occupation

Cook/housekeeper, publican’s wife

dates

Born: 1 Oct 1876

Married: John Hughes FRENCH, Headington,

                Oxon, Jun 1906

Died: 20 Sep 1961

residence

The George Inn, Barford St Michael, Oxon

submitted by

Betty FRY (great-niece)

copyright information

The pictures shown here are in the collection of Betty FRY. They should not be reproduced without permission.

related faces

Harriet Sophia CROZIER, née COX (mother)

Background information

Lydia married John Hughes FRENCH in June 1906. They became cook/housekeeper and gardener to Lady Ottaline MORRELL at Garsington Manor. ‘Auntie’ was an excellent cook. Quoting from a family memoir; “Many notable people stayed with Lady Ottaline, amongst them Bertrand Russell, he often visited the kitchen to chat with Auntie and to scrounge special ‘tit-bits’ of food.”

By 1934 Lydia and John were proprietors of the George Inn at Barford St Michael. They had no children of their own, but loved to entertain their young relations. After John FRENCH died in 1951, Lydia and her spinster sister Eliza Harriett Jane CROZIER moved to Kidlington. Lydia died there aged 84 and is buried in Upper Heyford.

The portrait shown here was taken on 11 August 1913.