Family

Frederick Arthur Stanley was in Canada when the news came through Ottawa that he had succeeded to the Earldom. Five years earlier he had been created Baron Stanley of Preston, and had succeeded Lord Lansdowne as Governor General of Canada. (1) Frederick Arthur and Lady Constance Stanley carried out their duties with enthusiasm, and the Canadians very much respected them. However he resigned at once on learning of his father’s death and came back to Knowsley to take up his position there, as the Earl of Derby with their ten children, eight boys and two girls. Lord Stanley was MP for Preston and Mayor of Liverpool, Chancellor of Liverpool University, and was the Guild Mayor of the 1902 Preston Guild. In 1904 Liverpool bestowed the Honorary Freedom of the City. In 1907 King Edward VII, a family friend, appointed him an aides-de-camp. (2)

The 16th Earl of Derby gave his son the estate of Witherslack as a wedding present (3) but there was no suitable house to take all the children so they managed at Halecat, until Paley and Austin, the fashionable architects of the day, built Witherslack Hall for them. The seventeenth Earl remembered it as a 'a dear house that we all loved'. (5) Their children placed a memorial to Frederick Arthur and Constance on the north wall of St. Paul's Church, no doubt remembering happy childhood days spent at Witherslack Hall. King George V wrote to his friend, the new Earl, 'I think your family was the happiest and most united one I have ever seen'. (6)

The Right Honourable Oliver Frederick Stanley was the younger brother of the 17th Earl, educated at Eton, and he would have gone to Oxford but for the war in which he was awarded the Military Cross and the Crois de Guerre (7). He was the Minister and on the Opposition Front Bench during the thirties and was also elected Chancellor of Liverpool University. Oliver became engaged to Maureen Vane Tempest Stewart, daughter of the Marquess of Londonderry in the presence of King George the V and Queen Mary who were dining at Londonderry House. They were married in 1920 at Durham Cathedral. On coming to Westmorland the newlyweds took up residence at Witherslack Hall. In 1924 Oliver was voted MP for Westmorland, encouraged by Lady Maureen, who was a shrewd political judge.

In 1927 when the Prince of Wales (later King Edward the Eighth) visited the Lake District he stayed with them, enjoying the beautiful gardens, as they had ten gardeners to look after the woods, gardens and flowers.

Lady Maureen went to Hollywood in America and there she met Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks. On her return home in an interview with the Westmorland Gazette, she warned young girls from being seduced into a film career! In 1932 she became one of the first women members of Westmorland County Council and stayed until 1941. She was also very keen on women’s issues, and was President of Witherslack's Women's Institute, and in conjunction with them had a special butter wrapper issued for certifying its Westmorland origin.

Michael Stanley was born in 1921, and although away at boarding school for two thirds of the year from the age of eight, he and his sister, Kath, had an idyllic childhood at Witherslack Hall. In 1936 he formed the Witherslack Group of Scouts (S) and spent many a weekend camping on Yewbarrow. Like his father in 1939, he was 18 when War broke out and joined up immediately. Serving throughout with the Liverpool formation of the Royal Signals, he was with the English Army throughout North Africa, Sicily and Italy. He ended the War in the Army of Occupation of Austria, a country that he grew to love and spent many holidays there.

After the war he went to Trinity College Cambridge and read Engineering and served his time at Vickers in Manchester, spending weekends at Lawns House.

In 1951 he married Fortune Aileen Smith and then followed his father-in-law at Hays Wharf, responsible for much of the trade in the Pool of London for three days a week and spending the rest of his time in Witherslack, running a pig farm at Halecat, walking around Witherslack for relaxation and playing his part in many County Organisations.

Michael Stanley was an Independent Westmorland County Councillor until it ceased to exist in 1974, and worked extremely hard in the Winster Valley Preservation Society to stop them flooding half of Witherslack for a proposed industry that never materialised, and he became Vice Lieutenant of the County. Although he was the First High Sheriff of the new County, his appetite for the type of public service was much diminished by the size of Cumbria. He then concentrated on the Witherslack Parish Council, the Dean Barwick Charity and organisations such as the Grasmere Sports and Cartmel races. Michael listed his hobbies in Who's Who as 'idleness, walking, and wine' missing out his great love of music especially Opera. (9)

Fortune Aileen Stanley was born in 1926, and spent her childhood in Rutland and in London, with a period of evacuation on the west coast of Scotland. After gaining a diploma at the London School of Economics and social work in London, she married Michael and moved to Halecat in Witherslack. Halecat was originally built in 1846/7 by John B, Wanklyn, a retired cotton merchant from Manchester. After making it into a family home and farm, she threw her energies into her family, cooking and the garden. Mrs. Stanley served on the Westmorland Rural District Council until its demise and then became a local Magistrate. She has been a member of the local Parish Council since 1990 and takes a keen interest in village matters. She wrote a highly regarded book on 'English Country House Cooking' based on the skills and recipes she had learnt from her mothers cook, Mrs. Menzies, adding much of her own invention as well. The entire book was cooked through twice and very candid comments were invited from all the assembled family, for whom meal times and attendant conversation are still a focus to this day.

Mrs. Stanley then developed the garden, which she had designed from nothing, into a very successful business at Halecat Nursery Gardens, which is open in the summer without charge. She is associated with many charities playing a part in the Witherslack British Legion and hosting the biennial Fete at Halecat for many years. The British Legion was instituted in Witherslack after the second world war the chairman was Jim Crowe and the secretary was John Clifton. They used to hold a memorial service every year on Remembrance Sunday at the church. When it became too small, like so many things, the British Legion's rationalisation merged Witherslack with Levens. Mrs. Stanley still issues Poppies to this day.

During the war a School for the Blind from Newcastle went to Whitbarrow Lodge and then moved to Witherslack Hall. Then Sandford School for girls from Liverpool came and took it over, and stayed for several years.

Since 1972 it became the first (there are now three) schools to take boys (7 -16 years) from the whole of the north of England and southern Scotland. Witherslack Hall School, as it now known, offers help to boys with behavioural, social and emotional problems whose educational and personal care can best be met by a period of residential special education. There are about 60 boys in residence now, and the school is run by Mike Barrow.

1. The Earls of Derby 1485-1985 By J.J.. Bagley Page 205

2. The Earls of Derby 1485= 1985 By J.J. Bagley Page 206

3. The Earls of Derby 1485-1985 By J.J. Bagley Page 206

4. The Earls of Derby 1485-1985 By J.J. Bagley Page 206

5. The Earls of Derby 1485-1985 By J.J. Bagley Page 206

6. The Earls of Derby 1485-1085 By J.J. Bagley Page 207

7. The Internet, Chancellors of Liverpool University

8. Photo of Michael Stanley and Witherslack Scouts

9. Letter from Nicholas Stanley to Mrs. James