Showing 95 results

Mary Stuart was born on 23 June 1886 at Shirenewton, Monmouth, the daughter of Alfred Donald Stuart, a mercantile clerk, and his wife Emily. On 15 July 1912 she married John Armstrong Hughes, a clerk in Holy orders.

Mary Hughes came to York aged 38 when her husband, John, became warden of the St Mary's Educational Settlement. After leaving York she accompanied her husband to America, where he served as warden at Pendle Hill. During her time in York she worked with refugee groups in the city, and was a member of the York Refugee Committee.

After the death of her husband in 1942 she came back to York and lived with her daugher in New Earswick. Later they moved to Kirby Moorside in the Yorkshire Moors, before later returning to live in New Earswick.

Mary Hughes died on 20 April 1955 at The Retreat, York, aged 68.

Christopher Ware was born in March 1794 in St Michael le Belfrey parish in York He married Sarah Nicholson in 1823. He died in 1858.

George Leeman was born in 1809, the son of a greengrocer. He married twice - in 1835 and 1863, and had at least six children.
His son Joseph Leeman became a lawyer and MP for York like his father. Leeman died in Scarborough in 1882.

William Gray (1) was born in 1751, the son of a Hull customs officer. He married Faith Hopwood in Oct 1777. They had three children - Jonathan (b. 1779), Margaret (b. 1782) and William (2) (b. 1785). Gray died in 1845. His son Jonathan Gray and his wife Mary had two children - Margaret (b.1808) and William (3). Jonathan died in 1837. William Gray (3) had a son named Edwin (b. 1847). William died in 1880. Edwin died in 1929.
See Also - Gray; family

James Raine was born in 1791 in Ovington, Yorkshire, the son of James Raine, a blacksmith, and Anne Moore.
He married Mary Peacock, with whom he had three daughters and a son, James Raine (2). He died in 1858.
The second James Raine married Ann Jane Keyworth in 1867. They had ten children, including Angelo Raine, b. c1877.
The first James Raine(1791-1958) was grandfather to Angelo Raine, Antiquary and Clergyman (1877-1962)
See Also - Raine; Angelo (1877-1962); Rev.; Antiquarian and clergyman

Angelo Raine was born in 1877, the son of James Raine (1830-1896) and Ann Keyworth. He died in 1962.
He was the grandson of James Raine, Antiquary and Clergyman (1791-1845).
See Also - Raine; James (1791-1858); Rev.; antiquarian and clergyman

William Arthur Jagger was born in 1897, the son of Albert and Rose Jagger. In 1920, he married Ethel Cook and they had two children - Irene May Jagger (b. 1920) and Peter Francis Jagger (b. 1925). He died in 1996.
See Also - National and Local Government Officers Association

John Stanley Purvis was born in 1890 in Bridlington. He died in 1968.

William Strickland was born in Boynton, Yorkshire, in 1753, the son of George Strickland and Elizabeth Letitia Winn. He married Henrietta Chlomley in 1778. They had thirteen children: Henrietta (b. 1779), Walter (b.1780, d. 1798), Caroline (b. 1781), George (b.1782), Arthur (b.1784), Edmund (b. 1785), Eustachius (b.1787), Emma (b.1789), Anne (b. 1790), John (b.1794), Priscilla (b. 1796), Isabella (b. 1799) and Nathanial Constantine (b.1802).
He died in 1834.

John Goodricke was born in the Netherlands in 1764. the son of Henry Goodricke, a British diplomat. His family returned to York in 1776. He died in 1786.
See Also - Pigott; family; astronomers

Jack Kenneth Willson-Pepper was born in Kent in 1904, the son of Albert Edward Pepper, a butcher, and Mary Southee White.
He died in York in 2000, aged 95.

William Etty was born on Feasegate in York in 1787, the son of Matthew Etty, a baker and confectioner, and Esther Calverly.
He died in 1849 and was buried in St Olave's churchyard.

Charles Piazzi Smyth was born in Italy in 1819, the son of William Henry Smyth (1788-1865), a naval officer and respected amateur astronomer, and Annabella Warrington (1788-1873). His godfather was Giuseppe Piazzi, a famous Sicilian astronomer.
In 1855, he married Jessie Duncan. Piazzi Smyth died in 1900 and was buried alongside his wife Jessie beneath a pyramid tombstone at the church in Sharow, near Ripon.

Augustus Mahalski was born in Poland in about 1831. His father was John Mahalski.
In December 1856, he married Sarah May in York. They had three children: Amelia (b.1859), William (b.1866) and Cecilia (b.1871).
Augustus died in 1900.

Dennis Haydock was born on 15th December 1923 in Crookes, Sheffield to Ada and Edwin Haydock who were deaf and dumb from childhood. Dennis had one older brother, Eric Haydock who was 4 years his senior. Dennis served in the 1st (Armoured) Batallion Coldstream Guards as a tank Gunner from 1942-1947. After the war, Dennis worked at Sheffield Forge and Rolling Mills and in 1980 he moved to York with his wife and took up work in the Terry's chocolate factory.

Dennis Haydock died in 2017.
See Also - Normandy Veterans Association

Ken Cooke was an Infantryman in the Green Howards (Yorkshire Regiment) for eighteen months between 1943 and 1945. He received his letter of conscription at the age of 18 just before Christmas 1943. Before joining the army he worked in a Royal Ordnance Factory as an office boy with his father. Ken was a member of the allied forces who landed on Gold beach on D-Day 1944. Ken was injured by shrapnel from an exploding shell after which he was sent from a field hospital in France, back to a hospital in England. After his recovery he was sent back to France to join up with Canadian troops. They fought their way to Bremmen where Ken suffered from shellshock and was returned again to England where he was demobbed. Ken is now a member of the York Normandy Veterans Association.
York Normandy Veterans Association
See Also - Normandy Veterans Association

Ken Smith was a signaller in the 43rd Wessex Division of the Duke of Cornwalls Light Infantry. Ken received his conscription letter at the age of 18 and joined the army for five years. He was a member of the second wave of allied forces who arrived on June 6th at Gold Beach during the Normandy Landings. During his time in France he fought on Hill One One Two and was injured by shrapnel from Tiger Tank shells at the age of nineteen. He was subsequently sent to a hospital in Brussels before being returning to a hospital in Wales to recover further. After recovering from his injury some months later, Ken served two years in Palestine and Afghanistan, (after the end of the Second World War) where he suffered from acute nephritis caused by injury from a mine that exploded under an armoured vehicle. Ken is now a member of the York Normandy Veterans Association.

Ken Smith died in April 2020 at the age of 95.
York Normandy Veterans Association
See Also - Normandy Veterans Association

William Varley was a quaker and conscientious objector from New Earswick, York. He refused to join the Army Reserve where men were conscripted under the Military Service Act of 1916. He was later sent to prison to serve a sentance for disobeying the command of his Superior Officer when ordered to put on a uniform. While in prison he continued to campaign for the rights of conscientious objectors. In November of 1916 William Varley accepted work of national importance and left prison to do this in January 1917.

Oswald Allen was born at Scarhead Farm near Gayle in 1767, the oldest of ten children of the Reverend James Allen, a hymn writer, and his wife Margaret (nee Wilson).

Oswald went to Free School in Hawes, which was founded by his grandfather, also called Oswald Allen. At the age of 13, he became an apprentice to a relative, Dr Francis Whaley, a York apothecary. In 1799 Allen began to style himself Dr Oswald Allen following the establishment of his medical practice and his founding of the York Dispensary. He later wrote a history of the York Dispensary and was succeeded in the business by his cousin John Wilson.

Oswald Allen married Francis Withers, the sister of one of his dispensary colleagues. In 1820, a 'medicine pot' memorial was dedicated to Dr. Oswald and Francis Allen at St Lawrence's Church in York. In 1833 he began writing his memoirs, which were later donated to York Reference Library.

In 1841, a widowed Oswald retired to Hawes, England with his grandson, Dr. Oswald Allen Moore, a surgeon.
See Also - Allen; Oswald (1767-?)

William Hargrove was born in Knaresborough, Yorkshire, on 16 October 1788, the youngest child of Ely Hargrove and his second wife. His father intended him to join the church, and he was placed under the care of his godfather, Robert Wyrell, at that time curate of Knaresborough. Wyrell recommended, however, that Hargrove be trained as a journalist, and as a result he was accordingly apprenticed to Mr. Smart of Huddersfield.

Following his apprenticeship Hargrove returned to Knaresborough, before purchasing the York Herald, a weekly newspaper, in 1813. He moved to York, and the first number of the York Herald under his management was published on 13 July 1813. He was editor of the paper for the next 35 years, and during that time expanded the staff to include a reporter, and a correspondent in nearly every town in Yorkshire. Hargrove subsequently bought the shares in the business of his two sleeping partners.

In October 1818 Hargrove entered the corporation of York as a common councilman for Bootham ward. He defended Queen Caroline in the York Herald, and announced her acquittal in 1820 by torchlight from the steps of the Mansion House. In 1827 he successfully promoted, along with Charles Wellbeloved, a scheme for the erection of a Mechanics' Institute, of which he became the first secretary and treasurer. In 1831 he was elected a sheriff of York.

In 1818 Hargrove published a 'History and Description of the ancient City of York'; comprising all the most interesting information already published in Drake's "Eboracum," with new additional content and illustrations. He had initially planned to reprint Francis Drake's Eboracum, but did not have enough support.

Hargrove also published the York Poetical Miscellany; being selections from the best Authors, in 1835. He was a contributor to the poets' corner of the York Herald and the York Courant, and to magazines. He also issued A New Guide for Strangers and Residents in the City of York. ... Hargrove's pocket edition, illustrated in 1842.

Hargrove collected the Roman and mediaeval remains excavated in and around York. About ten years before his death he transferred the whole collection to the museum of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society. He died at York on 29 August 1862.

William Peckitt was born in Husthwaite, a village near Easingwold, the son of William, a fellmonger and glove maker, and his wife Ann. He was baptised on 13 April 1731. At some point prior to 1752 the family moved to York, where Peckitt worked in his father's glove making business before establishing himself as a glass painter in Colliergate, York.

Whilst the majority of his commissions were for painted glass, Peckitt also produced a small number of windows which included stained glass. In 1780 he patented an invention for 'blending coloured and stained glass'.

On 3 April 1763 Peckitt married Mary Mitley, daughter of the sculptor Charles Mitley. The couple had 4 daughters. Peckitt worked throughout his life on the maintenance of the medieval glass in York Minster as well as painting new windows there. He also undertook commissions for cathedrals, churches and houses throughout England. He produced windows for a number of colleges including the Alma Mater window for Trinity College.

Peckitt died on 14 October 1795 and was buried in the church of St Martin-cum-Gregory, York.

John Ward Knowles was born in 1838. He left school at the age of 12.

Following a visit to the Great Exhibition in London with his father in 1851, Knowles enrolled at the newly opened School of Design in York. He continued there as a pupil until 1854, winning prizes for his stained glass work in 1852 and 1854. In around 1858, Knowles moved to London for a year to work for Heaton and Butler, where he developed an interest in photography and architecture.

In 1863, following his return to York, Knowles began to undertake conservation work on the 'Fifteen Last Days of the World' window in All Saints Church. Three years later he was a member of the committee for the 1866 Great Exhibition at Bootham, York.

In 1869 Knowles moved his stained glass business from Goodramgate to Stonegate. Five years later he married Jane Annakin, with whom he had two sons, John Alder and Milward, and four daughters. Both sons would follow him into the family business of J W Knowles & Sons. In 1874 he also bought and began to restore 23 Stonegate (now number 35).

During the 1880s and 1890s Knowles undertook extensive conservation work on the St Cuthbert and St William windows at York Minster, during which process he photographed all the panels before their restoration and rearrangement. He also spent some time working on the stately home Nostell Priory.

John Ward Knowles died on 17 August 1931 at the age of 93.
John Ward Knowles was the father of John Alder Knowles, stained glass painter, who worked with him in the family business J W Knowles & Sons.

John Alder Knowles was born in 1881, the eldest son of stained glass painter and restorer John Ward Knowles.

In 1903, Knowles travelled to Toronto, Canada, and then to Minneapolis, where he spent the next nine years working at the Ford Brothers stained glass works. On his return to England in 1912 he began to assist his father with his York stained glass business.

Knowles' career was interrupted by his service in both the First World War and the Second World War.

John Alder Knowles was granted an Honorary Master of Arts from the University of Hull in 1957 for his scholarly monograph on the York School of Glass Painting (published in 1936 and illustrated with his own sketches and photographs). During his career he wrote more than 60 articles on the history of stained glass.

Knowles died on 25 November 1961, aged 80.
John Alder Knowles was the eldest son of John Ward Knowles, stained glass painter, and worked with him in the family business J W Knowles & Sons.

Francis Drake was born in Pontefract, the son of vicar Reverend Francis Drake. He was baptised in Pontefract on 22 January 1696.

Drake was apprenticed to Christopher Birbeck, a York surgeon. When Birbeck died in 1717, Drake took over the practice. Ten years later, at the age of 31, he was appointed to the office of city surgeon of York.

In 1720 Drake married Mary Woodyeare, daughter of a former secretary to Sir William Temple, in York Minster. Together they had five sons, although only two of them survived childhood.
Mary Drake died in 1728 at the age of 35 and was buried in the church of St Michael le Belfrey.

Drake had a lifelong interest in history.With the aid of a number of local historians and collectors, Drake compiled the history of York, 'Eboracum', a folio-sized book of around 800 pages with the subtitle The History and Antiquities of the City of York, from its Original to the Present Time; together with the History of the Cathedral Church and the Lives of the Archbishops (published in 1736).

Francis Drake was elected Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London and of the Royal Society during his lifetime. In 1741 he was appointed honorary surgeon to the new York County Hospital, retiring in 1756 (although he was relieved of the position during 1745–6 because of his Jacobite sympathies). Between 1751 and 1760, he published thirty volumes of The Parliamentary or Constitutional History of England from the Earliest Times to the Restoration of King Charles II, with a second edition, in twenty-four volumes, appearing in 1763.

In 1767, failing health forced him to leave York to live with his eldest son, Francis, who was the vicar of St Mary's Church, Beverley. He died in Beverley and was buried in the local churchyard.

Thomas Widdrington was the son of Lewis Mauntlaine, alias Widdrington of Cheeseburn Grange, near Stamfordham, Northumberland. He was a student at Christ's College, Cambridge in 1617 and was awarded BA in 1621. He entered Gray's Inn in 1619 and was called to the bar in 1625. He held the position of Recorder of Berwick from 1631 to 1658 and Recorder of York from 1638 to 1658. He was knighted at York on 1 April 1639.

In April 1640 Widdrington was elected Member of Parliament for Berwick in the Short Parliament. He was re-elected MP for Berwick for the Long Parliament in November 1640. As a barrister, his legal knowledge was useful during the English Civil War. In 1651 he was chosen a member of the Council of State, although he had declined to have any share in the trial of the king. He was elected MP for York in 1654 for the First Protectorate Parliament. In 1656 he was elected MP for Northumberland in the Second Protectorate Parliament and was chosen as Speaker in September 1656, and in June 1658, he was appointed Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer. In 1659 and again in 1660, he was a member of the Council of State, and on three occasions he was one of the Commissioners of the Great Seal. In 1660, he was elected MP for York in the Convention Parliament. He was subsequently elected MP for Berwick again in 1661 for the Cavalier Parliament.

Thomas Widdrington married Frances Fairfax, a daughter of Ferdinando Fairfax, 2nd Lord Fairfax of Cameron. Together they had five daughters and a son.

Widdrington wrote 'Analecta Eboracensia; some Remaynes of the city of York'. The work was not formally published until 1877, when it was edited with introduction and notes by the Rev. Caesar Caine.

Thomas Widdrington died in 1664.

Reginald Hunt was born in 1894 at 2 Park Grove, York, the only son and middle child of John Henry Hunt and Bertha Mary Hunt. In 1901 the family lived in Spurriergate and by 1911 had moved to 26 Aldwark. Reginald was educated at St Olave's School and from 1904-11 was a day boy at St Peter's School, York. His father - a brewer, and later a Brewers' manager - was a cousin of (the later, Sir) John Joseph Hunt of the John J Hunt Ebor Brewery.

During the First World War Reginald worked as a Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse, first at Nunthorpe Hospital (September 1915 to November 1916) and then at St Mary's Convent Hospital - now York's Bar Convent - from December 1916 to May 1917. In both positions he was required to supervise the hospital orderlies, and he moved from the rank of Private to Lieutenant during that period. His sister Violet also worked as a VAD nurse, at Clifford Street Voluntary Aid Detachment Hospital.

Reginald also entered the brewing profession. In 1921 he received the Freedom of the City of London in the Worshipful Company of Distillers; from 1934-35 he held the office of Master of the Company. He was also onetime President of the Yorkshire Wholesale Wine and Spirit Association. On the death of Sir John Joseph in 1933, Reginald became Chairman of the John J Hunt Ltd and Scarborough & Whitby Breweries.

Grimston Court, Dunnington, designed by Walter Brierley for Sir John Joseph also passed to Reginald; he lived there with his sister Violet until his death in 1941.

Reginald Hunt took an active role in public life in York. From 1934-5 he was Governor of the York Company of Merchant Adventurers; he served on the House Committee of York County Hospital and as a governor of the hospital; from the group's inception he was Chairman of the Supporters of York County Hospital. During the First World War he was actively engaged with the work of the St John's Ambulance Brigade in York. He gave presentation cups to at least two local societies, the York Rowing Club and York Speedway, and was actively involved with many other societies and charitable organisations.

Reginald Hunt died on 29 April 1941, aged 46.
Reginald Hunt had two sisters - May (Mary) Hunt and Violet Hunt.

William Camidge was born in St Saviourgate, York in 1828. His father was a freeman of York, Beverley and Hull. He was educated at Houghton School before being apprenticed to a solicitor.

Following his apprenticeship Camidge moved to Pudsey, West Yorkshire, before returning to York to work as managing clerk for Messrs Richardson and Gold, solicitors in Blake Street. He later became an actuary at Yorks Savings Bank before rising to Consulting Secretary, a position which he held for over 50 years. During his leadership the bank increased its customer base by over 2000 people.

William Camidge became a freeman of York in 1849.

Aside from his banking career, Camidge was also a prominent and active Christian. Beginning his religious career as a Sunday School teacher, he went on to found the York Ragged School (where he was also superintendant). He later became superintendant of the Melbourne Terrace School and secretary of the City Mission, as well as being a faithful supporter of the Hungate Mission. He was also a Methodist preacher.

Camidge was also a prolific writer and local historian, and during his lifetime wrote over 100 published works on aspects of York history and the development of Methodism.

William Camidge died on 6 October 1909 in York at the age of 81, a month after resigning from his position at the bank due to ill health.
William Camidge was father of Frederick Adolphus Camidge and grandfather of William Gordon Camidge.

Frederick Adolphus Camidge was born in around 1860, the son of William Camidge, Consulting Secretary of York Savings Bank and Methodist preacher. He was educated in Goole, became a solicitor in 1884 and a member of the law society in 1886.

He held positions as clerk to the school boards of Acomb, Haxby, Wigginton and Dringhouses, and was also clerk to the Escrick Rural District Council, Escrick Out-Relief Union and the Escrick Rating Committee.

Frederick Adolphus Camidge became a freeman of York in 1884. He held numerous public offices throughout his lifetime, and held the role of Sheriff of York in 1910-11.

Camidge was a well-known Freemason and was a Past Master of the York Lodge 236 and of the Zetland Chapter. He was also a lay lector at Holy Trinity Church in Micklegate, and had previously been a churchwarden at St Helen's Church.

Frederick Adolphus Camidge died in August 1947 in York.
Frederick Adolphus Camidge was son of William Camidge.

John Arthur Ransome Marriott was born on 17 August 1859 in Bowden, Cheshire, the eldest son of Francis Marriott and his wife Elizabeth. He was educated at Repton School and New College Oxford, graduating with a second class degree in modern history in 1882. He was active in the Canning Club during his undergraduate career.

In 1883 Marriott was appointed as a lecturer at New College, before taking up a position teaching modern history at Worcester College the following year. He continued at Worcester College until 1920, from 1914 onwards as a Fellow of the College, specialising in political and international history. During the course of his career he wrote over 40 books on historical and political subjects.

Marriott's major contribution to education dates from 1886, when he was recruited as an Oxford University extension lecturer by the secretary of the extension delegacy in Oxford, M. E. Sadler. Extension lecturers had been sent out by the university to give academic courses in provincial towns and cities in England since 1878. Marriott was immediately attracted to the work: he was a natural platform orator and able to hold large audiences. Marriott went on to succeed Sadler as head of the extension lectures in 1895.

Marriott had been adopted as a Conservative parliamentary candidate for East St Pancras in 1885, though he subsequently withdrew his candidacy. In the following year he was defeated in the general election as Conservative candidate for Rochdale. In 1914 he was defeated in a contest for the Conservative candidacy for the vacant Oxford University seat in parliament. But in March 1917 he was elected unopposed as Conservative MP for Oxford City, a beneficiary of the party-political truce under the wartime coalition. He was re-elected in the 'coupon' election of 1918, but defeated by the Liberal candidate in the general election of 1922. He returned to the Commons after the general election of 1923 as MP for York. There he was defeated in 1929 by a Labour candidate, and retired from active politics.

Marriott married Henrietta Robinson, daughter of the Reverend W. Percy Robinson, warden of Trinity College, Glenalmond, on 7 April 1891; they had one daughter, Elizabeth Dorothy Cicely (known as Cicely), who was born in 1892. Marriott was knighted in 1924, and he died at the Montpellier Hotel, Llandrinod Wells, on 6 June 1945.

William Powell Frith was born in Aldfield, North Yorkshire on 19th January 1819. He moved to London to and began studying art in 1835, and later attended the Royal Academy Schools.

His connection to the Raine family is as follows: Angelo Raine was the great nephew of Frith. Raine was also good friends with Frith's niece, Molly Keyworth (married to Henry Keyworth). It is thought that Molly (daughter of Jane, who is featured in some of the Frith letters in the Raine collection) passed the letters on to Angelo Raine.

George Meredith was a Normandy Veteran. He signed up to be in the army at Wicks Cross, London at the age of 17. He was in the Rifle Brigade initially, but was then transferred to the Royal Army Service Corps, where he became a driver, providing fuel and food to the troops. He could not drive prior to the war, but was trained to drive at Darley Dale after signing up. He landed at Normandy on 7th June, and did not return home until 1945.

George Meredith died in York Hospital in 2017 at the age of 92. The announcement of his death was made in York Press on 4 September 2017.

Bert joined the army on 1st July 1943 after receiving his conscription letter on his 18th birthday. He was in the 2nd Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment, and was based in Richmond, York for his training. He landed on Sword beach at Normandy on 6th June. During the war, he was sent on 3 wireless training courses, and spent 3 weeks in Brussels as part of the training before returning to his battalion. After the war, Bert remained in Germany for 2 years working as a clerk in the army headquarters. Upon returning to England in 1947, Bert completed a teacher training course, and then worked for 9 months in a Catholic school. Later, he and his wife moved to Ireland, where he worked with deaf people.

Barritt died in November 2019 at the age of 94.

William Baynes was a resident of York with an interest in meterology. During the course of his life he kept detailed records of York weather patterns.

Philip Leeman was born in Nunnery Lane, York, in around 1934. He was also educated in the city, and following National Service in the RAF he worked as an administrator in the Yorkshire Herald offices. He was particularly attracted to history, and was a founder member of Clements Hall Local History Group.

He had a keen interest in classical music, and attended music nights at Guppy's on a regular basis.

He died in York on 24 May 2016.

After service in RAF Bomber Command in World War II, he read history at Emmanuel College, Cambridge and trained as a teacher at Birmingham University. He was a master at St Peter's School, York, where he held various roles including housemaster and acting headmaster (1978 - 1979 and again 1984 - 1985). He was active in the civic life of the city of York and the county of North Yorkshire, being a Conservative city councillor (1969 - 1972 and 1973 - 1976), chairman of the governors of Clifton Junior School, a Justice of the Peace, and a member of the North Yorkshire Police Authority. He was also a lay reader in the Church of England.

He became chairman of York 2000 at its inception and remained in that post until at least 1986 (the last copy of AGM minutes in the collection) by which time the organisation appears to have been moribund.
See Also - Allen; Oswald (1767-?)

Jean Wallace was daughter of William Wallace, a former chairman of Rowntrees. She was a Quaker, receiving her schooling at the Mount School, York (a Quaker school for girls). She studied business at Edinburgh University and took a Master's degree at York University with a study of alcoholism. She nursed her parents until their deaths. She became involved in a number of local and national groups interested in heritage and conservation including York Civic Trust, Priory Street Community council, York Archaeological Trust, Council for Voluntary Service and the York branch of the Council for the Preservation of Rural England. She was chairman of the York Group for the Promotion of Planning.

She became secretary of York 2000 on its formation and remained in that position until at least the early 1980s.
See Also - Allen; Oswald (1767-?)

John Cossins was born in 1697 in Brompton, Yorkshire, the elder son of William Cossins, steward of the Hackness estate. John Cossins first learned the practice of land surveying and drawing in his position as estate map-maker. He went on to create maps of York, Leeds and Scarborough, as well as other areas in Yorkshire, which were paid for by public subscription.

Thomas Surbey was a London-based engineer chosen in 1699 by two MPs of the City of York to survey the River Ouse. The purpose of this survey was so that the river could be made more navigable by ships. Surbey began his work on 5 May 1699, accompanied by two gentlemen, John Atty and Benedict Horsley, as well as two watermen, the captain and a boy. Together they made soundings and other observations along the river from York to the Humber and Hull. They returned to York on the 13 May.

Surbey returned to York with a series of recommendations, and began work on drawings plans and sections of the lock and weir, as well as preparing detailed specifications, estimates and a written report. He then presented the report to the City of York Corporation on 23 May 1699. His resulting report, covering 19 folio pages as well as a map or chart of the river, is believed to be one of the earliest practical civil engineering reports in England.
See Also - Allen; Oswald (1767-?)

Henry Tennant spent his working life on the railways, beginning his career in the 1840s. He was General Manager of the Leeds Thirsk Railway as early as 1849. He later rose to become Chief Accountant of the North Eastern Railway Co, before spending 20 years as the company's General Manager.

Following his retirement in 1891 Tennant was elected a Director of the North Eastern Railway Co, before being elected Chairman in 1905. He was also a Director of the Forth Bridge Company, and played an active share in the construction arrangements, and during his career had a similar role in the Central London Railway. He was also appointed as Arbitrator by the Board of Trade in the purchase of Edinburgh Street Tramways by the Edinburgh Corporation. His award was contested, but upheld by the House of Lords, and he later performed similar duties in Newcastle.

Tennant was appointed by the Irish Secretary to arbitrate on behalf of the Liberal Government in the case of a disputed claim relating to a Light Railway in Ireland. He was also appointed to enquire and advise, along with General Hutchinson and Sir George Nares, as to the proposals for extending assistance to railways in the Highlands for the benefit of crofters and to support the fishing industry.

Henry Tennant was a member of York School Board from its foundation in 1883 through to around 1895, and held the position of Vice-chairman throughout that period. When the Board ceased its functions in 1895 he was accepted as a member of the Education Committee and acted in that capacity for a number of years.

He was also President of the York Liberal Association from 1896 to 1901 and, whilst quiet in his nature, commanded a good deal of political influence.
See Also - Allen; Oswald (1767-?)

John Thomas Swales was born in 1869 and appears to have taken over the family buthers business in 1896. John Thomas became a Methodist Lay Preacher, an influential member of local trade organisations, and was nominated for a vacancy on the Board of Guardians in 1907. He married Ada Plummer in 1897, and some information on their two children, Hilda Mary (who later became an American citizen) and Thomas, (who carried on the family profession of a Butcher).
See Also - Allen; Oswald (1767-?)

FAMILY
Richard Chicken was born in York on 06 August 1799, the only son of Nicholas Chicken of County Durham and Elizabeth Huddleston of Pocklington. Nicholas Chicken rose to some prominence in the City of York, becoming Surveyor of Taxes in 1805.

Richard Chicken married Louisa, daughter of John Alexander of Doncaster, although their date of marriage is unknown. They had 12 children together although only five survived to adulthood. Scarlet Fever was the cause of death of at least six of the seven children who died in infancy. Although Louisa Chicken appears to have been with Richard at his death, she had separated from her husband in 1862, and at the time of his death was living with her daughter in Leeds.

CAREER
As a youth, Richard attended the Bingley Grammar School and then was placed, according to the wishes of his deceased father, in a clerkship at the Ecclesiastical Courts in York. He remained there until at least 1819, before embarking on his preferred career as an itinerant actor, which included appearances at the Theatre Royal in York. However, citing the excessive mental and physical demands of the profession, Chicken left acting and reinvented himself again as a teacher of elocution, establishing a school first in Clementhorpe and then in 26 St Mary's Row Bishophill, just opposite the Golden Ball.

Richard's school did not prove a lasting success, and several times over the course of the early 1840s he was forced to apply for relief from the York Poor Law Union. By the late 1840s he had found a position as a railway clerk in the office of John Cass Birkinshaw in Micklegate. Birkenshaw was a colleague of Alfred Dickens, the younger brother of Charles Dickens, who visited York in 1847 when Chicken was still employed at Birkenshaw's office. It is possible that during this time, Charles Dickens either met, or heard of Chicken, who had a reputation for eccentric behaviour and idiosyncratic turns of phrase. Consequently, there is some evidence to suggest that Charles Dickens may have used Chicken as the model for the character of Mr Micawber from David Copperfield.

Following the closure of Birkenshaw's York office in 1852 Chicken found employment again as a clerk, this time with the York and North Midland Railway. However he was dismissed from this post two years later, and despite gaining some temporary employment he became increasingly impoverished and was forced to apply for poor relief once again in the late 1850s. By 1865 he had been admitted to the York Union Workhouse and died there on 22 January 1866. He is buried in York Cemetery.

Charles Anderson was a member of staff of the Midland Bank in York, and also a member of the wider Anderson family who operated as tailors in the city. He also rented out property in a personal capacity

William Giles was born in around 1845, and spent his entire working life associated with York Corporation. He began his working career as a clerk with Joseph Wilkinson of the firm Leeman, Wilkinson and Badger, who performed the work of the Corporation before the appointment of a full time Town Clerk.

In the 1890s Giles gathered together a list of all the historical records of the Corporation, which formed the core of the current City of York Council archive collections. He also had responsibility for making arrangements for municipal elections, and often presided over the principal centre of Micklegate Ward.

He was appointed Deputy Town Clerk of York Coporation in 1886, and held that position until his death in 1923. Outside of his working hours, he was a keen historian and regularly wrote articles on 'Ancient York' for the Yorkshire Herald.

Giles was married and had one son and four daughters, although his wife predeceased him. He was very fond of shooting, but was known for very rarely taking a holiday lasting more than one day at a time.

He died at his home at 15 Park Place, Huntington Road, on 10 April 1923, following an attack of illness in the street. He was 78 years old.

Clifford J. Grant was proprietor of the old-established York jewellers, W. Grant & Son, Spurriergate. He had 40 years in the jewellery business which he took over from his father. Outside business, he was a founder-member of York Round Table and also of the 41 club. He was chairman of the York Round Table between 1959 and 1961. In the late 1950s he produced shows for the Monkgate Methodist Dramatic Society.

He died in 1961, aged 56, leaving his wife Brenda.

Geoffrey Handley-Taylor was born on 25 April 1920 in Horsforth, Leeds, the son of Walter Edward Taylor and his wife Nellie. He was educated at Wyther Park School, Leeds.

He was an author, bibliographer, and Honorary Home and Overseas Information correspondent for John Masefield Research and Studies (1958-1993). Based in York, he spent his working life as a journalist for the Yorkshire Evening Post, and also served with the Duke of Wellington's Regiment and at the War Office during the Second World War.

His books included 'Mona Ingleby, Ballerina and Choreographer' (1947); 'Winifred Holtby Bibliography and Selected Letters'; 'John Masefield, OM, The Queen's Poet Laureate' (1960) biography; 'Bibliography of Monaco'; 'Bibliography of Iran'; and 'Selected Bibliography of Literature Relating to Nursey Rhyme Reform' (which ran to many editions). He also rewrote and revised the periodicals section of the Encyclopaedia Britannica (1960s), and wrote 'Italian Ballet Today' (1949); 'John Gay and the Ballad Opera'; 'The Book of the Private Press'; 'Selected Letters of Winifred Holtby and Vera Brittain, 1920-35' (1961); 'C.Day Lewis, Poet Laureate' (1968); 'Vera Brittain: Occasional Papers' (1983); and 'Kathleen: the life of Kathleen Ferrier 1912-53'
(1988).

In 1950 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and also held posts as Chairman of the British Poetry-Drama Guild (1946-1952), Vice-President of the Leeds University Tudor Players (1948-1950), Publisher at Leeds University Poetry (1949), Founder of the Winifred Holtby Memorial Collection at Fisk University, Nashville (1955), Honorary General Secretary of the Dumas Association (1955-1957), Chairman of the General Council of the Poetry Society (1967-1968), member of the General Council of the National Book League (1968), President of the Lancashire Authors Association (1969-1972), trustee of the Gladstone Memorial Library, London (1974-1978), join Literary Trustee of the Estate of Vera Brittain (1979-1990) and Honorary Founder Member of the John Masefield Society (1993-1997).

He died on 27 May 2005, aged 85.

Cyril Deighton was a Methodist, who took an active role in his local church. He was a Sunday School teacher, and later became Superintendant. He was also an active member of the church choir.

He was elected a Trustee of his local Chapel Trust in 1939, and was appointed Treasuer in 1940. His call to the Army in the Second World War was deferred to allow him to complete his examination in Municipal Accountancy. This he passed with distinction, and was destined for a business career after his army service.

During the Second World War, he fought in Palestine and Egypt, sending many letters and photographs back to friends and family.

Cyril died on 5 June 1944 in a Military Hospital in Jersulem, following an illness.
Cyril predeceased his parents, and also had at least one sister.

Allis was later the proprietor of a private asylum at Osbaldwick, and later Suerintendent of The Retreat in York. He was also Honorary Curator of Comparative Anatomy at the Yorkshire Museum 1839-1875, Fellow of Linnean Society, and one of the first members of the British Association.

Alan H Audin is a researcher into the history of his family in York, as well as other local history topics. The archive comprises his research notes.

Nellie Battrick was originally from York, who travelled to India to work as a nanny. Her archives date from the 1930s, when she was employed in India. Her date of birth and death are currently unknown.

George Benson was born in 1856. On 24 August 1889 he married Annie Denton. Benson worked in York as an architect, and was heavily involved in the Yorkshire Architectural and York Archaeological Society (YAYAS). He published a number of works on historic buildings in York.

T C Benfield qualified as a solicitor in York in 1929. He was always heavily involved in the life of the city, and in 1937 joined the Civil Defence volunteers (a position he retained throughout the Second World War). He was admitted into the Merchant Adventurers Company in York on 7 July 1944, and also served as Secretary of York Festival Society, holding a role during the proposed revival of the York Mystery Plays.

Benfield was elected Town Clerk of York in the late 1940s, and held the position until at least 1959. He died in 1986.

Leonard Birch was a builder and a citizen of York. He administered the estate of a Mrs Keys.

Harold Edgar Bloor trained as an engineer, and spent his career specialising in gas services. He joined York Gas Company, and wrote a report and recommendations for the reconstruction of the York gas works in 1913. By August 1940 he was listed as a Director.

Bloor also held a number of appointments outside of York Gas Company during his working life. In 1919 he was elected President of the North of England Gas Managers Association, by 1924 he was a consulting engineer for Driffield gas works, and in 1931 he was an arbitrator for the gas sector. He was a member of the Gas Council, and Chairman of Minster Engineering in the late 1920s and 1930s. Bloor was elected Chairman of the Yorkshire Joint Tar Board and Tar Producers Committee, and was a member of the Benzole Committee in the 1940s.

Bloor was also an inventor, and took out a large number of patents for various new inventions throughout the 1940s and 1950s. He had also invented a means of humidification using domestic heating apparatus in 1933.

Aside from his working life, Bloor was a shareholder and Director of the York Citizens Theatre Trust, set up to run the Theatre Royal; a Director of M A Craven and Son Ltd and Governor of the Merchant Adventurers in 1945/1946. He was also involved in his local Rotary Club. He held voluntary positions in both World Wars – he was a Temporary Captain in the Volunteer Force in the First World War (he held his position in the West Riding Motor Volunteer Corps, No. 4 Group), and became a Fire Guard in 1941.

Bloor wrote and presented extensively throughout his life, including on the effects of the First World War on the gas industry. He presented to school children and adults. His date of death is unknown.

Anne Bayliss was a resident of York. She co-wrote a book on the life of York Artist William James Boddy in 1996 with her husband Paul.

Paul Bayliss was a resident of York. He co-wrote a book on the life of York Artist William James Boddy in 1996 with his wife Anne.

Benton was born in York on 7th February 1899. He was raised in York and went on to work on the railways. He signed up to fight during the First World War, and returned home injured in 1918 following the loss of his lower left arm and a bone in his right arm. His date of death is currently unknown.

Charles Cartwright was Under Sheriff to Sir William Saint Quintin, High Sheriff of the County of York 1729-30.

Harry Chapman was a resident of York, and a Serjeant in the West Yorkshire Regiment in the years before the First World War. He married Hester Chapman (although known as Esther) in 1909 at St Denys' Church, York and had at least two children. He died in 1925 at Fairfield Sanatorium in York.

It is believed that John Cooper was a friend or relation of Samuel Holberry, Chartist.

Edna Annie Crichton was Lord Mayor of York from 1941 to 1942, the first woman to hold that position.

Crichton was born in Gloucester on 8 May 1876. Her father, Joseph Marshall Sturge JP was a mechant, her mother was Anne (Annie) Burke, and her sister was Mary Sturge Gretton, historian. Crichton attended Sidcot School and worked on the Passmore Edwards settlement in Bloomsbury, London. In the early 1910s, she took on a role in York, serving on the national health insurance committee and on the board of guardians for the city.

In 1919, Crichton was elected to City of York Council, a position she would go on to hold for 23 years. As lord mayor, she led the city through the Baedeker raid in 1942. She spent her time visiting hospitals and many of the bombed houses.

Crichton was also the first female Alderman in York, a position she took on in 1942 and she held for 13 years, concerning herself with social interests such as health, housing and education, sitting on committees for each. She lead initiatives on the housing front, establishing a committee on housing and ensured construction of new houses and removal of dilapidated ones. In 1955, on her retirement, she became the second woman to receive the Freedom of the City of York.

She married David Sprunt Crichton on 22 August 1901 and that had two children together. After retirement in 1955, she continued to live in York until her death at Clifton on 5 March 1970.

George Dickinson Dalby was a plumber in York, who was originally apprenticed to Frederick William Birch of Scarcroft Road, plumber, in 1916.

David Clarke was a showman and theatrical all-rounder. For 50 years he devised, wrote and produced hundreds of plays, shows and full-scale pageants involving casts of hundreds on a monumental scale.

Clarke was born in London on 20 October 1931, before moving to Farncombe when he was two years old. He attended Godalming Grammar School, Goldsmiths Teacher Training College and Guildford School of Art.

In 1951 he acted in the Pageant of Farnham, and took part in the Guildford Coronation Pageant in 1952, before undertaking National Service in 1954-1955.

Clarke went on to teach art at Camberley Grammar School in Guildford, during which time he produced plays and operas, and founded the Cloister Players. In 1957 he was selected as production designer for the pageant of Guildford, which ran for ten days with a cast of thousands.

During the 1950s Clarke directed and produced two films, Mr Guy and The Girl with the Ponytail, both of which won awards in a national competion promoted by Movie Maker magazine and shown at London's Nationai Film Theatre. He also continued directing and producing plays for The Cloister Players and, in 1971, took the entire company to Cornwall's Minack Theatre to perform Romeo and Juliet and The Importance of Being Ernest. He also directeted A Mid-summer Night's Dream at Loseley Park, West Dean College in Sussex and at the Chichester Festival.

In 1968 David returned to pageants, devising, designing and producing The Pageant of England at Shalford Park. Around 1,000 people took part, all of them parading along Guildford High Street in full costume before the first performance. Some 100 technicians worked back-stage, 6,000 costumes were worn, 100 animals took part and it was watched by 40,000 people over two weeks. It was 10 years before David returned to Shalford Park with the Pageant of Monarchy.

In 1973 he was appointed artistic director of the Guildford Summer Festival, and in 1977 he organiscd Guildford Silver Jubilee Pageant. Princess Anne, the pageants patron, attended a Performance and David received the Queen's Jubilee Medal in recognition of his efforts.

Pageants followed in Farnham, in 1988, and at Corfe Castle, Dorset, in 1991, and then the Cranleigh Millennium Pageant in 2000 and the Chilworth Gunpowder Community Play at Tillingbourne Valley in the same year.

In 1980, and again in 1984, David was engaged to direct and produce the York Mystery Plays in York Minster.

He died in 2014.

Gerald Harrison who performed under the name Dustin Gee, was an English impressionist and comedian, best known for his double act with fellow comic, Les Dennis.

Harrison was born in York in 1942, and left school at 15 to study art at college. He took a job as an artist, working mainly with stained glass and for a while worked on the stained glass windows at York Minster. He played in a rock band in the evenings called the Dare Devils and later 'Gerry B and the Hornets' before they altered the name to 'Gerry B and the Rockafellas'. When the group disbanded, Gee became a compere, then later a comedian.

In 1975, Gee met his future comedy partner, Les Dennis. After 20 years in showbusiness, Gee got his television break on Who Do You Do?, an ITV showcase. The show gave the opportunity for up and coming entertainers and impressionists to impersonate stars. Les Dennis also appeared on this show.

From April 1980 to July 1985, Gee was star guest on Russ Abbot's Madhouse. Les Dennis became one of the cast in 1982; it was during this year that Gee and Dennis formed a comedy double act. By this time, Gee was a cabaret star in the UK, selling out theatres and nightclubs somehow by word of mouth alone, despite being on weekly television. This was the show that included his most famous impression, as Coronation Street's Vera Duckworth in two-handers with Mavis Riley (played by Les Dennis).

In 1982, Gee appeared on ITV's talent show Success, alongside a sixteen-year-old Lisa Stansfield, who was making her TV debut.

On Saturday 7 April 1984, Gee and Dennis began their own TV comedy show, The Laughter Show (retitled, Les & Dustin's Laughter Show for the third series). The first episode of a third and final series aired on Saturday 28 December 1985. The second episode had already been planned to be postponed for a fortnight, but it was during this time that Gee died (on 3 January 1986). Soon after Gee's death, the BBC decided to cancel the rest of the series, but it was resumed upon the request of Gee's family. In the summer of 1986, the third series of the Laughter Show was repeated uninterrupted as a tribute to Gee.

Gee's funeral was held on 9 January 1986, at St Oswald's Church, at Fulford, York.

Samuel Holberry was a prominent Chartist activist.

Holberry was born in Gamston, Nottinghamshire, the youngest of nine children. In 1832 he joined the army, leaving in 1835 and moving to Sheffield, where began working as a distiller, and married Mary Cooper.

Together with other activists campaigning to extend the political rights given by the Reform Act 1832, he engaged in a number of peaceful protests. After a rebellion in Newport, Monmouthshire (now known as the Newport Rising) was put down in 1839, Samuel and a group of conspirators planned a Sheffield Rising.

The groups began to organise a militia, and supposedly 'provided themselves with arms, and fixed upon a plan for taking some, and firing other parts of the town'.

The plot was exposed by the landlord of a pub in Rotherham who had infiltrated the group. Leaders were identified, and both Samuel and Mary were arrested. In contrast to many members of the group, Samuel freely admitted that he had aimed to upset the Government and was willing to die for the Charter. He was convicted of conspiracy to riot and sedition and was sentenced to four years' imprisonment. He was placed in Northallerton House of Correction.

In gaol, Samuel developed consumption and died after being transferred to York Castle in 1842. He was buried in Sheffield General Cemetery, with 50,000 people attending his funeral.

Hugh Murray was a pre-eminent British historian of the city of York. He hated history at school but turned it into a second career after retiring from British Rail.

Murray was born in Hull, and was the fifth generation of railwaymen in his family. His father Donald was fish stock superintendent for the London and North East Railway (LNER).

He was educated at Brecon, St. Peter's School, York, and Jesus College, Oxford, where he read physics. He then joined British Rail, where he became divisional signals and telecommunications engineer at Norwich and later Leeds, and ultimately moved to York to spend 14 years as signals engineer for the Eastern Railways region. He continued living in York after retiring in 1988.

Murray amassed his own library containing thousands of books and photographs and had an encyclopaedic knowledge of York. In 2004, Murray was presented with a British Association for Local History award for personal achievement for his services to York's local history. He delivered more than 1,500 lectures, a local history course that ran for 15 years, and a popular guided walks programme. He had an impressive list of publications including articles in many local history and other journals, and published several books.

Murray was a leading member of the Yorkshire Architectural and York Archaeological Society, being chairman from 1991 to 2002, and was editor of Yorkshire Historian from 1984 to 2000. He was on the Council of Friends of York Minster and the York Civic Trust, and in the Yorkshire Heraldry Society. He had a particular interest in York Cemetery, which opened in 1837 and was rescued from ruin by an organisation of Friends. As a trustee, treasurer and administrator for many years, he created a database of all the burials which is now an invaluable research tool for other historians as well as people with relatives buried there.

Murry died of mesothelioma in 2013, from asbestos dust and fibres in workshops while he was a British Rail graduate signals apprentice in the mid-1950s.

Sir Hugh Nigel Edward Bayley (born 9 January 1952) is a British Labour Party politician who was Member of Parliament for York Central until 2015, having held the predecessor City of York seat from 1992 to the 2010 general election, when boundary changes took effect.

Bayley was born in Maidenhead, Berkshire and was educated at Haileybury and Imperial Service College, the University of Bristol, where he obtained a Politics BSc degree in 1974, before pursuing further studies at the University of York where he was awarded a BPhil degree in Southern African studies in 1976. After his studies in 1975 he became a District Officer and later a National Officer with NALGO until 1982.

Bayley was elected as a councillor in the London Borough of Camden in 1980 and became the general secretary of the International Broadcasting Trust in 1982. Bayley stepped down as a councillor and moved to York to take up a post as research officer in health economics at the University of York from 1987 to 1992. He was a lecturer in social policy at the university from 1986 until 1998.

Hugh Bayley was nominated as the Labour candidate for York at the 1987 general election but was defeated by just 147 votes by the Conservative Conal Gregory. After the election, Hugh Bayley became a Health Economics Research Fellow at the University of York, and became a member of the local health authority.

Conal Gregory and Hugh Bayley again fought it out at the 1992 general election in York and this time Bayley won by a comfortable margin. After his election he made his maiden speech on 7 May 1992 and joined the Health Select committee. The name of the York constituency was changed (though with unaltered boundaries) and Bayley won a majority of over 20,000 at the 1997 general election.

After the election, Bayley became the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Health Frank Dobson, who lived near York. In 1998 he was appointed to Tony Blair's Government as the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Department of Social Security, responsible for Incapacity, Maternity, Disability benefits and Vaccine damage. He was deputed to bring the Welfare Reform and Pensions Bill through the Commons, which attracted much criticism from backbench Labour MPs over plans to means-test and restrict access to incapacity benefit. He was dropped from government after the 2001 general election.

Bayley has since served on the International Development Committee and pioneered the foundation of the Africa All Party Parliamentary Group, serving as chair for several years, now being its vice-chair. He was president of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly from November 2012 to 2014. He was also a chairman of the Public Bill Committee. The City of York constituency was abolished in 2010, with Bayley being elected in the 2010 general election to represent the successor constituency York Central.

At the outset of the 2010 parliament, Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow appointed Bayley as a temporary Deputy Speaker to serve for two weeks until the election of Deputy Speakers. Bayley accepted the appointment, but stated that he would serve only temporarily and would not run for a Deputy Speakership, as he preferred to be able to represent his constituents by speaking out on issues before the House.

On 5 December 2014, Bayley announced his intention to stand down as a Labour MP at the 2015 general election.

Bayley was knighted in the 2015 New Year Honours for his 'services to parliamentary engagement with NATO'.

Joe Murphy was a local historian, lecturer and author. He lived in Osbaldwick.

Maurice Kirk was born in York in the 1920s and educated at Nunthorpe Boys School. He served during the Second World War, and subsequently worked for the University of Leeds. His father, Archibald Kirk, was Lord Mayor in 1963.

Charles Brunton Knight was a resident of York and local historian. He is most well known for his History of the City of York, originally published in 1944.

William Clapham Milburn was a resident of York, who bought 18 Heworth Green on 14 February 1919. The house was later renumbered to 66. In his working life, he was a tailor at 51 Goodramgate (later renumbered 77).

George Walker Milburn, master woodcarver, stonemason and sculptor, was born in Goodramgate, York on 17 June 1844. He was the eighth of ten children of Lionel Altimont Milburn, a York tailor, and his wife, Elizabeth Clapham, of Gainsborough, Lincolnshire. Little is certain about George's childhood years but, in his early teens, he was apprenticed as a woodcarver to William Alfred Waddington, 'Pianoforte Manufacturer', who was based at 44 Stonegate, York. He attended York School of Art where he won several medals and awards. A head modelled by Milburn so impressed the sculptor Thomas Woolner RA that he offered the young student the opportunity to study with him, but Milburn felt obliged to decline as he had already commenced his apprenticeship. In 1865, having completed his woodcarving studies, George went to London to study stone-carving with Samuel J. Ruddock. While there he exhibited a medallion of the stained-glass artist Charles Hardgraves at the Royal Academy of Art.

George returned to York around 1872 and set up his own stone yard at 53 Gillygate. One of his first commissions was for the architect George Edmund Street on the massive project to restore the South Transept of York Minster. Street employed the young carver to execute a large portion of the decorative stonework on the interior and exterior during the eight years of restoration (1872-80). Street was sufficiently impressed by George's artistry that he took him to Corfe Castle in Dorset to work on St James' Church at Kingston, the church described as 'The Jewel of the Purbecks'. In addition to Street, George worked with many other leading architects of the Victorian and Edwardian era including Sir George Gilbert Scott, Charles Clement Hodges, Charles Hodgson Fowler, and Walter H. Brierley.

In 1885 George Milburn won the competition to execute a statue to commemorate George Leeman MP, three times Lord Mayor of York and a dominant figure in 19th-century York politics. Some felt that George had insufficient experience to execute the work and the controversy rumbled on in the York newspapers for many months. He took an enormous financial gamble, signing a potentially punitive contract with York City Council which would have ruined him had he failed. But the gamble paid off and York's first public statue established him as a sculptor in addition to his already established reputation as a stone- and woodcarver.

About this time, George moved his stone yard to St Leonard's Place at Bootham where it would remain for more than 50 years. He would go on to be awarded commissions for a statue of Queen Victoria for the Guildhall and a statue of William Etty which stands in Exhibition Square. While the Victoria statue also caused rumblings of discontent in the press, it was less to do with the choice of sculptor than with political squabbling over whether a statue was the correct form of memorial with which to honour the late Queen. On its completion, the statue received widespread praise. When unveiled by the Queen's daughter, Princess Henry of Battenberg, she broke with protocol and shook the sculptor's hand.

George left a large body of work, ecclesiastical and secular. He carved almost 50 memorial crosses and executed works for more than 150 churches. A small sample of his stone-carving includes the impressive Boer War Memorial Cross at Durham Cathedral; the Bede Cross at Roker, Sunderland; the statues for the elaborate Reredos at St Aidan's Church, Bamburgh; the Reredos at St Peter-at-Gowts, Lincoln; and multiple pulpits and fonts including St Barnabas' Church in York, St Aidan's in Hartlepool, and All Saints in Lincoln. His woodwork, equal to though less recognised than that of Robert Thompson, can be seen in the tracery panels for the magnificent double organ at Howden Minster, the organ screen for St Helen's Church at Escrick, the chancel screen at Melton Mowbray and the beautiful reredos in St Benet's Chapel at Ampleforth Abbey.

His mastery of both stone- and woodcarving can be seen at St Thomas' Parish Church at Stockton-on-Tees where he sculpted the large stone cartouche over the east window and the elaborate oak bench ends in the choir, and at St Andrew's Church at Bournemouth in Dorset where he carved the delightful oak figures for the choir, six stone statues and a beautiful alabaster reredos of the Annunciation. His works for private houses included Hawkstone Hall, Shropshire; the chapel at Hatfield College, Durham; Dunollie Hall, Scarborough; Carlton Towers, East Yorkshire; Gray's Court, York; the renowned Arts and Crafts-style house, Goddards, York; and the chapel at Castle Howard.

While his works were predominantly in Yorkshire and the North-East of England, his work can be found throughout the country, from Bournemouth in Dorset to Edinburgh where he carved the statue of John Hunter on the façade of the National Portrait Gallery. Although the Scottish sculptor James MacGillivray Pittendrigh has been credited with the latter, it was George Milburn who sculpted the statue from a miniature by Pittendrigh. Works can be found in almost 20 counties throughout the UK including Lincolnshire, Kent, Shropshire, Durham, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, and Norfolk.

In York alone the list of his works includes the William Etty, Queen Victoria and George Leeman statues and works for York Minster, York Art Gallery, York Explore Library, St Barnabas' Church, St Chad's at Knavesmire; St Olave's Church, St Wilfrid's Church, Holy Trinity Church, All Saints Pavement, Barclays Bank, Beckett's Bank, Jacob's Well in Micklegate, St Sampson's Church, St Andrew's Church at Bishopthorpe, Fulford Church and many others. He found time in his busy career to make a positive contribution to some of York's many societies; he was a member of the York Philosophical Society, an active supporter of the York School of Art and a frequent lecturer.

In his private life, he was a practising Catholic – although he seems to have had a relaxed attitude about the strict adherence to church rules; his first marriage, to Ellen Ward, was at St Wilfrid's Church; his second, to Isabella Fletcher, took place at St Olave's Church in Marygate. Like many Victorians, he suffered a series of family tragedies; his first child, Lionel, died at the age of one; his first wife, Ellen, died of TB in 1885 at the age of 28, shortly after giving birth to their fourth child, Norah; Norah herself died one year later. In all, of five children in his two marriages, only two survived into adulthood. His second marriage, to Isabella Fletcher, in 1888, lasted until her death in 1924. With his son, Wilfrid Joseph Milburn, the two worked as G.W. Milburn & Son from the stone yard at St Leonard's Place.

George had an exceptionally long career, working well into his eighties and living through enormous changes in his native city. Born in the seventh year of Victoria's reign, when Sir Robert Peel was Prime Minster and York a city with a population of barely 40,000, his work straddled two centuries and honoured the dead of two wars: the Boer War and the First World War. During his lifetime the population of York expanded to more than 123,000 inhabitants. Few others can claim to have lived and worked continuously in one city through a period of such enormous change. He died in York City Hospital, Huntington Road on 3 September 1941.

His importance to York can be gauged by the judgement of his fellow artists and peers. John Ward Knowles, the renowned York stained-glass artist, was of the opinion that for many years stone-carving in York had been 'confined to the works of ornamental sculpture' until 'the higher branch of the art was again resuscitated by George Milburn'. Street reportedly called him 'the best Gothic sculptor in the country' and Knowles felt that, in stone-carving, George 'stood pre-eminently in front of his confrères'.

More than 270 of George Milburn's works survive but this master craftsman has not received the recognition that he deserves, and most of his extant works remain uncredited, overshadowed by others, such as Robert Beall of Newcastle or Thompson of Kilburn, or even incorrectly ascribed to others.

Fettes was a pawnbroker, operating from premises in Lady Peckitt's Yard, York. His exact dates of operation are not currently known, however he was certainly working in the late 1770s.

William Patefield was a draper and haberdasher in York. His dates of birth and death are currently known, however he was working in York in the late 1780s and 1790s.

Alison Sinclair is a retired archaeologist and architectural historian, who served as chair of the Conservation Area Advisory Panel for many years. She is a committed conservationist, particularly as regards York's built heritage.

Sydney John Holmes was born and raised in Acomb near York. He fought in the First World War, incuding in Ypres in 1917-1918.

Violet Vivian Finlay was born in Berkshire, England on 2 January 1914. She was the daughter of Alice Kathleen (née Norton) and Sir Campbell Kirkman Finlay, the owner and director of Burmah Oil Company Ltd., whose Scottish family also owned James Finlay and Company Ltd. The majority of her childhood and youth was spent in Rangoon, Burma (now also known as Myanmar), where her father worked.

Finlay married four times and bore five children, Gillian Rushton (née Porch), Kim Santow, Jennifer Gooch (née Stuart), and twins Vary and Valerie Stuart.

Following the dissolution of her first marriage, she studied for a time Law in London in the mid 1930s, before decided studied Medicine at the University of London. Later she spent time in Hungary in the capacity of private tutor in English, while she obtained a pathologist qualification at the University of Budapest in 1938. In 1939, she emigrated to Australia with her second husband, a Hungarian Doctor Geza Santow with whom she worked. In 1942, she obtained a diploma in industrial chemistry and laboratory technique at Technical Institute of Newcastle. Having earned an ambulance driver's certificate, she joined the Australian Forces at the Women's Auxiliary Service during World War II. She was attached to the IVth Army, and raised to the rank of sergeant, she was posted to British XIV Army in Rangoon, Burma in October 1945, and was then transferred to Sumatra in December. After the war she returned to England.

She published her first novels in 1953. She signed her romantic fiction as Vivian Stuart, one of her married names, and under the pen names of Alex Stuart, Barbara Allen, Fiona Finlay and Robyn Stuart, while for her military sagas, 'Alexander Sheridan Saga' and 'Phillip Hazard Saga' she used the name V.A. Stuart, and William Stuart Long was her pen name for the popular historical series: 'Australians', based on her research at The Mitchell Library Sydney; The National Maritime Museum; British Public Records Office and the New York Public Library.

Many of her romance novels were protagonized by doctors or nurses, and set in Asia, Australia or other places she had visited. Her novel, 'Gay Cavalier' (1955 as Alex Stuart) caused trouble between Vivian and her Mills & Boon editors. She featured a secondary story line featuring a Catholic male and Protestant female who chose to marry. This so-called 'mixed marriage' outraged many people in the United Kingdom at the time.

On 24 October 1958, she married her fourth and last husband, Cyril William Mann, an investment banker.

In 1960, she was a founder of the Romantic Novelists' Association, along with Denise Robins, Barbara Cartland, and others; she was elected the first Chairman. In 1970, she became the first woman to chair Swanwick writers' summer school.

Violet Vivian Mann died in 1986 in York, at age 72. She continued writing until her death.

Tate Wilkinson was born in 1739. The son of a clergyman, he was educated at Harrow.

His first attempts at acting were badly received, and it was to his wonderful gift of mimicry that he owed his success. His imitations, however, naturally gave offence to the important actors and managers whose peculiarities he hit off to the life. Garrick, Peg Woffington, Samuel Foote and Sheridan, after being delighted with the imitations of the others, were among the most angry when it came to their turn, and threatened never to forgive him. Garrick never did.

As an actor, Wilkinson was most successful in Foote's plays, but his list of parts was a long one. In Shakespearian characters he was very popular in the provinces. In 1766 he became a partner of Joseph Baker in the management of several Yorkshire theatres, and married about 1768. He became sole manager after his partner's death in 1770 of a number of theatres on what was then called the Yorkshire Circuit, and he was both liberal and successful. The Theatre, Leeds, built to his order in 1771, was part of the circuit. In 1769 he took over York Theatre Royal, where he also had living quarters.

He died in 1803.

T P Cooper was a local historian, specialising in the history of York, in the late nineteenth and early 20th centuries.

John Walker was a railwayman, and one-time resident of 20 Portland Street, York. It is believed that he may have also fought in the First World War.

Brian Wragg was a resident of York, who completed his PhD, entitled 'The Life and Works of John Carr of York: Palladian Architect'. His PhD was awarded by the University of Sheffield.

Christopher Wyvill was born in Edinburgh in 1740, the son of Edward Wyvill (died 1791), supervisor of excise there, by Christian Catherine, daughter of William Clifton of Edinburgh. Sir Christopher Wyvill, 3rd Baronet, of Constable Burton, was his great-great-grandfather.

Christopher Wyvill matriculated at Queens' College, Cambridge in 1756, obtaining an honorary degree of LL.B. in 1764. In 1774 he came in for the large landed estates of the family in Yorkshire and elsewhere, and the mansion at Constable Burton, the building of which he completed from his cousin, Sir Marmaduke's, designs. He had some years previously taken orders and been presented through his cousin's influence to the rectory of Black Notley in Essex, which he continued to hold and administer by means of a curate, down to 22 September 1806. Debarred from entering the House of Commons, Wyvill began to take a prominent part in county politics.

In 1779 Wyvill was appointed secretary of the Yorkshire Association, which had for its main objects to shorten the duration of parliaments, and to equalise the representation. He shortly became chairman of the association.

Wyvill drew up a circular letter enunciating its political sentiments, and took a leading part in drawing up the Yorkshire petition presented to parliament on 8 February 1780. A number of moderate Whigs, including Horace Walpole, regarded Wyvill's manifesto as chimerical, Walpole writing that it was full of 'obscurity, bombast, and futility'. Sir Cecil Wray wrote in a similar vein, and Rockingham wanted to know if the Association had ever considered the practicability of the annual parliaments which they recommended. Wyvill's contention was that the long American war was due primarily, not to the wish of the people, but to the votes of the members of the close boroughs. The Association had the sympathy of politicians including Pitt and Charles James Fox.

A committee under Wyvill was appointed to continue the pressure by correspondence, and the example of Yorkshire was followed by other counties, 25 in all. In the period 1779 to 1781, when there was a delegate conference, the movement gained a broad base. Supporters included John Baynes, Sir Robert Bernard, Newcome Cappe, John Fountayne, Sir James Grant, Thomas Brand Hollis, Sir James Innes-Ker, John Lee, Gamaliel Lloyd, George Montagu, 4th Duke of Manchester, John Smyth, Charles Stanhope, and William Johnson Temple.

With the end of the American Revolutionary War in 1783, however, and the fall of Lord North, the Association disintegrated. Wyvill's supporters dwindled, to a small group including Sir George Savile, and Sir Charles Turner, who spoke of the House of Commons as resembling a parcel of thieves that had stolen an estate and were afraid of letting any person look into their title-deeds for fear of losing it.

Wyvill strongly disapproved of the subsequent war with France, to which he attributed industrial distress in Yorkshire, and this completed his alienation from Pitt. In 1793 Wyvill published in pamphlet form correspondence that had passed between them. Some supplementary letters appeared at Newcastle in a further brochure, and both had a large sale. Wyvill attached himself to the extreme Whig opposition, and he defended in a short pamphlet (early 1799) the secession of 1798. After Fox's death he gave his support to Samuel Whitbread and the peace-at-any-price party.

Wyvill returned in later life to his early enthusiasm in the cause of universal toleration; in particular he published on Catholic emancipation. He died at his seat, Burton Hall, near Bedale in the North Riding, on 8 March 1822, at the age of 82, and was buried at Spennithorne.

William Patrick Hall, also known as Patrick Hall, was born in York on 16 December 1906. While still a teenager, he worked on a conservation project restoring the stained glass windows of York Minster, and also had a spell working in the family tanning business at Earswick while studying art on a part-time basis. He studied part-time at both the York and Northampton Art Schools and showed an early aptitude for etching and drypoint work.

During World War Two, the War Artists' Advisory Committee commissioned Hall to produce a number of watercolours depicting the training of paratroopers at the Parachute Training School at RAF Ringway in Cheshire. After the war Hall moved to London and set up a studio and worked full-time as an artist. He had a number of solo exhibitions, mainly focusing on landscapes and town scenes, at the Waddington Gallery, Gilbert Parr Gallery and at the Marjore Parr Gallery. He also showed works at the Royal Academy, the New English Art Club and the Paris Salon. Works by Hall are held in the collection of the Guildhall in London, the Imperial War Museum and the National Gallery of Australia. For the last twenty years of his life, Hall lived in Sellindge and died at Ashford in Kent on 10 June 1992.

Fred Hawksby was a professional boxer from York who was active between 1929 and 1935. He was also active in the management of local charitable tournaments in York, alongside his brother John.

Fred boxed at featherweight; lightweight and took part in 27 professional contests.
John Hawksby (brother).

John Hawksby was the brother of professional boxer Fred Hawksby. It also thought that he was a boxer, at least at amateur level. With his brother, he was also active in the management of local charitable tournaments in York.
Fred Hawksby (brother).

Robert Kay was a successful bootmaker with a number of shops in York. He was the son of an intemperate shoemaker. A Wesleyan temperance reformer, he ran Priory Street Wesleyan Young Men's class in around 1894. His notebook, also called Grandfather Robert Kay's diary and covering the period 1875-1900, was created to record 'what I remember in connection with, and a record of, any noteworthy incident occurring at any of the public houses between Fossgate and Walmgate Bar.' The notebook, whose original is still in the possession of the Kay family, is addressed to 'my much beloved children' and signed 'drink, debt, dirt and the devil I HATE, Robert Kay'.

Roland Walls was born into a North Yorkshire farming family and, after graduating from Cambridge University, pursued a career as a librarian. He spent a large part of his career at York City Library (now York Explore Library) before becoming a senior regional manager for North Yorkshire Libraries in Northallerton. He was committed to supporting his local community, and championing traditional music and cultures.

In the 1980s, Walls became the sole organiser of the recently-formed Black Swan Folk Club. Whilst he was neither a musician nor a performer, he was dedicated to the running of the Folk Club, and won the BBC Folk Club of the Year award in 2009. The club also won Best Small Venue in the Yorkshire Gig Guide in 2016. From 2001 he also arranged folk concerts at the National Centre for Early Music, in Walmgate, in tandem with the NCEM.

After a cancer diagnosis in 2010, Walls was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease in 2018. Nevertheless he organised the annual City of York Weekend at the Black Swan, where 45 acts performed over three days. That same year, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Yorkshire Gig Guide.

Roland Walls died from Motor Neurone Disease in June 2019.
Black Swan Folk Club; York Public Library

Harriett was a PhD candidate at University of York between 2017 and 2020. As part of her PhD research, she carried out face to face interviews with a number of Second World War veterans.

William White was born on 10 June 1744 in Castlegate, son of Timothy White, linen draper, and Marta his wife, both Quakers. Although no records have been found, it is possible he started his training with the Quaker apothecary Benjamin Bartlett, Jnr. in London. As a non-conformist he would not have been eligible to attend Oxford or Cambridge universities but many English doctors at that time travelled to Scottish universities for medical training.

In 1765-6 White attended Edinburgh where he joined the Medical Society of Edinburgh and matriculated in 1766. From at least 1768 he was back in York, once again living in Castlegate, and working at the County Hospital. When he registered as a freeman of the City of York in 1771 he did so as the son of a York freeman and an apothecary. To complete his training he attended the University of Leiden in 1775 graduating Medicinae Doctor with a thesis on ‘recurrent fever’. On returning to York he resumed work with the County Hospital and then the York Dispensary. White’s approach to medicine was also scientific as he carried out experiments and ‘observations’ that were published as books, in privately printed articles and in medical and scientific journals. Two of his articles were published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. He died aged 45 on 28th October 1790 from consumption, one of the diseases he had been researching. His observations on this topic were published posthumously in 1792 by his friend and colleague Dr Alexander Hunter.

Of particular interest to York local researchers is White’s ‘Analecta Eboracensia’ or Memorandum Book’ (WHI/1). The greater part (21 pages) covers the period 26 January 1782 to 21 September 1785 with follow up items by his Quaker friend, the printer William Alexander. The 50 entries by White focus on improvements to the city streets and buildings, local, regional and national political events and the weather, including York’s perennial problem of flooding. Most interesting and useful to local historians are the depictions of streets – Castlegate, Castlegate Postern Lane, Coppergate, Fishergate, approach to Fishergate, ‘Road to Fulford’, High Ousegate, Hosier Lane, Low Ousegate, Nessgate, Ousebridge, Pavement and Spurriergate. What is exceptional is that they delineate individual buildings with the names of their occupiers or owners. The plans in the Memorandum Book are somewhat roughly drawn but a ruler-drawn or ‘neat’ copy also survives (WHI/2). Photographs of these neat copy maps can be found in PHO/2/111 and PHO/3/1835. There is no indication who drew the neater version.
For further detail see: ‘Dr William White (1744 - 1790) of Castlegate, ‘a Physician of considerable talent’. Sylvia D. Hogarth. York Historian 2007, vol.24, pages 19-36.

David Hughes was born in North Berwick, East Lothian, the son of Mary and John Hughes. His father was an Anglican clergyman who became a Quaker after his experiences as a chaplain in the First World War. David and his siblings, Michael and Barbara, went to Quaker schools in York, where the family lived. They spent two years in America in the 1930s, when John was appointed director of the Quaker study centre Pendle Hill, in Pennsylvania – a formative experience for David.

He read geography at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, but his studies were interrupted by the Second World War and he was awarded a 'war degree' after two years. As conscientious objectors, David and Michael both faced military tribunals, but neither was jailed. David took the alternative of joining the Friends Relief Service, delivering relief to war-affected citizens. He spent six years with the FRS, in London and also in Holland, where he drove ambulances and lorries, and in Germany working in refugee camps.

In 1938 he volunteered at Dovercourt camp, Harwich, which took in, and found homes for, Jewish children fleeing the Nazis via the Kindertransport evacuation. David persuaded his parents to take in a young brother and sister. (His mother was already active in refugee work in York.) The boy, Harry Baum, later became very successful in the travel industry. All his life David kept on his key ring a small brass disc with his name and Dovercourt room number on it. He gave public talks about these experiences, into his 90s, and was interviewed by members of the Holocaust Education Trust.

While teaching at Ottershaw School, Surrey, the UK's first state boarding school for boys, David met Betty Wilson, who had come from Northern Ireland to work as a cook at the school. They married in Antrim in 1951, and daughter Lotte was born a year later. The family emigrated in 1952 as 'Ten Pound Poms' to Australia, where my father taught at a Quaker school in Hobart. My parents did not much like Tasmania, however, and returned after two years. The best part of the adventure was sailing round the world and visiting exotic lands.

The family settled in Shropshire, where David began teaching at Wellington Boys' Grammar School. His daughter Tanya was born in 1956. David retired in 1979 and he and Betty later moved to Church Stretton, where they were active in the local United Nations Association and the Liberal Democrats.

Sadly, Betty's dementia and move to a care home later forced them to live separately. David moved to Bishop's Castle at the age of 94 and enjoyed an unexpected new lease of life. In his 90s he published an anthology, The Seven Ages of William Shakespeare (2010), and a book in 2016 on the moral teachings of Jesus.

Betty died in 2019, and David died on 3 December 2020, aged 101. He is survived by his two daughters
Mary Hughes, mother.

Millicent Price's grandfather was Henry Wilberforce, a gentleman farmer in the locality, thought to be related to the famous William Wilberforce. Her mother was Ellen Phyllis Browne, married to Walter Browne, a struggling actor/playwright. They lived in London, where Millicent was born (probably in the early 1880s). Her mother left her father (they were later divorced) when Millicent was 3 years old and returned to her native city of York.

Millicent lived with her mother and 2 sisters, Edith and Ella at 34, Lawrence Street, a 3 storey house opposite the Poor Clares Convent until 1895 when they moved to "River View" overlooking the Ouse next to St. Mary's Abbey.

Millicent attended Castlegate College, Clare College, Micklegate and Priory Street Higher Grade School before going to Swansea Training College (Wales) to train to be a teacher. Following this she lived in Leeds for a time teaching at Beeston School and then at Park Lane School before returning to York in 1904 where she taught at the "newly built" Scarcroft School.

Ernest Johnson was the manager of St George's cinema, Castlegate, York during the 1930s and 1940s. In 1937, he was the manager of the Picture House cinema, York. He served in Egypt during WW2 as a RAF flight lieutenant, returning to York in 1946 as manager of St George's cinema, Castlegate, York. He was later assistant manager of Associated Tower cinema, Leeds. He died in York in 1999 aged 88 yrs.

Thomas Morley operated a linen draper in York between at least 1804 and 1833. In 1833, he is listed as selling his property at Minster Gates where he had been conducting his business. Entries in his account book continue to 1839, however it is unclear whether these represent a continuation of the linen draper business, or the collection of debts and investments of capital only.