1941 Requisition Notice
The Requisition Notice of 15th October 1941 was the catalyst for momentous changes at Craignish Castle.
The Grand Portrait of Cynthia was likely to have been put in storage with the furniture, mentioned in the Craignish Estate Files (1).
In storage, it was only one- step away from going ”missing”.
Lotherton Hall was closed-up after the death of Laura Gwendolen in 1949. Sir Alvary and Lorna Priscilla re-instated the Dining Room in the early 1950’s, where the portrait of 'Laura Gwendolen and Alvary’ was displayed in 1898:
’with the paintings leaning against the walls and the carpets removed Miss Braithwaite remembers it as a dismal unheated room, the grand portrait of Mrs Gascoigne becoming mildewed in the dark atmosphere’
’Lotherton Hall Remembered’ (page 12) by Daru Rooke
Published in Leeds Art Fund Calendar Issue: No.108 1991
see page: Phyllis Braithwaite 'Cracked The Art Case’
(1) CRAIGNISH ESTATE FILES
GB 295 LC 00950 / 14 / 33 / 36 / 37
West Yorkshire Archive Service, Leeds
15th October 1941
The Evacuees were to be working class children and therefore most of the furniture was to be stored in one or two rooms, the lst floor sitting room and two smaller rooms and two main bedrooms.
20th November 1941
42 children and a staff of 6 or 7, they will be taught in the house.
19th March 1942
Correspondence about using Craignish as an evacuation school and hostel for children from Glasgow and terminating Mrs Gascoigne’s tenancy of the estate.
Perfunctory language of the Craignish Estate Files encapsulates the period of estate-management in the 1940’s and 1950’s.