HOUGHTON, Sidney 1864-1934

Born on 4 6 1864 in Leyton, Essex. Sidney Alexander died in Thwaite, Hermitage, Berkshire on 20 12 1934, he was 70. Buried in Abbotsham, Devon. Occupation: Royal Navy Then Board Of Trade.

On his Father's death in 1878 his Uncle, Alexander Fraser Boxer, became his guardian. Educated at Bloxham, with his twin brother, Bernard, (he was the older by 10 minutes) he was apprenticed at H.M. Dockyard, Portsmouth, on 1st July 1879.
On the 1881 census he is recorded as being an engineering student at the Training School at Stoke Damerel, Devon
16.7.8 Appointed Assistant Engineer, R.N.
1.8.85 Attended Whitehead Torpedo class on board H.M.S. Vernon
16.12.8 Passed Cert. of Qualification as Engineer, R.N.
23.7.85-30.9.85 H.M.S. Asia
22.5.86-1.6.86 H.M.S. Asia
26.5.86-30.11.86 H.M.S. Iron Duke
16.11.86-31.12.87 H.M.S. Asia
1.7.87-31.8.87 H.M.S. Collingwood
1.1.88-3.12.88 H.M.S. Asia
1.7.88-3.9.88 H.M.S Collingwood
19.10.88-19.2.89 Victor Emmanuel (Torpedo Depot)
23.1.89-30.3.90 " "
1.4.90-8.4.91 " "
9.4.91-22.5.91 H.M.S Tamar
23.5.91-29.6.91 H.M.S. Asia
30.6.91-15.9.92 H.M.S. Howe
15.9.92-20.6.93 H.M.S. Malabar.
He resigned from the Royal Navy and entered the Civil Service Marine Department; Board of Trade. Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Member of the Iron and Steel Institute etc. Biographical details in "Who's Who in Engineering". James Crick has several albums of his photographs, mostly taken while he was in the Royal Navy during the period when naval ships were making the change from sail to steam.
The following details are taken from "The Iron and Coal Trades Review" dated May 12th. 1906:-
"Note on the Failure of an Iron Plate through "Fatigue"
by Sidney A. Houghton, Assoc. M.Inst.C.E. (London).
Mr. Sidney A. Houghton was in one of the first entries of engineer students for the navy under the new system inaugurated in 1877, and after an exhaustive engineering training of six years at the Training Schools at Portsmouth and Devonport, and one year at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, he entered the navy as an assistant engineer. Amongst the ships he served in were H.M.S's "Iron Duke", "Collingwood", and "Howe", and he also had charge of the torpedo store and boats at Hong Kong for two years. He resigned his commission in 1894, and shortly afterwards entered the employment of Messrs. Galloways, Ltd., of Manchester. In 1895 he passed the examination and was appointed an engineer-surveyor to the Marine Department of the Board of Trade; and after three years at Liverpool he was transferred to the Consultative Office at London, where he has been for the last six years. During this latter period he has taken up the microscopical study of metals, and now possesses a very large and interesting collection of metal sections, all of which are mounted and classified. In 1902 he gave a lecture at the Institution of Marine Engineers on "The Internal Structure of Iron and Steel,” and has since taken part in the discussions on this and kindred subjects at the Institutions of Civil and Mechanical Engineers and at the Iron and Steel Institute."

Sidney Alexander married Sydney LOXLEY, daughter of William Richard LOXLEY & Clara CROSBY. Born on 3 11 1886 in Hong Kong, she died in London on 8 3 1956 aged 69
She wrote the following notes on her family:-
“The name is Anglo-Saxon, and is mentioned in the Domesday Book. There is a village of Loxley near Stratford-on-Avon, a 'liberty' with a Hall and deer park in Staffordshire and a village in Yorkshire, where a branch settled in Edward III's time, when a de Loxley held a position at Court. But for many generations the family owned a manor in Worcestorshire; the Manor House, Warmington, Warwickshire, and Culworth Manor, Northants. Culworth is in ruins but Warmington Manor has been restored, and a description of it was given in two parts in the 'Country Life' in 1947. The Loxleys are mentioned in many old editions of 'Burkes Landed Gentry'. They intermarried several times with the following families: - Dymneley or Dingley, Abell, Clemens and Usher. The Dingleys lived at Charlton House and Peopleton Manor, Worcs. The Dingley family had a proud but tragic history, the Clemens family are, I believe, extinct, of the Abells there are four married daughters and two surviving sons: Colonel R. Abell, D.S.O, and Sir George Abell, K.C.I.E.? Of the Ushers there are four married daughters and two surviving sons; Major T. Clemens, R.H.A & R.A., and Sir George Clemens. The last of the Yorkshire Loxleys was Peter Loxley, killed in an aircrash on a mission to Yalta. He was a Principle Secretary at the Foreign Office - his father was Captain N. Loxley, R.N., drowned when his ship was torpedoed in 1915. His mother was Gladys, a daughter of Major-General Guy Dawney. The only descendents of Mr. Francis Loxley of Warrington Manor were Doris, who married Captain T. Thomas, R.N. and R.C.N. (She died in 1944.), Sydney, who married S.A. Houghton of the Hall, Leyton, Essex and Eveleen who married W.H. Dyer, Dragoons (Canada), son of Brigadier-General H.M. Dyer, C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O. She died in 1940 leaving four? married daughters.”
The Dingleys had property adjoining the Houghtons in Lancashire, and Sir Thomas Dingley, Bart., was beheaded for his faith, as he was, like Thomas Houghton, a Roman Catholic.
Of three sons, one, Aubrey Loxley Thomas, survives, and three married sisters. The family properties have been sold or passed to others through marriage.