Ashley House in 1940s and 50s Text and photos John Tottenham June 2022
Evelyn Wilkinson and her cocker spaniel called Powder at Ashley House in 1950
Superficially, lifestyles in the years after the end of the Second World War had similarities with ours. People swapped military uniforms for suits and frocks, American consumerism offered luxury goods like fridges and washing machines, cars and television were beginning to arrive in every household. But in other respects, life was completely different – no supermarkets, clothes and sweets were still rationed, plastic goods had scarcely started. There were significant international differences too – the Empire existed (at least until Indian independence), British military significance continued with the administration of Palestine and national service, and nationalisation of coal, steel and the railways propped up these staple British industries but failed to invest in their future. These conflicts of continuity and change are reflected in John Tottenham’s story of his visits to Ashley House in the 1940s and 50s.
I came across the informative article about Ashley House from my home in USA. I can add a few memories, having lived there at intervals during and after the Second World War. The house was owned by Alan Frederick Lawder Wilkinson (1892-1948), a mathematician, administrator and District Commissioner of the Gold Coast (now Ghana). I believe he was a lawyer who my parents met in Ghana in the 1930s where all were serving in the Foreign Office (the division then called the Colonial Service).
Alan F L Wilkinson
Alan Frederick Lawder Wilkinson was born in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India on 6 October 1892 to father Charles Ernest Orde Wilkinson and mother Edith Mary Lawder. In 1912 the family emigrated to Vancouver, Canada. Although a diplomat in later life, Alan had served as a lieutenant in the Royal Navy in the First World War. He joined the Royal Canadian Navy as a midshipman on the cruiser Niobe on 27 August 1914. His younger brother, Thomas Orde Lawder Wilkinson (1894-5 July 1916), was killed aged just 22 in the opening stages of the Battle of the Somme where he earned a Victoria Cross. The report of Thomas’ death originally said: When a party (of men) was retiring he got their gun into action and held up the enemy. Later he stopped a bombing attack and, after bringing in a wounded man, was shot before reaching a second man.[1]
Alan Frederick Lawder Wilkinson was born in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India on 6 October 1892 to father Charles Ernest Orde Wilkinson and mother Edith Mary Lawder. In 1912 the family emigrated to Vancouver, Canada. Although a diplomat in later life, Alan had served as a lieutenant in the Royal Navy in the First World War. He joined the Royal Canadian Navy as a midshipman on the cruiser Niobe on 27 August 1914. His younger brother, Thomas Orde Lawder Wilkinson (1894-5 July 1916), was killed aged just 22 in the opening stages of the Battle of the Somme where he earned a Victoria Cross. The report of Thomas’ death originally said: When a party (of men) was retiring he got their gun into action and held up the enemy. Later he stopped a bombing attack and, after bringing in a wounded man, was shot before reaching a second man.[1]
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Later reports gave more details of his award: for the most conspicuous bravery. The party wasn’t his own but that of another unit and he rushed forward and, with two of his men, got the machine gun into action. Later, during an onslaught of bombs which held up the men, with great pluck and promptness, he mounted a machine gun on the top of a parapet and dispersed the enemy bombers. Subsequently he made two most gallant attempts to bring in a (second) wounded man but, at the second attempt was shot through the heart just before reaching the man.[2] His posthumous medal was presented to his father by the King.[3] His body was never recovered and he is commemorated at Thiepval.
Right: Alan’s brother Thomas (courtesy Daily Mirror, 27 September 1916) |
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Prior to my visits, Alan’s first wife Dorothy Leonard Pike (1894-8 August 1926), the daughter of a Vice-Admiral, had died on 8 August 1926. Alan’s second marriage in 1930 was to my godmother, Evelyn Dorothea Birch-Reynardson (1900-1983), an heiress whose family name was Partridge and who was related to the Spring-Rice family of Cumbria, whose members included Sir Cecil Spring-Rice, British Ambassador to USA during the Great War who was best man to Theodore Roosevelt at his wedding. Evelyn was one of the earliest graduates of Newnham College, University of Cambridge, partly founded by the suffragette Millicent Garrett Fawcett. They appear to have moved into the house after the Spencely family in 1936.
Ashley House pond in 1940-41 with L to R: my sister Ann, unidentified (possibly Evelyn), me and steering my mother Nylsalie Edith Tottenham. A second later, I fell out of the punt and sunk deep, an experience still remembered
Ashley House after World War II
Ashley House was over 100 years old when I was there in the 1950s. It was the hottest summer of the century when my sister Ann and I visited. I would play on the lawn with music from Oklahoma blaring away because, in her moody teenage years, Ann had become infatuated with listening to 78s of the musical again and again from the rotating shelter in the garden, alone and half in love with one of the musical’s London stars. The greenhouses were to the left, the herbaceous border to the right and down the little slope there was a small pond which produced enormous eels. The rotating shelter seen below was enclosed on three sides and moved on rails allowing it to move round to shelter from the wind. Rising up in the background was a hillside covered with flowers where I first made an acquaintance with harebells. Outside the greenhouse were expanses of netted currants and gooseberries, fruit trees and the vegetable garden. That was the bailiwick of Edwin Galland, a sturdy, blunt man who had every skill needed and on whom Evelyn (and his wife Winifred) depended. He spoke a Midland dialect, flat, terse and he remained in her service until he died in 1976.
Ashley House was over 100 years old when I was there in the 1950s. It was the hottest summer of the century when my sister Ann and I visited. I would play on the lawn with music from Oklahoma blaring away because, in her moody teenage years, Ann had become infatuated with listening to 78s of the musical again and again from the rotating shelter in the garden, alone and half in love with one of the musical’s London stars. The greenhouses were to the left, the herbaceous border to the right and down the little slope there was a small pond which produced enormous eels. The rotating shelter seen below was enclosed on three sides and moved on rails allowing it to move round to shelter from the wind. Rising up in the background was a hillside covered with flowers where I first made an acquaintance with harebells. Outside the greenhouse were expanses of netted currants and gooseberries, fruit trees and the vegetable garden. That was the bailiwick of Edwin Galland, a sturdy, blunt man who had every skill needed and on whom Evelyn (and his wife Winifred) depended. He spoke a Midland dialect, flat, terse and he remained in her service until he died in 1976.
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Above left: Me with my mother in front of the little pavilion summer house and the bank of roses and Right: My mother relaxing in the rotating shelter
The contents of the house were the best, and her collection of watercolours from the early 1800s quite remarkable. She was prominent in the Women’s Institute, a superb and knowledgeable gardener, and an indefatigable correspondent to at least seven godchildren. The greenhouses at the house produced peaches and grapes, and the gardens (both flower and vegetable) were extensive although less and less extensive as the labour vanished. The workforce eventually culminated in just the husband-and-wife team Edwin and Winifred Galland, gardener and housekeeper. Winifred was Evelyn’s companion all the way to the latter’s death.
I stayed with the Wilkinsons in the years 1940-42, 1949-50 and frequently thereafter as a schoolboy at Rose Hill School, Alderley, near Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, and Dauntsey’s School, Devizes. She would sometimes take me out of school to feast me on buns covered in icing and would arrive driving an enormous car from the 1930s, grimly grinding gears and missing gear changes. Her car had silver flower vases and seats that faced backwards and, as I recall, she loved it dearly.
My mother told me of the difficulties of the wartime when we were guests there in the early 1940s. Whilst I was asleep, the house party sat on the lawn watching the horizon where a sheet of flame pulsed against the underside of clouds, marking where Bath was burning. The next day, all over the area, they found ashes of burnt paper that the fires had flung up and the wind carried from some bombed quarter.
I stayed with the Wilkinsons in the years 1940-42, 1949-50 and frequently thereafter as a schoolboy at Rose Hill School, Alderley, near Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, and Dauntsey’s School, Devizes. She would sometimes take me out of school to feast me on buns covered in icing and would arrive driving an enormous car from the 1930s, grimly grinding gears and missing gear changes. Her car had silver flower vases and seats that faced backwards and, as I recall, she loved it dearly.
My mother told me of the difficulties of the wartime when we were guests there in the early 1940s. Whilst I was asleep, the house party sat on the lawn watching the horizon where a sheet of flame pulsed against the underside of clouds, marking where Bath was burning. The next day, all over the area, they found ashes of burnt paper that the fires had flung up and the wind carried from some bombed quarter.
Even after Alan Wilkinson’s death in 1948, affairs were conducted as they had been before the war. One woke to a fire and a teapot steaming by the bedside. A can of biscuits remained in situ to staunch hunger pains in the night. One came downstairs in a house smelling of polish, coffee, fire smoke, old furniture and flowers. One could (and did) read a newspaper at breakfast, folded and next to the cutlery. Only gradually did the world insinuate itself into the foreground of matters requiring attention. It was expected for the guest to entertain themselves as much as possible during the working day but I was often taken to Slimbridge or Bath, or for walks up in the Cotswold Hills. Evelyn insisted on good manners and heaven help you if you were late to a meal. In the afternoon or early evening, often there were chamber music concerts or we visited her friends if she thought they would interest me (and they always did).
Evelyn in the garden of Ashley House, 1941-42
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Evelyn Wilkinson
Evelyn was the most generous woman I have known. I could be sure of a cheque every birthday up until her death, even though I was just one of her tribe of godchildren. Her range of interests was as astounding as her breadth of acquaintances. Her interests were founded on doing, not reading. Alan was an intellectual but she developed by studying plants, music, people in the round (so to speak) rather than from a page or an academic study. She was a talented musician who sang in works conducted by Vaughan Williams, among others. The house had a specifically designed music room to the immediate right of the conservatory, overlooking the garden. I remember well. I remember one concert being held in the music room, the windows wide open, enormous flower arrangements and visited by a constant procession of bumble bees which entered the windows to enjoy the floral displays of Canterbury Bells and Larkspur. Evelyn’s voice was a soprano and she delighted in using it. We were a church-going family and, when Evelyn visited us, she would come to the service with us. Even then, church congregations were vanishing and the singing of hymns was a thin reediness, an absolute torment for an adolescent. I still recall the mortification I felt and going red, wishing I was dead, when Evelyn opened up and belted out the hymn, startling parishioners who all turned around to look at us. |
Conclusion
Alan Wilkinson died on 24 October 1948, and Evelyn lived in Ashley House until 1952, the last single-occupant owner. She moved to Frome, then to Waltham House in Edington where she died in 1983 and was buried. Her executor was Lady Prideaux.
Evelyn knew everybody in a way only the very well-bred do. She never forgot those whom she knew, either, and I see in her life and attitudes the last of a class that had its roots deep in the social organisation of the 19th century, well-bred, to the manor born, socially observant, dutiful, curators of the beautiful, people for whom the second and third rate were intolerable. Let me just say, I was extraordinarily fortunate to have known her.
Alan Wilkinson died on 24 October 1948, and Evelyn lived in Ashley House until 1952, the last single-occupant owner. She moved to Frome, then to Waltham House in Edington where she died in 1983 and was buried. Her executor was Lady Prideaux.
Evelyn knew everybody in a way only the very well-bred do. She never forgot those whom she knew, either, and I see in her life and attitudes the last of a class that had its roots deep in the social organisation of the 19th century, well-bred, to the manor born, socially observant, dutiful, curators of the beautiful, people for whom the second and third rate were intolerable. Let me just say, I was extraordinarily fortunate to have known her.
Wilkinson Family Tree
Charles Ernest Orde Wilkinson married Edith Mary Lawder. Children:
Alan Frederick Lawder Wilkinson (6 October 1892-25 October 1948); Thomas Orde Lawder Wilkinson VC; Wilfred Wilkinson; Margaret Lawder Wilkinson; Henry Michael Lawder Wilkinson; and Dora Beatrice Wilkinson.
Alan Frederick Lawder Wilkinson (1892-1948) married first Dorothy Leonard Pike (1894-1926) on 20 June 1917
and on 18 June 1930 Evelyn Dorothea Birch-Reynardson.
Charles Ernest Orde Wilkinson married Edith Mary Lawder. Children:
Alan Frederick Lawder Wilkinson (6 October 1892-25 October 1948); Thomas Orde Lawder Wilkinson VC; Wilfred Wilkinson; Margaret Lawder Wilkinson; Henry Michael Lawder Wilkinson; and Dora Beatrice Wilkinson.
Alan Frederick Lawder Wilkinson (1892-1948) married first Dorothy Leonard Pike (1894-1926) on 20 June 1917
and on 18 June 1930 Evelyn Dorothea Birch-Reynardson.
References
[1] West Bridgford Advertiser, 30 September 1916
[2] Citation for the Victoria Cross, The London Gazette, 26 September 1916
[3] The Scotsman, 30 November 1916
[1] West Bridgford Advertiser, 30 September 1916
[2] Citation for the Victoria Cross, The London Gazette, 26 September 1916
[3] The Scotsman, 30 November 1916