Captain Wilfred (Tony) Heyman Joynson–Wreford

Captain Wilfred (Tony) Heyman Joynson–Wreford

Wilfred Heyman Joynson-Wreford was born on 30 July 1896 at 18 Belsize Grove, London. His birth certificate records his name as Wilfred Samuel Joynson Wreford, though the middle name Samuel was later replaced with Heyman. He was the son of Dr. Heyman Wreford, MRCS, LRCP, and Catherine Hannah Guerrier. He had two older siblings: a brother, Bertran William Heyman Wreford, and a sister, Christabel Emma Catherine Wreford.

Heyman Wreford initially worked in the family’s gentlemen’s drapery business in Exeter. Remarkably, at the age of forty, he retrained as a medical student in London. In 1892, he married Catherine Hannah Guerrier, daughter of Henry John Guerrier, a corn merchant. Catherine’s mother, Emma, was the daughter of William Joynson, owner of the prominent Joynson papermill at St Mary Cray, Kent.

After a period in Brighton, the family settled in Exeter at “The Firs,” Denmark Road.

Tony Joynson-Wreford was married three times.

His first marriage was to Frances Agnes Parker, the widow of Captain Alan Foggett Parker. They were married at the Chapel Royal, Savoy, London, on 12 December 1918. Frances had a daughter, also named Frances, from her previous marriage.

In 1923, Tony began an affair with Olive Fletcher (née Trainor), the wife of Henry Keddey Fletcher, a director of Fletcher, Son and Fearnall, marine engineers of Union Docks, Limehouse and Tilbury. The affair led to the breakdown of both marriages. Olive and Henry Fletcher divorced; she lost custody of their two daughters, Patricia and Barbara, but was granted a substantial annuity.

Tony’s divorce from Frances was finalised on 1 February 1926, and he married Olive shortly afterwards, on 10 March 1926, at the British Consulate in Paris.

This second marriage would also prove short-lived, but it marked a period in Tony’s life closely associated with his aviation ventures of the late 1920s.

Second Marriage and Birth of Patrick (1926–1928)

Tony’s divorce from Frances was finalised on 1 February 1926, and he married Olive Fletcher (née Trainor) shortly afterwards, on 10 March 1926, at the British Consulate in Paris.

The following January, Tony and Olive were in the south of France, with Olive nearing the end of her pregnancy. Intending to return to England to give birth, she travelled north but became unwell after eating oysters in Paris. She went into premature labour and, on 10 January 1928, gave birth to a healthy son in a hotel on the Rue de Bassano. The child was named Anthony Patrick Joynson-Wreford, known as Pat.

Shortly after Pat’s birth, the marriage began to deteriorate. By October 1928, Olive left England with her infant son for America.

The marriage proved short-lived. By 1928, following the birth of their son, Anthony Patrick (“Pat”) Joynson-Wreford, the relationship had broken down.

Contemporary letters and later court proceedings reveal a period of considerable strain, marked by financial difficulties and the aftermath of Tony’s aviation ventures. Olive left England later that year with their infant son, and divorce proceedings followed soon after.

See: Wreford v Wreford (1929 Divorce Case)

Breakdown of the Marriage

According to Pat, his mother later told him that his father had left shortly after his birth and never returned. This account shaped his early perception of Tony as distant and uncaring—an impression he would later revise through research and conversations with those who had known his father.

Documents preserved in the National Archives, including correspondence submitted during divorce proceedings, present a more complex picture. They reveal a man under considerable financial and emotional strain following the events of the previous year, including the failed Princess Xenia venture and the loss of Captain Hinchcliffe and Elsie Mackay.

Aviation and the Princess Xenia Flight (1927)

In addition to his military career, Captain Wilfred Heyman Joynson–Wreford had a strong interest in aviation during a period when long-distance flight was still in its early and experimental stages.

Although christened Wilfred Heyman Joynson-Wreford, he was commonly known throughout his adult life as Anthony or “Tony” Joynson-Wreford.

In September 1927, he co-financed an ambitious attempt to fly from Baldonnel, Ireland, to America in a Fokker F.VIIa monoplane named Princess Xenia.

Contemporary newspaper reports and Pathé News footage relating to the 1927 Princess Xenia transatlantic flight attempt refer to him as:

“Capt. A. Joynson-Wreford”

demonstrating that “Anthony” was already in regular public use during this period.

Tony was originally intended to serve as navigator on the flight, which was to be piloted by Captain Robert MacIntosh, the aircraft’s owner. However, due to the recurrence of an old leg injury, he was forced to withdraw from participation. He was replaced by Commandant James Fitzmaurice.

The principal financier of the venture was William Bateman Leeds, who named the aircraft in honour of his Russian wife, Princess Xenia Georgievna.

The precise circumstances by which Tony Joynson-Wreford became associated with William Bateman Leeds Jr. and the Princess Xenia venture remain uncertain. However, the connection likely arose through the aristocratic and cosmopolitan social circles in which both men moved during the 1920s.

Long-distance aviation at this period depended heavily upon wealthy private sponsorship, and the Princess Xenia attempt brought together aviators, financiers, and members of the Anglo-American and European elite. Tony’s role as co-financier and intended navigator suggests that he had become closely connected with this circle prior to the 1927 attempt.

The name would later take on a more personal significance. Some years afterwards, Tony named his only daughter Xenia Penelope Joynson-Wreford, echoing the same distinctive name associated with the aircraft—a connection that links this early episode in his life with the later story of Seskinore and its final heir.

The arrival of the Princess Xenia at Baldonnel was recorded by Pathé News, and surviving footage provides a rare visual record of the event and the wider context of early transatlantic aviation.

A heavily pregnant Olive Joynson-Wreford standing beside her husband, Tony Joynson-Wreford, next to the “Princess Xenia” at Baldonnel Aerodrome, September 1927.

A few months after the failed Princess Xenia transatlantic attempt, Tony Joynson-Wreford accompanied Captain W. G. R. Hinchcliffe, D.F.C., on an inspection of Baldonnel Aerodrome. Reports at the time suggested that Baldonnel was being considered as the headquarters for a new transatlantic flight effort.

Just two weeks later, at 8:35 a.m. on 13 March 1928, Captain Hinchcliffe departed in the Endeavour, a Stinson SM-1 Detroiter monoplane. His supposed co-pilot was listed as “Gordon Sinclair,” but it was later revealed to be the Hon. Elsie Mackay, daughter of the 1st Earl of Inchcape, who had disguised her identity to take part in the historic flight.

The aircraft was sighted several times en route but tragically disappeared over the Atlantic. Eight months later, part of its undercarriage washed ashore on the west coast of Ireland—grim confirmation of its fate.

In a poignant footnote to this story, Tony’s daughter, Xenia Joynson-Wreford, would later become a close friend of Lady Rosemary Mackay, the grand-niece of Elsie Mackay. She even served as a bridesmaid at Lady Rosemary’s wedding—an unexpected connection between two women linked, in different ways, to the ambition and tragedy of early transatlantic aviation.

A contemporary newspaper report recorded:

A Visit to Baldonnel
“Captain Hinchcliffe and Captain Joynson-Wreford were at Baldonnel aerodrome about a fortnight ago, and, although no absolute definite arrangements were made, it was understood that he would make the aerodrome the headquarters for his Transatlantic attempt.”
— The Irish Times, Wednesday, 14 March 1928

Marriage to Leila McClintock

Marriage and Succession to Seskinore

In 1932, Tony married Amelia Isobel Eccles McClintock, known within the family as “Leila,” the only child and eventual heir of Colonel John Knox McClintock and Amy Henrietta (“Emy”) McClintock of Seskinore.

Through this marriage, Tony became closely connected with the future of the Seskinore estate.

Following the death of Colonel John Knox McClintock on 24 October 1936, Leila became entitled to the remaining settled estate under the McClintock marriage settlement of 1893.

The succession, however, was tragically short-lived.

Only a few months later—and after barely three months as heir to the estate—Leila died on 30 January 1937 from meningitis.

Her sudden death fundamentally altered the future of Seskinore.

Under her will, dated 22 January 1935, she appointed Tony sole executor and left to him:

“all my real and personal estate whatsoever and wheresoever … absolutely”

Subsequent Settlement and Conveyance documents executed during 1937–1938 formally transferred the remaining Seskinore lands, mansion house, investments, and trust funds into Tony’s ownership.

Leila’s death therefore marked the decisive turning point in the final history of Seskinore, transferring the estate from the direct McClintock line into the hands of the Joynson-Wreford family.

Return to Seskinore

Following the death of Colonel John Knox McClintock in 1936, Tony and Leila returned to Seskinore with their young daughter, Xenia.

This marked the beginning of what might have been a new phase in the life of the estate.

However, this period was tragically short.

After Leila’s Death

Leila’s death in January 1937 had a profound impact on Tony.

He remained at Seskinore for a time, but the future of the estate had become uncertain.

Faced with practical and financial challenges, he began the process of selling parts of the estate, including land at Mullaghmore.

Final Years: Grief, Decline, and Death (1937–1940)

Every evening at six o’clock, Tony would walk Leila’s dog to the Garden of Remembrance—the small sanctuary at Seskinore where she was buried. There, beside her grave, he would sit quietly, sometimes for an hour or more.

He never truly recovered from her death.

Those working on the estate later recalled that he seemed to have “not long for this world.”

Declining Health

In the months that followed, Tony’s health steadily deteriorated. Over the next three years, he spent extended periods in clinics and nursing homes.

Letters written between 1938 and 1940 to Andy McHugh, the Seskinore gardener, provide deeply personal insight into this period. They reveal:

his ongoing ill health
his enduring grief for Leila
and his quiet devotion to his young daughter, Xenia

While recovering at a nursing home in Barnstaple in late 1938, Tony learned that the Chapel of Ease at Seskinore had been damaged on Christmas Eve. His sister, Christabel Gladwell, wrote to McHugh expressing the family’s concern—an indication of how closely even from afar Tony remained tied to Seskinore.

Diagnosis and Journey to Switzerland

By early 1939, Tony had been diagnosed with tuberculosis.

In March of that year, he was transported by air ambulance from Barnstaple to Zurich, before being taken to the Kurhaus at Clavadel, near Davos—a renowned Alpine sanatorium specialising in the treatment of tuberculosis.

He did not travel alone.

With him were:

his daughter Xenia
his nurse
and Xenia’s nurse, Helen Hunter (“Nursie”)

Death at Clavadel

Tony Joynson-Wreford died on 23 March 1940 at the Kurhaus in Clavadel.

He was 43 years old.

Far from Seskinore, in the stillness of the Swiss Alps, his life came to an end—just three years after the death of his wife.

A postcard from 1940 shows the imposing sanatorium building set against the Alpine landscape: serene, remote, and silent—yet marked by the quiet struggle of those who came there in hope of recovery.

Amy McClintock and the Final Settlement (1940–1942)

Tony Joynson-Wreford inherited the Seskinore estate from his wife, Amelia Isobel Eccles Joynson-Wreford (“Leila”), in 1937.

Although Tony’s death brought an end to the Joynson-Wreford occupation of Seskinore, the legal affairs of the estate remained closely connected with his mother-in-law, Amy Henrietta Frances Eccles McClintock.

Under the terms of the 1893 marriage settlement between Colonel John Knox McClintock and Amy Eccles, Amy retained a jointure entitlement of £300 per annum following her husband’s death. During the reorganisation of the estate after Leila’s death, this entitlement was converted into a lump-sum payment of £3,703 15s, allowing the remaining estate lands and trust assets to pass free of the earlier settlement obligations.

Amy survived both her husband and daughter and remained a central figure in the final winding-up of the McClintock marriage settlement. She died at Effingham, Surrey, on 4 April 1942.

The probate and conveyancing papers associated with Amy’s estate therefore form part of the final legal chapter of Seskinore’s transition from the McClintock family to the Joynson-Wreford family and ultimately to the dispersal of the estate during the 1940s.

Dispersal of the Contents of Seskinore Lodge

Following the death of Captain Joynson-Wreford in 1940, the contents of Seskinore House appear to have been dispersed during the subsequent winding down of the estate.

A later article written in approximately 1949 refers to the acquisition of a bound volume of estate maps dating from 1846:

“when the goods and effects of Seskinore Lodge, the former residence of the late Colonel J. K. McClintock, D.L., were disposed of.”

Although the article refers to Colonel John Knox McClintock, this likely reflects the continued association of the house with the McClintock family in public memory rather than indicating the date of the dispersal itself.

No complete auction catalogue or formal record of the sale has yet been identified, though surviving recollections suggest that a dispersal of the contents of the house took place during the 1940s.

The maps referred to in the article survive within the collections of the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland:

PRONI Reference: D568
Maps of the Estate of Samuel McClintock, Esq., situate in the Corporation of Armagh, Co. Armagh and the Manor of Seskinore, Co. Tyrone, by Robert Wilson (1846).

It is hoped that further information relating to the dispersal of the contents of Seskinore House may emerge in future.

Historical Reflection

Tony’s final years reflect a life shaped as much by loss as by ambition.

The energy and daring that had once defined him—in aviation, society, and personal life—gave way to illness, isolation, and grief. His death in Switzerland, following Leila’s only a few years earlier, left their daughter Xenia effectively orphaned, setting in motion the next chapter of the Seskinore story.

See also:

With his death, the estate passed into trust for his daughter, Xenia, marking the final stage in its transition away from family control.

Significance

Tony Joynson–Wreford occupies a pivotal place in the history of Seskinore.

He represents:

The final resident generation connected to the estate
The transition from private ownership to dispersal
The link between the McClintock and Joynson–Wreford families