Unidentified country house

[Jool]

Kelly's Directory 1898 has a Miss Bird at Woodcote, Woburn Sands (on the Bedfordshire/Buckinghamshire border)

http://www.mkheritage.co.uk/wsc/docs/1898%20Kellys.html

[Jool]

A James Henry Renton lived there?

Jennifer

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X7KM-THP

 

[noytd]

I have spent many hours researching potential candidates. The Peck family seemed to offer an excellent answer ... however, I was bothered by the fact that none of the potential women had a son. The photo album clearly shows that the mystery woman and her husband had a son. The album only covers him from the ages of 0 to about 4.

So I decided to look into the tenant of Howbury Hall after the Peck family - Major James Edward Platt (1857-1928).








The first three images are all photographs from my album. The third image is from a biographical sketch of Major Platt.

http://www.stanwardine.com/genepic/Major_James_Edward_Platt_biography.pdf

Major Platt was divorced in 1900, and married an Italian woman named Elise Castelli (b.1876) in early 1901 before moving to Howbury Hall. Like the Robert Peck, Major Platt was an avid horsing man, as well as being a very keen huntsman and polo player.

I have been unable to find the couple on the 1911 census (which might confirm whether they had a son), but they show up together at Howbury Hall on the 1901 census. Indeed after 1901 I have so far been unable to locate any information regarding Elise.

Here is a portrait I found of Major Platt's mother on Ancestry, and a lady who appears on the wedding photo.



Comparing photos is not one of my strong points, so I do not know if the photos match or not?

[noytd]

Some photographs of the child, presumably with grandmothers and parents.







The "grandmother" holding the baby in the first photograph is the woman who was living in Woodcote. I will check out Woodcote Apsley Guise later 

[Ruskie]

Looking at the GRO entering surname Platt and mmn Castelli, I did not get any results for male or female births registered from about 1901 to 1910. The child could have been born elsewhere I presume.

[despair]

Elise Platt(widow) is granted probate of James Edward Platt's will in 1928.
There is a grant of probate in a will of 1957 of Elise Platt in a sum which suggests it is the correct person.Probate goes to two ladies,Violet Briggs and Joan Mary Cecilia Orczy-Barstow.

Regards
Roger

[despair]

Just in case he appears in any photo,I think this is one of the brothers of James Edward Platt,Samuel Radcliffe Platt,born circa 1845,married 1885,died 1902:-

http://www.stanwardine.com/melyniog_letters/name/Samuel_Radcliffe_Platt_-_born_1845.htm

Regards
Roger

[noytd]

I have done a bit more research and I am inclined to think that the album does not relate to Major J.E. Platt.



Here is a photo that I found of him in 1909, just prior to him unsuccessfully standing for Parliament for Great Yarmouth in both General Elections in 1910 as a Liberal. He was living at Ingmanthorpe Hall, Wetherby, at the time. I am not sure that it matches the gentleman in my photographs.

There is also a record of him writing a letter to Winston Churchill in 1908 requesting his support for a Knighthood or Baronetcy, which he never received.

However, I have found a photo of Cecil Henry Polhill on Ancestry.



~TO my eye he does seem to resemble the gentleman with the hat with his hands in his pocket?

[Treetotal]

As I previously mentioned I believe the wedding photo to be Edwardian as a number of clothing items are more typical of that era. The album photos appear to be from that period, if they were late Victorian, I would expect them to be Cabinet Cards and they appear to be postcard type photos.
Carol