Langley, Miss Rosalind, 2 Barnpark Terrace, Teignmouth
Rosalind Augusta Langley[1] (1876 – 1961) was born on 11 June 1876 in Chudleigh. She was the daughter of William Savage and Cordelia Langley. William was a lieutenant colonel in the Royal Artillery and had married Cordelia Mitchell in 1871. Rosalind had an elder sister, Beatrice (q.v.). In 1891 the family were living in Leigham Street in Plymouth, close to the Citadel, one of the bases for the Royal Artillery. William was not listed on the census, but his sister Edith was living with Cordelia and her daughters.
By 1901 Colonel Langley and the family had moved to Edgehill, New Road, Teignmouth. In addition to Rosalind, Beatrice, her husband Basil Tozer and their two sons were resident there. The two boys were also resident with Rosalind and their grandparents at 2 Barnpark Terrace in 1911, suggesting that they might have been brought up in Teignmouth while Beatrice pursued her musical career as a concert violinist. The Barnpark Terrace house had 11 rooms and the family employed three servants, including a Swiss valet-footman.
There is very little information to show the family’s involvement in Teignmouth social life. Many references to ‘Miss Langley’ are to be attributed to the two Misses Langley, distant connections of the William Langleys, who lived at Shute Hill, or to Edith Langley, probably William’s sister who lived at Dawlish and was active in the Tariff Reform Association. As the family were well known Roman Catholics the Langleys were regularly invited to attend New Year amateur dramatic performances and garden parties at Ugbooke House, given by fellow-Catholic Lord Clifford, were Rosalind and her mother.[2] Colonel Langley was involved with the Mid-Devon Conservative Association, at least in his early years at Teignmouth.[3]
In March 1913 Rosalind Langley was elected branch secretary at the Annual General Meeting of the Teignmouth Branch of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) in succession to Mary Clodd (q.v.).[4] She continued to appear listed as the secretary in Common Cause until 1916,[5] by which time her father and her mother had both died, William in 1913 and Cordelia in 1915. Common Cause specifically refers to her as presiding at a branch meeting in Shaldon at which Mrs Swanwick spoke; and two new members and four Friends of the NUWSS were signed up.[6]
Langley moved away from Teignmouth after her parents’ death. She took a flat in Earl’s Court, London,[7] with a Teignmouth friend, Henrietta Anderson, who is mentioned as having walked under the Teignmouth banner in Exeter on the NUWSS Land’s End to London pilgrimage in 1913.[8] In 1939 Langley and Anderson were living at Croft House, a doctor’s practice in Wimborne, Dorset, where Langley was described as a ‘facial masseuse’.
Langley died on 30 December 1951 in Jersey while away from her London home at 30 Glanbury Road, London W14. She left effects worth approximately £580.
Entry created by Marilyn Smee, November 2018
[1] Family and census information from www.ancestry.co.uk and www.findmypast.co.uk .
[2] DEG,; 5 Jan 190; 10 Sep 1906
[3].DEG, 16 Dec 1903, 17 Feb 1904.
[4] Common Cause (CC), 28 Mar 1913, p. 874.
[5] CC, 29 Sep 1916 is the last entry to give her name.
[6] CC, 1 May 1914.
[7] Shown on the electoral registers in the late 1920s and early 1930s.
[8] WT, 7 Jul 1913.