Available onlineTwentieth Century
(page 7 of 11)
Owners of Walton Hall: The Harleys and the Earles
Diana Harley (1906-1964) and Brigadier Eric Earle (1893-1965)
Diana Mary Harley was born at 25 Harley Street on 15 March 1906, the eldest of two daughters born to Dr Vaughan and Mary Harley. She was known by the family as ‘Dido’. Like her sister Primrose, Diana went to finishing school in Paris, but unlike Primrose she didn’t inherit her younger sister’s artistic talents. Former maid at Walton, May Jordon recalled Diana as being, “…like her mother, essentially a homemaker. They worked together on the rose bushes in the garden and so on. Once when they were without a kitchen maid, Miss Diana got down on her knees and scrubbed the stoneflagged passage that went from the dining room to the kitchen”.
On 25 November 1931 Diana married Brigadier Eric Greville Earle (1893-1965) at St Michael’s Church with a reception held afterwards at Walton Hall, hosted by the bride’s mother. Diana’s sister Primrose was one of her bridesmaids. The Harley and Earle family tree is shown on this page.
Eric was the son of Cecil Arthur Earle and his wife Lizzie Isabella. There is a headstone to Eric Earle's parents standing in the family plot in St Michael's churchyard. The inscription on the grave reads: “In loving memory of Lizzie Isabella Earle born 27th Feb 1863 at Newcastle on Tyne. Died 3rd at Camberley. Widow of Lt C A Earle R.A. who died at Saugor C P India 15th July 1896 aged 27.” Lizzie Isabella Earle (1863-1944) was the eldest daughter of Fife John Scott, a Copper, Iron and Chemical Merchant, and his wife Elizabeth. She married Cecil Arthur Earle (1869-1896) in Newcastle in 1891. Cecil was a Lieutenant in the 6th Field Battery of the Royal Artillery and was posted to India after their marriage. The couple relocated to Saugor (now Sagar) where their only son Eric was born on 24 February 1893. Cecil Earle died 3 years later from cholera at the age of only 27 years and was buried in Sagar. Following his death his wife and son returned to England.
Eric was educated at Wellington College, Crowthorne, Berkshire and went on to have a distinguished military career. He fought in WWI and was mentioned in dispatches four times and wounded twice. He was awarded the DSO (Distinguished Service Order) in 1915. He fought in the Afghan War in 1919 and was awarded the Knight, Order of Leopold of Belgium and the Croix de Guerre.
In 1918 Eric married Noel Downes-Martin but the couple divorced in 1931, the year of his second marriage - to Diana Harley. He had four sons by his first marriage: Cecil Diccon (1919-1945), David Eric Martin (1921-2005), Robin Denys Michael (1922-1990) and Peter Desmond Noel (1923-2014), who joined the newlyweds at Walton Hall. Diana assumed the role of stepmother; the couple didn’t have any children of their own.
The second image on this page shows Diana Earle following her marriage in 1931 when she was presented at Court to King George V and Queen Mary. The image appeared in an article about Walton Hall written for The Open University staff magazine 'Open House' in 1984.
Following their marriage, the Earles took over Walton Hall and the running of the estate. Eric’s four sons attended boarding school in Stowe. In 1984 an interview was conducted for OU staff magazine ‘Open House’ with Alice Webb, a former lady’s maid at Walton Hall, who recalled her time working for the Earles from 1933 to 1939. She described the Earles as “wonderfully sociable people who were good to work for” and recalled how Christmas at Walton Hall was an exciting time:
“Their four sons would arrive home from boarding school, and there would be the usual Christmas present buying and guests coming to spend Christmas with the family. One year the boys had toy trumpets in their stockings and at 4 o’clock on Christmas morning they were marching up and down the landing trying to play Hark the Herald Angels Sing – much to the amusement of their grandmother who had come to spend Christmas with them. On Christmas morning we attended the little church for the Christmas service and afterwards everyone assembled in the Hall to receive their Christmas presents. The boys were invited to lots of parties, often fancy dress... On Boxing Day, Mr and Mrs Earle and their guests would go hunting. There were lots of dinner parties, often ten or twelve staying in the house... I enjoyed unpacking their suitcases and seeing all the lovely evening dresses and helping the ladies in general to dress.”
According to Alice, Mrs Earle treated her ‘like a sister’. As a trained dress maker, Alice would often fashion dresses for Mrs Earle, from material sent from Libertys in London which she would make up in her bedroom-sitting room on the first floor at the rear of Walton Hall. The first floor was mainly bedrooms and bathrooms with access to the roof in the summer. The ground floor consisted of the morning room, drawing room, dining room, as well as the gun and billiard rooms, kitchen and scullery plus the cellar below. As well as attending to Mrs Earle, Alice also looked after the four boys when they were at the Hall. The photograph of the boys on this page shows them in fancy dress costumes made for them at Christmas 1935 by Alice. They are dressed as the 'St Neots Quads' (the first quadruplets to survive in the UK who were born in St Neots, Huntingdonshire in November 1935). The Earle boys won first prize for their costumes at the Pony Club Fancy Dress Party held that year in Bedford.
