This is the story of Herbert and his family and my unknowing connection with his grandson.
Herbert was the eldest son of my Great Grandfather John Thomas Wilcox, but not the first born. He was born in in 1874 and baptised on December 13th. That was 149 years ago. The Wilcox family were living in Golborne Road, Kensington at that point and Herbert’s father was described as a House Decorator. Herbert died in 1947, the same year as my Grandfather, William Wilcox, who was his younger brother.
Herbert, possibly around the time that he married Ellen. The only photo that I have come across with Herbert.
There is nothing about Herbert that I know of. There were no stories handed down nor second hand stories that I have grown up with. I knew nothing about him until I started researching the Wilcox family during the past eight years.
He was not at home in 1891 when he was 16 years old. Herbert was listed in the 1891 Census return in the household of Walter Underhill at 1, Warwick Road in Paddington. Herbert was described as a Page Boy and was one of four Domestic Servants. There were two Housemaids and a Cook. Walter Underhill was an Electrical Engineer and his wife Ida, was a School Teacher teaching a art and needlework. They both came from Oxford and aged 33.
Warwick Road is now Warwick Avenue. It is close to the canal basin known as Little Venice and has beautiful four story town houses that a wealthy family might have owned in the 19th Century. The Underhills did not have children in 1891 but they had a team of four Domestic Servants to look after them, including young Herbert who would be undertaking Page Boy duties. This is unclear to me because Mrs. Underhill was teaching at a school and unless Mr. Underhill was working from home, what need was there for a Page Boy in the household ?
Ten years later, Herbert was found listed in the 1901 Census return of the Boulter household. 141 Fifth Avenue is a good looking terraced house with probably three bedrooms upstairs. The Boulter family consisted of Louis and Sarah Boulter, both aged 43. Louis worked for the Railways as a Railway Checker. Louis and Sarah had two sons who also worked for the Railways. One was a Railway Carman and the other was a Railway Messenger. Also in the house is a Boarder, Henry Moore who was described as a Railway Loader. And then there was Herbert who was staying with the Boulters as a Visitor. He was described as a Railway Clerk. Not only that, but the Boulters had two younger children, a daughter aged 10 and a son aged 8. The Boulters were housing four men working on the Railways and Louis was himself a Railway Worker. With two small children also, where did they all sleep ?
So, we have a Checker, a Carman, a Loader, a Messenger and a Clerk, all working for the Railways. Paddington is my guess because it is the nearest London Terminal Station.
Where Herbert was actually living is not clear because if he was listed as a Visitor then he had lodgings elsewhere. He was obviously connected to everyone in the house through work.
In 1907 Herbert married Ellen May Harris.
The marriage registration of Herbert and Ellen. William and Marguerite are witnessess alongside Ellen’s Mother. 1907. (National Archives).
Ellen was the daughter of a Bootmaker, she was aged 30. Herbert had two of his siblings as witnesses to the wedding at Hanworth Parish Church. William, my Grandfather who would have been 17 and Marguerite who would have been 23 at the time. Marguerite who later changed her surname to Francis so that she could live in Tredegar, South Wales with her brothers who had fled London a short time after Herbert’s wedding. Herbert was described as a Railway Porter and his Father was described as a Builder. That last point is interesting because he was nearly always described as a House Decorator. Annoyingly, Ellen has no occupation and is only described as a Spinster. At the age of 30 I cannot imagine that she had reached this age without have had an occupation for 14 years.
The address they are listed at is 9 Nightingale Road in Hanwell, Ealing. I am wondering if this was Ellen’s parents house.
Later, in the 1911 Census return, Herbert and Ellen were then a family with their two daughters, Ellen and Marguerite. They are living at 143 Nightingale Buildings (purely a coincidental name) in Marylebone. This is close to another London Terminal Railway Station. Herbert was a Wagon Loader. Nightingale Buildings were developed in 1905 by Viscount Portman and then sold to the Marylebone Association for Improving the Dwellings of the Industrious Classes. This was part of the social housing movement that flourished in the early 20th Century. The famous housing trust for the working classes in London was the Peabody Trust.
I think my Mother did know that her Uncle Herbert lived in the area because I can remember returning home from visits to my North London relatives during the 1950’s and she would point out the general direction of Marylebone as we travelled down the Edgeware Road and tell me that she had an uncle who lived ‘over there’. Although of course he was not alive.
Herbert was working for the Great Central Railway. This covered Liverpool to Manchester and Hull with a line that came down and terminated at Marylebone.
Herbert and Ellen had two daughters – Ellen Kate Lenorah who was born in 1909 and Marguerite Ethel Minnie who was born in 1910.
Ellen, who was a Dressmaker at the age of 18, married James Overed, a Box Cutter in 1927.
Her sister Marguerite, married Richard Richardson, at Edmonton, in 1941. At the time Margaret (she had rejected her birth spelling) was 31 and had been a Waitress. Richard was a Chef.
The next part of the story is my interest in Margaret and Richard Richardson. I cannot remember ever meeting them. However, at some point after they married, they moved to Redhill, Surrey. The relevance of this is that this was the town that I was brought up in and I have a feeling that they arrived in Redhill at the instigation of my parents. That is only based upon the stories that I have from my brother Peter and sister Jill.
Margaret and Richard lived in Victoria Road which was a short walk from where I was living as a teenager with my parents. My sister Jill remembers visiting them when she lived in St Johns Road, just around the corner. When I originally wrote up my earlier research into the Wilcox history, Peter wrote to me with comments on my research with his understanding of the stories that he had grown up with.
In 1942 my parents, Bill and Grace Carver, had bought a café in the Brighton Road, the Black and White Café. It had a sign outside that had a picture of two black and white Scottie dogs. My parents ran this café for five years and when I was due to be born, my Mother was advised that she should not continue working. My parents moved to Crawley where I was born in 1947. Not long after my parents moved us all back to the Black and White Café. With insufficient room and a desire to become a Bookmaker, my Father bought a large house in Ladbroke Road, Redhill. The Café was still in his hands and this is where Peter’s comments come in. “Richard rented the B & W from Dad; they fell out and Dad kicked him out. Dick, my second cousin, was a popular local folk singer.”
This cannot be confirmed. There is no one to consult about the evidence for the latter story. I do know that Ellen and Richard Richardson remained in Victoria Road until their deaths in 1992 and 1983 respectively. Their son Richard, otherwise known as Dick Richardson, my second cousin, was someone who I saw regularly but never knew as my relative.
Dick Richardson was born in 1942. He was a popular folk singer who ran the Redhill Folk Club at the George and Dragon pub in Cromwell Road during the 1960’s. I used to go regularly on a Friday night and remember a number of the guests who sang there. The evening always started with Dick warming us up with a number of songs. As Bob Dylan became popular there would always be something from one of his early albums. Dick would then introduce the guest and the session would end about 10pm or thereafter.
During this time I was very active in the Peace Movement of the 1960’s and the backdrop was the growth in folk and blues music which seemed to define the 1960’s for many people. One American visitor to the Folk Club was Hedy West who I chatted to in the bar and she sent me books and other material relating to the Vietnam War protests in California when she returned to America.
Sadly, the night that Paul Simon sang at the Folk Club in 1965, I was in London for the evening and when I rushed off the train at Redhill Station to run round to the George and Dragon for a chance to catch up with friends, I ran into him as he was coming round the corner of Cromwell Road. Apologising to each other for the bump was the nearest chance of getting to see him.
That is the only memory of Dick Richardson that I have. I saw him sing on a number of occasions over a three year period in the 1960’s. Never fully understanding that our family connections had such depth.
From Page Boy to Railway Worker, to Waitress and marriage to someone who fell out with my Father, to popular Folk Singer in a Redhill pub. An interesting connection with one of the least known (to me) Wilcox family members.