Hi there, I'm hoping that someone can help me find a good home for a very extensive life chronicle written by Cyril William Irwin (D.O.B. 27/09/1891 Woolwich). Ideally, I'd like it to be presented to one of his descendants, but it may also be useful to local historians.
You'll see from the first photo attached to this post that it consists of a box of seven A4 size folders, plus one or two other small notebooks. Each of the folders contain hand-written pages like the one shown in the second photo, documenting at great length and fine detail the life story of the writer - Cyril Irwin. It runs in total to about 680 pages or so. From a brief skim read, it would appear that the life story was written by Cyril relatively late in his life, over a relatively short space of time - rather than it being something that he added to over the course of his lifetime. Given the minute detail within the life story, he either had an elephantine memory, or more likely was referring back to more detailed diaries.
A real bonus is that Cyril was obviously interested in genealogy, and he commissioned his own family tree. An excerpt showing Cyril, his contemporary family, and his ancestors is at the third photo attached. The tree extends down into his grandchildren, many or all of whom will still be alive, so according to the forum rules I have only shown an edit of the tree showing the people who will have long since died. However, anyone taking this on will have good lines of inquiry in terms of tracing living family.
The reason this came into my possession is that my father was a chartered accountant and Cyril and his wife were his clients. I believe that Cyril died in the late 1970s/early 1980s before his second wife Haidee Irwin (nee Molock), who was known as "Peg" or "Peggy". Clearly, no attempt was made at that point to reunite this documentation with his children/grandchildren. And then when Peggy died (I think in the 1990s) my Dad took possession of it - probably as he was executor and he then failed to find a home for it. My Dad died in 2014, and my Mum died this year, and I am now clearing the family home. This has to be found a home - I'm not keeping it - but I am reluctant to discard it at the recycling centre.
What I do know about Cyril is that while his childhood and much of his adult life was in London and the south-east, he then divorced from his first wife - Maude - in the late 1930s. He married Haidee Molock - Peggy - in the early 1940s, and they ended up living in a fairly remote smallholding on the fringes of Dartmoor at Thorndon Cross, Okehampton, Devon until they both died at a relatively advanced age. The circumstances of the divorce meant that Cyril seemed to have relatively little contact with his three children and their children. He had no children with Peggy, hence the reason I am now in possession of this box.
I could find out more, but to be honest I'm a bit too busy to delve into this archive. And in any case it is being kept at the family home in Exeter, Devon, and I live near Woking in Surrey. If there is anyone who wants this as a project and lives in either of those locations, then I'd be happy to bring it to you. Alternatively, any advice on organisations interested in there kind of records would also be gratefully received.
Oh, one other thing. Cyril was a half-decent amateur painter, and I have one of his original paintings with this pile of documents.
You'll see from the first photo attached to this post that it consists of a box of seven A4 size folders, plus one or two other small notebooks. Each of the folders contain hand-written pages like the one shown in the second photo, documenting at great length and fine detail the life story of the writer - Cyril Irwin. It runs in total to about 680 pages or so. From a brief skim read, it would appear that the life story was written by Cyril relatively late in his life, over a relatively short space of time - rather than it being something that he added to over the course of his lifetime. Given the minute detail within the life story, he either had an elephantine memory, or more likely was referring back to more detailed diaries.
A real bonus is that Cyril was obviously interested in genealogy, and he commissioned his own family tree. An excerpt showing Cyril, his contemporary family, and his ancestors is at the third photo attached. The tree extends down into his grandchildren, many or all of whom will still be alive, so according to the forum rules I have only shown an edit of the tree showing the people who will have long since died. However, anyone taking this on will have good lines of inquiry in terms of tracing living family.
The reason this came into my possession is that my father was a chartered accountant and Cyril and his wife were his clients. I believe that Cyril died in the late 1970s/early 1980s before his second wife Haidee Irwin (nee Molock), who was known as "Peg" or "Peggy". Clearly, no attempt was made at that point to reunite this documentation with his children/grandchildren. And then when Peggy died (I think in the 1990s) my Dad took possession of it - probably as he was executor and he then failed to find a home for it. My Dad died in 2014, and my Mum died this year, and I am now clearing the family home. This has to be found a home - I'm not keeping it - but I am reluctant to discard it at the recycling centre.
What I do know about Cyril is that while his childhood and much of his adult life was in London and the south-east, he then divorced from his first wife - Maude - in the late 1930s. He married Haidee Molock - Peggy - in the early 1940s, and they ended up living in a fairly remote smallholding on the fringes of Dartmoor at Thorndon Cross, Okehampton, Devon until they both died at a relatively advanced age. The circumstances of the divorce meant that Cyril seemed to have relatively little contact with his three children and their children. He had no children with Peggy, hence the reason I am now in possession of this box.
I could find out more, but to be honest I'm a bit too busy to delve into this archive. And in any case it is being kept at the family home in Exeter, Devon, and I live near Woking in Surrey. If there is anyone who wants this as a project and lives in either of those locations, then I'd be happy to bring it to you. Alternatively, any advice on organisations interested in there kind of records would also be gratefully received.
Oh, one other thing. Cyril was a half-decent amateur painter, and I have one of his original paintings with this pile of documents.
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