Life story retold byYota Dimitriadi with additional information and corrections shared by James Swinton-Callander, direct descendant, grandson of Randal Swinton Callander. We are grateful to Mr Swinton-Callander for the information and the photographs.
For years, as I wandered through Reading Old Cemetery, I was intrigued by a large grave with no visible inscription, only a big metal anchor that caught my attention. I always assumed it belonged to a seafaring family. However, in this instance, the anchor stood not for the sea, but as a symbol of hope, faith, and an unshakable spirit. This is the story of Jean Helen CALLANDER.
Jean Helen CALLANDER was born in 1879 in Guildford, England, the first child of Lieutenant-General Alexander CALLANDER (1829-1905) and Minna Maynard SWINTON (c.1854-Dec 1910). Jean grew up in a family steeped in both military tradition and genteel heritage, with roots that stretched from Scotland to England and India, her family being part of the complex legacy of Britain’s colonial service.
Both photographs below are from the private collection of their great-grandson James Swinton-Callander.
Unfortunately, we know very little about Jean Helen and much more about her parents and siblings. This may be partly because Jean contracted Pott’s disease (spinal tuberculosis) at an early age and needing more specialist care was unable to participate in family activities.
Jean’s father, born in Stirlingshire, Scotland (1829), was the third son of Mr. Randal W. M. CALLANDER, and grandson of Colonel and Lady Elizabeth CALLANDER, of Craigforth and Ardkinglas, N.B. Alexander left for India at the age of 19 and entered the 58th Native Infantry as second lieutenant in 1848. He had spent decades as a soldier in the Bengal Staff Corps of the British Indian Army. He rose through the ranks, became a Lieutenant-General and served along the Afghan frontier. He was a talented linguist and passed as interpreter in Persian and Urdu. His obituary from ‘Report and transactions of The Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature and Art’ can be found online through the Google digital Internet Archive.
In 1878 Callander, then Lieutenant-Colonel of the Bengal Staff Corps, married Minna, the only daughter of William Henry SWINTON, H.E.I.C.S., of Warsash House, Hampshire. The wedding took place in Kensington, London, England. Minna was only about 24 when she married Alexander then aged 49. Minna’s family was well-connected, her father having served in the Honourable East India Company’s naval service.
Jean’s early childhood in Guildford, where her maternal grandparents lived after leaving Paddington, likely coincided with her father’s brief return to England between postings. Two younger siblings soon followed: Violet Alexa CALLANDER (1881- 1955) and Randal Swinton CALLANDER (5 June 1882- 1963). The two siblings were born in India, where their father was stationed. “Military service in the Raj provided a means of employment for substantial numbers of the British upper and middle classes. India provided the prospect of gentlemanly employment with young men of the “property-less leisured class” (GEN UKI). The family has a photo of Randal’s mother, Minna, holding baby Randal on the veranda of their bungalow in India. The children returned to Britain with a Scottish nanny called Hetty BUCKET, and lived with their close relations the Swintons of Swinton Berwickshire before their parents returned to the UK.
By 1886, General Callander retired from active service and brought his family back to England. They first settled in Bedford, Bedfordshire. They did not live at Warsash House, Minna’s ancestral home in Hampshire, as that had been sold by the Swintons to Edward Sartoris in 1867. Edward Sartoris’s brother, Charles SARTORIS, was married to Mary Hermione CALLANDER, General Callander’s cousin. One of Edward’s sons, Algernon, married Ellen (Nellie) Grant, daughter of the Ex President Grant of the USA.
The Warsash estate had been purchased in 1817 by Captain Archibald SWINTON, who greatly enlarged the property, laid out a large lawn which swept down to the bank of the River Hamble where he moored his yacht, and renamed it Warsash House from the old field name “Warish Asse Field”, a reference to the donkeys once turned out to graze along the riverbank. Minna’s brother, Archibald Henry Swinton (1844-1935), was already living with his grandfather since the age of six.
In the 1891 UK census, Alexander appears as a Major General (aged 62) living with his wife, Minna M. (aged 37), and their three children: Jean Helen (11), Violet Alexa (10), and Randal Swinton (8). Minna’s father had died in 1890, leaving little money (National Probate Calendar). This must have added financial strain to the family, especially as Minna’s mother, Elizabeth Wilhelmina GALLIERS SWINTON (née GIBB, born c.1823), by 1881 had been admitted to Harpenden Hall, a private mental hospital in Harpenden. In 1879 there were several adverts in the London Evening Standard describing Harpenden Hall as “A comfortable home for a lady of gentleman who is only slightly mentally affected”. Elizabeth relied on Minna for financial support to cover the fees.
We do not know what may have influenced the family’s decision to move to Devon, a genteel, semi-rural retreat popular among retired officers of the Raj. They bought the Vineyard, which was surrounded by acres of beautiful gardens, with fine specimens of tulip trees and Cedar of Lebanon. There were two gardeners cottages in the grounds. The family were still living there when Minna died in 1910.
It was around the time of the move that the family may have also decided the next steps for Jean’s future. For Jean, independence was unlikely. Jean’s condition would have limited her mobility and social prospects. Chronic illnesses like Pott’s disease were poorly understood and socially stigmatised at the time. Her disability would have been visible. It is highly likely that she had kyphosis (a hunchback) caused by spinal collapse. Families of means often sent relatives affected to specialist nursing homes or convalescent institutions, where long-term care could be discreetly managed. The decision to send her to Reading may have been on a few reasons: Reading had several private nursing and convalescent homes by the early 20th century, small, respectable establishments that served genteel patients requiring long-term care. It was close to family areas (Surrey, Hampshire, and Devon) yet offered good rail access to London for visiting siblings or trustees.
We do not know exactly when Jean moved to Reading, but by the 1901 UK census, the Callanders were living at The Vineyard, Dartington, Totnes, Devon. While Violet and Randal appear in the household, Jean’s name is absent. Living with them at the time were Elizabeth SWINTON (widowed, aged 78) and Archibald Henry SWINTON (aged 57, Minna’s brother), suggesting that finances may have been increasingly strained. The presence of extended family under one roof often reflected both emotional interdependence and the practical need to consolidate resources, a common reality for genteel families whose fortunes were tied to uncertain inheritances. This may have also influenced the decision to move Jean to Helena Nursing Home, Brownlow Road, Reading. Helena Nursing Home opened in 1878 “for the reception of poor ladies suffering from some of the most trying forms of incurable illness. Their being homeless and without friends able to nurse them, is a condition of admission.” By 1892 they supported 12 patients. The following extract reflects language and perceptions of the time and should not be accepted as contemporary and inclusive language about disability. “Our invalids can seldom pay more than a third of their cost. All are weak and suffering, many utterly helpless, some cannot even feed themselves. Emilia Vincent, Lady-in-Charge. Helena Nursing Home, May 26th, 1892. A Helena House care home ran at Brownlow Road until 2015 (now turned into flats).
Alexander Callander died on 16 June 1905 (National Probate Calendar), Elizabeth W. G. Swinton in 1908 followed by Minna Callander in 1910. After her mother’s death, Jean was in her early 30s, physically frail, and financially modest despite her family’s pedigree. While he do not know when Jean joined Helena House by this time she was definitely there receiving specialist care, reflecting her ongoing health needs. Things must have become harder after the death of Jean’s parents. Archibald Henry SWINTON moved to ‘Oak Cottage’, Braishfield, where for 25 years he lived with his niece, Violet Alexa, until hedied in 1935. He was a famous entomologist, Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society and member of the British Entomological Society. He also ‘had a acknowledge of half a dozen European languages’. His obituary on the Hampshire Advertiser describes him:
“Death of Famous Scientist Who Lived in a Hampshire Village. Late A. H. Swinton’s Scholarship in Many Fields: BRAISHFIELD’S aged hermit scholar is dead, mourned by the village children and (one likes to think) by the little winged creatures of hedgerow and meadow which he loved well. For a quarter of a century Mr. Archibald Henry Swinton lived in a small house almost opposite the bridge at the entrance to this secluded Hampshire village, and during that time he received only two “grown-up” visitors apart from relatives. I was privileged to be one of them. It was about two years ago when this lonely scholar, who had given a lifetime to study, but had even retained a childlike simplicity as fragrant as it was rare, showed me his collection of entomological specimens. Very tall, shoulders bent a little with age (he was in his 90th year then) and much bending over books, he indeed, presented the traditional appearance of the venerable man of learning– his beard, I remember, was very white and long, and on his head he wore a skullcap. I think the aged Ernst Haeckel, the German scientist, must have looked like that.”
Violet was also a proficient entomologist and as most of her family also a proficient linguistic for which ability she was called upon during WW2. She did not marry and died in Cuckfield, West Sussex.
Violet and Randal benefitted from their uncle’s estate but it was too late for Jean who had died in 1912 from complications of her condition and multiple sclerosis. Her funeral was on 15 October 1912 in the consecrated part of the cemetery. Jean died intestate and her estate of £1966-1-10 passed on to her sister.
Jean’s siblings bought a family grave for their sister. The grave monument has a granite base with a large metal anchor lying on it. There may have been a cross with her name inscribed as gathered from but long gone. The order book lists Violet as living in St Christopher’s College Blackheath, Kent and Randal as theological student living at 14 Baalbec Road, Highbury, Middlesex.
Reverend Doctor Randal Swinton CALLANDER was educated at Haileybury College before continuing his studies in Switzerland, where he learned French and Greek and gained qualifications in Chemistry and Physics. He trained in medicine at St Thomas’ Hospital in London and was ordained into the Church in 1905.
As a young man, he worked alongside Guglielmo MARCONI, introduced to him through his uncle Alan Archibald Campbell SWINTON, an influential electrical engineer, and was present when Marconi sent the first radio signals across the Atlantic to Newfoundland on 12 December 1901. Shortly after that Callander helped build a radio station on the Canadian-Labrador coast, where he served as superintendent for one summer [dates state that he was there in 1901 but it does not fit with the timeline- it was shortly after 1901 though].
During his time there, he encountered European missionaries working with the Inuit and was troubled by the erosion of their cultural identity. Records state that ‘determined to make a difference, he returned to Britain, sold the family estates of Craigforth and Ardinglas, and donated the proceeds, equivalent to about £9.6 million in 1996—to medical research charities’. Randal Swinton Callander was an heir in line to that estate, which had belonged to the family for over 500 years. He had agreed with his cousins to the selling of the Ardkinglas Estate in 1905 on the advice of their nephew The Hon. Niall Diarmid Campbell, the son of Janey Callander, Lady Campbell, and Lord Archibald Campbell, brother of the 9th Duke of Argyll. Niall was put in charge of the sale and later became 10th Duke of Argyll.
Shortly after marrying Beatrice FREEMAN in June of 1919, whom he met during World War I when she was a voluntary nurse, the Callanders moved to Labrador as part of the Moravian mission. The Moravian missions were a series of religious and humanitarian efforts carried out by the Moravian Church, officially known as the Unity of the Brethren, starting in the 18th century. The Moravians believed in spreading Christian faith through living among local populations, learning their languages, and respecting their cultures.
In Labrador the couple established the first boarding school for Inuit children. Randal contributed a new compound word to the Inuit language, meaning “forgiveness” or “not being able to think about it any more” (“issumadij auj ung nainermik”).
Information about the Callander’s time in Labrador can also be found in Alyssa Sebio’s PhD Thesis: Native North American Arts in Hastings Museum: The Collin F. Taylor and Edward Blackmore collections.
While in Makkovik, Labrador, the Callanders collected a number of Inuit artifacts which they took with them upon their return to England in 1921.Their son, Alan Randal CALLANDER, was born in Labrador, Canada on the 28th October 1921.
Alan Randal returned to Scotland with a Scottish nanny, where he lived with his close relations and godparents, the Swintons of Swinton House, Swinton Berwickshire.
Alan Randal (1921–1979) inherited the collection of Inuit artifacts. He passed on some items of that collection to Colin Taylor, expert on Native American history, and they formed a significant part of the Hastings Museum and Art Gallery collection, now the largest collection of Native North American objects in the UK.
As Alan’s son, James SWINTON-CALLANDER, describes,
“Colin Taylor was a friend of my parents during the 1960s and 70s. My father only gave Colin Taylor 22 items of native north american artifacts, which were put on display in Hastings museum. I have since contributed many more items of native north American and Inuit artifacts, which now occupy a dedicated room in the museum. The photo of the miniature dog sledge and Inuit figure [below] is one of the many Inuit items I donated to the museum. Those figures were made as toys for my father by the Inuit.”
Division 68, Row B, Plot 15743