Gwendoline Emily (Meacham) Wood (1892 - 1981)

Born 29 Oct 1892 in Maidstone, Kent, England

Ancestors

Died 30 Jun 1981 at age 88 in Edinburgh, Scotland

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Biography

Wendy (Meacham) Wood is Notable.

She was born, Gwendoline Meacham, in Maidstone, Kent, in 1892, where her father was a brewery chemist.

A few years later, her father became the brewery manager for Olssons Brewery in Cape Town, South Africa, and the whole family moved there. She had a number of adventures associated with the Boer War, and with accompanying her father on visits to the Boer farmers who provided the raw materials for the brewery. These included finding a black mamba (poisonous snake) in the bed, and the unintentional betrothal (by exchanging hats) with a farmer's son. The family was friends with Baden-Powell, and she joined the early Boy Scouts, along with her brother.

As a teenager, she was was sent to boarding school in Tunbridge Wells (outside London), run by Scottish schoolmistresses. This is where she became infatuated with Scottish culture. At the same time her sister, Meena, 6 years older, was living in London and studying piano. Meena moved in Bohemian circles, and was friends with George Bernard Shaw, H.G.Wells, Yeats, Eric Gill and others. After one evening with Meena and her friends, a young protege of GBS insisted on accompanying Wendy to the station, where she was catching a train back to school. While there, he bought two round trip tickets to Paris, and tried to convince her to go with him. Finally, when she was on the train to Tunbridge Wells, he handed her a box of chocolates, and, as the train started moving, he said: "Even if you won't go to Paris with me, thanks for a lovely night". She spent the trip back to Tunbridge Wells under the disapproving gaze of her fellow passengers.

She trained as an artist, and worked as both an artist and an author. Before WW I she married a Scotsman, Walter Cuthbert, and had two daughters, one of whom lived to be over 100. After WWI they separated. She moved to Edinburgh with her two daughters and she became very active in the Scottish Independence movement. This is when she started calling herself Wendy Wood, to emphasize her artistic heritage- her mother's father was the sculptor Samuel Peploe Wood, and his brother was the painter Thomas Peploe Wood.

In the 1930s, at a demonstration celebrating the Battle of Bannockburn (the last MAJOR victory of the Scots over the English, in the time of Edward I), she looked up and saw the GIANT Union Jack flying over Stirling Castle and decided it had to come down. At the time, part of Stirling Castle was open to tourists (6d admission), and part was an active Army Barracks. She and her followers marched through the tourist entrance, refusing to pay the "saxpence" (Scots shouldn't have to pay to enter their own castle), and barged through the gate to the barracks, to the dumbfounded stares of the soldiers. They climbed to the top of the tower, and took down the Union Jack. Wendy pulled a similarly giant Royal Standard out from under her skirt (so clearly premeditated), and ran it up the flagpole. She put the Union Jack under her skirt and walked off. The Union Jack ended up under her carpet, but Eric Linklater wrote a roman-a-clef in which the clearly-based-on-Wendy character flushed the flag down the toilet. She sued him for libel (thereby keeping the Scottish Independence cause in the news) and eventually settled out of court for a farthing damages.

In the 50s (McCarthy period) she flew to New York to raise money for the cause. On her passport, she crossed out "United Kingdom" and wrote in "Scotland". When they landed in NY, she was asked to remain in her seat while the other passengers left. She thought "Now I am done for!" for mutilating her passport. But it turned out there was a pipe band on the tarmac to greet her. In New York she asked for a "large Manhattan", thinking it would be a club sandwich. She also thought some of the trash cans were post poxes, and almost got arrested for jay walking.

When Queen Elizabeth came to the throne, Wendy was adamant that she might be Elizabeth II of England, but she was only Elizabeth I of Scotland. Wendy was part of a group that went around "paint bombing" anything that said "E R II". Eventually the authorities stopped putting ANY royal insignia on the post boxes in Scotland.

In 1972 (at the age of 80) she held a hunger strike for home rule, and she died in 1981, aged 89.

She was NOT involved in the theft of the Stone of Scone from Westminster Abbey, but wished she had been.

She wore the same clothes almost every day- a pleated skirt in Ross tartan (women DON'T WEAR KILTS, they wear pleated skirts) with a white blouse and a green jacket, and a green cape when it was cold.

It was said of Wendy that "she never let the 'mere truth' get in the way of a good story".

One example is her claim that her grandmother was Scottish. Not true. She had an English great aunt. Alethea Wood, who married (in her 50s) a Scots merchant named Ross, and they retired to Dalbeattie, Dumfriesshire, Scotland. Her father built a holiday house in nearby Kippford, and the family spend many holidays there.

England & Wales births 1837-2006 Transcription

First name(s) GWENDOLEN EMILY

Last name MEACHAM

Birth year 1892

Birth quarter 4

District Maidstone

County Kent

Country England

Volume 2A

Page 696

Record set England & Wales Births 1837-2006

Category Birth, Marriage, Death & Parish Records

Subcategory Civil Births

Collections from Great Britain, England

© brightsolid online publishing ltd

Passenger Lists leaving UK 1890-1960 Transcription

First name(s) G

Last name Meacham

Title MISS

Gender Female

Age 20

Birth year 1893

Occupation ARTIST

Departure year 1913

Departure day 6

Departure month 3

Departure port London

Destination port Cape

Destination CAPE

Country South Africa

Destination country South Africa

Ship name Guildford Castle

Ship official number 132611

Ship master's first name EDWARD A

Ship master's last name SYLVESTER

Shipping line THE UNION-CASTLE MAIL STEAMSHIP CO. LTD

City LONDON

Ship destination port SOUTH AFRICA

Ship destination country SOUTH AFRICA

Ship square feet 7625

Ship registered tonnage 7995

Number of passengers 77

Record set Passenger Lists Leaving Uk 1890-1960

Category Travel & migration

Subcategory Passenger lists

Collections from Great Britain, England

Transcriptions © brightsolid online publishing ltd

1911 England, Wales & Scotland Census Transcription

1 Fitzjohn Avenue Barnet, Chipping Barnet, Hertfordshire, England

Household Members

First name(s) Last name Relationship Marital status Sex Age Birth year Birth place Occupation

Lillian Florence Hughes Wife Married Female 24 1887 Maidstone Kent -

Patrick Cairus Hughes Son - Male 2 1909 Barnet Herts -

Infant Hughes Daughter - Female 0 1911 Barnet Herts -

Cicely Simmons Servant Single Female 21 1890 Barnet Herts General Servant Domestic

Hilda Isabelle Meacham Visitor Single Female 19 1892 Maidstone Kent -

Gwenolen Emily Meacham Visitor Single Female 18 1893 Maidstone Kent -

Ethel Cooper Visitor Single Female 30 1881 Norwich Norfolk -

Sources

• Find My Past
• Wikipedia Wendy Wood
• Textualities Wendy Wood (to be taken with a grain of salt as it includes some of Wendy's "good stories")
• Siol nan Gaidheal Wendy Wood (also to be taken with a grain of salt)
• I Like Life by Wendy Wood (Edinburgh: The Moray Press, 1938)
• Yours Sincerely for Scotland – June 18, 1970 by Wendy Wood