Cornish Gallery

The Lennox-Boyd brothers. Around 1915

Studio photograph of Alan Tindal Lennox-Boyd with his brothers. From left to right: George Edward Lennox-Boyd (1902-1943), Alan Tindal Lennox-Boyd (1904-1983), Donald Breay Hague Lennox-Boyd (1906-1939), Francis Gordon Lennox-Boyd (1909-1944). The boys are dressed in outfits resembling First World War British Army officer uniforms. Born on 18th November 1904, Alan was the son of Alan Walter Lennox-Boyd and Florence Annie Begbie. Educated at Sherborne School, Dorset, and Christ Church, Oxford, he married Lady Patricia Florence Susan Guinness on 29th December 1938 and died on 8th March 1983. He held the office of Member of Parliament (Conservative) for Mid-Bedfordshire between 1931 and 1960, holding the positions of Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Labour in 1938, Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Aircraft Production in 1943, Minister of State for Colonial Affairs 1951-1952, Minister for Transport and Civil Aviation, 1952-1954 and Secretary of State for Colonial Affairs, 1954-1959. He served as Lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve during the Second World War, was admitted to Inner Temple in 1941 and entitled to practise as a Barrister at Law. Appointed Privy Counsellor in 1951, he held the office of Deputy Lieutenant of Bedfordshire between 1954 and 1960, was managing director of Arthur Guinness & Sons between 1959 and 1967 and appointed Companion of Honour in 1960. He was created 1st Viscount Boyd of Merton in September 1960 and that same year, his wife, Patricia, Viscountess Boyd, purchased Ince Castle in St Stephens by Saltash, Cornwall. In 1965, Viscount Boyd held the office of Deputy Lieutenant of Cornwall. He died on 8th March 1983. The Boyd family lived at Ince Castle until 2018. George, a Major in the Highland Light Infantry, died in a military hospital in Scotland; Donald, a Captain in the Scots Guards, died in custody in Germany in events leading up to the Second World War; Francis, a Major in the Royal Scots Greys, was killed in action at Normandy, France, during the Second World War while leading 22nd Independent Parachute Company. Photographer: James Habgood, Boscombe

© From the collection of the RIC

Group of Miners, Dolcoath Mine, Camborne, Cornwall. Probably early 1900s

A group of miners at the surface. This photograph is probably taken somewhear near the dry or change house at Dolcoath, where the miners could wash and exchange their wet and dirty clothes for their surface clothes. It is taken prior to the men going underground, as they look clean and tidy, with some still wearing ordinary headgear. Also there are lots of candles in evidence that they will need underground. The older man on the right of the picture might be a Mine Captain. The earliest records of this mine show that it was being worked for copper in 1740, and probably earlier. It was nearly 300ft deep in 1746 and an extensive mine in 1778, when a section of its eastern part was published in Pryce's Mineralogis Cornubiensis. It closed ten years later, to reopen in 1799. In the next 120 years it became the largest and deepest mine in Cornwall, with its bottom level 3,000ft below the surface. Its output of copper and tin ores to 1788 is thought to have been no less than 1,2500,000, pounds, of which copper alone realised some 450,000 between 1740 and 1777. Between 1799 and 1920 its output amounted to over 9 million pounds, including income from sales of arsenic, silver and other minerals. The mine was in the dividend list for most of its working life, and shares, nicknamed Dollies, were the blue chip of the industry. Photographer: Unknown

© From the collection of the RIC

Lis Escop, Kenwyn, Cornwall. Around 1910

Lis Escop (Cornish for Bishop's Court) in winter with cattle in the foreground. Originally the Kenwyn Vicarage, in 1876 it became the residence of the Bishops of Truro. Around 1906, the Chapel and dining room, designed by E.H. Sedding and pictured in the centre of the house, were added by Bishop Stubbs. Therefore, the date of the photograph is around 1910 when these were completed. The bell turret was reportedly partially copied from the porch of St Mary's in Oxford. The house was stayed in by convalescing officers and Belgian refugees during the First World War. From 1953 until 1982 it was known as Copeland Court and was used by Truro Cathedral School as classrooms and a house for the headmaster. The house was named in memory of Geoffrey Copeland of Trelissick, a former pupil whose family gifted the funds necessary to purchase the property for the school. Copeland Court became a convent for the Community of the Epiphany in 1983. Renamed Epiphany House in 2001 the house became a conference and retreat centre. Photographer: Arthur William Jordan

© From the collection of the RIC