Mabel Eleanor Read - Champion Women Fencer of Essex?

Mabel Eleanor Read - Champion Women Fencer of Essex?

All families have legends: fortunes lost, descent from royalty on the wrong side of the blanket, etc. Amongst the legends of my family is that my grandmother, Mabel Eleanor Read, whom I remember as a singularly unathletic woman, was once the Women's Fencing Champion of Essex.

Several written sources make the claim. Her son John, writing a biographical account for his children (Stanier, circa 1988), says ‘One can hardly think of mother as athletic, but she was the champion woman fencer of Essex in her time. Her presentation foils were borrowed by a friend who forgot to return them.’

and a niece, writing in a letter to myself (Luker, 1993), wrote

I don't know the exact date Aunt Mabel was fencing, but it must have been around 1920. She used to live with her Mother (Sarah Reed) in Southend & she taught in a local school. We moved in with them when I was about 2 (1915ish) & your Uncle John was born there. Mabel then went to B'ham when Uncle Bill left the Army because his job as a pipefitter took priority. He went as a civilian worker to Devonport. Mabel went to live in B'ham & I remember among some books she left with us, there was a fencing mask. I can always remember it from before I started school as I used to dress up in it. Mum told me Mabel won it for being a Champion Lady Fencer, & some silver foils. So that would have been about 1918 as I don't think she would have kept it up when John was on the way & they went to Brum first after.

Such legends grow in the telling: how easy the change from "a champion woman fencer in Essex" to "the Champion Woman Fencer of Essex", and how significant the change! But they often contain a kernel of truth: this article attempts to extract the kernel of this particular legend. To what extent, if any, is it true?

It is possible this search will prove fruitless. Malcolm Fare, the Archivist of the British Fencing Association, tells me in an email "Essex was not formed as a county fencing union until after WWII and what fencing occured pre-second or indeed pre-first world war is not recorded anywhere as far as I know." But we may, perhaps be able to answer the weaker question: is it at least feasible?

Mabel Read in Essex

Ignoring the family legend, what may be proven from primary sources? Mabel Eleanor Read was born in Marylebone in 1887, the daughter of William Charles Read, a leather merchant, by his 2nd wife, Sarah Elizabeth Stevens[1]. Following the collapse of the leather business [for reasons that are themselves the stuff of family legend: Luker (undated) says of William's eldest sons, "Edward & William Jnr. Bad hats, when grandfather went blind & his wholesale leather works ... started to fall off they laid their hands on as much as they could & William went to America, went from bad to worse & finally committed suicide about 1881". In fact, William Jr can be traced through the American Census records, and died of bronchitis in May 1939 at Little Falls NY] the impoverished family moved eastward: Kelly (1898) lists Sarah Elizabeth Read as a dressmaker in Cromer Road, Southend.

By the 1901 census, the family had moved to Heygate Road, Southend, where the 13-year-old Mabel and the now-blind William were supported by Sarah's earnings as a dressmaker[2]. The family had temporarily moved to Forest Gate by 1911, but Mabel had remained in Southend, now working as a Council School teacher, and lodging in Stanley Road[3]. She married William Stanier in Handsworth Staffs on the 7th April 1917[4], the birth of their first child being registered in Essex in 1918[5]. Shortly after this, the family moved to Birmingham, the birth of their second child being registered in the Aston RD in 1921[6].

It seems unlikely Mabel would have continued fencing in the later stages of pregnancy, so we may date her putative fencing career in Essex to the period from approximately 1900 to mid-1918.

Sport in Southend

Originally just a cluster of fishermen's cottages at the South End of Prittlewell, Southend rose to become one of the main holiday resorts of the 19th and 20th Centuries. Although the first hotels opened in "New Southend" in 1794, it remained a resort for the gentry who could afford to take the Stagecoach from London, until the opening of the pier in 1830 allowed access by Thames steamboats. With the opening of the London, Tilbury & Southend Railway in 1854, Southend became the holiday resort of choice of London's East End, until competition from cheaper foreign holidays in the 1960s led to Southend's decline.

So in the first decades of the 20th century, Southend would have been crowded with visitors, many of whom would want to watch sport, and some even to play. And there were several sporting clubs in or near Southend for their entertainment. However, evidence for fencing clubs is lacking.

Published local histories do not mention fencing. King and Furbank (1991), which covers the Borough Centenary, 1892 - 1992, mentions several sports – swimming, football, sea bathing and yachting – but not fencing. Pewsey (1993), which covers much the same period, but discusses not merely Southend, but the neighbouring areas such as Westcliff and Leigh-on-Sea, mentions only bathing and soccer. Everritt (1980) has only cycling, swimming, yachting and roller skating.

www.southendtimeline.com, a somewhat ad hoc list of events in the area, lists the opening of several sporting clubs (see right).

Glennie (1947) has a more comprehensive list. He says 'There are local facilities for a wide variety of sports', and proceeds to list them – Angling, Athletics, Badminton, Billiards, Bowling, Boxing, Cricket, Cycling, Darts, Fox Hunting, Golf, Greyhound Racing, Hockey, Horse Riding, Motor Cycling, Rugby, Skating, Soccer, Swimming, Tennis, Wrestling & Yachting – together with a brief history of each sport in Southend. Fencing is not mentioned.

However, the lack of a fencing club does not necessarily imply that fencing was not practised. It could have been one activity at a more general Sports or Social Club, such as the Southend-on-Sea Recreation Society mentioned in Darbyshire (1901); or at a general entertainment centre such as the Kursaal.

The Kursaal opened in 1901. Although mostly an amusement park, it included a circus, ballroom, arcade, dining hall and billard room, and a number of other rooms whose purpose is not stated. It is not inconceivable that fencing was one of the activies practised there.

Further, the Essex Royal Garrison Artillery, and later the Suffolk & Essex Royal Garrison Artillery, was garrisoned in the town. The officers, at least, would have had swords, and been trained in their use, the 1897 Pattern Infantry Officer's Sword being the regulation sword of officers of the line infantry from 1897 to the present day (Ffoulkes and Hopkinson, 1967). Possibly, some of these could have supplemented their income by acting as fencing masters.

Evidence from Commercial Directories

Several companies published directories purporting to list all businesses and tradespeople in a town or city. Foremost amongst these was Kelly and Co., known as Kelly's Directory Ltd from 1897.

The level of detail given varies. Some volumes cover all towns and larger villages in a County (or in some cases, a number of Counties): the entry for a particular place in a County volume typically listed first the local gentry, then institutions such as churches, charities and schools, then a directory of tradespeople. Some volumes covered only one larger town, typically listing official establishments; elected officials such as aldermen or councillors; churches, schools, societies and other institutions; a street directory purporting to list all householders; an alphabetical list of private residents; and finally lists of tradespeople both alphabetically and divided by trade or profession.

Where in the directories we might find references to fencing would depend on how fencing was organised. A fencing club would appear amongst the organisation, but individual fencing teachers might appear amongst the professions and trades section.

Contemporary Directories of Southend – Darbyshire (1901), Kelly (1902, 1903, 1906, 1908, 1910, 1912, 1914, 1917) – attest to many sports in the first decades of the 20th century (see right), but none mention fencing, either in Clubs or private teachers.

This absence seems to make it unlikely, but not entirely impossible, that fencing was available in Southend. Atkins (1989), who was mostly concerned with London directories, but whose concerns apply equally to others, raises a number of concerns about the accuracy of directories. Those which might have led to fencing being omitted are:-

  1. Class bias, which leads to the under-recording of working people.
  2. Areal bias, whereby poor neighbourhoods and some suburban districts are underrepresented.
  3. Main road bias. Here residents, whatever their social standing or trade, were more likely to be listed than those living in the back streets and courts.
  4. The problem of multiple occupancy. Only one name per property was allowed in most directories.
  5. The constraints of producing a book which was easy to handle, and which stayed within the pocket of its readers.

Evidence from Newspapers

It might be expected that, were fencing clubs to have been active in Southend, or Mabel Read to have won the County Championship, these would be reported in local or regional newspapers.

The Southend Standard (1905 - 1914) contains no reference to fencing, either at local or county level.

The Essex County Standard (1901 - 1918) covered County-wide activities, but also short accounts of local activities, presumably submitted by local correspondents. It covered a wide range of sports, including such minority sports as quoits or croquet. But it contains no references to fencing.

At first sight, this silence is damning: surely a county-wide fencing championship would have merited mention? But some caution is appropriate here. To some extent, the content of newspapers reflects that which the editors consider to be of interest to their readers. But it is also influenced by the availability of copy: a newspaper has to fill its pages, and strict publishing deadlines give only a limited time to collect news. The frequent coverage of, for example, quoits in the Essex County Standard might mean that quoits were considered significant by the editor and the readers; but it seems more likely that Colchester Quoits Club had a member who regularly submitted reports to the newspapers. If noone told the editor of the local newspapers about fencing, then fencing is unlikely to be reported.

Summary

To summarise the evidence so far found:-

The sport of fencing in Southend in the period 1900 - 1920 is not mentioned in any local history. Nor in Kelly's Directories for Southend or Essex. Nor in Southend's main local newspaper for 1905 - 1914. Nor in the main regional newspaper for 1901 - 1918.

Of course, lack of evidence is not evidence of lack. But the total absence of published references to fencing in Southend does tend to suggest there was none. And this makes it highly unlikely that Mabel Eleanor Read was ever the Women's Fencing Champion of Essex

References

Primary Sources

  1. National Archives, Civil Registration of Birth, 1st qtr 1888, Marylebone RD, vol 1a page 580
  2. National Archives, 1901 census return for 38 Heygate Avenue, Southend, RG13/1679 f29 p50
  3. National Archives, 1911 census return for 39 Stanley Road, Southend, RG14/10148 sn321
  4. National Archives, Civil Registration of Marriage, 2nd qtr 1917 West Bromwich RD, vol 6b page 1257
  5. National Archives, Civil Registration of Birth, 3rd qtr 1918 Rochford RD, vol 4a page 951
  6. National Archives, Civil Registration of Birth, 1st qtr 1921 Aston RD, vol 6d page 1132

Publications

Atkins, P. J. (1989) The Compilation and Reliability of London Directories
London Journal 14 (1989) 1 pp 35-46

Darbyshire, H (1901) Darbyshire's Guide to Southend, Southend-on-Sea: H. Darbyshire
Reprinted in Everitt (1980)

Essex County Standard, West Suffolk Gazette and Eastern Counties Advertiser (1901 - 1918), Colchester
Microfilm at Colchester Local Studies Library: see http://essexlibraries.essexcc.gov.uk/ABL/default.ashx?itemid=|Library/vubissmart-marc|245415

Everritt, Sylvia (1980) Southend Seaside Holiday, London: Phillimore

Ffoulkes, Charles & Hopkinson, Edward Campbell. (1967) Sword, Lance and Bayonet: A record of the Arms of the Brtish Army and Navy, London, Arms & Armour Press

Glennie, Donald (1947) Our Town: an Encyclopedia of Southend-on-Sea and District pp 199-204, Southend: Civic Publications

Kelly [publisher] (1898) Kelly's Directory of Essex, London: Kelly's Directories Ltd

Kelly [publisher] (1902) Kelly's Directory of Essex, London: Kelly's Directories Ltd

Kelly [publisher] (1903) Kelly's Directory of Essex, London: Kelly's Directories Ltd

Kelly [publisher] (1906) Kelly's Directory of Essex, London: Kelly's Directories Ltd

Kelly [publisher] (1908) Kelly's Directory of Essex, London: Kelly's Directories Ltd

Kelly [publisher] (1910) Kelly's Directory of Essex, London: Kelly's Directories Ltd

Kelly [publisher] (1912) Kelly's Directory of Essex, London: Kelly's Directories Ltd

Kelly [publisher] (1914) Kelly's Directory of Essex, London: Kelly's Directories Ltd

Kelly [publisher] (1917) Kelly's Directory of Essex, London: Kelly's Directories Ltd

Luker, Eileen (1993) Private letter

Luker, Eileen (undated) Private letter

Pewsey, Stephen (1993) The book of Southend-on-Sea, Whittlebury: Baron Birch

Southend Standard (1905 - 1916), Southend
Original copies examined at the National Newspaper Library

Stanier, John Howard (circa 1988) Biographical Account of John Howard Stanier, Privately published typescript

Websites

http://www.southendtimeline.com/

http://www.essexinfo.net/seaxe/

http://www.britishfencing.com/

Bibliography and Suggested Further Reading

Publications

"A Gentleman" (1824?) A guide to Southend: description of the town and surrounding country, historical notices of the remains of antiquity, objects of curiosity, &c., illustrated ..., with an appendix, London: G. Mann

Burrows, John H. et al (1910) "Standard" guide to Southend-on-Sea, Westcliff, Leigh-on-Sea, Shoeburyness, and district, Southend-on-Sea: John H Burrows & Sons

Burrows, John William (1909) Southend-on-Sea and District: Historical Notes, Southend-on-Sea: John H Burrows & Sons

Gordon, Dee (2010) Southend memories, Stroud: The History Press

Heywood, John (1901, 1902, 1903, 1904, 1905, 1907, 1910, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1914, 1915), John Heywood's illustrated guide to Southend-on-Sea Manchester: John Heywood

King, Tom and Furbank, Kevan (1991) The Southend Story: A Town and Its People, Southend: Southend Standard Recorder

Payne, Jessie K. (1985) Southend-on-Sea; A Pictorial History, London: Phillimores


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