The following accounts of the life of Pamela Bethell (née Padra de Bera) appeared in the Hull Daily Mail in 1906 and 1907. They are reproduced here using the original spelling and punctuation. (Footnotes are indicated by numbers in italics.)
There is something unmistakably French about the subject of this sketch, Madame Bethell, who yesterday (Wednesday) celebrated her 100th birthday (1). It is not only her manner, but her features are clear cut, and she has still the vivacity (chastened, of course, by age) and alertness of intellect and fluency which seem to run in the Southern blood.
Madame Bethell is probably the only centenarian to-day, not only in East Hull, but in Hull and district itself. It was my privilege and pleasure, through the courtesy and kindness of her daughter, Mrs Ireland (2), 25, Estcourt-street, Newbridge-road, to have a chat with the old lady, and to listen to some of her early recollections, which were intensely interesting.
I found Madame upstairs in an armchair in her bedroom. When she was told that a visitor had called to see her she remarked, with a pleasant smile, that she felt highly honoured. During the interview she recalled some most stirring events of a most stirring time in Paris. I was fortunate in finding her in excellent health, excepting for rheumatism in her feet and in her hands, which has caused her for some years to keep to her bedroom. Her story is dramatic indeed.
Madame's maiden name was Padra De Bera, which is Spanish, but she was re-christened during the war between Spain and France Pamela De Bere, which is French. Her father was Captain De Bera, an officer in the Spanish Army, who was taken prisoner, and died in exile (3). Her mother died also where the captain was exiled. She went out to her husband, taking with her Madame Bethell, her only child, who was left in the care of her godmother, Madame de la Tour, whose husband held a high position at the Mint House at Paris (4).
Madame preserved a wonderfully sunny nature throughout the interview, and was kindness itself. Asked as to her earliest recollections, she said that it was being taken down a river in a ship by her godmother from her home at Macon (5) to a school at Dijou (6), near Bessano (7), which is not far from Switzerland, because she could see the Alps.
"My godmother took me down into the cabin, and I could not sleep for looking through the little windows at the trees. I was surprised, because I thought the trees were moving, and my godmother chided me for not going to sleep. She said that it was the boat moving and not the trees."
"The place where I was at school was a garrison town, and at that time the country was full of enemies - Spaniards, Prussians, and Russians. My father was a captain in the Spanish army, and was made a prisoner by Napoleon."
The old lady re-called a scene in her childhood, when she received injuries which left their mark upon her. There were soldiers in the house boiling gruel in a large copper boiler, and one of them threw boiling porridge over her. "They did not do it on purpose," she added.
Continuing her narrative, she said that she left school at about 14, and was put into a place where there was nothing but fancy work and tapestry. Coming to more dramatic themes, she said that she went to live with her god-mother at the Hotel du Mint in Paris where she was living in revolutionary times. She described how the Mint was besieged by the revolutionists, how there were daily conflicts between civilians and soldiers, how there was bloodshed in the streets of Paris (8). At the Mint House they filled the windows with mattresses. One afternoon, when the street seemed quiet, and she thought the fighting was over, she moved the mattress aside from one window, when a bullet whizzed past her.
This time, of course, was the revolution which forced Charles the Tenth to abdicate.
She next described how the revolutionists gained an entrance to the Mint House by the front, and how the soldiers guarding it escaped by the back-way. The women the revolutionists did not interfere with, but they were told to abandon the house.
"We had to walk several miles to a chateau in the country. That walk I shall never forget. We could carry nothing away with us. My god-mother took her jewels, but we went, otherwise, as we were. I walked behind her, and we were accompanied by a servant. My god-mother was exceedingly frightened - more frightened than I. The soldiers stopped our servant. They said they did not want to hurt the ladies, but they ordered the servant to start cutting down trees for barricades.
"The national flag was afterwards changed," she explained. "Instead of the white flag, with the golden fleurs de lis, was the red, white, and blue. Then Louis Philippe, the Duke d'Orleans, was proclaimed King. At that time she came to England, but Louis, "the Citizen King," did not rule long (9). He had an exciting period, for infernal machines (10) had then come into use. She re-called one remarkable escape of Louis, in one of the Boulevards of Paris, from an infernal machine (11). Afterwards Napoleon III made his appearance, but his empire (12) did not last long."
Madame Bethell is proud of the fact that she was privileged to witness a solemn religious procession at Besanno, witnessed only once in 100 years (13). She could not say how many men carried a huge cross, and she, with all the school girls (she was at school at the time), joined in at.
When she was over 20 she came to England and had been with two Catholic families, first with Mr Elwes (14), at Brigg, and also with Mr Barnard, at Northampton. She married a Mr Bethell (15) while she was at Brigg, where all her eight sons and daughters were born (16).
She is very lively and vivacious, and something of a humorist. She was an incessant reader until she had to give it up, because of her eyesight, about two years ago, and she now spends all her leisure knitting and singing. She has been a good singer of French songs. When it was suggested she should sing her favourite song, Madame immediately responded by singing a verse of a lively French song, which she afterward confided was the tale of the love of a black man for a white girl. She sang the French song in a light-hearted way, and many a woman, scores of years her junior, would have envied her expression. She has also been a talented painter.
Madame has her needlework, and seemed as though she would have gone on chatting, but I felt that I had kept her up too long. And I left, expressing the hope that another August 15th would find her in equally good spirits and health as she seemed that day.
There are three sons living and three daughters (17), and all of them are married. There are 53 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. She has been the recipient, as might be expected, of many congratulations on attaining her century. On Saturday last she sat for her photograph. Few Hull photographers have had the privilege Mr Norman Ashcroft has of photographing a lady 100 years old. It will be seen by the photograph given above that Madame came out of the ordeal exceedingly well.
This second item appeared in the same column on Wednesday, 30th January 1907.
Tuesday Afternoon
Madame Bethell, the East Hull centenarian, a sketch of whose life was given in my letter a few months ago, has, I am sorry to say, passed away (18). Since I gave the story of her life in this column, Madame Bethell has been the subject of articles in both the London and the leading provincial Press, and a portrait of her appeared in one or more of the London illustrated weeklies.
Madame Bethell for several years has lived with her youngest daughter, Mrs Ireland, at 25, Estcourt-street, Hull. She has the unique record of having seen seven French governments - those of Napoleon I., Louis XVIII., Charles X., Louis Philippe, the Second Republic, Napoleon III., and the Third Republic.
Madame Bethell, although bedridden from rheumatism, to the end preserved a wonderfully vivacious temperament, and she delighted in recounting incidents from her adventurous life. Her father was a captain in the Spanish Army, and when he was taken prisoner by Napoleon and exiled in France, his wife followed him with her little girl, Pamele de Bera. Her parents dying, Mademoiselle de Bera passed into the hands of her godmother, Mme. de la Tour, whose husband occupied a high position at the Mint House in Paris. When the Mint House was besieged during the insurrection which replaced Charles X. by the Citizen King, Mlle. de Bera had a narrow escape of being shot. Mdlle. de Bera eventually came to England and married a Mr Bethell. She celebrated her 100th birthday a few months ago.
Footnotes - Compiled by John and Jane Bethell, November 1997
| Henry Charles Bethell (b. 1839), later known as Henry John Bethell |
| Maria Bethell (b. 1840) |
| Louis Bethell (b. 1842, d. 1880) |
| Pamela Bethell (b. 1845) |
| Charles Bethell (b. 1847) |
| Diana Bethell (b.1849) |
| Mary Jane Bethell (b. 1852) |
| Frederick William Bethell (b. 1855) |