Kitty & Bobbie: Edward Bach’s Family

The story of Kitty Light and Bobbie Varney ( Bach )

The name Dr Edward Bach might conjure a number of different ideas or thoughts in your mind; creator of the Bach Flower Remedies, his theories on the nature of illness and disease, his sepia-toned portrait. However, Edward Bach, the father and the husband, may not be among the first!

In fact, Edward Bach was married twice, and had a daughter called Bobbie with Kitty Light, his second wife. Kitty and Bobbie are very much a part of the Bach story too, and here you can find a little more about their lives and the Bach family.

Kitty Light & Edward Bach

Kitty was born Kitty ( Kathleen ) Emmeline Jane Light on the 16th July 1890 in Norwich to James and Emalline Light. She had four brothers and was the second youngest child in the family.

Kitty and Edward would almost certainly have first met somewhere in London, maybe at a party or a social engagement of some sort. It can’t have been much later than early 1915 or late 1914, but they certainly seemed to create an impression on each other!

At the time Edward was married to Gwendoline ( nee Caiger ) whom he had married in January 1913. Bach’s first marriage was to be short lived and came to an official end when Gwendoline died of diphtheria in April 1917, but by this time, Edward and Kitty already had a daughter together.

Even during the social upheaval of the first world war, pregnancy outside of marriage was unusual and highly frowned upon, especially among Edward Bach’s class. It would no doubt have given the young couple some potentially uncomfortable and awkward situations to deal with, not least with their families. As events in his life would go on to show though, Bach was never exactly a man likely to take the conventional route through life!

The Birth of Evelyn ‘Bobbie’ Bach

Kitty gave birth to 'Bobbie' on the 13th January 1916. They named her Evelyn Bach, but as she grew older, she became affectionately known to everyone as Bobbie. According to family lore, this name arose because the family had a dog named Bobbie, and young Evelyn would answer when they called the dog.

Bobbie was born at a potentially challenging time for the young couple. Edward was still officially married to his first wife, Gwendoline, and no doubt had financial obligations to her. Getting a divorce at that time was a lengthy and complex process, often taking several years. Also renting a house together as an unmarried couple was not so easy in those days.

So they initially lived with Bach’s parents in Moseley, near Birmingham. Edward’s Dad, Walter Bach, was an upstanding figure in local society and may well have had strong views about having an unmarried couple with a child living in his house and it is said that Kitty and Bobbie were never fully accepted into the family. What Kitty’s family made of it all, we don’t know.

In the end it was not until after Gwendoline’s death in April 1917, 15 months after Bobbies birth, that they could be married.

Family Life Bach Style

Kitty and Edward were married at Islington registry office on the 2nd May 1917. They started married life together in a house somewhere around Pinner, and then moved into a bungalow - Bierley Bungalow on Herongate Road - in the village of Chorleywood, in Hertfordshire. In the early 20th century, the Metropolitan Railway had opened a station at Chorleywood, sparking a significant increase in London commuters to the area, creating a steadily growing community there.

An Eventful Start

It was nearly a very short marriage indeed. Bach was very dedicated to his work and his research and would often set himself punishing work schedules, despite not always being in the best of health. In July 1917, only a couple of months after they were married, his health gave out and he collapsed with a severe haemorrhage in his stomach. He survived the resulting operation, for what turned out to be a cancerous growth, but was given only three months to live.

It must have been an agonising time for them both. However, never one to easily give in, Bach pushed himself back to work as soon as he was able to and immersed himself in his experiments. And to his surprise, and no doubt Kitty’s too, at the end of three months he was fully recovered.

Family Life in Chorleywood

Kitty and Edward would no doubt have enjoyed entertaining family and friends and being a part of the village’s social life. Chorleywood was becoming popular at that time with people coming up from London, and there may have been people the Bach's already knew living in the area.

There would also have been social engagements to attend and friends to visit in London. Bach was keen on boating and there are photos of them as a family on the Thames, as well as pictures of them walking in the countryside, resting in the garden and looking after their chickens.

There is also a lovely photo of Kitty, Edward and Bobbie sitting on the roof while they were having work done on the house in Herongate Road. It looks a happy, relaxed moment in time, in a slightly unusual spot for a family gathering! A popular one as they also seem to have taken Kitty’s brother Alan up there too.

Happy Times Together

Here is a glimpse into the Bach family’s life together, captured in these lovely photographs from the 1920's…

A Brief Union

Kitty and Edward no doubt shared many happy moments, yet their time together was not destined to last for long. By around 1922, their relationship may already have been strained, as records show them living apart for an extended period. However, in 1929 they were once again listed at the same address - Nottingham Place, W1 - suggesting there may have been periods of reconciliation along the way.

Jan Stewart, a leading researcher into Edward Bach's life, said of him that: “Ted ( as all his family and friends called him ) fell in love very easily and volubly, everyone would know about it. But then he would start to drift away from a relationship without actually telling the other person what was going on or how he felt about it. It’s possible that he did not find discussing these kind of issues all that easy.”

In 1922 Bach took out a lease on a new, larger laboratory in Park Crescent, and so fate brought him into contact with Nora Weeks, who worked as a radiologist in Park Crescent, and who would go on to be a big part of his later life.

Bobbies Time at School

After their relationship ended, Kitty stayed in London while Bobbie was at school.

Bobbie spent her school-days at various boarding schools and rarely went home in the school holidays. Bach paid her fees and sent her gifts, such as a camera and film. He also checked in with the school about her health and when he thought she was underweight he arranged for her to have a pot of cream with her porridge every breakfast time, which she wasn't very keen on at the time.

Bach took her on trips out of school, and she recalls him taking her to London Zoo. However, as time went on, it would seem that he became less and less a part of her life, and apparently one of his deathbed regrets was not having had a closer relationship with her.

Life in Norwich

After Bobbie had finished her schooling, she and Kitty went back to Norwich to live with Kitty's family. It would have been around this time that Bach was dedicating more and more of his time to the discovery of his flower remedies, and had let go of his lucrative and well-paid Harley Street practice, meaning that there would have been little money to support Kitty and Bobbie.

A Visit From Dad

There is a really interesting story that Bobbie told Caroline, Edward’s great granddaughter, about a visit from her Dad: “After she finished attending school and returned to Norwich with Kitty, she ( Bobbie ) remembers a knock at the door. Later, her mother told her it had been her father asking if she would take him back. She said he had "looked like a tramp". I imagine this may have been at the time he was living in Cromer. Needless to say, Kitty turned him away.”

This very much tallies with Bach’s time in Cromer, where he definitely didn’t conform to what an eminent London doctor was meant to look like. It was said that he “looked more than a little dishevelled” and “wore open shirts; flannels; tatty tennis shoes - always worn without socks; and a big old Mac “that he would sleep in”.” He also had apparently started making his own clothes, and one particular gem being a pair of trousers that he fashioned using the pattern for a pair of women’s slacks!

This visit would probably have been sometime in the early 1930’s, when Bach was in Cromer on and off between 1930 and 1934. After that he was based in Sotwell, in Berkshire, and he died there in November 1936.

It sounds like by the time he died, the relationship between Bobbie and Edward was not a particularly close one. It's never easy losing a parent, especially when they die relatively young, and it would be interesting to know what impact this had on Bobbie, who would have been only twenty at the time.

War, Marriage and Family

At the outbreak of World War 2, Kitty and Bobbie were living at the city end of Newmarket Street in Norwich. Kitty is listed in the local records as an untrained medical nurse ( possibly at the Norwich & Norfolk Hospital just over the road from their house ) and Bobbie as a shop assistant and a volunteer first aider at the local ARP ( Air Raid Precautions ) station. They must both have endured the Baedeker Raids - the Norwich blitz – which levelled parts of historic Norwich. In total Norwich endured around 1443 air raid alerts between 1939 and 1943, at an average of one per day over these four years.

However amongst the dangers of war, there were also the happy times. At some point around this time, Bobbie met Clifford Varney, who she would go on to marry. Clifford was born in Norwich in October 1917, and was one of three children. His dad Fred Varney was a chain-maker so was probably a part of Norwich’s textile manufacturing industry.

Bobbie and Clifford were married in April 1941 and lived together in Tuckswood Lane, Norwich.

Caroline takes up the story again: “Bobbie married Clifford Varney and had two children - Richard, my Dad, and Mary - sadly Clifford died young from Polio when the children were 3 and 4 years old. Kitty moved in with the family so Bobbie could work full time to support them all. Bobbie worked for Bonds of Norwich for many years as head of their school uniform department.”

Clifford died in Oct 1947 and Bobbie’s Mum, Kitty died in Norwich in April 1973.

A Surprise Discovery

It’s probably safe to assume that Kitty had little interest in Bach’s work after they split up and she was probably unaware of what he had created in the Bach Flower Remedies. Maybe he was rarely, if ever, mentioned, and in any case, he had died when Bobbie was only twenty years old. The custodians of Bach’s work, Nora Weeks and Victor Bullen, would have had no reason to be in contact, and so the work carried on well away from the family gaze.

And so it came as something of a surprise to Bobbie when her Dad was mentioned on BBC television many years later. Caroline picks up the story: “Bobbie only became aware that her father's work had continued and become popular after watching "Pebble Mill at 1" one day in the 1980's and was quite astounded. Over the years she met with several authors, Julian Barnard and Gregory Vlamis, who interviewed her and took copies of her photos for their books.”

It feels somehow fitting, having been parted in early life, that there was some sort of reconnection again later in life!

Passing On

Bobbie Varney died peacefully in September 2014 aged 98, and was buried alongside her husband Clifford in Norwich. Bobbie was a big part of her family's life in Norwich and is remembered often.

A big thank you and much gratitude to Caroline Varney Bowers, Edward Bach’s great granddaughter, for the stories and family photographs.

Discovering More

We would love to know more about the life of Kitty and Bobbie, so if you have any stories about them that you would like to share, or tales to tell, please do be in contact as we'd love to hear them!

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