Tunbridge Wells in 1909 Supplementary Notes

1 Tunbridge Wells in 1909 Supplementary NotesVersion 2. June 2012 This document contains the source references that wereexcluded from the main also provides an opportunity to correct errors that havebeen identified in the main volume, and to include referencesto new you find further errors - in the main document, or inthese Supplementary Notes ; or if you have additionalinformation about 1909 that you would like to be recorded,please send details youForeword (p1)-Christmas 1908 (p3)p3 The story of the suffragettes is from the Courier Jan 1st postmen - Courier Jan 1st p7. The telegraph-boys in Tonbridge - TonbridgeFree Press Jan 1st ?p4 Festivities at the Spa - Courier Jan 1st p5, Society Dec 18th 1908 p15. (JulietNicholson in The Perfect Summer (2008) describes a fancy dress competition at theSavoy Ball. Lady Diana Manners won 250 gns and a diamond and gold pendant forher representation of Velasquz Infanta )p4 Emmanuel Meal - Society Dec 26th 1908 p2.

2 Courier Jan1st p7. Fund-raising dinnerfor Christmas1909 reported in Courier of Nov 26th Introduction to Tunbridge Wells (p5)p6 Medical Officer of Health Annual Report for 1909. Table XIXp6 The suggestion that other towns were more significant for Anglo-Indian familiescomes from E. Buettner Empire Families: Britain and Late Imperial India (2004),eg p209. She does however have the story of Adelbert Talbot, who retired as BritishResident in Kashmir in 1900. His search for a retirement home in England was donewith care - he needed a certain status, but had limited resources. Barnes was rejected- not a nice neighbourhood - mainly composed of Cockney villas (p192). The moredesirable parts of London were too expensive. He feared that it might have to be theMidlands, but then found a suitable house in figures for Tunbridge Wells as a whole were abstracted from 1901 censussummaries on the web-site, hosted by the Univertsity of figures for St James Road were abstracted from the detailed 1901 of HM Caley from B and G Copus chapter in Residential Parks (ed ).

3 To councillors preference for Cllr Marsh, from Advertiser article October1908, in Borough Archives press main source for Tunbridge Wells in 1909 was the Kent and Sussex Courier(Courier), as this was available on microfilm in TW Reference Library. Other localnewspapers: Tunbridge Wells Advertiser, Tunbridge Wells Gazette and FashionableVisitors List, and Tunbridge Wells Society are only available at the British LibraryNewspaper Collection. The Tonbridge Free Press (TFP) is available on microfilm atTonbridge Ref. that all dates are 1909 unless otherwise League. Courier May 21st p7 reported that it had 2000 members - onethird of the Hedges. Society Jan 2nd, p11. The story about him being snubbed in Leighcame from Christopher Rowley (local historian of Leigh). I found surprisingly littleinformation about the history of Benson & Hedges, though the Ellis Islandimmigration records do record Hedges almost annual visits to the United Society Dec 18th includes the following description ofMrs Spender-Clay without being a strikingly beautiful woman, Mrs Clay hasattractive features, and a great charm of manner, and a restful way of talking.

4 Thereis an illustrated article in the Advertiser of Nov 13th 1908. A New York Times articleof July 15th 1904, mentions that he resigned from the Guards in 1902 after the ragging scandal at Windsor. It is not clear whether he was involved in the scandal- the timing may have been coincidental. (The scandal involved senior officersbeing censured for allowing (perhaps encouraging) junior officers to imposeexcessive punishments on colleagues who didn t conform to the behaviour expectedof William Nevill. See, inter alia, The Times Feb 16th 1898. p12. Nevill later wrotea book about his experiences in prison called Penal servitude (1903). He was infurther trouble in 1907 The Times Apr 15th 1907 Nicolson (The Perfect Summer p115) quotes Kipling, describing Churchill at the1911 coronation, full of his own self-importance like an obscene paper-backedFrench novel in the Bodleian .How we became Royal (p11)p11 Formation of Advertising Association.)

5 From the Courier of May 22, June 19, June26 1908, and the Advertiser of 31st July Dennis was brought up by his elder sister, Elizabeth, and her husbandEbenezer Waymark. In 1876 the Waymarks opened a small drapers shop at 78 Calverley Road (NB there were no buildings then between Five Ways and MonsonRoad). In the early 80 s they moved to no 2 Calverley Road, and by 1909 theydominated that corner site, which became known as Waymark s Corner. Ebenezerdied in 1892, and Elizabeth took over the running of the business. Albert, who hadbeen involved in the firm since the late 1870 s was admitted a partner in 1900. TheDrapers Record. Sept 18th 1909. See also Society 19th Dec 1908 of the Advertising Assoc - these were reported each month in the of the details given here were taken from the report on 29th Jan of theassociation s Annual Meeting. Chess competition is perhaps the wrong term. Itwas in fact a chess congress , held in the town, with some hundreds of Whitakers - This was a short-lived publication.

6 Whitakers own archivewas destroyed in 1942 but there is a copy in the British for the Promotion of Tunbridge Wells (footnote). Described in anobituary for Mr Francis Boreham (its first secretary) in the Courier of Feb 5th Nicolson (The Perfect Summer p226) talks of south-coast resorts having PublicityManagers . The Times disliked the term - an House. Papers relating to the application to call it Her majesty s are in theNational Archives at Kew. HO144/603 p151 for an earlier cigarettes. The story about the request to call them Royal George comesfrom WD and HO Wills and the Development of the UK Tobacco Industry BWEA lford. (2005) petition to the King and the various responses to it are at the National Reports in the local newspapers can be identified from dates in thetext. Streatfeild and Hardinge links to the King: Courier 26th Feb p7, Recollectionsof Three Reigns F Ponsonby (1951) of Argyle - better known in Tunbridge Wells as Princess Louise,Marchioness of Lorne, daughter of Queen Victoria, who lived at Dornden in Rusthallin the 1870 that George V s coronation was in 1911, not (p19)p20 Old Age Pensions.

7 The numbers in receipt of pension within Tunbridge Wellscome from the Courier 8th Jan p7. The statement about the unexpected levels ofpoverty, especially in Ireland, comes from the Annual Register, p30. Old AgePensions had been paid in Germany since 1899, and were already available in NewZealand. The Advertiser gloried in the fact that although both parties had promisedthem, it was the Liberals who had delivered (Advertiser May 15th 1908, p9). ManyConservative MP s were opposed. Col Warde (Medway - on p 92 I incorrectly stateMid-Kent) declared that he was against them (Courier 5th Feb p9), and Spender-Clay stated that he was in favour of Old Age Pensions, but not of the presentscheme by any means (Advertiser Nov 13th 1908). Most Conservative MP s wouldhave preferred a contributory arrangement. The issue became heated later in 1909when certain Liberal representatives suggested that the pension would be at threatif the Conservatives won the election.

8 The Courier saw the danger in this andstrenuously denounced what it termed the Pension Lie .p21 Mrs Collins may have been the oldest pensioner, but Mrs Skinner of HollandsFarm, Langton, at 105, was older. She was interviewed by the Advertiser on 26thMarch, but did not say very much. She said even less when interviewed again inMarch execution at Bethune. Arnold Bennett s The Old Wives Tale, published in 1908includes a scene at a public execution, though Bennett claimed afterwards that hehad never personally attended in The Ragged TrouseredPhilanthropists (1914) p21 blamed the press for this undiscriminating hatred offoreigners . Courthope s speech about foreigners was reported in the Courier of29th Jan Servants Ball at Eridge was reported in the Courier of 8th Jan s statement about unemployment came on 20th s Unemployment Fund. There are frequent references in both local papersto the funds collected, and the numbers who were supported.

9 The Advertiser of 8thJan gives other examples of the type of work that was s shelter. There were proposals in 1908 for another shelter at the top ofMount Pleasant, though this was opposed by ratepayers (Advertiser, March, April1908). At the same time the cab-drivers were opposing the granting of licences totaxi-cabs (ie motor taxis).p24 The newly-formed Right to Work Committee held an outdoor meeting at the cornerof Lime Hill Road in October 1908. Despite the weather (it was raining) there was afairly large crowd to hear the Secretary, Mr H Hesketh, declaim violently against thegovernment, the Royal family, and the existing order of things generally ( 16th 1908. p6). Cripps defence of the Mayor s Fund Courier 8th Right to Work breakfast. I haven t been able to identify Rev Kwell. The namemay be march to the workhouse. The descriptions of the various unemployed marchesare taken generally from the Courier of late January and early February. The paperwas not generally critical of them, though the editor did respond to a letter from MrHumphrey of the Right to Work Committee about the down-trodden citizens ofour town.

10 The editor considered this phrase to be pure clap-trap , in view of thelarge amounts that had been subscribed for relief (Courier Feb 19th p4).p26-28 Story of Clara Edith Bassett.(Courier Jan 8th p11,Feb 26th p3). Hettie Oxley (CourierMay 7th p3). There were other stories suggesting that infanticide was notuncommon: a baby s body found in a brown-paper bag under the seat of a train - ithad been drowned (Advertiser. Mar 13th 1908), a baby s body found under a bushon the Common, its throat cut (Courier June 7th 1907)p28 Boys birched. Tonbridge Free Press 15th JanFebruary (p29)p30 Recruitment of Territorials. The Courier comment was on 19th Feb. Headmaster ssuggestion was in the Courier Jul 9th An Englishman s Home . New York Times Feb 21st. There was an enthusiasticpreview in the Courier of Apr 2nd: In London [it] has created a sensation uniquein the annals of the stage . The performance at the Opera House was under thepatronage of the High Sheriff of Kent, and the commanding officers of the RoyalWest Kent Wells Peace Union.