PART
TWO
The
Secondary
This
is the third of three sections of Part Two of the Collett family line
Updated October 2011
The information in a previous update was
been kindly provided by Hilary Collett (Ref. 2S44)
Some past information has been kindly
provided by
Brian Prescott (Ref. 2R33) of Lowton near Warrington
and Bob Collett (Ref. 2R10) of Australia
Earlier information was also received
from Bob Collett in Australia,
Andy Collett (Ref. 2S6) of Solihull and
his Australian cousin
from Reg and Patricia Harvey (Ref. 2Q83) of
Somerset, and
from Hilary Collett (Ref. 2S44) of
Basingstoke in Hampshire
2P1
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William John Collett was born at 22 Cromwell Street
in Swindon on 17.01.1870. By the time
of the census on the second of April in 1871 William’s parents were sharing a
terraced house at 22 Cromwell Street in Swindon with the Hardiman
family. William’s father was employed
by the GWR as was William Hardiman. |
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The
census simply recorded that William J Collett was born in Swindon and that he
was one year old. Ten years later his
family had moved and was then living at 7 Bath Street in April 1881, where
William was eleven and attending the GWR School in the railway village, as
that area of Swindon was called. |
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He later attended the
New Swindon Mechanics Institution Evening Classes and was awarded a prize in
December 1884 presented by W. Dean.
This was a leather-bound Webster’s Dictionary which was handed down
through the generations to Brian Collett born in 1946 and the compiler of
this family history website. |
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His occupation was that
of carpenter with the Great Western Railway prior to his death three months
before he reached his twentieth birthday.
He died at 7 Bath Street in Swindon on 29.10.1889, the cause of death
being recorded as typhoid. |
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New
information has come to light that may suggest William followed in his
father’s footsteps by joining the navy and served on board HMS Endeavour in
the years between 1885 and 1889. It
may therefore be that on a trip overseas he contracted the illness which
eventually killed him. |
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2P2 |
Albert Henry Collett was born at 22 Cromwell Street
in Swindon on 03.09.1872. At the start
of the next decade his family moved into new accommodation at 7 Bath Street in
Swindon which was provided by the GWR with whom his father was employed. |
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The
census in 1881 confirmed that Albert was eight years old and that he was
living with his family at 7 Bath Street.
No record of Albert has been found anywhere in the census of 1891 and
this may coincide with the stories within the family that he was a sailor
like his father. |
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In
1900 Albert married Rosina A Lewis. This
very likely took place in Gloucester where Rosina said she was born in
1877. The couple initially lived in
the Kingsholm district of Gloucester St Marks, and it was there at 49
Sherborne Street that they were recorded as visitors in the March census of
1901. |
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This
was the home of twenty-six years old widow Emily Newman who was a labeller in
jam making. Albert was described as 28
and a blacksmith from Swindon. His
wife Rosina was 23 from Gloucester, and also staying at the house with them
was the widow Ann Daniels who was 43 and from Nantiglow
in Monmouthshire. Ann is believed to
be the mother of Rosina Lewis. |
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Over
the next ten years Rosina presented her husband with five children, the first
three of which were born while the couple was still living in
Gloucester. By 1907 the family had
moved to Wales and it was at 23 Dolphin Street in Newport in Monmouthshire
that William and Rosina were living in April 1911. |
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The
census return recorded that the couple had been married for eleven years and
that Albert Henry Collett from Swindon was 38 and a dock warehouseman. Rosina was 33, and their five children were
Violet 10, Ella 8, Mervyn 6, William who was 4, and Arthur who was two years
old. |
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In
August 2000 Donna Collett provided the following information. Her grandfather was Bertie Collett married
to Pearl Davies who married Albert Collett (below). Her father was Paul Collett and he had
siblings Bertie, Georgie, Anna, Cathy and Christine, all of whom were from
Newport. An attempt to make contact
with Donna’s father in 2000 failed, as he did not wish to discuss any aspect
of his family’s past life. |
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However,
thanks to new information received in June 2006 from Andrew (Andy) Collett in
England and his cousin Karen Rowan (daughter of Patricia Collett) of
Australia, a clearer picture of this family has emerged. |
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Albert Henry Collett, who was born
at 22 Cromwell Street in Swindon on 03.09.1872 was a
sailor at sometime in his life, possibly during the Great War, judging by his
age in this photograph which is an extract from a larger photograph in which
Albert was flanked by his mother Caroline Ruth Collett and his wife Rosina
Collett. In
1899 or 1900 he married Rosina A Lewis who was born at Stroud in 1877 and was
the daughter of brewer’s labourer John Lewis and his wife Sarah A Lewis, both
of Stroud. Apart
from the first three children who were born in Gloucester (as revealed by the
census of 1911), all of the couple’s other five children were born after the
family had moved to Newport. |
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Albert
is known to have spent sometime in Gloucester Gaol and this most likely
happened around 1906. The story within
the family suggests that he made his escape from the prison and fled to South
Wales. |
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The
family story also includes the fact that Rosina and her three children at
that time walked the entire journey from Gloucester to Newport to be with her
fugitive husband. |
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It
was perhaps this episode in his life that resulted in Albert severing all
ties with his Swindon family and it was this that was the reason why it was
so difficult to trace him and his family, until this new information about
his life has come to light. |
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2Q1 |
Violet Collett
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Born in 1901 |
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2Q2 |
Ella Collett |
Born in 1903 |
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2Q3 |
Mervyn Collett |
Born in 1905 |
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2Q4 |
William Collett |
Born in 1907 |
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2Q5 |
Arthur Collett |
Born on 28.05.1909 |
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2Q6 |
Lewis George Collett |
Born on 15.07.1911 |
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2Q7 |
Nora Collett |
Born on
13.06.1913 |
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2Q8 |
Albert Collett |
Born in 1915 |
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2P3 |
Elizabeth Annie Collett, who was referred
to as Lizzie by the family, was born at 22 Cromwell Street in Swindon between
January and March
1874. By 1881 the family was living at
7 Bath Street in New Town Swindon where Elizabeth was seven years old. In between the family had lived for a five
years at 16 Exeter Street. |
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Ten
years later Elizabeth A Collett from Swindon was living and working in the
Edmonton district of London, although she gave her age as being
eighteen. Towards the end of the
century Elizabeth returned to Swindon where she married Frederick Henry Taylor of
Swindon where the first of their three known children was born just after the
start of the new century. |
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The
young family initially lived with Elizabeth’s widowed mother Caroline Collett
at 7 Bath Street, and it was there that the three of them were listed in the
census of 1901. Elizabeth Taylor was
27, as was her husband Frederick who was employed by the GWR as a railway
carriage fitter. With the couple was
their eleven months old son William F H Taylor. |
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Within
the next ten years a further two children were added to the family, which by
April 1911, had moved from 7 Bath Street to 13 Morse Street in Swindon. The census that year recorded the family as
Frederick Henry Taylor 36, Elizabeth Annie Taylor 36, William Frederick Henry
Taylor 11, Frederick Maurice Taylor 8, and Arthur George Taylor who was three. |
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At
that same time Elizabeth’s mother Caroline was living with Lizzie’s brother
Maurice, but shortly after he and his family moved
to Lancashire following which Caroline moved in with the Taylor family where
she remained until her death in 1929. |
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Lizzie’s and Frederick’s
second son Frederick Taylor later became the Headmaster of Gorse Hill Junior
School in Swindon sometime during the middle of the twentieth century. |
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2P4 |
Caroline Ruth Collett, referred to
as Carrie by the family, was born at 16 Exeter Street in Swindon between July
and September 1876, although by April 1881 the family was living at 7 Bath
Street where Caroline was four years old. |
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Ten
years later when Caroline was fourteen she was the oldest of the eleven
children of William Collett and Caroline Ruth Watts still living in the
family home at 7 Bath Street in Swindon.
By that time her father had died two years earlier, so Caroline was
supporting her widowed mother looking after the younger members of the
family. |
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According
to the Swindon census of 1901, Caroline was twenty-four and was still
unmarried and was still living with her mother at 7 Bath Street. Her occupation at that time was recorded as
being a tailoress like her younger sister Nellie with whom she probably
worked. |
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It
would appear that she married Frederick Hood about seven years later,
sometime around 1908 or 1909. Once
married the couple lived at 14 Southbrook Street in
Swindon where their only daughter was born. |
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In
April 1911 the Swindon family comprised Frederick J Hood who was 39, his wife
Caroline R Hood who was 34, and their one year old daughter Edith M Hood. |
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Their
daughter, who was known as Eddy, married Rex Franklyn and they lived in the
house next door to her parents in Southbrook
Street. Caroline and Frederick later moved
to Box near Minchinhampton which, curiously enough, was where her mother
Caroline Ruth Collett nee Watts was born. |
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2P5 |
HARRY JAMES COLLETT was born at 16 Exeter Street in
Swindon on 09.01.1879. Shortly after
he was born his father William Collett changed his job and the family moved
into a terraced house provided by the Great Western Railway at 7 Bath Street
in the Railway Village of Swindon New Town. This
was confirmed by the census of 1881 when Harry was incorrectly listed as
Henry Collett aged two years. Seven
years later when Harry when nine years old his father died, so by 1891 Harry
was 12 and was still living at 7 Bath Street with his widowed mother and his
some of his brothers and sisters. His
two older brothers had left home by then leaving Harry as the eldest male. |
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In
order to retain the GWR living accommodation Harry’s
mother Caroline was working for the GWR in 1891. However, with her advancing years it was
incumbent on Harry to secure employment with the company when he left school
a few years later in order to retain their home. |
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By
March 1901 he had completed his apprenticeship and the census that year
listed him as Harry J Collett aged 22 who was
working for the GWR as a railway engine boiler-smith, while living with his
mother and family at 7 Bath Street.
Also by that time two of his younger brothers were serving their
apprenticeships with the railway company. |
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Towards
the end of the next decade Harry met his future wife Alice Louisa Collett of
Siddington near Cirencester who was working in domestic service in Swindon. |
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He
married ALICE LOUISA COLLETT (Ref.
1P33) on 13.03.1909 at St Mark's Church in Swindon. |
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Almost
exactly one year later the April census of 1911 placed Harry and Alice living
at 7 Bathampton Street (formerly 7 Bath Street), his mother having moved out
to live with Harry’s younger brother Maurice in
Swindon. |
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The
census return confirmed that the couple had been married for two years, and
living with them was the first of their eight children. Harry James Collett was 32 and a
boiler-maker working in the GWR Locomotive Department of the GWR, Alice
Louisa was 30 and from Siddington, and their son William Henry John was one
year old. |
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The
photograph above was taken before he became a married man, but for the
occasion of his wedding he took to having a moustache which he retained for
the rest of his life. |
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For more details about Harry and his family go to Part
1 – The Main starting with his wife Alice Louisa Collett (Ref. 1P33) |
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2P6 |
Ella Agnes Collett was one of twins born at 7 Bath
Street in Swindon in January 1881. She
was recorded as being three months old in the Swindon census of 1881 but
tragically died later that same year, sometime between October and December. |
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2P7 |
Nellie Winifred Collett, who was referred
to as Nell by the family, was one half of a set of twins born at 7 Bath
Street in Swindon in January 1881. In
the census that year she was recorded as Nelley W
Collett aged three months. Her
father William Collett died when she was just seven years old, following
which she continued to live at 7 Bath Street with the rest of her family for
the next eighteen years. However, rather
strangely when she would have been ten, she was not recorded with her family
in the census return for 1891. Where
she was at this time has not been discovered. |
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How
long she was absent is not known, but Nellie W Collett aged twenty was back
living with her family at 7 Bath Street in March 1901. At this time in her life she was unmarried
and was working with her older sister Caroline as a tailoress. |
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Just
five years later Nellie married housepainter Edward Bizley
in Swindon and the wedding is believed to have taken place around 1906. Edward was born in Swindon in 1876 and was the
son of William Bizley of South Marston and his wife
Elizabeth Bizley of Bampton in Oxfordshire. |
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In
1881 Edward, who was later more commonly known as Duke Bizley,
was five years old and was living at Hyde Cottages in Highworth with his
agricultural labourer father and the rest of his family. |
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Over
the next few years the marriage produced three children for the couple. The photograph above was taken shortly
after the birth of their son. |
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All
three of their children were previously thought to have been born before the
census of 1911. However, the census
return completed in early April that year disproves this theory, since the
only child living with Nellie was their daughter Ella who was named after
Nellie’s twin sister who died at 3 months. |
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The
census confirmed that Nellie Winifred Bizley was
30, her husband Edward Bizley was 34, and their
daughter Ella Winifred Bizley was two years
old. It therefore seems highly likely
that Nellie was with-child on that day and that shortly after she presented
her husband with the couple’s second child. |
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2Q9 |
Ella Winifred
Bizley
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Born in 1908 |
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2Q10 |
Edward Bizley |
Born in 1911 |
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2Q11 |
Nora Bizley |
Born in 1913 |
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2P8 |
Arthur Stephen Alan Collett was born at 7
Bath Street in Swindon on 02.10.1882
where he was still living in 1891 at the age of eight with his widowed mother
following the death of his father William Collett when Arthur was five. By 1901, when he was
nineteen, Arthur was a sapper with the Royal Engineers and was in barracks in
Kent. Shortly after March 1901 it is
understood that Arthur sailed to South Africa where he took part in the final
phase of the Boer War, during which he obtained the rank of staff sergeant. The Treaty of
Vereeniging was signed in 1902 and this put an end to the unpopular ‘scorched
earth’ policy employed by Lord Kitchener which was used to
destroy Boer farms and move the civilian occupants into concentration camps. |
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Arthur continued to live
in Pretoria for a few years after the end of the hostilities, perhaps in a
peace-keeping capacity, and returned to England around 1906. He was still in the army by April 1911 and
was once again billeted in the Elham area of Kent. |
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It
seems very likely that he was de-mobbed just after 1911 when he returned to
Swindon, where he took up employment with the Great Western Railway as a
boiler-smith, like many of his brothers.
He continued to work for the GWR until 1916 when he became a married
man at the age of thirty-four. |
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Around this time Arthur was
offered a new job with the Vickers Aircraft Company in Sheffield, having
already met his future wife Mary Maud Bigwood of
Devizes. The couple then moved to Sheffield
where they were married on 02.02.1916. |
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Mary was born at Devizes
on 09.10.1889 and the couple’s first child was born at Devizes almost exactly
one year after their wedding, even though they had made a permanent move to
Sheffield by that time. It can perhaps
be assumed that Mary was either just visiting her mother or that she was
unwell nearing the end of her pregnancy and was being cared for by her
mother. |
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All of the remaining
children were born at |
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2Q12 |
Ruby Lillian Maud Collett
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Born on
09.02.1917 |
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2Q13 |
Nellie Louise Collett |
Born on
18.11.1919 |
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2Q14 |
Arthur William Henry Collett |
Born on
16.10.1921 |
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2Q15 |
Charles Fredrick Collett |
Born on 12.11.1923 |
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2Q16 |
Glenna Collett |
Born on
11.07.1925 |
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2Q17 |
Mervyn Collett |
Born on
12.07.1928 |
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2Q18 |
Patricia Mary Collett |
Born on
24.09.1930 |
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2P9 |
Maurice Edward Collett was born at 7
Bath Street in Swindon on 08.01.1885 and was only three and a half years old
when his father died during the summer of 1888. This
photograph of Maurice was taken around 1909. By
the time of the census of 1891 Maurice and his family were still living at
the house at 7 Bath Street which was rented to them by the Great Western
Railway. The census that year recorded
him in error as Morris E Collett aged six years. Ten
years later in March 1901 he was still living there aged sixteen, but by then
he was employed by the GWR as an apprenticed boiler-smith. |
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Around
eight years later in 1909 Maurice married Florence Beatrice White from Frome
in Somerset, with whom he had eight children.
For the first five years of their married life together Maurice and
Florence lived at 14 Stanier Street in Swindon, where they were recorded in
the census of 1911. |
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The
census that year stated that the couple had been married for two years, so it
would appear that the wedding took place only a few months before the birth
of their first child who was listed as being two years old. |
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The
full census return recorded the family as Maurice Edward Collett 26 of
Swindon who was by then a fully fledged boiler-smith with the GWR, his wife
Florence 27 of Frome, and their first two children Ella who was two and Edward
who was just two weeks old. |
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It
seems very likely that the birth of the couple’s two-week old son had not
been registered by the time of the census, since it was subsequently changed
to Reginald Maurice Collett. |
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Also
living with the family at this time on second April 1911 was Maurice’s
widowed mother Caroline Collett who had given up her GWR supplied family home
at 7 Bathampton Street to Maurice’s older brother Harry James Collett (a GWR
employee) and his young family. |
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Almost
exactly two year later Florence presented Maurice with the couple’s third
child while they were still living at 14 Stanier Street. However, sometime after, either in 1914 or
early in 1915, Maurice’s work took him from Swindon to Lancashire where the
family took up residence at 1 London Row, Vulcan Village, in
Newton-le-Willows, where a further five children were born. |
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In
1931 Maurice and his family made their final move when they went to live at
426 Wargrave Road in Newton-le-Willows, and it was there twenty-three years
later that Maurice died on 24.03.1954.
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Florence
had died nineteen months before Maurice, when she passed away at
Newton-le-Willows on 29.08.1952. |
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Florence
was born at Innox Hill in Frome on 19.11.1883 the
daughter of Frank and Martha White who were also born in Frome. By 1891 they had left the Somerset town and
moved to Swindon where in 1901 Martha White was 49 and Frank, who was 45, was
working for the Great Western Railway as an engine painter. At that time 17 years old Florence B White
was employed as a cloth machinist. |
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2Q19 |
Ella Florence Collett
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Born on
30.03.1909 |
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2Q20 |
Reginald Maurice Collett |
Born on
15.03.1911 |
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2Q21 |
Frederick Arthur Collett |
Born on
09.03.1913 |
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2Q22 |
Percival Francis Collett |
Born on
17.06.1915 |
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2Q23 |
Bertram William Collett |
Born on
21.09.1918 |
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2Q24 |
Ethel May Collett |
Born on
15.11.1920 |
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2Q25 |
Lily Cecilia Collett |
Born on
07.09.1923 |
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2Q26 |
Mervyn Albert Collett |
Born on
20.02.1926 |
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2P10 |
Percy Ethelbert Collett was born at 7
Bath Street in Swindon on 02.06.1886. By
the time of the census of 1891 his father had been dead for almost three
years, although Percy aged four and his family continued to live at 7 Bath
Street which was provided by the Great Western Railway for whom his father
had worked. Ten
years later at the age of fourteen Percy had left school and was employed by
the GWR with whom he was an apprenticed iron moulder. |
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On
completion of his apprenticeship Percy left Swindon and joined the army and
by April 1911 he was billeted at Plymouth. |
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The
census that year simply recorded him as Percy Collett aged 24 from Swindon
who was unmarried and was serving with the military in Plymouth. The move to Plymouth became a permanent one,
as it was there that Percy lived for the rest of his life. |
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Just
less than eight years later he married Florence May Gabriel of South View,
Seymour Road, Mannamead in Plymouth on 18.01.1919 and their only son was also
born at Plymouth. In their early
years, the couple lived at 4 Penny-cum-Quick in Plymouth before moving to 6
Central Park Drive in Plymouth. |
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Percy
died at Plymouth on 05.08.1952 and was followed seventeen years after by
Florence, who died there on 09.07.1969.
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Florence
May Gabriel was born at Child Okeford near
Blandford Forum in Dorset on 10.04.1892.
She was the daughter of Stephen and Annie Gabriel and in 1901,
Florence who was 8, and her family were living at Chard just over the Dorset
border in Somerset. |
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2Q27 |
Stephen Peter Marshall Collett |
Born on
07.07.1920 |
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2P11 |
Mervyn Fred Matthew Collett was born at 7
Bath Street in Swindon on 29.09.1887
and he was barely one year old when his father William Collett died. Mervyn was three years
old in 1891 while still living with his family at 7 Bath Street, while ten
years later he was still attending school in Swindon at the age of thirteen. During the next ten
years he met Lily Thrush of 3 Hinton Road in Swindon, and on 16.07.1910 they
were married in Swindon. Just over three month
after they were married Lily presented her husband with the first of their
two children. |
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This photograph of Mervyn was taken
around 1910, perhaps even on the occasion of his wedding. |
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The
couple initially settled in Swindon for perhaps just the first year of the
marriage, and it was there that their first child was born. This was confirmed by the April census of
1911 when the family of three was recorded as living at 14 Handel Street in
Swindon. |
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The
census return recorded that Mervyn and Lily had been married for less than
one year and that both of them, and their five months old son, had been born
in Swindon. This would perhaps
indicate that their son Frederick was a slightly premature ‘honeymoon baby’. |
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Mervyn
was listed as being 23 and his occupation was that of a boiler-smith working
for the Great Western Railway, while his wife was only twenty years old. Not longer after this, Mervyn and his
family left Swindon and followed his older brother Percy (above) to Plymouth,
where the couple’s second child was born. |
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They lived at 35
Clarence Road in Plymouth until it was bombed in the blitz of 1943, following
which the family were re-housed at 32 Clarence Road. |
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Mervyn died at Plymouth
on 04.04.1951 of double pneumonia, while Lily, who was born at Swindon in
1891, died at Plymouth eleven years later on 17.08.1962. |
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2Q28 |
Fredrick Mervyn Collett
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Born on
30.10.1910 |
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2Q29 |
Maurice William Arthur Collett |
Born on
10.09.1912 |
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2P12 |
Ann M E Collett was born at Poulton in 1865 and
was six years old in the Cirencester area census of 1871 when she was living
with her parents and younger sister Martha (below). |
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By
1881 the family was living in Stroud where Ann was 15, and ten years later as
Ann M E Collett she was 25 and still living within the Stroud census
registration district in 1891. |
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In
1901 she was a seamstress and was still not married at the age of 35 and was
living at Brimscombe to where her family had moved. |
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Ten
years later in the census of 1911, Ann was still a spinster living at
Brimscombe where she was recorded as Annie Collett aged 45. The description of where she was living was
‘institution’ rather than ‘household’. |
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2P13 |
Martha Ellen Collett was born at
Arlington in 1868 and in 1871 she was three years old and was living with her
parents and older sister Ann (above) within the Cirencester registration
district. |
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By
1881 she was living with her family at Dark Mill in Stroud where she was aged
13 although her place of birth and that of her father were stated as
Arlingham, which is on the east back of the River Severn south of Gloucester. |
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It
is possible that she married before the 1891 Census as there was no record of
a Martha Collett of the appropriate age.
However, there was a Martha Headlef aged 25
who was living at St Clement Danes in Hackney who was born at Arlingham. There were no other people with the Headlef name in 1891 and by 1901 even Martha was missing
from the census, as she was in 1911. |
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2P14 |
James Collett was born at Shorncote in
1872. Sometime over the next few years
his family moved to Stroud where James was 9 in 1881,
and 19 in 1891. |
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By
1901 he was living at Brimscombe where he was a 29 year old stick worker,
working with his sister Sarah (below).
The Dark Mill at Stroud, where the family was living in 1881 was known
for making umbrellas from 1885 and the stick workers were an integral part of
the process. |
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During
the next ten years it would appear that James married Elizabeth and by April
1911 they were living at Stroud. James
of Shorncote was 39 and Elizabeth was 38, and living with them was James’
sister Sarah (below). |
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2P15 |
Sarah Collett was born at Kemble near
Cirencester in 1875. During the next
couple of years her family moved to Stroud where Sarah was 6 in 1881, and 16 in 1891. |
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In
1901 she was living with her family in Brimscombe aged 26 and was a stick
worker, like her brother James (above), employed in the manufacturing and
production of umbrellas. |
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At
the age of 36 Sarah Collett of Kemble was still a spinster and in 1911 she
was living with her brother James and his wife at Stroud. |
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2P16 |
Rose Anna Collett was born at Rodborough near
Stroud in 1877. She was listed as aged
3 in the 1881 Census and was living at the family home in Dark Mill in
Stroud. By 1901 she was aged 23 unmarried
and referred to as Rosanna and was living at the family home in Brimscombe. |
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2P17 |
Kate Collett was born at |
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2P18 |
Arthur Collett was born at Brimscombe in
1886. In 1901 at the age of 15 Arthur
was working as a pin worker while still living at the family home at
Brimscombe. |
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By 1911 Arthur
was 25 and was living and working at Stroud. |
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2P21 |
William Henry Collett was born at
Paddington on 31.01.1869, the birth being registered at the |
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Shortly
after he was born his parents took him to live at Parry Sound in |
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At
the age of 25 William was living at Kensal Town where he married Ellen
Caroline Harris on 14.01.1894 in the parish church of St Martin in Kentish
Town. His occupation at that time was
described as a pianoforte maker and journeyman. Ellen was aged 21 and was the daughter of
Salvation Army captain and porter William Thomas Harris and his wife Ellen
Francis, and had been born at St Pancras in 1874. |
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The
witnesses at the ceremony were William’s brother Edmund Alfred Collett and
Annie Harris who was most likely Ellen’s mother. Three years later, at the birth of their
third child, the family was living at 3 Hanover Street in Kentish Town, St
Pancras, where William was working as a piano maker and journeyman. |
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The
were still living at 3 Hanover Street for the birth of their first three
children, but by the time of the birth of their daughter William and Ellen
were living at 70 Carlton Road in Kentish Town. However, later that same year, or early in
1901, the family moved again, this time to 4 Cleveland Villas in Willesdon. |
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And
it was there that the family was living for the census at the end of March in
1901. The census return listed the
family as William H Collett 32 and an auctioneer’s saleroom porter, his wife
Ellen 27 (both of them born at St Pancras), and their four children William 6
also born at St Pancras, John 5, Arthur 3, and Grace who was seven months
old, all three born at Kentish Town. |
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During
the next decade another two children were added to the family which, in April
1911 was living at 134 Fleet Road in Hampstead. William Henry Collett was 42 and an
auctioneer’s porter, and his wife Ellen C Collett was 38. Their six children at that time were listed
as William Alfred Collett 16, John Francis Collett 15, Arthur Thomas Collett
13, Grace Ellen Amelia Collett 10, Ernest Henry 7, and Albert Edward who was
five years old. |
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Living
with the family was William’s younger brother Francis Ernest Collett who was
forty-one. Four years later at the end
of January 1915, when William’s eldest son was married, the occupation of
William Henry Collett was given as being that of an auctioneer’s porter. |
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William
and Ellen were living at 50 Lawn Road in Hampstead in 1916 where they
received the sad news of the death of their son John Francis Collett who died
at Duala in Cameroon during the First World War. |
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Lawn Road runs northwards off Haverstock Hill (A502)
close to |
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It
was also around this time that Ellen was looking after William’s nephew Reginald
(Reg) Collett, following the death of the boy’s father Francis Ernest Collett
during the year previous, and at a time when the boy’s mother had became
mentally ill. |
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On
the occasion of the marriage of his son Arthur Thomas in 1921, William’s
occupation was that of house painter.
A year after, at the time of his daughter’s wedding in 1922, his occupation was once again stated as being that
of an auctioneer’s porter, which is how he was remembered by his
grandson. |
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It
is very likely that William and Ellen had more children that those listed
below, and it is possible a son was born in 1914 who was the only member of
the family in 1935 that was not married.
At that time William and Ellen were still living at 50 Lawn Road in Hampstead. |
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2Q30 |
William Alfred Collett |
Born on 11.04.1894 |
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2Q31 |
John Francis Collett |
Born on 15.10.1895 |
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2Q32 |
Arthur |
Born on
11.08.1897 |
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2Q33 |
Grace Ellen Amelia Collett |
Born on 08.12.1900 |
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2Q34 |
Ernest Henry
Collett |
Born in 1903 |
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2Q35 |
Albert Edward
Collett |
Born in 1905 |
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2P22 |
Francis Ernest Collett was born at
Parry Sound in |
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No
record of Francis has been found in the census of 1901, but by 1911 he was
unmarried at the age of forty-one and was living with his brother William Henry
Collett (above) at 50 Lawn Road in Hampstead.
It would appear that he did marry shortly after this and that the
marriage produced a son. |
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At
the outbreak of the Great War, Francis enlisted with the Royal Marines Light
Infantry and was assigned to the battleship HMS Goliath. Tragically, the ship was torpedoed by the Turkish
destroyer Muavenet-I-Millet off De Tott’s Battery in the Dardanelles on 13th May
1915 with the loss of 570 men. |
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The
name of Private PLY/10685 Frank Collett appears on the Plymouth Naval
Memorial. There is no reference to any
next-of-kin, so it is possible that he had not married the mother of his son,
and also that the son may have been born after he was killed. |
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Francis
Ernest Collett died on 13.05.1915 and, with the mother of his child having
become mentally ill following the birth of their son, coupled with the death
of the child’s father, the child was taken into the care of his uncle William
Henry Collett (above), the brother of Francis Ernest Collett. |
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2Q36 |
Reginald Collett |
Born 1912-1915 |
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2P23 |
Edmund Alfred Collett was born at
Parry Sound in 1872. He returned to England
with his family in 1883. Unlike other
members of his family, no record of Edmund has been found in the London area
in the census of 1891. |
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However,
ten years later in March 1901, Edmund A Collett of Canada was twenty-nine
years of age and was living in the St Andrews district of London, where he
was employed as a draper’s assistant. |
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Four
years later Edmund married Everell Williams in
1905. Everell
was an upholsterer and was five years older than Edmund, having been born at
St Pancras in 1866. The year after the
couple were married Everell presented Edmund with
their only child. |
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By
April 1911 the family of three were living in Woolwich where Edmund Alfred
Collett from Ontario was thirty-nine, his wife Everell
was forty-four, and their son Arthur John Collett was five years old. |
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During
their lives together, the couple lived along the south side of the River
Thames at Woolwich, Erith and Dartford from where Edmund worked as a draper
with his brother Herbert (below). |
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In
his later life Edmund was a patient at Bexley Mental Hospital, and it was
there that he lived for the last few years of his life. |
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2Q37 |
Arthur Collett |
Born in 1906 |
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2P24 |
Herbert Edward Collett was born at
Parry Sound in 1875 but returned to England with his family in 1883. By 1891 Herbert was not living with his
family in Kentish Town, instead he was recorded in
the census that year in the Chelsea area of London at the age of fifteen,
perhaps attending school there. |
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Ten
years later Herbert E Collett from Canada was twenty-three (sic) and was
living and working in the Islington area of London, where his occupation was
that of a draper’s assistant. |
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During
the next decade Herbert worked at a draper’s shop with his brother Edmund Alfred
Collett (above). However, because of
his views on trade unions, Herbert was dismissed from many jobs in London and
eventually moved north to the Lake District where he met his future wife. |
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Herbert
married (1) Florence Mary Darvell of Millom in Cumberland, at nearby Whicham
in 1910. On married the couple
returned to live in London and in April 1911 they were living at 40 Raeburn
Avenue in Dartford, the house named Parry Sound after the place where Herbert
was born near Ontario. |
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The census
return that year listed the childless couple as Herbert E Collett from
Ontario aged thirty-five, and his wife Florence Mary Collett aged
thirty-seven from Millom in Cumberland. |
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2Q38 |
Harold Ernest Collett |
Born in 1914 |
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2P25 |
Eleanor M Collett was born at Parry Sound in 1877
and with the rest of her family returned to England in 1883. In 1891 she was 13 and was living with her
family in Kentish Town. |
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Ten
years later she had entered into domestic service and was living and working
in the St Pancras area of London. The
census in 1901 listed her as Eleanor M Collett aged twenty-three who had been
born in Canada. |
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At
the end of July in 1900, and following the death of her mother during the previous
year, Eleanor’s father Arthur James Collett married for a second time and,
eighteen months later they took over the care of Eleanor’s baby, which they
eventually formally adopted. |
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The
child’s birth certificate confirmed that Eleanor was twenty-five and that she
was living at the Hampstead Workhouse where she gave birth to her base-born
daughter. |
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Eleanor
was still living in the Hampstead area in April 1911, when she was described simply
as Eleanor Collett aged thirty-one (sic) from Ontario. At that time, her place of residence was
listed as an institution. Sadly she
only survived for another seven years when Eleanor M Collett died at
Hampstead in 1918 at the age of forty-one. |
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2Q39 |
Ethel Maud Collett |
Born on
08.01.1902 |
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2P26 |
Grace Collett was born at Parry Sound in 1879
where she died on 07.05.1882. Shortly
after her death the rest of the family left Canada and returned to England. |
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2P27 |
Rose Collett was born at Kentish Town in London on 17.09.1883. In 1891 she was seven years old and was
living with her family in Kentish Town.
Ten years later she and her brother Cecil (below) were the only
children still living with their father in Hampstead. |
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Rose
never married and in April 1911 she was still living with her father Arthur James
Collett and his second wife Harriet.
Rose Collett was 27 and at some time during her life she worked at
Dickens & Jones. |
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2P28 |
Cecil James Collett was born at Kentish Town in
London on 24.04.1885 and he was five years old in 1891 when he was listed as
Samuel Collett living with his family in Kentish Town. |
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By
1901 he and his sister Rose (above) were the only children still living with
Arthur James Collett and his new wife Harriet. On that occasion the family was living in
Hampstead where Cecil J Collett was 15 and working as a corn handler’s
assistant. |
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Cecil
James Collett married Elizabeth Huggins in 1910. A few months later the couple were recorded
in the April census of 1911 as living in the St Pancras area as Cecil James
Collett aged 25 and his wife Elizabeth Emeline
Collett who was twenty-eight. |
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It
was Elizabeth who, on 1st April 1916, registered the death of her
father-in-law Arthur James Collett (Ref. 2O30) who lived at 70 Constantine
Road opposite Hampstead Heath railway station. At that time the address for
daughter-in-law ‘E E Collett’ was confirmed as 58 Southampton Road in
Hampstead. |
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|
It may be of interest to know that Southampton Street
was located near to both Constantine Road and Lawn Road where various members
of the Collett family lived |
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2Q40 |
Arthur Collett
|
Born after 2nd
April 1911; died in 1918 |
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2P29 |
Alfred Edward Hersey Collett was born at
Parry Sound on 20.06.1877. He was a
fur trader and he married Sybil Ellis on 10.12.1902. In the years after they were married they
lived at North Bay but by 1936 the couple were living at Pine Grove in
Ontario. The couple both died a few
months apart in 1957. |
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2Q41 |
Ruth Alfreda Beatson Collett |
Born on
23.06.1906 |
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2Q42 |
Lilian Jane Rosalie Collett |
Born on
28.09.1909 |
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2Q43 |
Thomas Ernest Bertrand Collett |
Born on
10.12.1910 |
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2P30 |
Ernest Henry |
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2Q44 |
Reta May Collett |
Born on 11.08.1902 |
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2Q45 |
Gerald Sherman James Collett |
Born in 1903 |
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2Q46 |
John Aubrey Beresford Collett |
Born on 12.11.1906 |
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2Q47 |
Ivan Bertrand Collett |
Born in 1908 |
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2P31 |
Bertrand Oswald Mawbey Collett was born at
Parry Sound on 16.09.1881. He married
Helen Elma Fieldhouse on 05.08.1908 and he died in
1945. |
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2P32 |
Lillian Hattie Amelia Collett was born at
Parry Sound in 1883. She married
Thomas Hemsworth in 1907 and she died in 1961. |
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2P33 |
Rosalie Gertrude Helena Collett was born at
Parry Sound in 1885. She married Melford Proctor in 1909 and she died in 1946. |
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2P34 |
Alice Mawbey Collett was born on
04.12.1876 at 8 Pembroke Street in Islington and she died on 07.03.1878 at 14
Pembroke Street in Islington. |
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2P35 |
Ernest Henry Collett was born at 14
Pembroke Street in Islington on 06.05.1878, the eldest child of Mawbey Ernest
Collett and his first wife Elizabeth Alice Stare. He was two years old in 1881 when he and
his younger brother Herbert (below) were living with their parents at 1
Hawley Road in St Pancras. Ten years later, when he was 12, he was recorded
in error as Ernest F Collett, while living with his family within the Pancras
& Kentish Town area of London. |
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He
was still living in the St Pancras area in March 1901, at the age of 22, and
just one year later, while still in St Pancras he married Rose Elizabeth
Rogers on 05.04.1902. The marriage
produced four children for the couple over the next seven years, and by April
1911 the family was living in Walthamstow where the couple’s daughter Edith
had been born just eight months earlier.
Ernest was 32, his wife Rose was 31, and their three sons were Ernest
who was eight, Reginald who was six, and Sidney who was three. No second names were given in the census. |
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At
some time during his life Ernest was a constable with the Metropolitan Police,
although an account
given by his half brother the Rev. Sidney Collett (below), who was a Titanic survivor, stated that he was working for an electrical
company in England around the time of the ship’s disastrous maiden voyage in
1912. His wife Rose Elizabeth
Rogers was born in 1880 and she died in 1955, ten
years after Ernest had passed away on 28.05.1945. |
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2Q48 |
Ernest Joseph Collett |
Born on
23.01.1903 |
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2Q49 |
Reginald George Collett |
Born in 1905 |
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2Q50 |
Sidney John Percy Collett |
Born on
09.03.1908 |
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2Q51 |
Edith Rose Elizabeth Collett |
Born on
08.07.1910 |
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2P36 |
Herbert Victor Collett was born at 10
Kentish Town Road on 18.07.1879 and was baptised on 04.12.1879 when he was
living with his family at 76 Beaverbrook Road in Tufnell Park. In 1881 he and his family were living at 1
Hawley Road in St Pancras, where Herbert was recorded as being one year
old. It was as Herbert V Collett, age
11, that he was recorded in the next census in 1891, when his family was
still living within the Pancras & Kentish Town area of London. |
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Herbert
Victor Collett was a cheesemonger’s assistant on leaving school, but
tragically he died prematurely on 05.11.1896 when he was only seventeen years
old, and was buried at Finchley. |
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2P37 |
William Melville Collett was born at
Hawley Villa, |
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2P38 |
Harold John Collett was born at 88 St Johns Road in
Upper Holloway on 10.03.1883, and was eight years old in the Pancras &
Kentish Town census of 1891, by which time his mother had died and his father
had re-married. Upon leaving school
Harold joined the Royal Navy, and by the time of the next census in 1901 he
was stationed at Plymouth. The census
return on that occasion recorded him as Harold John Collett from St Pancras who
was an ordinary navy man at the age of 18. |
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He
later emigrated to Canada, where he was a driver on
the Canadian Pacific Railway. This
very likely happened during the first ten years of the new century, since he
would appear to have left England by the time of the census in 1911. He is known to have married and lived in
Toronto with his wife and three children.
He eventually had nine grandchildren. |
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2P39 |
Percy Alexander Collett was born at 5
Estelle Road in Hampstead on 06.10.1884, the son of Mawbey Ernest Collett and
his first wife Elizabeth Alice Stare, who had died when he was just eleven
days old. He was seven years old in
the Kentish Town census of 1891 when he was living with his father and his stepmother
Ann, but by 1901, at the age of 16, Percy A Collett from Hampstead was
working as a waiter in the Epsom area of Surrey. It would appear that he later joined his
parents in America, where he married Margaret Acheson with whom he had a son,
who was very likely born in the USA. |
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The
only other known fact about him is that it was in America that Percy
Alexander Collett later died. |
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2Q52 |
Ernest John Collett |
Date of birth
unknown |
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2P40 |
Thomas Alfred Fletcher Collett was born 5
Estelle Road in Hampstead on 30.01.1886, the first child born to Mawbey
Ernest Collett by his second wife Ann Pinfold. Thomas A F Collett was five years old in
1891 when living with his parents in the Pancras & Kentish Town area of
London. Ten years later, in 1901 when
his father was away in Devon, Thomas Collett was 15 years old and was living
with his mother and his four younger siblings at 68 St Johns Road in
Islington, part of Upper Holloway. |
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By
that time in his life he was employed as a clerk, perhaps even in his
father’s coach-building and ironmonger company of Collett & Co. On that occasion in the census return for
1901, his place of birth was recorded as Gospel Oak, like that of his brother
and two sisters (below). |
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He
emigrated to America with his parents in 1910 and
was educated at Columbia University, where he took his Master Degree. At the time his younger brother Sidney was a passenger on the
ill-fated Titanic, Thomas was living in Syracuse, where he was attending the
College of Liberal Arts at the University there. He became a minister in the Episcopalian
Church of America and died in New York on 16.08.1964. He was married with two daughters. |
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2Q53 |
Joan Collett |
Date of birth
unknown |
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2Q54 |
Grace Collett |
Date of birth
unknown |
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2P41 |
Sidney Clarence Stuart Collett was born at 5
Estelle Road in Hampstead on 08.01.1887, the son of Mawbey Ernest Collett and
his second wife Ann Pinfold. It was as
Sydney C S Collett that he was recorded with his family in the census of 1891
when he was three years old and living in the Pancras & Kentish Town
district of London. By March 1901 he
and his mother Ann and his four siblings were living at 68 St Johns Road in
Islington when, as simply Sidney Collett, he was listed in the census as
being aged 13, with no occupation. A
sometime in his youth, presumably during the first decade of the new century
he spent time living on Guernsey with an uncle, where he was known as the boy
preacher. |
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Although
he was always recorded under first forename, Sidney was more commonly
referred to as Stuart within his family, to avoid any confusion with another
relative by the name of Sidney Collett.
Just over nine years after the census in 1901 his parents sailed to
America in 1910, following the sale of the family business Collett & Co
and his father’s retirement at the age of sixty. |
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It
was during the previous year, in 1909 that he was ordained and was henceforth
referred to as the Reverend Sidney Collett.
He was now ready to follow his parents to the United States and two
years after they had sailed to America he purchased a second class ticket to
New York on the maiden voyage of the unsinkable RMS Titanic. The ticket cost him £10 10 shillings, and
he sailed out of Southampton on Wednesday 10th April 1912, his final
destination being Port Byron in New York State where his parents had settled. |
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Thankfully
he was one of the survivors rescued from the freezing cold waters by the ship
Carpathia, when the Titanic sank in mid-Atlantic in
the early hours of the fifteenth of April.
This photograph of Stuart was taken on board the Carpathia. Three days later, on Thursday 18th
April, the Carpathia docked at New York’s Pier 54
with 706 survivors from a total of 2,223 passengers and crew. A
newspaper account of the tragedy reported that “The Rev. Sidney Collett arrived at the home of his parents after
having been rescued from the Titanic of the White Star Line which was lost at
sea. His parents, Rev. & Mrs
Mawbey E Collett of North Main Street, had gone to Syracuse to meet him and
he had showed signs of tiredness and careworn, not being fully recovered from
his terrible experience”. |
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The local
newspaper in Port Byron, The Daily Advertiser, also covered the story by
publishing an interview with Sidney on 23rd April 1912 under the
headline ‘Port Byron survivor of the Titanic wreck’. Sidney recalled “The first boats carried men.
Several boats had been lowered full of men, among them the President
of the America Line, Joseph Bruce Ismay, who was
also the Chairman and Managing Director of the White Star Line. The officers were just lowering boat number
9, the third from the last to be put off.
The ladies stepped into the boat, then the
officer, with drawn revolver, said to me ‘Well, what of you, where are you
going?’ To which I replied that I have these young ladies in my charge and
felt it my duty to take care of them.
‘Get in’ said the officer and a moment later the boat was
lowered. A fright for those in small
boats.” |
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“After we had floated for an hour or
more there came our first real scare for our own safety. All about us we could see the backs of
monster fish, their shiny skins or scales glimmering grew in the
moonlight. They were terrible looking
monsters and we feared that they would swim under our boats and upset them,
but they did not. It was a time when
we were close to our Maker. I prayed
constantly from the time our boat struck the iceberg until I reached New
York. Never was there a wireless
message that went so quickly and straight as my prayers to the throne of
God. Never will I forget those
horrible hours after the sinking of the ship.
It was maddening. Minutes seemed like hours and hours like days.” |
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A much more detailed account of
the story can be found in Appendix One at the end of this file, which
provides a great deal of addition information about Sidney and his immediate
family. |
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At some later time in his life he
married Ruth, and whether this was before or after he returned to London is
not yet known. However, it is known
that Sidney Clarence Stuart Collett died on 6th May 1941,
following which he was buried at Hendon Cemetery on 13th May. No headstone marks the grave, but a notice
in The Times on 10th May read as follows. “On May 6, 1941. Sidney Collett
beloved husband of Ruth Collett passed peacefully away. Memorial service at Talbot Tabernacle in Bayswater,
London on May 13 at 2.30. Interment Hendon Cemetery at 3.30.” |
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2P42 |
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2P43 |
Daisy Ann Collett was born at 5 Estelle Road in
Hampstead on 17.02.1891, and was six weeks old in the census of 1891. Ten years later she and her mother and her
four siblings were living in the Upper Holloway area of Islington at 68 St
Johns Road. It was nine years later,
and following the sale of her father’s business, Collett & Co, that Daisy
emigrated to America with her parents in 1910. In April 1912 when the Port Byron newspapers were running stories
about her older brother Sidney (above) on how he survived the sinking of the
Titanic, Daisy and her two sisters were at Rochester preparing for
college. The only other known detail
about her is that Daisy Ann Collett died in America during 1953. |
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2P44 |
Lily Elizabeth Collett was born at 5
Estelle Road in Hampstead on 24.04.1892, the youngest child of Mawbey Ernest
Collett and his second wife Ann Pinfold.
Within the census return for the family in March 1901, Lily was
recorded as ‘Lilly Collett’ aged eight years, living at 68 St Johns Road in
Islington, who had been born at Gospel Oak like her four older siblings, rather
than Hampstead. When Lily was 18, she,
together with other members of her family including her parents, emigrated to America in June 1910 on board the Steam Ship
SS Teutonic. |
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And
it was there, in America in
1912, that Lily was living with her two sisters at Rochester just prior to
them entering college. Lily Elizabeth
Collett later married to become (1) Lily Elizabeth Collins, and after that
(2) Lily Elizabeth Williams. |
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2P45 |
Elizabeth Collett, who was referred to as Bess, was
born in Hammersmith in London on 29.10.1879.
Two years later she was listed as living with her parents at 32 Oxford
Gardens in Kensington. No record of
her or her large family has been found anywhere in the UK at the time of the
1891 census. |
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In
the mid-1890s her mother died, so just after the turn of the century she was
living with her widowed father at 86 Leathwaite
Road in Clapham from where she was working as a GPO Clerk at a local branch
of general post office. |
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Sometime
after the first quarter of 1901 when she was just twenty-one, her father
Percy Collett died leaving Elizabeth as his eldest daughter, supported by her
brother Algernon (below), to look after the younger children of the family. |
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Around
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Shortly
after they were married Elizabeth and William left London and moved north to
live at Newcastle-upon-Tyne where their two children were born and where
William opened a picture gallery. By
April 1911 the marriage had produced the first of the couple’s two children. |
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The census return that year confirmed that Elizabeth Arnold of London was 31 and that her husband William Frederick Ford Arnold of London was 41. | |||||||||||
