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The Revd John Grainger, Vicar of Penn 1860-98 (cont.)

It is a full year since my last article about the arrival in Penn of the Revd John Grainger, and the many changes which he made  to  the  interior  of  the  church,  inspired  by  the  Oxford  Movement with its advocacy of a higher degree of ceremony in  worship  to  bring  it  nearer  to  that  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church. This also required ‘improvements’ to the fabric  of the church, which in effect meant the removal of any feature which was not in accord with the ideal of the architecture of the medieval Decorated period (c.1280-1380).

Thus,  as  I  noted  before,  two  galleries  were  removed,  a  two-storey  south  porch  was  taken  down  and  the  three-decker  pulpit  was  removed.  In  addition,    an  altar,  carrying  a  cross  and  candlesticks,  was  restored  after  more  than  three centuries,  although the altar was of wood rather than stone  as  it  would  have  been  before  the  Reformation.
The  eagle  lectern,  another  reversion  to  medieval  tradition,  may  have been installed around this time and the black and red Victorian tiles laid on all the floors.  The natural colour of the  oak  of  the  roof  timbers  still  survives  in  the  tower,  but  elsewhere they were stained black, probably at this stage.  The very fine, early 18th century pulpit, oak with marquetry, arrived  from  the  Curzon  chapel  in  Mayfair  when  it  was  closed in 1899.

The photograph is of a water-colour of the exterior of Penn Church by Henry Zeigler (1793-1874). He was a leading painter in his day and taught Queen Adelaide,  the wife of William IV, to whom the 1st Earl Howe was  Lord Chamberlain. The painting shows the church as it was in c.1860, just before the first significant changes were made to it since the 1730s, and  was  presumably  commissioned  for  that  reason.  The  east window was still the ‘Road to Emmaus’, installed in the 1730s and set in a brick wall.  Both were soon to be taken down and replaced with a more suitably Gothic window set in the knapped black flint fashionable at the time.

The two lancet windows in the north wall were presumably regarded  as  too  early  and  too  primitive,  and  so  the  single  lancet  was  blocked  in  (to  be  rediscovered  in  1952)  and the double lancet was replaced by a copy of the late 15th century clerestory (higher level) window on the other side of the porch. The three-light brick window in the clerestory the other side of the porch was rebuilt as a copy of the other two original 15th century clerestory windows and the lower brick window was filled in. All these changes were aimed at  producing    a  symmetrical  all-Gothic  appearance  to  the  church as you approach from the main road.

On  the  far  side  of  the  church,  Two  semi-dormer  windows  were  put  in  the  south  isle,  presumably  replacing  either  worn  out  original  14th  century  windows  or  unacceptable  later replacements.

The  first  Earl  Howe  paid  for  this  work  and  one  wonders whether his money was well spent. Fortunately, our mainly 14th-century aisle and tower were seen as correct, so what happened in Penn was only a modest example of Victorian restoration,    when    well-intentioned,  but    over-zealous    concerns to sweep away the past often carried away much of value that contributed to the atmosphere of the church.  In other local churches, such as Beaconsfield and Amersham, very little is visible of  the former medieval church.

Penn Church, North East view, c.1860, by Henry Zeigler (1793-1874).


Miles Green, Penn Parish Newsletter No.53, November 2018

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The Revd John Grainger, Vicar of Penn 1860-98, Penn’s missing East window

© Eddie Morton ARPS, Earl Howe

The East window of our church has been changed several times over the centuries to accord with changing fashions. We don’t know what it was like in the pre-Reformation Roman Catholic era, but all churches were required to remove any such evidence of Popery and the windows are plain glass in the earliest surviving view, a late 17th-century drawing.  In 1736, the new Proprietor, Sir Nathaniel Curzon, the 4th baronet who had been brought up in Penn, and was the second son of Sarah Penn, commissioned a ‘painted’ window picturing ‘Christ Making Himself Known to his Disciples at Emmaus’ (Luke 24:30). We see it, set in a brick wall, in the photograph of Henry Zeigler’s water colour of c.1860 which hangs in the church.  The top of the window contains three coats of arms.  On the right: the Curzon arms, centre: the Penn arms, and on the left: the Penn and Curzon arms combined. The window was made by John Rowell, of ‘High Wickham’, and was probably his last piece of work before moving from Wycombe to Reading.

Penn East window, postcard c.1920

Soon after Henry Zeigler’s water colour was painted, in 1865, perhaps encouraged by a new Vicar, and as part of considerable changes to the church, Earl Howe paid for an expensive and imposing new window in the traditionally Gothic tradition advocated at the time by the Victorian Oxford Movement. The window depicted Jesus’ Transfiguration, and had Jesus in the centre with Moses on his right and the prophet Elijah on his left. It was set in a rebuilt chancel east wall of Bath stone and black knapped flint.

Then, in 1931, the Vicar, of High Church persuasion, was intent on restoring the more Catholic tradition of an altar curtained at the back and sides by a dorsal and riddell posts. However, the curtain covered the bottom foot or more of the Victorian East window. The Vicar therefore commissioned the present window with coloured green glass at the bottom to go behind the curtain.
The green glass incorporates a notice “This window was drawn (and donated) by Margaret and Hugh Pawle at A.K.Nicholson’s Studio’s 105 Gower Street WC1. In the event of the dorsal ever being removed please apply to the above for the complete design”. The curtain was duly removed in 2003, but by then, the designer’s workshop had long since closed. The window is dedicated to Hugh Pawle’s mother and sister, who lived at Hutchins Barn, Knotty Green.

So what happened to the Victorian window? Many years ago I was assured by Pat Cuthbert and more recently by Herbert Druce, that they remembered the stained glass had been given to Penn Street Church. I tried to find evidence of this, but all the Penn Street windows were firmly assigned to the same 1849 date when the church was consecrated. I could find nothing in local or Diocesan records, or the Bucks Free Press.

Penn’s 1865 E. window, now in Penn Street’s N. transept

The solution to the mystery came from Michael Hardy, who was photographing the Penn Street windows and read a 1988 NADFAS report which noted that in the North transept the stained glass was not tall enough for the window height and the gap above had been filled in with opaque pale yellow mottled glass. He checked the design and size against the only surviving shadowy old photograph of the 1865 Penn window and there was no doubt they are one and the same. Mystery solved!

More details with superb photographs of all the stained glass windows can be seen on the Stained Glass of Buckinghamshire website,
I strongly recommend a visit!
Stained Glass of Holy Trinity, Penn.
Stained Glass of Holy Trinity, Penn Street.

Miles Green with Peter Strutt, Penn Parish Newsletter No.54,  January 2020
Photos and descriptions: Michael Hardy
East Window painting c.1860, © Eddie Morton ARPS, courtesy Earl Howe.

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Death of John Grainger 1860 – 1898

Death of the Late Vicar of Penn.

The Rev. John Grainger, who was one of the first assistant mathematical masters at Eton under the ….. of the late Rev. Stephen Hawtry, from 1851 to 18.. has died at St. Mary Hearne, Hants, aged 81. In 1860 Mr. Grainger was presented by the first Earl Howe to the living of Penn, and continued to hold it til last year (1898), when he resigned owing to advanced age and failing health.
Bucks Herald April 29th, 1899.

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Rosa Morison & Eleanor Grove

God’s Finger Touched Her, and she slept”

Ros Morison (Standing) and Eleanor Grove

The above words are a line from an elegy by Alfred Lord Tennyson and are an extremely evocative description of the final hours of Rosa Morison who died at her desk in University College London in February 1912.  They can be seen on the brass plaque on the South Aisle wall in Holy Trinity placed to commemorate Rosa. Who was responsible for its installation? Well we can only speculate but Drs. Louisa Garrett Anderson, Flora Murray and Agnes Savill are all obvious candidates. Rosa was born in Hammersmith in 1841, in fact only two days before the census of that year was taken, upon which she appears as an unknown child just two days old, she was not to remain unknown in the decades to come.

In 1866 she was employed as a linguist at Queens College, and it was there that she met Eleanor Grove. After a brief holiday in Germany Rosa approached the University of London where she offered her services free of charge, she was appointed Vice- Principal, and in 1883 she obtained the post of Lady Superintendent of Women Students, a position she held until her death.

The student accommodation continued to be developed under Rosa’s tenure to the point where it held not only University College students but those attending the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson London School for Medicine for Women.

The neighbouring brass plaque commemorates her friend and companion Eleanor Grove. It was placed there in 1907 so probably at the behest of Rosa herself. Eleanor was a member of the Grove family her brother being Thomas Grove who resided at Watercroft, and another was Sir George Grove well known as the author of Dictionary of Music & Musicians.  Eleanor was born in Clapham in 1826 and began her working life as a Governess in Germany and Austria, Her professional life in many ways parallels that of Rosa and both are best remembered for identifying and developing student accommodation principally for women students in Bloomsbury. Eleanor did not enjoy good health and was forced to retire in 1890, She died at her home in Tavistock Square in 1905 from heart failure.


To-day their names are remembered following the construction in 2018 of the 33-floor student block named Eleanor Rosa House in Stratford East London

What of the Penn connection.  Well, between 1885 and 1912 Eleanor and Rosa, in addition to their London address, resided at Swiss Cottage (now Alde House) in Church Road, Penn. Regrettably little is known of their lives in Penn and following Rosa’s death in 1912, Swiss Cottage together with its contents which included Rosa’s Broadwood piano and many of her books were auctioned off.

Were they buried together locally? Again regrettably no. Eleanor lies in the family vault together with her mother and sisters at West Norwood and Rosa in Hammersmith cemetery close to where she was born.

In addition to their pioneering work in forwarding the cause of women’s education both women had significant suffrage credentials as Rosa’s obituary in The Common Cause, the suffragette newspaper was written by no less than Millicent Fawcett herself.

I am grateful to Hannah Leamy for alerting me to these two notable ladies Hannah is the grand daughter of Edith Bristow who was in the household of Rosa & Eleanor.

© Ron Saunders, Penn Parish Magazine, December 2021.
Photograph Rosa Morison & Eleanor Grove, Wikipedia.
Photographs of Plaques, © Eddie Morton ARPS.
Rosa Morison portrait, © UCL Records, UCL Library Services

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Dr. Flora Murray 1869-1923 and Dr. Louisa Garrett Anderson 1873‑1943

Holy Trinity, Penn, Old Churchyard, Plot F.19

Dr. Louisa Garrett-Anderson and Dr. Flora Murray

Ten years ago, I was contacted by Dr Jennian Geddes who was researching the Women’s Hospital Corps (WHC), a group of female doctors and nurses which had been set up in 1914 to treat military casualties.   A flat granite memorial stone in the SW corner of Penn churchyard records the names of the two very remarkable women doctors: Flora Murray (8th May 1869 – 28th July 1923) and Louisa Garrett-Anderson (25th June 1873 – 15th November 1943), who in their 40s had founded the WHC and who lived at Paul End (now Gatemoor Grange) off Pauls Hill, close to the church.

Before WW1, it was still rare for a woman doctor to see male patients and women were excluded from training for general medicine and surgery.  Both women had been very active in the suffragette movement. Louisa Garrett Anderson, whose mother, Elizabeth, was the first ever British woman doctor, as well as becoming established in her profession, was politically active, taking a keen interest in suffrage activities.  She was a member of: the London Society for Women’s Suffrage; the London Graduates’ Union for Women’s Suffrage (where she chaired the inaugural meeting); the Women’s Social and Political Union; the United Suffragists (Vice-President); and the National Political League.  On 4 March 1912 she smashed a window in Rutland Gate in protest at a speech made by an anti-suffragist Cabinet minister. She was arrested and sent to Holloway Prison for 6 weeks with hard labour.  Flora Murray had nursed many of the suffragettes after forcible feeding in prison.

Florence Nightingale’s Death Certificate

It is intriguing to note a connection between the suffragettes and Florence Nightingale, since it was Louisa Garrett Anderson who, in 1910, signed Florence Nightingale’s death certificate when she died at her home in London, aged 90.

Louisa G-A was already in Penn by 1911 when she is recorded as living in Stone Lodge, probably now Stone Cottage, the first cottage at the top of Pauls Hill.   By 1912, she had bought the land for Paul End which was built in 1913.   This was the very year in which unknown suffragettes tried to set light to Penn Church, which must surely have been a considerable embarrassment to Louisa!

Princess Sophia Duleep Singh, daughter of Maharaja Duleep Singh, forcibly exiled in England from his kingdom of Punjab, provides another unexpected local connection with a leading suffragette as both she and Louisa were members of a suffragette deputation to the Prime Minister in 1910.  Sophia and her sister Catherine came to live in Hammersley Lane during WW2 – possibly as a result of having known Louisa?

Another notable local suffragette was Mary Gawthorpe, who was living in Penn (address not known, but perhaps with Louisa G-A?) in October-December 1912, when she called for a National Hunger Strike from the Penn address and was later interviewed by the Daily Mail on ‘Penn Common’.

When the First World War broke out, Flora Murray and Louisa Garret Anderson founded the Women’s Hospital Corps (WHC), and recruited women to staff it.  Believing that the British War Office would reject their offer of help, and knowing that the French were in need of medical assistance, they offered their assistance to the French Red Cross. The French accepted their offer and provided them the space of a newly built Claridges Hotel in Paris as their hospital.  They ran a very successful hospital staffed and run entirely by women.  Before returning to London in 1915 they opened another hospital at The Chateau Mauricien near Boulogne.

Dr Flora Murray & Dr Louisa Garrett-Anderson, Endell St, 1916

Then, in January 1915, they were offered the chance to run a hospital in London where most of the casualties were then going to.  They were given large old workhouse premises in Endell Street in Covent Garden. This they transformed into a 573-bed military hospital which opened in May 1915.

Flora Murray was the Doctor-in-charge and was the first woman to be recognized as a Lt Colonel equivalent by the British Army.  She was an anesthetist and Louisa Garrett Anderson, a Major equivalent, was the Chief Surgeon.  The hospital had a staff of 180 women who referred to them both as ‘the C.O.s’.   They operated together.
The illustration shows Louisa Garrett Anderson, the surgeon in the middle of the group, with Flora Murray as the anaesthetist.  The large oil by Francis Dodd was commissioned in 1920 by the Imperial War Museum to record the work of the hospital. It was not unusual for 20 to 30 men to go to theatre in a day.   Weekly lectures were given to the young staff about women’s rights and their duties as citizens and flags were flown in 1918 when a law was passed giving suffrage to women over 30 and women over 21 who were householders.  Younger women had to wait until 1928.  Both women were awarded the CBE for their war work,

Endell Street hospital was amazingly successful and one of the reasons for this was their attention to the psychological needs of the soldiers.  Great emphasis was placed on creating a calming and home-like environment with fresh flowers in every room, brightly coloured blankets, standard lamps for reading, and ‘our gentle merry young orderly girls who feed them with cigarettes, write to their mothers and read to them.’  When it was finally closed, in December 1919, they had treated 26,000 patients in the four and a half years of its existence, almost all of them male.

Paul End was owned jointly by Louisa and Flora and was much used and appreciated as a retreat for the hospital staff to get away from the horrors of military surgery and wartime London.   After the war, from 1921, they lived there full-time.  Flora died in 1923 after a series of operations in the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital in London and was buried in the churchyard at Penn.  Louisa stayed on in Penn and played an active part in local affairs.  She, became a magistrate and was the second woman to be elected to Penn Parish Council on which she served from 1932 to 1940, taking a particular interest in the War memorial.  She is recorded as opening a church bazaar in Penn Street.

On the outbreak of WW2, Louisa let the house and went to work as a member of the surgical staff in the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson hospital in London.  She became seriously ill in 1943 and was at first treated in the hospital named  after her mother, before being taken to a nursing home in Brighton, where she died on 15 Nov 1943.  She was cremated at Brighton and her ashes scattered on the South Downs, but her family arranged for an inscription commemorating her friendship and work with Flora Murray to be placed on the latter’s tombstone in the churchyard at Holy Trinity, Penn.

Their shared memorial stone is headed, ‘To the dear love of comrades’, presumably referring to their suffragette days.  It records their roles at the Endell Street Hospital acknowledging that ‘God gave her strength to lead, to pity and to heal’, and concludes movingly and triumphantly, in capitals, ‘WE HAVE BEEN GLORIOUSLY HAPPY’.

Her will includes a generous £500 to Penn Church (about £20,000 today according to the National Archive calculator), to be invested for the repair and maintenance of Penn Church.

[The initial article (see VV No. 137, Apr 2010)  was mostly based initially on an article by Dr Jennian Geddes, ‘The Woman’s Hospital Corps’ in The Camden History Review, Vol 32 (2008), pp.13-18,  since supplemented with useful researches by Ron Saunders and Peter Strutt.

Miles Green, 1 June 2020

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David Blakely 1929-1955

David Moffat Drummond Blakely,
17th June 1929 – Easter Sunday, 10th April 1955,
Holy Trinity, Penn, New Churchyard, Plot 48.

David Blakely received unwanted notoriety when he was murdered by Ruth Ellis, and from the newspaper coverage that followed. David was born in Ecclesall, Sheffield, his father was a Scottish born doctor and his mother was Irish and came from Ballynahinch. His parents later divorced, and David’s mother Anne remarried Humphrey Wyndham Cook in 1941.

Highland Light Infantry

Anne Cook with David

David was educated at Shrewsbury, and after his National Service in the Highland Light Infantry, whose insignia appears on his tombstone, he looked at a career in hotel management, but left that and concentrated on his real interest which was racing cars.  Initally in his beloved HRG racing car, HLO 168,  replaced by the ‘Emperor’ in 1954, in which he took 2nd place at Brands Hatch on Boxing Day, 1954. Both cars were serviced and race prepared by Len Gibbs at Slade’s Garage, in Penn. David was an up and coming motor racing driver, encouraged and financed by his step-father Humphrey Wyndham Cook, who was a motor racing driver in the 1930’s. From 1933 to 1939, Humphrey Cook financed the development of the ERA (English Racing Autombile) with Raymond Mays and Peter Berthon, with the objective of devloping a world beating racing car and in 1934 Humphrey Cook won a handicap race at Brooklands with an 1,100cc ERA.

David’s racing results 1951 to 1953 show 1st, 3rd, 4th and 6th place results at National race meetings at Silverstone and Goodwood driving the HRG lightweight HLO 168.

David Blakely with HLO 168 and Silverstone trophies.

Then follows 1953 – 1954 driving the Leonard/MG with some 3rd and 5th placings. From October 1954, David was driving the ‘Emperor’ a HRG Twincam, and 26th December 1954 he achieved 2nd place at Brands Hatch. He was booked to race at the Goodwood Easter meeting 12th April 1955, two days after his tragic death. He had also been hired by Bristol Motor to drive one of the two factory Bristol 450 sportscars, (based on the ERA G-type Formula Two car of 1952), entered in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, scheduled to be contested in June of that same year.   A promising motor racing career cut short on Easter day 1955.

‘Emperor’ HRG Twin-cam (with HLO 168 number plate).

David Blakely lived with his mother Anne and her husband, Humphrey Wyndham Cook, (who she married in 1941), at ‘The Old Park’, Hammersley Lane, Tylers Green, which had been the WW2 retreat of Walter Delamare and his wife Elfrida.  Humphrey, Anne and David later moved to The Orchard on Beacon Hill.  The original ‘Old Park’ house was pulled down in 2008 and replaced by a very contemporary house.

The Old Park, Hammersley Lane.

Humphrey Cook made a generous donation to the New Churchyard appeal in memory of his wife Anne, and her two sons, John and David, though only Anne is remembered on the 1978 completion plaque inside the New Churchyard wall.  Humphrey and Anne Cook are buried together in the New Churchyard, Plot 30.  David’s elder brother John Brien Blakely (1920-1963)  was a Royal Naval pilot in WW2, flying Torpedo bombers (probably Fairey Swordfish).  He was a prisoner of war for several years and died from encephalitis aged only 43, he lies next to David in plot 49.

Their eldest brother Derek, was a WW2 RAF pilot, awarded the DFC, and joined BOAC after the war, rising to Senior Captain.  Their sister Maureen, was a Wren, working at Bletchley Park during WW2 and married a US Naval Lt. Commander in July of 1945 and emigrated to America.  The ashes of the children’s nannie, Beatrice Holman, who originally joined the family in Sheffield, are next to David, John, Anne and Humphrey, in Ashes plot 151.

Many thanks to David’s American nephew Derek, who provided family history and photographs ©.

See Also: Racing Drivers of Penn: David Blakely

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