Older and Wiser?: Finding Fleming Blurbs For The 'Burbs

In association with
Issue No. 107 | March 2022
Finding Fleming
Tracking the penicillin pioneer
Blurbs for the ’burbs
Welcome to Metro-land
Older and wiser?

British Library Board
Centenarians down the ages

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thorised reproduction is forbidden. Please 4 Our centenarian ancestors: A perhaps surprising number
refer to full Terms and Conditions at
www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk. The
of our 19th century ancestors reached their 90s or even
editors and publishers of this publication their centuries – and press interest in their age can really
give no warranties, guarantees or help the family historian, as Nell Darby explains
assurances and make no representations 10 The marvels of Metro-land: Caroline Roope discovers the
regarding any goods or services advertised London commuter suburbs promoted by the expanding
in this edition.
Metropolitan Railway in the early 20th century
16 A welfare pioneer: Sadie McMullon tells the story of Agnes
Marshall Loomes, a pivotal figure for infant welfare
21 Addressing Sir Alexander: Nick Thorne addresses where
Sir Alexander Fleming lived – the man who discovered
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SOCIAL HISTORY
} John Daubeny, a
centenarian, holding a
one-year-old boy, c.1922
Wellcome Library
Our centenarian
ancestors
A perhaps surprising number of our 19th century
ancestors reached their 90s or even their centuries –
and press interest in their age can really help the
family historian, as Nell Darby explains
4 www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk | DISCOVER YOUR ANCESTORS PERIODICAL
SOCIAL HISTORY
}
uch has been written
M about the mortality of our

ancestors, and we know
about high infant mortality rates and
how illnesses or accidents that today
could be easily treated once left our
ancestors at a high risk of dying early.
This doesn’t mean that everyone died
young, of course, but it is still
surprising to read of individuals who
lived to what would be considered
even today as a ripe old age. These
individuals escaped the diseases and
illnesses that waylaid others to live
long lives, and often merited them
mention in their local newspapers –
their longevity in itself being
newsworthy.
One London report in 1881 stated Martin Toogood’s obituary in 1852 notes that he helped rescue men from HMS Royal
George, when it sank off Portsmouth in 1782
that centenarians seemed to have
become ‘as plentiful as blackberries’,
but warned that the numerous reports alleged to have died in the 16th details of a person’s age had been
of people making advanced ages century aged 370, and three people checked and verified.
should be treated with caution, for who were said to have lived until their My own 5x-great-grandfather,
our ancestors ‘seem to have been 170th year. Yet with the censuses and Martin Toogood, was born in rural
marvellously credulous’, and assumed the introduction of birth and death Hampshire in 1756, and lived to the
people were extremely old without registrations, cases of people reaching age of 97. His whole family was from
having any statistical or archival their 90s or beyond could be more the area in which he lived, and they
evidence of this. Indeed, the easily proved – or, at the least, seem would continue to do so right up to
Victorians were mocking of their own more believable. Certainly, some of my own generation. Yet he saw great
ancestors for believing in such cases the cases covered in the press during change over his lifetime. Even as a
as a Portuguese writer who was this time were keen to stress how the man from an apparently humble
background, his death in the 1850s,
after nearly a century, was deemed
worthy of a paragraph in the Salisbury
and Winchester Journal, where he was
described as ‘an old and respected
inhabitant’ of Totton, near
Southampton. It was further added:
‘He was impressed into the service
of his late Majesty George III, as he
was on the eve of emigrating to
America, and served during the
American War on board the Queen;
he came to England with other ships
of the grand fleet, was lying at
Spithead when the unfortunate Royal
George sunk, and was one of the
seamen who manned the boats to
assist the unfortunate sufferers.’
Obituaries such as these – if true –
In 1901, the 101-year-old Rebecca Birks was living in Doncaster with her son (who
would die the following year) and daughter. Despite her age, she was still working really help build a picture of our long-
The Genealogist living ancestors, adding detail that

SOCIAL HISTORY
} newspaper accounts prove true. This

is because errors can creep in, or even
family legends that may not be
completely true. The obituary for my
own ancestor is somewhat confused;
a reporter to interview Gallup from
his bed in the workhouse. He had
initially been on the male ward, but
had recently been transferred to the
hospital ward. The interview, which
it gives the impression that he served was then copied by other newspapers
in the American Wars of Indepen- – with various additions and added
dence, yet HMS Queen did not serve hyperbole – certainly makes for
there, but off the French coast. It was fascinating reading, as it builds a
part of the Second Battle of Ushant – picture of a very strong-willed and
a battle fought between French and able old man. William was described
British forces near an island off the as having a ‘snow-white’ mop of hair,
Breton coast –– in 1781. It could be lying in bed wearing a bright red
that he had been going to emigrate to jacket, and in full possession of his
America but then ended up heading faculties. ‘His sight is splendid – he
out into the Channel on the Queen can read without spectacles – and his
instead – at the same time as the hearing might be the envy of many
American War, but not as part of it. such younger men.’ He was literate,
Errors also seem to have crept into and spent his days trying to write his
William Gallup had worked as a gardener
another elderly man’s life story even life story, when he wasn’t reading the
when he was younger, but spent his old before he had died. In the case of Bible. His handwriting was said to be
age mainly in the workhouse William Gallup, his birth was good, he was the ‘life and soul’ of his
altogether more exotic than my ward, but he was toothless, which
might otherwise have not been ancestor’s, but it was still his age that meant he could only be fed on milk
known. In my case, I thought my saw him make the news. He was born ‘and soft substances’.
ancestor had lived his entire life in the in Barbados in 1819, and was said to The accounts of his life were clearly
Totton area, working as a carpenter have travelled round the Caribbean as published to make an example of him
(as the basic records of his marriage a young man, including a stint living to younger, ‘feckless’ men. His desire
and the censuses record), and would on Jamaica, but spent most of his to work was ‘a striking example to
never have known about his youthful adult life in London. He was a Baptist, mere striplings of 60 or 70, who are
adventures had it not been for this and worked as a nursery gardener, thinking of retiring from business’,
obituary. although in old age he only scraped one paper stated with its tongue not
More detail can be found by an occasional living as a hawker. entirely in cheek. He was a ‘wonderful
looking at accounts of the sinking of From the censuses, the picture you get man’ both because of his desire to
the Royal George. This occurred at of him is one of a poor, elderly man work, and his health, a result of
Spithead, off Portsmouth, on 29 who was constantly in and out of the having ‘spent a very active life
August 1782, when the ship was workhouse – in fact, different travelling abroad’. Yet there were also
waiting to sail to relieve Gibraltar. It workhouses around London, as he anomalies. In one paper, he is a chatty,
resulted in the loss of over 800 made his way round the capital – happy man; in another, he was said to
people’s lives. At the time of the between at least 1897 and 1916. By not have ‘a very pleasing
tragedy off the Hampshire coast, March 1922, William Gallup, at 102 temperament’. This latter description
Martin, a native of the county, would years old, was living in the Park Royal was because he had a tendency to
have been around 26 years old. Hospital, formerly the Willesden shout at the guardians, calling them
Another paper’s coverage of his later Workhouse Infirmary. He attracted ‘thieves’ for ‘keeping me in this
death was more mundane, but still press attention not purely because of prison’.
adds interesting detail: it notes that his age, but because he was refusing to More crucially, one account stated
there was an inquest on his body, be a quiet resident of the workhouse; that he had lived in Bath, while
which found that he had died without instead, he regularly lobbied the poor another said he was born in Bristol.
having previously had to receive any law guardians to be allowed to leave One went into more detail, stating
medical advice. The official verdict and seek work. This was despite, as it that he had lived for years in Bath,
was that he had died by visitation of was made clear, there not being much where he worked for a cooper, Mr G.
God. demand for centenarian workers. Harding. This seems to have been a
I have included a caveat about when It seems that the Daily Express sent conflation with one or two other men

SOCIAL HISTORY
}
of similar names and ages; for – such as Lady Pleasance Smith, who life, especially when the facts could be
example, another man, William lived to 103, dying in 1877 – there was proved. When Rebecca Birks died in
Gollop (not Gallup) was born in an individual with a less privileged Doncaster aged 104, the Sheffield
Bristol, but in 1818, and later lived in position in society. Indeed, old age, Daily Telegraph included a long
London, and lived until his 70s. and extreme old age, increased one’s obituary of her, noting that her birth
George Harding was also definitely a chances of poverty, given that – as and baptism had been authenticated.
cooper in Bath, but there is no record Gallup found – the pool of employers She was born at Epworth on 28
of a William Gallup living and willing to take on an elderly man was August 1799, and died on 7 June 1904.
working with him. The centenarian vanishingly small. Another She was from a humble background,
was also definitely born on Barbados, centenarian who faced poverty found and it was noted that she had been a
according to all his census returns, his story covered in the press back in delicate child who her parents
and always described himself as a the 1860s. This was David McKay, a doubted would survive – so ‘there was
gardener, not a cooper. Therefore, not Scottish man who in 1864 appeared in nothing to indicate in her early days
all the accounts of an individual can court charged with vagrancy. He was that she would live to such a great age’.
always be trusted; although reports all 102 at the time, and had been living as She had been a domestic servant in
highlight Gallup’s desperation to be a vagrant. When brought before the Hull until she married at the age of
independent and to work. William bailie at police court in Aberdeen, 26; she then lived in various places
Gallup died in the autumn of 1922, however, the official decided not to with her husband until his death aged
aged 103 – still in the Willesden punish him because of his advanced 70. When Rebecca herself reached 70
institution and having not been age, and instead advised him to return years old, she got a job as caretaker for
allowed out to seek work. to his home city of Inverness, which a firm of solicitors, where she worked
Gallup’s long years in the apparently he did. until she was physically unable to do
workhouses shows how long life did As can be seen in the case of so any more due to her ‘advanced age’.
not necessarily mean a comfortable William Gallup and others, the press This was not an exaggeration: the
life. For every affluent elderly person enjoyed detailing a centenarian’s long 1901 census for Doncaster records
Sarah Morfew, known as ‘Granny’, was buried at St Andrew’s Church, Ham, Surrey, in 1892, the burial register stating that she was
105. In reality, she was probably 97 AndyScott

SOCIAL HISTORY
}
Wealthier individuals had the
advantage of being able to afford a
more varied diet and better
healthcare. It was perhaps not
surprising that Lady Pleasance
Smith, aunt of Alice ‘Alice in
Wonderland’ Liddell, lived a long life .
Inset: Lady Pleasance’s age made
her a subject for the newspapers,
although they may have actually got
her age slightly wrong. In 1875, they
stated that she was entering her
103rd year, but she died at 103 two
years later British Library Board
that Rebecca was still working as an for its ‘stock’ of centenarians; there another former centenarian who was
office caretaker at 101 years old. It was was one still alive there in 1904, and it born in Yorkshire. Indeed, the 1871
noted in the newspaper that her sister listed a number of others born in the census records him working as a
lived to 93, her mother to 87 and her 18th century who had made it to at hawker in Nottingham at the age of
brother 86, although at the time of her least 100. These seemed to be largely 102; in this case, the papers may have
death, all but one of her five children women, including a pauper named understated the age he lived to, saying
had predeceased her. Ann Green, who allegedly died in that he died in 1877 aged 108. In fact,
The Sheffield paper was also keen to 1791, aged 118. There was also his death was registered in
note that Doncaster was well known mention of a John Roseberry as Cambridgeshire in 1879, with his age

SOCIAL HISTORY
}
recorded as 110 years. although not the likes of William
A more common instance was for an Gallup – may have been illiterate and
individual’s age to be exaggerated. This unable to record their own lives; in all
was not necessarily intentional, but aspects other than their age, they
more that as a person got older, and would not have been considered
there were fewer people to have known worthy of a news story. So their
them in their youth surviving, their extreme age meant that otherwise
neighbours might think they were ordinary men and women were able
older than they were, or the individual to have their lives recorded by the
had become unsure of when they were press for posterity.
born. When Sarah Morfew died in These individuals may not have had
1892, it was reported that ‘“Granny” exciting lives; Sarah Morfew, for
Morfew, the well-known centenarian example, was said to have lived in
of Ham, Surrey, died yesterday at the Ham most of her life, and wasn’t born
age of 106.’ Sarah was buried at St far away. However, some of the
Andrew’s in Ham three days later, with obituaries and interviews show that
the burial register recording her age as they were more interesting than we
105. However, although Sarah is on might imagine (as was the case with
every census between 1841 and 1891, my own ancestor). Even if not, the
her birth year is different for each. In reports give us an insight into their Isaac Lamb, a centenarian, sitting on a chair
1841, she is listed as 45, which would lives, and even the most mundane outdoors, winding the handle of a gramophone,
make her birth year 1786, and thus 106 lives are made more interesting by the c.1921 Wellcome Library
when she died. However, the 1841 passing of time, and the changes
census usually rounded people’s ages between how they lived their lives and Yet it was age that was itself
up or down by five years. The 1891 how we live ours now. Back in the newsworthy – it did not need any
census suggests she was born in 1787, 19th century, James Easton wrote a extreme or fanciful acts adding to the
and the 1871 census suggests 1782. book about age and what caused accounts of these people, as they had
However, the 1851, 1861 and 1881 certain people’s longevity. He included done well in surviving to such an age
censuses all gave her age as younger, nearly 2000 examples of people who as it was. Therefore, when Jean
suggesting that she was born in the allegedly lived to 100; one was a man Williamson of Torryburn, Fife died in
1790s. This is backed up by her named Macleod who, at 100 years old, 1893, aged 102, her obituary noted
baptism at St Andrew’s, Farnham, set out to walk 550 miles to London in that she had lived in Torryburn since
which was in January 1795. Although order to ask for an increased pension she was two – she had remained in
her parents may have baptised her – he needed more money because he the same place for over a century. Her
when she was older, it was more had recently remarried and become a life was quiet; she married a local man
common to baptise babies when they father! Easton also wrote about a and had eight children. Her main
were weeks or months old, suggesting woman named Mary Wilkinson, who achievement, it seemed, was that she
that she was, at most, 97 when she in her youth had often walked from had lived to see a third generation of
died. However, the legend of Granny her home in Yorkshire to London. At descendants in her family, and that
Morfew – or Widow Morfew, as she the age of 90, she became keen to see she had had a nice family-oriented
was listed as on the 1891 census – London again, and so set out to walk life. There was no need for embellish-
meant that locals believed she was over the 290 miles, strapping a keg of gin ment; that Jean had lived quietly, but
100 years old, and this is what she was and bag of food to her back. Allegedly, for a long time, was all there was to
obituarised as being, and buried as. she covered the distance in five days – say. 
Although exaggerations and errors an average of nearly 60 miles a day.
made it into these accounts, what is Such stories were unlikely, but seen as ABOUT THE AUTHOR
particularly interesting for family motivational and a means to chivvy
DR NELL DARBY is a freelance
historians is that many of these along those of younger ages who were writer, specialising in social
individuals were from poorer rather more sedentary; the Victorians, history and the history of crime.
backgrounds, and so their stories and of course, divided the poor into idle Her latest book, Life on the
Victorian Stage, was recently
obituaries provide descendants with or deserving, and wanted to see the published by Pen & Sword. She
lots of detail about their lives that idle poor become more active, and is a regular writer for DYA.
would otherwise be absent. Some – working. www.criminalhistorian.com

SOCIAL HISTORY
Map of Extension Lines into Metro-Land (1924), published by the Metropolitan Railway. Maps such as this were targeted at
potential suburbanites, hence the inclusion of housing estates and golf courses for that all-important middle-class leisure time
The marvels of
Metro-land
Caroline Roope discovers the London commuter
suburbs promoted by the expanding Metropolitan
Railway in the early 20th century
‘M
ETRO-LAND… The 1915. ‘Half an hour from Baker Street suburbs of London as they once were;
Metropolitan Railway is by fast train takes you into the heart of a ‘verdant realm’, according to the
issuing an attractive “Metro-land”, into charming country Metro-land publicity literature, where
handbook bearing the above title, by yet unspoiled, wherein is some of the ‘scenes of sylvan beauty’ and ‘haunts of
which the company has named the most exquisite rural scenery to be ancient peace... gorse-clad commons...
districts served by its system,’ found in England.’ and out-of-the-way nooks’ awaited
announced the Railway Gazette in July It is hard to envisage the north-west house-buyers and intrepid day-

SOCIAL HISTORY
}
trippers. It was an appealing prospect – wasn’t set to last long. Over the next 20
particularly after the horrors of the years, the Metropolitan populated
Great War, and Metro-land’s promise these ‘gentle hills clothed with verdure’
of country inns, thatched roofs, green with its own take on ye-olde-England,
fields and endless summer days were ensuring that the landscape was one of
exactly what everyone needed to offset conurbations and cul-de-sacs rather
the grim reality of post-war society. than thatched cottages and cows.
Since its inception as the world’s first Hoping to catch those looking for a
‘underground’ railway in 1863, the permanent move out of the city, the
Metropolitan line had gradually Metropolitan Railway marketing
snaked its way outside of London into campaign targeted the city and
Middlesex, Buckinghamshire and suburban newspapers, ensuring all
Hertfordshire. Thanks to some canny were kept abreast of new extensions
business manoeuvring by then and planned developments along its
chairman Sir Edward Watkin in the routes. ‘The outward journey on the
late 19th century, the Metropolitan Metropolitan is the pleasantest of all
Railway had been allowed to keep the Sir Edward Watkin, 1890. Metro-land was the lines connected with London,’
surplus rural lands it had acquired the vision of the original chairman of the wrote the Uxbridge & West Drayton
Metropolitan Railway, although he
during the construction of its routes – Gazette in 1925. ‘Both the scenery and
would die before he saw his ambitions
land that would ordinarily have been permanently change the landscape of the general developments being of a
sold – meaning that the Metropolitan north-west London character that is agreeable to the eye,
could become directly involved in undisturbed by squalor or smoke-
housing development and reap the are demobilised, and also in view of begrimed buildings.’
cash rewards that it would generate. It the advertisement the districts served They also produced their own
also allowed the Metropolitan to have received during the War, I am of booklet, a ‘useful little publication’,
market itself as a proper mainline the opinion that the [Metro-land] aimed at potential purchasers and
railway, rather than just an scheme should be taken in hand containing a ‘guide to the beauties of
underground railway – a personal forthwith.’ Rather prophetically, his Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire’ –
ambition long held by Sir Edward scheme embodied Prime Minister for which the Metropolitan deployed
Watkin, whose designs had always lain David Lloyd George’s pledge given just its best copywriters to eulogise the
further afield than just the City. two days later that the government ‘quaint old-world’. Those who got as far
By 1899 the Metropolitan Railway’s would make Britain ‘a fit country for
empire had grown to cover a more heroes to live in’.
than 50-mile stretch of land from With a catchy name for the scheme
London to the Chilterns. The first already in hand, the Metropolitan
estates of modest semi-detached villas publicity machine began to whirr into
in Willesden Green, Pinner and action. The original marketing
Wembley were completed by the early campaign for Metro-land began in
20th century, but the foundations for 1915 to appeal to transient visitors
Metro-land proper were established such as ramblers and cyclists, looking
and developed during the Edwardian for a bucolic escape to the countryside,
period – usefully coinciding with the where ‘romantic villages, and half a
end of the First World War. With dozen little country towns’ awaited.
‘homes for heroes’ high on the agenda, But the rural landscape on which the
the Metropolitan Railway’s General Metro-land dream was sold – the
Manager Robert Hope Selbie ‘glorious, unspoiled countryside’ that
approached the board on 21 November the brochures waxed lyrical about –
1918 – a mere ten days after the Metro-land booklets were published
Armistice – to draw their attention to annually from 1915-32 by the Metropoli-
the opportunities the end of the war tan Railway. The cover of the 1921
edition, which includes the
presented, stating: ‘...in view of the
‘Tudorbethan’ design of the house, was
large demand there will be for houses typical of the nostalgic approach the
once Peace is declared and the Forces Metropolitan took to its marketing

SOCIAL HISTORY
}
as purchasing the brochure for 1/- and
reading it were in for even more of a
literary treat:
The song of the nightingales, for which

the neighbourhood is renowned; its
mingled pastures, woods and streams;
its gentle hills clothed with verdure; the
network of translucent rivers
traversing the peaceful valley render it a
Mecca to the City man pining for
country and pure air.
Thanks to improved printing

techniques, the publication – which
was a tourist guide and sales brochure
– included colour photographs of
cows, ploughs and everything that was
green and lovely. Targeted at ‘those Elm Park Court, Pinner (1936) by H.F. Webb. Towards the end of the Metro-land
who desire a quiet, healthful and social housing boom, Art Deco and Modernist architecture was beginning to make itself
life on the threshold of the Metropolis’, known in the smooth curves and whitewashed walls of many of the civic buildings
constructed in the 1930s Steve Cadman
the guides must have seemed other-
worldly to inner London residents,
which was exactly the point. If the and needs of an increasingly aspira- normality following the war – the
passengers weren’t there in the tional capital city – those that opportunity to purchase ‘a good parcel
countryside to catch the trains, the recognised the importance of ‘carefully of English soil in which to build home
Metropolitan needed to draw them out timed theatre trains’ and appreciated and strike route’, according to the
of the capital with the promise of the need for ‘frequent and fast Metro-land brochure. In many
something better. So, they rather “through” trains to and from the City’. respects, it was a stroke of design and
cleverly created the need via housing. So, the use of nostalgia in their marketing genius.
Quite simply, Metro-land was the literature was a curious approach, since In the inter-war years, a string of
original commuter belt, and as such it the Metropolitan was also attempting estates sprung up to the north-west of
needed to reflect the changing tastes to sell the idea of modernity – the London, in Wembley, Rickmansworth,
proposed houses would provide ‘fine Northwick Park, Eastcote, Rayners
elevations – good square rooms, fitted Lane, Ruislip, Hillingdon,
with modern labour-saving devices Chorleywood and Amersham. Most
planned for your convenience’, as well had new homes available, but if a
as ‘central heating and fitted purchaser was feeling plucky there was
wardrobes’. Yet all this innovation was the option to buy a plot of land and
housed inside a Tudorbethan shell, plan their dream house to their own
replete with gabled windows and mock specifications. Most importantly for
Tudor beams. They weren’t just selling the potential buyer, the Metropolitan
houses – they were selling the idea of would have everyone believe that
continuity and a hopeful return to Metro-land homes sat alone behind
picket fences, in empty streets,
Ace Cinema, Rayners Lane – now a surrounded by vast fields. This, of
Zoroastrian Centre. This Art Deco course would prove to be tosh, once
building was built in 1936 and originally
named the Grosvenor Cinema. Like Elm
the reality of suburban sprawl had
Park Court in Pinner it embodied the kicked in and the ‘fields which still
spirit of modernity and progress, which laugh with golden corn’ were replaced
was at odds with the nostalgic mock-
by row upon row of semi-detached
Tudor designs used for the Metro-land
houses. The building is now listed dwellings.
Bernard Burns The new estates were well served by

SOCIAL HISTORY
}
Metro-land’s literary heritage is even of flat-roofed, futuristic buildings –
more impressive. Not content with because amongst the Tudorbethan
lending its name to two characters in homesteads, Modernism and Art Deco
the works of Evelyn Waugh – Viscount were also starting to flourish. These
Metroland and Lady Metroland appear architectural styles were used most
in Decline and Fall (1928), Vile Bodies convincingly on the commercial and
(1930) and A Handful of Dust (1934) – civic buildings of Metro-land, such as
Metroland’s absurdity and self- the Ovaltine Factory at Kings Langley
defeating beauty was championed by and Denham Film Studios in Bucking-
the ‘hymnologist of Metroland’ hamshire, as well as cinemas and
Exterior of the ticket hall at Rayners himself, Sir John Betjeman, whose ode schools. The exception to this was the
Lane Station, which was built to a design to the ‘sepia views of leafy lanes in collection of Sun Houses designed by
by Charles Holden in 1938 and typifies Pinner’ became literary legend in the Amyas Connell, which were built on a
the geometrical form used on many
stations of the period. It is now Grade II
mid-20th century. hill overlooking Amersham in 1934.
listed. Photo taken c.1946 By the late 1920s and early 1930s, the Built in – gasp – reinforced concrete
perfectly trimmed hedges and and with a full-height glazed wall at
stations for the purposes of work, as ubiquitous semis were joined by a host the front, they were all angles and
well as golf courses for leisure – a clear
indication of exactly the type of
passengers they wished to target, first-
class season ticket holders looking for
their own slice of the suburban pie.
The lifestyle that the Metropolitan was
selling – that of a fast rail-link, close to
both the city and the rolling hills of the
countryside – was as appealing to the
suburbanites of one hundred years ago
as it is today. And it could be all yours
in the 1930s for £685 for a typical
house on the Eastcote Estate in
Harrow, all the way up to the princely
sum of £1599 for something with more
kerb appeal.
Inevitably, the idea of Metroland
wormed its way into popular culture.
Balladeers even wrote whimsical ditties
about it. The cover for ‘My Little
Metro-land Home’ by Boyle Lawrence
featured a Tudor-revival homestead in
Pinner, with one of the verses reading:
To the hum of bees

And whisper of trees
At twilight together we roam
Its happiness crowned
It is paradise found
In my little Metro-Land home
The front cover of the 1925 Metro-land

sales brochure which shows rustic
suburbia at its best, including garden
gate, neatly trimmed hedge and half-
timbered gable ends

SOCIAL HISTORY
}
 RESOURCES & ARCHIVES early as 1938, he was predicting they
would ‘become the slums of the future’.
London Transport Museum
Sir Edward Watkin wouldn’t live to see
www.ltmuseum.co.uk/collections
the fruits of his labours, or indeed what
You can discover more about Metroland on the London Transport Museum
Metro-land would become – the recal-
website, as well as search its vast collection of ephemera relating to the
citrant chairman died in 1901, 30 or so
development of London Underground, much of which is available to view
years before its development reached
online. You can also visit the library at Albany House, Westminster and
its peak.
Acton Depot, Acton Town, where the museum holds larger collection items
Irrespective of the cynics, Metro-
such as posters, maps and vehicles. Both are accessible by appointment
land more than fulfilled its brief. It
only – see the website for more details.
remains a popular area for those
looking to take advantage of city life on
British Newspaper Archive
their doorstep but set up home in a less
www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk
frenetic environment. Once called the
Extensions to London Underground were widely reported in the press for
‘country with elastic borders’, the ‘rural
both positive and negative reasons! Search between the years 1900–1949
arcadia’ touted by the Metropolitan
for Metropolitan Railway developments or via Metroland locations such as
Railway may be reduced to little
Harrow, Pinner, Amersham and Chorleywood.
pockets of countryside amongst the
many mock-Tudor villas, but the spirit
Books of Metro-land lives on in every gabled
Hawkes, Irene, A History of the Metropolitan Railway & Metroland, OPC, 2017 roof and half-timbered frontage. Its
Hawkes’s history of Metroland examines the development of the area borders may no longer be elastic –
through photographs, illustrations and contemporary advertising. fortunately, they are now constrained
by a green belt – but Metro-land stands
Foxell, Clive, The Metropolitan Line: London’s First Underground Railway, as a tribute to the suburban dreams of
The History Press, 2010 our city-dwelling ancestors. It’s just
An illustrated history of London’s first Tube line, including its Metro-land been obscured by crazy paving and
extensions, and the people involved in its evolution. double-glazed windows… 
Many older titles related to the subject, as well as some original Metro-land Developer adverts inside one of the
brochures are available to read for free online at the Internet Archive. See: Metro-land sales brochures c.1932. The
houses were built with all the ‘mod-cons’
archive.org/search.php?query=metropolitan%20railway
of the day, including a ‘white tiled
bathroom’ and ‘easy-work cabinet’
geometry – and completely

incongruous in their surroundings.
But even the bold architectural
statements weren’t enough to satisfy
the naysayers. The pre-WW2 architec-
tural critic Osbert Lancaster labelled
London’s new suburban homes as
‘Stockbroker-Tudor’ and their
surroundings as dreary and sterile. As
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
After working for many years as

a heritage practitioner for the
National Trust and English
Heritage, CAROLINE ROOPE is
now a freelance social history
writer and researcher. Her first
book, The History of the London
Underground Map (Pen &
Sword), is out this summer.

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SOCIAL HISTORY
A welfare }
pioneer
Sadie McMullon tells the story of
Agnes Marshall Loomes, a pivotal
figure for infant welfare
O
n 3 July 1931 the Rugby registration district. Unfortunately,
Advertiser recognised the the union was not a long one. William
work of Agnes Loomes JP ‘as died on 5 November 1909 and Agnes
an infant welfare pioneer’. It noted was left a widow at just 32. William
that as ‘honorary secretary and joint provided well for her, but she
organiser’ Agnes had experienced returned to the job she loved.
‘years of anxious labour and personal In 1911 Agnes married Frank
sacrifice’ which was ‘untiredly and Loomes, the editor of the Peterbor- Agnes Loomes Peterborough Archives Service
ungrudgingly given’ to establish the ough Advertiser. They were blessed
Fletton Voluntary Infant Welfare with two daughters, Mary Agnes
Association. Isabella born in 1912 and Elizabeth country, at 140 deaths per thousand
Agnes Marshall Grey was the Mary in 1915. Through her work at births.
daughter of Rugby farmer James and the school, Agnes witnessed first hand This observation may not have
his wife Isabella. In 1901 she moved to the deprivation that existed in the come as a surprise to the residents of
Fletton, Huntingdonshire, to take up village. Fletton. Reverend Buck and Dr
the position of headmistress at the Fenwick had observed in 1817 that
newly opened Fletton Board School. Highest mortality rates residence in the district ‘renders…
Agnes found love in Fletton and in In 1914 Agnes learnt a shocking [children]…particularly liable’ to
1904 she married William Pettit in statistic. At the turn of the 20th ‘attacks of bilious remittent fever’. And
Bourton-on-Dunsmore. William, century, the renowned brickmaking as recently as 1900 Reverend
aged 44, had been lodging at 2 Spring district of Fletton had the dubious Dowman had been concerned about
Villas, Fletton and was a clerk to the distinction of having one of the the unhealthy siting of the Fletton
guardians and superintendent in the highest infantile death rates in the Board School.
In 1909 the high mortality rate in
Fletton had been of such concern that
at a meeting of the Huntingdonshire
County Council it was thought
‘advisable to draw attention of the
Police to this matter’.
Action taken and

obstacles overcome
Agnes Loomes was determined to
tackle the problem. Having two young
children herself, she was aware that
both childbirth and infancy were
A sketch of the proposed site for the Infant Welfare clinic, Peterborough Standard, 29 precarious businesses. As Miss
January 1926 Halford, the secretary of the

SOCIAL HISTORY
}
Association of Infant Welfare and  THE POLITICAL CONTEXT
Maternity Centres, commented,
At the turn of the 20th century Fletton, like many places, had
‘Every five minutes a baby died in
experienced population growth as a result of industrialisation. This
England and Wales… that was a
had brought overcrowded living conditions and poor health. The
condition they hoped to remedy by
Great War revealed the severity of this problem. To fight men were
infant welfare work.’
required to be ‘A’ class, physically fit and healthy. The government
On 7 December 1915, at a meeting
found that, in reality, most men were ‘C’ class. The drive to improve
of like-minded women, it was
the nation’s health started with the very young. As Miss.Halford,
resolved that a branch of the
Secretary of the Association of Infant Welfare and Maternity
Association of Infant Welfare and
Centres, stated, not only were babies dying, but ‘a number started
School for Mothers should be opened
their lives suffering and handicapped’.
in Fletton.
The Liberal government was reluctant to get involved believing
Infant mortality is closely
voluntary action was ‘to be encouraged and not supplanted by the
connected to poor maternal health,
state’. Furthermore, interference by the state would ‘weaken
poverty and the lack of training on
parental interest’ in their children. Voluntary organisations
the part of doctors and midwives
responded, saying that parents did not always have the physical
attending the birth. Critical to the
well-being of their children ‘so much at heart as the Government’.
voluntary welfare system was
Whatever the truth of the matter it is certain that only the state had
education of the mother, good ante-
the finances and resources to deal with challenges on a national scale
and post-natal care, and regular
and it was ultimately forced into action by voluntary organisations.
checks of the baby and vaccinations.
Professor Louise McIlroy (1874–
1968), of the Royal Free Hospital of
Medicine for Women and the first young mothers who visited the Agnes may have been at the
woman to be awarded an MD, stated centres found them a ‘splendid boon’ forefront in a national revolution to
that this approach was not always as they learned ‘how to keep baby improve the welfare of mothers and
popular, and received criticism from properly clothed and looked after babies, but as she modestly said
the community and government. But nicely’. herself, she was ‘merely a unit in a
Preparing for
the clinic
Peterborough Archives
Service

SOCIAL HISTORY
}
 HEALTH ACTS & LEGISLATION weighed when she opened the
Islington Mothers’ and Babies Welfare
Box 2 – Health Acts and Legislation
1853 The Vaccination Act. This made vaccination against smallpox for all babies under three Centre.
months mandatory.
1870s The state took control of education. This provided a model for future developments in Vaccination
state welfare. Activities that were pioneered by voluntary groups were adopted by the state.
For example, the Voluntary London Society founded in 1884, protected children against abuse. An important tool for preventing
This later became the NSPCC. death in infants and children was
1898 Exemption Certificate. It was possible for parents to gain a certificate of exemption vaccination. From 1853 to the present
from vaccination for their children.
1902 and 1905 Midwives Acts. The aim was that by 1920 80% of midwives should have
day, there have been national
training. When the Act was passed there were insufficient trained midwives so initially women vaccination programs. The first came
could continue being attended by ‘lay women’. By 1905 any women attending a birth had to be in 1853 when it was mandatory for all
a registered midwife and by 1910 lay women could not attend a birth unless supervised by a
babies under three months of age to
certified midwife or physician. However, by 1930, in some areas birthing mothers were still
being attended by a lay woman. This was mainly due to cost as midwives were expensive. The be vaccinated against smallpox. This
Central Midwives Board was established, but it was not until 1920 that midwives sat on the was followed in the 1920s with
board. The Fourth Midwives Act introduced a regular salary for midwives and one day off per vaccination against diphtheria and in
month. Until this was introduced midwives received a fee per birth and were expected to
purchase their own apparatus. Midwifery equipment was expensive and in 1907 the vicar of St 1948 against tetanus, while 1950 saw
Neot’s, Reverend S. St Aidan Baylee, purchased a midwifery bag for the parish. the introduction of the whooping
Additional vaccination Acts passed 1867, 1898 and 1907. These Acts required vaccination cough vaccine and the polio vaccine
for smallpox to take place before the age of 6 months. There was a dispensation that
vaccination could ‘be postponed by medical certificate’ or if the house in which they resided
followed in 1961.
was in an area where ‘a recent prevalence of infectious disease’ had occurred, or if it was The deaths, and disability, that these
unsafe to do so. vaccinations were able to prevent are
1908 Old Age Pension introduced. The Old Age Pension was payable to men and women
truly staggering. Between 5% and 10%
over 70 who had means of no more than £31 10s.
1911 National Health and Unemployment Insurance Act. Among other measures, this Act of all smallpox cases were fatal and in
included some provision for universal maternity benefits and a one-off maternity grant of 30 children this was 78%. Even if a child
shillings for insured women. survived, they would be horribly
1918 National Council for the Unmarried Mother and her Child. The Council persuaded
Parliament to increase the financial obligations of absent fathers and the legal rights of scarred for life. In the 1920s the third
mothers and children. leading cause of deaths among
1920 First use of a vaccine for diphtheria. children was diphtheria. In the 1940s,
1924 The Society for the Promotion of Birth Control Clinics. The aim of the Society was to
improve the access of working-class women to birth control.
before the introduction of the
1948 Introduction of the National Health Service. The National Health Service had a whooping cough vaccine, there were
‘cradle to grave’ policy. Critically there was no provision for contraceptive advice. 100,000 cases of whooping cough
1948 Compulsory vaccination ended. First use of a vaccine for diphtheria and tetanus.
annually and 2,000 deaths. By 1972
1950 First use of a vaccine for whooping cough.
1961 First use of a vaccine for polio. 80% of children were vaccinated
1971 First combined vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR). In some areas of against whooping cough, which
the world the mortality rate for measles could be as high as 50%. The first measles vaccine was resulted in a fall of cases to 2,069 and
licensed in 1960s but only used on a trial basis. The first vaccine for mumps was licensed in
1967 and rubella in 1969. only two deaths.
1980 World Health Assembly declared smallpox eradicated. Thanks to vaccination the The authorities such as those in St
last natural outbreak of smallpox occurred in 1949 in the United States. Ives, Huntingdonshire had a rigorous
system for chasing parents. Georgina
Chapman was born in October 1907
wonderful band and felt ashamed to monitored children up to five. in Cambridge. The vaccination officer
be singled out’. Throughout the As the cause gained momentum the recorded that due to her husband’s
country newly enfranchised women great and the good lent their names to death, Louisa Chapman left the area
were leading the campaign to the voluntary centres. In Arundel, for Houghton, Huntingdonshire
establish voluntary infant welfare West Sussex, the Duchess of Norfolk without having Georgina vaccinated.
centres. attended the opening of a voluntary The public vaccinator for St Ives
For example, in Norwich municipal centre and supported a clinic at Union chased Louisa and on 1 July
health visiting started in 1907 and by Bognor Regis financially for three issued a certificate delaying the
1919 the city boasted ten infant years. In Fletton the president of the vaccination for one month due to
welfare centres. These not only offered clinic was Lady Margaret Proby. The ‘eczema and debility’. It was duly
ante-natal checks but gave baby Proby family were once lords of the reported that Georgina was
advice, distributed pure milk and manor. Even Princess Mary was vaccinated on 1 August 1908.
vitaminised milk for babies and photographed observing a baby being Mandatory vaccination has always

SOCIAL HISTORY
}
efficiently funds needed to be raised. in Fletton instigated the idea of a Baby
In Fletton the clinics had initially Week culminating in a Buttercup Day.
been held in the front rooms of kind In his poem ‘Home-Thoughts, from
volunteers, but this was not an Abroad’, Robert Browning described
efficient way to continue. Permanent the buttercup as ‘the children’s flower’.
and purpose-built premises were This local initiative was adopted by
required. Plans of the proposed clinic the National Council and soon
look very familiar to the modern eye Buttercup Days were held the length
including consulting rooms, waiting and breadth of the country. During
rooms, a large hall and even a ‘pram one Baby Week, in Fletton alone,
garage’. 7,000 personal appeals were made,
When approached for a grant, in 3,400 letters were written and a
1926, the Huntingdonshire District quarter of a million buttercups were
Council refused saying ‘they felt they sold. Fletton was not the only
were not justified in spending public community to struggle financially
money on a voluntary venture’. without government support. In 1910,
Instead, to raise funds the committee the St Ives Union Workhouse was so
 RESEARCH RESOURCES
The Buttercup Key Peterborough Archives Service
There is not one single source that we can use to research infant welfare.
been a controversial matter and not Details can often be found contained in various places. Make the archive
all parents agreed with vaccination. officer your friend. They have an in-depth knowledge of the records they
Those who refused to have their child hold and what they contain.
vaccinated were pursued through the
courts and fines were issued. A Mrs Newspapers: Newspapers are always a rich source for local and national
Logue of 14 Margaret Street, news. The opening of welfare clinics often made headline news. The
Londonderry declared herself a passing of the Vaccination Acts, Exemptions for vaccinations, debates on
‘conscientious objector’ and stated she vaccination and cases where fines were issued were widely reported.
‘did not intend having the child
vaccinated in the interests of its Vaccination documents
health’. The court imposed a fine of • These may include Vaccination Officer’s Report Book and Registers.
20s plus 10s costs. • Jeremy Gibson and Colin Rogers, Poor Law Records, Family History
This was not a new or isolated Partnership. Three volumes list surviving vaccination records by poor law
incident. It was reported in the Penny union, also details where to find them.
Illustrated Paper, on 3 April 1886, that • Local Authority and Parish Council Minute Books and Records. Minutes
22 persons had been ‘summoned at were taken at meetings of the various committees. These might include
Leicester on Monday for non- public health, maternity, parish council, and parochial church council.
compliance’. But this was nothing These minutes can provide details of health issues in an area.
compared to the total figures. Eleven
thousand parents had not complied Personal diaries: Doctors and midwives often kept records of cases. Where
with the Vaccination Act and ‘two they exist, these are an invaluable insight into their daily lives.
thirds of the children born were
unvaccinated’. The paper appealed for School log books: These might report school closures from illness, nurses
readers not to ‘yield to the misleading visits and observations made from school inspections.
statements of the anti-vaccinationists’
who were blind to the good that Useful websites
vaccines could do, and which could www.historyofvaccines.org
save the nation from ‘a terrible www.sciencemuseum.org.uk
scourge’. www.memoriesofnursing.uk
Rushden Research Group: Irchester Welfare Centre (rushdenheritage.co.uk)
The Buttercup Day
To enable the voluntary clinics to run

SOCIAL HISTORY
} reductions were experienced

elsewhere. For example, in Aylesbury
in 1917, when the Infant Welfare
Centre opened, the infant mortality
rate was 98 per 1,000 and within three
years had fallen to 63 per 1,000.
The last word should be given to
Agnes. With children still dying
needlessly throughout the world due
to lack of infant and maternity care,
her words continue to resonate. She
said, ‘there is a great deal to be
Frank Loomes memorial Sadie McMullon learned, even we who are in it are
learning every day’. 
concerned about the appointment of The annual national reports of the
midwives that in cases of poverty they Medical Officers of Health in the Resources consulted
were quite willing to pay the 1930s revealed that at the end of the • Huntingdon Archives for
midwives’ fee. 19th century infant and maternal vaccination officers’ report books,
Thanks to tireless fundraising and death rates were between 170 and 180 workhouse registers and public
campaigning, led by Agnes’s husband per 1,000. In 1923, in England alone, health committee minute books.
Frank Loomes, on 16 October 1926, over 3,000 mothers died in • Peterborough Archives for records of
the Fletton Welfare Clinic was opened confinement. This was not only the Fletton Infant Welfare Association.
to great ceremony by the Earl of loss of a woman at the best period in • Gill Blanchard, Smallpox and
Sandwich, Lord Lieutenant of Hunt- her life, but also the loss of a wife and Vaccination Records (Past Search
ingdonshire, using the ceremonial mother. But by 1937 the rate had Publications, 2013)
Buttercup Key. reduced to 59 per 1,000. This • P. Thane, ‘Unmarried Motherhood
Only ten years later Frank died aged reduction had surely been brought in Twentieth Century England’,
74. In later years Agnes moved to about by the increase in welfare Women’s History Review, 20.1, pp.
Norwich and she died on 6 February clinics. These now numbered 1,672 11-29.
1973 at the great age of 96. Agnes was nationally, attended by a total of • Clare Debenham, ‘Grassroots
laid to rest in Earlham cemetery. 298,000 mothers, which represented feminists: a study of the campaign of
almost 50% of notified births. the Society for the Promotion of
Mortality rates reduced In Fletton the infant mortality rate Birth Control Clinics, 1924-38’,
The Infant Welfare Movement was had fallen from 140 per 1,000 in 1915 University of Manchester.
described as the ‘greatest life-saving to 54 per 1,000 in 1935. Similar Unpublished PHD, 2011.
institution in the world’ and its aim
was to ‘rescue every child, as an asset
to the nation’. The decrease in the
mortality rates, and increase in the
numbers of welfare clinics, stand as
testament to this achievement.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
SADIE MCMULLON completed

her PhD thesis ‘Migration to
Fletton 1841-1911’ with the
University of Leicester, in 2019,
focusing on the railways and
brick industry and the
development of the community.
She has registered Fletton as a one-place study –
see www.flettonparish.co.uk. She is also secretary
and journal editor of the Peterborough and
District Family History Society. The weighing department, A school for mothers Evelyn M. Bunting Wellcome Library, London

RESEARCH STORY
}
Addressing
Sir Alexander
Nick Thorne
addresses where
Sir Alexander
Fleming lived –
the man who
discovered
penicillin by
chance in
Paddington
n a London laboratory in 1928 a
I chance event took place that

changed the course of medicine.
A bacteriologist at St Mary’s Hospital
in Praed Street, London had returned
from a period of leave when, while
talking to a colleague, he noticed
something on an agar plate. There was
a zone around a fungus growing on
the petri dish in which the bacteria
was not multiplying. The doctor,
Alexander Fleming, isolated the
mould and identified it as belonging
to the Penicillium genus and taking an
extract from the mould, he named its
active agent as penicillin. Fleming
realised that penicillin had an
antibacterial effect on bacteria known
Sir Alexander Fleming in his laboratory at St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington, 1943
as staphylococci as well as on other
‘gram-positive’ pathogens. Fleming’s
name would be forever linked to this nearest town being Darvel. Alexander find the young Alexander in the 1899
discovery even though it took a Fleming was the third of four children Loudoun Scottish census. At this time
decade before it could be purified for born to farmer Hugh Fleming (1816– the head of the household was his
its first clinical use. 1888) and Grace Stirling Morton mother Grace as his father had died in
This famous Briton was born in (1848–1928), the daughter of a neigh- 1888.
Scotland on 6 August 1881 at bouring farmer. We can use the Searching forward to the next
Lochfield farm in Ayrshire, the Scottish census on TheGenealogist to census in the UK that was taken in

RESEARCH STORY
}
1901 reveals that Fleming had by that
time moved down to London. He can
be found recorded residing in York
Street, St Marylebone, London with
his elder brother Thomas and sister-
in-law Grace. The Fleming siblings
were in the majority in this household
as apart from Thomas, whose
profession was that of an ophthalmic
surgeon, there were also two other
brothers who were employed as
opticians and living under this same
roof. The fourth brother was the 19-
year-old student, Alexander.
In the next census, taken in 1911, Scottish census available on TheGenealogist
we find that he had now qualified and
become a physician. The young Dr maps – by selecting the Lloyd George lieutenant. He was promoted to the
Alexander Fleming is sharing 71 Hyde Domesday Survey as the record level rank of captain in 1917 and served
Park Mansions with another medical then we are able to find the hospital as throughout the war in the Royal
man, Edwin Beaton, a colleague from it was recorded and plotted in this Army Medical Corps (RAMC)
St Mary’s Hospital, where they both government land tax survey from working in battlefield hospitals on the
worked. The 1911 census on TheGe- between 1910 and 1915 and then to Western Front in France. With
nealogist has a unique feature see the surrounding streets. hostilities over in 1918 he returned to
whereby each property record is St Mary’s Hospital was the subject St Mary’s Hospital, to be elected
linked to this site’s versatile Map of an article in 1895 when the Professor of Bacteriology of the
Explorer so that a researcher can Illustrated London News published University of London in 1928. Using
identify where an ancestor lived on photographs of the hospital and some the Military Records on TheGenealo-
contemporary as well as georefer- of its wards. The article was written gist allows us to find a record that he
enced modern maps. The majority of some eight years before Fleming was appointed on 17 October 1914 as
dwellings in London can be seen entered its medical school in 1903, a lieutenant in the RAMC and
down to the level of properties where he gained his first degree gazetted on the 30th, revealed by
marked on large-scale plans, while the MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine, consulting a copy of the Army Lists
rest of the country will identify down Bachelor of Surgery) in 1906. In 1908, for 1914. These records can identify
to homes in parishes, roads or streets. he gained a BSc degree with a gold officer ancestors’ regiments as well as
medal in bacteriology, and began the dates of their appointments and
A stroll away from the hospital lab teaching there when he became a promotions. Alexander Fleming’s
By using the Map Explorer we are able lecturer until 1914 and the outbreak campaign medal records may also be
to see that the two physicians lived a of the First World War. found in the military records
short stroll away from the hospital on In the war Fleming, who had contained on TheGenealogist.
Praed Street. The Map Explorer has already served in the army reserves as
several records which are linked to the a private soldier, was commissioned a Marriage
The war had been raging for over a
Extract of 1901 London census on TheGenealogist year and at the end of 1915, on

RESEARCH STORY
}
Christmas Eve, Fleming married an June 1949, however, Fleming gave his
Irish nurse, Sarah Marion McElroy, in address to the shipping line as The
London. Their civil registration record Wright-Fleming Institute of Microbi-
of marriage can be found on TheGe- ology, St Mary’s Hospital Medical
nealogist, as can her death in 1949. School, Paddington, London W2. This
In 1939 the Flemings were living in was the unit at the hospital specialis-
Chelsea as the Second World War ing in bacteriology and originally
broke out. By consulting the 1939 called simply the Inoculation
Register on TheGenealogist, where Department. By 1946 Fleming had
the records are linked to maps that go succeeded his illustrious predecessor
down to street or parish level and so Sir Almroth Wright as its head and
providing more precise locations than the institute took on the more
some of the other websites’ mapping, befitting name that combined both
we see them in Danvers Street, men’s surnames and its field of
Chelsea. science, the study of microorganisms.
The Civil Birth Marriage and Death Fleming had worked under Wright
1911 census on TheGenealogist now includes a
records on TheGenealogist reveals both at St Mary’s before the war and linked map to identify the location of a property
that in 1949 Sarah, Fleming’s first
wife, died; in April 1953 he married
for a second time. His new bride,
Amalia Koutsouri-Vourekas, was a
Greek colleague of his from St Mary’s,
though they only had two years
together before Sir Alexander Fleming
died in March 1955.
Fleming not only had a place in
London but he also had a country
retreat in East Anglia. From the 1929
edition of Kelly’s Directory of Norfolk
and Suffolk and Essex, found with a
number of other editions in TheGe-
nealogist’s Trade, Residential &
Telephone directories collection from
1922 to 1937, we can discover that his
bolthole was recorded each time in
Kelly’s as The Dhwon. Consulting
various other records gives us an
alternative spelling for Fleming’s
house in Barton Mills, a parish and
village in the Bury St Edmunds
district of Suffolk, where it is often
listed as The Dhoon.
When travelling to New York in
Lloyd George Domesday Survey on Map The Illustrated London News June 1895 from TheGenealogist’s Newspapers &
Explorer Magazines collection

RESEARCH STORY
}
1906, the same year as his flatmate
Alexander Fleming. Beaton would go
on to become the bacteriologist to the
Public Health Department in Cairo
and sadly we can find his death
recorded there at the young age of 42
by searching the Overseas Deaths on
TheGenealogist. Dr Edwin Beaton is
recorded in the Consular Deaths that
were reported to the General Register
Office in England and so appears in
the indexes for these events abroad.
The records on TheGenealogist have
provided us with the tools to follow
this great bacteriologist from his
childhood in Ayrshire, by referring to
TheGenealogist’s Scottish census
Army Lists on TheGenealogist can be used to identify officers’ regiments and dates of collection, to living in London with
promotions, etc his brothers and then his early days at
St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington
where he would discover penicillin.
We have been able to use military
records on TheGenealogist to find
him as an RAMC officer in the First
World War using Army Lists and the
Medals records. The Map Explorer,
with its growing number of valuable
record sets, was able to show us where
his St Marylebone flat was located at
the time of the 1911 census. Using the
Lloyd George Domesday Survey
records that are also on this mapping
tool we have found Fleming’s place of
work, St Mary’s Hospital. The modern
and historical maps allowed us to see
that his hospital laboratory was a
short stroll away from the flat which
he shared with another physician, a
Medal Index Cards are part of the Military Records available on TheGenealogist
man whose life ended prematurely in
during his time in the army in the

field hospital set up in a casino at
Boulogne in the First World War.
The flatmate
In the 1911 census we had seen that
Fleming shared his London flat with a
fellow physician, named Edwin
Beaton. This doctor appears in the
same edition of the Royal College of
Physicians List of Fellows found on
TheGenealogist and is recorded as Fleming married his first wife during WW1 and the civil index record appears on
having been appointed a licentiate in TheGenealogist

RESEARCH STORY
}
Kelly’s 1929 Directory of Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex from TheGenealogist’s Trade,
Residential and Telephone Directories 1939 Register on TheGenealogist with mapping
Cairo and who features in TheGeneal-

ogists’ Overseas Consular Deaths.
The marriage records revealed
Fleming’s two marriages and the 1939
Register, with its linked mapping that is
more accurate than others found online,
showed us that Fleming and his first
wife had moved down to Chelsea at the
time that Britain was entering the
Second World War. The Trades,
Residential and Telephone Directories
have also allowed us to find Fleming’s
country retreat in Barton Mills, Suffolk
and the address that he supplied
Cunard, at a time that he travelled to the
USA and was recorded in the Passenger
Lists on TheGenealogist; this pointed us
towards the change for his department
at the hospital to the more fittingly
named Wright-Fleming Institute of
Microbiology. When following an
ancestor’s story the suite of records and
resources provided by TheGenealogist
can be put to good use to really flesh out
a person’s family history. 
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
NICK THORNE is a
regular writer for Discover
Your Ancestors. You can
find his English and Welsh
family history course at
www.FamilyHistory
1949 passenger list provides last address in the United Kingdom information before Researcher.com
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HISTORY IN THE DETAILS: MATERIALS – COTTON (PART 3)
A brief history by costume and picture expert Jayne Shrimpton
s we saw in the February (patented 1769), Samuel Crompton’s exports totalled £200,000 –
A issue, the sale and use of

many Indian cottons were
prohibited 1721–1780, but calicoes and
spinning mule (1779) and Edmund
Cartwright’s power loom (1785). With
such advanced technology mass
just 4% of woollen exports;
but over the next 30 years all
aspects of cotton production
colourful printed chintzes for garments production became a reality: when became mechanised and by 1802
and furnishings remained fashionable pioneering manufacturers like Richard cotton exports surpassed the value of
in Georgian Britain, especially among Arkwright, who established Cromford woollens, becoming essential to the
the expanding middle classes. Many Mill (1771/2) and Masson Mills (1784) economy while hastening the demise
were smuggled in, but markets were in Derbyshire, first brought machinery of the centuries-old British woollen
shifting and by the mid-1700s demand and workers together all in one place, industry.
favoured plain Indian cloth finished they were instigating a revolutionary Cotton had long been a global
(printed) in Europe. English manufac- new factory system. commodity and its rapid rise in late-
turers began to produce printed The successful processing of Georgian England would not have
fustians (fabrics with a cotton weft and imported raw cotton required certain succeeded were it not also fuelled by a
linen warp), and by the late 1700s pure conditions, above all a damp growing population and soaring
cotton textiles. atmosphere for binding the fibres and demand for the convenient, washable
The efficient British production of reducing the strain placed on them by fabric that came in many grades at
large quantities of desirable cotton machinery. The climate of parts of the different prices to suit most pockets.
goods from the mid-18th century Midlands and north-west England As we shall see, not only would the
onwards, particularly after 1770, was a (where linen cloth production was new factory methods of manufactur-
driving force in what we now term the already established) proved ideal, ing cloth transform how past
Industrial Revolution. This was hence early water-powered cotton generations worked (and lived);
facilitated by well-documented carding, mills were sited in Derbyshire, cotton also improved hygiene,
spinning and weaving inventions Lancashire and adjoining districts of changed how many dressed and
aimed at streamlining and accelerating Yorkshire and Cheshire – regions enabled ordinary working people to
output, including John Kay’s flying where land was also cheap, coal and engage more closely with fashion. 
shuttle (1733), James Hargreaves’ water plentiful and well connected to JAYNE SHRIMPTON is a professional dress
spinning jenny (patented 1770), the markets and ports of Manchester historian and picture specialist, and author of
Richard Arkwright’s water frame and Liverpool. In 1770 English cotton several books on these subjects.
 Printed cotton garments like this

surviving chintz ‘Robe à l’Anglaise’
gown c.1780s from MoMu (The Fashion
Museum of Antwerp) were fashionable
throughout Europe
 Richard Arkwright’s water-powered

cotton-spinning mill, Cromford Mill in
Derbyshire, established 1771/2, was
effectively the birthplace of the modern
factory system
 The first cotton-weaving mills

were fitted with early machinery
like this power loom, 1798

NEWS
}
More 1939 Register records released,
plus existing ones linked to maps
TheGenealogist has updated the 1939
Register with a new detailed mapping
feature and an additional 258,000-
plus individuals.
For the first time, researchers will
now be able to see more accurately
where their ancestor’s house was
situated on maps down to house,
street or parish level, giving more
detail than ever before.
TheGenealogist.co.uk has also
added over 258,000 new records that
have now been officially opened. Now
you can use TheGenealogist’s
SmartSearch on even more records in Film star Leslie Howard’s house in Surrey shown on a historical map
the 1939 Register to discover where
your ancestors were living. brick walls. For example there is the research with just a click.
With the addition of the more ability to find ancestors in 1939 by The 1939 Register on TheGenealo-
precise mapping feature there are using keywords, such as the gist also benefits from innovative
some very compelling reasons individual’s occupation or their date of SmartSearch technology that enables
to search the 1939 Register on birth. Researchers on TheGenealogist you to discover even more about a
TheGenealogist. Firstly it benefits may also search for an address and person by linking to their Birth,
from their unique and powerful then jump straight to the household Marriage and Death records.
search tools and SmartSearch or, if you are struggling to find a The 1939 Register, when linked to a
technology. This offers a hugely family, you can even search using as more detailed mapping tool than ever
flexible way to look for your ancestors many of their forenames as you know. before, is a fantastic resource for
as the authorities scrambled in 1939 With a record found in the 1939 family historians searching for where
to issue identity cards and ration Register, TheGenealogist then gives forebears lived in September 1939.
books for the population. you the ability to click on the street See TheGenealogist’s article:
Secondly, searching the 1939 name to view all the residents in the https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/
Register on TheGenealogist allows road. This feature can be used to featuredarticles/2022/powerful-
researchers to take advantage of some potentially discover relatives living in mapping-linked-to-1939-register-pin
powerful search tools to break down the area and can therefore boost your points-ancestors-households-1520/
Largest collection of fully searchable RAF operations books goes online

TheGenealogist has today released fully searchable by Name, Rank, providing detailed indexes which
over 4.2 million transcripts for its RAF Aircraft, Squadron, and Date plus cover 1911 to 1963.
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With over 11 million records online, mentioned, but also all of the
Save the date now for the next this is the largest collection of appendices that go along with these
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• London, 24 September, 2022 TheGenealogist’s significant tran- and read free articles here:
TheFamilyHistoryShow.com scription effort has been aimed at https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/raf/

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BOOKS
}
Female Innovators Who Changed horses, and electric light from gas
Our World • Emma Shimizu • £20 and oil. In the background, change
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We are not all born with equal speed record, the abdication of the
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prejudice, illness, and personal day-trip holidays, when families kept
tragedy to advance our understand- chickens and children played with
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engineering, and mathematics This delightfully nostalgic book
(STEM). They used their knowledge will take you right back to a different
to change the world, and their stories age, recalling what life was like for
are fascinating. This book offers a those growing up in the 1930s.
concise introduction of the lives of
46 women, taking you into the The Thomas Rackett Papers, 18th-
cultural and social context of the 19th Centuries • Ed. H S L Dewar,
world they lived in. Through their revised by Ann Smith • £14.95
Tracing Your Family History with intelligence, courage, and resilience, www.hobnobpress.co.uk
the Whole Family • £14.99 they used STEM to defy expectations From his quiet country parish at
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www.pen-and-sword.co.uk their footsteps. Some of them Rackett corresponded with a wide-
This book is innovative. A plethora of invented items we use day-to-day ranging variety of friends and contacts
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that family history research is by treatments for epidemics that members of the Royal Institute wrote
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To assist those of all ages who venture today. botany, engineering, heraldry, pre-
into this wider domain of family historic and Roman antiquities,
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practical examples. Colin G. Maggs • £9.99 barrow-digging, Greek and Roman
It leads children and adults into Do you remember collecting birds’ coins, and methods of engraving. The
factual and creative portrayals of eggs and cigarette cards? Or the first Thomas Rackett Papers was first
their present lives which will be appearances of wrapped sweets like published by Dorset Record Society in
handed on to future generations as Mars and Milky Way? 1965 and this new edition includes
informative elements of past and The 1930s was a time of great correspondence with Mary Anning
present family history. progress, as engines took over from who was a friend of Rackett’s daughter.
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} newspaper accounts prove true. This

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DISCOVER YOUR ANCESTORS PERIODICAL | www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk 7

8 www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk | DISCOVER YOUR ANCESTORS PERIODICAL

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10 www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk | DISCOVER YOUR ANCESTORS PERIODICAL

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The song of the nightingales, for which

Thanks to improved printing

12 www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk | DISCOVER YOUR ANCESTORS PERIODICAL

To the hum of bees

The front cover of the 1925 Metro-land

DISCOVER YOUR ANCESTORS PERIODICAL | www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk 13

geometry – and completely

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

After working for many years as

14 www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk | DISCOVER YOUR ANCESTORS PERIODICAL

Find yoour place

See how our unique

• Our exclusive digital collections

Membership starts from £56.

Registered Charity No. 233701. Company limited by guarantee. Registered

Action taken and

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} reductions were experienced

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

SADIE MCMULLON completed

20 www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk | DISCOVER YOUR ANCESTORS PERIODICAL

n a London laboratory in 1928 a

I chance event took place that

DISCOVER YOUR ANCESTORS PERIODICAL | www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk 21

22 www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk | DISCOVER YOUR ANCESTORS PERIODICAL

DISCOVER YOUR ANCESTORS PERIODICAL | www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk 23

during his time in the army in the

24 www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk | DISCOVER YOUR ANCESTORS PERIODICAL

Cairo and who features in TheGeneal-

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

DISCOVER YOUR ANCESTORS PERIODICAL | www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk 25

• The Laargest Range off Products

A issue, the sale and use of

 Printed cotton garments like this

 Richard Arkwright’s water-powered

 The ﬁrst cotton-weaving mills

DISCOVER YOUR ANCESTORS PERIODICAL | www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk 27

Largest collection of fully searchable RAF operations books goes online

28 www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk | DISCOVER YOUR ANCESTORS PERIODICAL