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Previous Chapter 29.A : Samuel the letter carrier

Section 29 : Direct Line 1809-1927

Chapter 29.E

Arthur Wesley BRUSH
1884-1946
and his siblings

Arthur Wesley Brush was my grandfather, though he died before I was born.  He was born on 6th November 1884 at 190a Holloway Road, in Highbury ( a north London suburb), the son of Arthur Wallis Brush and Emily nee Pleming.  This was the family home, a little shop which his father had bought or rented around the time of his marriage.  The choice of Wesley as his middle name reflects his parent's commitment to Methodism - his father was a Methodist local preacher.  As far as I can tell he was usually known as Wesley rather than as Arthur.  His father is considered in chapter 29.D and the Pleming family in section 34.  He was one of four children.  His siblings Elsie Louise, George Douglas and Herbert Stanley are considered below.

Arthur Wesley was baptised at Highbury Wesleyan Methodist Chapel in 1885 - sometime on or before May 27th.  Unusually the actual date is not shown. (Ancestry indexes the register entry as Bursh)  The minister by whom the baptism was solemnized seems to have been Joseph Bush - for a moment I thought we had found another Brush.

Emily with infant son Arthur Wesley in 1885/6

"He claimed that he could be counted as a true Cockney because (so he said) he could hear Bow bells from Holloway Road, though I think this is very much a case of wishful thinking.  In no other particular could he be accused of 'cockneyism'." This comment, and all the passages below in italics, are from Part 1 of my father's autobiography, writing about his father.

The family was still at 190a Holloway Road at the 1891 census.  Arthur Wesley and 4 year old Elsie Louise were both listed as scholars.  And the family had a domestic servant, 15 year old Nelly McMahon.  If the numbering has not changed, the site is now part of the London Metropolitan University Building.  In 1892 it seems that Emily's sister - Wesley's aunt - Marie Louise Pleming was also living with them before her marriage to John Cory.

Arthur Wesley - from a family group around 1892
, The full image is in Section 29.D

He went to school at 'Highbury Wes and Crouch End Sc'.  This little bit of detail comes from

In the summer of 1895 the family moved to another shop, this time at Tottenham Lane in Hornsey.  At the same time they moved house to 2 Victoria Terrace in Hornsey.  They are still at Victoria Terrace at the 1901 census. Father Arthur Wallis Brush was listed as a Grocer and 16 year old Arthur Wesley as a Grocer's Assistant.  Victoria Terrace is close to Finsbury Park and the photo images on Google Maps suggest the 1901 house is still there.

By 1911 they had moved to 'The Shrubbery', Gordon Road, Hornsey - now no longer there since it was demolished and the whole area redeveloped many years later.  According to the 1911 census the house had 7 rooms.  That the family lived in a house called the Shrubbery has special echoes for me.  Throughout my time at secondary school, in the late nineteen sixties and early seventies, I was known as 'Shrub' - it being an anagram of Brush.  Was the same name game played 60 years earlier?

In World War 1, Arthur Wesley served in the Royal Army Medical Corps - the RAMC - in France and/or Belgium..

Arthur Wesley, Herbert Stanley and George Douglas
standing behind Emily, Arthur Wallis and Elsie Louise.
The sergeant's stripes on George's arm may help us date this picture.

It seems that it had always been taken for granted that he, as the eldest son, would continue his father's grocery business.  Certainly up to the outbreak of the Great War in 1914 he was employed in it and the business seems to have changed gradually with increasing trade in the importation of spices , coconut and tea (which my grandfather blended himself or different tastes).  They also manufactured proprietary items such as 'Gravy Salt' and 'Gravythick' and traded then as A.W.Brush and Sons at Castle Works, Hornsey, though I do not know where the 'works' were situated; it may well have been at 'The Shrubbery' for I remember there were several outbuildings and store rooms as well as the house.

The only remaining evidence of the family business

The family was very much concerned with Middle Lane Methodist Church, my father being a Local Preacher(8), an officer in the Boys' Life Brigade (which later became part of the Boys' Brigade) and a teacher in the Sunday School. At one time he considered emigrating to Canada to become a minister of the church but decided to stay in England. (Remember that in those days travelling to Canada meant a long sea voyage - there was no air service then).

He was at a Boys' Life Brigade camp under canvas in 1914 when a telegram arrived from the War Office asking for the return of the tents - they were wanted for the British Expeditionary Force in France. My father and his brothers joined the army, Wesley in the Royal Army Medical Corps , George and Stanley in line regiments.

  
Two images of Arthur Wesley Arthur Wesley, Herbert Stanley and George standing behind Emily, Arthur Wallis and Elsie Louise

My father never said very much about his service in France and Flanders but after his death in 1946 I found his discharge certificate which said that he had "served with honour and was disabled". I believe his heart was affected by his service, a disability not visible to outsiders.  He was sent to the Rectory at Berkswell in Warwickshire which was being used as a convalescent hospital for returning soldiers.  One Sunday he went to the service at the Wesleyan Methodist Church at Balsall Common and was invited to lunch at the Elsons' farm - it was there that he met my mother.  They were married in the Chapel at Balsall Common on the twelfth of April 1922, Fred Elson signing as the Authorised Person to register marriages and Mary Elson signing as one of the witnesses.  Wesley and Laura went to live at 32, Melbourne Avenue, Palmers Green, and there I was born in 1925.

However, all was not well. The grocery business which he had been expecting to return to was no longer there.  Probably because of undue reliance on imported goods which could not be obtained in wartime there was no assured future and my father would have to seek employment somewhere else.  This was just at the time when the labour market was swamped by multitudes of ex-service men.  I understand that my father was employed as a representative (the term then was 'commercial traveller') by several different firms(8) and then eventually worked for a food firm called 'Bestoval' from the late twenties until the end of his life.  The area he was responsible for was a large part of North and North-West London and for most of the time this was covered on foot, in buses and trams and in the Underground.  He always dressed formally, with wing collar and bowler hat when 'at work' and always wore boots.  He must have walked many hundreds of miles in the course of his work.

When the war started in 1939 my father said "We shall all come through the war safely".  He was absolutely certain of this - and he was right.  He died on the fourth of April 1946, some months after the war through which all four of us had come safely had ended.   My mother stayed in Melbourne Avenue until the 'sixties' when she sold the house and came to live with us in Radlett.

At the 1921 census his father Arthur Wallis is identified as an employer, though we do not know of how many people.  His business is described as "Wholesale Sundryman Spices, Baking Powder etc ".  His workplace is "at home".

Arthur Wesley is not listed as back home with his parents - though it seems likely that it was still his normal place of residence.  After a lot of searching I eventually found him in North Lancashire.  He is listed on the census day/night as a "visitor" at Abbott Hall, Wesley Guild Holiday Centre, Grange over Sands - a seaside resort in the very north of Lancashire, just south of the Lake District.   It was the responsibility of the manager of a hotel etc to fill in the return.   It does not look to me as if he was on holiday there.  Two schedules were completed for Abbott Hall. The first schedule contains the Manageress and 63 people listed as boarders (later corrected by the enumerator to 'visitor' ).  The second schedule contains mostly employees listed as 'helper' plus a few more boarders. And right at the end of the list, after all the staff, - the 84th named person, is Arthur Wesley uniquely listed by the Manager as a 'Visitor'.  It seems clear he was there in a capacity different from all the the other guest boarders but we have no idea why.  Maybe some sort of inspection as a member of the Wesley Guild?

In the census form his personal occupation is listed as 'Sales promoter', his employment as 'sales' and his place of work as 'London & District' - which is not quite the level of detail that the census instructions expected to be put in those columns.  Whether he was at this point a sales promoter for his father's grocery products or whether he had begun working for a bigger firm is not known.

In my father's autobiography he writes about his father returning from the war "However, all was not well. The grocery business which he had been expecting to return to was no longer there.  Probably because of undue reliance on imported goods which could not be obtained in wartime there was no assured future and my father would have to seek employment somewhere else.  This was just at the time when the labour market was swamped by multitudes of ex-service men.  I understand that my father was employed as a representative (the term then was 'commercial traveller') by several different firms."(8) and then eventually worked for a food firm called 'Bestoval' from the late twenties until the end of his life.  The area he was responsible for was a large part of North and North-West London and for most of the time this was covered on foot, in buses and trams and in the Underground.  He always dressed formally, with wing collar and bowler hat when 'at work' and always wore boots.  He must have walked many hundreds of miles in the course of his work.

A dramatic studio shot! TEXT

Emily continued to live at 'The Shrubbery' until her death in 1938 - my father (born 1925) recalls going often to visit his Grandmother there.

Arthur's siblings

Arthur Wallis BRUSH had four siblings - John Edward, Mary Ann, George Samuel and Alice Sarah

John Edward BRUSH was born on 23 October 1853 and baptised on 22 January 1854 at St John the Evangalist, Smith Square in Westminster.

He married Ellen Mary MOON at All Saints Church in Fulham on 24 October 1882. He gives his occupation as a carpenter. His wife dies in 1883. He remarries on 3 April 1893 at St Barnabas Islington to Mary Morley. They have two children,

George Samuel was born on

Next Sections
Chapter 29C: The younger children of Samuel and Sarah and
Chapter 29D: The children of John and Mary and