Isabella (Macfadyen) Carroll (1895 - 1982)

Born 30 May 1895 in East Ham, Essex, England, United Kingdom

Ancestors

Wife of Michael Francis Carroll M.Sc. — married 6 Jul 1935 (to 1974) in West Ham, Essex, England, United Kingdom

Descendants

Died 16 Apr 1982 at age 86 in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Mark Carroll [send private message]

Biography

Overview

Isabella Macfadyen (known in the family as Bel) was a resourceful woman who never forgot her family's Scottish roots. (See Research notes.) She lived much of her life in London, where she successfully brought up an illegitimate mixed-race son in the 1920s and founded a private school. After marrying Michael Carroll in 1935, she and he had another son before they moved to Harrogate in Yorkshire, where she saw out her days.

Early life

Bel was born on 30 May 1895 at 24 Edith Road, East Ham, Essex, England, United KIngdom - now part of east London. ^[1] Her father, Thomas Douglas Macfadyen, was a Customs Officer in the London area but he had been born in Ayrshire, Scotland. It was the tradition in the Customs & Excise service at that time to send their officers far from home to work so that they were unlikely to be influenced by family and friends in the course of their duty. Bel had two older sisters, Margaret (known in the family as Meg) and Jeannie (known as Jean), who were both born in East Ham in the early 1890s. In the 1901 census the three sisters were living with their mother, Jennie, and their maternal grandmother, Margaret Wilson, at Edith Road; Thomas was away that night working in the London docks area. ^[2] Jennie was a teacher at a School Board school in London, and a career in education was later to appeal to all three girls. By 1911 the family had moved to Kent, where Thomas worked for H.M. Customs at Minster in Sheppey, with the family living in Hampton Cottage there. ^[3] Jennie was now an assistant teacher for London County Council, Meg had left home to become a student teacher in south London, Jean was still a school student, and Bel was stated to be "at home".

Motherhood and marriage

Meg and Jean both qualified as school teachers and moved to Scotland in 1918, according to a 1968 newspaper obituary for Jean. (See Research notes.) They taught in the village school at Errol, about halfway between the two cities of Perth and Dundee, on the north bank of the River Tay. They evidently invited their younger sister to tea one day around 1921, as the three women had their photograph taken (below); Meg is on the left, Bel in the centre, and Jean on the right.

Macfadyen sisters

At some point Bel spent one Summer on a training course at Girton College, Cambridge University, learning to teach handicrafts to ex-servicemen. ^[4] By June 1921 Bel, her sisters and their parents were all in Scotland, living at Muirloch farmhouse in the village of Fowlis Easter, about 5 miles (8km) north-west of Dundee. In the census taken that month she says that she is an assistant teacher at Baldovan Institution (later named Strathmartine Hospital), helping to educate mentally handicapped children there. ^[5]

Some time before September 1922 Bel met and became intimately acquainted with an Indian university student, Abdul Hamid, who in 1923 was living at 19 Ship Row, Dundee. The result was the birth at 4.30pm on 21 June 1923 at the Maternity Hospital, Glasgow, of a boy called James Macfadyen; Bel gave her address then as 150 Hilltown, Dundee. ^[6]. There is a story in the Carroll family that Abdul's brother, Jamal Uddin, assisted at the birth; he was in Scotland at the time, studying for Membership of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. ^[4] Perhaps not surprisingly, the relationship was a source of some tension between Abdul and the boy's maternal grandparents - as revealed in letters written by him to Bel. (See Research notes.) In those days illegitimacy in the family still carried considerable social stigma. Abdul returned to India, while Bel went back to east London, where she set up a private school: Woodgrange High School, Romford Road, Forest Gate. In the photograph below, Bel is standing on the left while James is seated at the far left. On Saturday 28 March 1936 its pupils gave a 'concert' of music, dance and sketches; in one of the latter, her son is named on the programme as James Hamid. Also attending the school at that time were the three children of divorcee, Michael Carroll - Frank (Francis), Pat (Patricia) and Peggy.

Isabella and pupils

Isabella Macfadyen married Michael Francis Carroll on 6 July 1935 at the West Ham Register Office in east London; he was a research chemist of 49 Forest Drive East, Leytonstone, and she was a teacher residing at 498 Romford Road, Forest Gate. The witnesses were her father, Thomas, and his mother, Grace. ^[7] The couple look elegant in the wedding photograph below. The Carroll family went away together around that time to Arrochar in Scotland, on a camping coach holiday on the West Highland Line. In the photograph below, Bel is seated on the right, with Michael and James standing behind her; her three step-children are also in the picture.

Wedding of Isabella Macfadyen and Michael Carroll

Isabella Carroll and family

Bel joined the Carroll family at Michael's home in Leytonstone, and the following year they had a son, Douglas. ^[8] Michael continued working for the fine chemicals firm, Bush Boake Allen based at Stratford, east London, while Bel became the family matriarch with her two sons and three step-children. World War 2 (1939-1945) disrupted their life in London, with Bel moving back to Scotland with her young son and James joining the Royal Air Force in the fight against the enemy. In time all the Carroll children married and moved away from home.

Later life

Bel was a warm-hearted, loving and outgoing person who enjoyed gardening, music, art, her snowy white cat Ike, and driving her small Triumph Herald car. She also liked having visits by her grandchildren to the home in Leytonstone, and visiting them in turn; in the 1964 photograph below, Isabella is second from the left, her sister Jean is second from the right, and the others are James's three children at their home in St Ives, Huntingdonshire.

Isabella, sister Jean and grandchildren

Some time after 1967 Isabella and Michael Carroll moved to 4 North Park Drive, Harrogate, Yorkshire, to be closer to their son Douglas, his wife Elizabeth and their family. The photograph below shows Bel in 1973 with her grandson Andrew in Harrogate.

Isabella in Harrogate

At the end of the following year Michael died, aged 78. ^[9] Bel moved to a house in Alderson Road, Harrogate, ^[4] to live near Douglas's family until her death in Harrogate in 1982, aged 86. ^[10]

Research notes

• Isabella (Bel) was the paternal grandmother of the manager and author of this profile, Mark Carroll. The thumbnail of her at top left is a false-colour image developed from an original black-and-white photograph; in reality she had blue eyes, not brown. She was possibly named after her paternal aunt of the same name, Isabella Macfadyen (1857-1943).
• Mark Carroll also has an article from a newspaper of 2 November 1968 with an obituary headed "Errol mourns 'Miss Jean'".
• Mark Carroll also has four letters written by Abdul Hamid to Isabella Macfadyen over the period 1923-1924. The first was written on 18 July 1923 from 19 Ship Row, Dundee; in it, he complains that Bel's mother "spoiled it", and she "wants that we should not see each another again".

Sources

1. ↑ "Birth Index" (https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=6lzuWKrDa6nyn8fsWZE4OA&scan=1: [accessed 12 February 2023]) FreeBMD, database entry for Macfadyen, Isabella, 1895 Sep Quarter, West Ham Volume 4a Page 224.
2. ↑ "England and Wales Census, 1901," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X9NP-MV9 : 20 May 2019), Jennie Macfadgen in household of Jennie Macfadgen, East Ham, Essex, England, United Kingdom; from "1901 England, Scotland and Wales census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing East Ham subdistrict, PRO RG 13, The National Archives, Kew, Surrey.
3. ↑ "England and Wales Census, 1911," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XW63-62V : 28 June 2019), Isabella MacFadyen in household of Thomas Douglas MacFadyen, Minster in Sheppey, Kent, England, United Kingdom; from "1911 England and Wales census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing PRO RG 14, The National Archives of the UK, Kew, Surrey.
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2} Letter from Douglas Carroll to Mark Carroll, dated 4 April 2023, sent from York.
5. ↑ 1921 census for Scotland, entry for McFadyen, Isabella; Reference: Census 288 / B1 / 4; available: https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk [Accessed 28 February 2023].
6. ↑ Birth entry for Mcfadyen, James, 1923, St Rollox Registration District, Reference 644/8/1728; available at: https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/ [accessed 12 Feb 2023].
7. ↑ "Marriage index": (https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=w02IVVXEXBRKGQ7q3dP8cw&scan=1; [accessed 12 Feb 2023]) FreeBMD, database online for Isabella Macfadyen and Michael F. Carroll, 1935 Sep Quarter District: West Ham Vol: 4a Page 880.
8. ↑ "Birth Index" (https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=0v%2Bau8WxWnw%2F07pf9OyDZQ&scan=1: [accessed 12 Feb 2023]) FreeBMD, database entry for Carroll, Douglas M (Mother's maiden name: Macfadyen), 1936 Dec Quarter, Essex SW Volume 4a Page 360.
9. ↑ "Death Index" (https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=uh%2FTNvLjJuZ9K5%2FqQUrr0w&scan=1: [accessed 13 Feb 2023]) FreeBMD, database entry for Carroll, Michael Francis (born 5 Sep 1896), 1974 Dec Quarter, Claro Volume 2 Page 2113.
10. ↑ "Death Index" (https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=GtLHeMKnV0OSpMWLOjTJYg&scan=1: [accessed 13 Feb 2023]) FreeBMD, database entry for Carroll, Isabella (born 30 May 1895), 1982 Jun Quarter, Claro Volume 2 Page 2028.