By Francis Davies
This article was originally published in the August 2025 edition of Soul Search, the journal of The Sole Society
Archibald James Solley experienced a peripatetic existence following his birth in Englishcombe, near Bath, in 1890.
At the time of his birth, his father, Michael Becker Solley, was possibly working in the employ of Inglescombe Nurseries in the village, where this successful horticultural business had been established. However, in 1894 the Solley family were living at Hevingham in the Norfolk Broadlands, and by 1901, they had removed to Great Bentley in Essex, where Archibald’s father had secured a job as a gamekeeper. Shortly after this the family were to be found in Four Marks, near Alton, Hampshire, where Michael Solley was in the employ of a Mr. Schwartz at Mill Court. Another move took the family to Sherfield Manor in the village of Sherfield on Loddon, a few miles north-east of Basingstoke. This seems to be where the family settled permanently, Michael Solley being employed as a gamekeeper by James B. Taylor, owner of Sherfield Manor until 1907. It was then the house was sold to J. Liddell, who was the owner of the house in 1911 when, in the census return of that year, Archibald’s father was described as Fish Culturist. By this time, at the age of 21, Archibald had embarked on his own travels and was working as a gardener on the estate of Ernest Bewley, a tea and coffee merchant, at Danum House, Rathgar, now a suburb of Dublin, Ireland.
In August 1914, Archibald set off on the SS New York from Southampton to New York, to visit his older brother, Frank, and other siblings, who had emigrated to the United States of America some years earlier. Originally, it may have been his plan to join them in the USA but he returned to England, where he spent much of the First World War as a Private in the Army Service Corps (Regimental No. 162792). He married Daisy Florence Horne (the eldest daughter of Henry and Emma Horne) in December 1916.
By early 1921, Daisy and Archibald were living at Grove End in Bagshot, Surrey, and this is where Michael Henry Solley was born on 5th January 1921. Grove End was situated adjacent to the grounds of Hall Grove, a large Georgian mansion where Lady Katherine Meade, a lady-in-waiting to HRH the Duchess of Albany, was living at the time. Bagshot Park, the home of Prince Arthur, a son of Queen Victoria, was also close by as was a large horticultural nursery. It is tempting to speculate that Archibald Solley was employed in some way at one or other of these places.
By 1922, when Dorothy Ann Solley was born on 5th June, the family had moved to the village of Bradfield, West Berkshire, a few miles to the west of Reading. After this, the records are largely silent on the Solley family until 1939 when they can be found living in Medsted, near Alton, Hampshire, at a house named ‘Maythorne’. In the National Registration of that year, Archibald’s occupation is given as chauffeur, with Daisy on ‘unpaid domestic duties’. Living with them was Nora Horne, Daisy’s youngest sister, who was described as a State Registered Nurse. There was one other member of the household, although their name and details have been redacted in the registration document. The record suggests that Archibald had either been called up or volunteered at the start of the Second World War, to the RAF Observer Corps and was possibly stationed at RAF Grangemouth for a time.
As a chauffeur, Archibald would undoubtedly have known Alick “Dick” Licence, who ran the local post office in Medsted, where the village petrol pumps were located.
Other neighbours in the village included Harry King, a local builder and one of his labourers, Kim Jeffery, who were both members of the Medsted Brass Band.
Shortly after the Second World War, it is probable that Dorothy Ann Solley married Harry W. Thomas in the summer of 1946 and that Michael Henry Solley married Margaret Anne Silk in Droxford, Hampshire in 1948.
Daisy Solley died in January 1969, at the age of 75, at Droxford, Hampshire, and Archibald died in 1975, at the age of 85.
Meanwhile, during the 1940s, Michael Henry Solley, joined the Territorial Army and by 1947 had attained the rank of 2nd Lieutenant. The picture above shows him in army uniform. In October 1948, he relinquished his commission, perhaps round about the time he was married. In the 1980s he and Anne (as his wife was known) were living in Caesar Road, Kenilworth, Warwickshire, where he was headmaster of a school in the town. He was a keen apiarist, and was General Secretary of the British Beekeepers’ Association. After retirement, in 1988, he set up a bee hive at Clinton Combined School, near his home.
Michael Henry Solley died on 22nd May 2008, at the age of 87. His funeral took place at Warnford, Hampshire, on 30th May. His obituary described him as “a father, grandfather and great-grandfather.” Just over a month later, a memorial service was held to celebrate his life at Kenilworth Methodist Church on Saturday 5th July.