Ladies of Davenham Hall

Russell Allen the proprietor of the Manchester Evening Newspaper bought Davenham Hall  in 1909 and moved in with his wife Blanche and five children - Doris, Geraldine and Margaret, Peter and John.

Russell Allen spent little time at the hall and it was his wife and daughters who came to rule the roost.  The daughters were brave and independent even as young ladies.

John died  during World War I in 1918 whilst serving as a captain in the Lancers. 

Doris and Geraldine also left Davenham Hall for the Western Front, serving as members of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY). This was an organisation set up to ferry the dead and wounded from the battlefield to field hospitals. This was a job of immense importance and as there was no pay was usually done by ladies of wealth.

In 1917, Doris was transferred to the French section of FANY (taking her sister Geraldine with her). Doris was also promoted to the rank of 2nd Lieutenant, and from this point onwards, every member of FANY allocated to the French Army, came under Doris’s command.

In 1918 Doris and Geraldine Allen were making highly dangerous journeys to and from the French frontline, with supplies.

So catastrophic was the nature of the French collapse at this point that Doris herself seems to have played a major part in processing upwards of 17,000 French and Allied casualties in just five days, through the town of Epernay.

Doris, in particular, had played a distinguished role in that final victory, and she was awarded the prestigious Croix de Guerre medal for bravery by the French government.

Doris and Geraldine received the commemorative Medaille de Societe aux Blesses Militaires (the forerunner of the French Red Cross) for their wartime services, before they withdrew again to a peaceful, rural life at Davenham Hall.

Geraldine and Margaret threw themselves into Cheshire life after the war and Doris was less outgoing.

Geraldine indulged her philanthropic tastes, and became a key sponsor and benefactor of Chester Zoo during the financially difficult days of the Great Depression. She also became a forthright and well-known figure in Cheshire politics, receiving an OBE in 1958.

Margaret wrote books for children about Chihuahua dogs under the pseudonym ‘Mard’.

Geraldine and Doris became involved in the rather secretive world of national Kennel Club politics, by encouraging a breakaway, more northerly Chihuahua club, away from the influence of southern and London-based Chihuahua breeders.  None of the sisters married and continued to live at the hall until they died.

Reference: Northwich and Winsford Guardian