Mary Hodgson's name

[Allahakbarrie]

I just bought a 1922 copy of Barrie's Courage address. Inside it there is an inscription:

Dorothy Mary Hodgson
Her Book

With Barbara's Love
Christmas 1929

The coincidence is impossible to overlook. Is this THE Mary Hodgson (and her real first name Dorothy) or is this someone else completely?

Please let me know if you have any ideas. Thanks.

[andrew]

I've never heard of her referred to as Dorothy, but you never know. Have you checked Nico's letters to her for clues??

[ecb]

I did find a postcard from 13-06-1925 addressed to a Miss D Hodgson, and there are a number of letters to Mary from unknown writers where she is called "Dadge" (sort of sounds like a nickname for Dorothy) - which was her nickname in the family if I recall her niece's comments in the book.  So it is quite possible that she really was Dorothy - and always went by her middle name with the boys.

[ecb]

I did check the census and found a Mary Hodgson, 4  years old living with her parents and brothers and sisters in the 1881 census in Kirkby Lonsdale.  Of course she may simply have usually used the name Mary, but been baptized Dorothy. 

I also found her in the 1891 census as a fourteen year old domestic servant, living with her widowed mother and brother Thomas.  Doesn't Nico mention Tom taking him to a Music Hall and Mary being horrified when Nico could sing off the Music Hall ditties?  I tried to check the Audio, but alas it is not working for me!!!

[tcarroll]

If this is "our" Mary, you have found a treasure! Please let us know if you find any other information.

[ecb]

Well Alexander David helped me with the Audio (for some reason I now must save the link to listen to it) and sure enough Mary did have a brother Tom - go and listen to the the great story of Nico visiting Mary's family in Morecombe and being introduced by Tom to the Music Hall song "Danny McCann - see me do the Can Can on the Can!" - which he then came home and performed at 23 Camden Hill Square to the delight of Sylvia, Guy du Maurier, George and Jack  - and the horror of Mary Hodgson!

[andrew]

Mary's brother was indeed Tom, so if her first name was Dorothy (and ecb's 'Dadge' reasoning seems bang on) then it looks like he's scored a bullseye with that copy of Courage!  

Worried that the audio might not be working, I just checked it on my cheapo Tesco £250 laptop and it worked fine for me. Actually I got quite carried away, not having heard Nico for many moons. What a darling man he was! In one of the later intros after his death, I said how I hoped he lived on in the pages of the book; but for me he truly comes alive in those audio recordings, which for so many years languished in a bottom drawer...  so thank you ecb for initiating my little meander down memory lane.

[ecb]

Indeed Andrew - those tapes make it seem as if one if sitting in the same room with him, having a great laugh!  Thank you so much for sharing them with all of us!

[andrew]

Just before we started filming the Lost Boys, I persuaded the BBC to shell out for a chauffeur-driven car and transport him up from Kent to Television Centre to meet the cast and crew. He was suffering quite badly from emphesyma at the time (I've edited most of his long pauses for breath from the audio extracts), but nevertheless he gave his all in fielding questions.

I think Nico's visit greatly contributed to the feeling among the production that this story was something really special. Anna Cropper (who played Mary Hodgson) developed a very intense relationship with Nico, writing and visiting him throughout the production. Nico felt her performance was absolutely superb in terms of stepping into Mary's shoes and becoming her on screen...

[andrew]

I need Dafydd to add that Crompton letter, but I've just looked at it on my scans - very short but from the heart --

Dear Mary,
  In this calamity we are thinking of you often, & send you our love.
       Yours very sincerely
           Crompton Llewelyn Davies


Crompton is a book in himself!

[Robert Greenham]

Going back to the earlier posts of this thread, I have never come across Mary Hodgson being referred to as Dorothy.  Perhaps it was a name she adopted for some reason?  A search of official records, other than the British censuses dealt with by ecb, reveals:

Mary's birth was registered in the Kendal Registration District (which included Kirkby Lonsdale, her place of birth) sometime in the December quarter of 1876 (ie she was born in either October, November or December, 1876).  Her name was recorded as simply Mary Hodgson, and therefore her birth certificate should show the exact same name. Anyone wishing to obtain a copy of her birth certificate will need also to quote Volume 10b, page 687.

If Mary was christened it is possible that an additional first name may have been recorded on that occasion. This could be checked locally, starting at the churches in Kirkby Lonsdale.  Her christening is not shown in the International Genealogical Index (IGI).

Tom Hodgson was Mary's younger brother, yes, but she also had three older brothers and two older sisters. 

There were no Dorothy Hodgson, or Dorothy Mary Hodgson, births registered around that time in that part of the country.  A Dorothy Mary Hodgson was born on 2nd September 1884 in Sydenham, and her nickname was Datta.  By 1929 she was living in India, and there seems no obvious connection with, or interest in the Davies family or Barrie.  Anyone wanting to rule this person out should start by reading about her on the Web  (just Google her full name).

I think the most likely explanation here is that the book belonged to a Dorothy Mary Hodgson who was a relation of Mary's.  Neither of Mary's sisters had that name, but perhaps an aunt, cousin or niece did.

[ecb]

Well I guess that Robert has it right - 'twas only a thought on my part that she might have been Dorothy (I've run into so many people while researching family history who go throughout life using their middle name!) Mary she was - as George M. Cohan said "it's a grand old name!"

What Andrew said about Anna Cropper spending so much time with Nico getting to the heart of Mary for her performance really comes out when one watches The Lost Boys.  So many films would simply have relegated her to a stereotyped "Edwardian Nanny" (or eliminated her altogether as FN did - the sight of Sylvia raising children ALONE in that era - with no hired help - struck me as immediately unrealistic.  No lady of Sylvia's class would have regarded it as even a possibilty.)  But in The Lost Boys we get Mary Hodgson a real human being with faults and virtues.  One of the most touching scenes in the trilogy is when she is being her practical self packing up George's trunk as he heads into the army - are there enough socks etc - is everything there on the list of items - she is being Mary, the one who makes sure things in the boys' life runs as they should.  Then as she pulls something out of the drawer, a red tam-o-shanter falls out.  She holds it to herself and starts to cry.  What a moment that was - wordless, but so incredibly moving. 

[tcarroll]

I agree with you about the scene.  It was heartbreaking, and I believe Mary would have had just such a reaction under those circumstances. No one could spend that amount of time with those young men and not love them.  My guess is that she loved them dearly.

[ecb]

The letter from Crompton (as well as that from Margaret Llewelyn Davies) serves to remind us that Mary came to Arthur and Sylvia from a Davies connection - she had worked for one of Arthur's brother's family and of course was a native of Kirkby Lonsdale.  In one of her letters to her sister Nancy, it is interesting to read her giving information on Llewelyn Davies family matters (one of Maurice's daughters has something of Emily in her face etc. , Harry and his wife have taken a flat etc etc.)

I love just dipping into the database and finding new things! 

[ecb]

Among new things -- I had not realized that Mary took off from Queen Charlotte's Hospital, where she worked after she left 23, to housekeep on Eilean Shona.  She writes about the holiday in a letter to her sister - apparently she was also able to get the invaluable cook, Minnie to come.  She speaks so lovingly of both Michael and Nico - Michael still not strong, Nico like 1/2 a house with big shoulders - just like a proud mother.  How horrid Michael's death must have been for her.  The two youngest were the most like her own children.