BYNG, Julia Bertha
Julia Bertha Byng was baptised at Staines, Middlesex on 30 December 1834, second daughter of William Bateman Byng (1 February 1799-29 June 1880), a bank clerk, later an engineer for the Dover Consumers' Gas Light and Coke Company, and his wife Ann née Boyack (1792-14 August 1877), who were both born at Dover, Kent. About 1847 they came to Ipswich when William took a position as cashier for Ransome & Sims, engineers of Orwell Works, Ipswich and in 1861 they were living at 43 Duke Street, Ipswich with their son Henry and daughter Julia, with Robert Ransome (1 June 1830-5 March 1886) and his family living next door. In 1871, Julia was a governess in the family of civil engineer Sylvanus William Jenkin (24 July 1821–26 August 1911), at Dean Terrace, Liskeard, Cornwall but was back in Ipswich by 1881, when she was living at 2 Bank Street, Ipswich, the home of her brother Henry Alexander Byng (bapt 23 March 1825-14 May 1895), a civil engineer also at Ransomes. Julia was a member of the Ipswich Fine Art Club 1885-1901 but had been an exhibitor from 2 Bank Street, Ipswich in 1881 of three ‘Still Life’ watercolours and in 1883 exhibited a further three watercolours ‘Fruit’, ‘Still Life and Indian Articles’ and ‘Fruit-Prickly Pears’ and continued to exhibit annually until 1899, exhibiting at Ipswich for the last time, a watercolour ‘The Cornish Coast’. In 1891, she was living with her brother-in-law Frederick Curtis, a secretary, at St Anne’s Cottage, Thorpe Road, Egham, Surrey, also living with them was Julia’s aunt, Deborah Boyack, who was aged 102. Ten years later Julia Bertha Byng was ‘living on her own means' at 101 Burrell Road, Ipswich where she died on 3 April 1908, aged 72, she was unmarried.