Misses Nora and Mary Lees

A carte-de-visite portrait of Nora Frances Sophia Lees and her sister Mary Charlotte Cooke Lees.

The Misses Lees appear on the 1851 census, staying with their parents at Ryde on the Isle of Wight, at the home of their great-grandfather, James Caldwell, who gave as his profession 'Lieutenant General of the East India Company / Grand Order of the Bath.' Nora, who was 2 years old, was born at Marylebone in London. Mary, who was 2 months old, was born at Newchurch, on the Isle of Wight. Also present on the night of the census were older siblings Harcourt, Arthur, Bellina and James, and fourteen servants.

Nora and Mary Lees appear again on the 1871 census, still living on Dover Street at Ryde, but the house is now the home of their father, John Lees, who gave ‘Baronet’ as his Rank, Profession or Occupation, and 'Ireland' as his place of birth. Sir John Lees (1816-1892) was the 3rd Baronet Lees of Black Rock in the County of Dublin.

On 22 November 1876, at Ryde on the Isle of Wight, Nora married Clarence George Pigou, a Lieutenant in the 15th Regiment of Foot. The couple had three children and settled at Pembury, a village in Kent. Nora died in 1902, aged 52. Her sister Mary never married. She died at Horsham in Sussex in 1935, aged 84.

Photographed by Camille Silvy on 16 June 1862.