Holman, Mrs Thyra, Sea View. The Strand, Topsham
Although Mrs Thyra Emma Holman (1864 -1942) née Price, was born and lived the first half of her life in Hornsey, London, she had strong connections to Topsham and Devon.[1] Her father, Enoch John Wade Price, was the son of a Dublin merchant, but the Topsham connection was through her mother, Mary Jane Patch Harrison, the daughter of John Swale Harrison, victualler of the Globe Inn, Topsham, which had been run by three generations of the family from c.1790-1870.
It was probably through a maritime connection that Thyra’s mother, Mary Jane, met Enoch who was at the time a steam packet agent.[2] In 1847 the couple ran away to Gretna Green to get married[3] – at 20 years of age Mary Jane would have been considered a minor. A second marriage took place 11 days later in Dublin (Enoch was Irish). Mary Jane seems to have accompanied her husband on voyages between England and Portugal, where a daughter Edith was born in 1849. At the time of the 1851 Census Mary Jane was living in Honiton with her mother and sister Emma, and her daughter and new-born son, as well as a Portuguese servant, presumably because Enoch was away. By 1861 Enoch, Mary Jane and their children lived at Dublin Steam Wharf, 149 Lower East Smithfield in London – by this time Enoch was described as a wharfinger (responsible for loading and unloading of ships). The family moved on to Hornsey, where Thyra was born in 1864.[4] After Enoch’s death in 1872 Thyra remained with her mother for thirty years until, in 1903, she married Captain Tom Holman of Topsham (1863-1948).[5]
Captain Tom was a master mariner whose first wife had died tragically in the first year of their marriage in Karachi, India.[6] When he married Thyra in Yeovil, he was living at the Elms, The Strand, Topsham.[7] She was 38 years and he 40. They lived together just across the road from the Elms at Sea View at the end of the Strand (on the plot now occupied by Anchor House). The Holmans were a well-known Topsham family of shipbuilders, marine insurers, public benefactors and mariners. Tom’s niece was Dorothy Holman, who bequeathed her property in the Strand for use as a Museum.
It is unclear whether Thyra was the “Miss” Holman who, in October 1910, attended the visit of Mrs Pankhurst to the Royal Clarence Hotel, Exeter,[8] but a month later it was definitely she who was responsible for hosting and issuing invitations to the inaugural meeting of the Topsham branch of the NUWSS at her residence Sea View.[9] Thyra appears to have been well connected as the two most senior branch positions were held by influential men: Mr W. Linford Brown who attended and presided over the meeting as Vice President,[10] and Sir Robert Newman, 1st Baron Mamhead (1871-1945), who sent a letter agreeing to be President of the Branch. The working roles were filled by women: Mrs Wright was Chairman, Mrs Holman Honorary Treasurer, and Mrs Frood Honorary Secretary.
Thyra did not take part in the 1911 suffrage Census Boycott. She, her husband and son were living a comfortable middle class life at Sea View, The Strand, Topsham, with, two servants and a nurse. On the census return Thyra’s occupation was left blank: the only information provided was that she was born at Hornsey in London.
However, on 5th July 1913 Thyra took part in the Great Suffrage pilgrimage on the walk from Topsham to Exeter, along with others from Topsham: Mrs Bush (Hon. Secretary), Mrs Tom Holman, Mrs Frood, Mrs Turner, Miss Stevens and Miss Chesnutt.[11] Later that year she attended a meeting in Topsham in support of women’s suffrage – by now Mrs Bush was Hon Treasurer and Secretary[12] – and the following day was present at a fundraising event at the Barnfield Theatre, Exeter.[13]
In the 1939 Civil Registration lists, Thyra’s occupation is given as ‘unpaid domestic duties’, and living with her at 46 The Strand, was her husband, by then a ‘shipmaster, retired’, and their son, Richard, who had been born in 1904. He was described as incapacitated, and Emily Jordan, a children’s nurse, lived with the family.[14]
Thyra died in 1942, aged 77, at Pencarwick Nursing Home, Exmouth and was buried in Topsham cemetery.[15]
Entry created by Penny Bayer, January 2021.
[1] A Holman family tree prepared in 1957 by Arthur Ronald Holman, 1957 is on display on the stairs in Topsham Museum., An earlier Mrs Tom Holman (1837-1914) was probably the person who subscribed to the Exeter Cathedral Restoration fund in 1872 (EPG 16 March 1906) and awarded prizes or opened local events in 1906 in 1910 (EPG 16 March 1906; E&E 4 June 1910).
[2] Derbyshire Advertiser and Journal, 27 August 1847.
[3] Colin Moore: “in 1998, a researcher found the following entry in Family History Monthly no. 12, September 1996, as one in a list of marriages that took place at Gretna Hall 1829-1851:Mary Harrison of Topsham, Devon m Enoch Price of Aldgate”. The Dublin marriage certificate describes Enoch as a Merchant.
[4] Parish register of St Mary, Hornsey Rise, Middlesex,.although born on 3 August 1864, she was not baptised until 11 January 1865.
[5] Colin Moore, a descendant of Enoch Price (Enoch’s sister Jane was Colin’s great grandmother) has provided information in this paragraph.
[6] Holman family tree and memorial to Henrietta in St Margaret’s church, Topsham, on the north transept to the left of a bronze by Herkemer.
[7] Topsham Museum: Holman family tree.
[8] Western Times, 29 October 1910.
[9] Western Times, 25 November 1910
[10] In 1913 Mr W. Linford Brown spoke to a case at Exeter Police Court (Exeter Memories website 3 January 1913).
[11] Western Times, 7 July 1913.
[12] Western Times, 28 November 1913.
[13] Western Times, 29 November 1913.
[14] 1939 England and Wales National Identity Register,
[15] Topsham Museum: Topsham cemetery internment file, plot no 1419, internment 4199.