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.
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Robert Wallace Woodward
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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.
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1881 census record for Robert Wallace Woodward
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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.
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1881 census record for Ella Mary Glanville
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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.
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Loughborough Grammar School, evening view
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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.
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106 Park Road
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On 27 April
1893, the Woodward family welcomed another addition to their family, Ida, who
was the last of the three daughters.
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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)
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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.
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16 Herrick Road
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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.
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Extract from the 1939 register (FMP)
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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.
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Probate Record (Ancestry)
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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!
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Bletchley Park in 2014
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Lynne
