Kathleen GILES [7491]

  General Notes:

Kathleen Hartcup, was my Grand-mother. She died in 66? when I was 12. We were very fond of each other.
Her Father was Herbert Giles who was professor of Chinese at Cambridge and a rather formidable academic and estranged Father.
Kathleen married Geoffrey Hartcup who was a Major in the First World War and there are pictures of him seated with his regiment and him sitting dead centre with a teddy bear at his feet and a big smile on his face. My father John "never knew" his father who he didn't set eyes on until he was four (having returned from the war in 1918). And then his memories are of being drilled in the garden in St. Johns Wood, London. The Hartcups were Victorian nouveau riche and had settled in Suffolk.

I think Kathleen and Geoffrey were happily married but as they were unable to have children they opted for adoption and my understanding is that up until 1925 there was no infra-structure to facilitate this and they independently arranged for John's adoption which took place on the platform at King's Cross where he was exchanged for 25 pounds.

Kathleen was always "weird" and non-informational about the adoption (which was discovered by my father when he was 18). In 1988, we did some detective work on his family of origin and found out they were from Newcastle on Tyne, and that his mother had died of a 'milk fever' 10 days after he was born. His father was a coal-miner and he had had a twin brother who developed an ear-infection the night before the trip to London and so the twins were separated. Dad's brother Danny died ten years before we found out about him and there was an older sister who died only a year before. So I had the sad task of telling my father about this when he was 70! Maybe the loss of a twin brother was the reason for Kathleens' secrecy as she would have found it a confronting issue no doubt?

Kathleen was widowed in 1945 approx, when Geoffrey had a heart attack while running during a game of cricket on the green at Bovingdon, Herts. She was wealthy and a devoted mother and John was cosseted and was little aware of his fortunate outcome, a pampered upbringing and university education (while his brother was a coal-miner).

My memories of Kathleen "M.I.L. - Mother-In-Law" as I knew her was a handsome and distinguished elderly lady who had high standards and was a passionate gardener. She lived in West Malling near Maidstone after she left the house they had built in Bovingdon. Then later she lived with us for a short while before spending her last years in various nursing homes in Crowborough.
Jason Hartcup 2012

  Research Notes:

Image courtesy V C Nash.

  Other Records

1. Kathleen Giles: Pictures through her life.
Kathleen in 1890's, sketch signed "P.G. Cambridge 1908", later in life.

Kathleen married Geoffrey HARTCUP M.C. R.G.A. B.A. [9297] [MRIN: 3204] in Oct 1910 in Cambridge CAM. (Geoffrey HARTCUP M.C. R.G.A. B.A. [9297] was born on 24 Jan 1886 in Lowlands Bungay SFK and died on 19 Jul 1942 in Bovingdon HRT.)