Notes:

Active 1927 - 1957

Alexander Gustavus Skardon Douglas was a schoolmaster who gained an MA from Keble College, Oxford, in 1928. The previous year he had changed his name from 'Douglas' to 'Skardon Douglas

He owned paintings by Francis Towne

I
FRANCIS ALEXANDER GUSTAVUS
. 9 SKARDON-DOUGLAS, of 2, Tidcombevillas,
Tiverton, in the county of Devon, Schoolmaster,
a natural born British subject, heretofore
called and known by the name of Francis Alexander
Gustavus Douglas, hereby give notice that
I have renounced and abandoned the name of
Francis Alexander Gustavus Douglas, and that I
have assumed and intend henceforth on all
occasions rrhaUoever and at all times to sign and
use and to be failed and known by the name of
Francis Alexander Gustavus Skardon-Douglas, in
K?u of and in substitution for my former name
of Francis Alexander Gustavus Douglas; and 1
also hereby give notice, that such change of name
is formally declared and evidenced by a deed poll
under my hand and seal dated the 17th day of
November, 1927, duly executed and attested, and
that such deed poll was enrolled in the Central
Office of the Supreme Court of Judicature, on the
5th day of December, 1927.'97 Dated this 12th day
of December, 1927.
GUSTAVUS
nm -DOUGLAS, formerly Francis
(010) Alexander Gustavus Douglas.

F A G Skardon-Douglas served in the army during World War II. He sold a watercolour by the artist John Abbot White (1763 - 1851), called 'Near Canonteign, Devon' (WAG 964), to the Walker Art Gallery in 1947. He had inherited it from the artist.

Temporary Major F A G Skardon-Douglas, Royal Army Service Corps (115914).

Property sale: Simla and Brimhill, Paignton to Dartmouth Road, and Lower Willow Mead, Paignton to Brixham Road, Paignton, Devon, by F. A. G. Skardon-Douglas, 8, The Avenue, Station Road, Cowley, Nr. Uxbridge

1950: The club (Ratcliffe Hal) was struck off the register; the two proprietors, Francis Alexander Skardon- Douglas, 46, and Keith White Dobson, 33, were each fined ?5O, and 52 men and women were fined a total of ?53 10s. for drinking and...

(Research):Francis Skardon-Douglas was a relative by marriage to Major Skardon. (Bengal Army)

Retired Surgeon Major Thomas Gray Skardon who bought Simla in 1885 lived there with his wife Anne and their servants until his death in 1912. He was born in Millbrook in Cornwall in 1837 where his family had lived for many generations and he married Anne Heanly Chester in 1872. He started his service career in 1860 and retired from the Bengal Army in 1884. Part of his career was as a surgeon on assisted passage ships bringing British emigrants to populate the colonies. On one occasion when he was surgeon superintendent on the emigrant ship 'Wellington' sailing to the Cape of Good Hope he wrote in the log book that 'On this passage nobody died.' He and his wife were active with various organisations in Paignton and assisted with raising money for the building of Christ Church.

The 1891 census shows the residents of Simla as Thomas Skardon, his wife Anne, their niece Charlotte Prowse, a cook, a housemaid and a footman. In Simla cottage lived a gardener with his wife and three children.
It is assumed Francis inherited Simla and Brimhill from Major Skardon, hence the adoption of his surname into his own.

Died:
SKARDON - DOUGLAS, Francis Alexander Gustavus. Died 5, Hume Road, London, W.ll, Security Officer. 31st March, 1957. Contact: 'Lee & Pembertons, 46, Lincoln's Tnn 'Fields, London, W.C.2, Solicitors. (John Nesbitt White Abbott.)