One Mystery Solved - Edward Brittain Jones

Edward Brittain Jones, William Fox Pinhey, Fanny Maude Pinhey (née Knevitt), Fanny Sarah Stillwell (née Pinhey), Robert Knevitt Pinhey, Thomas Knevitt Pinhey, Clarence Stillwell (seated) - 1907

Edward Brittian Jones with Pinhey and Knevitt Families at Shernden Grange, Edenbridge

Daniela Jones, from Santiago Chile, solved the mystery of the identity gentleman of Japanese ancestry in the Pinhey family photos at their home in Shernden Grange. He was Edward Brittain Jones.   Daniela is the great-granddaughter of Edward and a distant cousin of mine.  She provided me with the following information on Edward's life:

"He was the son of Edmund Brittain Jones, who was the younger brother of Sarah Matilda Knevitt, mother of my great grandmother Fanny Maude Pinhey (née Knevitt).  

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Edmund traveled to Yokohama Japan, where he married Ishiwata Mayo or Miyo, they had an only son, Edward, but unfortunately Ishiwata died when he was only 1 year old. His father Edmund decided to send him to England to be raised by his sister (Fanny Maude Pinhey) and the Stillwell family."

Daniela also provided me with the following from a family history book published by her grandfather, Kenneth Jones:

"Edward, Lydia´s husband, was born in Yokohama, Japan, on February 1st 1889 and passed away on October 5th 1980 in Quilpué (Chile). His father Edmund Brittain Jones was born on August 1st, 1845 in Wrexham, his grandparents were Edmund William Jones and Eliza Hammond. His mother, Ishiwata Mayo or “Miyo”, a Japanese lady whose origins we know nothing about. His father, a real estate agent according to document), went to Yokohama where it seems he worked as a businessman and/or possibly as a Steamship Company agent. He married Ishiwata and Edward was born. She passed away one year later and Edmund sent his little boy to England to be raised by his family, to be more specific with some cousins whose surname was Stillwell. Edmund stayed in Japan for the rest of his life, where he died. We don´t know if he returned to see his son and we don't have any documents of a trip to England. From a practical point of view Edward was abandoned.

He wasn't inscribed at the British Consul in Yokohama as a British citizen. In 1910 he obtained citizenship and curiously his certificate was signed by Winston Churchill, Secretary of State. In the last few years of his life I asked him many times to tell me about what he knew about his Japanese ancestors, but he insisted that he knew nothing. It was surely true because his British family had done everything possible to hide this embarrassing episode of his history. If we travelled to the last few years of the 19th Century in Britain, for families with lineage a marriage to someone of the yellow race was almost worse than marriage with the black race. It was inconceivable. Still worse if from the union were born mongrel children. Because of this since Edward was young he received the pejorative nickname “Jappy Jones”, in other words a second class Brit, not of pure blood. We will from now on call him “Teddy” (a common nickname for Edward) as he was lovingly called by his friends and family.

We must recognize that the Stillwell family did everything possible to make Teddy into a perfect British country gentleman. He was educated at “Lord Weymouth Grammar School”, Warminster, close to Salisbury and Stonehenge. He told me with much pride that once a year the top cricket team (in which he played) was invited to play against the great house of Warminster team, the home of the Duke of Devonshire, and after had tea with the Duke´s family. Many years later I visited this palatial House which, like all grand British houses is open to tourists to reduce taxes. It is enormous with more than one hundred rooms, antique furniture and painting galleries making it a true museum. Today the large park has been converted into an open zoo without fences. One enters in their car and drives between families of lions, rhinoceroses, giraffes, etc. Very impressive! Obviously it is strictly prohibited to get out of the car. Living with the Stillwell family he learned to love the countryside, fishing and horses. One relative that filled him with pride was his cousin Jack Brittain Jones, Major of Black Watch, one of the most famous regiments in Britain, and assistant to Lord Willingdon Viceroy of India.

After finishing school he began working at Anglo South American Bank in London. A letter of recommendation from the Director of his school says the following:

“I have been asked to write in relation to Edward Jones who has been a student at this school for more than three years. As he has lived for ten quarters in the boarding school I manage, I have had the opportunity to know him well. I have always found him responsible and proper, although not brilliant in his studies but with versatility and a strong will, capable of completing any task. He has very good manners and is popular with the other students. I dare to think that it is very probable that he gives satisfaction and will be useful in any appropriate situation for his age and circumstances. August 3rd, 1906.”

After some years, the Bank offers him the possibility to work at the office in Valparaiso. In this way in 1911 he arrived to Chile a far and distant land from his loved England. He worked at the main office on Prat Street. Later the Bank changed its name to “London and South America Bank” and finally to “Bank of London”. Today the building is used by Santander Santiago Bank. Surely he came to Chile thinking in this country he wouldn't have to live under the stigma to be a half Japanese and that way was. Although some friends still called him “Jappy Jones” this was a friendly nickname.

The British community in Valparaíso wasn't so big, so when he arrived probably was introduced to everyone. Teddy when he was young was really handsome, and the Japanese features weren't notorious, with the beauty Lydia Swinglehurst they formed a very striking couple."

Many thanks to Daniela for providing the details on Edward's life. She also provided my with a copy of an indenture (loan document) from Edmund Brittain Jones to William Fox Pinhey, which will be the topic of a subsequent post.