CAMILLA LACEY

Footman at Leladene

A brief description by his daughter Jo Pullen

All that I have gathered is that my mother, Gertrude Eve Reeves, 
was born in 1909 in West London.  My father, Sidney Frederick Smith, 
was born in 1905 in the East Clandon area.  They married in 
1929 & their marriage certificate states my father as 'footman' at 
'Leladene, Dorking' whereas my mother's residence as W.London.  
I know they met when my mother was in-service so I assumed she also worked in the same place.  However, I do have an image in my head of a large white mansion (I think with white columns at the front) that we drove past when I was young.
It had a long sweeping drive with a back-drop of a green grassed hill:  
my mother referred to having worked there with my father.  This image doesn't tally with the pictures of Leladene, so perhaps she did work elsewhere after all.  
I have copies of the passenger lists referring to my father having travelled 
to New York 5 months after the marriage, on the RMS Majestic to join 
his brother, Bert, on the ('Glucas'??) estate in New Jersey working with 
a pack of hounds.  It seems my mother didn't join him for another 18months, on the Mauretania. then they both returned a year later in 1932 on the Berengaria.  
Whilst it does seem a coincidence that Victor Freeman was American, it seems unlikely that an emigration discussion would have taken place in an 'upstairs/downstairs' scenario.  However, I am trying to trace any of Bert's family in America to throw some light on his emigration & possible invite for my father to join him. I can only assume this was a result of the depression years & the hope of opportunities abroad:  I would imagine that my mother would have been too home-sick to stay permanently.

Jo Pullen