Anna Lee

510 days ago

A very proud Dad: Olaf gets a first from Oxford

The little girly snowflake swat has just been on the phone to let us know that, despite Brexit and global warming, she has got a First, in French and History, from Oxford. Suffice to say I am a very proud dad but have no idea where she gets it from.

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798 days ago

Farewell gorgeous and glamorous cousin Venetia Stevenson 1938 - 2022

What links the picture on a Scottish beer, Russ Tamblyn (Seven Brides for Seven Brothers), Back to the Future 2, Don Everly ( of the singing Brothers), Axl Rose of Guns n’ Roses, Anthony Perkins (psycho), the Sound of Music and me? The answer is Venetia Strevenson my father’s first cousin who died this week. I was with my father’s sister Aunt L on the day we learned that her cousin had passed away and while she was very sorry to hear the news, she noted that she and Venetia moved in rather different social circles.

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1153 days ago

Photo Article from the Welsh Hovel - Ha-ha, how green was my valley?

Glamorous great Aunt Anna Lee, the British Bombshell, was in the film, How Green was my valley. Not a lot of people know that. Anyhow, the grass on top of the new earth bank and around the Ha-Ha is now, after two weeks of rain but two days of sunshine really starting to push through. Earlier today there were still two small puddles on top but they willbe gone by tonight so burning hot is the sun here in Wales today. Only kidding.

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1376 days ago

The family papers – a night of revelation and shocks

The Mrs and the children are breaking lockdown rules with her parents and so left to my own devices I stayed up into the small hours combing the family papers picked up from my late father’s house last week. It was a night of shocks and revelation and having discussed the matter with my father’s sister L, I wonder what I should reveal. Perhaps all.

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1535 days ago

Photo article: Will I solve a 145 year old mystery this week? Who was Maude Winnifrith? DNA tests going out today!

Maude Winnifrith was born in 1875 and was my great grandmother. Her children included my grandfather, Sir John Winnifrith and the actress Anna Lee – once known as the British Bombshell. But who was Maude? The mystery has intrigued the family for decades and this week I hope to solve it once and for all with the assistance of a retired vicar in Oxfordshire, my father and two DNA tests.

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1553 days ago

Tom Winnifrith Bearcast: My great grandmother was illegitimate but James Parsons is a complete and utter bastard

I have been doing good work on the mystery of who my great grandmother really was. My great aunt, her daughter the actress Anna Lee, did some work, as you can see HERE, but I have gone a step further and have agreement to do a DNA test to solve the mystery once and for all. I discuss this distraction then Sound Energy (SOU), Optibiotix (OPTI), Cobra Resources (COBR) and 7 Digital (7DIG).

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1853 days ago

Photo article - my glamorous great Aunt Anna Lee in Fort Apache

My father’s cousin, the actor Jeffrey Byron, posted this shot from Fort Apache on the internet the other day, The movie was directed by his Godfather John Ford who often cast his mum, my great Aunt in his films. Anna Lee, born Joan Winnifrith, is on the far left. Pre-war Lee was dubbed “The British Bombshell” in Hollywood. It is hard to think of anyone in my family earning that epithet. 

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2678 days ago

Photo Article: My Great Aunt, Sir John Winnifrith's sister "the British Bombshell" Anna Lee

Over the past few days I have written a couple of times about my grandfather, Sir John Winnifrith, a thoroughly respectable fellow who ran the National Trust and was a staunch Bennite opponent of the EU. He was intelligent, sober and obviously not what one might term glamorous. But his little sister Joan was rather different.

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2716 days ago

So the historian contacted me about Albert Baker Winnifrith - the defrocked vicar

Was he by any chance a relation? Did I have a photo of him? The truth is that I did not have a scoobie but I knew a man who did. I called my father.

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2854 days ago

Daddy couldn't you find Mike the Vlach on the internet?

So asks a daughter of the 21st century.The answer is that I could discover whether my father's oldest Greek friend is alive and make contact via the interwebby thing.

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3009 days ago

Photo Article Glam cousin Venetia on a date with Elvis Presley

My father's family are generally not a terribly glamorous lot. They are serious, often bookish and, very often, holding stern and sober convictions. But there is one branch that is totally different. My grandfather (Sir John Winnifrith) had a younger sister Joan who moved to Hollywood, took the stage name Anna Lee and became an actress.

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3042 days ago

Photos of glamorous great Aunt Anna Lee and yes that is Clark Gable

My father's family, in England at least, were a small c Conservative - if often hard left politically - lot. They still are on both counts. As such I guess I am a bit of a black sheep and so look to our American cousins, that is to say my grandather's young sister Joan Winnifrith and her family as being just that bit different. My grandfather, Sir John, was a respectable senior civil servant and after retirement head of the National Trust and War Graves Commission. His little sister was far less respectable. Google knows her as the actress Anna Lee.

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