Series AR1057/1 - Byron Family: Personal Correspondence

This Series covers personal correspondence between nuclear and extended family members and those with whom the Byrons had social contact. With a timespan of 100 years, there are over 300 letters in the Series. The 1890s-1920s feature most prominently. This period covers the correspondence of Edmund Byron, his wife, Charlotte Emily, and their children Lucy, Thomas, Cecil and Mary Eva during their young adulthood in the 1890s onwards, both as the writers and recipients of letters.

All aspects of family life can be charted in this Series, including family issues, their relationships with each other, issues relating to employed staff at Coulsdon, affairs and events in Coulsdon, holidays and travel in the UK and across Europe and, for many years, annual fishing visits to Norway. Two of the children – Thomas and Cecil – migrated to Canada when young men, where they followed the life of cattle ranching. Their experiences for the whole period in Canada, from preparations for departure through to their deaths (Cecil in 1911; Tom in 1940) are covered in detail. The letters include detailed information on the financial/business side of Thomas’s ranching career.

This large collection of letters provides personal and, being written for private use only, unguarded insight into the family’s life, which serve to fill out the information to be garnered in the various items across all the other Series in this archive.

Available upon request: Supplementary papers to the catalogue including chronological listings of all the letters and detailed summaries of the letters found in AR1057/1/75, 77 & 172. These supplementary papers are ‘working papers’ compiled by members of The Bourne Society during the initial arrangement of the collection. The final catalogue reference numbering has been much refined since this work was done.