Katherine Vulliamy
Katherine Juliet Felicite Tite was born in Brixton, London, on 7th July 1875, to Elisabeth Felicite Virginie Despointes (1849-1898) and Arthur Tite (1841-1894). This union produced at least 4 children. Constance Virginie Tite (1870-1934), John Denis Tite (1874-1927) and Felix Tite (1877-1952). Her father was initially a banker's clerk who eventually became a bank manager for N. M. Rothschild & Sons. (1)
At the time of the 1881 Census, 5-year-old Katherine was living with her parents and 3 siblings at Amwell House, Great Amwell, near Ware, Hertfordshire. (2) Arthur Tite and his wife employed half-a-dozen live-in domestic servants, including a governess, a butler, a cook, a lady's maid, a housemaid, and a kitchen maid. (3)
In 1901 the 25-year-old Katherine Tite was living with her older sister, Constance Tite, and older brother, John Tite, at 11 Orme Court, Paddington. London, not far from Kensington Gardens. All three siblings were "living on own means" and had no profession or occupation. Five servants were employed at their house in Orme Court, including a parlour maid, a page boy, and a male nurse, who was caring for 27-year-old John Tite, who is described as "feeble minded". (4)
On 21st August 1901, Katherine Tite married Edward Owen Vulliamy, a 25 year-old schoolmaster. He was the youngest son of a French-born couple, Theodore Vulliamy (1834–1921) and Amenaide Hélène Réal de Champlouis (1844–1902). Edward Vulliamy's mother had been committed to a Norwich lunatic asylum in 1889, where she died in 1902. Katherine gave birth to Justin Edward Vulliamy (1902–1995), Margaret Katherine Felicite Vulliamy (1904-2007), Adrian Theodore Vulliamy (1907-1989), and Nicholas Martin Felix Vulliamy (1915-2006). (5) Edward Vulliamy left teaching to become the Keeper of Pictures at the Fitzwilliam Museum. (6)
Katherine Vulliamy and the NUWSS
Katherine Vulliamy was a supporter of women's suffrage and she became a member of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies. She eventually became a member of the NUWSS National Executive Committee where she opposed the idea of men holding senior positions in the organisation. "The greatest danger is that, as we know by experience, men have got into a habit, possibly unconsciously, of interesting themselves in women's organisations more for the political advantage they can derive from them than for the help they can give them. When I was on a committee of the National Union Women's Suffrage Societies, it seemed to me that the strong party bias of some of the distinguished men members was a danger to the society; in a militant society adopting opposition to the Government as one of the recognised methods, this danger would be far greater." (7)
Vulliamy left the NUWSS to join the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). She approved of what Emmeline Pankhurst had to say about membership of the organisation. "We resolved to limit our membership exclusively to women, to keep ourselves absolutely free from any party affiliation, and to be satisfied with nothing but action on our question. Deeds, not words, was to be our permanent motto." (8)
In a conference in September 1907, Emmeline Pankhurst told members that she intended to run the WSPU without interference. As Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence pointed out: "She called upon those who had faith in her leadership to follow her, and to devote themselves to the sole end of winning the vote. This announcement was met with a dignified protest from Mrs. Despard. These two notable women presented a great contrast, the one aflame with a single idea that had taken complete possession of her, the other upheld by a principle that had actuated a long life spent in the service of the people. Mrs. Despard calmly affirmed her belief in democratic equality and was convinced that it must be maintained at all costs. Mrs. Pankhurst claimed that there was only one meaning to democracy, and that was equal citizenship in a State, which could only be attained by inspired leadership. She challenged all who did not accept the leadership of herself and her daughter to resign from the Union that she had founded, and to form an organisation of their own." (9)
Christabel Pankhurst sent out a letter to all branches of the WSPU stating that this was not in any way a democratic group. "We are not playing experiments with representative government. We are not a school for teaching women how to use the vote. We are a militant movement... It is not a school for teaching women how to use the vote. We are militant movement... It is after all a voluntary militant movement: those who cannot follow the general must drop out of the ranks." As Simon Webb has pointed out: "This is quite unambiguous. Members must not expect to influence policy or question the leader, the role is limited to obeying orders." (10)
Women's Freedom League
As a result of this speech, Katherine Vulliamy, Charlotte Despard, Teresa Billington-Greig, Edith How-Martyn, Dora Marsden, Helena Normanton, Anne Cobden Sanderson, Helen Fox, Muriel Matters, Octavia Lewin, Emma Sproson, Margaret Nevinson, Henria Williams, Constance Tite, Violet Tillard and about sixty-five other members of the Women's Social and Political Union left to form the Women's Freedom League (WFL) in November 1907. Most of its members were socialists who wanted to work closely with the Labour Party who "regarded it as hypocritical for a movement for women's democracy to deny democracy to its own members." (11) Christabel Pankhurst attempted to play down the conflict. She stated, "please don't call it a split there has been no particular row... it is more of a parting of company." (12)
Charlotte Despard, Teresa Billington-Greig and Edith How-Martyn were all members of the Independent Labour Party. However, they distrusted the other political parties who had for so long blocked attempts to extend the franchise to women. Therefore they wanted "a women's suffrage organisation independent of the political parties; an organisation run and controlled by women which would prioritise women's suffrage above all else; a campaign which would be intense and militant, and which would not end until women had achieved their demands - equal suffrage on the same terms as men." (13)
Violet Tillard became Assistant Organising Secretary of the organisation. She pointed out the difference between the Women's Freedom League and the Women Social & Political Union. "The Women's Freedom League differs from the Women's Social and Political Union chiefly in the internal organisation, which in democratic; and in the fact that it is not part of its policy at present to interrupt Cabinet Ministers at meetings; but the societies at one in their aim the removal of the sex disability, and in their policy of opposing the Government at by-elections." (14)
Suffrage Atelier
Alfred Pearse, Laurence Housman and Clemence Housman formed the Suffrage Atelier (an artists' collective campaigning for women's suffrage) on 8th May 1909. (15) It claimed: "The object of the society is to encourage Artists to forward the Women's movement, and particularly the Enfranchisement of Women, by means of pictorial publications. Each member of the Society shall undertake to give the Society first refusal of any pictorial work intended for publication, dealing with the women's movement. In return the artist will receive a certain percentage of the profits arising from the sale of her or his work." (16)
As Lisa Tickner, the author of The Spectacle of Women: Imagery of the Suffrage Campaign (1987) has pointed out that along with the Artists' Suffrage League: "Women were able to organise collectively and contribute their professional skills to the suffrage campaign. They designed, printed and embroidered all manner of political material; they taught each other the requisite skills from hand-painting to needlework; they designed major demonstrations and took part in them in their own contingents; they lent their studios for meetings and contributed to exhibitions, bazaars and fund-raising activities." (17)
The Suffrage Atelier provided art lessons. The organisation arranged for members to draw and paint live models. Votes for Women pointed out: "At these meetings there will be sketching from life (some well-known Suffragists will sit, whenever possible), and all kinds of technical information connected with the society's work will be given." (18) The Suffrage Atelier also provided sessions on public speaking. (19)
Although she was not an artist Katherine Vulliamy became an important member of the Suffrage Atelier. In December 1911, Vulliamy and Ethel Willis organised a Christmas Party: "The members of the Suffrage Atelier held a Christmas party and exhibition of their work at the studio, 4, Stanlake Villas, Shepherds Bush, last Wednesday. In spite of the wet weather many friends arrived, each bearing a Christmas present, presents which ranged from a mangle to a file – all of great value to the Atelier…. After tea the guests inspected the work shown in the various departments, including original drawings and designs, posters, postcards, and Christmas cards, designed and printed at the Atelier. Mrs Vulliamy, of the Women's Freedom League, spoke on the work of the Atelier dwelling chiefly on its value to the Suffrage Societies and to women artists as affording them opportunities to experiment and also to become acquainted with processes of reproduction." (20)
1911 Census Campaign
The Women's Freedom League decided to ask its members to boycott the 1911 Census. The Portsmouth branch planned events, which including hiring a hall and sleeping in other members homes. All these plans were told to local reporters by the WFL branch secretary Sarah Whetton, who stated that nearly one hundred supporters were intending to resist. In Manchester sixteen houses were placed at the branch's disposal, and in Edinburgh it was reported that the numbers taking part in the protest had "reached four figures". Members later recorded some unusual methods they used to avoid detection. (21)
Katherine Vulliamy and her husband Edward Vulliamy removed themselves from the 1911 Census but the form was completed by a census registrar who suspected that the Vulliamy family and two "female visitors" were residing at the Vulliamy family home at Maitland House, Barton Road, Cambridge, on the night of the census. The census registrar notes that Edward Vulliamy was working as a "College Tutor" and employed three domestic servants at the family home. (22)
Charlotte Despard
Katherine Vulliamy became a member of the Women's Freedom League National Executive Council. It was suggested that men should be allowed to join the Women's Freedom League. She argued passionately against this idea: "I am entirely opposed in the proposal that men should be admitted as members to the WFL.... I will give my practical objections to the proposal. The greatest danger is that, as we know by experience, men have got into a habit, possibly unconsciously, of interesting themselves in women's organisations more for the political advantage they can derive from them than for the help they can give them. When I was on a committee of the National Union Women's Suffrage Societies, it seemed to me that the strong party bias of some of the distinguished men members was a danger to the society; in a militant society adopting opposition to the Government as one of the recognised methods, this danger would be far greater. Our smaller Branches might easily be swamped by men from semi-political societies who could easily modify our decisions in conference. At present we gratefully welcome the help of disinterested men as associates while guarding ourselves from such a possibility… The existence of the Men's League is the best proof that there is no sex-war, and it unites men who might differ on the methods employed by the women's societies. I cannot believe that large numbers of genuine sympathisers are prevented from pouring into the WFL because they are not given a vote in our internal organisation." (23)
Although an opponent of the Women's Social and Political Union window-breaking campaign she disagreed with the idea that this should be used against the idea of women be giving the vote: "This idea is of importance to Suffragists. It assumes that the vote is a reward of virtue, and that good conduct is a necessary qualification for an entire sex before individual members of it may become citizens. I believe that the proportion of men to women criminals is about six to one, and that the crimes of violence, to human beings 60 per cent, are assaults by men or women. This being so, many of your correspondents are committed to either the total disenfranchisement of men, greater respect for glass than for human life, or the admission that the actions of women are to be judged by cant instead of common sense and justice." (24)
After Teresa Billington-Greig resigned from the Women's Freedom League in 1911, Charlotte Despard became its most dominant figure in the organisation. Some members began to complain about her autocratic style of leadership. One sympathetic journalist, Henry N. Brailsford, a member of the Men's League For Women's Suffrage, compared her to the way Emmeline Pankhurst ran the Women's Social and Political Union. (25)
Katherine Vulliamy often found herself in conflict with Despard. She eventually joined forces with Edith How-Martyn, Alison Neilans, Emma Sproson, Constance Tite, Bessie Drysdale and Eileen Mitchell, to send letters to all branches explaining that their president was acting autocratically and blocking the effective work of the NEC. As a result a special conference was organised in April 1912 to discuss this matter. (26)
At the conference one discontent criticised Despard arguing, "I am in favour of democracy... I do not approve of a leader.. I follow a policy, not a personality." Mrs Kathleen Mitchell, an original member of the WFL put forward her views: "The WFL came into existence, in fact it owes its very name to this, that certain people including Mrs Despard, Mrs How Martyn, Mrs Sproson, myself, and many others found it impossible to reconcile their claim for political enfranchisement of women with an autocratic instead of self-governing society... It is with the greatest regret that I have to tell the Conference that my own experience has proved conclusively to me that this principle is in danger of being fatally reversed." (27)
Nina Boyle supported Charlotte Despard who suggested that democracy was secondary to obtaining votes for women. "We are not here as democrats, but as suffragettes, and we are out to get the Vote!". (28) Despard put forward her own explanation of her behaviour. She stated: "I am a democrat. My views are very well known, long long before there was a WFL... Now I am sorry to say that I am what I am. My opinion on these things is before you, and it was before the WFL when it elected me as President. I cannot be tied up. I cannot be told you must say this and you must do that. That is absolutely impossible for me. I must be myself... I simply and solely do what I can to help the WFL, the cause of women and of women's freedom and emancipation... Make someone else your President, or have no President at all, which ever you choose. As I have said already, if the latter is your will, or the former, I shall go out of this room and out of this hall, and those who will, will follow me, and we will continue to work for the suffrage as we have always done. But I am absolutely loyal to the WFL." (29)
As Claire Louise Eustace has pointed out: "Despard's interpretation of democracy differed as much as her colleagues on the NEC from the principles outlined in the constitution. This was a crucial point, because from the discussions which took place at this conference, it is clear that no consensus on the meaning and expression of democracy was possible. This was partly because the practice and principles of militant action favoured strong individual personalities, and quick, spontaneous actions... Charlotte Despard's references to leaving the WFL appear to have decided the matter. The majority wanted to avoid another split in their organisation and this, along with her undeniable popularity among the membership, ensured that the vote of confidence went in Despard's favour by eighteen votes to thirty-five. (30)
As a result of this vote Katherine Vulliamy, Edith How-Martyn, Alison Neilans, Emma Sproson, Constance Tite, Bessie Drysdale and Eileen Mitchell, resigned from the National Executive of the Women's Freedom League. (31) As one newspaper pointed out: "Another split has occurred in the ranks of the suffragettes, the organisation concerned on this occasion being the Women's Freedom League, which has lost several of its most important members… It is interesting to remember that the Women's Freedom League is itself the outcome of a former 'split'. Mrs How Martyn, who was in the early militant days one of the guiding spirits of the Women's Social and Political Union, disagreed, in company with other members of that body, with the present leaders on questions of policy, and they left to form the Women's Freedom League." (32)
National Union of Suffrage Societies
Katherine Vulliamy appears to have rejoined the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies after leaving the Women's Freedom League. She often contributed articles and letters to its newspaper, The Common Cause. In December 1913 she gave her advice on the right to attend Courts of Justice. "Until someone has time and money enough to bring an action for assault against the constables who push them out of court. I suggest that as many women as possible make experimental attendances at police courts, withdrawing when requested under protest, and asking if men are also being excluded. They should be on their guard against accepting any privileged position, or justifying their position by pleading any special interest or good motive, or on any ground but that of the right as members of the public." (33) She also wrote an article, "White Slave Traffic Agitation" for the Church League for Women's Suffrage. (34)
Vulliamy also felt strongly about the design of modern housing. "According to the Daily Telegraph, such a committee is to report to the Local Government Board on the question of building construction... If the women's sphere is the home, why should the Local Government Board neglect their experience and knowledge?" Vulliamy then goes on to quote from a woman saying: "there will be new houses built after the war, why not ask women who have to live in such, to advise about the plans before they are built, so as to save space and make houses really useful instead of to make trouble and mess; and have places to store and put things away proper. Those the builders build to make money and that silly and awkward inside they just fair make a decent woman cry with not being able to alter them after they are built." (35)
On the outbreak of the First World War the three main women's suffrage organisations, National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, Women's Freedom League and the Women's Social and Political Union called off the campaign for the vote until the war ended. When the Cambridge Daily News reported that Prime Minister H. H. Asquith was accosted by "suffragettes". Vulliamy wrote to the newspaper pointing out that Emmeline Pankhurst "has long ago given up women's suffrage, and is devoting herself and her paper "to advocating a more vigorous prosecution of the war and the detection of supposed German tendencies in the Government". She added that Christabel Pankhurst "has been touring the United States with pro-Ally propaganda" and Sylvia Pankhurst "is occupied in combating infant mortality in the East End of London". (36)
Later Years
When the National Register was compiled in 1939, Edward Vulliamy, Katherine Vulliamy and their unmarried son, Justin Vulliamy (a 37-year-old architect) are recorded at 6 Millington Road, Cambridge. Edward Vulliamy is described as a "University Lecturer - Classics" and the occupation of his wife, Katherine Vulliamy is given as "Unpaid domestic duties". (37)
Edward Owen Vulliamy died on 6th January 1962, leaving effects valued at £15,397. Katherine Vulliamy of 19 Millington Road, Cambidge, died on 3rd March, 1965 at Evelyn Nursing Home, Cambridge, leaving effects valued at £36,356. (38)
Primary Sources
(1) The Vote (23rd December 1911)
The members of the Suffrage Atelier held a Christmas party and exhibition of their work at the studio, 4, Stanlake Villas, Shepherds Bush, last Wednesday. In spite of the wet weather many friends arrived, each bearing a Christmas present, presents which ranged from a mangle to a file – all of great value to the Atelier…. After tea the guests inspected the work shown in the various departments, including original drawings and designs, posters, postcards, and Christmas cards, designed and printed at the Atelier. Mrs Vulliamy (Katherine Vulliamy), of the Women's Freedom League, spoke on the work of the Atelier dwelling chiefly on its value to the Suffrage Societies and to women artists as affording them opportunities to experiment and also to become acquainted with processes of reproduction.
(2) The Vote (2nd December 1911)
I am entirely opposed in the proposal that men should be admitted as members to the WFL. Mrs. Thomson-Price, in suggesting that our society should be "the pioneer", has over-looked the fact that the National Union of Women Suffrage Societies has always, I believe, admitted men as members and frequently had them on the executive committee. Besides that, to call such a change in our constitution "evolution" is a misuse of the term, as evolution advances by differentiation, and the existence of many different societies, each adapted to the special work it proposes to do, is a far more scientific proof of the growth of the movement than any superficial uniformity could be.
I will give my practical objections to the proposal. The greatest danger is that, as we know by experience, men have got into a habit, possibly unconsciously, of interesting themselves in women's organisations more for the political advantage they can derive from them than for the help they can give them. When I was on a committee of the National Union Women's Suffrage Societies, it seemed to me that the strong party bias of some of the distinguished men members was a danger to the society; in a militant society adopting opposition to the Government as one of the recognised methods, this danger would be far greater. Our smaller Branches might easily be swamped by men from semi-political societies who could easily modify our decisions in conference. At present we gratefully welcome the help of disinterested men as associates while guarding ourselves from such a possibility…
The existence of the Men's League is the best proof that there is no sex-war, and it unites men who might differ on the methods employed by the women's societies. I cannot believe that large numbers of genuine sympathisers are prevented from pouring into the WFL because they are not given a vote in our internal organisation.
(3) London Evening Standard (8th March 1912)
Mrs. Katherine Vulliamy, of the Women's Freedom League, writes commenting on the suggestion of numerous correspondents that window-breaking by Suffragists shows that they are unfit for the vote. Mrs. Vulliamy says: "This idea is of importance to Suffragists. It assumes that the vote is a reward of virtue, and that good conduct is a necessary qualification for an entire sex before individual members of it may become citizens. I believe that the proportion of men to women criminals is about six to one, and that the crimes of violence, to human beings 60 per cent, are assaults by men or women. This being so, many of your correspondents are committed to either the total disenfranchisement of men, greater respect for glass than for human life, or the admission that the actions of women are to be judged by cant instead of common sense and justice.
(4) The Globe (30th April 1912)
Another split has occurred in the ranks of the suffragettes, the organisation concerned on this occasion being the Women's Freedom League, which has lost several of its most important members.
"We, the undersigned, have severed our official connection with the Women's Freedom League, as we disagree with the internal administration of the League sanctioned by the recent conference." (Signed): Edith How Martin, Bessie Drysdale, Emma Sproson, Eilian Mitchell, Katherine Vulliamy, Alison Neilans, Constance Tite.
All the women concerned are prominent members of the militant section, particularly Mrs How Martyn, Miss Neilans and miss Tite, who have been among the most actively concerned in organisaing the various manoeuvres to which the League has given its sanction.
(5) Shields Daily News (1st May 1912)
Another split has occurred in the ranks of the suffragettes, the organisation concerned on this occasion being the Women's Freedom League, which has lost several of its most important members…
It is interesting to remember that the Women's Freedom League is itself the outcome of a former "split". Mrs How Martyn, who was in the early militant days one of the guiding spirits of the Women's Social and Political Union, disagreed, in company with other members of that body, with the present leaders on questions of policy, and they left to form the Women's Freedom League.
(6) The Common Cause (5th December 1913)
Miss MacMillan's letter will be of great value to women who feel uncertain of their right to attend Courts of Justice. But the difficulties to be encountered are not so much legal as the result of prejudice and convention. What is needed is to remove the idea of some magistrates that women are not adult members of the public….
Until someone has time and money enough to bring an action for assault against the constables who push them out of court. I suggest that as many women as possible make experimental attendances at police courts, withdrawing when requested under protest, and asking if men are also being excluded. They should be on their guard against accepting any privileged position, or justifying their position by pleading any special interest or good motive, or on any ground but that of the right as members of the public.
(7) Cambridge Daily News (11th December 1916)
It is regrettable that in your headlines in Friday's paper you should give special prominence to "Mr Asquith Mobbed by Suffragettes." Apart from the want of proportion shown in putting a trifling street disturbance as a heading to important political events, there is no evidence whatever in your own or any other paper to connect the matter with suffrage.
Mrs Pankhurst has long ago given up women's suffrage, and is devoting herself and her paper (which changed its name from "The Suffragette" to "Britannia" at the beginning of the war) to advocating a more vigorous prosecution of the war and the detection of supposed German tendencies in the Government.
Miss Christabel Pankhurst has been touring the United States with pro-Ally propaganda; Miss Sylvia Pankhurst is occupied in combating infant mortality in the East End of London and is a supporter of adult suffrage. The Women's Freedom League is observing a truce from militancy and is promoting various kinds of suffrage and useful war-work. The National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, of course, never makes public disturbances.
(8) The Common Cause (17th August 1917)
I hope that the Women's Interests Committee of the National Union will press for the appointment of the dwellings for the working classes. According to the Daily Telegraph, such a committee is to report to the Local Government Board on the question of building construction.
I received, a short time ago, a letter from a working woman, who said "there will be new houses built after the war, why not ask women who have to live in such, to advise about the plans before they are built, so as to save space and make houses really useful instead of to make trouble and mess; and have places to store and put things away proper. Those the builders build to make money and that silly and awkward inside they just fair make a decent woman cry with not being able to alter them after they are built.
If the women's sphere is the home, why should the Local Government Board neglect their experience and knowledge?
(9) David Simkin, Family History Research (13th January, 2023)
Katherine Juliet Felicite Tite (later Mrs Katherine Vulliamy) was born in Brixton, South London, on 7th July 1875, the third of four children born to Elisabeth Felicite Virginie Despointes (1849-1898) and Arthur Tite (1841-1894), a banker's clerk who eventually became a "Bank Manager" for N. M. Rothschild & Sons.
In 1869, at St Luke's Church, Paddington,.Arthur Tite (born 1841, Folkestone, Kent) had married 20-year-old Elisabeth Felicite Virginie Despointes (born 1849, Calais, France).This union produced at least 4 children. Katherine had an elder sister - Constance Virginie Tite (born 1870, Clapham, Surrey - died 1934, Ware, Hertfordshire) - and two brothers - John Denis Tite (born 1874, Brixton, Surrey - died 1927, Folkestone, Kent) and Felix Tite (born 1877, Great Amwell, Hertfordshire - died 1952, Cambridge).
At the time of the 1881 Census, 5-year-old Katherine was living with her parents and 3 siblings at Amwell House, Great Amwell, near Ware, Hertfordshire.
In 1891, Arthur Tite (now a "Bank Manager" for N. M. Rothschild & Sons) was still residing with his wife and children at Amwell House, Great Amwell.
Arthur Tite and his wife employed half-a-dozen live-in domestic servants, including a governess, a butler, a cook, a lady's maid, a housemaid, and a kitchen maid. [ When Katherine Tite married Edward Vulliamy in 1901, she gave her late father's occupation as "Gentleman", so Arthur Tite might have been financially able to retire from working as a manager for Rothschild's bank before his death in 1894 at the age of 53 ].
On 12th January 1894, Arthur Tite of Amwell House, Ware, Hertfordshire, and New Court, St. Swithin's Lane, London, died at 26 Clifton Gardens, Folkestone, leaving effects valued at £117,098. Katherine's French-born mother, Mrs Virginie Tite, died four years later in 1898, presumably leaving her children well provided for financially.
When the 1901 Census was carried out, 25-year-old Katherine Tite was living with her older sister, Constance Tite, and older brother, John Tite, at 11 Orme Court, Paddington. London, not far from Kensington Gardens. All three siblings were "living on own means" and had no profession or occupation. Five servants were employed at their house in Orme Court, including a parlour maid, a page boy, and a male nurse, who was caring for 27-year-old John Tite, who is described on the 1901 Census return as "feeble minded".
On 21st August 1901, 26-year-old Katherine Juliet Felicite Tite married Edward Owen Vulliamy, a 25 year-old schoolmaster, and the son of Theodore Vulliamy. On the marriage register, Edward's father, Theodore Vulliamy, is described as a "Gentleman" and on the 1901 Census he had declared that he was living on his "own means". On the 1911 Census form, 76-year-old Theodore Vulliamy describes himself as a "Gentleman" and reveals that, although he was born in France, his parents were British. When Theodore Vulliamy died in 1921 he left effects valued at £12,288 and the executor of the will was named as Edward Owen Vulliamy, his only surviving son.
Edward Owen Vulliamy (born 1st January, 1876, Nonancourt, Normandy, Northern France) was the youngest son of a French-born couple, Theodore Vulliamy (1834–1921) and Amenaide Hélène Réal de Champlouis (1844–1902). Edward Vulliamy's mother had been committed to a Norwich lunatic asylum in 1889, where she died in 1902.
The union between Katherine Tite and Edward Owen Vulliamy produced 4 children:
(1) Justin Edward Vulliamy (born 10th July 1902, Edinburgh – died 1995, Lambeth, Greater London), who became an architect.
(2) Margaret Katherine Felicite Vulliamy (born 5th April 1904, Edinburgh - died 2007 in Massachusetts, USA), who married William Reitzel, an American college professor and settled in the USA.
(3) Adrian Theodore Vulliamy (born 7th January 1907, probably Scotland - died 1989, West Somerset), who became an electrical engineer.
(4) Nicholas Martin Felix Vulliamy (born 3rd October 1915, Cambridge - died 2006, Peterborough, Cambs.), who is described as a "chief engineer" in 1965.