Mrs W. Fitz-Henry's trunk

I was absolutely delighted to receive an email from Dodi Turney in North Carolina containing photos of a metal trunk which she had recent acquired. Dodi has an Esty shop for her antiques and collectables business, and more photos of the trunk are also featured on her Instagram account.

Dodi wondered if the Mrs W. Fitz-Henry, whose name was painted so elegantly on the front of the trunk, could have been Barbara Morrison, wife of Captain William Fitz-Henry of the 60th Royal Rifles Regiment (see this post here), and owner of this beautiful beetle-wing dress. 

It would have been brilliant if this had been possible, but unfortunately "Griffiths, McAlister Ltd. of London & Liverpool" the company who made the trunk wasn't formed until 1880, three years after Barbara's death.

Barbara and William's eldest surviving son Dr William George (or George William, he used the names interchangeably) Fitz-Henry married Isabella Cooper and spent some years in Lyttleton, New Zealand. 

They had four children and the eldest son William Cooper Fitz-Henry spent his professional career in the British Colonial Service in the former Rhodesia. William Cooper Fitz-Henry married Mary Christine ("Lassie") MacDonald in London, England in 1919 and I believe this trunk belonged to Lassie during her posting in Rhodesia. I have previously written about Lassie and William in the "Out of Africa" series.

Lassie and William had one child, Mary Isabel Christine ("Christine") Fitz-Henry, who married George Prendergast in Surrey, England in 1941. The Prendergasts subsequently settled in Charlotte, North Carolina. Christine either took the trunk with her, or inherited it on Lassie's death in 1971. Christine died in 2012.

If any of the Prendergast family wish to contact me with more information about the trunk or wish to be put in touch with their Fitz-Henry cousins in England and Canada, please contact me directly or leave a comment below.

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Out of Africa - Part 2 - William and Lassie Fitz-Henry

The book "African Dust" has arrived courtesy of the lovely people at Dandy Lion Editions Bookshop.
The only picture in it is the jacket photo of Lassie herself which I've copied here. The book, while being a fascinating insight into the life of the wife of a colonial official in Africa, has very little more about the Fitz-Henry family. Interestingly there was a very small newspaper cutting pasted in the flysheet, giving the death and funeral notice for Lassie.
From the biopic on the dust jacket, Lassie was born in Rangoon, the daughter of a Scottish father and English mother. Lassie married William Cooper in London in early 1918. From the GRO indexes, this gives her full maiden name as Mary Christine MacDonald. They had a daughter Christine (mentioned in the newspaper cutting). William is referred to as Billy throughout the book, and Christine is called Mick.

William and Lassie were posted to the British Colony of Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. The book highlights the pain of separation when these colonial families had to leave their children behind in England as it was not thought suitable to take them abroad. The home leave was rare and Lassie mentions how on several occasions William passed up his opportunity of leave in favour of others, and there was no home leave at all granted throughout WW2.
At the beginning of the war, Lassie relates how Christine joined the WRNS in England, and then married "an unknown Canadian". "It was to be nine years before I saw my child again, as by the time I got back to England she had gone to Canada with her husband and two children."

Billy died in 1949, six months after they retired from the colonial service and returned to England. I say "they" retired as Lassie was very active in health and welfare works in Rhodesia, and was awarded an MBE in 1947 for welfare services.
From the newspaper death notice, Lassie died in Plumpton Green in Sussex on 12 October 1971. Her daughter is named as Christine Prendergast. There are no other children named and no indication that Lassie married again after William's death.