1. UK ORIGINS
Norris William Dent was born on 28 Aug 1881 in Westmoreland, a proudly independent county in NW England, (Main town Appleby) which in 1974, merged with Cumberland and some northerly parts of Lancashire to form Cumbria.
There is a village called “Dent” in the “Dale of Dent” near Kendal in the Lake District.
Norris was the only son of William Wharton Sowerby Dent (born 31 October 1851) – a schoolmaster then farmer - and Hannah (Nee Simpson born 20 May 1854).
As a young man, Norris joined the Lancashire Cotton industry, then in need of lands on which to produce cotton, essentially to free Britain from the monopolies of cotton production in Egypt and Pakistan, he was engaged by the British Cotton Growers Association to proceed to Africa and South America to study the feasibilities of growing cotton there.
(Ed: Norris’s Uncle, John (b.1847), {brother of his father William Wharton Sowerby Dent , (sons of William Dent (b.1807) and Sarah Sowerby (b.1812)} was, coincidentally, a farmer.)
He moved to Preston, Lancashire where soon he was to meet Dora Foster Drelincourt. She was, at the time, on a visit, and, riding her bicycle, knocked him “sideways” - in more ways than one! Probably called him a “country bumpkin” and the like - but on his part, he might well not have understood the Irish outburst.
At the time, Dora had great ambitions for an acting career – so keen that she had started off as a seamstress but with her eye firmly fixed on the stage proper. When she “bumped into” Norris she was actually engaged to a stage director and merely visiting Preston from her London base. The engagement was broken off, matters amicably resolved with Norris and soon afterwards, on 10 May 1906, they were married. They lived at Lostock Hall Farm, Walton le Dale in Preston.
Dora Foster Drelincourt was born on 11 April 1876 in Glass Drummond (near Dungannon), County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. Her family moved to Lancashire when Dora was ±18. Her father, Richard was a salesman – he was born in 1842 but died at the early age of 53 in 1895. Her mother was Anna Maxwell born in County Down in 1841 – she lived to the ripe old age of 92 dying in 1933. (Dora’s nephew, Barry Drelincourt, has traced the Drelincourt family back to Richard Delacourt who was born circa 1766.
(Ed: It appears that Dora was born ”Doris” and that ”Dora” was her preference, possibly with regard to her acting ambitions. In diary entries Norris frequently also refers to her as “Pat” a term of affection and possibly the reason for daughter Patricia’s name?
NB. I am grateful to second cousin Barry for his input and interest.)
