Dr Michel Ernest Theodore Dimitri (Ernest) Vlasto ° & Christian Mitchell (Thomas) Croil °

Family Group Sheet

NameDr Michel Ernest Theodore Dimitri (Ernest) Vlasto °, GGGG Grandson

Birth12 Feb 1888, 69 Boulevard Haussmann, Paris 8ème, France

MemoBirth declared by his father, Emmanuel Pierre Rodocanachi (29, rentier of Paris) and in the presence of civil engineer Paul Maurice Julllien (60 Rue du Roché). Named as Michel Demètre Theodore Vlasto

Death29 May 1979, Gresham Lodge, Limpsfield, Surrey, England

MemoNatural causes of old age.

BurialJun 1979, Hellenic Enclosure, West Norwood Cemetery, London, England

MemoCremated. Inexplicably it was decided by his daughter Helen not to record his name on his family’s mausoleum.

Baptismca 1888

MemoWas Theodore Zarifi one of his godparents, hence his given name of Theodore?

Residencebef 1900, 7 Rue Lamennais, Paris 8ème, France

Residence1911, 29 Porchester Terrace, Bayswater, Westminster, London, England

Residence1920s-1930s, 16 Porchester Terrace, Bayswater, Westminster, London, England

MemoHome to Michael, his wife Chrissy, four children and around four live-in servants (other servants including the chauffeur lived in the family’s mews house in Fulton Mews, Bayswater, as well as elsewhere).

Residence1920s-1940s, Consulting Room, 26 Wimpole Street, Westminster, London, England

MemoConsulting Rooms

Residence1950s, Betsoms, Westerham, Kent, England

MemoAn ‘arts & crafts’ house built by the Durtnell family of builders, with spectacular views from the North Downs across its own land to Westerham and to the Weald of Kent beyond.

Residence1960s-1970s, Gresham Lodge, Limpsfield, Surrey, England

MemoDemolished and redeveloped soon after.

OccupationM.B., B.S., F.R.C.S. Ear, Nose & Throat Surgeon, London.

EducationLycée Carnot, Paris. Prep-school Haywards Heath, Sussex. Winchester College, England (A. K. Cook’s House 1901-04). University College Hospital, London (1905-10).

OriginFrance. Took British nationality 10 Apr 1911.

Note 1Légion d’Honneur (May 1919). Surgeon Lieutenant, Royal Navy 1914-18. Ear, Nose & Throat Surgeon. Author of ‘The Nose, Ear and Throat for Nurses and Dressers’. A plaintiff in the 1921 Kessisoglu libel trial.

Note 2Following the death of his father in 1900, he came under the bullying influence of a guardian, his uncle Alec Ionides, who he came to loathe.

Note 3Surgeon at Queen’s Hospital for Children; St Luke’s Hospital for the Clergy; Aural surgeon at West Herts Hospital, etc. Surgeon-Lieutenant, R.N., 1914-19 seeing service in HMS Canopus, HMS London. etc., and Royal Navy Hospitals Malta and Portsmouth.

Note 4Played football for the United Hospitals Association 1908-10, member of the British Skiing Association, golf. Clubs: the RAC and the Anglo-Hellenic.

Note 5Saw action in Battles of Coronel, Falklands and Gallipoli as a ship’s surgeon. One of the first investors in Rowley Atterbury’s Westerham Press in the 1950s.

Marr. WitnessSt Sophia 19-06-1919: Alexander C. Ionides and Dr Constantine Leonidas Lambrinudi. Lambrinudi was Michel’s great friend, colleague and cousin. He detested ‘Uncle Alec’, his guardian, who must have been imposed on him as a witness.

Note 5Christened Michel Demètre Théodore Vlasto. Touchingly, at prep school in England he had adopted his father’s name to become Michel-E Vlasto: thus M.E.T.D. VLasto.

God-parentsProbably Theodore Zarifi among others.

FlagsArgenti, Boscovic, Cantacuzene, Caralli, Coressi, Dwerniki, Giustiniani Fi, Giustiniani Pi, Kaplanoglou, London, Mavrogordato, Maximo, Petrocochino, Ralli(Chaviara), Rodocanachi, Scanavi, Vlasto, Zarifi

FatherErnest Michel (Dimitri) Vlasto (1848-1900)

MotherHelen (Michael) Zarifi (1860-1946)

Marriage19 Jun 1919, Greek Orthodox Cathedral, St Sophia, Moscow Road, Bayswater, Westminster, London, England

Married MemoMarried 18-06-1919 at St James’s Episcopal Church, Aberdeen, Scotland

SpouseChristian Mitchell (Thomas) Croil °

Birth28 Nov 1894, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA

Death27 Mar 1983, Thames Ditton, Surrey, England

MemoOld age. Died at the Home of Compassion, 58 High Street, Thames Ditton.

Burial1983, South-West London, England

MemoInexplicably it was decided by her daughters Helen and Nancy to cremate her unrecorded at a random crematorium in SW London and not mentioned at West Norwood’s Hellenic Enclosure.

Residence1919, 3 Carden Terrace, Aberdeen, Scotland

Residence1920s-1930s, 16 Porchester Terrace, Bayswater, Westminster, London, England

Residence1950s, Betsoms, Westerham, Kent, England

Residence1960s-1970s, Gresham Lodge, Limpsfield, Surrey, England

OccupationVAD: Royal Navy volunteer nurse in WWl.

EducationConvent in Milwaukee and in Aberdeen.

OriginScotland, Canada & USA

Note 1V.A.D. Royal Navy 1914-18. She met Michel Vlasto when they were both serving in the RNVR at the Royal Navy Hospital Bighi, Valetta, Malta.

Note 2In the 1939 Census she and her husband were living at 16 Porchester Terrace with two couples of live-in servants (John Henry, carpenter & Jennie Henry, servant; William Morgan & Gertrude Morgan, servant)...

Note 3... not listed in the Census were their chauffeur Voules and his wife who lived in the Vlasto’s Fulton Mews house nearby and at least three other servants who lived out (including Ella).

Note 4At some point during WWl her path crossed that of Vera Brittain (both VAD nurses) but she notably had nothing positive or negative to say about her or her book of shared experience, ‘Testament of Youth’....

Note 5... though it seemed possible in the 1970s that she disapproved of one person (among the thousands of VADs) seeking public sympathy and acclaim for widely shared grief.

Marr. WitnessAberdeen 18-06-1919: George Bartlett (rector), John Glen Wardrop and Gladys Mitchell Croil.

FlagsCroil, Dickson, London, Mitchell, Shives/Chivas

FatherThomas (Thomas) Croil (1865-1942)

MotherChristian Chivas (George) Mitchell (1866-1951)

Children