Steffi 1940 - 2024 - a tribute

Click to read the tributes:

Steffi - a tribute by Noah

Steffi - a tribute by Roger

The slideshow

From the archives...

London Fire Brigade 1943

Front row far right

Ziggie Noble - 36

...so who's minding the business?

De Profundis...

 

Forty years ago today (well plus a month and two days)

 

Min's 70th birthday (1983) - from the top Lou Noble, Naomi Waldman, Edie Noble, Rina Vardy, Kate Davidson, Midlred Noble, then left to right Lionel Davidson, Fay Davidson, Cyril Davidson, Steffi Rose,  Kathleen Davidson, Timna Rose (-Price), Noah Rose,  Margie Foreman (Shafran), Lily Rose, Ziggie Noble, Sophie Noble, Charlie Noble, Bill Robins, Stanley Waldman,  the front row from the left, Mary Noble, Roger Noble, Adam Noble, Min Robins, Danny Noble (photographer presumably Peter Vardy).

Bless your beautiful bride

Flashback to 1998. The family convened for a family reunion, and Frances wrote the following article for the Jewish Chronicle. 

This is not quite a story of seven brides for seven brothers but it is a tale of three sisters for three brothers. 

 

A reunion recently took place at a hotel near Cambridge bringing together the progeny of two families. There were around 60 people from London, the south coast, Israel and America.

 

The families involved were the Davidsons, from Hull, and the Nobles, from South London. They style themselves the Davnobs.

 

The romantic story behind this unusual event was that the three sisters of the Davidson dynasty - Sophie, Edie and Minnie - married three brothers of the Noble family, Ziggy, Charlie and Bernie. It was their children, and their children's children, who, with partners, formed this large gathering.

 

The Davidson family were nine in number, six sons and three daughters, the first child being 22 years older than the youngest - all children of Annie and Chaim.

 

The Nobles, Shlomo and Ray, had four sons, three of whom married the three Davidson girls.

 

The bringing together of nieces, nephews, cousins twice over and others created an extravaganza of greeting and posing with camcorders and cameras clicking away non-stop.

 

In a large room devoted to reminiscence and memorabilia, aunts, uncles and cousins kvelled over faded sepia photographs of their progenitors, seeing unrecognisable likenesses from them in their own brood; the family tree, at least 12 feet long, giving them a profound sense of unity.

 

The current matriarch of the Davnobs is Sophie - who recently celebrated her 94th birthday - the first Davidson daughter, now widowed, who had married Ziggy Noble; the second sister, Edie, is married to Charlie Noble; the third is Minnie (now Robins), whose late husband was Bernie Noble.

 

The Davidson girls were schooled in Jewish tradition from their earliest days, and met their future spouses at He'Atid - the Association of Young Zionist Societies - in Brixton, South London. They all married between 1933 and 1938.

 

Of the Davidson sons, only two remain. Cyril, who lives in Eastbourne, and the well-known novelist, Lionel, author of "Kolymsky Heights," who was recently made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

The next generation of Davidsons produced, among others, Colin Davidovitz (the original Davidson name), a broadcaster.

 

They are a talented lot, these Davnobs. They come in all shapes and sizes with a varied and versatile presence throughout the arts and media, in economics, medicine, law, the diplomatic service; there is even an airline pilot. One member of the tribe, Charlie Noble, has just gained an A-level in art at the age of 89.

 

The youngest visitor at the festivities, 18-month-old Amy, great granddaughter of Sophie, was too young to realise the significance of it all, but the videos will reintroduce her in time to the importance of her first public appearance.

 

Frances Ullman