Ruth Mary ALSTON [3914]

  General Notes:

ALSTON. On the 23rd September, 1903, at West Ashby Vicarage, Horncastle, the wife of the Rev. Frank S. Alston, of a daughter.
Alstoniana Pg 397.

Ruth M Alston
Gender: Female
Marital status: Single
Birth Date: 23 Sep 1903
Residence Year: 1939
Address: The Little House Lawn
Residence Place: Ringwood and Fordingbridge, Hampshire, England
Occupation: PN E V Teacher
Line Number: 32
Schedule Number: 66
Sub Schedule Number: 2
Enumeration District: EERH
Borough: Ringwood and Fordingbridge
Registration District: 95/1

Alston Fenn records that Ruth visited them 6 Jul 1966.

Ruth Mary Alston
Birth Year: 1903
Burial Year: 2003
Burial Place: Erpingham, Norfolk, England
Death Age: 100
Cemetery: St Mary

  Other Records

1. Ruth Mary Alston: Letter from Ruth to Alston Fenn, 29 Sep 1958, London.
32 Kensington Church St
London W8
September 29, 1958
Tel. BAY 0835 (Home)
Mayfair 9000 (extension 309) (Office)
Dear Colonel Fenn
My brother and I were very sorry to miss you and your wife last week and I hope you're better as I understand you have not been well. My brother has gone back to Ireland now. We were spending the weekend with my sister in Norfolk and came . . . . . Suffolk for the day visiting Siam Hall at Newton and Edwardstone. Mrs Bearman was most kind in explaining who the people in the pictures were though no doubt you would have known even more about them. It is a very interesting series of family portraits. I have not got the Alston book myself, my brother has it and he had looked things up before he came. I have a sort of family tree but it does not have everyone in it. I appear in the book myself, not by name but only as a footnote saying the Rev Frank Simpson Alston has just had another daughter.
I am interested to hear of another descendant of Nicholas Alston. I have an old account book, not very interesting, of Edward Alston's, the Rector of East Bergholt, but we know very few Alston family papers. I should be very pleased to meet you sometime when you come to London. I am at home after six in the evening generally. At the office until 5:15 p.m.
yours sincerely
Ruth Alston

2. Ruth Mary Alston: Letter to Alston Fenn, 28 Apr 1960, London.
82 Kensington Church Street
London W8
28. 4. 60.
Dear Colonel Fenn
I do not remember my father saying anything about a picture of the Duchess of Somerset owned by his father and my brother E.C. Alston certainly doesn't possess one. I think the statement in the Alston book sounds like a careless copying of some note about a picture bought by my grandfather. He was in the habit of buying pictures. It may be that at his death this portrait went to one of the older son's and some of them were so much older than my father that he might well not remember it. Attributions to Kneller where rather wild in the last century. The only Alston portraits I have are three which were all attributed to Kneller then, but none of them are now. They were two small portraits of Mrs Isaac Alston who was buried at Edwardston in 1740 and of her sister Margaret and a larger one of Anne daughter of Sir Roland Alston and his wife Temperence.
I have in engravings of portraits of the Duchess and of her sister Mary. I believe my father bought these. I rather think they were reproduced in the Alston book. The one of the Duchess is by Vartue(?) 1736. It does not give the name of the painter but has T.M.Q.f. which I presume were his initials. It appears to be a posthumous portrait as she is sitting by a long piece of paper on which are written a list of her benefactions and the date of her death. The engraving of her sister is inscribed Lady Mary Langham not Mary Lady Langham but the costume seems of the right date, it is dated 1796 "From a scarce print in the collection of the Rev M Cracherode" I believe I there are Langhams, not descendants, but the same family in Ireland now. The only painting of the Duchess I have seen is in St John's College Cambridge which I expect she gave them herself.
I shall be interested to see Dr Briscoe's book when it comes out. I will ask various members of my family if they remember hearing anything about the picture and will let you know if I get any information but I do not really expect to get any.
I should enjoy seeing you but I expect you find you have not much leisure in London
Yours sincerely
Ruth Alston

3. Ruth Mary Alston: Letter to Alston Fenn, 21 Aug c1960.
82 Kensington Church St
London W8
21 August
Dear Alston
Thank you very much for the two coloured reproductions of Constable's picture I will send one to Edward. I am glad you had a good day for the village fair. I wondered how you were getting on as here it was fine but kept clouding over in a threatening way.
I was staying in Framlingham this last week end and went over to Dennington where my grandfather Edward Constable Alston lived, and also to Cransford, just by Dennington. He had a baby daughter, Louise, who died while he was at Cransford, and together with some other man, he gave a font to the church which has the Alston coat of arms on one panel.
I hope you will have good weather for the Guides
With best wishes
yours ever
Ruth Alston