Margaret Morris Bell Finlay, 19, (1913-1966) was the daughter of Mrs J.B. Finlay, perhaps still a student. In 1935 she married the Deputy Medical Officer for Monmouthshire and brought up two children in her 53 year life.[1]

SEATED BESIDE

Possibly seated alongside her mother Mrs J. Bell Finlay, but if the mystery guests are also young teachers etc this could have had a young posse on it. Would the 66 year old former headmistress Mrs Jessie White have been a good companion?

WHAT’S ON HER MIND?

It is still two years before her engagement, but this was not the event at which to be looking for a husband. An opportunity to meet some of the high achieving women of her lifetime.

MARGARET’S STORY SO FAR

Margaret Morris Bell Finlay was born in Blackwood, Mon. on 31^st October 1913, Halloween, the youngest daughter and third child, of Margaret Helena Davies (Mrs J Bell Finlay) and James Bell Pettigrew Finlay. We don’t know where she went to school but we can assume it was not to the same school as her earlier sister Frieda, where the food was so poor that her father sued the school, unsuccessfully (as recounted in the story of her mother Mrs J.B. Finlay).

WHAT MARGARET DID NEXT

What all young ladies might do: progress towards marriage and a family. On 15^th February 1935 she accompanied her father at the regimental dance of the 1^st Battalion (Rifles) Monmouthshire in Newport – attired in mauve tulle. Also attending was her  fiancé Dr. Gwyn Rocyn-Jones, born 13^th December 1903, the Deputy Medical Officer of Health for Monmouthshire,,  They were married in 1936. Also attending that ball was Sir Humphrey Mackworth (the former husband of Lady Rhondda) and his second wife.[4]  On Bonfire Night, 5^th November 1936, the married couple attended the Royal Ball in Cardiff, attended by the Duke of Kent.[5]

At the time of the 1939 census they were at the Sea Bank Hotel, Porthcawl – she served with the WVS Ambulance, Caerwent. They had two daughters: Angela Margaret in 1938, who sailed to NY on 23^rd November 1960, returned in 1961 and moved permanently to the US in 1966; and Daphne Meir  born 1941. Margaret died on 6^th October 1966 just short of her 53^rd birthday. Her husband lived until 1983.[7]   

 

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[1] Margaret Morris Bell Finlay The Peerage accessed 10.4.2019

[2] I am indebted to Margaret’s daughter Angela Margaret Rocyn-Jones for the family photographs

[3] Photograph kindly supplied by Angela Margaret Rocyn-Jones

[4] Western Mail, 16.2.1935 p7 ©Mirrorpix. Image created by the British Library Board, accessed from The British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk)

[5] Western Mail, 6.11.1936 p10 ©Mirrorpix. Image created by the British Library Board, accessed from The British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk)

[6] Photograph kindly supplied by Angela Margaret Rocyn-Jones

[7] Report by Gwyn-Rocyn Jones (1939)