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Wynne's mother was born in Wurzburg, Germany on 19th March 1849 and was
christened Blanche Helene Umalie Fery. She was the third of five children
born to Hans Karl Reinhard Christoph Hermann Ludwig Bruno von Poellnitz...and
Eleanore Mary Elliot of Wolflee.
The latter's name has been spelt many different ways - probably correctly
with an e on the end - but she signed herself Eleanor on her 100th birthday
celebrations, which you can see in the pictures in the next page. In the diaries she is always known as Gran.
Eleanore grew up in Scotland, in the Borders, and then went to live in
what is now Southern Germany when she married. Hans was a Captain in the
Royal Bavarian army, and they obviously moved around a bit because the
children were born in different towns: Lindau, Wurzburg, Mannheim and
finally Munchen.
Their eldest son was James Walter Ernst Friedrich. He was born
on 12th October 1843, and is the Uncle Walter of the diaries, often contributing
beautiful illustrations to the front covers. It is his work that decorates
the top of his mother's 100th birthday page here, and the 1912 titlepage
in the Diary section.
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Walter, with Herbert, Wynne and Rita Fallowfield - in 1912.
Click on the arrow for Ysobel's memories of Uncle Walter's visits:
Then came Arthur George, often mentioned in the diaries as Uncle
Thurie, who in his turn married a Wolflee Elliott. They had one son, Herman,who
was very popular with Wynne's children.
Blanche came next, and she married George Llewhellin. You
can find out more about them in the next section.
Finally, two more daughters: Charlotte born on 12th January 1851,
and Aime born in 1855.
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Charlotte married Arthur Butler.
She died in 1885, long before the diaries commence, but Arthur and his
two daughters, Ysobel and Brenda, feature prominently. Ysobel was
one of Wynne's closest compatriots, which is why the latter named her
first daughter after her. Yso married Denis Vanrenen, and went to live
on his estate in the Punjab. She had four children, and they in their
turn make their occasional appearances in the diary. Yso appears a great
deal in the early diaries, sometimes as Bill, and even Ebbo I think. They
were very close, and as you can see from the January 1901 entry, when
Wynne moved to Woolwich one of the pleasures was to have them nearby.
Brenda, Arthur's other daughter, married Oswald Swayne and had five children.
Eleanor's last daughter, Aime, married first, Hugh Fallowfield
and second a Mr Macintosh who was not popular with the family and was
known as the "Wow". Aime and Hugh had five children, of whom
the eldest were close to Wynne. In order of birth they were Nora, Bill,
Algy, Rita and Walter.
As you can see, big families were common - but then children died young...or
were caught later. Two of the next generation died in the First World
War, and Yso herself came to sticky end in India.
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Hermann von Poellnitz and Bill Fallowfield playing with Ysobel in 1913. Both men were to die in the War. |