Daughter and only child of Alice EVANS and William MINET

Born 3rd March 1884, Abbots Langley, Hertfordshire

Died 10th October 1976, Kensington

When Susan MINET was born her father, William, was 32, and her mother, Alice, was 27.

She lost her mother when she was only 3 years old.

She died at the age of 92.

She obviously inherited the family passion for archaeology and collectables as she donated various items to the British Museum and the Ashmolean in Oxford.

It was about this time (c.1945) that we visited my father’s second cousin Susan Minet. Miss Minet as she was invariably called lived in a large house on Richmond Hill with views overlooking the Thames. As was the frequent case then with wealthy single ladies she had a live-in female companion (there was absolutely no suggestion of a lesbian relationship). The companion was the housekeeper but also more than a housekeeper. The companion was a friend but also a subordinate.

I think that I am right in saying that Minet is a Huguenot name. The Huguenots were French Protestants. Many of them fled to England where their industriousness and hard work stood them in good stead. I think also that I am right in saying that one of Susan Minet’s forbears was a founder member of the Sun Life Insurance Company and that her personal wealth would have stemmed from this.

I had to look up Susan Minet as I had forgotten where she fitted in.

William Minet's first wife was Alice Evans (1856–1887), the eldest daughter of Sir John Evans, the archaeologist and geologist.

‘They had a daughter Susan (1884–1976), who inherited the family properties in Hayes and Camberwell, and the estate was administered from the Minet Estate Office in Brixton. On her death, the properties were inherited by a distant cousin, Peter Briffault Minet, and since his death in 1992, the remaining properties have been run by a charitable trust, the Minet Trust.’ (Wikipedia)

When Susan died in 1976 she was worth £230,055 (which was wealthy for that time.)

Many thanks for your further information about Susan Minet and her wider family. It must have been in about 1945 or 1946 that we visited her. My memories of her house are a bit vague but the furnishings and effects, although clearly expensive, had nothing showy or ostentatious about them.

We were served afternoon tea in time-honoured gracious fashion.