| 27. | Wickham, Archdale Kenneth  (8.Archdale3, 2.Emma2, 1.Archdale1) was born in Sep 1897 in Yeovil SOM; died on 20 Jun 1951 in Eton. Surrey. Notes:
Archdale Kenneth WICKHAM97 was born in September 1897 in Yeovil SOM. He served in the military as Lieutenant between 1914 and 1920 in the Machine gun Corps. London Regiment ..97 He was awarded WW1 service medal. In 1924?1951 he was a housemaster and teacher of modern languages and history in Eton College. He was also interested in rare books, manuscripts and pictures. He founded the college Archaeological Society in 1943. (Mrs P Hatfield, Eton College Archivist)
He was also author of 'The Villages of England' 1932. And 'The Italian Renaissance' 1935. Archdale died on 20 June 1951 in Eton. Surrey..97 Parents: Rev. Archdale Palmer "Archie" WICKHAM m.a. and Harriet Elizabeth Amy STRONG.
Spouse: Raymonde Ghislane CRAWLEY. Raymonde Ghislane CRAWLEY and Archdale Kenneth WICKHAM were married on 23 December 1943.97 Children were: James John Rufus WICKHAM, Jocelyn WICKHAM.
http://www.rooksbridge.org.uk/RootsMagicStuff/b224.htm#P11591
rchdale Kenneth WICKHAM144,610 was born in September 1897 in Yeovil SOM. He served in the military as Lieutenant between 1914 and 1920 in the Machine gun Corps. London Regiment ..144 . He served in France as Lieutenant between 1914 and 1920 in the Machine gun Corps. London Regiment . He was wounded in Action May 1918. He was awarded WW1 service medal. In 1924?1951 he was a housemaster and teacher of modern languages and history in Eton College. He was also author of 'The Villages of England' 1932. And 'The Italian Renaissance' 1935.
In 1924?1951 he was a housemaster and teacher of modern languages and history in Eton College.He was also interested in rare books, manuscripts and pictures. He founded the college Archaeological Society in 1943. (Mrs P Hatfield, Eton CollegeArchivist)He was also author of 'The Villages of England' 1932. And 'The Italian Renaissance' 1935.
(Mrs P Hatfield, Eton College Archivist) Archdale died on 20 June 1951 at the age of 53 in Eton. Surrey..144 Parents: Rev. Archdale Palmer "Archie" WICKHAM m.a. and Harriet Elizabeth Amy STRONG.
Spouse: Raymonde Ghislane CRAWLEY. Raymonde Ghislane CRAWLEY and Archdale Kenneth WICKHAM were married on 23 December 1943.144 My half sister, Joceline Wickham, has sent me your brief correspondence with her about her father and I hasten to follow up on it.
My mother and he had, as he used to tell anyone who was ready to listen, the most romantic of meetings.
He was sitting at his desk in his study in Hawtree House, overlooking Eton High Street, one rainy afternoon when he noticed a rather beautiful lady hastening to and just missing, a bus at the bus stop. The bus stop being unsheltered , the next bus not coming, he knew, for another hour, he felt he ought to go, umbrella in hand, and ask her in for a cup of tea. " And that's how the whole thing started" as he used to love saying.
In fact my mother was visiting Eton that day as part of her groundwork training for the guide's course which she was preparing to take.
I was down for Harrow where my family had been for generations. One of the immediate effects on me of my mother being invited to tea at Hawtree House that afternoon was that I am today an old Etonian, who, Kenneth Wickham being an excellent broker, would have, in those days, had I been his son. gone to school there for no basic fee. had gone to school there for half the basic fee.
I was born in 1930 and he in 1897, a date which I shall never forget because it was the year in which Brahms died..
My step father, Daddy to the three of us, was the most musically deaf person I've ever come across , and yet he , when he realized that I had recently discovered Brahms, encouraged me all he could. I remember he gave me for a birthday , it was probably my fourteenth, a set of 78's containing the Brahms Requiem. When , a couple of years later, I had a collection of all of Brahms' symphonies , the violin conceto , both piano concertos, etctera, I decided to glue numbers on each of the records. Unfortunately the glue was one which contained some chemical or other which penetrated through their flimsy cardboard covers and damaged each and every one of my records so that the music was regularily interspersed with a delicate swishing sound.
Daddy replaced the lot, and I remember thinking , when he did this , that he, as he used to say, almost proudly, couldn't tell the difference between God save the King and the New World Symphony:, and he couldn't.
This will always be one of the most generous and kindly unselfish things that anyone has ever done for me.
My mother, 'til the day she died, used to look as though she was years younger, whenever his name was mentioned,.
I loved him too and I consider myself fortunate to have been influenced by his moral integrity for the seven years when he and and my mother were married.
He was a delightfully old fashioned man in old fashioned ways and, to demonstrate this, allow me to tell you of another memory I have of him. I had been commissioned into the 3rd Hussars and I was home on leave from National Service for the first time at Eddington House, on the edge of the Polden Hills between Bridgewater and Street where my step father had a lovely early Georgian house which he had bought after his father had died where his mother and his two sisters lived before we came along.
The army had taught me to enjoy drinking , and so, the first evening home, I suggested that Daddy and I should go to the local pub for a beer. I knew that he liked a nice bitter and so his reaction was all the more strange to me.
" No; not the local", he said . " we are not locals and they would be embarrassed by our presence."
He never talked of his time in the army. I know he hated it and He was in the machine gun corps and he had a German bullet go through his right hand which used to bother him at times; for instance when shooting on cold days.
My sister has mentioned his book on the churches of Somerset which was published by Batsford. I remember well the happy day when he heard from the appropriate government department that he would be entitled to sufficient petrol for him to travel round the county looking at churches and taking photographs. It was a happy time for my twin brother and sister and for me too; we had been promised that if and when this day should arrive that we three would be responsible for getting the car off the stocks on which it had been since 1939 and cleaning and polishing it. And what a fun car it was: a Vauxhall four door cabriolet. I cannot remember ever seeing another one like it, but it had the Vauxhall chrome- plated indented stripe down each side of the bonnet and it was dark green in colour.
For two whole years, during their holidays, father and step son, map read by the latter, visited every church in Somerset. I loved it and my love of English ecclesiastical architecture stems entirely from those end of war days with that lovely man.
I hope that I haven't gone on for too long.
Yous sincerely, Jonathan Crawley.
Children were: James John Rufus WICKHAM, Jocelyn WICKHAM.
Archdale married du Roy de Bliquy, Raymonde on 23 Dec 1943. Raymonde was born in 1908; died in 2000. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]
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