Battle of Jutland

The National Museum of the Royal Navy will be holding an exhibition about the Battle of Jutland opening in May 2016.  I am sure they will make use of material from the journals of Andrew Downes.  See http://www.historicdockyard.co.uk/site-attractions/attractions/36-hours-jutland-1916
.
I have now heard as follows from Nick Hewitt who is in charge of the exhibition: " The Downes journal for Jutland will remain on display in  our permanent galleries, as one of the central tenets of this exhibition was that we set out to ensure that we did not strip out the permanent galleries either here or at IWM. Despite this we have still secured well over 300 artefacts! However, we will definitely be linking it across to the new gallery, and if you would like to organise a family visit I’d be happy to show you around again.

So I will not organise a family visit unless asked to do so - though I will definitely visit the Jutland exhibition myself.  Anyone like to join me?

.

Albertine ('Atty') Carden

As many of you already know, my beloved wife Atty died on Saturday January 23^rd. She had been discharged from hospital at the end of November to a nursing home specialising in end-of-life care where she was superbly looked after and remained her usual feisty self until the last few days of her life when she faded gently away and then died peacefully and painlessly in her sleep.

A non-religious funeral took place at Worthing Crematorium on February 8th. We will hold a celebration of her life, probably in London on May 7th.  I will tell you about this when arrangements have been made.

 

I have written a brief biography of her fascinating life, mentioning life in Holland during the war and how she became an orphan there before making her way to England. A copy is available from me.
  

 

Portrait made in Indonesia in 1972

 

 

.

John Downes the regicide

Those who have a copy of the book Downes Pedigrees mentioned in the next post will be familiar with the chapter about John Downes the regicide. He was one of the 59 signatories of the warrant condemning Charles I to death in 1649.

A book Killers of the King by Charles Spencer, published last year, tells how most of the regicides were brutally executed when the monarchy was restored in 1660. John Downes escaped execution. He claimed at his own trial that he had only signed the King's death warrant under duress, during a time of military dominance. His actual words are quoted in the book.  He was committed to the Tower and was still there in 1662, but when he died is not recorded.
.

Downes Pedigrees

DOWNES PEDIGREES.

Readers might like to be reminded that my niece Shane James has two copies of the book Downes Pedigrees by Col Leonard Downes.  Both copies, one of which belonged to Theodosia Downes, contain many manuscript annotations and insertions. Another copy is in the library of the Society of Genealogists, donated by M Goodbody, whoever he might be.

Shane also holds a DOWNES FAMILY INFORMATION FILE assembled by her mother Audrey Bryant in February 2010 from her Downes papers and mine.

At the time I created a descriptive Contents List. I will be glad to send a copy to anyone who asks for one.