MS 427

Reference code

MS 427

Title

Winifred Mary (Mollie) Matthews papers

Level

Sub-fonds

Administrative / Biographical history

Matthews, Winifred Mary (Mollie), née Berry, formerly Way and Watney (1919-2001)

Winifred Mary (Mollie) Berry was born on 29 May 1919 in Sussex, the daughter of Arthur George Vale Berry, a petroleum technician and Winifred Powell. She moved with her parents to Trinidad in 1920 where her father worked. In Feb 1940 she married Lieutenant-Commander Graham Herbert Way (1908-1941), Royal Navy. He was killed in action on HMS Juno off Crete on 21 May 1941. In May 1942 she married Michael George Watney (1921-1943), educated at Eton from 1933-1938 and briefly at Cambridge 1938-1940. George Watney was commissioned into the 23rd Hussars, Royal Armoured Corps at Knaresborough in 1941 where he took part in the on-going training of the new regiment. He was subsequently attached to the 10th Hussars with whom he fought in North Africa. He was killed in action on 29 March 1943 at El Hamma, Tunisia in the battle of Mareth Line. During the war, Mollie, proficient in French, had trained as a secretary and had been posted to the British Consul at Algiers in February 1943, a month before George was killed. Between 1947 and 1948, Mollie Watney worked as personal assistant to Major-General Sir Arthur Guy Salisbury-Jones (1896–1985) head of the British Military Mission to France and military attaché in Paris from 1946 to 1949. In 1951, she married Derek Patrick Lloyd Matthews (1914-1996), writer, editor, photographer, cinematographer, illustrator for and later director of Condé Nast, Vice-Chair of International Wine and Food Society and managing director of Vogue Studios. Together Mollie and Patrick wrote a successful series of children’s books, Teddy Edward (1962-1978) which were adapted as a BBC television series of the same name in 1973. Mollie and Patrick had one daughter, Sarah. Mollie Matthews died in November 2001.

Date

1938-1989

Extent & medium

2 boxes

Content description

Correspondence and papers of Winifred Mary (Mollie) Matthews (née Berry), formerly Way and Watney

Provenance

The papers were assembled by Mollie Matthews during her lifetime.

Arrangement

The papers were disordered and have been arranged in 3 artificial series by the archivist:

01 Correspondence of Winifred Mary (Mollie) Matthews

02 Personal papers of Winifred Mary (Mollie) Matthews relating to Graham Herbert Way and Michael George Watney

03 Family papers of Winifred Mary (Mollie) Mollie Matthews