Image Ref : DRA 0351.tif

Margaret Jervoise-Smith, her daughter Dolly, and Claude Tritton, 1892

Mrs Jervoise-Smith lived at Sandwell Manor, Harberton, with her daughter Dorothy Anne (Dolly), shown here on her mother’s knee. Born Margaret Louisa Verney, the daughter of Lord Willoughby de Broke, she considered herself a cut above most other people. Dolly was pampered and guarded relentlessly. Consequently, she never married. When she started a correspondence with a young man her mother did not approve of, his letters were intercepted and burnt without her ever seeing them. Claude (Claudie) Tritton, with her two brothers, were the children of Mrs Jervoise-Smith’s deceased sister, Alice Jane, who had died young in 1882. They were never afforded the privileges accorded to Dolly. In fact, they were treated like charity orphans. Claudie wanted to be a nurse but this was not considered 'nice'. However, in the end, she broke away from Sandwell and achieved her ambition in Teignmouth where she died at Trafalgar Cottage, Dawlish Road, Teignmouth in 1983 at the age of 102. *** DRA 1083 H 040