The names Guckenbiehl, Guggenbühl etc. in Great Britain^[1]

Carl-Ludwig Guckenbiehl left Erlenbach near Kaiserslautern for London. He had been born on May 4^th, 1851 in Erlenbach, Palatinate, as the youngest of at least six sons of the herdsman Sebastian Guckenbiel and his wife Maria Margarete Rieder.^[2] But while his brothers became farmers or bricklayers, Carl-Ludwig became a tailor of fine ladies' clothes, like long riding skirts, for clients like Angela Burdett-Coutts, 1st Baroness Burdett-Coutts. He worked in Conduit Street, Mayfair, London,^[3] but travelled to and fro between London and Paris. In 1877 Carl- Ludwig married Martha Jane Williams born on August 14^th, 1856 in West Ham, Essex. They had six daughters and four sons.

Before World War 1 the family frequently visited their relatives in Germany, sent post cards from holidays in Lyme Regis to them, and photos from London studios show visitors from Germany. But WW1 changed things, when close cousins had to fight each other, even if they were not king or emperor. While the youngest son of Carl-Ludwig, aged barely 19, became a conscientious objector, two others served in the army. One of them died in action; the other, who had been responsible for collecting up the remains of injured soldiers, developed melancholia on his return. To avoid the anti-German attitude of many British people after the war, all of the girls changed their name from Guckenbiehl to Beale, reminding the last syllable of the real name, while two of the sons called themselves Cooke, reminding the first syllable of the real name. Carl-Ludwig himself died in 1919, shortly after the war had ended.