Saturday, 4 July 2020

So who were the Woodwards of Loughborough?

The Woodward family


On 4 February 1860, in Port Louis, on the Island of Mauritius, the birth of Robert Wallace Woodward was registered. Robert was born to a father who was in the 5th
 (Northumberland) (Fusiliers) Regiment of Foot, but his parent’s names have proved elusive. However, much of Robert’s own life and that of his own children has been revealed through extensive research.

 

Robert Wallace Woodward

In 1871, at the age of 11, Robert is boarding at a school in West Grove House, in Barnard Castle, a town near Teesdale in the county of Durham. He is there with other scholars – William Cowan, Thomas Wilson, John Stevens, John Taylor, Ernest Hurd, John Robinson, Herbert Thubron, Herbert Hurd and George Carlin – as well as the schoolmaster, William Darwent, who was also minister at the Hall Street Independent chapel. Darwent’s wife, Isabella, and two sons, Charles who was 12, and Richard who was aged 2 also lived at the schoolhouse, along with two servants.

 

Having completed this part of his education, sometime around 1878 Robert began the first stage of his teaching career, and in 1881 he was a resident schoolmaster in Southampton, living at 21 Lower Prospect Place.

1881 census record for Robert Wallace Woodward
 

At the same time as Robert was in Southampton, a 19-year old Ella Mary Glanville was also living there, with her parents, Ebenezer Richard Glanville, and Louisa Morgan (formerly Hingle). The family were descended from a John Morgan, originally of Abergavenny, so it is possible that the Glanville residence  - Llangenny House on Oxford Road, in the St Mary’s district of Southampton – was a nod to their Welsh ancestry. Ebenezer and Louisa had married in Islington in 1859, and Ella was born in Southampton in May 1862.

1881 census record for Ella Mary Glanville
 

Sometime around 1884-5, Robert must have enrolled with the University of London, because in July of 1887 he matriculated with honours. His educational background was reported at the time as that he had studied at Sheffield Collegiate School, followed by a period of private study. Given his future career, one might assume that he had studied for a teaching qualification.

 

Robert and Ella must have already met in Southampton, but perhaps these educational qualifications were what was needed to gain the permission of Ella’s father to get married. This they did, and the marriage is registered in the quarter 3 (July August September) civil registers as taking place in Southampton in that same year, 1887.

 

So it was that Robert Wallace Woodward and his new wife, Ella, arrived in Loughborough, where Robert had taken up a teaching position at the Loughborough Grammar School. On 27 June 1888, Ella gave birth to the couple’s first child, Avery, who was to be the first of three daughters. This happy occasion was followed in October 1889 by the birth of their second daughter, named Ella.

Loughborough Grammar School, evening view
 

A trade directory for 1889-90, so presumably compiled in late 1888-early 1889, lists Robert as living at 106 Park Road, and being a tutor at the Grammar School. By 1891, Robert, wife Ella, and their two children were living at 7 Middleton Place: his occupation is listed on the census of that year as teacher of Classics.

106 Park Road


No.7 Middleton Place
 

On 27 April 1893, the Woodward family welcomed another addition to their family, Ida, who was the last of the three daughters.  

Robert Wallace Woodward at the LGS in 1895. This photograph can be found, along with much other historical information about the school, in the LGS Digital Archive (courtesy of the LGS Archivist)
 

Around 1894, Robert and the family had moved to 16 Herrick Road, but they were only there for a few years before they moved to Nottingham, where Robert took up the post of assistant master at the Nottingham High School. The family seems to have settled in Gedling, first at Hardy’s Drive and moving to Main Street by 1901. However, after another short-lived move, this time to Dagmar Drive in Alexandra Park, Nottingham, in 1905 the family were living at Mecklenburg Road, Nottingham.

16 Herrick Road
 

1904 was a good year for Robert and Ella’s daughter, Avery, who in March gained a prize in the Cambridge local exams – best Junior Girl, Nottingham, for which the prize was £8. This success continued into 1905 when, again in March, Avery gained another prize in the Cambridge local exams – best senior girl, Nottingham, for which the prize was £12. These academic achievements led to Avery being successful in the exams at the University of London, and she won a scholarship of £40 for two years, awarded by the university. Her place of education was listed as University College Nottingham, which had been founded in 1877, built by 1881, with classes beginning that same year, was not able to confer degrees itself, and was affiliated to the University of London. University College Nottingham had only recently – 1900 - raised its entry age to 16, thereby offering preparation for entry to university.   

 

Clearly Avery was a diligent student as in August 1906, when the University of London (University College Nottingham) published the results of it honours list for intermediate exams in the arts and sciences, Avery, was awarded second class in the intermediate arts: Greek. But Avery wasn’t the only Woodward girl to do well, and youngest sister Ida followed her example. As a privately educated scholar, Ida won the Junior Mathematics Prize, donated by Sir Charles Seely, in the Oxford local exams, although there was no monetary value reported.

 

In June 1910 Avery is a student at Newnham College, Cambridge, and gains a first-class pass in part 2 of the Classical Tripos. The article which appeared in the Nottingham Evening Post on 20 June 1910 (page 7) goes on:

 

“She was educated at home, and attended classes at the University College, Nottingham. She gained a Pfieffer Scholarship at Girton College, which she relinquished on gaining a Gilchrist Scholarship of £50 a year at the London University, and the Nottingham Girls’ Higher Education Exhibition. At Newnham she obtained a first-class in all the college examinations, and on gaining a first-class in the Classical Tripos (part 1) in 1909, won the Arthur Hugh Clough Scholarship of £40 a year, awarded to the best Newnham student of the year.”

 

On the 1911 census returns Robert, his wife Ella and youngest daughter, Ida - the latter listed as a student - are still living at Mecklenburg Road, Nottingham, and Robert is working at Nottingham High School. Middle daughter, Ella, is boarding in Leigham Street, Plymouth with fellow students. She is studying natural sciences at the University of Cambridge. Eldest daughter, Avery, is lodging in Lewisham where she is an assistant teacher for a girls’ public-school trust.

 

The Classical Association held their first ever conference in Sheffield University, in December 1912, and, as a member of the association, Avery Woodward was listed as one of the attendees.

 

Meanwhile, Robert and Ella were still living at Mecklenburg Road, until 1916 when they moved to 32 Leonard Avenue in Sherwood. This was probably because their youngest daughter went off to Leeds University at the time, and in 1918 gained her BSc from that institution, and in 1919 was an assistant mistress in a secondary school in Castleford, about nine miles from Leeds.

 

Robert and Ella continued to live at Leonard Avenue, but Robert retired from his teaching post at Nottingham High School in 1923, and sometime before 1939 he and Ella moved to a house called Staddles, on Church Street, Stoke Winterbourne, Salisbury. It was while they were living here that on 22 February 1939, Ella died, although her place of death was actually 74 Campbell Road in Salisbury. Probate was granted to her daughter, Avery, on 10 June 1939. Ella left the sum of £543 15s 4d.. The 1939 register was taken in September of that year, so only 7 months after Ella’s death, and Avery is living with Robert at Staddles, along with a domestic servant. By now, Robert is 79, and Avery is listed as a university teacher, but on the actual register, the subject of her teaching is illegible.

Extract from the 1939 register (FMP)
 

Robert only outlived Ella by three years, and on 28 March 1942, he died, like his wife, at 74 Campbell Road, Salisbury. The Nottingham Evening Post of 31 March printed the following notice: “Mr R. W. Woodward dead. Old boys of Nottingham High School will learn with regret of the death at Winterbourne Stoke, Salisbury, of Mr Robert Wallace Woodward, in his 83rd year. Mr Woodward joined the staff from Loughborough Grammar School in 1898 and retired in 1923. He taught mathematics, Latin and English.” Robert’s will was proved at Llandudno and Probate was granted on 8 May 1942 to Avery and Ida Woodward, spinsters. Effects were £3977 6s. 3d.

 

The previous year, 1941, Ida Woodward was a joint author (with Kathleen Lonsdale and J. Monteath Robertson) on structure and magnetic anisotropy of sorbic acid, in the Proceedings of the Royal Society. Ida was again a joint author, this time in 1955, on a paper on the effects of temperature on some hydrogen-bond networks in crystals, and again in 1956 on a paper about hydrogen bonds in crystals in the proceedings of the Royal Society, London.

 

Meanwhile, in 1950, older sister Avery was the President of the Association of University Teachers, and was working at Royal Holloway College. At a meeting of the central council of the Association, at Swansea University in May 1950, the Western Mail (20 May 1950, pg 4) quoted Avery: “We depend upon efficient teaching in schools for an adequate supply of students fitted for university education. Already in science departments in girls’ schools it is hard to find enough teachers.”

 

At some point, before 1960, both Ida and Avery moved to Belfast, where Ida worked for the University of Belfast. Together, the two sisters went on a cruise on a ship called ‘Venus’, which departed from Southampton on 23 March 1960, returning to Southampton almost two weeks later, on 4 April. Records show that the cruise ship returned to Southampton from Madeira and Tenerife. Both sisters are recorded as being single, and both give their address as 13 Broughton Park Belfast. Avery’s occupation is recorded as ‘nil’, so presumably she has retired, but her 67-year old sister, Ida, is listed as a university lecturer. They travelled First Class.

 

In a book published in 1962, called ‘Fifty Years of X-Ray Diffraction’, Ida and her work are mentioned a number of times, particularly in relation to her being one of the ‘original Royal Institution research workers’ and that she was a mathematician.

 

On 17 September 1978, Avery Woodward, the oldest daughter of Robert and Ella, died in Belfast. The probate date is 12 May 1978, in which she was listed as living at 13 Broughton Park, Ravenhill Road, Belfast. She left £28,831, but there are no names listed on the probate record. 

 

Ida Woodward, the youngest daughter of Robert and Ella died at Deramore House, a private nursing home in Belfast, on 22 October 1983. She had lived in Belfast for many years, and had worked at Queen’s University. The service was held at the Belfast City Crematorium at 2pm on Monday 31 October.

Probate Record (Ancestry)
 

After her death, Ida continues to be mentioned in published books. In a chapter on women crystallographers, in their 2008 book, called ‘Chemistry was their life: pioneer British women chemists, 1880-1949’, Marlene and Geoff Rayner-Canham recorded that Ida was one of W. H. Bragg’s group of 18 students, 11 of whom were women.

 

In 2015, authors Jonathan C. Brooks-Bartlett and Elspeth F. Garman wrote about the x-ray crystallography experiments that Ida and colleagues had carried out in 1937.

 

So, it seems that although Robert and Ella Woodward’s daughters never married, and did not have any descendants, their names are still remembered for the work they did in the field of science.

 

However, there are a couple of loose ends to tie up, and some speculation to ponder over.

 

Middle daughter, Ella, appears to have disappeared from records, after the 1911 census. The only records found that might be related to her are an entry in the 1939 register for an Ella Woodward, listed as a resident at the Wiltshire County Mental Hospital where her condition is cited as ‘incapacitated’. This particular Ella Woodward died in quarter 3, July August September 1948, and is recorded in the civil death register index as having died in the district of Devizes. While this information about the death is most likely to be the same Ella Woodward as was resident in the Wiltshire County Mental Hospital, it is not conclusive evidence that this is Ella Woodward, daughter of Robert and Ella.


With regard to Robert's teaching career, given that he was teaching Mathematics, Latin and English at Nottingham High School from 1898 until his retirement in 1923, and that Nottinghamshire writer, D.H.Lawrence attended that same school from 1898 until 1901, there is a possibility that the latter might have been taught by the former!  

 

The other matters for speculation are whether or not Avery, Ella and Ida were friendly with the Corcoran sisters, Kathleen and Nora, who were local supporters of the Suffragette movement. Kathleen, born in 1886, was only two years older than Avery, and Nora was born in 1889, the same year as Ella Woodward. Although the Woodward family moved to Nottingham in 1898, it might be possible that the families visited each other, as Nottingham is only about twelve miles away, but this is, pure speculation.

 

Consideration might also be given to the possibility that either Avery or Ida, or both of them, might have been  involved in supporting the war effort, during the Second World War, by perhaps working at Bletchley Park. A quick search of the records does not reveal their names, but until I can prove this definitively, I’m not dismissing the idea!  

Bletchley Park in 2014
 

 

You are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follow:

Dyer, Lynne (2020). So who were the Woodwards of Loughborough? Available fromhttp://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2020/06/so-who-were-woodwards-of-loughborough.html [Accessed: 28 June 2020]

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Lynne                 

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