PART ONE

The Gloucestershire Main Line - 1880 to 2008

This is the fourth of four sections of the first part of the Collett family line

Updated January 2012

The January 2012 update of this file is thanks to new information received from

Brian Gregory Collett (Ref. 1R45), Andrew Collett (Ref. 3Q14),

and Marilee Rylett Magder (Ref. 1P69) of Whitby in Ontario

The information used to update this file in the past has been kindly provided

by Alan Collett (Ref. 1R26) and Rob Collett (Ref. 1R43), and it is the latter

who provided substantial details for his family for the Sept 2011 update

Prior to this, other information has been received from Don Cameron

THE JOINING OF TWO COLLETT LINES

1P37

ALICE LOUISA COLLETT was born at Bisley on 17^th May 1880, the daughter of Robert and Rosanna Collett. The census in 1881 recorded her living with her family in Church Road at Ashton Keynes, just across the boundary in Wiltshire. At that time Alice Louisa Collett was just ten months old, while her place of birth was given as Eastcombe which is near Bisley. Ten years later Alice Louisa was 10 years old, by which time her family was settled in the village of Siddington near Cirencester. By the time of the next census in March 1901 Alice Collett was recorded as being 22, when she employed as a domestic housemaid living at Ryeford Hall, a school at Stonehouse near Stroud in Gloucestershire. This photograph of Alice was taken after 1901 and prior to her wedding day eight years later.

She married HARRY JAMES COLLETT (Ref. 2P5) on 13^th March 1909 at St Mark's Church in New Town Swindon. Harry was the fifth child of William Collett of Bibury, near Cirencester, and his wife Caroline Ruth Watts. 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.

Once married, the couple set up home at 7 Bathampton Street (formerly Bath Street) in New Town Swindon, where the Collett family lived until 1959. Harry James Collett, referred to as HJ by the family, was born at 16 Exeter Street in Swindon on 9^th January 1879, and his occupation was that of boilermaker with the Great Western Railway. By April 1911 Alice had presented Harry with the first of their eight children, as confirmed in the Swindon census that year.

According to the census return Harry James Collett, age 32 and from Swindon, was a boilermaker in the loco department at the Swindon GWR Works. His wife Alice Louisa Collett, age 30 and from Siddington, Glos, had been married to her husband for two years, and their son William Henry John Collett was one year old and had been born at Swindon. There address was 7 Bathampton Street, where all of their remaining children were born.

Immediately after Christmas Day in 1937 Harry 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 8^th January 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. 1O72) who was 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 Louisa Collett died on 31^st March 1969 of a cerebral thrombosis, while she was living at 25 Swindon Road with her married daughter Ellen Goddard and her family. She was buried in the same plot as Harry at Whitworth Cemetery.

Details of the family of Harry James Collett can be found in Part 2 - The Secondary Line leading up to the reference 2P5

1Q5

WILLIAM HENRY JOHN COLLETT

Born on 01.12.1909 at Swindon

1Q6

Ellen Agnes Collett

Born on 22.05.1911 at Swindon

1Q7

Harry James Collett

Born on 29.11.1913 at Swindon

1Q8

Alice Louisa Collett

Born on 23.09.1915 at Swindon

1Q9

Rose Phyllis Louvain Collett

Born on 19.10.1916 at Swindon

1Q10

Albert Edward Collett

Born on 19.03.1918 at Swindon

1Q11

Arthur Stephen Walter Collett

Born on 29.04.1922 at Swindon

1Q12

Caroline Ruth Collett

Born on 20.12.1924 at Swindon

1P38

John Levi Collett, who was referred to as Jack by the family, was born at Siddington on 21^st January 1883, the third child and eldest son of Robert Collett and his first wife Rosanne King. He was listed with his family at Siddington in 1891 when he was nine years old, 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 record 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 1911 Census as John Levi Collett, age 29, when he was living and working in the Southampton area, when his place of birth was given as North Cerney in Gloucestershire. At that 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. He did that from 28^th August 1914 to 1^st September 1919 while still living at Ivor in Buckinghamshire, where Jack married Lucy Elizabeth King around 1915.

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 for 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 Elizabeth Collett nee King died on 6^th June 1973, and Jack Levi Collett died five years later on 7^th December 1978.

1Q13

John Henry Collett

Born on 09.10.1916 at Ivor, Bucks

1Q14

Ronald James Collett

Born on 01.01.1924 at Uxbridge

1Q15

Lewis Frank Collett

Born on 04.11.1926 at Uxbridge

1P39

William Robert Collett was born on 2^nd December 1883 at Siddington. He was seven years old in 1891 and by the time of the census of 1901 he was 17 and a domestic groom still living at home in Siddington. It is known that William was under 20 years old when he married the slightly older Jane Julia Harvey who was born at Cirencester during 1881, the daughter of John and Matilda Harvey. Within the first year of their married life together Jane presented her husband with a son William who was born at Cirencester, where the three of them were still living in 1911.

The census that year listed the three of them in error as William Collet, age 26, his wife Jane Julia Collet, age 29, and their son William Collet, who was seven years old. Also living with the family on that occasion was William’s younger brother Walter Collet who was 21.

Jane and her son William were living at 171 Gloucester Street in Cirencester during the first year of the Great War, and it was there that Jane received the tragic news of the death of her husband while fighting for his King and Country in Belgium.

He was Private William Robert Collett service number 7790 of 1^st Battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment and he died on 1^st November 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.

1Q16

William Collett

Born in 1903 at Cirencester

1P40

Bertram Henry Collett, referred to as BH by the family, was born on 15^th October 1885 at Siddington, and was five years old in the Siddington census of 1891, when he was recorded living there with his family as Bertie Henry Collett. Sometime after leaving school Bertram initially worked for James Clifford at Brinkworth in Gloucestershire, where he learn the trade of a farrier, and by 1901 James had married Bertram’s eldest sister Lily Harriet Collett, by which time James and Lily were living in Bristol. It was also in Bristol that Bertram was apprenticed to a blacksmith at Brislington, prior to joining the Army Service Corp as a Sergeant Farrier at Woolwich Barracks, where he served for twenty-one years.

It was while he was in the army that he was posted to Ireland, where he met his future wife. The story within the family was that he was sent to Ireland at the time of the Dublin uprising and it was then that he was married. This cannot be the case, as the uprising took place at Easter in 1916, over five years after they were married. However, this does not discount the fact that he was sent to Dublin in 1916 as part of the peace-keeping force.

What is known for certain is that Bertram Henry Collett married Elizabeth Lillian Fuller on 20^th December 1910 at Dublin. Curiously no record of him has been found in the census of 1901 when he would have been around 16 years old so he may have already be serving with the army. By the time of the next census in 1911 Bertie Henry Collett, age 24 and from Siddington, was married to Elizabeth Collett, also 24, when the childless couple was living at Woolwich Barracks, south of the River Thames in London.

On leaving the army after the Great War, Bertram then took up the post of Stud Groom & Farrier with Sir Edward Durrand at his Ashton Keynes Estate in Gloucestershire. Sometimes he would even 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.

Elizabeth presented Bertram with a total of three children, the first of whom was born at Woolwich, the second during Bertram’s posting to Dublin, while their daughter was born at Langley after Bertram had left the army. Bertram Henry Collett died on 23^rd February 1962 at Cheltenham and Elizabeth, his wife, died sixteen years later on 11^th March 1978.

1Q17

Harry Collett

Born on 05.06.1913 at Woolwich

1Q18

Bertram John Collett

Born on 14.03.1915 in Dublin

1Q19

Lily Rose Collett

Born on 08.08.1919 at Langley, Glos.

1P41

Ernest Collett was born on 10^th August 1887 at Siddington and was three years old in the Siddington census of 1891. In 1901 when he was 13 he was still living at home with his family, by which time he had left school and was working as 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 was recorded as living within the Chippenham registration district, where Ernest Collett of Siddington was 23, his wife Lillie L Collett was 26, and their daughter Cynthia Q Collett was one year old. Judging by the age of their son Ronald and his sister Cynthia, the photograph above was very likely taken in Bradford-on-Avon around 1916, and just prior to Ernest leaving England to join the British Army in France.

He often referred to himself as a 'Gloucestershire Monkey', while he referred to his wife, who was from Freshford in Somerset as a 'Somerset Cuckoo', and his two Wiltshire born sons as 'Wiltshire Moonrakers'.

Towards the end of the Great War he was badly wounded in 1918. 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 also 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, to be near to where other members of Ernest’s family were living. And it was there that Ernest Collett died on 28^th December 1967.

1Q20

Cynthia Queenie May Collett

Born in March 1910 at Bradford-on-Avon

1Q21

Ronald Ernest Collett

Born on 12.10.1912 at Bradford-on-Avon

1Q22

Robert William George Collett

Born on 17.08.1919 at Trowbridge

1P42

Walter Collett was born on 3^rd December 1889 at Siddington. In the Census of 1901 he was 11 and was described as a domestic pantry boy while living at Siddington with his family. Following the death of his mother in 1902 Walter went to live with his married brother William Robert Collett (above) in Cirencester, as confirmed by the Cirencester census in 1911 when Walter Collett (Collet) was 21. It was just after the census that year that Walter and his younger brother Robert Percy Collett (below) had a big disagreement with their father Robert Collett, following which the two young men ran away from their family in Cirencester. The brothers eventually settled at Cinderford in the Forest of Dean, where they lodged with Mary Ann Matthews at Newtown Steam Mills. The separation from his father was permanent, as a result of which Walter was never reunited with him, although the elderly and infirmed Robert Collett he did attend Walter’s funeral in 1945.

Shortly after his arrival in Cinderford, Walter married the widowed Mary Ann Matthews on 27^th May 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 at that time was that of miller and he later served with the Royal Horse Artillery as a horse driver in the Great War. During the war he was gassed and was 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. They were Frederick William George Ryder Haile (base-born), and Olive Ann Matthews and Mary Lucinda (Molly) Matthews, both daughters being from Mary’s first marriage to Thomas Matthews. It has since been discovered that it was Olive Ann Matthews, the youngest daughter of Walter’s wife, who actual gave birth to Walter’s only child who, to the outside world, was brought up by his Walter and Mary Ann Collett as their own, even thought he was Mary Ann’s grandson.

The child was born at Cinderford, where Walter Collett died on 7^th July 1945 at the age of 54, and when his only son was just fifteen years old.

1Q23

Frederick Walter Thomas George Collett

Born on 21.03.1930 at Cinderford

1P43

Robert Percy Collett, who was referred to as Bob within the family to avoid confusion with his father, was born at Siddington on 3^rd January 1892, the son of Robert Collett and Mary Ann Dent. He was nine year old in March 1901 when he was still living with his family in Siddington. His mother died during the following year, and in 1903 his father remarried. It was with his father Robert and his stepmother Annie that he was living in 1911 at 49 Baunton in just a mile north of Stratton, Cirencester. Robert junior was 19, and the only other member of the household was Percy Collett who was 15 months old.

It is speculated that young Percy, who was born at Stratton, was the base-born son of Robert Percy Collett, the mother of the child not surviving the birth. Whatever happened to Percy Collett is not known, but it is established that there was a major upset between Robert Collett senior and his son Robert Percy. This may have centred around who should be responsibility for raising his son Percy, which perhaps Robert junior was not prepared to do, preferring to enlist with the army, as indicated by him picture in uniform above.

Following the dispute with his father Robert Percy Collett left Cirencester in 1911 and was apparently never reunited with his father or his son. It was to Cinderford, in the Forest of Dean, that he travelled with his brother Walter (above) and where his brother was married in 1912. It was another eleven years later that Robert married Ann Kibblewhite on 14^th May 1923 in the Registry Office at Newnham on Severn when he was 33.

Once they were married the couple resided at Harrow Hill in Drybrook, near Cinderford, where both of their daughters were born. Robert’s occupation was that of master baker at the Cinderford Co-operative & Industrial Society. He later retired in very poor health, caused by flour dust in his lungs. Robert Percy Collett died at Drybrook on 29^th September 1961.

1Q24

Percy Collett

Born in 1909 at Stratton

The following are the two children of Robert Percy Collett and his wife Ann Kibblewhite:

1Q25

Gladys Collett

Born on 15.01.1923

1Q26

Hilda Collett

Born on 20.10.1925

1P44

Mabel Rose Collett was born at Siddington on 28^th September 1894, the last child born to Robert Collett and his first wife Rosanna King. And it was at Siddington that she was living with her family in March 1901 when she was Mabel R Collett who was six years old. One year later her mother died and during 1903 her widowed father Robert Collett married Annie and moved the short distance to live in nearby Stratton. That also may have coincided with ever member of the family living Siddington, some of whom moved into the town of Cirencester.

Mabel was one of only three members of her family still living in Cirencester in 1911. The census that year recorded Mabel Rose Collett, age 16 and from Siddington, living and working there, although no with any other member of the Collett family.

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^th December 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 estranged brothers Walter Collett and Robert Percy Collett at their respective homes in the Forest of Dean. Mabel was a large jovial lady and George, by comparison, was a short, slightly built man.

Mabel Rose Bramble nee Collett died at Swindon on 26^th November 1972, while her husband George Bramble had died a five years earlier on 29^th September 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 was living at 37 Graham Street in Swindon during the 1990s.

1Q27

Irene Rosanna Bramble

Born on 02.07.1920

1Q28

Claude Bernard Bramble

Born on 04.12.1921

1Q29

Thomas Bramble

Born on 04.06.1923

1Q30

Eileen Bramble

Born on 26.04.1925

1Q31

Dorothy Bramble

Born on 23.11.1927

1Q32

Peter Bramble

Born on 27.12.1929

1Q33

George Bramble

Date of birth unknown

1Q34

Betty Bramble

Date of birth unknown

1Q35

Elizabeth Bramble

Born on 09.01.1937

1Q36

Ann Bramble

Born on 24.07.1941

1P46

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 Hubert Eric John Golledge was nine months old.

1P52

John Henry Collett was born at Gloucester in 1876 and was four years old in April 1881 when he living with his family at 2 Hawkesbury Villa, Weston Road in the Longford St Mary district of Gloucester. In 1891 John Collett, age 14, was attending a school at Axminster in Somerset, where his younger brother Gilbert (below) was also recorded in that year’s census. Just after the start of the new century he was working with his father as a chemical manufacturer in Gloucester.

John H Collett, age 24, was still a bachelor living at his parents’ home at Hillfield, 101 Great Western Road in Gloucester and the census record for 1901 indicated that he was educated with a Masters Degree in Science, although so far no record of his attendance at university has been found, unlike his brother Gilbert who received his masters degree at Cambridge in 1905.

Not long after the census day in 1901, it would appear that John Henry Collett, who was also known as Harry, joined the Territorial Army and, on 3^rd March 1909, when he was already Captain John H Collett, he was promoted to the rank of Major. An announcement to this effect was confirmed in The London Gazette on 25^th May 1909. The same article also mentioned that his brother Gilbert F Collett had been promoted to the rank of Captain, also on the third of March 1909.

It may also have been around that same time that John married Dorothy, with whom he had two children over the next two years. By April 1911 the couple and their two sons were living in the Stroud area of Gloucestershire. The census return revealed that John Henry Collett was 34, and his wife Dorothy Elizabeth Collett was 32. Of their two children, only the eldest one was named, presumably because the younger one had only just been born, and no name had yet been decided upon. John Nelson Collett was one year old, while his brother was simply listed as a male of no age, not even in terms of days. Also staying with the family on the day of the census was John’s unmarried younger brother Leopold George Collett.

Upon the start of hostilities between England and Germany in 1914, John and his brother Gilbert both enlisted as officers with 5^th Battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment. An article published in The London Gazette on 7^th June 1917 referred to Lieutenant Colonel John Henry Collett, the same rank that his brother also held by the end of The Great War.

During the 1930s, and very likely around the time of his retirement, John and Dorothy settled in Cheltenham, where they lived at Pitville Circus.

1Q37

John Nelson Collett

Born in 1910 at Gloucester

1Q38

Anthony Foster Collett

Born in 1911 at Gloucester

1P53

Agnes Sophia Collett was born at Gloucester in 1878 and was listed as being two years old in the 1881 Census when she was living with her parents at 2 Hawkesbury Villa in Weston Road in Gloucester. She was still living with her parents ten years later in 1891 when she was 13 and the family home was in the South Hamlet registration district of Gloucester.

After a further ten years Agnes, age 23, was living at Hillfield, 101 Great Western Road in Gloucester, the home of her parents John Martin and Sarah Ann Collett. Also still living with the family was Agnes older brother John and her younger brother Leopold, and they and their father were involved in the family business of J M Collett & Co Ltd, chemical manufacturers of Gloucester.

According to the next census in April 1911 Agnes Sophia Collett was recorded as being younger than she actually was at 30, and was two years younger than her younger brother Gilbert (below) who was correctly listed as being 32. Her place of birth was confirmed as Gloucester and she was still a single lady still living with her parents and her brother at Kimsbury House in Upton St Leonards, Gloucester, where the family was supported by three servants.

It would appear that she never married, and died on 5^th September 1963 while she was living at Sussex Lodge, Claverton Down in Bath. At the time of her passing she owned a number of properties, including land opposite Sussex Lodge, a lock-up shop at 40-42 Eastgate Street in Gloucester, and a shop at 174 High Street in Cheltenham. The property situated adjacent to her back garden at Sussex Lodge was occupied by her younger brother, the Reverend Seymour Collett (below), until his death in 1972.

1P54

Gilbert Faraday Collett, named after the physicist, was born at Gloucester on 19^th July 1879, the second son and third child of chemical manufacturer John Martin Collett and his wife Sarah Ann. Gilbert was one year old by the time of the census in 1881, when he was living with his family at 2 Hawkesbury Villa on Weston Road in Gloucester. Ten years later he and his brother John (above) were attending a school in Axminster in Somerset, when Gilbert Faraday Collett was 11 years old. He later attended Cheltenham College, where he was educated from 1893 to 1898, when he matriculated.

It was during October 1898 that Gilbert was accepted at Pembroke College in Cambridge, where he obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1901 and his Masters Degree in 1905. His university entry record confirmed that he was the second son of John Martin Collett of Guy’s Cliff, Wolton, Gloucester, later of Wynstone Place near Gloucester. While he was at Cambridge, Gilbert won a rugby blue in Varsity Match of 1898. It was during the following year that he was invited to join the touring Barbarians team. Around the time that he received his MA, or shortly thereafter, Gilbert was a founding member of the Gloucester Fire Brigade.

During his time at Cambridge it would appear he was visiting friends or relatives in the Cheltenham area, since at the time of the census in March 1901 Gilbert F Collett, age 21 and from Gloucester, was recorded in the village of Cowley, just south of Cheltenham. After completing his university education Gilbert joined his brother in the Territorial Army, and on 3^rd March 1909, when his brother John was promoted from Captain to Major, Gilbert was made given the rank of Captain, all as published in The London Gazette on 25^th May 1909.

Less than two years later, according to the census in April 1911, Gilbert had returned to Gloucester to live with his family, where he was recorded under the full name of ‘Gilbert Farady Collett’ (sic). He was further 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 curiously his ‘older’ sister Agnes was listed as being two years younger than Gilbert, whereas in all of the previous three census returns he was the younger sibling by two years.

Out the outbreak of hostilities, Gilbert enlisted with the British Army and served with 5^th Battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment during The Great War of 1914-1918. He was promoted to Captain on 12^th August 1914, when he was stationed at a training camp near Colchester. He travelled to France towards the end of 1915 and later became a Major. He was made an acting Lieutenant Colonel from 1917 until he was invalided out of frontline duties with trench fever during 1918, by which time he had already achieved the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He was mentioned in despatches on three occasions and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order medal in 1918. It was only in 1934 that he retired from the army, when he was 55.

It some years after The Great War, that in 1926, when Gilbert was around 47 years of age, he married Dorothy Lawrence Miller M B, from Dundee Scotland. It seems very likely that Dorothy was much younger than Gilbert since, within two years of their wedding day, she presented Gilbert with a son and heir. When the child was just a few years old Gilbert and Dorothy moved to a large house at Battledown Gates in Cheltenham, on the corner of Hales road and Battledown Approach. This moved followed a similar move by his brother John, who had already settled in Cheltenham and was living nearby at Pitville Circus. While in Cheltenham, Gilbert was a member of the Cheltenham Race Course and a mason with the Old Cheltonian Lodge.

Gilbert, Dorothy and their son were living at Hucclecote near Barnwood to the east of Gloucester when Gilbert died on 26^th February 1945, when his son was just seventeen years old. Following the death of her husband, Dorothy married William Hubert Cullis of Balcarras Court in Charlton Kings near Cheltenham. And it was at Cheltenham that Dorothy died during June 1982, which may further indicate that she was very likely around ten to twenty years younger than Gilbert.

Within the records of the Cambridge Alumni, Gilbert Faraday Collett was described as being the Managing Director of J M Collett & Co Ltd, Gloucester, the company founded by his father. The same records also confirmed that he was married and had issue, including a son to carry on the Collett name, and at some time in his life he lived at Battledown Gates in Cheltenham. His name also appeared in the 1939 version of Who’s Who.

During his younger days he was a keen rugby (union) player, and in addition to his Cambridge Blue and The Barbarians Tour, he also played on the wing for Cheltenham RUFC, and in 1903 he won three caps playing for the British Isles team in a tour of South Africa, but sadly was never selected to play for the English National team. During the South African Tour, Gilbert played in 20 of the 22 matches, including all three Test games against the South African national team. He was a prolific scorer during the first half of the tour, with a dropped goal in his first match against Western Province Country team, followed by eight tries over the next eleven games, including two tries in both games against King William's Town and Griqualand West. He also played first class cricket for Gloucestershire County Cricket Club, and in 1924 he was President of the Gloucestershire Golf Union.

1Q39

Gerald David Martin Collett

Born in 1928 at Gloucester

1P55

Leopold George Collett, who was known as Lee within the family, was born at Gloucester during 1882. It was as Leopold G Collett aged eight years, that he was living with his family in the South Hamlet district of Gloucester at the time of the census in 1891, and ten years after that he was still living with his parents at Hillfield, 101 Great Western Road in Gloucester, at the age of 18.

By March 1911, under his full name of Leopold George Collett, he was still a bachelor at 28, when he was staying at the Gloucester home of his married brother John Henry Collett (above) and his family. It was sometime after that when he married Joy Mona Luiz.

1P56

Seymour Collett was born at Gloucester in 1883, the last child born to John Martin and Sarah Ann Collett. Seymour was seven years old at the time of the census in 1891 when he was recorded with his family in the South Hamlet district of Gloucester. He was educated at Cheltenham, where he was recorded on the day of the census in 1901 when he was 17. Ten years later, in April 1911, he was the only Collett living at Bridport in Dorset, when he was listed as Seymour Collett aged 27 years.

The only other known details regarding Seymour are that he remained a bachelor all his life, that he became the Reverend Seymour Collett, and that he retired to Little Stoke, Claverton Down, to the east of Bath, where he died in 1972. His final place of residence at Little Stoke may have been purchased at the same time as the adjacent property, since it was there that his sister Agnes had lived and died nine years prior to his passing, their two gardens backing onto each other.

During his life the Reverend Seymour Collett officiated at various family events, including the christening of the granddaughter of his brother Gilbert Faraday Collett.

1P57

Walter Charles Collett was born in 1869 at Ham in Surrey, just north of Kingston-upon-Thames, the eldest child of Charles George Collett and his wife Ann. At the age of two years, Walter G Collett was living at Ham with his parents and younger brother Edward, who tragically died shortly after the census day in 1871. At the time of the 1881 Census Walter was 12 years old and was living with his family at Acre Road in Kingston, and ten years he was still living there with his parents at the age of 22.

Just before the start of the new century Walter married Charlotte who was born in the Hammersmith area of London, and in March 1901 the childless couple was living in Surbiton in Surrey. The census return listed the couple as Walter C Collett, age 32 from Ham in Surrey, who had taken up his father’s occupation of a carpenter aged 32, while his wife Charlotte from Hammersmith was 26.

By April 1911 Charlotte had given birth to a son who was born in the Surbiton area, where the family was still living at that time. Walter Charles Collett from Ham was 42, Charlotte Collett was 35, and their son Walter Vincent Collett was just four years old, his middle name being taken from his grandfather’s second wife’s maiden name, or perhaps even his own mother’s maiden name, if she was Ann Vincent.

1Q40

Walter Vincent Collett

Born in 1906 at Surbiton

1P58

Edward Collett was born at Ham in Surrey during 1869, and was baptised at Petersham in Ham on 19^th December 1869, the second child of Charles George Collett and his wife Ann. Edward was one year old in the census of 1871 when he was living at Ham with his parents and older brother Walter (above). Sadly it was not long after that when he died.

1P59

Alice Collett was born at Ham in 1872, the eldest daughter of Charles and Ann Collett. She was nine years old in 1881 when she was living at Acre Road in Kingston-on-Thames. Ten years later she was still living with her family in Kingston when she was 19. Whether through her father’s business as a carpenter or not, Alice later met and married Horace W Daysh, a carpenter from Fareham in Hampshire who was twenty years older than Alice.

Just after the start of the new century, according to the census conducted in March 1901, Alice Daysh, age 29 and from Ham, was living in Kingston-upon-Thames with her carpenter husband Horace, who was 49, and their daughter Annie S Daysh who was two years old.

1P60

Lucy Collett was born at Ham in 1873 and was eight years old in the census of 1881, when she was living with her family at Acre Road in Kingston-on-Thames, where she was listed as Lucey Collett. Ten years after that she was recorded as Lucie Collett, age 18, when she was still living in Kingston with her family. It has not been discovered where her parents were in 1901, but at that time unmarried Lucy Collett, age 28 and from Ham, was a tailoress and a boarder at the home of spinster Sarah Gooddy at 27 St James Road in Kingston. Also boarding at that same address was Lucy’s sister Louisa (below).

1P61

Louisa J Collett was born at Kingston in 1876, the last child born to Charles George Collett and his wife Ann. In the census of 1881 she was her family were living at Acre Road in Kingston, where Louisa was five years old. It was as Louisa J Collett, age 14, that she was still living with her parents in Kingston in 1891. On leaving school she lived and worked with her older sister Lucy (above) in Kingston where they both employed as tailoresses. Where her parents were in 1901 has not yet been revealed, but on the occasion of the census that year Louisa Collett, age 23 and a tailoress from Kingston, was boarding with her sister Lucy at 27 St James Road in Kingston, the home of Miss Sarah Gooddy.

1P62

Ada Elizabeth Collett was born at Clerkenwell on 12^th December 1891, and was baptised at St James’ Church in Clerkenwell on 24^th January 1892, the daughter of pastry cook Herbert William Collett and his wife Elizabeth who were living at 5 Wherlin Street at that time. Nine years later, at the time of the census in 1901, Ada Collett was eight years old and was living with her family at 12 Easton Street in Clerkenwell. It was during the following year that her father died, and his death was followed not long after by the passing of Ada’s mother.

As a result of being orphan in a very short space of time, Ada and her five surviving siblings were taken in by the Doctor Barnados Children’s Home and, during 1904 she and her younger brother Frank were shipped off to Canada. It was there that she was adopted by her home children family in Kent County, following which her name was changed to Ada Florence McKerracher. It was in 1913 that she married Ira Ross who was born in 1884, with whom she had three children, Sanford Ross, Dorothy Ross, and Helen Ross. Upon the death of her husband in 1950, Ada later married Hollie Ellis.

Ada Florence Ellis was happily reunited with her two sisters Louisa May and Jessie (below) and they lived close to each other in the same Kent County town in Ontario for much of their later life. And it was there that she died in 1981.

1P69

Louisa May Collett was born at Clerkenwell on 24^th January 1898, the birth being registered by her mother on 9^th March 1898 at Holborn register office. At that time her parents, Herbert and Elizabeth Collett, were living at 23 Rawstorne Street, just of Goswell Street. By the time of the census in March 1901 the family was living at 12 Easton Street in Clerkenwell where May Collett was three years old. With both of her parents dying during the next two years, Louisa and her five siblings were taken into care with the Doctor Barnados Children’s Home, and it was through that organisation that she and her sister Jessie (below) eventually sailed to a new life in Canada during 1911.

The above photograph of Louisa May Collett, provided by her granddaughter Marilee Rylett Magder, was taken in Canada possibly on the occasion of her wedding day, since she was holding a posy of flowers and had a ring on the wedding finger of her left hand. The larger picture from which it was extracted also includes her younger sister Jessie, whose portrait from the same photo is presented below.

Louisa May Collett married (1) Charles Ernest Rylett in Kent County, Ontario during March 1922. Charles was eight years older than Louisa, having been born in 1890. It was also at Kent County that Louisa and her sister Jessie were reunited with their older sister Ada Elizabeth (above). The marriage of Louisa and Charles produced a son for the couple, Leslie Rylett (1923-2006) who in 1949 married Mary Ellen Bruegeman who was born in 1927. However, after twenty-eight years together they were divorced during 1977.

After enjoying only seventeen years together Charles Ernest Rylett died in 1939, following which his widow Louisa May Rylett married (2) Alvin Campbell. Later she was made a widow for a second time, after which she then married Preston Smith. Louisa May Smith nee Collett died in 1989.

It was the marriage of Leslie Rylett and Mary Ellen Bruegeman that produced a daughter Marilee Rylett Magder, and it was Marilee of Whitby in Ontario who kindly provided all of the details for the January 2012 update of this family line.

1P71

Jessie Collett was born at Clerkenwell during December 1900, and was just three months old on the day of the census in March 1901 when she was living at 12 Easton Street in Clerkenwell with her family. She was still only a baby when first her father Herbert Collett died in 1902, and he was followed shortly after by the death of his wife. That double tragedy left their six children as orphans, who were then taken under the care of the Doctor Barnados Children’s Home. In 1911 Jessie, together with her sister Louisa May (above) were taken to Canada to live, and the picture here was taken with the same sister around the time that she was married in 1922.

It was a few years later that Jessie Collett married Harold Barker (1904-1976) in Kent County, Ontario, just across the Canada/US border from Detroit. Harold was born in 1904 and he and Jessie had three daughters, Mary Louise Barker, Doreen Barker, and Nancy Barker. At sometime during her life at Kent County that Jessie and her sister Louisa were reunited with their other sister Ada Elizabeth who had been adopted after arriving in Canada in 1904. Harold Barker died in 1976 leaving Jessie to live a widow’s life for the next fifteen year, before she passed away in 1991.

1P72

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.

1Q41

Michael Collett

Date of birth unknown

1P73

Elizabeth Hannah Collett was born at Newport in Wales in 1867, the eldest child of Henry Albert Collett and his wife Mary Ann Thomas. For some reason when she was four years old her family had returned to Gloucestershire where her second brother was born at Stonehouse in January 1871, and where they were still living two months later at the time of the census that year. On that occasion though, Elizabeth H Collett who was four was not living with her family. Instead she was staying with her grandmother, the widow Elizabeth Collett, at her home in nearby Woodchester.

Not long after that Elizabeth’s parents took the children back to Newport where two more children were born, before they moved to the Bath area of Somerset in 1877. So by the time of the census in 1881 the family was living at 11 Alexandra Buildings in the Weston district of Batheaston, where Elizabeth was 14. Ten years later she was still living there with her parents and six of her siblings in 1891 when she was unmarried at the age of 24. With no record of her as a single lady after that time it is assumed that she was married by 1901.

It is possible but not proved, that Elizabeth may have married Samuel George Wood, and in 1901 they were living in Newport, but by 1911 they had taken their family to live in Wolstanton in Staffordshire. Elizabeth Wood was 33 in 1901, although in 1911 she was recorded as Harriet Elizabeth Wood, age 44 and from Newport, when her husband was 49, and her children were Elsie Maude Wood, age 17, Dorothy Madge Wood, age 13, Clara Wood, age 11, and Harry James Wood who was nine. However, this does seem likely to be the right Elizabeth, because her brother Henry (below) also ended up living in Staffordshire.

1P74

Henry Thomas Collett was born at Newport during the fourth quarter of 1868, the eldest son of Henry and Mary Ann Collett. He was two years old in the census of 1871, when he was listed as Henry T Collett who was staying at Stonehouse in Gloucestershire with his parents. Shortly after that, the family returned to Newport where two more children were added to the family, before they moved to Somerset. By 1881 he and his family were living at 11 Alexandra Building at Weston near Bath, where Henry was 13 and was still at school, but on leaving school he appears to have left Somerset and followed his older sister Elizabeth to Staffordshire.

Later in his life he followed his father’s example and was employed on the railways, a job that took him to Burton-on-Trent where 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 26 and their only child at that time was Winifred, who was not yet one year old, who had been born at Burton where the family was living.

No more children were added to the family, and by 1911 the family of three was still living in Burton-on-Trent, where Henry Collett was 42, Bertha Collett, was 37, and Winifred Collett was 10 years old.

1Q42

Winifred Collett

Born in 1900 at Burton-on-Trent

1P75

James Edward Collett was born on 2^nd January 1871 at Noah's Ark in Stonehouse and was baptised on 16^th July 1871 at Kings Stanley, when he was confirmed as the son of Henry Albert and Mary Ann Collett. The family was recorded in the Stonehouse census of 1871 when James E Collett was two months old. However, he was no longer living with his family in 1881 or at any time thereafter, so it is assumed that he died while still very young.

1P76

William Albert Collett was born on 24^th October 1872 at Newport where he was baptised on 17^th November 1872. It was around 1877 that his family left South Wales, when they moved to Weston near Bath and the census of 1881 recorded the family as residing at 11 Alexandra Building in Weston, where William was nine years old. Ten years later as simply William Collett he was still living with his family in 1891 when he was 19.

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.

1Q43

William P H Collett

Born in 1898 at Bath

1Q44

Ernest L Collett

Born in 1908 at Bath

1P77

Robert Edward Collett was born at Newport in 1875 and he was six years old in 1881 while living at 11 Alexandra Building in Weston near Bath with his family. He was still there in 1891 when he was 15, and after a further ten years Robert Collett from Newport was 25 and a tailor’s presser who was still 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 35, when he was still living at Weston with his parents.

1P78

Frances Adelaide Collett was born at Weston near Bath on 3^rd January 1878 and was listed as being three years old in the Weston census of 1881, and was 13 in 1891. By 1901 she was 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.

1P79

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 she was living at 11 Alexandra Building in Weston with her family. Sadly no trace of Diana has been found in any subsequent census record, including 1891 when she would have been ten years of age.

1P80

Ethel Gertrude Collett was born at Weston near Bath on 10^th May 1883. According to the next two census returns she was still living with her family at Weston in 1891 and 1901. In the first of these she was recorded simply as Ethel Collett, age eight, while ten years later she was Ethel F G Collett who was 18 and employed as a dressmaker, like her older sister Frances (above)

1P82

Lillian May Collett was born at Weston near Bath on 6^th February 1887 and she was five years old in the Weston census of 1891 when she was listed as Lillian Collett. Upon leaving school she worked in a tobacconist’s shop as confirmed by the 1901 Census for Weston when she was 16 (sic) and still living with her parent as Lilian M Collett. 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 24.

1P83

Nellie Edith Evelyn Collett was born at Weston near Bath on 19^th August 1888, the daughter of Henry Albert and Mary Ann Collett nee Thomas, and was strangely recorded in the census of 1891 as Nellie Collett who was under one year old, rather than two years of age. However, in the Weston census of 1901 she was more accurately described as Nellie E E Collett, age 13. It is possible that she was married by the time of the census in 1911.

1P84

Rosaline Winifred Collett was born at Weston near Bath on 29^th May 1893, the last child of Henry Albert Collett and Mary Ann Thomas, and was listed with her family as Rosaline W Collett age eight years in 1901. Ten years later she was described using her full name of Rosaline Winifred Collett, when she was 17 and confirmed as having been born at Weston, where she was still living with her family.

1P85

Henry Charles Collett was baptised at Frampton-on-Severn on 2^nd November 1868, the same year that his parents Charles Collett and Mary Catherine Boucher were married. Within the baptism register he was named as the son of Charles and Catherine Collett but, only two weeks after he was baptised, he died at Frampton on 16^th November 1868.

1P86

Albert James Collett was baptised at Frampton-on-Severn on 8^th September 1872, the son of Charles and Ann Collett. He was less than four years old when he died at Frampton on 3^rd April 1876. Whilst his father was correctly named as Charles, his wife was named as Ann, as she was two years later for the baptism of his sister Louisa (below).

1P87

Louisa Elizabeth Collett was baptised at Frampton-on-Severn on 20^th December 1874, the eldest daughter of Charles and Ann Collett. Like her two older brothers (above), she too was not living with her parents at Frampton in 1881.

1P91

Alice Maude Collett was born at Coln St Aldwyns where she was baptised on 27^th February 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.

1P92

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.

1P93

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.

1Q45

Clifford William Collett

Born in 1907 at Axbridge

1Q46

Francis Edgar Collett

Born in March 1911 at Axbridge

1P94

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.

1P95

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.

1Q47

Herbert Louis Collett

Born in 1908

1P96

Percy A 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.

1P99

George Collett was born in 1876 at Eastleach according to the later census records. The first of them 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. 1O101) who was 43, and the enumerator for the census was his uncle Raymond Collett (Ref. 1O103). 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.

1P100

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.

1P102

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.

1Q48

Gwendoline Frances Collett

Born in 1906 at Swindon

1P13

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 the village of Langley Burrell near Chippenham in Wiltshire.

1P104

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 them was Anthony Collett from Combe in Oxfordshire (Ref. 38o37) in Part 38 – The Oxfordshire Stonemasons Line

1P106

Ernest Walter Raymond Gordon Collett was born at Christchurch in New Zealand on 10^th September 1874, the eldest child of Ernest Collett and his wife Martha Varcoe. He was a miller and in 1905 he married Agnes Gertrude Pearce who was born on 1^st August 1885. From the time they were married the couple lived at 17 Strickland Street in Christchurch for many years, together with four other Collett relatives, including Ernest’s brother Herbert (below), who lived next door at 15 Strickland Street.

A total of nine children were born to Ernest and Agnes over thirteen years, but sadly the last two, born in 1917 and 1919 were stillborn. The brothers and sisters were very close, with many of them living in two adjacent houses.

1Q49

Edna Ernestine Collett

Born in 1906 at Christchurch

1Q50

Raymond Leonard Collett

Born in 1906 at Christchurch

1Q51

Ruby Catherine Collett

Born in 1908 at Christchurch

1Q52

Constance Martha Collett

Born in 1909 at Christchurch

1Q53

Frances May Collett

Born in 1911 at Christchurch

1Q54

Arthur Stanley Collett

Born in 1913 at Christchurch

1Q55

Norma Gertrude Collett

Born in 1915 at Christchurch

1P107

Herbert Frank Collett was born at Christchurch on 29^th January 1876, the second son of Ernest and Martha Collett. Herbert later married Sarah Burrows who was born during 1872, with whom he had three children. During his life Herbert was a cabinet maker and in 1906 he and his family lived next door to his brother Ernest (above) at 15 Strickland Street in Christchurch. It was later in their life that Ernest and Sarah moved the short distance to Stourbridge Street in Spreydon, a suburb to the south-west of Christchurch.

After Sarah died Herbert lived just four streets away from Stourbridge Street, when he moved in with his daughter Gladys Sutton and her husband Tom at their home in Conway Street, Spreydon. Herbert Frank Collett was the grandfather of Brian Gregory Collett who kindly provided some of the details which has enabled his family to be included here.

1Q56

Gladys Mary Collett

Born in 1906 at Christchurch

1Q57

Leslie Herbert Collett

Born in 1908 at Christchurch

1Q58

Ernest George Collett

Born in 1914 at Christchurch

1P108

Robert George Victor Collett, who was known as Vic, was born at Christchurch on 21^st February 1878. Upon leaving school he moved around Christchurch a lot, presumably seeking work where he could find it. Apart from a brush with the law and drinking after hours in a New Brighton Hotel, not a great deal is known about him. It has not been established whether or not he was ever married.

1P109

Eleanor Mabel Collett was born at Christchurch on 15^th September 1879, the eldest daughter and fourth child of Ernest and Martha Collett. It would appear that she was known within the family as Ellen and Nell, and in 1917 she was unmarried and living at 20 Chancellor Street in Christchurch. It was in fact within the First World War military records of her brother Arthur Samuel Gordon Collett (below) that Miss Ellen Collett (sister) was mentioned as his next-of-kin.

Some years after that she was known to have lived at 448 Madras Street in Christchurch, and once again that address was referred to in the military records of her brother Arthur. Other than that, no other information relating to Eleanor has so far been found, except it is known that she was very close to her brother Arthur, that she never married, and that she died in 1954.

1P110

Arthur Samuel Gordon Collett was born at Christchurch on 21^st April 1882, another son of Ernest Collett and his wife Martha Varcoe. Upon leaving school he learned his trade as machinist, a fitter and a turner, and worked at Hastings on the North Island prior to the First World War. With the Great War raging in Europe, Arthur enlisted with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force on 21^st February 1917 at Hastings. At that time he was described as being 35 years old and single, being 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighing 158 lbs, with dark hair, grey blue eyes, and a medium complexion. His occupation was that of a machinist, a fitter and a turner, with the company of R Holt & Sons of Hastings, which was also his last known address.

The other details on his entry form confirmed that his father was Ernest Collett, who had been born in Gloucestershire, England, and that his mother was Martha Collett deceased, who had been born in Norfolk, England, and that they had been residing in New Zealand for the last 60 years. To the question, if single how many persons are absolutely dependent on you, Arthur had only inserted the name of his sister Ellen Collett.

He was accepted into the New Zealand Engineers 29^th Reinforcement Regiment as Sapper A Collett 54311 on 1^st May 1917, when his next-of-kin was named as his sister Miss E Collett of 20 Chancellor Street in the Shirley district of Christchurch. That address was later amended to 448 Madras Street in St Albans, which was later changed to Lyndhurst in Christchurch.

It was on 13^th August 1917 that Arthur sailed out of Wellington on the troopship Mokoia Evellington, bound for Glasgow in Scotland, where he arrived on 2^nd October 1917. From Scotland the troops travel to the south coast of England where they undertook basic training, following which they then crossed the English Channel into France, arriving in Etaples on 13^th June 1918. Just over one year later, on 2^nd July 1919 Arthur was in Liverpool boarding the ‘SS Somerset’ for the return journey to New Zealand. Three days later he was admitted into the ship’s hospital, where he spent the next three days.

By the time peace was declared and Arthur had been discharged from the New Zealand Engineers on 17^th September 1919 he had served a total of two years and one hundred and thirty-eight days, of which 2 years and 8 days had been spent overseas in Western Europe. For his service during the war, he received the British War Medal and the Victory Medal which he received ay Lyndhurst, Canterbury during March 1921.

Arthur never married and in 1938 was recorded on the electoral rolls as living with his family at 17 Strickland Street in Christchurch. Arthur Samuel Gordon Collett died while he was living at Burwood in Christchurch on 12^th December 1958, aged 76. His next-of-kin at that time in his life was named as Mrs C M Nicholls of 52 Puriri Street in west Christchurch, who was described as his niece, the daughter of his brother Ernest Walter Raymond Gordon Collett (above), she being Constance Martha Nicholls nee Collett (Ref. 1Q52) 1909–1989.

1P111

Harriet Clara May Collett was born at Christchurch on 8^th March 1884, only the second daughter of Ernest and Martha Collett. It was in 1912 that she married Thomas Lester Anderson Osborne.

1P112

Leonard Ransom Collett was born at Christchurch on 15.03.1886, the youngest child of Ernest Collett and his wife Martha Varcoe. Leonard, who was a printer and a storeman, married Elsie Kennedy Fleming in 1907, and their marriage produced two sons. The electoral rolls in both 1935 and 1938 placed Leonard and his family living at 17 Strickland Street in Christchurch. A later address was 62 Sinclair Street in Christchurch. Leonard died on 5^th September 1946, while Elsie died almost exactly five years after, on 15th September 1951, at the age of 66. Both of them are buried at Bromley Cemetery in Christchurch.

1Q59

Clifford Collett

Born circa 1908 at Christchurch

1Q60

Ralph Collett

Born circa 1910 at Christchurch

1P113

George William Collett was born at Christchurch on 28^th October 1875, the eldest of the two children of George William Collett and his wife Margaret Coutts. He was barely two years old when his father died, leaving his mother to raise two very young children on her own. However, George was eventually raised by his widowed and re-married grandfather Samuel Collett who, shortly after taking over the care of the boy, moved to Waimate, midway between Christchurch and Dunedin to the south.

George was greatly influenced by living with his grandfather and as a result followed his grandfather’s example by becoming a builder, a brewer, and an undertaker, eventually taking over all of his grandfather’s business interests upon his retirement in 1899. Three years later, when George was twenty-seven years old, he married Christina Sevicke Jones in 1902. The couple had four children, the youngest one of whom later visited England to conduct research into his earlier ancestors, although it was their eldest son who wrote the story of the family’s life in his book entitled “The History of Two Families”.

George William Collett died on 5^th March 1953, and both he and his wife are buried in Waimate Cemetery, where his grandfather and his second wife were also buried.

It was originally report here, that one of his sons was named Grahame, and that it was he who travelled to England to research his family’s origins. However, the name of Grahame Collett does not appear in the very latest information used to update this family line in January 2012. There is therefore a chance that Grahame has been confused with George, although the details for both indicate that they married different women. As a result of this uncertainty, his name has been retained here as the fifth child of George and Christina, until such time as it can be categorically proved that he was not a child of their marriage.

1Q61

May Thompson Collett

Born in 1903 at Waimate

1Q62

Hori Coutts Collett

Born in 1906 at Waimate

1Q63

Edgar Harold Collett

Born in 1908 at Waimate

1Q64

George Sevicke Collett

Born in 1912 at Waimate

1Q65

Grahame Collett

Date of birth unknown

1P114

Amanda Elizabeth Collett was born at Christchurch on 9^th July 1877, the youngest of the two children of George William Collett and Margaret Coutts. Following the death of her father not long after she was born, Amanda was raised by her mother, while her brother George (above) was taken into the care of the children’s grandfather. Amanda later married Richard Maffey during 1901 and she died on 10^th January 1969, following which she was buried with her husband in Wellington Cemetery, both of them having died in their nineties.

1P116

Herbert Collett was born at Birmingham in 1890 and was 21 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.

1Q66

Emily Nellie Elizabeth Collett

Born in September 1910 at Birmingham

1P133

Maudie Leona Collett was born in California on 13^th December 1898, the eldest of the four children of James Bradford Collett and his wife Janey Truscott. She married Robert H Mum who was born at Wisconsin around 1897. Up until the US Census in 1920, Maudie was living with her parents at their home in Warms Springs, Inyo. It was shortly after that when she and Robert moved to Berkeley in California.

She and Robert had a son, Sidney Mumm who was born in Sacramento on 30^th August 1928, following which the family of three was living at Woodland, Yolo, California in 1930. Maudie Leona Mumm nee Collett died at Tulare in California on 14^th April 1987, while her son Sidney Mumm died there on 29^th June 2003.

1P134

Florence H Collett was born at Bishop, Inyo on 24^th July 1903, the daughter of James and Janey Collett. Her early life was spent living with her family at Township 1 in Inyo, and at Warm Springs in 1920. It was during the early 1920s that she married Walter Ancel Ray who had been born at Greenfield, Adair in Iowa on 23^rd December 1899. On 11^th March 1925 Florence presented her husband with a daughter, Barbara Ray, and by 1930 the family of three was living at Caliente, Lincoln in Nevada.

Florence H Ray ne Collett was still living at Caliente when she died during December 1986, while her daughter Barbara was living in San Diego when she died on 31^st August 2008.

1P135

Mabel Berniece Collett was born in California on 18^th February 1906, the third daughter of James and Janey Collett. Like her three sisters, ‘Mable’ was living with her parents at Township 1 in Inyo up to 1910, and by 1920 the family was living at Warm Springs in Inyo. Also like her sisters, ‘Mable’ was married during the 1920s, when she wed Leonard L Parish who was born in Texas on 15^th September 1901. Once married the couple settled in Sacramento where their two daughters were born.

Virginia Ruth Parish was born on 14^th July 1926, and Beatrice Lea Parish was born on 11^th October 1927. The family was living in Sacramento in 1930, and it was there also that Mable Berniece Parish nee Collett died on 10^th May 1985. Her husband Leonard had died there over twelve years earlier on 13^th January 1973. Sadly their two daughters both died in 2005; Virginia on 19^th April at Sacramento, and Beatrice on 29^th November at Roseville, Placer in California.

1P136

Beatrice Evelyn Collett was born at Bishop, Inyo in California on 12^th June 1908, the youngest of the four daughters of James Bradford Collett and his wife Janey Truscott. Up until the time of her marriage Beatrice lived with her family at Township 1, Inyo, and later at Warms Spring. It was possible at Warms Springs in Inyo that she married Aarian Sydney Cakebread on 17^th November 1927. He was the son of William Cakebread and Henrietta Marie Schwendel and was born in California on 19^th September 1903.

Following their wedding day, the couple settled in San Jose, Santa Clara in California, where their one child, William Keith Cakebread was born on 21^st February 1930. Beatrice Evelyn Cakebread nee Collett died at San Jose on 4^th December 1988, her husband having died there two years earlier on 21^st February 1986, the day of their son’s 56^th birthday.

William Keith Cakebread also lived most of his life in San Jose, where he died on 2^nd December 2005. He was the father of Cherie Mosher who put together the history of this branch of the Collett family, although it was through contact with Andrew Collett (Ref. 3Q14) that it now appears in this family line.

1Q1

Valerie Joyce Collett, whose date of birth is not known, married Cyril Dunsby with whom she had two children. They were Steven, who was 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, they being Danielle who was eight and Angel who was three 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.