This wonderful old postcard photo came from the postcard fair at Exeter back in May.

Always an excellent vintage collectables event held at Clyst St. Mary Village Hall (EX5 1AA).

It runs from 9:30 am to 3:30 pm with parking on site and free admission (voluntary charity donations accepted). The refreshments on offer are yummy.

The next upcoming dates for 2026 are Saturday, October 17th, and Saturday, December 12th.

It’s rather a nice photo of this couple and I wanted to find out more about them.

It says on the back Major & Mrs Griffiths Davies.

Billie/ee Farmer’s grand parents.

Two clues, find the Major and his wife and then I needed to confirm the couple by finding their grandson.

I decided to google the name first, and interestingly I got a match with a chap living in Weston Super Mare.

Linked to a document detailing a report from this society:

“Major Griffith Davies (1905), treasurer of
the Weston-super-Mare Branch of the Society; Proceedings of the Somersetshire Archeological and Natural History Society.”

It seemed to fit the look of him, so I then went to the newspaper archives and put in his name, one of the first reports to come up was mention of his death.

It was dated early 1928 where they were electing someone to take his place on the committee. I realised then that his first name was Griffith and surname Davies. Not a double surname.

Looking at 1927 in the newspaper archive I found report of his death on 13 September 1927.

So I started a family tree with him and his death date in Weston Super Mare, Somerset.

I found his wife’s name was Sidney Anne Cumpston Jones. They had five children.

After I’d added more to the couple and their family I realised that I had also solved the mystery over who Billee/ie was and confirmed that I had got the correct couple. Here’s their story.

The Davies Family. From Victorian England to the Next Generation.

The story of Major Griffith Davies and his wife, Sidney Anne Cumpston Jones, is one of family, professional success, and lives that stretched across Britain and beyond.

Their descendants would spread from England to South Africa, while one branch centred on an adopted daughter whose grandparents image has survived to tell their story today.

Griffith Davies was born in 1838 in Islington, London, the eldest son of John Davies and Elizabeth, who were aged 32 and 28 respectively.

He grew up in Islington alongside his younger brothers Thomas, born in 1840, and John Owen, born in 1843. His childhood was marked by tragedy when his father died in September 1849 in Islington, leaving Griffith only eleven years old.

By the 1851 census he was still living in Islington with another, older Griffith Davies, aged 62, also appeared as head of the household. This older man may well have been a close relative, perhaps an uncle or grandfather, but his exact relationship remains a mystery for now.

Sidney Anne Cumpston Jones was born in October 1849 in Ruthin, Denbighshire, the daughter of Thomas Cumpston Jones and Eliza Ann Cumpston Barnsley, and was christened there on 17 October 1849.

Like her future husband, she also experienced the loss of a parent at a young age when her father died on 4 March 1862, leaving her only twelve years old.

On 27 June 1868, Griffith and Sidney were married in Warwickshire. Their marriage would last almost fifty-nine years and take them to several different parts of England as Griffith’s career progressed.

Their first son, Griffith William Cumpston Davies, was born in 1869 at Harborne, Staffordshire, followed by John Barnsley Davies on 6 February 1870 in Birmingham.

Their elder daughter, Elsie Lilian Davies, arrived in 1872, also at Harborne.

Five years later came Thomas Reginald Gordon Davies, born on 4 May 1877 in Birmingham, and finally Norah Anne Davies, born on 24 December 1880 at Atcham, Shropshire.

The family’s movements can be followed through the census returns. By 1881 they were living in Shrewsbury, where Griffith was employed as Director of a Fire Insurance Company.

Ten years later they had returned to Islington, London, before retiring to the West Country.

In 1901 they were living at Hutton, Somerset, and by 1911 had settled in Weston-super-Mare, where Griffith described himself as a Retired Insurance Company Director and Pensioner. They remained there throughout the rest of their lives.

Their eldest son, Griffith William Cumpston Davies, married in 1912 and the couple never had children. By 1921 he and his wife Alice Mary Collins had settled at Runton, Norfolk, where he was the proprietor of a hotel.

His life was cut relatively short when he died on 4 October 1925 at Cromer, aged fifty-six. He was buried three days later at West Runton, and probate was granted at Norwich in November that year.

Their second son, John Barnsley Davies, followed a different path, making his career in banking.

By 1901 he was a Bank Cashier in Walsall, later becoming a Chief Cashier. On 7 July 1914, at the age of forty-four, he married Winifred Alice Jevons at Hampton-in-Arden, Warwickshire.

Their only child, John Griffith Davies, was born on 13 July 1917 at Blackwell, Worcestershire. In 1921, John Barnsley was still working as a bank cashier in Bromsgrove.

I can’t be sure of his death date, but his wife Winifred died Christmas Day 1967.

The youngest son, Thomas Reginald Gordon Davies, eventually made his life in South Africa.

Born in Birmingham on 4 May 1877 and baptised later that month at the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel in Edgbaston, he became the father of two children with Mary Kemble, including Charles Barnsley Davies, born on Christmas Day 1914 in Umtata, Transkei, South Africa.

Thomas remained in South Africa until his death on 25 June 1937 at Mount Ayliff, Eastern Cape, aged sixty.

The youngest daughter, Norah Anne Davies, appears to have remained unmarried. As a child she was baptised at the Wesley Methodist Chapel in Birmingham, but on the 1891 census she was staying with her grandmother, Eliza Ann Cumpston Barnsley, in Edgbaston.

By 1911 she had returned to Weston-super-Mare to live with her parents.

She witnessed the deaths of her brother Griffith in 1925, her sister Elsie in 1926, her father in 1927 and her mother in 1929, before later learning of Thomas’s death in South Africa in 1937. I am unable to confirm her death date.

Griffith and Sidney experienced much sorrow during their later years. Their eldest son Griffith William died in October 1925, followed only eight months later by their beloved daughter Elsie.

Griffith himself died at Weston-super-Mare on 13 September 1927, aged eighty-nine. Probate was granted at Wells that December, leaving his estate to his devoted wife Sidney.

It says that as a young man he fought with the British Legion under Garibaldi in the Italian War of Independence, and was possibly the only survivor of those 640 volunteers.

The British Legion that served under Giuseppe Garibaldi in 1860 was made up of British volunteers who went to Italy to help Garibaldi in the struggle to unite Italy.

In 1860 Italy was not yet one country. Much of southern Italy and Sicily belonged to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, ruled by the Bourbon King Francis II.

Garibaldi, the famous Italian revolutionary and nationalist, launched his celebrated Expedition of the Thousand in May 1860. His small force of Redshirts landed in Sicily and rapidly defeated the Bourbon forces.

Garibaldi had considerable sympathy in Britain. The Italian struggle was widely portrayed as a fight for liberty, constitutional government and national independence, ideas which appealed particularly strongly to British radicals, Nonconformists, republicans and liberals. Modern historical research also stresses the rather romantic attraction of joining a foreign liberation movement.

Third part of report I have transcribed:

The flowers, which were very choice, included the following: Mrs. Griffith Davies (widow);

John, Winifred, Guto; Reg, May and grand-children (South Africa);

Norah; Alice and Mac, Billie and Fred; Gwen; Violet and Claude;

Mrs. Endle Evans and family; Mr. and Mrs. Forsey and family; Miss Fox and Miss Bessie Davies; Mrs. Newman, Enid and Jack; Misses McIlbraith; Misses Wood;

The Churchwardens of Christ Church; The Gymnodorion Society; The Somerset Archæological Society; and the Y.M.C.A.

The coffin was of elm, with brass furniture, and the breastplate bore the inscription: “Griffith Davies, fell asleep September 13th, 1927; aged 89 years.

“The funeral arrangements were entrusted to and satisfactorily carried out by Mr. R. P. Forsey, 98 Milton-road, Weston-super-Mare.

Funeral reports in the newspapers are wonderful and often a mine of information about the deceased, including lots more information about the family.

Sidney survived him by less than two years, dying on 12 March 1929, aged seventy-nine, with probate granted at Bristol in May.

Together they had witnessed nearly six decades of enormous social change, from the early Victorian era to the modern world.

Elsie Lilian Davies and Dr Charles Hugh McIlraith.

Elsie Lilian Davies, born in 1872 at Harborne, married Dr Charles Hugh McIlraith on 7 June 1899.

“McIlraith—Davies. On 7 June, at St Paul’s Church, Canonbury, London, by the Rev. Lewis Edwards, assisted by the Rev. A. T. Richardson (a cousin of the bride), Mr. Charles Hugh McIlraith married Elsie Lilian, eldest daughter of Captain Griffith Davies, of London, and granddaughter of the late Dr. Thomas Cumpston Jones, of Ruthin.”

Charles had been born on 18 February 1867, the son of the Rev. John McIlraith and Josephine Richardson Wallace.

Although born in the Netherlands to British parents, he was educated in Scotland and graduated as a Doctor of Medicine from the University of Glasgow in 1895 before establishing himself as a medical practitioner in London.

The couple settled in Camberwell, where Charles practised medicine.

Billie/ee is found!

Although family records describe Billie/ee as their daughter, the 1911 census records her as their adopted daughter, with (niece) written also. They have given her their surname of McIlraith.

She was affectionately known as “Billie” or “Billee.” So not a boy as I first thought.

Whether she was adopted shortly after birth or was the daughter of a close relative, taken into the family remains an intriguing question, it may have been one of Charles’s siblings child or Elsie’s siblings child, just my thoughts.

Something that would need more research, but there is no doubt that Elsie and Charles raised her as their own.

Sadly, Elsie died on 1 June 1926, aged only fifty-four. She was buried at West Norwood Cemetery four days later.

Charles remained in London, remarrying Eileen Valerie Woods on 10 July 1930.

He died at Herne Hill on 3 March 1948, aged eighty-one.

Who was Billie/ee Farmer?

How to find out a bit more about Billie/ee that was my task.

Because she was given McIlraith as her surname, I decided that the only way I could hope to find out what her first name actually was was to find a marriage between a Farmer and a McIlraith.

I first looked on FreeBMD for marriages between 1918 & 1940. I couldn’t believe my luck, just one result!

Farmer Frederick J McIlraith  Camberwell. 1d. 1541.

So then I reversed the search and there she was, I hoped, Evelyn M!

McIlraith Evelyn M Farmer Camberwell 1d 1541.  

Oh my goodness I was so lucky!

After a bit more research I found more details about her.

The little girl remembered on the old photograph was Evelyn Maud Farmer, born on 11 December 1901 in London. Known as Billie/ee Farmer after she married.

Growing up in the comfortable home of Dr Charles McIlraith and Elsie Davies, she was listed in the 1911 census as their adopted daughter, using the family nickname “Billie.”

In December 1924, Evelyn married Frederick John Farmer, known as Fred, a dental student who later became a Dental Surgeon.

Frederick had been born on 6 October 1896 at Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire.

Their married life began happily in south London.

Two sons followed:

John McIlraith Farmer, born 12 October 1925 at Lambeth.

Roland McIlraith Farmer, born 2 February 1927, also at Lambeth.

Tragedy, however, would again touch the family.

Roland died on 8 May 1945, aged only eighteen, following a cycling accident in Brixton in which he suffered a fatal skull fracture after colliding with a motor coach. An inquest recorded his death as accidental.

Cause of Death: Sub-Dural Haemorrhage due to fracture of the skull sustained on 6 May 1945. When he was riding a pedal cycle, it collided with a motor coach at the junction of Vassage Rd & Elliott Rd, Brixton. S.W. Inquest on 11 May 1945; no report found in Newspaper Archive.

Only eight years later another devastating loss occurred. John McIlraith Farmer became engaged to Rosalind Catherine Griffiths Woollard on 22 August 1952, with the wedding planned for 9 May 1953.

Before that day could arrive, John died on 22 February 1953, aged just twenty-seven.

Cause of Death: Tetanus Accidental.

He succumbed to tetanus, contracted after a rugby injury to his finger, sustained earlier that month. An inquest also returned a verdict of Accidental Death, bringing another heartbreaking chapter to the family’s story.

I found this report in the newspaper archive of when Frederick’s father George died, he left his grandsons John and Roland £100 each, not knowing what would become of them in the next few years.

Evelyn and Frederick eventually settled in Cooden, Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex.

Evelyn died there on 25 August 1972, aged seventy, and probate was granted at Brighton later that year.

Frederick survived her by just over two years, dying at the same address on 16 January 1975, aged seventy-eight, before being buried in Sussex.

Although both of Evelyn and Frederick’s sons died young and left no descendants, the family photograph allows their lives to be remembered more than a century later.

Here’s the link to the family tree I have compiled on Ancestry: Griffin Davies Family

Through the photograph and the records they left behind, the story of Major Griffith Davies, Sidney Anne Cumpston Jones, their children, and their adopted granddaughter Evelyn continues to live on, connecting today’s family historians with the lives and experiences of generations past.

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

Till next time then………