Dover Family History
The notes below were made during conversations between Peggy Nonhebel and her friend Peter Lofthouse, who instigated the Dover Prize and, before his death in 2000, was chairman of the Darlington Society of Arts.
Peggy’s maternal great grandfather, John Wormald, died leading the rescue team in the Prudhoe mine. A memorial statue to the tragedy can be found in Prudhoe. John was the mine manager. John’s son, Joseph Wormald, married Elizabeth Leathard and their daughter Sahara Elizabeth married Edward Dover in 1903.
Edward’s
father, Peggy’s grandfather, Thomas Dover moved from Consett and
worked as an engine fitter at Bank Top engine works in Darlington. Edward
Dover (born 1864) was the Dawdan Colliery Agent in the Darlington Coal
Exchange. He was also secretary to the Liberal Party in Darlington and
as such had a close working relationship with the Pease family. Edward
and Elizabeth, Peggy’s parents, were also close friends of the Harrisons.
John Harrison was chairman of the Darlington Society of Arts for many
years. Notably, he was believed to be the great grandson of the John Harrison
who, in 1757, designed and built the world's first successful marine chronometers,
a highly accurate maritime time-keeping instrument which for the first
time allowed a navigator to accurately assess his ship's position in longitude.
Elizabeth (Betty) Dover, Peggy’s sister was born in 1911. She was
a domestic science mistress at Eastbourne School in Darlington.
Margaret Dover (Peggy), the patron of this fund, was born in 1912. She trained in London as a Pharmacist and worked at a doctor’s practice in London before moving to Norton-on-Tees in 1939. During the war she worked for the Harland House doctors’ practice and volunteered as a telephonist in the Voluntary Fire Service. She met Kenneth Nonhebel in Norton and married in 1953.
Kenneth Maurice Nonhebel worked at ICI Billingham from qualifying as an Electrical Engineer. He retired in the 1960s as the Electrical Technical Advisor to the Billingham Power station. Later, Peggy set up a memorial scholarship in his memory at York University Music Department for post graduate students.