Biography of an Ancestor

Our 50th Anniversary Competition invited entrants to submit a biography of an ancestor. We were thrilled by the number of responses we received (almost 250) and also by the extremely high standard of the entries. It was very hard to pick a winner and a runner up, but after much deliberation the prize was awarded to Mrs Dee Helmore with her biography of her ancestor William Gush. The runner up was Miss Pamela Willing with her biography of James Willing. .

The top nine entries are available online below. Some of the illustrations have been removed due to copyright issues.

The Winner: William Gush - Portrait Painter by Mrs Dee Helmore

The Runner-up: James Willing Junior by Pamela Willing

Other shortlisted entries were:-
Walter Aitchison: His Life by Paul Wigmore
The Story of Ward Swale by Will Swales
A Portrait of Robert Newstead by Jane Swan
And When He Died Strong Men Wept by Virginia Sylvester
No Ordinary Man - Richard Bryant by Patricia Atkins
Alfred Bayles by D.E.A. Tompkins
John Timbrell Milward Pierce by Anna Markham