EMILY ALICE WARD
Emily Alice Ward was born 17th February 1881 at 104 St. Pauls Road, Newington, Surrey. She married Harry Law on the 21st July 1907 at St. Mary’s Newington. They had two children, Cyril and May Ethel.
Unfortunately there were no photographs of Emily in the Hilda A. Ward archive. Moreover, no correspondence has yet been found. This is unusual, as the Ward’s appear to have kept postcards, photographs and other memorabilia as a matter of course.
However, during 2021, the photograph illustrated here was found. From left to right: Emily, her Mother Alice and her sister Bessie Ward. The date is unknown, but the wearing apparel of Emily and Bessie may date from just after the Great War and before the revolution of the short skirts in the mid-twenties.
Emily died on the 7th October 1961, aged eighty.
FLORENCE WARD
Florence Ward was born in 1883. Hilda A. Ward had a friend whose name was Florence (Florrie) and there is much confusion in the archive as to who was who. Moreover, there are photographs of three different young women called Florrie. However, the picture here looks like a Ward, so it is probably Florence Ward.
She married Robert William Morley on 15th November 1903. Robert was a sergeant in the Royal Marines and the Ward family talked about the Barracks near Deal in Kent. The 1911 census recorded two sons, Robert and an unnamed baby of about a month old and therefore not registered. A third boy was born in December 1912.
Sadly she died on the 3rd June 1914.
WILLIAM JAMES WARD
He was born at the shop, 2 New Street, Newington, Surrey, on the 3rd January 1885 and was known to the Ward family as 'Jim'. He married twice and may have lived a double life. Jim went to India without the family before The Great War to work on the railways. He seems to have missed War as he was in the far-east (Siam ?), although there seems to be no reason why he did not return during the hostilities. He returned circa 1920s. Joan M. Woolgar often said “My Uncle Jim” with affection so she knew him when a child (1920s). However, the Ward's seemed to believe that he had gone missing in Bangkok (Siam / Thailand) where it was assumed he was a tram driver, although the date is not known. It would now appear that he was living in north London for much of the time. He died at home in Eade Road, North London, during 1961.
EDITH WARD
Edith was born in 1887 and in the 1950s lived at Brixton. She had deep auburn hair and married Ernest Bennion (?) and had two girls, Gladys and Dorothy. Edie lived near “The White Horse” Public House, possibly on the north side of Mostyn Road, off the Brixton Road.
BESSIE WARD
Bessie Ward
Bessie Rose Ward was born in 1888 and married Arthur Knowles. They had a Son called Ronald who died the same year, 1920. Then Arthur died in 1924 and then her son Gerald was born a few months later. They lived with her sister, Ethel in Park Drive, Acton. (Or perhaps it was Ethel who went to live with Bessie.) Joan Woolgar said that Ethel later looked after Gerald in Worthing. However, by the time Ethel moved to Worthing, Gerald was a young man. Bessie died in 1947 - see Ethel Ward below.
LILLIAN WARD
She was born in 1900 and died the following year. There are no photographs of Lillian. However, there was some confusion as the family spoke about Eleanor and not Lillian !
ALFRED CHARLES WARD
Alf and his sister-in-law, Mabel Elizabeth Tanner,* having fun at the sea-side, perhaps Hastings or Herne Bay.
In those days wearing a suit and tie and sitting in a deck-chair or a shingle beach was often the norm!
Alfred Charles Ward, born 22nd December 1893. He married Hilda Ada Tanner at St. John’s Church, Lewisham. During the First World War, he was assigned to the West Kensington Regiment as his Father was a master shoemaker. They assembled at Green Street Green. He was not pleased, as the regiment was for men whose successful fathers had their own business, and so his fellow troops had money to spend while he had little.
Alf had a job he enjoyed as a pattern maker, but when his father died he had to come back to 2 New Street, Walworth (Kennington) to take over the family business; presumably due to the lease on the property. When the lease on number 2 New Street (later named Braganza Street) was due to expire in the early 1950s, their two daughters, Joan and Doris, looked at ways of renewing the lease by starting a different business, but this was not practical. At this stage Alf was unwell. Alf and Hilda left Braganza Street and moved around the corner, to a second floor flat at 64 De Laune Street, Walworth SE17 circa 1954. As Doris Ward was still living with them, she went also. Alfred died on 26th January 1956. - see link below.
* Mabel Elizabeth Tanner born 1891 sister of Hilda Ada Ward.
The Tanner family all had names where the initial letters to each name made a word i.e.
Robert (Bert) Alfred Tanner (RAT), b.1890,
Mabel Elizabeth Tanner (MET), b.1891,
Hilda Ada Tanner (HAT), b.1895,
Frederick Arthur Tanner (FAT), b.1897,
Bessie Anne Tanner (BAT), b.1899,
Walter (Wally) Edward Tanner (WET), b.1902,
ETHEL WARD
Ethel May Ward, born 1894, was Alfred Ward's younger Sister. Joan Woolgar said that Ethel Ward did leave the British Isles and that these trips were related to her work with a London Company, which included at least one trip to New York. The only picture postcard from Ethel which was sent from New York has a Grand Central Station datestamp for November, alas the year was uninked. However, it must be from the 1923. Other picture Postcards from 1924 and 1925 are from France. In one she states, “My movements are very uncertain but will probably be hear [Paris] until the 26th [April 1925].
Ethel lived at 18 Park Drive, Gunnersbury Park, London W.3. She married, late in life, James McHowat who lived at 4 Park Drive, Gunnersbury Park, London W.3 in 1938. After they were married they moved house and later lived in Worthing. When Arthur Knowles, the husband of Bessie Knowles née Ward died, Ethel looked after their son, however - see Bessie Ward above.
Copyright © J Woolgar 2020
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