24 Jun 2006
Husband: Charles RUSS died at age: 78
Born: 11 Nov 1876 at 70 New Bond Street London 1,2
Baptized: at St George's Hanover Square 3
Died: 26 Feb 1955 in Ealing 4
Buried: 1955 in West Hampstead Cemetery 5,6,7
Cause of death: Pneumonia
Education: 1888 Shebbear College, North Devon 8
Census: 31 Mar 1901 at 8 Torbay Park Paignton Devon 9
Education: 1901 Medical student 10
Graduated: 1903 from St Mary's Hospital 11
Occupation: 1903 - 1906 Resident Medical Offr Fulham Infirmary 12
Occupation: 1906 Bacteriologist at Queen Anne Street London 13,14
Occupation: 1906 - 1912 Senior assistant Clinical Laboratory of Pathology and Public Health 15
Occupation: 1912 Bacteriologist at 25 Beaumont St London 16,17
Occupation: 1915 volunteer X-ray section at Middlesex Hospital 18
Occupation: 1916 Published 'A New Treatment of Gonorrhea' 19
Occupation: 1917 Male Lock Hospital, 91 Dean Street 20
Occupation: 1923 Bacteriologist at 63 Wimpole Street London 21
Occupation: 1926 50 George Street, nr Baker Street 22
Occupation: 1927 Inventor 23,24
Resided: 1906 at 31 Lancaster Gds Ealing 25
Resided: 1908 - 22 Feb 1917 at Walden, Packhorse Rd Gerrards Cross Bucks 26,27,28,29
Resided: 1917 at 10 College Road Harrow 30
Resided: 1918 - 1921 at 276 Willesden Lane 31
Resided: 1926 at 10 Priory Crescent Lewes 32
Resided: 1928 in London 33
Resided: 1926 - 1932 in 54 Sutherland Ave Maida Vale 34,35
Resided: 1932 at 144 Albany Street 36
Resided: 1934-1946 in Old Cottage, Smugglers Lane, Crowborough Sussex 37,38,39
Resided: 1947-1955 at 7 Carlton Road W Perivale 40
Event: 1919 acquired motor cars 41
Event: 1921 bought 27 Beaumont Street 42
Event: Dec 1922 in Malta - honeymoon 43
Event: Sep 1924 sold 25 Beaumont Street 44
Event: May 1925 declared bankrupt
Event: 9 Jul 1931 opening night 'Hidden Power' 45
Father: Christian Carl Gottfried RUSS
Mother: Emily CALLAWAY
Other Spouse 2
Wife: Jessie Naylor GODDARD died at age: 41
Married: June 1902 in St Luke's Hampstead 46,47
Born: 1877 in St Pancras 48
Died: 30 Mar 1918 at 10 College Road Harrow 49
Cause of death: Tuberculosis 50
Father: Ernest GODDARD
Mother: Mary Tresilian BROWN
M Child 1: Charles Godfrey RUSS formally known as: Godfrey died at age: 54
Born: Mar 1903 in West Hampstead North London 51,52
Died: 26 Mar 1957
Cause of death: stomach cancer 53
Education: 1916 removed from Dean Close School Cheltenham 54
Education: Sep 1917 - Jul 1919 John Lyon School for Boys, Harrow 55
Education: Sep 1919 - Jun 1924 Northampton Polytechnic Institute 56,57
Event: 20 Dec 1922 witness at Charles Russ/Zoe Center wedding 58
Occupation: Summer 1926 General Strike - shunting railway engines 59
Occupation: 1930 Electrical engineer with Westrex Ltd - cinema sound equipment 60,61
Spouse: Constance M ATKINSON d. 1949
Married: Sep 1932 in London 62
Spouse: Edith KING b. 1919
Married: 7 Dec 1950
M Child 2: Victor John Anthony RUSS nickname: Bew died at age: 80
Born: 2 Jan 1905 64
Died: 6 May 1985 65
Occupation: 1920 sent to work in a bank 66
Occupation: 1930 Bank clerk 67,68
Military: 1940 Arabia as RAF paymaster 69
Education: 1916 removed from Dean Close School Cheltenham 54
Education: Sep 1917 John Lyon School for Boys, Harrow 55
Education: Feb 1917 given a copy of 'The History of the Hun' 70
Spouse: Sadie Muir KELLY b. 16 Jan 1916
Married: 22 Jul 1940
F Child 3: Olive Isobel RUSS current name: Olive Elizabeth died at age: 73
Born: 29 Aug 1906 71
Died: 16 May 1980
Education: 1921 Edgehill College, Devon 72
Resided: 1924 - 1926 at 146 Kenilworth Court, Lower Richmond Road, Putney 73
Occupation: 1927 Secretary 74
Confirmation: 1927 75
Resided: 1926 at 54 Sutherland Avenue, Maida Vale 76
Resided: 1929 [?] with Bertha and Frank Welch 77
Spouse: Reginald COLE d. 1985
Married: 14 Mar 1929 78
M Child 4: Sidney Michael RUSS other name: Mike O'BRIEN died at age: 34
Born: 29 Mar 1909 Priory Road High Wycombe Bucks 80,81
Died: 5 May 1943 over Dortmund 82
Education: Apr 1918 John Lyon School for Boys, Harrow 55
Education: 1921- 1924 Shebbear College 83
Occupation: 1924 Menial employment in surveyor's estate office in the City 73
Occupation: 1926 General Strike - London Docks unloading refrigerated meat 84
Emigrated: Jun 1927 to Australia 85,86
Occupation: Timber worker etc 87
Military: 1941 RAAF 88
Military: Medals awarded 89
Military: 18 Oct 1942 posted to Bournemouth with his RAAF squadron 90
Event: 18 Mar 1943 wrote to his sister Olive 91
Military: May 1943 squadron moved to Binbrook, Lincs 90
Buried: in Reichswald Forest War Cemetery 92
Spouse: Ivy Lavinia CABAN b. 12 Apr 1911 d. 1987
Married: 2 Apr 1930 in Bellingen NSW 93,94,95
F Child 5: Nora Christabel RUSS religious name: Sister Mary Francis died at age: 88
Born: 2 Aug 1910 96
Died: 1999 in Vancouver
Education: 1921 Edgehill College, Devon 97
Resided: 1924 - 1926 at 146 Kenilworth Court, Lower Richmond Road, Putney 73
Resided: 1926 - 1932 at 54 Sutherland Avenue, Maida Vale 76
Religion: 29 Nov 1936 Catholic nun - Franciscan Sisters Mill Hill 98,99
Education: 1924 Nursing school 100
Emigrated: 195? to Saanich Peninsula Vancouver Island British Columbia 101,102
F Child 6: Constance Armorel RUSS Nickname Connie (see note 1) died at age: 81
Born: 2 Aug 1910 103
Died: 29 Jan 1992
Education: 1921 Edgehill College, Devon 104
Resided: 1924 - 1926 at 146 Kenilworth Court, Lower Richmond Road, Putney 73
Resided: 1926 - 1932 at 54 Sutherland Avenue, Maida Vale 76
Military: 1940 Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service 105
Education: Nursing school 100
Spouse: Eric Richard Donald RUSSELL Formal name Richard b. 3 Jul 1916 d. 13 Sep 2004
Married: 3 Jun 1944 in Palestine 106
M Child 7: Arthur Bernard RUSS nickname: Bun died at age: 79
Born: 25 Mar 1912 at Gerrards Cross Bucks 107
Died: 1992 108
Cause of death: Cancer
Education: Sep 1921- 1924 Shebbear College Devon 109
Resided: 1924 - 1926 at 146 Kenilworth Court, Lower Richmond Road, Putney 73
Education: 1924 St Marylebone Grammar School 110
Resided: 1926 -1927 at 10 Priory Crescent, Lewes 111
Education: 1926 - 1927 Lewes Grammar School 112
Emigrated: Nov 1929 to Australia 113,114
Occupation: 1930 Farm labourer 115
Occupation: 1933 -1938 various in North Queensland 116
Emigrated: 1938 to Seattle - via England 117,118
Military: 1940 Royal Canadian Artillery Vancouver 119
Military: 1941 Officer training 120
Military: 1944 Transferred to RC Army Medical Corps in England 121
Military: Feb 1945 Kleve Germany 122,123
Event: Mar 1946 attended Rita Russ's wedding in London 124
Military: 1946 returned to Canada 125
Resided: 1946 in Victoria Vancouver Island British Columbia
Military: Service medals awarded 126
Occupation: 1950 - 1989 Barrister in Vancouver [ret'd by 1989] 127,128
Spouse: Doris Violet HERBERT d. 1990
Married: 9 Mar 1940 in Seattle Washington
Spouse: Elizabeth Sydney WOODWARD Nickname Fifi b. 27 Oct 1923
M Child 8: Richard Patrick RUSS nickname: Pat 63 died at age: 85
Born: 12 Dec 1914 in Walden, Packhorse Rd, Gerrards Cross Bucks 129,130
Died: 2 Jan 2000 in Fitzwilliam Hotel Dublin 131
Resided: 1923 - summer 1924 at Melbury Lodge, Kempsey 132
Resided: 1924 - 1926 at 146 Kenilworth Court, Lower Richmond Road, Putney 73
Education: 1924 - 1926 St Marylebone Grammar School 133
Resided: 1926 - 1929 at 10 Priory Crescent, Lewes 134
Education: Sep 1926 - Jul 1929 Lewes Grammar School 134
Event: 1927 failed to secure a place at Dartmouth 135
Resided: 1929 at 54 Sutherland Avenue, Maida Vale 136
Event: Oct 1930 "Caesar: the Life Story of a Panda Leopard" published by Putnam 137
Resided: 1932 at 144 Albany Street 138
Education: 1932 - 1934 Birkbeck College 139
Education: Jan 1934 matriculated 140
Military: 14 Sep 1934 RAF - Acting Pilot Officer to 1 Dec 1934 141,142,143,144
Resided: Feb 1936 at 2a Oakley Street Chelsea
Resided: 1936 at 24 Gertrude Street Chelsea 145,146
Resided: Apr 1937 in Dublin - completing Hassan 147,148
Event: Jun 1937 obtained his first passport 149
Occupation: Jun - Sep 1937 Locarno - tour guide 150
Event: July 1937 in Locarno - unfaithful to Elizabeth 151
Event: Autumn 1938 in probable first meeting with Frieda Tolstoy 152
Resided: Feb 1939 in 301 King's Road Chelsea 153
Resided: 1939 in Gadds Cottage Suffolk 154,155
Resided: Sep 1940 in Chelsea, living alone 156
Occupation: 1940 London Auxiliary Ambulance Service 157
Occupation: 26 Sep 1941-20 Sep 1 Political Warfare Executive, Foreign Office
Resided: Autumn 1942 in The Cottage, off Upper Cheyne Row, Chelsea 158
Event: 20 Aug 1945 in London: change of name to O'Brian 159
Event: 20 Sep 1945 leased Fron Wen, Cmw Croesor, Wales
Resided: 6 Oct 1945 moved into Fron Wen 160,161
Event: Aug 1945 granted custody of his son RIchard 162
Event: 13 Aug 1946 in met the Ynysfor Hunt
Resided: 1948 at Moelwyn Bank, Cwm Croesor, Wales 163
Resided: Sep1949 moved to Collioure 164,165
Event: Nov 1949 lost care and control of his son Richard 166
Event: 13 Jul 1949 arrived in Collioure
Event: Jan 1970 "Master & Commander" published in UK by Collins
Event: 17 Jun 1995 CBE 167
Spouse: Sarah Elizabeth JONES b. 1912
Divorced: 25 Jun 1945 168
Married: 27 Feb 1936 in Chelsea Register Office 169
Spouse: Frieda Mary WICKSTEED Married name Miloslovska - or Miloslovaka 170b. 4 Nov 1915 d. Mar 1998
Married: 5 Jul 1945 in Chelsea Register Office 171,172
F Child 9: Sylvia Joan RUSS also known as: Joan RUSS died at age: 84
Born: 10 Jul 1917 in 10 College Road Harrow
Died: 7 Apr 2002
Religion: Roman Catholic
Resided: 1918-1923 with Aunt Bertha Welch 173
Resided: 1923 - summer 1924 at Melbury Lodge, Kempsey 174
Resided: 1924 - 1926 at 146 Kenilworth Court, Lower Richmond Road, Putney 73
Resided: 1926- 1929 at 10 Priory Crescent, Lewes 134
Resided: 1929 at 54 Sutherland Avenue, Maida Vale 136
Resided: 1932 at 144 Albany Street 138
Resided: 1934 - 1942 in Crowborough Sussex 175
Education: 1935 Tunbridge Wells High School 176
Occupation: 1936 -1942 Student teacher then secretary for insurance office in Tunbridge Wells 177,178
Military: 1942 Women's Auxiliary Air Force 179
Resided: 2001 in Birmingham
Spouse: Harold L RUSSELL b. 1913 d. May 1987
Married: 17 Jun 1944 180,181,182,183
Sources:
(1) DK, 'Charles, at the age of eleven,....left home in 1888', 12.
(2) Emily Callaway, Day Book, 'Charles born November 11th 1876 at 70 New Bond
Street W. registered Dec 21st & christened at St George's Hanover Square, W'.
(3) Emily Callaway, Day Book.
(4) DK, 'On 18 February 1955.....eight days after its publication, his
seventy-eight year old father Charles Russ, died of pneumonia in Ealing', 176.
(5) ABR, Photos of the RUSS tombstones in West Hampstead Cemetery, Fortune Green
Road, London N 6 - graves no: WC 234 and 235, 239.
(6) John Cole - 2000: Turning then to my sister's recollections of attending our
grandfather Charles Russ's funeral, Daphne says that Victor, Bun (Bernard), Connie and Joan
were there, along with our mother Olive. Daphne says the coffin remained open to show the
deceased with a neatly clipped beard.
She has no recall of meeting Zoe, although Zoe surely must have been present.
After the funeral Bun took Olive and Daphne to the ballet in London's West End
and booked them into his expensive hotel that night [it probably was Brown's
Hotel; Bun usually stayed there when in town].
Mother insisted on paying her and Daphne's hotel bill, rather than have it paid
by Bun!.
(7) Ind, Mike Russ - from his mother Edith: 2002
"My mother has always been slightly reticent about the family as she always
felt she was disapproved of by some of her in-laws. She went to the funeral of
my Grandfather Charles Russ, and told me that his second wife Zoe came to stay
with us for a week shortly after the funeral. Other visitors that she remembers
with fondness were Nora who came to see her prior to emigrating to Canada. She
recalls that Victor was always kind, but that the only time she met all of the
family was at the funeral of my grandfather, when she and my father stayed in
the house in Ealing".
(8) DK, 'Soon thereafter [death of Walter 13 Dec 1886] the eight surviving boys
were dispatched to Shebbear College, a long-established boarding school in north
Devon. Charles, at the age of eleven, and his younger brothers Emil, Percy and
Sidney (who was just eight years old) left home in 1888. Ernest, Albert,
Frederick and William soon completed the Russ contingent at Shebbear, a school
founded by a Low Church group and later affiliated with the Methodist Church.
The brothers often remained at school even during the holidays.
Boarding school was primarily a privilege of the rich, but conditions at
Shebbear did not betray the fact. The boys took to eating their peach stones to
stave off hunger, a habit that little Sidney would maintain for the rest of his
life. When at home, the brothers proved that they had absorbed their Latin
lessons, calling their mother 'Mater'. But they were not coddled at home
either. 'Pater' would not tolerate idleness or airs in his boys, who during
holidays were put to work learning the furrier trade', 12.
(9) Census 1901, Susanna Ketley: Hd - Lodging House Keeper:
Charles Russ - visitor age 24 single - medical student - born London,
RG13-2063-50-27 SN171.
(10) Census 1901, RG13-2063-50-27 SN171.
(11) ABR, 5.
(12) Medical Directory, 31 Lancaster Gdns Ealing MB London 1903 MRCS LRCP Lond
1903 (St Mary's) Res Med Off Fulham Infirmary.
(13) DK, 'Charles, a bacteriologist, worked as one of two qualified assistants in
Dr G. L. Eastes's laboratory of pathology and public health', actually
1906-1912, 18[US]
(14) Medical Directory, 62 Queen Anne Street, Clinical Laboratory for Pathology
and Public Health - Dr G L Eastes - at Queen ANne ST until 1909.
(15) NT, From 1906 until 1912 he worked as senior assistant at the Clinical
Laboratory of Pathology and Public Health in Queen Anne Street , under the
direction of a distinguished pathologist, Dr Thomas Eastes. 5.
(16) DK, 'Charles then set up his own lab less than a mile away, on Beaumont
Street, igniting a bitter dispute. Claiming Russ had violated a noncompete
clause in his contract, Eastes sued his former assistant. The Chancery Court
sided with Charles, deeming the contract, which he had never actually signed,
flawed.', 18[US]
(17) NT, [1912] promptly established himself in private practice nearby in
Marylebone at 25 Beaumont Street, 5.
(18) NT, 5.
(19) DK, 24.
(20) NT, 15.
(21) DK, 'Although he hoped the eye study would pay off, his practice was failing.
He abandoned this office at 25 Beaumont Street, his only consistent address over
the previous decade, and set up at 63 Wimpole Street. To save money during the
school holiday, the boys cleaned the office and washed the glass vessels and the
instruments that Charles used in his bacteriological practice. But within a
year, he would close this office as well.', 34[US]
(22) NT, By 1925-26 Charles Russ's reduced financial circumstances had compelled
him to leave his substantial practice in Wimpole Street for rented rooms at 50
George Street. 82.
(23) DK, 'On 12 December 1927, he applied for a patent for an electric heater that
prevented the water in car radiators from freezing, a device that Barney helped
him demonstrate at an exhibition of inventions and which he apparently sold to
an automobile manufacturer, who unfortunately ended up shelving it. In the fall
of 1928, Charles would apply for a patent for winding and constructing
electrical heating elements, the description of which filled three pages. Three
months after that, he patented an 'improved protector for venereal discharges'', 40.
(24) NT, Another of his ingenious devices, which might at least have worked but
was fortunately never put to the test, was a self-locking apparatus designed for
telephone boxes, whcih sealed their doors automatically if anyone telephopned
the fire or ambulance services. 21.
(25) Medical Directory.
(26) DK, 'The house the Russes called Walden lay in a wooded area in rural
Buckinghamshire, halfway between the towns of Chalfont St Peter and Gerrards
Cross.', 18.
(27) ABR, 7.
(28) NT, After living some time in successive London homes, in 1908 Charles
established hs growing family in a handsome country house situated in what was
then an unspoiled rural backwater in the valley of the little River Misbourn,
between Chalfont St Giles and Gerrards Cross in south-east Buckinghamshire. Its
extensive grounds and fine trees had led a previous owner to name it 'Walden'
after Thoreau's famous wilderness retreat. The interior of the huse reflected
much of the splendour of grandfather Karl's house in St John's Wood, with
ponderous family furniture, portraits, and silver laid out in lavish display. 4.
(29) NT, That day Victor recorded in his diary: 'We moved to 10 College Road,
Harrow. There were three vans and they did not take all the things. Daddy,
Rogue and I took down curtain rings. We had dinner in the nursery. Mummy, Pat &
Daddy went in the Morgan, the rest of us by train'. 10.
(30) DK, 25.
(31) DK, 'Charles could not bear to live in the house where Jessie had died, so he
uprooted the family once again, moving to a terraced house at 276 Willesden
Lane, in Willesden Green, also north-west of London.', 26.
(32) DK, 'In May 1926....around this time Charles moved what was left of the
family to Lewes ...10 Priory Crescent', 39.
(33) DK, 'The Russes did not last long in Lewes. They soon moved back to London', 40.
(34) DK, 'By now, the Russ family had moved again, to Sutherland Avenue in the
Maida Vale area of London', 44.
(35) NT, In 1926 the family moved from Putney to a house at 54 Sutherland Avenue
in Maida Vale, which was to remain their London home for the next six years.
(36) NT, In 1932 Charles and Zoe Russ decided to move from Sutherland Avenue to a
larger and smarter house close to Regent's Park, at 144 Albany Street. ...The
rooms where Dr Russ receive his patients were divided from the remainder of the
house by double green baize doors. 117.
(37) DK, 'By Easter 1940......Charles, Zoe and Joan now lived in Crowborough', 80.
(38) NT, In the winter of 1934-35 Charles and Zoe Russ left London with their sole
remaining child Joan to live at Crowborough in Sussex. 135.
(39) Medical Directory, The Old Cottage, Smugglers Lane Crowborough, from
1940-1946 this is shown as his address.
(40) Medical Directory, 7 Carlton Rod W Perivale tel 7153, 1947 - 1955.
(41) NT, ....the works of his motor bicycle. From this he graduated to buying a
Wolseley motor car known to the family as the 'Globe', a magnificnet machine
with great brass carriage lamps on each side of the windscreen, which Bernard
remembered as 'large enough to take the entire family, which was more like a
charabanc or bus thatn a motor vehicle, for party purposes'. ....
So long as he possessed means to indulge his hobby, Charles Russ found it all
but impossible to avoid the temptation of a new car. Victor's diary for 1919
shows that Charles added a Morgan, a three-wheeler, to the 'Globe'. 6.
(42) NT, However, he appears to have made sufficient profit from the sale [of 276
Willesden Lane] to purchase the house next to his premises in Marylebone.
Henceforth the only property he owned consisted of the adjacent houses at 25 and
27 Beaumont Street, which served him both as residence and professional
practice. 28.
(43) NT, 48.
(44) NT, presumably 27 also, 58.
(45) NT, In the summer of 1931 Dr Russ, a lifelong devotee of the theatre and
music hall, arranged public performance of a play he had written. ..The opening
night was on 9 July. Entitled Hidden Power, the drama centred on a murder
perpetrated by an anaesthetist during an operation, and attention principally
focused on medical issues of a specialist nature. ...The production, which ran
for two months, was a privately funded venture .. 115.
(46) DK, 'In 1902, when he had married his sweetheart, Jessie Naylor Goddard, at
St Luke's Church in Hampstead', ABR says: 'whose cousin Rayner Goddard, Baron of
Aldebourne, served as Lord Chief Justice of England in the years following the
war and lived to the ripe old age of ninety-four! Another cousin, Theodore
Goddard, was the solicitor of Mrs. Wallace Simpson during the Abdication
crisis', 19.
(47) FreeBMD, Hampstead 1a 1285 Jun 1902.
(48) Census 1881, Dwelling: 1 Esher Villas Shadwell Rd
Census Place: Islington, London, Middlesex, England
Source: HL Film 1341056 PRO Ref RG11 Piece 0256 Folio 114 Page 45
Marr Age Sex Birthplace
Ernest GODDARD M 35 M Clerkenwell, Middlesex, England
Rel: Head
Occ: Solicitors Clerk
Marie L. GODDARD M 35 F Clerkenwell, Middlesex, England
Rel: Wife
Cecil W. D. GODDARD 7 M Islington, Middlesex, England
Rel: Son
Occ: Scholar
Mabel D. GODDARD 6 F Islington, Middlesex, England
Rel: Daur
Occ: Scholar
Jessie H. GODDARD 3 F St Pancras, Middlesex, England
Rel: Daur
Henry E. PAGE U 33 M Soho, Middlesex, England
Rel: Cousin
Occ: Annuitant
Sarah WARR U 74 F Islington, Middlesex, England
Rel: Servant
Occ: General
Domestic Servant, 1881 Census.
(49) DK, 'On the evening of 30 March [1918] with her husband by her side, Jessie,
just forty years old, died of tuberculosis', 25.
(50) ABR, ABR has cancer as cause of death.
(51) DK, '[1902 married] nine months and a week after they had married, Jessie, a
fetching brunette with full lips and thick chestnut eyebrows, the daughter of a
legal clerk, gave birth to a son, Charles Godfrey, at the couple's home in West
Hampstead', 20.
(52) FreeBMD, Hampstead 1a 637 Mar 1903.
(53) Ind.
(54) NT, 9.
(55) NT, 11.
(56) NT, Godfrey began a degree course in engineering, 28.
(57) NT, Godfrey, who graduated at the end of the year with a BA in Engineering
from London University.
(58) NT, The couple were wed at St Paul's Church in Knightsbridge, where Charles's
eldest son Godfrey, then a nineteen-year-old student at Northampton Polytechnic
College, was a witness. 48.
(59) NT.
(60) DK, 'Godfrey, an electrical engineer', 47.
(61) Ind, My father was an electrical engineer, who worked for Westrex Ltd. His
job entailed driving round the Eastern part of England installing and repairing
the sound system equipment in cinemas. Mick Russ.
(62) DK, 'In September 1932...Godfrey, now an electrical engineer, married the
daughter of a clerk in London', 54.
(63) NT, 4.
(64) DK, 'Victor arrived on the scene in 1905', 20.
(65) Ind, " She recalls that Victor was always kind", Mike Russ - from his mother.
(66) NT, After completing his schooling at the end of the summer term of 1919,
Godfery began a degree course ....His departure from the family home was
followed by that of Victor, who was sent to work in a bank, 28.
(67) DK, 'Victor a bank clerk', 47.
(68) ABR, 'Victor was now working in London for the Midland Bank, where he was to
spend most of his working life, apart from a short stint as Paymaster in the
R.A.F. in Arabia', 24.
(69) ABR, 24.
(70) NT, 2.
(71) DK, 'Olive followed in 1906', 20.
(72) NT, ..while the sisters Olive, Connie and Nora went to Edgehill College, a
Methodist girls' boarding-school some fifteeen miles from Shebbear. 28.
(73) NT, 58.
(74) DK, 'She joined Standard Telephones and Cables, Ltd in its Aldwych office and
became the personal secetary of Sir Thomas Spencer, managing director.', 41.
(75) DK, 'In preparing for the wedding, Olive decided to be baptized and confirmed
in the Church of England At the same time she anglicized to Elizabeth her
middle name, Isobel - the name her brothers had found great mirth in teasing her
about. Her decision to change her name incensed Charles. He refused to attend
the wedding.', 41.
(76) NT, 73.
(77) NT, ..in the summer of 1929 ...for some time Olive, now twenty-three, had
found life increasingly intolerable at home. ... Eventually Olive had become
unable to continue suffering such indignities and privations and departed to
live with her kindly Uncle Frank Welch and Aunt Bertha at their new home, a
handsome country house set in five acres of grounds outside Pinner. 106.
(78) DK, 'At Standard, she soon met and became engaged to Reginald Cole, an
electronics engineer with a physics degree from Cambridge. When Olive took
'Reg', as he was called, to meet Charles and Zoe, her father heartily
congratulated the couple on their impending nuptials but absolved himself from
paying by quickly adding 'Oh, well, no doubt Frank Welch will organize the
wedding'', DK [p20 US]: 'The boys had their own way of needling Olive, whose
middle name was Isobel. 'Hello, Is-a-bell on a bicyle' they greeted her, never
failing to get her goat.'
Comment - MJH: we always shouted 'Is a bell necessary on a bicycle', 41.
(79) DK, 'He also changed his name. Just why he picked the name O'Brien is hard
to say', 54.
(80) DK, 'Michael in 1909', 20.
(81) Jeanette Egan, Family Group Sheet (18 Mar 2000).
(82) DK, 'in the early morning of 4 May 1943, Lancaster A4878 was shot down over
Dortmund, Germany. Among the seven-man crew, all of whom died, was thirty-four
year old navigator Flying Officer Michael Russ', CWGC has 5 May, 95.
(83) ABR.
(84) NT, 71.
(85) DK, 'In April 1927, Michael, fed up with the family and the bleak outlook in
London, enrolled in the Dreadnought Scheme....that sent young men and women to
Australia...in June Michael boarded a steamer for New South Wales', 42.
(86) ABR, 'He had heard about something called "The Dreadnought Scheme", and came
home one day to say he could no longer countenance the narrow confines of an
office, let alone handle the overwhelming desperation and poverty so prevalent
at the time; he had signed up for the Scheme, and was leaving for Australia.
...the Dreadnought scheme, it turned out, had been started by Sir Allan Taylor
of Sydney, to make use of the funds raised by the Australian Navy by
subscription during the First War to build a Dreadnought battleship. The war
was over long before the project was completed, and the remaining funds were to
be used to sponsor young people who wished to leave the U.K. and start new lives
for themselves in a young Commonwealth country desperately short of labour', 25.
(87) Jeanette Egan, Family Group Sheet (18 Mar 2000), 'Sidney was a timber
constructor & timber fettler, a bullock driver at Innisfail, Australia and a
cane cutter in Queensland'.
(88) DK, '[June 1940] The following year, Mike, working as a timber contractor in
Queensland, Australia, shaved several years off his age to qualify for the Royal
Australian Air Force', 84.
(89) ABR, 39-45 Star, Air Crew Europe Star, Defence of Britain, 39-45 Medal,
Australian Service Medal 39-45, 105.
(90) NT, 278.
(91) NT, On 18 March 1943 he wrote to his sister Olive, who had married and was
living at Ilminster in Dorset, reporting that 'I have now at last met all my
brothers adn sisters in England and am glad to have found the time and
opportunity to do so. Though I have had to live on trains &buses to do it.', 278.
(92) Commonwealth War Graves Commission (www.cwgc.org), 'In Memory of SIDNEY
MICHAEL RUSS
Flying Officer 414506 Royal Australian Air Force
who died on Wednesday, 5th May 1943. Age 32.
Additional Information:
Son of Charles and Jessie Naylor Russ, of Ealing, Middlesex, England.
Commemorative Information
Cemetery: REICHSWALD FOREST WAR CEMETERY,
Germany
Grave Reference/Panel Number: 3. A. 6.
Location:
The cemetery is 5 kilometres south west of Kleve. From Kleve take the
Hoffmannallee from the town centre, which becomes the Materbornerallee. This
road enters Reichswald Forest and becomes the Grunewaldstrasse. Follow the
directions for Gennep, and on entering Reichswald Forest the cemetery is
situated 500 metres on the left.
Historical Information:
There are 7578 1939-1945 Commonwealth war
casualties commemorated here. Of these 161 are unidentified. There are also 79
Foreign National casualties commemorated in this site.'.
(93) DK, 'Mike was living the life of a scoundrel...He had previously impregnated
a farmer's teenage daughter, married her a month before she gave birth to a son,
Stanley Charles Russ, and then run out on them to Queensland', 54.
(94) Jeanette Egan, Family Group Sheet (18 Mar 2000), 'in St Margaret's Church'.
(95) ABR, 'Michael and I to Shebbear to complete our educations in a manner
befitting the family name........Shebbear College was started by the Bible
Christians as a school for the sons of ministers to prepare them for entry into
that church...........It had been attended by my father and all six of his
brothers', 18.
(96) DK, 'in 1910 twins Connie and Nora', 20.
(97) NT, ..while the sisters Olive, Connie and Nora went to Edgehill College, a
Methodist girls' boarding-school some fifteeen miles from Shebbear. 28.
(98) DK, 'Two months after Patrick's marriage, Nora stunned the family as well,
entering the Roman Catholic convent of the Franciscan Sisters of Mill Hill.
After a trial period, on 29 November 1936 she was admitted as a novice', 68.
(99) NT, This enraged her father, who professed the Lutheran tradition of his
family. 170.
(100) ABR, 23.
(101) ABR, 'Also qualified as a Registered Nurse before joining a Franciscan
convent where she stayed for about twenty years. Visiting us in Canada, she
decided to emigrate, and now [1989] lives in a little cottage on the Saanich
Peninsula quite happiliy tending her bees and her pussycat.', 241.
(102) Ind, "Other visitors that she remembers with fondness were Nora who came to
see her prior to emigrating to Canada". Mike Russ - from his mother.
(103) DK, 'in 1910 twins Connie and Nora', 20.
(104) NT, ..while the sisters Olive, Connie and Nora went to Edgehill College, a
Methodist girls' boarding-school some fifteeen miles from Shebbear. 28.
(105) DK, 'Connie joined the Imperial Military Nursing Service. Later, in
Palestine, she met and married Richard Russell, a British policeman, who
happened to be her cousin, the son of Ernest Russ', 84.
(106) DK, 'Connie joined the Imperial Military Nursing Service. Later, in
Palestine, she met and married Richard Russell, a British policeman, who
happened to be her cousin, the son of Ernest Russ', 84.
(107) ABR, 6.
(108) DK, 'In the spring of 1991, Barney contacted Patrick again....did not have
long to live', 332.
(109) ABR, 'Michael and I to Shebbear to complete our educations in a manner
befitting the family name........Shebbear College was started by the Bible
Christians as a school for the sons of ministers to prepare them for entry into
that church...........It had been attended by my father and all six of his
brothers', 18.
(110) ABR, 'Connie, Nora and I were also withdrawn from college at this time
[1924], the fees for private education proving more than the family finances
could support. Both twins entered nursing school, and young Pat and I went to
St Marylebone Grammar School', 23.
(111) NT, 74.
(112) ABR, 'Father closed his practice in London, and we moved to Lewes in Sussex -
an old Saxon town on the banks of the River Ouse where Virginia Woolf was later
to commit suicide. The new house was next door to the church housing the
remains of a niece of William the Conqueror - discovered when the churchyard was
moved to make way for the new railway line. We transferred to the local Grammar
School, founded by Henry VIII in 1509, and next door to the castle, It is
hardly surprising that history became one of my favorite subjects! The school
was small, but the teaching standards very high. In fact, the highest pass in
University Entrance exams in all of England was obtained by one of our fellow
students .... At the end of my first year, I graduated with my Oxford Junior
First Class Certificate with Honours in History and English, my passport to
university.', 24.
(113) DK, 'He secured a Dreadnought passage at the Australian embassy and landed in
Sydney in November 1929', 42.
(114) ABR, 'I contacted the Australian Embassy. Yes, the Dreadnought Scheme was
still open. And yes, I could secure a passage. I signed', 26.
(115) DK, 'Barney, who turned eighteen the same month [Mar 1930] was about to
become a farm labourer in Goolgowi, Australia', 44.
(116) ABR, 'The five years I spent in North Queensland were a complete contrast to
those earlier years in the western Riverina of New South Wales and the Northern
Rivers area', ABR tried his hand at many agricultural activities - sheep, corn,
tobacco, dairy, swagman, market gardening, cane harvesting, 56.
(117) ABR, 73-75.
(118) NT, That summer, Patrick's brother Bun arrived in England, having spent nine
years in Australia. He had worked his passage as a steward on board the
Canadian Pacific liner Empress of Britain. During the long voyage he became
engaged to a girl called Violet Herbert, who has been working as a ship
stewardess for several years.
He had arrived with the patriotic intention of enlisting in the Army, but
unfortunately failed the medical examination on account of an injury to his arm
inflicted while castrating piglets in the outback. Greatly disappointed, he
accepted an invitation from his uncle Cecil (his mother Jessie's brother) and
Aunt Gwen to come and stay at their home in Seattle. He crossed the Atlantic,
arriving at Seattle in time for Christmas, where he and his fiancee received a
most hospitable welcome. 195.
(119) ABR, 'So off with the clothes, on with the vaccinations, documentation, Oath
of Allegiance and all the usual preliminary routine. At the end of it all, I
discovered that I was a Gunner in the Royal Canadian Artillery, 15th Coast
Defence Regiment, whose headquarters in Vancouver maintained forts at Point
Grey, Stanley Park, Point Atkinson - and away up north at York Island', 83.
(120) ABR, Officer training, commissioning and then Training Officer and Adjutant, 88.
(121) ABR, 98.
(122) DK, 'In February 1945.....Barney Russ, now a lieutenant in the Royal Canadian
Medical Corps, found himself in a slit trench near Kleve, Germany', 102.
(123) ABR, 'From Aldershot, we crossed the Channel arriving in Napoleon's old
Cavalry barracks in Ghent (Belgium) and from thence to our various units. I
found myself attached to a field dressing station near Cleve, spending my very
first night there under real enemy fire in a slit trench.....We soon crossed the
Rhine to the east bank, and found ourselves fighting our way through the totally
shattered and ruined town of Emmerich.....Heading on through Holland bringing
words of liberation, candy bars and cigarettes to excited villages, we soon
arrived in Germany itself, where we were detailed to take over the German-run
hospitals, formally declaring all inmates as prisoners-of-war and assuming the
duties of the German Medical Corps. To give them credit, these men had stayed
at their posts in the face of the advancing Allied Armies to care for their own
sick and wounded as best they could, knowing full well that they would be
captured, but we were appalled by the pathetic conditions under which they had
been working......I was indeed a Captain.', 100-104.
(124) Findell, Photo of wedding, In March 1946 ABR attended Rita Russ's wedding
in London to Roy Burt as his best man; as a G.I. Roy had come over from being
stationed in Germany and a special licence had to be granted.
(125) ABR, 'Yet another year elapsed, and I must have been one of the last
Canadians to be shipped home via Liverpool. The war was really over for us all', 104.
(126) ABR, 'Victory Medal; Canadian Volunteer Service Medal and Bar; Defence of
Britain; France and Germany Star', ABR was also awarded a medal by the Diocese
of Victoria: 'for service to the Church and Community', 113.
(127) DK, '[1989] Barney, now living very comfortably as a retired barrister, was
writing an autobiography'.
(128) ABR, Qualified 1950 - most of his work as a solicitor rather than a
barrister. Offices of Jackson & Co Bastion Square, Victoria. 109-118.
(129) DK, 'On 12 December, in the big bedroom at the back of the house
[Walden]....Jessie gave birth to a boy, her fifth', 18.
(130) ABR, 'Patrick arrived when I was about three, the last of the children to be
born at "Walden". I recall being with Mother in the big upstairs bedroom before
the event and clutching hard to her hand as a huge and noisy bird flew right
over the house - the first aeroplane I had ever seen. Afterwards, allowed back
into the room, I duly inspected my new brother and was put to work crawling
about on the floor, smoothing out large sheets of brown paper. My infant mind
led me to believe that these were the wrappings for the new baby, although I
could not for the life of me understand why such a large parcel was to be made
out of such a small infant', 9.
(131) DK, 'O'Brian died in the Fitzwilliam Hotel, Dublin, on 2 January 2000'.
(132) NT, 49.
(133) ABR, 'Connie, Nora and I were also withdrawn from college at this time
[1924], the fees for private education proving more than the family finances
could support. Both twins entered nursing chool, and young Pat and I went to
St Marylebone Grammar School', 23.
(134) NT, 72.
(135) NT, 80.
(136) NT, 106.
(137) NT, ... his juvenile first novel Caesar, which was published in October 1930. 80.
(138) NT, 117.
(139) NT, The fees at Birkbeck College were £5 a term, and Patrick began his
studies there in the autumn of 1932. The purpose of the course was to gain the
matriculation, which required a pass in five subjects. A restricted choice was
permitted, from which Patrick selected mathematics, Latin, French, English and
English history. 119.
(140) NT, 123.
(141) DK, 'for whatever reason, Acting Pilot Officer Patrick Russ's commission was
terminated on 1 December [1934]', 63.
(142) London Gazette, London Gazette, 'Royal Air Force: The short service
commissions of the undermentioned Acting Pilot Officers in probation are
terminated on cessation of duty - 29th November 1934: William Ocock Pridham,
Douglas George Scott; 1st December 1934: Basil Stuart Francis, Richard Patrick
Russ, Thomas Brisbane Yule'.
(143) NT, Having passed his interview and medical examination, he was accepted as
an acting pilot officer on a probational six-year commission. On 14 September
he arrived with other young recruits at the RAF Inland Area Depot at Uxbridge,
Middlesex. There he was issued with his uniform and other equipment, and a
fortnight later he and his companions were posted to No. 5 Flying Training
School at Sealand, five miles north-west of Chester. 129.
(144) NT, "Very backward pupil who appears to be temperamentally unsuitable.
Unlikely to make an efficient service pilot", 134.
(145) DK, 68.
(146) NT, In May 1936, three months after their marriage, Elizabeth became
pregnant, and at about the same time they moved from Oakley Street to 24
Gertrude Street behind St Stephen's Hospital in Fulham Road, a couple of streets
away from that house in Redcliffe Road which probably provided the scene of
their first meeting in the previous year. Since they shared the three-storeyed
house with another couple and three further people, they are unlikely to have
occupied more than a single room. 157.
(147) NT, 81.
(148) NT, It seems likely that Patrick's abrupt departure to live away from home
for two or three months after registering Richard's birth ..... first
destination after crossing the Irish Sea was Belfast ..... he wrote Hussein at
the rate of at least a thousand words a day .... the last section that was
written in Dublin. He moved there at the beginning of April .... "I finished it
on a bench in St Stephen's Green with a mixture of triumph and regret." The
date was 29 April 1937, 174.
(149) NT, The Workers' Travel Association arranged for its customers to stay at
the small hotel Quisiana [Locarno], where Patrick's duties involved arranging
the visitors' reception, accompanying them on trips to neighbouring beauty spots
and places of historic interest, and looking after them generally. On 23 June
he obtained his first passport, so he did not stay long in Gertrude Streeet with
Elizabeth and their baby Richard before setting off abroard once again. 183.
(150) NT, 185.
(151) NT, The sisters Beryl and Joan Ainsworth were then aged twenty-one and
eighteen respectively. The younger of the two was of a type familiar to Patrick
from the world he frequented in Chelsea. As King describes her, 'Joan, a perky
graduate of an arty private school in Ealing .... was fond of the theatre and
now had a job selling theatre tickets for Keith Prowse on Bond Street.'
Though the sisters only stayed at the Hotel Quisisiano for a fortnight, in no
time at all Joan was creeping down each night to join Patrick in his bed. 183.
(152) NT, 223.
(153) NT, She [Elizabeth] gave her address as '301 King's Road', while Patrick was
described as 'Author of 245 Gertrude Street Chelsea'. .... Shortly afterwards
Patrick himself left Gertrude Street for good to join Elizabeth at their new
flat at 301 King's Road. 196.
(154) DK, 88.
(155) NT, Godfrey and Victor charitably arranged for the poverty-stricken young
family to leave London and live in a small semi-detached dwelling in the Suffolk
countryside, which lay within reach of Godfrey's home at Thorpe-next-Norwich and
whose rent they paid. 198.
(156) NT, 208.
(157) NT, my mother arrangeed for Patrick to be enrolled at the same ambulance
station as herself, 248.
(158) NT, It seems that my mother somehow discovered (perhaps through a well-placed
contact) that the tenancy would shortly become available, and arranged to obtain
it for herself. The rent was a mere £70 a year, and the prospect of living for
the first time in such a delightful house with her beloved Patrick proved too
strong to resist. 275.
(159) DK, 'On 20 July [1945] Patrick signed the document to change his...surname to O'Brian', 104.
(160) NT, 342.
(161) NT, The entrance to the valley of Cwm Croesor proved to be blocked by a
romantic if impractical pseudo-medieval gatehouse, through which Patrick had
earlier passed on his journey to visit the home of his landlord, Clough
Williams-Ellis. Typically he had failed to register the obstacle it might
present to a large vehicle. ... Unfortunately this placed the O'Brian's removal
van in the uncomfortable situation of the camel attempting to thread the
needle's eye. 344.
(162) NT, when Patrick was granted custody in August 1945 he had seen Richard for
three afternoons that year. 405.
(163) NT, At teh end of 1947 the O'Brians were able to takae over the lease of
Moelwyn Bank in the following spring. 444.
(164) DK, 'He had found their new home: Collioure, the village along the escape
route from Vichy France to Spain'.
(165) NT, At the beginning of the second week of September the couple set off for France. 499.
(166) NT, Elizaberth was eventually allotted custody on 14 November, when the court
granted her 'care and control' of her son 'until further order'. 491.
(167) DK, 'On 17 June [1995], in the Birthday Honours of the Queen, he was
appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire'.
(168) NT, 493.
(169) NT, They were married on 27 February of the following year [1936] at Chelsea
Register Office. Witnesses: Jose Birt and E.H. Taaffe, 156.
(170) Shown as Wicksteed or Miloslovaska in Marriage Register to Richard Russ.
(171) DK, 'ten days later, Patrick and Mary married at the Chelsea Register Office', 104.
(172) Jul - Sep 1945: to Miloslovaka or Wicksteed - Chelsea 1 a 976.
(173) from Margaret Welch] Joan Russ was with her Auntie Bertha and Uncle Frank
Welch from the age of 9 months until 6 years old. Then Joan's father recalled
her to be with him and his second wife Zoe, who already had charge of Patrick.
This was very much to the dismay of Bertha and Frank, who had hoped they might
have been allowed to adopt Joan. Their daughters, Margaret and Christine had
treated Joan as a well-loved younger sister.
(174) NT, Before long, Patrick was joined at Melbury Lodge by Joan, whom he had
only known as a little girl with whom he played during rare visits to Aunt
Bertha and Uncle Frank at Pinner. Now aged five, she arrived at the family home
which her father's remarriage enabled him to provide. Sadly, the move was to
have a disastrous effect upon her for the remainder of her life. Her Aunt
Bertha and Uncle Frank had become very fond of her, and even proposed to adopt
her as their daughter. Her father declined the offer, a refusal which in later
years Joan came to resent. 49.
(175) NT, 135.
(176) NT, 138.
(177) NT, her love of literature led her to nurture the ambition of becoming a
librarian. However this was not to be, and after leaving school she worked
first as a student teacher, and then as secretary for an insurance office in
Tunbridge Wells. 138.
(178) NT, After leaving school in 1936 she worked for three or four years as a
student teacher, then in an insurance office in Tunbridge Wells, to which she
cycled daily on the handsome Sunbeam bicycle given her on her twenty-first
birthday by Victor and Bun. 287.
(179) NT, In 1942 Joan managed to escape from her stifling little cage when she
joined the Women's Auxiliary Air Force, and was posted to Birmingham. 287.
(180) DK, 'In the summer of 1944, Joan Russ married an RAF mechanic'.
(181) Ind, Mary Morton - Oct 2001: My mother and father met in the RAF during the
war. My mother used to say that it was the similarity in their surnames which
brought them together; service members had tin mugs with their names on and my
father had challenged her, thinking that she had taken his mug!
My mother is now 84 and living in a nursing home in Birmingham.
(182) Apr-Jun 1944: Birmingham 6 d 1282.
(183) NT, In due course they married on 17 June 1944. Harold Russell was a devout
Roman Catholic, and before their marriage Joan converted to his faith. 287.
Notes
Note (1) As recalled by Linda GREEN her daughter - the three eldest girls were known
as the three belles [Findell]; thus they should have been Isabel, Christabel
and Annabel - not Armorel. This needs checking
Name Index