David Lionel Salomons

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David Lionel Salomons, birth 28 Jun 1851 Brighton, Sussex, England, died 19 Apr 1925, son of Philip Salomons and Emma Abigail Montefiore
Educated privately, and then at University College , London , and Gonville and Caius College , Cambridge .

David Lionel and his sisters were orphaned in their teens and moved to Broomhill to be cared for by their uncle, David Salomons . Sir David died just before David Lionel completed his studies at Cambridge , and he inherited the title and the estat e.

From an early age David Lionel Salomons was interested in science and mechanics and would pass his spare time in the workshops and factories of London . At the age of fourteen he befriended a watchmaker and learned how to repair and make his ow n clocks and watches. After he had finished his Natural Sciences degree at Cambridge he started a series of popular scientific lectures for the general public in Tunbridge Wells. These included demonstrations of electrical experiments, his chie f enthusiasm.

His second great love was transport û in all its forms. He invented a railway signalling system, built a magnificent stable block for his horses, acquired the second car in Britain and went on to be a pioneer of æhorseless vehicles', and in late r years wrote a small book about aeroplane flight.

David Lionel greatly extended the Broomhill estate, adding garages and a æScience Theatre' at the back of the house. The house was one of the first to be lit with electricity, and it contained considerable collections of art and books.

Sir David spent much of his time in London , either commuting daily from Tunbridge Wells or staying at 49 Grosvenor Street , his London home. He was a magistrate in Kent (though he did not often sit) and was called to the Bar in 1874. Also that ye ar he was a Deputy Lieutenant for Kent and stood (unsuccessfully) as the Liberal candidate for Mid-Kent in the general election. In 1880 he was High Sheriff of Kent and in 1899 he was elected as a County Councillor . He became a magistrate for Lon don , Middlesex and Westminster , a Life-Governor of University College , London , Master of the Coopers Company for the year 1893, and Honorary Colonel for the Kent Fortress Engineers. By popular demand, he was asked to be Mayor of Tunbridge Well s in 1894 û despite not being a borough councillor û and during his term of office arranged what was probably the world's first motor show.

A list of the societies he belonged to shows the range of subjects he was interested in: astronomy, chemistry, civil engineering, geology, geography, meteorology, commerce, physics, military, inventions, archaeology, law, statistics, zoology, bota ny, agriculture, electrical engineering, photography, microscopy, and æself-propelled traffic'. He also belonged to a number of sporting and coaching clubs.

He patented several inventions (mostly electrical apparatus, but also one for buoyant soap!) and wrote several books. One on the Management of Accumulators became a standard text and ran to several editions. He was also in the habit of publishin g a little book of reflections and sayings each year, which he sent to his family and friends as a New Year greeting.

Although he was not as involved in Jewish affairs as his uncle, he retained his Jewish faith and, unlike many scientists of the day who were atheists or agnostics, viewed science as a way of marvelling at God's creation.

Sir David Lionel's only son, David Reginald Salomons, died in the First World War, so the baronetcy was not passed on. Sir David Lionel died in 1925. He is buried in the family burial ground at Lower Green, Tunbridge Wells.
Married 20 Jul 1882 to:
Laura Julia De Stern, birth 1855, died 1935, daughter of Hermann De Stern and Julia Goldsmid
Daughter of one of the wealthiest men of Victorian Britain, Laura married David Lionel in 1882, becoming Lady Laura Salomons. They lived at the Broomhill estate in Kent and at 49 Grosvenor Street in London .

Laura was involved with the running of the Salomons households, hosting many gatherings of scientists, photographers and transport enthusiasts at Broomhill and Grosvenor Street . She was a devoted mother to her five children.

Although nothing has been found in the records, it is known that David Lionel was in favour of allowing women some freedoms û including driving motor cars. So perhaps Laura was one of the first women drivers?

She outlived her husband and two of her children, dying in the same year as her daughter, Maud. She is buried in the family burial ground at Lower Green, Tunbridge Wells.

1) Maud Julia Salomons, birth 1883, died 1935
Married 1906 to:
Captain John Blunt

2) Sybil Gwendolen Salomons, birth 1884, died 1899

3) David Reginald Salomons, birth 1885, died 28 Oct 1915 w
Known as Reginald or Reggie to his family and friends, the third David Salomons was brought up at Broomhill and educated at Eton and at Gonville and Caius College , Cambridge , which had also been his father's college. He then started trainin g as a lawyer.

After Cambridge he travelled widely; first to France , Italy and Spain , and then to the East. In 1910 he and his cousin, Arthur Paget, spent two and a half months exploring Japan , travelling many hundreds of miles by train, horse, rickshaw, boa t and on foot. Arthur had previously travelled in Japan , and married there in 1911. Reginald was greatly impressed by the people and the scenery and, on his return to England , took lessons in Japanese and established links with the Japanese cons ulate.

Reginald wrote an account of his travels, An Outsider's Impression of Japan , under the name R. Nagano. Although never published, it gives an interesting description of the Japan of 1910 and of his reaction to the country and its peoples. He seem s to have been particularly interested in Japanese religious beliefs and culture, remarking “Every religion gives a different theory as to what happens after death, but none have been absolutely proved; personally I incline to the Buddhist theory , a great deal of which science has proved to be correctö. The Salomons' tradition of religious tolerance and interest in science was clearly present in the third generation.

Reginald died in the First World War, just after his thirtieth birthday in October 1915. David Reginald Salomons died in the First World War in the HMS Hythe disaster, and there are many items associated with him, the Kent Fortress Royal Engineer s and the Hythe.

4) Vera Frances Salomons, birth 1888, died 12 Nov 1969 IRELAND
(divorced) to:
Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Daniel Bryce DSO
Married Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Daniel Bryce DSO, in 1919 and divorced in 1932. Bryce was born and educated in England , but had lived in Peru and Singapore and was not of the Jewish faith. He served in the army in the Boer War in South Afric a and in the First World War in France . They had no children.

Of D.L. Salomons' five children, Vera was possibly the most similar to her father and shared many of his interests. She published three books on 18 th century French illustrators in her twenties and maintained a strong interest in art throughou t her life.

At the onset of the First World War she trained as a nurse and served with the British Army Medical Services. She met Lt.-Col. Edward Daniel Bryce of the Tank Corps while nursing in a Voluntary Aid Detachment in France , and married him in 1919.

From 1925 Vera lived much of the time in Jerusalem and worked actively for Palestine and Israel . She contributed towards the setting up of homes for the elderly (there is one named after her which still exists today), care of blind people, housin g for immigrants, and numerous charitable and educational institutions.

Like her great-uncle, David Salomons, Vera was a champion of religious tolerance and was interested in the relationship between Palestinians and Jews in Jerusalem . Through her work with universities in Palestine she met Professor Leon Arie Mayer , Professor of Islamic Art and Archaeology and Rector of the Hebrew University . They both felt that better understanding of the cultural heritage of Islamic peoples might lead to less strife between the Israeli and Palestinian communities, and th is led to the foundation of the L.A. Mayer Memorial Institute for Islamic Art. Vera provided all the funds for the construction of the Institute and its Museum in Jerusalem .

These funds were originally to be used for another project. When Vera first moved to Jerusalem she was appalled by the squalid state of the Wailing Wall. She appealed to the leading Jewish politician in England , Rufus Isaacs, the Marquess of Read ing, to buy the Wall from the Muslim religious property trust that owned it. Vera provided the huge sum of ¹100,000 for him to make the offer, but it was not accepted. So instead the money was used to form the David Salomons Charity, which wen t on to fund many projects, including the creation of the L.A. Mayer Memorial Institute.

As the inheritor of the Salomons estate (her mother and her sisters, Maud and Ethel died between 1931 and 1937), Vera decided to present Broomhill to Kent County Council for use as a public institution such as a college, hospital museum or researc h institute. It was agreed that it would be renamed the æDavid Salomons Estate', so that the name would be preserved in bricks and mortar, although the family name had died out after her brother, David Reginald Salomons, drowned in the Hythe disas ter. First a convalescent home and then a National Health Service regional training centre, it is now the Salomons campus of Canterbury Christ Church University .

Parts of D.L. Salomons' collections were given to the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris and the L.A. Mayer Museum in Jerusalem . Vera Salomons then selected a collection of material from the house that would be representative of the lives and wor k of the three David Salomons; her brother, her father and her great-uncle. The rest of the contents of the house were sold.

As an old lady, Vera lived mostly in Switzerland . She died in Ireland on 12 November 1969, aged 81.

5) Ethel Dorothy Salomons, birth 1892, died 1937 to:
Captain Richardson

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