Early Life
Henry ("Hal") Murdoch Bryans was born in
Foots Cray Cottage, Foots Cray in Kent on the 29
th January 1892 to
Arthur Bryans and
Annie Jessie Burn-Murdoch. He was one of 6 children, having four elder sisters and a younger brother. It's possible that he went to Sandhurst as
there's a record for a Henry Bryans who entered in 1910 and obtained his commission in 1911.
Career
Henry joined the Royal Horse Artillery
1 as a 2
nd Lieutenant in December 1911.
From a letter
† written by Annie Jessie Burn-Murdoch, Hal's mother, to Hal himself:
At any rate, my prayer for my sons has always been “oh make thy service their delight” & I feel that whatever way you serve will have that sense “au fond”. At one time when you were tiny I thought it might be by the direct service of a clergyman, but that can only be from special vocation, or so it seems to one. Then, when my brother Jack so clearly foresaw a great German War it seemed to me that to serve in it as an officer & leader of men would be best so I was glad when you chose that service. Now you have come to a turning point & you with Fay’s help will have to consider what course is best to follow. You know & can judge far better than I what an Army life is & may be in future. It by no means follows that because many men will be flocking out of the Army that that is the time to leave it.
By 1916, when he married, he was a Captain and by the birth of his daughter Pam the next year he was a Major. He probably remained in the army for his working life - in the 1939 Register he is listed as an officer in the 4
th Field Artillery Regiment. His medal card indicates that he was:
According to Helen Grant, he was completely deaf due to his career as a gunner. It is not clear when Henry left the army, but certainly by 1955 (when he was 63) it is likely that he was retired as records show him and Fanny travelling to Sri Lanka on the SS Oranje, leaving Southampton in December 1955. They returned on the good ship Arcardia, in March 1956.
Family Life
Hal married
Fanny "Fay" Curtis Mitchell, the daughter of
Hugh McPherson Mitchell and
Agnes Lockhart Nisbet, on the 13
th of August 1916. The marriage was witnessed by
Agnes Nisbet and Katherine Kiero Watson (nee' Nisbet), who was Agnes' sister and therefore also Fanny's aunt.
The
Bryans and the
Nisbets were family friends as a letter
¥ dated 1909 from Fay Mitchell to her mother Agnes describes her visit to stay with the
Bryans family at
Woodmansterne:
I was met at the station by an aunt of the Bryanses & Wil. When we got to the house they were just beginning tea; I was introduced to the two girls. They are awfully jolly. I think I like Margaret [Nora Margaret] best although Amy’s [Amy Lonsdale] awfully nice. Poor Margaret has to prepare 8 Sunday School lessons this morning. If you see Ethel please give my love to her. There is no room for illustrations. I had an enormous breakfast.
Mr “what’s his name” [Lionel Mowbray Hewlett] who Amie is engaged to is staying here. They seem to be very fond of each other. I like the boys awfully. Wil is smaller than me and Hal is bigger.
In the evening we played “Thank You” and “Sharrards” [sic] (they do act well) then we danced. I tried to teach them the twostep which they are very keen on. Please bring the “Wistler [sic] and his dog” with you, we haven’t any music that you can dance the two-step to. Margaret offered to sleep in the dressing room if I was nervous but of course scotched that idea. They have a most splendiferous garden. This morning at breakfast we saw lots of tom-tits, two female pheasants & a squirrel and some pigeons. It seems about 50 people are coming to the dance on Tuesday.
In May 1915, Henry wrote to his mother Annie about getting married to Fay
§:
Fay & I have been discussing it in our letters and we both really want to get married soon most awfully much. We love each other so much as it is that it makes it awfully hard to wait & I don't really think there is anything to wait for. We can't possibly wait 'til the end of the war if it's not going to be finished by this autumn which certainly seems impossible.
At any rate, I said I would write to you and father to ask what you think of it. I think we should have quite enough to get on very well & if necessary I would certainly chuck up soldiering if I thought we could not afford it. I am now earning a good lot of course, about £275 besides allowances & if I went back to field artillery subalterns pay after the war which of course is possible I should get about a hundred pounds less but I don’t think this is likely. Father allows me at present £100 a year & I wonder if after the war he would if necessary increase it a little. Fay would I believe have about £100 a year of her own so that I think we should manage all right.
Would you and father talk it over and let me know what you think about it as soon as you can. Fay says Mrs Mitchell would consent [...], and they are giving up their Wimbledon house [2 Thornton Hill] this year at any rate & I believe Mrs M is going to live at the New House [12 Lancaster Road, Wimbledon] with granny Nisbet [Louisa Margaret Kelso Nisbet née Bruce].
Leaves are especially hard to fix up ahead in the summer but I think that I might manage to get leave about the very beginning of July or last day of June as I daresay the Major would me go a bit early for so important a purpose. I do love her so that it makes it awfully difficult waiting back here when we have such a lot of time to think of things.
On the 8
th of August 1916 Hal sent a telegram
Ϟ to Fay:
SPECIAL LEAVE POSSIBLE WOULD SATURDAY NEXT SUIT FOR WEDDING WIRE REPLY AND TO HOLMWOOD HAL
The leave was obviously approved as Henry married Fay on Sunday the 13
th of August 1916 at Wimbledon St Mary's, most likely the Nisbet's family church. The wedding was arranged at the last minute as Hal was on active service in the First World War and was only able to travel back almost without notice.
Their only daughter,
Pamela Anne Murdoch, was born a year later in 1917.
Hal and Fanny used to spend their winters in
Kenya with Hugh and Nina Mitchell, Fay’s brother and sister-in-law.
Residences
- In his earliest years, Henry probably lived in Foots Cray Cottage, in Foots Cray
- By 1900 (when Henry was 8) the family had moved to Woollet Hall (since renamed to Loring Hall)
- After they married in 1916 Hal and Fay moved to Lithend in Bishop's Waltham.
- In July 1925 he and Fay moved to the Little Manor, Ashton Lane in Bishops Waltham, Hampshire
- The 1939 Register (aged 47) shows him at the Queensberry Hotel, perhaps a temporary lodging as people mobilised for war
- Before 1975, at the time of drafting his first will, Henry lived at "Martins", Chilbolton, Stockbridge in Hampshire. This looks like it would have been a property on Martins Lane in Chilbolton; the exact house is not given. He mentions bequeathing to Lala: "My Freehold land at Bishop's Waltham, Hampshire adjoining my former residence "Lithend".
- From 1975 until his death: the first codicil to the will (dated in 1975 at the same time as the main will) shows his address as Flat 1, 92 St Cross Road (Stockholm Court), Winchester.
Fanny died in 1982, leaving Hal a widower until his death three years later.
Death
Henry died on the 3
rd of May 1985, at his home in
Winchester (Flat 1, 92 St Cross Road). His probate record indicates an estate of £197,725, equal to roughly £500,000 in 2017 money, which is quite a considerable sum. He was cremated.
The Bryans Surname
Bryans is most likely a patronymic, derived from "Bryan's [son]". There seems to be a lot of overlap with Bryant (in some old correspondence, Hal is referred to as Bryant, and in details of his ancestor Francis' marriage to Grace Cross in Burkes', Francis is also referred to as a Bryant). In 1881, the Bryans surname was strongly concentrated in Lancashire and Cheshire (see Richard Bryans and Anne Pillar and their descendents) with other pockets of concentration in Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire.
3
The
Oxford Dictionary of Family Names4 has this to say on the surname:
Norman, Breton, English: relationship name from the Celtic personal name Brian. Breton bearers of this name were among the Normans who invaded England in 1066. They went on to settle in Ireland in the 12th century, where the name mingled with the native Irish form Briain. The latter had also been borrowed, as Brján
, by the Vikings, who introduced it independently into north-western England before the Norman Conquest. This work has the main UK locations as Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Cheshire and Lanarkshire, with high frequencies in Fermanagh in Ireland.
Footnotes
[1] The
Royal Horse Artillery became the Royal Field Artillery, which is how it appears on Lala's birth certificate.
[2] Part of 3
rd Division of the British Expeditionary Force. The 3rd Division served on the Western Front in France and Belgium for four years, from 1914 to 1918. During this time, it was nicknamed "The Iron Division".
[3] See
Forebears
[4] The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland, published 2016 by OUP
† Letter from Fay Curtis Bryans to her son Henry, 18
th November 1918; L_1918_11_Bryans_Bryans_1
¥ Letter from Fay Curtis Mitchell to her mother Agnes, 10
th January 1909; L_1909_01_Mitchell_Mitchell_1
§ Letter from Henry to his mother Fay, 31st May 1916; L_1916_05_Bryans_Bryans_1
Ϟ Telegram from Henry to Fay, 8
th August 1916; T_1916_08_Bryans_Mitchell_1
1892 - 1985 (93 years)
[1] 
