Fonds SC624 - Kidman family fonds

Henry Oscar Kidman (1833-1918) was born in Biscot, in the county of Bedfordshire, England, to parents James Kidman (1799-1886) and Mary Ann Elliott Lines (1811-1968). Henry Kidman became a farmer, and by 1851 he was working at Porters End Farm in Kimpton, Hertfordshire. In 1876, he married Louisa Rosetta Coxall (1844-1929) in the village of Chesterton, Oxfordshire. The couple had four children: Walter James Kidman (1878-?), Lilian Leigh Kidman (1879-?), Ella Kidman (1880-?), and Lester A. Kidman (1882-1939). In 1881, the family resided at Nast Hyde Farm in St Albans, Hertfordshire. By 1901, they had moved to Buttermere, in Wiltshire, where Henry Kidman was lord of Buttermere Manor and continued to work as a farmer.

Henry Kidman and his two daughters, Lilian and Ella, were all artistically inclined. They drew and painted in a variety of mediums (including watercolours, ink, and pencil) and worked collaboratively on several art projects: notably, autograph albums and art albums.

Little more is known about the Kidman sisters. Lilian Kidman seems to have resided at Bateman House, Bateman Street, Cambridge in 1895, during which time Ella Kidman sent her many elaborately illustrated letters. Ella Kidman had moved to Sutton by 1911, and she immigrated to New York on 19 April 1914. Later, she married John Patrick Millington (1882-?) who, although born in Essex, was living in Winnipeg, Manitoba by 1911. The Kidman family art albums were presented to the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria in 1979 by a Mr. Millington, suggesting that Ella Kidman and John Millington or their family may have eventually moved to Victoria, British Columbia.

By 1911, Henry Kidman had retired from farming, and he and Louisa Kidman moved to Sutton, Surrey, and then to Chiswick, Middlesex.