Dame Henrietta Julia Degacher

Born: Mar Q 1878, Brecknock, Breconshire, England
Marriage (1): William Edward Graham Niven Jun Q 1899 in Warwick, Warwickshire, England
Marriage (2): Sir Thomas Walter Comyn Platt K. G. Jun Q 1917 in St. George Hanover Square, London, England
Died: 12 Nov 1932, South Kensington, Middlesex, England aged 54

Family Links

Spouses/Children:

1. William Edward Graham Niven

(+ Shows person has known children.)

bullet Birth Notes:

http://trees.ancestry.co.uk/tree/42553170/person/19800645170

And

http://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=dsT%2F831KholZpvWd4%2BQyEw&scan=1

bullet Death Notes:

http://trees.ancestry.co.uk/tree/42553170/person/19800645170

And

http://search.ancestry.co.uk/iexec?htx=View&r=5538&dbid=1904&iid=31874_222511-00773&fn=Henriette+Julia&ln=Platt-Comyn&st=r&ssrc=&pid=2106318

bullet Sources of information or noted events in her life were:

• Web Based Info. http://trees.ancestry.co.uk/tree/42553170/person/19800645170

And

http://search.ancestry.co.uk/iexec?htx=View&r=5538&dbid=1897&iid=31031_A100131-01558&fn=Henry+Degacher&ln=Niven&st=r&ssrc=&pid=303796
Lady Comyn-Platt

• General Comment. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Niven
Henrietta was of French and British ancestry. She was born in Wales, the daughter of army officer William Degacher (1841\endash 1879) by his marriage to Julia Caroline Smith, the daughter of Lieutenant General James Webber Smith. Niven's grandfather William Degacher was killed in the Battle of Isandlwana (1879), during the Zulu War.[4][5] Born William Hitchcock, he and his brother Henry had followed the lead of their father, Walter Henry Hitchcock, in assuming their mother's maiden name of Degacher in 1874

David's mother Henrietta then married Sir Thomas Comyn-Platt in London in 1917. Graham Lord, in NIV: The Authorized Biography of David Niven, suggested that Comyn-Platt and Mrs. Niven had been having an affair for some time before her husband's death, and that Sir Thomas may well have been David Niven's biological father, a supposition which has some support from her children. A reviewer of Lord's book stated that Lord's photographic evidence showing a strong physical resemblance between Niven and Comyn-Platt "would appear to confirm these theories, though photographs can often be misleading

Henrietta married William Edward Graham Niven, son of William Niven and Helen Boustead, Jun Q 1899 in Warwick, Warwickshire, England. (William Edward Graham Niven was born in 1877 in Kensington, London, England, died on 21 Aug 1915 in Scimitar Hill, Suvla, Turkey and was buried in Suvla, , Turkey.)

bullet Sources of information or noted events in their marriage were:

• Web Based Info. http://www.thepeerage.com/p18314.html

And

http://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=cgs6N9dDRIKmXEuK%2BZE%2FSQ&scan=1

Henrietta next married Sir Thomas Walter Comyn Platt K. G., son of Rev. Thomas Duodecimus Platt B. A. and Selina Jane Butts, Jun Q 1917 in St. George Hanover Square, London, England. (Sir Thomas Walter Comyn Platt K. G. was born Mar Q 1869 in Portsea, Hampshire, England and died on 18 Mar 1961 in St. Marylebone, London, England.)

bullet Sources of information or noted events in their marriage were:

• Web Based Info. http://search.ancestry.co.uk/iexec?htx=View&r=5538&dbid=1904&iid=31874_222511-00773&fn=Henriette+Julia&ln=Platt-Comyn&st=r&ssrc=&pid=2106318

And

http://genealogy.links.org/links-cgi/readged?/home/ben/camilla-genealogy/current+c-cplatt80310+0-0-0-1-0

And

http://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=1UhttsheI60cjHP1o4C4Yw&scan=1

Platt Table of Contents | Platt Surnames | Platt Name List

There will inevitably be errors and omissions and the whole purpose of creating this online record, is to invite feedback and corrections.
The data is specifically for non-commercial use and my clear intention is to build family records. The data may, therefore, not be used in any way for the purposes of financial gain.

Caveat:- Throughout the project UK GRO birth, marriage and death index data appears. The GRO data appears in Quarters. Q1 = January, February and March, Q2 = April, May, June , Q3 = July, August and September and Q4 = October, November and December. Similarly, Mar Q = January, February and March, Jun Q = April, May, June , Sep Q = July, August and September and Dec Q = October, November and December. Where these dates occur, they represent the date of Registration of the event rather than the date of the actual event. Logically, registration occurs AFTER the event. In some cases this may be days or months or even years after the event. The important thing is that the event was recorded and a copy of the document of registration could be obtained if necessary. This also applies to South African NAAIRS records.

Similarly, the UK system is confusing to the uninitiated because registration districts can span several counties. Accordingly GRO locations may not record the true location of the event. They do record where the record is actually kept or recorded.

Caveat #2:- I have used URL's throughout the website as sources. The URLs are often from paid subscription sites so you may not be able to access them without an account. Inevitably there are broken URL's. I have been to every URL recorded here and at the time they were operational. In this regard, the Ancestry24 records are a problem. There are numerous references in the South African data citing Ancestry24 records. Unfortunately Ancestry24 has closed down and these records are no longer available on line.

The early South African records on this site would not have been as good as they are without the work done by Delia Robertson. Where there are website addresses containing http://www.e-family.co.za... I record the citation should read Robertson, Delia. The First Fifty Years Project. This website can be found at First Fifty Years