The Hampshire Family Historian | Vol.49 No.3 | December 2022

Local Group Programmes

Government House in Cypress between the wars, carved gargoyles which still adorn it. Both John I Thornycroft and Hamo Thornycroft were knighted for their services to engineering and sculpting. In piecing his ancestral history together, Rob has been fascinated with how a fortuitous mix of raw skill, opportunity, royal patronage, environment and enquiring minds, resulted in six generations of sculptors and engineers. (May) Gosport’s Unknown Engineer – Brenda Gilbert The talk told us about Vic Hutfield, who was a pioneer in the fields of motor cars, motor-cycles and aeroplanes. He was born in 1887 and between 1909 and 1911 he became the proprietor of Corinthian Workshop, where he constructed the steel work of an aeroplane for Lieutenant Porte, and also his own aeroplane. He created a hangar on Grange Airfield and built a monoplane. In 1909 experimental trials were conducted on Grange Airfield. The plane nose dived on landing, but later the plane flew a few hundred yards piloted by a young lad named Lywood who went on to become Air Vice Marshal Lywood. After 18 months he gave up testing the machine and it was put on show in his garage in Brockhurst Road. By 1916, Vic had transferred his motor business to other premises and started to build Hutfield JAP motorcycles. At the end of WW1 he converted a truck to a charabanc, which became the first Hutfield coach in a fleet of 700. In 1925 he modified this chassis into an articulated fuel tanker, reputed to be the first of its kind. At the outbreak of world War 2, Vic was seconded to the War Department making shafts for Naval boats, later he became interested in motorboats. Vic died in 1966 and as well as being a first class engineer, he was a special constable for 34 years and was a founder member of Gosport Cycling Club, which was formed in 1904. Report by Jan Heath (July) FHG - Searching for Dora – Les Mitchinson This talk was a reminder to us all to keep re-visiting those anomalies and brick walls in our own trees and searches. Dora had perplexed Les for over 10 years. She was a riddle, a mysterious child on a census return, with family rumours and links to Spain and the British Army. The journey of discovering Dora was frustrating, difficult and ridden with untruths. When Les started his search there weren’t many online aids so he would have trawled the Records Offices in Wales, England and Spain. Evolving modern technology is helping us to break down brick walls. Les revisited his research from 10 years prior and with the aid of Family Search websites, and their easy search tools, he was able to unravel the mystery of Dora. The real story was that his grandmother had been married prior to his grandfather in North Wales and Dora had been a child of that marriage. So she appeared on the census in England at a later date. Rumours of Spain and the Army were proven to be untruths and Dora’s birth and life was uncovered through using census, BMD, and certificates. By revisiting his known information and looking at it again with fresh eyes and the internet aids the story was revealed. So, in conclusion, some pointers for breaking down brick walls: • Revisit the person concerned • Look at the information you do have • Compare census returns

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