Treasured memories of this family.

On Saturday, 9 May 2026, I went to the excellent Postcard Fair held in the Clyst St Mary hall near Exeter, Devon. I’ve been before and usually come away with a few treasures.

This time I bought almost 20 double sided album pages of old photos. All belonging to one family, from dealer Steve from St Ives in Cornwall.

There are a few clues to the family of Osborne written under some of the photos, and the areas of Herefordshire and Worcestershire are mentioned too. On the back of one of the smaller pages is written “Nettie Lewis. Bon Marche. Ross. 9-11-95” (1895).

These two surnames, Osborne and Lewis, were the key to unlocking this family.

So I started a family tree on Ancestry with the two young children, whose full names were listed under one of their photos. It’s one of the larger pages, and as you can see, it names George William Osborne, who was born on 7 September 1900, and Marjorie Kate Osborne, his sister, was born at the beginning of 1904

I matched them up with their Mother’s maiden name, Lewis, thanks to the GRO digital birth records, and I was able to gradually add more family members to the tree.

I have numbered each album page, as I’m hoping that someone may be able to identify some of the areas in the various photos.

The Dugdale branch of the family.

Mary Tysoe Osborne was born in the quiet Worcestershire village of Hampton in January 1878, the daughter of George and Eleanor Tysoe. Baptised in the parish church on 3 March 1878, she spent her childhood among the familiar fields and lanes of Hampton and Little Hampton, growing up alongside her brothers and sister in a close-knit family.

As the Osborne family grew, so too did Mary’s responsibilities.

In July 1900, at the age of 22, Mary married Edward Dugdale in Evesham. Their married life soon centred around Bredon and nearby Westmancote, villages lying beneath Bredon Hill.

Over the next twelve years, they welcomed five children into the family:

Firstborn was Edward Beaumont Dugdale, 1901-5 March 1922.

Next was Eileen Mary Dugdale, who was born on 3 June 1904. She married Stanley George Fowler on 16 August 1928 in her hometown. They had two children during their marriage. She died in January 1997 at the age of 92.

Then Grace Dugdale was born on 10 October 1908 in Bredon, Worcestershire. She married George William Morris in April 1932 in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire. She died on 7 October 1989 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, at the age of 80.

Next came Richard Osborne Dugdale, born 30 January 1911. He married Joyce M Gabb in July 1939 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. He died in September 2003 in Leicester, Leicestershire, at the age of 92.

The fifth born was Roger Dugdale, born on 26 June 1914 in Bredon, Worcestershire. He married Esme Gladys Brown in October 1949 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. He died in May 1986 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, at the age of 71.

By 1921, Mary was recorded as the head of the household in Bredon, occupied with “Home Duties,” a simple phrase that scarcely captured the endless work carried out by wives and mothers of the period.

The greatest loss came in October 1943, when her husband Edward died after 43 years of marriage. Yet Mary remained connected to her growing family and continued living into her eighties, witnessing the enormous changes brought by two world wars and the modern age that followed.

Mary Tysoe Osborne died in Gloucester on 14 June 1961 at the age of 83. She was known affectionately in the family as Auntie Pops. You’ll notice the two Dugdale girls, Eileen and Grace, mentioned in other photos.

After spending a few days gradually filling out the tree with the different generations, their children, who they married, and where they lived and worked. I was then able to identify some of the people, the buildings and who lived or worked in them, like the Dugdales above.

Could the lock below be New Haw Lock, nearest to Woodham? Pyrford Lock? Or Coxes Lock near Addlestone. Or even Thames Lock at Weybridge, where the Wey joins the Thames. These would all have been active and familiar local landmarks at the time.

Or could it even be in the area of Evesham in Worcestershire? You’ll realise why Evesham? As you read the rest of this blog.

All of these pages are a real mix of family moments. Portraits, groups, and some fun days out, mixed with areas and homes where they lived and worked. A family’s special moments captured in time.

Their family story comes after all the album pages.

Now for the slightly smaller album pages. These all have an added bonus! They are mostly dated. If you look closer, you can see small numbers by the photos; the top right below has 3/96, which is March 1896. The two ladies in the middle left have 6/96, which is June 1896.

The Osborne and Lewis family story.

George Morgan Osborne and Antoinette Annie Lewis belonged to a generation whose lives bridged the quiet rural Victorian world and the upheavals of the twentieth century.

Their story begins among the villages and market towns of Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Radnorshire before settling in Surrey, where the Osborne family would remain for decades.

George Morgan Osborne was born on 4 September 1872 in Sambourne, Warwickshire, the first child of George Osborne and Eleanor Tysoe.

His father George, worked as a farmer pre 1876, then a commercial traveller, and later a merchant’s manager, occupations that would have required long days travelling the roads of Worcestershire and Warwickshire in an age before motor cars became common.

George Morgan was baptised a few weeks later at Coughton, a village rich in history and close to where he was born.

The Osborne family grew steadily through the 1870s and 1880s. George Morgan welcomed his brother John Tysoe, 1873-1923, sisters Eleanor Grace, 1876-1942, and Mary Tysoe, 1878-1961, brother William Peacey, 1879-1958, and finally Frank Corbett, 1884-1953.

The family lived in Little Hampton near Evesham, surrounded by orchards, market gardens and the agricultural life of the Vale of Evesham.

By 1881, young George Morgan was recorded simply as a scholar, one of many children of the period whose lives revolved around school, church and family responsibilities.

Meanwhile, across the border in Wales, Antoinette Annie Lewis, known affectionately as “Nettie”, was born on 31 August 1871 in Knighton, Radnorshire.

She was the daughter of William Joseph Lewis and Martha Downes. Knighton, sitting close to the English border, was a lively market town where Welsh and English influences mixed freely. Antoinette grew up in a large extended family circle and by 1881 was living with her parents in Knighton.

During the late Victorian years, both George and Antoinette found themselves in Ross, Herefordshire.

In 1891, George was lodging there and working as a bank clerk, beginning what would become a long and respectable banking career.

Antoinette, meanwhile, was living in Ross, assisting her uncle, James Meredith, born in 1843 (his mother was a Lewis), in his draper’s shop. One can easily imagine the thriving market town providing the setting in which the two young people met.

A treasured clue to Antoinette’s younger years survives in the form of these photograph album pages marked “Nettie Lewis,” dated 9 November 1895 and connected with ‘Bon Marché’ (maybe a house name) in Ross.

It paints a charming picture of a fashionable young Victorian woman preserving memories in the form of family photographs at a time when photography was becoming part of everyday life.

In July 1899, George Morgan Osborne and Antoinette Annie Lewis married in Kington, Herefordshire. George was twenty-six and Antoinette twenty-seven. Their marriage marked the beginning of a new chapter that would soon take them south to Surrey.

Their first child, George William Osborne, was born in Guildford on 7 September 1900 and baptised at All Saints Church, Woodham. By the 1901 census the family were living in Woking, where George Morgan was establishing himself professionally.

Surrey at this time was rapidly changing. Railways had transformed towns like Woking from quiet rural settlements into prosperous commuter communities connected to London.

Tragedy touched the family in 1902. Their second child, Frank Morgan Osborne, was born on 6 August that year but died only a few weeks later on 16 October. The loss of an infant child was heartbreakingly common in Edwardian Britain, yet no less devastating for parents like George and Antoinette.

Their sorrow was followed by joy when a daughter, Marjorie Kate Osborne, was born on 3 December 1903. She too was baptised at All Saints, Woodham, continuing the family’s connection with the parish.

In 1904, the family were living at Claremont Villa, Maybury Road, Woodham, Woking, Surrey.

George Morgan’s banking career progressed steadily. By 1911 he was a bank cashier in Woking, a position of trust and responsibility in an era when banks were central to local business life. The family lived respectably, with Antoinette managing the household while their children grew up in Surrey’s increasingly suburban landscape.

The 1921 census captures the family at 133 Chertsey Road, Woking. George Morgan had risen to become a bank manager for Lloyd’s Bank, while his son George William followed him into banking as a clerk.

Antoinette was occupied with home duties, and Marjorie, now a young woman of eighteen, remained at home. It must have been a proud moment for George Morgan to see his son entering the same profession in which he himself had worked since his youth.

Yet life continued to bring both happiness and sadness. George Morgan lost his father in 1922, shortly before the death of his brother John Tysoe in 1923. More about John Tysoe later.

Despite these sorrows, family life moved forward. In July 1927, George William married Doris Marion Denney in Chertsey, Surrey, and later had two sons, George Michael Anthony Osborne and Peter Lewis Osborne. The Osborne line continued into another generation.

Marjorie Kate married Bryant Lillywhite in September 1926. A daughter, Annette, was born the following year, bringing delight to George and Antoinette as grandparents. But another devastating loss soon followed.

In May 1934, Marjorie died aged only thirty. Records reveal the tragic circumstances: she was pregnant and suffered from eclampsia. She was buried at Send, Surrey.

For George and Antoinette, losing their daughter after already losing an infant son decades earlier must have been almost unbearable.

During their later years George and Antoinette lived at Woodside, Send, near Woking. George retired after many years in banking and by 1939 was recorded as a retired bank manager.

Antoinette was listed, as so many women of her generation were, as carrying out unpaid domestic duties. They had been married for forty-five years and had witnessed enormous changes, from horse-drawn Victorian England to the dark years of the Second World War.

The losses continued in old age. George’s mother Eleanor died in 1938, followed by his sister Eleanor Grace in 1942.

Then, on 10 December 1944, George Morgan Osborne died at Woodside aged seventy-two. He was buried three days later at St Mary’s Church, Send, the Surrey parish that had become the family’s final home.

Antoinette survived her husband by just over five years. After a lifetime that had begun in the hills of Radnorshire and stretched across the Victorian, Edwardian and wartime eras, she died in Guildford on 12 February 1950 aged seventy-eight. She was buried in Woking, close to the family life she and George had built together.

Here’s the public family tree that I have compiled on Ancestry: Osborne.Lewis Family Tree

From Warwickshire villages and Welsh border towns to the growing suburbs of Surrey, George Morgan Osborne and Antoinette Annie Lewis created a family whose history reflects the experiences of many ordinary yet remarkable families of their time, lives marked by hard work, close family ties, grief, resilience and lasting love across nearly half a century of marriage.

John Tysoe Osborne.

John Tysoe was fifty years old when he died, but I hadn’t realised how he died until I read his sister Eleanor Grace’s death report in the newspapers. Just one mentioned him as he was her partner in Rowing at Evesham. It said that he was killed in a freak accident at the golf club. Here’s the reports below, shocking!

Eleanor Grace Osborne.

I wondered if I could find out anything about this lady, so I thought I would search the newspaper archives around her death. I was astonished and thrilled to find out that she was quite a lady. A member of Evesham Rowing Club.

She would be amazed to see how young ladies dressed for rowing these days, wouldn’t she? She was definitely a trailblazer, and I was so pleased to find this newspaper photo of her actually on the river.

I found several newspaper reports mentioning her activities; she had a remarkable life for a Victorian lady, ending with her being made President of Evesham Rowing Club.

Obviously known as Grace, as her mother was Eleanor too, it says above, “Miss Grace Osborne, in her Humber, covers many miles in a week“.

You can contact me either by commenting here or via email at lynnswaffles@gmail.com 

Till next time then……….