Villa Hardelot - location

[Marilyne]

Good afternoon, 

having not found the answer directly on the forum, I was wondering if somebody can help me out with a little something. I'm still busy with Boulogne... lots of writing and researching and I keep finding interesting things. 

the first convalescent home in Boulogne was the Villa of Princess Louise of Argyll. It was built in Hardelot by her husband, the Duke. According to the sources at my disposal it was destroyed during WWII. 

My question is: do pictures of the villa exist? And do we have an idea where it was located, approximately? 

Also any other information... if one has... 

It's not vital information, but it might be interesting to know for the next time I want to visit Boulogne. 

Thanks!! 

Marilyne

 

[EDWARD1]

There is a drawing and description Cornerlot, Hardelot, France for Duke of Argyll - Building | Architects of Greater Manchester (manchestervictorianarchitects.org.uk)

[Marilyne]

Hi. I have found that site yes, thank you!!

[nhclark]

There's lots of pictures of the original villas here https://histopale.net/les-archives/neufchatel-hardelot/hardelot/la-digue-les-villas/ but none of the villa "Cornerlot" built for the Duke of Argyll. From the looks of it they are all the beachfront ones.

In the description of the villa on that Architects of Greater Manchester site says that "Cornerlot" was built near the golf course. The description of Hardelot-Plage today says there are two golf courses. [Edit: The two courses today date from 1934 and 1991 respectively so they are probably of little use.] Methinks you're going to have to find out where the local archives are kept and look for a map of the area at the time and possibly land title records, if there are such things, and go from there. Probably going to be a bit of a slog.

I guess that we have the privilege of referring to the 9th Duke here? When he died in 1914 "Punch" magazine, "or the London Charivari" (oh, doesn't that jog the little grey cells!) of 13th May 1914 carried the following:

and there is another description here: http://www.scarletfinders.co.uk/15.html - agonisingly non-specific as to just where the villa was!

[Edit: Going back to the Architects site the villa was built in 1909 and was near the Chateau, near a freshwater lake and "near the golf course" (which was probably near the Les Pins course of today rather than the Les Dunes course which opened in 1991). Maybe somewhere here:

Good luck with your search. My interested in the thread was piqued by my research into Lillian Maud Trotter (my mother's first cousin), one of the first BRCS nurses who left England on 10th October 1914 for Dinard and served in France for 6 years. For a time she was at Malassise (St. Omer) - fortunately there is a photograph of the monastery there where the hospital was situated.

Other ideas that come to mind:
- is there a local Historical Society that might be able to help you?
- [Edit: Could Golf d'Hardelot help perhaps?]
- I'd even try writing to the household of the 13th Duke - surely there's a photograph kicking around somewhere in his castle showing the villa?

Noel

Edited 3 December , 2022 by nhclark

[nhclark]

That's Villa Bleriot, on the Prom itself. It's shown on the website I referred to. Villa Cornerlot was, according to everything I've seen, not on the promenade itself but in the pine forest not far from the beach and the golf course, and IMO it was built before those on the prom itself. 

[nhclark]

Well, that was Saturday morning on the computer, and now my wife is complaining...

Below find an article from Country Life, Volume 20, Issue no. 502 18th August 1906, page 252 (courtesy of the Internet Archive). This confirms that we have the right location, very close to what today is Les Pins Golf Course (see the history of the course here https://www.hardelotgolfclub.com/en/our-club/golf-club-history/ )The little lake at the left hand (westerly) end of the Lac des Miroirs in the map above is the Lac Claire Eau, and the article mentions that the Duke of Argyll played on the original course and bought two-and-a-half acres of land close by, and that ought to be very easy to trace. 

There's a contact page on the golf club website, but my experience is that it is best to write a letter (in French of course) rather than just shoot off an email and expect an answer to it.

Edited 3 December , 2022 by nhclark

[Marilyne]

Thank you very much for your help !!! 

An my sincerest regards to Madame Noel for her patience with a fellow researcher!! 

I'll drop a letter to the golf club one of these days. If they have something, that'll be even more a reason to go out for a WE in Boulogne! 

I'll keep you all informed if I find something! 

M.

 

[nhclark]

Madame? Monsieur s'il vous plait!

[Marilyne]

18 hours ago, nhclark said:

Madame? Monsieur s'il vous plait!

I was relating to your wife who, as you said, complained about your time on the computer on my behalf... 😁😁

[nhclark]

4 hours ago, Marilyne said:

I was relating to your wife who, as you said, complained about your time on the computer on my behalf... 😁😁

Ahh! There we go - as we say here. When we married we decided to leave her name as it was, so she's a "Ms." For a number of reasons, not least the custom in the country of her birth. But I tell you - it sure saves a lot of paperwork! I've got so used to it that I didn't associate "Madame" with her.

Good luck with finding the Villa or the place where it used to be. I must say that I am surprised that we cannot find a photograph of it. So many nurses seem to have stayed there.

Edited 5 December , 2022 by nhclark

[Acknown]

Here's a small vignette. Hilda Florence Foyster was a VAD in Boulogne in 1915, starting her deployment at Malassise Hospital at St. Omer. Thereafter, she was taken ill with influenza, was in bed for 10 days, was off duty for a fortnight, then spent some time in mid-March 1915 at Princess Louise’s Convalescent Home for Nursing Sisters located in Lady Gifford’s house in Hardelot. Whilst she had been very ill, she describes her time there in a letter to her family with some humour, ‘One of our billets is known as ‘Mouldy House - the Flying Corps wouldn’t look at it!’ She also describes her treatment; aspirin and ‘Tonic Tablets No. 4'. 

I hope this helps.

Acknown
 

[nhclark]

Marilyne,
You could also keep an eye on eBay on a regular basis. I have obtained many of my family history photographs from postcards advertised for sale on there. A quick check of the site today showed a surprising number of Hardelot postcards, at least one of the very same golf course we are talking about - the original Les Pins course.

Noel

[Kiwi Scribe]

Thanks and very much appreciate this information as I am doing some research about the NZANS recuperating at the Convalescent Home run by Lady Gifford in Cannes. Interested in who this Lady Gifford and her assistant Miss Inglis were.

[travers61]

There is this on Lady Gifford on a Boer War website:

Lady Sophie Catherine Gifford was involved in the nursing care of the sick and wounded during the siege of Kimberley, and was already in South Africa at the start of the Boer War. Her husband, Lord Edric Frederick Gifford was a director of the British South Africa Company. She subsequently also assisted at No. 17 Stationary Hospital in Middleburg. After the war she continued her interest in the welfare of the sick and wounded. Princess Louise’s convalescent home for nursing sisters was opened at Hardelot in 1914 by Lady Gifford under the auspices of the British Red Cross Society, and transferred to Cannes in 1917 as a winter home for nursing sisters.

https://boerwarnurses.com/the-ladies-capable-women/

 

Lady Gifford's husband was the 3rd Baron Gifford who won the VC in 1874 in the Third Anglo-Ahsanti War. He passed away in 1911 and the couple had no children. She was born in 1862 & died in 1947.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edric_Gifford,_3rd_Baron_Gifford

 

No luck with finding Miss Inglis, she is not listed with the other servants on the 1911 Census entry for Lord & Lady Gifford at their estate, Old Park, Chichester.

 

This extract on the Scarletfinders website shows a sister to Lady Gifford as Mrs Seymour. She was Louisa Mary & was married to Conway Russell Seymour. He had served as a trooper in the Imperial Yeomanry in South Africa in 1900, and disembarked in France 9.8.1915 as a Special List Lieutenant in the Remount Service.

    Lady Gifford came to France in October and November 1914, inspecting under the B.R.C.S., and from January 1915, (when the Home opened) until she left France in May 1919, she worked untiringly in the interests of the Nursing Services, personally waiting on the Sisters who were admitted to the Homes, and making all arrangements for their comfort. Miss Inglis acted as Lady Gifford’s Assistant from January 1915 to July 1918, when she obtained an appointment in the W.R.N.S. She was most popular with the Sisters for whom she worked most devotedly.  Mrs Seymour, Lady Gifford’s sister, spent periods from January 1915 to June 1917, on the staff at Hardelot, and from October 1918 until it closed she worked as Lady Gifford’s assistant at Cannes. She devoted herself most willingly to the management of this large establishment, and to the entertainment of the Sisters.

http://www.scarletfinders.co.uk/15.html

 

[nhclark]

Miss Inglis was Kate Inglis, and she was a BRCS volunteer. You can see her on the BRCS Volunteers Database here: https://vad.redcross.org.uk/record?rowKey=115447

She came from Ealing in London.

According to the BRCS record she received the 1914 Star and an MBE. On Ancestry I cannot find a medal card except that she was Mentioned in Despatches and the Gazette reference is given. However, the medal rolls themselves show her with a 1914-15 Star, BWM and VM. I would suggest that which Star was actually awarded needs to be researched further. My mother's first cousin Lilian Maud Trotter was in the first party of BRCS nurses to go to France, but because she didn't actually nurse British servicemen until after the qualification period for the 1914 Star she received the 1914-15 Star instead.

Kate is also listed here https://livesofthefirstworldwar.iwm.org.uk/lifestory/4959754 and on FindMyPast. As a mere male may I say that there is a stunning photo of her on both, in her full uniform.

Noel

[Kiwi Scribe]

Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant! Fantastically brilliant! I've been busy reinterpreting my great-aunt's diary which is in the !WM as well as trying to identify her photos which includes these dear women along with a photo of a Sister Hickson. I've narrowed it down to either a Hilda Hickson of the Australian Nursing Service or a Constance Hickson, a VAD with whom both may have been in the South of France around December 1917. Tried downloading Discovering ANZACS to either confirm or negate this Hilda Hickson as they have their full WW1 records unlike the British records which as we know were partly destroyed during the Second World War. It seems that that site is capputt. But this information you have provided is brilliant. Superbly brilliant

I'll have to include you people in my bibliography when going into publication!

Thanks again. Top shelf brilliant!

[nhclark]

I found her also in the 1939 Register, living in Godstone, Surrey, where there is a reference to the WRNS. According to that record she was born on 5th December 1873.

There are two possibles on FreeBMD - Kate and Kate Isabel. Depends how deep you want to get into sorting it out.

She died 16th December 1965 according to the probate register. There's a match between the address in the 1939 register and the address given in the probate record. ("Inglewood").

[nhclark]

Ah, the penny just dropped as I was having lunch prepared by my loving wife. Is she wearing her Wrens uniform in that lovely portrait? If so in 1891 she was at The Naval School at Kilmorey House, St. Margarets, Isleworth. See Google. It was for Officers' Daughters, so that's a clue to be followed up. There's a short service record on The National Archives but it doesn't tell us much. She was Deputy Assistant Director (Personnel) on the WRNS Headquarters Staff from 15th July 1918 to 15th December 1919 when the appointment was terminated. Whether she went on further I don't know. The 1939 Register says she's  an ARP Warden and in the Wrens Reserve (you could follow that up perhaps?). The WRNS was disbanded in 1919 and reformed in 1939 for service in the Second World War. I also note that Forces War Records has a K. Inglis as a Sister in Princess Mary's RAF Nursing Service, but of course it might be someone completely different.

She was wealthy and didn't need to work, so an interesting lady. 

Hope all of this helps you.

Noel

 

[nhclark]

She was born plain Kate Inglis. Father Frank Inglis, mother Sarah Shaw Atkins, who married December quarter 1857 in Registration District Portsea. In the 1881 census the family was enumerated as INGLISS in Teddington, and Frank was aged 55 and described as Staff Captain, R. ? Military, $$$$ Active List. Parents divorced in 1885 (Ancestry) Kate and her brother are mentioned. I haven't read it in detail but it appears that their father was accused of cruelty.

In 1861 Frank Inglis was listed as Master on HMS Trafalgar, a 90-gun ship of the line, in the North Atlantic.

In 1871 he's listed as living in Woolwich and a Staff Commander.

His naval records are at The National Archives in London. His date of birth was 2nd November 1825 and there are three records there under "Inglis, Frank." If you register on The National Archives website you can download the records for free.

Edited 23 January , 2023 by nhclark
Correction

[Kiwi Scribe]

Terrific pieces of information yet again supplied especially the record of Kate Inglis. Definitely her. Her uniform may be in fact a naval uniform showing a peaked hat different to that of Sophie Gifford with the wide brimmed ladies hat.

Fascinating information particularly in regard to the Giffords. Quite a story.

Cheers and grateful thanks.

[nhclark]

Some more here. https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/rmgc-object-512173 and there's a continuation of his service record 1870-1883 on FindMyPast.

Edited 23 January , 2023 by nhclark
Amended reply

[Hugues des Rochettes]

Bonjour à tous,

Je suis à la recherche d'informations sur Lady Rolleston (Eliza Morant décédée en 1942) qui a acheté a priori avec son mari (John Fowke Lancelot Rolleston) des terrains à Hardelot en septembre 1911 et ce, le long de l'actuelle Avenue John Whitley. De l'autre coté de cette avenue, le terrain appartenait au Duc d'Argyll. J'ai un plan calque prêté à un ami qui doit me le restituer ...

Cette Lady, (peintre à ses heures) qu'a connu mon beau-père Guy Laloy quand il était jeune, a construit un manoir ou une villa nommé "La rivière": quand ? avant 1914? et avec quel architecte ?, je ne sais pas ?

Cette villa si elle existait déjà aurait pu servir de lieu de convalescence en 14-18 

Cette villa aurait été détruite par les allemands en 39-45. Quand ? a-t-elle été réquisitionnée et occupée ? Mon beau-père a racheté en 1962 aux héritiers de LR la ruine (visible sur Geoportail en photo aérienne de 1946) et le terrain. Un nouvelle villa a été construite sur une partie de la cave du manoir et son adresse actuelle est au 65 Allée Lady Rollestone (avec un e). Avec mon épouse, c'est notre résidence secondaire.

Je pense que Eliza Rolleston trés altruiste (voir le Leicester Boys Club) devait connaitre et avoir des relations avec la Princesse Louise et peut-être Lady Grifford.

Si l'un de vous a des informations sur l'activité sur Hardelot de Lady Rolleston mais aussi une représentation du manoir "La Rivière" (photo, peinture", merci pour votre aide

Sachez par ailleurs, que le second golf était à l'origine un terrain d'environ 120 ha appartenant à Paul Laloy, le grand-père de ma femme et revendu à l'ancien PDG du Domaine d'Hardelot" ...

Je pourrai joindre des fichiers

[Michelle Young]

Welcome to the forum. I have translated your post. 
Hello everyone,

I am looking for information about Lady Rolleston (Eliza Morant who died in 1942) who bought land in Hardelot in September 1911 with her husband (John Fowke Lancelot Rolleston) a priori along the current John Whitley Avenue. On the other side of this avenue, the land belonged to the Duke of Argyll. I have a layer plan lent to a friend who has to give it back to me...

This Lady, (painter in her spare time) whom my father-in-law Guy Laloy knew when he was young, built a mansion or a villa called "The River": when? Before 1914? And with which architect?, I don't know?

This villa if it already existed could have been used as a place of convalescence in 14-18

This villa was reportedly destroyed by the Germans in 39-45. When? Has it been requisitioned and occupied? My father-in-law bought in 1962 from the heirs of LR the ruin (visible on Geoportal in aerial photo of 1946) and the land. A new villa has been built on part of the manor's cellar and its current address is at 65 Lady Rollestone Alley (with an e). With my wife, this is our second home.

I think that Eliza Rolleston very altruistic (see the Leicester Boys Club) had to know and have relationships with Princess Louise and maybe Lady Grifford.

If one of you has information about the activity on Lady Rolleston's Hardelot but also a representation of the mansion "La Rivière" (photo, painting", thank you for your help

Also know that the second golf course was originally a field of about 120 ha belonging to Paul Laloy, my wife's grandfather and sold to the former CEO of Domaine d'Hardelot"...

I will be able to attach files