Henry Edward Spernon Tozer (1864-1955)
Henry Edward Spernon Tozer, more commonly known as Henry Spernon Tozer was born on 5th December 1864 at 20 High Street, Bluetown, Sheerness. The son of Henry Edwin Tozer and his wife Mary, nee Childs. On the 4th January, 1894 he married Mary Ann Fosbery at Thursley Church. He died at The Clump, Thurlsey on 15th November 1955.
The picture is of Thursley Post Office at The Clump in 1927, and one of the men in front of the building is alleged to be Henry Tozer.
Henry Tozer has always been thought of in Thursley as the man who ran the Post Office. He was far more than that. In order to show how important he and his family were I will start his biography with his grand father. This will show the family connections to Devon and Cornwall.
The name Tozer is derived from the old trade of ‘teasing’ cloth.
His grand father was Henry Tozer, christened at Stithian in Cornwall on 3rd June, 1802. Stithian is not far from Falmouth and was the centre of the tin mining industry. He married Mary Heat at St Davids, Exeter on 5th December, 1819. The next record of them is on the 1841 Census when they are living in St Annes, Soho, London. He was a tin plate worker and his wife a milliner. Soho then was not what it is today. The census is hard to read, but 3 young ladies were living with them, probably assistants. Henry died at Kingsbridge in Devon in 1848 and in 1851 Mary is living there as a widow with family.
They had a son Henry Edwin. He was born in 1838 and records give various places, St. Annes, Soho, The Strand and Leicester Square. In 1851 he is at a boarding school in Blackheath, Kent. It seems the family had money. It is there his birth place is given as Leicester Square. However it is more likely it was The Strand as that was where it was registered in 1839. In 1861 he married Louisa Griffin at St Martin in the Fields, London.
In 1864 they were living at 20 High Street, Bluetown, Sheerness, when he was a draughtsman at HM Dockyard. In 1871 he and his family are living at 13, Albion Road, Milton, Kent. He is now a Marine artist in water colour and drawing on wood for engraving. In 1881 the family are living at 38, Almorah Road, London. In 1891 they are living at St. Just, Cornwall with two of their 3 children.
On the 1901 Census, Henry Edwin is living in South Huish, Devon and his wife in Kingston on Thames with her now married daughter. She describes herself as a widow. Henry Edwin did not die until 1913. He had one painting exhibited at the Royal Academy.
Two examples of the work of Henry Edwin Tozer, Marine Artist.
The children of Henry Edwin and Louisa were Henry Edward Spernon, born 1864 at Sheerness, Kent.
Marianne born 1866 at Sheppey, Kent and Eustace Arthur born 1868 Milton, Gravesend, Kent. Marianne married Osborne Windsor in 1896 at South Huish, Devon, and in 1901 is living in Kingston on Thames with a young family and her Mother in Law. Osborne is an Ironmonger.
In 1891 living with his family in Cornwall, Eustace Arthur describes himself as a water colour artist of landscapes. In 1901 he is still single and living at Lydford, Devon as a landscape artist and sculptor. His paintings have gone through Auctions and are mainly of Dartmoor and similar locations.
A Dartmoor painting by Eustace Arthur Tozer
This brings me to Henry Edward Spernon himself. In 1891 he is lodging at The Clump, Thursley with William Fosbery a builder and his daughter Mary Ann. He gives his occupation as artist and figure painter. On 4th January 1894 he married Mary Ann at Thursley Church. Witnesses were his sister Marianne and her husband to be Osborne Windsor, People that remember Mrs Tozer in her old age state she had ginger streaks in her hair. In 1898 Henry Spernon painted a picture of a ginger haired young woman with vegetables.
This painting is almost certainly his young wife, but I can not prove it. (I hope those vegetables won prizes at the flower show).
It is my belief his paintings were of family and characters in the village at the time. The following picture is of the sculptured bust of William Karn Fosbery, which has since been lost. There is a photo of him in old age.
Henry Spernon painted a picture of an old white haired man with a white beard, who has the same characteristics and posture. It has to be William Karn Fosbery.
It is thought that this picture is of Mary Karn at Punchbowl Farm.
Most of Henry Spernons paintings are of older people in domestic situations. There is one that is not. Could it depict something that happened in the village? Who was called to account and for what? It is certainly different to his normal domestic situation paintings.
Called to Account
Below are a few more examples of his art.
The Quilt
This picture hung in the passageway between the shop and living accommodation for many years.
A great many of his paintings have passed through Auction Houses here and in Canada in recent years. He was a very prolific and at least 50 works of art are attributed to him through Auction Houses. This includes Bonham’s and Christies.
Henry Tozer used the name Henry Spernon and his wife was known as ‘Annie’ in the family. They had a family of their own and I give what is known about each one. The month of birth given is the Quarter of the year the births were registered.
Philip Henry S Tozer. December 1894. The only thing known about him is that he had something to do with the oil industry in Persia. (Iran)
Edwin John Tozer. June 1896. There is nothing known about him at the time of writing.
Mary Beatrice Kathleen Tozer. September 1897. On 2nd September, 1915 in Thursley Church she married Archibald Pitchers of Busbridge who was a Hosiery Manufacturer. His father was a Tailor. Archibald was 27 and Mary 18. Mary went on to run a wool shop in Godalming.
Marjorie Ann Tozer. Born 5th March 1902 and died 15th June 1904. She is buried in a marked grave in Thursley Churchyard
Francis William S Tozer. Born9th July 1903 and died 28th May 1920. He is buried with his sister.
Doris Alicia Tozer. Born 19th March 1905. She died in Poole, Dorset June 1986 at the age of 86. She never married. It was her who registered her father’s death in 1955. She was then 50 and single. Doris ran a wool shop at the top of Guildford High Street It is known from several sources that Doris believed in Fairies. She had 2 that lived at The Clump with her, Isabel and Jezebel. There were holes cut in the doors of the house for them to be able to get around.
From the Fosbery family history it is known that Annie rented The Clump from her brother William and ran the Post Office and General Store from the premises. She even took over the upbringing of William’s 2 daughters after his first wife died in spite of the fact she had a family of her own, and they continued to live with her even after Williams second marriage.
In the 1920′s William converted a workshop at the bottom of the garden into a house and erected a studio at the back for use of his brother in law Henry Spernon. Henry used it in the winter months and during the summer the house and studio were rented out to the artist Eveline Lance. She eventually came to live permanently at The Outlook with her companion, Miss Wharton. In 1929 after Eveline’s death she took over the tenancy and lived there for the remainder of her life. William then built Henry Spernon another studio in the garden. This stood until just recently. It had a glass window roof, and Reg Fosbery when he lived there used it as a garage for his car.
Henry Spernon was not only an artist. He was photographer as well. He took photos of Thursley Church and had them published as Postcards. They were in fact printed as far away as Europe. Two examples are below.
This postcard is the only one I have found with his name on the front, the others have his name on the back. He no doubt took the pictures himself and had them printed into postcards for sale in the Post Office. To have them printed in Europe in those days would have meant posting the negatives abroad and the card sent back to Thursley.
This postcard is his picture of the inside of the Church.
This postcard has H. S Tozer. Thursley. Surrey on the reverse.
Henry Spernon was described by people who remember him as a ‘toff’ and a ‘gent’. This probably means he was a typical Victorian gentleman.
Henry Spernon died at The Clump at the age of 90 on 15th November 1955, but his story does not end then. The Registrar recorded his cause of death as Arteriosclelorosis. On the 27th April 1956 another Registrar altered this to Atherosclerosis.
A search of the burials in Thursley on the Burial Index shows Henry not being buried in Thursley. To date I have no idea where he is buried, Could it be in Poole?
I think his wife Mary Ann died in 1949 and if that death record is her, then she did not die in Thursley.
Researched and written by Norman Ratcliffe. April 2008
For and on behalf of The History of Thursley Society.
norman.ratcliffe@ntlworld.com
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to the assistance given to me by:- Monica Moseley; Keith Moseley; ‘Cocker’ Keen; Eddie Morgan; Mary Kalinowski and David Williams.