In January 1955, Henry George Muddle died at Temple Close, Charlton. On the 27th January he was buried at the Parish Church of St Lawrence in Little Stanmore. His wife, Mary Jane Muddle, died just a few weeks later and was buried with her husband on 22nd February 1955. They were both buried in the same grave as Mary Jane's brother and sister, Joseph and Elizabeth Taylor.

It seems appropriate that Henry George died first ~ and that he had to wait such a short time until he was joined by Mary Jane. For much of his life, Henry George had depended on her for almost everything ~ it was her resourcefulness and determination that had kept them together, through the good times and the bad, for almost fifty-four years. Life with Henry George cannot have been easy ~ especially during the early years, but Mary Jane stood by her husband right up until the very end. If she had married a more conventional man, it is unlikely that Mary Jane would have accomplished all that she did. In a perverse way, her husband's flawed character allowed Mary Jane to achieve more than most middle-class women of her generation. It was Henry George's great good fortune to have married Mary Jane Taylor ~ she must have been a very remarkable woman.

Even with years of research though innumerable and diverse resources, it has still not been possible to discover the root cause of Henry George's dysfunctional nature. There can be little doubt that he had been spoiled and indulged, both as a child and as a young man. It is also probable that because he was the only son, his family had expectations of him which he was unable to satisfy. There may have been other factors; autism, dyslexia - he may have even been homosexual or just genetically unsound - the possibilities are endless. If he was an alcoholic, it was almost certainly caused by what troubled him rather than the result of habitual drinking. It is significant that at his court appearance in 1914, when he was summoned for verbally abusing and threatening his wife, neither alcohol or drunkenness are mentioned. It is also a fact that the few tales of his drinking come entirely from family members; there is not one newspaper account of a public incident involving alcohol - at a time when such things were reported avidly in the local press.

If we accept the most straightforward explanation - that he was spoiled, that his family had unreasonable expectations of him and that he married because he had to, then his taking refuge in alcohol and avoiding all responsibility seems entirely logical. For all we know, Henry George may very well have lived his life from 1903 exactly as he wanted it.

When I was growing up, my Mother told me stories of her Grandmother's visits to Lady Lloyd for afternoon tea. In the 1990s I wrote to Lady Lloyd's daughter-in-law, Jean, to ask if anyone at Clouds Hill could recall either Mary Jane or Henry George. Jean Lloyd had started life as Lady Victoria Ogilvy, daughter of the Earl of Airlie ~ so I thought she might be too grand to reply, but she did. Lady Lloyd had happy memories of Mary Jane coming to tea ~ and Henry George trimming the hedgerows at Clouds Hill. She described my Great-Grandfather as 'A Character' ~ an expression often used in England to describe a person of 'eccentric or unusual qualities'.

Genealogy is nearly always a pointless endeavor - discovering unremarkable ancestors who led dull, humdrum lives and are probably best left in peace. Of all the adjectives you could use to describe Henry George Muddle, the one that you cannot use is 'dull'; he may have been irresponsible, even 'eccentric and unusual', but never dull. So, despite his many faults, his idiosyncrasies, despite all the worry and unhappiness he may have caused, perhaps being a 'Character' ultimately redeemed Henry George ~ even for his wife and family. He certainly gave his Great-Grandson an infinitely more interesting subject for a website.