The Baths of Alltyferin
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Contact for this page is Alan Kultschar |
In C. 1879, eighteen-year-old Louisa Kultschar was employed by the Baths as a governess at the Alltyferin estate. She became pregnant and was sent to the Islington Workhouse in London where in 1880 she gave birth to a son, Charles William Kultschar.
Louisa was born in Constantinople (Istanbul) and could apparently speak multiple languages. The name Kultschar is Austrian, the surname appears in Vienna, but Louisa's exact origins are uncertain. She may have met and been brought back to Britain by the Baths while they were on a business trip to the Continent. Now alone and in a strange land Louisa found herself in a difficult predicament. As a single mother her chances of finding gainful employment or a suitable husband were severely compromised. In the interests of all concerned it was apparently decided that Louisa would give up her son. The baby was returned to Llanegwad and Louisa was given employment as a nanny at the Kensington, London home of Frederick Charles Milford and his wife Janet Lambert Bath, where she was noted in the 1881 census. Last heard from in 1927, Louisa was living in Romania as the governess of the Italian Ambassador's only son.
Charles William Kultschar was raised in the home of David Jones, a gardener aged 70 and his wife Mariah. In the 1881 census he is listed as a "boarder" along with another child in the same situation Sarah Anne Merandez, who was nine years older. With them in the house called Rosehill, also resided the Jonses' children Jane, Anne and Thomas, all in their thirties.
At the appropriate age Charles was sent away to school, apparently paid for by the Baths. Upon completion he was given employment at Alltyferin as a coachman and was provided with a room above the stables. A story is told of him, perhaps indicative of the time and the nature of his employment, that he became involved in an untoward incident in the Ladies' Bathhouse and was tarred and feathered as punishment. Charles met and courted the daughter of the Alltyferin Bailiff, Elizabeth Davies of Pontargothy. As the story goes, the horse that Charles drove to his trysts with Elizabeth would always stop at her house for his lump of sugar, much to the consternation of the occupants of the carriage it was pulling.
Charles followed his love for horses and took employment in the mines as a handler of pit ponies. He and Elizabeth moved to Tirydial and High St., Ammanford, Carmarthenshire where they raised three sons and three daughters. The eldest William Raymond "Cyril" Kultschar was born 15 Jan. 1914 followed after by his brother Kenneth Lambert Kultschar. Times were tough. Mine work was never well paid and periods of unemployment and strikes added to their financial difficulties. Nevertheless, his childhood bond with Sarah Anne Merandez, induced him to take her into his home when she was forced by circumstances to ask for his aid, where she remained for the rest of her life. Apart from occasional contact with his mother she was probably the closest thing to a family he had ever known. Charles died in 1941. His eldest son, "Cyril", always carried a photo of Sarah.
"Cyril" married Glenys May Evans (b. 4 July 1917 d. 2001), of Tycroes and Glynhir in 1939. He served in WW II, losing his right arm in the battle of Caen just after D-Day 1944. Their son Alan Kultschar was born in 1945 and married Shirley in 1971. Together they have a son Mark Charles and now two grandchildren Charlie b. 1995 and Chloe b. 1997. They live in Gloucester, England.
Before "Cyril" passed away in 1978 he took Alan and Shirley on a tour of the family's past. They visited Llanegwad and Rosehill cottage, where Charles and Sarah were raised. They went over the old Alltyferin estate and saw where the mansion had once been. Cyril told Alan all that he knew of his lineage including that Louisa's consort and therefore his great grandfather, was Charles Lambert Bath.
As given in Edward Henry's Account and the Osler / Francis pages, Charles Lambert Bath was born in Chile in 1858. He was educated at Eton and in 1885 took over the management of Charles Lambert's works in Swansea upon the death of his father, Edward of Brynymor. While on a business trip to Canada in 1893 he met and married Marian Francis, the daughter of Marian Bath Francis and George Grant Francis Jr.. They returned to Swansea where Charles died in 1899. He had a son Charles Lambert Francis Jr. and a daughter Marian. After the death of Charles, Marian Francis Bath returned to Canada, presumably with her children and married Lt.-Col. H. C. Osborne of Toronto, a barrister and member of the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Charles Lambert Bath Jr. served in the RFC in WWI.
