Grace Alice Farndale
21 April 1893 to 15 March 1993

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Tidkinhow
1893
Grace Alice Farndale was
born at Tidkinhow on 21
April 1893, the
daughter of Martin and Catherine (nee Lindsay) Farndale (FAR00364) (PR and family knowledge).
Grace Alice Farndale’s birth was registered in Guisborough District in the
second quarter of 1893 (GRO Vol 9d page 525).


1900

Grace at Boosbeck School about 1900 - Grace appears to
be the first girl from left in second row - she lived in Tidkinhow.
1901
The 1901
Census for
Tidkinhow Farm, Stanghow listed Martin Farndale, head, 55, farmer; Elizabeth L Farndale,
21; Martin Farndale, 19, ironstone miner underground; Mary H Farndale, 12;
William Farndale, 10; Grace A Farndale. 7; Dorothy A Farndale, 6.

1910

The girls of
Tidkinhow with the Barker children in about 1910 (Mary Farndale at back; Willie
Barker; Dorothy Farndale; Mary Barker; Kate Farndale; Margaret Barker; Grace
Farndale; and John Barker front).
1911
The 1911
Census for Tidkinhow Farm, Boosbeck, Stanghow listed Martin Farndale, 65,
farmer, head, born Charlton; John Farndale, 33; Catherine Jane Farndale, 26;
William Farndale, 20, butcher; Grace Alice Farndale, 17; and Alfred
Farndale, 13, born 1898.

1920

Grace about 1920
Saltburn by the Sea
1921
The 1921 Census for Saltburn listed
Grace A Farndale, employee, assistant matron, Boarding School for Girls, The
Towers, Saltburn by the Sea.


Towers
School Saltburn was described as ”A High
Class Efficient School at Moderate Fees”. An advertisement appeared in
the 1928 York Historic Pictorial. The school focused on outdoor activities
The
Towers was a girls’ boarding school. I believe the school operated from the
late nineteenth century until the mid twentieth century and the school occupied
the main building and several surrounding buildings.
The
Towers School closed in 1960 when it was amalgamated with The Manor School on the
opposite side of the valley.
1922

Dorothy (centre
front) and Grace (right front) at Farndale
in about 1922
Malvern
1924
Grace became a matron at
Malvern Girl’s School in about 1924 and was there until about 1926.
Malvern
Girls' College was founded in 1893 by Miss Greenslade and Miss Poulton, and was first located in College Road. In
1919 they acquired the Imperial Hotel and in 1934, a major extension including
an assembly hall was built. Barbara Cartland (1901-2000), the novelist, is
an alumni of Malvern Girl’s College, but as she
was the same age as Grace, they probably did not quite overlap.

Grace at Malvern
in about 1924
While she was there she met a physical education teacher, Peggy Baker (BAK00002)
and the two of them became great friends. Peggy would soon marry Grace’s
brother Alfred (FAR00683).
Peggy was a bit of a pioneer and had a car and Grace and Peggy went on
expeditions together in the car during their spare time.

Grace and
Margaret (Peggy) Farndale (wife of Alfred) while teaching at Malvern College in
the 1920s
Scorton, near Richmond
1926
We
know that Peggy and Grace did not like the Headmistress at Malvern. They got so
fed up that they decided to go to
Yorkshire and start a chicken farm near to where Grace’s elder sister, Lynn (nee Farndale) Barker (FAR00564)
lived, at Scorton, near Richmond.

The cottages at
Scorton where Grace Farndale and Margaret Baker (later married Alfred) had a
poultry farm in about 1926
Martin Farndale, George Brown,
Grace Farndale, Willie Barker, and Mary Brown (nee
Farndale)
Alberta, Canada
1928
Grace Farndale of Tidkinhow
Farm, Boosbeck, followed three brothers and a sister and decided to emigrate to
Alberta just after her father died in 1928. Alfred and
Peggy also decided to emigrate to Alberta immediately after they got married,
the same year. Martin was over on a visit from Canada and Grace joined him for
the voyage back. They travelled from Liverpool to Halifax, Canada in 1928,
Grace at the age of 33, on the Athenia (incoming
passenger lists, Halifax, Nova Scotia)

Read Grace’s diary of her emigration to
Canada with some details of life at Tidkinhow. Grace’s sister Kate had come to Canada earlier and married W H
Kinsey, so Grace stayed with both the Farndales and the Kinsey families.
By the time the youngest brother, Alfred, and
his wife Margaret (Peggy) plus younger sister Grace, arrived in Alberta in
1928, the family was well known in the District. These
two members of the Farndale family settled in the Huxley
district. They lived first with Alfred's elder brother, Martin, near Trochu.

Grace Farndale
1931

The
Canadian Farndales at the Kinseys in about 1931 (Martin, Jim, Kate, Grace,
George, Alfred).
1931 Census of Canada – Red Deer, Alberta
Alfred
Farndale, 32
Margaret
Farndale, 30
Martin
Baker Farndale, 2
Marianne
Farndale, 7 months
Grace
Alice Farndale, 36

1934
Grace met Howard Holmes and they were married in Calgary on 3 April
1934. Grace moved to his farm west of Huxley and they remained there until the early fifties when
they retired to Calgary.

(Calgary Herald, 5
April 1934)
Howard Holmes farmed south-west of Huxley.
Grace Alice
Farndale, married Howard Holmes of Huxley,
Alberta at Calgary in 1934. They had no children.

Wedding of Grace
Farndale and Howard Holmes in Calgary in 1934
Kate Kinsey,
Peggy Farndale, Grace Farndale, Howard Holmes, Dorothy Kinsey, Alfred Farndale
Anne Farndale, Geoffrey Farndale, Martin Farndale

Grace and Howard
- wedding photo
The Cleveland Standard, 5 May 1934: Holmes –
Farndale. On April 3rd, in Canada, Alice, daughter of the late Mr
and Mrs M Farndale, of Boosbeck, to Frederick H F Holmes, Alberta, Canada.
Howard Holmes
From Our Huxley Heritage, 1983:
Howard was
educated in the International Boys’ School at Hampstead Heath, London. He was
expected to go into his father's business at the Baltic Grain Exchange, London,
but he wanted to be a farmer, so he came out to Canada in 1902. He hauled
freight from Calgary with a team to this area and often said the trail went through
where Irricana is today.

Howard Holmes as
a boy in the UK
In 1905, he went
to the USA and joined the Minnesota National Guard; he was a Sergeant. He
returned to Canada in 1909 and bought the southwest quarter of section 12, west
of Huxley and settled into farming.

In 1918, Howard
joined the Canadian Army, the 31st battalion at Red Deer and went overseas. He
returned around 1920 or later, owing to being in the hospital. Howard then bought
the Guy Shaw quarter which was the one north of his own and again started
farming.
He was active in
the Great War Veterans Association in Huxley, which became the Royal Canadian
Legion Number 2 branch, being a charter member and a past president.
Grace Farndale
was born in England and came to Canada with her brother Alfred and wife Peggy
in 1928. Their sister Kate had come to Canada earlier and married W H Kinsey,
so Grace stayed with both the Farndales and the Kinsey families. She met Howard
and they were married in Calgary on 3 April 1934. Grace moved to the farm west
of Huxley and they remained there until the early 50s
when they retired to Calgary.

Howard Holmes
The Holmeses
lived on what had been Guy Shaw’s Ranch and he likely built the house. It had
many rooms which seemed to have been built on separately, all having their own
roof with a chimney protruding out of each, one or two rooms had a fireplace, others
a small coal and wood heater. Despite all those chimneys the house was reported
to have been very cold.
1935

Howard Holmes’ Homestead at Huxley.

Grace's
ranch
Inside Grace's ranch - the drawing room - about 1935

Howard Holmes on
sleigh on ranch about 1935 Howard Holmes
cutting corn in Alberta about 1935

Grace on verandah
in Canada

1940

Grace,
Canada about 1940
Howard and Grace Holmes
1946

Martin
Farndale and Howard Holmes at the Holmes Ranch in Alberta in about 1946
1955

Howard
Holmes at the ranch in Huxley in about 1955
Howard died on 10 January 1955. Grace continued to live in Calgary and Elmer Fraser rented the farm
until she sold it in 1961 to Walter Anderson.

Howard died on 10
January 1955 and Grace continued to live in Calgary
and Elma Fraser rented the farm until she sold it in 1961 to Walter Anderson.
Grace sailed to
Liverpool in 1955 to visit Gale Bank
Farm, arriving on 8 August 1955 on the Empress of France of the Canadian
Pacific Line (Incoming Passenger Lists).

1960s
Living on in
Canada

FOOD FOR THOUGHT is
dispensed in the library by members of the auxiliary society
and, in addition, members accompanied the bookmobile to wards when patients
cannot get around to return and select books. Mrs Howard Holmes is acting as
librarian and David Rose selects a new book. At rear
is RM Adam reading one of the current magazines kept in the library.

Grace and
brother George Farndale about 1960 in Calgary Grace , Mary and
Catherine (Kate) - Farndale sisters - at Sylvan lake
in 1960s Grace outside Dunrovin, Grace’s cottage on Sylvan Lake, Alberta

Dorothy Kinsey,
Grace Holmes and Dolly at the Goodbrand Farm in Lacombe, Alberta

Grace
with Anne and Stephen. The caption says ‘a kite was flying’
Leyburn, Wensleydale
1967
In 1967 Grace moved back to England where she lived close to Alfred
and Peggy. In 1967 Grace
moved back to England where she is still living. She's been back to Canada for
a couple of visits since that time, as she has two nephews, George and Alfred Kinsey
living in the Trochu, Three Hills area and a niece Dorothy Goodbrand living in
Red Deer, as well as many who still remember her in the Huxley area.
Later she returned to live
at Leyburn, Yorkshire until she died.

Grace (left) with
John and Elsie, Alfred and Dorothy
1978
Grace
with Anne’s son, Stephen at Alfred’s Golden Wedding in March 1978
1986

Grace
in Leyburn in 1986
1992
Grace died aged 99
at Leyburn on 15 March 1993. She was cremated
and her ashes are buried in Leyburn Church yard (all
from family knowledge, Probate Index).

Holmes. March 15,
at Wensleydale House Nursing Home, Leyburn, (late of St Matthew’s Close,
Leyburn), aged 99 years, Grace Alice (nee Farndale), beloved wife of the late
Howard, much loved sister of the late Alfred Farndale, of Gale Bank, Wensley,
and a very dear aunt. Service and cremation at West Cemetery Crematorium, Darlington,
on Friday March 19, at 2.45pm. Friends please meet at crematorium. (Yorkshire Post, 18 March 1993).