MacKenzie Charles Butlin

Adelaide and Mackenzie Butlin with their children Doris and James
Photograph supplied by Robert Butlin
Adelaide and Mackenzie Butlin with their children Doris and James. Please see the comment below for the other names of those pictured.
Photograph supplied by Robert Butlin
Adelaide Butlin with babies outside Meldreth Manor circa 1896

Mackenzie Charles Phillips Butlin lived in Meldreth Manor House for a few years around the turn of the twentieth century.

Mackenzie was born in St, Pancras, London on 20th October 1855.  His parents were Rosa and Thomas Butlin.  Thomas was from Nottingham originally and is listed in the census returns as a “Gentleman”.  The family had a number of servants.

Later, Mackenzie trained as an accountant and was still living with his parents in St. Pancras at the time of the 1881 census.  In 1891, he was in Nottingham, where he was visiting his brother, Herbert.  His occupation was given as school teacher.  Two years later he married Adelaide Emma Corden Larmour in Enfield, Middlesex.  Adelaide was born in India and was 19 years his junior.

By November 1894, Mackenzie and Adelaide were living in Meldreth.  Their first child, Doris, was born on 8th September and was baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 1st November 1894.  Their second child, James Heygate, was born on 10th February 1896 and was baptised in Holy Trinity Church on 17th March 1896.  By then the family were living in Meldreth Manor House, which they may have rented from John George Mortlock.  At the time of the 1901 census the family were living on their own means had three local girls as servants.  In the Kelly’s Directories of 1896, 1900 and 1904 Mackenzie was listed as a resident of the village.

By 1908 the Butlin family had left Meldreth and had moved to Dorset.  The electoral roll for that year shows that Mackenzie was living at 7 Westerall Road, Melcombe Regis.  In the 1911 census the family was still at 7 Westerhall Road, a house with eleven rooms.  They had three servants, one of whom, Ethel May Rumble, was from Meldreth.  The family remained in that area: their son, James, was educated at Weymouth College and MacKenzie Charles was given a silver salver in recognition of his work for the Weymouth and Melcombe Regis Lawn Tennis Club a little before the First World War.

Mackenzie died in 1927 at Jermyn, 42 Dorchester Road, Weymouth, Dorset.  However, his GWR shares show that he also had a Chelsea address at 6 Beaufort Mansions.  His estate, which was valued at £16,773, was left to his brother Rev Wilson Griffiths Brougham Butlin and to his son James Heygate Butlin.

The Butlin family history is reasonably well known generally and this branch is related, distantly, to Sir Billy.  Quite why the family moved to Meldreth is unknown.

We are indebted to Robert Butlin, Mackenzie’s great grandson, for contributing the photographs and some information for this page.

Comments about this page

  • Adelaide Emma Corden Larmour’s surname was an adopted one. Her parents were first cousins, grandchildren of Joseph Lazarus of Carmarthen, Wales, and Elizabeth Lazarus of London. Some of the family converted from Judaism to Christianity and changed their name to Larmour. I haven’t been able to discover if Joseph Lazarus and Elizabeth Lazarus were related, but I suspect they were. Elizabeth’s parents were Henry Hirsch Lazarus, a pencil maker in London, and Parla bat (daughter of) Moses. Henry was a member and officer of the Great Synagogue in London.
    It’s always fun to see which way families go. (I’m descended from Moses Lazarus of Exeter, who I believe but so far haven’t been able to prove, was Henry’s uncle.)

    By Eve Richardson (28/02/2024)
  • I can identify most of the people in the photograph. Most are members of the Larmour family, the majority siblings of Adelaide Butlin. From left to right back row is Charles Edward Laguerre Corden Larmour, Lilian Ida Corden Larmour, Francis Augustus Larmour (Uncle), Mackenzie Butlin, Francis (Frank) Corden Larmour. Left to right second row is Ethel Maud Corden Larmour (my Grandmother), probably Charles Frederick Larmour (the siblings’ father and brother to Francis Augustus Larmour), Adelaide Emma Corden Butlin (nee Larmour) with James Butlin. On floor front row is Lewis Corden Larmour and Doris Butlin. The siblings’ mother Harriett Adelaide Larmour and younger brother Alwin Corden Larmour are missing from the photo. All the children were born in Calcutta, India with the possible exception of Francis Corden Larmour who was born in England but registered in the two countries.

    I am Tonie Patricia Gaskill (nee Harriss)(Ethel Maud Corden Harriss nee Larmour’s Granddaughter). 

    By Tonie Patricia Gaskill (01/07/2014)
  • I was thrilled to find this article about my great grandmother Lilian Ida Corden Larnour Olver’s sister Adelaide. I believe the gentleman in the back row wearing the black suit would be Francis Larmour, or “Big Uncle Frank”. I can forward this on to other family members to see if the can identify any other family members.

    By Caroline Margot CORDEN Olver Fawcett (04/03/2014)
  • Having checked the marriage certificate of Mackenzie Butlin and Adelaide Larmour, they in fact got married at St Mary Magdelene’s Church in Enfield on 10 October 1893.  The marriage service was conducted by the Rev Wilson Griffith Brougham Butlin (another relative). We’ve found a birthplace of Calcutta, for Adelaide. 

    By Robert Butlin (19/04/2013)

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