Is it a coincidence that there was a Mr Merrick Selby-Lowndes who lived in Mursley?
As a child, I was always told that my grandfather had been raised with an illegitimate member of the aristocracy but I didn't know who it was until very recently. Which Thomas Beecham was Merrick's father, the pill maker or the conductor?
What would you like to know about the Bates family? I think my grandfather might be what you would call a "lovable rogue". I loved him to bits as I think so did several of us grandchildren. Although, I think my grandmother and their children may have thought differently. He was quite fond of a drink and inclined to be bad-tempered when he'd had a few. I'm fairly sure he had an illegitimate child, a daughter who is about the same age as me. Legend also has it that he got expelled from a local school for "accidentally" locking the headmaster in a walk-in cupboard overnight. He joined the army under age at the start of the first world war and ended up in hospital in Barnards castle after being gassed. We were also told that his mother, Sarah, was the daughter of a vicar. It seems clear to me now that this was not true. However, Grandad used to talk about a Salvation Army chapel and I wonder if maybe Sarah's father was involved in preaching there. Grandfather was one of a big family of children but the only one I can ever remember meeting was called Aunt Tot who lived in Hillmorton, Rugby. I think she may have been Mabel and was called Aunt Tot because she was tall for a girl (grandad's father was also tall. I do actually have just one photo of this great-grandfather.
Christine.
