FOSDICK, Eleanor Ann

1866 - 1957

Eleanor Ann Fosdick was born at Ipswich on 6 February 1866, only child of Scottish born Frederick Hyland Fosdick (1842-8 September 1921), a coal factor & merchant, and his wife Catherine Bakewell (1842-23 September 1891), youngest daughter of John Bakewell of Langford Mill, who married at Heanor Parish Church, Nottinghamshire on 6 June 1864 and on the death of Catherine, Frederick married secondly on 5 October 1893, Alice Anne Baly (20 June 1864-29 January 1950), by whom he had two further children John Hyland (1895-1915) and Freda Kate (1899-1989). Eleanor was educated at Lytton House, Lytton Grove, Putney where she was boarding in 1881, when Jane Randall Turner was also a pupil, Eleanor's parents, 39-year-old Henry and 38-year-old Catherine were living at Park Corner, Henley Road, Ipswich. Eleanor was a member of the Ipswich Fine Art Club 1887-1888 and in 1888, exhibited two paintings from Park Corner, Ipswich, 'Off Alexander Fort, Eastbourne' and 'Beachy Head'. In 1891, a 25-year-old, living with her parents at The Lodge, Hadleigh Road, Sproughton, Ipswich from where she married in 1894, Percy Montague Smith (7 November 1871-31 August 1961), a surgeon. In 1895 her father built a large mansion in Park Road, Ipswich at the entrance to the then newly commissioned Christchurch Park but by 1911 had moved to Eastbourne, Sussex. In 1901, Eleanor was a 35-year-old, living at 196 Earls Court Road, Kensington with her 29-year-old husband Percy, who was born at Gillingham, Kent and they retained three indoor servants but by 1911 they had moved to 31 Rosary Gardens, Kensington, now with a 3-year-old son, Harold Montague Smith, they now had four indoor servants. In 1939, a secretary to a doctor, still living at 31 Rosary Gardens, Kensington with her physician husband Percy and Percy's unmarried sister Ethel Smith (born 14 August 1883). Eleanor Ann Smith died at Kensington in 1953, aged 87 and her husband was still of 31 Rosary Gardens, Kensington when he died at St Mary's Hospital, Paddington on 31 August 1961.