Annie Gertrude Edgar
was born in Worlingworth on July 23,
1885 and baptised at the parish church
of St. Mary
In the years before Annies birth Thomas and Harriet had moved from Great Waldingfield to Worlingworth
Worlingworth was a small Suffolk village, with most people employed
like her father Thomas in agriculture.
Source: Wikipedia, courtesy of Greenwoodlw
It's population in 1881 was under 700,
and falling - people were seeking more lucrative and easier work in towns and
cities.
Thomas's next move in his quest to find secure employment
took the family out of Suffolk for the first
time, but only as far as Tendring, a village close to Clacton in Essex . By the end of the decade they were back in Suffolk in Wetherden, a
village close to Stowmarket. Annie started school there on March 17, 1890. They'd moved again by the time of the 1891 Census when
they were living in Great Bealings. Her
older brothers and sister - Herbert (12), Stanley (8) and Kate (10) - are
marked as 'scholar' but for some reason she isn't.
At the time of the next Census in 1901 she's with the family
still, now at Stapleford Abbots, about 4 miles from Ongar and 5 miles
from Epping. Her younger brother Wilfred (12) is at school but at 16 she
has no status marked - perhaps she'd left school but not yet found work.
In 1911 Annie Gertrude, aged 25, was a 'children's nurse' in
the family of solicitor Fredrick Wiffin Smith and Mary Pering Smith, helping to
look after two girls aged 7 and a boy of 5. The Smiths lived at Westcroft, in Exeter Road in the
Withycombe Raleigh district to the north east of the sea-side town of Exmouth in Devon .
The Queen Victoria Diamond Jubilee Clock Tower on Exmouth Seafront: By Adrian Pingstone (Arpingstone) - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7279744
There
was also a cook-general and a housemaid, so it was a well-off family. She was now
a long way from Epping, which was about to become the family's new 'base'. But
it's interesting that the 1911 Census marks his place of birth as Witham in
Essex and his three children and the two other live-in servants were also Essex born. I suspect that Annie went into the family's
employment in Essex and moved with them to the
south west.
She obviously stayed in Exmouth - whether or not with the
Smiths we don't know - because five years after that Census she married there.
This marriage was on Jan 23 1916 to William Edward Gibbins,
also of Withycombe Raleigh, Exmouth. William was born in the Withycombe Raleigh
parish in 1886. He was an errand boy in 1901 and in 1911 he was a bricklayer,
still living at home with his mother (aged 68) and his sail maker father, James
(aged 72). Their address was 5 Ann
Street Withycombe Raleigh, Exmouth.
A source on Ancestry.com tells us that Annie and William had
a son, Thomas John Edward Gibbins, on December 13, 1919. Thomas John died at
the end of 1972 in Essex .[1]
This is what Annie's nephew Wilfred 'Bay' Edgar has to say
abut her life:
Annie married but
stayed at home to look after husband's brother and father.
There is no other source that verifies Bay's claim that she
looked after her father-in-law and brother-in-law. But let's look at the
documentary record to assess it.
James' wife Elizabeth
died in 1916, so, given the ideas of the time, a role as her father-in-law's
carer, if he needed one, is certainly possible. But his death was registered in
June 1918, so any commitment to this task was relatively short.
William had two brothers. James Alfred Doble Gibbins died in
Exmouth in 1948 leaving his money to his widow. His other brother Robert George
Baker Gibbins of Exmouth died 19 January 1940 leaving probate £261 16s. 4d. to
Samuel Evans, manager. As we're about to fees, Annie had left Exmouth long
before either of these deaths so a carer's role, although not impossible, would
have been short-lived.
In fact Annie returned to live with her parents and some of
her siblings in the new family 'base' of Theydon Garnon, just outside Epping. Her
husband came with her, and it's certainly possible she was looking after him, although, again, for a relatively short time.
William Edward Gibbins of Mound Rd. (sic - but probably Thomas and Harriet's home
of 1, Mount Rd. )
Theydon Garnon died at the London Hospital Middlesex Administration on August
2, 1924. His widow Annie Gertrude Gibbins was granted probate on effects to the
value of £155. 18s.
It's possible that Annie spent the rest of her life in Theydon
Garnon.
All Saints Church, Theydon Garnon: Wikipedia, Courtesy of John Salmon
The next mention of her in the record comes 40 years later.When her brother Frederick, also given as living at 1, Mount Rd.,died on August 7, 1964, Annie was granted probate in the
sum of £632.
However, there's this photo in the archive of my father (her nephew):
However, there's this photo in the archive of my father (her nephew):
On the back is written 'Exmouth 1927' and it shows the children of her brother Herbert, who lived in Windsor, enjoying the seaside. I have no evidence that the woman - who certainly isn't Herbert's wife Alice - is Gertrude, but I suspect that it is indeed her. Perhaps she went back to live in Exmouth for a time - or more likely took the children down with her on a visit to friends and relatives.
Annie's death was registered in Epping in March 1966. Her son (and perhaps his wife) had presumably been living with or close to her as his death on December 29, 1972 was registered in Epping.
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