In the late nineteenth century the British Empire reached more or less its greatest extent, and imperial sentiment was stronger than it's ever been before or since.
Victoria in 1882: By Alexander Bassano - Scanned from the book The National Portrait Gallery History of the Kings and Queens of England by David Williamson, ISBN 1855142287, p. 153., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6640482
The multitudinous territories ruled over by Victoria - Queen of Britain and Empress of India - were to become important in the lives of even a backwater family like the Edgars of Preston St Mary.
The Empire at its peak -1921: By Vadac. - Own work., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1436172
Alice Louise Edgar was born on 12 September 1876 - the year before Disraeli persuaded Victoria that she was in fact Empress of a country she'd never been anywhere near - atPreston , and probably at Down Hall Farm, the property rented by her father
Thomas. But by the time the 1881 Census came around Thomas had lost the farm and was now a bailiff in Stonham Aspall:
Victoria in 1882: By Alexander Bassano - Scanned from the book The National Portrait Gallery History of the Kings and Queens of England by David Williamson, ISBN 1855142287, p. 153., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6640482
The multitudinous territories ruled over by Victoria - Queen of Britain and Empress of India - were to become important in the lives of even a backwater family like the Edgars of Preston St Mary.
The Empire at its peak -1921: By Vadac. - Own work., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1436172
Alice Louise Edgar was born on 12 September 1876 - the year before Disraeli persuaded Victoria that she was in fact Empress of a country she'd never been anywhere near - at
Alice Louise was 4 and still living with her parents - her older brother Arthur had been sent to his maternal grandparents, perhaps as an economy measure.
By the time she started school the family had moved again, twice in fact - by now Thomas was finding it hard to win secure employment, and gradually slipping down the social scale. Alice Louise and her younger brother - my grandfather -
Herbert entered Worlingworth C of E Voluntary Controlled Primary School on Oct
20 1884:
For the next 20 years her life was like that of many girls from
struggling rural families: she left school young and entered domestic service. The
1891 Census has Alice Edgar a general servant, born in Preston , aged 14, and now living at Woodbridge, about a dozen miles from the Suffolk coast:
The head of the household is William J. Webb, who's described as
'living on his own means'. He has a wife, Anna, and there are three children
living at home, although two are grown-up and working.
Woodbridge Harbour: By Bluewave - the English language Wikipedia (log), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6842612
Ten years later she's gone up in the world, if only a
little. The 1901 Census finds her still described as a servant, but
now specifically a 'nurse domestic' in the household of Richard Wilkinson, a
mercantile clerk, and his wife Elizabeth. They're living in a house called
Gwynethorpe at 186 Acacia Grove in New
Malden, Surrey - so she's moved away from the eastern counties as well . She's looking after a daughter
Dorothy (3) and a son Richard (1), but as she was the family's only servant she was
probably kept busy with household tasks as well.
She probably didn't suspect that four years later her world
was going to change.
View from Dolphin's Nose, A Tourist Spot in Coonor: By Sandip Bhattacharya - Dolphin's Nose View of Catherine Falls at Flickr([1]), CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32926014
On November 11, 1905 Alice Louise, who was not much under 30
and therefore most likely considered a permanent 'spinster' by the standards of the time, married Donald
Smith Ollenbach. The transcript of the wedding certificate gives her age as 28 and describes her as a nursery
governess. Her husband was an assistant surgeon and he was aged
46.[1]
The couple were married in the Coonor Schoolroom, by William Mallis, the pastor of the Union Church, Coonor, a hill station in a tea growing area of the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The church had only been constituted on May 26, 1905 (it's still there - for a photo see http://www.unionchurchcoonoor.com/?page_id=23)
Alice was now in a different world - and things had moved fast: when Donald Smith Ollenbach came to England a year
or two earlier his first wife had accompanied him, so in two and a half years he must have sailed from New Zealand or India to the UK, met, fell for, wooed and won Alice - and to finish the process speedily arranged a divorce. At least that's what I think happened: Wilfred 'Bay' Edgar told me in a letter that his aunt Alice Louise went to India and met Ollenbach there. In due course I shall present one small but compelling piece of evidence - a line through a name on a ship's manifest - that convinces me otherwise.
Donald Ollenbach was born on November 22, 1858 at Dinapore, a garrison town about 500km north-west of Calcutta.[2] It seems likely that his father was in or at least attached to the British army, and if so, he was probably caught up in the bloody events of the Indian Rebellion (formerly known as the Indian Mutiny, May 1857-July 1858). In any case, Donald stayed in the country of his birth and in April 28, 1890 married Emma Lucretia
Mill. He was an Assistant Apothecary and resident at Ishapore, a town close to Calcutta - the location of a gun and gunpowder factory.
The wedding took place at nearby Barrackpore.[3] His bride had been born on 25 February 1871 at Roorkee in Bengal. Cawnpore, the site of a siege and massacre during the rebellion .[5]
On April 8, 1893,while still an army apothecary and living at
Ishapore, he became a Freemason - he was initiated into the United Grand Lodge
of England at Barrackpore. A note says he resigned on January 1, 1903, possibly because he'd joined a lodge in another country.
Around the turn of the century he had left India , possibly
for the first time.
On November 17 1902, now an assistant surgeon, Ollenbach resumed his 'career' in Freemasonry by entering the United Grand Lodge of England in Wellington , New
Zealand
In those days 'long leave' from the east could be up to six
months, and at some point Ollenbach returned to England with his wife and met Alice
Louise.
How they met, I don't know. There is no record of Donald
having ever been to England before, but there were Ollenbachs living in London
and even in Surrey - we last met Alice Louise working as a nurse in that
county, and perhaps she had left the Wilkinsons for a relative of the man she
was about to meet.
That, though, is speculation. But what happened next can be deduced from the evidence of a passenger manifest. 'Ollenbach Surg.' leftLondon
for Bombay on
the Marmora under Captain G.
L. Langbonie sometime in the summer of 1904[7] (The manifest
was stamped July 7) Mrs Ollenbach's name is on the passenger list but it's been
crossed out.[8] I can
find no trace of Emma Lucretia Ollenbach (neé Mill) after that final sad appearance
in the record. She married at the age of 19 and she was losing her husband and the life she'd had.
That, though, is speculation. But what happened next can be deduced from the evidence of a passenger manifest. 'Ollenbach Surg.' left
Alice Louise didn't sail with her future husband on the Marmora but she must have followed not too long
after - as we've seen, the marriage took place in November 1905. A daughter,
Gladys, as born in either 1910 or 1912, depending which ship's manifest is accurate
- my hunch is it's 1910, because, as we will see, her age had a tendency to fall as the years went by.
Meanwhile, Ollenbach was working his way slowly up the army
medical hierarchy. He was commissioned as an officer on June 7, 1907 while working at the Cordite
factory Aruvakandu, Tamil Nadu.[9]
Aravakundu Railway Station: By Sayowais - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31588552
Two speculations: given there was also a munitions factory at Ishapore, my guess is that he specialised at first in treating and then in operating on the victims of explosions and other accidents. And as Coonor is 6 km from Aravakundu, I think he was already working there when he brought Alice Louise to the Union Church to be married.
In any case, this was Alice Louise's new world, one very different to the flat eastern counties of her English childhood:
Tea Estate in Coonor: By Titus John - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=46388524
In October 1907 Ollenbach was made Assistant Surgeon with the honorary rank of Lieutenant. He was pensioned off on 22 November 1914 as an Honorary Captain.[11] At
the time he was a Senior Assistant Surgeon and
Honorary Major, so presumably he continued as a kind of medical reservist with a lower rank.[12] [13] Perhaps WW1 meant that his services were needed because in 1918 he was promoted from the Honorary Rank of Captain to the Honorary
Rank of Major.[14] Nothing more is heard of him thereafter, so perhaps he was allowed to enjoy his retirement.
However, there is another possibility. As we shall see, he died in Calcutta, and it seems likely that he took his family up north at some time after his retirement. This is what Wilfred Edgar has to tell us about him:
Alice...married the senior scientist Dr. Ollenbach on the poppy fields (we were manufacturing opium then) when we ceased he became the medical officer for Calcutta.
Everything I've found about Ollenbach points to a military career not a scientific one, but it's possible that after he left the army he worked in Calcutta and even that he had links to opium, production of which continued into WW11, although efforts were made to run-down the industry in the first decade of the twentieth century. But I must stress that there is no documented evidence as to any activity at all after 1918. And while I'm on the subject, there's an 1894 reference to a Mr. J. (L.) Ollenbach who was the laboratory superintendent at the opium factory in Patna (Bihar state). This might suggest a family connection to opium and possible involvement on Donald's part, or it might point to why there was a mistaken belief of such involvement.
However, there is another possibility. As we shall see, he died in Calcutta, and it seems likely that he took his family up north at some time after his retirement. This is what Wilfred Edgar has to tell us about him:
Alice...married the senior scientist Dr. Ollenbach on the poppy fields (we were manufacturing opium then) when we ceased he became the medical officer for Calcutta.
Everything I've found about Ollenbach points to a military career not a scientific one, but it's possible that after he left the army he worked in Calcutta and even that he had links to opium, production of which continued into WW11, although efforts were made to run-down the industry in the first decade of the twentieth century. But I must stress that there is no documented evidence as to any activity at all after 1918. And while I'm on the subject, there's an 1894 reference to a Mr. J. (L.) Ollenbach who was the laboratory superintendent at the opium factory in Patna (Bihar state). This might suggest a family connection to opium and possible involvement on Donald's part, or it might point to why there was a mistaken belief of such involvement.
The next thing we know for certain is that Donald Ollenbach died on December 8, 1932 in Calcutta and was buried the next day.[15]
It seems that in the wake of her husband's death, Alice Louise
contemplated moving back home with her daughter. This might also have had something to do with the death of A. J. Ollenbach in Calcutta on April 14, 1934. This Ollenbach was a retired magistrate in Bihar and Orissa, and he could have been her brother-in-law.
We find a Mrs. A. Ollenbach, aged 50 - she was lying - accompanied by Miss J. (sic) Ollenbach aged 20, who sailed on the City of Valencia from Calcutta and arrived
in London in May 1933 headed for Mount Rd.,Theydon Garnon. This is further
proof the property remained in the family after her father Thomas's death in 1929. Their
country of intended future residence is marked as England .
But if they really planned to build a new life in a country Gladys had never before visited, they soon changed their minds. They wouldn't have been the first to have been unable to leave behind the light, life and colour of India.
But if they really planned to build a new life in a country Gladys had never before visited, they soon changed their minds. They wouldn't have been the first to have been unable to leave behind the light, life and colour of India.
On November 10, 1934 Alice (age given as a more honest but still not quite accurate, 56, her profession as 'Nil') and Gladys (24, her profession - the 'stage') left London for Calcutta .
They'd been staying at 120, Arthur
Rd with Alice Louise's brother Herbert and his
wife, also an Alice. They were travelling first class
and their country of last permanent residence was given as England but they intended to live in India .[16]
Perhaps they made a second attempt to return to teh country that had once been home to Alice Louise.
Perhaps they made a second attempt to return to teh country that had once been home to Alice Louise.
In the spring of 1938 Alice (57) and Gladys (22 - while her mother has hardly aged at all in four years, Gladys has actually got younger) set out from
Calcutta on the Dumana arriving on April 9, perhaps crossing paths with my father Thomas - Gladys's cousin - who was sailing in the opposite direction to Hong Kong. Gladys was described
as a 'radio artist'. Their address in England was 69, Vansittart Road, a large Victorian semi, the new home of Herbert and Alice. [17]
They gave 'England' as their country of 'intended permanent residence' but returned cabin class to India (Alice still 57 but Gladys now a mere 21) on September 24, 1938.[18]
Presumably Gladys was a stage actress who was also broadcast on the radio. This is a splendid example of the way modernity - the application of science to the questions of existence and to the production of goods and services - was changing everyone's life. We've seen it creeping up on the Edgars in the nineteenth century, for example in the coming of the railways, but now its here in full force and raging uncontrollably. The mother is born on a farm in the quiet corner of Suffolk her ancestors had inhabited for the previous 700 years. The family's economic position is destroyed and she ends up in domestic service, at that time the fate of the majority of British women of her class. But the daughter knows nothing of this, and after what was probably a childhood of great material comfort has her voice broadcast over the airwaves of a country that to her grandfather, the third Johnson Edgar, would have seemed as distant as the moon.
And if Johnson was somehow managing to keep an eye on events he had yet another surprise in store.
Presumably Gladys was a stage actress who was also broadcast on the radio. This is a splendid example of the way modernity - the application of science to the questions of existence and to the production of goods and services - was changing everyone's life. We've seen it creeping up on the Edgars in the nineteenth century, for example in the coming of the railways, but now its here in full force and raging uncontrollably. The mother is born on a farm in the quiet corner of Suffolk her ancestors had inhabited for the previous 700 years. The family's economic position is destroyed and she ends up in domestic service, at that time the fate of the majority of British women of her class. But the daughter knows nothing of this, and after what was probably a childhood of great material comfort has her voice broadcast over the airwaves of a country that to her grandfather, the third Johnson Edgar, would have seemed as distant as the moon.
And if Johnson was somehow managing to keep an eye on events he had yet another surprise in store.
Gladys Helen Ollenbach married Dow Jehangir Minwalla in Darjeeling in 1942, both
ages given as 27.[19] His name probably means he was a Zoroastrian (also
known as Parsee/Parsi), although it's just possible he was the child of a Muslim-Parsee union.
Parsi Wedding, 1905: By The original uploader was Ravichandar84 at English Wikipedia - Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6958854
Darjeeling is a wonderful city and we were lucky enough to be there for the celebration of the birthday of the Buddha:
But I wish I had known about this part of our family history, as I'd have visited the abandoned Parsee Cemetery and tried to track down other traces of a now largely vanished community!
Zoroastrianism - which originated in Iran - is monotheistic and possibly the oldest 'revealed' religion in the world. The adherent best-known to British people is the late rock star Freddy Mercury. The popular Channel 4 series Indian Summers ended with a wedding between a woman of English ethnicity and a Zorastrian man, symbolising a partial reconciliation between the 'races' and the other factions that were at war throughout the series.
The marriage of my aunt Gladys opens up the intriguing possibility that I have cousins who lived through the tumultuous events of Indian independence and the forging of a new nation.
The National Flag of India flies above the Red Fort in Delhi: By Dennis Jarvis from Halifax, Canada - India-0037, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26156928
But I wish I had known about this part of our family history, as I'd have visited the abandoned Parsee Cemetery and tried to track down other traces of a now largely vanished community!
Zoroastrianism - which originated in Iran - is monotheistic and possibly the oldest 'revealed' religion in the world. The adherent best-known to British people is the late rock star Freddy Mercury. The popular Channel 4 series Indian Summers ended with a wedding between a woman of English ethnicity and a Zorastrian man, symbolising a partial reconciliation between the 'races' and the other factions that were at war throughout the series.
The marriage of my aunt Gladys opens up the intriguing possibility that I have cousins who lived through the tumultuous events of Indian independence and the forging of a new nation.
[1] http://search.findmypast.co.uk/record?id=bl%2fbind%2fn-11-10b%2f00544&parentid=bl%2fbind%2fm%2f235982%2f1&highlights=%22%22
[2] http://search.ancestry.co.uk/cgi-bin/sse.dll?_phsrc=DAg122&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&gss=angs-g&new=1&rank=1&gsfn=Donald%20Smith&gsfn_x=NN&gsln=Ollenbach&gsln_x=0&msbdy_x=1&msbdp=5&MSAV=1&msbdy=1858&cp=0&catbucket=rtp&uidh=eje&pcat=ROOT_CATEGORY&h=934891&db=FS1IndiaBirthsandBaptisms&indiv=1&ml_rpos=2
[3]http://search.findmypast.co.uk/record?id=bl%2fbind%2f005137430%2f00229&parentid=bl%2fbind%2fm%2f76470%2f1&highlights=%22%22
[4] http://search.ancestry.co.uk/cgi-bin/sse.dll?_phsrc=DAg124&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&gss=angs-g&new=1&rank=1&gsfn=Emma%20Lucretia&gsfn_x=NN&gsln=Mill&gsln_x=0&msypn__ftp=India&msypn=5112&msypn_PInfo=3-%7C0%7C1652396%7C0%7C5112%7C0%7C0%7C0%7C0%7C0%7C0%7C0%7C&MSAV=1&cp=0&catbucket=rtp&uidh=eje&pcat=ROOT_CATEGORY&h=37536&db=FS1IndiaBirthsandBaptisms&indiv=1&ml_rpos=4
[5] http://search.ancestry.co.uk/cgi-bin/sse.dll?_phsrc=DAg125&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&gss=angs-g&new=1&rank=1&gsfn=Emma%20Lucretia&gsfn_x=NN&gsln=Mill&gsln_x=0&msypn__ftp=India&msypn=5112&msypn_PInfo=3-%7C0%7C1652396%7C0%7C5112%7C0%7C0%7C0%7C0%7C0%7C0%7C0%7C&MSAV=1&cp=0&catbucket=rtp&uidh=eje&pcat=ROOT_CATEGORY&h=1531183&db=FS1IndiaBirthsandBaptisms&indiv=1&ml_rpos=7
[6] http://search.ancestry.co.uk/cgi-bin/sse.dll?_phsrc=DAg105&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&gss=angs-g&new=1&rank=1&msT=1&gsfn=Donald%20&gsfn_x=0&gsln=Ollenbach&gsln_x=0&MSAV=1&cp=0&catbucket=rtp&uidh=eje&pcat=ROOT_CATEGORY&h=832625&recoff=5%207&db=UKFreemasonRegisters&indiv=1&ml_rpos=1
[7] http://search.findmypast.co.uk/record?id=tna%2fbt27%2f0441000137%2f00009
[8] http://search.findmypast.co.uk/record?id=tna%2fbt27%2f0441%2f00%2f0137%2fp%2f0001f&parentid=tna%2fbt27%2f0441000137%2f00009&highlights=%22%22
[9] http://search.ancestry.co.uk/cgi-bin/sse.dll?_phsrc=DAg107&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&gss=angs-g&new=1&rank=1&msT=1&gsfn=Donald%20&gsfn_x=0&gsln=Ollenbach&gsln_x=0&MSAV=1&cp=0&catbucket=rtp&uidh=eje&pcat=ROOT_CATEGORY&h=23449&db=indarqu1912&indiv=1&ml_rpos=3
[10] https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/28066/page/6671/data.pdf
[11] http://search.findmypast.co.uk/record?id=bl%2fbind%2fl-ag-26-15wo%2f6902
[12] https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=j1i-BAAAQBAJ&pg=PA98-IA10&lpg=PA98-IA10&dq=donald+smith+ollenbach&source=bl&ots=wXHXqD0E3y&sig=hYKWvgDx_YHqktUN0OBC0BVCFTE&hl=en&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0CC8Q6AEwA2oVChMIwf2vpt39xgIVLFrbCh3DaAeX#v=onepage&q=donald%20smith%20ollenbach&f=false
[13] https://www.jstor.org/stable/25309269?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
[14] https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/31239/page/3639/data.pdf
[15] http://search.ancestry.co.uk/cgi-bin/sse.dll?_phsrc=DAg118&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&gss=angs-g&new=1&rank=1&gsfn=Donald&gsfn_x=0&gsln=Ollenbach&gsln_x=0&msypn__ftp=Calcutta,%20West%20Bengal,%20India&msypn=743003&msypn_PInfo=8-%7C0%7C1652396%7C0%7C5112%7C0%7C30470%7C0%7C0%7C743003%7C0%7C0%7C&MSAV=1&cp=0&catbucket=rtp&uidh=eje&pcat=ROOT_CATEGORY&h=387831&db=FS1IndiaDeathsandBurials&indiv=1&ml_rpos=4
[16] http://interactive.ancestry.co.uk/2997/41039_b001400-00052?pid=146251319&backurl=http://search.ancestry.co.uk//cgi-bin/sse.dll?_phsrc%3DDAg115%26_phstart%3DsuccessSource%26usePUBJs%3Dtrue%26gss%3Dangsg%26new%3D1%26rank%3D1%26msT%3D1%26gsfn%3DAlice%26gsfn_x%3D0%26gsln%3DOllenbach%26gsln_x%3D0%26MSAV%3D1%26cp%3D0%26catbucket%3Drtp%26uidh%3Deje%26pcat%3DROOT_CATEGORY%26h%3D146251319%26recoff%3D6%25207%26db%3DUKOutwardPassengerLists%26indiv%3D1%26ml_rpos%3D1&treeid=&personid=&hintid=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=DAg115&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true
[17] http://interactive.ancestry.co.uk/1518/30807_A001152-00548?pid=29009837&backurl=http%3a%2f%2fsearch.ancestry.co.uk%2f%2fcgi-bin%2fsse.dll%3fgss%3dangs-g%26new%3d1%26rank%3d1%26gsfn%3dAlice%2bLouise%26gsln%3dOllenbach%26msbdy_x%3d1%26msbdp%3d5%26MSAV%3d0%26msbdy%3d1876%26cp%3d0%26catbucket%3drstp%26uidh%3deje%26pcat%3dROOT_CATEGORY%26h%3d29009837%26db%3dBT26%26indiv%3d1%26ml_rpos%3d2&treeid=&personid=&hintid=&usePUB=true
[18] http://interactive.ancestry.co.uk/2997/41039_b001515-00395?pid=146433350&backurl=http%3a%2f%2fsearch.ancestry.co.uk%2f%2fcgi-bin%2fsse.dll%3fgss%3dangs-g%26new%3d1%26rank%3d1%26gsfn%3dGladys%2bHelen%26gsln%3dOllenbach%26mswpn__ftp%3dCalcutta%252c%2bWest%2bBengal%252c%2bIndia%26mswpn%3d743003%26mswpn_PInfo%3d8-%257c0%257c1652396%257c0%257c5112%257c0%257c30470%257c0%257c0%257c743003%257c0%257c%26msbdy_x%3d1%26msbdp%3d10%26MSAV%3d0%26msbdy%3d1910%26cp%3d0%26catbucket%3drstp%26uidh%3deje%26pcat%3dROOT_CATEGORY%26h%3d146433350%26recoff%3d6%2b7%2b30%26db%3dUKOutwardPassengerLists%26indiv%3d1%26ml_rpos%3d3&treeid=&personid=&hintid=&usePUB=true
[19] http://search.findmypast.co.uk/record?id=bl%2fbind%2fm%2f218383%2f2
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