Herry's Archives

My idea of what retail banking should be like is heavily coloured by my first experiences of it. I opened an account at Barclays* in Winchester when I was about 13 and had just gone to school. A small amount of money was deposited in my account by my parents and occasionally topped up. I didn't need much; just enough to go to the school shop a couple of times a week for egg and chips (2/6p) to supplement the appalling food that Francis King served in Phil's. Other things were bought on my mother Annette's account - groceries at Cullen's in Jewry St and books at Harrington's in Parchment St. Later we used to go to the Two Bare Feet coffee bar (also in Parchment St) and have weak cappuccinos in glass cups and saucers and imagine that we were cool. As a consequence, I went rarely to the bank (these were the days long before cash machines) to draw out money, but when I did, one entered the rather splendid high-ceiling banking hall and I sought out Carole , an a...

Sir Alfred Herbert acquired Town Thorns Manor at Easenhall in the late 1930s as place to which Coventry children could be evacuated in time of war, and gave it to Coventry City Council. After the war, it was turned into a school for children with learning difficulties. The Town Thorns Residential School for ESN Children was opened in January 1954, run by a Mr Brittan and his wife. Mr Brittan wrote to Sir Alfred and Lady Nina Herbert in January 1954: "Many times since January 20th when we opened as a residential school for ESN children, the boys and girls have spoken about the "lovely house" and "when are Sir Alfred and Lady Herbert coming to visit us?" We are very grateful for this opportunity to work with these problem cases in such delightful surroundings, and both the children and staff would welcome the chance to thank you personally. Perhaps the best thanks you can receive is to know how great has been the change for good in these children - mentally, mo...

Sir Alfred was considerably involved with helping the inspirational vicar, the Rev Claud Russell , with the building of a new church at Earlsdon, Coventry in 1929-1931. and the Lady Chapel at the church is dedicated to the memory of his second wife, Florence. A later vicar of St Barbara's, Canon Cooke, married his granddaughter June Hollick to Capt Milo Vapenik at Stoneleigh in 1941 and Claude Russell and another local vicar, the Rev AP Wales , remained good family friends for many years. The history of the church can be found on the church's website here . The original consecration of the church was reported in The Coventry Standard of 3rd October 1931 thus: " St Barbara's Earlsdon - Consecration by the Bishop of Coventry - Tribute to Vigorous Leadership - Canon CAH Russell " On Saturday afternoon, with dignified ceremonial, and in the presence of a large and representative congregation, the Bishop of Coventry (Dr Mervyn Haigh) consecrated the first portion of ...

Coventry has created a 'Walk of Fame' in Priory Place near the Cathedral where the most famous of those with links to the city (as chosen by the public) are commemorated with plaques set into the pavement. On Saturday 26th May, Sir Alfred Herbert's plaque was unveiled at a ceremony at which Herry and his brother Piers represented the Herbert family and Herry spoke. Sir Alfred's gifts to the city were many, and some are enumerated in the brochure accompanying the first opening of The Herbert Art Gallery and Museum . It’s a great honour for the family of Sir Alfred Herbert that the public should have voted him on to the city’s Walk of Fame; he loved the city and in particular the many who worked with him and for him building up his highly respected machine tools business which was for a time, the largest in the world. He was born and brought up in Leicester, but from the time that he persuaded his father to allow him become an engineering apprentice – an unusual career ...

Apart from some eccentric cousins who lived in Wimbledon, the Baronesses Gwendolyn and Winifred Leyonhrufrud, Herry has no Swedish connections, but on one occasion, he possibly came close to acquiring some. His senior partner's family [name not included to preserve their privacy] were friends of the Swedish Royal Family. Specifically the senior partner's father had become friends with the King and Queen of Sweden in the South of France and the relationship continued over many years. In the summer of 1969, the senior partner asked Herry to come down to a dinner party he was giving at his home, Adwell, which he was glad to do, and he stayed the night. The guests at the dinner party were the King and Queen of Sweden, their daughter Christina, Princess Margaretha  of Denmark and her husband John Ambler and Lord and Lady Carrington . There was probably another young man, but Herry can't remember him! He sat next to Princess Christina at dinner and got on very well with h...

The Stoneygate Class Lists of 30th July 1880. Click to read. 'Herbert' is mentioned on both pages. Alfred Herbert went to school at Stoneygate , a private school on the outskirts of Leicester with - in those days - some 50 pupils. The class list for July 1880, when Alfred was 14, show him excelling at divinity, English and the sciences. In that year, he won the Class II prize jointly with another boy, as well as a music prize. He still had at least two or three years to go and was must have been top of Class I when he left. Interestingly, the boy next to him in class was William S Hubbard who excelled in maths, algebra and geometry and with whom he later went into business. Also, above him in Class 1 was David Gimson , who went on to be an accountant and in 1918 became the Financial Director of Alfred Herbert Ltd, only retiring in 1953. Although Alfred was expected to go on to university and into the church when he left school, he met up with Hubbard, who had joined Joseph Jes...

Peter Lawford (1923 - 1984), the actor was the son of Sir Sydney Turing Bruce Lawford KCB (1865 - 1953) and May Sommerville Bunny. Sir Sydney's father was Thomas Acland Lawford of Kinnellan, Wimbledon Common (1816 - 1884), himself the the son of Samuel Lawford (1775 - 1865) of Blackheath, a banker. Samuel Lawford was my great-great grandfather. Sydney Lawford was married twice, first in 1914 to Muriel Williams (daughter of Sir Hartley Williams) and then in 1925 to May Bunny. Peter was born in 1923, before her marriage to Sydney Lawford, which suggests that Sydney may not have been his father. Peter married Patricia Kennedy, daughter Joseph Kennedy and sister of (later) President JF Kennedy at St Patrick's Cathedral, New York in 1954 and after divorce in 1966, he married Mary Ann Rowan (1971) and Patricia Seaton (1984). Peter and Patricia had four children: Christopher Kennedy Lawford, Sydney (McKelvey), Victoria (Pender) and Robin.