❤️A Valentine’s Blog💕
This is another of my really interesting finds from eBay during January, here we have Isabella Eliza Cates with her husband George Henry Hoffman, they married in St Mary Breadman’s Church (demolished in 1900) in Canterbury, Kent on 25 March 1833. Isabella was 23 born in 1809 and George was 27 born in 1806.
Sometime before 1st February 1860 (or could it be a little later?), the couple had this lovely CDV taken, they do look so happy and contented with each other. That date was when the Victorian Photographer Gustave Le Gray et Cie‘s business was dissolved, he wasn’t happy making CDVs for the masses he much preferred Portraiture, I’ve read that he was a brilliant Artist but not a good businessman.
There are two occasions of note, one on 25 March 1858 on the couple’s 25th Wedding Anniversary and another on Isabella’s 50th Birthday on 2nd April 1859, I’d like to think that George took her to Paris to celebrate either or both occasions💕
Looking at the back of the CDV you can see we have an amazing amount of family history information, not often it gets this good! It says ‘Isabella Eliza Cates + George Henry Hoffman – Henry Westwood Hoffman – Spencer Hoffman – Lovell Hoffman‘
What a wonderful start to the family tree and I would love to know who the super family member was that wrote this.
Isabella and George.
In 1841 the couple were living at 95 Cecil Square in Margate, Kent. George Henry is a Surgeon, with Isabella Eliza and their two children, Mary Annette aged 7 and Henry Westwood aged 5. They also have several servants.
In 1848 tragedy struck the family, their daughter Mary Annette, who had been born in early 1834, contracted Typhus, and six weeks later she died, she was just 14.
Cholera and Typhus
From LondonMet website, Irish Fever in Britain: ‘During the worst year of the Great Irish Famine, ‘Black ‘47’, tens of thousands of people fled across the Irish Sea from Ireland to Britain, desperately escaping the starvation and disease plaguing their country. These refugees, crowding unavoidably into the most insalubrious accommodation British towns and cities had to offer, were soon blamed for deadly outbreaks of epidemic typhus which emerged across the country during the first half of 1847. Indeed, they were accused of transporting the pestilence, then raging in Ireland, over with them. Typhus mortality rates in Ireland and Britain soared, and so closely connected with the disease were the Irish in Britain that it was widely referred to as ‘Irish fever’. Much of what we know about this epidemic is based on a handful of studies focussing almost exclusively on major cities along the British west coast. Moreover, there has been little attempt to understand the legacy of the episode on the Irish in Britain. Taking a national perspective, this article argues that the ‘Irish fever’ epidemic of 1847 spread far beyond the western ports of entry, and the epidemic, by entrenching the association of the Irish with deadly disease, contributed significantly to the difficulties Britain’s Irish population faced in the 1850s‘.
1851. Mary Annette died in Union Crescent, just off Cecil Square, it doesn’t say what number, but in the 1851 census it says that the family were living at No1 Union Crescent, so that is likely where they were at the time of Mary‘s death. There were many private Schools along Union Crescent, so handy for both the children. On this census, George Henry is described as a ‘Member of the Royal College of Surgeons (1828) and Licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries (1827)’ Their son Henry Westwood, now 15, was attending a private school in Hawley Square, Margate, just a short walk away from home.
George Henry Hoffman had been named after his father, also a surgeon, and his practice was at 1 Cecil Square, Margate, George took over his father’s practice when he retired not long before his death, George Henry Hoffman Snr died in 1856, he was 80 when he died. The property at 1 Cecil Square has kept its association with the medical world as it was still a surgery in 2014 and a Dental Practice in 2022.
These are their entries in the Post Office Directory for 1851.
1861. After researching a little more about George Henry it seems he had been unwell for a while and consequently had to retire in 1861. So now I’m thinking it could be possible that they did go abroad for quite a while pre 1861, for George’s health to improve, so another reason their photo was taken in Paris, France.
I’ve not found them anywhere in the UK in the 1861 census, their son Henry Westwood was at Cambridge studying so they didn’t have to worry about him.
1868. The couple’s son Henry Westwood Hoffman married Georgia Darton.
1871. George and Isabella are now living at Coombe Lodge, West Hill, Wandsworth, Surrey. After leaving his surgery and Margate around 1861 because of his ill health, the Royal Sea Bathing Infirmary unanimously elected him to the honorary office of consulting Surgeon to the charity, described on the census now as Surgeon, non-practising.
At the time of this census, the couple also had their son and his wife living with them plus a cousin Katherine Mckinley, born in Scotland and a Housekeeper, Cook, Housemaid and Footman.
1881. The couple are still living in West Hill at Coombe Lodge, George is described as a retired surgeon. Their son and family are also living in West Hill in their own home now.
31 March 1882. George Henry Hoffman died at his home Coombe Lodge, when he was 76 years old.
On the 1891 census Isabella Eliza is still living at Coombe Lodge, she has a Housekeeper, Cook, Housemaid, Man Servant and Gardener.
On 6 November 1893, Isabella Eliza died at Coombe Lodge.
Henry Westwood Hoffman
1851. After this time at the private school in Margate, he attended Clifton College, Bristol and then went to Trinity College, Cambridge where following in his father’s footsteps, he qualified to be a Physician/Surgeon in 1864.
On 2 October 1868, Henry married Georgia Darton at All Souls Church, Langham Place, Regent Street, Westminster. Although she had siblings both her parents had died about ten years previously. I feel that Henry’s parents would have welcomed her into their family.
All Soul’s Church looks like a beautiful and unusual Church to be married in. It is still well looked after and will be 200 years old this year, it has had major renovations between May 2022 and May 2023 to preserve it for future generations.
In the 1871 census, Henry Westwood Hoffman was with his wife Georgia living at his parent’s home in West Hill, Wandsworth, his occupation is described as ‘Ass Med Off- HH Invalid Convict Prison Woking‘ In researching this, I came across this website called Institutional History that explains all about it: Woking Invalid Convict Prison
1881 census. Living just a short distance away from his parents in West Hill at Cambridge Lodge were Henry and Georgia with their own family now. Henry’s occupation was ‘M.A, M.B, Trinity Coll, Cambridge (not practising) H.M. Inspector Civil Service (Burial Acts Dept)‘. Henry and his wife Georgia now had four children, a Cook, a Nurse and a Housemaid.
By 1891, they had another child making five but only the two youngest were at home at the time of the census. Henry is still HM Home Office Inspector for the Burial Acts Dept, he supervised many newly created public cemeteries. In the 1890s Henry was also Inspector of Retreats, places to help those battling with alcohol addiction.
The 1901 census finds the family still living in West Hill and four of their children are present.
The 1901 census spread over two pages. Henry working as a Medical Practitioner now, their son George Spencer Hoffman is an Architect and their younger son Harry Drummond Hoffman is following the family tradition into medicine as a medical student, he married and had children who also went into medicine and other careers.
Henry and Georgia’s Children. Georgia Mary Hoffman 1873-1967, George Spencer Hoffman 1875-1950, Harry Drummond Hoffman 1877-1946, Gertrude Hoffman 1879-1907 and lastly Evelyn Ethel Hoffman who was born on Valentine’s Day 14 February 1886-1952.
Georgia Mary Hoffman married Charles John Smith in 1925, they had no children as Georgia was 51 when she married. Charles was a Missioner for Surrey. They were both involved with religious work.
Also, he worked with the Caravan Mission to Village Children (CMVC) which was started in 1893 using a bakers’ cart. The CMVC became part of CSSM, but in 1960 Scripture Union became the official name of the organisation.
George Spencer Hoffman trained as an architect, was an extraordinary map maker and artist. He married Charlotte Hope Tosh on 15 Nov 1902 in Wandsworth, and they had one son Henry Lovell Hoffman born in 1905, he married in 1937 but had no children.
These beautiful maps and the drawing below are just a small part of his work, do read the wonderful biography written about him on the BarronMaps website by Rod Barron. Direct link below:
George Spencer Hoffman Biography
The Imperial War Museum hold many of his sketchbooks from when he served in the Army during WW1 in their archives, he was at the Somme, see what they have here:
Fourth child Gertrude Isabel Hoffman was 24 when she married Herbert Stanley Tosh in 1903, if you recognise the surname, yes Herbert was a brother to Charlotte Hope Tosh who had married George Spencer Hoffman in 1902, just a year previously. Gertrude and Herbert had a daughter on 5 July 1904 Jean Murray Tosh, but in 1907 Gertrude contracted a serious infection and died while being operated on, she was just 28.
The cause of Death was ‘Operation for Double Pyo Salpinx, 2 days, Exhaustion‘ a serious infection in the fallopian tubes, which leads to pyosalpinx, causing them to swell and expand.
Herbert went to live at his father’s home, although his mother had died his unmarried sister still lived there at 13 Ventnor Villas, Hove, Sussex, so he had help with his daughter. Herbert did marry again later in 1932. Jean went on to marry William Darwin and they had children.
The youngest of the five children was Evelyn Ethel Hoffman who was born on Valentine’s Day in 1886. Although she was 25 at the time of the 1911 census and living at home frustratingly as often happens, because she didn’t have a job as such, we know nothing about her life and what her passions were.
In 1939 I found her living at Circus, Bath, Somerset with Jean Mary Hoffman, who was Henry Lovell Hoffman’s wife, he was Evelyn’s nephew, Henry was a Doctor and he was not at home in 1939 so maybe he was involved in WW2. Evelyn never married nor had children, she died at Forbes Frazer Hospital, Bath on 20 November 1952. She left over £7,000 in her will to one married lady and two spinsters. I’d loved to have known more about her.
Henry Lovell Hoffman
The last of the names on the back of the card is Lovell Hoffman and I was pleased to find this full biography about him on the Royal College of Physicians website, written in 1964 after his death, as it answers my question about where he was in WW2 and confirms all my family history research:
b.4 August 1905 d.4 January 1964
VRD(1943) BA Cantab(1926) MB BCh Cantab(1931)MD Cantab(1943) MRCS LRCP(1929) MRCP(1932)FRCP(1952)
Henry Hoffman was born in Surbiton, Surrey, the only son of George Spencer Hoffman, an architect and painter, and his wife, Charlotte, the daughter of John Tosh. From Clifton College and Trinity College, Cambridge, he went to St. Thomas’s Hospital. Following house appointments at his parent hospital and the Royal Northern Hospital, he returned to St. Thomas’s in 1932 as medical registrar. There his interest in neurology brought him an assistant medical registrarship at the National Hospital, Queen Square, in 1936, and the posts of honorary medical registrar and physician to out-patients at the Royal United Hospital, Bath, where he settled in practice in 1938.
As a critical, meticulous and sympathetic clinician, Hoffman was well suited to the disciplines of his specialty, and very quickly gained the love as well as the respect of his colleagues.
While still a student he joined the R.N.V.R. in 1928 as a surgeon sub-lieutenant; in 1939 he became a medical specialist and served at hospitals at Barrow Gurney, Invergordon and Trincomalee. In 1945 he returned to Bath as a physician to the Royal United Hospital; later he was appointed to the staff of the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases.
Like his grandfather and his father, Hoffman was a distinguished water-colourist and exhibited at the Royal Academy, the Royal Society of British Artists, and the Royal West of England Academy. In 1937 he married Joan Mary, daughter of Charles Tapply.
Richard R Trail
[Brit.med.J., 1964, 1, 184, 379; Lancet, 1964, 1, 177-8.]
This is the small family tree I have compiled on Ancestry for the Hoffmans: George Henry Hoffman Tree
Although this family had their sad times just like any other family, I do feel there was a lot of love among them, they seemed to stay close to each other throughout their lives and all the children through the generations of this family seem to have had a good education and were encouraged to pursue their individual talents and passions.
Till next time then…….
LYNNS WAFFLES 