A portrait photograph from long ago can only tell you so much about its sitter.
In this case, we see a little girl whose expression suggests that having her picture taken was not the most fun she’s had recently.
So who was she?
As this blog often discovers, it is the verso of the photograph that opens a window into this little girl’s story.
There we learn that she was being photographed by the firm of W. & D. Downey, photographers to Queen Victoria, at its 9 Eldon Square studio in Newcastle upon Tyne.
As to the little girl, her name was ‘Ethel Seymour Coxe,’ it was ‘July 1879’ and she was ‘six years and six months’ old.
These details allow public records and newspaper archives to be searched in the hope of learning more about her background and that of her family.
These reveal that Ethel was born in County Durham where her father, Seymour Richard Coxe (1842-1922), was a Church of England clergyman.
Indeed, the Church was the family business with strong links to the North East of England.
Ethel’s paternal grandfather, the Venerable Richard Charles Coxe (1799-1865), was a vicar in Newcastle in the 1840s, later appointed Archdeacon of Lindisfarne off the Northumberland coast and a canon of Durham Cathedral.
Both father and son boasted a long list of achievements from sporting prowess at Oxford University to hymn writing and publishing books of poetry and theological works.
Ethel though is only fleeting captured in census records between 1881 and 1911.
These largely detail her father’s ecclesiastical career, taking in parishes across England from Yorkshire and Norfolk to Northumberland and Northamptonshire.
Instead, his eldest daughter is relegated to the role of a dutiful child who makes occasional appearances in the press.
When she was 12, the Norwich Argus reported how a “sumptuous” farewell tea was “given by the Rector and Mrs. Coxe” to parishioners in Baconsthorpe, Norfolk.
The report concluded: “As the people left the room, the Rector and Mrs. and Miss Ethel Coxe shook hands with all and bade them good-bye.”
By 1902 when Ethel was in her late 20s and a single woman with no stated ‘profession or occupation,’ the Coxe family had lived in Stoke Bruerne, Northamptonhire for several years in a large rectory with servants.
On 9th August, festivities were held with the neighbouring village of Shutlanger to mark the coronation of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra.
At Buckingham Palace, the royal couple’s portrait was taken by W. & D. Downey, the same company who had taken Ethel’s portrait in Newcastle more than 30 years earlier.
In Stoke Bruerne, the Northampton Mercury reported how a church service with “an eloquent and striking sermon by Rev. Canon Coxe” was followed by a programme of sports and dinner for 800 served in four sittings.
Its account continued: “Two oak trees were meanwhile planted at the cross roads between the two villages by the Misses Ethel and Maud Coxe, the daughters of the Rector.”
When her father retired in 1912, Ethel together with her mother and younger sister moved to the precincts in the shadow of Canterbury Cathedral.
A decade later, Canon Cox’s death in Canterbury at the age of 80 merited brief mentions in various newspapers.
However, the reports made no mention of his eldest daughter who had died the previous year aged 48.
Pressphotoman 
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