| Description | On 17 April 1912 the journalist and playwright Charles Smith Cheltnam, aged 89, died at 81 Frithville Gardens, Shepherds Bush, leaving his widow and daughter in financial difficulties. Cheltnam, born in Hackney on 12 February 1823, had married Jacintha Shelley Leigh Hunt (1828-1914), youngest daughter of the writer, Leigh Hunt (1784-1859), in January 1849.
Originally trained as an engraver, Cheltnam later became a journalist and editor. He was manager of Morning Chronicle, and contributed articles to many other newspapers and periodicals. In his early career he had some success as a playwright. There were two children of the marriage; Marian Spencer Leigh Hunt Cheltnam, born on 1 July 1850 and Thornton Leigh Hunt Cheltnam born in1853. Thornton Cheltnam married in 1893.
The Cheltnam family lived at various addresses in Hammersmith including Stamford Brook Cottages (1851 census), Cornwall Road (1852-59), Swanton House, Brook Green (1859-64), 2 Avenue Villas, Bridge Road (1864), 9 Cary Villas, Masbro Road (1871 census)and 81 Frithville Gardens (1878-June 1912). After the death of her husband Mrs Cheltnam and her daughter, Marian, moved to a flat at 80a Larden Road, where they lived until their respective deaths.
Sir William Bull obtained a civil list pension for Mrs Cheltnam and launched an appeal for a public subscription in the Daily Telegraph. Jacintha Cheltnam died on12 February 1914, aged 86 and Marian Cheltnam died on 30 November 1927, aged 77. The family were buried in the same grave in Hammersmith Cemetery, Margravine Road |