Monday 24 June 2019

The Charnock Family

My great grandmother Georgina Henrietta Thomson, whom I remember well, had a cousin, also born like her in Manchester, the famous scientist and Nobel prize winner Sir J. J. Thomson, who was buried in Westminster Abbey near Sir Isaac Newton when he died in 1940. He had two children, his son was George Paget Thomson, who followed his father as a scientist and Nobel prize winner, and he had a daughter, Joan Paget Thomson. About Joan I could discover nothing, but recently some of her life story opened up. It is very scanty, and I wish I knew more, as it needs and deserves more information about her.
We know when she was born: 12th March 1903, in Cambridge. Her brother George would have been ten years old, her mother Rose was 43, and her father 47. She was a late child. I have discovered nothing about her childhood, education or adult life, until her late marriage in Cambridge in the summer of 1946 to Harry H. Charnock. She would have then been 43, the same age as her mother had been when she was born.

 I discovered a great deal about her husband, and his story is well documented and fascinating, but I wish I knew more: how did they meet? What led to their marriage? For when Harry married Joan he was a widower aged 76.

 Harry Charnock has achieved fame as a pioneer of football in Russia. He left his native Chorley and with his older brother Clement he operated a cotton factory near Moscow. It was whilst in Russia that he met and married Anna Hedwig Schelinsky, who bore him two sons, William, and Harry junior. Harry senior was Harry Horsfield Charnock, and his son was Harry Walpole Schelinsky Charnock.

 At some stage, possibly at the time of the revolution, the family returned to England. We know that Harry junior went to Harrow, and joined the Air Force. Anna died in 1944 in Surrey aged 67. She appears to have relations now living in Poland with the surname Szelinski. It was two years after her death that Harry married Joan Thomson.

 It was with great surprise that I discovered that Joan gave birth to a daughter, Ann, in Cambridge in 1947 in Cambridge, when her mother was about 44 years old and Harry about 77. Harry died in 1963 when Ann was about 17, and Joan in 1987.

 Ann married John Edridge in 1970 in Cambridge, and had two sons, Simon and Dominic.

 Ann's father Harry already had, it is believed, two sons, who were born in Russia to Harry's first wife. She appears to have come from a German-Polish family. The elder son was William, born in Russia in 1898, and who appears to have died in 1944, but this requires further evidence and investigation. I have discovered nothing about his life. I suspect that he may have stayed in Russia. Clement certainly appears to have continued there, and there is a mention of a nephew Billy Charnock playing football in the Russian team.
Billy Charnock front row, second from right

 The other son, Harry Walpole Schelinsky Charnock, born in Russia in 1905, was of some renown as an RAF pilot during WWII and there is quite a lot of information about him on the internet, and a sizeable section about his wartime career in the book 'Spitfire' by John Nichol. I believe he married Ruth Fortescue in Surrey in 1948 and that they had two sons, Timothy and Charles.

 Harry Horsfield Charnock

 http://russianfootballnews.com/the-englishmen-who-brought-football-to-russia/
Harry Walpole Charnock
Family Tree of the Schelinsky Family
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2 comments:

  1. Oly Bliss9 December 2020 at 01:50

    Hi I’m researching the poet A E HOUSMAN and he is described as a loved friend of her youth. It’s particularly interesting because according to this book he had very little time for women in and preferred not to engage in conversation with them. In general it appears he was quite socially awkward. But it appears he took an interest in her and they enjoyed discussing poetry. I’m reading A E Housman: Man behind a Mask by M. M. Hawkins p181-186 and it describes some of there dinners from his membership in the Family Club of Trinity College. The passages of the history of The Family Club, and the facts included were told to the author by the Charnocks in 1951.

    Joan gives a direct quote describing Housman:

    ‘He looked like a tired army officer. He was erect, so erect that he seemed to be a soldier out of uniform, and his face was marked by struggle and battle, when it was in repose. However, the expression of his mouth could be singularly sweet and kind, and that is the expression I best remember.’

    She also remembers the Madeira as especially fine. At his death (Housman), much of his Madeira was left to Sir J. J Thomson and he bequeathed the rest of his wines to Trinity College.

    It’s a random nugget for you but I thought it might be of interest to your own research!

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    Replies
    1. Oly Bliss9 December 2020 at 01:59

      If you want pictures of the text I’m happy to send them feel free to get in touch o.bliss@ymail.com

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