Two distinguished octogenarian widows, a guest, and most probably the widow of one of Wales’s most distinguished organists and choirmasters – unless her husband was a music critic writing for Time and Tide. All we know for certain are the three names: Mrs Crosfield (with an unnamed guest), Mrs E.G. Evans; and Mrs George Watts. One without any initials, one with initials (but her’s or her husband’s?) and one with her husband’s name. They don’t have to be senior ladies: they could all be young married women working for Time and Tide, for example. Without more clinching evidence I am not ruling anyone out.
That said, the ladies we have identified were all women who could well have been at this dinner and do make up a quite logical party.
If we keep faith with our current convictions, we have: Gulielma Crosfield, 81, a leading Quaker working hard for wartime victims and for the suffrage movement, who recently featured in the film project on “These Dangerous Women”; her unnamed guest; Mrs George Watts, or Mary Seton Watts, 83, the artist and widow of George Frederic Watts R.A., who was Hon. President of the Women’s Guild of Arts at the time of the dinner, and a suffragist; and Edith Gwendoline Evans, 58, widow of the late Harry Evans, Welsh professor of music. If Edith was (alternatively) the wife of highly regarded music critic Edwin Evans, who contributed to Time and Tide that would fit well too but then her second initial G would be a mistake. And where, in that case, was Edwin? To date the guest list has been scrupulously accurate as far as we can see.
All four of our ladies are a bit of a puzzle. Can you strengthen the case for them? Or do you have alternative candidates? Is there evidence of good links between these three names, beyond being all of a similar age?
The Dinner Puzzle 