Annie Sylvia PARKER [1051]

  General Notes:

Julius Jottings No 2 April 1900
Annie Sylvia, born at Rowledge, June 11, 1871; educated at Miss Parker's School, Weymouth, 1884-87; at Fraulein Kloss, Dusseldorf, 1888; worked for some months at St Margaret's Lady's Settlement, Bethnal Green, 1896. Has carved the reredos in Rowledge Church. Managers the Band of Hope and other local good works.
Address: Rowledge Vicarage Farham

Julius Jottings No 4 Jan. 1901
Sylvia contributed an article "A Visit To Bavaria" most of which the transcriber found full of numbingly boring detail, quite unlike her sister Mabel's [1053] arrogant, rude, but spirited account of her trip to Frankfurt.
For example "One day we bicycled a beautiful hilly road, through pinewoods to Asch, in Bohemia. We had tea there and rode back by moonlight"
However there are some interesting glimpses of German society at this time. "When a couple arrive first in a town they set to work to procure a printed list of all the people in the town they should know. They start off to call upon them. These first calls are always paid on Sunday morning between 11 and 1. The lady wears a silk dress . . . . . the man wears a top hat. Very little private entertaining is done. Social functions are usually carried on in public places. . . . . "
At Bayreuth they stayed with Herr and Frau Director Gross: "I also had the privilege of meeting Frau Wagner, the wife of two great musicians - Von Bulow and Richard Wagner, and the daughter of Liszt. She is the Queen of Bayreuth, and is quite a remarkable old lady, very lively, rather French. Strangers are supposed to kiss her hand, but I was not quite equal to that . . . . . We went there to tea on Sunday . . . . . The rest of the party consisted of Miss Wagner, and Siegfried Wagner, also a composer, as unattractive an individual as his mother is the reverse - and a most splendid Irish wolf hound of which there are only three in Germany."
Finally Sylvia missed the boat train from Cologne, thereby missing a bad storm in the channel. The next morning she saw Paul Kruger the Boer President in exile. ". . . . . and last but not least the privilege of seeing Mr Paul Kruger and Dr Leyds off at the station (Cologne) at 10 o'clock the next morning with about 10,000 other people, and such a roar of enthusiasm went up as never greeted my ears."
Sylvia Parker
Interesting comments, as at that time Great Britain was at war with the Boer Republic.

In 1898 a reredos was erected in St James church Rowledge carved by Sylvia.
Ref: A Rowledge History by Florence Parker and others researched and published by Roy Waight

Sylvia was unmarried.

Parker Annie Sylvia of Greenhill 5 Oaklands Road Bromley Kent spinster died 4 March 1959 at 53 Park Farm Road Bromley Probate London 6 May 1959 to John Osmond Julius Stevens solicitor and Arthur Herbert Brewin stockbroker. Effects L19007 15s 3d.
Ref: National Probate Calendar.

  Research Notes:

Parker family images courtesy of R Waight 2015

  Other Records

1. Census: England, 3 Apr 1881, Rowledge Vicarage Farnham HAM. Annie is recorded as a daughter aged 9 a scholar born Rowledge.

2. Census: England, 5 Apr 1891, Rowledge Vicarage Binsted E Hants. Annie is described as a daughter aged 19 single born Binsted