542. Michael Ian Newnham Gordon
Michael Ian Newnham (1914-1999) was born at Blairmont Estate and was also educated at Charterhouse School. In 1944, he married Margaret Noreen 'Peggy' Payne (1924- ) at St Mark's Church, Enmore. Michael served in the British Guiana Police Force until, in 1948, he was transferred to the Gold Coast (now Ghana), where he became Assistant Commissioner in the Gold Coast Police Force. He was awarded the Queen’s Police Medal and the Colonial Police Medal. In 1956, Michael retired from the Colonial Service and went to England with his family, where he settled in Reading, Berkshire. He worked for the Ministry of Defence, vetting individuals who occupied highly sensitive positions in the Public Service, until he retired in 1976. Upon the death of his kinsman, Sir Home Seton Charles Montagu Gordon (1871-1956), 12th Baronet of Embo, the Baronetcy became vacant. Debrett’s Peerage listed Michael as the probable heir to the 13th Baronetcy. However, this had to be established and Michael decided not to pursue and claim it. He is remembered by Barry Lane, a friend and fellow officer as a“ member of the top echelon of Colonial Police Officers, who brought nothing but credit to their Force and to the British Empire. He was held in great respect by his brother officers-and those who served under his command… He had a deep understanding of the Gold Coast, its people and their way of life.” Michael and Peggy had three children: Helen Elizabeth (1945- ), Philip Michael Sutherland (1946- ) and Carol Margaret (1947-).
543. Gladys Inez Austin
In 1914, after the death of her sister Muriel, she married A.H. Gray Walston Bateman and they emigrated to the USA. where they had four children, Kathleen Frair Walston, Mary Winifred Walston ,Leslie and Elsie Gladys Walston and. Walston was then managing a sugar estate in Barbados. All the children were brought up in the USA where they have married and, except for Kathleen, have children. Leslie became a senior vice president of Johnson and Johnson.
544. Helen Muriel Alleyne Austin
Known as Muriel, she married A.H. Grey Walston Bateman, an accountant from England who had gone to Barbados to work for one of the businesses there. Muriel died of typhoid shortly after her daughter’s birth.
545. James Bruce Gordon Austin
He was born in Sunnyside, Black Rock, Barbados and married Margaret Blair, from Scotland, in 1924 in Liverpool. James Bruce was commissioned at the outbreak of World War I and served mainly with the Poona Horse Regiment (34th Battalion, Prince Albert Victor’s Own Poona Horse Regiment of the Indian Cavalry) in France and Palestine. He joined the Colonial Police Service of British Guiana on his return from Palestine, later becoming A.D.C. to the Governor of British Guiana, Sir Grahame Thompson. In 1932, and was appointed Inspector General of Police in a British West African colony. He retired from that post in 1944, but was re-appointed as a retired officer in British Guiana, serving from 1952 to 1956. He died in Barbados.
He was born and raised in Barbados. His father gave him the second name ‘Merivale’ after his friend and colleague Mr Merivale, who was William Merivale’s godfather. William Merivale worked for Gardiner Austin & Co., a firm owned by his cousins. In 1919, he married Edna Noreen Davis (1901-1993). She was from a colonial family that had long been connected with British Guiana. Edna was a talented artist and poet and also gave classes in dancing and elocution. In 1949, a book of her poems entitled ‘Dresden China and Other Poems’ was privately printed by The Advocate Co. Ltd in Barbados, under the pseudonym of ‘Minstrel’. She illustrated the book with her own drawings and paintings. Her son Grey had the book reprinted in 2001.
After twenty-five years with Gardiner Austin & Co., mainly in the shipping and stevedoring part of the firm’s operations, he formed his own firm, Austin’s Stevedoring Co. which did business with the Canadian National Steamship Co. He ran this firm for forty years. He was a director of Merivale Austin (Caribbean) Ltd., located in The Bahamas.
549. Harold Evan Austin
He went to the USA in 1920, where he worked for the Department of Transport. He married three times, first in 1924 to Elise G. Massiah, by whom he had two children. Elise died in 1966 and in the same year Harold married Pauline K. Lancella. Pauline died in hospital in Boca Raton, Louisiana in 1968 and Harold later married Mrs Frances L. Kinney, who was born in Ossowo, Michigan. She died in 1973.
Jim was born at All Saints’ Rectory, Berbice. He was educated at Edinburgh Academy and, after returning to British Guiana, worked for Messrs. Curtis Campbell & Co. On the outbreak of war, Jim volunteered for active duty and was commissioned in the Kings Own Scottish Borderers (K.O.S.B.). He was severely wounded in 1916 at the Battle of the Somme. After recovering, he was sent back to France, where he fought at the Battle of Arras in the Spring of 1917, and at the Battle of Pilckem Ridge (considered to be the commencement of 3rd Battle of Ypres, commonly known as ‘Passchendaele’), where he was awarded the Military Cross for gallantry on or about July 31st, 1917. Jim’s citation reads: ‘For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty when all other officers of his company were killed or wounded, he took command and captured the objective and by his energy and cheerful disregard of his personal safety enabled his company to consolidate it’s position and to hold it through a counter attack on the following day’. After seeing more action, again at Arras, in the spring of 1918, Jim was sent to Ireland where he spent the remainder of the war on garrison duties with a K.O.S.B training battalion during the Irish rebellion. After the war, Jim returned to British Guiana where he was appointed Chief Clerk and Secretary to the Board of the Department of Agriculture. In 1923, he married Armyne Ursula Winter (1890-1960), daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Augustus Winter of British Guiana, at Christ Church, Georgetown. [Armyne’s sister, Leila Elizabeth Agnes Winter, married CECIL FARRAR - see below]. Armyne died at Port Mourant, Berbice and Jim died in Barbados eleven years later. Jim and Armyne had one child
Armyne’s sister, Leila Elizabeth Agnes Winter, married CECIL FARRAR
553. Thomas Henry Irving
Tom was born at Schoonord (West Bank, British Guiana), and was educated at Edinburgh Academy, Scotland, after which he returned to British Guiana and joined the British Guiana Police Force. During the latter part of 1915, Tom was part of a contingent of three officers with the rank of Captain, and fifty-five other ranks, who were posted to the British West Indies Regiment and later saw action in the Sinai Desert and Palestine during the Egyptian Campaign. He was injured at Kuli in 1916 and, after he recovered, was posted as Adjutant of the Depot at Renny, Plymouth, where most of the men there had lost limbs on the Western Front. After the war, Tom returned to British Guiana and resumed his duties as County Inspector of Police on the East Coast, Demerara. In 1921, he transferred to Nigeria and was made Commissioner of Police for Southern Nigeria. In 1919, Tom married Jessie Gray Cattanach, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. J.G. Cattanach, at St. Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh. Dr. Cattanach was a major in the Royal Army Medical Corps and Jessie was a member of the Voluntary Aid Detachment (V.A.D.) for three years during World War I, spending most of her service in Malta. He and Jessie had one child: Emily Gray Cattanach Irving (1921- ): Emily was born in Georgetown, British Guiana. She was educated in Edinburgh and Switzerland, and has led a life helping those less fortunate than herself.
554. Jane Millicent Doris Irving
Doris was born in Georgetown, Demerara. In 1917, she married Captain Eric Ramsbotham Davies R.E. (1886-1970), son of Captain B.W. Davies R.N. and Mrs. Davies of Botley, Hampshire, at St. Philip’s Church, Kensington. During World War I, Eric achieved the rank of Captain and served with the Royal Engineers Inland Water Transport Division, with the Royal Sussex Regiment. After the war, he and Doris went to British Guiana, where Eric was a hydro-graphical surveyor and pilot for the Port of Georgetown. She and Eric had three children
557. Audrey Louisa Iris Irving
Audrey was born at H.M. Penal Settlement, Mazaruni, British Guiana, and was educated in Edinburgh and Switzerland. She first married Harold Tracey 'Jerry' Keevill-Turner (1898-1959) in 1922. Audrey is remembered as a generous person who was always full of life. There were two children by this marriage. Audrey and Jerry divorced and she then married John James Curno Bullen, a sugar chemist in British Guiana. There were no children from this second marriage
559. Alice Irene Farrar
Born in British Guiana, married by her father to Charles Robert Beattie on 1916, at the Parish Church, Bognor, and had one daughter,