Rosina Sophia Phillips was known as Rose. Her mother was in service for a time and she had at least two brothers, Walter and Cyril. She was married to Mr Southard and had twins Gerard (who died very young) and Denis Southard who she was very close to. Denis never married and had no children. Rose married Evan Warwick Fawke and they had a daughter Melita (Valerie Melita). Rose was widowed when Evan was killed at the fall of Singapore on 15th February 1942. Rose later married Barry Stearman. Melita married Arthur Alexander Terrence (Terry) Nichols and had seven children, Leigh Sandra, Terry-Ann, Ashley Warwick and Grant Brockland, who all migrated to Australia in 1968, then had Myles Garrick, Austine Barclay and Alethea Blythe who were born in Australia. Rose remained close with her daughter Melita and family and some years later, moved to Australia where she lived for some years. Rose returned to London for a period where she lived with Denis in her house that Denis had remained in at 11 Torrens Road, Brixton Hill, London, England but Rose later returned to Australia where she died in 1991 just a few days before the birth of her fourth great grandchild, Hew Evan Davies (Terry-Ann’s son). Rosina Sophia is remembered by name in her great granddaughter Verity Arden Sophia Thompson (Leigh’s daughter) and in her great great granddaughter Rosalie Nola Davies (Hew’s daughter and Terry-Ann’s granddaughter) born 18th September 2020.
Portrait photographs and paintings of our loved ones and ancestors.
Before photos we had paintings of family members - most usually these were reserved for the well off. The era of modern photography began with the daguerreotype, in 1839. Since the advent of photogr...