This prompt opened up a discussion between my husband and I. What fun facts about our family members could we remember / come up with and could we prove them.
My husband’s
father always said that he was the first British soldier to enter Trieste in Second
World War.
He served
with the Military Government, which became the Allied Military Government and
the Allied Control Commission by the end of the War. He served throughout the North African campaign,
the Invasion of Sicily, up through Italy and over the River Po, to Trieste,
then to Austria and finished the War in 1947 in Vienna.
A Sutch
relative was in the Orchestra in Melbourne Opera House in Australia.
From a name
in the 1851 census and then more research using ancestry.co.uk, we established
that this relation was George Sutch, who has musical descendants in Australia
to this day.
George Sutch was
baptised in St George, Hanover Square on 16 February 1840 with his sister Ellen
Eliza. Their parents were John and Mary
Sutch who lived in Thomas St. John was a
shoemaker.
The family were
located in the 1841 census where they are still living in Thomas Street – John is
a shoemaker, not born in London, whilst his wife Mary and the two children were
born in London. In 1851 it gets more interesting
– George is a Lodger at 15 Grey St, Marylebone, a house of multiple occupation where
my Gt Gt Grandparents were living with their 4 children, another brother and
his wife and who were described as ‘Son’ of the Head of the household. My Gt Gt Grandfather is a Bootmaker, whilst
his brother William is a Musician, as is Lodger George.
George worked
his way over to Australia as a musician and according to Australian sources1
from the internet, George was a Musician (The European Band), harpist, band
leader, street musician and itinerant
musician.
‘It would
appear that George Sutch senior arrived in Sydney in 1857 as a band musician on
board the steamship European. From an address near Wynyard-square, in
1858 and 1859 he acted as agent for local offshoots of the ships' bands,
the European Band proper, and a sub-group called the London Quadrille Band,
which he appears to have run for a while with violinist George Arnold.
Probably in
1859, Jacob Clarke published what appears to be a local production, the
ballad Norah McShane "arranged by W. D. Sutch" with an accompaniment
equally suitable for pianoforte or harp. This was perhaps George's elder
brother, William Sutch (c.1826-1887), a London musician, who may also have been
in Australia, but if so only briefly, as he was in London for the 1861 and 1871
censuses.
In June 1862,
Sutch was manager of the Prince of Wales Dancing Academy, with John Gibbs as
leader of the band.
George
senior, as a harpist, and George junior, as violinist, were active in New
Zealand, 1868-70, in Tasmania in 1871-72, and later in Melbourne.
George junior
was still active as leader of the orchestra at the King's Theatre, Melbourne,
in April 1911, and, his son, W. G. Sutch, was a Melbourne violinist in 1915 and
later.’2
Gt
Grandfather Sutch claimed that Alfred and Henry Holmes, famous violinists, were
his cousins.
The parents
of the Holmes brothers were Thomas Holmes and Eliza Sutch who were married at
St James, Piccadilly by Banns on 24 March 1823.
The witnesses were David Sutch and Ann Sutch, no doubt relations of the
bride.
Alfred and
Henry Holmes were baptised together at Salisbury Street Wesleyan Chapel,
Westminster on 7th November 1841. Alfred Thomas3 was born on 19
November 1837 and Henry4 on 7 November 1839. Both the boys were violinists and have an
entry in Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians and entries in Wikipedia,
see below.
(c) Wikipedia
The novelist
Fay Weldon is a descendant of Henry Holmes.
My Such
relations always said that Screaming Lord Sutch5 was a relative.
The well
known ‘pop star’ and parliamentary candidate, founder of the Monster Raving Loony
Party, Screaming Lord Sutch was born
David Edward Sutch in 19406, the son of William J. Sutch and Annie
E. Smith. His father died at the early
age of 25 in 1941 and was a Police Constable according to the 1939 Register. He
was fatally injured in a motorcycle crash riding to duty in the blackout7.
William J. Sutch was born in the Kensington
registration district in 1916, with a mother’s name of Panton. A William E. Sutch married an Elizabeth
Panton in the December quarter of 1915 in Christchurch [2b 2009]. William E was the son of Edward Sutch, a
domestic coachman, and Emily and had two sisters, Lucy and Mary, with Edward
being the son of Thomas Sutch, a coachman, and his wife Sarah Ellen. Thomas states he was born in Warwickshire, as
dies Sarah Ellen, with their son being born in Paddington.
If he is
related to my Sutch family, it is very distantly! Perhaps a case of same name, we must be
related.
My Dad, an
engineer, worked on the first jet engine
When he and
his colleagues saw the blueprints they all thought – No……it’ll never work, but
it did. This would probably have been at
the de Havilland factory in Hertfordshire or Power Jets Ltd in the 1940s. I’d
love to find out if this claim is true.
Twins
We both have instances of multiple sets of twins in the family.
My husband's maternal grandmother had three sets of twins in Port William,
Wigtownshire in Scotland in the 1920s - 1930s.
My 5 x Gt
Grandmother Martha did too. Two sets with her first husband, James Nichols,
my ancestor, and another set with her second husband, John Mann, in Badingham,
Suffolk UK.
Notes
1. 1. Australharmony - Biographical register S (Sk-Sz)
(sydney.edu.au) (last accessed 27/04/2021)
2. 2. https://trove.nla.gov.au/search?l-publictag=George+Sutch+d1892
4. 4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Holmes_(composer)
5. 5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screaming_Lord_Sutch
6. 6. Births Dec 1940 - Sutch David E
Smith Hampstead 1a 540
W7. William Joseph Sutch – Police Roll of Honour Trust (policememorial.org.uk)
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