Violet Amelia Shone

Elizabeth Ann Shone, the daughter of John Shone and Emma Kynaston was born on the 25th July 1881 at Moreton Say, Shropshire, where her father was a farm labourer. She had two older sisters, Mary, born in 1872 and Jane, born 1874, both at Ash, Shropshire.

On 5th April 1891, Elizabeth’s sisters were servants to Richard Vernon Eardley, a farmer, at Old Bellaport, Norton in Hales, Shropshire. Elizabeth, a scholar, was still living with her parents at Almington, probably at Red Bull on the A53, as she was only 9 years old.

On 31st March 1901, at the census, Elizabeth was living with her mother and father, a farm labourer, at, Almington.

By the following winter, Elizabeth was working as a maid at Cheswardine Hall where the squire was Ralph Charles Donaldson-Hudson, born on the 23rd February 1874, having inherited the hall when he became of age in February 1895. On the 27th July 1899, he married at St George, Hanover Square, London 22-year-old Muriel Balfour when he was 25 years old. After their marriage, Ralph drove a coach and horses all the way from London to Cheswardine Hall.

Ralph allegedly engaged Elizabeth Ann in illicit sexual activity in late February 1902, when she was only 20 years old. His wife, Muriel Balfour was about 12 weeks pregnant at the time. Elizabeth subsequently gave birth to a daughter, Violet Amelia Shone on the 29th November at Red Bull, Almington. Elizabeth’s mother was present at the birth. The registration entry clearly indicates that the name of the father and his occupation are unstated.

Attached below are pictures of Violet Amelia Shone and her alleged father Ralph Charles Donaldson-Hudson

Young, single and disgraced, Elizabeth gave the child to her parents John & Emma to raise, and the promise to keep the secret that the father was Ralph Charles Donaldson-Hudson.

“Money exchanged hands” for basic care and to keep the child’s identity under wraps.

When Violet was a child, an older “Lady" from Cheswardine Hall arrived (apparently RDH's mother) at Violet's country school in a motorcar and asked to “See the child, Violet.” After this visit, the Shones were presented with an offer for to take the child, and that she would be educated as a Lady. They declined.

The “Lady” in question may have been Sara Marie Streatfeild, the widow of Charles Donaldson-Hudson, who were the parents of Ralph C D-H. She had remarried, after the death of her first husband in 1893, and was then Mrs Collier. She died in April 1909, so Violet would have been seven years old at the most when the above activity took place.

If it was not Charles Donaldson-Hudson’s widow, then the other lady  likely to be involved would be Muriel Balfour, the wife of Ralph Charles Donaldson-Hudson, though this is less likely.

Grown up, Violet was told in whispers from various townsfolk that her father was, “A great Gentleman,” to which she replied, “Surely that is the one thing he was not!” The fact she was born out of wedlock was a constant shame and was never ever discussed within her family.

Subsequently at the 1911 census Violet was living with her grandparents, aged 8, at Red Bull, where her grandfather was a labourer on a country estate. Her mother, Elizabeth, married on 29th October 1906, William Whittingham, from Little Drayton originally, who happened to live next door to her at Almington in 1901. She died at Moreton Say, Shropshire on the 9 August 1951.

Violet eventually married Reginald James Barnett, born on the 8th April 1898. His parents were John & Ada who lived in Frogmore Road and his father was a hairdresser when he was baptised on the 8th May 1898 in the parish church at Market Drayton