Jacobs farm photo albums: 1955 -1959

Happy Easter and here is the 1955 -1959 Jacobs farm photo album by Granny. Two particular photos stand out. Both taken at Hurst House where we almost grew up. There are lots more which I hope will make you smile and marvel. Click here to see them all.

Peter is the budgie. Better view if you follow the link.

People: Family

Granny, Grandpa, Robert, Trevor, George, Simon, David
Cally, Herbert Seitz (including wedding)
Barbar, Linda, Emma Gibbs
Lady Dot, Sir Jack, Ruvé  Keeling
John Keeling DFC
Mary Grayson, John Blakseley (who were to be married)
Aunty Alice
Cherry, Serena, Alexandra, Howard Palmer
Brian, Biddy, Sarah, Patrick Keeling
Philip, Loveday Hudson
Dawes the butler, Joe the under butler, Nanny (or more)

Other people

Katy Stendall, Anne & Fred Sindern, Fasther Walsh, the Wheeler Bennetts, Dodo Stockly, Penny Walcot, Francis Eddis, Justin de Blank, Guisha Cantacuzene, Clio BurkeTony Hanbury-Williams marrying Dinah Hartley, Teresa Follett, William Bell, Anne Abel Smith, Nat Fines, Belinda Bell, Judy Barber.

Places

Dolphins, Shipton Lodge, Weissfluhjoch Davos, Hurst House, Madeira, TSS New York, Monte Carlo, Vesuvius, Meta di Sorrento, Warwick Castle, Goodwood, Cannes, Grindelwald, Silverhorn, Wengen, Dunston Wood.

Issie and JJ get married 13 April 2019

And there will be no peace after the champagne tea. At 6pm there will be a Keeling feast at The Phoenix, Victoria organised by Van and Ruth.

Illicit photos were taken

Issie and JJ exit, married

Jim and Emma speak

From Joshua to Jim at the champagne tea 

Group photo

Paul got overexcited at the dinner afterwards, here seen groping Ted who is very patient.

Higher resolution photos and bonus material here.

Jacobs farm photo albums: 1951 The Wedding and the Result

This is the official wedding album of Mike and Jenny Keeling. It includes
Her mother and brother Barbara Gibbs and David
His brother and parents Brian, Jack and Dot
and the resulting eight boys about fifteen years later.
Click here to see all fifteen pages.

Finucane family tree

Finucane family tree from the best attic room at Jacobs. Photographed by Harry.

This is the Genealogy of the ô Finucan, of County Clare from the best attic room at Jacobs (Simon's old room.) It's a bit small to read here and doesn't get much better if you just click on it. BUT if you click here you should be able to zoom in and pan about or you can download it to your computer.

Provenance of the tree

You can see the tiny Keeling branch down at the bottom right. In our branch of the family, Dorothy was the last Finucane. She was Grandpa's mother. One of Dorothy's sisters was Ruvé who gave the family tree to Simon. Another sister was Barbara Finucane whose daughter was Mary, a cousin of Grandpa. Mary still lives. She tells us (see first comment) of an awesome great aunt Mary Francis  who married Jeremiah Sugrue (they are in the tree). So Mary Sugrue must be the Mrs M Sugrue who commissioned the tree by Philip Crossle. There is a note to this effect in the bottom right dated 1929-1930. Crossle used records from the Public Record Office, Dublin in 1921. The Records Office was "was burnt to the ground and all the records perished in the flames" in 1922. We can deduce that Mary Sugrue gave the tree to her niece Ruvé who gave it to Simon.

Here are a few other interesting points:

• Morgan and Jane Finucane are one level above her. Their journey to Fiji is told here and their diary is here.
• Apparently (top left) we are descended from King Milesius of Spain (or Míl Espáine) who foresaw he would also be king of Ireland but died before he could make it. Some of his sons did succeed in crossing the sea. This is recorded in a "9th-century semi-historical work".
• Also at the top left is another distant ancestor Olioll Olum, King of Munster, died AD 234. There must be millions of people descended from these kings, particularity as Olum was "said to have been the progenitor of most of the great families of the south of Ireland".
• And finally, for the moment, there's lieutenant Andrew Finucane:

This is the coat of arms granted 1815 to Andrew Finucane Esq. of Ennistymon House, Co. Clare, son of Hon. Mathias Finucane, Judge of the court of Common Pleas in Ireland.

Motto: Fide et fortitudine (Faith and fortitude)

He probably fought at the battle of Waterloo, see below. (Ireland was still part of GB back then.)

We find on the great Wikipedia that "In 1792 the house passed down to Ann O’Brien and her husband Matthias Finucane, who retained it after their divorce [and left it to Andrew]. On the death of Andrew Finucane in 1843, the house was inherited by his brother-in-law William Nugent Macnamara of Doolin, who died in 1856 at the age of eighty-one." William Nugent is on the tree.

Dr Andrew Finucane is under the top line just to the right of the break in the middle. His only son the Hon. Mathias is below and below that his only son also Andrew, born 1779. Cornet 10th Light Dragoons, promoted to lieutenant 1809. "As part of the 6th Cavalry Brigade, the 10th Light Dragoons charged the French cavalry and infantry at the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815." By then their name was more complicated: "10th (Prince of Wales's Own) Regiment of (Light) Dragoons (Hussars)". Wikipedia. They did a lot of fighting in the Napoleonic War.

• Harry has contributed the coat of arms of Sir John Keeling. Motto "Spread Happiness"

Coat of arms of Sir John Keeling
Spread Happiness

If anybody else finds more stories, please leave a comment!

Jacobs farm photo albums: 1948 -1953 JBK photos including three weddings and two births

This album by Granny ran for five years from 1948 -1953 and includes Cherry (Granny's sister) and Bill's wedding, her and Grandpa's wedding and the births of Robert and Trevor. Plus other weddings.
To see all 85 pages click here.

The album features

Gibbs / Hudson / Palmer 
Barbar Gibbs, (Granny's mother)
Granny's Grandpa (probably Trevor Williams)
Dody, Nain (Nain is probably Alice Williams wife of Trevor)
David Gibbs
Loveday Hudson (née Gibbs and Granny's oldest sister), Philip Hudson (her husband), their children:  Jonathan Hudson, Martin Hudson, Christopher Hudson. Austin Hudson*
Bill Palmer, his wife Cherry Palmer (née Gibbs), Serena Palmer, Alexandra Palmer their oldest two.
Lena and Reggie Palmer (presumably Bill Palmer's parents)

Keelings
Lady Dot and Sir Jack Keeling (Grandpa's parents)
Johnny Keeling (Grandpa's oldest brother), Robin his first wife
Jenifer and Keeling (Granny, Grandpa). Children Robert Keeling, Trevor Keeling
Brian Keeling (Grandpa's youngest brother),
Cally Seitz (née Keeling) including an appearance on the front page of the Evening Standard
Mary Grayson (now Blakesley) Grandpa's cousin

Friends of Keelings (that I have heard of)
Peter Gardiner Hill, Henry Hely-Hutchison
David, Mo, Sue, Peter, James and Charles Petri
Jim and Zuil Winterschladen

*Christopher Hudson informs us that Austin is his "Great Uncle - Sir Austin Uvedale Morgan Hudson. He was Barton (Philip's father's)  brother. He was an MP, and Civil Lord of the Admiralty. His wife left him on their honeymoon for a slightly racy woman called Mercedes [almost certainly Mercedes de Acosta one time girlfriend of Greta Garbo] - suspect she was after the title! He was great fun & paid our (J, M & my) school fees! He never married again - not altogether surprising!"
He adds more scandal in the comments.

Click Read more for ones I never heard of

Jacobs farm photo albums: 1947 From Loveday

These photos are from an album given by Loveday Hudson, Granny's oldest sister, to Granny in 1947. Some were taken in Sweden where they stayed with the Krügers. Ingela (née) Krüger was a good friend of Granny's and I went to stay with her in about 1966. I remember her son Lars very well. If anybody has any contact with those Swedes, please forward this to them.

Click here to see all forty.
The album features
On page 2: Taid & Nain (pronounced Tide & Nine). These were the pet names of Trevor & Alice Williams, Barbar's parents, so my (George's) great grandparents.
Hudsons: Philip, Loveday, 'Nanny', Jonathan (Loveday's oldest)
Cherry (Granny's middle sister), Jenifer (Granny, the youngest of the three sisters) and David her brother, the oldest of the four)
Barbar (their mother)
Keelings: Johnny (Grandpa's older brother), Cally his sister, Grandpa (Mike), Dot and Jack his parents.
Also
Gunilla, Ingela, Helen, Herr & Bjön Krüger
Mark and Bea Lubbock
Tony, Biddy, Barbara, Charles, James and Biddy Hanbury-Williams
Clio Burke, Angela and Eustace Guiness, Simon Grisby, Bill Young, Adrian House, Angela Caroe, Morran, 'Workers flats in Stockholm' and a few more.

Jacobs farm photo albums: 1943 Eton

Seven formal photos of sport teams and 'pop' at Eton in with Grandpa usually in the middle and the shortest. He was a great sportsman and he told me that in his final year he and his best friend Henry Hely-Hutchinson ruled Eton.

Click here to see them all.

x George

A tired ski instructor on a stubborn client

Philippe d'Avezac de Moran, who was Granny and Grandpa's ski guide in Meribel for a quarter of a century, sent this memoir on them to Alice their second oldest grandchild.

"I have always considered Mike as a strong personality, and this has often been true during our many days of skiing.

Grandpa and Philippe

A good example was his desire and pleasure to be able to smoke one of his favourite little cigars, just before lunch, and another after lunch. Everything had always gone well, until the law changed in France: prohibition of smoking in public places. Mike was forced to stay in the cold, on the terrace of the restaurant, to be able to smoke his cigar, while Jenny and I enjoyed an aperitif!

The problem was much more complex back in the Yeti hotel. Thanks to the kindness and friendship of Frédéric and Sophie [proprietors of Yeti] towards Mike and Jenny, Sophie had arranged a small table behind the end of the bar (named for the occasion "the table of outlaws") to allow Mike to smoke his cigar. This lasted for some time, until a Russian customer noticed the situation and complained to Sophie. He too wanted to smoke his cigar. Scandal at the Yeti! Mike forced to extinguish his.

Another year, a French client asked to see Sophie, and also made a scandal in front of the counter, and threatened to leave the hotel if this English gentleman did not immediately extinguish his cigar. Mike had to crush it again, and apologize to Sophie. End of the tobacco rebellion. The outlaw had capitulated.

Another facet of Mike was his skiing suit from another age, which he enjoyed wearing every winter. He scoffed at the derision of other skiers at his wide, thin pants that fitted into the ski boots, red waterproof gaiters over the pants, a check cotton shirt, a very fine wool sweater and a torn anorak, which was sewn many times by Jenny. In short, not the best equipment to face the often very cold temperatures of Meribel at 2700m above sea level in the middle of January. Fortunately his favourite ski instructor was there to remedy this situation, and save him from the cold by equipping him with polar fleece, despite his reluctance, but the will of the ski instructor prevailed. Mike had to obey.

Grandpa and Granny

And what about these long weeks during the month of January when every day at lunchtime, I had the heavy task of choosing the wine, and especially to be able to accompany Mike in the tasting, and to have to maintain the rhythm of daily consumption: one bottle for two people, each day, for 3 weeks in a row. Not to mention the genépi at the end of the meal, offered by the restaurateur. I became an alcoholic, without realizing it, and each resumption of skiing after the meal became chaotic as far as I was concerned: impossible to make my ski-turns properly. But no problems regarding Mike, he skied wonderfully well after every meal!

All this was my fault because at the beginning of our first meeting, Mike used to order Savoy wine, generally rough and hard on the throat. I succeeded in convincing him to change the quality of wine, and so I could not find excuses not to drink it. The job of a ski instructor is not an easy. And as if that was not enough, Mike carried on at the end of the day with a champagne aperitif, followed during the meal with a glass of Chablis blanc, and a glass of Château Neuf Du Pape rouge. The reason is that alcohol keeps the human body in good shape. Another great lesson from Mike. The worst thing about it was that Mike and Jenny were always ready before me in the morning, in great shape, and were sitting quietly on the terrace, waiting for me. I surely can say that in 24 skiing winter seasons, they really managed to tire me.

Now that they are together again, they will be able to realise, I am sure, very beautiful turns above our heads, because they are still improving. I wish us a life as well filled as theirs.

With all my love Philippe

Jasper II born yesterday.

Jasper was born to Kate and Will yesterday. Kate wrote at 8:53 "Morning all! Introducing Jasper who was born last night at 10.05pm. We are all doing well and looking forward to introducing you to our newest member of the family"

Jasper II

Congratulations flooded in:

[08:53] Keeling Harry: Wahoo!!!

[08:53] Keeling Harry: Congrats!!!!!

[08:55] Keeling Flora: Congratulations!!!❤❤

[08:56] Keeling Jim: Marvellous!  Xoxxxx

[08:57] Keeling Polly: 😍😍😍😍

[08:57] Keeling Tom Siobhan: Wow wee how exciting Congratulations 😃😃😃

[09:00] Keeling Lizzie: Amazing news, congratulations xxx

[09:06] Keeling Ruth: Congratulations will and Kate xx

[09:09] George  Keeling: Hello  Jasper II!

[09:12] Keeling Imogen: Congratulations! 💗

[09:47] Keeling Archie: Fantastic! Congrats Kate, such great news xxx

[10:10] Keeling Siobhan: Huge congratulations Kate. Enjoy getting to know the newest member of your family xxxxx

[10:11] Keeling Camilla: Hurrah and lots of love from us xxxx

[10:14] Keeling Camilla: Harry, is there a problem putting David onto WhatsApp? Still hasn’t come through? 07484 834 927

[10:24] Keeling Jasper: Congratulations!! That’s a very cool name!

[10:41] Keeling Trev: 🙃🙂🙃🙂

[10:42] Keeling Arthur: Congratulations well done!!

[10:42] Keeling Ursula: CONGRATULATIONS! Love from us and love the name .. can’t wait to meet him xxx

[10:44] Keeling Edward: Huge congratulations !!

[12:55] Keeling Kate: Thanks all!

[12:57] Keeling Kate: Haha we’ll have to make sure he lives up to the name!

Survivors of typhoon Mangkhut

Last time I heard (13:14 London time) Trevor and Ruth and family have survived typhoon Mangkhut. Trevor wrote, "I’m on the sixteenth floor and the wind is whistling around the flat and the building is shaking a bit. Ruth, Paul and Mum are in Hong Kong! In a hotel down the road. They arrived just in time." Ruth confirmed the story, "We snuck in just before the typhoon hit and have been holed up in our hotel since. Just about to sit down to post dinner zilch"

From Trev's mate

Harry marries Harriet O'Neill

Harry married Harriet O'Neill 8 September 2018 in Cornwall

The happy couple

I wasn't there and know nothing more! No umbrage. Siobhan said it was "An amazing day xxx"

On Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/harrykeeling/posts/10101909066813532
Click Read more for Harry's fav photos

Ruth swims, bikes and runs triathlon

Ruth swam biked and ran 51.5km  in 3 hours and 7 minutes in the North Norfolk Triathlon on Sunday 2nd August. Half an hour better than she expected.

The most dangerous part is the start of swim, when you are likely to be drowned after another swimmer kicks you in the face.

The route. From / to Wells-next-the-Sea

Cricket Keelings vs Sedlescombe

The Keelings played Sedlescombe on the Westfield pitch 26 August. The weather was filthy. Keelings fielded first in driving rain and Sedlescombe scored 177 for 5 in their 20 overs, which is pretty impressive and seemed like quite a mountain to climb.  The Keelings went into bat after lunch as the weather got worse. But having lost only 1 wicket (Paul's) Jim and Josh (mainly Josh) were piling the runs on when the rain became intolerable and stopped play. We got 47 over 6 overs.  Anyway, the key was that we were looking on the money to take their target on.

Cricket: Click on picture and you might be able to see Trevor, Simon and Jim

The players were very brave. The Keeling spectators retired to Jacobs at lunch time and never returned.

In the evening 20 or more of us had a slap up dinner at the Brickwall hotel.

Josh, Ursula, Rob, Paul, Trevor older, Tom older, Simon, Louise
Van, Harry

Click here for more photos. They have been on Whatsapp.

Grandpa's obituary in MCC annual report

Grandpa's obituary appeared in the MCC (Marylebone Cricket Club) annual report for 2017. It was arranged by Simon. Lords cricket ground is in Marylebone. There is a connection. Here is the obituary:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
M.E.A. KEELING, Elected 1950

Michael Keeling - a first-class fieldsman rumoured never to have missed a catch in a schools' match - opened for Eton during 1942 and 1943 and was appointed captain "manque" for 1944 on account of his leaving school before the cricket season was underway. By the end of 1942 he was already suspected by many to be an exceptional opening batsman and his 101 not out against the Forty Club, facing G.O. Allen's thunderbolts, strengthened that assessment.

Selected for Lord's Schools v. The Rest, he hit an impeccable 129, and then 65, in both innings watching the ball closely, striking it well through the on-side and running energetically between the wickets. Small in stature and angular, he was making more runs for Eton Ramblers by the end of the season, including a fine 54 against Guards Depot. At Oxford in 1944 Keeling scored 55 in the one-day University Match, returning after the war to play for the Authentics.

His cricket life and business career continued and in 1964 Keeling revived a tradition, started before the war by his father, fielding a team to play against Sedlescombe in Sussex. This tradition continues, and in 2016 the Keeling family comprised his eight sons and their children.

In retirement Keeling continued avidly to follow cricket and keenly supported the game in Sussex, as he had his employees, to whom he always showed kindness and generosity, freely offering help on health matters, education opportunities and financial affairs. Died aged 91. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------

There were about 60 other obituaries in the report and it disclosed that the MCC has net assets of about £90 million - poor show against Eton College at £344M in 2014.

Jacobs farm photo albums: 1942-2014 mostly by Granny

Jacobs Farm c. 1942

This album from Jacobs farm has photos and paintings which, I think, got back to a 1942 painting of Jacobs. Most of the photos are by Mum, some are not. They include four weddings (George x 2, Tom and Paul) and a family group from about 1963. Enjoy!

Click here to see all 25 pages.

Love George

List of people, events, things in photos. Please comment if you would like to correct this
Paul,
Ruth skiing, Harry, Various infants (possibly Kate)
Mum, Dad, Tom, Trevor, Rob, Paul, Carolyn, Jim, David, Simon at George's and Carolyn's wedding.
George and Carolyn at their wedding.
Young Ruth and Trevor,
Jim with two infants (Issy and Polly?)
Horses
Young Mum and Dad with baby
Paul and Van at their wedding and Van with Fred and probably Jasper
Christening with Van
Harry in uniforms
Young Mum and baby
Tom and Siobhan's wedding, then children. Tom, Kate and Ted
Paul and Van at their wedding. Dad at tennis
Toddlers and badger
Mum with six oldest children
Three old paintings of Jacobs before 1970, artist unknown.
Invitation to Alexander's and George's wedding, Photo of Seitz family
Simon, Eila and cricket practice
Fred, Zak, Rob and Jude 2013
Party pictures including Harry plus Issie, Pilly, Josh, Rosie
Paul, Jacquie, Siobhan, Imo 2013
Ruth 2013
Fanny Stafford and family(?)
Alexander's and George's wedding 2013: Them, Trevor, Anna, Alexandra née Palmer, Paul, Archie, Jim, Louise, Poppy, Tom, Emma Siobhan, Simon, Ursula, Christa Burri, Max. Jo, Paul, Fred, Nico, Crista, Louise, Poppy
Luke, Alice, Rob, Rosie, Emma

Cricket match lunch: Imo, Rob, Simon, Tom

Jacobs farm photo albums: 1935 - 1937 by Grandpa

This is a photo album of Grandpa's from 1935-1937 taken with a very old camera. He was 10 in 1935.

Johnny, ????, Dot, Brian, Grandpa (Dad, Mike), Cally

The album features him, his brothers Johnny and Brian, his sister Cally Seitz, his mother and father Dot (née Finucane) and Jack, his aunt Mo Petri (née Finucane), Hurst House, the Oast House, lots of ships and many other people who I don't know.

Most of the photos are quite blurred. He was very young. As far as I know he never made another album!

Click here to see all 23 pages.

Bye for now!

George

Imo to run Lewa Marathon

Imo put this on the Keeling Clan:
Hi all.
I’m out in Kenya at the moment, and amongst doing other things I’ve just signed myself up for the Lewa Marathon. (I’m just doing the half and it’s in 14 days, eeek).

Anyway here’s the link to the page just so that you can check it out if you’re interested. There’s also a donate button if you feel like it sounds like a worthy cause.

Thank you and Lots of love XXXX

https://www.safaricommarathon.com

And she completed it on 30th of June

Camilla: Well done Imo! And you look as cool as a cucumber! Xxxx

Siobhan: Fantastic xxxxx

Paul: Are you sure the picture was after the race? You look far too fresh!

Issie: What an achievement Imo - absolutely amazing! Well done you! Xxx

Imogen: Thanks all. I had had a glass of champagne by then, that’s the trick ahah

Finucane diary

125 years ago: On board the RMS Ormuz  en route for the Fiji Island via Australia.

This is the write-up of a journal of about 120 pages of manuscript written in 1893 by Jane Finucane (née Sheridan), then newly wed to Dr Morgan Finucane, with occasional contributions from Morgan (and for him there is a potted biography in Appendix 1);  the original journal found its way from Hurst to L&YT, Dad’s office in London, where it was photocopied and the photocopy given to me by Dad in about 1980;  the original is in the possession of the Patrick Grayson (a cousin of Dad).  Patrick’s father and mother were Tris and Barbie Grayson;  Barbie was a sister of my granny Dorothy and the youngest of Morgan’s and Jane’s four daughters (Ruvé, Mo, Dot and Barbie) – see Appendix 3 on pages 40, 41.

Click here to read all 53 pages.

Uncle Simon

Uncle George writes: There are more Finucane diaries here. Or just search for finucane.

Jacobs farm photo albums - Baby book 1929 to 1935

About 8 days old

There are over 25 photo albums, mostly by Granny, spanning 83 years from 1929 when she was born to 2011. I and my assistants have photographed them, one page at a time (not each individual picture) and will slowly publish the results here.

The first one is her baby book from 1929 to 1935. It features her, Arthur Gibbs her father, Barbar Gibbs her mother, various nurses, Cherry Palmer her sister, Loveday Hudson her oldest sister, David her brother, other children called Rosalind, Gilian, Katie, Olivia and Joanna, and finally uncle Colin and Mrs Bathurst.

Click here to see all eight pages.

Bye for now!

George

PS I labelled all the albums that I photo'd. If you find one that you think should be added, photograph it, label it and tell me.

Tom - the new Portuguese farmer

Hello one and all.
This is an open call to everyone I have ever met. A couple of weeks ago, Matilde and I bought 2 hectares of farm land in Portugal and will be arriving there at the end of March this year.
First of all, a massive thank you to everyone who has helped us collect all our tools, home and garden stuff. All of it was for free from donations and freecycle, and people going out of their way to search for old stuff we could use. Now we have a shed full of tools, carpets and everything we need to set up our home-tent in Portugal.
And the property...