The Hodgkinsons
My father’s family came from Derbyshire, where they were farmers for more than three centuries.
Read more about the Hodgkinsons HERE
My father served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, mainly in the Middle East, and while he was abroad he corresponded with a friend he had met when living in Canterbury. The friend kept the letters my father wrote, which are an interesting record of his time in the Levant, and they have been compiled into a narrative which you can read if you CLICK HERE
The Spencers
My mother’s family came from Somerset, where they were brewers at Oakhill, near Shepton Mallet, though my grandfather and great-grandfather were mechanical engineers.
Read more about the Spencers HERE
The Taveners
My paternal grandmother’s family, the Taveners, originally Taverners, were builders from Essex, who moved to St John’s Wood in London in the 19th century. They are distinguished by my late second-cousin the composer Sir John Tavener.
Read more about the Taveners HERE
The Grahams
I am told that my maternal grandmother, Daisy Graham, and her family always believed that their origins were in Scotland, but the furthest I have been able to trace them is to Berkshire in the 18th century, where they were drapers and moved from Wantage to Reading and then to Newbury.
Read more about the Grahams HERE
The Worgans
Probably the most interesting family from which I am descended, the Worgans (pronounced Wergan) came from the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire in the 17th century. My great4-grandfather on my mother’s side, John Worgan, became a celebrated organist and composer of songs in the second half of the 18th century.
Read more about the Worgans HERE
Click on these links to hear some of John Worgan’s recorded organ and harpsichord music. To watch a performance of one of his harpsichord sonatas CLICK HERE, or of a short organ voluntary by him (which was played in St Nicholas’s church, Worth, as my daughter-in-law entered for her marriage to my son, Richard, in 2016) CLICK HERE
You can see all the details of my ancestors by clicking here to see my Family Tree