Henry Lewis Osmond - a Character or a Cad ?
this an article that Linda McIntosh presented 2014 to the Cape Banks History Society - listed by another Society, which, eventually,put me in contact with Linda, a great grandchild of Henry Osmond Lewis
More research has uncovered more facts, even some wrong facts: these now added by me in italics
Henry Lewis ORMROD
(A Character or A Cad?)
Henry Lewis ORMROD, born 1872 in Mississippi USA the son of Henry Hopwood ORMROD (born Burnley 1845, England) and Mary Ann MURPHY (born 1846, Crook Hall, Co Durham, England), married Copiah Mississippi 22nd April 1871, is my maternal great grandfather. To-date just what the family was doing living in America when Henry jnr was born hasn’t been discovered but we find the family back in England on the 1881 census. Then on the 1891 census, Henry, aged 19yrs, reappears boarding in Barnsley, West Yorkshire, under the stage name of Henry OSMOND as a tightrope walker, (talk about run off and join the circus!).
On the 1901 Census we discover that Henry has a "wife" Florence (nee BANNISTER) and a daughter Marjorie (born 1894, Idle Yorkshire) and they are living with Henry’s parents all listed incorrectly- debatable, likely what they told the enumerator - on the Census with the surname OSMOND.
This all seems to be fairly normal progression till we next find Henry marrying Alys/Alice Winifred May PARTRIDGE in Cardiff Wales in 1903. Just what happened to first "wife" Florence and the whereabouts of daughter Marjorie- we can assume she continued with her grandparents until aged 14 I think - in two years needed to be uncovered.
Knowing that Henry was also the father of my Grandmother Agda May OSMOND born 1901 raised the question why wasn’t she listed on the census? This wasn’t answered until a search of the 1911 Census which incorrectly had the family under the name OSMAND and it turned out that the census was taken on the 31st March and a daughter Agnes M was born 2 days later on 2nd April, 1901. At this stage, 1911, the two girls Marjorie, now 16yrs, a bookkeeper, born Thackley, Yorkshire and Agnes M, age 10yrs a scholar, born Fleetwood, Lancashire, were still living with their grand-parents.
Based on the above information a search was made in the National School Registers for 1908 and an entry found for an Agnes May ORMROD at the Burscough Bridge Methodist School, Ormskirk Lancashire.
She was there from August 1908-August 1909 when the family, in the name of Henry Ormrod, seemingly her father, left Moss Green, Ormskirk
The family seemed to change from the ORMROD to the stage name OSMOND quite frequently and as Henry followed his stage career they travelled widely.
As yet no further trace of Alys and no records of any children born to her and Henry.
She did have 2 children with Henry: Leslie Arthur W Ormrod 1909 Pancras and Gerald H Ormrod 1910-1910, Leigh. She is in Wednesbury, Staffs in 1911C with Leslie 2, and then we lose trace of her until she commits suicide in 1933.
Henry is living with Ethel Sarah BEARD (stage name Ethel GLYDE) when their first daughter Doris Ethel OSMOND is born 1913
- 4/12/1912 near Pontypridd & he not present but on tour in Derry
- in Wales and followed in 1916 with the birth of a second daughter Irene May OSMOND in Scotland. Irene’s birth certificate states that Henry and Ethel were married in June 1907 but as yet no marriage record can be found
- no such marriage ever took place! .
Family knowledge from Irene’s daughter Wendy (nee WATSON) informs us of the tragic death of her grand-mother Ethel in 1918 (aged 26yrs) from an illegal abortion. Henry at this stage (said to be devastated) would have been approximately 46 years old and left with two daughters aged only 5yrs and 2yrs of age. Just who cared for these young girls isn’t clear as by 1925 - 1923 - when Henry was in a relationship with May BROWNLEE their first daughter Luna Osmond ORMROD was born in Blackpool, a second daughter Patressia ORMROD born 1927 Middlesbrough. Henry would have been 54 years of age by the time his youngest daughter was born.
Doris Ethel Osmond 1912 was left with the boarding house keeper near Pontypridd: Irene May Osmond 1916 was brought up by his parents in his house in Bispham
So by now we know that Henry has 6 daughters to 3 of the 4 known women in his life. And 2 sons by the 4th one, his legal wife. Only one son Leslie 1909 survived but why did Henry seemingly abandon him and Alys??
Four of these daughters and at least one grand-daughter followed Henry’s love of the theatre and “treaded the boards”. Thanks to the internet we have been able to obtain newspaper reviews and discovered that Henry not only performed at various theatres across the United Kingdom but wrote and produced his own plays (with parts for his daughters) getting good reviews in the press. He took over the management of The Vale Empire Theatre, Leven Scotland in April 1916 and in May that year staged two western plays, in December a visiting Opera Company performed Rigoletto, Il Travatore and Maritana and also that month was a play written by Harry Lauder followed in January 1917 with the panto Aladdin before Henry’s departure in March 1917, believed to be when a one year lease expired.
After extensive research by Wendy and her brother, Edward, the unmarked grave of Henry Lewis OSMOND (ORMROD) was located in Rhydfellin cemetery, Wales. He died in 1936 and at the time was living with a woman, Elsie/ Alice May DAVIES. In 2006 Wendy and Edward were given permission for a memorial to be placed on the grave and a large wooden cross with a plaque showing the theatre masks was erected.
My eternal thanks to Henry’s grand-daughter Wendy for all the information and wonderful photographs she has made available to my cousin (and researcher extraordinaire) Barbara and myself.
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Only known photo of Henry Lewis Osmond (Ormrod) driving??/in front facing camera?? and 2nd daughter Agda (Agnes) May Osmond behind him at rear. In costume for a performance or street parade.
Linda McIntosh
Henry Lewis Osmond- black sheep