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Monica Chapman 12 April 1917 to June 1998
CHA00030
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Dates are in red.
Hyperlinks to other pages are in dark blue.
Headlines of Monica’s life are in brown.
References and citations are in turquoise.
Context and local history are in purple.
Geographical
context is in green.
1917
Monica Chapman, daughter of Harold and
Gertrude (nee Peck) Chapman) (CHA00022)
was born on 12 April 1917 in Wallington, Surrey (GRO
Vol 2A Page 532).
Her father was
killed in Flanders on 26 November 1917.
1921
1921
Census – Calbourne, 14 Stanley Park Road, Wallington, Surrey
Samuel Peck,
64, Director of Public Companies
Charlotte
Elizabeth Peck, 61
Gertrude
Chapman, 31, Samuel’s daughter
Ernest Symes
Peck, 28, Sales Agent
Monica
Chapman, Samuel’s
granddaughter, 4, born in Wallington
1922
Monica Chapman
in 1922 (a picture sent to her Aunt Dreda (CHA00021).
1923
Believed to be
Gertrude with Monica in about 1923
1939
1939
Register – 60 West
Kensington Road, Barons Court, Hammersmith and Fulham
Gertrude
Chapman, born 11 July 1889, widowed, private means
Monica Chapman,
born 12 April 1917, student (shorthand and typewriter)
1946
Robert
Alexander Schutzmann von Schutzmannsdorff
visited the BBC to seek out Monica Chapman, who produced the military
request programme Forces Prom to thank her for playing the choices that
he had submitted. Monica Chapman's mother gave to Bob Symes her own ticket to a
Beethoven concert that she was to attend that evening with her daughter, who
subsequently married Bob six weeks later.
The couple
agreed on the surname Symes for their married life together. Monica later
became Producer of the BBC Radio 4 programmes Desert Island Discs and Your
Concert Choice, and the couple had a daughter Roberta.
Monica married
Robert Alexander Symes-Schutzman (Bob Symes) on 4 December 1946 at Fulham).
Bob Symes (Robert Alexander Schutzmann
von Schutzmannsdorff) was a television presenter,
producer and film-maker, born on 6 May 1924.
He was an Austrian inventor who came
from a Jewish family, His farther weas Dr Herbert Schutzmann, a lawyer and his
mother was Lola Blonder. He was educated at a Realgymnasium,
Vienna and the Institut auf dem
Rosenberg in St Gallen, Switzerland. During holidays he would return to the
family estate where he developed a private narrow gauge railway that
transported timber.
After the death of his father in 1937,
and the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany in March 1938 during the
Anschluss, his mother led Robert and his younger sister to Trieste and onwards
to the Jewish-section of Palestine. Whilst his mother and sister travelled
onwards to the United States, Symes contacted a former British diplomat in
Vienna, a family friend who was once stationed in Cairo. After gaining the required letter of
recommendation, due to his ability to speak German, French, Arabic and English,
Symes was commissioned as a Lieutenant into the Royal Navy, operating Motor
Torpedo Boats (MTBs) in the Mediterranean while based in Alexandria. Quickly
rising to command his own boat, he broke anti-torpedo measures in a raid on
Tripoli. After rising to the rank of Lieutenant Commander, he took part in
protecting the landings that led to the liberation of Crete.
After leaving the Royal Navy, Robert
became the Dutch airline KLM's press officer in London.
Their children
are Roberta and Edwin.
1953
In 1953 Bob
Symes joined the BBC's Overseas Service for Germany based in Broadcasting
House, London, where his ability to speak various languages quickly established
his career. After two years as head of broadcasting at the BBC's Eastern Region
Colonial Office in Nigeria from 1956, he returned as a producer and broadcast
manager to London.
Bob’s
Trains in his garden
1962
Bob
and Monica Symes lived at 87 Blundell Road, Bedfordshire (electoral rolls).
1964
Monica
Chapman was the Producer of Desert island Discs and Your Concert
Choice.
Monica
Chapman produced episodes of Desert Island Discs that were first
broadcast on the BBC Home Service in 1964. Notable guests during this time
included Dame Margot Fonteyn, the celebrated ballerina, who appeared as the
750th castaway in 1965
Producer Monica
Chapman with Dame Margot Fonteyn and Roy Plumley in 1965
Desert
Island Discs invites notable guests to imagine
themselves stranded on a desert island and asks them to choose eight tracks
(songs), a book, and a luxury item they would take with them. The format
provides a glimpse into the personal tastes and memories of the castaways. The
show, created by Roy Plomley, has featured a wide
range of guests over the years, including scientists, artists, writers,
musicians, and more. Although early episodes were not preserved, the program
has continued to captivate audiences for decades, making it a beloved
institution in British broadcasting.
1965
One
memorable guest during Monica Chapman’s tenure was Dame Margot Fonteyn, the
celebrated ballerina. Dame Margot Fonteyn appeared as the 750th castaway in
1965.
The Guardian, 13 September 2012, Stephen
Moss wrote: Herbert Morrison always carried a list of eight records in his
wallet in case he was asked to appear on the programme. Naturally, I do the
same, and sympathise with the man from Lincoln who wrote to the producer,
Monica Chapman, in 1962: "I listen regularly to Desert Island Discs, and
although I feel fairly sure you would not think me sufficiently illustrious to
appear on your programme, I am sending you a rough autobiography just in case
the idea might be thought worth while." "I
have added your name to our long list of possible castaways," replied
Chapman. Perhaps he is still waiting for the call.
Your
Concert Choice was a request program that aired on the
BBC Home Service. It allowed listeners to choose their favourite classical
music pieces, which would then be played on the show. The program featured a
variety of guest artists and orchestras. Monica Chapman’s
role as a producer involved curating the music selections, coordinating with
artists, and ensuring the listening experience for the audience.
Bob Symes
joined the small team producing the BBC’s Tomorrow’s World, the series
about new developments in science and technology. His interest in engineering
and technology resulted in his joining the Tomorrow's World presentation team,
alongside Raymond Baxter.
He then
appeared on screen regularly. Over the following 30 years Symes became a
familiar face to British TV audiences across a number of engineering,
technology and railway related productions, including Model World (in 1975)
which was dedicated to the hobby of modelling, and then co-presented with
Mary-Jean Hasler Making Tracks a series dedicated to little-known rail lines
and networks worldwide, and which specialised in steam operations.
1969
His lifelong
interest in railways included helping to set up private railways in Switzerland
and across the United Kingdom. He established the Border Union Railway Company
in 1969, to restore, maintain and introduce new services along the recently
abandoned Waverley Line between Edinburgh and Carlisle. When the Waverley Line
rail route between Carlisle and Edinburgh closed in 1969, Bob Symes set up and
chaired the Border Union Railway, a company established to keep the line
operating.
His interest in
model railways included a 300 metres (980 ft) long Gauge 1 railway in his
garden at Honeysuckle Bottom, near East Horsley, Surrey, followed by a 101⁄4
railway. His family opened the railway every year to raise funds for the BBC's
Children in Need, where visitors could take tea and cake and also see his
collection of vintage tractors.[3] Symes was also the president of a
Guildford-based model railway circle called Astolat MRC.
1974
Bob Symes stood
twice for parliament in 1974 as the Liberal candidate for Mid Sussex.
He was later
selected by the Conservatives as a European parliamentary candidate.
1975
Monica returned
to produce more episodes of Desert Island Discs broadcast on BBC Radio 4
in 1975.
1982
In 1982 Bob
Symes presented the BBC Horizon programme; "The Mysterious Mr. Tesla"
about the electrical engineer Nikola Tesla.
1992
Environmental
techniques that Symes had developed for environmental living resulted in the
1990s series The House that Bob Built, in which a "green"
dwelling was constructed at Milton Keynes.
Bob Symes
created inventions in metal engineering, and held patents in plumbing. He was
also instrumental in setting up the Institute of Patentees and Inventors in
1989, which he chaired twice, and then launched National Invent-A-Thing Week in
1992.
His books on
the subject included: Powered Flight (1958); Crikey! It Works (1992); The Young
Engineer’s Handbook (1993); and Eureka! The Book of Inventing (1994, with Robin
Bootle).
1998
Monica Von
Symes-Schutzmann died in June 1998 in Surrey (GRO).
2006
Bob Symes was a familiar face with the
German-speaking audiences, through his presentation of the Bahnorama
railways films, based around German, Austrian, Swiss and occasionally re-dubbed
British railway footage, produced by the Austrian-based SH-Production & Co
KEG company which he co-founded.
Bob Symes in
Vienna in 2006
Until its
closure on Easter Monday 2014, Bob Symes was patron of 'Hospital Radio Lion'
based at the Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford.
2015
Bob Symes died on 19
January 2015.
Bob
Symes’s inventive mind and considerable engineering skills made him a natural
choice in 1965 to join the small team producing the
BBC’s Tomorrow’s World, the series about new developments in science and
technology. Bob, who has died aged 90, appeared on screen regularly, first
of all assisting Raymond Baxter and, in later years, with a regular feature in
his own right. He continued to contribute to the programme for more than 30
years.
His
special interest was in metal engineering, including developments in plumbing.
His Tomorrow’s World colleagues particularly remember his presentations of a
device that automatically removed air from central heating systems, an
innovative ventilator for bathrooms and a process for relining broken water
mains without having to dig up the road.
Alongside
this, he developed a parallel broadcasting and film-making career. Bob
contributed to BBC Radio 4, the British Forces Broadcasting Service, LBC and
numerous local stations in the UK and Europe. His many television credits
included The Man Who Started the War (1965) and the 1986 series The Strange
Affair of … that investigated intriguing mysteries from his central European
heritage. His love of railways was reflected in such programmes as Model World
(1975), The Line That Refused to Die (1980) and Making Tracks (1993-95). His
concern for the environment found an ideal outlet in 1990 in the BBC’s The
House That Bob Built, a pioneer project demonstrating the ecological benefit of
rethinking how we construct our homes.
When
the Waverley Line rail route between Carlisle and Edinburgh closed in 1969, Bob
set up and chaired the Border Union Railway, a company established to keep the
line operating. Though he was unsuccessful then, he did live long enough to see
the rebuilding of the route between Edinburgh and Galashiels, now recognised as
a key transport artery in the Scottish Borders.
Bob
always had a preference for travelling by train. On one filming expedition for
Tomorrow’s World in 1977, he and his small team were welcomed at the railway
station in Cologne by a local oompah band organised by admirers from the German
broadcaster WDR, with whom he regularly collaborated.
Bob
was born into an aristocratic family in Vienna, the son of Herbert and Lolabeth Schutzmann von Schutzmannsdorff,
and was educated at the Real Gymnasium in Vienna and later at a school in
Switzerland. He developed his interest in railways by operating the private
line that hauled timber around the family estate, and helping to keep it in
good repair. Bob’s father died in 1937 and, as the influence of the Nazis took
hold in his homeland, he left for a new life in Britain; his mother and younger
sister, Eva, settled in the US.
During
the second world war, Bob served in the Mediterranean with the Royal Navy,
rising to the rank of lieutenant commander, and took part in the landings that
led to the liberation of Crete. In 1947 he visited the BBC to seek out Monica
Chapman, who was responsible for producing the request programme Forces Prom.
He wanted to thank her in person for playing the choices that he had submitted.
The story goes that Monica’s mother gave up her ticket that evening to a
Beethoven concert so that her daughter could invite this naval officer to join
her. The two were married six weeks later, and they adopted the surname Symes,
one of Monica’s family names.
Bob
quickly realised that his languages, French as well as German, English and
Arabic, could be valuable to the BBC. Following his wartime naval career, he
joined the corporation’s Overseas Service in 1953, focusing in particular on
the German service. His London-based work was interrupted in 1956 by a two-year
assignment as district officer in the Eastern Region Colonial Office in
Nigeria, where he was in charge of broadcasting.
Bob’s
many other responsibilities and commitments included chairing the Institute of
Patentees and Inventors, and he stood twice for
parliament in 1974 as the Liberal candidate for Mid Sussex. He was made a
companion of the Royal Aeronautical Society in 1959 but perhaps the recognition
of which he was most proud was being awarded the Knight’s Cross (first class)
by the country of his birth, in recognition of his tireless work in promoting
Anglo-Austrian relations.
At
his home in Surrey, he built both a gauge 1 and a larger, 10.25in-gauge garden
layout and regularly hosted steaming afternoons attended by admiring railway
enthusiasts from all over the UK and northern Europe. At his 90th birthday
party, he drove his pride and joy, his newest locomotive, a scale model of a
Great Western tank engine, the Lady Melrose.
Monica
died in 1998. While visiting the Ffestiniog Railway in north Wales in 2006, Bob
met Sheila, a plant physiologist, who was works manager at the line’s
locomotive depot at Boston Lodge. They were married within two months.
Bob
is survived by Sheila, and by his daughter, Roberta, from his first marriage,
his stepsons, Matthew and Kester, and four grandchildren.
Symes held the
Special Constabulary Long Service Medal as a Special Constable.[3] He was made
a companion of the Royal Aeronautical Society, and awarded the Knight's Cross
(first class) by the President of Austria, in recognition of his work in
promoting Anglo-Austrian relations.