Eric’s Picture of the Month – Luccombe’s Forgotten Oil Magnate or, a Luccombe School Mystery (Help Requested!)

I had originally intended to do a full item about Luccombe School, just to show that there were just as many youngsters around in 1912 as there are today, but in my preparations I got led astray (as usual) and was diverted to a photograph in my collection about which I know very little, but I may have discovered a possible answer that readers of this “column” may be able to help with, especially those with parents/grandparents who attended Luccombe School. Any information would be gratefully received.

My mystery photograph came with the information that the central figure was Mr. Ernest Greig de Glehn (aka von Glehn – The family name changed to de Glehn from their former nobiliary particle von Glehn in outrage after the Germans seized the house of one of his brothers in Mülhouse, Alsace in 1917). The von Glehn family lived at Peak Lodge, Sydenham after Ernest’s father, Robert von Glehn, a merchant from Revel, Russia – now Tallin, Estonia – born in 1801 with Germanic roots, became a naturalized British subject. He married Agnes nee Duncan who was the Scottish stepdaughter of a successful London merchant. The 1861 census has Robert and Agnes living at Peak Lodge with their 5 sons (including Ernest), 5 daughters, a governess and a number of servants. The well-connected family counted the composer W.S.Sullivan, the painter John Millais and the musicologist Sir George Grove who was a ‘most frequent habitue’ as friends, and many others from the London cultural scene were visitors to their home. This was a talented family; Ernest’s siblings included a noted designer of steam engines for French Railways (whose house was seized by the Germans), a gifted concert pianist, a social activist and suffragette, and a coffee merchant cum railway builder, whose son, Wilfrid Gabriel de Glehn RA, was regarded by many to be the “British Renoir”

In 1878 the original Ragosine oil company was established as an agency of a Moscow firm founded upon the work of Victor Ivanovitch Ragosine, who took a degree in chemistry at the University of Moscow in 1854. In 1883 the London business was taken over by its UK agency manager Ernest G. von Glehn and carried on as an independent concern at Idol Lane, London EC., under the style of Ragosine and Co. In 1899 the company was registered as a private limited company, and 1907 Ernest von Glehn retired. The business continues today as ROCOL, a Leeds-based part of ITW, a multi-national US owned company who develop, manufacture and market technically advanced industrial lubricants and line marking systems to industries worldwide.

Ragosine Oil advertising from early 1900’s

Ernest Von Glehn was born in 1847. He gained a BA in 1869 and a MA in 1874 at Christchurch College, Oxford before becoming UK manager of Ragosine, and he married Marian Bradley in 1883. They occupied Luccombe Knap from possibly as early as 1885. A Mr E.G. Von Glehn was reported as contributing two guineas to the Luccombe Church Restoration Fund in the “Free Press” of 7^th December 1885, and as well being mentioned on several occasions in the 1890’s as hunting with the Devon & Somerset Staghounds, a ‘Mr E.G Von Glehn, The Knap, Luccombe’, won a prize in the 1901 Dunster Show Hunters & Hacks Driving (open) class. He was also very concerned about the village water supply, and wrote to the Williton Rural District Council on the subject in July 1904 from his London address, describing himself as the tenant of Luccombe Knap. The 1911 census shows him living in Kensington when he is described as a ‘Retired merchant and manufacturer of lubricating oils’.

Whilst at college, Ernest became an active member of the Christ Church Boat Club, as shown by this image of a silver tankard inscribed :-

Ch Ch Regatta
A.T. 1869
CANOE RACE
1st Prize
E G Von Glehn

The Von Glehn Tankard: image courtesy of Martin Bosher.

Having spent about 50 years at The Knap, which he obviously used as his second home – mainly for summer occupation – he died aged 93 at Cambridge in 1940 and is buried in Luccombe Cemetery with his wife, who died in 1939. The date of his death on the headstone is given as 1941- this is believed to be incorrect. I have been unable to find an obituary for Ernest, but the Bristol Evening Post of 5th April 1939 contained the following:

DEATH OF MRS. DE GLEHN

The Evening Post regrets to announce the death of Mrs de Glehn, wife of Mr. Ernest de Glehn and one at the children of the late Rev. Charles Bradley, one of the founders of the Clergy Daughters’ School. Bristol.

Mrs de Glehn, who was 85, possessed considerable literary ability, and edited works by her brothers, the late Mr Herbert Bradley and the late Professor Andrew Bradley.

She and her husband usually spent the summer months at Luccombe near Minehead, and the funeral will take place there tomorrow at 2.30.

I also found the following passage on a tennis forum that reveals some interesting facts about Mrs de Glehn:

BRADLEY, MARIAN
United Kingdom
Born in 1853 in Clapham, London
Died 3 April 1939 in Holland Park Road, Kensington, London
Married Ernst Greig von Glehn on 8 November 1883 in Cheltenham
[Active circa 1876-83]

From the London “Times”, April 17, 1939: “A correspondent writes: Mrs [Marian Bradley] de Glehn was an interesting link with the past, for she came of a family eminent during the last century for their services to the Church, to education and to literature. She was Miss Marian Bradley, a daughter of the Reverend Charles Bradley, Vicar of Glasbury, in Brecknockshire, [Wales], and a preacher whose sermons had a wide circulation.

“Her father was born in 1789 and died in 1871; he was twice married, and had 22 children. His fourth son was George Granville Bradley, who after being Master of Marlborough [public school], and Master of University College, Oxford, succeeded Dean Stanley at Westminster in 1881 and died in 1903.

“Of his other sons, one was Francis Herbert Bradley, the philosopher and Fellow of Merton [College, Oxford]. Another, Andrew Cecil, was a Fellow of Balliol [College, Oxford], and Professor of English Literature at Liverpool, Glasgow and Oxford successively.

“Mrs de Glehn is survived by her husband, Ernest de Glehn, to whom she was married in the early eighties. She was the sister-in-law of Mrs Creighton [née Louise von Glehn], the wife of the former Bishop of London [Mandell Creighton], and was aunt by marriage of the Academician. She was herself a woman of remarkable culture and literary judgment. She was the devoted companion of her brothers Herbert and Andrew, and on the former’s death was a benefactor to Merton, rendering generous assistance in the arrangements for housing his library at that college.

“In her youth Mrs de Glehn could claim distinction in a different sphere, for 60 years ago she was a first-class lawn tennis player. Living at Cheltenham, she had the opportunity of practice with the brothers Renshaw. There was no ladies’ singles competition [at Wimbledon] until 1884, but before that date she was the champion’s partner in mixed doubles at many tournaments.”

Back to the mystery solving. There exists (hopefully now in the Somerset Heritage Centre), a school log book, in which the headmistress (there was never a headmaster at Luccombe School) recorded any notable events. Some of these make fascinating reading but will have to wait for another time. The one that caught my eye was for October 19^th 1927, when “Mr & Mrs de Glehn gave a party for the children from 3.45 to 6 today. Races were run and prizes given to the winners. Tea was given in the Village Hall followed by games.” This got me wondering whether this photo dates from that occasion. The weather certainly looks October-ish. I am including two school group photographs from around this time. I cannot establish the exact date of the first school photo, but I would estimate it to be from around 1924-7. The second had been attributed to 1923. If anyone can identify or match up any of the faces in the de Glehn photo to any in either of the school photos, it would be very interesting, as it would be if names could be put to anyone in the first picture. For starters, the shy girl on the extreme left of the mystery photo looks very much like the 4^th from left in the front row of the first school group, also could the boy on her right be Bill Partridge? As to the location, could it be near Knap Cottages? It might have been misty, obscuring the background.

The de Glehn mystery photograph

Luccombe Schoolchildren, mid- late 1920’s. Top: Bessie Cooksley, Eddie Keal, Middle: Reg Gunter, Bill Gould, Charlie Burgess, Fred Partridge, Dick Partridge, Freda Peck, Bill Crudge, Marjorie Wheadon, Rose Staddon, Bill Keal. Front: Chrissie Jury, Bill Partridge, ? Crudge, Amy Gunter, ??, Belinda Jury. (I am afraid my list of names doesn’t quite match the faces)

School Group 2: Luccombe School 1923: Back, Chrissie Reeves (monitoress), Bessie Cooksley, Edwin Keal, ?, Miss Hemmingway (headmistress). 2nd row: Harry Chilcott, Reg. Gunter, Fred Partridge, Bill Keal, Dick Partridge, Bill Gould, Charlie Burgess, 3rd row: ? Rexworthy, Annie Rexworthy, Jack Rexworthy, Ernie Groves, Bill Crudge, ? Crudge, Bill Partridge, Rosie Staddon. Front: Marjorie Wheadon, Freda Peck, Nancy Martin, Frank Cooksley

Parts of this month’s item may have been rather obscure, but in putting it together, I have found out a great deal about an eminent Luccombe resident who lived here for much longer than I had previously realised.

Check out all of our previous pictures of the month and read more about Luccombe’s history