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Thomas James, David William and R.F.Gobbett

Thomas James, David William and R.F.Gobbett

Posted: 29 Jul 2010 12:49PM GMT
Classification: Query
Surnames: Gobbett
I am researching the early film industry in East London and have a Thomas James Gobbett born about 1882 in Commercial Road,London,England and a David William Gobbett born 12 August 1884 as directors of the Precision Film Company in Walthamstow.
A Walter Gobbett is mentioned as being at the studio as well in 1910.

Thomas married Ann Mary Groves, aged 22 years at All Hallows, Poplar on 17 January 1904.In 1911 they are living at Liverpool Road, Walthamstow, London. He gives his occupation as Designer and Maker of Cinematograph Machines and Films. They have two children – Thomas aged 7 years and William aged 4 years. He dies of pneumonia in West Ham, London on 29 November 1915.

His brother David was a cameraman, and by 1910 he is filming in in East Africa. He died in Christchurch, Hampshire in 1973.

I also have a R.F.(Robert Fairhead?) Gobbett as a director of Cunard Film Company Limited in Walthamstow around 1914.

If anyone has any connections or info could they let me know.

Re: Thomas James, David William and R.F.Gobbett

Posted: 1 Aug 2010 3:10PM GMT
Classification: Query
Surnames: Gobbett, Vaughan
Hello June

The parents of Thomas James and David William were David William Gobbett (c.1855-1929) and Ann Ward (c.1856-1935?), who married at Stepney parish church on 25 Dec. 1875. No children are listed with them in the 1881 census at 14 Stutfield Street, Stepney, so Thomas was probably the eldest.

Robert Fairhead Gobbett (b. 1855) seems to have died in South Africa in 1881. His wife, Sarah, was certainly a widow by the time of her death in August of that year (Liverpool Mercury, 3 Sept. 1881). Robert was a son of Henry Gooderham Gobbett of Suffolk and Lancashire. Oddly enough, Sarah's father, Henry Vaughan of Liverpool, had been a chief steward with the Cunard shipping company, until he was lost overboard from the steamship "Africa" (Liverpool Mercury, 20 Jan. 1865).

My files show no other candidates for the role of R. F. Gobbett, who I suspect was erroneously ushered into the history of British film decades ago when someone misread the initials of Thomas James. The unusual flourishes in his 1904 signature can be seen in Ancestry's image of the marriage register of All Hallows, East India Docks, Bromley (Poplar). I once found a Google Books snippet (capriciously unavailable today) naming T. J. Gobbett as "works manager" of Cunard Films. That was on page 93 of "Reports of Patent, Design and Trade Mark Cases" vol. 31 (Patent Office, 1914).

Walter Gobbett also looks like a rather suspicious character to me, possibly appearing only in Jim Wilde's online study of silent films. Another impersonator of Thomas, perhaps?

I believe Thomas and Ann had a third child, Philip Frederick Gobbett (1913-1982), who married Elsie Elizabeth Palmer (1913-1983) in 1939 (Essex S. W. district). Their wills were proved in 1983. I noted a slightly different date for Thomas's death from the probate registry index: 25 Nov. (admon 20 Dec. 1915). Are you sure it was 29 Nov.? And do you know what became of his widow, Ann Mary? There is no trace of her in the later marriages or deaths registered in England and Wales, unless she was the "Mary A." Gobbett who died in 1949 aged "69" (Essex S. W.).

David Gobbitt

Re: Thomas James, David William and R.F.Gobbett

Posted: 25 Nov 2010 1:14AM GMT
Classification: Query
Surnames: Gobbett
Dear David ,
I hope this message gets to you . I am Dawn Morris my father was Thomas James Gobbett & so was his father before him , they were into early film production in England . My uncle David W. Gobbett was a filmographer , he travelled a lot doing his filming . Would be interesred in learning from you of any other living relatives as am in Australia , Regards floss 88 .

Re: Thomas James, David William and R.F.Gobbett

Posted: 26 Nov 2010 4:35PM GMT
Classification: Query
Surnames: Gobbett
Hi Dawn

Good to hear from you. Have you seen Melanie King's recent message on the Walthamstow Silent Film Studios board at http://boards.ancestry.com.au/topics.occupations.engfilm/1.1...? You can either post something there or click on the "melaniek2" link to contact her direct. If she doesn't reply through Ancestry, I can suggest other ways of reaching her. I think it was her sister Victoria Williams who wrote to RootsWeb's Newbie mailing list in 1997 (http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/gen-newbie/199...) and their mother Cathy (one of the daughters of DWG's son Royston Henry Gobbett) who sent a query to The Bioscope on 4 Feb. 2008 (http://bioscopic.wordpress.com/2007/05/21/searching-for-albe...).

Did your parents get married in England? That must have been before their voyage to Bombay (or Brisbane?) on the steamship Stratheden, leaving London in December 1937 (www.findmypast.com; TNA ref. BT 27/1487/2/1).

I haven't confirmed that Philip Frederick (1913-1982) and David William (1907-1971?) were brothers of your father Thomas James (1904-1981) but it shouldn't be too difficult to trace their daughters and perhaps other descendants if not already known to you or Royston's family.

The siblings of the elder TJG (1882-1915) and DWG (1884-1973) included a brother named Philip Frederick or Frederick Philip (1888-1891) and four sisters:

Elizabeth Ann (b. 1890; m. William Rivers 1913?)

Ellen (b. c.1893; "GOBBETS" in 1911 transcript, aged 18, with sisters Alice & Ann)

Alice Betsy (b. 1896; m. Alfred Skittrell 1919 - see below)

Ann (b. 1898 if Ethel Annie who m. Sydney O. Lambert 1919)

As yet, I have no details of these girls' deaths or their children. When Alice Betsy Gobbett married Alfred Charles Skittrell at St Matthew's church in Brixton, south London, on 28 June 1919, they were both recorded as a "Cinema Photographer" and the bride's father was a "Gentleman", suggesting that he had retired. "A. R. Gobbett" was among the witnesses. I suppose this may have been the 1930s film editor listed in the Internet Movie Database at http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0323569 (possibly Alice's younger sister, if Ann wasn't Ethel Annie Lambert).

Best of luck
David

Re: Thomas James, David William and R.F.Gobbett

Posted: 28 Nov 2010 12:54AM GMT
Classification: Query
Hi David
Have found a reference to DW Gobbett and a Gertrude Gobbett (otherwise Patterson) referring to her death in 1954. Do you know if Gertrude nee Godley was married before?
Did try to contact Victoria at Rootsweb but her email address bounced back - is she still looking for info?
Do you know Royston's wife full name?
Regards
Bob

Re: Thomas James, David William and R.F.Gobbett

Posted: 28 Nov 2010 5:23PM GMT
Classification: Biography
Surnames: Gobbett, Godley
Hi Bob

Gertrude Gobbett or Patterson of 13 (or 18?) Hall(e)swelle Road, Golders Green, London, died intestate on 25 March 1954. Her estate was administered in 1956 by her son Royston, an electrical fitter. I believe his first wife was Josephine Marian Ritter (1913-1970; m. 1935). I don't know whether his second wife or his granddaughter Victoria are as involved as Cathy and Melanie in researching his father. I've never heard from any of them.

I haven't checked Gertrude's marriage record (Brighton district, 1908 Q1) and I don't see her in the index of births, but I'm reasonably sure Godley was her maiden name, so I presume Mr Patterson was a later partner, perhaps not married because she wasn't legally divorced from her husband. Her age was said to be 70 in 1954 but she was 9 in 1891 and 19 in 1901, although only 25 in the 1911 transcript:

1891: 49 Cheltenham Place, Brighton, with father Henry [d. Brighton 1896 Q4?] and mother Marian A. Godley (RG 12/812 f. 87 p.47)

1901: 19 Jubilee Street, Brighton, with widowed mother Mrs Annie Godley (RG 13/930 f.143 p.17; Ancestry's "Hookey" and "Gooley" now corrected)

1911: Brighton district - Gertrude Gobbett (b. Brighton 1886) in same household as Mary Ann Godley (b. Birmingham 1849)

Gertrude's husband David was probably the "Daniel" Gobbett who had left for New York aboard the St Louis on 20 August 1910 (www.findmypast.com; TNA ref. BT 27/688/3/4/12). She followed him in June 1911.

I now realize that I was too hasty to associate Gertrude's sister-in-law Ann Gobbett (b. Canning Town, West Ham, c.1900) with Ethel Annie (1898-1973), wife of Sidney Clarence Lambert (1897-1976). Ethel's father has been identified as Joseph Gobbett (1870-1952), a son of Rebecca Gobbett (b. Hinderclay SFK 1850; m. Joseph Cudby or Cadby 1874; d. Stratford, West Ham, 1941; probate to Ethel Annie Lambert). So Ann is quite likely to have been the film editor, A. R. Gobbett, despite the apparent lack of any corresponding entry in the GRO index of births.

David

Re: Thomas James, David William and R.F.Gobbett

Posted: 18 Jun 2013 5:14PM GMT
Classification: Query
Surnames: Gobbett Skittrell Cunard Whale
I notice that this thread is a few years old, so I hope someone notices my post!

My Great Grandfather was Joseph George Skittrell (b.1883 d.1949) who is the brother of Alfred Charles Skittrell, who married Betsy Gobbet. He was a cinematographer. It's clear that there is a very strong link to film and film-making in this family! Joseph George owned Olympic Kinematograph Laboratories Ltd, and I have found on here that he travelled to New York on the 13th of March 1929 with James Whale and the cast of his broadway production 'Journey's End'.

I'm interested in the fact that the Cunard Film Company has been mentioned. When I was looking at the passenger list for his 1929 journey to NYC, I noticed that he travelled with Sir Gordon Cunard. I wonder if there is some link here?

Also, I am really interested by the comments about a Gobbet filming in East Africa... as my father was told a story that when Joseph George was filming in Africa, the vehicle from which he was filming ran over an anaconda which was stretched across the road. I have written to the BFI to ask if they have anything in their archives which might resemble this.

Can anyone add anything to this? june1gray, where did you find out about David Gobbet filming in East Africa?

Lassoing Wild Animals in Africa

Posted: 23 Jun 2013 11:49AM GMT
Classification: Biography
Surnames: GOBBET(T)
I can't speak for Bob or June Gray, but I found details of cameraman David Gobbett's exploits in "Lassoing Wild Animals In Africa", Guy H. Scull's chronicle of an expedition led by an American colonel, Charles Jesse ("Buffalo") Jones, in British East Africa (now Kenya) in 1910. I think it was originally serialized in "Everybody's Magazine" (New York, USA, Sept., Oct. & Nov. 1910); a transcript by the University of Virginia Library's Electronic Text Center (http://tinyurl.com/lpuwnwt) has links to images of some of those pages. Highlights had reached the press a little earlier, based on a letter from Scull to a friend, as reported in New Zealand's Grey River Argus of 29 June 1910 (http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz).

The story of this expedition was also published in the form of a book under the same title in 1911, again in New York, by Frederick A. Stokes Company, complete with an introduction by Theodore Roosevelte and many photographs. It can be accessed in various formats at the Internet Archive (http://archive.org/details/lassoingwildanim00scul). Despite misspelling Gobbett as "Gobbet", Scull provides some noteworthy biographical information about David William Gobbett (1884-1973), such as: "Gobbet was young and thin and active, with sharp black eyes" (p. 21); and "Gobbet … had once been assistant manager of the Alhambra Music Hall in Brighton" (p. 62). There are quotations of his spoken words on various pages, and a graphic account of his narrow escape from a charging rhinoceros (pp. 85-86), said to have been filmed by his boss, Cherry Kearton (p. 87).

The film, released in the USA in 1911, is catalogued at http://www.citwf.com/film193663.htm, where Cherry Kearton is named as Director and William David Gobbett as Director of Photography.

David Gobbitt

Re: Lassoing Wild Animals in Africa

Posted: 25 Jun 2013 8:14PM GMT
Classification: Query
Hi David,

Have you seen any mention of Joseph George Skittrell in your research of Gobbett's films on Africa?

Regards

Joseph George Skittrell

Posted: 26 Jun 2013 12:22PM GMT
Classification: Query
Hi

I'm afraid not. If the BFI can't help, you may like to try the University of East Anglia's British Cinema History Research Project (http://www.uea.ac.uk/film-television-media/research/centres-...).

Best of luck
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