This is the third and last part of my life-by-dates biography of Golden
Dawn member
William Evans Hugh
Humphrys. It covers 1910 to 1950. The two
earlier parts cover 1876 to end 1906 including his period in the GD and 1907 to
end 1909 the period for which there is most evidence and during which he was
most busy.
To look at those, return to my GD introduction page and follow the links
there.
Three short-forms used a lot in this file are:
1 = ACA. That’s the Automobile
Co-operative Association, formed in 1906 as a joint-stock company and friendly society,
to supply its members with cars and car parts at list price. William Humphrys was on its management
committee and Automobile Owner... magazine was very closely associated
with the ACA.
2 = Automobile Owner....
That’s short for the full title of William’s magazine: The Automobile
Owner and Steam and Electric Car Review.
William was a part-owner of the magazine, one of its main creditors, and
its managing director between 1907 and mid-1912; he wrote a lot of the articles
that were published in it.
3 = Viscount M and F is the Viscount Massereene and Ferrard, editor of Automobile
Owner... from late 1908 to mid-1912.
For a fuller account of him, see Part 2.
CONTINUING AT 1910, a year which for William was dominated by court
cases.
DURING 1910
10000 readers of Automobile Owner... were ACA members.
Automobile Owner... volume 5 number 9 November 1910 Automobile
Owner... v The Motor Trader p273.
No one was asked to give a figure for the total readership,
unfortunately.
JANUARY, FEBRUARY AND MARCH 1910
The Automobile Owner... had no articles in it which were credited
to William. A new, uncredited column
started up in the February issue: Law and Locomotion.
Sources: Automobile Owner... volume 4 number 11 January 1910;
volume 4 number 12 February 1910 especially p484; and volume 5 number 1 March
1910. Some uncredited articles in these
issues do look like his work, the kind of uncredited news items that he’d
probably been writing since the magazine’s first issue; though I don’t think he
was writing Law and Locomotion.
MARCH 1910
The price of Automobile Owner... dropped from 3d to 1d per
monthly issue.
Source: Automobile Owner... volume 5 number 1 March 1910, front
page.
DURING MARCH 1910
The ACA held its 4th AGM.
In his speech as its chairman, Jules de Meray said that business during
1909 had been twice that of 1908. As a
result, the ACA had plenty of capital and also some cash in the bank. William
would have been at this meeting though no guest list was published.
Source: Automobile Owner... volume 5 number 2 April 1910 p48.
APRIL 1910
A new fire extinguisher was advertised in this month’s issue of Automobile
Owner... after 15 months in which no fire extinguishers of any kind had had
any coverage in the magazine. The new
one was made by the Radium Fire Extinguisher Co, of
Comment by Sally Davis: for
Why call it the ‘Radium’ fire extinguisher? It’s most unlikely that the dry powder
mixture contained any radium - see wikipedia for why. Radium was new though (discovered 1898),
exciting but puzzling; it was news. I
think William chose the name with that in mind: ‘radium’ would catch the public
eye and stick in the public’s mind.
Sources:
Automobile Owner... volume 5 number 2 April 1910 p38 for the advert which
asserted that one canister of Radium Fire Extinguisher powder could put out
flames 30 feet high in 10 seconds.
Canisters cost 7/6 each or you could buy 12 for £4. It became clear later on that used canisters
could be sent back to the firm to be refilled.
P43 for the article on the Radium fire extinguisher; which was about a
recent demonstration. It mentioned the
powder’s inventor, a
Kelly’s PO Directory 1911 Trades Directory p1581 fire extinguisher makers
has The Radium Fire Extinguisher Ltd at
the powder was prepared and the canisters filled and stored; but I
haven’t found out where it was.
The continued existence of the British Diamond Fire Extinguisher Co Ltd:
Redbooks of the British Fire Prevention Committee volumes 120-129
issued by HMSO 1907 p366 an account of a meeting of the Committee named P E
Parr, Robert Paterson CA and Joseph Whaley as representing the British Diamond
Fire Extinguisher Co.
Redbooks of the British Fire Prevention Committee volume 127 issued
HMSO 1908 p20 the same three men from the firm were at a meeting held on 4
March 1908, around the time of the demonstration to the Prince and Princess of
Wales.
Via google a snippet showing several adverts by Automobile Owner...’s
insurance business in The Englishman issues 1-22 1908 p39, p63, p111;
announcing that you could get a 25% rebate on your insurance payments if you
used the British Diamond’s fire extinguisherin your car.
Just glancing at paperspast.natlib.gov.nz to its
This is more problematic: I noticed several references during 1909 to a
Diamond Dry Powder Fire Extinguisher Co in publications of the Legislature
of the Province of Ontario: was this the British Diamond... company setting
up a sep firm to promote and sell its fire extinguisher in Canada? Or is it a Canadian based rival producer?
Website www.cineresources.net has a booklet publicising the
Diamond dry powder fire extinguisher, as supplied to the king (that’s Edward
VII). The booklet isn’t dated but
there’s a list of the firms using the product, with testimonials; including a
satisfied letter from Mann and Overtons dated 22 January 1909 and sent to the
Manager, British Diamond... at
The company appears in a list in Papers by Command House of
Commons issued HMSO 1914 volume 79 p104.
London Gazette issue of 6 November 1928 in list of liquidations: the
British Diamond Fire Extinguisher Co (1912) Ltd was going into voluntary
liquidation. A meeting of shareholders
and creditors would be held at
Did William buy shares in the British Diamond Fire Extinguisher Company
in 1908, when its offices moved to that
On the third dry powder fire extinguisher firm I found from William’s
time, Kyl-Fyre:
Kyl-Fyre is the only one of the three firms to be in Grace’s Guide to
British Industrial History, see its pages at www.gracesguide.co.uk, by virtue of
being listed in Whitaker’s Red Book: Who’s Who in Business issue of
1914, which the website uses as a source.
You can’t see the original text, unfortunately but the firms featured in
it are listed by the type of product or work they do. Kyl-Fyre were based at 12 Elms Buildings
Seen via google: Kyl-Fyre make fire blankets too.
The earliest mention of Kyl-Fyre’s dry powder product that I could find
was in the Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene volumes 12-13 1909
p297 issue of 1 October 1909: coverage of a demo.
I saw it mentioned in The Spectator volume 115 1915 p412 with the
firm claiming their product was the “original dry powder extinguisher”.
The ACA promoted Kyl-Fyre but not the other two products: Automobile
Co-operative Association Review, beginning with issue number 7, December
1911 (p17) and continuing to its last issue, of October 1912 (p33). It suggests to me that the ACA had done a
deal with Kyl-Fyre to be the only dry powder fire extinguisher supplied to its
members; perhaps because unlike the other two firms, Kyl-Fyre also made other
fire-extinguishing products. I wonder
how William felt about that?
Finally, just confirming that in the midst of all this hubbub over a
different company, that Automobile Owner... magazine was still being run
from
Frank Rutter found William’s involvement with fire extinguishers
completely mystifying! Source: Since
I was Twenty-Five by Frank Rutter.
FROM APRIL 1910 FOR THE REST OF THAT YEAR
The Radium Fire Extinguisher Co and its fire extinguisher were mentioned
in every issue of Automobile Owner....
Most issues had a full-page advert; but there were also small news items
about the product, and mentions of it in some editorials.
Sources: see rest of 1910 below.
Comment by Sally Davis: perhaps the Viscount Massereene and Ferrard had
invested in William’s company.
APRIL 1910
The Motor Trades Association was founded by the main car manufacturers
to stop the ACA and other organisations like it setting up deals to get
discounts for their members.
Times Mon 18 April 1910 p12.
30 APRIL 1910
Automobile Owner... v The Long Acre Autocar Company was heard at
Source: Automobile Owner... volume 5 number 4 June 1910 p114, an
uncredited account of the trial.
Comment by Sally Davis: the relationship between Automobile Owner...
and the ACA had always been very close and Automobile Owner... was
widely seen as the publishing arm of the ACA.
The Long Acre Autocar Company Ltd had bought some advertising space in Automobile
Owner... on the understanding that doing so would commit the ACA to buying
10 of its cars. When the ACA didn’t buy
any cars from them, they refused to pay the bill for the adverts. So William sued them, possibly on the advice
of Jules de Meray whose barrister was anxious to emphasise the harm done to the
ACA by the case. The Judge decided that
The Long Acre Autocar Co must pay up because ACA and Automobile Owner...
were independent organisations. However,
the idea that they were essentially the same thing wasn’t that easily killed
off.
MAY 1910
A series of full-page adverts for the Radium Fire Extinguisher began
inside Automobile Owner... William
hadn’t had time to write any credited articles for this issue.
Source: Automobile Owner... volume 5 number 3 May 1910 p76.
JUNE 1910
A small paragraph appeared in Automobile Owner..., inserted at the
request of the Radium Fire Extinguisher company, denouncing rival powders which
used sand, oxide of iron or ashes in their mixture, none of which resisted
water. This was another issue which
didn’t have an article credited to William.
Source: Automobile Owner... volume 5 number 4 June 1910 p115.
22 JUNE 1910
The Radium Fire Extinguisher Co Ltd staged a demonstration chimney fire
on the
Source: Automobile Owner... volume 5 number 5 July 1910 p135.
JULY 1910
William was back writing for Automobile Owner..., arguing on
behalf of owners of steam cars against the year’s change to the way motor tax
was assessed, saying that it penalised steam in favour of internal combustion
engines. In subsequent issues, there were
other articles and letters on this theme; the beginnings of a campaign. This issue and the next few all had a
full-page advert for the Radium fire extinguisher on the coveted back page. Viscount Massereene and Ferrard’s editorial
mentioned the Radium fire extinguisher as the only one capable of putting out a
petrol fire.
Source: Automobile Owner... volume 5 number 5 July 1910. Pp140-41 for William’s article: New Motor
Taxation. The Injustice to Steam. How Owners Should Act. For the editorial comment p135.
12 JULY 1910
William’s acquaintance from Cambridge University days, Charles Stewart
Rolls, died of head injuries when his aeroplane fell out of the sky at the
Southbourne Aerodrome in
Source for the death: Times Thursday 14 July 1910 p4 - short
report on the inquest.
Comment by Sally Davis: Rolls’ death - one of the first in a flying
accident - received a great deal of press coverage; as did his funeral, at his
parents’ home at Llangattock; and the memorial service at St James Piccadilly,
both of which took place on Saturday 16 July.
The Times reports on these had comprehensive guest-lists but I couldn’t
see William on either of them. William’s
1907 interviewee for Automobile Owner..., Mrs Assheton Harbord, and her
husband, were amongst those sending a wreath to the funeral.
Times Monday 18 July 1910 p13.
AUGUST 1910
An article by Viscount Massereene and Ferrard was printed - a rarity, as
he usually stuck to just being the editor.
It published a letter he had sent to the Treasury about the taxing of
steam cars. There was no article
credited to William in this issue.
Source: Automobile Owner... volume 5 number 6 August 1910 p171;
on p179 a lot of aggrieved letters on the subject were printed.
SEPTEMBER 1910
No articles credited to William appeared in this issue but there was a
review of GD member
Source: Automobile Owner... volume 5 number 7 September 1910 p213
the review of Florence Farr’s book was uncredited but I can’t imagine who else
but William could have written it. I haven’t found a copy of the publicity
booklet issued by the Radium Fire Extinguisher Co Ltd but I daresay it looks
very like the one issued for the British Diamond... company when William was
manager of it.
15 SEPTEMBER 1910
The Radium fire extinguisher was demonstrated to a group of potential
and actual customers, by the Thames at Millbank.
Source: Automobile Owner...volume 5 number 10 December 1910 p292.
OCTOBER 1910
The campaign against the new motor tax continued in Automobile
Owner... but mostly through articles and comment by Viscount Massereene and
Ferrard; once again William had no articles credited to him in this month’s
magazine. Radium Fire Extinguisher Co
Ltd’s full-page advert was back on the inside pages of the magazine.
Source: Automobile Owner... volume 5 number 8 October 1910 p236.
19-20 ?OCTOBER 1910 (POSSIBLY NOVEMBER 1910)
Automobile Owner... v The Motor Trader reached court. William was suing the trade magazine for
libel. ACA member Edward Marshall Hall
was the other side’s main barrister in the case. William’s magazine lost.
Sources: Automobile Owner... volume 5 number 9 November 1910
pp270-77. The main witness for Automobile
Owner...’s side of the argument was William himself. George Polsue gave evidence about the
take-over of the previous magazine.
Robert George Whitcombe, company secretary of the ACA, spoke about the
editorial independence of Automobile Owner... And Harry Edward Morris confirmed that
despite having no connection with the ACA, his firm had been given coverage by Automobile
Owner... and had been able to advertise in it.
For Edward Marshall Hall see his wikipedia page. He must have cost a lot to hire! Though he was not yet as famous as he was to
become.
Comment by Sally Davis. The case was
about words published in an issue of The Motor Trader as long ago as
January 1908. Judge Ridley decided that
the article that had worried William so much contained neither a special nor a
general libel; and even William had been obliged to admit when he’d been giving
evidence, that what he’d taken exception to in the article was insinuation and
innuendo, not insult in so many words.
The usual procedure in this kind of case was that the losing side should
pay both sides’ costs; serious money for Automobile Owner... which
William might have paid up out of his own funds. The great thing about the case from my point
of view
was that it all hinged on how independent, financially and otherwise,
the magazine was from the motorists’ association. So a lot of financial and legal information
came out in the evidence that I could never have found anywhere else.
NOVEMBER 1910
William’s yearly preview of the motor show at
Source: Automobile Owner... volume 5 number 9 November 1910
pp267-69 for the preview of
DECEMBER 1910
After several months in which individuals had lobbied the Government
about its heavy taxation of steam cars, the idea of forming an official
pressure group began to surface. In this
month’s issue of Automobile Owner...,William published his usual article
summing up the
Source: Automobile Owner... volume 5 number 10 December 1910 p293
in Viscount Massereene and Ferrard’s editorial; and volume 6 number 2 April
1911 p57.
1911
During which, some outcomes of the recent libel case began to affect Automobile
Owner...’s financial position.
JANUARY 1911
With the court case over, William was able to go back to writing
regularly for his motoring magazine.
This month he wrote about how to make solid petrol. The Radium fire extinguisher was advertised
on the back page of this issue; and all subsequent issues this year; with
references to users such as electrical companies, railway companies and the
tube. This year’s Automobile Owner’s
Chauffeur’s Blue Book had gone on sale.
Source: The Automobile Owner and Steam and Electric Car Review
(just reminding readers of the magazine’s full name) volume 5 number 11 January
1911. On p329 William’s Solid Petrol and
How to Make It (which sounds very dangerous).
Advert for the Blue Book: inside the back page.
FEBRUARY 1911
In this month’s issue of Automobile Owner... William wrote a
short follow-up to the previous month’s recipe for making solid petrol. He also considered whether nitrogen could be
used to power cars; his conclusion was that it couldn’t be (it certainly hasn’t
been). And he also wrote his assessment
of the most notable cars likely to be produced this year. There was an advert for the new steam car
pressure group, the Steam Car League; and also an article on it, uncredited but
likely to be by William as he was its honorary secretary, to Viscount
Massereene and Ferrard and Sir Charles Knox as its vice-presidents. The back-page advert for the Radium Fire
Extinguisher Company listed some of its users for the first time and they were
an impressive bunch: the War Office; Vickers Sons and Maxim; St Thomas’s
Hospital; City and South London Railway; the London General Omnibus Co; and the
London County Council whom William must have poached from a rival as they had
previously been customers of the British Diamond fire extinguisher company.
Comment by Sally Davis: I might be making too much of this, but on this
month’s back page the Radium fire extinguisher company’s address had changed
from 67 Chancery Lane to 67a. Perhaps
William had decided to rent another room in the building for his multi-farious
business concerns.
Source: Automobile Owner... volume 5 number 12 February 1911
pp360-61 for nitrogen powered cars; p367 for the follow-up on solid-state
petrol; pp378-379 for the Steam Car League. Those who paid their 5 shillings to
join the Steam Car League would receive one year’s-worth of issues of Automobile
Owner... as part of their membership.
Back page for the list of firms using the Radium fire extinguisher.
MARCH 1911
As part of its promotion of the Steam Car League, in this
month’s issue Automobile Owner William returned to the question of how
the Government taxed motorists.
Source: Automobile Owner... volume 6 number 1 March 1911 pp8-11.
22 MARCH 1911
A group of steam car owners crowded into William’s rooms in 69 Chancery
Lane to attend the first formal meeting of the Steam Car League. William described himself as an ardent
believer in steam, when he gave the talk explaining the League’s aims. William became the League’s honorary
secretary.
Comment by Sally Davis: just noting that a few of the League’s founding
members were women. There were no women
on its committee but that was usual in this kind of group at that time.
Source: Automobile Owner volume 6 number 2 April 1911 p57.
NIGHT OF 2-3 APRIL 1911
On the day of the 1911 census, William was living in two habitable rooms
at 67 Chancery Lane. He was the only
person in that household. His sources of
income were: as a journalist on a monthly motor magazine; and as a manufacturer
of fire extinguishers. He didn’t give a
name to either the magazine or the fire extinguisher but their details both
appear in Kelly’s PO Directory. In both
cases he was an employer of others, not an employee; and he worked at home.
Sources:
1911 census data. Just noting
that he was the only member of his immediate family who was in England on that
day. I presume his parents (both still
alive) were in Ireland.
Kelly’s PO Directory 1911 street directory p241 listing for 67-69
Chancery Lane which begins with the Allied Artists’ Association; and also has
the Automobile Owners (London) Ltd; and the Radium Fire Extinguisher Ltd. William Humphrys is also listed separately
from all those.
Comment by Sally Davis: I haven’t been able to discover how long William
had been living on top of his work in this way.
Perhaps he had been there since 1907 when he’d taken over George
Polsue’s magazine. I can’t shake off the
feeling that it might have been a temporary arrangement, though; and after
losing the case against The Motor Magazine he might have decided to doss
in his office rather than continue to pay two sets of rent.
Perhaps here is as good a place as any to put in what little information
I’ve been able to find on William’s younger brothers Julian and Hugh:
Julian Shirley Lombe Humphrys.
While checking him out Familysearch I saw a lot of references to
arrivals by sea at New York City and other ports; and eventually he took up
permanent residence in the USA:
Familysearch had a marriage registration for him: on 18 March 1930 in
Manhattan, he married a widow, Ethel Tod McBride.
US Census 1940 Digital Folder 005456307; Julian appears on it in a
household in Pasadena California. His
wife wasn’t with him.
Although he seems rather old to have been called up, Familysearch had a
draft registration for him, dated 1942 in New York City. This gave his full date and place of birth: 6
June 1882 in East Dereham Norfolk.
I wasn’t able to find, from any of those sources, what if anything Julian
did for a living.
Hugh Everard Humphrys was in the army for a while before emigrating to
New Zealand. He has descendants there:
He appears on the 1901 census as a pupil at Oundle School. Dublin University Calendar volume 2
1907; Hugh was an undergraduate there: p18 and p94.
Times Sat 16 June 1906 p13 quoting the London Gazette of 15 June 1906:
Lt H E Humphrys had been appointed Instructor in Musketry in the Royal
Canadians Regiment.
Times Sat 22 August 1908 quoting London Gazette 21 August 1908: Lt H E
Humphrys had been promoted to Captain.
Although I searched the Times for several years after 1908 I didn’t find
anything more about Hugh Humphrys in it.
Via www.aucklandmuseum.com evidence that Hugh was living
in
Use google to find evidence that he returned to New Zealand after the
war and was still living there several decades later.
APRIL 1911
For the rest of 1911, Automobile Owner... carried full-page
adverts for the new Steam Car League. As
the League’s hon sec William probably wrote the uncredited report on its
meeting of 22 March. He also had a
credited article, mostly photographs, describing the amenities of the Royal
Automobile Club’s new headquarters.
Source: Automobile Owner... volume 6 number 2 April 1911. Pp45-46 for William’s report on the new RAC
building; pp56-57 for the Steam Car League.
28 APRIL 1911
The divorce proceedings between Sir Wroth P C Lethbridge and his wife
Alianore reached court. She brought the
petition, on grounds of desertion and adultery which he did not contest. The divorce was granted.
Comment by Sally Davis: I’m not sure how far a divorce would have
hampered Sir Wroth Lethbridge’s social career; it certainly will have hampered
his wife’s, even though she was acting the injured party role in the case. I do wonder whether the Steam Car League
might have decided against having Sir Wroth too obviously involved; and in any
case, the costs of a divorce case were only one of Sir Wroth’s problems at the
time and he may have had little time to spare for worrying about the taxation
of cars. Later in 1911 he more or less
confirmed his wife’s allegations by marrying Kathleen O’Hara, possibly the
woman he’d been spotted with in a hotel in Hamburg during 1909.
Times Fri 28 April 1911 p3
See www.thepeerage.com for the marriage of Wroth Lethbridge to
Alianore Chandos-Pole. They had three
children.
MAY 1911
The Automobile Co-operative Association published the first issue of its
Review. Its editorial thanked Automobile
Owner... for its support in the past; but declared that it was time that
the ACA published its own magazine, which members could use as a forum.
Source: Automobile Co-operative Association Review issue 1 May 1911;
p3 for the editorial. One copy of the
new magazine was sent to Ham House where the Earl of Dysart was a member of the
ACA despite being unable to drive (he was blind). The Earl was the employer of GD member
Wilfred Praeger. See discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk
- records of the Tollemache family.
Comment by Sally Davis: William was still a member of the ACA’s
management committee but the decision to start the ACA’s own magazine can’t
have been one he welcomed from a financial point of view. It certainly showed the motoring world that
the ACA was not the same entity as the Automobile Owner.. magazine,
after the libel case of November 1910; which was presumably what the ACA
wanted. It also meant that Automobile
Owner... could no longer rely on the ACA for quite so much advertising and
copy as the ACA had paid for in the past.
Since the management committee had been expanded to include several
senior ACA employees, the influence William had had before had been watered
down. The ACA Review was trying
to be different from Automobile Owner... - it had adverts for products
not directly concerned with motoring, for example - cigarettes, luggage. It was printed on cheap paper and had very
few photos, at least to start with; and it was not printed by Polsue Limited
which printed the Automobile Owner...
And it never had an advert for the Radium fire extinguisher; I suppose
William wouldn’t or couldn’t pay for one.
MAY 1911
There was no article by William in this month’s issue of Automobile
Owner...
Source: Automobile Owner... volume 6 number 3 May 1911.
PERIOD MAY TO DECEMBER 1911
During the year, the ACA moved further away from its original focus on
motoring. By December 1911 it had set up
ACA (Auxiliary Supply) Co Ltd, which sold household goods and gardening
equipment on the basis of the same kind of deal with suppliers that the ACA had
had with cars and car product makers.
The ACA also added a fire extinguisher firm to its sales base: Kyl-Fyre
of Eastbourne, whose dry powder fire extinguisher was a direct rival to
William’s Radium fire extinguisher.
Sources: Automobile Co-operative Association Review issues 1-7,
May-December 1911.
JUNE AND JULY 1911
Automobile Owner... magazine wasn’t issued at all. During this time William abandoned Polsue Ltd
and went to a new firm of printers.
Source for the new printers: Automobile Owner... volume 7 number
1 August 1911 back page: The Chancery Lane Press (Bonner and Co) 1-3 Rolls
Passage Chancery Lane.
Comment by Sally Davis: the libel case decision and its consequences
were beginning to bite Automobile Owner... hard. And I don’t know where the new printing deal
left George Polsue - head of the jettisoned printing firm while also being a
shareholder in and possibly a creditor of Automobile Owner... Perhaps William bought Polsue’s shares.
AUGUST 1911
William’s magazine reappeared after its two-month absence. William’s article in this issue was about
a new lighting system for cars.
Comment by Sally Davis: some things hadn’t changed when William’s magazine
reappeared after its unannounced two-month absence. It still had its original
title: The Automobile Owner and Steam and Electric Car Review. It was still being edited by Viscount
Massereene and Ferrard, it was still being run from 67-69 Chancery Lane, and
William was still writing regularly for it.
But after the two-month hiatus, the magazine had started with a new
volume number, as well as new printers, and the quality of paper was noticeably
lower from now on.
Source: Automobile Owner... volume 7 number 1 August 1911.
Pp10-11 for William’s article.
LATE AUGUST 1911
William Humphrys married Jessie Alice Holliday at Holy Trinity Kingsway
London WC.
Source: freebmd but also Times Fri 1 September 1911 p1a for the
venue; though it didn’t give the date of the marriage.
Comment by Sally Davis: William Humphrys, his solicitor acquaintance
Eliott C Gray, and his wife Jessie, all had one thing in common: a father who
was a Church of England clergyman. But
the ways and places in which the three of them grew up illustrate just how much
difference there could be between one career in the established church, and
another.
Jessie Holliday’s father Ezra was the son of a working man, William
Holliday, who was employed as a labourer in an iron works in the Wisbey
district, later absorbed into Bradford Yorkshire. By 1861 Ezra’s sister Alice, 14, was working
as a worsted spinner; his brother Nathaniel who was only 10 was working at a
coal mine (though not, presumably, at the pit face); and Ezra (aged 16) was clawing
his way out of this grim background by way of being an apprentice teacher in a
National School. Ezra married Margaret
Alice Stephenson in 1869 when he had left Bradford for a job at Oswaldtwistle,
Lancashire; I’m presuming he was still a teacher at this time. Ezra and Margaret had four children:
Margaret; Jessie; Clara Annie: and James Harry.
Jessie was born in 1875, so she was a little older than William
Humphrys. Ezra Holliday never went to
university but there were some rather limited ways in which a non-graduate
could follow a Church of England vocation, and (though I haven’t been able to
find out the details) Ezra must have taken advantage of one of those ways: he
was ordained as a curate in 1878 and as a priest in 1880. After two short periods spent as a curate, at
Linthwaite in Yorkshire; and at Rawtenstall in Lancashire, where he founded a
day-school, in 1883 he was appointed vicar of Dale Head, Clitheroe. In 1886 he was moved on to become vicar of Cloughfold
in Manchester where he stayed until being promoted to be rector of St Luke’s
Miles Platting Manchester. He died in
December 1903, still only in his 50s.
I find it a curious feature of the Holliday family that in 1911, Jessie,
her mother, and her unmarried sister Margaret could all claim to be living off
private means - it niggles at me that I don’t know where the private means
might be coming from, in a family with such a modest social background. On the day of the 1911 census the two
Margarets (mother and daughter) had moved to the Fairhaven district of Lytham
and could afford, between them, to employ the one basic general servant. Clara Annie had married Rev Charles Paul
Keeling in 1903; they were living with their three sons at Todmorden, where he
was the vicar. James Harry had qualified
as a civil engineer in 1898; I couldn’t find him on the 1911 census so he may
already have moved to Canada, where he died in 1929. Perhaps Jessie was the most adventurous of
the Holliday daughters. She was living
in London on census day 1911, lodging in the boarding house run by William
Henry Warren at 45-46 Guilford Street Bloomsbury, only a short walk from
Chancery Lane.
How did Jessie and William meet? - two single people living very near
each other in London but from such radically different backgrounds? Mr Warren’s lodgers at 45-46 Guilford Street
were a diverse bunch which included some actors - perhaps the actors were
friends of William. Or did Jessie work
as a volunteer somewhere in London? - for the WSPU, like Frank Rutter’s wife
Thirsa? Or even the Allied Artists’
Association? - I imagine that in the weeks before its annual exhibition, the
AAA needed all the volunteers it could get.
Or did William and Jessie just meet in a local café where both of them
regularly ate lunch? We’ll never know;
but meet they did.
Despite the problems Automobile Owner... was having, William’s
income from other sources must have been good, because at some point between
1911 and 1916 he and Jessie moved out of London, to Hendon; and the most likely
time for a clean break like that is immediately after their marriage. When they moved there, Hendon was a rather
isolated area, with poor public transport links, on the very far outskirts of
London, but William at least is likely to have known it and perhaps visited it,
as the site of several car factories and a couple of airfields. Hendon had been popular since the Middle Ages
as a place for London residents to spend the summer, and there were plenty of
villas to rent, often standing in large gardens. William and Jessie moved into Cranbourne
Lodge, one of a group of houses built in the 1820s (all since demolished). In 1908 barrister Ernest Bevir and his family
had been living in it; but by census day 1911 they had moved to another house
in Hendon. Perhaps Cranbourne Lodge had
been empty for a few months when William and Jessie moved in.
Sources for the Holliday family:
Familysearch England-EASy GS film number 1470816 for the marriage of
Ezra Holliday to Margaret Alice Stephenson 21 September 1869 at Oswaldtwistle
Lancs.
At www.rossendale-fhhs.org.uk a history of Rawtenstall.
Crockford’s Clerical Directory 1886 p579.
Crockford’s Clerical Directory 1901 p666.
Probate Registry 1904, 1919, 1939.
For James Harry: Minutes of Proceedings of the Institution of Civil
Engineers volume 131 issued 1898 p270.
Source for Hendon:
Middlesex volume V in the Victoria History of the Counties of England
series. Published Oxford University
Press and the Institute of Historical Research University of London; 1976:
pp3-28. Cranbourne Lodge is not
mentioned by name in this account; neither is the house that Ernest and Ellen
Bevir were living in in 1911. I conclude
that neither house was very big, or of any particular architectural or
historical importance.
Cranbourne Lodge:
Gentleman’s Magazine 1825 shows that it was already in existence at that
date.
Royal Blue Book issue of 1908 p642 has barrister Ernest Bevir, living
at the address.
Seen via google: a house called Cranbourne Lodge with the address 1
Cranbourne Gardens NW11. From its
photograph, the house doesn’t look like something built in the 1820s, more like
a house built with the rest of the Gardens, in the late 1920s.
SEPTEMBER 1911
William did manage to prepare an article for this month’s Automobile
Owner.... He began a two-part series
on a problem his readers will have been all-too-familiar with - how to start an
uncooperative engine. The second part
appeared in the October issue.
Source: Automobile Owner... volume 7 number 2 September 1911
pp32-33; and volume 7 number 3 October 1911 pp56-67.
SATURDAY 23 SEPTEMBER 1911 AND FOR THE NEXT FOUR WEEKS
There was a large exhibition at Olympia of the latest developments in electricity
supply. Some at least of the exhibitors
had been given Radium fire extinguishers to display on their stalls.
Source for the dates and exhibitors: Times Monday 25 September
1911 p4 Electrical Science and Industry.
The report mentioned that both Marconi and Edison’s firms would be
exhibiting; and that visitors would also be able to examine the first ever
storage battery to go on public display.
The Times had produced a supplement to go with the exhibition, focusing
on telephone and telegraphic equipment.
Source for Radium Fire Extinguisher Co’s involvement: Gas Journal
volumes 115-116 1911 p61. Comment by
Sally Davis: my science advisor, Roger Wright, tells me that a powder fire
extinguisher would be particularly good at putting out electrical fires. Given Radium Fire Extinguisher’s involvement
- which presumably William had negotiated - and the work he was doing around
the first World War, I’d be surprised if William stayed away from this
exhibition. The Times felt a visit to it
was a must for anyone working in the industry or excited about the latest
technologies.
NOVEMBER 1911
In this issue of Automobile Owner William did his customary
preview of the Olympia motor show. The
full-page advert for the Radium fire extinguisher added some new customer names
for its list: the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary; Great Western Railway; Great
Northern Railway; Great Eastern Railway; and the Metropolitan Railway in
London.
Source: Automobile Owner...volume 7 number 4 November 1911
pp80-81 and back page.
BEFORE DECEMBER 1911
William must have bought some shares in the Automobile Co-operative
Association’s new venture, the ACA (Auxiliary Supply) Co Ltd; because he had
been elected onto its board of directors.
He was also on its management committee which was essentially the same
men as were on the ACA’s management committee.
Comment by Sally Davis: surely it must have been rather galling for
William to find his own Radium fire extinguisher being ignored by the ACA in
favour of its Kyl-Fyre rival. In this month’s
ACA Review there was an article praising it.
Source: Automobile Co-operative Association Review issue no 7,
December 1911, back page and p17.
DECEMBER 1911
William’s article in this month’s Automobile Owner... reported on
the general feeling of discontent amongst car owners at the lack of cars for
sale at the Olympia show.
Comment by Sally Davis: the UK was actually in the middle of an economic
slump at this time; obviously car owners weren’t feeling it as much as car
manufacturers.
Source: Automobile Owner... volume 7 number 5 December 1911
pp104-105.
1912
DURING 1912
The British Diamond fire extinguisher company may have been
re-registered at Companies House.
Source: London Gazette issue of 6 November 1928 the British
Diamond (1912) is in list of liquidations.
And just confirming the continued existence of the Radium Fire
Extinguisher Co:
The Railway News volume 98 1912 pv it was in a list of 4 firms making
“fire appliances”; the British Diamond company was not in the list, perhaps because
it didn’t pay to be listed; or because it didn’t happen to have any railway
companies its customers.
Comment by Sally Davis: it’s been impossible to discover whether William
still had anything to do with the British Diamond fire extinguisher company. This whole business of why William should be
involved with two rival fire extinguisher companies is very puzzling.
AGAIN, DURING 1912
Frank Rutter got a job as curator of Leeds City art gallery. He and his wife Thirsa left London. As part of the move, Frank resigned from his
job as secretary of the Allied Artists’ Association, where he’d been
responsible for organising its yearly exhibitions.
Since I was Twenty-Five by Frank Rutter. London: Constable and Co Ltd 1927 p193 for
his resignation.
Wikipedia for the new job in Leeds.
3 JANUARY 1912
An insurance company staged a demonstration of the Radium Fire
Extinguisher company’s fire extinguisher on waste ground near Lambeth Bridge.
Source: Automobile Owner... pp132-33 and p131 for a full-page
advert with ‘satisfied customer’ letters as well as a full-page advert on the
back page. The insurance company’s
representatives built a wooden shed, filled it with inflammables of all sorts,
dowsed it all with petrol and set it alight.
Although employees of the Radium firm had offered to do the work of
putting the fire out, the insurance company preferred to ask a youth from the
crowd to do it, which he did very quickly, using only two canisters.
JANUARY 1912
Automobile Owner... magazine cut its price to 1d per issue. William’s article was on what was likely to
go wrong with a carburettor. There was
a report on the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s committee of enquiry into car
taxation; it was uncredited and I think that Viscount M and F was its most
likely author.
Source: Automobile Owner.. volume 7 number 6 January 1912
pp128-29 for William on carburettors; p136 for the Committee of Enquiry article
which encouraged readers to join the Steam Car League.
FEBRUARY 1912
There was no issue of the Automobile Owner... this month.
MARCH 1912
Automobile Owner... was published again and William began a series
called Motoring for the Beginner; which continued until July and would have
gone on longer but July 1912 was the last issue of the magazine. In his first article for the series, William
considered Cost. There was a small item
reminding Steam Car League members that their subscriptions for 1912 were due;
uncredited but must be by William, still the League’s honorary secretary.
Source: Automobile Owner... volume 7 number 7 March 1912 pp152-53
Motoring for Beginners; 162.
APRIL 1912
William’s article in the Motoring for the Beginner series was a very
detailed comparison of car insurance policies.
He mentioned in passing how often cars caught fire after a collision. This month he had a second article printed,
in which he called for a Government effort to secure a home-based supply of
oil; suggesting benzol as a good one.
Comment by Sally Davis: the fighting in north Africa had got William
worrying about security of oil supplies - he mentioned in his visionary article
that oil-fuelled aeroplanes were being used to bomb Tripoli. The Government didn’t heed William, and chose
another route to secure supplies - meddling in the Middle East; the
consequences of which we live with, daily.
Source: Automobile Owner... volume 7 number 8 April 1912 pp176-78
for Motoring for the Beginner; and p179 for William on security of oil
supplies. Radium Fire Extinguisher Co
still had its advert on the back page but there was no coverage of it inside,
in this and the last two issues.
MAY 1912
William’s Motoring for the Beginner series considered which car was the
most reliable for a first-time buyer and simplest for them to repair when
necessary. Even many years after he had probably
ceased to drive them, William unhesitatingly recommended the De Dion-Bouton.
Source: Automobile Owner... volume 7 number 9 May 1912
pp195-96.
JUNE 1912
For the second time that year, there was no issue of Automobile
Owner... in June.
JULY 1912
Automobile Owner Steam and Electric Car Review was published for
the last time. William’s article in the
Motoring for the Beginner series was on Maintenance. He stressed the importance of the owner
knowing more about maintenance than the chauffeur, if they employed one; if
your chauffeur knew more than you, it would lead to unnecessarily high
bills. He also advocated the ‘little and
often’ approach to keeping the bodywork and engine clean. This needn’t mean getting messy yourself:
William explained that he didn’t employ a chauffeur, but he didn’t clean his
car himself either.
Comment by Sally Davis: now William was married and living in a large
house in the suburbs, I imagine he employed a handyman to do things like
cleaning the car. As for the end of Automobile
Owner... I can’t believe it came as such a surprise to its producers; but
there was no indication at all in the July 1912 issue that it would be the last
- not one word. Quite the opposite:
William had promised that his Motoring for the Beginner series would have an
article on tyres; but in July 1912 the series hadn’t got as far as that. On p217 there was even an advert for Automobile
Owner...’s insurance service. How
long did that carry on for, I wonder, without the magazine?
Source: Automobile Owner Steam and Electric Car Review volume 7
number 10 July 1912. On pp211-12
Motoring for the Beginner. On the back
page was the usual full-page advert for the Radium fire extinguisher. And inside the back page there was the usual
full-page advert for the Steam Car League, with William still as its honorary
secretary.
OCTOBER 1912
The Automobile Co-operative Association Review also published its
last ever copy; again with no indication that no more issues would be printed.
Source: ACA Review issue 15 October 1912.
Comment by Sally Davis: Automobile Owner... had its own problems,
and perhaps so did ACA Review. But the
magazine, Motor Car Journal, which was published by Cordingley and Co,
also printed its last issue in 1912. The
earliest years of the 20th century had seen a huge boom in motoring
and the motoring industry; this was followed by a decline - a relative one
only, but people are so quick to get used to ‘boom’ as the norm!
Source for the relative slump: The Transport Revolution 1770-1985
by Philip Bagwell. Routledge 2002 p30.
Comments by Sally Davis: how much influence did William Humphrys have on
the sudden cessation of two magazines he was associated with? He might not have much say at ACA Review
but he was still Automobile Owner..’s managing director. However, he was also very likely its major
creditor, still, and perhaps this tipped the balance. I haven’t found any evidence that the
magazine went bankrupt or even into voluntary liquidation; the company was
wound up (I don’t know when) with less hubbub than that. But I doubt if William came out ahead; and he
lost a regular advertising outlet for his fire extinguisher firm.
And with Automobile Owner...’s demise I lose my most exhaustive
source for William’s life. After World War
1, 100-year rules, copyright issues and the way the electoral roll had been
organised and kept, mean that there are fewer sources anyway. So my evidence for the rest of William’s life
- nearly 40 years of it - is pretty threadbare and tends to feature death far
more than it ought.
ANOTHER DATE DIFFICULT TO ASCERTAIN but probably after William and
Jessie moved to Hendon
William began to investigate electricity and wireless, particularly
valves.
Source: see June 1914.
Comment by Sally Davis: I rather suppose that William didn’t have any
room for this kind of research until he was living at Cranbourne Lodge. It was probably while doing this research
that he began to see himself as an engineer rather than as a journalist; though
he still had the entrepreneurial touch and still wrote articles for magazines
from time to time.
1913, which involved further cutting of the old cords that had bound
together William’s working life during the 1900s; and saw him embarking on a
new phase of his life.
DURING 1913
The Institute of Journalists seem to have lost sight of William,
suggesting that he stopped being a member.
Source: Scoop! Database at the British Library.
DURING 1913
The ACA’s offices were shaken by accusations of financial
irregularities; ending with the
prosecution of two senior employees
Source: Times Fri 22 August 1913 p6.
Comment by Sally Davis: as William was still a member of the ACA’s
management committee, this crisis will have landed in his lap as well as in the
laps of others. One of the men suspected
had joined the management committee recently; presumably William had taken part
in the recruitment process that had ended with his being offered the job. The decision to bring the police into the
matter will also have been one that William helped to make.
? FEBRUARY ?MARCH 1913
At the annual meeting of the Allied Artists’ Association, William, and
his solicitor acquaintance Eliott Gray, were voted off its management committee.
Since I was Twenty-Five by Frank Rutter. London: Constable and Co Ltd 1927: p195. Frank doesn’t name the “two old friends”,
“business men” who were dumped from the committee, but William, and Eliott
Gray, must be the people he means.
JULY 1913
The London Wireless Club was founded in West Hampstead, as a forum for
amateur wireless enthusiasts. In 1922 it
changed its name to the Radio Society of Great Britain and at least in 1924,
William seems to have been a member.
Source for the founding of the club: wikipedia. The Society still exists - see its website at
www.rsgb.org.
AUGUST 1913
The prosecution of ACA employees Robert George Whitcomb or Whitcombe,
and Henry Evans Walmsley, for embezzlement reached court. Court proceedings went on from time to time
for the next three months.
Sources: Times Fri 22 August 1913 p6 and 27 November 1913
p14. The reports are very short
items. They don’t give any detail of the
cases and they don’t name any witnesses.
Exactly what the cases were against the two men is not clear.
NOVEMBER 1913
All the charges against the ACA’s Whitcomb or Whitcombe and Walmsley
were dropped for lack of evidence.
Times 27 November 1913 p14.
Comment by Sally Davis: so the trial petered out with neither man found
either guilty or innocent - the most unsatisfactory result that could have been
imagined, for all concerned. I presume
neither man was still working for the ACA.
It all gives me the impression of an organisation that had most
decidedly lost the plot, for which William had to bear his share of the
blame. The ACA did survive this calamity
and the unwelcome publicity, however, and still existed during the first World
War.
1914
14 JUNE 1914
William made the first of two applications to the British Government for
a patent on a new design of thermionic valve (a piece of equipment known in the
USA as a vacuum tube).
Source: via www.gov.uk/search-for-patent, to the Espacenet database of
past patent applications, which contains 7 made by William. See GB221571 (A) which includes a short
abstract and a diagram. The patent was
granted and until it ran out, William would have had an income from anyone
using his design in their equipment.
WORLD WAR 1
What William did during the war is almost a complete mystery.
Comment by Sally Davis: if William volunteered or was conscripted, he
did not fight - the records of serving soldiers in World War 1 are well-covered
on the web and William isn’t in them.
It’s possible that he volunteered or was called up, but failed his
medical. Given his expertise and experience,
he would have been wasted in the trenches anyway. I can’t quite see him standing aside and
letting the war go on without him. Roger
Wright and I have talked it over and we agree that William did do war work of
some kind; but that either it was a secret, or the records of it have been
lost, or both.
One thing William might well have been doing is using his wireless
equipment to intercept messages being sent by the German army in Flanders. At the beginning of the war, many members of
the Radio Society of Great Britain were recruited into MI8's branch, the Radio
Security Service, to use their home-built equipment to listen in to enemy
transmissions. See 1924 for some
evidence that William was a member of the Society, at least during that year.
Sources are rather hard to find for this kind of work during World War
1: World War 2 is far better covered.
But see the wikipedia pages on MI8 and on Radio Society of Great Britain
for brief mentions of it.
1915
While still living in Leeds, Frank Rutter took over control of the
Allied Artists’ Association again.
Source: Frank’s biography in the Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography volume 48 p421 although the AAA, like every other such
organisation, was in all-but-abeyance for the duration of the war. William and Eliott Gray are not mentioned in
the ODNB coverage of Frank so I suppose that neither of them had anything more
to do with the AAA after they had been ousted in 1913. The AAA was wound up in 1919 and Frank -
back in London again - founded the Adelphi Gallery instead.
JUNE 1915
William made patent applications to the authorities in Britain and
Switzerland, for a device that could strengthen a “cushion tyre” (“tire” in the
USA) to make it more able to withstand pressure at its edges.
Comment by Sally Davis: just noting that the strengthened tyre was not
something William invented for any war work he might have been doing; any such
invention would be the Government’s property not William’s personal property.
Sources:
More detailed information on the device is available from William’s US
patent application:
JUNE 1916
William made an application for his cushion tyre/tire device to the
patent authorities in the USA and France.
Sources:
26 SEPTEMBER 1916
William and Jessie’s son was born - Hugh William Humphrys, named after
his father, and his Humphrys grandfather.
Comment by Sally Davis: when Hugh was born, Jessie was 41 and William
40. I did check as far as 1920 without
finding any other children born to them.
Given Jessie’s age, it’s likely Hugh was an only child.
Source for DOB: death registration for Hugh William Humphrys, registered
October-December 1970 in Hove Sussex.
OCTOBER 1916
Having lived in New Zealand for several years, William’s brother Hugh
arrived in England with the New Zealand Rifle Brigade, on his way to the war.
Comment by Sally Davis: perhaps William and Hugh were able to meet,
briefly.
Source: via www.aucklandmuseum.com to service record of Hugh
Humphrys, service number 22538. He
survived the fighting but returned to New Zealand. See google for evidence that he was still
living in New Zealand several decades later.
1917
Frank Rutter resigned from his job at the Leeds art gallery.
Source: wikipedia and Frank’s
biography in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography volume 48
p421. Throughout his time in Leeds Frank
had continued to write on art for a wide range of newspapers and magazines, so
he was able to just carry on doing so when he returned to London.
DECEMBER 1917
William’s patent application to the US authorities was finally granted.
Sources:
See June 1916 above
Patent Office Journal issued by the US Government Printing Office volume 9
1920.
1 JULY 1918
Jessie’s mother, William’s mother-in-law Margaret Alice Holliday, died,
in Prestwich, Lancashire.
Source: Probate Registry records for 1918. Jessie’s sisters Margaret and Clara Annie
were the executors.
AFTER WORLD WAR 1
London began to engulf Hendon.
Source: Middlesex volume V in the Victoria History of the
Counties of England series. Published
Oxford University Press and the Institute of Historical Research University of
London; 1976: pp3-28. Early moves
towards this had been made with the Hampstead Garden Suburb Act of 1906, and
building had begun in what is now Golders Green in 1911. Stopped dead by the war, in the 1920s the
expansion started up again, concentrating now on Hendon. The Underground Electric Railway (now the
Northern Line) was extended from Golders Green to Hendon Central in 1923; but
in general car ownership was assumed, with Hendon Way and the North Circular
Road being begun in 1924 and the Great North Way in 1926.
?OCTOBER 1919
Evidence that William was still doing the odd spot of journalism - he
was asked to comment on the new, cheap, “Speedy Car” for the Pall Mall Gazette.
Comment by Sally Davis: William’s comments, and those of other
journalists who wrote about motoring, were taken up by the firm that made the
car, and put into a full-page advert which appeared on p17 of the Times
on Saturday 25 October 1919. There had
already been a smaller advert for the car, on p5 of the Times Saturday
13 September 1919. The Pullinger
Engineering Co was the manufacturer and they would be selling it at 110 guineas
- 10 guineas in advance, in cash, to their registered office at Holborn
Viaduct; and the rest when the car was delivered. What William had written in the Pall Mall
Gazette could have applied to any such car: “A post-war scheme of this kind is
what is wanted to bring down car prices and encouraging cheap motoring”. He had not seen the car - and thereby hangs a
tale because the Speedy Car was a scam!
See Times 10 November 1919 p26 for a big advert for the Pullinger
Engineering Co’s share issue; and for the Times’ financial reporter’s
reservations about it; and
The Transport Revolution 1770-1985 by Philip Bagwell. Routledge 2002 pp30-31 (I think though I
found it hard to see the page numbers on the snippet I found) for the story of
how the attempted fraud was exposed by the magazine The Motor.
If William could see what the consequences of bringing down car prices
and encouraging cheap motoring - for example, the west-bound M4 at the start of
the Easter weekend - he might have thought again!
18 OCTOBER 1919
Jessie’s sister Clara died in Stockport where her husband, Rev Charles
Paul Keeling, was the Rector; she was only in her fifties.
Source: freebmd and Probate Registry records but not until 1939 - see
1939 below. In 1921 her widower, the Rev
Charles Paul Keeling, married Hilda Drinkwater.
DURING 1920
The Radium Fire Extinguisher Ltd was still in business providing
William, Jessie and son Hugh with part of their income.
Source: The Electrical Review volume 87 1920 p270 listed the
Radium Fire Extinguisher Ltd as one of the creditors of W Dennell and Co,
engineers, of Sheffield, which had just gone bankrupt; so it wasn’t all plain
sailing for William and his fire extinguisher company.
JUNE 1920
William, Jessie and Hugh were still living at Cranbourne Lodge.
Source:
Patent Office Journal issued by the US Government Printing Office volume 9
1920. This is also a source for William
describing himself as an engineer; though of course you wouldn’t want to call
yourself a journalist while applying for a patent on a piece of electrical
equipment.
31 JANUARY 1922
William’s father, Canon Rev Hugh Humphrys, died while spending a few
days in Leamington Spa. At some point
after his death - probably quite soon after - William’s mother Louisa settled
in Golders Green.
Comment by Sally Davis: probate was to William’s mother and was granted
in Dublin; so I take it that most of what the Rev Hugh had to leave was in
Ireland. He left relatively little
property in England - personal effects worth about £5000. Louisa Humphrys’ income after her husband’s
death was probably from sources in her own family.
Sources:
Times Friday 3 February 1922 p1a death notices.
Probate Registry 1922.
DURING 1923
William was one of a group of journalists who were present when a statue
of Frederick Henry Royce, one of the founders of Rolls-Royce, was unveiled.
Via google to www.rrht.castlewoodconsultants.com, copies of Archive,
the newsletter of the Rolls Royce Heritage Trust. Newsletter 92 2013: The Unveiling of the
Royce Statue. It was a very unusual
occasion - the subject of the statue was still alive. It’s a pity that the article doesn’t give a
date for the ceremony; though beginning on p11 it does list all those people
who were invited. William was
representing Pall Mall Gazette. A
special train was hired to take the London-based guests to Derby. The Earl and Countess of Birkenhead were the
most senior guests and the Countess unveiled the statue.
JUNE 1923
William made a second patent application for a design of thermionic valve
(vacuum tube in the USA); presumably an improvement on the patent of 1914.
Source: via www.gov.uk/search-for-patent to the Espacenet
database. See GB223337 (A) priority date
25 June 1923, with an abstract and a diagram.
The Year-Book of Wireless Telegraphy and Telephony 1925 pubd by The
Wireless World mag; Iliffe and Sons Ltd of Dorset House, Tudor St EC4. On p813 in its list of British patent
specifications published during 1924.
Just noting what a large number of these were held by individuals rather
than companies.
DURING 1924
Building began on what is now known as Cranbourne Gardens, and
Cranbourne Lodge was knocked down.
Comment by Sally Davis: this is a bit speculative; but I think the houses
of Cranbourne Gardens were built on the site of the old Cranbourne Lodge and
its gardens. Using google you can see a
house that’s called Cranbourne Lodge, but Roger Wright reckons it’s a 1920s
building. I’m not so sure but it doesn’t
look much like a house built in the reign of George IV.
Source for the building of Cranbourne Gardens: Middlesex volume V
in the Victoria History of the Counties of England series. Published Oxford University Press and the
Institute of Historical Research University of London; 1976: footnote on p14
quoting the planning permission given by the local Urban District Council. I couldn’t find direct information that
Cranbourne Lodge was knocked down; nor that Cranbourne Gardens is on its old
site; but there are plenty of references to old houses in the Hendon area being
replaced by new streets of houses.
JULY 1924
William’s drawing of a valve socket was the illustration to an article
(by someone else) on how to built your own crystal unit.
Comment by Sally Davis: I’m basing my assumption that William was a
member of the Radio Society of Great Britain on the fact that he was asked to
contribute to the Society’s official weekly magazine, Wireless World and
Radio Review. The Society was very
active in north London, with branches in Golder’s Green, North Middlesex and
Hendon; it held more formal meeetings in central London.
Source: the article for which he supplied the drawing was: An
Experimental Crystal Unit, by an author just described as “S.A.C.” Wireless World and Radio Review volume
14 part 2 issue of 23 July 1924 pp482-484; with William’s drawing on p484. And for the local societies and their busy
programme of meetings: p31; and Wireless World and Radio Review volume
14 part 2 issue of 9 April 1924 p59-60.
Though I must note that I didn’t find William’s name in any issue of the
magazine in 1924.
?MID-LATE 1920s
William, Jessie and Hugh moved to 32 Sunny Gardens, Hendon.
Source though not for the date they moved there: Probate Registry 1950.
21 DECEMBER 1925
William’s old colleague on the ACA management committee, Jules de Meray,
died.
Source for the date: The British Chess Magazine volume 46 1926
p139 obituary of Jules de Meray of 48 Sussex Gardens.
JANUARY 1926
William made his final patent application, showing that wireless
equipment was now his main interest. The
application was for getting rid of background noise when using wireless
equipment plugged into the mains supply.
Source: via www.gov.uk/search-for-patent to the Espacenet
database. See GB262979 (A) priority date
27 January 1926, with an abstract.
Comment by Sally Davis: William’s son Hugh was now 10. He became a professional engineer so perhaps
he was involved in these experiments with wireless. I think the application also indicates that
wherever the Humphrys were living, it was a house fully wired with an
electricity supply. Perhaps it was at
William’s instigation that Cranbourne Lodge - if that’s where they still were -
had had electricity installed.
1927
William had an article on ‘the wireless engineer’ published in the
magazine Electronic Technology.
Source: Electronic Technology volume 4 1927 p189 originally
published March 1927. The British
Library doesn’t seem to have copies of this magazine, at least not from around
this time; so I haven’t been able to check out the contents. It is a pity as this looks like the last
piece of writing he ever had published.
AUTUMN 1928
The British Diamond Fire Extinguisher Co (1912) Ltd went into voluntary
liquidation.
Source: London Gazette issue of 6 November 1928 in a list of
liquidations there was advance notice of the final meeting to be held by the
liquidator, at 52 Bedford Square on 10 December 1928. IF William still had any shares in this company,
he will have needed to be at the meeting to help make the decisions about how
the company’s assets should be disposed of.
JUNE 1929
Jessie’s brother James Harry Holliday died in hospital in Montreal.
Source: Probate Registry 1939.
11 JULY 1934
William (but apparently not Jessie) went to the funeral of Walter
Beresford Annesley, the 7th Earl Annesley.
Sources for the funeral and William’s presence at it:
Times Tues 10 July 1934 p21 and Times Thursday 12 July 1934 p17c a
very short report of the funeral, which had been held at the burial ground in
Eversley near Basingstoke. Very few of
the mourners were named in the report.
Most were close family, of course.
Comment by Sally Davis: while I’ve been searching through my sources for
William I’ve kept an eye out for this man but not seen a single mention of
him. That’s not to say he wasn’t an
investor in one or more of William’s businesses; but Companies House doesn’t
keep that kind of evidence for very long after a small company has ceased to
trade and been wound up. The 7th
Earl was a much older man than William - born in 1861 - so he won’t have been a
contemporary at Rugby or Cambridge. He
doesn’t seem to have been interested in cars; that is, not more than any man
who has to drive one. So how did the two
men know each other? I’ve got two
suggestions, both with an Irish connection.
Although the 7th Earl was born in England and spent most of
his life living there, the peerage that he inherited (unexpectedly in November
1914) was an Irish one, with estates at Castlewellan, county Down. So that’s one way. The other is by a family relationship more
distant than I’ve investigated; perhaps through the Mears family, several of whom
were at the funeral.
More about the mysterious Earl:
Times Tues 28 August 1934 p3 an notice under the Trustee Act 1925. Such a notice indicates that the late Earl
had been receiving income from a trust fund; probably an Annesley family one.
Wikipedia on the Earls Annesley, though there’s no additional page for
the 7th Earl so he was not a public man. The 7th Earl did have an heir; but
the 8th Earl died in 1957 without any children.
How the 7th Earl inherited the title from a very distant
cousin: Times Wed 9 December 1914 p10.
Who Was Who 1929-40 p29 does have an entry for the 7th
Earl but with very little information in it and nothing which sheds any light
on how William might know him.
At www.onegreatfamily.com/Walter-Annesley/583844147 has a bit more on
how he was descended from earlier earls but nothing showing how he might be
related to the Humphrys family.
Probate Registry 1934, which shows that the 7th Earl left
virtually no personal effects.
JULY 1936
William attended the triennial dinner of the Rugby School old boys’
society, at the Café Royal, Piccadilly.
Times Saturday 11 July 1936 p19d.
18 APRIL 1937
William’s old friend Frank Rutter died.
He and his second wife had been living in Golders Green, and on the south
coast where Frank used to go to get some relief from bouts of bronchitis.
Times Tue 20 April 1937 p1 death notices; with details of the funeral to be
held on 21 April. And see part 1 of this
life-by-dates for the sources for Frank’s life.
26 FEBRUARY 1938
William’s mother Louisa died, at 41 Woodstock Road Golders Green.
Comment by Sally Davis: though I suppose it must have been divided
between William and his two brothers, Louisa’s personal estate was valued by
the probate registry at over £40,000 - a very nice sum in those days. William - the only one of her children still
living in England - was her only executor.
By this time, William was describing himself as a “radio engineer”.
Probate Registry 1938.
22 DECEMBER 1938
Jessie’s elder sister Margaret Stephenson Holliday died, in the Hendon
Cottage Hospital, Hendon Way; leaving Jessie the sole survivor of her siblings.
Comment by Sally Davis: since their mother’s death Margaret Holliday had
been living in Sutton; perhaps she became ill while on a Christmas visit to her
sister, brother-in-law and nephew.
Probate was granted in May 1939 and seems to have led to the tidying up
of two estates left very untidy for many years: those of Clara Keeling (dead
since 1919) and James Holliday (dead since 1929). Jessie took the lead in sorting out James’
estate, the most complicated of them all as he had left no Will and had died
abroad.
Sources: Probate Registry 1939 for Margaret Stephenson Holliday; James
Harry Holliday; and Clara Annie Keeling.
Clara Annie’s husband, Rev Charles Paul Keeling, died in August 1941.
SUMMER 1944
William and Jessie’s son Hugh married Doris Hackett. They don’t seem to have had any children.
Source: freebmd.
DURING 1946
There was what seemed to be a reference to William’s thermionic valve
(vacuum tube) holder in the magazine The Electrician.
Comment by Sally Davis: I came across the reference while googling on
the web. When I checked it out at the
British Library, the volume numbers didn’t match and the magazine had no index,
so I wasn’t able to find the reference. The
Electrician was a weekly magazine, published by Benn Brothers Ltd of
Bouverie House, 154 Fleet Street and aimed at professionals in the field.
21 MARCH 1950
William Humphrys died, suddenly, at home at 32 Sunny Gardens Road
Hendon. He was cremated at Golders Green
on Monday 27 March.
Comment by Sally Davis: William’s personal estate was valued at about
£63000. In the terms of the time, he was
a wealthy man. It would be interesting
to know how much of it was his inheritance from the Evans-Lombe family; and how
much was his own doing, from the Radium fire extinguisher and his patented
inventions.
Sources:
Times Thursday 23 March 1950 p1a death notices; emphasising the Evans-Lombe
inheritance.
Times Friday 24 March 1950 p1a death notices: emphasising Hugh and Louisa
Humphrys; and as the “dear husband” of Jessie.
Probate Registry 1950.
1958
The Radium Fire Extinguisher Ltd, which William had founded to sell a
dry-powder fire extinguisher, was wound up.
Source: London Gazette 9
December 1958 p7515.
Jessie Humphrys continued to live at 32 Sunny Gardens until her death in
December 1962. Hugh William Humphrys
died in 1970.
Sources: Probate Registry 1963 for Jessie. Hugh Humphrys was her executor, described as
an “engineer”. And freebmd for Hugh.
BASIC SOURCES I USED for all Golden Dawn members.
Membership of the Golden Dawn: The Golden Dawn Companion by R A
Gilbert. Northampton: The Aquarian Press
1986. Between pages 125 and 175, Gilbert
lists the names, initiation dates and addresses of all those people who became
members of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn or its many daughter Orders
between 1888 and 1914. The list is based
on the Golden Dawn’s administrative records and its Members’ Roll - the large
piece of parchment on which all new members signed their name at their
initiation. All this information had
been inherited by Gilbert but it’s now in the Freemasons’ Library at the United
Grand Lodge of England building on Great Queen Street Covent Garden. Please note, though, that the records of the
Amen-Ra Temple in Edinburgh were destroyed in 1900/01. I have recently (July 2014) discovered that
some records of the Horus Temple at Bradford have survived, though most have
not; however those that have survived are not yet accessible to the public.
For the history of the GD during the 1890s I usually use Ellic Howe’s The
Magicians of the Golden Dawn: A Documentary History of a Magical Order
1887-1923. Published Routledge and
Kegan Paul 1972. Foreword by Gerald
Yorke. Howe is a historian of printing
rather than of magic; he also makes no claims to be a magician himself, or even
an occultist. He has no axe to grind.
Family history: freebmd; ancestry.co.uk (census and probate);
findmypast.co.uk; familysearch; Burke’s Peerage and Baronetage; Burke’s Landed
Gentry; Armorial Families; thepeerage.com; and a wide variety of family trees
on the web.
Famous-people sources: mostly about men, of course, but very useful even
for the female members of GD. Oxford
Dictionary of National Biography. Who
Was Who. Times Digital Archive.
Useful source for business and legal information: London Gazette and its
Scottish counterpart Edinburgh Gazette.
Now easy to find (with the right search information) on the web.
Catalogues: British Library; Freemasons’ Library.
Wikipedia; Google; Google Books - my three best resources. I also used other web pages, but with some
caution, as - from the historian’s point of view - they vary in quality a great
deal.
Copyright SALLY DAVIS
22 November 2015
Find the web pages of Roger Wright and Sally Davis, including my list of
people initiated into the Order of the Golden Dawn between 1888 and 1901, at:
www.wrightanddavis.co.uk
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