Image Ref : BCL 0001.jpeg

Christening of John Cole Wells, Totnes, 1933

The family is standing in the rear garden of Seymour Cottage, Totnes, on the occasion of the christening of John Cole Wells. Left to right: Back row: Dorothy Norah (Dodo) Wheatley (née Cole); unknown Wheatley, held by ‘Papa’ Howard Cole; Liza (family friend); Arnold Wheatley; Muriel May (Babs) Wells; Dorothy (Dolly) Wells; ’Papa’ Alfred H. Wells. Middle row: Florence Queenie Wells; ’Nanny’ Cole; Florence May Wells (née Cole) with baby John Wells; ‘Nanny’ Wells. Front row: George Wheatley; Patricia M. Wells; Joy Wells. Arnold Wheatley served in the Sherwood Foresters during World War I, was severely wounded in the Battle of the Somme and lost a lung. While he was convalescing at a military hospital, he met his future wife, Dorothy Cole from Bridgetown, and they married at Totnes parish church in September 1925. (A fellow soldier, Ernest Alfred Wells, married Dorothy's sister, Florence, in May 1920.) At the time of the marriage, Arnold was the manager of the Midland Bank in the town, having studied accountancy and finance at Nottingham University. The Exeter and Devon Gazette, 19 September 1925, reported on the wedding and his roles in the town. (He is shown, in the year of his marriage, in image TOTEH 1140.) He died on 12 April 1951, having spent his last years living at a boarding house in Paignton. Dorothy had died three years before him. The exterior of Seymour Cottage is shown in images TOTEH 1671, LE 0380, BJ 0217 and TOTEH 1775. The grandmother of the donor of the photograph was born there.