Tag Archives: poulson

Growing up with our grandparents

Rose & Margo, Lyme Regis

This is part II of the story of four generations preceding me and my four brothers – our parents growing up between the wars in England and somehow all ending up in the theatre. For Yvonne and David, I have written recollections. Yvonne left many – some illustrated – diary-like notes and a book, Mind Boggled. David left a stack of notebooks filled with a scribbled draft of a memoir he never finished – to his credit, he numbered the pages, books, and various inserts – in his near-illegible writing. It’s mostly theatre name-dropping and “funny stories” but parts are about his early years. A characteristic blend of gauzy generalities of an idyllic childhood and tales of David’s excellent adventures. Old newspapers add details – of piano competitions, school prizes or sports matches – plus there are stories we heard from them growing up. David’s “Progress Book”, written by Billie, and a few notes in an album by Wynne are the only accounts from the grandparents directly. Margo’s brother Harding kindly provided some childhood stories for her. I’d like to offer a sense of where they lived, went to school, what home life was like, and to sketch out their path from babies to the adults we knew.

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Who were those people in the family tree?

I’ve spent many hours combing through records and newspaper articles about ancestors and long-dead relatives, and although there’s much I don’t know, I realized I have lots of thumbnail sketches of where they lived, what sort of work they did and occasionally other snippets of information which I haven’t shared. The more substantial stories – such as interfering in an election in Pontefract – have blog posts, but the smaller details are only in my head. Recently I sent my brothers two bow-tie charts, and one replied that it looked odd as he’d never heard of many of the names. Time to put a little flesh on those bones!

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In quashing Jeffrey’s teasing, a 66-year-old secret comes to light

Jill & Sven Lindgren
Jill & Sven Lindgren

My lovely husband, Jeffrey, has a vibrant sense of humor, and, after a bout of teasing and joking from him about who was more British, I naively thought I could shut him up by taking a DNA test. From that frivolous (and totally futile) effort, came a completely unexpected series of discoveries – and even more teasing and joking! I should probably start at the beginning…

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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…

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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.

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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

Picnics are as loose or uptight as you wish

Clara Anne Williams family picnic
Clara Anne Williams family picnic

Some people know how to relax and have fun – and picnics are a wonderful way to do that. Some people bring their tensions and rigidity with them wherever they go, and not even picnics can help! This picnic is Clara Ann Williams  (older woman) with her daughters Maisie (L of Clara), Sis (far L) and Billie (R in a scarf). Her granddaughter Muriel Maisie Beacon is sitting in her Mum’s lap, and if you look carefully, you’ll see there’s a kitten nuzzling with one of the other two women (friends, unidentified). I didn’t notice the kitten initially, but when cleaning up some of the image scratches and flaws, there’s a sleepy kitten nestling! Who takes a tiny kitten on a picnic? Continue reading Picnics are as loose or uptight as you wish

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…

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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

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