Hetty Schwob

The Beginning

For as long as I can remember I knew that my great grandmother, Hetty, had been a private detective and married to a Frenchman who came from Alsace and apparently went mad because he didn't know if he was French or German. For some reason I didn't ask any questions and nor was there any conversation about my intriguing sounding great grandparents. During my parents' lifetimes my focus was on researching my paternal grandmother and great grandmother with equally fascinating and mysterious life stories (Josephine and Gertrude Schnitzer - josephine.aoart.co.uk and more recent research here). I was recently reminded that Hetty was involved in the investigation into a notorious 1930s scandal - I was gripped and my research began.

Irish origins

Both of Hetty's parents were born in Ireland, Patrick Marshall c.1831 in Lisselton, Ballybunion, County Kerry and Catherine Grady in 1845 in County Mayo. In 1852, at the age of 22, Patrick signed up to the Royal Scots Regiment of Foot at Tralee, County Kerry and saw over 21 years service, including 15 years overseas. The couple were married in August 1866 in the parish of Kinsale in the diocese of Cork and Ross and by the time of Patrick's discharge from the regiment in 1874 he was a married man with two young sons and a daughter on the way. Both eldest sons were born in East India, Henry in 1871 and Augustus in 1873. Fanny/Florence was born in Liverpool in 1874.

Patrick's army discharge papers provide us with a brief description of his physical appearance at the age of 43: 5 ft 7 inches, fresh complexion, brown eyes, dark brown hair and with no marks or scars. He intended to settle in Listowel, County Kerry near to his birthplace in Ireland but we know that the family were living in Liverpool from 1874 as confirmed by Fanny's birth place in the 1881 census. In the census Patrick's occupation is "Chelsea Pensioner & Storekeeper 5th LRB" - if interpreted correctly the latter may have been an opportunity for employment that he took with the 5th Liverpool Rifle Brigade and the reason for settling in Liverpool. Otherwise there were plenty of Marshalls born in Ireland but living in Liverpool at that time and their choice of home may have been due to family connections.

"When I was visiting my grand Aunty Cissie (widow of Patrick Marshall Junior) and her daughters Betty and Valda in Liverpool, in 1971, when I was 26, I saw a painting of her father-in-law Patrick on the wall (maybe it was a photograph, I can't remember) and I took a snap of it. It was a coloured snap that has faded but with photo edit I was able to get the colours deepened. So glad now that I did. Otherwise it would have been difficult to find out anything about his life. A friend in Liverpool recognized the Crimean medal which was an important fact, and he found out that Patrick was a Chelsea Pensioner which led us to the discharge papers. I wonder whatever happened to the painting. Betty and Valda never had children. My mother used to say that Valda collected engagement rings! So it is impossible to trace Patrick's picture."

Early life, Liverpool

Hetty was the fifth of the seven children eventually born to Patrick and Catherine Marshall. The family were likely to have been living at 204 Upper Warwick Street, Toxteth Park at the time of her birth; this is the address recorded in the 1881 and 1891 Censuses and it is a stone's throw from St Patrick's Catholic Church where on 23rd March 1879 Hetty "Esther Margarita Marshall" was baptised.

1891 & 1901 Censuses

The Marshall family, including all of Hetty's siblings except for Augustus, were still living in Upper Warwick Street in 1891. Patrick was Storekeeper with the 2nd Volunteer Battalion Liverpool Regiment but he died from double pneumonia soon after the census was taken at the age of 59 on 20th May, leaving Catherine/Kate a widow age 45 with four offspring still scholars - Florence, 16, Henrietta (Hetty) 12, Bridget 8 and Patrick 6. Following father Patrick's death and by the time of the 1901 Census the family had moved to 152 Northbrook Street and Hetty, now age 22, was working as a ledger clerk.

Pregnancy and marriage

The next recorded event concerning Hetty, now aged 27, is the birth of a son, Stanislas, on 16th November 1906. The place of birth was 126 Upper Warwick Street, the same street as the Marshall family had lived in until some time after Patrick's death in 1891. Most women at this time would be attended in childbirth by a local woman and this may have been the home of a neighbour who acted as an informal midwife. The father's name is Jean Jacques Stanislas Schwob, a Cotton Broker's Clerk and presumably, for the sake of respectability, the mother is recorded as his wife - "Esther Margaret Schwob formerly Marshall". The address given for Hetty - 3 Kelvin Grove, Toxteth Park - just half a mile away from the Marshall family home, was occupied in both the 1901 and 1911 Censuses by a widow, Elizabeth Miller. In 1901 four of her sons, a servant and a boarder were also recorded at the address. It seems likely that Hetty registered the address where Jean Jacques was boarding at the time of Stanislas' birth to maintain the image of a married couple and new baby.

The following year on 18th September 1907 Hetty and Jean Jacques were married at the Register Office in The Strand, London. Hetty would have been about 5 months pregnant with their second child. On the marriage certificate (see below) - Jean Jacques Stanislas Schwob, age 27 years, a cotton merchant, father, Paul Schwob also a cotton merchant and Esther Margaret Marshall, age 24 years, no profession, father, Patrick Marshall (deceased) - of independent means. Their residence at the time of the marriage was the Hotel Cecil in The Strand. It is interesting to note that Hetty's age is recorded as 24. For some reason she contrived to be 4 years younger than her actual age of 28 and this younger version became her official age hereafter.

It is interesting to speculate on how their respective families responded to Hetty and Jean Jacques' marriage. Hetty's family were Roman Catholics and Jean Jacques' were Jewish.

Jean Jacques Stanislas Schwob

Jean Jacques was born to Paul Schwob and Berthe Eugénie Hagnoer on 26th November 1879, the eldest of four children. The entry in the Paris register for births is in beautiful handwritten script and records Jean Jacques' father Paul as a "manufacturier" age 30 and mother Berthe age 23 with no profession. "Manufacturier" translates as industrialist or factory owner and this corresponds with what is known about the Schwob family's substantial textile empire.

When and how did Hetty & Jean Jacques meet?

Hetty and Jean Jacques met some time between 1902 and early 1905. The former being the time when Jean Jacques arrived in England for the first time, as reported in a later newspaper item (further details follow), and the latter based on Hetty's first pregnancy. At this time Liverpool was the centre of the raw cotton trade and presumably Jean Jacques was working there as a cotton merchant on behalf of the Schwob family business. There may be a clue in the 1901 Census to confirm that they met at a shared workplace - after Hetty's occupation of "Ledger Clerk" there is written what appears to be "French M??".

... birth of a second son

Hetty and Jean Jacques' second son, Bertrand Raymond Paul was born on 19th January 1908 at 4 Pickering Road, Liscard, Wallasey. Jean Jacques' occupation is "Cotton buyer". Between the birth of their two sons Hetty and Jean Jacques had moved from Toxteth Park to the Wirral Peninsula and now lived very close to the seaside resort of New Brighton, a far more pleasant place for a young family.

... the 1911 Census and a third son

No member of the Schwob family can be found in the 1911 Census, taken on 2nd April. It is possible for people to be missed off a census but the omission of all the Schwobs points to the likelihood they were not in the country at that time.

Hetty and Jean Jacques' third son, Claude, was born 17th November 1911. His birth cannot be traced in the GRO index of births, Ancestry or Findmypast. Unless the birth was unregistered or incorrectly indexed this absence from the records adds weight to the idea that they were in France around this time.

Passage to New York

Ticket number 211366 was booked in the names of Mrs E M Schwob, Master B Schwob and Master Jean Schwob, departing from Liverpool on 15th September 1915 on the White Star Steamship Cymric. The passenger departure list is a fascinating document - Hetty's age is declared as 32, but she actually turned 36 earlier that year - she continued to adopt her younger persona. Bertrand is 8 (actually still 7) and Jean (Claude) 2 years and 10 months (actually 3 years 10 months). Hetty's profession is Actress and the country of which they are citizens is France. The country of intended future permanent residence is USA.

Equally fascinating is the passenger arrival list. The three Schwob entries have a line drawn through, which almost certainly means that Hetty and the boys didn't embark the ship after all. Their nationality is given as "France", Hetty's Race or People is "English", the boys' is "French". Last permanent residence is "London". The name and complete address of the nearest relative or friend in country whence alien came is "Mr Alexander, George Hotel, Watford" - no mention of Jean Jacques. Their destination is New York City, Lafayette Hotel which drew its clientele from New York's French expatriates and the bohemians of Greenwich Village. Esther is an actress, 5ft 4ins with brown eyes and brown hair. The law at this time was that British-born women who had married foreign nationals (who had not naturalised) acquired their husband’s nationality and this may account for the combination of "France", "French" and "English" in the answers given.

It appears that Hetty was set to make an adventurous atlantic crossing, possibly to start a new life in New York, with her two younger sons. Still just 8 years old, where was Stanislas? It was the second year of World War I and sea voyages were not without risks. It may have been because of this that she decided against the trip, or, a new career opportunity (see below) or, a combination of the two. Concerning the dangers of sea voyages, just a month before their planned crossing the S.S. Arabic became the first White Star Line passenger ship to be sunk as a result of the war, having served the Liverpool to New York and Liverpool to Boston routes. On 19th August 1915, the German submarine U-24 torpedoed Arabic, and the ship sank in 9 minutes. 44 lives were lost with 390 survivors. Earlier that year, on 7th May, the Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat off the coast of Kinsale, Ireland.

Following the sinking of the Lusitania with the loss of nearly 1,200 lives, many Liverpudlians included, anti-German riots broke out in the city. Attacks were made on the shops, homes and property of those suspected of being German. It must have been a worrying time to have a German sounding surname e.g. Schwob.

The liner on which Hetty booked to travel, S.S. Cymric, was lost the following year on 8th May 1916. Without any warning, while sailing near Ireland, the liner was torpedoed by U20 – the same submarine that had sunk Lusitania. The ship foundered and started to sink; 5 lives were lost and the survivors were rescued and taken to Ireland.

Trouble for Jean Jacques

Following Hetty's aborted voyage to New York in September 1915, the next records uncovered concern the Greenwich Police Court case in which Jean Jacques was accused of failing to comply with the Aliens Resriction Order. From the newspaper reports we learn that Jean Jacques was living in Brixton and had been in England for 16 years - since 1902.

Almost certainly as a result of his brush with the law in November, Jean Jacques visited the French Consulate in London on 21st December 1917. On the reverse of his original marriage certificate are stamps for the receipt of 6 francs in payment for verification by the registrar, Thomas Craddick.

Jean Jacques in the French Army

By October the following year, 1918, Jean Jacques was in France working as a temporary interpreter in the French Territorial Army and it appears that he continued in that role beyond July 1921, when the position was made a permanent one.

MILITARY INTERPRETERS CORPS

By ministerial decision of 30 September 1918 and by application of the decree of 3 December 1914, appointed on a temporary basis and for the duration of the war:

At the rank of trainee interpreter.

Reserve.
For German and English languages. Mr. Maillot (Pierre), sergeant in the 63c reg. territorial Infantry - Assigned to armies.

Territorial Army.
For the English language. Mr. Schwob (Stanislas-Jean-Jacques), soldier of the 20c section of S. E. M. R. - Assigned to army staff.

Entry for Jean Jacques in the Journal Officiel de la Republique Francaise (translation below)

Territorial Army

By ministerial decision dated 23 August 1922, appointed as of 22 July 1921, to the custody of territorial trainee interpreters on a permanent basis, the territorial trainee interpreters on a temporary basis whose names follow:

Section of secretaries of staff of the military government of Paris.

Schwob (Stanislas-Jean-Jacques).

The Lady Detective

Arrow's Detective Agency

Acting as a witness in court in 1932, Hetty said she had been employed by Arrow's Detective Agency for 17 years. This dates the start of her work as a detective to 1915 and could have been the reason for her abandoning the crossing to New York in September of that year: a new career opportunity. Charles Arrow, a famous Chief Inspector of the CID, New Scotland Yard opened the detective agency in Chancery Lane in 1911 on his retirement from the police service.

Charles Arrow gave an interview to the Daily News and Leader in September 1912 about the work of the woman detective and his answers help to conjure the qualities and character that Hetty must have possessed to enable her to succeed in detective work.

"Is there any special training needed?"

"No, but many qualities go to the making of a really good detective, and every acquirement may prove useful. A good education, an excellent memory for faces and for details, that knowledge of the world and of human nature which comes by travel, are all invaluable, while, of course tact, discretion, nerve, perseverence, and the ability to make friends easily and win people's confidence are necessary. Dress, of course, is also an important point. A detective must be dressed to suit the part she has to play. If she is sent to a fashionable hotel she must be dressed as well as the guests staying there, and be able to comport herself as one of them. In dealing with a lower class of society a different style of dress and manner is necessary. The detective must be 'all things to all men.'"

"Quite; and for certain kinds of work requiring great tact and delicacy they are even better. They are more intuitive, and that is rather an advantage in detective work. A good deal of work for lawyers is done by ladies, and this is much more agreeable than many other forms of detective work."

1919-1920 Gold Coins Case

The earliest newspaper report found that mentions Hetty by name is the Gold Coins Case in 1920. She kept watch on the defendants and their activities at the Hotel Cosmo, Southampton Row day after day the previous November and gave evidence for the prosecution in court.

1921 Lord Lanesborough divorce

"Hetty Schwab, a woman detective, said she served the divorce papers upon the respondent and Lord Lanesborough. The Earl was in a bedroom with the respondent. He was dressed and sitting on her bed. His lordship granted petitioner a decree nisi with the custody of the two children."

1921 Census - no sign of Hetty, Jean Jacques or Claude

Taken on 18th June 1921 there is no sign of Hetty, Jean Jacques or Claude in the Census. However, Stanley and Bertrand Schwob (age 14 and 13 respectively) are recorded as boarders at 60 Norfolk House Road, Streatham, SW16. Head of the household was 26 year old butcher Leslie Yeales living with his wife, mother and two sisters. The house is about a 2 mile walk from Dulwich College where the boys were educated, the fees believed to have been paid by an uncle - possibly a Robert Schwob or Harry/Henry Marshall.

1922-1930 ... no records or reports discovered

As yet no newspaper reports or any other records have been found for the period 1922-1930 that directly concern Hetty, Jean Jacques or their sons. Hetty's mother Catherine Marshall died in February 1929 and was buried in a catholic cemetery in Liverpool. Censuses were taken in France every 5 years and further research may reveal that Hetty and family spent time in France.

1931 Frinton ladies slander action

Miss Edith Mary Regge, proprietress of a boarding and day school for girls in Frinton, brought an action against Miss Read and Miss Hawtrey, also involved in the provision of education, for making slanderous statements about her establishment. Hetty's role had been to visit Misses Read and Hawtrey on the pretence that she was looking at schools for a niece and to bear witness to slanderous statements in support of Miss Regge's action for damages. Mr Justice McCardie seemingly did a good job, with the parties finally agreeing a settlement and "he hoped all three ladies would become and remain permanent and loyal friends."

1932 The Rector of Stiffkey

Harold Francis Davidson (14 July 1875 – 30 July 1937), generally known as the Rector of Stiffkey, was a Church of England priest who in 1932, after a public scandal, was convicted of immorality by a church court and defrocked. Davidson strongly protested his innocence and to raise funds for his reinstatement campaign he exhibited himself in a barrel on the Blackpool seafront. He performed in other sideshows of a similar nature, and died after being attacked by a lion in whose cage he was appearing in a seaside spectacular.

The principal character in this story is the Revd Harold Davidson (1875-1937). After studying for the priesthood Davidson enjoyed a brief theatrical career before being appointed rector of the quiet North Norfolk coastal village of Stiffkey. He devoted only Saturdays and Sundays to his parish, spending his weekdays in London ministering to young girls, some on the theatrical fringe, some prostitutes. There were suggestions that pestering was perhaps sometimes nearer the mark. Following a complaint made to the Bishop of Norwich by a seventeen-year-old called Barbara Harris, Davidson was investigated and charged with five counts of immorality under the Clergy Discipline Act. The trial in 1932 attracted feverish interest - A J P Taylor [historian] described the Davidson affair as the 'sensation of the decade'.

The trial

The trial of Harold Davidson began on 29th March 1932 at Church House, Westminster. The police were not involved in the case because it was a Consistory Court trial (i.e. ecclesiastical) and not a criminal prosecution. The legal firm representing the Bishop of Norwich, Lee, Bolton and Lee, hired Arrow's Detective Agency to investigate and provide evidence of Davidson's immoral behaviour for the prosecution. There were several detectives from Arrow's working on the case - Christopher John Searle, Percival H Butler, Inglebert Ralph Thole and of course, Hetty. She was the final witness to take the stand on 7th April and was challenged by the defence counsel Richard Levy about the occasions that she and Christopher Searle plied a witness, Rose Ellis, with alcohol and gave her money to buy a coat.

The Daily Mirror described Hetty as a "fashionably dressed woman" and a photo provided by another of Hetty's great granddaughters, Carolyn Schofield, would endorse that opinion (below left).

Hetty's death

Hetty died on 7th July 1932 from a cerebral haemorrhage at St George's Hospital, Hyde Park Corner. Her death was registered by my grandfather, her middle son, Bertrand, who was with her when she died. Her fictitious age was made official on the death certificate - "48 years"; she actually turned 53 in February that year. Her death was widely reported in the press on 8th July, the same day that the judgement of the Consistory Court was announced - Harold Davidson was found guilty of six of the charges brought against him.

There was a belief held by Hetty's children that her involvement in the Rector of Stiffkey case was the cause of her death. It would certainly have been the most high profile case she had worked on. Her cross examinataion in court, the intense public and press interest could well have caused anxiety and stress, contributing to her unexpected demise. But it is more likely that she was suffering from some underlying health conditions that caused her sudden death.

"One of the most brilliant woman detectives in the history of crime"

There was a glowing tribute to Hetty in The People on 10th July (see article and transcript below).

It seems that the details were supplied by Charles Arrow, "the head of Arrow's Agency" referred to in the story. Her fictitious age is woven into the article - she began working for the agency aged 30 and was with them for 18 years i.e. from around 1914, when she was actually 35 years old. We learn that she was a talented actress, a multi-linguist and that her work took her to France and Germany.

Mrs HETTY SCHWOB, a prominent witness in the Rector of Stiffkey case, who has just died at her home in Maida Vale, was one of the most brilliant woman detectives in the history of crime.

She scorned disguise, though she was a mistress of make-up. She had the rare ability to enter into the life of the part she was called upon to play.

Whatever the role, she filled it to perfection. She assumed the manner of any type and could act it to life.

In this way she mixed with princes, peers and charwomen, and mingled as easily with the fashionable women in a Mayfair hotel as the rough seafarers in a Limehouse drinking-den.

And as an expert linguist, it mattered not to her whether her operations took her to a London night club, the Latin Quarter of Paris, or the beer gardens of Berlin.

She did not become a detective till she was thirty. A late start, some would think. But the head of Arrows's Agency which she served faithfully for 18 years, regards it as an excellent age for the work.

Her death recalls the famous Bank of England Gold Case, in which she played a leading part. The Bank was investigating the mysterious drain of golden sovereigns at a time when the gold piece was worth six shillings more than its sterling value.

In a few months gold weighing over 18 cwt and valued at £100,000 had been withdrawn by a man named Joseph Sykes, who described himself as a moneylender. These coins never went back into circulation. They vanished.

But at the same time large quantities of gold in bar form were bought by a well-known firm of assayers, at the rate of nearly £10,000 a month.

Inquiries revealed that the racket was in the hands of a highly organised gang, which included a gold miner, a horse dealer, and a diamond dealer.

Mrs Schwob found that Stevens, the gold miner, invariably met his wife at a hotel in Southampton Row. This woman would enter the writing room carrying a heavy bag.

Satisfied that no one was watching, she would then hand to Stevens a bulky package, which he would put in his pocket.

And Mrs Schwob never let this pair out of her sight until there was enough evidence to arrest them, and lay the rest of the gang by the heels.

Jean Jacques' death

On the fifth of October one thousand nine hundred and thirty-six, two o'clock, died at his home, rue de Charonne 161, Stanislas Jean Jacques SCHWOB, born in...without information known to the declarant, on the twenty-fourth of November one thousand eight hundred and seventy-nine, without profession, son of Paul SCHWOB, and Berthe HAGNOER, husband deceased; widower of Hetty MARSHALL. Drawn up on October 5, 1936, 12:30, on the declaration of André BLOUET, thirty-one years old, employed in Paris, 9 place Voltaire, who, having read it, signed with Us, Louis CAUSSONEL, Knight of the Legion of Honor, Deputy Mayor of the eleventh arrondissement of Paris.

Jean Jacques' mother Berthe died in 1911 and his father Paul Schwob died in 1920. His siblings outlived him - Jeanne Estelle, Henri Alfred and Raymond Emile died in 1943, 1961 and 1981 respectively. Jean Jacques was 56 years old at the time of his death.

Jean Jacques' date of birth is incorrect on the the death register entry - it is recorded as 24th November, it was 26th November, yet the maiden name of his deceased wife, Hetty Marshall, was included.

Jean Jacques was buried on 8th October at Cimetière Parisien de Thiais in a location identified as 26 21 42.

What sort of man was Jean Jacques? Was he a good husband and father? Did he abandon his wife and children in 1918 when he returned to France to work as a translator in the army? The boys would have been ages 12, 10 and 6. Did he end his days living alone in Paris, apparently without working - "sans profession", maybe unable to work due to mental health issues?

My impression is that he was more of an absence than a presence in the lives of his sons. Hetty began working as a private detective around 1914 when the boys were 8, 6 and 2 years old and this may have been out of financial necessity if she was effectively a single parent. However, the boys were privately educated, at Dulwich College and possibly prior to that at a preparatory school. Handed down family hearsay is that the school fees were paid for by a Schwob relative.

Conclusions

Uncovering some of the life of my great grandmother Hetty has been like an armchair archaeological dig. A very rewarding dig - the more delving and sieving through the archives the more that was revealed of this remarkable woman. She left behind a trail for me to uncover, more than most women of her era. Undoubtedly there are many more discoveries to be made - in the French archives and maybe from other as yet unknown descendants.

What a woman! I have huge admiration for Hetty and feel proud that she was my great grandmother. Little could she have known that a future great granddaughter would "play detective" and research her life. She was born in the Victorian era and at a time when women didn't have the right to vote and most married women didn't work. By all accounts she was a linguist - probably speaking French and German. She bagged herself a French husband and in so doing opened up an unusual life for herself - not the life of most girls born to Irish Catholic parents living in Toxteth Park in the 1870's.

Photographs

The photo above left is confirmed as Hetty (written on the reverse of photo); is the other photo Hetty? It looks like the same woman but older. Note very low side parting and hair.

Schwob no more ...

Sounding like a character from an Agatha Christie novel, any reference made to my great grandmother, which wasn't often, was "Hetty Marshall", a private detective. But Hetty, married to Jean Jacques Schwob, used her married name throughout her private and professional life. Six months after her death the surname Schwob began to be erased from family history. My grandfather, Bertrand, Hetty's middle son, married Phyllis Kate Widdicombe in January 1933 and his name is recorded "Bertrand Raymond Schwob otherwise Marshall". It appears that Bertrand was thinking about a change of name.

However, the name Schwob stuck for a while longer ... in June 1933 my mother was born - her birth certificate records Bertram and Phyllis Schwob as her parents. Bertrand has become Bertram - less French sounding perhaps? Probably not many years later Maureen Schwob became Maureen Margaret Marshall and she may never have been conscious of the name Schwob. A charming anecdote my mother used to relate - as a young schoolgirl in class her hand shot up when the teacher asked what MMM stood for; "Maureen Margaret Marshall" she said! The correct answer, of course, was Manners Maketh Man.

By the time of the 1939 register the name Schwob was expunged from the Marshall branch of the family and that name change was reverse engineered into what little was spoken or known of Hetty's life.

Schwob Marshall Family Tree

Below is a selective compact family tree to help clarify the relationships between family members mentioned. Where only some offspring are shown I have indicated those and the total number with a string of zeroes and ones.

The French genealogy website geneanet.org has some helpful Schwob family trees including one set up by Céline Mantion - gw.geneanet.org/cmantion.

The Schwobs

I set out to do for Hetty what I had done for my paternal grandmother and great grandmother back in 2012 (Josephine and Gertrude Schnitzer - josephine.aoart.co.uk) - to research and record her life, to satisfy my own curiosity and for the curiosity of future generations. If I could offer any advice to my younger self or younger relatives it would be to ask questions while the opportunity exists, particularly of grandparents. The focus has become as much about the Schwob ancestors as it has about Hetty - by marrying Jean Jacques our heritage came to embrace a large French Jewish family who developed textile empires. For some reason, probably because of the abandonment of the Schwob name, I have always thought of the ancestors on my mother's side as Marshalls. But the Schwobs loom large, this is what I've discovered so far about Jean Jacques' family.

Schwob textile industry - a short history

During the 1914-1918 war, Guy de Place and Léon Damas Froissart had a business relationship with the Schwob brothers from Héricourt.

The textile company Schwob Frères et Fils was founded in 1859, by the merger of the companies Stanislas Schwob et Fils, from Lure (Haute-Saône), and Schwob Aîné et Fils, from Belfort. From 1865, the house was run by Stanislas Schwob and his sons Emile, Edouard and Paul, and took the name Schwob Jeune et Fils, then Schwob Frères in 1878. After Paul's retirement in 1884 and Emile's death in 1889, the company is managed by Edouard, Emile's widow Maria Simon and their son Julien, and Edouard's son André joins in 1896.

Rapidly and for decades, the company grew and diversified in Héricourt: spinning, weaving, dyeing, bleaching. In 1902 a workshop for making military effects was set up in Chenebier; in 1911, the company bought the weaving founded by Fritz Koechlin around 1885. It continued its expansion and built or took over other textile factories in Valdoie and Saint-Germain-le-Châtelet (Territoire de Belfort), Montbéliard and Pont-de -Roide (Doubs), Gouhenans (Haute-Saône), Bolbec (Seine-Maritime) and in the Lille region. The Héricourt factories employed 110 people in 1863, 800 people in 1905 and 850 in 1920.

A cousin, Edmond Schwob (born in Lure in 1857-died in Paris in 1947), founded the Mechanical Weaving factory in Moislains around 1895, a town where he was a municipal councilor (1904-1919).

The starting point of the business is the takeover in 1859 of the Moulin establishment by fabric merchants, the Schwob of Lure and Belfort. After the withdrawal of the Schwob from Lure, under the impetus of the brothers Emile and Edouard Schwob, then of Edouard who remained alone, new workshops were born and the number of looms and spindles continued to grow. In 1900, there were 1,000 and 25,000 respectively for a workforce of 1,000 workers. Between 1900 and 1914, Edouard Schwob, his sons and his nephews, gave the business a new extension.

After the Great War, the Schwob family, who took up residence in Paris, set up a managing director to administer the factories. The workshops are working at full capacity, making a wide variety of colored fabrics. Between 1920 and 1930, the numbers increased from 1,100 to 1,400, a figure that remained until the eve of the war. At that time, 1,600 looms and 50,000 spindles were in service in the Héricourt workshops. During the occupation, the factories - they run in slow motion - are forced to fulfill orders for the Germans.

At the Liberation, the Schwob family sold the factories to Marcel Boussac who sold them to Gillet-Thaon in 1947. The workshops were running at full capacity. The workforce is at its highest level in 1952 with 1,500 employees.

With the crisis affecting textiles in the 1950s, a policy of increasing productivity and reducing the workforce began. These fell to 1,000 in 1960 and then rose again until 1968. That year, the “Cottonnière d'Héricourt” factories were integrated into the Texunion group, which in 1969 came under the control of DMC. Despite major adaptation efforts, the situation remains worrying. After a regrouping under DMC-Geliot in 1988, the productive apparatus was restructured once again, but the decline in activity resulted in the closure of the two Héricourt units: the Moulin spinning mill in 1989 and the Pâquis weaving mill in 1991.

Jean Jacques' family

Jean Jacques' paternal grandparents Stanislas Schwob and Estelle Bernard had a large family of eleven children. Just one of the eleven siblings died in childhood, Hermanse, aged 4 in 1846. On his father's side of the family Jean Jacques had nine aunts and uncles and a large number of cousins. To learn more about the Schwobs I started to look at some of Jean Jacques' relatives - his father, uncles and cousins.

Jean Jacques' uncle Édouard and cousin Georges

I was interested in the significance and origins of the appendage of d'Héricourt that some of the Schwobs used. Jean Jacques' cousin, Georges Julien Schwob was the son of Eugène, Stanislas and Estelle's eldest child. From the Wikipedia entry for Georges, a businessman of some note and awarded the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour in 1931:

His uncle Édouard Schwob (1844–1929) added "d'Héricourt" to the family name after the town of Héricourt of which he was mayor from 1879 until his death.

Adding to ones surname the place of origin or land ownership was sometimes desirable to give the appearance of nobility, it is not necessarily an indication of nobility, as is the case with the Schwob d'Héricourts.

And a snippet of information on Schwob family history:

His family was Jewish, had been living in Alsace since 1681, and had established a major textile enterprise.

There are no photographs of Jean Jacques, so I was pleased to find that the Wikipedia entry for Georges included a photograph. Cousins can, of course, look nothing alike, but it helps to evoke the Schwob family's appearance.

Jean Jacques' father Paul

Paul was Stanislas and Estelle's ninth child, born 1849 in Lure in the Haute-Saône department in eastern France.

Paul married Berthe Eugénie Hagnoer at the age of 29 on 28th November 1878 at midday in the 10th arrondissement of Paris. They went on to have 4 children; Jean Jacques Stanislas, my great grandfather (1879-1936), Jeanne Estelle (1881-1945), Henri Alfred (1883-1961) and Raymond Emile (1889-1981).

According to the Schwob family biography on the website lettresfamiliales.ehess.fr (see above) from 1865 the textile company Schwob Frères et Fils was run by Paul's father Stanislas with sons Emile, Édouard and Paul. Paul left the company in 1884 when he was age 35 and Édouard took over running the company along with other family members. Further research in connection with the cotton trade in Le Havre may reveal more details about Paul's business activities.

However, there was one incident that was widely reported in the British press. In 1893 when his children were aged 14, 12, 10 and 4 years, Paul Schwob was arrested for irregularities carrying out his business of cotton trading in Le Havre:

There is a fascinating letter written to the London Evening Standard on 2nd June from "Havre Merchants" furiously correcting the Reuter's report since the mis-statements were likely to do serious injury to many firms in the town. The letter states that the deficit of one million five hundred thousand francs was incorrect and there was in fact a nominal surplus of one hundred and sixty-five thousand francs.

How much damage was done to Paul Schwob's business by this disaster? Bankruptcy and losses of over 1.5 million francs sounds very serious. How interconnected Paul Schwob's business in Le Havre was with the Schwob textile factories in Haute-Saône is not known - further research is needed to find out more.

More Schwob family trouble

Reported by the law gazettes in 1908/09 was a case tried in the Court of Appeal in July 1908 concerning Henri Schwob, Paul's middle son and with Jean Jacques' involvement. The language is complex and does not translate well using an online facility, however, this section may give the gist of what had happened:

... in May 1904, Henri Schwob, then a minor, living with his father, in Paris at 51 Avenue Malakoff, defrauded, in agreement with his older brother, Jean-Jacques, a motor car to de Spons, persuading him, with the help of fraudulent manoeuvres, that he was in a state to fulfill his commitments, as being in close relations with MM. Schwob d'Héricourt, and, as it were, later to be a partner in their house;

The case seems to hinge on the plaintiff M. de Spons claiming that Paul Schwob was responsible for the "fraudulent manoeuvres" carried out by his son Henri, in collusion with his older brother Jean-Jacques, because Henri could be regarded as a minor, presumably being just under the age of 21 at the time, and the responsibility of his father. The nature of the fraud is hard to decipher, but is in connection with a car - maybe the purchase from de Spons. Henri clearly made use of the Schwob d'Héricourt name as a means to an end and claimed that he was to become a partner in their business.

It is interesting to note that Jean Jacques, according to the statement he gave in court in London in 1917, had been in England since 1902, but it seems likely had been to-ing and fro-ing between France and England. The outcome of the case was that Paul Schwob was not responsible for his son's actions.

Jean Jacques' cousin Jacques Schwob d'Héricourt

One of the absorbing aspects of my family history research is how many fascinating offshoots there are to explore. Searching online for Jean Jacques Stanislas Schwob I came across Jacques Schwob d'Héricourt - Jean Jacques' cousin and my cousin 3x removed. Born in 1881, the youngest child of Emile (Paul Schwob's older brother) and his wife Maria Simon, he was just 2 years younger than Jean Jacques. Jacques married Jenny Spira in 1905 and is described in the marriage register as a manufacturer and of the Jewish religion - de religion Israélite.

The reference to being Jewish is something that I haven't seen in any other registration records for the Schwobs. It may indicate that some branches of the Schwob family were observant Jews and others were secular or semi-observant. That Jacques Schwob d'Héricourt is listed as a donor in L'Univers Israélite in February 1933 indicates that he was active in the Jewish community:

UNIVERS ISRAÉLITE, French-language periodical which was published in Paris from 1844 to 1940. In its first issue it was described as a "monthly religious, moral, and literary journal," but from January 1846, it adopted as a subtitle "journal of the conservative interests of Judaism." Then a bimonthly publication, it proposed to consider all political or social events that might have some direct or indirect bearing on the Jewish community. From 1896 it appeared as a weekly until the fall of France in May–June 1940. For decades it had been the organ which published the principal statements of the chief rabbis of France.

The 1911 Census finds Jacques, age 30, living with his wife, two young children and two servants in the Grande Rue, Faubourg de Belfort, Héricourt. His profession is "industriel" and he is the patron, or boss. It is interesting to note that on the same census page, listed above the Schwob family are 4 neighbours who as employees have "Schwob" as their employer or company name. Further examination of the census shows pages and pages, dozens and dozens of families, living on the Schwob workers' housing estates, employed in the cotton workshops as weavers, scrapers, blacksmiths, engineers and dispensers.

There are some fascinating photographs at the patrimoine.bourgognefranchecomte.fr website - search for 'Schwob' to view old postcards and photographs of workers, the industrial workshops and workers' housing estates

Jacques Schwob d'Héricourt clearly had a liking for fast cars as reported in L'Auto - M. Jacques Schwob d'Héricourt has just placed an order for his Weymann sedan; he likes, for fast cars, closed, silent, light bodywork, etc

By the early 1930's Jacques had changed career or at least branched out into a more glamorous world to be executive producer of 11 and producer of 4 films between 1933 and 1940 (unifrance.org).

World War II and death of Jacques

The website memorialgenweb.org is dedicated to identify and honour soldiers and resistance fighters who gave their lives for France during conflicts or missions, civilian victims of acts of war, as well as foreign soldiers who died on our territory. It was there that I began to find more information about the terrible fate that befell Jacques Schwob d'Héricourt:

Jacques SCHWOB D'HÉRICOURT was born on 07/09/1881 in the commune of Héricourt, department 70 - Haute-Saône. Husband of Jenny SPIRA (1884-1959).

Jacques was a victim of the 1939-1945 conflict.

Jacques died in deportation on 12/10/1943 at the age of 62 at "Camp de Birkenau" in the municipality of Oswiecim in 9122 - Poland. The French Republic awarded him the mention "Mort pour la France".

The following remarks were noted on the various media: SCHWOB at the JORF [Journal officiel de la République Française] and at Yad Vashem [The World Holocaust Remembrance Centre in Jerusalem] - - Manufacturer, manufacturer of cotton fabrics at the Lizaine cotton mill (Béthoncourt) by Ets Schwob d'Héricourt (large Jewish family of merchants of assets, of renowned financial and industrial tradition) - Had a residence in Bénerville - Interned in Drancy under registration number 5594 - Drancy Deported from Drancy by convoy 60 of 7/10/1943 bound for Auschwitz - Disappeared during deportation - inscription in his memory on the family tomb in the cemetery of Passy (Paris 16) bearing the title "Died for France".

The collection of all this information was possible thanks to the voluntary contributions of 30/06/2010 - Philippe FRILLEY - Mémorial de la Shoah - J.O.R.F. N° 253 dated 30/10/2011 page 18353 - Yad Vashem file 3218283

The name of Jacques SCHWOB D'HÉRICOURT appears in the following MémorialGenWeb statement: 14 - Benerville-sur-Mer - War memorial at le cimetière de l'église Saint-Christophe

Yad Vashem in Jerusalem - the World Holocaust Remembrance Centre - also has records for Jacques Schwob d'Héricourt:

There are full details of convoy 60 at yadvashem.org, including testimonies, the transport route, victims' names and historical background.

Another source of information is the website of Mémorial de la Shoah, the Holocaust museum in Paris memorialdelashoah.org:

Benerville-sur-Mer, Cannes, Drancy, Auschwitz-Birkenau

From the details above it is possible to piece together a rough outline of the last years of Jacques Schwob d'Héricourt's life. The entry on MémorialGenWeb refers to a residence owned in Benerville - he had moved from Héricourt to the north coast of France, a short distance southwest of Le Havre. There is a war memorial in Benerville-sur-Mer to commemorate Jacques. His is one of two names under the heading 'MORT EN DÉPORTATION'.

When France surrendered to Germany in June 1940 and anti-Jewish legislation and activity increased many Jews would have moved out of the occupied zone and headed south for their own safety. It is reasonable to assume that it was around this time Jacques moved from Benerville to Cannes - 25 Rue Shakespeare.

During the first half of September 1943 Jacques became a victim of a Nazi round-up and was incarcerated in the Hotel Excelsior in Nice. The hotel was requisitioned by the Nazis due to its proximity to the railway station. On 24th September Jacques was marched to the station and forced into a train carriage along with 80 other men. It was on the journey from Nice to Drancy, the concentration camp 12km northeast of Paris, that Jacques performed a selfless and heroic act.

Hadley Freeman's deeply affecting and absorbing book "House of Glass" is the story of her Jewish ancestors. Her great uncle Alex Maguy, an extraordinary man and a highly successful couturier and later gallery owner, was living in Nice with permission granted to run his salon in Cannes. He too fell victim to one of the vicious Nazi round-ups in September 1943:

The Nazis had arrived in the city just over a week earlier. Alois Brunner, the notorious Jew hunter, came to Nice on 10 September and his police had already started conducting raids. The Germans seized control of the roads and train stations, and the Jews were now in what Serge Klarsfeld, then a child in Nice, described as 'a kind of trap'. Even French Jews, who had previously been able to take their safety for granted, knew that the leniency they'd enjoyed under the Italians was over. What had been happening to their friends and families in the north was about to happen to them, and every Jew in the region was terrified.

... the Gestapo burst into his [Alex's] salon on Place Méimée, arrested him and brought him to the Hotel Excelsior in Nice, Alois Brunner's headquarters [19 September].

... Brunner renamed the Excelsior 'camp de recensement des juifs arrêtés, dépendant du camp de Drancy (camp for arrested Jews going to Drancy). He ostensibly turned it into a prison where he dumped the Jews rounded up during the raids. He then tortured them, beat them, ordered them to give the names and addresses of their families under pain of death and then put them on a train to Drancy, the French concentration camp that had taken over from Pithiviers.

... on 24 September, Alex - by now bruised and almost broken from all the beatings - was dragged out of his cell in the Excelsior along with his cellmates and pushed by the guards towards the train station. A train was waiting for them there. [...] Alongside him was the cellmate he had become closest to during his imprisonment, a lanky Frenchman called Jacques Schwob Héricourt, and the two of them got into the same train carriage together, along with eighty other men. 'Can we escape? They can't treat us like sheep. We have to do something.' Alex whispered to Héricourt. But neither of them could think of anything they could do.

... [Alex] noticed a patch of moonlight on the floor of the train and looked up to see where it was coming from. Up in the top corner of the back of the train there was a hole where two planks of wood had rotted away. He stared at it.

... he tapped Héricourt on the arm and pointed up to the hole. Héricourt looked at it, then back down to his friend and nodded, understanding. While everyone else in the carriage stared, he picked up Alex, all five feet of him, and lifted him to the opening. The train was travelling fast, 90 kilometres an hour, but what difference did it make? Die trying to escape or die a passive prisoner - Alex knew which option he'd choose, every time. And so, while the whole carriage watched, Alex reached towards the small opening and punched it, making the hole a little larger. He could now fit through it, just. And then, with a helping push from Héricourt, he threw himself out of the moving train.

To find out what happened to Alex I recommend reading House of Glass. Jacques was held at Drancy until he was deported on convoy 60 leaving on 7th October 1943. The hellish train journey to Auschwitz-Birkenau took approximately 55 hours (garedeportation.bobigny.fr) meaning Jacques would have arrived at Birkenau on the 9th/10th October. His date of death - his murder - is recorded as 12th October.

There is a degree of ambiguity surrounding Jacques' deportation and death. There are comments in the MémorialGenWeb entry - "died in deportation" and "disappeared during deportation". However, the dates of his departure, arrival and death and his status recorded as "camp inmate" suggest that he survived deportation and was murdered within a short time of arriving at Birkenau.

Schwob meets Schlumberger

Another interesting branch of the family tree sprang from the marriage in 1937 between Jacques Schwob d'Héricourt's daughter Claire and Pierre Schlumberger. The Schlumberger brothers Conrad (1878-1936) and Marcel (1884-1953), members of a wealthy cotton weaving family from Alsace, became pioneering engineers and developed new methods for prospecting metal ore and subsequently surveying for oil. During World War II the company headquarters were moved from Paris to Houston.

Marcel's son Pierre, born 1914, was the brothers' only male heir and he took over the company. He and Claire Schwob d'Héricourt had five children before she died in 1959. They were prolific art collectors and co-founded the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston.

Because we share greatx3 grandparents, Stanislas Schwob and Estelle Bernard, Jacques Schwob d'Héricourt's great great grandchildren are my 4th cousins. This is of no great significance ... except there is a small chance that this branch of the family may have knowledge and photographs of our shared ancestors.

Pat Marshall on her grandfather Augustus Marshall

Hetty's older brother and executor

Augustus, (Gus) Marshall was born April 30th 1873 in Peshawar, India (now Pakistan) an Indian British Subject as his father Patrick was posted there with the 5th Lancashire Rifle Volunteer Corps.

I have been able to get Patrick's discharge papers. Patrick joined the Royal First Foot regiment in Tralee which is near Ballybunion and was overseas for 15 years. It looks like his first posting was in the Mediterranean, China, East Indies and then Crimea and the form says that after discharge he planned to reside in Listowel but obviously he ended up in Liverpool not long after. I wonder where his wife and the two boys spent the time he was in Crimea. According to the 1891 census, she had a baby, Fanny, in Toxteth in 1874. There is no month recorded for his discharge in 1874 but it must have been early in the year.

His mother was Catherine O'Grady (the family said that she was from Cork). They thought her surname was Brady but I believe that it was Grady. She must have dropped the O'

His siblings: Henry J. born in 1871, Florence (Fanny) 1874 or 5, Ellen 1876, Henriette (Hetty) 1879, Bridget, Patrick 1885.

Gus married Mary Kelly in June 1901 in Liverpool. They had 5 boys: Arthur, Phillip, Ray, Fred and J. Leslie (my father) fraternal twins, Jan 27th 1911.

Gus died on January 30th 1942 at 29 Elm Hall Drive, Liverpool. Gus Marshall died before I was born.

He had a very good singing voice. He was a bass baritone and I have these press clippings about him (see above). He performed in 'Smoking Concerts' around Merseyside and for the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (I have a programme somewhere) but when they found out that he bet on horses they let him go. The boys also took an interest in the horses! Gus Marshall's life of music was of much more interest to him than his business activities.

Gus was not called up for the First World War because he virtually had sight in only one eye. He was a partner with Mr Thompson and Mr Towers in a firm called Truman Engineering Supplies in the Strand, Strand St, Liverpool. On Saturdays, Mary would bring the boys to his office and they would all then go to Coopers for afternoon tea. But the business folded in 1919. He told Fred: "Never take a partner. The hardest ship to steer is a partnership."

He then got a job as a Commercial Traveller. At one point he represented the Liverpool Borax Company whose main product was a treatment to soften the water in commercial boilers. He earned a reasonable wage but was not good at paying bills including the rent. When the Jewish owner, Mr Cohen sold the houses to an Irish woman, she called the bailiffs to have the family evicted.

They then lived with Gus’ younger brother Pat in Northbrook Street until they found another place in Upper Parliament Street. After that, his wife took over the finance.

My mother lived with my paternal grandparents after they were married in December 1939 and my Dad joined the RAF.

She lived there until Dad came home in 1945. She said that Pop, as they boys called him then, was very charming. When they were young the Marshall boys called him "Pater" and their mother was "Mater", the Latin names for Father and Mother. Later they called their mother "Marzie".

That is all I know about Augustus Marshall. My Dad told me that one house they lived in at Garmoyle Road was haunted and the priest had to come and perform an exorcism. But that has nothing to do with the Grandad I never knew.

Further research

• patrimoine.bourgognefranchecomte.fr - search for 'Schwob' for photographs of the cotton industry and workers' housing estates
• liverpoolcotton.com
• Digital archives in France - by Department aupresdenosracines.com
• Dulwich College archives
• Rector of Stiffkey court transcript at Lambeth Palace
• Charles Arrow Detective Agency
• Identify boys' school from blazer badge in photograph by the sand dunes
• Upload DNA results to geneanet.com to find French matches
• Digital archives in France - by Department blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/enemy-aliens-great-britain-1914-1919/
• Use of the addition of d'Héricourt to the surname Schwob.
• Jewish Section, Alsatian Museum, Strasbourg, France

Useful websites

• yadvashem.org - article on Jews in France during world war 2.
• france24.com - article on how Jews survived in France during world war 2.
• familysearch.org
• myfrenchroots.com
• en.geneanet.org
• Military abbreviations
• gro.gov.uk
• rootschat.com
• blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk
• Cotton mill at Béthoncourt