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Lady Dorina Neave, nee Clifford (circa 1880-1955), of Dagnam Park is a Romford figure with exotic connections. Brought up in Turkey, she married into the Neave family, and wrote two books about her upbringing on the Bosporus in Turkey at the end of the last century. They are excellent reading, though mainly focussed on Turkey and Istanbul life. (There was a Turkish version of her books published about fifteen years ago.)
She was known as the Belle of the Bosphorus in her time -- or even the 'Queen of the Bosporus'. She liked that but the Ottoman Sultan did not. As everyone feared a Russian invasion of Turkey, she and her sister trained the visiting Russian ships to lower the flag in front of their house at Kandilli in honour of 'the queen of the Bosporus.' The idea was that if they ever invaded, the Russians would know the house and show it due respect! Leaving for her new life in Essex in 1907, she dipped her 'Bosporus royal' flag in the sea and left Turkey never to return.
Her second book, 'Romance of the Bosphorus', carries on the story of her life and tells a certain amount about her time in Essex and Anglesey where the other family home was. At the end of the War, having been evacuated Brideshead-style, she was listening to the radio in central London one night when she heard that Dagnam Park was going to be confiscated for 'a monster satellite town'. A large housing estate (Harold Hill) was built in its place.
Lady Dorina was the last of the Neaves at Dagnam, where she says, she and her family passed many happy years. The family now lives in another part of England.
David Barchard
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