THE LANGLANDS FAMILY
(This article is in six sections, each of which ends with a clickable link to its neighbours.)
Part 5: 5th generation – Charles John Laurence, 1891-1981 & Cecil Walter, 1893-1982
With Gerald’s death in 1924, the baton passed to his sons, Charles and Cecil, who were then in their early thirties. As younger men, both had served in WW1.
• In August 1914, the younger Cecil joined the Honourable Artillery Company as a Driver (later, a Trumpeter) and served, at least initially, in Egypt. It is known that, at some point, he was wounded. On 28 July 1916, he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant on moving to the then Royal Flying Corps (from 1 April 1918, the Royal Air Force) where he served in 57 Squadron, seeing active service in France.
• The older Charles signed up in November 1914 for service as a Private with the Surrey Yeomanry. By 1916, he had been promoted to Lance-Corporal and, in February 1916, was (with many others) awarded the “Croix de Guerre” by the President of the French Republic “in recognition of distinguished service during the campaign“. At about that time, Charles and others of his squadron arrived in Salonika (modern day Thessaloniki, Greece), where he served on WW1’s Eastern Front in the XVI Corps Cavalry until the end of the war, being commissioned in July 1918 as a Second Lieutenant in the 396 Siege Battery.
Both sons had inherited the family’s interest in horse racing and Cecil’s post-war career was as a racehorse trainer – although, as it seems he also maintained some arm’s length relationship with the family property business, we deal with his interesting life in some detail here before turning to older brother Charles.
Cecil Walter, 1893-1982
In late March 1923 and registered in the Hampstead District, the 30 year old Cecil married the 23 year old Nancy Ellis. She was a well-regarded actress/singer (whose stage name was Nancy Lovat), and the couple’s profile was such that the 31 March 1923 Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic News carried a full page spread of photographs.
A page from the 31 March 1923 Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic News.
(Click to enlarge)
The National Portrait Gallery also rates Nancy highly enough to have 8 portrait photographs of her in its collection, including the following of her with Cecil at about the time of their 1923 marriage.
Cecil and Nancy at about the time of their 1923 marriage.
Photograph (NPG x85200) by Bassano Ltd
With thanks to the National Portrait Gallery (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)
The couple made their home at the family’s Hazon House (later numbered 16), West Hill Epsom. In 1927, the couple visited South Africa landing back at Southampton on 11 July bound for Hazon House – and with Cecil listed as “Trainer”. Among his clients was Arthur Sainsbury (of the supermarket family) and the two of them were captured in one of many turf-related caricatures by Epsom resident “The Tout“.
Caricature of Arthur Sainsbury and “his trainer”, Cecil Langlands.
Image with thanks to Belinda Murray.
Sadly, the marriage did not last: the couple divorced in 1930. The 38 year old Cecil remarried in Q3 1931, registered in the Hampstead District. His bride was the 29 year old Eileen Violet Rowe who had recently been divorced from ex-Naval Bruce Airlie Gregory whom she had married in 1922. (This is why the Register entry for her marriage to Cecil lists her surname as either Gregory or Rowe.) She and Cecil also made their home in Hazon House but, in the mid 1930s, moved to Cecil’s training stables at Thirty Acre Barn, Headley.
After his WW1 service ended in the RAF, Cecil had joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve and, as tensions mounted in the months before WW2, this now 46 year old was, on 16 May 1939, commissioned as a Flying Officer in the RAF’s Administrative and Special Duties Branch. At some point during WW2, Eileen went to South Africa and lived at 7 Raleigh Court, Eureka Road, Rondebosch in the suburbs of Cape Town. Aged only 43, she died in a nearby sanatorium on 30 April 1945. Oddly, the 1 October 1945 record of Probate on her £720 (“in England”) estate being granted to Cecil (“racehorse trainer”) lists her as a “single woman”.
After WW2, Cecil spent some time in the USA. There is a record of his disembarking from the Queen Elizabeth at Southampton on 30 Jan 1948 when the manifest specifies that he is going to “Yew Pond”, Gatton Road, Reigate and describes him as a “Farmer”.
In Q3 1950 and registered in the Chelsea District the widowed 57 year old Cecil married 34 year old Inez Tanya (but “Tanya Inez” in some other records) listed in the GRO records with the surname of either “Pravitz or Dibinaco”. As recorded in several years’ Electoral Registers, she joined him living at “Yew Pond”, Gatton Road, Reigate. In the early 1960s, the couple moved to “High Croft”, The Maultway in Camberley. This was still their address when, aged 89, Cecil died on 12 December 1982 – leaving an estate of £506,878.
The widowed Inez outlived Cecil by 22 years – dying, aged 88, on 9 December 2004. It is understood that, until the end, she retained some “hands on” interest in Langlands’ Epsom properties. However, none of Cecil’s three marriages produced any children, so he was the last of his limb of the Langlands.
Charles John Laurence, 1891-1981
We return to Charles, who is the main focus in this fifth generation. While younger brother Cecil is generally described as a racehorse trainer, Charles is principally a “Surveyor and Auctioneer” – obviously maintaining the family firm “Langlands & Son”. Nevertheless, he had inherited the family’s horse racing gene and, in 1926 was appointed as Clerk of the Course (a post that had also been held by his grandfather, 3rd generation Charles, some 50-60 years earlier). Indeed the only picture we currently have of this 5th generation Charles – below – is as Clerk of Epsom Racecourse, a post he held until the 1950s.
Charles John Laurence Langlands as Clerk of Epsom Racecourse.
In Q1 1922 and registered in London’s St George’s Hanover Square District, the 30 year old Charles married 26 year old Gladys Maude Alice Hamilton Lawrence. They set up home at “Beverley”, 28 The Parade, Epsom, later moving to Avenue Road, Epsom where they also named their house “Beverley”.
Sadly, the marriage did not flourish. 1932 Electoral Rolls record Charles as resident at Leigh Hill Farm, Leigh Hill Road, Cobham while Gladys remained in Epsom. The September 1939 Register records Gladys (married with the conventional “Unpaid Domestic Duties”) still in Avenue Road, while Charles (married and listed as “Racecourse Official and Estate Agent”) was recorded at the previously mentioned Leigh Hill Farm, Cobham. Also recorded at Leigh Hill Farm was Enid W Langlands (married with the conventional “Unpaid Domestic Duties”) plus a live-in cook and her schoolboy son.
It seems that Charles and Enid were, indeed, married – but not to each other. Some devilling in the records has found an entry on page 2161 of the London Gazette for 28 March 1933 giving notice of a deed poll as follows:
“ENID WAREHAM LANGLANDS of Stoneheap, London Road, Hythe, in the County of Kent, femme sole [a legal term describing a woman who is either divorced or without a husband], a natural-born British subject, heretofore called, known and described by the names of Enid Wareham Smith and Enid Wareham Davies, did, on the 17th day of January, 1933, renounce and abandon the names of Enid Wareham Smith and Enid Wareham Davies, and that she has assumed and intends henceforth and on all occasions whatsoever and at all times to sign and use and be called and known by the name, Enid Wareham Langlands.”
In Q3 1916 and registered in the Wandsworth District, Enid Wareham Smith had married Vivyen Frederick Davies. No record has been found of their subsequent divorce. Electoral Rolls have been found placing “Enid W Langlands” (and Charles) at Leigh Hill Farm from 1934. (Oddly the 1934 Electoral Roll for Epsom also records Charles resident at 135 Heathcote Road – with a note that his abode was “Beverley”, Avenue Road where his obviously estranged wife, Gladys, continued to live.
Gladys – still of “Beverley”, Avenue Road – died 0n 15 September 1958. The record of probate on her £43,350 estate being awarded to her solicitor particularly notes that she was “(wife of John Laurence Langlands)”.
Towards the end of his near 30 years as Clerk of Epsom Racecourse, Charles oversaw the Coronation Year Summer Meeting, the first day of which was the day after Queen Elizabeth II’s Coronation on Tuesday 2 June 1953. As usual, the official race card (below) was authenticated by Charles’s signature as Clerk.
Cover of the race card for the first day of Epsom’s 1953 Summer Meeting.
Image courtesy of Bourne Hall Museum.
Like his brother Cecil, Charles had no children, so there was no immediate family to continue “Langlands & Son”. In 1965, the practice was acquired by Epsom Estate Agents “Edwards & Sharp” (and it’s a neat twist that this practice had its origins in the firm established in 1896 by William Corbett – who, as noted above, was taken on as a trainee by Charles Langlands in 1888). For some years, the Langlands name was retained in the firm’s title, but was eventually lost after further mergers to form what is today’s Huggins, Edward & Sharp partnership of Estate Agents, Chartered Surveyors and Property Managers.
In due course, Charles and Enid moved to the South Coast. Charles died, aged 89, on 19 February 1981, his death being registered in Hove. Just over a year later, on 2 March 1982, the 83 year old Enid died in Cannes. She was cremated there and her ashes returned to Epsom for scattering in the Cemetery. The larger Langlands memorial there (see the next section) notes that she was know as “Polo”.
Roger Morgan © 2022
with special thanks to Terry Friday for his research from which this series of articles has been developed.
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