In last weeks post I wrote about my wife’s grandfather, Andrew Nicol, who, while still at home in Dynamite Road, Stevenston, in 1911, lived five houses up from Nobel House where the Nathan family were living. I was intrigued by the Nathan family, Frederic and Adeline and their young child, because of the number of servants they had in their employ. Frederic was the Works Manager of the Nobel Explosives Factory. His standing in the community was therefore considerable given the size of the enterprise. This week I have been exploring much more about his wider family and although this is not a family archive matter, I am still posting under the heading of Stone, Steam and Dynamite because, well, Andrew Nicol would have known him as a neighbour and also as an employee.
Frederic Lewis Nathan was born on 10th February 1861 in Kensington, London. He was born just in time to be recorded in the 1861 Census return. The Nathan family lived at 13 Craven Hill, a substantial town house close to Lancaster Gate and Hyde Park. His father was Jonah Nathan, and he was described as a Wholesale Stationer. He was 50 years old and his wife, Miriam, less than half his age at 23 years. Their children living at home at that time were Nathaniel, aged 17, and Frederic who was just two months old.
My assumption is that Miriam was Jonah’s second wife.
Also living with them was Jonah’s sister, Grace, aged 47, although she may have been visiting.
The Nathan’s were a well to do family and they had a team of four servants, a Footman, a Cook, a Housemaid, and a Nurse.
The Nathan family expanded greatly in the next ten years and by 1871, Nathaniel had left home and Frederic, now aged 10, had siblings. There was Matthew aged 9, Mary aged 7, William aged 6, Robert aged 4, Walter aged 3, George aged 1 and finally Maude aged 3 months. Miriam Nathan, their mother, was just 35 years old.
The servants had also increased, and the Nathan family now had: 2 Governessess, 1 Footman, 1 Lady’s Maid, 2 Housemaids, 1 Kitchen Maid, 2 Nurses, 1 Nursery Maid and 1 Cook.
The family had moved from Craven Hill and were then living at 9, Pembridge Square. This is again, a large substantial town house with three floors, a basement and attic rooms, close to Notting Hill Gate.
Jonah described himself as a Wholesale Manufacturing Stationer.
Searching the 1881 Census return I discover that Frederic has left home as has his younger brother, Matthew. All of his other siblings are still at home and they are being looked after by one less servant. They include: 1 Governess, 1 Butler, 1 Footman, 1 Nurse, 1 Schoolroom Maid, 1 Lady’s Maid, 1 Cook, 1 Kitchen Maid, 1 Housemaid, and 1 Under Housemaid.
I get a real impression of their lifestyle by recalling the popular TV series, “Upstairs, Downstairs”.
Later I discover that all of Miriam’s children are being home schooled. She and Jonah did not want them to be sent away to private boarding schools, because they could not anyway by reason that they were a Jewish family who were excluded because of their faith by the private schools that families of their class would have expected to send them to. This is why there was an emphasis on governesses and nursery maids.
Continuing my search for Frederic, there is no trace in the 1881 Census return. He might have been accidentally left out wherever he was living, or he might have been abroad. However, I know that he married Adeline in 1888. There is also no trace of Frederic in the 1891 Census return. Whatever he was doing and wherever he was living, suggests to me that he may have been living and working away from the UK, but he did manage to return for his wedding in 1888.
My guess about not being in the country may be correct because at last I discover Frederic in the 1901 Census return.
At the age of 40, Frederic was a Major in the Royal Artillery and also the Superintendent of the Royal Gunpowder Factory. This was one of three Gunpowder Mills operated by the Army and the only one to remain virtually intact. It is a short distance from the centre of Waltham Abbey and Frederic and Adeline were living at 35 Highbridge Street. They had two children, Robert aged 8 and William aged 3. They were both born in Waltham Abbey which means that Frederic had moved there by1893.
Frederic was a soldier and a chemical engineer. He was home schooled because he was a Jew and no matter his family’s standing in society, Jews were excluded from the public schools that he and his brothers would be considered for. However, when he left home he joined the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich and so it is not clear to me what came first, his military career or chemical engineering, or both. He joined the Royal Artillery in 1879 and served in India and Britain, specialising in ordnance. This is how he came to Waltham when he was appointed Superintendent of the Gunpowder Factory.
Frederic was knighted in 1906 and in 1909 he left the Army to take up his post as the Works Manager of the Nobel Explosives Factory in Ardeer. Which is why he is discovered a short distance down the road from Lucknow Cottages in Dynamite Road. Five numbers down from where Andrew Nicol lived with his parents and siblings. The Nobel company would have offered good accommodation for Sir Frederic and his family. However, this would have been accommodation with his job and he probably already had a base in London.
In his 1911 Census return entry he did not use his title. As a family they would have generated a lot of interest because of the number of servants that he had working in his house. His older children were not recorded in the return and they would have been aged 18 and 13. Only his youngest child, Matthew who was aged 3 was living with Frederic and Adeline. The family remained in Stevenson for six years.
At the outbreak of the First World War, Frederic left the Nobel Explosives Factory , returned to London, and joined the Ministry of Munitions.
After transferring to the Ministry of Munitions Explosives Department he carried out the work for which his memory will perhaps live longest. As Director of Propellant Supplies he was responsible for the provision of raw materials for propulsion explosives, and this necessitated his control of the soap trade and the distillery trade of the country in connection with the supplies of glycerine and alcohol respectively. The harmony existing in these trades generally throughout the war and the efficiency and economy of the Propellants Department are a lasting monument to his powers of control and tact.
(From the website of the Institute of Chemical Engineering).
Frederic and his family lived at 37 Cornwall Gardens in Kensington, a very similar splendid four storey town house that he was accustomed to living in when he was at home with his parents. The 1921 Census return continues to illustrate his lifestyle for servants in the house. He and Lady Adeline had four servants. He died in 1933 leaving the equivalent of £1,500,000 to George Nathan, Robert Nathan and Sir Meyer Spielman. The latter was an educationist and advocate for child welfare.
Sir Frederic Lewis Nathan (courtesy of National Portrait Gallery, London).
Frederic may have named his youngest son after his younger brother Matthew who was an extraordinary person in his own right.
I found a biography online at Queensland University, written by Anthony Haydon in 1975. This was a doctorate, and the research was based on government archive material from the UK, Africa, Australia and Ireland. It is a complex and detailed story of Matthew Nathan, Frederic’s younger brother, who also after initiating his career at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, following his brother’s footsteps, became a military engineer and eventually began a career as a colonial statesman and civil servant. He, like his brother, was knighted and Sir Matthew Nathan saw service in Sierra Leone, Freetown, Natal and Queensland, Australia. He was also serving in Ireland at the time of the Easter Rising. His service as colonial governor and in the civil service is told in critical detail by Haydon, with some analysis of his relationship with his mother that is worthy of a Freudian psychologist. The Nathan’s were a driven family and Miriam had no intention that her sons should follow in their father’s footsteps. She wanted them to be achievers of a different sort. The paper is an insight to colonial government at the end of the 19th Century.
In this short piece of non family research I have realised how special our British Census returns are in offering detailed information that offers insights into the people who lived adjacent to our family members in the 19th and early 20th centuries. There are many other members of the Nathan family who will, I’m sure, offer up some interesting stories.
In the meantime, I shall pursue the lives of the Nicol family, five doors up.
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