Introduction
The adjacent
settlements of Old and New Alresford, lying respectively north and south of the
River Alre in the South Downs six miles east of Winchester, contain many fine
buildings of historical significance.
These two communities have a growing appeal to those seeking leisure
pursuits, such as shopping, railway history, cycling and walking. One particularly attractive pedestrian route
starts at the parish church of St Mary the Virgin, Old Alresford, and proceeds
east along Colden Lane. A succession of
grand old buildings immediately informs the wanderer that he, or she, is in a
location which has been at the centre of wealth and influence in this part of
Hampshire for several centuries.
Opposite the church lies Old Alresford Place, once the (rather large)
vicarage but which has recently been employed by the Church of England as a
conference and training venue. Next
along the lane on the right-hand side is found Old Alresford House, built by
William Jones between 1749 and 1751 and once the family seat of Admiral George
Brydges Rodney (1712 – 1792). He had an
outstanding naval career and, in the process, gained substantial wealth in
prize money from the capture of enemy ships.
This building is located on the northern edge of Old Alresford Park, the
creation of landscape specialist, Richard Woods, in 1764. Further along Colden Lane is a separate
property with its own mansion, Upton Park which was built for James, the
brother of Lord Rodney, in 1768. James
Rodney’s focus was local and he was closely involved in the affairs of the
village of Old Alresford. Upton Park
mansion house lies on the south side of the lane but is today obscured from the
carriageway by trees. What is clearly
visible is the great thrashing barn (late 18th century / early 19th
century) of Upton Park farm on the north side of Colden Lane.
After Upton Park has been passed, the metalled road sweeps right eventually joining the Alresford to Bighton road, while Colden Lane, also known as the Oxdrove, continues east as an unmetalled track, rising steadily up the down to a height of over 400ft above sea level. South of Colden Lane near the high point of the track there is a prominent, but not particularly tall, obelisk and the curious passer-by will inevitably wonder to whom this monument is dedicated. Although there is no formal public access to the structure, it is likely that many pedestrians walk the few yards from the public right of way to the base of the monument to see if it sports a dedication. However, unlike most memorials, this one does not obviously enlighten the casual visitor. A panel in the base of the structure contains the given names of two ladies and their years of birth and death. The bare details,“1953 CAMILLA 1988” and “1951 MELITA 2014” are placed one above the other and between them, in large capitals are the initials “MG”. Who were they and what does “MG” signify?
I live locally in New Alresford and I am a keen walker. I have tramped the Oxdrove many times in the last ten years, but it is only recently that I have wondered about the identity of these two ladies. An internet search produced one useful reference from a fellow pedestrian, “the Rambling Walker”, who in March 2015 passed this way and recorded his thoughts for posterity about the monument. Like me he was puzzled about the identities of the two ladies and he suggested that the obelisk had been placed there so that it could be seen from Old Alresford House. More importantly, he noted that the incised tablet had only been inserted recently, ie shortly before March 2015. Reference to a 2023 photograph of the base of the obelisk shows clearly from the slowly growing lichens and other microorganisms that the tablet and the obelisk are not contemporaneous. The obelisk is much older but, curiously, it does not appear on Ordnance Survey maps, even current ones, so map history cannot be used to date its construction. It is surrounded by iron railings of some vintage, possibly the same age as the obelisk itself. There is one further feature of note. A double row of lime trees runs from near the obelisk in a westerly direction towards Old Alresford House, creating a most pleasing avenue. This led the “Rambling Walker” to suggest that the obelisk was meant to be seen from that venue. The age of the trees is not great, and an undated colour photograph has been unearthed showing the trees as young saplings. It seems likely that both the inscribed tablet and the tree avenue date from about 2014, which was also the year of the demise of “Melita”. One further speculation came early to my mind. The obscurity of the ladies’ identities suggest that this monument is meant to be a private memorial with meaning only for the relatives of the two ladies.
It was not
difficult to uncover the identities of Camilla and Melita. “Melita” is a very rare given name so,
together with her dates of birth and death, standard genealogical techniques
quickly revealed that she and her sister, Camilla, were daughters of Rear Admiral
Morgan Charles Morgan-Giles, a man with an outstanding record of service in the
Royal Navy, followed by a period of service in the House of Commons as the MP
for Winchester. He was also, at one
time, the owner of Upton House and its attached farm and, on occasion, he
described himself as a farmer. The
interpretation of the inscription on the obelisk thus became obvious, but the reason
for the creation of the monument remained obscure. An investigation of the family history of the
Morgan-Giles lineage was the next step for me to take in my pursuit of
enlightenment.
Morgan
Charles Morgan-Giles (1914 – 2013)
Morgan Charles
Morgan-Giles was the son of Francis Charles Morgan Giles, who was a prominent
naval architect and boat-builder and received the OBE for his services to that
profession. The family name was
originally “Giles”, but Francis Charles changed that to “Morgan Giles” and, at
some time before WW2, his son added the hyphen.
Francis Charles’ first company was located in London with a
boat-building yard on the Thames at Hammersmith. One of his clients became his wife and in
1914 their first son, Morgan Charles, was born.
The boat building business was moved to Hythe on Southampton Water in
1911 and during WW1 Francis Charles served in the Royal Naval Volunteer
Auxiliary Patrol Service. In 1920 he
left the service and recommenced his designing and boat-building activities at
Teignmouth, Devon.
Thus, Morgan
Charles Morgan-Giles was immersed in marine matters from early in life, due to
his father’s professional activities, which gave the youngster a love of the
sea. He said that he could “row before
he could walk” and subsequently became a skilled yachtsman. In 1932 Morgan Charles joined the Royal Navy
as a midshipman and in the period before the outbreak of WW2 he served in a
number of RN vessels in the Far East, the West Indies and the Baltic before
returning to HMS Vernon, the RN’s torpedo school based ashore in Portsmouth, in
1938.
During WW2,
Morgan Charles Morgan-Giles saw active service in several theatres of war. In Egypt he escaped from three crashes
involving Wellington bombers, in one of which he was the sole survivor. Later he served in the Far East (where he
accepted the Japanese surrender of Thailand), North Africa, Italy and the
Adriatic. His exploits were recognised
by several awards, including the MBE, the DSO, the George Medal and several
mentions in dispatches. Morgan Charles
Morgan-Giles rose rapidly in the service.
At the end of the war and still only 31 he held the rank of
Lieutenant-Commander and had gained a wealth of experience on active duties. He remained in the Royal Navy with the return
of peace and served in Ceylon, Hong Kong, South Africa, Trieste and England in
the period to 1948.
While serving
in Egypt, he met his future wife, Pamela Bushell (1919 – 1966), an Australian
lady, the second daughter of Philip Howard Bushell (1879 – 1954). Pamela was working in the land of the
pyramids as a volunteer nurse. Philip
Howard Bushell had been born in Liverpool, the son of a tea merchant who subsequently
emigrated to Australia in 1883 and set up business there. His sons, including Philip, branched out on
their own in the tea business and became commercially very successful. When he died in 1954 Philip Bushell’s estate
was valued at £666,695. His wife died
five years later, and she left £2,558,921.
Daughter Pamela was one of the main beneficiaries of her mother’s estate. During her early life she travelled
extensively with her parents and later qualified as a aircraft pilot.
Morgan Charles
and Pamela were married on 11 May 1946 in Australia while he was on leave from
his navy job. “Truth”, published in
Sydney reported glowingly on the bride’s appearance. “Mrs Morgan-Giles, who until last Saturday
was popular Pam Bushell, made one of the loveliest brides of the season. Her magnolia-figured brocade wedding gown and
halo of white roses were an inspiration”.
The couple then left for Hong Kong where Morgan-Giles was
stationed. This was the start of a “pack
and follow” pattern of life which, despite the couple producing six children
between 1947 and 1959, continued throughout his remaining service in the Royal
Navy, which ended in 1964. Pamela had
the same can-do attitude to life as her husband and was unfazed by frequent
removals to new accommodation and the associated air travel, usually in the
company of her young brood, as she followed her husband around the world. The dates and places of birth of the
Morgan-Giles children illustrate the peripatetic life of this remarkable
couple. Penelope Dolce, 1947, Cape Town;
Philip Francis Prosper, 1949, Trieste; Melita Amaryllis Pamela Astrid, 1951,
Malta; Felicity Camilla Serena Octavia, 1953, London; Rodney Charles Howard,
1955, Singapore; Alexandra L. M., 1959, Surrey.
Australia in
the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, despite its present egalitarian image, had an
upper-crust social scene, involving those with aristocratic credentials
imported from the Old Country, the families of senior military figures and the
families of new money in this emerging land of opportunity. The social doings of this set were reported
regularly in the Australian press and there were even specialist publications dedicated
to that purpose, such as “Truth” and “Australian Women’s Weekly”. News of the wealthy, former Pamela Bushell
and her high-flying husband were regularly featured. A typical example follows, taken from the
Sydney Morning Herald of 14 February 1951.
“On a flying visit from Malta after
an absence of five years abroad, Mrs Morgan Morgan-Giles, formerly well-known
Sydney girl Miss Pamela Bushell, returned to Sydney by air yesterday with her
three children. Mrs Morgan-Giles and her
children Penelope, Philip and Melita, will spend two months’ holiday with her
parents, Mr and Mrs Philip Bushell, of Carthona, Darling Point. Since her marriage in Sydney in 1946, Mrs
Morgan-Giles has travelled with her husband Commander Morgan-Giles, RN, to
Ceylon, India, South Africa, England, France, Italy and Trieste. They are now living at Malta, where Commander
Morgan Giles is stationed with the RN”.
Debutante dances and upper-class weddings were particularly popular fare
for inclusion in these society publications.
In England, “Tatler” peddled similar fare and the Morgan-Giles family
were regulars in this publication too.
The naval career of Morgan Charles Morgan-Giles continued its upward path in peacetime. In 1953, he was awarded the Order of the Partisan Star by President Tito of Yugoslavia for his wartime exploits in that country. At this time, he was stationed at HMS Hornet, a shore establishment at Gosport, where he remained until late the following year. He was then posted to Singapore as Chief of Naval Intelligence, a post he fulfilled until 1956. In 1957 he became captain of the Dartmouth training squadron, which consisted of three frigates and the following year he moved as Captain to HMS Vernon, then the Navy’s minesweeper base in Portsmouth. The highlight of Morgan Charles Morgan-Giles’ post-war naval career came in 1961 when he was given command of HMS Belfast, a light cruiser which had fired the first shot in the sinking of the German pocket battleship “Scharnhorst” during WW2, and, at that time, the flagship of the Navy’s Far East fleet. In September 1961, the Belfast paid a visit to Sydney, having previously called in Japan, giving Captain Morgan-Giles an opportunity to organise a formal dance on the vessel for the movers and shakers of the New South Wales capital, including the Governor-General of Australia, Lord De L’isle and his family. The Australian press also reported that Pamela Morgan-Giles “has been a charming hostess at a whirl of parties since the arrival of HMS Belfast”. This ten-day sojourn was followed by a courtesy call at San Francisco. HMS Belfast finally arrived back in Portsmouth in October 1962. Morgan Charles Morgan-Giles then received his final promotion, to Rear Admiral. His terminal naval appointment was as President of the Royal Naval College at Greenwich.
Demitting command in 1962 was not the end of Rear Admiral Morgan-Giles’ association with the cruiser HMS Belfast. In 1971 he became aware that it was planned to scrap his cherished former command. In typical Morgan-Giles style, he initiated “Operation Sea Horse”, whose objective was to raise money to preserve this historically significant vessel by transforming her into a museum. He became chairman of the HMS Belfast Trust and, with the help of many others, he was successful in raising the £200,000 required. There was some scepticism expressed as to whether this venture would be financially viable but in 1972, Rear Admiral Morgan-Giles commented that if Belfast didn’t pay her way she would be “razor blades and saucepan lids by now”. In 1978 the Belfast became part of the Imperial War Museum and is now permanently moored on the Thames close to Tower Bridge.
By mid-1955, the Morgan-Gileses had acquired Wonersh House, which stood in 35 acres of land on the outskirts of the attractive village of Wonersh, near Guildford, Surrey, as an English base. Here they soon suffered a burglary when jewellery and a mink coat collectively valued at £5,000 were stolen. The extensive gardens around the house were occasionally opened to the public for charitable purposes. The Morgan-Gileses also established a base in Sydney, “Beach Manor”, which was adjacent to Pamela’s parents’ home, “Carthona”. Pamela Morgan-Giles’ father died in 1954 and her mother, Dolce Myrtle, departed five years later. Mrs Morgan-Giles and her sister were the main beneficiaries of the substantial maternal estate. On the retirement of Rear Admiral Morgan-Giles from the navy, he and his wife clearly felt the need for a new English home. Upton Park, Old Alresford, a 528-acre agricultural estate had been in the ownership of Rodney Mathias Berry, third son of the first Viscount Camrose. Berry died in 1962 and the estate was eventually put on the market. Mrs Pamela Morgan-Giles bought the property in late 1963. Wonersh House was then sold.
When Rear Admiral Morgan-Giles left the navy in 1964, his children ranged
in age from 17 (Penelope) to 5 (Alexandra).
Melita was 13 and her sister Camilla was 11. They were growing up to a life in which their
parents moved in elevated circles and the friends of the children inevitable came
from a similar background. Thus, they
graduated to this familiar lifestyle themselves and over the next few years
they too started to feature in the press, making appearances at society
weddings, dances and other events. As
early as 1953, Penelope was a bridal attendant at a wedding in Gosport and in
1959 she was a bridesmaid at the wedding of the Hon. Elizabeth Sophie Sidney,
daughter of the former Governor General of Australia, Lord De L’isle. The Tatler reported in 1960 that she had
attended a ball at Somerhill in Kent. In
1967, the Morgan-Giles daughters were well represented at the marriage, in
England, of Lieutenant David Harries of the Royal Australian Navy, son of a
Rear Admiral. Attendants on the bride
included Melita, Camilla and Alexandra, with Hon Lucy Sidney (another daughter
of Lord De L’isle), Una Downer (Daughter of the then Australian High
Commissioner) and Alexandra Legge-Bourke (“Tiggy”).
With the social background of their parents, it was near-inevitable that
the four Morgan-Giles girls would find marriage partners from the same milieu. Penelope married Nigel JF Cartwright in 1968,
though his family circumstances have not, so far, been elucidated. Melita married Victor Miles George Aldous
Lampson, 3rd Baron Killearn, thus becoming Lady Killearn herself, in
1971. Victor Lampson was a captain in
the Scots Guards before assuming a partnership in Cazenove & Co, the
investment banking company. Camilla
became the wife of John Drake, the older son of Sir Eric Drake and his second
wife Margaret, in 1976. Sir Eric, a
prominent businessman and apparently a very forceful character, was the fifth
chairman of BP. In retirement he lived
at the Old Rectory, Old Alresford and was thus a neighbour of the
Morgan-Gileses at Upton House. The youngest girl, Alexandra, also contracted
a prominent marriage to Edward Thomas Bolitho, a scion of an old Cornish
family, in 1979. He was educated at Eton
College, Pembroke College, Cambridge University and served in the Grenadier
Guards, being in command of the 1st Battalion between 1993 and
1995. Subsequently, he was appointed as
the Lord Lieutenant for Cornwall.
After an incident-packed, 32-year, naval career, both in war and in peace,
it would have been impossible for Rear Admiral Morgan-Giles simply to retreat
from active life. Instead, he put
himself forward and was selected as the Conservative candidate for the parliamentary
constituency of Winchester. He was
successful in being elected at a by-election held in May 1964, though the Tory
majority was halved. Morgan-Giles then
acquired a property in Pimlico to support his parliamentary activities. However, after spending so long in the Senior
Service, his approach to political issues tended to be direct, uncompromising,
sometimes tactless and of a right-wing character. In 1967 he antagonised the political left
wing by calling for British troops to be sent to Viet Nam. His Labour opponents would taunt him in the
House will comments such as “Send a gunboat”. Perhaps his most famous Parliamentary quip
related to the pay of WRENS. "Wrens
only get 3d a day for good conduct That is not much to give a girl for saying
“Yes, Sir” all day and “No, Sir” all night". Morgan Charles Morgan-Giles
looked upon Parliamentary service as being a retirement occupation and he was
never seriously considered for ministerial office, though for ten years from
1965 he did serve as vice-chairman of the Conservative back-bench Defence
Committee. Unsurprisingly, he was a
staunch defender of the interests of both the military and his constituency. He left the House of Commons in 1979 and was
knighted in 1984 for political service.
Pamela Morgan-Giles, the Rear-Admiral’s wife died at Upton House in 1966
at the rather early age of 46. The year
1975 saw Morgan Charles Morgan-Giles suffer a serious riding accident in which
he broke his left leg, several ribs and his right shoulder but, after a period
of convalescence in Tenerife, he recovered.
He died in 2013, have achieved the remarkable span of 98 years. Morgan-Giles senior was pre-deceased by two
of his children, son Philip, who had emigrated to Australia and died there in
1998 at the age of 49, and Camilla who departed this life in 1988, aged
35. Melita barely outlived her father,
dying the year after his passing, as the obelisk records, at the age of
61. The present status of Penelope and
Alexandra has not so far been uncovered, but son Rodney is (2023) the incumbent
at Upton House.
Conclusions and remaining questions
Returning to the purpose of this investigation, the identities of the two
women, Camilla and Melita, memorialised on the Upton Park obelisk and a brief
summary of their lives, has clearly been uncovered, mainly through the achievements
and activities of their parents. But
many questions still remain unanswered.
Who was the instigator, what was the original purpose and when was the
obelisk built?
Does the lime tree avenue lead, not in the direction of Old Alresford
House, as the “Rambling Walker” surmised, but towards Upton Park House?
Who initiated the project to add the tablet to the obelisk? Why were only these two daughters, out of the
six Morgan-Giles children, commemorated?
It seems that the death of Melita was the event that triggered the
decision to adapt the obelisk to a new purpose, but why add in only the name of
her younger sister? While Camilla died at
a tragically early age, her brother Philip also died young. And what of their mother, Pamela? She only reached 46. And what of the Rear Admiral? His life achievements, especially during his
naval service, were the events which contributed most to the historical status
of the Morgan-Gies clan?
Perhaps someone out there can help to answer these puzzles?
Don Fox
20231029
donaldpfox@gmail.com
