A Holiday snap at Margate, 1886 ...

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Doodling through ebay this morning, I came upon a really warming family holiday photo. Dad, Mum and the three little ones, down at Margate, having the traditional snap taken by the local photographer. I smiled at them, and carried on, but I kept on thinking about them as I scanned hundreds of others of the ilk, and in the end I went back for another look

What a lovely, kind face papa has. Mama seems very much younger. How nicely they are all Sunday-best-dressed. I'll bet that little girl grew up a suffragette ... I wonder who they were ... the back of the photo is merely inscribed with the first names and ages of the children ..

Shame the photo wasn't dated. But I thought it was worth a shot ...  

Well, I did it. I don't know how I did, but sometimes you just luck into a hit. I can tell you that this photo was taken in July of 1886 and the people pictured are as follows:

Papa: William Howard DURRANT (b Swanton Abbott, Norfolk 28 March 1822; d Ellery Court, Beulah Hill, Upper Norwood 13 September 1910) whose second wife was

Mama: Fanny Eliza née PARR (b Middlesex 1845; d Ellery Court 14 February 1914) and their children 

Howard William DURRANT (b Nottingham 25 June 1881; d 20 September 1925) unmarried

Maud Eveleyne DURRANT (b Dulwich 30 March 1884; d Bentley Manor, The Common, Stanmore 24 August 1974) unmarried

Dorothy Katharine DURRANT (b Thorn Lee, College Rd, Dulwich 5 March 1886; d 31 Thistlebarrow Road, Bournemouth 3 December 1980)

There was to be one more child post-photograph:

Stuart Goode DURRANT (b Ellery Court, Upper Norwood 18 February 1888; d Hotel Stuart, Richmond, Surrey 1 June 1974)

The progression of addresses, I was to find, tells the story of the Durrants: a story which can only be described as one of 'making good'. 'Self-made man'. 'Rags (not quite!) to riches (decidedly) ...'. I thought the family look nicely dressed.

So, from the beginning. William Durrant (1799-?), registrar, married Maria Wright (1797-1838) in Swanton Abbott 9 February 1820, and of them were born at least six children. I have William Howard, Maria, Edward and George Henry. There was an Elizabeth apparently, and later a Fanny ...

Father and son, and Maria, can be seen in the 1841 census at the address 'by the George' in Old Catton, Norfolk. Mother Maria is dead ...  Father is still billed as 'registrar' and William Howard is a grocer. The George that they are by is Mr Jeremiah Friar's George and Dragon Public House in North Walsham Road. The 'George' closed down in 1865, so I guess the address changed. I don't know what William sr registered ... 

Anyhow, at some stage he got out of groceries and into stuff. I can't find him in the 1851 census, but in 1853 he got married and announced himself as a draper ...

Margaret was a little older than he (1816-1862) and a lot less durable. But by the time she departed his life, William Howard was, I think, on his way ...

In 1861, he is still in London (Edgeware Town), with Margaret and a selection of siblings, and still a linen draper ..  and at some stage he worked for the firm Goode, Gainsborough & Co. To shrink the story, he would later (1882) go into partnership with Charles Goode, son, in the Australian firm of Goode, Durrant and for a dozen years, to 1894, Tite, exporting drapery and soft furnishings to Western Australia. The firm would prosper hugely and W H Durrant became a rich man ...

Goode

After eighteen years as a widower, much of them spent in Nottingham, where he ran a drapery business from The Arboretum, W H re-wed. Needless to say, within the rag trade. Fanny Parr was the eldest of the four daughters (and, yes, one was named Katharine) of William Richard Parr and his wife, Rhoda née Linzell. W R Parr professed in the 1861 census to be a cutler, button manufacturer and dealer in tailor's trimmings. By 1871, Fanny was working as a governess. In 1880 she wed W H, who must have been on his way, for the marriage made the London papers. But he was still 'draper' rather than -- as later -- 'Australian merchant' 'drapery and soft goods'.

W H's first marriage had been childless. Now, in his sixties, he made up for lost time, as the growing family moved from Nottingham, to Dulwich, to Ellery Court ... and 26 Milton Street in the City ...

And they lived happily ever after. I knew it!  

Howard followed his father in The Firm, Maud and Dorothy apparently got into phonetics! Dorothy married her vicar in Bournemouth, Maud -- I knew it -- didn't marry anyone. Stuart became a chartered accountant. And further than that I have not gone. It's papa whom I love. And the obituary given to him in the Perth (Aus) papers proves I was right ...

Rest in Peace ....