Charles Allen Du Val

Elizabeth Ellen Du Val

Elizabeth Ellen Du Val was born on 10 November 1844, the sixth child and third daughter of Charles Allen Du Val and his wife formerly Elizabeth Renney, and baptised on 12 March 1845 in Manchester Collegiate Church (later the Cathedral).

She was married on 16 June 1864 to Thomas George Whaite in Manchester Cathedral. The witnesses to the marriage were the bride’s father and her younger sister Frances Du Val, the bridegroom’s cousin Frederick A. Whaite, and Jemima Hampton Renney (the bride’s half-sister).

Descended from a family of talented artists, Thomas George Whaite was a photographer as well as a painter. With his brother-in-law Charles Duval, he ran the firm of C.A. Du Val & Co, but he left in 1881 and moved first to London and then to Carlisle, where he established himself in business as a photographer at 43 Bank Street.

His photographic work was of a very high quality, and he won first class medals at the exhibitions of the Photographic Society of Great Britain in 1880, 1881 and 1883, and at Bristol in 1880, 1883 and 1884. He had already achieved a medal at the exhibition of the Photographic Society of London in 1874, and won more at Falmouth in 1880, Northampton in 1884, Edinburgh in 1885 and 1886, and also in Belgium. Altogether by 1884 he had been awarded twelve first class medals for artistic photography, and a diploma and honourable mention for painting.

In the early 1870s Thomas George Whaite was working for C.A. Du Val & Co at Calderbank in Prestwich near Manchester, and living at Stretford (1). But when the 1871 Census was taken (2), Thomas George Whaite was living with his wife and children at Myrtle Bank, Prestwich. With them was his father aged 74.

Matthias Peschcke Koedt

However his wife nee Elizabeth Ellen Du Val left the family home after 1871 and went to live at Copenhagen in Denmark with Andreas Peschcke Matthiesen Koedt, who became her second husband.

He was born on 22 September 1845, the son of a merchant Matthies Matthiesen Koedt and his wife Anna Maria Peschcke. He was a businessman and member of the Danish parliament, the Folketing. He died on 10 May 1929 and was buried on 16 May 1929 in the church graveyard at Taarbaeck.

In Denmark Elizabeth Ellen Duval was known as Elisabeth Peschcke Koedt. She died on 16 January 1925, and was buried on 22 January 1925 in the church graveyard at Taarbaeck.

Thomas George Whaite emigrated to California with his children, and died in California on 21 July 1895 (3).

He and his wife nee Elizabeth Ellen Du Val had four children :

Lilian Whaite. She was born on 15 June 1867 and baptised on 2 May 1867 in Manchester Cathedral. She was called "Lily" within the family.

Henrietta Padmore Whaite. She was born on 20 February 1869, and baptised on 19 March 1869 in Manchester Cathedral. She was called "Netta" or "Nettie" in the family. She married Robert Spooner.

George Rene Whaite. He was born on 12 June 1872 in Manchester, and called "Rene" in the family. He emigrated to California in 1892, married Charlotte Reynolds and had a daughter. He was the Chief Artist and General Manager for Terkelson & Henry in San Francisco (4). He died on 25 July 1941 in San Francisco.

Mina Whaite. She was born on 23 December 1875 and baptised on 23 March 1876. She was called "Dux" or "Tonio" within the family. She went to Denmark after 1900 to live with her mother and became a Danish citizen (5).

By her second husband, Elizabeth Ellen nee Du Val had five more children:

Lilli Peschcke Koedt.

Elsie Peschcke Koedt.

Andreas Peschcke Koedt. (Elsie and Andreas were twins.) Andreas married a Welsh girl Gwladys Eleanor Mary Evans of Cardiff. They were both concert violinists who met while studying in Germany. They had five children.

Matthias Matthiesen Peschcke Koedt. He was born in Fredericksberg, Denmark on 8 June 1885, and baptised on 13 August 1885. He became a noted artist. He died on 11 March 1949 at Skodsborg, and was buried at Taarbaeck.

Bessie Peschcke Koedt.

Descendants of Elizabeth Ellen (Elisabeth) Peschcke Koedt live in Denmark and California.

(1) Slater's Directory of Manchester and Salford 1871-72. The entry in the directory for Thomas George Whaite and his family was out-of-date by the time that it was published.
(2) The Census Return taken in 1871 is the last occasion on which Elizabeth Ellen Whaite appears listed with her family.
(3) A letter written in late August 1891 from Lily Whaite at 6 Ellerby Street in Carlisle says that Thomas George Whaite had retired from business there, that the family were going to California in three weeks' time sailing from Liverpool, that "Uncle Jim" was going with them, and that Rene would follow in nine months' time when he had finished at Antwerp. This letter was followed by a postcard from Lily Whaite dated 13 September 1891 reporting that they were sailing on 17 September 1891 on the liner Parisian for Montreal. H. Clarence White and Lily F. Whaite Papers GB0210 LP3/1, National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth. A letter from "Dux" (Mina Whaite) at Riverside in Califorrnia dated 20 August 1892 reported that Lilian Whaite was ill H. Clarence White and Lily F. Whaite Papers GB0210 HPB4/4.
(4) H. Clarence White and Lily F. Whaite Papers GB0210 HPB 5/6.
(5) In a letter from dated 24 June 1910 Rene Whaite in San Franciso reported that "Nettie" (his sister Henrietta Padmore Whaite) was then living with husband and a daughter in Riverside (California) and that "Dux" (their sister Mina Whaite)was also there but "will return to mother in Copenhagen in a few months". He himself had a wife and daughter by then. H. Clarence White and Lily F. Whaite Papers GB0210 HPB 4/4.