Herry's Archives

The Final Version was titled 'The Last Action of the Calcutta Light Horse 1943' Return to  Archive Index  

When  Sir Griffith Humphrey Pugh Evans  died in 1902, he left three sons and four daughters and the Lovesgrove estate passed to one of his sons,  Lewis Pugh Evans . Sir Griffith Pugh Evans's eldest daughter Alice Mary married Richard Townsend Greer in 1902. At that time he was Chairman of the Calcutta Corporation though he was later to become commissioner of Behar and Orissa, Inspector General of the Police of Bengal and a member of the Governors Executive Council. He was the fifth son of the Rev. George Greer, rector of County Down and was educated at Trinity College, Dublin. A keen rugby player he represented the College, the Wanderers and the North of Ireland and gained international honour in 1876 when he played, as one of a team of twenty, for Ireland.  In 1877 he entered the Indian Civil Service where he rapidly rose to prominence; a Freemason, he was to be Deputy Grand Master of Bengal. A prominent figure in Calcutta, he set up the Indian Youth Athletic Club a...

E-mail from Charles Tilbury 2018 What little I do know about them is based on what Valentine told me, namely that your Claye great-grandmother, Annie (1847-1882) - eldest sister of my greatgrandfather - married William Batty Mapplebeck, in about 1870. Their daughter was your grandmother (Agnes) Jane. She had three siblings:  - Her sister Ethel made an unfortunate marriage to one William Hobart Bird ("for some reason he was very proud of the Hobart"), by all accounts he gave her a pretty rough time, so much so that she threw herself onto a railway line in (I think) 1918. Valentine said that one of the few occasions he saw his mother cry was when she heard that news. Gallingly, they had no children, so Bird kept all Ethel's money, which I believe passed to his own children or stepchildren: somehow I believe there was a connection between them and Kim Philby. - William Harold Mapplebeck, an accountant (?), who had several children, some of whom emigrated to Canada, as well a...

Edward Lawford, Clerk to the Drapers' Livery Company and Solicitor to the East India Company Colonialism Both the Lawfords and the Pughs were deeply involved in India. I had always been quietly proud of my family's connections with India, and didn't question too closely the prevailing narrative the we 'hadn't behaved too badly' as the colonial power and ruled largely by leaving the princely States to run things themselves under the ancient Roman theory of 'divide and rule'. Indeed, I had had some  appreciative comments made by an Indian political scientist  about the positive role played by my  grandfather, Col Archie Pugh, in arguing cogently for joint electorates of Europeans and Indians in the new Bengal Council. Furthermore, my own long business association with India had allowed me to make good friends with a number of prominent lawyers and business people such as  S.Venkiteswar...

The church of St James the Less, Litchfield   As the Church entered Lent, churches were still closed except for private worship, but Mark Christian recorded the Sunday service live on video, with Sylvia Hames playing the organ and one of the congregation reading one of the two lessons.  Mark Christian delivering his lesson Herry Lawford reading the lesson Sylvia Haymes playing the organ   Hamilton and Suzanne Lloyd's, Jo Mosse's and Patrick and Annette Lawford's graves John Kay's grave                        The churchyard was covered in. snowdrops and the aconites were also emerging.  Return to Archive Index Return to The Church of St James the Less, Litchfield

Men aren't really supposed to take much notice of their toilet. Fostered by boarding school, the 'manly' approach is to shower and shave and throw on some clothes, and be ready for action within minutes of getting out of bed.  Of course school wasn't like that anyway. The showers were in the cellars along with the tin baths that one took after games and in practice one dressed before shaving quickly in a basin to avoid the cold. A quick brush or comb of the hair was then all that was required before rushing down to breakfast.  Men are now take more trouble over their toilet, although still far less than women. But we are creatures of habit and my morning regime has for years taken me 20 minutes from getting out of bed to going downstairs.  Rising, I pull back the covers to air the bed and go straight into the bathroom carrying the glass from which I have sipped diluted lime juice through the night, and wash it. The bathroom is fortunately kept warm with a towel rail tha...

                                              The Anniversary Lecture 1993 Seldom since Francis Drake brought the Golden Hind to anchor in Plymouth Sound has a British explorer offered to his sovereign such a tribute of glory as Colonel John Hunt and his men were able to lay at the feet of Queen Elizabeth for her coronation day . The Times 2 June 1953 One evening in May 1993 I fond myself struggling to push my father, in a borrowed wheelchair, into the crowded lecture hall of the Royal Geographic Society with my mother following close behind. Forcing through throngs of people, we moved him towards a row of seats near the front that has been reserved for the members of the 1953 expedition to Mount Everest. My father, Dr Griffith Pugh , had been the oldest member of the expedition. The lecture we were about to hear was a celebration of the 40th anniversary of the conquest of ...

'Shipping losses from German submarines in the Indian Ocean were threatening to cut off essential supplies of munitions for the defence of India against Japan. Intelligence had identified a network of informers from Shipping Offices in Bombay, organised by a German spy know as 'Trompeta' resident in neutral Portuguese territory in Goa. A transmitter in the German merchantman, the 'Eherenfels', interred in Mormugoa Harbour, passed the time of each sailing to the German U-Boats. Few ships using the port of Bombay escaped them' - from the  forward  to Lames Leasor's book, 'The  Boarding  Party - the Last Action of the Calcutta Light Horse' published in 1978 . MV 'Eherenfels' built 1935 of 7752 grt, with twin diesels At the the outbreak of WWII, a German merchant ship ‘Ehernfels’ was moored in Mormugao Harbour on the West Coast of India, in neutral Portuguese territory, secretly transmitting details of the movement of Allied shipping sailing in a...

Prue, Mel and Beatice in Davos 1966 Following his divorce from Prue's mother Timmie (nee Fleming), Mel Watson married Beatrice Allez, a stylish Frenchwoman who was already living in Sydney. When Prue and I got married we saw quite a bit of Beatrice both in Sydney as well as when Mel and she came over to Europe.  Her parents  -  Bernard and Grittie Allez - lived in Paris and we had Christmas more than once with them at their their 'hotel particular' at 21  Rue Leroux , just off Avenue Victor Hugo*.  Far-West, Bernard, Prue, Bernard's brother and Beatrice Allez.  Bernard was from a well-known family, the de la Beraudiere's , (his uncle bore that title). I was never sure exactly what Bernard did, but it may have been to do with timber. In any event, work was not discussed. I remember one day visiting his brother at his chateau just outside Paris and being shown his splendid library. Grittie, equally stylish and most amusing, was originally Belgian. and wa...