Val Roberts (peter.roberts16 @t btinternet.com) writes from Derbyshire: Abe Mitchell, the famous golfer, whose effigy adorns the Ryder Cup, was employed at North Foreland Golf Club by Sam Ryder. Abe was married to Dora Deag on 27th November, 1920 in Tunbridge Wells. I am looking for a photograph of the wedding or any other material which the local archives may have.
As I am sure you will realise this is a
site specialising in Hertfordshire,
basically up to about the end of the First World War. However because of the
significance of
Abe
Mitchell and Samuel
Ryder of Ryder Cup fame, it is appropriate to summarise the
information linking Abe with
St Albans, and suggesting some possible
Hertfordshire sources. This may allow some of the regular followers of this
web site to add further suggestions.
Henry
Abraham Mitchell was born in the
Forrest Row, East Grinstead, Sussex, in
1887, and in 1911 was still
in Forest Row, working as a chauffeur in
the Yewhurst Stables, Forest Row.
(I
see that in 1902 the Ashford Forest
Ladies Golf club has "The Yewhurst Gold Cup" presented by
C. W. Bell.) In fact by 1910
Abe Mitchell was already a very
experience golfer. In 1920 he was appointed as Professional on a five years
contract at the North Foreland Golf Club,
at Broadstairs, Kent, and it was in the
same year that he married in Tonbridge Wells.
In 1923 Samuel Ryder
organised the Heath and Heather Tournament for professional golfers at
St Albans and
Abe Mitchell took part. In 1925 Samuel
Ryder employed him as a personal instructor at the
Verulam Golf Course, and
Abe moved to
19, Cunningham Avenue, St Albans. He died in
St Albans in 1947, possibly still living
at the same address as a Mrs Mitchell
was still living there in 1949. In 1927 he was the model for the
golfer on the top of the
Ryder Cup
Trophy.
In
these circumstances there seems no reason why, for example, the local
St Albans papers such as the
Herts Advertiser, should have even
mentioned the wedding, much less included a photograph, and you should be
looking for such evidence in Sussex or
Kent.
However there are several Hertfordshire
sources which might have information about him after about 1923, apart from
the Verulam Golf
Club, which I am sure you will have already tried. There are:
-
St Albans City Library, in the
Maltings: This has copies of the
Herts Advertiser
newspaper on microfilm - and if you know of dates of relevant events you
can look to see if there are any news reports. (You could also consider
a letter to the Editor of the Herts Advertiser.) -
St Albans Museums: I am sure they must have something about Samuel Ryder and the Ryder Cup, and perhaps something about Abe Mitchael
-
The St Albans Arch & Arch Soc has a very good library and archive.
-
The county archives (HALS) might have something.
February 2018
Pauline Warrington, of the North Forelands Golf Club, has kindly provided a digital copy of the relevant page in the club scrap book, showing the happy couple and a short press report.
In fact, since the original query many newspapers have been digitized on the British Newspaper Archive - and there are a number of mentions of the marriage in papers from all over the country, a few with photographs such as the following from the Leeds Mercury
