed as Acting British Vice Consul.
In 1939 on a visit to England with his daughter he narrowly escaped death in
the first IRA bombing on the mainland. Heading to Waterloo Underground station,
his daughter made him pause to admire a display in a shop window when the bomb
detonated ahead.
Charles had acquired multi skills at ball games and introduced rugby and soccer
to Brazil as league sports and formed Sao Paulo Athletic Club. With Charles
playing as striker SPAC won the championship in 1902 - 4. However in 1906 he
was playing in goal when the team was defeated by 9 to 1, a day that he was
never to forget in the years ahead.
Henry Kenneth
Russell
Born in
Southampton in 1927 died 2012.
 Worked as
a ballet dancer, actor and photographer but came to fame as director of biographic
documentaries and musicals director. He won international recognition for his
film Women in Love in 1969 followed by The Devils 1971, The Rainbow 1989 and in
1993 his television production Lady Chatterley's Lover followed by The
Mindbender in 1995.
In recent
times he appeared on the reality TV show Celebrity Big Brother and stormed off
prematurely after a row with Jade Goody.
Sarah
Siddons
 Sarah
Siddons [nee Kemble] [1755-1831] had a house in Southampton near to the
junction of Portland Street and Portland Terrace. In the late 18th century /
early 19th century she specialised in roles in tragedies making Lady Macbeth a
specialty part. The daughter of an actor-manager she spent many years in a travelling
rep company. She came to the attention of David Garrick and made a not too
successful appearance at Drury Lane and returned to the provincial circuit and
in 1782 returned to Drury Lane where she received great acclaim.
John Thomson Stonehouse [1925
-1988]  Famously faked his death in 1974. Stonehouse was
educated at Taunton's Grammar School and continued his education at the London
School of Economics. He began his career managing cooperatives in Uganda then
became a director then president of the London Cooperative Society. He was
elected to parliament in 1957 and was given junior ministerial posts before
becoming the Postmaster General.
Stonehouse had many business interests and by 1974 he was robbing Peter to pay
Paul and aware that the DTI were closing in on his activities he acquired a
copy of a birth certificate of Joseph Markham the dead husband of one
of his constituents. Taking Markham's identity he applied for a passport and
set up bank accounts in the name. He then left a pile of clothing on a beach in
Florida and 'disappeared' as if he had walked into the sea. However it was more
than 30 years before the British Government made serious attempts to try to
prevent such an easy means of identity theft being repeated.
Stonehouse
then made contact with his secretary and mistress Sheila Buckley and planned to
start a new life in Australia. The Australian police picked him up by chance in
Melbourne thinking that he was Lord Lucan the British peer who disappeared
after his wife was found murdered. The Australian authorities were at first
reluctant to hand a serving M.P. over to the British police. Stonehouse
attempted to obtain political asylum from Sweden then Mauritius without success
and was returned and held on remand at Brixton prison. He was still at the time
still being paid an M.P.'s salary.
At his
trial he conducted his own defence and was sentenced to 7 years for fraud.
Eventually at the end of August he agreed to resign his seat and his position
as a Privy Counsellor thus from that time no longer entitled to use the term
Honourable [and ceasing to draw his MP and expenses]. Stonehouse was released
early in 1979 following heart attacks and heart surgery.
Stonehouse was divorced from his wife and married Sheila Buckley and they had a
son.
Billy Connolly the Scottish comedian nicely summed up the situation when he
composed a song for his stage act - "John Stonehouse Went Swimming."
Francis
Godolphin Osborne Stuart [1843-1923]
Francis
was born in Braemar in 1843 the son of the gamekeeper of a titled landowner and
out of deference to his employer, the family added the rather grand sounding
names Godolphin Osborne when they named their son after the landowner but in
his professional life we know him as F.G.O. Stuart.
Francis
was apprenticed to a cabinet maker and took an interest in photography. He
worked at a workshop in Aberdeen and part of his production was hand built
camera equipment for clients. By the age of 30 had moved to London to open his
first studio. In 1883 he moved to Southampton and established himself with
a reputation for quality work. He formed the National Photographic Company.
In 1902
he branched out into publishing postcards and produced about 2500 topographical
views over the succeeding years. Local historian A.G.K. Leonard and postcard
collector Jack Foley of Woolston have large collections of his work. At first
he used German printers and the quality of their art work and colour processing
was of a high reputation but with outbreak of WW1 this arrangement ceased.
Perhaps reflecting the economic decline of the 20/30's the postcards from
British printers were of a much lower quality. During WWI, F.G.O. Stuart was
the official War Office photographer in Southampton docks, recording damage to
allied shipping sent to the docks for repairs.
Francis
journeyed to London and many south coast towns and took some early aviation
subjects at Bournemouth and a view of Windsor Castle.
He had
one daughter and later took his son in law Charles S.S. Dowson into the
business who continued to trade after the death of his mentor.
 Stuart's prints especially around
the Southampton suburbs and villages reflect the late Victorian/Edwardian era
and are much sought after by local historians and publications showing then and
now. Stuart usually posed children or people in strategic points to lead the
eye into the picture. Somewhat in the later style of Hitchcock who gave cameo
appearances in his own films, Stuart's pony and trap usually appears in local
street scenes.
Isaac Watts
Our God our help in ages
past
[later in 1738 John Wesley
replaced the Our to O in the title]
Biographic
notes courtesy Arthur Jeffery
Isaac Watts wrote many famous hymns. One of his most famous "O God our
help in ages past, our hope for years to come" is played to the tune St
Anne by the bell in the clock tower of Southampton Civic Centre. The tune is
played every 4 hours between 8am and 4pm.
Born in
Southampton in 1674, Isaac Watts was brought up in a non conformist family. His
father was founder deacon of the Above Bar Church built in 1689, following
the relaxing of the laws on religious worship.
After graduating at Stoke
Newington Academy in London, Isaac returned to Southampton, preaching at the
Above Bar Church and began to write hymns, being dissatisfied as to how the
psalms were sung in church services.
His health was not good but he took up the post as Assistant Pastor at Mark
Lane Chapel in London. He continued to write poems and hymns. A book of his
poems was published in 1705. Two years later he wrote his "Hymns and
Spiritual Songs" which proved to be a best seller. He wrote more than 700
hymns in his lifetime as well as academic works on astronomy, geography and
philosophy. With young people in mind he published separately "Divine and
Moral Songs for Children" in 1715 and "Prayers Composed for
Children" in 1728.
Across the Atlantic in colonial Pennsylvania, Benjamin Franklin published Isaac
Watts' "Hymns and Spiritual Songs" in 1729.
Because of poor health, he travelled little and lived in Chesthunt at the house
of Sir Thomas Abney, dying there on 25 November 1748. He is buried in Bunhill
Fields, City Road, London.
 It is as "Father of the Hymn" that Isaac Watts is best remembered,
breaking the mould of the conventional Protestant psalm.
O God our help in ages past
When I survey the wondrous cross
There is a land of pure delight
Jesus shall reign where’re the sun
By composing such meaningful hymns, Isaac Watts led a new form of religious
expression.
image courtesy treehouse1977 flickr
Ellen Wren
19th Century Southampton as was the case of the
expanding towns and ports throughout the country over crowded with the poor
living in slum conditions. Many of the laundry and washer women often having to
support families took on the role of prostitutes at night.
Ellen Wren lies in an unmarked pauper's grave at Southampton Old Cemetery in
the company of many other paupers. A housing association's help centre has recently
taken the name Ellen Wren House but few in Southampton are familiar with her
name and the impact that her death had on our social history.
Ellen Wren lived in a one room attic in Simnel Street and drifted around the
nearby streets plying her trade. In her dark dank room, full of cheap gin, she
fell into a drunken slumber and apparently choked on her vomit. Such were the
normality of blocked drains, discarded vegetable and animal waste in the
vicinity that the odours associated with a decomposing body went unnoticed
until her landlord anxious to collect the overdue rent entered the room more
than a week later.
The Liberal supporting Southampton Times began a campaign. How could society
have such conditions for its poor? How could a destitute woman live in such
conditions? Were we expecting the poor to raise families in such conditions?
Questions were even raised in Parliament about the Ellen Wren incident. No
doubt similar incidents were or had been occurring in similar slum areas
elsewhere but Ellen Wren's story pulled the conscience of middle class
England. An act introduced a few years before had given town councils the
power to build housing for the poor and lowly paid workmen. Councils had
resisted the call as a heavy increase in rates on the businesses was a
political difficulty yet to be faced. But as the circumstances of Ellen
Wren spread to other newspapers and councils in many parts of the country began
to consider slum clearance and the building of new homes.
Some of the properties in Castle Lane, Bugle Street and the courts and lanes
leading off St Michael's Square were owned by well to do businessmen, the
church and even the town's own sanitary authority. At first there was great
resistance to change but a report of 1893 highlighted the dreadful
conditions and the clearances started.
Urged on by the Liberal press in Southampton, the council began to clear and
build social housing. Some early examples of council housing are in Bugle
Street near the Endeavour public house. The houses are noticeable as they are
built over arches which housed the cellars and kitchens. A small plaque marking
their significance is on the metal railings.
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Charles
Barr 
Charles Barr grave at Southampton Old Cemetery sketch by permission Bernard Lavell, Southampton Art Society
Born in
1910 he began his studies firstly in engineering then branched into radio and
electronic research. After some years with Radio Research Company, at the age
of 25 he joined the Marconi organisation and worked on television development
until 1939. During his four years with Marconi he registered 36 patents. He
then turned to the war effort and he was part of the team that developed the
radio signal detection equipment which became a vital aid on the RAF bombers
and the development of radar. Cockerell always regarded the latter as his most
important contribution.
Arthur
Maundy Gregory was born on 1st July 1877; the son of a Southampton
clergyman, Gregory attended school on the town and progressed to Oxford
University. He left before attaining a degree and at first went into the
teaching profession and than became an actor-manager.
Hill
often used 'stage Jewish' mannerisms in his portrayals and was an admirer of
Jewish American humour and had great admiration for the violin playing, po
faced American comedian Jack Benny. He used his idol's surname as his forename
for his TV variety show appearances as comic and singer. His self composed song
"Ernie, Ernie drove the fastest milk wagon in the West" reminds us of
course of his career as a milkman in neighbouring Eastleigh. 
Copyright 2016
