PART ONE

The Gloucestershire Main Line - 1880 to 2008

This is the third of three sections of the first part of the Collett family line

Updated March 2010

The information used to update the file on this occasion was kindly provided

by Alan Collett (Ref. 1R26) and Rob Collett (Re. 1P48)

The previous update of this file was thanks to new information received from Don Cameron

THE JOINING OF TWO COLLETT LINES

1P33	ALICE LOUISA COLLETT was born on 17.05.1881 at Bisley. This photograph was taken prior to her wedding. She married HARRY JAMES COLLETT (Ref. 2P5) on 13.03.1909 at St Mark's Church in New Town Swindon. Immediately prior to the wedding Alice was in service with the Morse family and lived-in at The Croft, a very large house on Croft Road in Old Town Swindon. A few years earlier, at the turn of the century and according to the Census of 1901, she was a domestic/housemaid living at Ryeford Hall, a school at Stonehouse in Gloucestershire. Once married, the couple set up home at 7 Bathampton Street (formerly Bath Street) in New Town Swindon where the family lived until 1959.
	All of their children were born at 7 Bathampton Street.
	Harry James Collett, referred to as HJ by the family, was born at 16 Exeter Street in Swindon on 09.01.1879. His occupation was that of boilermaker with the Great Western Railway.
	Immediately after Christmas Day in 1937 he was taken into the Radium Institute at No.1 Riding House, Posttana Place in London W1, for an operation on his eye. Upon his arrival at the Institute, a branch of the GWR Hospital in Paddington, he sent a postcard to his eldest son William dated 29^th December 1937 to say he had arrived safely.
	However, he never recovered from the operation that took place on 1^st January and died the following day. The cause of death was given as ‘carcinoma of the jaw’. He was buried at the Whitworth Cemetery (Plot F780) in Swindon on 08.01.1938.
	Harry owned an 1899 pocket book in which his address was given as 111 Dixon Street, the same address where dressmaker Miss W Iles lived in 1936 and who it was that made the wedding dress for his eldest son’s bride Noreen Harman. Curiously enough the names Iles has cropped up on more than one occasion. First there was Charles Iles Collett (Ref. 1O70) baptised in 1846. Then there was John Iles, Harry’s great-grandfather. And finally there was Elsie Iles who married Noreen Harman’s brother George in 1930 at Swindon.
	Alice Collett died on 31.03.1969 of a cerebral thrombosis while living at 25 Swindon Road with daughter Ellen and her family. She was buried in the same plot as Harry.
	Details of the family of Harry James Collett can be found in Part Two - The Secondary Line leading up to the reference 2P5
	1Q4	WILLIAM HENRY JOHN COLLETT	Born on 01.12.1909
	1Q5	Ellen Agnes Collett	Born on 22.05.1911
	1Q6	Harry James Collett	Born on 29.11.1913
	1Q7	Alice Louisa Collett	Born on 23.09.1915
	1Q8	Rose Phyllis Louvain Collett	Born on 19.10.1916
	1Q9	Albert Edward Collett	Born on 19.03.1918
	1Q10	Arthur Stephen Walter Collett	Born on 29.04.1922
	1Q11	Caroline Ruth Collett	Born on 20.12.1924
1P34	John Levi Collett, who was referred to as Jack by the family, was born at Siddington on 21.01.1883. He was listed with his family at Siddington in 1891 when he was nine, but by 1901 when he would have been 19 he had already left home and he may have been abroad with the army since no records of him has been found.
	It is known that during his early working life he did serve with the British Army. Ten years later he was listed in the 1991 Census as John Levi Collett aged 29 and was living and working in the Southampton area, where his place of birth was simply confirmed as Gloucestershire. At this time he was still in the army, from which he was eventually rejected three years later in 1914.
	On leaving the army he moved to Buckinghamshire where he joined the Buckinghamshire police force as a special constable. This he did from 28^th August 1914 to 1^st September 1919 while still living at Ivor. And it was during this period in his life that Jack married Lucy Elizabeth King at Ivor in Buckinghamshire.
	He later became a butler to G.T.S.Stevens, a Middlesex County Cricketer, and afterwards was in service to a gentleman by the name of Hebbert. Later in his life he worked for Lady Murray who was reputed to be the person who first introduced the Pekinese breed of dog into England.
	He eventually gave up his occupation as a butler to work at the Bell Punch & Ticket Company in Uxbridge, where he was employed as a service electrician. He served thirty-two years with the company until his retirement on 25^th April 1952.
	During his retirement Jack worked as a tea boy in the local toy factory producing Darleks made famous in the BBC television programme Doctor Who. His wife Lucy suffered from phlebitis in her legs and for almost thirty years of her life never went outside the house.
	Before moving to Uxbridge around the turn of the century, Jack was a choirboy in the church at Cirencester and returned there late in his life with his son Lewis, hoping to find some record of his days in the choir, but was unsuccessful. Jack and Lucy spent most of their life at 78 Rockingham Road, Uxbridge in Middlesex where the two younger boys were born, the first son having been born while they were still living in Ivor.
	Lucy died on 06.06.1973 and Jack died five years later on 07.12.1978.
	1Q12	John Henry Collett	Born on 09.10.1916
	1Q13	Ronald James Collett	Born on 01.01.1924
	1Q14	Lewis Frank Collett	Born on 04.11.1926
1P35	William Robert Collett was born on 02.12.1883 at Siddington. In the Census of 1901 he was a groom/domestic still living at home. It is known that he married and that the couple lived at 171 Gloucester Street in Cirencester as this was the address given for his wife at the time of his death. It is believed that the marriage produced issue but nothing so far has been found to confirm this.
	He was a Private 7790 in the 1^st Battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment and died on 01.11.1914 during the First Battle of Ypres where he suffered gas exposure, was wounded and died of his injuries. His name appears on the Ypres Menin Gate Memorial at Ieper, West Vlaanderen in Belgium.
1P36	Bertram Henry Collett, referred to as BH by the family, was born on 15.10.1885 at Siddington. He married Elizabeth Lillian Fuller on 20.12.1910 at Dublin in Eire after being posted to Dublin during the uprisings taking place at that time.
	Upon leaving school at the age of twelve years Bertram worked for his brother-in-law, a Mr Clifford at Brinkworth in Gloucestershire. He was then apprenticed to a blacksmith in Brislington near Bristol, before joining the Army Service Corp as a Sergeant Farrier at Woolwich Barracks, where he served for twenty-one years. He then took up the post of Stud Groom & Farrier to Sir Edward Durrand at his Ashton Keynes Estate in Gloucestershire. Sometimes he would travel with Sir Edward to events in France and Belgium with a string of polo ponies.
	Initially, while working for Sir Edward, the family lived at Somerford Keynes in a tithe cottage, until that property was sold. After which they moved to Langley near Winchcombe in Gloucestershire. Bertram worked for Sir Edward Durrand until he retired in the mid-1950s.
	Their first child was born at Woolwich, the second during a visit to Dublin, while their daughter was born at Langley.
	Bertram died on 23.02.1962 at Cheltenham and Elizabeth, his wife, died sixteen years later on 11.03.1978.
	1Q15	Harry Collett	Born on 05.06.1913
	1Q16	Bertram John Collett	Born on 14.03.1915
	1Q17	Lily Rose Collett	Born on 08.08.1919
1P37	Ernest Collett was born on 10.08.1887 at Siddington. In 1901 when aged only 13 he was a pantry boy and domestic servant in Siddington. He later married Lily Louisa Holborn around 1909 at Bradford-on-Avon when his occupation had changed to that of a groom and gardener. By the time of the census in April 1911, the marriage had produced the first of the couple’s three children. The family of three at that time were recorded as living within the Chippenham registration district. Ernest of Siddington was his wife Lillie L Collett was 26 and their daughter was one year old Cynthia Q Collett.
	Judging by the age of son Ronald and his sister Cynthia, the photograph above was very likely taken in Bradford-on-Avon around 1915 and just prior to Ernest leaving England to join the British Army in France.
	He often referred to himself as a 'Gloucestershire Monkey', his wife, who was from Freshford in Somerset as a 'Somerset Cuckoo' and his two sons as 'Wiltshire Moonrakers'.
	He was badly wounded in 1918 towards the end of the Great War. After the war and due to the limitations placed on him by his injuries, Ernest and his family eventually moved to Trowbridge where he took up work in the Dye House of the local Cloth Mill.
	The couple’s second child was born at Bradford-on-Avon, while the third child was born after the family had moved to Trowbridge. Much later in their life Ernest and Lily went to live in Swindon near to where other members of Ernest’s family were living. And it was there that Ernest died on 28.12.1967.
	1Q18	Cynthia Queenie May Collett	Born in March 1910
	1Q19	Ronald Ernest Collett	Born on 12.10.1912
	1Q20	Robert William George Collett	Born on 17.08.1919
1P38	Walter Collett was born on 03.12.1889 at Siddington. In the Census of 1901 he was listed as pantry boy/domestic. While still very young and following disagreements with his father, he ran away from home, taking his younger brother Robert Percy (below) with him. The brothers eventually arrived at Cinderford in the Forest of Dean where they lodged with Mary Ann Matthews at Newtown Steam Mills. Shortly after Walter married the widowed Mary Ann Matthews on 27.05.1912 at Holy Trinity Church at Drybrook in the Forest of Dean. Mary Ann was originally born as Mary Ann Haile in 1872.
	His occupation was that of miller and he served with the Royal Horse Artillery as a horse driver in the Great War. During the war he was gassed and invalided out of the army. Upon returning home he became a coalminer at the local gas works and was promoted to shift foreman at the Northern United Colliery in Cinderford.
	His wife, Mary Ann, who was seventeen years older than Walter, already had three children when he married her. These were Frederick William George Ryder Haile (base born), and Olive Ann Matthews and Mary Lucinda (Molly) Matthews both from Mary’s first marriage to Thomas Matthews.
	It was the youngest daughter of Walter’s wife, Olive Ann Matthews, who was the mother of Walter’s son and following the birth of the child it was brought up by its ‘grandmother’, this being the wife of the boy’s father.
	The child was born at Cinderford where Walter died on 07.07.1945 at the age of 54 and when his only son was just fifteen years old.
	1Q21	Frederick Walter Thomas George Collett Born on 21.03.1930
1P39	Lily Collett was born in December 1890 at Siddington. She married a Mr Clifford of Brinkworth who gave employment to her brother Bertram Henry Collett (above).
1P40	Robert Percy Collett, who was referred to as Bob within the family to avoid confusion with his father, was born at Siddington on 03.01.1892. Following some dispute with his parents, he ran away from home with his brother Walter (above) and ended up in the Forest of Dean area of Gloucestershire. He married Ann Kibblewhite on 14.05.1923 in the Registry Office at Newnham on Severn. The family lived at Harrow Hill in Drybrook where both of his daughters were born.
	His occupation was that of master baker at the Cinderford Co-operative & Industrial Society. He retired in very poor health caused by flour dust in his lungs.
	Robert Percy Collett died at Drybrook on 29.09.1961.
	1Q22	Gladys Collett	Born on 15.01.1923
	1Q23	Hilda Collett	Born on 20.10.1925
1P41	Mabel Rose Collett was born at Siddington on 28.09.1894 and it was there that she was living with her family in March 1901 aged six years. One year later her mother died and seven years after that her father Robert Collett married Annie.
	The couple were thought to have lived at Stratton just outside Cirencester, but in 1911 Mabel Rose Collett, aged 16 and of Siddington, was the only member of the family still living in the Cirencester area.
	Over the next couple of years Mabel left Cirencester and moved to Stratton St Margaret just east of Swindon. And it was at Swindon where she married George Bramble on 25.12.1919. After the wedding the couple lived at Stonehouse in Gloucestershire where their first two children were born.
	At sometime during 1922 the family moved to Wanborough, again just outside Swindon. As a couple they were well known for travelling everywhere on a tandem which even included trips to see Mabel’s brothers in the Forest of Dean. Mabel was a large jovial lady and George by comparison was a short, slightly built man.
	Mabel died on 26.11.1972 at Swindon and George died a few years earlier on 29.09.1967.
	According to their son Peter Bramble, there were three other children in addition to those listed below, two of which were twins who died in infancy. Peter’s younger brother George Bramble lived at 37 Graham Street in Swindon in the 1990s.
	1Q24	Irene Rosanna Bramble	Born on 02.07.1920
	1Q25	Claude Bernard Bramble	Born on 04.12.1921
	1Q26	Thomas Bramble	Born on 04.06.1923
	1Q27	Eileen Bramble	Born on 26.04.1925
	1Q28	Dorothy Bramble	Born on 23.11.1927
	1Q29	Peter Bramble	Born on 27.12.1929
	1Q30	George Bramble	Date of birth unknown
	1Q31	Betty Bramble	Date of birth unknown
	1Q32	Elizabeth Bramble	Born on 09.01.1937
	1Q33	Ann Bramble	Born on 24.07.1941
1P42	Alice Mary Collett was born at Alvescot during the third quarter of 1887, the birth being registered in Witney. In the Bampton & Witney area census of 1891 she was recorded as being four years old while living with her parents and younger sister Elsie.
	Following the birth of her next sister in late 1891, the family moved to Cirencester, but by the start of the next century the family was living in the Almondsbury area north of Bristol.
	She later married Herbert John Golledge at Bristol in 1909. Herbert was the son of Charles Golledge and Hannah Needham of Stapleton in Bristol. It may be interesting to note that the Needham family, through their Hulin family connection, are linked to the Collett family described in Part 35 – The Melksham Line.
	By the time of the Bristol census of 1911 Alice had given birth to a son. Herbert John Golledge was 22, Alice Mary Golledge of Alvescot was 23, and their son was nine months old Hubert Eric John Golledge.
1P48	John Henry Collett was born at Gloucester in 1876 and was aged 4 in April 1881 when living with his family at 2 Hawkesbury Villa, Weston Road in the Longford St Mary district of Gloucester. Just after the start of the new century he was working with his father as a chemical manufacturer.
	John was aged 24 at that time and was still a bachelor living at his parents home in Gloucester and the census record for 1901 indicated that he was educated with a Masters Degree in Science.
	However, sometime during the middle of the first decade of the new century John married Dorothy and by April 1911 the couple had two children when the family was living in Gloucester. The census revealed that John Henry Collett was 34, his wife Dorothy Elizabeth Collett was 32, and their two children were John Nelson Collett who was one year old, and a baby son who presumably may have been born right then as he had no name or age even in days.
	1Q34	John Nelson Collett	Born in 1910 at Gloucester
	1Q35	infant Collett	Born around 02.04.1911 at Gloucester
1P49	Agnes Sophia Collett was born at Gloucester in 1878 and was listed as being two years old in the 1881 Census when living with her parents at 2 Hawkesbury Villa in Weston Road in Gloucester. She was still living with her parents twenty years later at the age of twenty-three.
	Curiously ten years later in April 1911 Agnes Sophia was listed in the census that year as being thirty and two years younger than her brother Gilbert (below). Her place of birth was confirmed as Gloucester and she was still a single lady living with her parents and brother at Kimsbury House in Upton St Leonards.
1P50	Gilbert Farady Collett was born at Gloucester in 1880 and was one year old by the time of the census of 1881. The family home was at 2 Hawkesbury Villa in Weston Road in Gloucester but by 1901 Gilbert was recorded as living in the village of Cowley just south of Cheltenham.
	He was aged 21 on that occasion but was not credited with any occupation. Gilbert later returned to live with his family where he was recorded in April 1911. Under his full name of Gilbert Farady Collett he was described as being 32 and a chemical manufacturer living with his parents and sister Agnes (above) at Kimsbury House in Upton St Leonards to the east of Gloucester City.
	Rather oddly he was listed as being two years older than his sister, whereas in all of the previous three census records he was always the younger of the two children of John and Sarah Collett.
	Although aged thirty-two, Gilbert was not married at that time, but it is evident from the note below that he did eventually marry and that there must have been children, including a son to carry on the Collett name.
	In August 2009 contact was made with Robin (Rob) A Collett of Moseley in Birmingham who is the grandson of Gilbert Farady Collett. It is therefore hoped that over the coming months, this family line will be extended to include more details about Rob, his father, and his more recent family.
1P51	Walter Charles Collett was born in 1869 at Ham in Surrey, just north of Kingston-upon-Thames. At the time of the 1881 Census Walter was aged 12 and was living with his family at Acre Road in Kingston.
	Whether it was to do with his father’s trade as a carpenter, but the family were not listed in the UK in either 1871 or 1891. By 1901 Walter was living once again in Kingston where he had taken up his father occupation and was working as a carpenter aged 32. It would appear that he was not married at that time.
1P52	Alice Collett was born at Ham in 1872 and was aged 9 in 1881. Whether through her father’s business as a carpenter or not, Alice met and married Horace W Daysh a carpenter from Fareham in Hampshire who was twenty years older than Alice.
	At the turn of the century Alice aged 29 and of Ham was living with her daughter Annie S Daysh aged 2 in Kingston-upon-Thames and her carpenter husband Horace aged 49.
1P53	Lucy Collett was born at Ham in 1873 and was aged 8 in 1881. At the turn of the century and at the age of twenty-eight, Lucy was still a spinster and was living and working with her younger sister Louisa, both of them being employed as tailoresses.
1P54	Louisa Collett was born at Kingston in 1876 and was aged 5 in 1881. On leaving school she lived and worked with her older sister in Kingston where they both worked as tailoresses. The 1901 Census for Kingston confirmed that Louisa was born there and was aged 23.
1P58	Arthur Collett was very likely born at Hampstead sometime during 1912 or shortly thereafter, and while his parents were living at 18 Gardnor Road which was their address when they were married in October 1911.
	Arthur is known to have married Vera and the marriage produced a son for the couple. During the Second World War Arthur served with the British Army in Palestine but was eventually invalided out of the army with ear problems.
	Very little else is known about the family at this time.
	1Q36	Michael Collett	Date of birth unknown
1P60	Henry Thomas Collett was born at Newport during the fourth quarter of 1868. By 181 he and his family were living at 11 Alexandra Building at Weston near Bath in Somerset. Henry was aged 13 and was still at school.
	Later in his life he followed his father’s example and was employed on the railways, a job that took him north to Staffordshire. And it was at Burton-on-Trent that he met and married Bertha around the turn of the century.
	According to the census of 1901 Henry was 31 and was working as a railway engine driver. His wife Bertha was aged 26 and their only child at that time was Winifred who had been born at Burton where the family was living, and who was not yet one year old.
	1Q37	Winifred Collett	Born in 1900 at Burton-on-Trent
1P61	James Edward Collett was born on 02.01.1871 at Noah's Ark in Stonehouse and was baptised on 16.07.1871 at Kings Stanley. He was the son of Henry Albert and Mary Ann Collett of Newport and later of Weston near Bath.
	James was also living in Weston in 1901 and was 28 years of age and his occupation at that time was that of an iron moulder. In the census record his place of birth was curiously given as Worcester.
1P62	William Albert Collett was born on 24.10.1872 at Newport where he was baptised on 17.11.1872. Around 1877 his family left South Wales and moved to Weston near Bath and the census of 1881 recorded the family living at 11 Alexandra Building in Weston where William was nine years old.
	It was during the mid 1890s that William married Clarissa with whom he had two children, the first children being born before the end of the century and the second well after the start of the new century.
	According to the census of 1901 William was 28 and an iron moulder living at Weston with his wife Clarissa 25, and their son William who was two years old and born at Bath.
	Ten years later in April 1911 the family was living in Bath and had been added to by the birth of the couple’s second son. William A Collett was 38, Clarissa F Collett was 35, and the two sons were William P H Collett who was 12, and Ernest L Collett who was two years old.
	1Q38	William P H Collett	Born in 1898 at Bath
	1Q39	Ernest L Collett	Born in 1908 at Bath
1P63	Robert Edward Collett was born at Newport in 1875 and was aged 6 in 1881 while living at 11 Alexandra Building in Weston near Bath. Twenty years later Robert Collett from Newport was 25 and a tailor’s presser who was living with his parents in Weston.
	It seems unlike that Robert ever married, because ten years later in 1911 he was still a bachelor at the age of thirty-five when he was still living at Weston with his parents.
1P64	Frances Adelaide Collett was born at Weston near Bath on 03.01.1878 and was listed as being three years old in the Weston census of 1881. By 1901 she was aged 23 and was working as a dressmaker with her sister Ethel (below) while still living with her parents at Weston. Frances was the grand-mother of Merryl Wells of Hemel Hempstead.
1P65	Diana Collett was born at Weston near Bath during January 1881 and was listed as being two months old on 3^rd April that year when living at 11 Alexandra Building in Weston with her family.
	No trace of Diana has been found in any subsequent census records.
1P66	Ethel Gertrude Collett was born at Weston near Bath on 10.05.1883. According to the census of 1901 she was Ethel F G Collett aged 18 and was still living with her parents at Weston where she was employed as a dressmaker like her older sister Frances (above)
1P68	Lillian May Collett was born at Weston near Bath on 06.02.1887. Upon leaving school she worked in a tobacconist’s shop as confirmed by the 1901 Census for Weston when she was aged 16 and still living with her parents.
	Lillian was unmarried ten years later when she was still living with her parents in Weston where she was described as Lillian May Collett of Weston who was twenty-four.
1P70	Rosaline Winifred Collett was born at Weston near Bath on 29.05.1893 and was listed with her family as Rosaline W Collett age eight years in 1901. Ten years later see was described by her full name of Rosaline Winifred Collett aged 17 of Weston who was still living at the family’s home in Weston.
1P71	Henry Charles Collett was baptised at Frampton-on-Severn on 02.11.1868. However, no further record of him or two of his siblings has ever been located so it may be assumed that all three suffered childhood deaths.
1P72	Albert James Collett was baptised at Frampton-on-Severn on 08.09.1872. He would have been eight years old in 1881 but was not listed with his family at Leather Bottle Lane in Frampton, nor has he been found in any census thereafter.
1P73	Louisa Elizabeth Collett was baptised at Frampton-on-Severn on 20.12.1874 and was also missing from the family in 1881 like her two brothers above.
1P76	Alice Maude Collett was born at Coln St Aldwyns where she was baptised on 27.02.1870. As Alice M Collett she was eleven years old in the Coln St Aldwyns census of 1881 when she was living with her draper and grocer father Francis Collett and the rest of the family.
	It would appear that she never married and lived all of her life at the family home in Coln St Aldwyns. In 1891 Alice was 21 and a school teacher and was living with her widowed mother Harriet Collett and the rest of the family. By March 1901 Alice was then working as a seamstress at the age of thirty, while living with her mother and sister Lydia both of whom were also seamstresses.
	Ten years later according to the census of 1911, Alice Maude Collett of Coln St Aldwyns was still living there with her seventy years old mother when Alice was forty-one.
1P77	Lydia M Collett was born in 1872 at Coln St Aldwyns and like her sister Alice Collett (above) she never married. She first appeared in the census of 1881 when she was nine years old and living with her family at Coln St Aldwyns.
	She was still living there with her widowed mother Harriet Collett ten years later when Lydia was 19 and a draper’s assistant, helping her mother manage the family business. By 1901 her mother had given up the family draper business and instead Lydia 28, her mother Harriet, and her sister Alice were all working as seamstresses while still living at Coln St Aldwyns.
	Sometime during the next ten years Lydia left Coln St Aldwyns and moved north to Stow-on-the-Wold where she was living alone in April 1911. At that time she was a spinster aged thirty-eight and her place of birth was confirmed as Coln St Aldwyns.
1P78	Charles William Collett was born at Coln St Aldwyns in 1874 and was seven years old in the census of 1881. Ten years later he was still living with his widowed mother at Coln St Aldwyns when he was seventeen and employed as a carpenter, although no record of him has been found in 1901.
	By April 1911 Charles was married and was living at Axbridge in Somerset where his two children up to that time had been born. The census returns listed the family as Charles William Collett 39 from Col St Aldwyns, her wife Jessie Catherine 29, and the two children as Clifford William 3, and one month old Francis Edgar.
	1Q40	Clifford William Collett	Born in 1907 at Axbridge
	1Q41	Francis Edgar Collett	Born in March 1911 at Axbridge
1P79	Herbert F Collett was born at Coln St Aldwyns in 1879 and was two years old in 1881. His father Francis died during the next few years so by the time of the census of 1891 Herbert was an errand boy at the age of 12 when he was living with his widowed mother Harriet at Coln St Aldwyns and the rest of his family.
	Herbert later became a groom and a gardener and in 1901 he was living and working at Little Faringdon, just north of Lechlade. No record of a Herbert Collett born at Coln St Aldwyns around 1879 has been found in the census of 1911 and it is possible that he had died by then, and this may be the reason why his brother Walter (below) named his first child after him.
1P80	Walter Louis Collett was born at Coln St Aldwyns in 1880 and was one year old in the 1881 Census for Coln St Aldwyns when he was living there with his draper and grocer father Francis Collett and the rest of his family. Tragically his father died during the next decade, at which point his mother took over the running of the family business.
	This was confirmed in 1891 when Walter was eleven and was still living at Coln St Aldwyns with his widowed mother Harriet and the rest of his family.
	By 1901 Walter L Collett was 21 and was living within the Cirencester registration district. However, within the next decade he married Ruth and in 1908 she presented Walter with the first child.
	According to the census conducted in April 1911, Walter Louis Collett of Coln St Aldwyns was 31 and he was still living in the Cirencester area with his wife Ruth who was 28, and his son Herbert Louis Collett who was two years old.
	1Q42	Herbert Louis Collett	Born in 1908
1P81	Percy Collett was born at Coln St Aldwyns in 1882. On living school he entered into domestic service and by the turn of the century he was working as a footman at Cricklade. No record of Percy has so far been found in the census of 1911.
1P84	George Collett was born in 1876 at Eastleach according to the later census records. The first of these in 1881 gave George’s age as four years and on that occasion he was living with his family at Eastleach Turville.
	In 1891 George was 14 and was working as a carpenter’s apprentice while living at the home of his 74 year old widowed grandfather Charles Collett (Ref. 1N60) in Coln St Aldwyns. The housekeeper was his aunt Eleanor Collett (Ref. 1O99) who was 43, and the enumerator for the census was his uncle Raymond Collett (Ref. 1O101). This may indicate that George’s father had died during the 1880s since he was a carpenter and logic says he son would have been working with him had he been alive.
	However, by March 1901 George had left the family home at Eastleach and was living and working in Swindon where he was referred to in the census as George Collett 24 from Eastleach whose occupation was that of a carpenter.
	George Collett was not married by April 1911, and the census that year confirmed that he was a carpenter of thirty-four from Eastleach living as a boarder at The Marsh in Wanborough, the home of widower Solomon Beasley of Wanborough and his son Albert.
1P85	Francis Charles Collett was born at Eastleach Turville in 1878 and he was listed as being two years old in the Eastleach Turville census of 1881. On leaving school he moved to the nearby Oxfordshire village of Langford where in 1901 he was working as a labourer at the age of 23.
	When or where Francis was married has not been determined. What is known is that by April 1911 he and his older wife were living in the Windsor area. Because of the obvious difference in their ages, Francis inflated his age by three years, making him older than his brother George (above).
	The Windsor area census in 1911 recorded that Francis Collett from Eastleach in Gloucestershire was 35, instead of 32, while his wife Martha Collett was 45. Probably because of Martha’s advanced years, it would appear that there were no children arising from the marriage.
1P87	Henry James Collett was born at Stoke Damerel in Devonport in January 1881. Today Stoke Damerel is simply known as Stoke, a district within Plymouth. At the time of the census in early April that year, Henry J Collett was two months old and living at 23 Clowance Street in Stoke Damerel with his mother Susan Collett from Kilkenny in Ireland.
	His father Thomas Collett was a Corporal First Class with the Royal Navy and was away from home at that time. Upon his father completing twenty years service around 1888, the family moved to Swindon and in 1891 they were living a 4 York Terrace where Henry was ten years old.
	The family was still altogether in Swindon by March 1901 when Henry was twenty and was employed by the Great Western Railway as a carriage body maker. A few years later Henry married Amelia with whom he had a daughter. All of this was confirmed in the census of 1911 when Henry James Collett aged 30 and from Devonport was living in Swindon with his thirty years old wife Amelia, and their four years old daughter Gwendoline Frances Collett.
	It is not known at this time, whether or not any other children were added to the family during the following years.
	1Q43	Gwendoline Frances Collett	Born in 1906 at Swindon
1P88	Thomas George Harris Collett was born at Stoke Damerel in Devonport in 1883 and was eight years old in 1891, by which time his family have left Devonport and were living at 4 York Terrace in Swindon.
	In 1901 Thomas G Collett of Devonport was eighteen and was working as a brass locksmith, while still living with his family in Swindon.
	Ten years later Thomas was recorded in the census return of 1911 as Thomas George Harris Collett aged twenty-eight and unmarried from Devonport, and at that time in his life he was living in Chippenham in Wiltshire.
1P89	Herbert E Collett was born at Stoke Damerel in Devonport in 1887. Shortly after he was born his father completed his service with the Royal Navy and the family moved to Swindon. In 1891 Hebert was three years old and was living with his family at 4 York Terrace in Swindon.
	They were still there ten years later when Herbert was thirteen. Upon living school in Swindon, Herbert moved to the south-east of England and in April 1911 he was living and working in Steyning in Sussex. He was twenty-four unmarried and he stated that he had been born in Devonport.
	Although there were other Colletts living in Steyning at that time, none of them was with Herbert or relative to him. One of these was Anthony Collett from Combe in Oxfordshire (Ref. 38o37) in Part 38 – The Oxfordshire Stonemasons Line
1P92	Herbert Collett was born at Birmingham in 1890 and was twenty-one years old and married by April 1911. He was referred to as Herbert Collett junior to avoid confusion with his diamond merchant father Herbert Edward Collett. Herbert junior, his sibling and his parents, have not been located in the census of 1891, and in 1901 it was only his father who has been located at Finchley in North London.
	Herbert would have been under twenty years old when he married Nellie Elizabeth, who was a year younger than him. Not long after they were married Nellie presented Herbert with a daughter whom he named jointly after his mother and his wife.
	According to the April census in 1911, Herbert Collett junior was twenty-one, his wife Nellie Elizabeth was twenty, and their daughter Emily Nellie Elizabeth was seven months old. At that time the young family was living in the Aston area of Birmingham, not far from where Herbert’s parents were living.
	1Q44	Emily Nellie Elizabeth Collett	Born in September 1910 at B’mingham
1Q1	Valerie Joyce Collett, whose date of birth is not known, married Cyril Dunsby with whom she had two children. These were Steven born in 1951 and Diane who was born in 1955.
	Steven is married and has a son Christopher, while Diane is now Diane Humphreys and has three daughters, Rebecca, Danielle and Sarah. All three girls are married and have presented their mother with two grandchildren these being Danielle aged 8 and Angel aged 3 in July 2008.
	After being a divorced from her husband Cyril later in her life Valerie reverted back to her maiden name and is once again known as Valerie Collett.
	Thanks go to Diane and her mother Valerie who have kindly provided the information that has resulted in this update.
1Q2	John Collett, whose date of birth is not known, was born in Australia where his three sons were born. It was John that kindly provided information relating to his direct line of Collett ancestors.
	1R1	Simon John Collett	Born in 1970 in Australia
	1R2	Christopher Andrew Collett	Born in 1974 in Australia
	1R3	Jonathan Seville Collett	Born in 1977 in Australia
1Q4	WILLIAM HENRY JOHN COLLETT was referred to as Willie when a boy; as Will by his close family for all of his life; and as Bill by his wife, her family, and his work-mates. He was born on 01.12.1909 at 7 Bathampton Street in Swindon and he married Noreen Alice Maud Harman on 26.09.1936 at St Paul's Church in Swindon. The photograph was taken in his early twenties. William and Noreen, who was born on 15.09.1910 at Borehamwood in Hertfordshire, lived all of their married life at 140 Whitecross near Abingdon, where all four of their children were born.
	William’s occupations were those of boilermaker with the Great Western Railway, car-body builder with the Ford Motor Company at Dagenham and public service vehicle driver with Abingdon Coaches. He had the unfortunate distinction of being made redundant from every job of work he every turned his hand to. In the late 1950s he was made redundant yet again when Abingdon Coaches was taken over by Tappins Coaches of Wallingford.
	However, undaunted, he drew on his past experience as a boilermaker to apply for the post of stoker with the Ministry of Public Buildings & Works at the Royal Air Force base at Abingdon. This, at fifty years of age, required him to embark on a course of study in heating engineering. His hard work on the correspondence course was rewarded when he gained a City & Guilds qualification.
	Almost inevitably he was again made redundant, but this time it would be his last. His newly acquired qualification enabled him to become a heating engineer with the Oxford Universities Laboratories, where he stayed until his retirement in 1975. For many years he travelled the seven miles to and from work in Oxford on a pedal-cycle, until he eventually treated himself to the luxury of a motor car. Ironically this was an old upright black Ford Popular of the type that he had helped build while at Dagenham in the 1930s. It was the first mass-produced car that in 1937 cost £100 and, according to Henry Ford, ‘you could have in any colour as long as it was black’.
	Before being married, the young William was a regular member of the Territorial Army. During World War Two he was a ‘desert rat’ with the Royal Kent Yeomanry of the Royal Artillery and was awarded the North Africa Star and bar, plus four other medals. He travelled extensively with his regiment throughout the war years, sailing to Iraq via Cape Town, travelling overland down through Palestine and across into Egypt to join the forces involved in the battles between Montgomery and Rommel. He eventually sailed across the Mediterranean to advance up through the length of Italy and into Europe. Within a few days of arriving in Venice the peace treaty was signed to mark the end of the war in Europe.
	While in Egypt in 1943, and by a sheer coincident which surprised then all, William was reunited with his two younger brothers Bert and John (below) during a period of leave in Cairo.
	His GWR apprenticeship certificate was signed by C.B.Collett (Ref. 4N7) the Chief Mechanical Engineer responsible for the design of the Kings and Castles classes of locomotive.
	Details of the family line of Charles Benjamin Collett can be found in Part Four - The Great Western Line leading up to the reference 4N7.
	William died of a carcinoma of the pancreas on 15.11.1990 at the Marcham Road Hospital at Abingdon in Oxfordshire while Noreen, who suffered for fifteen years with Alzheimer’s Disease, passed away on 31^st January 2004.
	1R4	Patricia Collett	Born on 04.11.1937
	1R5	Joyce Collett	Born on 18.07.1940
	1R6	Brian Clifford Collett	Born on 26.05.1946
	1R7	Mary Susan Collett	Born on 04.04.1950
1Q5	Ellen (Nell) Agnes Collett was born on 22.05.1911 at 7 Bathampton Street in Swindon. She married Leslie Goddard (a photographer) on 27.07.1946 and died on 18.09.1989 at 25 Swindon Road. They lived most of their life in the family home at 7 Bathampton Street, where the two sons were born, looking after Nell’s mother Alice Louisa Collett (Ref. 1P33). In 1959 the whole family moved to 25 Swindon Road in Old Town Swindon. Today Bathampton Street and the surrounding roads and buildings are designated as a conservation area as a mark of respect for Swindon’s great railway traditions of the past. This photograph was taken in April 1937.
	1R8	Philip Goddard	Born on 02.08.1947
	1R9	Richard Goddard	Born on 05.02.1949
1Q6	Harry James Collett was born on 29.11.1913 at 7 Bathampton Street in Swindon. He married Frances Norris on 15.07.1939. They spent the majority of their married life in Swindon where all three the children were born. Photographs of Harry are rare. This one was taken in January 1938. Harry’s original occupation was that of a brass worker with the Bell Foundry in Croydon. However, on his return to Swindon after the Second World War in which he saw active service with the British Army, Frances' father, who was a 1^st Class Engine driver, secured Harry a job as a steam raiser with the GWR
	He later became a brass moulder with the GWR which shortly after became British Rail. His increasing blindness eventually forced a move to a less demanding job, that of transport cleaner with Howard Tennens Transport Company from where he retired.
	Blind and in poor health, he lived his final years with Frances at 27 Beaulieu Close at Toothill in Swindon.
	Following a chance meeting with Harry’s daughter Jane at the funeral of Albert Collett (Ref: 1Q6) in August 2000, it was revealed that Harry had brought Jane up as his own child although it was only discovered when she was thirty-two years of age that he was not her real father. Her mother Frances had conceived the child as a result of an extra-marital affair. This was known by the extended Collett family who severely ostracised Frances but managed to keep it a secret within the family until Jane was informed by her father on her wedding day.
	Harry died on 14.10.1991 and Frances died six months later in April 1992.
	1R10	David Norris Collett	Born on 08.08.1942
	1R11	Alan Francis Robin Collett	Born on 23.03.1947
	1R12	Jane Collett	Born on 31.03.1956
1Q7	Alice Louisa Collett was born on 23.09.1915 at 7 Bathampton Street in Swindon. She married Stanley Dixon on 05.01.1935. The children were both born in Swindon. This photograph was taken at the christening of their daughter on 12^th September 1937. 1R13 Laura Dixon Born on 05.08.1937 1R14 Derek Dixon Born on 05.07.1942
1Q8	Rose Phyllis Louvain Collett was born on 19.10.1916 at 7 Bathampton Street in Swindon. Her occupation was that of florist in a shop in the centre of Swindon. She married (1) Stanley Goddard on 03.06.1944 and (2) Jack Webb on 08.04.1978, both in Swindon. The photograph was taken in July 1940. Stan Goddard is believed to have been a distant relative of Leslie Goddard who married Rose’s sister Nell (above). Neither marriage produced any children. Rose died in Swindon in 1989 from cancer of the colon.
1Q9	Albert Edward Collett, referred to as Bert by the family, was born on 19.03.1918 at 7 Bathampton Street in Swindon. He married (1) Freda Irish on 21.07.1941 at Mirfield in Yorkshire and (2) the widow Heather Frances Wall on 23.11.1974 at Swindon. His occupation was that of postman and he served with the Royal Army Service Corp at Westbury in Wiltshire before the Second World War, in which he saw active service. 143 Redcliffe Street in Swindon was the permanent address for the family, where both daughters born. Bert died in Swindon on 03.08.2000 from bone cancer. This photograph was taken prior to his first wedding in 1941
	Bert’s second wife was born Heather Frances Holden and she was the daughter of an officer in the Gurka Regiment and was born in India on 02.09.1923. Tragically she died quite suddenly from a heart attack on 21.12.2008 just days after writing out all of her family Christmas cards.
	1R15	June Collett	Born on 28.11.1944
	1R16	Linda Rose Collett	Born on 26.03.1948
1Q10	Arthur Stephen Walter Collett, referred to as John by the family, was born on 29.04.1922 at 7 Bathampton Street in Swindon, where he married Lucy Lane on 11.06.1949 at Swindon. They lived at 14 Stanley Street in Swindon where the two boys were born. John’s occupation was that of builder-labourer with the Great Western Railway. He also saw active service during the Second World War with the Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry. Early in the war he was thrown from a cavalry horse in Palestine, causing him permanent injury.
	John died on 13.12.1987 and Lucy, who was born in Swindon on 17.03.1922, died a few months later of a broken heart on 11.04.1988.
	1R17	Stephen Collett	Born on 09.04.1950
	1R18	John Collett	Born on 21.02.1959
1Q11	Caroline Ruth Collett, referred to as Carrie by the family, was born on 20.12.1924 at 7 Bathampton Street in Swindon, where she married Walter Easter on 25.08.1945.
	In their early days, Walt had been a garage owner in Swindon where both Carrie and their son Michael worked. The two children were born while the family was still living in Swindon.
	They later moved out of Swindon to live most of their married life at Cotswold Lodge in Great Coxwell near Faringdon in Oxfordshire, formerly in Berkshire until the boundary change in 1974. However, due to Walt’s failing health and the need to be closer to the health care facilities that he now relied on, the couple moved back to Swindon in 1996.
	During the early half of 2006 Walt suffered three strokes which later in the year resulted in the need for twenty-four hour care. He was therefore admitted into a nursing home at Wanborough where he died on 13.12.2006.
	1R19	Carol Anne Easter	Born on 31.05.1946
	1R20	Michael Easter	Born on 07.04.1950
1Q12	John Henry Collett, who was referred to as Jay by the family, was born on 09.10.1916 at Uxbridge where he married Ellen Irene Norton on 12.12.1943. For work, he followed his father into the Bell Punch & Ticket Company in Uxbridge where he put the glass linings into steel barrels. Both of their daughters were born at Uxbridge.
	Later in life he worked for Fairey Aviation, after which he worked for Freddie Laker of Laker Airways. In the 1990s John and Ellen were living at 412 Obelisk Drive in Northampton.
	It was at Market Harborough in Leicestershire that Jay passed away on 20.07.2009 and his funeral was attended amongst others, by his nephew Alan Collett (Ref. 1R26), who provided the details of this sad event.
	1R21	Linda Irene Collett	Born on 03.02.1951
	1R22	Sharon Ann Collett	Born on 30.03.1962
1Q13	Ronald James Collett was born on 01.01.1924 at Uxbridge where he married Amy Louise Goodbody on 04.04.1946. His occupation was that of works manager at a trade shop tool-room until the depression of 1981, after which he became chief inspector at an engineering works until his retirement in 1988.
	The children were born in Uxbridge and during the 1990s the family home was 34 The Grove, Pott Row at Grimston in Norfolk. Ronald James Collett died from cancer while still living at Pott Row on 27.05.1999.
	1R23	June Collett	Born on 04.08.1952
	1R24	Tony Collett	Born on 08.10.1954
1Q14	Lewis Frank Collett was born on 04.11.1926 at Uxbridge. He married Ellen Williams on 09.05.1950 at Middleton in County Cork, Eire. Ellen, who was known as Helen, was born on 11.11.1925.
	As a single man he was severely injured in a motorcycle accident at Waterloo in Hampshire while on holiday at Portsmouth. He was taken to Portsmouth Hospital where he lost the sight in one eye, but was tended to by an Irish nurse whom he later married. He also changed his religion to become a Roman Catholic at this time. His occupation was that of engineering draughtsman with the recording company HMV (His Master’s Voice) and after with Fairey Aviation which was later taken over by Westland Helicopters.
	Prior to his retirement in 1991 he took up teaching engineering drawing at the local college of further education. They lived at 163B Long Lane in Hillingdon in Middlesex where all four children were born.
	1R25	Elaine Collett	Born on 22.03.1951
	1R26	Alan Collett	Born on 19.05.1953
	1R27	Joan Collett	Born on 06.06.1956
	1R28	John Joseph Collett	Born on 25.06.1964
1Q15	Harry Collett was born on 05.06.1913 at Woolwich. He never married and worked with his father Bertram Henry Collett on Sir Edward Durrand's Estate at Langley near Winchcombe in Gloucestershire. He died on 15.11.1985.
1Q16	Bertram John Collett, referred to as Bert by the family, was born on 14.03.1915 in Dublin. Like his brother Harry, he too never married. His occupation was that of Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages at Winchcombe. Upon his retirement he moved into a property that backed onto the garden of the house in which his sister Lily Bishop (below) lived in Cheltenham.
1Q17	Lily Rose Collett was born on 08.08.1919 at Langley near Winchcombe. She married George Henry Bishop at Cheltenham. Lily worked with her brother Bertram Collett (above) and was often used as a witness at registry office weddings. George, her husband, was a solicitor in Cheltenham.
	Their son David worked at Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) in Cheltenham, while younger brother Paul worked with his father George as a solicitor's clerk. Neither of the sons ever married and all four of them were living at 15 Fairhaven Road in Cheltenham at the turn of the century.
	George died at Cheltenham on 30.01.2007.
	1R29	David Bishop	Born in 1947 at Cheltenham
	1R30	Paul Bishop	Born in 1952 at Cheltenham
1Q18	Cynthia Queenie May Collett was born in March 1910 and it was originally thought that this event had taken place at Bradford on Avon where her brother Ron (below) was born. She later married Alfred Pickering around 1931 and 1932.
	1R31	David was adopted and died while still young
	1R32	Cynthia Pickering	Date unknown
1Q19	Ronald Ernest Collett, referred to as Ron by the family, was born on 12.10.1912 at Bradford on Avon. He married Zillah Lily Hayward at Swindon around 1932. His occupation was that of accountant and later manager of the Co-op Bank in Swindon.
	He was an accomplished landscape painter and some of his paintings were displayed in the bank. In the 1990s he was living at 63 Plymouth Street in Swindon, his wife having died in 1981.
	1R33	Margaret Jean Collett	Born on 06.06.1935
	1R34	Sheila Collett	Born on 18.11.1938
1Q20	Robert William George Collett, referred to as Bob by the family, was born on 17.08.1919 at Trowbridge, where he married Joan Palmer on 18.02.1942. His occupation was that of copper plate writer. Both children were born in Trowbridge. In the 1990s he was living at Flat 24 Raleigh Court, Pole Barn Road in Trowbridge.
	1R35	Susan Collett	Born on 01.10.1949 at Trowbridge
	1R36	Nicholas Collett	Born on 27.06.1953
1Q21	Frederick Walter Thomas George Collett, who was referred to as Tom by the family, was born at Cinderford on 21.03.1930. He married Phyllis Dorothy Pound at Cinderford on 07.07.1951 and it was there that both of their children were born. Tom did his national service at Woolwich Barracks in 1948 and later worked at the Cinderford branch of the Co-operative & Industrial Society.
	Tom was the son of Walter Collett and Olive Ann Matthews, the daughter of Walter’s wife Mary. It was Mary that played the part of mother to her grandson while Olive went on to marry first John Bennett and later Fred Bignall.
	1R37	Andrew Keith Collett	Born on 04.09.1956 at Cinderford
	1R38	Denise Lesley Collett	Born on 12.10.1960
1Q22	Gladys Collett was born on 15.01.1923 at Drybrook where, on 23.09.1946, she married John Griffiths. In the 1990s they were living at Edge End in Coleford in Gloucestershire.
1Q23	Hilda Collett was born on 20.10.1925 at Drybrook where she married Thomas Baldwin on 28.04.1951. They lived at 6 Prospect Place in Cinderford where the children were born.
	1R39	Elaine Baldwin	Born on 28.03.1952 at Cinderford
	1R40	Joyce Baldwin	Born on 12.06.1957 at Cinderford
1Q24	Irene Rosanna Bramble was born on 02.07.1920 at Stonehouse. She married Mr Page and they lived at 150 Rodbourne Road in Swindon where their daughter Pamela was born. Pamela eventually went on to marry Robert Martin Collett (Ref. 28R33) at Swindon from whom she was later divorced.
	1R41	Pamela Page	Born in 1955 at Swindon
	Robert Martin Collett was born in Swindon in 1955, the son of Anthony Roy Collett (Ref. 28Q39) Details of this family are provided in Part 28 – The Faringdon Line
1Q25	Claude Bernard Bramble was born on 04.12.1921 at Stonehouse. In the 1990s he was living at 20 Frasers Close, Nythe in Swindon and his son Robert was living at 56 Nyland Road in Swindon.
	1R42	Robert Bramble	Date of birth unknown
1Q36	Michael Collett, whose date of birth is not known, is known to have married and had at least one son. It is most likely that he was born in the late 1930s during the years leading up to the Second World War.
1R4	Patricia Collett, referred to as Pat by the family, was born on 04.11.1937 at 140 Whitecross near Abingdon. She married Raymond (Ray) John Haines of Botley in Oxford on 06.09.1958 at St Peter’s Church in Wootton, Oxfordshire formerly Berkshire. The family lived the majority of their life at two addresses in Stanion in Northamptonshire, Manor Road and later at 3 Grays Drive. Pat’s ultimate occupation was that of secretary but she initially started her career with the Ministry of Public Buildings & Works at RAF Abingdon. After her children had grown up she worked for many years as school secretary
	at a junior school in Corby.
	Ray Haines originally started out as an engineer with the Southern Gas Board that took him from Oxford, where he worked prior to the wedding, to Reading. He then secured a job with Stewart & Lloyds the manufacturers of rectangular hollow steel tubes at Corby in Northamptonshire, where the children were born, before later being transferred to Scotland.
	The family returned to Corby where Ray set up his own precision engineering business. Over the following years he manufactured steel hulled longboats, trailers, fitted tow-bars, and repaired fairground equipment. At one stage he open a shop selling radio-controlled and die-cast metal model toys. Later in his life he worked for his son-in-law, Robert Lockley (Ref. 1S1).
	1S1	Claire Susan Haines	Born on 03.02.1961
	1S2	Dawn Elizabeth Haines	Born on 19.05.1963
	1S3	Sally Ann Haines	Born on 28.08.1965
1R5	Joyce Collett was born on 18.07.1940 at 140 Whitecross near Abingdon. She married Edward (Ted) Windsor James of Gosport in Hampshire on 17.06.1958 in Ceylon where Ted was serving with the Royal Air Force. After leaving the RAF in the early 1970s Ted worked at Marconi in Leicester and was transferred to the Plymouth site around 1980, finally being transferred to Milton Keynes where they lived at 7 Colley Hill in Bradwell Village. Their first son was born in Aden, the second while at Edith Weston in Rutland.
	1S4	Stephen Andrew James	Born on 19.01.1964
	1S5	Adrian Paul James	Born on 18.12.1965
1R6	BRIAN CLIFFORD COLLETT was born on 26.05.1946 at 140 Whitecross near Abingdon-on-Thames. He was educated in Abingdon at Carswell School and later at Larkmead School. His first choice occupation was to become an architect, but this never came to fruition and so the second career choice of civil engineering was realised. Further education in civil engineering was therefore pursued, first at Oxford Polytechnical College for two years and followed by a further two years at Reading Technical