Budleigh Notables: C

 

John CAMPBELL (1766-1841) Merchant and local philanthropist. According to the local historian Eric Delderfield (1909-1995), he lived in a house with extensive grounds ‘in a beautifully secluded vale’ to the west of Cliff Terrace. Recent research shows that this is incorrect. Campbell owned ‘The Cottage’ on Fore Street Hill – now known as ‘Umbrella Cottage’; the property passed to his protégé Henry John Carter FRS (1813-1895).  Pictured is the Great House at Salt Spring, in the parish of Hanover, located on a plantation in Jamaica and owned by the Campbell family.  

© 2013. Jamaican Family Search  http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com

* He is recorded as owning 204 slaves, for which he was compensated £4009 2s 3d – approximately £651,688 in today’s money – when slavery was abolished, the Slave Compensation Act being passed in 1837.

* His will, dated 4 August 1841, stated that the sum of three hundred pounds –  approximately £651,688 in today’s money – should be  given to ‘my young friend and protégé Henry John Carter’ (1813-1895). 

* He was buried along with his wife Mary Campbell in All Saints’ churchyard, East Budleigh.    

https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2015/10/from-slavery-to-sponges-imagining.html

https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/DEV/Slave-owners

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146636886

 

Patrick CAMPBELL MC (1898-1986), 'soldier, schoolmaster, writer' - in the words inscribed on his headstone - lived at 6 Leas Road.

* His book The Ebb and Flow of Battle (1977) describes his experience in battle on the Western Front in 1918.

* His notes, prepared for Fairlynch Museum and entitled The Salterton Line, were the basis of the book The Budleigh Salterton Railway 1897-1967 (2015).

* He was buried along with his wife Camilla in St Peter’s Burial Ground, Moor Lane.

https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/258821-pj-campbell-the-ebb-flow-of-battle-who-was-he/

https://archive.org/details/ebbflowofbattle0000camp

Major George Ellis CARPENTER MC (1891-1971). He lived at the Gas Works Manager’s house, 'Fluvia', on Granary Lane.

* He was originally from Yarmouth, Suffolk.

* He was awarded a Military Cross in January 1918 at the age of 27 for his ‘conspicuous gallantry’, ‘devotion to duty’ and ‘absolute fearlessness’.

* He moved to Budleigh as manager of the Gas Works, on Granary Lane (where Otter Court is currently sited). 

* He was a founder-member of Exmouth Art Group, acting as its part-time Secretary. His painting ‘Rainy Day’ is on display in Fairlynch Museum.

* He was listed in 1937 as one of the founder-members of Budleigh Salterton Drama Club.

* The above photo shows him on the 1956 Budleigh Carnival Club’s float, in a tableau that he designed, entitled ‘The Judgement of Paris’. He won at least two prizes for Budleigh Carnival float designs. In the above photo are l-r: Harold Hitt (guard), Tony Carpenter (Paris), George Ellis Carpenter (Homer), Clare Carpenter, now Court (Minerva/Pallas Athene), Mary Yeats and Belle Carpenter (guards). Photo courtesy of Clare Court.  

https://fairlynchgreatwar.blogspot.com/2015/01/a-budleigh-artists-utter-disregard-of.html

https://fairlynchgreatwar.blogspot.com/2015/04/  (26 April 2015)

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/rainy-day-95265

 

Alfred John CARTER (1888-1917). Builder and property developer. Killed in action during WW1. He lived at ‘Burnham Dene’, 2 Leas Road. 

* His parents were John Carter (1862-1938) and Ellen Ann ‘Nellie’ Carter, née Balmanno (c.1861-1896).

* His elder brother was George Edward Lovelace Carter (1886-1974).

* After various construction projects in Exmouth with the family firm he built houses in the Greenway area of Budleigh Salterton together with villas and business premises at the corner of Cliff Road and High Street.

* You can read about him at http://www.devonremembers.co.uk/content/the-honoured/carter-alfred-john

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Carter-36212

https://moryscarter.com/lovelace/home/carter/

Bessie Carter, née Carter (1883-1981)  

* She is pictured above in a photo courtesy of Karen Studden.

* Her parents were William Carter (1846-1927) and Anne Sanders Carter, née Pyne (1847-1920) of Wynards Farm House, East Budleigh, and later of Bicton Farm, Bicton.

* Her siblings were Louisa Carter (1873-unknown), Charlie Carter (1874-unknown), William Carter (1876-unknown), Ellen Carter (1879-unknown), John Carter (1880-unknown), Annie Carter (1882-unknown), Fred Carter (1886-unknown), and Alice May Carter (1889-unknown).

* Her husband was Harry Carter (1885-1970) who is listed in the 1939 Kelly’s Directory as running an ironmongery and a tobacconist’s shop at 50 and 46 High Street.  

* Their children were Betty Bullock, née Carter (1915-2013), William ‘Bill’ Edwin CARTER (1919-1942), and Peter Carter (1926-2019).

* William ‘Bill’ Edwin CARTER (1919-1942), was killed in a flying accident while on active service with the Royal Air Force.   

* He was buried along with his parents in a family grave in St Peter’s Burial Ground, Moor Lane. 

 

 

George Edward Lovelace CARTER (1886-1974), archaeologist, lived at ‘Pine Hollow’, 5 Northview Road.

* His parents were John Carter (1862-1938) and Ellen Ann ‘Nellie’ Carter, née Balmanno (c.1861-1896).

* His daughter was Priscilla Hull née Carter (1920-2013).

* Some of his theories about Bronze Age remains on Woodbury Common, regarded as outlandish by contemporary archaeologists, have been supported by modern experts such as Professor Chris Tilley.

* He is buried along with his wife Ivy Octavia Mary Wakefield (1885-1967) in St Peter’s Burial Ground, Moor Lane.

https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2015/10/archaeology-studies-at-fairlynch-get.html  (17 Oct 2015)

https://www.fairlynchmuseum.uk/archaeology.html

 

Harry Carter (1885-1970)

* He is listed in the 1939 Kelly’s Directory as running an ironmongery and a tobacconist’s shop at 50 and 46 High Street.  

* He was a vice-president of Budleigh Salterton Football Club

* His wife was Bessie Carter, née Carter (1883-1981).  

* Their children were Betty Bullock, née Carter (1915-2013), William ‘Bill’ Edwin CARTER (1919-1942), and Peter Carter (1926-2019).

* William ‘Bill’ Edwin CARTER (1919-1942), was killed in a flying accident while on active service with the Royal Air Force.   

* He was buried along with his parents in a family grave in St Peter’s Burial Ground, Moor Lane. 

 

Henry John CARTER FRS (1813-1895), physician, geologist and marine sponge expert, lived at ‘Umbrella Cottage’ (formerly ‘The Cottage’), Fore Street Hill. Blue plaque on site.

* His parents were John Carter (d.1815), a builder, and Elizabeth Carter, née Stickland (1789-1874), married at East Budleigh in 1812.

* His life and achievements were the subject of The Scientist in the Cottage, written and published by Michael Downes and pictured above. 

*  During his retirement the entire collection of marine sponges at the British Museum was transported by rail from London and then to his home in Budleigh, where he catalogued them.

* Over 20 marine sponge species are named after him.  

* His grave is in All Saints’ churchyard, East Budleigh.

* His wife, Ann Carter, née Doyle,  (1833-1917), and daughter, Annie Carter (1866-1949), are buried in St Peter’s Burial Ground, Moor Lane. 

* An exhibition to mark the centenary of his birth was staged at Fairlynch Museum in 2013.

https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2013/01/sea-salt-and-sponges.html (1 Jan 2013)

https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2015/10/from-slavery-to-sponges-imagining.html (7 Oct 2015)

https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2015/10/from-slavery-to-sponges-imagining_29.html (29 Oct 2015)

 

William ‘Bill’ Edwin CARTER (1919-1942)

* His parents were Harry Carter (1885-1970) and Bessie Carter, née (1883-1981).

* His family ran an ironmongery and a tobacconist's  shop at 50 and 46 High Street.

* He was killed in an air accident while serving with the Royal Air Force during WW2.

* Military records give his rank as Leading Aircraftman.

* You can read about him at https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2020/12/ww2-75-12-february-1942-death-on-north.html

 

 

Professor David Gawen CHAMPERNOWNE (1912-2000), economist, lived at ‘Hillcote’, 27 Victoria Place

*He was described as ‘one of the few mathematicians capable of keeping up with Alan Turing’.

* ‘Turochamp’, pictured above, is a chess program developed by Alan Turing (1912-1954) and David Champernowne in 1948. It was created as part of research by the pair into computer science and machine learning.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._G._Champernowne

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2000/sep/01/guardianobituaries1

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/1353993/Professor-David-Champernowne.html

 

 

Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa CHRISTIE DBE, aka Lady Mallowan (1890-1976), novelist.

* ‘The Queen of Crime’, as Agatha Christie is known, visited Budleigh regularly. She is pictured above, left, in this group which included her childhood friend, Agnes Antonia Yvonette Makeig-Jones (1892-1979),  who lived with her husband John Reeder 'Jack' Makeig-Jones MA, CBE, JP (1884-1976), at ‘High Knowle’ in Dark Lane. 

* The film version of her novel Sleeping Murder used several locations in East Devon, including Budleigh Salterton's ‘Watch Hill’ on Cricketfield Lane.

https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2020/08/the-queen-of-crime-and-budleigh.html  (1 Aug 2020)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091970/locations/

Florence CLACK, née Moore (1856-1899)

* She was born on 12 October 1856, in Huddersfield, Yorkshire. Her parents are unknown.

* Her husband was William Courtenay Howard CLACK (1852-1933).

They married on 31 December 1877 in Newton Abbot, Devon. She died on 8 September 1899, aged 38, shortly after their son Gerald Elphinstone CLACK (1899-1918) was born.

* Her grave, pictured above, is in the churchyard of the Church of St John the Baptist and St Helen, in Wroughton, Wiltshire. Image credit D. & M. Ball

* Gerald Elphinstone CLACK (1899-1918), was killed on 10 April 1918 while serving with the 6^th Battalion, Wiltshire Regiment. His name is listed on Budleigh Salterton’s War Memorial.

 Gerald Elphinstone CLACK (1899-1918)  

* His parents were William Courtenay Howard Clack (1852-1933) and Florence Clack, née Moore (1856-1899).

* He died while serving on the Western Front in Flanders with the 6th Battalion of the Wiltshire Regiment during WW1. Military records give his rank as Private.

* William Courtenay Howard Clack (1852-1933), his father, lived at ‘Stoneborough Cottage’ in Budleigh Salterton until his death, having taken as his second wife Mary Louisa Clack, née Leader (1874-1960). They married on 26 July 1902 in Moretonhampstead.   

* The website www.devonremembers.co.uk states that William Courtenay Howard Clack (1852-1933) was buried in St Peter’s Burial Ground, Moor Lane. However, he is not listed among the burial records; the only Clack family member buried there is a Colonel Thomas S. Courtenay Clack, Royal Artillery who died on 26 June 1945, aged 56, having adopted the Courtney name in 1942.

* Gerald Elphinstone Clack (1899-1918) was related to the Courtenay family, Earls of Devon. His great-great-great-grandfather was Thomas Clack (died 1761), of Wallingford, Oxfordshire. Described in his Will of 1761 as an innkeeper, but in a church memorial in the nearby village of Crowmarsh Gifford as a ‘Gentleman, of an antient family long settled in this locality’, Thomas Clack had three daughters. One of them, Frances (c.1740-1782) seemingly eloped with William, 2nd Viscount Courtenay (1742-1788), and later 8th Earl of Devon. They were married on 7 May 1762 and had twelve children, one of whom was William Courtenay (1768-1835), 9th Earl of Devon.

* The Rev. William Charles Clack (1782-1865) great-grandfather of Gerald Elphinstone Clack (1899-1918) and cousin of William Courtenay (1768-1835), 9th Earl of Devon, was appointed Rector of Moretonhampstead in 1807.

* You can read about Gerald Elphinstone Clack (1899-1918) at http://www.devonremembers.co.uk/content/the-honoured/clack-gerald-elphinstone

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Clack-2082

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Leader-404

William Courtenay Howard CLACK (1852-1933)

* He was the son of Rev. William Courtenay Clack (1817-1900), and Amelia Elphinstone Clack, née Stone. They were married 31 December 1851 in Tavistock, Devon.

* He was the grandson of Rev. William Charles Clack (1782-1865), a distant cousin of William Courtenay, 9^th Earl of Devon (c.1768-1835).

* His first wife was Florence Clack, née Moore (1856-1899). They married on 31 December 1877 in Newton Abbot, Devon. She died shortly after their son Gerald Elphinstone CLACK (1899-1918) was born.

* His second wife was Mary Louisa Clack, née Leader (1874-1960). They married on 26 July 1902 in Moretonhampstead.   

* Gerald Elphinstone CLACK (1899-1918), was killed on 10 April 1918 while serving with the 6^th Battalion, Wiltshire Regiment. His name is listed on Budleigh Salterton’s War Memorial.

* He was living at ‘Stoneborough Cottage’, Budleigh Salterton, when he died aged 80. 

* He was buried in St Peter’s Burial Ground, Moor Lane, pictured above, on 6 September 1933, aged 80.

 

 

Alfred Edwin Clarke (1910-1944)  

* His wife was Elizabeth Ann Clarke, née Duckett, listed in military records as ‘of Budleigh Salterton’.

 * Their three children were Patricia L. Clarke (1932), Vivien A. Clarke (1936) and Irene E. L. Clarke (1938) - all born in London.

*  He died as a result of accidental drowning at Kalutara Lagoon, Ceylon, while serving with the Royal Air Force during WW2.

* His military rank on the headstone, pictured above, is given as Air Mechanic (L) 2^nd Class.

You can read about him at https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2021/03/ww2-75-9-july-1944-death-on-island.html

 

Walter George CLARKE (1879-1917)

* His parents were George Clarke and Emily Clarke, of 2 Jubilee Cottages, Beer

* His wife was Emily Clarke, née Sparks (1878-1953), living at ‘Barline’ in Budleigh Salterton, and later, at the time of her death, in Meadow Road.

* Their children were Gertrude Emily Gigg, née Clarke (1900-1989), William ‘Bill’ G. Clarke (1903-1993), Reginald ‘Reggie’ John Clarke (1904-unknown), and Winifred Rose Trick, née Clarke (1907- unknown).

* He died from bronchitis while serving with the Devonshire Regiment during WW1, and was buried in St Peter’s Burial Ground, Moor Lane. 

* You can read about him at http://www.devonremembers.co.uk/content/the-honoured/clarke-walter-george

 

William ‘Bill’ G. CLARKE (1903-1993) Retired station master. He lived at 18, Granary Lane. 

* His parents were Walter George Clarke (1879-1917) and Emily Clarke, née Sparks (1878-1953).

* His father, Walter George Clarke (1879-1917), died while serving with the Devonshire Regiment during WW1. 

* William ‘Bill’ G. CLARKE (1903-1993) was the author of Oh, Mr Porter! Life on a Devon Branch Line in the Days of Steam, pictured above. It was published by the Granary Press (Budleigh Salterton), in 1983.

* His memoirs describe how, as a Scout during WW1, he was part of a coastwatching patrol, enabling 24-hour cover of this part of the coast. The Budleigh Scouts would meet up at West Down beacon with patrols from Exmouth, to the west, and at Ladram Bay with patrols from Sidmouth, to the east.  

* He began work as a Temporary Junior Porter at Budleigh Salterton station on 26 May 1919. He remained there for over eight years, ending his railway career nearly 47 years later.

* He was the station master at Penge West station, London, and Purley, Surrey, before retiring to Budleigh in 1965.

* He was buried alongside his wife Gladys Muriel Clarke (1900-1986) in St Peter’s Burial Ground, Moor Lane.  

https://fairlynchgreatwar.blogspot.com/2015/03/guarding-budleighs-coastline.html

 

 

Victor Vaughan Reynolds Geraint Clinton CLINTON-BADDELEY (1900-1970), author, lived at ‘Wairoa’, Station Road.

* His first book, Devon, under author's name V.C. Clinton-Baddeley, was published in 1928, shortly after he graduated in History from Jesus College, Cambridge.   

* His detective novel No Case for the Police (1970) is set in a town called ‘Tidwell St Peter’s’ – easily and enjoyably recognizable as Budleigh Salterton.

* No Case for the Police has smuggling as a major theme, an echo of local history with which Clinton-Baddeley was familiar: ‘Not so much as a hundred and fifty years ago Tidwell St Peter’s had been a famous smugglers’ beach and the favourite hiding place had been, under the vicar’s protection, at the quiet church of West Tidwell,’ writes the author. He gives the vicar’s name as ‘old Stapleton’, who ‘had been there fifty-eight years when he died’.   

* His ‘foodie’ detective Dr Davie, brought up in Tidwell St Peter’s, refers to the high standard maintained by the town’s hotels like ‘The Ottery Arms’ in No Case for the Police. ‘There was much to be said for a good hotel in a small seaside village,’ he writes. ‘Lobsters for instance. A lobster caught out there in the bay. And when it came it was just as it ought to be. Even the mayonnaise was right. He had feared it would be bottled varnish – but no, it was genuine oil and authentic egg yolks: it had even been made with lemon juice instead of beastly vinegar. Davie awarded the Ottery Arms three stars on the spot.’ 

* His maternal grandmother, Mary Lemmon (1830-91), née Reynolds, was the wife of George Hawkins Pember (1836-1910).  

* His grave is in All Saints’ churchyard, East Budleigh.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V.C._Clinton-Baddeley

https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2015/08/preserving-saltertons-decencies.html  (16 Aug 2015)

 

Bertram Ernest COATES (1888-1918)

* His parents were George Richard Coates (1845-1908) and Fanny Rebecca Coates, née Kent (1848-1909), both living in Exmouth.

* His siblings were Lilian Rose Leggatt, née Coates (1873-1944), Beatrice Amy Coates (1881-1881), George Richard Coates (1886-1954), and Alfred Alonzo Coates (1889-1947),  

* His wife was Ethel Gertrude Coates, née Hitt (1890-1965), daughter of Henry Hitt (1850-1927) and Harriet Maria Hitt (1853-1934) of Budleigh Salterton.

* They married in 1910; their children were Bertram Stanley Coates (1911-1977) and Vera Gertrude Farrant, née Coates (1916-2001). The children and their mother were living at 4 Cliff Road in 1918.

* Bertram Ernest Coates (1888-1918) died of wounds on 13 July 1918 while a Prisoner of War in Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany, having served in the Devonshire Regiment.  

You can read about him at http://www.devonremembers.co.uk/content/the-honoured/coates-bertram-ernest

and at  https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/18400891/bertram-ernest-coates

 

Anthony COLMER (1940-2011). A former HM Inspector of Taxes, he lived on Boucher Road

* He was curator of Archaeology at Fairlynch Museum, where he is pictured above.

* In his will he left £100k to the Museum on his death.

* The Angela and Tony Colmer Prize is awarded annually for an outstanding Archaeology undergraduate at the University of Exeter.

https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2015/07/obituary-tony-colmer-1940-2011.html  (18 July 2015)

James William COOPER (1920-1940)  

* His parents were William James Cooper (1894-unknown), a Sidmouth-born gardener working in Budleigh, and May Cooper (dates unknown), of Exeter.

* He had six siblings.

* He died on board the Lancastria on 17 June 1940 while serving in 98 Squadron of the Royal Air Force. His rank is given as Aircraftman 1^st Class.

https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2020/10/ww2-7512-casualty-of-operation-ariel.html

Frank Henry COWD (1895-1917)

* His parents were Charles Montague Cowd (1862-1944), born in Budleigh Salterton and Ellen Mary, née Challis (1866-unknown), born in Crediton. 

His father is described as a ‘hairdresser and perfumer’ owning a ‘fancy repository’ first at 38 Fore Street, according to the 1891 census, and then at 14 Fore Street.  

* He died in Mesopotamia – in modern-day Iraq – of enteric fever while serving with the 2nd Battalion of the Northumberland Fusiliers during WW1.

* You can read about him at http://www.devonremembers.co.uk/content/the-honoured/cowd-frank-henry

 

David Spencer COX (1921-1940)

* His parents were Spencer Cox and Grace Leslie Cox, from Earl's Court, London, ‘formerly of Grey Garth’, Fore Street Hill, also of ‘Shandford’, Station Road.

* His obituary in Sherborne School’s magazine 'The Shirburnian' (December 1944) reads: 'David Cox, who was killed in 1940, while serving as a Pilot Officer in the R.A.F., was the son of Mr Spencer Cox of Budleigh Salterton’. Image credit: Sherborne School Archives.

 * You can read about him at https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2020/11/ww2-75-19-september-1940-to-war-in.html

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/15248464/david-spencer-cox

https://www.flickr.com/photos/sherborneschoolarchives/9412189279

https://aircrewremembered.com/pay-john.html

James Jethro CRITCHARD (1874-1920)

* His parents were Thomas ‘Tom’ Critchard (1846-1927), a farm labourer from Axmouth, and Eliza Critchard, née Potter (c.1845-1929), a Honiton lacemaker).

* He died on 20 June 1920, barely a year after his wedding, and was buried in St Peter’s Burial Ground. Pictured above is his headstone.He had served in the Royal Navy as a Stoker 1^st Class on HMS Powerful, pictured above. Image credit: Wikipedia.

* His wife was Mary Ann Critchard, née Ford (c.1900-1964). The family lived at 12 Jocelyn Road.  

* Their son Reginald Leonard Critchard (1921-1944) was killed in action during WW2 while serving with the Devonshire Regiment in the Far East.

* You can read about him at http://www.devonremembers.co.uk/content/the-honoured/critchard-james-jethro

https://www.terrys.org.uk/charts/c/critc401.htm

Mary Ann CRITCHARD, née Ford (c.1900-1964)

* Her father was Richard Ford, manager of Budleigh Salterton’s Gas Works, shown above in this aerial photo of Granary Lane in 1930. Image credit: Laurence Egerton

* Her husband was James Jethro Critchard (1874-1920), who died on 20 June 1920, barely a year after their wedding on 17 July 1919.

* The family lived at 12 Jocelyn Road.

* Their son was Reginald Leonard Critchard (1920-1944), who was killed in action during WW2 while serving with the Devonshire Regiment in the Far East.  http://www.devonremembers.co.uk/content/the-honoured/critchard-james-jethro

Reginald Leonard CRITCHARD (1920-1944)

* His parents were James Jethro Critchard (1874-1920) and Mary Ann Critchard, née Ford (c.1900-1964). The family lived at 12 Jocelyn Road. 

* A keen musician, he played in a band and sang in the choir at the Temple Methodist Church on Fore Street, together with his friend Ronald Yeats (1916-1944).

* He was killed in action during WW2 while serving with the Devonshire Regiment in the Far East.  

 * You can read about him at  https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2021/03/ww2-75-29-april-1944-casualty-of-kohima.html

and http://www.devonremembers.co.uk/content/the-honoured/critchard-james-jethro