Charles Richard Burgis: A memoir of an old-fashioned grocer
April 6, 2020
Charles Richard Burgis was descended from a line of traders in Oxfordshire going back to the late 17th century. Some of our Burgis ancestors were millers in Benson, and I have a certificate of Indenture of a James Burgess, dated 1761, from his apprenticeship to Henry Goodwin, a Tallow Chandler and Soap Boiler in Benson.
Horatio Nelson’s Band of Brothers
December 28, 2019
Few visitors to the parish church can fail to see the various memorial tablets on the wall of the north transept. A number of these plaques record the death in Leamington of senior naval officers who had served in the wars against the French. A little research reveals that four of these were vice-admirals who
Milton Woodward, Wizard of Myth and Mystery
July 28, 2019
John (aka Jack) Milton Woodward might have become a household name in Leamington as the second generation of the family to own Woodward’s department store on the Parade, but instead chose a career in showbusiness. Leamington History Group member and member of the Inner Magic Circle, David Budd, learned his first tricks from Jack Woodward
The Lewin Brothers: A Life in Music
July 14, 2019
Robert and William Lewin were born in 1913 & 1918 respectively, the two younger sons of Caroline and Harry Lewin, who was killed at Passchendaele at the end of July 1917. Caroline subsequently married again, and went on to have a second family of three daughters, Marjorie, Caroline and Kathleen. When young Robert contracted TB
Walden Hammond, FRPS FRSA, June 1888- January 1970
July 9, 2019
William Walden Hammond was born the youngest of three surviving children of James and Martha Hammond, in Middlesborough in June 1888. James was an Auctioneer and Appraiser (perhaps now, a valuer,) but before long, he and his family had moved to Cambridgeshire, where he took on the role of hotelier and licensed victualler. Albert, Walden’s
Pioneers of Esperanto in Leamington Spa
April 24, 2019
Dr L L Zamenhof© Esperanto is the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. It was created in 1887 by Dr Ludwig Lazare Zamenhof (1859-1917), an idealistic opthalmologist of Polish- Jewish extraction, and its first adepts lived in the then Russian Empire. From about 1900 onwards, Esperanto began to gain adherents in Great Britain. The names and
Major Harry Gem – Pioneer of Lawn Tennis
December 6, 2018
Major Thomas Henry (Harry) Gem was born in Birmingham on the 21st of May 1819. His father was a local solicitor dealing with criminal cases and was also clerk to the Birmingham Magistrates. After studying at King’s College, London, Harry also pursued a career in the law and joined his father’s chambers in Moor Street.
Feldon School
October 12, 2018
Feldon School was set up at Milverton Hill by Dr J.L. and Mrs S.A. Matthews in the summer of 1950. They had taken over a small private school, ‘Ardmore’ based at 69 Willes Road/corner of Leam Terrace in September 1948, when Ardmore’s previous owners left to run a boarding establishment in Monmouth. In a matter
Edith Devis
October 11, 2018
Edith Devis was a prominent businesswoman in Royal Leamington Spa in the 1920s and 1930s. She was born Edith Clark in Brigg in Lincolnshire in 1882. She moved to the Midlands in the early 1900s and in June 1906 she married Walter Dowding who had been the landlord of the Golden Fleece in Loughborough since
Eric Taylor, Leamington-born Musician and Gamelan Pioneer
July 3, 2018
Eric Robert Taylor was born in Leamington on 5th May 1928. He attended Warwick School, where he distinguished himself as a musician. He also sang in the choir at St Mary’s Church, Warwick. In 1945, he made the pages of the Leamington Courier, – where it was announced that “Eric R Taylor has added lustre
