FAMILY HISTORY
The photograph above shows the wedding of Winnie Turner and Edwin Elliott in 1908. The image to the left is not a family photograph.
I know comparatively little about my father's family, which had rural working-class roots. My paternal grandfather, Thomas Jones, worked as a gardener for one of landed families in Colwall, Herefordshire. His wife, Ethel (née Toogood) was 'in service'. After marrying the couple spent some time in Liverpool and in North Wales before returning to Colwall. Here Thomas worked quietly as a market gardener for the rest of his life.
My mother's family includes several people who played a significant role in the history of Birmingham and beyond. The main branches are:
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(1) The Turners
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My great-grandfather, James Richard Turner, was a builder and Birmingham City Councillor. He was prominent in the Liberal Party, and friend of David Lloyd George.
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(2) The Becketts
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Jarratt Rudstone Beckett was a well-known Yeovil-based photographer. For examples of his work click here. His son, my grandfather, Charles Lockwood Beckett, owned a dry-cleaning business called 'Beckett of Birmingham' - which at one time had dozens of shops, in every area of the city.
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Charles's first wife, Mabel (my grandmother) joined the Christian Scientists, and died young because she refused medical treatment after falling ill. Charles married again, to Gladys Rayner. Gladys's sister Joyce was married to the well-known composer Benjamin Frankel (see here). ​
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The Becketts were related distantly to Samuel Beckett. I remember my mother telling me that her father had cousins in Dublin, including ‘Sam Beckett’ – who wrote ‘very strange books that no-one could understand’. Several members of the family lived in the Folkestone area, and Beckett is known to have visited local relations when he got married in Folkstone in 1961.
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(3) The Elliotts
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Edwin Elliott, was founder and managing director of E. Elliott Ltd, manufacturers of injection-moulded plastic goods. His best-known product was the VP Twin camera. For further information, click here. His daughter, Margery, was one of the first regular TV and radio quizzers, and worked with Magnus Magnusson on I've Started so I'll Finish, the history of Mastermind. Margery also wrote a book entitled The Story of Rotton Park (Brewin Books, 2019). It includes a good deal of family history, and is available here. Margery died on 28 November 2019, aged 100 years.
(4) The Lockwoods
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Florence Lockwood was a suffragette, anti-war activist and artist who lived in Linthwaite, near Huddersfield. Several websites incorporate extracts from her diaries. For an article on Florence and other Huddersfield suffragettes from HerStoria Magazine click here.
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Frank and Arthur Lockwood were well-known Birmingham artists. For information on Arthur, click here.
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