8 Keeling Brothers

Dulcie Frances Billingham

Dulcie Frances Billingham was born Monday 28 October at 2:39 pm to Alice, husband Luke. She joins the Alice's other children Jude, Viv and Art.

Jacobs farm photo albums: 1959 - 1961 JBK + bonus material

Now that Jacobs farm has passed into the hands of Jim and Emma I do not know what has become of the old photo albums that were there. Nevertheless they will be steadily unveiled here and kept for posterity!

This album of photos taken by Granny from 1959 - 1961 also contained a few loose photos (not from the same dates) in the back. It's amazing to see how few cars are parked in Albert Place where we live at number 11. Today it is bumper to bumper. When will it return to its beautiful emptiness? 2059? Hopefully before that. Click here to view all 37 pages.

People
Keeling: Dot, Jack (Grandpa's parents) Granny, Grandpa, Robert, Trevor, George, Simon, David
Keeling: Johnny, Jocelyn, Brian (Bri), Biddy, Sara (Grandpa's brothers and their wives and B's child)
Barbar Gibbs (Granny's mum)
Seitz: Cally (Grandpa's sister), Herbert (her husband)
Stewart-Wilson: Rosalind (Ros), Ralph, Lorna, Maria (Mia). Ros was Granny's cousin.
Bonn: Sarah, Simon
Backlund: Ingela, Alice, Lars
Sindons: Anna, Fred

11 Albert Place

Alexandra Cantacuzina (?), Miss Meadowes, Ann Mitchell, Charles Taylor, Peter Nalder, Justin de Blank, Peter Comyns
Nanny, Janet (nannies)
Dawes, the butler

Places
Albert place We used to live at number 11
Dolphins Barbar's Seaside home. On the map it is the building with the grey flat roof. It has been completely rebuilt since we were there.
Hurst House and woods. Home of Grandpa's parents. Close to Jacobs.
Davos, Switzerland
Portmeirion and Snowdon, Wales
Bramdean
Sweden

Trevor and Twinkle

South Africa

Animals
Twinkle, our first pet
Raj, a Seitz dog

In the loose photos from other dates
Scenes from a holiday on Canal du Midi in France including brothers Paul, Jim, Tom, Simon, David, George; Emma Gibbs, John Palmer. George as a hippy and fox hunting. Scenes from Jacobs. More skiing. Portrait of businessman Sir Jack Keeling.

Bye for now! George
Click here to view all 37 pages.

Keelings vs Sedlescombe Final Result

Kev Henry, Edward, Arthur Tom, Josh (injured Captain), Simon
Jacob Schiele, Jim, Paul, Zac (man of match)
Missing: Pol, Ted

The final score was Sedlescombe 201 for 7, Keelings 145 all out. A little better than the 210-145 reported earlier. Zac was the man of the match being the last man standing with 39 not out and he took two wickets. Paul made a stunning caught and bowled with a dive against their opening batsman. History was made by Polly the first ever female on the Keeling side who opened and scored 15 and more history from Jacob, the first German to have played for us.

The games continued later at the Brick Wall where Van gave a great performance of Bohemian Rhapsody accompanied by Kev. We played that game in the hotel garden but I think we are are welcome back. There was more singing and dancing back at Jacobs round the pool and on the patio where Van and Kev did an encore. I did not witness much at the pool. Can't wait for next time, George!

Keeling batting (second)

Sedlescombe batting (first)

Thanks to Ruth for photos and real time reporting. Apologies from George for dodgy score book when Keelings started batting.

Important message from Captain Josh

Your editor received a statement from the captain:

With Jacob our new (non-Seitz) German recruit, the Keeling XI is venturing into ~~unfounded~~ uncharted territory, but the chair of selectors (JS Keeling) is confident that the young lad will perform in this high pressure, high intensity sporting event - Jacob’s been doing his summer fitness, have you?

I trust everyone has been oiling their bats and turning their arms over in the nets all summer long and that England's World Cup performance has inspired on all fronts. Hope to see you all for the vital pre-game net (and pint) on the morning of the 25th and looking forward to our celebratory beers at George’s dinner!

Sunday 25 August Schedule

At Jacobs

11:30 Net practice

12:15 Happy Hour

12:45 Lunch

On a Westfield cricket pitch

2:00

At Brickwall Hotell

7:30 for 8 Dinner

Brick wall dinner on Sunday 25th August

Brick wall after cricket dinner, god willing, on Sunday 25th August at 7.30pm for 8pm. All family & team mates, spouses, children etc invited. Numbers and choices must be finalised before 11th August!

Guest list and choices to 15/8

		Starter	Main	Sweet
1.	Arthur	prawns	fish	cotta
2.	Carrie	salad	fish	chocs
3.	Edward	pate	veg	chocs
4.	Emma*	prawns	fish	tiramisu
5.	Flora	salad	fish	tiramisu
6.	George	pate	fish	-
7.	Henry	salad	fish	meringue
8.	Imo	salad	veg	tiramisu
9.	Jess	prawns	fish	chocs
10.	Jim	pate	beef	tiramisu
11.	Jacob	prawns	beef	cotta
12.	Josh (Captain)	pate	beef	chocs
13.	Paul D	prawns	beef	cotta
14.	Paul K	pate	beef	cotta
15.	Rosie	salad	duck	meringue
16.	Ruth	salad	beef	meringue
17.	Simon	pate	fish	-
18.	Siobhan	prawns	fish	cotta
19.	Ted	soup	beef	chocs
20.	Tom	prawns	beef	meringue
21.	Ursula	salad	fish	chocs
22.	Van	salad	veg	-
23.	Zak	prawns	beef	-

* No garlic please!

Please let me know if you are coming and what you would like. Then your name and what you want will be added to the list above. Message or email (george.keeling@gmail.com) me. Love George!

Rachel Williams: Graves and Family tree

Part of Williams family tree on Ancestry.ca by Rachel Williams (log-in required)

Rachel Williams has left two comments on the web site (here and here) and since then we have been in contact by email. She is Granny's third cousin once removed, which may make her third cousin to the brothers. She studies the Williams genealogy and has made the family tree above and discovered graveyards where we are buried. St. John Baptist, Sedlescombe is one. She also runs a William genealogy website here. At the moment we are her top post.😊 I have updated the Links to other sites page with all the details, I hope. There is also a pdf of the pictured tree here.

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