Studio portrait of Mrs Beatrice Alice Sears (right) and Miss Lilian Maud Bird (left), taken by Gale’s Studios Ltd, London & Provinces. On the back has been written in pencil the following words by Evelyn McKanan-Jones (née Barnard), the purchaser of the photograph:
These two ladies were very prominent in the 1920s and 1930s. They put on many children’s concerts in the Old School, held tennis parties, etc. I was a Flower Girl, a carnation.
Mrs Arthur Sears1 of Badsey Fields Lane, wife of mother’s cousin, Arthur2, who was instrumental in our getting the tenancy of 22 Upper Church Road, Weston-super-Mare when on one of her visits to Weston-super-Mare to “talk to Arthur”, then deceased. It was at the sale of her house (1980), passed on to her son, Clinton3, who had died, that I acquired this photo from the sale where I had gone to buy an old family grandfather clock belonging to my great-grandfather. The clock unfortunately was amongst items stolen from the house before the sale, never to be recovered. Sylvia4 died a fortnight later.
Maud Bird5, teacher at Badsey School at time of WJ6. Married in her 50s and took tenancy of our first home – The Bungalow in Blackminster. She married Mr Woodward of Willersey Road, a widower. Eventually she was killed in a Bengeworth Street near to her new home where she lived as a widow.
- 1 Mrs Arthur Sears was Beatrice Alice, née Evans (1879-1968).
- 2 Arthur Sears (1880-1946) was the son of Benjamin Sears who was the younger brother of Eliza Sears who married Emmanuel Dore. Eliza’s daughter, Mary Ann, married James Barnard. Evelyn Barnard (1910-2004), later McKanan-Jones, was their daughter.
- 3 Clinton was Arthur Clinton Sears (1908-1978), one of four children of Arthur & Beatrice Sears and their only son.
- 4 Sylvia was Sylvia Gorin (née Barnard), Evelyn’s youngest sister, who had also been a teacher at Badsey School.
- 5 Maud Bird was Lilian Maud Bird (1891-1974), a teacher at Badsey School from 1908. She married widower, William Woodward, in 1942. After his death, she married Richard Glover. She was widowed again in 1967. After his death she moved to Burford Road, Evesham. She died in a road accident in 1974.
- 6 WJ was William John McKanan-Jones (1911-1991), Evelyn’s husband.