I am properly annoyed now. Here is another woman, about whom I can find very little apart from date of birth, marriage and death. But when I look for her husband – there’s lots of wonderful colourful detail. The picture shows Angela Mary Tod, born in Hampshire in 1915 getting married at the Franciscan Church in South Ascot in January 1941.
The 1939 Register has Angela down as “ARP Ambulance” and living at 19 Cadogan Square. She probably worked at the same ambulance station in Chelsea as my diarist June. Angela’s bridegroom is Felipe D. Benavides, a Peruvian diplomat, who in later life was a noted – and, according to some, cantankerous – conservationist, passionately devoted to saving the vicuna (which was like a small llama).
Felipe’s obituary says his “many adventures included driving ambulances in London under bombardment by the Luftwaffe during World War II.” Perhaps he and Angela met while working shifts at the ambulance station. But the romances created by war often did not weather the peace.
Angela and Felipe were divorced in 1951 and Angela swiftly remarried. She died in London in 2002. A website about the Agar family gives details of her new husband: “William Talbot Agar (1917-91); born 24 August 1917; company director; married 17 July 1952 the former wife of Felipe Benavides of Peru” Angela’s identity has been expunged. She is not even given a namecheck.
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