ALLISON, Mrs Timothy (Victoria Mary nee MESSEL) 1938-2021

[Richard R]

From the Times of 24 Sept 2021: ALLISON ALLISON Victoria Mary Linley (née Messel) 10.07.1938-19.09.2021. Much beloved mother, grandmother, sister, aunt, cousin, godmother, and friend to many. Fantastic botanical artist particularly for Nymans garden in West Sussex and Birr in Co Offaly, Ireland. Service on Tuesday 19th October 2pm at Mortlake Crematorium and afterwards at The Botanist on Kew Green. Charitable Donations if desired to Macmillan Cancer Support and all inquiries to T. H. Sanders (Richmond)... Bright colours and family flowers only please.

She was d of Lt-Col Linley Francis MESSEL TD 1899-1971 (sometime head of that gentry family of Nymans and bro of Anne MESSEL 1902-92, mother by her 1st m of the 1st Earl of SNOWDON 1930-2017, and mother by her 2nd m of the 7th Earl of ROSSE b 1936) and Agatha Anne 1912- d of Cmdr (Francis) John ALEXANDER RN [1883-1976] and Winnifred Amys _. She m 1963 Timonthy James b 1948 s of G M ALLISON of The Charterhouse, London, and had a son Charles James b 1966 reg Q3 London (he m 1992 reg Q2 London Sharon L NIXSON b 1962 reg Q1 London [d of Donald Eric NIXSON 1926-93 by his 1961 m reg Q3 London to Margaret P HAYES]), and a dau Katharine Anne b 1968 reg Q4 London (mother's name mistranscribed as 'Hessel').

[S R Eglesfield]

The birth of Agatha Anne ALEXANDER was registered in Pewsey, Wiltshire, in Q1 1913. Her mother's maiden surname was SIMONS, and she was a scion of, but not descended from, the Earls of Caledon, being a 3 x greats-granddaughter of Robert ALEXANDER (1722 - 27 III 1790), an older brother of the first Earl. Following her divorce from Lt-Col Messel in 1945, she was married secondly, in 1946 (registered Q1 - Westminster) to Thomas Arthur RENSHAW (15 XI 1899 - 19 V 1984), whose mother was a daughter of the 4th Earl of Leitrim and granddaughter of the 2nd Earl of Leicester. She died on 23 March 2010.

It is clear that the late Mrs Allison's husband must have been born before 1948, in order to have been married in 1963 (from Free BMD, the Timothy J Allison whose birth was registered in Weymouth in Q4 1948 died as an infant, his death being registered there in the same Quarter).