Rye News has been contacted by a regular reader, Nicolas Bragge, son of Norman Bragge – see photo above – who is asking for your help in trying to find someone. The person in question is Lady Betty Dent and it is believed that she may have lived in Rye or the local area, possibly Wittersham, at some point in the 1950s. The “Lady” title possibly indicates that she was the daughter of an Earl, or married to a Lord, but research so far has not produced any answers.
She may well have had an interest in, or have been a collector of, antiques and many years ago sold a number of items including furniture, with reference to her name on the labels attached, to the late Norman Bragge, whose antique shop was Bragge & Sons on Landgate. He bought the shop in 1946 after being demobbed from the army. The property, opposite the Landgate Arch, has since changed hands and is now known as The Outside Inn.
With so many established and well connected residents having lived and/or still living in the area perhaps some of our readers can help us to find out more. Did you know her or do you have any information which we can pass on? If so, please contact me, Nick Forman at Rye News on info@ryenews.org.uk and I will be happy to make the connection.
Image Credits: Nick Forman .
She was http://www.thepeerage.com/p34642.htm#i346414 Lady Elizabeth (Blanche Mary) Dent. Her husband William Dent was living at Fig Tree Cottage in Northiam when he died in 1981. She died in St Paul’s nursing home in St Leonard’s in 1983.
There’s a portrait, by the painter Mary Field, of her as a young woman hanging at Great Dixter.