Mary Stopes-Roe

On the record: Barnes Wallis memorial service

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William Wallis is a great nephew of Barnes Wallis, and was 16 when he died in 1979. He attended both his funeral in his local church and the later memorial service, which was held in St Paul’s Cathedral. William has kindly sent me photographs of the orders of service for these events and he also has an LP record of the memorial service, the cover of which is shown above.

In an email, he described the St Paul’s event: “I was 16 at the time of the service and my recollections of such an auspicious occasion were tempered by my age. I recall being very annoyed at having to wear my school uniform and that I sat behind Prince Charles, finding his growing bald spot very amusing.”

The front covers for both services are shown below:

BNW Order of service (1) 600px

BNW Service of remembrance (1) 600px

William Wallis is the grandson of Barnes Wallis’s brother, Lt Col Charles Robinson Ashby Wallis, who served in the First World War in the artillery (being gassed at both Passchendaele and Ypres) and later the Royal Air Corps. William’s father, Charles David Ashby Wallis, was the oldest of his children and died in 2018 aged 92.

The two Wallis brothers spent many happy holidays in Dorset with their families, as
this 2008 article in Dorset Life written by their children, first cousins Charles D A Wallis and Mary Stopes Roe recalls. As the article says:
“… both brothers had a love for the Dorset countryside; so after the war, when Barnes and family took their summer holiday in Dorset, the two families would get together. Barnes rented a field between Corfe and Swanage under Nine Barrow Down as a camping site. …
He took pleasure in keeping the camp trim and well-ordered, and in making sure that the younger ones knew how to pitch tents, deal with sanitary matters, see to guy ropes and take weather precautions. The sound of his Wellington boots clumping round the tents on wet and windy nights as he checked the ropes was unforgettably comforting. He took part in the daily chores, joking, singing and inventing games. When he washed up, plates would be tossed to the person drying up, and from him or her to the person stacking away. The larder cabinet was strung up on a tree trunk, and a barrel of cider (‘It’s cheaper by the barrel!’) carefully raised to allow for easy pouring.”

In retirement, Charles R A Wallis dedicated himself to his local community of Gillingham in Dorset and its church which he was instrumental in refurbishing. As a keen historian he started a local museum which is still open today as part of the Gillingham museum. Sadly, in 1962 he drowned while staying in Cornwall, trying to save a swimmer in trouble. He dived in to the sea and although himself a fit man who was a strong swimmer both he and the other swimmer lost their lives. He was posthumously recognised with the highest award for bravery by the Royal Humane Society.

1917 6th January CRA Wallis Brompton Mews (1) 600px

Charles R A Wallis, as a young army officer, photographed in 1916. [Pic: Wallis family]

Despite this tragedy, Barnes and Molly Wallis stayed close to his brother’s family, and their four great nephews were frequent visitors to their house in Effingham.

Barnes and Molly Wallis, photographed at their house in Effingham in the 1970s with their great nephews. From left, Matthew, William, Robert and Andrew Wallis. [Pic: Wallis family]

Mary Stopes-Roe

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Pic: Barnes Wallis Foundation

I am sorry to have to announce the death of Mary Stopes-Roe, who died peacefully at her home in Birmingham on Friday 10 May.

Mary Eyre Wallis was born in York in 1927, the second of the four children of Barnes and Molly Wallis. When her father’s job at Vickers took him to Brooklands in Surrey, the family moved to nearby Effingham. Mary went away to boarding school at Godolphin School in Salisbury, and was a pupil there in the run up to the Dams Raid in 1943. Earlier she and her siblings had helped her father in his famous home experiments with marbles, a catapult and a tin bath as he tried to work out how to ‘bounce’ a bomb across water. When she heard the news about the raid itself from her headmistress she worked out what had been going on and sent a telegram to her ‘wonderful Daddy’.

After the war, Mary got a degree in history from the University of London. She then married the academic Harry Stopes-Roe, who had started his career as a physicist, but went on to take a PhD at Cambridge in philosophy. They had four children of their own, the last born in 1958 shortly before they moved to Birmingham, when he took up a post at the city’s university. Once all of her four children were at grammar school, Mary took a second degree in Psychology. ‘I thought the subject would be rather interesting, and I didn’t want to dust the house for the rest of my life,’ she said in a recent interview. She also gained a PhD and became a Research Fellow in the University of Birmingham School of Psychology where she remained until she retired in the 1990s. During her academic career she did extensive research, particularly on parent and family-child interactions, and was widely published.

After retirement she took on organising her father’s archives as well as other work on her family history. She edited the extensive pre-marital correspondence between Barnes and Molly Wallis in the early 1920s which had taken the form of a correspondence course in mathematics, but in fact was composed of dozens of charming love letters. This was published as Mathematics with Love in 2004. The archives are now housed in various institutions, and Mary herself became the President and a Trustee of the Barnes Wallis Foundation, formed to advance education in aviation design and honour her father’s name.

Mary was also very active in 617 Squadron Association affairs, and made many media appearances in the last few years talking about her father’s involvement in Operation Chastise. She will be sadly missed at future events.

Mary and Harry Stopes-Roe were married for 66 years until he died, almost five years to the day before her, on 11 May 2014. Mary leaves four children, ten grandchildren and five great-grandchildren, and also her sister, Elisabeth.

Sources: Barnes Wallis Foundation
Moseley B13 magazine