Maternal parents

Maternal family history

My maternal grandfather was William Matthews, a professional chemist from Gloucestershire.

My maternal grandmother was Dorothy Isabel Denton. Her family had moved to BA in the mid 19th century, I think to do with the beef industry. They were well-to-do, and had all sorts of relations in the UK. “She was a W…, from Warwick, and she married H,.., who was the brother of C…, who was married to Aunt F.., and he was killed in the war.” Dorothy was born in Campana, 75km from Buenos Aires, to Walter Henry Denton and Isabel Eliza Newton Biggs on 28 September 1893.

They lived in a house they had built on Calle Pelliza, in Olivos, a northern suburb of Buenos Aires. The houses were all different, but modest, with 3-4-5 bedrooms, maid’s quarters, and a garden. Her parents lived in a house a couple of streets away – I can just about remember them – they had an ornamental well in their front garden.

My grandparents also had a similar house in Calle Rioja, about 5 blocks away, which is where my parents move shortly after I was born.

Granny was very interested in gardening, and gave lectures, helped people with their gardens, etc.. I believe there are a couple of specimens she donated to Kew Gardens.

Dorothy’s brother was Leslie Albert Denton, born in Campana on 29 March 1895, and he lived with them in Pelliza. He had been in the first world war, in the Gloucester regiment between 1914 and 1920, and then worked in the “camp”. This in Argentina was a British owned farm, with (of course) a British manager. But his health was not good, so he sat around keeping out of my grandmother’s way. He was very keen on the BBC world service, and my main memory of him is him leaning towards the radio, with the John Peel signature tune of the news. She always spoke dismissively of him, implying (without of course saying so) that he had caught VD in the war, and so deserved his fate, and let that be a lesson to you. I thought maybe had had gas poisoning – people in the war never liked talking about it. I always thought he was rather nice, and very gentle.

My mother was born in 1914 in Twickenham. In Argentina if you were born there you had full rights and responsibilities, and if you were male you had to do military service. Hence my grandmother went to London to give birth, in case it was a boy.

My father arrived in Buenos Aires in 1934 to work for Deloittes.