The lady spy of Reedness, Yorkshire

Last night I went to the monthly meeting of the Marshland Local History group in Swinefleet village hall. The speaker was very interesting and I learned a lot about the nature reserves at Thorne and Hatfield.

The group is hoping to attract new members and have begun production of a small newsletter - we all received our printed copies last night. The idea is that, in future,  anyone on e mail can receive copies electronically.

It is an opportunity to keep in touch for those who perhaps would like to join the group but who for one reason or another cannot get to meetings. The group would welcome any contributions for future editions - memories, photos, family history stories and queries, articles - anything as long as it refers to the Marshland villages.

http://www.marshlandlocalhistorygroup.co.uk

My contribution I reproduce below. I was fascinated to find that this Reedness lady had such dubious connections that she spent most of the First World war in an internment camp.

The lady spy of Reedness

Like most members of the MLHG I shall miss listening to Bill/Horace Wroot's stories of Reedness life in the 20s and 30s. One story he often told was of the two local sisters who signalled to the Germans during the war.

I am not sure that the story I have found was the right one but it is certainly true that a Reedness lady was accused of being a spy during the First World War.

The lady in question was called Hilda Margaret Howsin. She was born in 1877, the younger daughter of Edward Howsin, a doctor and his wife, the former Louisa Bell of The Manor, Reedness. The Bell family were natives of Reedness and Louisa's father Robert was also a doctor.

By 1901 Louisa Howsin had died but the rest of the family - Edward and daughters Ethel and Hilda were living at Reedness with Louisa's sister Elizabeth.

Hilda was then only 23 but had already published a book entitled The Significance of Indian Nationalism.

Ten years later in 1911 she was visitor at the home of Wilfred Scawen Blunt, a noted author, poet and friend of Winston Churchill. She was then described as a journalist.

But then came the war and on 1st September 1915 her father went out partridge shooting. When he came home Hilda had disappeared. Some 17 days later the family found out that she was in an internment camp at Aylesbury.

She was accused of 'hostile associations'.  In 1907 in London she had apparently met a Virandranath Chattopodhyaya, an Indian who was studying for the Bar. He had associations with the Indian Nationalist movement and had left England in 1909*.

In May 1915, while at Reedness, Hilda had received a message from an unknown woman and as a result she travelled to Montreux where she met 'the Hindu' [as he was referred to in newspaper reports]. She then returned to England with a message for a lady friend of Mr Chattopodhyaya who was in a sanatorium.

However it was said that not only had her friend spent time in Berlin before travelling to Switzerland but that the lady who had asked Miss Howsin to travel to Montreux was a spy.

The case of Hilda Howsin was reported in national newspapers as "The case of the Squire's Daughter". She applied for her release on several occasions, was questioned personally by Stanley Baldwin and her case was discussed in the House of Commons but all to no avail.

She was not released until August 1919. In 1920 she married Devendra Bannerjea. She died in Fordingbridge, Hampshire in 1955.

Her sister, Miss Ethel Howsin, was remembered by Bill as the lady who came into Reedness School at Christmas time, bringing her large dogs (? Dalmatians) with her. The children had on their desks in front of them buns and cakes that were left over from their party and that they were taking home. The children stood in honour of their guest and the dogs ate the buns.

So I am not sure whether the Howsin family were the origin of Bill's spy story but surely Hilda's notoriety must have been discussed in the village.

* Virendranath Chattopadhyaya, alias Chatto, (1880 – 2 September 1937, Moscow), was a prominent Indian revolutionary who worked to overthrow the British Raj in India by using the force of arms as a tool. He created alliances with the Germans during World War I, was part of the Berlin Committee organising Indian students in Europe against the British, and explored actions by the Japanese at the time.
He went to Moscow in 1920 to develop support by the Communists for the Indian movement, including among Asians in Moscow who were working on revolutionary movements. He joined the German Communist Party (KPD). He lived in Moscow for several years in the 1930s. Arrested in July 1937 in Joseph Stalin's Great Purge, Chatto was executed on 2 September 1937.

More local emigrants

The internet is a wonderful thing for family historians as it enables us to find out what happened to people who left  Yorkshire for a new life. I know it has to be used with caution and I sometimes despair of family trees where children of maybe 10 years old are listed as parents just because their name is right!

But on the whole it works well. I have recently been looking at two families who emigrated to Ontario. The first family was from near Holme on Spalding Moor. George Fowler emigrated with his brother in the 1870s.  His father, also George, appeared with the family in 1851 but then disappeared. Young George in 1861 was living with his grandparents, Thomas and Hannah near Welham Bridge. His two brothers were with their mother in Howden workhouse,

Searching in the East Riding archives  told us that George senior had deserted his family and 'gone to America'.  After many hours and with the help of the Familysearch site all was revealed. All three of George senior's sons  had emigrated and although there are still some gaps to fill in [did he marry again in Canada? what happened to his wife and daughter?] we found that George and his three sons were obviously in touch and in fact George was living with his youngest son in 1911.

As ever it makes you wish that some of the many letters which passed between emigrants and their families  at home in Yorkshire had survived - but they did not know that many years later we would all be fascinated by family history.

The other family I was looking at was Thomas Bristow who married Elizabeth Bullass and lived in Reedness near Whitgift. The problem here too is what happened to Thomas. Two of his sons, William and George, emigrated. Elizabeth spent some time in Goole workhouse and later says she is a widow. When and where did Thomas die?

I  receive many queries through my website about family history and always have a look in my own resources to see if I can help. If it is a simple query and I can I normally send the information straight back. If it is a query that would involve my spending some hours researching I make a charge.

In every case I reply. My appeal to all family historians is that if you contact someone with a query and they reply to you, then please thank them. Most people do - I often spend an hour or more looking at a family and then send back information or suggestions as to what sources might be useful. I am sure other family historians do the same.

The internet is a wonderful thing but remember the people who reply to your queries are often not in a remote office but, like me, sitting at a computer in my kitchen watched by a dog that wants a walk and surrounded by a heap of ironing and other jobs that need doing.

Charles Crump and his memories of Reedness

Some years ago whilst reading the old files of the Goole Times for 1937 I came across some articles entitled 'Marshland of 70 years ago'.  They were written by an anonymous author who recalled his childhood in Reedness when he was aged 6 in 1867.

His recollections were very detailed and the Marshland Local History Group have recently incorporated them into a beautifully produced book entitled Memories of Reedness . The book also includes the memories of present day Reedness residents - and former residents - including my friend Bill Wroot whose memories are included on my Howdenshirehistory.co.uk website.

Bill Wroot and his wife Gudrun at the launch of Memories of Reedness

The group has used censuses and maps to trace the history of Reedness people and houses in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

There are enough clues in the memories from 1937 to trace the author. He was, I believe,  Charles Crump who was born in Upper Peover in Cheshire. His parents were Samuel Crump born in Warwick and his wife Ann [ Hannah, Anna], formerly Reynolds of Packington in Warwickshire.

They married in 1843 and spent several years in Over Peover in Cheshire where their children were all born. Samuel was the  village schoolmaster and his wife Anna was schoolmistress. In February 1866 they moved with their two youngest sons, James and Charles to Reedness.

Charles and James grew up in Reedness. Charles followed in his parents' footsteps and was a pupil teacher on the opening day of Goole Alexandra St schools on 17th January 1876. From 1880 when his father became ill he took over the school at Reedness until his father died in 1883.

He later was headmaster at Little Harrowden, Northamptonshire where he lived with his family.

He died, I believe in 1942.

If anyone has family connections with the Crump family I would be pleased to hear from them and confirm that the memories were indeed written by Charles Crump.