Claude Watney
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Claude Watney | |
|---|---|
| Born | 4 November 1866 |
| Died | 7 November 1919 |
Claude Watney (1866-1919) was a British automobile dealer and motoring enthusiast.
Early life
He was born in London, England on 4 November 1866, the second son of the brewer and politician James Watney junior and his wife, Blanche Maria Georgiana Burrell.[1] He was educated at Eton, and New College, Oxford.[1]
Career
In June 1903, Hon. John Scott Montagu wrote in his The Car Illustrated magazine about Charles Rolls, Watney and other Old Etonians he was at school with who were involved in the motor trade, despite having no need to work for money.[2] The magazine noted that Watney had opened a showroom in Wardour Street, selling Panhards and Mercedes motor cars.[2]
In 1909, he is listed as a "director of companies".[3]
Personal life
He married Ada Annie Nunn (1868-1938).[4] She had been married to Sherman Martin, and would later marry Bernard Weguelin.[4]
They lived in London, and at High Elms Manor in Garston, Hertfordshire.
On 15 August 1889 at St Luke's Church, London, Ada Annie Nunn aged 21, "reputed to be a former ballet-dancer" had married 19-year-old Sherman Martin, the eldest son of the banker and socialite Bradley Martin, but when his parents found out some weeks later, they were "overwhelmed with mortification", and Ada was offered $10,00 to divorce.[5] Martin was eventually welcomed home, went on a world tour, and his sister Cornelia Martin married William Craven, 4th Earl of Craven.[5] Martin relapsed and was sent to the Hartford Retreat for the Insane in March 1894, and after a few months was released apparently cured of his dipsomania, but died on 22 December 1894 in Baltimore after a very brief illness.[5]
In 1909, Watney and his wife Ada travelled to New York on the SS Oceanic.[3]
In 1905 and 1911, he lived at 20 Charles Street, Mayfair, London.[6][7] In the 1911 census, he is listed as a "Brewery director", and they had 11 servants.[8]
At some point, Watney acquired Mervil Hill, a house in Hambledon, Surrey that had been owned since 1904 by the astronomer John Franklin-Adams.[9] In the First World War, it became a convalescent home for soldiers, and in 1929, it changed hands from his widow to the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, who turned it into St. Dominic's School, a "residential school for delicate boys".[9]
Death
He died on 7 November 1919.[10]
References
- ^ a b "Page:Oxford men and their colleges.djvu/867 - Wikisource, the free online library". en.wikisource.org.
- ^ a b Peter Pugh (1 October 2015). Rolls-Royce: The Magic of a Name: The First Forty Years of Britain’s Most Prestigious Company, 1904-1944. Icon Books Limited. pp. 65–66. ISBN 978-1-84831-925-7.
- ^ a b "New York Passenger Arrivals (Ellis Island), 1892-1924". familysearch.org. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
- ^ a b "Ada Annie Watney (née Nunn, later Weguelin) (1868-1938), Former wife of Claude Watney, and later wife of Bernard Weguelin". National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
- ^ a b c "Sherman Martin's Death". Baltimore American. 23 December 1894. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
- ^ "Borough of Saint George, Hanover Square division Register of Electors 1905". familysearch.org. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
- ^ "Borough of Saint George, Hanover Square division Register of Electors 1911". familysearch.org. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
- ^ "Claude Watney England and Wales Census, 1911". familysearch.org. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
- ^ a b "Viewpoint on the Common".
- ^ "Claude Watney England and Wales, National Index of Wills and Administrations, 1858-1957". familysearch.org. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
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