We had an impromptu visit from a computer supplier I know. He sent me this email which I thought might be of more general interest. My father did not buy the Berrow from the Earl of Dudley but it had been in his estate.
"I mentioned the bit about your dad buying your house from the earl of Dudley to my mum and she said that she had met the 3rd Earl and his younger brother. It was during the time she worked at Steel House in London after the war. The earl owned the Round Oak steel works. She remembered him as an ill tempered fat man with a red face. His temper got him into trouble one day when a car was parked in his way in Belgravia. He found a brick and smashed a window in order to move the car. The car belonged to another baronet and the earl was taken to court. The magistrate remarked that the earl seemed to have trouble curbing his temper and my mum said he was a bit better behaved after that.
The earl had a younger brother, a very different character who my mum thinks took after their mum Gertie Millar who had been a Gaiety Girl (the earl was a good friend of Edward VIII). My mum met him because the bad tempered earl wanted him to go to steel committee meetings. He turned up one day looking very smart and my mum made him a cup of tea while he swung around in one of the secretaries’ chairs in the office. She explained to him who would be on the committee and what they would be doing and he never turned up again.
After nationalisation the family home at Himley Hall was taken over and an urn containing Gertie Millar’s ashes was found there. My mum thinks somebody in the family must have been rather remiss when clearing out the house."
Posted by webmaster at April 29, 2006 07:38 PM