Personal
In April 1922, Wallis met his cousin-in-law, Molly Bloxam, at a family tea party. She was only 17 and he was 35, and her father forbade them from courting. However, he allowed Wallis to assist Molly with her mathematics courses by correspondence, and they wrote some 250 letters, enlivening them with fictional characters such as "Duke Delta X". The letters gradually became personal, and Wallis proposed marriage on her 20th birthday. They married on 23 April 1925, and were married for 54 years until his death in 1979.
He lived with his family in Effingham, Surrey, for 49 years from 1930 until his death in 1979. They had four children - Barnes (1924-2008), Mary (b. 1927), Elisabeth (b. 1933) and Christopher (1935-2006) - and also adopted Molly's sister's children when their parents were killed in an air raid.
His daughter Mary Eyre Wallis later married Harry Stopes-Roe, a son of Marie Stopes.
His son Christopher Loudon Wallis was instrumental in the restoration of the watermill and its building on the Stanway Estate near Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.
Read more about this topic: Barnes Wallis
Famous quotes containing the word personal:
“The terrible thing is that one cannot be a Communist and not let oneself in for the shameful act of recantation. One cannot be a Communist and preserve an iota of one’s personal integrity.”
—Milovan Djilas (b. 1911)
“Devout believers are safeguarded in a high degree against the risk of certain neurotic illnesses; their acceptance of the universal neurosis spares them the task of constructing a personal one.”
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)
“Because one has little fear of shocking vanity in Italy, people adopt an intimate tone very quickly and discuss personal things.”
—Stendhal [Marie Henri Beyle] (1783–1842)