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Lionel Aglio Dibdin 1881-1933 Property Developer Married Cecily Haycraft 1909
Lionel Aglio Dibdin in World War 1 Excerpts of Letters From Lionel Aglio Dibdin to Cecily Lionel was born the oldest son of William Joseph Dibdin and Marian nee Aglio on the 14th June 1881. William was the son of T.C.Dibdin, the painter, and Marian was the grandchild of Agostino Aglio, the painter, who immigrated in his early twenties from Italy. Marian’s father, Augustine, was also a painter, photographer, architect and sculptor. As yet details of Lionel’s early life are not clear however there are examples of his architectural drawing exercises dated 1899 and 1900 when he was about 18 and 19 years old. It is interesting to note that these were found in a folder which included works by his great grandfather Agostino Aglio, the comparison showing the precision and artistry of Agostino. As a young man Lionel was an articled pupil to Mr. Chambers Smith, surveyor. He later worked with his father, William Joseph Dibdin, on the bacteriological system of treating sewage and he developed and built many of the first biological slate bed sewage works. In 1909, at the age of 28, he married Cecily Haycraft, born 1882, one of six of a significant local family living at Eaton Road, Sutton. At this time, The Dibdin family, those at home, had just moved from Mayfield, 112 Grange Rd, Sutton, to Purleybury near Purley Down, Croydon and Lionel and Cecily moved into a house, Avondale, in Grosvenor Avenue, Sutton which was to be their only house for life. The Haycrafts and Didbins lived very close and there is reference in a letter from the oldest Haycraft boy Bernard that he had known Lionel since he was 15 years old. This means that maybe Lionel knew Cecily in their teens. See Article on the Haycraft - Dibdin Connection Between 1909 and 1914 there is evidence that he spent much of his time
on the Slate bed business although in 1912 during The National Strike, he
seems to have been a member of the Special Constabulary, and became a
leader of a volunteer police force was involved in the protection of the
strike breakers at the London Docks, spending time on an accommodation
boat called The Lady Jocelyn. There is a detailed drawing of his for a detached "lockup shop" in Haddon Road Sutton that he did in 1904 when he must have been about 23. Lionel may have studied Architecture but it is believed that he failed his exam and so became an engineer and property developer. In 1910, within a year of getting married Lionel and Cecily joined the Primrose League, a Conservative Club dedicated to the ideas of Disraeli.
Their first son, Stanley was born in 1910 and their second son, Peter, in 1913. During the first 5 years of their marriage, Lionel was out working and looking for customers for the Slate Bed Sewerage System. There are letters to his wife written in these early years of their marriage from Edinburgh, Chester, Yorkshire, Bristol, Dublin and Belfast and Norfolk. In fact is seems that they spent their honeymoon in Dublin so that he could manage the work at the Curragh an army camp 5 miles away. They seemed to have started married life at Avondale, Grosvenor Road, Sutton and all letters to Cecily were sent to that address or to Medmenham, her parents address except one that went to the Sutton Gas Co. 21, High St, Sutton during the war. The War Year 1914- 1918 Go to to Separate Article - Link to The Life of Lionel Aglio Dibdin during World War 1 After the war, during the early part of 1919 Lionel was still considered officially to be in the Royal Engineers (for the purposes of Rations) but in March and April was visiting the Maudsley Neurological Hospital and in April was discharged unfit for service. In January 1920, Cecily and Lionel’s third child, Joan, was born. In 1920/24 there are interesting letters from a contact called "Northy"
in the far East working for the Borneo Company Ltd.
After the war, Lionel set up his office in Mulgrave Road, Sutton. South
London and the county of Surrey seem to have been a main habitat of the
Dibdin family and for that matter the Haycraft family. Estates:
From the past there is reference to Sewerage Works in Dublin, Belfast,
Holt and Netherne Mental Hospital near by. Cecily was a gifted and locally known musician who had some job in the war with the Sutton Gas Company. I am sure that Cecily and Lionel will have known each other for some time before that got married, possibly from the ages of 14 and 15. There is evidence that the Haycrafts and Dibdins had reason to know each other’s family for some time but this needs further research. See Article on the Haycraft - Dibdin Connection Further insights into the nature of Lionel and the family relationships have being acquired from letters at the time of his father death in 1925. Lionel’s father William Joseph Dibdin, the Engineer, died in 1925. His letter to his sister Marian who was living with her husband, Paul Montford, and children in Australia gives some insight into the closeness that existed within the family. Lionel was 44 years old at the time and sadly was to die with his wife in a plane crash within 8 years. His strongly religious nature and principles come through in the letter as it does in the following letter to the local paper: From these and other letters, it is clear that he was deeply religious and a committed member of the Church of England. He was also a strong family man and as is mentioned elsewhere is seems that the Dibdin Family was very clannish and despite being spread across the world and throughout England they were totally supportive of each other. In 1928 Lionel’s mother died having been cared for by the family and a special nurse called Peggy who subsequently devoted her life to being Rex Dibdin’s housekeeper. Lionel and Cecily Dibdin died in 1933 in the worst plane crash this country had experienced. They were returning from a short holiday just after he had bought the estate, Camilla Lacey, near Box Hill in Surrey. He and Cecily’s last journey was on return from Switzerland and Italy where they had visited Lake Como and Cremona. It is assumed that Lionel was looking for information regarding his Great Grandfather, Agostino Aglio, who was born in Cremona and although he left Italy in his early twenties to come to England, he was recognised in the town as one of their artists. Because the plane burnt out when it crashed, there is no record of their trip.
Details about the plane crash in which Lionel and Cecily died Fifteen persons, the entire complement of passengers and crew of the Imperial Airways air liner, City of Liverpool, perished when the machine crashed in flames yesterday afternoon at Eesen, near Dixmude, 70 miles west by north of Brussels. 1932 -- There is a copy of the words of a hymn that Lionel wrote on a journey. A Song of Praise composed on a journey in the Sussex Lanes ‘twixt St.Nicholas, Middleton and St. Mary’s Church East Preston 8-9am Sunday 2nd Oct 1932 1. Within 6 months of writing this hymn Lionel and his wife perished in an aeroplane crash leaving a son and daughter to the ravishes of two families and the public trusty system. There is much to yet to find out about Lionel however it is sad to reflect on what is known so far, on the shortness of his life and the upheavals within it. The early years of his marriage were busy and I am sure in some respects difficult. The war and the death of his first son, Stanley, must have had a tremendous effect on the family and after the war he and Cecily only lived another 15 years. They were obviously devoted to each other and Lionel was becoming financially very successful. It, in my view, is incorrect to try to write about this person in isolation from the rest of the family and friend around him as can be seen by the letters above that he received from family and so this short history needs to be seen in the context of what is known about the rest of his family in particular his father and great-grandfather and his siblings. One person that is referred to is Mrs Midd (Middleton) who in effect was a significant part of the family although imported. She became part of William Joseph’s family as a companion to the children, however once she had grown up, married Norman and left the family, she lived in Victoria Street and acted as a port of call and haven for the next two generations of Dibdins. Incomplete – Raoul Guise Oct 2008
Children Stanley Lionel Aglio Dibdin Born in 1910 and died, aged 6, in 1917, Sutton, Surrey or Great London. Peter was born in Sutton in 1913, and was 20 years old when his parents were killed in the plane crash. He was waiting for them at the airport. During World War II he was in the Army, where on the 28th August 1943 he was killed in a gunnery accident. Joan was born in 1920 in Sutton and aged 13 and away at school when her parents were killed. Joan has the family musical and artistic streak and studied at the R.A.M. until called up in the war. During the war she worked as Red Cross nurse and then a motorbike dispatch rider in the army. She met her first husband in 1941/42 was married in 1942 and had her son Raoul on 11.3.1943. Her first husband, Anthony Benoit Guise, was drowned while going to the aid of another bather in Ceylon 11th Aug 1944, while on active service. Their son Raoul was then about 18 months old. [43] Joan remarried on 26th July 1952, and with her second husband, Douglas Welburn, lived in Chiswick until 1973 when they moved to a smallholding farmhouse in Cumbria close to Hadrians Wall. Douglas Welburn died in a lorry accident on 2nd June 1981 Raoul married to Joanna Rowntree in York on 2ndJan 1965 and has two daughters Samantha born 28th Sept 1965 and Genevieve born 4th March 1968. Raoul qualified as an Engineer and worked for many years in the field until becoming a science and technology teacher in 1974. Joanna trained as a nurse and subsequently as a teacher. In 1977 the family moved to Otley in Yorkshire. [45] |
