Margaret Ramsay Hallowes was born on 17 November 1874 at Milton House, Milton, Portsmouth, Hampshire, the third of the nine children of Major General George Skein Hallowes and Lucy Anne Hallowes née Hope. Her father was a Major in the 25th Regiment of Foot. (The regiment became the King's Own Scottish Borderers under the 1881 Cardwell reforms). Later promoted to Lieutenant Colonel of the regiment he retired on 14 August 1881 with the honorary rank of Major-General.
The 1891 census shows her living at 88 Earls Court Road, Kensington, with her parents, six younger siblings, a nurse, a maid, a cook and a housemaid. At the time of the 1901 census she was boarding at the home of an Emma James at 6 Osborne Road, Plymouth, Devon. Also boarding at this address was her younger sister, Lucy Hope Hallowes (1878-1959) together with her elder married sister Elizabeth Boyle Carnegie née Hallowes (1871-1950) and her husband Davis John Carnegie (1865-1921) the 10th Earl of Northesk.
Electoral registers from 1905 to 1908 show that she was entitled to vote in Chelsea local elections as she was a ratepayer for a shop at 10 Holbein Place, Chelsea, although her home address was 27 Hogarth Road, Earls Court.. The 1911 census confirms she was living at 27 Hogarth Road, Earls Court with her parents, three younger siblings, a cook, a parlour-maid and a housemaid.
Electoral registers from 1924 to 1933 show her living at 21 Wynnstay Gardens, Earls Court.
When one of her younger brothers, Captain Kenneth Sholto Hallowes (1887-1933), died on 28 July 1933 she was appointed as an executor of his estate. Probate records show this amounted to £1,749-6s-7d and confirms that he died in Bembridge, Isle of Wight. Telephone directories list a Miss Margaret Hallowes at 'The Bunker', Swains Lane, Bembridge from 1926 to 1944.
The 1939 England and Wales Register shows her registered at Home Farm House, 33 High Street, Chipstead, Sevenoaks, Kent, the home of James A. Baiss and his wife Beryl L. Baiss.
Telephone directories from 1937 onward show her listed at 1B Sloane Court, London, SW3 and it was here that she died, aged 69 years, as a result of enemy action when a V1 bomb fell on her home. Probate was not obtained by her elder brother, John Hope Hallowes (1871-1959), who was a retired Lieutenant Colonel in H. M. Indian Army, until 21 August 1945. Her effects totalled £15,166-1s-8d.
She is also commemorated in the Civilian War Dead Roll of Honour, located just outside the entrance to St George's Chapel at the west end of Westminster Abbey, London.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan
