Allan Fea

Portrait by Walter Stoneman, c. 1916

Allan Fea (25 May 1860 – 9 June 1956), was a British historian, specializing in the English Civil Wars period and the House of Stuart, and an antiquary, after a first career as a clerk at the Bank of England.

Life

Fea was born at St Pancras, London, in 1860, the son of William and Marie Fea, of Kentish Town, where his father was a book-keeper. He was baptized into the Church of England at St John the Baptist’s Church, Kentish Town, at the age of five weeks.

Fea’s first career was in the Bank of England. In 1893, he married Louisa Hallmark at St Pancras. They had no children. A nephew named after Fea, Allan William Francis Fea, died in 1894. In 1901, aged 40, he was living in Newnham, Kent, and was a retired bank clerk. In 1911, he was living at South Lodge, Pinner, with his wife and one servant, calling himself a retired bank clerk and author. His wife died in Kent in 1942.

Fea’s interest in priest holes and hiding places was partly prompted by visiting Sharsted Court, near his home in Newnham.

After a prolific second career as a writer of historical books, Fea died in Whitstable, Kent in 1956, aged 96. Probate was granted to his nephew Cyril Alfred Fea, a bank official.

The National Portrait Gallery has a portrait photograph of Fea by Walter Stoneman dated 1916.

Selected works

Notes

  1. ↑ baptism on 1 July 1860 at St John the Baptist, Kentish Town, at ancestry.co.uk, accessed 22 April 2020 (subscription required)
  2. 1 2 3 28, Dartmouth Bank Road, St Pancras, return for the 1881 United Kingdom census; 42, Newnham Street, Newnham, return for the 1901 United Kingdom census; Allan Fea, return for South Lodge, Pinner for the 1911 United Kingdom census, online at ancestry.co.uk, accessed 22 April 2020 (subscription required)
  3. ↑ ”FEA Allan Pancras 1b 343 (1893 marriages) in General Index to Marriages in England and Wales
  4. ↑ From the General Indexes to Births and Deaths in England and Wales: “FEA Allan Pancras 1b 130” (1860 births); “FEA Allan William F Bromley 2a 425” (1894 deaths)
  5. ↑ “Fea Louise, 77, Bridge 2a 1839” in General Index to Deaths in England and Wales, 1942
  6. ↑ Allan Fea, Secret Chambers and Hiding-places (London, S. H. Bousfield & Co., 1901)
  7. ↑ “FEA Allan of Restawhile Vale-Road Whitstable Kent died 9 June 1956 in Probate Index for England and Wales, 1956; “FEA Allan, 96, Bridge 5b 76” in General Index to Deaths in England and Wales, 1956
  8. ↑ Allan Fea (1860-1956), Historian and antiquary at npg.org.uk, accessed 22 April 2020

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