Family Tree Family Group Sheet
We are fortunate in that one of the first things that John did when he retired in 1930 aged 62, was to write an account of his life up to that point. This was entitled “A Letter to my Grandchildren” and was primarily written for his eldest grandchild, Hazel, whom he used to escort around various places in London. It is over 15,000 words long. Much of what was said earlier about his father, Henry, came from this source. The full letter can be found in full on this web site under the Misc tab above, but the following is a summary.
John was born on Tuesday 1 October 1867 at 9.30am. He was christened at St Mary's, Stoke Newington with his aunt Anne and uncle Thomas as godparents. One of John's earliest memories was of the death of his brother Thomas when John was just six. Tom died in the early hours of the morning from complications following measles, and John writes of waking up early, in the parlour, in a made up bed. The gas was alight and his father and mother were sitting talking. John was told that Tom was dead, and he remembered crying and being told very kindly and gently to go back to sleep.
At the age of seven, after attending a couple of infants schools, John was sent to the Middle Class School, Cowper Street in the City of London. This was a school established by the Goldsmiths Company and had a very good reputation. However, it was three miles from home and he had to walk there and back every day. He was given two pence to pay the cost of a tram ride, and he would hope against hope that it was raining at the end of lessons so that he could get the tram home. The idea of a seven year old walking three miles to and from school through any part of London today would be unthinkable.
John's parents appear to have taken great interest in his school homework, and his father, who had not had much formal schooling himself, went through the text books John brought home in an attempt to keep ahead of him so that he could help him with it. At about the same time, he started learning to play the piano and later the violin.
In 1881, when John was about 13½, he left school and started to work for James Shepherd & Co, the Stockbrokers, in Broad Street for the princely wage of 7/6 (or 38p) per week! He stayed there some 14 years. In 1886, when he was 19, John started to supplement his income by spending his evenings teaching piano and the violin to other youngsters. In 1890, he was asked by his uncle William to join an Orchestral Society that he was running, where John led the second violins. It was through this orchestra that he met Miss Lilly Dowell, more formally Eliza Eleanor Philips, his future wife.
Lilly Dowell, who was born on 7 April 1871, was the daughter of Walter Phillips and Mary Ann Watson. Walter Phillips had died when Lilly, or Lil for short, was young and her mother married again, this time to Henry William Dowell who had already had three sons by a previous marriage. William Dowell and Mary Ann Watson also had a daughter, Letitia, in about 1876.
John and Lil were engaged in 1891. Lil's stepfather, William Dowell, said that they could marry once John had saved £200 and this was finally achieved by the end of 1893. As a result, the wedding was arranged and this took place on 3 April 1894 at St Andrews Church, Stoke Newington. John was 26 and Lil was 23. A photograph of the wedding party can be found here.
The couple spent their first eighteen months in rooms at 28 Brooke Road, Stoke Newington at 10/6 per week. Their first child, John Bryan, was born there on 1 January 1895. The birth of his first child led John to think seriously about his lack of prospects with James Shepherd's and in May of that year he left to join William H Hart & Co at a salary of £130 per annum.
About this time, his wife's step father offered him a loan in order to buy a house, so on 5 June 1895, he purchased 34 Filey Avenue for £442/10/-. He had agreed to pay off the loan in six monthly payments of £10 with interest divided over 20 years. This together with the costs of running the house looked very heavy, so they let out four rooms, their tenants paying 12/6 per week. The couple continued to let rooms to a variety of tenants for over 10 years until December 1906.
Their second child, Frank Leslie, was born on 19 September 1896.
On 10 February 1902, John's father died of cancer of the liver. He was buried in Abney Park Cemetery. As has been previously mentioned, Henry's will divided his estate evenly between his four children, and John's share was £325. However, the family had agreed to pass the income from this legacy to their mother, so it made no difference to John and Lil's living standards.
On 23 May 1903, Philip Harold was born. He was christened on 12 July at St Michaels, Stoke Newington.
In 1904, John became a Freemason. He was introduced to the Stoke Newington Lodge and was initiated on 8 April. Towards the end of the year, the pressure of work at Hart & Co became intolerable and so John left to join Grumbar & See at 20 Copthall Avenue on 3 January 1905 for a salary of £200 pa, a move that turned out to be the last of his career.
In 1907, Lil's step-father died. Prior to his death, John had agreed that he would move to a bigger house so that Lil's mother could come to live with them. For his part, Lil's step father promised to ensure in his will that this would not be a financial burden on them. Later that year, therefore, John and Lil decided to move to a bigger house. They sold 34 Filey Avenue for £480 and purchased "Branksome" in Selbourne Road, Southgate for £625. As promised, Lil's mother came to live with them. They finally moved in on 21 August, 1907.
In 1911, Bryan matriculated and left school. He also passed the Civil Service Boy Clerk examination and started at the Admiralty on £40 per annum. In 1912, Frank also tried the Civil Service exam but was not successful. Later that year he started at the Christ Church Meat Company at 10/- per week. However, the next year Frank managed to get a job with Parr's Bank, which was later to become part of Westminster Bank, and he started at the Holloway Branch on 7 July at a salary of £40 per annum.
On 4 August 1914, war was declared. This had an immediate and disastrous effect on John's business. The Stock Exchange was closed until the end of December, and salaries were cut by 25%. What John's autobiography does not say is that within six months or a year business was booming again! Frank signed up and in September 1914, he went to Colchester, a member of B Company 10th Royal Fusiliers. Bryan wanted to do the same but the Admiralty would not release him.
During the rest of that year and the first half of 1915, Frank seems to have still been in England but finally in August 1915, they heard that he was on the front line. Bryan was at last released by the Admiralty and he enlisted in August. There were air raids over London and on 8 September, John saw a Zeppelin from the bedroom windows.
By mid 1916, Bryan too had crossed to France. On 3 September at 2.30am John and Lil were wakened by the sound of gunfire. In full view from the bedroom window they could see a burning Zeppelin which fell at Cuffley, about 10 miles to the north. On 1 October another Zeppelin was brought down, this time at Potters Bar.
On 14 April 1917, John and Lil received a post card to the effect that Frank was in hospital "severely wounded in the chest and his condition is causing a great deal of anxiety". Frank was brought back to England and immediately transferred up to a hospital in Newcastle-on-Tyne. He was very weak from loss of blood, on his back and unable to move. He was moved first to a hospital in Darlington, then in June back south to Edmonton, and finally in July to Grovelands, a hospital near to his home. Apparently, he had a piece of shrapnel in his shoulder which needed two operations before it was successfully removed in September. Frank was finally discharged to a convalescent camp at Shoreham in October, shortly after his 21st birthday.
The family's troubles were not over yet. In November, Bryan was wounded in the ear. Fortunately, the wound was slight, the shot taking of the tip of the ear, leaving a bloody mess but not doing any real damage. He was back in the front line two weeks later. Frank was not sent back to France until the following year.
In March 1918, Bryan was wounded a second time, this time by a bullet that passed through the back of his hand and out of the palm, fortunately breaking no bones in the process. After healing and massage, he regained the full use of his hand again.
In April, there was more bad news; Frank was reported missing from 25 March. At last on 3 May, notice was received from the Red Cross that Frank had been taken prisoner of war at Langensalza, Saxony in Germany. On 17 May, they received a letter from Frank saying that he had been wounded on 24 March and taken to hospital there. Apparently, his hip had been broken but by the summer, he was getting about on a crutch and expecting to be sent to the salt mines.
At last, on 11 November it was announced that the war was over! After a few months, both Bryan and Frank took up their previous jobs and life returned to normal. Philip had been affected little by the war as he was only 15 when the armistice was declared. Here is a photograph of the family group, taken at about this time.
At the end of 1919 Frank formerly became engaged to Nora Gladys McKenna. The following year Philip passed the Inter exams and Bryan moved to the Hydrographical Department of the Admiralty. In 1921 Philip won a scholarship of £25 pa to London University. He went for interview at the University on 28 May and on the same day won the 440 yds race in his school sports.
Financially, in the years after the war, John and Lil's family were all doing very well. John was now being paid £400 pa plus 2½% of the company's profits over £5,000 which in a good year more that doubled his total pay. Although, inflation was quite high during and after the war, peaking in 1918 at about 20%, during the 1920's prices steadily dropped on average by about 3½% pa. However, John's total remuneration increased during this period, so that he was regularly earning over £1,000 pa and with bonus, commission and dividend income he earned a total of £1,845 in his peak year of 1928 when he was 61. Most of this extra income was put into his savings fund. For example, in 1928 his capital increased by about £1,350, an amount approaching £36,000 in 1998 money terms. In addition, John was increasing his standing in the community. He had been a Mason since 1904, and was now elected as Speaker in a local Parliamentary Debating Society, and had also been appointed a Churchwarden at Christ Church, Southgate in 1916.
Turning back to family matters, Frank married Nora in 1922 and in 1923 Bryan became engaged to Winifred Kathleen Lloyd. Philip was officially appointed Organist at Christ Church and took his final University examinations in October of that year. He passed with 1st Class Honours. He was 20 at the time.
Bryan married Winnie in 1924, the year Phil started work at the National Physical Laboratory at a salary of £280 pa with 36 working days holiday. In order to do the journey in a reasonable time, he bought a motor bike, and this enabled him to do the journey in about 1¼ hrs. This year John had Electric Light installed in his house!
In 1925, John bought Phil an Austin 7 car. The previous winter had been a difficult one in which to go to work by bike, so the choice seemed to be that Phil should either live in Teddington or run a car. John provided the car and Phil paid the running expenses. In this way he could stay living at home.
In 1926, at his 23rd birthday party, Phil announced his engagement to Joan Bradshaw. Joan was 18½ years old. Later that year, John and Lil had a telephone installed for the first time.
In 1928, John's mother, Anna, came to live with them. She had not been well and as neither Frank nor Bryan were now living at home, they had room for her. In May, Phil and Joan were married. It is clear that John and Lil saw this as a watershed in their lives as all their children were married with homes of their own. As a result, they began planning a move to a smaller house suitable for John's retirement. As a result of discussions with Frank, they agreed together to buy three plots of land in Ruislip and have two houses built there, splitting the land between them. Each house and one plot cost £985, half a plot £80 more.
By early 1929, Frank's house was ready and he and his family (he and Nora by now had three children) moved in. John and Lil finally managed to sell their house for £1275 in April after trying for four months, and moved to Ruislip in May. A photograph of John outside the house can be found here. It was taken in 1932, shortly after he had retired.
In early 1930, Mr Grumbar suggested that John might like to retire while still in good health and offered him £300 a year for 5 years, £250 a year for the next 5 years and thereafter £200 a year for the rest of his time. This John accepted and an agreement was drawn up to this effect. Finally, on 28 March, John retired from the business. This completed 50 years working in the city, the last 25 being with Grumbar & See.
John and Lil lived at Ruislip until they died in the late 1950s. Lil died in January 1957 aged 85 after a clot in her leg had resulted in its amputation. John died in April the following year. He was 90. John's estate when he died amounted to about £10,000 of which his house represented £3,500.
No mention in his letter is made of John and Lil's housekeeper, Jenny Revell, who came to live with them as a maid in 1926 when she was 16, and stayed looking after them until John died 32 years later. Perhaps this is not surprising in a document written in 1930, only 4 years after she came to work for them. She died in tragic circumstances in February 1959. She had found the change caused by the death of her employers difficult to come to terms with and could not settle. She took her own life by drowning in the River Stort.