Mutley's Competition

I know the Judge's decision is final but the answer to Q1 may be as contentious as the one to Q2! :)

When I saw the answer to Q1 I thought where has that hyphen come from? I knew there had been some family hoohah over surnames because Trafford, George’s brother, used the surname Leigh-Mallory. So I dug out my copy of Peter Gilman’s book The Wildest Dream - Mallory: His Life and Conflicting Passions. Gilman mentions George’s memorial in St Wilfrid’s parish church, Mobberley, Cheshire where George’s father had been the last of the Mallorys to be rector there. ‘The convoluted name is part of a family history. The story is one of interlopers, disputed wills, premature deaths and a concern for status and appearances.

But what of the name, George Herbert Leigh Leigh-Mallory, which is recorded on the memorial at St Wilfrid's? One of the Leighs resulted from the determination of his grandfather, George Leigh, to restore his own surname. The second stemmed from his father's concern for propriety and status. In 1914 Herbert Leigh Mallory decided to apply for a family coat of arms. But when the officials at the College of Arms delved into his family history, they found a curious anomaly. It appeared that when George Leigh assumed the name Mallory in 1832, the change applied only to his first marriage, and not to his second. This news was broken to a shocked Herbert Leigh Mallory in March 1914 by the Garter King of Arms, Sir Arthur Gatty, who told him that as a consequence he was ’in the almost unique position' of having no surname at all.

All of this was related by Herbert in a letter to his son George on 30 March 1914. Herbert asked his son not to tell anyone else: 'It seems so silly,' he confessed. But there was good news too, for Sir Arthur had found a solution. The best way out of the impasse, he suggested, would be for Herbert to apply for a new surname, Leigh-Mallory. Herbert agreed that this was the most convenient solution, particularly as he had been signing himself 'Leigh Mallory' anyway. So it was that the boy who had been christened George Herbert Leigh Mallory officially became George Herbert Leigh Leigh-Mallory. George never used his full name, although he once wrote to the Mount Everest Committee to insist that his rightful name was George Leigh Mallory. But his father's social aspirations went unsatisfied as his request for a coat of arms was turned down.’

Ali

The same thought ran through my mind when I saw the answer. However I had assumed that the only correct answer would be the name at birth, not with later changes, for whatever reason.

I, too, did a double-take on seeing the hyphenated surname.

My understanding is that George was born as MALLORY as were his children. And that he himself did not ever use a hyphenated surname. Certainly his contemporary mountaineering colleagues referred to him just as MALLORY - not as LEIGH-MALLORY.

Bibliojunkie, that's a great exposition of the situation. But I wouldn't have thought that a person (George), who had been born a MALLORY and who used that surname all his life, would 'officially' become a LEIGH-MALLORY at the age of 28 simply because his father chose to change his (i.e. the father's) name?

What a fun competition. :)

JAP

Goodness Me!

It was a fun competition, or meant to be.

As long as a member has the correct person we have not cared how it is spelt. The incorrect entries would be those that have entered something like Winston Churchill! With the best will in the world we cannot change that around. ;)

Fret not, the thread with the replies is on it's way to the forum so I will close this thread and any comments members wish to make can be posted by clicking the blue link. :)