1918 YMCA Nov celebration signatures keeps referring to Blighty

[arantxa]

Amy info on the place or names would be great

 

Thank you

[helpjpl]

 

1.  The Reverend Prebendary Frederic Anstruther Cardew, Rector of the Anglican Church, Paris,  and Rural Dean for France (06 March 1874??-12 July 1942:

http://www.thepeerage.com/p12509.htm

2.  OBE - London Gazette 

[edit] https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/33946/supplement/3810/data.pdf

3.  Death - Andrews Newspaper Index Cards (ancestry):

4.  Obituary - Time magazine 27 July 1942:

https://magazineproject.org/TIMEvault/1942/1942-07-27/1942-07-27 page 62.jpg

5.  Photo 1937 (shutterstock):

https://www.shutterstock.com/editorial/image-editorial/rev-prebendary-f-anstruther-cardew-with-the-english-dancing-chorus-girls-at-annual-new-year-party-a-the-british-theatre-girls-home-in-paris-3179272a

 

JP

Edited 28 July , 2021 by helpjpl
DOB ??

[helpjpl]

Born 06 March 1866:

India Select Births & Baptisms (ancestry):

 

JP

[FROGSMILE]

Most of the other first names are female, e.g. Liz, Agnes, Adrienne, Emmaline, etc.  Given his role in Paris and association with showgirls, my guess is that they’re the names of showgirls who accompanied him to the Canadian YMCA in Paris (I bet he was very popular among the Canadian soldiers and officers for taking them along).  The epithet “Mother of Blighty” for Liz Birtley(?) might suggest an older, maybe former showgirl, who perhaps acted as the matron in the showgirl “hostel” at Montmartre.

NB.  I’m intrigued that as a RC “priest” he managed to marry his beloved wife, Margaret Cardew.

The caption for the B&W photo reads:  Hotel d’Iéna where the YMCA sheltered Canadian troops awaiting discharge papers  after WWI.  It was found in a Curiosity Shop in Parsonfield, Maine, USA.  Interestingly the US Navy HQ of the time was adjacent in another hotel.

Edited 28 July , 2021 by FROGSMILE

[Ron Clifton]

He was an Anglican priest. See the newspaper cuttings as to his appointments - and the size of his clerical collar!

Ron

[FROGSMILE]

6 minutes ago, Ron Clifton said:

He was an Anglican priest. See the newspaper cuttings as to his appointments - and the size of his clerical collar!

Ron

Thanks Ron, it seems obvious now and yes the clerical collar was a giveaway.  It did mention his CofE church too, but I became overly fixated on the word “priest”.  He looks like he was quite the character that his background suggests!

Edited 28 July , 2021 by FROGSMILE

[helpjpl]

1.  At the present day no first-class Parisian Revue seems to be complete without its troupe of English dancers — "Les Girls," as the programs call them having come to be regarded as an indispensable feature of the elaborate spectacles at Parisian music halls. The young ladies in question, it may be added, outside of their professional engagements, seem to lead very well ordered lives, never being seen at any of the free and easy resorts which are so popular with male visitors of their own country. As a matter of fact, they are almost without exception very respectable girls, besides which their moral welfare is carefully supervised, some troupes being accompanied by a chaperon of mature years, in addition to which they are looked after by the Reverend F. Anstruther Cardew, Chaplain of St. George's English Church in Paris, who has founded the "Theater Girls' Hostel," where about forty English dancing girls sleep and some three or four hundred are able to find the comforts of a comfortable home at a hostel, composed of two houses in the Rue Duperré in Montmartre. This Theater Girls' Hostel, as it is called, is not a charitable institution, the girls using it having to pay all they can afford for what they get. But prices are high, and most of the dancers send much of their salaries home to their families. Thanks to Mr. Cardew and his friends, the Theater Girls' Hostel (Cardew Foundation) now owns the houses, and the company has spent a great deal of money on repairing and doing them up. But the houses are old and need still more attention and upkeep. A large and competent staff is necessary, because during rehearsals and other times of stress tired girls keep coming in all through the night and the small hours hungry for good hot food. Another story or two is needed to enlarge this Hostel while a good endowment fund is wanted to make its work thoroughly efficient, for which reason English visitors to Paris will do well to send the Reverend Mr. Cardew at 7 Rue Auguste Vacquerie, a large or even a small check. The Hostel, it may be added, though a Church of England establishment, opens its arms wide to girls of any religion or of none at all, who within its portals are given excellent advice as to contracts, salary and other details which require a knowledge of law and professional custom. Mr. Cardew, it may be added, is a Chaplain of the Actors' Church Union, a more successful body than the defunct Church and Stage Guild once cynically described as "an attempt to make reluctant ballet girls drink weak tea."

https://www.bohemianlit.com/full_text/nevill/chapter_5.htm

 

2.  Frederic Anstruther Cardew by Mary Gaskell Gillick:

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/frederic-anstruther-cardew-18741942-294688

 

JP

[FROGSMILE]

Very interesting JP, thanks for posting.  I wonder if anything can be discovered about Liz Birtley(?), but probably not given the patriarchal society that prevailed at the time.

[helpjpl]

Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Queensland) 15 July 1942:

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/56123413?searchTerm=Cardew

 

JP

Edited 28 July , 2021 by helpjpl

[arantxa]

That priest has a really interesting life...the great thing with this forum is a small item opens up a whole history of interesting items

 

Thank youhelpjpl

[FROGSMILE]

I wonder if he had any children, or if he thought of all those dancers as his children.  There was no mention of offspring in his obituary.

Edited 28 July , 2021 by FROGSMILE

[helpjpl]

2 hours ago, FROGSMILE said:

I wonder if he had any children, or if he thought of all those dancers as his children.  There was no mention of offspring in his obituary.

 

1.  Frederic had 4 sons:

http://www.thepeerage.com/p12509.htm

2.  Frederic married twice: 

1894 to Norah Skye Kington (1874-1931)

1933 to Margaret Sophie Stokes (1894-1960)

JP

[FROGSMILE]

50 minutes ago, helpjpl said:

 

1.  Frederic had 4 sons:

http://www.thepeerage.com/p12509.htm

2.  Frederic married twice: 

1894 to Norah Skye Kington (1874-1931)

1933 to Margaret Sophie Stokes (1894-1960)

JP

Thank you JP.  Very interesting.  I note that he married Margaret the year before he left Paris.  I wonder if he met her there, perhaps either through the church itself or his activities supporting the dancers’ hostel.  Quite intriguing really given his unusual life.  I see that she was a lot younger than him too.

Edited 28 July , 2021 by FROGSMILE

[helpjpl]

26 minutes ago, FROGSMILE said:

Thank you JP.  Very interesting.  I note that he married Margaret the year before he left Paris.  I wonder if he met her there, perhaps either through the church itself or his activities supporting the dancers hostel.  Quite intriguing really given his unusual life.  I see that she was a lot younger than him too.

Frederic and Margaret Sophie Stokes married at St Bene't's Church, Cambridge. She was the daughter of the Rev. Canon Henry Paine Stokes (Hon. Canon of Ely, 1917. R. of Little Wilbraham, Cambs., 1917-31. Died 16 June 1931)

JP

[FROGSMILE]

8 minutes ago, helpjpl said:

Frederic and Margaret Sophie Stokes married at St Bene't's Church, Cambridge. She was the daughter of the Rev. Canon Henry Paine Stokes (Hon. Canon of Ely, 1917. R. of Little Wilbraham, Cambs., 1917-31. Died 16 June 1931)

JP

Ah…a church wedding in every sense then! 

[helpjpl]

 

My Candidate:

James Armstead

1.  Attestation (ancestry):

 

3.  List of Commissioned Officers Who Served In The N.Z.E.F (ancestry):

 

JP