We seek out other French men and women who have left their mark in the United Kingdom and don’t have an aristocratic background.
Ho Chi Minh (1890 – 1969)
Now most of you are thinking he was Vietnamese and you would be right, but we’ve managed to sneak him onto our list (by the fact that he was a founding member of the French Communist Party) as otherwise we wouldn’t be able to relate the story of him working in the kitchens of the Drayton Court Hotel in West Ealing. He arrived in London in 1913 and probably started working there in 1914.
If you want to create your own “Ho Chi Minh” trail then visit the site of the old Carlton Hotel on the corner of Haymarket and Pall Mall, where he worked as a pastry chef. There is a Blue Plaque there on the side of New Zealand House, the home of the New Zealand High Commission.
Sometime after he was also employed as a pastry chef on the Newhaven–Dieppe ferry route, and apparently there is a monument to him in Newhaven’s local museum.
Lucien PISSARO (1863 – 1944)
He was the son of the more famous painter Camille PISSARRO and lived at Hill Cottage, Hewood in the village of Thorncombe(!) for the last years of his life. Like so many others he came to London in 1863 to escape political upheaval in France. Lucien was a painter in his own right and became a leading member of the Camden Group of painters. For more details see Heather ROUGHTON’s article which is to be found on the Thorncombe Village Trust‘s website.
“Grandmere” (? – ?)
This grave is in (Hanwell) City of Westminster Cemetery. The grand daughter was Jeanne Georgette LAWTON 1891-1974. Her maiden name was Perrouas and she married Kingsley Eric Lawton in St Martins, Central London in 1922. Her husband was a dentist in Ealing and obtained his qualifications in Paris in 1912.
Joseph Henri Motschviller
His grave is to found in (Hanwell) Kensington & Chelsea Cemetery. He was born in France. He was a hairdresser as was his son Luigi. His wife Marie was born in London. At the time of his death (1919) they were living at 134 Holland Park Avenue.