John, or Jack as he was known, was recorded as John Bickle Simmons on his exemption application, when his father Mr W Simmons stated that two of his sons had already joined up at the commencement of the war. Jack was described as hardworking and was granted a six month exemption from January 1917-July 1917. He married Miriam Ivy Gerry in 1938. She was the daughter of John Gerry 1859-1918 and his second wife, Ann Roberts born 1861 of South Brentor (see Gerry 1911 People). Jack died on 15 March 1963 in West Liddaton leaving £5,367 to his widow Miriam Ivy. She was living at 5 Laburnum Cottages, Brooklands, Tavistock when she died on 7 January 1982. Her estate was worth just under £25,000.

In 1891 George Perry had been living with his uncle and aunt, Nathaniel and Eliza Heard and their niece Ann Collins from Perranporth, at Gregories, Liddaton. George Perry’s fourteen year lease from 1904, which includes this land, is held at Plymouth Record Office. In 1893 he married Hannah Mabel Brimacombe.

Born in London, Hannah Mabel’s parents were carpenter Willliam Brimacombe 1840-91 and his wife Hannah Bennison 1848-71, who had married on 16 December 1866 at Christ Church, Marylebone, London. They had three children: William 1868-1961, Charles Robinson 1869-1938 and Hannah Mabel, before Hannah Bennison died, perhaps as a result of childbirth.  By 25 February 1874 William was in Marquette, Michigan where he married Sarah Coyle 1856-1940 and had a second family. His English children were shared out among their Devon relatives (see Maunder 1911 People for details). In 1881, 1891 and until her marriage in 1893 Hannah was staying with her aunt and uncle, Joseph and Elizabeth Trant, in Batepark, Coryton. Elizabeth Trant was the sister of William Brimacombe (see Brimacombe 1911 People).

George and Hannah had four children: (see Maunder 1911 People for further details). William Thomas 1895-1964 who married Dorothy Eastcott Paige in 1922, and their son David Eastcott 1924-2001 was one of his grandfather’s executors in 1959: Russell George 1897-1903: Ethel Mabel, below, and younger son Alexander Brimacombe 1905-1993, who married Hilda Gladys Crocker in 1932.

When George Maunder died on 5 April 1959 he was living at The Homestead, Liddaton, where they had been living in 1939. The executors for his estate, worth £2,048, were William Thomas Maunder, retired farmer son, Alexander Brimacombe Maunder son and David Eastcott Maunder grandson farmers. Hannah Mabel had died in 1948.

James (see Bickle 1911 People) had lost two sons in the First World War: Thomas was a Private in the 9^th Battalion of the Devonshires and is commemorated in Marystow. Thomas had married Mary Jane Hitt in 1904 and they had six children, including George Henry, born after his father’s death on 26 October 1917 in Belgium. Sadly George Henry was killed in France on 6 June 1944. Private Albert Bickle (M/274278) of 1015^th Motor Transport Company of the Army Service Corps was killed in action in Mesopotamia (Iran) on 20 July 1918 aged 31 and is commemorated on the Brentor War Memorial.

Eileen married Torquay born Percival Thomas Box 1927-2003 in the Newton Abbot area In 1946. They may have had one son, Philip born in the Plymouth area in 1948. Percival and Eileen were living at 21 North Hill Road, Siddington, Cirencester in the early 1960s, with both deaths recorded in the Cirencester area, Percival in 2003 and Eileen on 23 October 2008.

James died on 16 March 1940, his estate of £355 was left to his widow, Jane, who died in 1958, aged 93.

Mary Susan Parsons married George Rundle 1858-1936 in the Tavistock area in 1883. He was the son of George Rundle 1829-1905, also a mason, and his wife Jane Glanville 1817-91. George and Mary Susan lived with their son, Henry Bernard, at 1 Cudlipps Cottages in 1891, and Liddaton in 1901 and 1911 (see Rundle 1911 People).

Son Henry Bernard married Florence Maunder (see 3 Homestead above) in 1919 and had one son, Kenneth Rupert, born 1920. Henry and Florence were living at 3 Higher Springs, Brentor Road, Mary Tavy in 1939, with Henry working as a builder. This had been the home of Florence’s father, Thomas Maunder when he died in 1925 and her mother, Ellen Perry Maunder when she died in 1935. Florence of Higher Springs, Mary Tavy died on 1 September 1966 at Tavistock Hospital. Probate for her £4,505 estate was granted to her son, Kenneth Rupert Rundle, an agricultural representative. Henry Bernard may have died in Cheltenham in 1967, possibly living with his son. Mary Susan died locally early in 1946.

Young John and Eliza Jeffery were living at 36 Shaftesbury Cottages in Charles, Plymouth in 1891 with their daughter Ethel Maud. Born on 19 July 1888, she went on to marry Robert Charles Hoskin, a GWR fireman in 1910 and living in a two roomed house at 23 Percy Terrace, Lipson, Plymouth with Robert, a GWR engine driver by 1939. They were living at 4 Hanover Road, Laira, Plymouth, when Ethel died on 1 October 1957 leaving £1,612 to Robert.

In 1901 John and Eliza’s family of four children was complete. They were living at Widy View, Compton Gifford with Eliza giving her place of birth as Mary Tavy. Their eldest son Harold John Dingle, born in 1892, went to Canada in about 1912. On 8 April 1916, when he was a 21 year old motorman, having lived in Toronto for four years, he married Iva Janet Cole 1893-1969, in York, Toronto. He died there in 1964. In 1911, Eliza giving her place of birth as Blackdown, was living at 14 Corporation Road, Peverall, Plymouth with her younger sons: Herbert William and Frederick George. Presumably husband John was working away, perhaps in Canada, at the time. Herbert William, born on 16 September 1892 was a messenger boy at the dockyard at the time. The family must have moved to Liddaton soon after, as that was where they were living when Cook’s Mate Herbert William Jeffery (M/5049) of HMS INDEFATIGABLE died on 31 May 1916 at the Battle of Jutland when his ship was sunk. His sacrifice is remembered on the Brentor War Memorial. Frederick George may have served during the First World War but the record is indecipherable. John Jeffery, of Liddaton Green, died on 4 April 1937, leaving £464 to his widow, Eliza.

Eliza Jeffery was living at 12 Dolvin Road, Tavistock, when she died on 8 September 1952, leaving £274 to the care of her son, retired farmer Frederick George Jeffery. Frederick continued to live at 12 Dolvin Road until his death on 10 August 1978, when he left £18,471.    It has not been possible to identify the third person staying with them in 1939.

Early in 1917 William Richard married Alice Margaret Brimacombe, the daughter of Alfred Friend Brimacombe 1857-1943, who was the brother of village baker John Brimacombe 1838-1913 (see Brimacombe 1911 People). On 15 November 1881 Alfred Friend had married Elizabeth Ann Cole Westlake 1861-1946, the daughter of Thomas Westlake 1838-1914 and his wife Mary Ann Jackman Cole 1841-1904 (see Westlake 1911 People). Alfred and Elizabeth Brimacombe had six children: the youngest three, including Alice, were born in South Petherwin, where Elizabeth’s sister Harriet was living. But by 1911 they were back in the area with their six children, farming at the spacious Whiteley Farm in Lifton, her father’s old farm. In 1939 they were living at Spry Farm, with their daughter, Hilda Vera, Alice’s younger sister, who had married Arthur Victor Wilton, the grandson of their father’s brother, John: thus her first cousin, once removed (see Wilton 1911 People). They continued to live at Spry Farm when Alfred died on 12 April 1943 leaving £2,186 and when Elizabeth died on 10 December 1946, leaving an estate of £2,268, with their farmer sons as executors.

William and Alice may have had three children: Phyllis May, born 22 July 1917 who married gardener Philip Jarman in 1948 and died in Plymouth in 1980. Ronald William, born 20 September 1920 in the Okehampton area, was a thresher lodging in Bere Alston in 1939, married Phyllis Olive Jarman 1921-2001 (Philip’s sister, children of Harry Jarman and Anne James) in 1942 and died in 2004. Frederick C B born in 1930 in the Tavistock area. Alice died in the Launceston area in 1967 and William three years later in 1970.

Leslie was awarded the British War Medal and Victory Medal for his service until 29 April 1919, as a Private 345879, in the 16th Devonshire Regiment, during World War One. Previously, he had been a Private 2715 in the RND Hussars. He married Edith Caroline Soby in the Tavistock area in 1925. She was the daughter of farmer Samuel James Soby 1867-1943 and his wife Elizabeth Jane Colwill 1872-1906. She wasn’t related to Annie E Soby (8 Liddaton above).  Nor was she closely related to the Soby family of 45 High View as her Soby grandparents were Josias, born 1837, and his wife Fanny Rowley 1836-1902 but there may have been a distant connection. In 1911 Edith was living at Bate Park, Coryton, Lewdown, with her widowed father, Samuel James Soby and her half brother, Reginald Colwill, born in 1895, Elizabeth Jane’s son from an earlier                                                     relationship.

Leslie and Edith had four children: Evelyn Joan, who married Gerald Love 1921-2001, in 1951 in Bournemouth. She died on 3 February 2010: Mary E E died locally in 1944, when only 15 years old: Nora married George S Barry in 1952 in the Tavistock area and she died in Amersham on 10 March 2014: and their son John Samuel, whose date of birth was recorded here as 1934, but was registered early in 1932, so is more likely to have been born in 1931.

Leslie was living at Broad Park when he died in Tavistock on 11 May 1942, leaving an estate of £4,124 to be administered by his wife, Edith, and his brother, Stanley Charles Perkin, yeoman. Ten years later Edith married Evan L Smith locally. She died in the Chester and Ellesmere Port area in Cheshire in 1983.

Annie had been working as a domestic servant for farmer Mr and Mrs Hearn in Sydenham Damerel in 1911, while her family was living at Cross Trees in South Brentor. After their marriage in 1926 William and Annie appear to have had one son, William H born late in 1928, who died soon after birth. It has not been possible to identify William J Bray from the records, nor the fourth person in the house. Annie was living in Warminster, Wiltshire when she died in 1975.

Edwin Norton, known as Norton, had married Agatha Gisborne 1852-1931 at St Peter’s Parish Church in Derby on 2 September 1869, when she was 17 and he was 27. She was the daughter of Edward Sacheverell Gisborne 1817-91. Baptised on 22 January 1812, Edward was the son of John and Millicent Gisborne of Alrewas, Staffordshire. He was a land surveyor and valuer when he was living with his parents-in-law, clergyman Thomas Leeson Cursham 1785-1868 and his wife Sabina Stratton 1791-1854 in Bridge Street, Mansfield in 1851. His wife was their daughter, also Sabina 1822-84. Edward and Sabina had married at St Nicholas Church, Liverpool on 24 April 1864. When she died in Matlock, Derby, Sabina left £290 to Edward. Edward was visiting his daughter Agatha, and her husband E Norton at 32 Leam Road Villas, Paddington at the time of the census in 1891 and died there in September of the same year. He was buried in Matlock, Derbyshire, presumably with his wife, Sabina. Rev Edwin Norton Eldrid, was of Dorking, when he died on 13 May 1893 leaving his £50 estate to be administered by William Beall, butcher.

In 1901 Mary’s widowed mother Agatha was living at 52 Friars Gate, Derby with her daughters, Agatha Gabrielle and Mary Millicent Cursham and son Valentine (see below for his full name!). In 1911 her other son: Michael Angelo Sacheverell de la Pole Eldrid was a bank manager, living in Plymouth with his wife Laura Annie Stutely, the daughter of Edwin Stutely, surveyor and auctioneers clerk, who was living at Far View, Brentor in 1911 (see Stutely 1911 People). They had four sons (Sacheverell Polo) Byron (Gisburn), (Henry) Vaughan (Poole), Peter M H and Melville (Kerson De La Pole), who, serving as a pilot officer, died in 1942.  In 1911 Agatha, and her solicitor son Valentine, were living with her widowed sister Adele Susannah Lynam Andrew at Brent-Knoll, Stroud Road, Gloucester, which was where she continued to live in 1928 when her daughter Mary C Baker went to Canada, the year after her sister Adelle had died. But by 1931 Agatha was living at Findon House, Downview Road, Worthing, Sussex when she died at 48 East Borough, Wimborne, Dorset on 9 November 1931 and was buried at Wimborne Minster on 11 November. Her son, the grandly named, civil servant Valentine Byron Curzon de la Pole Eldrid was granted probate for her £4367 estate.

It may be that Mary was living with her brother and his family in Plymouth in 1910 when she married John H Baker and that the Stutely link was what brought them to Brentor after their time in Canada. Mary was a widow living at The Cottage, Moorsholm, Yorkshire when she died at Hemlington Hospital on 1 October 1958, leaving £2,840.

Their daughter Daisy Annie married Albert Redvers Doidge 1904-55, the brother of Blanche Elizabeth Doidge (see 1911 Brentor People). In 1939 they were living in West Blackdown (see M89 Rose Cottage below) before moving to Crosstrees Farm, South Brentor, where he died on 1 December 1955, leaving the care of his £1,733 estate to sons Alec, a carpenter, and Eric, a farmer. Daisy had died a few months before him in the summer of 1955 in Plymouth. Their children were Alec Norman George 1932-2012, Eric Fernley 1934-2017, Denise (Manning), William Raymond 1942-2015 and Wendy (Tarver).

On her return Kathleen moved to Sydney to work in a café. To support her, her father made her an allowance, but this had to be collected each week from the accounts office of the family shipping company. The junior clerk who dealt with this allowance was Raymond Bawtree. They married in the register office during their lunch break one day in 1932, and went on to enjoy 50 years of marriage. Their daughter Josephine, or Jo, was born at Caharisha Private Hospital in Castlecrag, Sydney on 20 July 1934 and son Michael, three years later, on 25 August 1937. After being involved in the production of the Constant Nymph by Margaret Kennedy, Kathleen, or Kath, a diminutive she hated, decided to change her name to Tessa, the name of the headstrong and wayward heroine. In July 1938 Raymond was entitled to six months home leave. They left Sydney on 19 August 1938, travelling on the STRATHNAVER, to his parents’ home at 22 Shirley Avenue, Cheam, intending to settle elsewhere in the British Empire when their visit was over. But within weeks, their shared love of the English countryside persuaded them not to move elsewhere.

Raymond, with no experience whatsoever, but a £5000 loan from his father, set up as a pig farmer in the Lyd Valley. For a full description of their pig farming life, with 500 Large White pigs, Michael Bawtree has published two volumes of his memoirs, the first of which AS FAR AS I REMEMBER: COMING OF AGE IN POSTWAR ENGLAND covers their life at Lyd Valley House, a post World War One, square grey stuccoed building with glass roofed verandah, a wall mounted phone and no electricity. A previous tenant had planted an area of fragrant double headed narcissi which, blooming a week or two ahead of other areas in April, were in great demand. Tessa would gather armfuls, box them up and send them to Covent Garden from Lyddaton Halt, supplementing the family income each year. Raymond was a Captain in the Home Guard, often on duty on what was referred to as Brentor Hill, but probably Gibbet Hill. Not far from Plymouth, they could see the bombing and occasionally planes overshot and released stray bombs locally. The pressures of war caused the pig farming business to falter, so Raymond, described as under six foot tall, handsome with dark hair and a moustache, exuding the authority of a gentleman farmer, set up Farm Operations Ltd to provide services for farmers, needing support and labour in war time. The lease of Lyd Valley House was transferred to Oswald Flecker, Headmaster of Christ’s Hospital School, Surrey, the brother of poet, James Elroy Flecker, while the Bawtree family moved to Poole Cottage in Bridestowe for a year and then to the ground floor of Langstone Manor. Major and Mrs Gallup lived upstairs and leased out the separate ground floor (see 99 Langstone Manor). The grounds were a dream for the Bawtree children, when home from boarding school and they enjoyed watching Mr Robey, the elderly coachman who lived above the coach house as he sharpened knives in his Victorian hand cranked knife sharpener. Major Gallup died in 1942 and left Raymond his .22 rifle and World War One binoculars, which were valued by the avid bird observer. The youngest child, Jennifer Margaret, was born prematurely in Plymouth on 2 June 1942. One day the children went out to see a convoy of American trucks, jeeps, personnel carriers and more trucks, having landed in Plymouth, making their way eastwards for the D Day preparation. The children were rewarded with sweets, and found that the more pathetic they looked, the greater their reward – great treasures in rationed England. The Western Morning News printed a daily map showing advances of the American, British and Canadian troops in Europe.

Sometime later the Bawtrees, with Oswald Flecker’s sister in law, Wilma Hessey, who had become a member of the family, leased the vast Studley Priory in Oxfordshire, as a residential hotel. On 4 April 1951 Raymond’s mother Margaret, who had been a beauty in her youth, died at The Avenue Nursing Home, Cheam, leaving £15,617. His father Percy died at 22 Shirley Avenue, Cheam, where they had been living in 1939, leaving £15,891 for which probate was granted to his youngest son, Harold Maurice, a company director, and their accountant. By 1965 the Bawtree family had turned to farming again, at Lower Farm, Inkpen Common, Newbury with Jenny continuing to live with her parents. Jo had decided she preferred to be called Victoria and in 1961 and 1962 she had travelled from her home in Lilford, Northants to New York where she was based at 333 East 46 Street, the ___can Mission to the United Nations. Her brother, Michael, described her as being unselfish, having high standards and concerns about others. It can be assumed that she put these to good use in her work. After National Service in the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, and an English Language and Literature degree from Worcester College, Oxford, Michael emigrated to Canada in 1962, where he has had an international career as an actor, director, author and educator. Now living in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, he is working on the final book of his memoirs.  Raymond died on 28 October 1982. In his final years, like his wife and daughter, he announced that he had never liked his name and from then on wanted to be called Ben.

The Register shows two other people at Lyd Valley House in 1939, they may have been workers. Michael also tells of evacuees from heavily bombed London later in the war, a mother, with a baby and two children. Not long after their arrival the appearance of spots was confirmed, by the doctor, as scabies, which is highly infectious. They were sent in to isolation and the house had to be thoroughly fumigated for two weeks, allowing the family an unexpected holiday in Newquay.

Francis was the eldest child and was living at home at Burcombe Farm in 1881, 1891 and 1901. In 1911 he was a Police Constable living at 54 Cavendish Buildings in Gilbert Street off Oxford Street, W London with his wife Amy Elizabeth Hawes, the daughter of jobbing gardener William and Hannah Hawes of Thame in Oxfordshire. Francis and Amy had married in Aylesbury in 1906 and had one child, Herbert, who was not listed with them on census night, as he was staying with his widowed grandfather William and aunts Agnes Jane and Henrietta at 33 Ardenham St, Aylesbury, Bucks. Their daughter Mabel Hannah was born on 18 October 1911 and their second son John F on 4 July 1914, both at St George, Hanover Square, London. Francis’ membership of the Freemason’s Victoria Diamond Jubilee Lodge, from 26 November 1914, shows that he was 34, living in Gilbert Street in W London and was in the CID. His membership continued until at least 1921. In 1938 their daughter Mabel had married head pigman Percy E Prouse and in 1939 they were living at 5 Round Hill Cottage, Wycombe, Bucks with the first of their three children.

Amy Elizabeth was living at Burcombe Farm when she died at Tavistock Hospital on 13 September 1957 leaving £865 to be administered by her husband Francis and daughter Mabel Hannah Prouse. Francis died early in 1972, aged 91. John Francis may have lived at 3 Abbotsfield Close, Tavistock, when he died on 2 July 1987, just before his 73^rd birthday, leaving £36,435.

On 26 April 1896, James Earle Adams, aged 22, a veterinary surgeon living in Okehampton joined the Freemason’s Lodge of Obedience in Okehampton. On 17 December 1908 he married Mary Josephine Rachel See, the daughter of Samuel and Mary A See in Calcutta, Bengal, India. Mary Josephine had been born in Grafton, NSW, Australia in 1884. James Earle and Mary Josephine had two children: James born in Sydney in 1915 and Mary Elizabeth in 1920. The next record, in 1930, shows James Earle as a farmer, living without his wife, at Missabotti, Raleigh, Cowper, NSW. He had returned to England by 1939. Their son, James, a company director, was living in Edgecliff when he married Naida Everil Zschille on 23 July 1946 at Darling Point, describing his father as a veterinary surgeon (retired). The announcement of the engagement of Mary Elizabeth to John Magee in the Sydney Morning Herald of 25 April 1949 described her father as James Earle Adams of Devon and her mother as Mrs Adams of Edgecliff. James Earle was living at 2 Trevenna Road, Kingsbridge when he died at Ellerslie Nursing Home, Salcombe on 1 June 1956, leaving £9,329. His wife died in Palmdale NSW in 1975, and his daughter Mary E Magee in 1982.

Living with Alfred John and Annie at Whitsun Cottage, Brentor in 1939 were three of their children: Ida, Maurice and Norman and some of their grandchildren:

Sylvia and Annie Medland, were daughters of their daughter Elsie Kate who had been married to Sylvia’s father, George until his death in 1929 and was married to Frederick Symons (see 123 Redfern). Sylvia May married Francis Russell in the summer of 1952 and died in 1994 in the Tavistock area. Annie married Sydney G Budge in the summer of 1953 and died in 1978 in the local area.

Aubrey David was the son of a Lashbrook mother. He died locally in 1977, aged 50. Reggie or Reginald R was also the son of a Lashbrook mother and was probably named for his uncle who died in the year of his birth. He was only 18 when he died in 1948. Pamela had also had a Lashbrook mother. She married Fernley J Gilbert in 1961 in the Tavistock area. Their son Eric J was born in 1963. She died in 2006

Annie died in 1950 having spent nearly 50 years raising her children and grandchildren, experiencing births and deaths – and occasional marriages. Alfred died in 1956.

children as

impossible to

Identify which were at home for registration

Stanley Charles and Ethel had seven children between 1920 and 1931. It has not been possible to identify which ones were at home and which elsewhere at the time of the 1939 registration, so all have been included. The family appears to have moved to Park Farm, Bishopsteignton before 1946 and family marriages were then recorded in the Newton Abbot area. John Julian 1920-97: Ruth M married John Wells in 1951: Edward A married Thomasine Strang in 1948: Sylvia Constance was registered as an assistant nurse in 1946 with the address of Park Farm, she married Richard A Goodwin in 1951: Edna May might have married Harry F J Harris in 1947 but subsequent dates do not match: Arthur J married Margaret J McCarthy in West Dorset in 2000, with electoral registers indicating that he was living at Lew Mill Farm in Lewdown from 2005-7: Peggy N married Derek J Buckman in 1956 and moved to Hornsey.

Ethel was in Wood Green, London, perhaps visiting her daughter Peggy, when she died in 1964. Stanley Charles was living at Green Croft, Shute Hill, Bishopsteignton, when he died on 22 July 1979, leaving £52,219.

Ann was the daughter of Thomas Westlake 1838-1916, a farmer in Bridestowe, and his wife, Mary Ann Jackman 1840-1904. When she died on 26 January 1904, Mary Ann Jackman Westlake left an estate of £41. In 1911, Thomas was living in an eight roomed house in Liddaton. Although a widowed man, he recorded that he had been married 50 years and that eight of his twelve children were alive at the time.

By 1901 Samuel and Annie were living in Whitchurch, Samuel, then 34, was a railway packer for the GWR, Annie was 31 and they had four children, Thomas 1891-1947, Samuel 1894-1917, Elsie 1896-1973 and John Henry 1898-1978 (see 3 The Homestead). Youngest son James William 1901-80 was born later that year (see 21 Stowford Hill).  Samuel had died in 1925 and Annie in 1949, aged 81.

The Medical Directories of 1905 and 1920 show Horace as having qualified as MRCS and LRCP at St Thomas Hospital in 1900, having commenced his medical studies in 1893. In 1901 Horace was a Lieutenant in the Royal Army Medical Corps, stationed at Ewshott Barracks in Crookham, Hampshire. By 1911, still single, he was a Captain posted overseas in India or Singapore. Army records show him in 1902 as Lieutenant and 1912-8 as Major. On 22 April 1926 he was a reserve Army Officer, aged 50, coming back from India to Plymouth, giving Rowden as his address in Brentor. In 1936 he married Mary Joan Dobson, thirtyfour years his junior. Mary Joan was the daughter of William George Dobson, born 1878, and his wife Minnie Collins 1880-1953, both born in Kent. By 1911 the Dobsons were living at 17 Meyrick St, Pembroke Dock, where Mary Joan and three of their older children were born. William George was a letterpress printer, described as painting, by the enumerator, and Minnie, unusually for that time, had her own occupation: she was an art needleworker in retail, in an art needlework shop.

Horace George was living at the home of James E Squire, Bearwood, (see 31 Bearwood below) in Brentor, when he died aged 83, on 17 April 1956 leaving £3,658 to his widow. It would appear that Mary Joan, by then only 57, married John C Blair in Launceston in 1966.

On 30 September 1886 John married Helen Barker at St Andrew’s Church, West Kensington, stating that he was a clerk living in South Acton and his father James Henry had been a shipwright, now deceased. Helen was living at 146 Lillie Road, West Kensington and her father, also deceased, was stone mason James Barker. The couple started their married life at 274 King St, Hammersmith living with her widowed mother Mary A and her sister Alice. The 1891 census shows them there with their eldest children Dorothy A and Arthur Henry. John was working as a clerk in the Vestry Office. By 1901 they were living at 2 Williams Terrace, Chiswick with John working as a borough rate collector. Their younger children were Edith Mary and Sydney John. By 1911 there were two more children, Marjorie Julia and Matthew James. The family had moved to 17 Netheravon Road in Chiswick probably by 1902, and the house was to stay in the family until at least 1980 when youngest daughter, Marjorie Julia, died there. She had been an off licence manageress living there in 1939. So it is possible that it continued to be the home of John and Helen, whilst they were holidaying in Brentor. The other person (5) with them may have been a grandchild caring for the incapacitated Helen. John probably died in the Brentford area in 1946 and Helen, a few years before.

Frederick Robert jun married Eleanor Mary Earle in 1900. Baptised on 9 October 1870, she was the daughter of jeweller George Earle 1840-1898 and his wife Emily Mary Schulz Livermore 1845-1930, who had married on 8 September 1866 at St Mary’s Church, Lambeth. He was the son of George Earle and she the daughter of William Livermore, both described as collectors.

In 1901 Frederick and Eleanor were living at 2 Lavender Road, Carshalton and in 1911 at Church Cottage, Pirbright. Having been married ten years they were childless. Frederick died on 20 January 1946 at Tavistock Hospital whilst living at Glenfield, leaving £224 to Eleanor. Eleanor was living at Penlee, Beaconsfield Road, Claygate when she died on 8 October 1951 and was buried at Holy Trinity Church, Claygate. Probate for her £362 estate was granted to her brother, George Basil Earle, a retired bank manager, and sister, Ethel Hilda Innes, married woman.

Lewis married Winifred Mary Adams in the Spring of 1930 in the Tavistock area. She was the daughter of farmer John Edmund Adams 1867-1950 and Ada Barons Wonnacott 1870-1923 who had married in 1891. The census of 1901 shows the couple living in Milton Abbot village, while their children (Harold) John and Winifred were staying with their grandparents, John and Ellen Wonnacott, who were running the private hotel at Dousland. Winnie, described as a farmer’s daughter doing dairy work, was visiting them again in 1911. Winnie’s mother, Ada Barons Adams died on 29 June 1923 at Shute Kelly, leaving £125. Her husband John Edmund was living at Tor View, when he died on 16 May 1950, leaving his estate of £1,037 in the care of his farmer son, William Pearce Adams, who had been listed with his parents and brother at Shortbourn Farm, Milton Abbot in the 1911 census.

Lewis was living at Tor View when he died in Tavistock Hospital on 12 May 1960, leaving £5,501 to the care of his widow, Winnie and spinster daughter, Winifred Elizabeth Congdon Gilbert. Winnie continued to live at Tor View, where she died on 28 March 1982, leaving £47,289. Daughter Winifred Elizabeth Congdon was living at Stentabridge House, Brentor in 2005, just before she died, aged 74.

Daniel Augustus had married Enid early in 1918 and, shortly after that, his sister Beryl had married Guy Coburn Robson 1888-1945, the son of civil engineer Thomas Pearton Robson and his wife Sarah Mary. Beryl and Guy had two children: Felix Guy, born 20 July 1921, who went on to be a Captain in the British Army by 1945. In 1939 he was boarding at a school in Rickmansworth. Ursula Mary was born on 19 September 1925 in Hampstead. She is the one most likely to have been staying with her mother at the Brentor Hotel. In 1946 she married Richard T Hayes in Hampstead and in 1966 in NW Surrey she married Gerald AM Ritson. She died in 1996 in Lambeth, South London.

Guy was living with Beryl in Belsize, London in 1931, but they divorced before 1934 when she married civil servant Thomas Sydney Chegwidden 1895-1986. Guy was living in Epsom before staying in Bethlem, Monks Orchard where he was described as a civil servant working at the British Museum in 1939. Bethlem was the infamous Royal Bethlem Hospital or Bedlam, which had relocated to the countryside at Shirley, near Croydon, in Surrey. Guy and Beryl must have stayed on good terms, as she was joint executor with their son Felix for his £981 estate when he died at St Ann’s Heath, Virginia Water, Surrey on 17 May 1945. He had been living at Dalwood, Lower Bourne, Farnham. Felix was described as an army officer when he was due to travel from Durban to Southampton on 30 August 1947 on the DURBAN CASTLE, when he was living at 20 Buckingham Gate, London. He died on the Isle of Wight in 1999.

Thomas Sydney Chegwidden was born in Plymouth, the son of Thomas Chegwidden, a civil servant, and was educated at Maidstone College and Worcester College, Oxford. In 1919 he had married Kathleen Muriel Breeds 1894-1975. He married Beryl in 1934 and they were living at Eastcott, Welcome Road, Carshalton in 1939. He worked at the Ministry of Labour, rising to the rank of Assistant Secretary by 1938; and was Under Secretary at the Ministry of Productivity from 1942-6. He became a Companion of the Royal Victorian Order in 1939 and a Companion of the Bath in 1943 and was awarded Chevalier of Legion of Honour in 1956. He was on various boards and commissions, including some in Rhodesia between 1953-5. On 17 June 1955 Sir Thomas and Lady Beryl, who were retired and giving their address as c/o Rhodesia House, returned to Southern Rhodesia on the CITY OF EXETER after a six month stay in the UK. Lady Beryl died on 30 August 1980 in Lingfield, Surrey, leaving £6,345. Sir Thomas was living at Huntington House, Hindhead when he died aged 91 in 1986, leaving £29,660.

In 1911 widowed Annie Jane was living at 69 and 71 Bromham Road, Bedford with her sons, Edward, Alick and Fred. Dorothy was living at Windsor Road, Ealing on 20 August 1925 when she married planter Guy Morier Neave 1886-1950, son of merchant Edward Starngeways Neave, at the Parish Church. In 1939 they were at 47 Carbery Avenue, Ealing with Guy having retired as a planter. Their home was 19 Tudor Court, Tudor Road in Acton, when he died at St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington on 15 November 1950, leaving £1,164 to Dorothy’s care. Dorothy was living at 3 Queen’s Walk, Ealing when she died at the West Middlesex Hospital on 25 May 1961, leaving £595 to be administered by her daughter Rose Ann, born 1931, later Jackman. Their other daughter was June V born 1928.     Fred had been a clerk when he joined the navy from 1919 until 7 June 1922, serving on as a stoker on a number of ships. He was 5′ 5″ tall, with auburn hair and brown eyes. His character was judged to be very good, but his ability only satisfactory. He may have moved to New Zealand.    Alick served in the Australian army, VX20464 during the Second World War, giving his wife Beryl as his next of kin. He died in Victoria, Australia in 1972.

Gordon Steel was an apprentice house and estate agent, lodging with the Lee family at 16 Gains Road, Southsea in 1911. He sailed from Liverpool on 9 May 1924 on the WARWICKSHIRE, heading for Rangoon, perhaps to visit one of his brothers. He married Honor Mary Delap in Marylebone in early 1935. In 1934 he had been living with his mother Annie Jane, at 8 Nottingham Place, Northumberland Road, London W1. Honor was living with them in 1935 and by 1937 the three of them had moved to 12a Cecil House, 99 Marylebone High Street. Honor was born in Dublin, Ireland, the daughter of clergyman Alexander Henry Delap 1859-1925 and his wife, Evelyn Villiers 1865-1943. In 1911 the Delaps were living at 2 Town Park, Strabane, Co Tyrone with their ten children. Evelyn was living in Ray, Co Donegal when she died on 22 March 1943 leaving £1,566. Honor trained as a masseuse, living in Nutford House, Nutford Place, London W1 in 1920/21 and was recorded as working at 37 Manchester St from 1920-38.

Annie’s death in the Tavistock area was recorded in 1943. Gordon was living at 33 Mount Syon, Tunbridge Wells when he died at Pembury Hospital on 30 March 1958, with Honor’s brother, retired Wing Commander Miles Villiers Delap granted probate for his £381 estate. In 1964 Honor was living at 7 Sussex Square, Hyde Park with Edward J De Lisle and his wife, the Honourable Mary Rose De Lisle, perhaps making use of her masseuse training. She died in Droxford, Hampshire in 1983.

Winifred had married naval architect William George John in Portsmouth in 1926. Born on 26 February 1900 in Gillingham, Kent, William was the son of, the oddly named, shipwright John Henry John 1875-1969 born in Pembroke Dock and his wife Emily Edith Turk 1877-1943 who had been born in Kent. Soon after their marriage in 1926 and through until 1937, at least William and Winifred were living in Lewisham, South London where their children, Sylvia Winifred and Roger W were born. There is no entry for their home, 63 Harland Road, Lewisham in 1939, so presumably William was working in the Devon area at this time and had moved his family to Brentor. His parents were living at 26 Northdown Road, Plymouth in 1939, but he was not recorded with them.

Sylvia married David Lawrence Ellams 1930-1974 in Bath in 1954. David was the son of schoolteacher Stanley Ellams, and his wife, Constance, of Portmadoc, Caernarvonshire. Soon after their marriage, Sylvia, a housewife aged 26, left her home at 4 Englishcombe Lane in Bath and sailed on the ARAWA, leaving Southampton on 4 December 1954 for Cape Town intending to settle in Nyasaland, presumably to join her husband there. On 5 November 1960 she sailed with David and their children Karen Elizabeth born 1957 and Roger Julian (who married Ruth and lived in Bristol) from Tilbury to Cape Town on the DOMINION MONARCH. Sylvia died in Bath in 1999. Her mother Winifred had been living in Silverdale Road, Yealand Redmayne, Carnforth, Lancashire when she had died nine years earlier, on 24 March 1990, leaving an estate to the value of £186,273. Her husband William George had died early 1970. Presumably she was living with or near her son Roger who was recorded on the electoral registers at Silverdale Road between 2003 and 2010, or he may have inherited her house.

In 1939 James and two sisters, Minnie and Amy, were living at Minnie’s house, Bearwood (see Squire, Castle and Rice 1911 People). Minnie had married William Henry Castle in 1902. Born in 1869, he had been a carpenter lodging in Burn Lane with Roger and Samuel Rice in 1891 and 1901.  In 1911 his wife Minnie was recorded at Bonnaford Farm, with her mother and sisters. In May 1919 William travelled on the TESTA from Bombay to Plymouth as a mill foreman, aged 50, married but not accompanied by his wife. In May 1923 he sailed on the MANTOLA from Madras to Plymouth as a mill man, aged 54, still married and unaccompanied. William, a retired mining engineer, was not present at Bearwood in 1939, as he was living at Holmleigh, Whitchurch Road, Tavistock, which is where he died in 1942. Minnie Castle died on 1 February 1945, just 3 days before her older sister, Annie Tyrrell Squire. Probate for her estate was granted to her sister, Amy Elizabeth Rice, and brother, James Ellis Squire, farmer.

James Ellis had lived at home at Bonnaford Farm with his mother and sisters until his marriage to Annie Elizabeth Metters (see Minhinnick 1911 People) in 1905. In 1911 the couple were living at Park House with their daughters, Gladys Annie and Lavinia May. Sadly, Gladys died early 1927, aged 18 and Lavinia towards the end of the following year, aged 19. The couple continued to live at Park House until Annie Elizabeth died on 6 January 1937, leaving £204. It is probably at that stage that James moved in with his sisters, Minnie and Amy, who were living at Minnie’s house, Bearwood. James married Mary Taylor Hooper 1903-1950, in 1941 (see 34 Holyeat Farm below). Mary died on 6 April 1950, leaving £529. James was living at Bearwood when he died at Tavistock Hospital on 16 September 1956, aged 76, leaving £3,915 to be administered by Mary Joan Pinches, a widow and John Else, solicitor. Mary Joan does not appear to have been related to James. In 1939 she was living at Bowden House (see 22 Bowden House above) with her husband, Horace George Pinches, a retired Lt Colonel in the RAMC. They had married in Barnstaple in 1936 when she was 27 and he was 60. Horace was living at Bearwood when he died aged 80 on 17 April 1956, just five months before James. Mary seems to have cared for both elderly men.

Albert Harry Rice 1878-1906 had travelled to Headingly, Leeds, where Amy Elizabeth Squire, who had been born in Brentor was living at the time, probably with her brother George, to marry her at St Michael’s Church on 30 January 1901. The witnesses at the ceremony were her brother, William George Squire, and her sister Minnie (Castle). The 1901 census shows Amy and Albert Harry living in a cottage near the Post Office in Brentor, where he was a butcher working from home. Their son Edward Kinsman was born in 1903. Sadly, Albert Harry died on 17 November 1906 aged just 28, leaving an estate of £37. In 1911, Amy and her son, Edward, were living with her mother, Anne Squire, and her sisters Anne Terrell Squire and Mary Maria Castle at Bonnaford Farm. Amy Elizabeth died in 1949. There are no further records of her son, Edward Kinsman, so he may have travelled to Canada, as his uncle was there.

Lois Millicent was the daughter of George Drury 1841-1871 and Charlotte Banks 1845-1925, who had married in 1867. Her second name, Millicent, was shared with both of her grandmothers. In 1871, when Lois was 2 years old, she was staying with her grandparents at their 360 acre farm in Barholm, while her parents were at their nearby 278 acre farm. Her father George died on Christmas Day that same year and, though a substantial farmer, his estate was valued at under £2,000. In 1881 Lois was living with her mother, Charlotte, as she continued to farm 25 acres of their farm with the help of her sister, Sarah. The sisters continued to farm in Barholm through 1891 but by 1901 they were living in Reigate, Surrey in a house named Barholme, with their unmarried sister, Millicent. Sarah and Millicent ran a lodging house with furnished rooms, while Charlotte was a lady nurse for the sick. Millicent continued as a landlady at Barholme after Sarah’s death later in 1901. Charlotte was living at 17 St Johns’ Road, Earlswood, Redhill when she died on 11 June 1925, leaving an estate of £251 to her widowed daughter, Lois Millicent Foster.

In 1891 Theodore and Lois were living in Brampton, Derbyshire, where eldest son Charles Theodore had been born; next son George Brian was born in Charmouth, Dorset in 1895 and daughter Winifred Lois in Babbacombe in 1896. They were settled in Bay View, Babbacombe in 1901 with their three children and their staff, which included Elizabeth J Greensill (see below) as a nurse (lady) to which the enumerator added sick. Lois was not at home on the night of the 1911 census, as she was visiting a couple called Brian and Minnie Elizabeth Broughton (of private means) at the fifteen roomed “Gurrington” in Ashburton, Devon and she confirmed the information that Theodore had provided that they had been married for 21 years and all three of their children were still alive. Son Charles was a law student and Elizabeth Greensill was established in the household as a governess (domestic). Charles seems to have abandoned his law studies, as he was a Captain in the British Army when he married widowed Cecil Isobel Harrison, the daughter of Richard Crowley Onslow, a retired Colonel in the Indian Army in Brompton London in 1923.

Theodore died on 25 March 1925 at Barholme, Babbacombe leaving his £8,208 estate to the care of his daughter Winifred Lois and son George Brian, law clerk. In 1939 Lois, aged 71, was living at the Beacon Hotel in Torquay. George Brian was living at Coombe Mill, St Breward, Cornwall when he died on 27 March 1941, aged only 46, leaving his £2,664 etsate to the care of his sister, Winifred, and another person. Charles Theodore was probably living in Kloof, Natal, South Africa in 1939, as this was where his wife, Cecil Isobel died on 23 October 1945, leaving £18,461 in England. Charles was living at Stag’s Head House when he was admitted to the Beechfield Nursing Home in Yelverton, where he died on 2 September 1953, aged 62, leaving his £4,238 to his mother, Lois. She was living at Stag Head House when she died, aged 90, in the Chollacott Nursing Home in Tavistock on 21 March 1958. Her £4,670 estate was dealt with by her solicitor. Winifred continued to live at Stag’s Head until her death on 9 September 1963, when she was only 67, at Beechfield Nursing Home in Yelverton. Her estate amounted to £22,492.

Marjorie Ann born 14 July 1901, married Samuel M Hicks in 1935 and in 1939 was living at Gwynnault, St Austell with her baker and grocer (salesman) husband and son Samuel J born 1938. She died in Truro in 1986.  Gertrude born 12 July 1905 married farmer Thomas Henry Vanstone 1911-91 in Okehampton in 1934 and in 1939 they were living at Ashton, Bude-Stratton with one child. She died in the Okehampton area in 1955. Thomas Henry was living at Trevanion, Trevarth, Mevagissy when he died in 1992 leaving an estate in the region of £125,000. He does not appear to have married. Reginald George was a twin, born on 26 February 1911, he married Barbara Martin in 1947. He was an auctioneer’s clerk lodging with the Martin family at 6 Rose Hill Terrace, Liskeard in 1939, when their daughter Barbara, born 1927, was a schoolgirl, sixteen years his junior. He died in 1996 in Liskeard. His twin was named Olive when one month old in the 1911 census and Bertha in 1939. She married Frederick Morth Voaden of Rixton, Sourton in 1942. Frederick was living at 16 Coast View, Stratton when he died in 1979, leaving £2,461. Electoral records indicate that Bertha was living at Trebursye Manor, Launceston between 2005-7. John Edmund died in Truro in 1971, possibly unmarried. Alfred Emmanuel died in 1999 in St Austell and Philip in 2005 in Truro. Their mother Mary Elizabeth died in Tavistock in 1941. Their father Thomas Henry’s death has been more difficult to pinpoint, unless he died in Warwickshire in 1942.

Although some of the family married and set down roots in various places, the preponderance of deaths in the Truro area from 1971-2005 could indicate that the unmarried siblings moved to farm at Trevanion, Mevagissy at some stage, whilst Alfred had moved near his sister Marjorie’s home in St Austell.

In the last quarter of 1921 Samuel married Ethel Hext, one of the ten children of granite stonemason Thomas Hext 1856-1922 and his wife Rosina Rooke 1865-1923 of Foggintor, Walkhampton. These children included Thomas, the father of Kathleen M Hext who became Glass (see Frank below). The children of Samuel and Ethel’s marriage were Mary, Bertie T and Evelyn Ethel, known as Evelyn Paula, who had been born in Plympton in 1928. Her daughter was Dawn Paula 1948-97. In 1958, Evelyn married Brian E Travers 1928-95, in Yeovil, Somerset. She died in Southampton in 1979. Bertie T may have lived in Kettering. It has not been possible to pinpoint Mary in the subsequent records.

In 1939 Samuel’s eldest son, Frank, married Kathleen M Hext, born 1915, the daughter of his stepmother Ethel’s brother, Thomas. Samuel died in Newton Abbot in 1958 and Ethel in Tavistock in 1968.

Susan Ellen Gillard, known as Ellen and later as Nellie, was the daughter of stage coachman, James Gillard 1814-83 and his wife Joanna Hanns 1829-95 (see above). In 1861 they had been living at 9 Princess Place, Plymouth, though the variety of daughters’ birthplaces: Plymouth, Calstock and Truro indicated they had moved about before settling back in Plymouth. By 1871 they had moved close to Joanna’s birthplace of Lamerton, living at 3 King Street in Tavistock and running a draper’s shop. It is difficult to conclusively establish James’ date of birth from his census returns, but in 1881, he described himself as a retired coach proprietor aged 80, living at 11 Duke Street, where Joanna and Phebe were drapers and Elizabeth and Ellen milliners. William Henry Batten had died on 13 April 1926 and Susan Ellen died, leaving £1,602, on 7 October 1941 at the Prince of Wales Hospital, Plymouth, whilst living at 22 Brunswick Place, Stoke Damerel, her home throughout most of her married life.

In 1911 William and Nellie’s son Gordon was a motor fitter lodging with the Pedlar family at 12 Parkwood Place in Tavistock. In 1923 Henry Gordon Rowe Batten married Daisy Beatrice Truscott in Weymouth. He had been living at 10 Portland Road, Weymouth throughout the period 1918-21, according to the electoral registers. Daisy was the daughter of Thomas Truscott and his wife Mary of 44 Brook Street, Tavistock. Both Thomas and his son Harold gave their occupation in 1911 as Job Master, which is a person who supplies horses, carriages and drivers for hire. Gordon and Daisy’s daughter Barbara M lived only for a short time after her birth in 1929. They were living at 21 Fair View Road, Wyke Regis, Weymouth when Daisy died on 1 March 1944 at Weymouth Hospital. Probate for her £427 estate was granted to Gordon who was described as a retired civil servant. In 1956 in the Sturminster area Gordon married Lucy Phyllis Briscoe. He died in 1969 in Weymouth and is remembered on his parent’s gravestone in Tavistock Cemetery.

Marshall married Emma Stanbury 1890-1924 in 1919. She was the daughter of George and Mary Stanbury (see 28 Poplar Cottage) and sister of Ida Brimacombe (see 52 Nutshell) and in 1911 she had been a servant in the large house belonging to Colonel’s daughter, Emily Mary Liddell, the widow of a surgeon at Penmoor, Yelverton. Marshall and Emma had only one child: Barbara born 28 June 1920, who was living with her paternal grandmother in Tavistock in 1939, before her marriage, above. Marshall married Beatrice May Hill in 1928. She was the daughter of Robert Samuel John Hill 1871-1951 and his wife Elizabeth Ann Reddicliffe 1874-1964. At the time of the 1911 census, Beatrice aged 7 and her brother Thomas 4, both born in Eworth, Germansweek, were staying with their maternal grandmother, midwife Charity Reddicliffe 1855-1944 in Plymouth Road, Princetown, whilst their father was at home in Eworth, with his other children Ralph 15 and Elsie Lilly 9. Archie, aged 13, was working in Bratton Clovelly at the Spry’s farm, Bangors. This arrangement was probably because Elizabeth Ann was in the Greenbank Hospital in Plymouth, where they recorded that she had been married for sixteen years and had had eight children, of whom five had survived to that date. When Robert died on 21 November 1951 he left £114 to his widow Elizabeth Ann Hill, who died in the Tavistock area in 1964 aged 90. In 1939 Charity was living with her daughter Lily and her husband Frederick White at 1 Two Bridges Road, Princetown and she died in 1944 aged 89.

It has not been possible to identify the third person in the house at the time of the registration. Marshall was in The Chollacott Nursing Home, Whitchurch Road, Tavistock when he died on 7 February 1985 and Beatrice died two years later in 1987.

In 1932, Hilda May married Edward James Batten, (see Batten 1911 People), and in 1939 they were living at Blatchford Garden, Cornwood where Edward was the head gardener. Their daughter June was born in 1934.

Richard had died in 1917, Fanny in 1959 and Frederick Rodney was 80 when he died in 1987.

In 1964 Agnes, then aged 77, married carpenter/joiner Bertie James Locke, aged 76. He had been living in Bristol in 1939 with Dorothy Locke, born 1904, and Jean Locke, born 1931, later Taylor, probably his wife and daughter. Sadly Bertie who had been born in the Barnstaple area, died in 1969. Agnes was later admitted to Moorhaven where her aunt Dolly Soby, wife of Ernest, had been a patient until her death on 4 February 1975. Agnes died there, aged 90, two years after her aunt, on 1 June 1977 leaving £693.

The story of the Soby and Durrant families of Halwill would be a fruitful project in itself!

William was the son of Thomas Soby 1777-1853, who was the son of Josias Soby and his first wife, Frances Durrant. They had married in 1761 and had ten children. It is likely that after the death of Frances between 1784 and 1791 Josias married Charity May in Ashwater in 1792. They had at least three children, including Josias, 1798-1881, who was baptised on 19 December 1798, and with his wife Ann Durrant 1801-72, having married on 16 August 1825, were the parents of at least eight children, including Charity, who married her half first cousin William in 1852!

William and Charity farmed in Halwill at Brendon or Brendham farm until William’s death on 4 March 1896, when he died at Holsworthy, leaving Charity an estate of £453. The family, which included five of her adult unmarried children Ellen, John Henry, Eva, Alfred and Ernest, had moved to Kersford Farm in Bridestowe by 1901. Though Eva, at the time of the 1901 census, was staying with her brother Edwin, a Coal Wharf Superindentant at 35 Morville Stree, Poplar, London. In 1911 Charity recorded that she had been married 58 years and had had thirteen children, of whom twelve had survived to that date. John Henry and Ernest were among the five adult single children who, with her grand daughter Agnes, were living with her in the spacious nine roomed house. Charity died on 25 January 1916 at Kersford Barton, leaving her estate of £627 to the care of her sons, John Henry and Ernest, both farmers. Ernest had married Elizabeth Ellen Durrant in 1913. They were living at Holmeleigh in Mary Tavy when he died in Tavistock Hospital on 2 April 1949, leaving £2,200 to his widow.

Within months of his mother’s death in 1916, John Henry, at the age of 52, married Adelaide Maud Knight, the 42 year old daughter of a retired ship’s steward from Mount Gold Road in Plymouth. Tragically John Henry suffered a further bereavement when his wife died within the same quarter as the marriage. John Henry continued to live at Fair View until his death on 16 June 1940, when he left care of his £1,604 estate to his brother Alfred and niece, Agnes. His older sister Ellen, a spinster, had died at Fair View on 27 February 1931, leaving her £360 estate to be administered by her niece or daughter, widow Agnes Prowse.

Edith 1889-1979 married Alfred Edwards, a retired Lieutenant in the Royal Navy, in 1936. They were living at Bal Wynd in Mary Tavy in 1939, which was not far from the smallholding belonging to Alfred and Ellen Soby, the aunt and uncle of Agnes Prowse, for whom Edith’s sister, Bertha, was working at Fair View. Alfred and Edith Edwards continued to live at Bal Wynd until his death on 19 October 1955. His £1,814 estate was administered by his widow, Edith, and Langdon Edwards, a car dispatch clerk; the son of his first marriage to Lillian Minnie Langdon in 1903. Edith was living at Moor View, Mary Tavy when she died in 1979, leaving an estate of £17,477.

Bertha 1893-1961 married Charles Ernest Morgan in the summer of 1945. It has not been possible to identify other records related to him. However when Bertha died in Greenback Hospital, Plymouth on 18 December 1961, she was living at Moor View, Mary Tavy and described as the wife of Charles Ernest Morgan, but her £2,191 estate was to be administered by her widowed sister, Edith.

Wilfrid 1901-48 was living at Moor View in 1939, where he was single and employed as a steam and compressor air plant fitter. He was still living at Moor View when he died on 9 January 1948 leaving £288 to be administered by Bertha, the wife of Charles Ernest Morgan.

The family were living at Maunston Wood Cottage, Plympton when Henry, an under gardener, aged 18 years and one month signed up for the Hampshire Regiment. After, he went in to the building trade and was living with his wife, Elizabeth G in Plymouth in 1939. He left £8,440 when he died at 45 Meavy Avenue, Crownhill, Plymouth on 18 February 1978. Albert John was listed in the Plymouth Directory of 1923 as a jobmaster. He had moved to Victoria, Australia by 1929 when he married Irene Adelaide Davies. He served in the Australian army during the Second World War and worked as a truck driver afterwards. He died in 1983. Youngest son Arthur was ony 14 when he died in 1927.

Bessie died early in 1941 and at some time after that Robert moved to 5 Meavy Terrace, Crownhill, Plymouth, where he died on 18 November 1962, leaving his £1,087 estate to the care of his son Robert Henry, mason, who was living not far away in Meavy Avenue, when he died some years later.

William and Lillian had three children: Pauline M married Vaughan North 1917-82 in 1948. They had four sons before her death in South Africa in 1992; Willliam who died in the Plymouth area in 1995 and Christopher J, born in 1942 and living in Liddaton in his sixties. Lillian died on 30 April 1977, eight years before her husband, William on 19 May 1985.

Charles married Catherine Lashbrook early in 1924. She was one of the fourteen children of John Lashbrook and his wife Mary Ann Parker (see below) who had married in 1876. In 1881 he was a manganese miner and they were living at Lower Whitson, near the Herrings Arms, but by 1911 he was a domestic gardener. Charles and Catherine do not appear to have had any children, but listing Dorothy first below may indicate that she was Catherine’s daughter. Catherine died in 1946 and Charles early in 1982.

Her maternal grandmother, Mary Ann Parker, was the daughter of Dolton agricultural labourer, Richard Parker and his wife, Maria. She had married John Lashbrook 1854-1918 in 1876 and they went on to have fourteen children during the first thirty five years of their marriage: twelve of whom were still alive in 1911 (see Lashbrook 1911 People). Mary Ann died in 1947.

William Charles married Ida Stanbury in 1923 in the Tavistock area. She was the daughter of George Stanbury 1858-1942, a Lamerton farmer (see 28 Poplar Cottage) and his wife Sarah Ann Tremills, who was born at Vixen Tor in 1859 and died at Poplar Cottage in Brentor, where George continued to live. There were twelve Stanbury children, of whom nine were alive in 1911, with Ida the second youngest. Emma Bennison (see 39 Cross Trees) was Ida’s older sister.

William and Ida had four children: Frank 1925-78 who had married Marjorie E Luke in 1954 and had a son and a daughter; Mary 1928-2010 who married William H Tucker in 1956. They had two children, also a son and a daughter. Her lovely obituary was published in the Brentor News issue 373 in November 2010; John who went to live in Torquay and David, who continued to live at Nutshell.

William died in 1971 in Plymouth and Ida in 1978 at Nutshell, leaving just over £20,000.

Reginald married Stella Gladys Guscott (birth registered as Gladys Stella) in 1934 in the Tavistock area. She was the daughter of Nellie Guscott, whose parents were James Guscott and his wife Mary Jane Rickard (see Guscott 1911 People), with whom Nellie was living in 1911. In 1921 Nellie married Alfred Sly (see 122 Bungalow).  Reginald and Stella’s son, David F R was born later in 1934.

Reginald married Frances Barbara Dawe 1918-1983 in 1955 (see 113 Rose Cottage). Frances died in 1983, aged 65 and Reginald in 1985.  Stella married Edwin L Claringbold in 1955, and her death was recorded in Petersfield, Hampshire in 2001, aged 86.

Miriam, married farmer John (Jack) Bickle Symons 1897-1963 (see Symons 1911 People and 2 West Liddaton above).

Dora married Alfred Richard Launder in 1928. He was born in Plymouth in 1899 and was the brother of Charles Ernest Launder (see 51 South Brentor above). Dora and Alfred’s daughter, Marion A was born in 1934. She married Gerald W Yeo in 1953 and the couple moved to Falmouth. Alfred died on 22 November 1962 at Mount House Lodge, leaving £112 to Dora, who was 79 when she died in Falmouth in 1981.

Hector was baptised on 12 July 1903 at St Alphege Church, Greenwich. It must have been a good experience for the family as they returned two weeks later to have their other children baptised: Violet E P born 2 October 1893, daughter Tydfil Philpott born 28 December 1894 and Alfred Philpott 3 December 1896. In 1911 they had moved to Wapsworthy, St Peter Tavy where Alfred was a poultry keeper and Elizabeth, an elementary schoolmistress working for the County Council. Daughter Tydfil was also an elementary school teacher and Violet was a housekeeper, Hector at school and Horatio Philpott, born on 2 January 1908 was only three. Alfred and Elizabeth had been married eighteen years and had lost two of their six children, one of whom was Alfred. In 1939 Alfred and Elizabeth were living at Coombe Vale, Chip Shop, Lamerton with their youngest son, Horatio, who was described as mentally unfit. Alfred was retired and an invalid and Elizabeth was a retired schoolmistress. Also there was eldest daughter, Violet Elizabeth who had married John E Northmore 1906-80 in 1933. He was at Higher Loveton, Meavy, Yelverton assisting his parents at their farm. It may be that in the circumstances Violet was at home to help her mother. As Alfred had died in 1941, Elizabeth was a widow when she died on 17 April 1960 at Coombe Vale, Lamerton leaving her £319 estate to the care of her daughter, Violet Philpott Northmore, married woman. Horatio died in 1971.

Hector married Vera Elizabeth May Headon 1906-56 in South Molton in 1931. She was the daughter of farmer Frederick Headon and his schoolmistress wife, Amy Elizabeth, of South Hall, Meshaw, South Molton. In 1911 it was stated that Frederick and Amy had been married thirteen years and had four children: Arthur Frederick, Reginald John, Vera and Mary Maud Fanny. The information that she had a government teaching certificate, was employed by Devon Education Authority, and was waiting at home for her next position was not valued by the enumerator, who crossed it out. Hector and Vera had four children living with them in 1939: it is likely they were Esme E, born in South Molton in 1931, Donald D V 1933, Mary V V 1936 and Vera P 1938, the rest in Tavistock. Their son Colin was born in 1941.

Esme Elizabeth joined the Postal Service in Barnstaple in 1950, married Renfred S Bulleid in Barnstaple in 1959 and she died in 1979 aged 47. Donald married Shirley G Elworthy in 1960 in Okehampton and was livening in Penton Lane in the Crediton area from 2004-10. Mary married Davis M Roberts in Barnstaple in 1967. Vera P married William Headon in Barnstaple in 1958 and went to live at Long Barn, Meshaw, South Molton. It is likely that they were second cousins. Colin married Teresa Philp in 1971 and they were living in Sandford in Crediton. Vera died in 1956 when only 50. Hector married Elizabeth E Edwards in Barnstaple in 1966 and died in 1992.

In 1901, Edwin and Kate were farming at Torr Park with Edwin employing people. Kelly’s Directories for 1902-1914 described him as a farmer at Tor Park. They had one daughter Elsie Willcock Yelland, born 18 March 1905, who married Joseph Spry in 1930. In 1939 the Sprys were living in Liskeard, where Joseph was working as a farm bailiff. They had two children, Joseph born 17 June 1931 and Elsie Margaret, later Butler, born 4 April 1934. Elsie Willcock Spry was living at 39 Chestnut Terrace, Lamerton when she died on 19 June 1991, leaving an estate of less than £125,000.

Edwin died on 1 March 1942. Probate for his estate of £3,621 was granted to Walter Joseph Willcock, butcher (brother in law), Walter Godfrey Buckingham, accountant and Frederick John Yelland, farmer (his nephew, son of his brother John, of Cobham Week Farm). These were the same executors used for Kate’s £3,352 estate when she died on 29 January 1946.

Walter married Clara Florence Stephens in 1938. She was the daughter of William Stephens, shown immediately below, and his wife Mabel Bickle. In 1911 Clara was living at Higher Watervale with both parents and her younger sister, Daisy. Mabel died in 1939, the year after the wedding. Walter and Clara were still living at Watervale Farm when Walter died on 24 February 1963, leaving £7,279. Clara died on 28 November 1964, leaving £9,504.

Wilfred married farmer’s daughter, Amy Cole, from Sampford Spiney in 1936. She was the daughter of William Cole 1853-1923 who farmed at Gee Farm, Easterntown, Sampford Spiney. He had married seventeen year old, Arabella Northey Rundle 1870-1961, also from Sampford Spiney, in 1887, when he was thirty four. They had six children. William died on 28 December 1923, leaving £1,744 to his widow, Arabella. She died thirtyeight years after him in 1961, when she was 91 years old. She died at Greenbank Hospital, Plymouth, though her home was given as Leewood, Huckworthy Bridge, Sampford Spiney. Her executors were her two youngest sons: Arthur, a farmer, and Gilbert, a carpenter.

Wilfred continued to live at Watervale until his death at Tavistock Hospital on 7 October 1951 when he was buried in the Daw Family mausoleum with his aunt Daisy, and, presumably, his mother. Probate for his £7,839 estate was granted to his widow Amy and his sister Marjorie. Amy died at Whitehaven, Sortridge Park, Horrabridge, leaving £15,250, on 17 February 1979.

There may have been other people living at Watervale but the information is redacted, in the supplementary section.

93

Aubrey Gillett had been born in Woolsthorpe near Grantham, Lincolnshire in 1886 and qualified as a doctor in 1911 after studying at Kings College London. In 1915 he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps, initially as a lieutenant, with later promotion to captain, during his service in France. He became FRCS Edin in 1919 and then began to practice at 30A Wimpole Street, London W1. Electoral registers show Aubrey and Margaret living at Clifton Villas, Maida Vale (1920); Westbourne Terrace, W2 (1924) and although included in the Wimpole Street practice listing until 1928 Margaret was not living with Aubrey at Hyde Park Street from 1927. In 1929 he married Lillian Alicia Smout in Marylebone. In the 1930s he worked as a Colonial Service surgeon in Antigua and St Kitts, with Lilian travelling with him. He died at Croydon General Hospital whilst living at the Cromwell Court Hotel in Earls Court on 3 April 1963, leaving £12,271 to his widow, Lillian.

Margaret and Aubrey were divorced in 1924 according to their son. There are various records of Margaret Elsie Gillett training as a midwife, and a Margaret Gillett travelling to and from Canada but it is difficult to confirm that this is the same person. However she did marry Guy Mackarness in Bristol in 1943. Margaret Elsie Mackarness died on 28 August 1974 in Oxford with her cremation being in Somerset.

Guy Charles Neave MACKARNESS was the son of Church of England clergyman, the Ven Archdeacon Charles Coleridge Mackarness 1851-1918 and his wife Grace Emily Milford 1857-1944. His ministry took Charles to Aylesbury Bucks, Scarborough, Yorkshire and finally retirement at 1 Polstead Road Oxford. Their six children were Margaret Alethea Sumner, Hugh John Coleridge, Elfred Mary B, Cuthbert Gilbert Milford, Guy and Roger Seymour Patteson. After leaving Exeter College, Oxford with an MA in 1911, Guy was a temporary lieutenant in the Royal Fusiliers In 1914, and later a temporary captain. In 1918 he married Nancy Barraclough in Bedford. They had one son John Guy 1920-92, who went on to become a management consultant. The description of Guy’s work on travel documents as a ‘teacher in the civil service’ based in South Africa, concealed his position as Senior Master at the Diocesan College, Rondesbach from 1922-8. Passenger lists to and from South Africa often included his nephew, Godfrey Peter John Coleridge Mackarness, who was the same age as John and was the son of Guy’s brother, Cuthbert, and his wife Eileen Lilias Godfrey, who were based in India.  From 1931-8 he was partner and tutor at Yarlet Hall Prep School in Staffordshire. From 1920-40 he worked in the Ministry of Economic Warfare, Home Security 1940-41, Information 1942-6 and was Chief Regional Officer for the SW Central Office of Information in 1946.

By 1939 although each stated that they were married on the register, they were living apart, with Nancy working as a housekeeper at St Michael’s College in Tenbury, Worcestershire. They must have divorced in the following years as Guy married Margaret in 1943. Guy died on 9 July 1958 at High Croft, Clutton, Somerset, leaving £9,044. Nancy did not remarry and died on 10 August 1961 at The Gate House, Clappersgate, Ambleside Westmorland leaving £4.882 to her son John Guy.

In 1962 Nada was living at 6D Observatory Gardens, London W8 with Robert Edward Oliver Cornewall-Walker They were married later that year. Robert was an actor, twentytwo years older that her, known as Robert Raglan. He was an English character actor, most at home playing crusty authority figures, particularly military men. He is probably best known for his recurring role as Colonel Pritchard, ‘The Colonel’ in 38 episodes of Dad’s Army. Born in 1909, the son of the civil engineer at the East Surrey Waterworks, Archibald Edward Cornewall-Walker and his wife Edith Mary of St Arnoud, Doods Road, Reigate, Robert had been married in 1931 to Joan Elizabeth Kingsland, the daughter of Arthur Kingsland, a pharmaceutical chemist and his wife, Agnes Annie. This marriage appears to have been shortlived, with the 1932 electoral registers showing him living at 3 The Close, Chard Lane, Reigate with Joan and her mother but by 1935 he was back home with his family. In 1939 he was an appeals organiser for a hospital, living at 78 Francis Road, Birmingham with married woman, Christine E Cornewell-Walker, who doesn’t appear anywhere else in the records, unless Joan preferred to call herself Christine. In the mid 1960s Robert and Nada, now married, were living at 2 Devonshire Court in Richmond. Nada continued to live there until 2009/10 but the marriage between Nada and Robert failed at some stage, as she married Francis or Frank S Morgan in 1979. Robert was living at Flat 6, Howarth Hose, Sheen Lane, London, SW14 when he died on 18 July 1985 leaving £300.

Patricia, who was born in Portsmouth, appears to have been their only child. In 1952 she married Alistair Douglas Granville Sharp in Portsmouth. As a Petty Officer, on 5 August 1943 he was promoted to Temporary Lieutenant and then Acting (Temporary) Captain on 28 May 1944. Born 4 November 1924, he was the son of Major Douglas Charles Granville Sharp of HM Forces and his wife Katharine Mary Utten-Easson, the daughter of clergyman, Utten James Easson, vicar at Chicheley, Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire. With a background in Jamaica, an Utten had married an Easson, the family had kept the Utten name as a forename, in many cases, until with Katharine, when it was linked as a double barrelled surname. The Eassons were from Framewood, Stoke Poges, where in 1901, Katherine 1899-1995 and her parents, Utten James 1859-1940 and his wife, Gertrude Amelia Blake, were living with her grandmother Ellen C Easson, born 1830. There were three other children: Margaret, Una and Alistair James Utten 1899-1923.  Utten James’ Cambridge Alumni entry indicates that he attended Jesus College, being ordained as a priest in 1889, serving in various parishes, and his father was James Utten Easson. In 1939 the records show the Easson family living at the Vicarage, Chicheley, Newport Pagnell: Utten James, Gertrude and their children Una Gertrude Utten 1893-1984, Lawrence Hugh Utten, gentleman 1905-72 and Margaret Ellen Utten Durrant, officer’s widow, 1892-1981.

Douglas and Katharine had married at All Saints Church, Marylebone on 20 July 1920, when Douglas 1895-1960 was staying at Bentinck Hotel. He was the son of bankers’ clerk Henry Reginald Sharp, born in India in 1871, and his wife Edith Maud, who were living at 72 Thrale Road, Streatham in 1901 with Douglas and his older brother, Reginald. In 1911 Douglas, aged 16 of private means, was living with his mother at 29 Waverley Road, Southsea. Between 1915-8 he served as a lieutenant in the Royal Artillery, becoming a captain in 1922. In his life after the army from 1932 onwards, he worked in motor sales and motor engineering, a trade that took him to various parts of the world, Australia, China, South Africa and Gibraltar, sometimes with his wife Katharine, alone and once with his mother, Edith who was living at Trevosa, Western Parade, Southsea. He must have been doing well, as he was able to travel first class on occasions. Their home for many years was Chicheley (named after her earlier home), Eastern Parade, Southsea. Douglas’s last trip was to Durban with Katharine, returning on the STIRLING CASTLE on 1^st January 1960: he died three months later on 23 April 1960 at Hayling Island, leaving £35,875 to be administered by his sons Alistair Douglas Granville Sharp and Peter Utten Granville Sharp among others. Katharine was living at 29 St Catherine’s Road, Hayling Island when she died on 1 April 1995, leaving £110,672.

Alistair was living at 3 St George’s Road, Hayling Island in the period 2003-10 and died on 15 March 2017 at Hayling Island. Patricia had been living in Chichester when she had died on 8 April 2011.

The other Friend wedding in 1921 was Frederick’s marriage to Ada Brook, the daughter of farmer Robert Brook 1850-1927 and his wife Thurza Yelland 1857-1931 of Hewton, Sourton. Their marriage in 1881 had resulted in eleven chidren, ten of whom were still alive in 1911: Robert, William, Mary Elizabeth, Edwin John, Harriet Annie, Thiurza Beatrice, Emma, Dorothy May and Ada.

Harold and Ada had three children: Ivy Pearl 1923-73 who became Tucker, Francis Norman 1924-2010?, who may have married Peggy Cropper in 1946 in Yorkshire and died in 2010 in Manchester and Russell R who married Joyce Pengelly in the Tavistock area in 1956 and died in Okehampton in 1967. Sadly Ada had died in 1937, aged just 38. It is difficult to identify the second person in the household. Harold was living at Cranford Cottage in Bridestowe when he died on 20 January 1987, fifty years after Ada.

In 1891 Harold Thomas, known as Tom, was a boarder at Kelly College. His father Daniel died on 3 January 1900, leaving £105,857. After the death of her husband, Emily was living at 123 Westbourne Terrace, an eighteen roomed house at Hyde Park, with various members of her family at different times. Emily died on 4 May 1916 leaving an estate of £12,469.

In 1901, after boarding with a Lydford farmer, Thomas Rowe Phillips, Tom married Crystal Pike, in Barnstaple. She was the daughter of William Lewison Pike 1847-1901 and his wife Jessie Anne Durell 1858-1929, who had married on 19 June 1878 in St Peter’s Church, in Parkstone, Poole, Dorset, the birthplace of their children, Crystal and Joseph. William had been a merchant and lived on his own means in Richmond House in Northam, before moving to Westleigh House, Westleigh, Bideford, where he was living when he died on 31 December 1901, leaving £5,806 to the care of his widow.

During the First World War Tom billeted fourteen wounded Australian soldiers recuperating from battles on the Western Front, at Ingo Brake. They were farmers and horsemen from the outback and their tales inspired the Radford children. Tom was trained as an architect, but his share of his father’s fortune, enabled to lead a more leisurely life. It is believed that his only two designs were for his house, Ingo Brake, and the Lydford War Memorial, though, during World War 2, his knowledge of architecture and skills as a photographer led to him being commissioned to record Devon churches in case they should be damaged. Tom and Crystal had five children: the two oldest, Mary Crystal and Joyce Emily attended boarding school in Bideford together. The location probably being related to the proximity of their maternal grandmother, Jessie Anne Pike.

Mary Crystal or Molly, baptised on 3 October 1902, married Thomas or Tom May in 1942. He was a carpenter and farmer, probably from Lydford, and they lived together at Cross Park.        Joyce Emily 1903-83 married Alick Gordon Kidley in 1928 and had three children: Anne born 1931, Rosemary in 1937 and Robin in 1938. Alick was living at Croft Orchard, Brent Knoll in Somerset when he died on 10 January 1982, leaving effects to the value of £179,187.    Leonard 1904-73 married and settled in Australia. There is a full account of his life in Radford 1911 People.     Betty was 42 and suffering with TB before she was permitted to marry Louis Screech in 1949. Accounts indicate that he was an orphaned carpenter, kept on as chauffeur by Crystal after his wife’s death. However, the records are not there to support this. Louis, born in 1907, appears to have been the son of widowed Fanny Alford Screech living at Brayton Cottage in Bridestow in 1911. In 1939 he was a single carpenter and painter, boarding with Mary Bickle at Cross Cottage in Tavistock. Betty’s marriage was short as she died late the following year. Phone records indicate that Louis lived at Brae Torr Cottage in Priory Close, Whitchurch from the time of his marriage to Peggy L Baker in 1968, until 1984. He was in the Moralto House Nursing Home in Callington when he died on 25 July 1994 leaving an estate to the value of £233,514.    The youngest, John Lewison, born 12 March 1910, married Gladys Blithe in Tavistock in 1937. Their daughter, later Hooper, born in 1938 was named Crystal after her paternal grandmother. In 1939 John was a fitter in shipbuilding, living at Fairlight, Kingsbridge with his wife Gladys and daughter Crystal. His home was 12 Burrows Park, Braunton when he died on 1 July 1986.

A heavy smoker, with a bad heart, Harold Thomas died on 7 December 1945, aged 68, leaving an estate of £22,944 including a bequest of 500 acres of Lydford Gorge to the National Trust: probate was granted to his widow Crystal. She died in the Tavistock area in 1967 aged 87.

On 20 December 1904, at Camelford, Frederick married domestic servant, Mathilda Alice Cornish, the daughter of mason, Charles Cornish, born 1863, who was a stableboy aged 18 in 1881, the year he married her mother. Both fathers were deceased at the time of the marriage. In 1901 Alice had been a cook working for the Northway family at Handsworth in Watts Road Tavistock. Ten years before that, she had been staying with her Hill grandparents, William Hill 1834-1915 and Maria Luxon 1837-1909, mother Mary Elizabeth Ann 1856-, known as Elizabeth, and sister Emily Alberta C later Mugford 1880-1955 at their home at Travalga, near Boscastle, Cornwall where she had been born. At the time, her father Charles was recorded in the 1891 Canadian census in Ontario, having been there about one month, possibly lodging next door to his brother William and his family.

In 1911 Frederick, a jobbing gardener, and Alice were living in a two roomed house in Lydford with their four children William Frederick ‘Willie’ 1906-82, an estate gardener at Station House, Launceston in 1939, who was living at 97 Meavy Way, Greenlands, Tavistock when he died on 10 April 1982 leaving under £25,000;   Muriel Alice 1907-71 who married agricultural labourer, Ralph Hill in 1924. Their son Archibald R was born in 1926 and in 1939 they were living at 4 Shellaford Cottage in the Tavistock area. Muriel died on 8 December 1971, aged 64.   Clifford Charles 1909-94 married Beatrice Maud Martin 1918-94 of Okehampton in 1952. He was living at Bella Mead, Lydford when he died on 31 May 1976, leaving £9,858. Beatrice continued to live at Bella Mead, Silver Street, Lydford until her death on 18 December 1994 when she left nearly £125,000. Both Clifford and Beatrice are buried in St Petroc churchyard, Lydford, as are Muriel and Ralph Hill.   Harriet Christina, known as Christina, was four months old at the time of the 1911 census. In the summer of 1939 she married William Francis Cowling, known as Frank, an agricultural engineer, eleven years her senior. The 1939 register records the newly weds living at 16 Dolvin Road, Tavistock where she continued to live until her death on 12 September 1995, leaving an estate of nearly £145,000. Their daughter Christine had been born in 1941. Frank was the son of John and Mellany Cowling (see Cowling 1911 People). He was an apprentice engineer when he enlisted in the Royal Naval Air Service (as Francis William), subsequently moving to the Royal Air Force, as an engine fitter. Frank was an executor for his mother in law, Alice, in 1962 and died in 1978.

Frederick and Alice’s fifth child, Lionel G was born in 1917. Records show that he continued to live at his mother’s home, Castle House, Lydford until 2003-10.

Frederick died in 1943, aged 68, and Alice on 22 September 1962 at Beechfield Nursing Home in Yelverton, though her home address was given as Castle House, Lydford. Her £474 estate was to be administered by her son in law, Francis William Cowling, agricultural engineer and Irene Davey, the wife of Albert John Davey, who may have been an ironmonger in Tavistock.

On 15 November 1933 Archibald Henry died at Rackwood, Chatsworth Road in Torquay leaving only £730. It is likely that his widow Anna moved after this to live with her son and daughter in law at Hazeldene. Anna died in 1943 aged 91.

In 1933 Marjorie, aged 19, using the surname Newman Clark, married Edward Eyre Maunsell in Tavistock. He appears to have been 41 at the time of the marriage. This Maunsell name resonates in the navy and in Ireland, but no direct connection has been made. Edward may have been born in Macroom, Ireland in 1886. He died at 13 Whitham Park, Tavistock, leaving £15,666 to May Pearce, wife of Leonard Archibald Pearce 1892-1963. She may have been his sister.

As Marjorie married John Lewis Taylor, born 14 May 1912, in 1937 in Totnes, it would appear that her first marriage was shortlived and ended in divorce. Unsubstantiated family records indicate John and Marjorie had a daughter, though official records only indicate one son born of Taylor/Newman Clark parentage: Peter G Taylor in Tavistock in 1943. In 1939 John Lewis Taylor was recorded as being an insurance agent with the Life & Fire Association, living at home at 2 Leightor Road, Paignton with his parents, John E and Ethel. He served with the 7^th Devonshire Regiment during the second World War. Living at separate addresses in this registration, would not indicate that they were living apart, particularly given the possible support needs of Marjorie’s parents and grandmother at Hazeldene. However, it would appear that this marriage also ended in divorce, with both partners marrying again in 1952: John to Mary Alison K Pomeroy/Newland in Paignton and Marjorie to Frederick C Oliver in Bournemouth. Her parents appear to have moved there to be with her, as both were living at Crossley Lodge, 2 Fitzharris Avenue, Bournemouth when they died. Archibald on 12 February 1953, leaving £2,547 and Bella at the Herrison Hospital in Charminster on 26 May 1965, leaving £3,627 to Marjorie Alys Newman Oliver married woman.  Marjorie died in 2003.

It has not been possible to identify the other person at Hazeldene in this record.

Norman followed his father into the Post Office branch of the civil service, working in Maidstone initially as a Post Office clerk, boarding with Mrs Chambers at St George’s Square in 1891, then on to Lower Frant Road, when he described his occupation as Civil Service Post Office sorting clerk and telegraphist, boarding with Henry and Florence Freeman. It was here that he was living as a newly wed Post Office overseer, with his wife, Harriet in 1911. They had married in St Columb in 1910, but without a maiden name it has not been possible to find out more about her prior to her marriage or whether they had children. They were still living at Moorcroft on 13 July 1942 when Harriet died, leaving £961. Norman was living at Cornerways in Lydford when he died on 28 December 1961, the day after his 89^th birthday. He left £4,813.

Arthur married Alice Betty Davey in Tavistock, in 1939, when he was a general farm labourer. She was the daughter of Frederick Edwin Davey 1883-1951, a farm waggoner, when she was born, and his wife Louisa Paynter 1877-1951 who had married in Tavistock in 1902. They had had six children: Florence Louisa, Harold Frederick, Thomas Herbert, Alice Betty, Lionel J 1916-24 and Douglas between 1903-18. Douglas, a rabbit trapper, was still living with his parents at Allerford Cottage, Lewdown in 1939. Fred and Louisa died within months of each other in 1951. Arthur was living at Merrivale, 26 West Moor Park, Tavistock when he died on 3 March 1984. Alice continued to live at the same address until her death eighteen months later on 17 October 1985.

On 28 April 1902 Edith married Ernest Arthur Gomm, a surveyor, from Brentford who was living in Great Haslington. He was one of the ten children of William Gomm 1843-87, a brewer and maltster, and his wife Elizabeth Ann Dobby 1848-1929, the daughter of John Dobby, gentleman, who had married on 5 June 1866 at St Peter’s Church, Hammersmith. As the son of William Gomm, also a brewer, William jun must have been a very successful brewer as he left £27,574 when he died at the family home, Caerleon, Brentford on 10 June 1887. Their son William John 1867-1908 appears to have taken over the business when his father retired. He had married Florence Emmerson in 1888, and they had twin daughters born in 1888, Florence, who may have gone to Vermont, USA when she was 21, and Lily, who married Archibald Henry Carpenter in 1911, and sons William born 1890, who married Dorothy Agnes Blyth and becames a solicitor and John born 1892, who was an architect’s articled pupil in 1911. Sadly for the children, their mother Florence had died on 1 July 1903 and their father on 27 June 1908, leaving £15,033. The family had been living at Eversleigh, The Butts, Brentford, when their father died, but they were at 55 Creighton Road, Springfield Road, South Ealing in 1911, but still living together.

Ernest Arthur was the third son of William and Elizabeth Ann Gomm. In 1911, he and his wife Edith were living in a four bedroomed house, at Ferncliffe, Downderry, a seaside village at Torpoint, with their two children Muriel, born 20 May 1902 and Rupert, born on 4 November 1905. Ernest, aged 33, was living on his own means. This may have indicated that he had done very well as a surveyor, or was benefitting from his father’s will. Also living in Downderry at that time was his youngest brother, Sidney Robert, an architect and surveyor, who had married Amy Frances Barrett 1887-1974 on 22 May 1909 at St Pancras Parish Church. They were living at Sea View Bungalow with their daughter Vivian May, born in 1910. Their other daughter Margaret Frances 1912-2004 was born after the census, on 12 July 1912. Less than three years later, when he was 30, Sidney died in the Bodmin Lunatic Asylum on 5 March 1915, by which time his family was living at 8 Station Parade, Muswell Hill. His widow, Amy, the daughter of a Town Clerk would have had sufficient funds to raise their daughters from his £1,029 estate.

When Ernest signed up to the Labour Corps in the Devon Regiment, he gave his occupation as surveyor, and the address as Storm Crest in Brenton Road, Downderry but this was changed to Triffle and later Sunny Side. When he died on 9 April 1929, they were still living in Downderry. Probate for his £979 estate was granted to his widow Edith, and son Rupert, at that time a house agent. By 1939 Rupert was a café proprietor in Hastings. He was living at 36 Hayle, Terrace, Hayle when he died, aged 70, on 17 June 1976, leaving £9,305. His sister, Muriel, was a children’s nurse at Bradford College in Bradfield, Berkshire in 1939 and was 91 when she died in Cardiganshire in 1994. Edith may have been living with her son, Rupert, when she died in the Penzance area late in 1969, aged 90 or he may have inherited her house.

Originally from Yorkshire, Josiah was the son of William Jepson Newman 1816-59, also a clergyman, and his wife, Anastasia Prickett 1815-56. They had nine children before their untimely deaths, when in their early forties.  Initial probate for the Rev William, showed his father, solicitor William Newman as grandfather and guardian of their children. But the next census in 1861 shows how the family was split: Anastasia 1842-1922 boarding at school: William Marmaduke, 1845-81, who later lived in Jamaica, Alfred 1848, Josiah and John Jepson 1851-89 living with their aunt Martha Wilkinson and her sons, while Francis Henry 1847-1918, who became a solicitor’s clerk in 1866 and was later a retired farmer, was living with his uncle John Newman, also a clergyman. Elizabeth Agnes 1852-83 and Philip 1853-1908 were at Tender Oaks, Warsburgh, Yorkshire in the care of Mary Edlington, housekeeper to tailor George Swift and his wife Maria, a schoolmistress.  Dorothy 1856-1929 was living at Darley Cliffe with her grandparents William and Elizabeth and a range of aunts, though listed after the servants. Philip was also at Durley Cliffe in 1871. Dorothy’s entry in the baptismal register indicates that she was received in to the church on 31 May 1857, having been baptised privately in Hull on 21 December 1856. This may be linked with her mother’s death that year.

Josiah continued to live with his aunt throughout his studies at Magdalen College, Cambridge and on 5 July 1872 had to renew the administration of his father’s probate, taken out in 1860 by his grandfather, which had expired.  In 1881 Josiah was a clergyman living in the Rectory at West Buckland with his bride of one year, Frances Mallock. They had married in 1880 in the Newton Abbot area. She came from a very privileged background, being the daughter of Charles Herbert Mallock 1803-73 and his wife Maria Champernowne 1813-93 of Cockington Hall, Cockington, who had married in 1836 in Dartington. They had at least eight children. In 1851 Charles Herbert Mallock was described as a magistrate, landowner and farmer with 700 acres, employing 31 labourers and 11 indoor staff including a governess and a housekeeper. As a widow, Maria Champerknowne Mallock moved to Thornhill Brake with three unmarried daughters, probably after the marriage of their second son, Richard, a Lieutenant in the Royal Artillery who married Mary Jones Dickson on 18 April 1876. In 1875, their eldest son, also Charles Herbert, who had become a barrister after studying at Exeter College, Oxford, died after a stay of nearly ten months in Moorcroft Institution. Their third son John Jervis also attended Exeter College, Oxford, going on to become a clergyman.

The 1891 census shows Josiah and Frances with five children and Frances’ sister Gertrude 1851-1902 living with them.

Their children were Mary Louisa 1881-1957, who had been a head teacher, aged 29, living at Hyacinthe Cottage, Poole Road, Lytchet Minster, Dorset in 1911 and in 1939 she was retired and living at Thornhill Brake with her elderly aunt Catherine Mallock aged 86. Mary Louisa was living at Holmeleigh with her sister Rachel, when she died on 31 October 1957, leaving the care of her £12,210 estate to her younger sister, Rachel Jaquette Newman.

Frances Agnes 1882-1946 had been staying with her Mallock aunts at Thornhill Brake, Cockington in 1901, and in 1911 was a domestic nurse for Arthur Edward Spender, managing director of the Western Morning Post, and his wife, Helen Frances, who had been born in Cockington. One of their children had Chambernowne as a second name, indicating that they might have been related through her grandmother, Maria. On 9 March 1922, when she was 39, she left Holmeleigh and sailed on the METAGAMA from London to St John, Brunswick to visit her sister, to help with her children. She had not intended that her stay be permanent but in 1923 she married Kent born farmer Arthur Young 1882-1956, who had been in Canada since 1905, and they settled in Knee Hill Valley, Innisfail, Alberta, Canada; travelling with him to England in 1928. On her death on 8 May 1949, she left a £5,118 estate in England in the care of her sisters Mary Louisa and Rachel Jaquette.

The sister she went to visit in Canada was Joan Olive Anastasia 1884-1971. In 1901 Joan had been staying with her Brereton cousins at the Rectory, Little Massingham, Norfolk, where Joseph and his son were both clergymen. In 1911 Joan was a secondary teacher living with her family at the spacious fifteen roomed Woodleigh Rectory, Loddeswell, Devon but on 30 April 1913 she sailed on the ROYAL EDWARD from Bristol to Halifax, intending to work as a housekeeper. In 1916, in Calgary, she married Archibald Edward Hoar, known as Archie, originally from Maidstone in Kent. Archie served in the Canadian forces during World War 1, and during that time Joan spent time back with her family in Devon. They made several trips home in the following years, taking children to visit the family at home, including a trip made by the whole family, Archie, Joan, Charles Richard, Geoffrey E and Frances Anastasia in 1926.  The 1921 Canadian census shows that her younger sister Rachel Jaquette was living with them at the time. Both couples are buried in the Knee Hill Valley cemetery.

Ruth Ellen 1886-1956 was a pupil teacher, staying with her mother’s brother Rev John Jervis Mallock and his family at the Rectory, East Allington in 1901 and in 1911 was boarding with the Passley family at Church Street, Martock, Somerset where she was a teacher at the Church of England School. She was still living at Holmeleigh when she died on 13 April 1956 at the Beechfield Nursing Home in Yelverton leaving an estate valued at £9,188 to the care of her sisters Mary Louisa and Rachel Jaquette, both spinsters.

Charles Herbert Alfred 1887-1953 was living at Woodleigh Rectory in 1911 with his parents, sister Joan and younger sister, Rachel and a vistor, Gertrude Clare Briggs, his future wife. Charles was a civil engineer and on 28 December 1914 he married Gertrude Clare Briggs in Bombay. Freemasonry records indicate that he was still in India in 1921, but by 1939 he and Clare were living at the Old Bell in Dorchester with a child. Charles had retired as a civil engineer with the railway service but undertook duties as an Air Raid Warden during the war. They were living at The Court House, Litton Cheney, Dorset when he died in 1953, leaving £20,055 to his widow, Clare.

In 1911 Frances indicated that she had been married thirty years and had had six children, all of whom were still alive at that date. The one that was not born until after the 1891 census was Rachel Jaquette 1892-1966. The 1901 census shows her with her parents and sister Mary Louisa, and aunt Elizabeth Mallock at West Buckland Rectory. We know she was in Canada in 1921 but she does not appear on the 1911 census in England. She died at Holmeleigh on 17 August 1966, leaving an estate of £35,706. Frances was living at Holmeleigh when she died on 20 January 1932, leaving a £1,151 estate to be administered by her daughters Mary Louisa and Rachel Jaquette. Reverend Josiah died on 3 April 1935, leaving £11,147 in the care of daughters Mary Louisa and Ruth Ellen.

This has been a fascinating story of two families with differing experiences, merged in to one, with the base of Holmeleigh for over forty years from 1922 through to 1966, at least.

St Aubyn and Caroline were married in Castleford, Yorkshire in April 1862. As the second son of Rev Hender and his wife, Helen Mathilda Isabella Napleton 1805-77, he was destined for the church and served at Swindon, Staffordshire before becoming the Vicar of Collingham, Yorkshire 1867-74 but his future prospects changed with the death of his father on 13 December 1867, followed by the death of his brother, Hender John Molesworth-St Aubyn in June 1868, making Rev St Aubyn heir to his cousin’s baronetcy.

Two baronetcies were created for members of the St Aubyn family. The St Aubyn Baronetcy of Clowance was created in 1671 for John St Aubyn and continued through four subsequent baronets, all named John St Aubyn. The title became extinct on the death of the fifth baronet in 1839. His illegitimate son Edward St Aubyn became the first baronet of the new St Aubyn baronetcy of St Michael Mount. The fifth baronet’s legacy continued through his daughter, Catherine St Aubyn, the mother of Reverend Hender Molesworth, who in 1844 assumed by royal licence the additional surname of St Aubyn, and was the father of Annie Caroline’s father, later Sir St Aubyn Hender Molesworth-St Aubyn, 12^th baronet of the Molesworth-St Aubyn baronets. The Molesworth baronetcy was created in 1689 for Hender Molesworth, Governor of Jamaica. Molesworth baronets were active in politics throughout.

The eleventh baronet Sir Lewis William Molesworth 1853-1912, in 1875, married Jane Graham, daughter of Brigadier-General Daniel Marsh Frost of St Louis, Missouri. She died in 1913 of heart failure, which the inquest found had been brought on by the sting of a wasp. Sir Lewis died suddenly in 1912 at Vane Tower, an Italianate villa in Torquay, where he had arrived on a visit. As he and his wife had no children, the baronetcy passed to his cousin, Sir Aubyn Hender Molesworth-St Aubyn, formerly Vicar of Collingham, Yorkshire and the great-great-grandson of Sir John St Aubyn 4^th baronet of St Aubyn Baronetcy of Clowance. Thus the adjusted name Molesworth-St Aubyn was brought into being by the 12^th baronet, linking back to the St Aubyn baronetcy of Clowance.

In 1871 Hender and Caroline were living in Back St, Collingham with their four children: Helen Flora 1863-1939, Hugh 1865-1942 (13^th baronet), Annie Caroline and Beville 1871-1946. By 1881 the family had moved to 18 Chapel St in Grosvenor, Westminster, London and in 1891, all four children were with their mother at the Clowance Mansion, whilst their father was elsewhere. Caroline had been an invalid for a considerable time, suffering greatly from asthma. She and her husband had left England some months before, visiting several places in France for her health. A stay in San Remo not long before her death did not alleviate her suffering very much and on 8 June 1899 she died quite suddenly at Varese, Lombardy, with Annie being the only child able to be at her bedside. She left £30,079 in the care of Wentworth Hugh Alexander Ewing Cattley. After her death, St Aubyn married Danish Ingeborg Alfhild Muller, thirtysix years his junior, in 1902 in St Columb. She was the daughter of Mr I V Sigvaid Muller of Torquay. The 1911 census shows them living at Clowance Park, a mansion of about thirtyfour rooms. The Rev Sir St Aubyn died in Chelsea on 18 May 1913.   Probate was granted to his son, Sir Hugh, the 13th baronet, who was married to Emma Sybil Wake, daughter of Admiral Charles Wake, and his son in law Rev Charles Rowland Wynne De Cergat, husband of his daughter, Helen Flora.

Caroline, the mother of Annie Caroline, was the daughter of the Rev Charles Medhurst, afterwards Wheler, of Otterden Place, Kent, JP 1795-1877 and later of Ledhurst Hall, Yorkshire, and his wife, Annie. He and his descendants have entries on page 655 in North American Family Histories: THE BLOOD ROYAL OF BRITAIN, though the numbering of Caroline’s children and grandchildren from 31428 and 8709, though indicating royal connections, do not seem to be positions close to the throne.

On 19 October 1897 when Annie Caroline was thirty years old, she was married, by her brother in law, Rev Charles Rowland de Certo (Cergat) at Crowan, Cornwall, to Edward Harvey Williams 1865-1938, gentleman of Tideford, son of Frederick Martin Williams, baronet, and his wife Mary Christian Law 1839-94. Altogether Frederick and Mary Christian had eleven children, two of whom succeeded to the baronetcy, with Edward as the third son. Dame Mary Christian Williams, who died in Bath on 8 February 1894 left £47,765 to be administered by three of her children: John Charles Williams, Caroline Sydney Arnott, wife of John Alexander Arnott and Rev Leonard Alfred Williams, clerk. Mary Christian was the youngest daughter of Rev Robert Vanburgh Law MA 1799-1884, rector of Christian Malford in Wiltshire, where the couple had married in 1858, and his wife Sidney Dorothea Davidson 1806-82. Rev Robert Law, educated at Peterhouse, Cambridge, was the fourth son of George Henry Law 1761-1845, Bishop of Chester and later Bishop of Bath and Wells, and Robert himself held a number of positions in the Diocese of Bath and Wells, where he was described as ‘A first rate rider to hounds’

Frederick Martin Williams 1830-78 was the 2^nd baronet Williams of Tregullow. His father William Williams served as Deputy-Lieutenant of Cornwall, High Sheriff of Cornwall and Deputy-Warden of the Stannaries. He was created Baronet Williams of Tregullow in the County of Cornwall on 4 August 1866. Upon the death of Frederick in 1878 the baronetcy passed to his eldest son William Robert 1860-1903 and due to the untimely death of his sons William Frederick 1886-1905, Frederick William 1888-1913 and Burton Robert 1889-1917, the (7^th) baronetcy passed to Frederick’s second son, Frederick Law Williams, a Lieutenant in the 1^st Battalion Dorset regiment. 5^th baronet, Frederick William’s obituary indicates that when he inherited a large fortune, he left his country home and led a Bohemian life in London before moving to an espensively furnished flat in the Montmartre district, Paris. It is believed that he had contracted a drug habit before moving to France and being found unconscious in his lodgings, all attempts to rouse him were unsuccessful and he never regained consciousness due to an excessive dose of ether. His brother, Burton Robert, who succeeded to the title as 6^th baronet, was formerly a lieutenant in the 3^rd Battalion of the Devon Regiment and at the time of his succession was living on a tea plantation in Ceylon.  He was killed in action at the Battle of Passchendael on 3 October 1917.

Throughout the early part of their childless marriage, Edward and Annie lived at the eleven roomed Fourburrow House, Scorrier, Gwennap, where Edward was described as being retired from the Sarawak Civil Service (a Malaysian state on Borneo) and later of private means. By the time of his death at Chollacott Nursing Home in Tavistock on 4 November 1938, the couple were living at Bridge House, Lydford. He left £4,601 to his widow, Annie. Annie Caroline Williams continued to live at Holmeleigh with the Newman sisters, until her death on 10 February 1943, aged 76, leaving an estate of £22,632 to be administered by Barclays Bank. What an interesting family memoir she could have written!

Edith, orphaned at the age of 18, was living with her wheelwright uncle and aunt, Robert and Elizabeth and their daughter Elizabeth at Coburg, Chudleigh, Devon in 1881. Her marriage to Samuel John Priston took place eighteen months later. The 1911 census indicates that Samuel and Edith had been married twentyseven years and had six children, all of whom are said to have survived until 1911. It is more likely that three of the children had died young: Leonard Thomas 1892-2, Stanley Thomas 1894-1900 and Ellen Olive 1900-00.  The other children were Edward John born 1885, William H 1887 and Arthur George. In 1891 the family was living at 17 Church Road, St Thomas, Exeter and in 1901 and 1911 the house  number was 36. In 1911 the household included Samuel’s brother, Ironmonger William Henry and his nephew Edgar William Tussip, aged 18, and like Arthur, a drapery apprentice.

The family was living at Raventor on 12 March 1936 when Samuel died. Probate for his £18,642 estate was granted to (his older son) William Henry Priston, retired Indian veterinary service, A G Priston, no occupation, and his solicitor. When Edith, a widow of Raventor, died on 5 August 1954, Arthur was again described as of no occupation. She left £5,485. In the period after her death Arthur appeared in the Exeter and Plymouth phone books at two properties: 1956, 1957 and 1958 at Raventor  – Lydford 223, and Glenfield, Mary Tavy in 1956 and 1957 – Mary Tavy 250. By 1960 he had moved to Croftor, Sourton – Bridestowe 308, where he was living when he died at 3 The Drive, Hartley, Plymouth on 19 November 1960. His estate of £37,819 was entrusted to William Henry Priston, retired major in HM Army and Lewis Oswald Lindsey, medical practioner, and his solicitor. Sadly, brother William Henry died on 13 April 1961, only five months after his younger brother.

It has not been possible to ascertain when Mary died, but Walter probably died early in 1958, aged 84. Their son Walter Burnard was still living at Wastor Farm when he died on 22 February 1976, leaving £23,200.

In 1891 Harold had been living at home with his family at 2 Mildmay Street, Charles in Plymouth. It is not known where the family were in 1901 but in 1911, Harold was serving overseas in the Army Ordnance Corps as a clerk with the rank of Corporal S/4930. Records indicate that between 1915-23 he was a sub conductor in the AOC. Like his brother, James, he received the Meritous Service Medal for his service in France. He also received a special issue Victory Medal and a clasp to his 1914 Star. It may be that his service ended on 12 January 1923, when he was approaching the age of 40.

In 1911 Elsie Kate was an unemployed dressmaker living with her family at 1 Braidwood Terrace in Plymouth. Sister Mabel was a grocery clerk and May was unemployed. Elsie was living in Lydford when she died, aged 66, on Christmas Day 1944. Probate for her £385 estate was granted to her sister, Ellen May Petherick. This change in her address may have been a consequence of the  marriage of her brother, Harold to Irene Mary M Stapleton, twenty three years his junior, in 1942. Irene 1906-91, born in Torrington, had been a secretary lodging with the Purchin family in Aldermaston, Berkshire in 1939. When Harold died on 10 October 1961, aged 78, he was living at Elmover, Fremington, Barnstaple. The Midland Bank was appointed executor for his £2,930 estate. Irene was living in Barnstaple when she died in 1991, aged 85.

In 1901 Frederick was a police constable living in Bideford, with his wife Lucy and two children Harry 3 and Flossie 1.  In 1920 Flossie married Edwin Theodore Prowse who, born 5 May 1894, had enlisted in the Royal Navy K16030 on 2 September 1912. As a Stoker Second Class, he spent time training at VIVID ll reaching the rank of Stoker Petty Officer over his career, which finished on 14 February 1928. He re-entered the service on 4 October 1935 as a Chief Stoker. They had four children Theodore Sylvanus, born 1921, Douglas R 1923 and Joy P, later Wadham and Lewis born 1933. Edwin was living at 35 Church Way, Weston Hill Plymouth when he died on 26 November 1986. Flossie died in 1983 in Swansea.

George Henry Taylor Lake, known as Harry, was born in 1898. Living with his parents in 1901, he was with his Lethbridge grandparents in Slate Quarry, Coryton in 1911. During the First World War he served as a private, initially, with the Devonshire Regt 66819 before transferring to 2^nd Battalion, Royal Warwicks. He served in France and Italy, and it was there that he died of wounds on 14 (sometimes given as 4) November 1918, three days after the armistice, aged 21 years. He is commemorated on the Lydford War Memorial and a Memorial Service was held in the church for him on Sunday 15 December 1918. See LYDFORD. Coryton Memorial says “35 men served and two made the ultimate sacrifice.” Young Harry was one of these.

Much later in their marriage, Frederick and Lucy had their second son: Willam Henry T.  It is not known what form his incapacitation took. Frederick was 80 when he died in 1953, Lucy died in 1956 aged 79 and William was living in Cornwall when he died in 1997. He may have married Pauline R Parkyn in 1967.

Son Jabez had been living at home in 1891. In 1901 he was a sawyer, lodging with the Tickell family in Chapel House, Launceston. William, the head of the family was a retired coachman. In Tavistock in 1903 Jabez married Florence Mary Mounce, the daughter of Thomas, a cattleman on a farm, and his wife, Agnes of West Broadtown, Milton Abbot. The 1911 census shows Jabez, 28, a groom and domestic gardener, and his wife Florence Mary. They confirmed that they had married eight years before and had three children: Gladys Cristine aged 6, Gerald Finley, aged 5, and 11 month old Jabez Edward George. Jabez and both his sons were born in North Tamerton, Holsworthy but Florence had followed the old tradtion and returned to her birthplace, Milton Abbot, for the birth of their first child, Gladys Cristine in 1904. Gladys married Harold A Furse, a farmer with agricultural machines, in 1927 and in 1939 they were living in Broadwoodwidger with their two children.

Details of Gerald‘s life can be found in 96: Burnville Cottages below and details of Jabez‘s in 84: 3 Railway Cottages below. Wilfred Russell was living at the Bungalow, Lydford Station at his death on 28 March 1963, naming Jabez Neale, haulage contractor, as executor for his £7,887 estate. Daughter Joyce Meda went on to marry Ronald H J Comer in 1941 and died in 1997. Youngest daughter, Gwendoline Lily married William C Blithe in 1940 and died in South Gloucester in 1998. Florence Mary (wife of Jabez Neale) of The Bungalow, died on 13 November 1958, leaving an estate of £486. Jabez was also living at The Bungalow, Lydford Station when he died at Tavistock Hospital on 4 February 1966, leaving his estate of £11,624 to the care of sons, Gerald Finley Neale and Jabez Edward George Neale, haulage contractors, and his solicitor.

Jabez and Helena had three children: Sheila J 1935-, who married Eric Redstone In 1955 (see 143: 4 Council House), Derek G 1945 who married Ruth Redstone in 1970, she may have been a cousin of his brother-in-law. From 2003-7 Derek was living in Lydford and from 2008-10 in Tavistock. There were long gaps between their children as youngest son, Anthony C was born in Portsmouth in 1953, when his sister was eighteen and his brother, eight. Jabez was living at 94 Old Exeter Road, Tavistock when he died, aged 81, on 2 May 1991, leaving an estate valued at under £115,000. Helena had died on 1 October 1973, aged 65.

Annie and James had four children: Edwin James John 1892-1979 who worked on the railways and married Edith Rosina Williams 1894-1979 in Cardiff, Glamorgan in 1927. William Gilbert, 1894-1976 known as Gilbert, was working as a horseman on Burnford Farm in Tavistock Hamlets in 1911. In 1919 he married Ruby May Smith 1895-1969 in Westbury. They had one daughter. Florence Alice A 1897-1919 was twentythree when she died. Francis Harold 1904-70 married Clarice Trethewey 1906-71 in 1934. He joined the Great Western Railway (91175) in 1937. They had four children including Pamela born in 1935.  Annie died in 1947.

Lawrence Hubert married Phyllis M P Devereux in Kensington in 1913. The birth of Phyllis Madeleine Devereux Pember was announced in the St James Gazette as being on 16 February 1887 and she was baptised on 23 May that year, when her family was living at 2 Oxford and Cambridge Mansions, Hyde Park. She was the daughter of Charles Devereux Pember, 1847-1902, a land agent, previously estate agent from Hereford, and his second wife, Margaret Rosalie G McAdam, twenty years his junior, born in Scotland. They had married in Marylebone, London in 1886, after the death of his first wife Ellen Anne Fribbens 1848-76, the mother of his five older children: Blanche Mary 1868-1951, Ellen Ida (Parker 1893) 1869-1951, Henry Walter Devereux 1872-1957, Charles Herbert 1874-74 and Ethel Jane (Muir 1907) 1875-1942. In 1891 all of the surviving Pember children were living at 40 Carlton Hill, Marylebone with Henry listed first, as son. Their father, Charles was at 1-2 Lansdowne Mansions in Hove in 1891, with his wife, Rosalie, boarding elsewhere in the same premises. He had returned to Carlton Hill, where he was living in 1892 and 1893.

Rosalie 1867-1947 used the name Roy Devereux when she published Side Lights on South Africa in 1898, reviewed in the Glasgow Herald in 1900. By 1899, Margaret Rose Devereux was living at 68 Victoria Street, Westminster. Charles died at 27 Sackville Gardens, Hove on 18 December 1902, aged 55, of chronic Bright’s disease. After his death, his daughters Ethel and Phyllis used the surname Devereux when they married. Margaret Rose/Rosalie, described as 5’3″, with a fair complexion, brown hair and hazel eyes, continued to enjoy publishing success under the name of Roy Devereux with Aspects of Algeria in 1912, Blue Magic in 1927 and The Incredible Truth in 1930. She lived at 55 Greencoat Place, Westminster from 1920 until at least 1933. On 3 December 1923, she arrived in New York, having been there previously 1899-1900. In 1938 she was living at 24 Cornwall Gardens, Kensington and from 1939-1945 she was at 90 Dorset House Marylebone, as Margaret Rose Roy Devereux, widowed authoress. Her death in 1947 was recorded under the name Roy P Devereux.

Phyllis Devereux was a milliner lodging at 16-17 Leinster Gardens in West London in 1911. After their 1913 marriage, Phyllis and Lawrence were living at 298a Earls Court Road, with the Devereux attached to his name rather than hers. Lawrence and Phyllis had two children. Aubrey Hubert Devereux was born on 6 August 1914, and married twice: Evelyn Churchill in 1938 in Hove and Patricia Mathie in 1948 Marylebone. He died on 10 November 1984 at 23 Thornhill Road, Mannamead, Plymouth leaving £59,091.  Their daughter Moyra J D was born early in 1927, over twelve years after her brother, and was probably the child living with them in 1939. In 1957 and 1961 her father Lawrence was living with her at The Moyne, Highfield Road in Woking, Surrey, after the death of his wife Phyllis on 2 February 1954, leaving £491. They had been living at Lyd Cottage in Lydford, where his parents had lived before the war. Lawrence was described as a retired hotel proprietor at the time. He died in Woking in 1969.

The daughter of merchant, Henry G Carey, Grace married solicitor Cecil Gabriel Lindo 1870-1943, at the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, Lauderdale Road, Paddington on 20 December 1899. The census records of 1901 and 1911 show the couple and stepson William jun living at 8 Queen’s Mansions, as they were at the time of the wedding of William and Marjorie in 1914. However the relationship between Cecil and Grace deteriorated, such that in February 1916 he wrote that over the previous four months the situation between them had been impossible and was growing worse, that he felt unequal to the strain which was beginning to affect his work and that it was his intention to move out of the flat to stay with his mother at 5 Hill Road, St John’s Wood. In her reply Grace maintained that she was at a loss to understand, as she had always done her best to ensure things ran smoothly and expected that they would be able to forget the differences when he returned. In his response Cecil states that the experience of the previous six months was such that he felt their only chance of future happiness was to live apart, though he was willing to take some of the blame, her attitude was so uncompromising, he felt that the old feeling of hostility would reassert itself. As this was his final decision, Grace went to court for a writ of restitution of conjugal rights which was granted on 5 June 1916. Cecil did not comply and a divorce was granted, allowing him to marry Violet Perpetua Armstrong in 1918. Cecil and Violet were living at Theobalds, Burgess Hill when he died on 4 May 1943, leaving her £840. Grace was living in Ealing when she died in 1950, aged 81.

The year after his marriage, on 6 August 1915, William jun’s Consular Registration records that he was making his living as a lift engineer on the underground railways, living at 29e Notting Hill Gate, married to Marjorie, with his mother Grace Lindo as his next of kin. His daughter Barbara was born on 26 September 1916. His draft World War 1 US registration declared him to be the chief assistant to the electrical engineer at the London Electrical Railway Company. He had a wife and child, was living at 29e Notting Hill Gate and had served for 4 years in the Electrical Engineers. Aged 27 years and 7 months he was declared exempt from military service, as he was engaged in work of national importance. He was in America on 23 June 1922 when he applied for a passport to allow him to travel from New York to France and the British Isles on 1 August 1922 on professional duties and he expected to return within 18 months. He stated that he was a London Railway engineer and had lived in the UK from January 1911 to June 1922.

Their elder son, also William Sebastian, was born in Brentford in 1921, he married Celia Bennett Davies in 1958 in Rugby, Warwickshire and was living in Leicester when he died in 2009. Their younger son Carey M R was born in Brentford on 2 February 1924 and in 1948 married Cicely Mary E Lister 1927-2002. The year after Cecily’s death he married Jade J Young in North Dorset when he was 79. He died the following year in Salisbury. Between 1922 and 1938 William made several trips to America, always alone, probably as an employee of the Otis Lift Company. But on 26 May 1939 he travelled from Southampton to New York with his American wife, Eva Baker, born on 26 October 1896 and their young daughter Susan Norris born 5 March 1938 and returned on the QUEEN MARY on 26 June 1939. So when Marjorie was staying in Brentor she was divorced, rather than married. William was living at 57 Stafford Court, High Street, Kensington when he died on 15 February 1952, on his way to St Mary Abbot’s Hospital, London W8, leaving £10,767 to his widow Eva, and thirteen year old daughter, Susan. Marjorie Alice did not remarry and was living at Michaelmas, Peckleton, Leicester, perhaps near her son, William, when she died on 18 December 1975, leaving £39,117.

Barbara married the London born actor Hedley Howard Mattingly in Barnstaple in 1943, while he was serving in the Royal Air Force. They moved to Canada in the early 1950s where he appeared in many television dramas, before moving to California in the 1960s, taking on a variety of film and television roles. His best known role was in Daktari as District Officer Claude Hedley in 77 episodes between 1966-9. When he died of cancer in Encino California in 1998, his obituary states that he was survived by Barbara and their son.

Hilda Betty, the only child of William and Hilda E, married Arthur J Beckley in Tavistock in 1950. He had been born in Bideford in 1927 and died in Dawlish on 22 March 2012. They had two daughters, both born in Barnstaple, Susan A in 1952 and Joyce E in 1959. They may have lived at 33 Manor Road, Abbotskerswell, Newton Abbot. Hilda Emma died in Newton Abbot in 1975 and William Parker in Exeter in 1968.

By that time, their only son, Henry Robert, who in 1931 had married Gladys Stephens, twenty years his junior, was a blacksmith. Gladys Mabel was the daughter of carpenter William Stephens 1869-1940 and his wife Elizabeth Ann R Cole 1874-1952, known as Lily. The Stephens, and their five eldest children, had been born in Mary Tavy. The family had moved to 90 Knighton Road in Plymouth, just before the 1911 census, where youngest son, Herbert was born in 1913. William and Lily continued to live in Knighton Road but were at number 64 in 1939. Gladys and Henry’s son, William R seems to have married twice, in 1964 in Tavistock to Miss Dowden and in 1994 in Plymouth to Muriel I Hockedy.  Gladys died in 1964 and Henry on 26 June 1992.

Donald Edwin 1929-2002 married Phyllis Grigg in the Tavistock area in 1957 and had two children: Jeremy and Suzanne. Lavinia Mary 1933-2016 married Charles R Pratt locally in 1952 and had two sons: David and Charles.

In 1911 Reginald was working at Broadley Farm for his uncle Gilbert Peatheyjones, along with his widowed aunt Bertha (Goodman) and her children. In Totnes in 1913 Reginald married Kate Furneaux, the daughter of farmer George Elliott 1852-1891 and his wife, Mary Louisa Partridge 1850-1924 of Diptford. At the age of 29, in 1881, George, with his young family, had been farming 200 acres. In 1911 Kate was living at Monkey Oak Farm, Harberton, housekeeping for her younger brother, George. The Kelly’s Directory for 1914 lists Reginald as farming at Lower Ashridge, Harberton and in 1919 and 1923 at Welstor Farm. Kate was living at 83 East Street, Ashburton when she died on 14 March 1956 leaving £159. She was described as the wife of Reginald, a retired farm bailiff. Reginald was living at 2 Woodland Road, Ashburton, when he died at Ashburton Hospital the following year on 15 April. He left his £175 estate in the care of his sister, Elizabeth Jane Ebbs.

Their daughter, Fanny Elizabeth 1909-86 married Able Seaman John T Wiscombe in 1933 in the Tavistock area. In 1939 she was living in Plymouth with two children, probably Shirley A M born 1936 in Devonport and Josephine P born Plymouth 1938. On 22 May 1941 her husband John was aboard HMS GLOUCESTER in the Mediterranean, escorting Malta convoys, when they were diverted to the Battle of Crete, against the first airborne invasion by the Germans. It was the first time intelligence gleaned from Enigma was used and the first time the Germans had encountered mass defence by the civilian population of an island. The difficulty of this operation deterred Hitler from using airborne invasion again but alerted the Allies to the effectiveness of an airborne force. HMS GLOUCESTER sank after being dive bombed by German planes with the loss of 722, of the 807, crew. John was one of those missing presumed killed. He was awarded a long service and good conduct award. In 1948 Fanny married Thomas Henry Landrey in the Tavistock area.

Kathleen’s younger daughter, Kathleen Joan married Harold Frank Babb 1912-1943 in 1938 in Tavistock. He was the son of Levi Frank Babb and his wife Alice Mary Wiscombe of Barnstaple. Like his father, previously, Harold served in the Devonshire Regiment, in the 2^nd Battalion. Levi Frank had been in the 4^th Volunteer Battalion and later the 6^th, breaking his leg when at Minehead Camp on 10 August 1911, just before he married Alice. Serjeant Harold Babb died on 31 July 1943 in Sicily, leaving Kathleen, living in Brentor, a war widow, just two years after her sister. Kathleen married Thomas Wallace five years later. Both daughters were executors for the £1,530 estate of their mother, Kathleen Mary of 16 Higher Cleaverfield, Launceston, when she died on 4 May 1952. Their stepfather William Downing had died, aged 86, at Holmleigh, Brentor on 19 August 1946, after being married to Kathleen for 28 years and leaving her the administration of his £3,247 estate.

Like his brother, Frank, Daniel was a Land Agent. In 1881 he had been single, living at Hewton Cottage later House. His parents, Daniel and Mary Eliza had eleven children between 1886-1902: listed below. Daniel was living at 12 Abbeymead, Tavistock when he died on 19 March 1935, leaving his estate of £3,873 in the care of his widow, Mary Eliza, and solicitor son, Alexander Henry Ward, and Henry Elliott Turner.

Mary Eliza was the daughter of underwriter Alexander Halstead Willion 1816-93 and his wife Jersey born Mary Ann Blanchard 1826-99. Mary Eliza was born in Ewell, Surrey in 1858, but in 1861 the family, including their four daughters and Mary Ann’s sister, were living at Duppas Hill in Croydon. By 1871 they had moved to 6 Lower Rock Gardens in Brighton and had had two more daughters.  In 1881 the family was at 17 Denmark Terrace, Brighton and it was presumably from here that Mary Eliza married. By 1891 the family had moved to Heathfield, Oakdale Road, Coventry Park, Streatham where Alexander died on 11 January 1893, leaving £2,555. Mary Ann died in Battle, Sussex in 1899. In 1939, Frank’s mother, Mary Eliza Ward was incapacitated and living at Restlands in Tavistock with her eldest daughter, Dorothy a retired nurse. Mary Eliza died in 1942.

Daniel and Mary Eliza’s children: Dorothy, born 26 July 1885, was boarding at a school in Brighton in 1901 and went on to become a nurse, training at St St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London between 1935-8. In 1939 she was retired and living with her mother at Restlands, Tavistock, taking on the duties of an ARP matron during the war. She may have died in Marlborough, Wiltshire in 1952 aged 67.

Marjorie, born 13 April 1887, travelled from Liverpool to New York on the CARONIA on 5 August 1908, when she was 21. Twelve years later, in 1920, she married solicitor, Henry Elliot Turner: born in Egg Buckland, he had been practising in Westbury on Trim in 1911. They appear to have been living in Plymouth for the births of their (possibly) four children: Margery L in 1921, Patricia Wolferstan on 18 August 1922-26 January 2009 (who married Nicholas R Crossley in 1944), Henry James, known as James Henry, born on 5 September 1923-1995 and Charles born in 1925. In 1939 Henry and Marjorie were living at 6 Seymour Park Villas in Plymouth with son, James, a student and one other child, probably one of his sisters. On 17 January 1952, Henry and Marjorie sailed on the STRATHEDEN to Sydney, returning from Wellington New Zealand on 25 July that same year on the RANGITIKI. As Henry was 65, it was probably a retirement trip of a lifetime and may have included a visit to her brothers, Daniel Willion and Humphrey. Marjorie died in 1964 and Henry was living at 19 Elm Road, Mannamead, Plymouth when he died on 9 November 1972 leaving £66,639.

Daniel Willion, born 8 February 1889, was with his family for the Census of 1901 and 1911. After that, he travelled to Australia where, on 8 December 1915, he married Lucy May Stringer 1887-1974, the daughter of Francis Kelly Stringer and his wife, Lucy Willson, of Queensland. From 1916 onwards they are recorded as farming at Bauple, Tiaro, Wide Bay, Queensland. They had moved to Netherdale, Mirani, Queensland by 1930 when they were joined by his brother, Humphrey (see Humphrey below for further details). Daniel enlisted in the Citizen Military Force for the duration of the Second World War, giving his wife, Lucy May, as his next of kin. The three continued to live there until the late 1940s when they moved to Dalrymple Heights, Mirani and finally to Ball Bay, Springcliffe in the 1960s, which may have indicated a retirement from farming. Daniel died in Queensland on 15 August 1964 and Lucy May on 26 March 1974.

Alexander Henry, born on 18 January 1891, was living at the family home, Hewton House, aged 20, in 1911 and was described as an Articled pupil Land Agent and Surveyor. In the summer of 1918, in Rochford, Essex he married Daisy Adele Courtenay Roberts, born 10 May 1892, the daughter of Church of England clergyman, Arthur Courtenay Roberts, of St Mary’s Church, Great Dunmow. On 21 May 1919, when he was living at Maristow, Alexander was initiated into the Freemasons in the Horrabridge, now Yelverton, Lodge. In 1939 the couple were living at Cumerew in Tavistock with Daisy’s older sister, Gwendolen. Alexander died in Kings Lynn in 1970 and was buried in St Mary’s Churchyard. Daisy died in Lincolnshire the following year and was also buried in St Mary’s Churchyard, Kings Lynn.

Details for Frank, born 1892 are given below.

Mary, born 25 January 1894, married James Ruddall Blanchard in 1916. He was twenty years her senior and a member of the Blanchard family of Leigh, Milton Abbot. Leigh (Lega) was mentioned in the Domesday book as being held by Tavistock Abbey. Leased from the Duke of Bedford, Leigh was taken over by the Blanchard family in 1844 and was in their hands until the 1970s, with 71 files of records covering 1844-1961, deposited with the Plymouth and West Devon Rocord Office. The farm was run by George Blanchard; his son, James, and the latter’s son, Peter, in business with his mother as Mrs M Blanchard and Son. James and Mary had five children: Mary born 1917, Peter Rudall 26 April 1919 -1972, Frank William 2 September 1920-1986 who married Stephanie M Giles in 1955, Eleanora 1922 and Grace 27 April 1923, who married Michael A C Norman in Launceston in 1949.  James died on 27 June 1940 aged 66, leaving £4,651 to the care of his widow, Mary. Mary lived on until 1996 when she died at the magnificent age of 102.

Phyllis, born in 1895, was boarding at Mrs Stott’s School, Rossholme, 13 and 14 Ellenborough Crescent in Weston Super Mare in 1911 when she was 15. The school was in two houses with a total of 29 rooms. In 1918 she married Harold Dewar Norman, a paymaster commander in the Royal Navy. Their three children were born in Devon: Margaret Dewar was born in Devonport in 1919, and she married Robert A Haig in Liskeard in 1955. David Willion was born on 6 May 1921 in Teignbridge, and in the same year as his sister, married Pauline J P Hewes in Plymouth. Dorothea Mary was born in Tavistock in 1924 and was the first of the children to be married, when she married Thomas B V Marsh in Liskeard in 1954. The Norman family was resident in Wellington, New Zealand at some stage, returning to England 1^st Class on the PORT HUNTER on 30 January 1931, giving their contact details as c/o D Ward esq, Abbey Mead, Tavistock (her father). Phyllis and Harold and one of their children were living at Furzedon in Tavistock in 1939. Harold, who had begun his naval career on 15 July 1908, was living at 220 Whitchurch Road, Tavistock when he died on 23 February 1977, leaving an estate of £17,438. Phyllis died on 26 June 1993 at Evendine House, Evendine Lane, Colwell, Malvern leaving £264,868.

Pascoe Leigh, was born on 28 March 1897. Though living with his family in 1911, he had been staying with the Toms family in 1901. There is a connection through the Northway family (see 1911 People Jackman and Ward families). In Bideford, Devon in 1923 he married Phyllis Ernestine Victoria Bartlett, the daughter of Ernest William Smith Bartlett, an affluent timber merchant, and his wife, Ada Collins Bartlett. In 1911 the Bartletts were living in a ten roomed house in Bideford, with their five surviving daughters. Ernest was described as a manufacturer of hurdles, sleepers and a timber merchant. By 1939 the family had moved to Hawkesley, Echo Barn Lane, Wrecclesham, Farnham in Surrey with Ernest having become director of a timber company. Pascoe and Phyllis had three children: Christopher, born in Exeter in 1928, Anthony Daniel 1931 and Diana C 1936, both born in Barnstaple. However, his youngest son Peter D, born in Cambridge in 1943, had a Norville mother, probably Mildred E Norville, with whom he had been living at 5 Albert Terrace Mews, NW London in 1947 and whom he married in 1948. They are both on the Dunstable electoral registers from 1955 through to 1976, initially at 4 Albion Street and later at 65 Beecroft Way.

Phyllis’s father, Ernest William Smith Bartlett of Hawkesley died on 4 May 1958, leaving £56,244 to be administered by Basil Steven Allen, company director, Anthony Daniel Ward accountant (his grandson), Edwin Augustus Hopkins estate agent and Francis John Ward, company director. When Ada Collins Bartlett died on 11 April 1962 at Hawkesley, tellingly, Phyllis Ernestine Victoria Ward was described as single woman, whilst her sister Doris Vera was a spinster when they administered her £4,561 estate. Phyllis never remarried and outlived Pascoe who died in Luton in 1978. She was living at Hawkesley, I Hilary Road, Farnham, when she died on 10 February 1995, leaving an estate of £219, 963.

John Willion, was born on 21 May 1898. In 1930 in Brentford he married Elizabeth Marion Crimp, the daughter of solicitor, Harris Norman Crimp of East Acton. They had three daughters Lillian E born in 1935 and Dorothy N, born 1938, both in the Tavistock area and Gillian M C born in Barnstaple in 1946. In 1939 John and Elizabeth 1906-82 were living with their two eldest daughters at Keswick, Torrington, Devon, where John was, not surprisingly, a surveyor, valuer and auctioneer. In 1970 their daughter Gillian married Patrick Alan Houseman 1935-2001 in Bideford. Her parents were living at Highfield, Buckleigh, Westward Ho, when John died aged 84 on 25 July 1982, leaving £72,256. Elizabeth had died just six weeks before, on 13 June 1982, leaving £65,537.

Humphrey was born in the Tavistock area in 1900 and was with his family for the 1901 and 1911 census. On 25 February 1918 he signed up with the RAF, 128448, giving his father Daniel as his next of kin. The next record we have of him is joining his brother, Daniel Willion, and his wife, Lucy May, at their farm at Netherdale, Mirani, Queensland. For just one year, 1936, the electoral registers show that Dorothy May Ward was living there as well. She may have been Humphrey’s wife, daughter of Daniel and Lucy or a stranger. Also in the 1940s, Charles Edward Ward, a dairy farmer, and his wife, Jessie May Cunningham, who had married on 3 July 1935, were living in the Mirani area, moving to Dalrymple Heights at the same time as the others. Again the relationship to Daniel and Humphrey is unclear. Humphrey died on 26 August 1976, Charles Edward in 1998 and Jessie in 1995.

Edward Rex was born in 1902 and became a civil servant in the Colonial Administration Service. On 13 July 1940 he travelled from Freetown to Liverpool on the ELYSIA after a posting in Liberia, giving his mother’s home Restlands, Chollacott, Tavistock as his UK address. On 11 March 1942, he sailed with a fellow Civil Servant, Edward Joseph Saltwell, from New York via Halifax to Cardiff, aboard the JAMAICA PLANTER, with both giving their country of residence as Nigeria. He travelled from Hull to Bathurst, Gambia on 23 May 1942 aboard the KANA, giving the Restlands address again. However, on 22 December 1951, when 49, giving his occupation as Colonial Secretary, he travelled with Mary Edith Isabel Ward, aged 44, from Bathurst, Gambia aboard the APAPA to Warrenhurst, Barns Green near Horsham. Edward’s service to the Crown was marked by his appointement as CMG, a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George: an honour for individuals who have held high office and rendered important services in countries in the Empire. Edward died on 11 February 1984 at Cameron House, Ryde, Isle of Wight, leaving an estate of under £40,000 and was featured in the 1985-6 Who’s Who.

Frank Ward married Mary Abbott Green in late 1918 in Lexden, Essex. She was the daughter of farmer Daniel Abbott Green 1861-1943 and his wife Anna Maria Goodchild 1871-1957. They had married in 1891 and had six children, all with the middle name Abbot, like their father: Beryl Mary 1893-1973, who was boarding at Mrs Ramsey’s School, Hillcote, Eastbourne in 1911, married Colin Morgan Oliver in 1916 and had daughter Janet Priscilla in 1924. Sybil Mary 1894-1981 was boarding at St Stephen’s College, Windsor in 1911 and in 1923 she married Abercrombie Ogilvy, an army officer, in Quetta, Bengal, India. In 1930 she sailed from Bombay to Bonnaford in Brentor with son Bruce John 6 and Barbara 2. In 1933, she was due to sail with Ogilvy and daughter, Barbara 4, heading for her parents’ home East Donyland Hall near Colchester. She died in South Africa in 1981.  Second Lieutenant Daniel Abbott Green 1895-1916 of the 1^st Kings Liverpool Regiment died in France on 13 November 1916 and is commemorated on the Thiepval memorial. He had been boarding at the Grammar School in Bury St Edmunds in 1911. Geoffrey 1898-1983 was boarding at the Cedars School, Stanway in 1911. He became a farmer, and continued to live in Fingringhoe for much of his life, working with his father. He married Phyllis H Keeling in 1921. Mary A (see below), Audrey (known as Awdry) Helen 1907-1987 was a private secretary in Cosford in 1939 and married Peter Whitfield Gallup, the son of Henry Curtis Gallup in Colchester in 1942 (see 99 Langstone Manor below). With her sister Mary Abbot Ward, she was executor for her mother’s £7,393 estate when she died at The Old Rectory, Layer, Marney, Essex, on 1 January 1957.    Margaret L 1914-, was living with her parents at Donyland Hall, Lexden in 1939, served as a VAD mobile during the war and married Michael S Ross in 1945.

Frank, who was probably named for his uncle Frank Ward, and benefitted in his will, and Mary Abbot, had three daughters Mary born 1919, who married Jack O Harris in 1942. Their son was David P, was born in 1944.  Lysbeth A born in 1921, married Robin Gallup (the brother in law of Mary’s sister Audrey Gallup) in 1945 (see 99 Langstone Manor below) and had three daughters. Jennifer S born 1931, who married John Mulford in 1957. There were six Mulford/Ward births between 1957 and 1967 in various places: Edmonton, Bromley and Aldershot. It seems that they may not all be the same family.

If Frank was living at Four Winds, Tavistock, he died on 7 April 1969 aged 76, leaving £15,605 and Mary Abbot Ward was living at Gross Lane, Heathfield when she died on 17 December 1988, aged 92, leaving £111,582..

Josiah and May were living at Bluebells, Brentor when they died: Josiah on 28 February 1951, leaving his spinster daughter Lydia Ellen to administer his £891 estate and May on 17 March 1952 with £998 for Lydia to deal with. Lydia died aged 81 in 1978 in Bournemouth.

GALLUP FAMILY BACKGROUND: Henry Clay’s father was Nehemiah Mason Gallup 1785-1871, described on the marriage entry, like his son, as gentleman. The Gallups originally came from Groton, Connecticut, where the family history can be traced back through nine generations: including 8 Henry Clay and 9 Henry Curtis, the generations were: 1 John, 2 John, 3 Benadam, 4 Benadam, 5 Henry, 6 Nehemiah (and Elizabeth Brown) and 7 Nehemiah Mason. (7) Nehemiah Mason had married Huldah Wheeler of Stonington on 26 April 1812, the birthplace of their twelve children: Eliza, Mary Ann, Nehemiah, John W, Hannah, Eunice, Phebe, Mason, William R, Harriet A, Benjamin and (8) Henry Clay. The US 1850 Census shows Henry Clay living with his brothers, William and Benjamin, and sister, Harriet, on their brother Mason’s farm in North Stonnington, New London.  The US 1860 census records Henry Clay and his brother Benjamin living at Norwich, New London, Connecticut with their sister, Eunice, and her husband, Seth L Peck, and son, William. Henry Clay had commenced in business as a travelling and advertising agent for Dr Holloway in the sale of medicines. Later, he was an agent for Jeremiah Curtis and Sons of New York City and Brown and Company of Boston, travelling throughout the US and Canada. In 1863 Henry had applied for a passport, which recorded that he was 28, 5’10” tall with a medium forehead, grey eyes, short nose, medium mouth, short chin, brown hair and light complexion with a round face. He went to England to establish a business there as a partner in the firm of Jeremiah Curtis and Sons of New York City, marrying Lucy Renaud, eleven years his junior, in 1870. The 1871 census describes Henry Clay as a merchant and shows the newly weds living at 54 Guilford Road, Bloomsbury near Russell Square, with a cook and a parlourmaid. In 1875, after the birth of Henry Curtis the previous year, the London Street Directory records him continuing to live at 54 Guilford Road, but with premises at 493 Oxford Street, shared with Jeremiah Curtis and Sons, medicine dealers. It was described as The Floriline Depot, with Henry as the Proprietor of the Fragrant Floriline and the Mexican Hair renewer. Nationwide newspaper advertisements promoted ‘A few drops of the liquid floriline sprinkled on a wet toothbrush. Composed in part honey and sweet herbs, delicious to the taste’ produced by Brown and Sons of Boston. It was recorded that in a few years he had succeeded so well that they were sending medicines all over Europe. His genial temperament, a keen wit and strong common sense were credited with helping him to amass a large fortune, allowing him to be a retired merchant living at 39 Marine Parade, Brighton with wife Lucy and son Henry Curtis, aged 6, by 1881, when aged 45. The choice of Brighton may have been due to health issues because Lucy died in 1883, aged 36 and on 31 October 1885, one week before his 51^st birthday, Henry Clay, Esquire, died at Preston House, The Avenue, Gipsy Hill, London leaving an estate of £131,947 to be administered by (his brother-in-law) Walter Renaud, merchant, of 7 Marinora, Honor Oak, London.

RENAUD FAMILY BACKGROUND: Lucy Renaud was born in 1848, was the daughter of Peter Thomas Renaud 1813-1897 and his wife Mary Frances Walter 1812-82, who had married in 1838 and lived throughout their married life at 15 South Street, Brompton, Kensington. Peter was a clerk in Her Majesty’s Duchy of Lancaster Office. They had five children: Maria 1844-68, Charles 1846-, Lucy 1848-83, Walter 1850-1914 and Jane 1854-1943.

On Maria’s death in 1868, aged 24, her father Peter was her next of kin, administering her estate of under £200.

Charles may have gone to America as the last record of him is 1861, aged 15 living with his family. During that census, Lucy was not at home but was a visitor, staying with John Gosling, a 25 year old brewer and his sister, Caroline, 26 at 1 Regent Road, Reading.

Lucy’s younger brother, Walter was a witness at her wedding to Henry Clay, and in 1877 he married Louisa Marrison. As well as being an executor in 1885 for his brother in law, Henry Clay, he was described as being a gentleman when he shared this duty with his sister, Jane, for their father, Peter Thomas Renaud, who died on 30 September 1897. Peter left an estate of £8,040. Walter was living at Malt House, Green Street Green, Dartford, Kent when he died on 17 September 1914, leaving £2,806 to the care of Gertrude Maud Brandreth, the wife of William Robert Turner Brandreth.

Jane married George Augustus Courroux in the summer of 1886. In 1891 they were living at the Board of Green Cloth in St James Palace with their 3 year old son, George Felix, and their servants. George Augustus was described as being Chief Clerk of the Board of Green Cloth, which was a board of officials belonging to the Royal Household that audited the accounts of the Royal Household and made arrangements for royal travel. It also sat as a court upon offences committed within the palace. It took its name from the tablecloth of green baize that covered the table at which its members sat. On 2 June 1910, the family attended the marriage of George and Jane’s son George Felix, Lieutenant in the Royal Fusiliers, to Florence Violet Braddell, the daughter of George Braddell, Esquire, of Luckington Court, Chippenham at St James Church, Westminster, celebrated by the Sub Dean of HM Chapels Royal. By 1911 George Augustus, a British Subject by parentage, born in Pimlico, London, had retired from his position and he and Jane were living at 17 Chesham Road, Brighton where they confirmed that they had been married for 24 years and had only the one child. During the early years of their marriage George and (Florence) Vi lived at the Felix Hotel, Felixstowe, Suffolk and the Raymead Hotel, Maidenhead, Berkshire (possibly where he was working) and divers other places. Sadly by 27 March 1912, the marriage had broken down and Vi was obliged to seek restitution of conjugal rights, as George had taken up residence in bachelor chambers, leaving her without a home and placed in the unhappy position of having to stay temporarily with her brother at 19 Hogarth Road, Earls Court. On 14 October 1912 an order was made at the Royal Courts of Justice requiring him to restore conjugal rights. However, a letter from George at the Grand Hotel, Trafalgar Square dated 5 December 1912, informed Vi “.. that I am tired of all this fuss and worry and that to save further annoyance (as I believe I am being watched) I stayed here with a woman last night. Therefore if you take the proper measures you can get proof of my unfaithfulness.” As George had failed to comply with the previous order and on the grounds of adultery the decree was finalised on 12 January 1914. After that Vi moved to live with her parents to Newlands, Co Wexford, Ireland and on 26 November 1914, in London, on the day he was promoted to Captain, she married George O’Donel Frederick Thomas-O’Donel of the 4^th Battalion Royal Fusiliers. He had gone with the Expeditionary Force to France on 13 August 1914, was awarded the Military Cross on 19 February 1915 and was killed in action at Hooge near Ypres on 12 June 1915. The De Ruvigny’s Roll of Honour gives a full account of his life and service.

George Felix Courroux signed up for the Great War, not with the Royal Fusiliers, but with the Queen’s (Royal West Surrey) Regiment, achieving the rank of Captain by the end of the war, when he was living at 75 New Church Road, Hove, not far from his parents at 17 Chesham Street, Kemp Town, Brighton. George Felix did not marry again until 1939, when aged 51, he married Marjorie Susan Fraser. His father, George Augustus, had died at Chesham Street on 23 January 1923 aged 70, leaving his £2,774 estate to the care of his widow, Jane, and older brother, Alfred Hypolite Courroux. In 1939 Jane, who had been born on 19 April 1853, was living at 20 Hove Villas, and when she died at Thornham Nursing Home in Hove, on 6 December 1943 she was described in the obituary notice as living at 29 First Avenue, Hove, as the widow of George Augustus Courroux CVO (Commander of the Royal Victoria Order), JP. Her £2,213 estate was left to the care of her son George Felix, a hotel manager, also of 29 First Avenue. But sadly just three months after his mother, he died at 44 Selbourne Road leaving £2,016 to his widow, Marjorie Susan.

So that is Henry Curtis Gallup’s family background!

Baptised on 22 December 1874, Henry Curtis was the only child of Henry Clay Gallup who died aged 50 in 1885 and his wife, Lucy Renaud, who died in 1883, aged 35. So, young Henry lost his mother when he was only 8 and his father two years later. There is no sign of him in the 1891 census, though in October 1892 he travelled to Wellington, New Zealand. In 1901 he was living on his own means, aged 26, at Wick House in Downton, Wiltshire, with a complement of domestic staff. On 23 April 1903 at the Parish Church at Downton he married Mary Margaret Gladstone of Redlynch, Downton, the daughter of Thomas Whitfield Gladstone. The groom and both deceased fathers were described as gentlemen. Uncle Walter Renaud was one of the witnesses. Henry and Mary had four children: Henry Clive born 26 June 1904 at Wick, Peter Whitfield born 13 May 1906 at Wick, Margaret Frances born 24 May 1908 at East Meon, (in 1908, an oak figure of St John, designed by Ninian Comper, was donated to All Saints Church ‘to celebrate the birthday of the daughter of Henry Curtis and May Margaret Gallup’). Nora Lucy born 11 July 1909 at East Meon, Hampshire. In 1905 Henry had bought the Bereleigh estate, described as ‘one of the prettiest and most attractive small sporting, residential & agricultural estates in the South of England.’

Henry was described by his son Peter (a clerk in Holy Orders at Winchester), as a ‘well to do man of leisure’ and former Master of the Wilton Hunt. An improvement carried out to his newly acquired property was the creation of a ‘water garden’, whose striking feature was, a number of sarsen stones, some weighing several tons. They were hauled by a steam traction engine from War Hill, Tigwell, a part of the Bereleigh estate – their original use was possibly related to an ancient pagan site of worship. Paving of the water garden consisted of tombstones removed from the graveyard of Winchester Cathedral as part of a tidying-up operation.

When war broke out in 1914, Squire Gallup, no longer in the first flush of youth and without previous military experience, volunteered for army service; persuading his gardener, Mark Neil, and his chauffeur, George Knight, to do likewise, they headed for Larkhill on Salisbury Plain, to be trained as gunners. Henry also took his favourite hunter, for those were the days when gentlemen were officers, and officers were mounted. Only later was it realised that officers, were ‘first over the top’ in trench warfare, and least likely to survive for long. Along with another villager, blacksmith Walter Lambert, they were despatched overseas to join the British and Indian forces in Mesopotamia. In December 1915 they were besieged by the Turks in the town of Kut-al-Amara, on a loop of the River Tigris; it was reported in East Meon’s parish magazine: ‘We are sorry to hear that Mark Neil and George Knight have been wounded. It appears that they, with Mr. Gallup, are besieged in Kut-al-Amara, but we are told that all is well with the garrison’. This was not so. See Henry Curtis Gallup’s account below: Appendix One. After four and a half months, the garrison was forced to capitulate; the Turks separated officers from men; officers were taken by boat up the Tigris, the half-starved other ranks set off on foot towards Turkey and hundreds died from lack of food. Nothing is known of Neil and Knight, and Henry returned from two and a half years as a prisoner of war, a changed man. England, too, had changed and few could now afford to maintain the establishments they had left behind. In 1918, Henry put Bereleigh on the market.

Mary Margaret GLADSTONE married Henry Curtis on 23 April 1903. The marriage certificate states that her father Thomas Whitfield Gladstone was deceased. Whitfield, as he was known, was a wine and spirit merchant, the eldest of the eleven children of Thomas Gladstone 1821-1904, and his first wife Mary Gibbons Whitfield 1824-65, who had married in 1847 in Birmingham. Thomas, from Galloway, Scotland, was also a wine and spirit merchant and amassed a sizeable fortune, including the ownership of Kelton, Church Road, Edgbaston and Kings Grange in Kirkcudbright, in his £172,688 estate. His second wife, Helen, whom he had married in 1868, was also a Whitfield and may have been a cousin of first wife, Mary. Whitfield had been living at home with his father, stepmother and sister, Ann Whitfield, with her future husband, Sydney Proctor Ryland, visiting at the time of the 1881 census. Within weeks of the 1881 census, Whitfield married Frances Jane Nettlefold, one of the thirteen children of Edward John Nettlefold 1821-78 and his wife Frances Wyman 1836-1907, who had married in 1855. The Nettlefold family were in the ironmongery business, which was carried on by the sons in wholesale ironmongery and screw production. Edward John had been granted the Freedom of the City of London as a member of the Company of Leathersellers on 3 August 1841, as the son of his father John Sutton Nettlefold, an honour, Edward, too, registered for his sons. Edward John was living at The Grove, Highgate when he died on 1 March 1878, leaving an estate in the region of £140,000. After his death, his widow, Frances with her daughter, Ruth, returned to Edgbaston, where she had come from. She died there, at Hallfield on 13 May 1907, leaving £28,218 and naming her sons, Edward esquire, JP and Oswald, merchant and daughter Ruth, among her executors.

Mary Margaret’s father, Thomas Whitfield Gladstone, gentleman, died on 27 January 1886 at the Hotel Victoria, Davos, Platz in Switzerland, before his 40^th birthday. After less than five years of marriage, his widow Frances Jane (Nettlefold) was left to rear their young daughter, Mary Margaret. The 1891 census records that they were living at The Cottage, Walditch in Dorset: not as small as it might seem, as they had a governess and three servants living with them. In 1893 Frances Jane had remarried, to Octavius Robinson. By 1901 he was a local magistrate and retired solicitor, with whom she had two daughters, Gwendolen Frances and Blanche Muriel Frances both born at Walditch: all were living at Redlynch, Salisbury with her daughter, Mary Margaret and a full complement of servants. Octavius had died on 11 November 1904, when visiting the Isle of Wight. Frances continued to live at the twentyone roomed Redlynch House and in 1911 had the four eldest Gallup children: Henry, Peter, Nora and Margaret – and their governess, staying with her! Her stepdaughters Gwendolen and Blanche were at Roedean School.

Henry Curtis sold Bereleigh in April 1919 to Reginald Nicholson of the Nicholson Gin family. His son Robin was born in the Tavistock area later that same year, possibly at Langstone House.

The children of Henry Curtis and Mary Margaret were Henry Curtis 1904-28, Peter Whitfield 1906-98, Margaret Frances 1908-91, Nora Lucy 1909-2000 and Robin 1918-97.

From 1922 to 1939 Henry spent time each year in the West Indies or South Africa, travelling first class, usually alone, though with his daughter Margaret, when in her teens, on a trip to Trinidad, another to Capetown and one to Natal, South Africa. His eldest son, Henry Clive, when a student, went with him to South Africa, though they travelled back at different times. Henry Clive was living at Langstone Manor when he died on 19 August 1928, at Luson, Wellington in Somerset, aged just 23, leaving an estate of £10,822. Peter Whitfield was a company director living at Leigh Grange, Netley Abbey in 1939, marrying Audrey Helen Abbot Green, the sister of Mary Abbot Ward, wife of Frank Ward (see 97 Burnville) in 1942. By 1984 he was a Clerk in Holy Orders in Winchester and died in Winchester in 1998 aged 92. Margaret Frances trained as a nurse, living at Queen Mary’s Nurses Home at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London from 1934-7. She was enrolled on the Midwife Roll on 19 November 1938 after taking her CMB exam. In 1951 she was at Blackdown House in Mary Tavy. She was living at West View, 72 Broad Park Road, Bere Alston, Yelverton when she died on 1 August 1991 leaving £144,569.  Nora Lucy was born on 14 April 1909 and died in the Plymouth area in 2000, aged 91. Younger brother Robin married Lysbeth A Ward, the daughter of neighbour, Frank Ward and his wife, Mary Abbot, the sister of Robin’s sister in law Audrey Helen Abbot Gallup (see 97 Burnville) in Tavistock in 1945 and they had three daughters: Elizabeth A, Belinda M and Sarah M. He continued to live in the Tavistock area and died in 1997. Their father Henry Curtis had died on 7 June 1942, leaving £79,664 and mother Mary Margaret in 1968, aged 85.

Manor

Mary Ellen was the only child of farmer Willian John Sandercock 1861-1941 of Chaddlehanger and his wife Elizabeth Jane Rich 1860-1947, who had married in Bodmin in 1881. In 1911, Mary Ellen was doing dairy work at Chaddlehanger and living with her parents and grandparents, retired blacksmith George Sandercock 1831-1916 and Elizabeth Catherine Lander 1832-1922. Her grandparents were buried at St Proteus and St Hyacinthe Graveyard, Bilsland, Cornwall, with their son, George Henry who died in 1875, aged just 11. When Mary Ellen’s father died on 14 February 1941, he was living at Lyndhurst, Whitchurch. Mary Ellen was named as executor of his £8,550 estate. Her mother was living at Gill House when she died on 5 January 1947, leaving £707 for Mary Ellen to administer. Mary Ellen was also living at Lyndhurst in Whitchurch Road, Tavistock when she died on 1 September 1964. Stanley, retired butcher, was one of the executors for her £21,779 estate. Stanley died in 1971, aged 80.

and John Joyce, moved to Perranzabuloe, Perranporth in Cornwall on 1 February 1894 where Frank had a large practice in this mining area. In 1901 Frank and Emma Elizabeth with the addition to their family of Christopher Joyce and Kathleen were living at Piran House in Perranzabuloe, Cornwall. Frank was 37 and running his own practice from home. His wife, Emma, was not there on the night of the census. Frank’s sister-in-law, Lucy S Joyce, was with them that night and in 1911, by which time they had moved to Brentor.  Youngest son, Paul, was born on 14 January 1904. Frank had to retire early, aged 42, because of almost total deafness. He came to Brentor in August 1906 and had a smallholding. It wasn’t long before the people of Brentor discovered he was a medical man, and called on him when they were ill. Gradually he found he had a practice again. He lived in a house called Nutshell where he converted a room into a surgery and dispensary. Emma died in 1932 and in 1936 Frank married Lydia Pearce, born 8 September 1888, who was twenty five years his junior (see Pearce 1911 People). Frank died on 28 December 1943 in Bodmin whilst living at 3 Stoke Cottages Highampton, leaving an estate of £2,907 to be administered by Frederick William Arbuthnot, medical practitioner, and James Knight, farmer. The deaths of his sons John and Christopher, in action in the First World War, are commemorated on the Brentor War Memorial.

Lydia was the daughter of farmer Joseph Pearce 1857-1927 of Burcombe, Brentor and his wife Elizabeth Ann Symons, born 1868. Joseph was the son of Martin Pearce 1823- from Kerwyn, Cornwall and his wife Mary Ann Southcombe 1815-1881+ from Milton Abbot, who had married in Tavistock in 1848. They had another son Martin born in 1849.  Joseph and Elizabeth Ann Symons were married in 1879: of their fifteen children born between 1880 and 1911, names can be found for twelve of them: Francis, Winnifred, Effra Annie, Frederick John, Bessie, Maud, Lydia, Charles Martin, Ethel Florice, Rose M, Norman Joseph and Ivy. Lydia was in service with the Webster family at 17 Park View, Harrogate in 1911. She died, aged 93 in Wolverhampton in 1981.

Dolly was the daughter of Herbert Richard Minhinnick 1840-1902 and Elizabeth (Metters) Batten 1843-1926. Their marriage in 1883 was the second for each of them. Herbert had been an Armourer in the Royal Navy before becoming a farmer/miller at Wortha Mill, and then postmaster. Born in King St, Tavistock on 13 October 1840, he was the son of Henry Minhinnick 1805-83 and Hannah Hanns Rowe 1813-90. He died aged 42 on 16 September 1902, leaving £288 to be administered by his widow, Elizabeth, who was the daughter of William and Elizabeth Batten of Lamerton. Previously, in 1879 in Exeter, Elizabeth had married John Metters, a wood dealer. Herbert and Elizabeth had five children (see Minhinnick 1911 People). Dolly died in the Moorhaven Hospital, Bittaford, Ivybridge on 4 February 1975, leaving £4,923. This idyllically placed institution, with south facing views of the moor as far as the eye could see and an abundance of fresh air, has now been converted into a sought after village of 120 homes. The booklet Memories of Moorhaven, produced by Full Circle publications, tells more of life there. Ernest was living at Berry Farm, Longtree, Torrington when he died two months later on 6 April 1975, leaving £2,426.

Patricia Mary sailed on a Swedish ship, the ss DROTTNINGHOLM, to New York in June 1946. She was 5’5″ tall, with grey eyes, brown hair, a fair complexion and a small scar on the bridge of her nose. She had a background in housework, paid her own passage and was travelling to Rockford, Illinois to be re-united with her fiancé, Robert William Young. Given the number of other young ladies sailing to be with fiancés, it is likely that this was a GI bride ship. Her next of kin was her mother, Elizabeth Bunt of Calstock Road, Gunnislake and it was from here that Pat left for her life changing journey. Elizabeth was living at The Cottage in Calstock Road, when she died on 4 November 1957 leaving her estate of £379 to be administered by John Lovell, sub postmaster and Dorothy Cutts, married woman.

Pat and Robert were married in Freeport on 22 June 1946. They had at least three children: daughters, Lorna (Frost) of Brackenville Texas, Elizabeth D and son Donald E. Robert died on 23 February 1985. For about eleven years Pat was employed as a nurse’s aide in the Roosevelt Square Nursing Home. She died on 10 February 1997 in Rockford, Illinois and was buried in the Willwood Burial Park.

In 1923 Samuel married Maud Mary Yelland, the daughter of John Henry Thomas Yelland 1869-1951 (see 58 Moorland View) and Jessie Rachel Batten 1870-1942, who had married in 1892. Jessie’s parents were grocer William and Elizabeth Batten. When John died on 26 September 1951, he had been living at Moorland Cottage but died at daughter Maud’s home, Rose Cottage. His daughter Maud Mary and her husband Samuel Friend, a road stone quarryman were granted probate for his £1,017 estate. Samuel and Maud Mary had four children, Henry J born 1924 (who died as a baby), Vincent Thomas G 1925-1986 who married Audrey Lucas; Margaret E J born 1927, who married Ralph Hamling in 1949, and born 1930, who married Leslie A Murrain in 1956 and lived at Westmoor Park, Tavistock before her death in 2006. Maud Mary died in the Tavistock area in 1958, aged 65, and Samuel was in the Newton Abbot area when he died in 1980.

He married Mary Crocker 1856-1924 of Croft, Mary Tavy in 1883. She was the daughter of William Crocker 1812-78, a copper miner from Devonport, and his wife Jane or Jenny Job, from St Austell, who had married in Mary Tavy on 19 September 1835. They had eight children: the exotically named Dionysia, Jane, Hugh, John, William, Joseph, Mary and Isaac. In 1841 William’s widowed mother Grace 1774-1855 was living with them. In 1851, it was Jane/Jenny’s mother Wilmot Job nee Bawden 1777-1855, who had married William Job in 1803, living with them. After William Crocker’s death, in 1878, his wife Jenny continued to live at No 1 Croft with daughter Mary and youngest son Isaac in 1881, and then Mary and her husband Joseph Gill and four of their children were living with her in 1891: Edith Maud 1884-1969, Ethel Jane 1885-1959, Mildred Mary 1886-1972 and Barbara 1888-1979. At that time Joseph was a working mining engineer.

In 1901 Mary was living at Glenfield with five of her daughters, Elsie M having been born in 1892 and Winifred J in 1896-88. Joseph was working elsewhere and Ethel 17 was staying with the Rice family at Gill House in Brentor village. On 24 January 1907, Ethel Jane married James Dawe at the Bible Christian Chapel in Tavistock (see Dawe 1911 People and 113 Rose Cottage). In 1911 Mary was visiting her daughter Mildred Mary, who with her husband, farmer Thomas Cleave, and their six month old son, John, lived at Kinterbury Farm in St Budeaux, Plymouth. Mildred died in 1972 aged 86. In 1911 Edith, a dressmaker, was described as the head of the house at Glenfield, but this was in her parent’s absence, hence the description of Arnold Martin Gill as grandson, when it is more likely that he was Edith’s nephew or son. As there do not seem to be any Gill sons, it is not obvious who Arnold’s mother is.

Edith, born 4 March 1884, married George Manning in 1916: he appears to have been about twenty years older than her. They had two sons James 1919-86 and Peter 1920-96. In 1939 the family was living at Pennmore View in Plymouth, where George was a retired labourer and James a picture restorer. Also living with them was her sister, Winifred J Stadden born on 11 February 1896 and her daughter Josie B born on 19 September 1921. Edith died in 1969 aged 86. Winifred Josie had married Harry Sherman Staddon in Devonport in 1916 and died in Bath in 1988 when she was 92.

Elsie May might have married John T Payton in Portsmouth in 1915. The other daughter, Barbara, was a nurse in South Kensington in 1911. She married Harry Hare in St Budeaux Parish Church on 5 Aug 1916: she died on 7 September 1979 aged 91. Grandson/nephew Arnold may have been Joseph Arnold Martin Gill, born 17 September 1908, who married Winifred Irene Trigger. They were living with her father at 3 Wesley Place, Plymouth in 1939. Joseph Arnold was a librarian. He died in Plymouth on 21 June 1998 aged 89.

Joseph, a mining engineer, was not with his family for either the 1901 or 1911 census. After the death of his wife, Mary, in 1924, living at Chapel Cottage in 1939, meant Joseph was close to his daughter, Ethel J Dawe, at nearby Rose Cottage. He was living at Hedgegrow, Brent Tor when he died on 5 June 1943, leaving his estate of £34 12s to be administered by Rev Henry Edgar Owen Davies, clerk, the Vicar of Brentor.

Eldest daughter Beatrice married Harold E Autton 1908-78 in Devonport in 1933 and in 1939 they were living at 4 Kings Road, Plymouth, with their son, Harold W T who had been born in September 1934. Harold E was a Chief Electrical Artificer at the time. Their son Martyn Edward was born in Plymouth on 2 October 1950-2004. Subsequently they moved to Harrogate, where they were living at 11 Princes Drive in the early 1960s, Beatrice died in North Yorkshire in 1995.

William and Elizabeth had two other children: Doris May, born 9 January 1914, who married William James Henry Cundy 1909-97, the son of a cattleman from Calstock, in 1935 in the Tavistock area, living later in Sticklepath, where she died in 2003. Youngest son William T H born in 1919 died soon after birth. In 1939 market gardener William, born 18 December 1883, and Elizabeth, born 24 May 1889 were living in St Germans.

Eldest son Albert married Elsie Ellen Walters, whose mother had also been a Walters, in 1934. Their children included Albert F born 1935 and George C born 1937. Elsie Ellen of Cornerways died on 15 December 1981, leaving an estate of £16,500. Albert died in 1991.

James and Ethel had six children: Lucy Maud 1907-92, who had married William John May, a builder’s labourer: they were living with her parents in 1939.  Elsie Muriel 1908-66, who had continued to live with her parents and remained single. The magnificently named Wilfred Lloyd George 1909-90 married Marjorie Lillian Miller in 1933. Their son Michael was born in 1936. They were living at Norwell Cottage in Tavistock with their child and Elizabeth J Dawe, born in 1852, who could have been his father’s sister. After Marjorie’s death in 1942, Wilfred married Doris E Jane in Launceston in 1944. Wilfred died in 1990, aged 80. Their brother Winston James had died in 1922 aged 11. Ida Joan later McDonald 1913-2005 (see 114 Ash Cottage), Frances Barbara 1918-83 married Reginald Bariball Mills 1907-85 in 1955. He had been a butcher’s assistant, living at Davidscott (see 53 Davidscott) with his first wife Stella Guscott/Sly, later Claringbold and their son David F R born 1934 (see 122 Sly below) Frances died in 1983, aged 65.

On 4 December 1915, James had signed up for the duration of the war. He was called up on 14 July 1916, initially with the Royal Berkshires, serving in the Labour Corps and then in the Devonshire Regiment until he was demobbed on 22 March 1919. Staying at the rank of Private, his character was deemed to be good throughout his service.

James was living in Rose Cottage when he died on 8 July 1942: his estate of £333 was to be administered by his widow, Ethel Jane. On her death, at the same address, on 10 October 1959 she left £932. Her executer was William John May, lorry driver, the husband of her daughter, Lucy Maud.

They had four daughters Emily Jane 1888-1968, who married John Warmington (Eliza Ann’s son) in 1910 in St Columb Cornwall, not far from her mother’s birthplace. They had three children: Joyce Madelaine 1911-75 (later Earrey), John James Henry 1912-2 and John Henry 1913-1990. In March 1913, when Emily was newly pregnant with her third child, John aged 23 sailed on the PHILADELPHIA to New York and on to Ishpemming, Michigan, where he worked as a carpenter at the Osceola Copper Mine. After four years in America he signed up, stating that previously he had been a private in the infantry. By 1939 he had returned to England as the family was living at 12 Leaden Rd in St Columb. John continued to work as a carpenter/joiner. Annie Elizabeth 1892-1976, was working as a housemaid at The White House, Fistral Road Newquay in 1911. In 1921 she married Henry John Amos May 1895-1953, a grocer, in St Columb, Cornwall, becoming known as Jane Ann. In 1939 they were living at 222 Henver Road, Newquay.  Nellie 1894-1978 married William Sly (see 122 Bungalow below) and Clara 1896-1972 married John Francis Stephens, a railway labourer from Mary Tavy in 1935. They had the one son Robin Francis P. In 1939, John Francis 1905-1969 was lodging with the Spry family at 28 Herbert Place, Plymouth, presumably on a temporary basis. Robin married Yvonne J Saye in 1963 and died in 2003 in the Plymouth area.

When James died on 6 February 1928, he and Mary Jane were living at The Court. Administration of his effects of £75 was granted to Robert Edwin Warmington, rate collector, who also administered the £173 estate of Mary Jane Guscott, still living in The Court when she died on 23 September 1949. (Robert Edwin was their nephew, the brother of John Warmington, their son in law, Emily’s husband. Robert was described as an accountant when he went, with his wife and three sons, to Commerce, Texas. Their passage was paid by his mother, Mrs E A Warmington, Mary Jane’s sister, Eliza Ann.)

In 1901 Richard had been a stonemason’s labourer before becoming a ‘stonemason as builder’ in 1911. Later that year he married Emma Paddon. Emma was the daughter of Robert Paddon 1855-1921 and his wife Mary Jane Bray 1855-1931. A native of Tavistock, Robert was, among other occupations, an agricultural labourer, a copper miner and a local council roadman. He and Mary Jane had married in 1875 and had had eight children: Mary Jane (Brock) 1876-1968, Bessie 1877-1962, John 1880-1958, Emma 1882-1969, William George 1884-, Annie (Tudgey) 1886-1969, Charles Henry 1889-1965 and Amy Elizabeth 1894-1985. Emma was not with her family in 1901 but was there at Ottery Cottages, Tavistock in 1911, though no occupation was given. Richard and Emma had one child, Phyllis May born on 6 April 1913.

On 8 December 1916 Richard joined the navy, beginning his training as a Stoker Second Class at VIVID ll, before serving on his final ship LION as Stoker First Class, until demob on 27 May 1919. On enlistment, he was described as being nearly 5’10” tall, with brown hair, grey eyes and a fresh complexion. His conduct was considered to be very good throughout.  In 1939 Phyllis was working as a maid for the Garlick family at 5 Nelson Gardens in Plymouth. Archibald Garlick, born 1890, was a Royal Navy Commander serving on one of His Majesty’s ships. Phyllis married Alan George Solomon 1912-80, locally in 1940. Richard may have died in Kingsbridge in 1963. It was likely that Emma was living with her daughter when she died in the St Germans area in 1969. In the early 2000s century Phyllis was living at 34 Westover Road, Callington, before moving in to the Hillsborough Residential home, where she died on 14 April 2010, just after her 97^th birthday.

The youngest daughter, Elizabeth N married Granville Richard Francis Tompkins, in Chelsea in 1970, as his second wife. Previously he had been married to Valerie M Trey, born 1921. Granville Tompkins, born in 1918, was best known for founding the Green Shield Stamps Company, after seeing the success of a similar company in the 1950s in America. In 1973 he adapted his redemption stores to establish the ARGOS catalogue stores, which was sold for £35 million in 1979. At his death from cancer on 6 September 1992, his estate was worth a mind boggling £34,894,513. His entrepreneurial skills earned him an entry in the Dictionary of Twentieth Century British Business Leaders.

In 1939 Ellen Louise was living at 9 West Street in Tavistock, working as a domestic servant for Mr and Mrs Pearce, the café proprietors. She died, also unmarried, in Plymouth in 1987. Hilda Melinda was 77 when she died unmarried in 1997 in West Devon. Albert and William each died very soon after birth, as Albert’s birth and death were recorded in the same quarter in 1925 and both of William’s in the first quarter of 1928. Amy Violet was the last of the siblings to die, in 2002 in Plymouth, aged 72, also unmarried. So it would appear that none of the children married and there were no Osborne grandchildren for Frederick and Annie. Annie was 54 when she died in the summer of 1939. Frederick was 84 when he died fourteen years later in 1953, having been sixteen years older than Annie.

When Jane died in 1919, leaving her estate of £101 for William to administer, they were living in Parkhouse. William married for the third time, early in 1921 to Ellen Hodge, who survived him (see above). When William died, on 27 September 1939, he was living in Homer Park and administration of his estate of £1,192 was granted to Arthur Henry, coal merchant, and a solicitor. Arthur Henry was living at Homer Park when he died at Tavistock Hospital on 2 February 1960. Probate was granted to Edwin Richard Parken, a pharmaceutical chemist and Arthur Brian Redmore, a bank clerk. Born 21 May 1895 in Tavistock, Edwin had studied at London University, obtaining a BSc and had been a lecturer in pharmaceuticals living in Brighton in 1939. He died in 1979 in Tavistock. Without a census entry it has been impossible to identify whether he was Arthur’s brother or cousin. Genty had died early in 1958.

Slight variations in the spelling of Parken in records have made it difficult to trace all the relevant records for this family.

Before her marriage in 1921, Nellie Sly had had a daughter Gladys Stella, known as Stella, who was born on 11 May 1915. She married Reginald Barriball Mills, 1907-85, a butcher’s assistant, in 1934 and had one son, David FR born later that year (see 53 Davidscott). She married Edwin L Claringbold in 1955, and her death was recorded in Petersfield, Hampshire in 2001, aged 86. Reginald also remarried in 1955, to Frances Barbara Dawe (see 113 Rose Cottage).

Nellie’s parents were James Guscott and his wife Mary Jane Rickard, with whom she was living in 1911 (see 115 The Cottage). James was the son of James Guscott 1808-85 and Elizabeth ‘Betsy’ Hellier 1816-92 of Westcott, Milton Abbot, who had married in 1838. He was also the brother of Pamela who married Richard Cook (see Cook 1911 People) and William, the father of Florence (see Guscott 1911 People). Nellie had been living at Harewood, 66 Plymouth Road, Tavistock when she died on 28 April 1978, leaving an estate of £4,780.  William had died in 1958.

Frederick, a mason labourer, married Elsie Kate Lashbrook/Medland 1908-1971 in 1935. She was the daughter of Alfred John of the John and Mary Lashbrook family of Brentor (see Lashbrook 1911 People): born on 4 April 1882-1956, he had been a sawyer lodging at Beal’s Mill, Launceston in 1901 and a farm labourer living in Lydford in 1911. He had married Annie Maria Monner in 1906 and they went on to have twelve children altogether, including a set of triplets and a set of twins (see 18: Whitsun Cottage above). They were the parents of Elsie Kate, Leonard and Lionel (see below). In 1927, Elsie Kate had married George Medland, who had died in 1929 (see Joseph Medland 1911 People). Their daughter, Sylvia M, born 1927, was with her Lashbrook grandparents, Alfred and Annie, in 1939 (see 18 Whitsun Cottage) as was Elsie’s other daughter Annie, born some time after Joseph’s death. Sylvia may have married Francis Russell locally in 1952.

Desmond married Shirley F Bailey in 1957 and may have had two daughters Kathryn Mary born 1966 and Linda Anne born 1968 and was living in the Truro area in the early 2000s. Elsie Kate died in 1971, the year after Frederick.

Melville married Flossy M Brook (see Brook 1911 People) in 1935. They had three children between 1939 and 1947: Margaret, Frederick and Ruth. In 1939 they were living at Colmar in Lydford with their eldest child, Margaret, and Melville was working as stone quarry labourer. Melville was 86 when he died in Plymouth in 1997. Flossy had died in 1993.

Edith married Charles Edward Vousden in Dartford in 1938. In 1939 the Vousdens had been living at 19 Queen’s Road, Erith, Kent with eldest son, Peter J, born mid 1938, though his birth seems to have been registered twice. Michael E was born in 1940 and Robert C in 1943, both in the Tavistock area. It would appear that Edith and Charles divorced during the 1940s, as he died in 1980 and Edith married Alfred E Bridgman in Tavistock in 1949. They were living at 6 Sunshine Terrace in Tavistock when Alfred died on 14 August 1985, and Edith died almost one year later on 10 August 1986, aged 70.

Walter had joined the 5^th Volunteer Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment, a part-time unit, a role that he presumably enjoyed, as on 23^rd June 1891 he had signed on to serve for the full 21 years in the Devonshire Regiment, as a regular soldier. After training at the barracks in Exeter he would have been posted to one of the two regular battalions, almost certainly the first. He served through the North West Frontier of India campaign of 1897-8, as well as a spell of duty in the South African War 1899-1902. He was one of the defenders at Ladysmith. The regimental museum at The Keep in Dorchester has records of the Devonshires’ involvement in India and South Africa. He did well in the army because by the time he received the Indian General Service Medal with two clasps for serving in the Punjab Frontier and Tirah campaigns 1897/98 he was already a Lance Sergeant. He was a sergeant when he was awarded the Queen’s South Africa medal with Elandslaagte clasp, before his marriage in 1900.

By 1911 the family were back in England, living at 26 Corporation Buildings, Morice Square, Devonport. Walter was coming to the end of his engagement and was a Colour Sergeant working as recruiting officer for the Devons. On census night they had a visitor Sarah Morrison, a 35 year old domestic servant from Moira, Co Down. She was probably Elizabeth’s sister. In 1901 she had been in domestic service for the Shurley family in New Windsor. By the Summer of 1912 Walter had completed his 21 years army service and he moved firstly to Lydford and then, shortly after, to Moor View, Brentor. Both Violet and Francis joined Brentor School on 9 September 1912. Walter joined the clerical staff at Ward & Chowen, auctioneers, then operating from Burnville. The following year on 25 September 1913 their second son, Edward John, was born. Walter settled quickly into village life and was instrumental in the forming of the Brentor and District miniature rifle club in February 1914, which had over 30 members and a shooting range in the Old Quarry by Brentor Station, and he was a member of the Masons.

When war broke out Walter volunteered to rejoin his old regiment. New battalions were being raised and a nucleus of officers and senior NCOs from the 1^st formed the 8^th (Service) Battalion, which was raised at Exeter on 19 August 1914 as part of Kitchener’s First New Army, with men coming mostly from the West Country. In May 1915 they left the Division, having completed training, but a lack of ammunition delayed them and it was not until 26 July 1915 that they proceeded to France, landing at Le Havre, Walter with the rank of CQMS They were joined by their fellow battalion the 9^th. On the 4 August 1915 they joined the 20^th Brigade, 7^th Division and saw action at the Battle of Loos, suffering many casualties.    After a period of comparative calm, they were ready to be at the forefront at the Somme. On July 1^st at 06.30 A and C companies went “over the top.” Walter was now Company Sergeant Major (10261) of B Company in reserve and he led his men up to the forward trench. The advance troops were decimated by German fire.  At about 10.30 on 1 July 1916 orders reached the 8th Battalion to advance and B Company went forward to fill the gap between the Gordons and 9th Devons. Moving past Mansel Copse the Company was caught by machine-gun fire: Captain Mahaffy, its commander, was badly wounded and before long all of its officers were down, and it had been held up. Walter Holwill took charge and rallied the remaining men and led them forward until they reached and captured the German front line. They sustained heavy casualties, among them, Walter who was severely wounded with a gunshot wound in his left hip. The stretcher bearers managed to get him back to the British lines and after four days in the casualty system he was repatriated to England. Unfortunately he succumbed to sepsis from his wounds and died at the Yacht Club V.A.D Hospital, Gravesend on 22^nd July 1916. His death was registered in Gravesend and his body was returned to Brentor for burial in Christ Church churchyard. The funeral took place at Christ Church on 25^th July 1916 with a large number of friends and colleagues present. The service was conducted by the Brentor vicar, Rev Alfred Apps, who in the course of an address spoke very highly of Walter, touching on his individual qualities, and as a bright example to the young generation. Mrs E. J Rice presided at the Organ and played the Dead March in “Saul”. The bearers were six sergeants from his old regiment, and two buglers from the Devonshire regiment sounded the last post, at the graveside. Whilst the service was taking place, the big guns in Okehampton were distinctly heard, giving a realistic idea of a funeral at the Front.

His gravestone reads          Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends.

He was awarded the Military Cross:  For conspicuous gallantry during an attack. When all the officers of his company had become casualties, he took command and ably led the company under heavy fire. (London Gazette 27 July 1916). In his informal will, drawn up on his deathbed, Walter left his medals to his son, Francis, and the remainder of his property to his wife. His personal possessions were returned to Elizabeth and remain treasured by his family.

Elizabeth turned to nursing, as a midwife, working for Doctor Postlethwaite (see Postlethwaite 1911 People) to provide for their three children. All three children were accomplished musicians. Francis did a recital with Bill Woollacott to raise money for repairs to Christ Church in 1915 and played the flute at the unveiling of the memorial to the fallen at the Chapel at Lydford Station in 1920. Frank was a member of the village football team and in late 1923 married Beatrice E M Curtis, they had one son Peter John A 1925-2004. In 1939 the family was living at 39 Witham Park, Tavistock where Frank was chief accountant with an agricultural merchants and he served as a special constable during the Second World War. He died on 22 August 1966, leaving an estate of £3,515.     Violet married a tailor, Frank Kemp Sweet 1906-87, in the spring of 1934, they had one daughter, Joanna E (later Boyle), born in 1934. The 1939 Register shows them living at 1 Lyndrick Road, Plymouth with Frank’s mother, Minnie, who appears to have been head of the family tailoring and outfitting establishment, which probably included her older son, Reginald, also a tailor, and his family, who lived next door. Violet was living at 4 Penrose Villas, Mannamead, Plymouth, when she died on 19 October 1975, leaving an estate of £33,394.      Edward was not quite three when his father died, but there is a picture of the two of them together at Moor View. In 1939 Edward was a railway porter, trained as a guard, lodging in Bude-Stratton with the Sheppard family, the head of which was William, a retired postman. In 1940 he married Vera Gwyneth Hines 1920-2001 in Stratton. They had four children: Michael Robin 1940-86, Christopher J 1941-2015, Elizabeth (Negus/Main) and Penelope (Mules/Ainsworth). Edward died in Plymouth in 1968.

Elizabeth continued to live at Moor View until her death on 28 September 1948. Her son Francis administered her £395 estate.  She was buried with her husband and was remembered on her gravestone:         She thought of all the little things.

Lena was living at Hillcrest, Brentor, which had been the home of her son Robert in 1962, when she died on 15 June 1977, leaving an estate to the value of £8,560. Tom had died in 1968.

Lena’s mother, Ellen Bickle WALTERS, was the daughter of John and Mary Ann Bickle of Lydford. In 1871 she was a servant living with the Holmes family at Harrowgrove Farm, Willsworthy and in 1881 at Burnville Farm with the Ward family. She married George Walters, a farm labourer in 1883. In 1891 the Walters family was living at 3 Gillys Cottages next to Windsor House, with James aged 3 and Frederick George aged 1. In 1901 their children were James 13, a gardener and coachman’s help, Frederick George 11 and Lena Jane 7, both at school. In 1911 only Frederick George, a farm labourer, was living at home with his parents in Brentor. It was recorded that George and Ellen had been married for 27 years. They had had seven children, but only three were still alive at that time. Ellen was named as the next of kin for Frederick George in 1915. George died in 1925, Ellen (as Walter) in 1941.

Samuel married Jane Cruze 1881-1959 on 25 March 1906 in Tavistock. She was the daughter of James Edwin Cruze a machine mender at the wool factory, and his wife, Elizabeth, of Parkwood Cottages, Tavistock. In 1911 Samuel and Jane had been living at 53 Stenlake Terrace in Plymouth but by the time he enlisted as a gunner 136068 in the 280^th Siege Battalion of the Royal Garrison Artillery on 20 November 1915, the family was living in Brentor. He stated he was Wesleyan, an agricultural labourer, aged 37 years 6 months and was 5’6. He began his service on 22 January 1917.              At that time their children were Reginald Henry Edwin John born 1908 (see 132 Torr Cottage), Gladys Hilda 9 November 1910-1999 who married Arthur Gustavus Redstone 1907-1971 in 1921 (see 143 Council Houses). Their son Eric was born on 9 February 1930 and died in Weymouth in 1981 and Winifred Mary born 10 January 1913, married carpenter/joiner Arthur H Westlake in 1933 and in 1939 they were living in Teignmouth with 5 year old daughter, Frances Margaret. Winifred died in 1986. Samuel and Jane’s fourth child, Wilfred Albert, was born soon after Samuel began his military service. Sam was in France in June 1918 when he was hospitalised for four months as a result of gassing, and was invalided back to England and transferred to Class Z Army Reserve on his demob on 11 April 1919. He was in the 1923 Brentor football team photo. Both parents died in the last quarter of 1959: Samuel in Tavistock, aged 80, Jane in Newton Abbot, aged 78.

Wilfred Albert married Edna M Mitchell 1921-1982 in Tavistock in 1940. Their children were Christopher J born 1942 who was still living in the family home at Bal Lane between 2003-10; Kenneth W, born in 1944, who married Pamela Miller in 1966 and was living in Station Road, Mary Tavy in the early 2000s; and David C who married Hayley J Masters in 1986 and was living in West Street, Tavistock in the early 2000s. Wilfred was living at 28 Bal Lane, Mary Tavy when he died on 3 March 1992, leaving an estate of under £125,000.

By 1939, Richard had retired and they had moved to The Retreat. Alice continued to live at The Retreat until her death aged 77 in Horrabridge on 28 January 1949. Although she was described as the wife of Richard Burden (by this time 82), probate for her £361 estate was granted to her youngest brother Stanley Russell Rice, a retired butcher. He had been living at home in Gill Cottage with his mother Mary Margaret in 1911 and travelled to Canada on 28 October 1912, six months after his brother, William Joseph. He gave his mother as his next of kin and indicated that he was travelling to Calgary. He returned and married Mary Ellen Sandercock 1881-1964 of Chaddlehanger in 1923, in Plymouth. In 1939 Stanley was still a butcher and they were living in Gill House, his family home from the 1870s (see 104 Gill House).  Richard died on 29 December 1950 at Catchfrench, Trerulfoot in Saltash although his home continued to be the Retreat. Probate for his £4,079 estate was granted to William Burden, farmer (perhaps his nephew) and Stanley Russell Rice, by then described as a cattle grader.

Their son, William Thomas Ashley married Lavinia Jasper in 1933. She was the daughter of William J Jasper 1873-1948, who was a carter and dealer in 1911, but who, by 1939, had become a smallholder, doing heavy work, living at Treecot, in the Mary Tavy registration area (see M97 Treecot), with his wife Elizabeth Sarah Rowe 1867-1939 and Thomas Rowe Jasper, 1900-1957, the only son of their six children. He was a lengthman, classed as a heavy worker. In 1940 he married Lena Mary Medland (see 91 Medlands Farm) and he died on 9 September 1957, leaving an estate of £1107 to her care.

William and Lavinia seem to have had only the one son, Ivor William, and the family continued to live at the Retreat until at least 6 February 1951, when William predeceased Lavinia, leaving effects of £541. Lavinia was in Trowbridge, Wiltshire when she died early in 1985, aged 82. Ivor may have married Barbara M Warne in Plymouth in 1966, though there appears to be another Ivor W Martin, twenty years his senior, who may have lived in the Bristol area and who married a Joan E Leys in 1920 and Joan E Martin again in 1957. It is likely to be Ivor William who died in Trowbridge, Wiltshire in 1998.

In 1880, William’s father, also William Eastcott, married his first wife, Elizabeth Ann Martin 1855-93. They had three children: Susannah (Furk) and John Henry, who both settled in British Columbia, and William Gilbert. There were two William G Eastcotts serving in the Devonshire Regiment, of which he may have been one. When William Eastcott snr died on 23 January 1927 at 35 Brook St, Tavistock, leaving an estate of £3,500, the record of probate described his son, William Gilbert, as a sub postmaster.

Mary A I Eastcott, retired housekeeper, was William’s aunt, Mary Ann Irving Stevens 1857-1945, the wife of his uncle Henry Eastcott 1854-1936. (Lena) Jessie died at Windsor Cottage (the Post Office) on 19 July 1974, leaving an estate of £18,228. William died five years later on 15 March 1979 at Harewood House, 66 Plymouth Road in Tavistock, leaving £24,560.

On 11 April 1883 Marion married Samuel Williams at St John the Baptist Church, Kingston Vale. They lived at 36 Sisters Ave, Lavender Hill, where they had three children. Her father Rev George had been living at The Beeches, Roehampton, when he died on 13 February 1888, leaving his estate of £85 to his daughter and next of kin, Marion Williams. On 15 June 1893 Samuel Williams (the younger) of 36 Sisters Avenue, died at sea, leaving his estate of £12,600 to be administered by William Varco Williams, coal merchant (his brother) and Russell Nichols Lingham, stockbroker (Marion’s cousin).

Two years later on 15 August 1895, Marion married Charles John Owens. He was a bachelor, aged 49, living at 37 The Chase, Clapham and describing himself as Railway Manager. This description was repeated in 1901 when he had taken Marion and her three children, Florence, Vera and Samuel to stay at the Woolacombe Bay Hotel in Morthoe near Barnstaple, Devonshire. This was expanded to Railway General Manager in 1911, when the couple were at home at 41 Carlton Road, Putney, a twenty roomed house, with cook maids etc. By 1903 Charles had been knighted, and as Sir Charles Owens, General Manager of the London and South West Railway, his cartoon was featured in Vanity Fair as No 870 Men of the Day. His Railway Service record charts his progress from Apprentice Clerk on £25 a year, recommended by Capt Johnstone in 1862, aged 16. By 1 January 1898 he had worked his way up to the position of General Manager on a salary of £2,000 a year, rising to £4,000 a year from 1 January 1903. The Board Minutes record that he had reached the age of 65 in September 1910, but was retained as General Manager for a further year. He was elected Director of the Company on 8 November 1912. His first trip to America was to Washington DC in April 1905, when he sailed on HMS PHILADELPHIA from Southampton to New York. He died on 17 January 1933 at 41 Carlton Road, leaving an estate of £38,051. In 1939 Lady Marion was staying with her widowed daughter, Vera, at Whincote Heatherdune Road, Bexhill. She gave her birthdate as 18 November 1862, shaving four years off her age. In 1946, when she died (aged 88 not 82 as stated), she was living at 30 Carlton Road, with number 41 having been converted in to flats.

On 26 June 1912 Samuel Leslie Williams of Stratford St Mary, Suffolk, a bachelor of independent means married Florence Mills, the daughter of Thomas Mills, also of independent means, in the parish church at Sandhurst, Berkshire. The marriage was witnessed by her father and his step-father, Sir Charles Owens. While the couple were living together at The Elms, Langham near Colchester, their son Samuel Duncan was born on 19 April 1913. Within a short time stresses in the young couple’s marriage began to appear. In her petition Florence, living at 8 Unwin Mansions, Queens Club Gardens, London with her parents, alleged that with no money from Leslie, her bank account had gone overdrawn and she was forced to return to live with her parents and that they had agreed to live apart to enable Leslie to put himself in a position to make a home for them. On hearing that he had a settled position as land agent at Easton Hall in Grantham Lincoln, she had written to him to make arrangements to be reunited. He ignored the letters, a phone call to speak to him was answered by the butler stating that he was poorly. Her telegram informing him that she was coming to care for him was responded to with a telegram not to do so, as he would be gone. She was left with no alternative but to petition for restoration of cohabitation and conjugal rights as his lawful wife. He was required to do so by the court and pay costs and support of £50 a year. When he did not resume married life with Flossie, she filed for divorce on 19 July 1916, alleging that he was guilty of adultery, desertion and had failed to comply with a decree for restitution of conjugal rights issued on 20 June 1916. She cited that on numerous occasion at 25 Jermyn Street, London he had committed adultery with a woman unknown to her and also in December 1914 and January 1915 at Thorrington Hall, Stoke by Nayland in Suffolk. Her decree nisi was granted on 17 January 1917, with the final decree on 24 July 1917, with Flossie being granted custody of Duncan, and Leslie being ordered to pay maintenance and education costs for his child of £5 16s monthly from 24 July 1917. Previously Leslie had requested that his son be allowed to stay with him for a week in London but Florence declined as the boy was so young and would find it difficult to be with strangers.

On 24 September 1932, Duncan aged 19, his mother, Florence Williams aged 45 and grandmother, Elizabeth Mills, sailed on the MONTROSE from Southampton to Quebec. The ladies were going on a visit, staying at the Berkeley Hotel in Montreal, but Duncan was about to start his studies at McGill University. His mother had paid for the tickets and her brother: Major Duncan Mills of Camberly, was their next of kin. Duncan, aged 24, described as a student, returned on the EMPRESS OF AUSTRALIA from Quebec to Southampton on 5 June 1937. On 29 January 1944 he married Stella Margaret Tayler. His death was recorded in 2005. The Mills family were globe trotters, with strong military links: Florence was the youngest of eight children, most of whom were born in Charters Towers, Queensland, Australia. Her parents were listed on the electoral register there, at the Metropolitan Hotel, the year after her wedding.

On 27 June 1933, five months after Sir Charles’s death, Samuel (retired) and Evelyn sailed on the Nederline ship, JOHAN VAN OLDENBARNEVELT from Genoa to Southampton, where he stated he had been living in Italy and would be going on to another country. Their contact address was Belmont Park, Bedhampton, Hampshire. They sailed back on the same ship on 6 October 1933 from Southampton to Genoa.  On 7 May 1934, they sailed on the Netherland Royal Mail ship CHRISTIAN HUYGENS, again from Genoa. He continued to live at Lowertown farm until he died on 9 May 1948, leaving an estate of £27,526 to be administered by the Westminster Bank, with an additional £513 in Northern Ireland. Evelyn Lucy died in 1986 in Weymouth. A newspaper refers to her as the wife of Captain Leslie Williams.

Phyllis is more difficult to trace. There was a 1935 marriage in E Glamorgan between Phyllis V Hughes and Edwin C Thompson but her birth and subsequent marriage to Taylor, indicated in the register to have taken place by 1961 has been difficult to pinpoint. Though there was a marriage in Thirsk in 1963 between Phyllis E Thompson and George R Taylor.

In 1924 Cecil had married Ethel Mary Rice. She was the daughter of Thomas Rice and his wife, Nellie Davey, also of Peter Tavy. Thomas was a tin miner working below ground, described by the enumerator as a hewer. By 1911 they had been married seven years and had four children.

Their daughter Phyllis May married Lionel Vivian Bedford in 1946. He was the son of Ernest and Emma Bedford, licensee and part owner of the Royal Standard Inn in Mary Tavy. Phyllis and Lionel had two children: Carol and Kenneth and were living at Blindwylle Road in Torquay when Lionel died on 29 July 1995. Phyllis died in 2002 in the Torbay area.      Muriel Doris married Bernard Philip John Palmer 1925-88 in 1949. He was the son of John Thomas Palmer, a gas worker and his wife, Louie, who had been living at 46 Westbridge Cottages, Tavistock in 1911. Bernard was living at 57 Westbridge Cottages when he died in 1988. Muriel died in the Plymouth area in the same year as her sister Phyllis: 2002.  It is likely that the third child was Patricia A, who married Roger D A Bird in 1974. Their fourth child was probably Peter G, born in 1943. Ethel was recorded as Ethel May when she died in 1977 in Tavistock. Cecil was living at 10 Fitzford Cottages, Tavistock when he died in 1981 leaving £17,789.

Alfred married Blanche Rowe on 4 April 1899 in Peter Tavy Parish Church. She was the daughter of Joseph Rowe 1847-93, a gardener/agricultural labourer and his wife Emma Chubb 1849-1912 and sister of Laura Alice (below). Alfred and Blanche had two sons: William Charles born 1899 and Tom born sixteen years later. Alfred was granted a conditional exemption for active war service from July 1916 when he was 38. His application stated that he had two children and was a partner in a bakery business, which had two motor vans and kept a boy. He had advertised for a man for six weeks and had received no applications. A six month exemption was granted to baker William C Brimacombe, (his son) from October 1917-April 1918. Further details for their eldest son, William can be found above at house 52 Nutshell. Tom married Daisy Mary Trigger 1908-93 in 1949. She was originally Daisy Stephens (see 1911 People Stephens), the daughter of William and Mabel Stephens and had married railway clerk Alfred Frederick Trigger in 1931. Tom died in 1989.

Alfred was living at the Laurels in Brentor when he died on 6 July 1958 at Gwyntor in Tavistock, leaving effects of £5,377. His wife Blanche survived him, continuing to live at the Laurels until she died on 1 June 1961 at Freedom Fields Hospital in Plymouth, leaving £474.   

Although Philip was described as single, he had in fact married Lilla Elizabeth Burton on 20 September 1893 and they had had a son, Rupert Chandos Bryant, born on 3 September 1894. After living in Albany, Western Australia and various other places, Philip sought to divorce his wife, alleging adultery with Joseph Hatchell Hogarth and the birth of a child, which was not his. Both co-respondents denied the allegations, but the judge found the case proven and required Joseph Hogarth to pay the costs of £80 11s 5d. The disputed child appears to have been named Joseph Hatchell Hogarth and is shown in the 1911 census, aged 6, at Ingle Lodge, Spinney Hill, Addlestone, Surrey, living with his mother, now Lilla Everett Gante, having married Herbert Everett Gante, a newspaper manager, the previous year. The other stepchild living with them was Iris Hogarth aged 8.

Joseph Hogarth married Sophie Louisa Clegg in 1909 and remained married to her in 1939 and at his death in 1944. He travelled to the US and Mexico on several occasions and was living in Mexico when he died after an operation in Baltimore, America. The son of the marriage, Rupert Chandos Bryant, born in Perth, Western Australia, was at boarding school in Sutton Vallance in Kent in 1911, though they recorded his birth as being in India. He served as a 2^nd Lieutenant in Royal West Surrey Regiment before obtaining his pilot’s licence in 1915, giving his mother’s address in Addlestone. He then joined the RAF and later travel records indicate that he was a flight lieutenant in the RAF in 1926. In 1952 he married Marjorie Senior in London. His father Philip Bryant had married Emma Ball on 21 August 1918 and died in 1941.

Laura Alice would not have expected all this when she took the job at the Rectory at about the time of Philip’s marriage, though may have had an inkling when he was living at his parents’ home, apart from his wife, in 1901. Laura died in 1940.

Sarah was one of the eight (or more) children of Leonard, an agricultural labourer, and Sarah Gerry, of Merton. In 1891 Sarah’s sister, Thirza, was staying with William and Sarah and their three children, William J 7, Sarah Annie 3 and Thomas 1 at the time of the census.  By 1901 Louisa 9, George 7 and Harry 5 had joined the family. In 1911 the couple declared that they had been married 30 years and six of their nine children had survived until that date. Sarah died in 1916. William was living at 32 Exeter St, Tavistock but died at 42 Bannawell Street on 10 June 1927, leaving £145.

In 1911 Louisa was a parlourmaid working for the Haverfield family at Clifton Villa, Watts Rd, Tavistock. Her marriage to Richard Hobbs in the summer of 1915 was followed by the birth of their child, Edwin Merrick Richard, on 13 November 1915. Private Richard Henry Hobbs was serving with the 2^nd Battalion of the Devonshire Regt when he was killed in action on 7 September 1916 at Vermelles in France. So Louisa was a wife for barely a year before she was widowed. The family was living at 3 Dixon Villas in Yelhampton when she inherited his estate of £137. In 1911 Richard had been living in Whitchurch, Tavistock, helping his widowed mother with their market gardening business. Louisa died in 1977.  Edwin was living at 37 Ernsettle Cres, Higher St Budeaux when he died on 10 December 1994. Gordon married Betty A Berry in Tavistock in 1945. Their daughter was Shirley. Gordon died in Dorset in 2003.

In 1928, Charles married Laura Kate Bauer in Exeter. She was the daughter of George Max Bauer 1867-1921, originally Kastenbauer. He had been born in Wurttemburg, Germany on 29 January 1867, the son of Johannes Georg Abraham Christian Kastenbauer and his wife Rosina Christine. In February 1884 he applied to leave Wurttemburg to travel to England. On 17 February 1884 in Nottinghamshire, he married Helen Broughton, who had been born in Yorkshire. By 1901 after time in London, they settled at Little Pilton Farm in Pinhoe, Devon and had fifteen children, eleven of whom survived until 1911: these included Mary Helen (Snow) 1889-1955, Rosina 1890-1978, Harold 1892-1938, Florence Hettie 1895-1900, Alice Daisy (Chamberlain) 1897-1981, Agnes Emma 1898-1904, Laura Kate, George Max Frederick 1900-52, Elsie Georgina (Pepperell) 1902-84, Richard Henry 1905-60, Arthur James 1906-79 died in Victoria, Australia, Henry John 1907-90, Hermon Horace Broughton 1910-84 and Hugh Leonard 1911-87. In the 1911 Census Helen completed the form naming herself first as the farmer, helped by Rosina and Harold but with George listed second as the head of the household. The war must have been a difficult time for all the family. Helen continued to live at Little Pilton until her death on 20 December 1931. Probate for her estate of £1,651, was granted to Fritz Bauer, a sausage skin merchant. Most of the family continued to live and work in the Pinhoe/Heavitree area of Exeter, mostly in the sausage skin business. Only Arthur seems to have spread his wings, first to Coventry, then Australia. Mostly, their estates were moderate, though Herman Horace left £59,478.

Charles and Laura had one son, Charles, 1929-2010 who married Daisy Ilsley 1927-2004 and they had a son. Charles Abraham died in Plymouth in 1971. Laura in 1990 in Okehampton.