Other projects

2025

Benjamin Britten’s musical uncle and ‘reprobate’, William Hockey

Who was William Hockey? Why did Britten call him a ‘reprobate’? And did Hockey and his family influence Britten’s musical development? This research was inspired by composer and Britten devotee, Joseph Phibbs. Contact me through this website to find out more.

William Hockey, end of row, 1901, from My Brother Benjamin by Beth Britten

Deaf Perspectives: past, present and future

Working for Hannah Salisbury of HJS Heritage, I was part of a small team compiling a database of Suffolk residents who described themselves as deaf in the 1911 census. Our work formed the historical background for pupils from two local schools to use in creating short films exploring aspects of deaf life. Find out more about this project at:

https://www.theoffshootfoundation.co.uk/researching-deaf-history/

2024

Returned to Krakow

I was given a carrier bag of dusty old docs in Spring 2024 by an couple living near Eye in Suffolk. They had belonged to the wife’s step-grandfather, Andrzej Flatau (1904-1968), and were mostly either in Polish or German. There were about 100 of them in all.

About 20 of the papers related to Andrzej Flatau himself. An electrical engineer, he had escaped the Nazi invasion of Poland in early September 1939 and eventually settled in England.

The remaining papers had belonged to Andrzej’s father, Michał (1865-1925). Michał, born into a Jewish family in Warsaw, studied law at Vienna University and rose to become the chief police commissioner of Krakow.

It was fascinating to sort and list these papers and witness a great sweep of C20th European history shaping these two men’s lives. I’m so pleased that Krakow Archives has welcomed these papers into their collection and the documents are now safely where they should be.

Michał Flatau: safe pass to travel to the new Poland, dated 29 November 1918

2010 – 2015

Research assistant for local author, Sheila Hardy

Scandalous Georgian divorces by Sheila Hardy, unpublished – I researched about 20 divorce cases which hit the headlines in the C18th

3rd Duke of Grafton’s divorces his wife, Anne 1769 etching (Image by Wellcome Images)

Our Scotch Tour by Sheila Hardy, unpublished – holiday diary of Meta and Mary Farbrother

Suffolk Murder and Crime by Sheila Hardy, History Press, 2012 – collection of historical true crime stories

The Real Mrs Beeton by Sheila Hardy, History Press, 2011 – biography of C19th cookery writer, Eliza Acton