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Margaret Mysie Aglio Dibdin b. 27 May 1896, Mayfield Grange Rd., Sutton, Surrey m. 24 Jun 1922, All Saints, West Dulwich d. 1978 Arthur Gerald Cowham b. 1895, Lewisham 4/4 d.1977 Links to Mystery Play written by Margaret while working in Lancashire Letter to Lionel and Cecily Dibdin from India 1930 Letter to Peter H Dibdin from India 1935
Additional Comments Up to date information on Cowham Family Site Gerard Cowham considered himself to be an Anglo-catholic priest and was understood to be very high church. His wife Margaret (nee Dibdin), being very dramatic by nature, went along with this approach to life and it is felt that this had an immense impact on their offspring. He was still working as priest in the 1960's in the parish at Kew a stones throw from the famous Kew Gardens. Because of their strong, shall we say obsession views, they would not allow her to have a necessity and feasible operation as it was felt that "her affliction was the will of God". Having an afflicted child who had to stay at home meant that Margaret had an permanent companion, almost slave. Mary had to "run away" from home in her thirties early one morning, and was surprised to find a network of friends and family waiting to greet her. Within a short time she obtained the necessary operation and then emigrated. Her life story is an inspiration to all that read it. There is evidence of Gerard's strong attitudes in the 1920's. A letter to his Brother-in-law Rex Dibdin while he was mentally ill after the First World War, seems less than helpful and Margaret's condemnation of her brother, because his wife left him and he lived with his housekeeper, continued through his death and was express at Rex's funeral in 1957. It must be said that at the time of W.J.Dibin's death in 1925, Lionel writes in a letter to his sister Marian Montford in Australia that Margaret and Gerard had been very helpful especially looking after Marian Dibdin their mother. Further insight of Margaret can be obtained from two available letters from India, one to her nephew Peter, two years after his parents died and another to her brother Lionel in 1930, three years before he died. These letters give us some background to Gerard and her life in India as well as comments relating to other members of the family. By about 1939 she was back in England leaving Gerard in India and settling temporally with her three children in a family house sharing it with Marian Montford, her sister and her three children after they return from Australia after the death of Paul Montford. The drama of this situation is beautifully documented in an unpublished autobiography "Unspoken Hope" by Mary Cowham. Letter to Lionel and Cecily Dibdin from India 1930 Letter to Peter H Dibdin from India 1935 Four Family Photographs from the archives.
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Up to date information on Cowham Family Site