Category Archives: Poulson

Family history, Poulson, Theatre

Two young actors start a repertory theatre

New Theatre Bromley
New Theatre Bromley

Peter Goss, my godfather, and David Poulson, my Dad, met while working as actors in repertory theatre at the Theatre Royal, Bath in August 1954. Both had been in weekly rep for several years, long enough to have some idea about how to produce a play as well as act in it. When I asked my mother, actress Yvonne Forster, whether it was Dad’s youthful good looks that attracted her, she said it was his ability to bring order to a chaotic production she was acting in (in Dartford). In some scribbled notes Dad made for a memoir (which he never completed), he described a performance where he was acting as a human door hinge for a broken part of a set (in between being fired by a furious producer!) – the show must go on…

Continue reading Two young actors start a repertory theatre →

Family history, Poulson, Williams

How to avoid jet lag – world travel by boat

Typical Mail & Shipping News column
Typical Mail & Shipping News column – from 1934

Passenger liners were regularly criss-crossing the globe in the early 20th century – the British Empire on which the sun never set was still very much a thing. When you traveled from India to London or Australia to London, you didn’t go directly, either “calling” at a port to transfer mail and goods, or staying a couple of days before continuing the journey.

I started looking at newspaper accounts of voyages when I wanted to know a departure date – passenger lists had the arrival date and the port at which a passenger boarded, but not dates. What I saw was daily coverage of the movements of mail ships, liners and other traffic in newspapers around the UK – not just in the port cities.

Passing the Lizard
Passing the Lizard

These lists stopped around the start of WWIII and were irrelevant thereafter, but provided fascinating insight into both getting or sending a letter or package then, plus the role of local newspapers for practical aspects of daily life, not just politics, sports and “celebrities”.

This world had its own lovely terminology – such as a headline “Ships Passing the Lizard” – and the tables with last times for mailing (to catch an outgoing ship) were massive matrices of places and routes.

Continue reading How to avoid jet lag – world travel by boat →

Family history, Poulson

Poor Law, Salvation Army, and a David Poulson story

Brighton workhouse as WWI hospital
Brighton workhouse as WWI hospital

Searching the 1939 register to find John Walden Poulson – the Wastrel – I located him in Brighton – a place we have no family connections  (that I know of).  “Elm Grove Home (temporary)” was noted by the street addresses on Vernon Terrace were I found the Wastrel’s name.

A little digging in old newspapers and web searches revealed that in 1930 The Brighton Poor Law Union handed over responsibility to the local council and only the elderly and infirm remained in the Elm Grove Home. In 1935, The Brighton Municipal Hospital took over the workhouse building and the Elm Grove Home residents were moved to vacant properties in the area. The era of workhouses and Poor Law Unions was ending.

So far, I have no idea how or when John Walden ended up in this old people’s home for the poor, but he had turned 69 that January and I’m assuming things hadn’t looked up much (or at all) since the embezzlement problems in Goole, Yorkshire. Continue reading Poor Law, Salvation Army, and a David Poulson story →

Family history, Poulson

The wheels finally fall off for the Wastrel

Sydney Hotel, Goole, Yorkshire
Sydney Hotel, Goole, Yorkshire

John Walden Poulson – The Wastrel; my great grandfather – had so much going for him, but couldn’t seem to avoid turning every advantage into a tale of risk, broken promises, embezzling and very likely drinking and gambling. Some parts of his tale are very public (were covered in local newspapers), but lots of the details I’ll probably never know for sure. Today he might be diagnosed with bipolar disorder, but in the late 1800s even if there had been such a diagnosis, there wasn’t anything to be done other than watch a life unravel. Continue reading The wheels finally fall off for the Wastrel →

Family history, Poulson, Williams

Dressing up for a Pierrot dance

Goggie, Nanny & Gamps in Pierrot costumes
Goggie, Nanny & Gamps in Pierrot costumes

My father had commented on this picture of his parents and Auntie Goggie in fancy dress that this was all his mother’s doing – his father just went along because Billie could be very persuasive! I never saw my grandfather in fancy dress and couldn’t imagine the man I knew could ever have permitted his face to be painted with a beauty spot or to be photographed in a costume like that. Yet there was the photo.

It wasn’t hard to imagine other people liking costumes – my mother, father and stepmother were actors – but Gamps…

Continue reading Dressing up for a Pierrot dance →

Family history, Poulson, Theatre

The Wastrel marries again – a widow from a well-known family

John Walden Poulson – The Wastrel – was my great grandfather and his first wife Polly (Mary Ann) was my great grandmother. After she died, he married Polly’s sister Emily, but ran off to Canada leaving his six children behind. It was only recently I learned that he had married a third time – no more children as Bertha was a 45-year-old widow when they were married.

Bertha Hollyer, neé Buckstone, John Walden’s third wife, came from a very famous theatrical family with sisters and brothers who followed in their father John Baldwin Buckstone’s footsteps and became actors. I have no pictures of Bertha, but based on pictures of two of her sisters, I’m guessing she was beautiful. He certainly didn’t marry her for money as there wasn’t any – her famous father had died when Bertha was 3 following a bankruptcy where he lost the lease of the Haymarket Theatre which he had run for over 20 years, in spite of the success of many of the plays he wrote as well as his own performances. Continue reading The Wastrel marries again – a widow from a well-known family →

Family history, Poulson

For the love of cricket

Knottingley cricket team 1908
Knottingley cricket team 1908

Full disclosure: I’m not a cricket fan. I played in the back garden at home, but other than knocking rose buds off our Dad’s bushes, I don’t think I accomplished much. The slow pace, oddball terminology – such as silly mid off for a fielding position – and difficulty of knowing who is winning make it hard for newcomers to follow.

David, team Captain, Holmwood Park
David, team Captain, Holmwood Park

Cricket does appear to have interested male Poulsons for generations though, starting with John Walden Poulson – the Wastrel – and his younger brother Thomas, both of whom played for the Knottingley Cricket Club (Thomas is second from right, back row). John Walden was captain of the Knottingley team (prior to life veering off the straight-and-narrow) – he took more than just a casual interest in the sport. That continued to his son – my grandfather, John Ernest Llewellyn Poulson – the bank manager, and grandson – my father, John David William Poulson, the actor/director – seen here looking very pleased with himself at his junior school, around 1938. Cricket has been supplanted by football with my brothers – three of them still play/coach as adults – although they all played cricket a little at school. Football, however, is more than just a casual interest… Continue reading For the love of cricket →

Family history, Poulson, Williams

Best friend, banker, brother-in-law…

My grandfather, John Ernest Llewellyn Poulson, took a job with Barclays Bank after leaving the Royal Field Artillery around 1920, apparently helped by his grandfather, Upstanding Edwin, who offered assistance to Gamps (given his father the Wastrel, John Walden Poulson, didn’t or couldn’t).

I initially thought Ernest Izod Arundel Ellis worked with Gamps at Barclays, but he worked for a competitor, Lloyds, initially in Southsea. I have only found a little information about Uncle Ernie; his father, James Morgan Ellis, was an explorer, described in an obituary as “…pioneer of the development of the British-owned islands in the central Pacific.” – but I believe Gamps and Ernie met as young bank clerks because a boarder introduced them. They were about the same age, both just leaving the service, both tall and handsome, both cricket lovers and bank clerks – and became friends.

Continue reading Best friend, banker, brother-in-law… →
Family history, Poulson, Shepherd

John Walden’s unraveling starts with a boat trip

Thomas standing in for John Walden Poulson
Thomas standing in for John Walden Poulson

Somewhere in the early 1900s, Upstanding Edwin’s oldest son – John Walden Poulson, the Wastrel – transitioned from promising oldest son of a local family to an intractable problem that defied family attempts to help him.

John Walden was captain of the Knottingley cricket team – younger brother Thomas played too. When Thomas married Lily Taylor in September 1901, the newspaper write up talked of the crowds outside the Wesleyan chapel. John Walden was there with his new wife Emily, and daughters Emily, 11, and Nellie, 10, were bridesmaids. But by the time his youngest brother Charles married in 1909, John Walden had vanished, although Doris (Aunty Goggie), 13,  was a bridesmaid and Ernest (I think Gamps, who was John Ernest Llewellyn), 12,  was a page. Something had changed… Continue reading John Walden’s unraveling starts with a boat trip →

Family history, Poulson

Thomas Llewellyn Poulson marries

Thomas with the cricket team
Thomas with the cricket team

On September 9, 1901, John Walden Poulson – The Wastrel – attended the wedding of his younger brother (and fellow cricket player) Thomas. There were apparently large crowds – for a small town – outside the Weslyan Methodist Church in Knottingley to wish the young couple well and watch local sort-of celebrities!

Two of my great aunts – Emily and Nellie – were bridesmaids and Mary Ellen, the three Poulson boys older sister, made the trip from Portsmouth. This was possibly the last family event where Edwin and all of his children were there. Both weddings took place at the local Wesleyan Chapel – the picture is at the head of the post. Continue reading Thomas Llewellyn Poulson marries →