Rosemary Thwaites was the youngest child and only daughter of Captain Sidney Herbert Thwaites, a retired soldier-turned-farmer and a member of the Yorkshire brewing family. Her older brother Leslie Basil Thwaites, a farmer, engineer and inventor, set up Thwaites Agricultural Engineering Company, and Rosemary too grew up interested in motors and mechanisms, driving a car from … Read more
Mrs Fowler, legendary owner of Leamington’s pre-war Blue Café, was born in Derbyshire and grew up in Polesworth, where her father was Vicar of the Parish Church, and Rural Dean. In 1906, at the age of 25, she married George Herbert Fowler, an Oxford-educated mining engineer who was managing director of Arley Colliery in nearby … Read more
Living modestly in Sydenham is one of the most influential people in the county, a man who has been making an impact on the local community and on local politics for well over forty years. That man is Mota Singh. Mota was born on 23rd February 1939 in the village of 17P.S. District Ganganager Rajasthan … Read more
Miss Cutter’s paternal ancestors came from Ashby de la Zouch in Leicestershire. Her father Thomas was a journeyman tailor, who went on to become a master tailor. He married Elizabeth Robbins from Staffordshire in 1855, and after the birth of their first daughter Sarah Elizabeth at Ashby, they came to live and work in Warwickshire, … Read more
The best known name for stonemasonry in this area is Pullin. The business, situated in High Street next to the railway bridge, still bears the Pullin name even though there is no longer a family connection. George Pullin started the business in 1875 in King’s Heath near Birmingham and his son, Charles inherited it. Charles … Read more
Freedom of the Borough for Viscount Montgomery, 1947 During the hundred years of its existence, the Borough of Royal Leamington Spa awarded the Honorary Freedom of the Borough to sixteen individuals and three military establishments. Of those individuals, all were men who had had a close relationship with the town but there was one notable … Read more
Musician & orchestra leader It is rather sad to think that a man whose accomplishments were such that a Leamington street was named after him is almost forgotten within a few years. Berenska Drive was named after Jan Berenska a multi-talented musician whose orchestra had a huge following in the heyday of radio. During the … Read more
Concert pianist & writer When Denis Matthews left Warwick School in 1935 to take up a scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music in London, one of his erstwhile masters said “They tell me that you are going in for music Matthews but what do you intend doing with the rest of your time?” The … Read more
In the days before the introduction of the benefits system of the welfare state, it was the job of the Relieving Officer to identify the needy in his district and address those needs to the best of his ability. The 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act introduced a National Welfare System (of poor relief) covering the … Read more
My great-great-grandparents were born in County Mayo, Ireland, John Jennings in 1838 at Killadoon, Ballintubber, and Anne in 1844 at Arthavalley, Ballintubber. I think that it is highly likely that the great potato famine after 1845 was the reason that John and Anne’s families decided that they needed to move in order to feed their … Read more
The photograph is plainly of a mid Victorian gentleman: dark suit and waistcoat, high turnover collar, dark circle of cravat, and yet not over-tidy, rustic almost; a shortish man with a short neck, chunky rather than burly; leaning forward as if in conversation, fair hair flying as if he drags his fingers through it when … Read more
Alexander Marshall Lodge (aka Alec) was the third son (of six sons and six daughters) of Sir Oliver Lodge, British Physicist and noted inventor, and the first Principal of the new University of Birmingham at Edgbaston. As did two other brothers, Lionel and Noel, Alec and his older brother Brodie eventually went into business using … Read more
Contact the Secretary, Margaret Rushton: secretary@leamingtonhistory.co.uk
August 12, 2026
August 8, 2026