Torbay AFC 1890 - Mr Miller?

I was in the library the other day checking White’s Directory of Devon 1890 for references to some of the individuals mentioned in Jon’s recent press cuttings from the 1870s, 1880s and 1890s.

My suspicion is that it’s usually relatively mature members of society who are mentioned in this type of directory. So, rather than the young sporting bucks, it’s often their fathers and grandfathers who are listed. An exception to this is that some of the youngsters involved in the Torbay and South Devon club of 1877 would have been fully-fledged pillars of Torquinian life by the time White’s appeared in 1890. C Shapley may have become the chemist on Castle Terrace; G Crockwell may have been the eventual auctioneer, valuer and undertaker on Victoria Parade; W Ball could have been part of Whiteway & Ball, coal merchants. And was H Day a one-time victualler at the Cary Hotel? Nothing definite, mind, save for Lord Churston being the man in the Big House at Lupton. And, on the topic of Churston, there were several Tullys (no doubt forebears of Steve) farming there even then.

As for those Excelsior boys and mates of Mr Poulton in the late 1880s, the Etheringtons could have been related to the Rev Etherington of the Newcourt boarding school on Falkland Road. Perhaps we can surmise that some of the other participants were pupils and teachers from this school? The Poultons may have lived in Vansittart Road and young Rodgers could have been the son of the licensee of the beerhouse at Brunswick Square.

RM Weeks seems to have been an important figure both in the Excelsior club and the Torbay Assocaition club of 1890. There was, at this time, various notable Weeks holding positions of responsibility such as registrar of births, marriages and deaths and water superintendent (with additional authority over the fire service). And I’d rather like H Craddock to have been the progeny of Thomas Craddock, music professor and organist of Thurlow Road.

Meener is quite likely to have been related to the tailor of that name from Princes Road, Ellacombe and did Percy Johns’ mum have a millinery and “fancy dressing” business on Fleet Street? As for those proud self-described middle-class types we mentioned recently, there were two local “middle-class schools”: St Luke’s and St Winifred’s.

Lastly Mr Miller. Not too many listed in White’s – just Agatha’s dad and Fred, the saddler and harness maker on Tor Church Road. I see Agatha Christie published Why Didn't They Ask Evans? in 1934. Perhaps Crad Evans was a one-time suitor? Or did she lose her heart to the dashing Gerry Deane?