Hammond, Mrs Mary, Rock Cottage, Weeke Hill, Warfleet, Dartmouth
Mary Eleanor Hammond[1] (1875–1956) was born Mary Ashwell, the daughter of Lawrence Ashwell and Henrietta, née Kingham. Mary was the eldest daughter, born on 12 June 1874. She was baptised, together with her sister Catherine, born on 12 November 1875, at St Paul’s, Battersea, on 2 August 1876. The family address was given as Wandsworth Common but by the time of the 1881 census Lawrence, who described himself as a chemist and painter, and the family were living at 74 New Bond Street, London. Lawrence employed three assistants, one of whom lived in, and two boys.
By 1891 the family had moved out from central London to Warlingham in Surrey, where Lawrence described himself as a chemist and artist (landscapes). Mary now had another sister, Beatrice, nine years younger than herself. The family were still at Hazlewood in Warlingham in 1901, although Mary herself was not present. Lawrence died in 1906, and this seems to have prompted a family move to Devon.
In 1908 Mary married Charles Edward Lucas Hammond in Paignton. Though born in Pontefract in 1879 Charles had been a boarder at Exeter Grammar School (now Exeter School) in 1891, going on to Bedford School and then to Oxford. He played rugby for Oxford, Harlequins and England.[2] The announcement of the wedding listed Mary Hammond as the daughter of Mrs Ashwell of Monte Rosa, Paignton. Monte Rosa was Lady Alice Howard’s long-term residence, but she had possibly let the property while away.[3]
Charles was a teacher. After spells at a preparatory school and Wellington College he was appointed as a master at the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth in 1908, where he taught history and English. He and Mary settled down there after their marriage, initially at Lucknow, Fairview, where they were in 1911. Mary’s mother Henrietta also came to live in Dartmouth, lodging separately at Park View House. The Hammonds are recorded joining Dartmoor Hunt Week in late 1909 and the Britannia Beagles in 1915.[4]
Their only daughter Violet was born on 31 August 1911, and by 1915 they had moved to Rock House, Weeke Hill, Warfleet, Dartmouth.
In 1915 Mary Hammond is recorded for the first time in Common Cause as the secretary to the Dartmouth branch of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS).[5] The Dartmouth branch was a late foundation, not holding its first meeting until the end of 1913 [6], and Hammond was preceded as secretary by Lilybelle O’Regan of Kingswear (q.v.). Hammond is also recorded as branch secretary in the South West Women Suffrage Societies Federation Annual Report for 1914.[7] The branch, however, does not appear to have reported on activities during the war.
The family remained in Dartmouth until 1940, where Charles taught till his retirement, though their address is recorded as 12 Mount Boone on the 1939 Register. They retired to Ross on Wye in Herefordshire, where Mary died on 9 January 1956, leaving over £5300.
Entry created by Marilyn Smee and Julia Neville, February 2019
[1] Census and family information from www.ancestry.co.uk.
[2] See http://www.militarian.com/threads/charles-edward-lucas-hammond.8068/ for Charles’s background and career. Accessed 10 Feb 2019.
[3] Western Times, 12 Mar and 26 Mar 1909.
[4] Western Morning News, 22 Apr 1909 & 5 Jan 1915.
[5] Common Cause, 21 May 1915, 96.
[6] Common Cause, 5 Dec 1913, 699.
[7] The Women’s Library, 2NWS, South Western Federation Annual Report 1914.