This is a tale of strange memorabilia and a journey of discovery!
A current resident of Lion House (part of the wider Red Lion property) shared with the History Group an intriguing discovery: a strange collection of memorabilia in a dusty box left by a previous owner and found at the back of the loft. There were no previously known names associated with the objects, all of which were deeply personal and covered a time span across over twenty years.
It was a mystery: who owned them? Who had left them there? And would we ever be able to work out how they related to the Old Red Lion?
Initial scrutiny of the objects suggested occupation at some time post 1948 of a family who had travelled in or from India and may have had a French or Belgian connection as some artwork by a child, included in the list below, clearly had a surname suggestive of these countries.
A selection of items discovered in the Red Lion loft included:
- Photograph of a man c.1930s, taken abroad
- Photograph of a woman – c.1900 perhaps
- Photograph of a man wearing glasses, and the same man with a woman
- Photograph of a girl – possibly Marguerite or her daughter
- Child’s drawing labelled “slightly wounded” by Felix Augier + writing by F. Augier dated 9‑11‑16 *
- Signature by Marguerite Muriel Augier
- Drawing of The Man in the Moon by Clare Augier *
- Cartoon – “Why wasn’t I born a man?” signed Gladys M. Saint‑Yves *
- Drawing of a basket of flowers signed by Stella Delanougerede, 21 October 1910 *
- Menu for Landfall Dinner in Tourist B (1948?)
- Timings for sailing between Howrah (27 July 1948) and Bombay (29 July 1948) on S.S. Ormonde
* Denotes items found in the autograph book
*Denotes found in autograph book
Our investigation began with online searches and what a story we uncovered!
📘 SS Ormonde – Background Note - click to read
Note: Built on Clydebank in 1914, the SS Ormonde was constructed as an Orient Liner for the Britain–Australia route. In October 1917 she was requisitioned as a troop transport, then refurbished in 1919 back at Clydebank as a passenger liner. During the 1930s she was converted to One Class, carrying 770 Tourist Class passengers, and later transported post‑war migrants. She was again requisitioned during WWII, with berths for over 1,560 troops.
In 1947 she was chartered by the British Ministry of Transport for the government‑supported emigrant scheme to Australia, with capacity for 1,052 passengers, departing Tilbury on 10 October 1947 after a £270,000 refit. She was scrapped in December 1950.
How items linked to her sailings to Australia via India came to be in the Red Lion remains a mystery. Could some WWI‑era objects relate to Belgian refugees who stayed in Welton and attended school? Might the family have returned post‑war? Or could the items belong to someone who sailed back to England, possibly from Australia via Bombay?
How items associated with her sailings to Australia via India came to be in the Red Lion was a mystery:
Could some of the WW1 period items link to Belgian refugees who stayed in Welton and attended school here?
Could the family have returned to visit post war?
Could items link to a family who sailed back to England possibly from Australia via Bombay?
Our investigations moved on to a search around the names on some of the items focusing on the Augier family name, in particular Felix, Claire and Marguerite Muriel.
Unpicking the puzzle
We began by discovering a Find My Past record for Marguerite Augier born on 28th October 1905. She died in Daventry in 1996. This was the name written on one of the documents listed above and found in the Red Lion attic.
We also found a marriage record for a Stella Marie de Delanougere in 1928 lodged with the British India Offices (Marriage) in Calcutta. She married Claude Stanislaus Augier – Marguerite’s father. Stella was the sister of Maud Adeliade Augier, who was Marguerite’s mother!
Further to the items linked to Felix Augier, we found a May 1949 newspaper clipping describing a quite horrid end to one Felix Augier on Saturday February 26th, 1949. The report began with hidden stores of bomb‑making equipment found in British‑run engineering works in Calcutta, which at that time was being intimidated by anonymous figures.
Letters were being sent to executives, technicians and foremen, building on ongoing attacks on British subjects working in India, believed to be the work of the outlawed Revolutionary Communism Party, then around 30,000 strong. The article linked this discovery with an earlier attack at Jessops Ironworks at Dum Dum the previous February.
Three Britons had reportedly been battered to death and their bodies thrown into furnaces. Two further massacres had been foiled. “Remember Jessops” had been scrawled onto factory walls as part of this intimidation.
The Dum Dum massacre received much publicity and was raised in Parliament. The attack began around 11am on Saturday 26th February 1949. Workers were quietly warned to “make themselves scarce” and men were seen picking up crowbars, shovels and spanners. A labourer tossed a bomb through the office door before the foreman was “levelled with a crowbar.”
More home‑made bombs were thrown. As British employees ran for safety, Indian workers set up machine guns on the roof. Outside, three foremen scrambled for their lives. One, Felix Augier, was repeatedly battered as he fought his way toward an office. He sustained severe head injuries and gashes to his arms. The newspaper reported that “he fell, gasping his last words ‘They have finished me’ before he died.”
Could this be Felix who drew and wrote the documents found in The Red Lion? We decided to dig deeper…
A record for the birth of Felix Reginald Augier in India, on November 27th, 1906, at Cossipore, Bengal in India to Clarence Stanislaus Augier and Maud Adelaide Augier answered our question - we now knew that the Felix who had written his name on our discovered documents was a brother to Marguerite Muriel Augier.
The Unfolding Story of the extended Augier family
Things start to get complex so you can refer to this colour coded family timeline at any time.
Augier Family Timeline
1905 – Clarence Stanislaus Augier marries Maud Adelaide DeLaNougerede in Calcutta.
1905–1927 – Children of Clarence & Maud: Marguerite, Felix, Claire Maud, Charlotte Ann, Isabelle Marie, Estelle, Joan Bernadette, Andre Leo.
1905 (28 Oct) – Marguerite Muriel Augier born in India.
1906 (27 Nov) – Felix Reginald Augier born at Cossipore, Bengal, India.
1927 – Maud Adelaide Augier dies from post‑partum haemorrhage.
1928 – Stella Marie DeLaNougerede (Maud’s sister) marries Clarence Stanislaus Augier, her brother in law.
1934 (1 Nov) – Marguerite Muriel Augier marries cousin Reginald Cecil Ignatius DeLaNougerede.
1930s–1940s – Marguerite later marries cousin Emile Eugene Augier, previously married to Isabelle Marie Augier.
1947–1950s – Independence and partition prompt many European families, including the Augiers, to leave India.
1948 (16 Aug) – Ormonde passenger list: Mrs A. Augier (65), Mr E. E. Augier (31), Mrs M. Augier (42), Miss M. Augier (Mary Ann) (3). England declared permanent residence.
1949 (26 Feb) – Felix Reginald Augier killed in the Dum Dum massacre.
1949 (5 Aug) – Widow Ernestine Renée Augier sails to England with children: Noreen, Brian Felix, Clarence B., Adrian, Gordon Reginald, Rosemary Blossom. They settle at 44 Somerset Waye, Heston.
1952 (10 Jun) – Clarence S. Augier, Stella M. Augier, Charlotte A. Augier arrive in England.
1964 – Marguerite's daughter Mary Ann Augier marries Kenneth Silverlock.
1973 – Mary Ann Augier and Kenneth living in Northamptonshire, son Jamie born
1970s–1980s – Marguerite, Emile visit or even live at The Red Lion, Welton.
1988 – Ernestine Renée Augier dies in St Albans.
1990s – Mary Ann and Kenneth Silverlock living in Daventry and then Lion House, Welton.
1996 – Marguerite Muriel Augier and Emile Eugene Augier die in Daventry.
2000s – Mary Ann and Kenneth emigrate with Jamie to Spain.
Clarence and Maud Adelaide married in 1905 in Calcutta.
Maud Adeliade (nee DeLaNougerede) died in 1927. They had 8 children: Marguerite Muriel, Felix Reginald, Claire Maud, Charlotte Ann, Isabelle Marie, Estelle, Joan Bernadette and Andre Leo. The last, Andre, was born in 1927, the year his mother died. Her death certificate tells us that she died from post-partum haemorrhage.
On October 9th, 1928, Clarence – a widower – remarried. His bride was ‘our’ Stella Marie De La Nougerede: the artist behind our picture of red flowers. He was 47 and she was 40. The marriage took place in Calcutta, Bengal. Stella was the sister of Maud Adelaide, and so Marguerite’s aunt became her stepmother!
The Augier and De La Nougerede families had a long history in India as well as an established pattern of intermarriage between cousins. Their family tree shows that Clarence and Maud, as well as Stella, shared common grandparents, great grandparents…
Why did members of the family find their way to England?
At this stage in our research, we were not sure why England was chosen as a place to make a home; however, history gives us a very clear reason as to why. In 1947 India secured its independence from Britain, however times were turbulent due to the partition which divided India into a Hindu majority land (India) and Muslim majority (Pakistan), which led to horrific racial conflict, mass migrations and the brutal deaths of up to 2 million people.
The tensions remain a factor in the sub-continent to this day. This and strong anti-British feeling also led to many ex-pat families or long resident British and European families in India to return to Europe.
On 16th August 1948, the passenger manifest for the SS Ormonde (see above) confirmed the arrival in Tilbury of: Mrs A Augier (aged 65), Mr E. E. Augier (aged 31), Mrs M. Augier (42) – this is Marguerite, and Miss M. Augier (aged 3) – their daughter (Mary Ann Geneivieve Augier). The document confirmed that England would be their permanent residence. Mrs A Augier’s address was given as 4 Sunnyside House, Cricklewood Lane, NW2 and the others 27 Meadow Road, Southall. All were listed as British passengers.
We discovered a second ship’s manifest dated 10th June 1952, which recorded the arrival of Clarence S Augier (aged 71), Stella M. Augier (aged 64) and Charlotte A. Augier (aged 39). All had the given address as 44 Somerset Waye, Heston, Hounslow. Later electoral roll registers confirm that the family continued to live in the West London area right through to the 1970s and beyond.
We also found a record that confirmed that on 5th August 1949 after Felix’s death, his widow – Ernestine Renee Augier – sailed to England on the MV Caledonia. She travelled with Miss Noreen Augier (a teacher), Brian Felix Augier, Clarence B Augier, Adrian and Gordon Reginald (all school boys and her sons) as well as Rosemary Blossom Augier – a schoolgirl, possibly her daughter. The family settled at 44 Somerset Waye, Heston ….. with Clarence and Stella! Ernestine died in May 1988 living in St Albans. She too shared the same surname as her husband before they were married, suggesting that Felix and Ernestine were related, as cousins, possibly through their grandparents: Francis Augier (1836-1894) and his wife Mary Emma Grant (1976-1917).
Finally, we discovered that on November 1st 1934 Marguerite Muriel Augier had married Reginald Cecil Ignatius De La Nougerede in Calcutta. He was 27, she was 28 and they were cousins. However, it seems that he died and she later married another cousin, Emile Eugene Augier.
So how does all this relate to Welton? Marguerite Augier died in Daventry in November 1996. Emile also died in Daventry, in 1996. It seemed to us, from the records, that for both parties it was a second marriage. We believed Emile was previously married to Marguerite’s younger sister, Isabelle Marie Augier.
It seemed likely that at some point after 1950 and before the 1990s, Marguerite Augier and possibly her husband and daughter lived in or visited The Red Lion in Welton, leaving their memories behind in a box in the attic.
Connecting with descendants of the family!
For a couple of months this was all we knew about the family. We had developed an online Family Tree to help us find the various documents needed to confirm our thinking. But this did not help us with the more immediate history relating to Welton that we were looking for.
One day, wholly out of the blue, a message was received from another history buff who was working on the same Augier / De La Nougerede family tree on behalf of a living relative. We got in touch and were then able to add names to our pictures and get a sense of the wider family connections.
Shortly after this our Welton History Group article popped up on someone’s else’s feed and we had contact with another relative of the family living in Australia, Charlie, leading to a meeting with his mother in, appropriately, The White Horse, of course, to discuss our findings and to reunite the family with their long-lost memorabilia!
Resolving the story of the Augier family and the link to Welton
Our meeting with Sam, the Augier descendant, confirmed that our findings relating to the family history were correct and she explained to us a lot more about the history of the Augier (pronounced oh-zhay) family.
The Augier family originated in France. Pierre Augier, known as Peter the Cutler, emigrated to India in 1787. Pierre was born in Savoie in France, close to the Swiss border.
His nickname was a nod to his profession as a worker with metals although he was also an armourer. An advert in the 1790 Calcutta Gazette referred to him buying an Armourer’s business.
His name also appeared on the November 1804 List of Europeans in Calcutta (as a Cutler, resident at Cossitollah Street), although in his Will Pierre described himself as a gunmaker.
Peter the Cutler died in 1833. It was through him that the family evolved. He had thirteen children, the eldest being Matthieu (Matthew) and was married twice. From Matthew the family tree continued to encompass at least 7 further generations.
Sam told us that earlier family members may have been involved in the development of railways in India and that several relatives had close working connections with the Calcutta Mint, starting with Pierre the Cutler’s son, Matthew. The family grew prosperous and from the arrival of Peter the Cutler there were several marriages within the Augier and De La Nougerede family.
Through painstaking research and confirmation from a number of family members therefore we can confirm that the collection of objects found in the loft of The Lion House were collected and owned by Marguerite Muriel Augier.
Having left India with Emile (her now husband and previous brother-in-law), they settled in London. Travelling on board ship and with probably only limited luggage, these were some of the keepsakes she ensured she brought with her across the world to London, making them very special indeed!
It is likely that Marguerite and Emile continued to live in the West London area, as the artefacts box found also included an airmail letter sent to Emile from a relative back in India (Maurice H. De La Nougerede), which was addressed to 27 Meadow Road, Southall – the same address given on the manifest for the 1948 manifest of the S Ormerod. Their daughter, Mary Ann, left, was just 3 years old when they returned from India.
She went on to marry Kenneth Silverlock in 1964. Kenneth was born in London and the couple married in Ealing. At some point the family moved north – and we know they were living in Northamptonshire by 1973 as the birth of their son, James, was registered as this point.
They may have initially lived in Warwick Street in Daventry, but at some point came to live in The Lion House, part of the Old Red Lion. We believe that as Mary Ann’s parents, Marguerite and Emile got older, they moved up to Welton / Daventry to be with their daughter and her family. This would explain why both their deaths in 1990 are recorded in Daventry.
Welton residents recall that Ken Silverlock owned and ran a tackle shop, close to where MacDonald’s in Daventry now stands. This later moved to his fisheries at Nether Heyford. He also had a greengrocer shop on the High Street in Daventry. Ken was a keen angler and very well known in Daventry. He and Mary Ann moved to Spain in the 2000s to set up a fishery and bed and breakfast.
So, our mystery box of amazing items was, in all likelihood, left behind by Mary Ann and Kenneth when they moved from Welton to live in Spain.
Felix Augier, the victim of the factory attack, was Marguerite’s brother; their mother was Maud Adelaide and their father Clarence Stanislaus. The box contained photographs of both. Claire Augier, who produced some of the drawings in the autograph book, was the sister of Marguerite and Felix. Claire Augier went on to marry Gerald Fleury and Sam, who came to see us in Welton, is her granddaughter!
Discover more from Welton History Group
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.