Is treading the “ Boards “a family tradition ?
Is treading the “ Boards “a family tradition ?
Introduction
It was great to hear
that our nephew Callum Sharp had recently
graduated with distinction from Drama College . A part in a BBC series awaits as a starter and all the world is now his stage ! Callum’s success in finding
something which was awaiting
his own particular talent and ability augurs much for a
successful future .
Interestingly this recent happening stirred up
my own memories of chats with the late James C Sharp . my father in law and Callum’s grandfather . Jimmy would oft elaborate on the family connections
with one Diana Wynyard . Who
? - you might ask . Wynyard was
undoubtedly a star of her time although
Jimmie’s claim that she
was a “ distant cousin “ never
seemed to be established in any sort
of genealogical way ! Let us
examine the confusing roots that are
there and see if some facts can be
established !
Diana Wynyard
Being a child of the
Forties and Fifties and brought up in
the pre telly and computer age , I
must be honest to admit my childhood and youth interests
tended to concentrate on football and
the incredible adventures of Dan Dare in the never to be
forgotten Eagle ! The name Diane
Wynyard was lodged somewhere in my deep
recesses but as to what for , I could not recall ! A bit of research soon had her falling into perspective .
Diana had been born Dorothy Isobel Cox on the 16th
January 1906 in Lewisham , South London ( Kent ? ) to Edward Thomas Cox and Margaret
Campbell Thomson . Cox was managing
director of a printing and
publishing company and had been born in Richmond Surrey . This did
not sound as if there would have
been much of a connection with
the Sharp family from Greenock !
What however of Diana’s mother –
Margaret Campbell Cox ? Campbell is as Scottish as haggis and seemingly an
obvious connection ! Further
investigation however revealed that
Margaret had been born in Forest Hill in the County of Kent in
1881 again a long way from the “Tail of
the Bank” !
I digress somewhat from the potted biography of Diana .She had established herself on stage in both Liverpool and London before
heading straight to Broadway and
starring in “Rasputin and the Empress “ with Ethel , John and Lionel Barrymore
. This was in 1932 . Fox Film Corporation then borrowed her for their lavish
film version of Noël Coward's stage spectacle Cavalcade (1933). As the noble
wife and mother she aged gracefully against a background of the Boer War, the sinking
of the Titanic, the First World War, and the arrival of the Jazz Age. With this
performance, she became the first British actress to be nominated for the
Academy Award for Best Actress. After a handful of film roles, including
playing John Barrymore's old flame in Reunion in Vienna, she returned to
Britain, but concentrated on theatre work, including roles as Charlotte Brontë
in Clemence Dane's Wild Decembers, in Sweet Aloes, and as Gilda in the British
premiere of Noël Coward's Design for Living.
She was tempted to return to the screen to play opposite
Ralph Richardson in On the Night of the Fire (1939), a film directed by Brian
Desmond Hurst. Her best remembered success was as the frightened heroine of
Gaslight (1940), the first film version of Patrick Hamilton's play Gas Light.
This was followed by roles opposite Clive Brook in Freedom Radio, John Gielgud
in The Prime Minister and Michael Redgrave in Kipps (all 1941), directed by
Carol Reed, later her first husband.
After World War II Her stage career flourished after the
war, and as a Shakespearean leading lady at Stratford, in London's West End and
on tour in Australia, she had her pick of star parts. Between 1948 and 1952,
she played Portia, Gertrude, Lady Macbeth, Katherine the shrew, Desdemona, Katherine
of Aragon, Hermione in The Winter's Tale, and Beatrice to Gielgud's Benedick in
Much Ado About Nothing. In this production, she succeeded her friend Peggy
Ashcroft. Wynyard stumbled off the rostrum during the sleepwalking scene in
Macbeth in 1948. She fell 15 feet, but was able to continue. Throughout the
1940s and 1950s she also had success in the works of several contemporary
writers, including the British production of Tennessee Williams's Camino Real.
She appeared in Alexander Korda's version An Ideal Husband
(1947), based on the Oscar Wilde play, but her remaining film appearances were
in supporting roles. Usually maternal, these included Tom Brown's Schooldays
(1951) and the secretive mother (of James Mason's character) in Island in the
Sun (1957). She played Empress Elisabeth of Austria in Mayerling (1957), an
early American television film which starred Audrey Hepburn.
Diana Wynyard was appointed Commander of the Order of the
British Empire (CBE) in 1953.
She was married to the English film director Carol Reed from
3 February 1943 until August 1947, and subsequently to a Hungarian physician,
Tibor Csato.
She died from renal disease in London in 1964, aged 58,
while rehearsing The Master Builder with Michael Redgrave and Maggie Smith as
part of the new National Theatre Company. Celia Johnson replaced her.
What was
Diana’s connection with the Sharps if any ?
The answer is somewhat diverse! Diana was in fact descended
from the Parkers of Rowantreehill Farm in Kilmacolm and not from the Sharp line
whose genealogical pedigree lies in the
heart of Strathearn in distant Perthshire .
The Parkers in probability originated in Kilbarchan not that
distant from Kilmacolm. Rowantreehill which lay near the existing Golf Course
was in reality more of a steading or
small holding than a farm, extending to
a mere 50 acres in total . The name Ninian occurs regularly throughout the
Parker generations indeed one Ninian Parker was an elder of the local Kirk in
1795.
Our tale commences with the Ninian Parker who was born in
Kilmacolm on the 9th August 1813 . This Ninian was no gentleman
farmer and indeed is referred to as an agricultural labourer in the 1841 Census
- indicative perhaps of a smallholders
life style at that time
. The 1840s were a time of great
poverty and difficulty .Potato blight and economic decline
swept the country . Ninian took
himself to nearby Glasgow and found a bride tying the nuptial knot on the
12th January 1840 . He was 26 years of age and his bride , Janet Davidson , was 19 . Who then was Janet Davidson ?
Let me pause at this
stage to reminisce in a rather personal manner . As a wee laddie I
grew up in a suburb of Glasgow called
Clarkston , Referred to by many
of the old timers in the 1940s as
“the village “ it was in reality suburbia
personified ! The tramcars that served Glasgow in those far off
days terminated in Clarkston and I
would as a school boy get a halfpenny
special from Stamperland to my alma
mater Netherlee Primary School . I digress! One of my pleasures of life was
to cycle with my friends through the
winding lanes and by ways
that were on our
door step to the quaint wee
hamlet of Jackton some 5 miles or so distant . I recall standing in awe watching the blacksmith shoe
the large Clydesdales abundant
then on the local farms . Jackton also
had wheelwrights who ensured
all the farm carts
were suitably fitted out
to carry hay , cattle and other farm sundries .
Researching the census for the village in the mid 19th
Century I was surprised
to see that the local wheelwright
was one Andrew Davidson His wife
Agnes ( Young ) was from the
village of Eaglesham across the River
Cart in the adjoining County of Renfrewshire . The Davidsons had 5 children – Agnes the oldest – Stephen –
then Janet and finally the two youngest Margaret and Andrew .
The
Parker Girls
In far off yesteryear it
was said that the prosperity of
the farm was dependent on the number of male
children the farmer and his
wife produced . It is historical but Janet was prolific in production albeit that
she gave Ninian five girls and nary a lad !
Janet Parker ( standing
to the right of mother Janet ) married Gavin Thomson born in East
Kilbride ( next to Jackton and then also a
small village ) Gavin had moved
to Glasgow ( Calton to be precise
) and found work as clerk in a factory aged about 18 . He had prospered and is noted travelling on a sales trip
to the US and being described as a “ merchant “ Gavin and Janet moved
south and settled in Forest Hill Kent where their daughter Margaret
Campbell Thomson was born in 1880 . The following
year ( 1881 ) was a year of
National Census throughout the UK. Gavin and family resided at Torquay Villa Devonshire Road Lewisham .
Gavin was described as an India Rubber
Manufacturer employing 20 men – 4 boys and 20 labourers !
In 1901 aged 20 ,
Margaret Campbell Thomson married one Edward Thomas Cox . and in 1911
the last Census before the
outbreak of War showed them residing at
Stafford House 12 Bramley Hill Croydon . Edward was described as being the
managing director of a printing and
publishing company . They had two
daughters – Irene Margaret Cox aged 8 years and her young sister Dorothy Isobel
Cox age 5 years Dorothy was the future Diane Wynyard ! As an end note , the census showed the family had a
visitor – James Thomson aged 26 , unmarried , a representative in the
hide and leather trade and born in Kilmacolm Renfrewshire ! James was a
cousin of Margaret Campbell Thomson and son of sister Ann Parker . Ann had married a farmer from
Kilfinnan Argyll named John Thomson who farmed Dennistown just outside Kilmacolm . The name was the
same but he was not related to Gavin
husband of sister Janet ! Ann
had died in 1890.
Sister Margaret Parker established the family connection She
married William Barr a butcher or flesher
by trade from Largs . Margaret and William Barr were the 2 x great grand
parents of Callum .
The Thespian connection ? Callum is the second cousin of
Diana Wynyard !!!
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