Aspects of The Fleuss and Related Families Including Guise – Giese Wilson Frankland Heinrich Eustace Baines Other similar booklets A Edited by Raoul Guise Ancestral Encounters Fantasy dialogues with family from the past The information in this booklet One Family at War can be found on www.guise.me.uk A summary of the wartime experiences of and the booklet members of a large extended family during the First and Second World Wars. can be downloaded for printing An Introduction to the Rowntree Family One Branch in the First World War Era st Three Lives in World War 2 1 Edition 2015 A study of the early life of Tony and Joan Corrections and further information Guise leading to amendments and additions are always welcome Traumatic Years - for Peter and Joan Dibdin after the death of their parents. [email protected] Aspects of the Life of Paul Rowntree available on: 27 May 1920 - 11 Sept 1999 www.guise.me.uk/fleuss/index.htm All available on www.guise.me.uk Page 1 Page 2 Aspects of the History of the Fleuss Family and Related Families Chapter Page Introduction 4 1 Background to the Fleuss Family 5 2 Henry Joseph Fleuss 12 3 Henry Albert Fleuss 15 4 Henry Otto Fleuss 21 5 Margarette Fleuss and John Francis Bentley 6 Other children of Henry Joseph Fleuss 30 including Oswald, Belinda, Charles S Fleuss Children of Henry Otto Fleuss 7 Katherine Edith and the Wilson Family 31 8 Margaret Amy and Baines Family 37 Gertrude Fleuss and Eustace Family 9 Dorothy and the Heinrich Family 38 10 Audrey Mary and the Frankland Family 41 11 Gerald Osmund Fleuss and Family 44 12 Vera and The Guise Family 45 13 The Giese Family - Guise name change 67 14 The Tourniaire Family 73 15 Postscript 74 Appendices A Painting and lithographs by Henry Joseph A1 Fleuss Article by Peter Jackson about the Fleuss A3 Breathing Apparatus Family Tree of the Frankland Baronets A11 Page 3 Introduction This piece of work can only be described as a compilation of the There is one whole chapter devoted to the report that Sarah wrote information about the families as known in 2015. based on her research. A few years ago, very little was known, by the editor, of the History of the Guise Family. The Danish connection was known Insights into the most mysterious daughter, Katherine Edith, have with the associated myth regarding the flight of the De Guise been gained from the knowledge of her granddaughter, Celia family from France at the time of the French Revolution. Allen, and I am sad to report that her husband died prematurely in The Matriarch of the family was Vera Guise, Mater, born a Fleuss 2015. and married to Jules Guise, son of Jules Carl Guise. Very little There are, in Richard’s archive of material, many letters from was known of the life and death of her son Anthony Benoit other people over the years, many of whom may not be Guise, my father. contactable now. The writings of Peter Jackson about the Fleuss It is thanks to a mass detailed letters and notes that many people Diving equipment are a valuable contribution to our knowledge. have written that this information has been collated. In particular, thanks must go to Richard Michael Stenning , a More of the stories, documents and photographs are available on great grandson of Henry Otto Fleuss, for the work that he had the internet at www.guise.me.uk done since about 1992. Sadly Richard died in 2007, and never saw the compilation of all the documents, notes and letters that he There is only a limited reference to Anthony Benoit Guise as had collected together by that time. It is only because his considerable detail of his life, particularly after the beginning of collection was handed over to Simon Callow that his work can be WW2, is covered in the booklet Three Lives in World War 2. made available. This explores the intensity of his relationship with his wife to be, Richard had managed to contact many of the family and the Joan Dibdin, and his experiences in the army and in India. letters of Gerald Fleuss, from the UK, and Muriel Mendoza, That booklet contains very full appendices containing his letters daughter of Dorothy, from the USA, have given insights into the during the war and those from colleagues, family and friends after nature of Henry Otto’s children. Richard had also done he died. considerable work on his grandfather’s family and probably spent It is hoped that this contribution to the history of the Fleuss and time searching for a connection to the Frankland Baronets. related families will be of use and interest to future generations. A special thanks goes to Sarah Guise, who did some serious As the 5th generation of this family of immigrants reaches research into the Guise family and smashed the myth relating to maturity, it may be for further generations to ensure that the lives ancestry from to the Dukes of Guise. Her work rooted the family of the past is not forgotten. in Denmark with the original surname Giese, which uncannily probably has German roots. Sadly Sarah died, too young, in 2014. Raoul Guise November 2015 Page 4 Chapter 1 The Fleuss Family ------------ By no means, a dull family A study of the Fleuss Family has been a wonderful task of Jules Carl's original surname was Giese, a Danish name with unpicking a blend of established history and dramatic mythology. probable German Roots, and he had to change it to create a more The reason for this is probably because so many members of the suitable "brand" for his work in the theatre business. family seem to have Continental European roots and it has been Henry Otto's eldest daughter, Katherine Edith Levine Fleuss ( or easy to allow the myths and rumours to develop. Thanks to the Catherine ) seems to have caused quite a stir. She married a work of two people, Sarah Guise and Richard Stenning, much has gentleman, Frank Wilson in 1895, and had two children by him been sorted out and this booklet and the associated webpages are before disappearing off with an Austrian Count, according to the dedicated to their memory. stories. It maybe that Frank ended up with a total of 5 of her To set the scene it is worth mentioning some of the main points. children on his hands. Henry Joseph Fleuss, born in 1811, arrived in this country Little known, but maybe there is another family mystery probably in about the 1830's to work as an artist. surrounding the two sisters, Vera and Dorothy Fleuss and He married Charlotte Sophie Kolbach (or Coulbach) who was Dorothy's husband to be Arthur Heinrich. In 1911 at the time of born in Surrey but was spoken of as being from Vienna, an artist the census both were living in a strange house in Broadstairs and and a pupil of Lizst. in 1912 a boy Hugh B Heinrich was born. He later changed his It seems that their eldest son, Henry Otto Fleuss was born in name to Atkins. See details in the chapter on Dorothy. Germany and so was of German nationality. Little is known of his life other than he worked in a rubber Within the descendants of Henry Joseph, considered for warehouse but was an artist as well. There has been some simplicity to be the patriarch of the family, are any number of speculation within the family regarding his wife's ancestry. artists, actors and engineers. As the generations continue and the family spreads out there are more and more talented people drawn Amongst Otto's daughters, two got married to men with into the family. One of his son's Henry Albert Fleuss was an continental backgrounds. Dorothy Fleuss married Arthur inventor working for much of his life with diving equipment. Heinrich from Germany and they had to emigrate to America at the beginning of WW1 and Vera Fleuss married Jules Guise who In 1916, just after her sister married a German and emigrated, was supposed to have ancestry back to French aristocracy. This Vera married Jules Guise, and still as late as the WW2, there were has been found to be a total myth although, but even more issues about the nationality of the family and their son, Tony, had dramatical, his father Jules Carl Guise had Danish roots and to fight the system to ensure that he could get officer training. It married Therese Caroline Alexandrine Tourniaire who, in fact, was the nature of wartime Britain to draw out the dramatic and came from what could be described as French Circus Aristocracy excitement within life and so stories abound, romantic and of the time, with a grandfather, Jacques Tourniaire who worked otherwise about life in the family during that era. for the Russian Tsar and built the first circus in Russia. Page 5 Chart showing the connections between the Fleuss, Guise and other Families Page 6 The Frankland connection is of interest as Richard Stenning, Joseph Louis 1862-1862 Died in infancy whose Grandmother married Charles Arthur Frankland, must Louis Augusta 1863-1863 Died in infancy have considered that there was some relationship with the Because of the work of Richard Michael Stenning, we have a Frankland Baronets, but so far this has not been established. considerable archive of material leading to an insight into a number of families connected to the Fleuss family, however most No way can this historical work be considered complete, is known of the families of the offspring of Henry Otto Fleuss.