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June-July 2009 : We are at the last stage of editing our manuscript on the life and death of
Gwyneth Ericka Morgan.
May 2009 : As Spring 2009 ends our research on Gwyneth Ericka Morgan has reached its end too. Three
years on from when we first began the process. Next month ( June ) should see us finally complete the 2nd Draft of our
manuscript on Gwyneth's story Through A Window Once I Saw You Dance.
During May we've visited a number of important places. We were in Rome from 9th-16th May. That trip allowed us
a unique experience in the Vatican Secret Archives, with much thanks to Father Marcel Chappin and his staff. We
also followed in the footsteps of Gwyneth's brother Evan and his intimate friend Ronald Firbank all around the
Eternal City.
In late May we visited Scotland. Much thanks to Andrew Bruce, the 11th Earl of Elgin for receiving us at Broomhall.
The photograph album of Gwyneth's Aunt, Lady Constance Carnegie, wife of the 9th Earl of Elgin has
broken very considerable new ground revealing some wonderful ( previously unseen ) family portraits. The
Sophie Weisse letters to and from Sir Donald Tovey were examined at the University of Edinburgh Special Collections. Sophie
was Gwyneth's headmistress at Northlands School, Virginia Water.
May 2009 : Whilst on our hike to Scotland ( see above )
we visited Manderston, Duns, the home of Lord and Lady Palmer. The Miller family
( a maternal offshoot of the present owner ) once lived here. Sir James Miller 1864-1906 married Hon Eveline Mary
Curzon 3rd daughter of Lord Scarsdale and a sister of George Curzon, who followed the 9th Earl of Elgin as Viceroy of
India. Lady Eveline Miller survived her husband, she died at Manderston in 1934. During the period 1914-1918, Lady Miller
leased 45 Grosvenor Square, London to Courtenay Morgan, Lord Tredegar . Courtenay, Katharine, Evan and Gwyneth all lived
at this London house off and on during WW1. Lord Palmer kindly provided us with access to the inventory
of the sales catalogue on 45 Grosvenor Square from 1926. An extraordinary document.
19 May 2009 : Much thanks to Emily Price, Curator, Tredegar House for access to the files in the
Tredegar Archives retained within the House.
16 April : A successful trip down to Taunton ( Somerset Record Office ). Some letters of note from Sophie Weisse ( Gwyneth's
old school teacher at Northlands ) and Sir Donald Tovey.
10 April 2009 : Jane Budgett, ( the last surviving grandchild of Blanche Morgan
and Charles T Hoare) along with her three daughters Diane, Heather and Sally visited Newport. A terrific,
memorable, unique and wonderous day. Thanks to Emily Price, and Paul Busby at Tredegar House.
March 2009 : Lots of follow-up work this month at various Archives and at Kew.
Second draft of our book on Gwyneth Morgan is underway.
20 March 2009 : Tom, Monty and Will visited Buckfast Abbey, the last resting place of Evan
Morgan, Viscount Tredegar ,
1893 -1949.
5 March 2009 : Will at U3A Newport delivering a talk on The Morgan Women of the 20th Century
26 February 2009 : Monty at U3A Newport delivering a talk on The Newport Docks Disaster 1909.
25 February 2009 : Monty and Will at Cardiff visiting David Freeman, former Curator at Tredegar House.
February 2009 : First draft of Through A Window Once I Saw You Dance completed.
27 January 2009 : Monty and Will at Hereford Archives.
17 January 2009 : Will led a half day course at the Society of Genealogists, London, on Scottish
Records Before 1707.
13 January 2009 : Monty and Will at Hereford Archives.
5 January 2009 : Gwyneth's 104th birthday.
December 2008. As the year closes reflections on correspondence conclude some major progress
of late. Several gaps in Gwyneth's story have now been filled. Much thanks to the Whitehouse family in England
and New Zealand; the Romilly family and Robert Maxtone Grahame.
25 November 2008 : Will visited Cambridge University Archives and Trinity College, Cambridge
on the Gwyneth trail. Remarkable letters unearthed in the Sir Geoffrey Fry Papers and Babington Smith Papers on Gwyneth's
death. Thanks to Peter Brown, University of Newport, for providing a letter of introduction.
November - December 2008 : First draft of our book on Gwyneth Through A Window Once I Saw You
Dance continues.
15 November - 18 November 2008 : Monty and Will in Scotland. A wonderful weekend spent on Clydeside with Di and Davie
Paterson. On 17 November Monty and Will delivered a talk at Glasgow University entitled Read All About Glasgow Disasters.
25 October 2008: Will was at the Society of Genealogists, London, leading a half day course on Scottish Land Records.
15 October 2008 : Tom, Monty and Will visited Machen Church St Michael and all Angels. This Church contains the Morgan
family Chapel. It is the burial place of the Morgan family until about 1800. Much thanks to David Collingsworth, Curate.
19 September - 21 September : Monty and Will excelled as usual at the 10th Abergavenny Food Festival.
27 August : Monty delivered a lecture on the Newport Docks Disaster and told the true story of its hero, Tom Toya Lewis.
July- August 2008 : First draft of our book on Gwyneth started.
11 August 2008 : Monty and Will travelled to Bicester to visit Jane Budgett, the last surviving grandchild of Blanche Morgan.
1859-1948. Jane is a great granddaughter of Colonel Freddie Morgan and Charlotte Anne Williamson of Ruperra Castle. A glorious
day of memories.
Monday 14 July : Monty and Tom Dart did some additional filming at Michaelston Le Pit, near Barry, capturing footage for the
project on Rev Henry Holmes Stewart and Lady Beatrice Carnegie. They interviewed a local man who has been attached to the
Church for many decades. Mr Findlayson, long time Treasurer of St Michael and All Angels.
Monty tidied up the Stewart graves in the Churchyard.
Saturday 12 July : Monty and Will were at Bedford and later Harpenden giving a talk to Scotslot - a group of GWSFHS members.
Will admitted that the choice of " A Less Than Honourable Life" to describe Gwyneth's Story was a little harsh.
It was a terrific day - much enjoyed. Gwyneth The Movie went down well.
Earlier in the day Monty and Will caught up with fellow writer, Bernard Byrom. He is writing up the story of Williamson
of Lawers, Perthshire. Gwyneth's paternal grandmother was a Williamson. One of the daughters of the 1st Lord Tredegar also
married a Williamson.
Bernard took Monty and Will to Sharnbrook Churchyard and Southill to take photographs relating to the Magniac and Whitbread
families. Much thanks Bernard.
25 June 2008: Visits to London and Kent. Another day of copying family related photographs and "telling" Gwyneth's
story. Much thanks to Lady Elton, and Charlotte Purkis and her family, especially for their kind hospitality and assistance.
Late June: On 23 June 2008 Monty and Will spent a memorable day with Jane Budgett, nee Ruck Keene, the last living grand-daughter
of Charles T Hoare and Blanche Morgan of Bignell Park, Bicester. Jane was in cracking form with stories galore. A full length
portrait of Gwyneth's adored cousin Rose Hoare - who sadly died in a car accident in 1927 - had travelled up from the West
Country specially for us to see. Rose was Mrs Greville Clayton. As well as all this Monty copied pictures of the other Hoare
daughters - Daisy and Violet. Daisy married a cowboy, James Wadsworth Ritchie, Violet, Jane's mother, married Admiral William
Ruck Keene. Monty also took some terrific photographs of the family's graves. To round off the day Jane had arranged with
the current owners of Bignell Park for us to see the house and grounds. Huge thanks to Jane and Diane Gordon of Bignell Park.
May and June have been months spent consolidating our researches at The National Archives, and the British Library. The highlight
in early June was a three day trip to South West Scotland to meet and interview Alan Carnegie Stewart, the grandson of Rev
H H Stewart and Lady Beatrice Carnegie. Alan trained in Estate Management at Tredegar House in the 1930s and later lived in
the Brown Room at Tredegar House in the years following WW2. He had some remarkable tales to tell, besides a equally remarkably
collection of cuttings, photographs and memorabillia on his family collaterals.
Several important visits lie ahead week commencing 23 June 2008. We are heading to Bicester on the 23rd to meet Jane Budgett
the last surviving grand-daughter of Charles Hoare and Blanche Frances Morgan. Later in the week we are visiting Lady R Elton
in London and Charlotte Purkis in Kent, whose mother and father respectively were cousins and contemporaries of Gwyneth and
Evan Morgan.
April updates : As April closes we have been able to take in another trip to London. This has allowed us to screen a
variety of letters in the British Library Manuscripts Department to good advantage. On 30 April Monty and Will
gave a talk to the Newport Literary Club - about our researches - which was very well received. The latest
version of Tom Dart's film on Gwyneth Morgan was greatly enjoyed .
April Graveyard Hunting : Tom, Monty and Will visited Llangibby Churchyard and Thornbury Cemetery where video footage
and photographs were taken of various Morgan family collaterals.
April 2008 : Further progress has been made on several fronts.
Considerable thanks to Newport Reference Library for granting us access to original copies of the South Wales Argus and
Western Mail for key dates on Gwyneth and her family.
In our correspondence files we have now received responses from the Earl of Dudley, Monty Style, Gavin Johnston
Stewart, Alan Carnegie Stewart and Lady Elton.
Meanwhile, we have several visits planned to follow up on correspondents.
Will has been working on a draft of the early chapters of Through A Window Once I Saw You Dance.
March 2008 : This month has already exceeded our expectations
with some remarkable material unearthed in the Devereux Papers. With thanks to Susan, Viscountess Hereford.
On 14 March, Monty, Will and Tom ( Dart ) spent a successful day at the National Library of Wales.
February and early March 2008 has been a time for consolidating our researches. Importantly, whilst Monty is transcribing
letters and diary information from Portcullis Archives, and Shropshire Archives, Will ( refreshed after a week of retreat,
at Bassaleg )is in the first stages of producing a working draft of the early chapters of " Through A Window...".
Meanwhile, the list of support and contacts, and people to thank rises fast. This includes, David Atkins ( grandson of Sir
John Atkins - the doctor attending on GEM in 1924 ), Lady Sutherland, Lord Mansfield, Lord Gainsborough and Charlotte Purkis.
Huge thanks also to Colin Scott at St Peter's Church, Sharnbrook, for assistance with our research on the Magniac
family.
For link to St Peters website click here
January 2008 Happy Year New. London researches at Colindale to tackle the American Newspapers to see
how they covered Gwyneth's story before and after her death. Monty has been reading the diary writers of the era 1900- 1930.
Will has a side line in Petworth Archives. Thanks this month to Lady Saltoun, Viscount Campden, Wilton House, Brechin
Library ( glad to have Karen and Yvonne back on board ) , West Sussex Archives, and Uxbridge Central Library.
On 16 January 2008 Monty, Will and Tom ( Monty's husband ) spent the day at Wiltshire and Swindon History
Centre at Chippenham - to search through the records of the Herberts of Pembroke. This produced some wonderful relics. Tom
photographed several hundred images from correspondence, and photographs. An extraordinary day.
December 2007 : Illness struck both the Cross and Dart households. Will slipped away to Rome and Umbria for just
over a week with Evelyn Waughs and Nancy Mitfords. Some contacts made in Rome to return to in the Spring of 2008. Gwyneth
and Evan spent some periods in Italy and in Rome.
November 2007 : This month there has been some intersting information provided by the Royal Archives at Windsor
Castle
on Gywneth and the Parratt family. Will and Monty were in London ( same weekend as Remembrance
Sunday ) giving a talk at the Society of Genealogists. A trip to Kew was fitted in with some worthwhile research
completed by Monty on Ships Passenger Records from 1890-1939 and by Will on divorce registers (and some
papers found ). Many thanks due this month to Philip Mernick of the East London History Society.
October 2007 : The climax of Monty and Will going to Scotland this month was time spent at Kinnaird Castle, near Brechin.
The Castle remains the family home of the current Earl and Countess of Southesk. Here, in 1890, the parents of Gwyneth Morgan,
Katharine Carnegie and Courtenay Morgan were married. Lord Southesk was generous with his time and gave us every possible
assistance.
August and September 2007 gave us a chance to consolidate our Morgan researches. We still managed a trip to London to the
British Library and to the National Archives at Kew, to browse through a number of important files. October is scheduled
to be a very special month - we are heading North to Bonnie Scotland, to Edinburgh, to the North East and to Paisley.
With a script written by Will and commentary from Monty and a extract from In Pace read by our good friend, and actor,
Richard Atkin, Tom Dart is hard at work on a 10 minute DVD -on Gwyneth Ericka Morgan. An Old Man Production Classic.
July 2007: As this month closes we owe a huge thanks to Margaret Cutler of Honeywood House, Rowhook, for her great help when
we visited the House on 26 July. Honeywood was the last home of Katherine Morgan, Lady Tredegar, who died in 1949. Evan died
here at Honeywood a few months before his mother. We gleaned some delightful tales of Katherine and her time here from 1914
onwards. Monty copied and took a large number of photographs and film of the house and extensive grounds. A history of the
house by Roger Nash of the Rudgwick Preservation Society was also given to us. It was pleasing to see that our website on
Gwyneth is quoted in it. Much of the material on Evan is culled from Paul Busby's unique knowledge of him. Time spent this
month at the British Libaray at Colindale has been very rewarding especially of finding new images of Gwyneth and Courtenay,
and some new details to enhance the evidence of Gwyneth's disappearance in 1924. Much thanks to Yvonne and Karen at Brechin
Libarary for new facts and cuttings on the Carnegies. Thanks also to Reche Kanu for driving us around.
June 2007 : Another period full of intensive research in London. Time spent at the National Archives, Kew, and at the British
Library at St Pancras was very worthwhile. Beyond GEM's story some other Morgan relics have come to light.
Much thanks this month to Bernard B for images of Selina Morgan in her prime and her old age. Also to Yvonne at Brechin
Library for exceptional cuttings from the Angus Muster Rolls.
Monty has been busy making contact with an American correspondent. We have been unravelling the Foriester- Walker family.
Tom Dart has completed some remarkable photographs and footage on Ruperra Castle, the childhood home of Gwyneth Morgan.
We have also been writing!
May 2007 This has been a particularly busy month, with meetings, visits and research. Heading the thank-you list is John and
Delia Butcher for their huge kindness and sharing memories of the Whitbreads and the Abel-Smiths with us. Also thanks to Bernard
Byrom for his help with the Williamsons of Lawers.
17 May 2007 : The Tredegar Memorials at St Basil's Church Bassaleg were re-dedicated today. The service was attended by
the memebers of the Tredegar Memorials Committee, the outgoing Mayor of Newport, Councillor Miqdad Al-Nuaimi, Councillor Les
Knight from the Friends of Tredegar House, and Mike Buckingham from the South Wales Argus. Monty and Will placed a token of
their affection for GEM in the shape of a small poesy of lilies of the Vally on her grave.
April 2007 : Many thanks to the Tredegar Memorial Trust.
March -April 2007. There are numerous people to thank for help and assistance of late. Paul Busby for his unsurpassed
knowledge on Gwyneth's brother, Evan Morgan. Goff Morgan for his Morgan-family wide tales from the Tredegar House Tours. Delia
Butcher and Lord Southesk for their help with photographs and Sarah Gould, Local History Librarian at Wimbledon for newspaper
cuttings.
15 March : Some excellent research completed at the Mitchell Library, Glasgow during our Ayrshire trip.
12 February 2007 : Monty and Will are back from Hull, a great trip. Work done on locating the Memorial to the R38 Airship
Disaster on the Humber in 1921. Much thanks to Richard Kelly the Warden at Western Cemetery, Hull. Also to our host Brenda
Z.
6 February 2007 : Monty had a day with Bill and Phil, memorial masons at Mossfords. Gwyneth is now very white! As Bill said
'she's a dirty girl' - little does he know. The memorial is of dove marble and Forest of Dean stone and is being cleaned
by hand. Some things are cleaned by dipping in acid but Gwyneth is getting the full make over. Monty was with them for most
of a day and they covered only inches of the marble. It is very labour intensive, the column has celtic knots, each of which
need a number of hours to clean. Both Bill and Phil bemoan the fact that there are no apprentice memorial masons coming on
- they are the last of the breed. Great Guys. Many thanks for letting us see you in action.
7 to 11 February 2007 : Some good feedback from letters / e-mails sent out these last two weeks in the field of our researches
- Particular thanks to Sir John Leslie, Lt Colonel David Wilcox and Bernard Byrom.
30 and 31 January 2007 : Two hectic days in London. Monty and Will retraced Gwyneth's last journey from Lancaster Avenue,
Wimbledon on 10/11 December 1924. A pilgrimage was made to Putney Vale Cemetery, where Gwyneth's remains lay from 1925 until
her exhumation in 1934 and re-interrment at St Basil's Churchyard, Bassaleg. Research trips were also made to the High Court
and the London Metropolitan Archives.Our thanks to Bridget at Putney Vale, Mrs Ewart and Judith at Lancaster Avenue, and Dan
G, our host and dear friend. We've gotta say that - as he puts us up in London overnight. Also thanks to the proprietors
of Little Italy Restaurant near Embankment Station and the Chinese Restaurant at 22 Lisle Street, Soho for some top class
meals.
29 January 2007 : On a visit to Tredegar House ( Will's first time )with Monty and Tom Dart, we spoke briefly to Emily Price,
the Curator. The House is closed now until Easter.
A brief trip to St Basil's Bassaleg, where the Vicar very kindly allowed us inside.
29 January 2007 : Monty, Tom and Will were invited to Mossfords Monumental Stone Masons workshops at Cardiff to view work
in progress. The transformation of Gwyneth's Memorial is already quite remarakable. Many thanks to Simon and Bill at Mossfords.
Lots of photographs and video footage taken.
Monty and Will express their sincere thanks to Randy Bigham for the offer of images of dress designs from the spring 1914
Lucile collection and message of best wishes in our researches. Randy is currently writing a biography of Lucy Duff-Gordon,
Gweyneth's dress designer.
Gerard Whyman, the illustrator and cartoonist is
hard at work on creating a coloured sketch of Gwyneth.
Gerard's work includes commissions for Private Eye and Readers Digest.His sketch of Gwyneth will appear in our tribute
in words and pictures.
You can see more of Gerard Wyman's work by visiting his website. Link below.
Gerard's web site
Mossfords, Monumental Stone Masons of Cardiff began work on renovating the Tredegar Memorials at St Basil's Churchyard on
Monday 8 January 2007.
The work was witnessed by Monty and Will and filmed by Tom Dart.
With thanks to the Mossfords' team on site and to Simon Morgan of Mossfords.
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