Background – Jeremy Hodgkinson

The Hodgkinsons

*Flying Officer Allan Hodgkinson in Haifa, Palestine, 1943*

My father’s family came from Derbyshire, where they were farmers for more than three centuries.

The Spencers

*An advertisement for Spencer & Gillett at Melksham, 1880*

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.

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.

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.

The Worgans

*Vauxhall Gardens, where John Worgan played the organ*

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.