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Subject:Professor S H Hansford's family are looking to find out more our their Grandpa.
Posted By: Joy Bellingham ( nee Hansford) Fri, Aug 29, 2014 IP: 92.17.218.42

Hello,

I am presently doing research to find out all we can on our late Grandfather Professor Sydney Howard Hansford. I am his grand daughter - he died in 1971 a year before I was born.

We have some of his obituaries which are filling some of the gaps in and in doing some internet searches I found he / and his books were mentioned on this forum ( which would makes sense given its a forum for Asian arts!

I would be so pleased to connect with anyone who is familiar with his work and especially if anyone has personal knowledge of him - it would be great to hear what he was like.

I am also piecing together, if we can, his work that he did on intelligence at the Foreign office in WW2. He was at Bletchley Park. in Milton Keynes. He is on the honour roll but there is not much information there about him.

He sounds a very fascinating man and from all we are learning was very influential in the widening of knowledge about Chinese Jade. I * think* we have most of his books still in the family but are always wanting to hear more .

I hope this is a good place to ask and I thought some of you may be interested to know a little more about him. I can upload the obituaries if anyone is interested?


All relatives from that generation and his offspring are now deceased so me, my brother and cousins are very keen to know more about him from other people.
Many thanks


Joy ( nee Hansford) Bellingham

Subject:Re: Professor S H Hansford's family are looking to find out more our their Grandpa.
Posted By: adam Fri, Aug 29, 2014

I know my grandfather was an aquaintance of his. At one point a comparison of three vessels from our collection (Song/Ming/Qing chi cups)was going to be put in a book of his but this never happened. I can look through what notes we have remaining and see if there are any details that might help you in any way.
Good luck, the Western collectors of eastern art owe men like your grandfather for making the area accessible at a time when the east was shrouded in mystery.

Subject:Re: Professor S H Hansford's family are looking to find out more our their Grandpa.
Posted By: rat Fri, Aug 29, 2014

Please post some of the obits, it would be interesting to me anyway, as I am not familiar with his work, I only know his name. There are a few people here who specialize in jade; they may be more helpful

Subject:Re: Professor S H Hansford's family are looking to find out more our their Grandpa.
Posted By: Elisabetta Brusa Wed, Jun 08, 2016

I am the daughter of Joyce Mary Hansford who was the daughter of Sidney Laurence Hansford who was the cousin of Sidney Howard Hansford your grandfather. My grandfather was an orphan and went to live with Howard thanks to his father's grace. At 20 he was sent to Genova and Milan to work for Edison and lived there for 37 years till the War broke out. My mother met her husband Giuseppe Brusa there. She, her sister Bettina and grandpa and grandma left Italy the day after the War broke out on the 11th of June 1940
on an adventurous journey to London. My mother worked at Bletchley Park as a linguist and Aunty betty arrived there a year later. The funny thing is that one day in the BP grounds by pure chance she saw someone she knew well. Oh! Hello Uncle Howard!! My mother was on the roll of Honour too though I cannot find it anywhere on internet. I have her medal. I am currently looking for information regarding Bletchley Park to put as much as possible in my mother's small biography which I am writing. This is because my mother wrote all the rather long story of her stay at Bletchley Park, but never published it. She said she wrote it for me, but I think there may be people who may be interested in it so I am about to put it in my own website, though I will have to correct her spelling mistakes first! Funnily, I am better at spelling than she was. My email is [email protected] and my website is www.elisabettabrusa.it

Subject:Re: Professor S H Hansford's family are looking to find out more our their Grandpa.
Posted By: Elisabetta Brusa Sat, Jul 09, 2016

I have attached a photograph of Hut & in Bletchley Park. Do you recognize your grandfather? If so, I would be very grateful to know where he is. It is possible that my mother is the one holding a bag under her arm with a dark dress and squared neckline.

Thank you very much and best wishes,

Elizabeth



Subject:Re: Professor S H Hansford's family are looking to find out more our their Grandpa.
Posted By: Elisabetta Brusa Sat, Jul 09, 2016

I have only one obituary cut out by my mother (who died in 2010) from The Times, but surely you must have this.

As I am going to mention your great-grandfather in my mother's biography, do you know exactly what was his job at Bletchley Park? I remember meeting Howard when I was a child.

You must be very proud of him, but actually so am I because my grandfather was very close to him and he was more of a brother than a cousin since they were brought up together. My mother kept in touch with her daughter Elizabeth nearly till the end of her life in 2010. When did Elizabeth die? I remember her very well. She came to stay with us in Milan when I was very young, if I am not wrong.

Do you have any other information that I can mention in my mother's book regarding Bletchley Park?

With many thanks and best wishes,

Elizabeth Brusa

[email protected]

I am a composer and professor of Composition at the Conservatorio of Milan. www.elisabettabrusa.it

Subject:Re: Professor S H Hansford's family are looking to find out more our their Grandpa.
Posted By: Anon. Wed, Apr 08, 2015

There is now a great deal of information available from Bletchley Park on those that serverd there and the Satelite sites around the SEeast. Were you aware he is on the roll of Honour (there is a pdf certificate available) and there is a generic list of names and explanatory notes on the teams with which he served. Try: http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/resources/filer.rhtm/648479/roh+explanatory+notes.pdf
http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/resources/filer.rhtm/591876/hi.pdf

Or you can google the his name and they come up.

Subject:Re: Professor S H Hansford's family are looking to find out more our their Grandpa.
Posted By: Richenda S Carter Sun, Jan 01, 2017

S Howard Hansford comes into our family through his wife, Doris Irene Pinkham.
I don't know if you have seen the films he made which are held by BFI (British Film Institute) and if not thought they may be of interest to you
Perhaps the BFI would look kindly upon you as his grand-daughter? I think they must be quite fascinating let alone with your direct connection.
I would be interested to know how you get on.
Kind regards
Richenda

URL Title :Homemade films by S Howard Hansford


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Subject:Re: Professor S H Hansford's family are looking to find out more our their Grandpa.
Posted By: Joy Bellingham Mon, May 04, 2020

Hello Richenda

Thank you for posting and I am so sorry for the tardy reply ! I hope this finds you well?
So, DOris was my beloved granmother!
How is she related to you? I am loving finding these other family connections!
Doris or Doz was a very talented painter and piantist. I have one of her paintings in my dining room. She died when I was 19 - she lived in the granny flat attatched to the house.
I would be glad to know more about the connection with our family !

Thanks for writing

Joy

Subject:Re: Professor S H Hansford's family are looking to find out more our their Grandpa.
Posted By: Ludo Graham Wed, Dec 20, 2017

Hi Joy,

So out of the blue but I saw your message while trying to do a bit of research on your grandfather. I work for a documentary production company and we are working on a documentary about european filmmakers in early 20th century china using a large pile of archive from the BFI, in which some of your grandfather's films are featured. It would be great to hear from you with any and all you can tell me about the man, in particular his time in China between the wars. You can reach me on [email protected]\

hoping to hear from you!


Subject:Re: Professor S H Hansford's family are looking to find out more our their Grandpa.
Posted By: Joy Bellingham new Hansford Tue, Apr 28, 2020

Hello dear people!
I am so sorry to only now reply - I’m afraid I get no notification of posts and in the busyness of life forgot to check back here! I will write again soon with a more in-depth reply. Thank you so much for replying - seems a lot more info has surfaced in this time! I have reset settings to get notifications !
Apologies again!

Joy

Subject:Re: Professor S H Hansford's family are looking to find out more our their Grandpa.
Posted By: Family info Sun, May 03, 2020

Joy,

I may have some information on your grandfather’s early life. Sent you a message on Facebook 27/4/2020 but it hasn’t been read? I know that messages from people who aren’t ‘friends’ get sent to a different inbox.

Hope to hear from you soon,

Tom

Subject:Re: Professor S H Hansford's family are looking to find out more our their Grandpa.
Posted By: Joy Bellingham Mon, May 04, 2020

Hi! responding to Tom

Thanks for writing. I am afraid I do not get your facebookj messages ( my name on there is Joy Hansford Bellingham) I look forward to hearing back! I now get notificcations here :)

thannks

Joy

Subject:Re: Professor S H Hansford's family are looking to find out more our their Grandpa.
Posted By: Family info Tue, May 05, 2020

Joy,

I recently bought an Officers Record Of Service (AB439) which belonged to you grandfather that dates from the First World War. These would have been carried by officers in their top pockets as a kind of identity card and a place to record promotions etc. Sometimes when researching names from the past the don’t yield good results but your grandfather was easy to trace. It’s not the most enlightening object in comparison to what it sounds like he went on to do but still of great personal interest to you and your family.

I have a grandfather who I never met and if someone came across an item of his I would hope they got in contact with my family. Get in touch and I will see my way to getting the book back to you. I am reluctant to post any contact details here but have sent a friend request on Facebook which would be more secure.

Here is a picture from his AB439.



Subject:Re: Professor S H Hansford's family are looking to find out more our their Grandpa.
Posted By: Joy Bellingham Mon, May 04, 2020

Here is the list of Books he wrote:

A Glossary of Chinese Art and Archaeology
Chinese Carved Jades
Chinese Jade Carving
JADE Essence of Hills and Streams ( The Von Oertzen Collection of Chinese and Indian Jades )


these are well known to Jade collectors. I used to be in touch with a Roger Kevern who deals in Oriental work and he said that Granpa's work is used still today in defining the real v fake jade in the industry..


I have some photos of a quite large lump of a necklace my granny would always wear - its actually quite beautiful. Some kind of jade I think. We no longer have it. But it may be of interest to some of you?




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