Herry's Archives

The West Screen at Coventry Cathedral by John Hutton When Coventry Cathedral was built, Sir Basil Spence, the architect, chose John Hutton to create the vast screen on the building's western end where it forms an open link between the ruins of the old Cathedral and the nave of the new one.  The screen is engraved with a translucent pattern of saints and flying angels which partly, but never entirely, obscures the view in either direction. Sir Alfred Herbert was, of course, a generous benefactor to the new Cathedral ( despite having argued for the old cathedral church of St Michael to be rebuilt ) and although he died before it was completed, his widow, my grandmother, continued to take a great interest in the building and attended the Consecration in 1962. Alfred Herbert's daughter also donated the Elizabeth Frink Lectern to the Cathedral. As a consequence, in due time the family received one of a limited edition (of 25) miniature windows engraved by John Hutton wi...

Sir Griffith Pugh Evans of Lovesgrove A Cardiganshire Squire in India Sirv Griffith Humphrey Pugh Evans KC As the procession wended slowly down the gravelled walk the snow was falling softly, renewing the white garb of hedgerows and the fields, where patches of green and brown were showing after the thaw at midday. Little groups of people were waiting in the snow here and there on the road, and the cortege grew in numbers as it proceeded. When the main road was reached, a considerable number of persons on foot followed the long line of carriages. This touching description appeared in the Cambrian News and Merionethshire Standard of Friday 14 February 1902 describing the scene the previous Monday afternoon for the funeral of Sir Griffith Humphrey Pugh Evans of Lovesgrove, who had died at his home on 6 February at the age of 62 after a long illness.  Griffith was born in Aberystwyth on 13 January 1840, third son of John Evans, a wealthy Merionethshire born A...

Peter Lawford and John Kennedy Peter Lawford was the son of General Sir Sydney Lawford and May Sommerville Bunny. Sydney's father was the son of Thomas Acland Lawford whose brother John was my great-grandfather. There is a comprehensive article about Peter, his life and his acting career in Wikiwand here Click here for a YouTube film of his wedding to Patricia Kennedy in 1954 Return to  Archive Index  

Lucy in her garden in Plymouth Sept 2019 Lucy Luxmoore, my sister in law, who died on 21st September 2019, met my brother Fuff in 2007 and quickly became a much-loved member of the family. Lucy and Fuff in Luxmoore's Garden, August 2007 I first met Lucy on a visit to Luxmoore's Garden at Eton where an ancestor of Fuff's  HE Luxmoore had been a noted housemaster and had created a garden on an island in the river opposite chapel. I was immediately struck by her cheerful and charming personality. They were married in London in July 2008  with a reception that included a string quartet and some Scottish reels and where we met her mother, Mary Barker and her sisters, Judy and Sue and brother Will as well as her children Hugh, Ralph and Camilla. Fuff and Lucy's wedding July 2008 Lucy was then teaching music at St Anthony's, Fitzjohn's Avenue but soon moved to be with Fuff in Plymouth where she began teaching music and conducting choirs with great su...

Between 17th and 26th August 2019, most of the family were able to get together for a few days at Edward and Marijke's house in Ridgewood, NJ and spend a week together on Cape Cod. Prue and Thomas came in from Hamburg (and a few days in Chicago) and Boodle came up from a conference in Las Vegas to join us for a night on Cape Cod and then come back and spend a week in Ridgewood. There, Char and Milly kindly gave up their rooms and moved into Zozo's room and so we were very comfortable. On Cape Cod the family stayed at a rented house in Dennis and I stayed at the Sesuit Harbor House, a motel five minutes away. Likewise the rented house was large and well appointed, particularly the kitchen - as we cooked at home every night except the last. In Ridgewood, Edward did a spectacularly good lamb bbq the first night and we ate outside each night to the sound of cicadas. Photo by Boodle Unfortunately, the mosquitos were too much of a problem on Cape Cod so we mostly ...

Ithaca I have come full circle when it comes to travelling. Growing up in the 50s meant the occasional holiday on Welsh beaches, and my mother used to drive us down to Hill Head to swim, but there was no expectation of going abroad and having the summer to play cricket on the lawn at Stocks was absolutely sufficient. But in the summer of 1959, we made our first and only childhood trip abroad to Brittany and stayed (in Perros Guirec) and played clock golf and swam - and ate crepes. When we returned home, Fuff had hired something to dig out an enormous swimming pool at the end of the garden and after it had been somewhat reduced in size. it was blocked and painted and we spent the rest of our summers in it and on the tennis court beside it. In fact, my mother used to drive her car up the drive and swim there until her last years, and don't think we never went 'on holiday' as a family again. Using the empty pool at Stocks as a sun trap in the autumn. Left to right: ...

Lu Wanklyn (Handcock) 1946 - 2019. Photo taken at Nick Duke's wedding in 1975 Lu and I were exact contemporaries, and I saw a lot of her in our teenage years at the many dances and parties that took place. We must have partnered each other in Scottish reels almost more times that anyone and she was unfailingly fun and a joy to be with. In our day - at least in our part of Hampshire - there was no 'pairing off' and we all went around as friends (or as Annie Ommanney put it, 'rushed around in a heap', often in the back of one of our farm vans filled with bales of straw. Indeed one of my abiding memories was being stuck in a snowdrift in one such van with Lu, coming back from a dance, and having to wait until daylight to be rescued! No mobile phones and no Scott-like heroics from me either. Later, Lu disappeared to Sardinia to cook for Princess Alexandra and I saw her less regularly, but in 1967 I do well remember her being driven out to Florence in Tim Boycott...