Mulberry Park, Foxhill/Combe Down, Bath

[Gareth Davies]

There is a new housing development just behind where my father lives in Bath, on the site of the old Admiralty/MOD site at Foxhill. Apparently some of the people who worked on the admin and finance to do with the Mulberry harbour were based at the site (which opened in 1940) and so the new development has been called Mulberry Park to commemorate this connection. Yes, wrong war, but stick with me.

There are 16 roads (actually there are 8 Roads, 5 Groves, and one each of Court, Lane, and Street) in Mulbery Park and 12 are named after men from the (then) village of Combe Down (which is just over the road from the site) who died in the Great War (one of them was Harry Patch’s cousin, another died on HMS Hampshire on that fateful Kitchener voyage)). Of the other 4 names and 2 have local rather than GW connections. And so far they are all named after men but the final two are women who are very much GW related and I thought that you might be interested in them. What follows is adapted from some excellent research by Jacqueline Burrows of the Combe Down Heritage Society.

Cannan Court:

Both Julia House and Cannan Court at Mulberry Park are named after Julia Harriette Cannan, née Dupuis. Julia was born in Eton College in 1866, the daughter of a Church of England clergyman whose own father had been Vice Provost. In 1909 she married Horatius Cannan who, like Julia, was a Theosophist (a modern movement that advocated peace and universal brotherhood). He was manager of a Theosophist journal, the Herald of the Star. Despite his age (48), he joined the Royal Artillery on the outbreak of war in 1914. He was awarded the DSO in July 1916 in recognition of his but was wounded three months later and died on 2 November 1916, aged 50. He was buried at Rouen. After she was widowed Julia moved to Grey Lodge, Combe Down and for the relatively short time that she lived in Combe Down she was at the centre of middle-class life, particularly in her work promoting the League of Nations, of which she was an “ardent supporter”. She was one of the main subscribers to the purchase of Firs Field (which is where the Combe Down War Memorial stands) and its donation to the village and was clearly regarded as the right and proper person to unveil the village war memorial in September 1921. Julia left Combe Down in 1921 to undertake “extensive travels” promoting the League, beginning in India. She died in 1949 at her home in Sussex.

Mary Ross Road:

Mary Winifred Ross, who lives in Combe Down, was an Army Staff Nurse who served in the Balkans in the First World War.  When war broke out her oldest brother James enlisted in the Somerset Light Infantry and departed for India. Her younger brother, Folliott, whose eyesight was poor joined the RAMC attached to the London General Hospital. In 1916, her youngest brother, John, joined the Royal Navy, serving in the Eastern Mediterranean and he mentioned in dispatches from Gallipoli. Mary was mobilised in October 1915, attached to the 2nd London General Hospital, Chelsea. In February 1917 she embarked for Salonika in Greece to serve with the Territorial Forces' Nursing Services attached to the 29th General Hospital with the rank of Staff Nurse. After her hospital camp came under air attack it was moved closer to the sea where she was delighted to find her brother John’s ship occasionally docked for supplies and repairs and they were able to meet.  In July 1917, Mary was transferred to the 36th General Hospital, Vertekop, where she spent a year nursing Serbian casualties. Conditions were extremely challenging and by the autumn of 1917 she had contracted malaria. She continued to work in between bouts of sickness but in September 1918, suffering from malaria, dysentery, severe headaches and weight loss, she was invalided home via Malta and sent for special treatment at Millbank Military Hospital in London. She re-joined her family in Combe Down, where her brothers had all come safely through the war. After recuperating, Mary felt strongly that her nursing skills and Christian faith were needed elsewhere and in 1921 she left England to become a nurse with the North Africa Interdenominational Mission, based at Tangier in Morocco. She was killed in a road accident in Casablanca in 1943 where she is buried. 

 

[healdav]

17 hours ago, Gareth Davies said:

There is a new housing development just behind where my father lives in Bath, on the site of the old Admiralty/MOD site at Foxhill. Apparently some of the people who worked on the admin and finance to do with the Mulberry harbour were based at the site (which opened in 1940) and so the new development has been called Mulberry Park to commemorate this connection. Yes, wrong war, but stick with me.

 

 

There is a plaque in the Methodist school on the road on the opposite side of Bath leading up to Lansdown which say, with a reproduction of a plan of it, that the Mulberries were designed there, Many years sine I saw it, but it is surely still there,

[Gareth Davies]

Yes, Kingswood School, but we have strayed into the wrong war.

[healdav]

1 hour ago, Gareth Davies said:

Yes, Kingswood School, but we have strayed into the wrong war.

You brought up the Mulberries.

 

[Gareth Davies]

Why is everyone being so petty this week?

[FROGSMILE]

21 hours ago, Gareth Davies said:

There is a new housing development just behind where my father lives in Bath, on the site of the old Admiralty/MOD site at Foxhill. Apparently some of the people who worked on the admin and finance to do with the Mulberry harbour were based at the site (which opened in 1940) and so the new development has been called Mulberry Park to commemorate this connection. Yes, wrong war, but stick with me.

 

There are 16 roads (actually there are 8 Roads, 5 Groves, and one each of Court, Lane, and Street) in Mulbery Park and 12 are named after men from the (then) village of Combe Down (which is just over the road from the site) who died in the Great War (one of them was Harry Patch’s cousin, another died on HMS Hampshire on that fateful Kitchener voyage)). Of the other 4 names and 2 have local rather than GW connections. And so far they are all named after men but the final two are women who are very much GW related and I thought that you might be interested in them. What follows is adapted from some excellent research by Jacqueline Burrows of the Combe Down Heritage Society.

 

Cannan Court:

 

Both Julia House and Cannan Court at Mulberry Park are named after Julia Harriette Cannan, née Dupuis. Julia was born in Eton College in 1866, the daughter of a Church of England clergyman whose own father had been Vice Provost. In 1909 she married Horatius Cannan who, like Julia, was a Theosophist (a modern movement that advocated peace and universal brotherhood). He was manager of a Theosophist journal, the Herald of the Star. Despite his age (48), he joined the Royal Artillery on the outbreak of war in 1914. He was awarded the DSO in July 1916 in recognition of his but was wounded three months later and died on 2 November 1916, aged 50. He was buried at Rouen. After she was widowed Julia moved to Grey Lodge, Combe Down and for the relatively short time that she lived in Combe Down she was at the centre of middle-class life, particularly in her work promoting the League of Nations, of which she was an “ardent supporter”. She was one of the main subscribers to the purchase of Firs Field (which is where the Combe Down War Memorial stands) and its donation to the village and was clearly regarded as the right and proper person to unveil the village war memorial in September 1921. Julia left Combe Down in 1921 to undertake “extensive travels” promoting the League, beginning in India. She died in 1949 at her home in Sussex.

Mary Ross Road:

 

Mary Winifred Ross, who lives in Combe Down, was an Army Staff Nurse who served in the Balkans in the First World War.  When war broke out her oldest brother James enlisted in the Somerset Light Infantry and departed for India. Her younger brother, Folliott, whose eyesight was poor joined the RAMC attached to the London General Hospital. In 1916, her youngest brother, John, joined the Royal Navy, serving in the Eastern Mediterranean and he mentioned in dispatches from Gallipoli. Mary was mobilised in October 1915, attached to the 2nd London General Hospital, Chelsea. In February 1917 she embarked for Salonika in Greece to serve with the Territorial Forces' Nursing Services attached to the 29th General Hospital with the rank of Staff Nurse. After her hospital camp came under air attack it was moved closer to the sea where she was delighted to find her brother John’s ship occasionally docked for supplies and repairs and they were able to meet.  In July 1917, Mary was transferred to the 36th General Hospital, Vertekop, where she spent a year nursing Serbian casualties. Conditions were extremely challenging and by the autumn of 1917 she had contracted malaria. She continued to work in between bouts of sickness but in September 1918, suffering from malaria, dysentery, severe headaches and weight loss, she was invalided home via Malta and sent for special treatment at Millbank Military Hospital in London. She re-joined her family in Combe Down, where her brothers had all come safely through the war. After recuperating, Mary felt strongly that her nursing skills and Christian faith were needed elsewhere and in 1921 she left England to become a nurse with the North Africa Interdenominational Mission, based at Tangier in Morocco. She was killed in a road accident in Casablanca in 1943 where she is buried. 

 

 

 

Very interesting Gareth, thank you for posting the details of these two remarkable women’s contributions to WW1.  

Edited 5 October , 2023 by FROGSMILE

[Gareth Davies]

Thank you. Since posting I have found out a bit more about the Theosophical Association. What is now BMA House in London was originally designed by Lutyens pre-Great War as the headquarters of the Theosophical Association (Lutyens’ wife was the secretary). They ran out of money though and the unfinished building was taken over by the War Office 14-18. After the war it was taken over by the BMA who had outgrown their previous home on the strand. And it seems that Horatius Cannan brought 6 conkers back from France (on a leave visit I assume) in 1915 and planted them. More info in the attached photo.