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- [S10447] Rothwell, Timothy, Email from Tim Rothwell, 21 Oct 2019>, "Re: Proposed Change: Alfred Irwin Rothwell (I20922)," (Reliability: 3).
Hi Phil, my paternal grandparents were William Baker Rothwell (an Ironmonger's assistant) and Ellen Victoria Rothwell (nee King-Irwin, born 1890) They had 6 children, William, Samuel, Alfred, Muriel,Doris and George. George was the organist at the Theatre Royal in Dublin in the late 1930's. Ellen Victoria came from the Irish ecclesiastical King-Irwin family which included an Archbishop Charles King-Irwin and an eminent DD, John King-Irwin. All were Irish protestant from the Church of Ireland. My Father was christened in St.Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin. He served in WW2 with the Royal Irish Fusiliers as a Captain on the home front. I have a photograph of his wedding in 1945
William Baker Rothwell died in the 1930's and Ellen Victoria lived till 93 years old and died in the early 1980's in Dublin, having lived with her son Sam for many years.
William Baker, Ellen Victoria and William(junior) appear in the 1911 census for Terenure, a district of Dublin in a street called Oakland Terrace.
Hope this information helps, there is, I am told, a link to the irish Auchinleck family in Ellen Victoria's past but I haven't followed this up.
Alfred (my father) divorced in 1962ish and was remarried at some point to the pianist Josephine Rayner. This union produced 2 children, Brendan and Ellen. I lost touch with the rest of my family quite a while ago so have little information on their current status.
An outstanding coincidence is that if one searches on line for cinema/theatre organists, one of the things that appears on the screen is a series of pictures of famous organists including George Rothwell who was killed in a railway accident in 1953. Right next to his picture is another photo of one Austin Rayner, a Bradford cinema organist.
He was the father of Josephine Rayner who went on to marry my father!! The two organists never knew each other, is is a pure coincidence.
Hope this helps,
Best wishes
Tim Rothwell.
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