SISSONS, (Thomas) Michael Beswick (1934-2018)

[Richard R]

This is a revision of a posting made earlier this week.

From the Telegraph of 27 August 2018: SISSONS (Thomas) Michael Beswick died at home surrounded by his family on 24th August 2018. Much loved husband of Serena, loving father of Kate, Jonathan, Maia and Jemima and proud grandfather of Emily, Francesca, Jack, Mabel, Mathilda and Amelia. A funeral for family and friends will be held at 12pm Thursday 6th September at St Mary's Church, Uffington. At his request there will be no memorial service.

He was s of Capt T E B SISSONS (ka 1940) and Marjorie SHEPHERD. He m 1st 1960 (div 1974) Nicola Ann FOWLER and had 1 son and 1 dau. He m 2nd 1974 (div 1992) Ilze KADEGIS and had 2 daus. He m 3rd 1992 (as her 2nd h) Serena Barbara (b 1950) d of William Alexander PALMER CBE DL (b 1925), scion of the PALMER barons, and Cherry Anne (b 1928 reg London) d of Capt Arthur GIBBS (1894-1945) by his 1921 m (reg Q2 Middlesex) to Alice Barbara Trevor WILLIAMS (1900-81).

Times Obit EXTRACT

Leading literary agent described as brilliantly belligerent whose list of authors included ‘enough generals to form a small army’

... His father, Captain TEB Sissons, was wounded at Dunkirk and died shortly afterwards. A grandfather and cousin were also killed in the Second World War, while the family’s factory was destroyed in the Hull blitz in 1941. His parents had met when his mother Marjorie (née Shepherd), a nurse, was treating his father after an appendectomy. He had a sister, Caroline, who survives him, and three half-sisters after his mother remarried.

...In 1960 he married Nicola Fowler with whom he had a daughter, Kate, a former journalist who is now an interior designer, and a son, Jonathan, who handles film and TV rights at PFD. The marriage was dissolved in 1974. He then married Ilze Kadegis, a Latvian schoolteacher and the former wife of Howard Marks (obituary, April 11, 2016), the one-time drug smuggler and author. They had two daughters, Maia, who is a designer, and Jemima, a journalist. This marriage was also dissolved and in 1992 he married Serena Davies (née Palmer), whom he had met at a publishing party some years earlier. She survives him with his children.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/michael-sissons-760gvn9cj

G. Willis posted in response:

His father was Thomas Edward Beswick Sissons (b. 1909), s. of Thomas Beswick Sissons (1880-1942) of Swanland Garth, North Ferriby, nr Hull, Yorks., oil, colour and paint manufacturer (Sissons Bros & Co.) and his wife (m. 1907) Muriel (1881-1961), dau. of Francis Edward Thompson, of Pearson's Park, Sculcoates, grain and seed merchant.

Thomas Beswick Sissons was son of Thomas Hall Sissons (1836-1920), of Anlaby, formerly of Stoneferry, Hull, of Sissons Bros & Co., by his wife (m. 1861) Jane, dau. of Samuel Beswick, of Scarborough (according to Alumni Cantabrigienses, their third daughter Mabel Beswick Sissons married Rev. Gordon Soames, M.A. Trinity Coll., rector of Mildenhall, Wilts.). His father, Thomas Sissons, was apparently in possession of a collection of old masters which he loaned to exhibitions, and appears to have been in business with his son. 

There is an 1832 marriage record for a 'Thomas Sessons' and 'Rebecca Hull', which I believe might be for Thomas Sissons and Rebecca Hall (given the middle name of T. H. Sissons above), but this is by no means definite. Several Sissons births at Sculcoates through the 1830s and 1840s, father's name 'Thomas', mother's name 'Rebecca'; 1861 census has a Thomas Sissons 'jr' b. 1809, paint colour and oil manufacturer, and wife Rebecca b. 1811, with children matching those born at Sculcoates as mentioned above. Thomas Hall Sissons would have been older than all the children shown in the household in the 1861 census, and does not appear on that record; the 1851 census lists only Thomas and Rebecca, with no children present.* Given the facts at hand, though, it would definitely make sense for this Thomas and his wife Rebecca to be the parents of Thomas Hall Sissons; supporting this, a probate record for Thomas Sissons b. 1808 d. 1892 'of Kingston-upon-Hull, esquire' is to be administered by Thomas Hall Sissons and David Waddington Sissons (both sons).

*EDIT: In the 1851 census all the siblings- including a Thomas H.- are given the surname 'Sissions', and appear to be in the care of three servants (of sufficiently parental age- 37, 28 and 17).

[colinp]

Daily Telegraph obit 4 September 2018 here - https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2018/09/03/michael-sissons-obituary/