The Marriage of Fred and (Gertrude) May HEMSWORTH

Broughton Road Hillsborough Sheffield 1907

The photograph was taken in the garden of a house in Broughton Road Hillsborough Sheffield. For many years I did not  have an exact date for the wedding but I have eventually discovered that it was in The June quarter of 1907. The house where the photograph was taken is believed to be the home of the bride's parents, Mr and Mrs Travis. The bride's maiden name was Gertrude May Travis but she was known to everyone as May. At the time of the marriage she would have been about 25 years old. Prior to the marriage she was employed as a "book seller paper" whilst Fred worked in the Hemsworth family business. 

FROM THE LEFT

FRONT ROW: Constance: Sydney (My Grandad), James Willmore ("Bimmy") The girl on the right not known to us

Kneeling behind the front row is Harry (Fred's twin brother) and next to him is his wife Beatrice nee Nockalls. The man on the right is John Travis (May's brother). The woman to the right of centre is not known to us

BACK ROW: Sid Siddall: The man to the left with the moustache is not known but the woman to the left is Gertrude Siddall (Sid's wife): Mary Anne Hemsworth (My Great Grandmother): Thirza Willmore ("Bimmy's mother"): Alonzo Hemsworth (My Great Grandfather): FRED and GERTRUDE MAY HEMSWORTH nee TRAVIS (The Bridal Couple): The man in the middle of the couple may be May's father: To the Bride's left is her mother: The two people to her left are not known to us but the woman was called Blanche

Alonzo and Mary Ann HEMSWORTHS' Family

My great grandparents Alonzo and Mary Ann had a total of ten children six sons and four daughters. The 1891 Census Extracts discloses the following information and shows that Alonzo and Mary already had seven of their ten children. 

• THIRZA was born in 1879 and was the eldest child of Alonzo and Mary. THIRZA married a JAMES HERBERT WILLMORE in the December quarter of 1900 (GRO Ecclesall Bierlow Volume 9C Page 669). At the time of the marriage JAMES was 23 years old and was employed as a Silversmith. JAMES and THIRZA had two children. James Herbert ("Bimmy") who was born in the December quarter of 1901 (GRO ref volume 9c page 458) and Phyllis. Both children married. James to Annie (surname not known) and Phyllis to Reverend Norman Collinge the only instance I can find to date of the family marrying into the clergy. From the very sparse information I have to date Norman Collinge may have been born in Lancashire.

• HARRY married BEATRICE NOCKALLS in the March quarter of 1908 (GRO reference Ecclesall Bierlow Volume 9C Page468). Beatrice was 25 at the time of her marriage and was employed  as a Dressmaker (1901 Census). She was the daughter of MARTIN (1856 - ) and FANNY NOCKALLS nee ROBINSON (1859 - ). Her mother Fanny was from Sheffield but her father Martin was from Norwich, Norfolk.   HARRY and BEATRICE had three children. From the information I have I believed that Harry and Beatrice lived at one time at 146 Myrtle Road, Heeley, Sheffield. This was confirmed when I found the school record for their children 

• HARRY the eldest son who was named after his father. The first piece of information I had about HARRY is his school record -

Hemsworth, Harry (Student, dob 25 Nov 1908).
Parent or guardian name(s): Harry (~), of 146 Myrtle Rd. Admitted to Heeley Bank Boys School, Heeley, as of 08 May 1916, until 31 Mar 1922, reason for leaving: Transfer Abbeydale. Previously attended Heeley .Bank Infants.

He married SYBIL and had two daughters Sybil and Ann. The daughter Sybil was the bridesmaid at my mother's wedding in 1951. Sybil died on December 5th 1980 and was cremated five days later on 10th December 1980 at Hutcliffe Wood Crematorium. She was 71 years old and at the time of her death was living at 67 Holmhirst Road, Woodseats, Sheffield. 

• Their daughter DOROTHY married THOMAS THEAKER and had two children Howard and Dorothy Jean. They lived at one time at 19 Prospect Road, Bradway, Sheffield but at some time prior to 1972, the family moved to 25 Kennedy Road in the Woodseats area of Sheffield. The last my mother heard was that they had moved to Clacton in Essex. 

Hemsworth, Dorothy (Student, dob 09 Jun 1912).
Parent or guardian name (s): Harry (~), of 146 Myrtle Rd.
Admitted to Heeley Bank Infants School, Heeley, as of 27 Aug 1917, until 01 Jul 1919, reason for leaving: To Girls Dept. Previously attended None.
Hemsworth, Dorothy (Student, dob 09 Jun 1912).
Parent or guardian name (s): Hemsworth, Harry (~), of 146 Myrtle Rd.
Admitted to Heeley Bank Girls School, Heeley, as of 01 Jul 1919,until 24 Jul 1924, reason for leaving: Abbeydale Grange. Previously attended Infants Department.
 

• Their younger son RONALD ("PON") school record is as follows

Hemsworth, Ronald (Student, dob 13 May 1917).
Parent or guardian name(s): Harry (~), of 146 Myrtle Rd.
Admitted to Heeley Bank Infants School, Heeley, as of 22 May 1922,until 31 Mar 1925, reason for leaving: To Boys Dept. Previously attended None.

"PON" married BETTY (nee SIMMS) and had four sons Brian, Stewart, Michael and Roy. RONALD died in 1985 aged 68 whilst his wife died fifteen years later on 17th October 2000 in Great Longstone, Derbyshire, England. She is buried in the churchyard of St Giles Church in Great Longstone.

• FRED married GERTRUDE MAY TRAVIS and had a daughter Dorothy ("Dorrie") who died aged 41/2 circa 1919. FRED died on Sunday 18th January 1953 at his home 74 Greenhill Avenue, Sheffield. He was 71 years of age. The service took place on the following Wednesday at St Barnabus's Church in Highfields, Sheffield followed by an interment at Burngreave Cemetery, Sheffield. His wife MAY died thirteen years later on Monday 20th June 1966 and was buried a week later in the same cemetery as her late husband.

HEMSWORTH, Gertrude May (102 Low Edges Crescent Housewife, age 85).
     Died at 102 Low Edges Crescent; Buried on June 20, 1966 in General ground;
     Grave Number 60, Section J3 of Burngreave Cemetery, Sheffield.

• MARY ANN ("Toll") married a CHRISTOPHER BEVERIDGE in 1916 and lived in Kirkcaldy, Fife.  They had two children MARY (1918 - 2003) and JOHN (1922 - .  

• GERTRUDE married SIDNEY SIDDALL (PRO reference September 1909 quarter Ecclesall Brierlow Volume 9C Page 630). The couple had four boys Raymond, Reginald, Rex and Alan. Sid Siddall was the Deputy Town Clerk with Sheffield Corporation but died in 1933 at a relatively early age. Gertrude remarried to a CHARLES PATTISON a Collier based at Killamarsh, North East Derbyshire

• ALONZO ("Sonny") (1889 - 1954) married ALICE (1877 - 1965) and had a son also called ALONZO (1917 - 1941). Alonzo was a Sapper in the 278 Field Company Royal Engineers but killed on active service on 23rd February 1941 and is buried in Whiston (St Mary Magdalene) Churchyard, Rotherham, South Yorkshire. Rather intriguingly, his death certificate was issued in Rochford, Essex (GRO Ref Death 1941 Hemsworth Alonzo Age 20 Rochford Vol 4a Page 1545). Rochford is on the outskirts of Southend on Sea and saw much activity in the early years of WW2 as it was close to the fighter station RAF Hornchurch and was on the main route the Luftwaffe took to bomb London. Given that Alonzo was a sapper in the Royal Engineers I am speculating as to whether or not he was a victim of a UXB 

  Thirteen years later in the same churchyard, the epitaph on his parents grave reads

June (and Eddie) I believe are Alonzo's and Alice's grandchildren

• GEORGE married MABEL TURNER in the September quarter of 1915 (GRO ref Ecclesall Bierlow Vol 9c Page 809)  and had two children Mavis (GRO ref June 1920 Sheffield Vol 9c Page 1089) and Eric (GRO ref December Sheffield Vol 9c Page 818)

After the 1891 census Alonzo and Mary had three more children the youngest of which was my grandad Sidney

• OSCAR married MABEL BRIDGE . MABEL was the daughter of WORTHINGTON (1854-1933) and ALICE JANE BRIDGE nee BUTTERFIELD (1856-1907 ). Worthington was born in the Duckinfield area of Cheshire but the marriage took place in Alice's home town  of Sheffield in the September quarter of 1880 (GRO Ecclesall Volume 9C Page 348 - see note 1). In 1881 they were living at 117 Clarence Street Sheffield. Worthington's occupation in both the 1881,1891 and 1901 Census is given as  a Saw Maker or Saw Smith. There was an elder brother named after his father that died soon after his birth in 1884 (GRO Ecclesall Brierlow Volume 9C Page241). The other brother ERNEST BRIDGE was born in 1890.  Oscar and Mabel had two daughters 

1. JENNY HEMSWORTH born 1916 in Sheffield who married a CLIFFORD NEWBOULD. The 1972 Kelly's directory for Sheffield shows the family living at 28 Shepperson Road, Hillsborough, Sheffield 

2. BETTY HEMSWORTH born 1921 who married COLIN RICH.

According to the 1972 Kelly's directory for Sheffield, Oscar lived at 76 Hands Road in the Walkley district of Sheffield. Sadly on 25th July 1976 Oscar died at the age of 83. The address that was given was 39 Harris Road, Middlewood, Sheffield. The householders name was Fras. C. Rich, Oscars son-in-law and the husband of his daughter BETTY. Oscar was cremated at City Road Crematorium on 29th July 1976.  

• CONSTANCE ("Connie") married ERNEST MILNER and had two children Mary and Peter. The family lived at 2 Southey Hall Drive,  Sheffield. It was at this address that ERNEST died on Sunday 21st February 1954. He was cremated three days later at Sheffield's City Road Crematorium. Connie lived to be just a few weeks short of her 100th birthday (1898 - 1998). She is the longest living of all the family I have come across to date. She spent most of her life in Sheffield but her last years were spent with her daughter in Exeter, Devon where she died 

The above photograph shows my grandad's two elder sisters Connie (on the left) and Toll out shopping in the late 1940's

• SIDNEY (1900 - 1973) - my Grandfather married LILY SHIRT and had two children Jack and Jean, my Mum. My grandfather was born at 67 Sherrington Road Sheffield and attended St Barnabus Church School in the Highfield's area of Sheffield. It was situated on the corner of Cecil Road and Horner Road. For a number of years he was the manager at Reuben Thompson's at 535 Queens Road, Heeley, Sheffield before becoming a self employed taxi driver based in Bradway, Sheffield. After retiring my grandparents moved to Greenhill Main Road, Sheffield. It was at 84 Greenhill Main Road that my grandad died. His death from a heart attack on Friday 6th July 1973 was sudden and unexpected. His funeral was  held six days later on Thursday 12th July 1973 and he was interred at Abbey Lane Cemetery alongside his mother and father    

In April 2008, whilst researching a related topic I found purely by chance the following burial record

"Enseworth, (Stillborn Child, age ).  Died at 58 Sherrington Rd; Buried on June 18, 1895 in Consecrated ground;
     Grave Number 10636, Section W of City Road Cemetery, Sheffield. Parent or Next of Kin if Available: H Enseworth."

This is undoubtedly the child of ALONZO and POLLY which explains why they is a gap between the birth of Oscar and Constance

Notes

1. The BRIDGE family are buried in Sheffield's City Road Cemetery

Bridge, Amelia (child, age 7).
Died at 76 Brincliffe Edge Rd; Buried on April 1, 1889 in Consecrated ground;
Grave Number 7874, Section U of City Road Cemetery, Sheffield.
Bridge, Worthington (child, age 2w).
Died at 24 Harrington Place; Buried on October 29, 1884 in Consecrated ground;
Grave Number 7874, Section U of City Road Cemetery, Sheffield.
Bridge, Worthington (retired, age 79).
Died at 2 Herries Rd; Buried on December 28, 1933 in Consecrated ground;
Grave Number 7874, Section U of City Road Cemetery, Sheffield.
Bridges, Alice Jane (Wife of Worthington, age 52).
Died at 45 Springwood Rd; Buried on October 23, 1907 in Consecrated ground;
Grave Number 7874, Section U of City Road Cemetery, Sheffield 

2. HEMSWORTH, ALONZO
Nationality: United Kingdom
Rank: Sapper
Regiment: Royal Engineers
Unit : 278 Field Coy.
Date of Death: 23/02/1941
Service No: 1923169
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: Sec. B. Row 6. Grave 111.
Cemetery: WHISTON (ST. MARY MAGDALENE) CHURCHYARD

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This page was last updated on 12/05/10 10:51