George Sperryn (1851 - 1935)Parents: James Browning Sperryn & Anne Neville Born: 11.Oct.1851 in Cawnpore, India Died: 1935 in Solihull, England
 George spent his early years in India. The family set sail for Britain in late 1855 and his photo aged 15/16 (1866) was taken in London. He met his future wife Charlotte onboard the American Union which left London bound for New York on 1.Aug.1871. Passengers' Contract Ticket She was 18, he was 19. They married five years later on 24.May.1976 in Canada. Charlotte's brother John Lee, gave her a photograph album as a wedding present and she collected various photographs over the following two decades. The couple had their first two children Charlotte (aka Lottie) & George Neville in Canada (1877 & June 1879). Letter to his sister about his first child Charlotte Farewell illuminated address from workers in 1878. A photo of George Neville in December 1979 shows that the family had returned to Britain, but whether living in London or just visiting there's no way of knowing. In the 1881 census George is listed as being 'Manager of Chandelier Works' and lives at 238 Nechells Park Rd, Aston, Birmingham. He worked for John Russell and Company Ltd. in Birmingham (his brother James was the London works manager) and he was given another illuminated address when he left in 1889 to found Sperryn & Co., with its first premises in Hospital St., Aston. George and Charlotte had a fourth child, William. The two brothers George and William married two sisters (Alice and Elsie Cutler). He was a councillor (probably 1900 - 1912) publicity poster. (More from George's scrapbook.) By a great stroke of luck, the history of the house (Melville Lodge) he had built and was living in by 1899 has been made part of a website. "Kelly's Directories show that in 1888 Mr George Sperryn, a Birmingham councillor, moved into Number 10 Melville Road (the Cottage), in 1892 he moved across the road to Number 3, and then in 1896 he moved back across the road to Number 6. In 1897 the Architect John Perrius Osborne was selected to design and submit plans for a residence for Mr George Sperryn which is listed as Melville Lodge, i.e. Number 42 Melville Road where, as records show, he lived with his wife Charlotte Jane and family in 1904." https://www.moorlandcourt.co.uk/history A large group in the garden of Melville Lodge around 1910. Postcards from George (and his son George Neville) have survived and show extensive continental travel in the decade before the First World War. In 1912, in their early 60s, George and Charlotte set off on a world cruise to India, Ceylon (as he knew it), Australia and New Zealand, followed the next year by Japan, returning in May 1914. He kept a diary, sent postcards home and took photographs along the way. The album of photographs and diary were handed on down different branches of the family tree, but in 2010 one of his great-granddaughters and one of his great-great-granddaughters reunited them while the widow of a grandson on a third branch still had some of the postcards. So their well illustrated journey can now be read here. By 1926, at the time of their Golden Wedding George and Charlotte were living in Hampton Grange, as shown by this contemporary copy of a celebratory illuminated address. A selection of George Sperryn photographs. Click on the thumbnail image to see it full size.
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