Thomas Rendall Morris

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/139092697/thomas-rendall-morris

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Morris-11950

V. Thomas Rendall Morris (1839-1884)

Thomas Rendall was born on 27 January 1839, and probably named Thomas after his uncle Thomas Morris, the Resident Director of Devon Great Consols, and Rendall after his father’s paternal aunt, Sarah Rendall. In the family he was called Rendall. Rendall was enrolled for the Christmas term 1848 at the Forest Proprietary Grammar School in Walthamstow. Sometimes he obtained higher grades than his elder brother Stanley. In 1855 he won a prize for Biblical Knowledge, and was first in History and Geography, Theology and German. He then left the school for a private tutor in Bonn in Germany, as had Stanley. 60 Rendall’s daughter Effie refers to him attending university in Germany, speaking German well, and that she had several sheets of his poems.61 Rendall’s grandson Tim Langley believed he attended Heidelburg University but no record of this has been traced.62 On 25 August 1857 Rendall was commissioned into the 92nd Gordon Highlanders Regiment of Foot as an Ensign.63 Army records for 1861 show that he joined the 53rd Shropshire Regiment on 18 December 1860. He sold his commission in 1863 after six years of service.64

On 11 September 1860 Rendall, aged twenty-one, married Elizabeth Maxwell in Hackney, giving his profession as ‘esquire’, although he was in the army. Elizabeth, aged nineteen, was born in 1841, and came from Stirling. She was the fourth of six sisters. It is possible that she met Rendall when he was stationed at Stirling, the base of the Gordon Highlanders. Her father, a bank accountant, gave his consent and attended the wedding. Morris family stories suggest that Elizabeth was an (amateur) actress and that Rendall and Elizabeth led ‘a gay social life’ when living at Shurdington.65 Rendall and Elizabeth produced eight children. It is possible to trace the family’s whereabouts and their father’s occupation from their birth certificates. Their eldest child Rendall McEwen Morris was born on 15 October 1861 at Oving in Sussex while his father was still in the 53rd Regiment. The next, Ada, was born on 1 November 1863 at Hawkeshead in the English Lake District, Herbert Maxwell on 2 August 1866 at Shurdington, Gloucestershire and Arthur Gordon on 22 December 1868 at Scarborough, Yorkshire. Their birth certificates list their father as retired from the 53rd Regiment. Esme Verena was born on 30 April 1872 at Tranmere, Birkenhead; her father’s occupation was ‘gentleman’. Effie Mabel was born on 22 October 1876 at a different address in Tranmere on 6 August 1882, her father also a ‘shipping clerk’. Rendall’s grandson Tim Langley wrote of his being a translator for a shipping firm.66