PART THIRTY-THREE

The Bourton-on-the-Water Line

This is the second of two sections of the thirty-third part of the Collett family

Updated October 2011

Part 14 – The John Kyte Collett Line also deals with many Colletts of Bourton-on-the-Water

It seems likely, although not yet proved, that the origins of this line stem from

William Collett (Ref. 2H20) who was baptised at Bourton in 1624

This is the family line of Carole Hiscock to whom thanks must go for

providing detailed information and photographs relating to her family

Further Collett family members have been added thanks to Dave Oakey who manages a

website dedicated to villages in Oxfordshire including Alvescot and Clanfield www.ox18.com.

These Colletts, linked to his own Oakey family line, commence at William G Collett (Ref. 33Q12)

This is the family line of John Brain Collett (Ref. 33O27) and

his great grand daughters Shirley and Trisha Collett of New Zealand

who kindly provided details

33P1		William Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1853. He was unmarried in 1871 and must have married when around twenty years of age but tragically he was a widower and the father of two daughters a few years later. His wife may have died during the birth of their second child in 1877 or sometime thereafter, but certainly prior to April 1881.
		According to the census record for that year, William of Bourton was a widower at 27 and was working as a labourer while he was living with his two daughters Emily aged 6 and Helen S aged 3 at the home of his father Paris Collett at The Bank in Bourton. Both children were confirmed as having been born at Bourton.
		Some years after the death of his first wife William married (2) Sarah of Bledington around the mid 1880s. Sarah was thirteen years younger than William and between the time they married and the turn of the century Sarah presented him with four children.
		The first of these was born in Bledington where Sarah was born, and this may have taken place at her parents’ house. The second and fourth child was born at Bourton, with the third child born at Lower Slaughter.
		In the 1891 Census the two children from his first marriage were still in the care of their grandparents Paris and Lucy Ann Collett at Bourton. The only change from 1881 being the slightly different interpretation of the name for the second child to Ellen aged 13 rather than Helen as in 1881.
		Also William and his new wife Sarah and their two sons were living back in Bourton. William was aged 39 and a general labourer, while Sarah was aged 26 and their sons were Percival 3 years and Ernest who was ten months. During the next decade two daughters were added to the family, the first at Lower Slaughter and the second at Bourton.
		The family of six was still living together at Bourton in 1901. William was aged 49 and was still working as a general labourer and his wife Sarah was 36. The couple’s eldest son was referred to as Percival W Collett aged 13, while their youngest son was referred to as Ernest R J Collett aged 10.
		The couple’s two daughters were recorded as being Blanche M Collett aged 7, and Winifred O M Collett who was under one year old.
		During the next ten years the two sons left the family home and went away to work for the Great Western Railway. By April 1911 the family comprised William of Bourton who was 59, his wife Sarah 46 and of Bledington, and their two daughters Blanche 17, and Winifred who was ten.
		33Q1	Edith Emily Collett		Born in 1875
		33Q2	Helen Louisa Collett		Born in 1877
		33Q3	Percival William Collett		Born on 24.10.1887
		33Q4	Ernest Reginald John Collett		Born on 06.06.1890
		33Q5	Blanche M Collett		Born in 1893 at Lower Slaughter
		33Q6	Winifred O M Collett		Born in 1900 at Bourton-on-the-Water
33P3		Paris Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1859 and was the son of Paris and Lucy Collett. During the earlier census returns in his life his date of birth fluctuated between 1857 and 1860, for example in 1881 he was 23 and a labourer living with his parents at The Bank in Bourton.
		In September 1892 he married Kate Burdock with whom he had four children during the following nine years. Kate was the sister of Ruth Burdock who married Paris’s distant cousin (two times removed) Joseph Collett (Ref. 33P28) at Bourton in 1895.
		By March 1901 Paris and his family was living at Bourton where he was 41 and employed as a general labourer, his wife Kate was 34, and their four children were Herbert P Collett 7, Arthur E Collett 6, Walter 4, and Kathleen who was one year old, all four children having been born at Bourton.
		During the next few years a second daughter was added to the while they were still living at Bourton, where they were also living in April 1911. The census return that year recorded the family as Paris 51, Kate 43, Herbert Paris 18, Arthur Edward 16, Walter George 14, Kathleen Eva 11, and Amy 7.
		33Q7	Herbert Paris Collett		Born in 1893
		33Q8	Arthur Edward Collett		Born in 1895
		33Q9	Walter George Collett		Born in 1897
		33Q10	Kathleen Eva Collett		Born in 1899
		33Q11	Amy Collett		Born in 1903
33P4		Mary Ann Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1860. When around 20 years of age she was working and living away from the family home but was back living with her parents Paris and Lucy Ann Collett according to the 1891 Census.
		In this she was listed as being unmarried aged 30 and of Bourton and with her was her base-born son William aged 7 also born at Bourton.
		However, by the turn of the century she was married to Charles Bowles and was living at Donnington just north of Stow-on-the-Wold. Charles was born at nearby Broadwell in 1862 and in 1901 was working as a general carter.
		It seems very likely that it was through this Donnington connection that Mary Ann’s son William met and married Margaret Iles whose father worked for the Donnington Brewery Company.
		33Q12	William George Collett		Born in 1883
33P5		Thomas Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1866 and was aged 15 in 1881 and living with his family at The Bank in Bourton. Ten years later he was 24 and was still living with his parents at Bourton where he was employed as an agricultural labourer.
		Just before the end of the century it would appear that Thomas became a married man and shortly after his wife presented him with a daughter while they were living in Bourton. However, no trace of his wife has been found and it might be presumed that she died giving birth to the child.
		So by the time of the Bourton census of 1901 Thomas was 34 and was working as a general labourer, and with him was his daughter Dorothy M Collett who was two years old.
		Ten years later in April 1911 Thomas and Dorothy were still living in Bourton, where Thomas was 45 and Dorothy Mary Collett was 12.
		33Q13	Dorothy Mary Collett		Born in 1898 at Bourton
33P6		Charles E Collett was born at Maugersbury in 1865 and was the eldest son of Job and Mary Collett. At the time of the 1871 census, Charles Collett was five years old and was living with his parents at Stow-on-the-Wold. The village of Maugersbury lies less than one mile from Stow where Charles said he was born in later census records.
		Ten years later, at the age of 15, he had left the family home, which was then in Maugersbury, and instead was living and working in the picturesque village of Lower Slaughter. His occupation was stated as being that of an agricultural servant and his employer was sixty-eight years old Thomas Yearp, a farmer of Lower Slaughter. Thomas Yearp was the son of Hannah (Betty) Collett (Ref. 33M3) and Thomas Yearp, which means that he was a distance relative of Charles Collett, being the cousin of Charles’ grandfather John Collett.
		In addition to Charles Collett, the Yearp household in 1881 comprised Thomas and his wife Ann aged 70 and of Ashton-under-Hill, his married son Thomas Yearp, a butcher, and his wife Sarah Ann (both aged 35 and of Lower Slaughter), and general servant Lucy Ann Pearce 21 of Lower Slaughter. It is interesting that from his experience of living with the Yearp family, that Charles later became a butcher himself.
		It would appear that within the next decade Charles married a girl from Stow-on-the-Wold by the name of Fanny Arthurs, who may have been the daughter of Edward and Mary Arthurs of Chadlington, just over the border in Oxfordshire. Once they were married the couple left Gloucestershire for Birmingham, where they were living when their three known children were born.
		According to the Birmingham census of 1891, Charles Collett was 25 when he was living within the Birmingham St George district of the city with his wife Fanny Collett, who was 28, and their first child, Ellen E Collett, who was two years old. It was during the following three years that the couple’s other two children were born.
		According to the 1901 census for Birmingham, Charles’ occupation was that of a butcher’s assistant. The census recorded that the full family comprised Charles E Collett, age 35 of Stow (on-the-Wold), his wife Fanny, age 38 from Gloucestershire, and their three children Ellen Collett who was 12, Frederick Collett who was eight, and Frances Collett who was six years old, all of them born at Birmingham.
		It seems rather odd that no record of any member of the family has so far been found in the census of 1911, which may indicate that they had left England for one of the colonies.
		33Q14	Ellen E Collett		Born in 1888 at Birmingham
		33Q15	Frederick Collett		Born in 1892 at Birmingham
		33Q16	Frances Collett		Born in 1894 at Birmingham
33P7		Emma Collett was born at Maugersbury near Stow-on-the-Wold in 1866 and was 4 at the time of the Stow census of 1871. Ten years later she had left school and at the age of 14 was working at The Manse House on the High Street in Bourton-on-the-Water where she was a general servant at the home of miller George Bumpus and his family. She gave her place of birth as being Stow-on-the-Wold.
33P10		Agnes Mary Collett was born at Maugersbury in 1872. Just after she was born her parents first moved south to Sherborne before returning to Maugersbury near to Stow-on-the-Wold, where the family was living at 22 Well Lane at the time of the census of 1881 when Agnes was 8 years old.
		In her later life Agnes more commonly used her second name of Mary. However, no record of her as Agnes or Mary has so far been found for the census years of 1891 and 1901. By 1911, and following the death of her mother Mary, she returned to Stow with her sister Edith (below) to care for their elderly father Job. The Stow census return recorded Agnes as simply unmarried Mary Collett of Stow aged 38.
33P11		Rosa Collett was born in 1874 and was the only member of her family to be born at Sherborne. It was also at Sherborne that she was baptised on 25.10.1874, the baptism record confirming that she was the daughter of Job and Mary Collett.
		Shortly after she was born her parents moved back to Maugersbury near Stow-on-the-Wold and by 1881 the family was living at 22 Well Lane in Maugersbury, where Rosa was listed as being 6 years old and of Sherborne. With no other record of her it is possible that she died while still a child.
33P12		Edith May Collett was born at Maugersbury (one mile from Stow-on-the-Wold) in November 1880 and it was there at 22 Well Lane that her family was living in April 1881 when Edith was just five months old.
		Edith appeared to be the only member of the family still living with her parents at Stow by the time of the census of 1891 when she was ten, although she has not been located ten years later in 1901.
		Following the death of her mother sometime after 1901, Edith returned to Stow to look after her father Job, which she shared with her sister Mary (above). It was as Edith May Collett aged 30 that she was listed in the April census of 1911. She was unmarried and gave her place of birth at Stow-on-the-Wold.
33P13		Emily Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1859 and was eleven years old by the time of the census of 1871 when she was living with her family at Upper Slaughter. On 14.02.1880 Emily married James Pearse who was born at Kingham in Oxfordshire in 1854 where he was baptised on 04.06.1854.
		James was the son of Charles Pearse and Maria Howes. Once they were married it would appear that they lived their life together at Kingham where Emily died and was buried on 23.08.1950. The couple are known to have had a son James Pearse who was born in 1887 and who was still living with Emily and James at Kingham in 1911.
		It was the Kingham census of 1901 in which Ann’s place of birth was confirmed as being Bourton-on-the-Water. Ann was 40 and her husband James was 46 and an engine driver, and their son James was 13.
33P14		Ann Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1861. Ten years later Ann and her family were living in Upper Slaughter where she was recorded as being nine years old. Towards the end of the 1870s her parents moved again and by 1881 the family was living at Guiting Power where Ann was 20 and her occupation was that of a domestic servant.
33P15		Charles Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1863 as confirmed by the census of 1881. However, according to the 1871 Census he was born at Upper Slaughter. By the time of the census of 1881 his family had moved to Guiting Power while Charles had left his family and was working on a farm ten miles north-west of Bourton.
		The census return listed Charles Collett as being 18, unmarried and a carter and agricultural labourer who was born at Bourton. At that time he was employed by Alfred Barrett, who was 48 and of Cheltenham, on his 130 acre Little Brockhampton Farm at Snowhill.
		Sometime around the mid 1880s Charles married Lucy with whom he had had four children by the spring of 1901.
		By March 1901 Charles was living at Winstone where he was a carter on a farm. His age was given as 37 and his place of birth Bourton-on-the-Water. His wife Lucy A Collett was also 37, but had been born at Winstone, where all of the couple’s children were born.
		Their four children were Charles R Collett who was 12, Albert E Collett who was five, Gladys Collett who was two, and Amy Collett who was only eleven months old. Charles’ eldest son Charles was very likely working with his father since he was also a carter on a farm.
		Later family members recall another son George who may have been born between sons Charles and Albert. However, there was no child of this name in the census returns for 1901 or 1911, by which time the family had moved north to live in Cheltenham. This does not rule out the possibility that he was the oldest child in the family and had left home by 1901.
		The census in April 1911 recorded the family at Cheltenham as Charles and Lucy both 47, and three of their children Albert 15, Gladys 12, and Amy who was ten. All three children were confirmed as having been born at Winstone, like their mother.
		33Q17	Charles Robert Collett		Born in 1888
		33Q18	George Collett		Date of birth unknown
		33Q19	Albert E Collett		Born in 1895
		33Q20	Gladys Collett		Born in 1898
		33Q21	Amy Collett		Born in May 1900
33P16		John Collett was born at Upper Slaughter in 1865 although, in the census of 1881 when he was 16 and an agricultural labourer living with his family at Guiting power, his place of birth was Bourton-on-the-Water. By the time he was 35 he was living at Bibury where he was a general labourer, although the census return in 1901 gave his place of birth as being Lower Slaughter.
33P17		Mary Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1868. By the time she was aged 22 she was still unmarried and living at Bibury where she worked as a servant at the home of 93 years old widow Hannah Miles of Coln St Dennis who was listed in the 1901 as a ‘parish relief’.
33P24		Lydia Collett was born at Stow-in-the Wold in 1864 and in 1871 she was living with her grandparents Richard and Sarah Collett. Her older sister had died in 1863 the same year she was born and her younger sister born in 1868 also died while still a child.
		Lydia would have been 16 in 1881 but it must be assumed that she too had died young as there was no listing for her in that year’s census records when her parents were living at 10 Devonshire Street in Camberwell.
33P26		Eliza Collett was born at Cudham in Kent in 1868, where she was baptised on 06.06.1869. She was the only one of the four children of John and Ruth Caroline Collett to survive beyond infancy. In 1881 she was 12 years old and was living with her parents at 10 Devonshire Street in Camberwell.
		Eliza was still living with her parents at Camberwell ten years later in 1891 when she was 22. However, during the next few years she married Albert Fisher who was born at Tottenham in 1864 and by the end of the century their marriage had produced a son for the couple.
		It would appear that Eliza and Albert initially settled in Hampshire as their son Reginald was born at Micheldever in 1897, but by March 1901 the family of three had moved to Cudham where Eliza had been born. The census that year listed Albert as 36 and a gamekeeper, Eliza 32, and their son Reginald as 3.
33P27		Ellen Elizabeth Goodway was born at Bourton-on-the-Water on 27.01.1862 and was the base born daughter of Hannah Freeman Goodway of Bagendon who married Job Collett (Ref. 33O11) in 1874.
		By the time of her nineteenth birthday in January 1881 Ellen was unmarried but was carrying the baby of John Parsons. And so it was that in February or March that year she gave birth to a base born son.
		This was confirmed in the April census that year, but by then the child aged one month was in the care of its grandmother Hannah Collett at Bourton, the child having been born at Charlbury in Oxfordshire.
		Further investigation of the 1881 revealed two important facts. The first that disgraced Ellen Goodway had been sent away to a family in Northamptonshire. It was the accepted custom in this middle England area that unmarried mothers were separated from their child and invariably ended up in Northamptonshire.
		In this particular case it was to the home of John Gee Esquire, farmer of 530 acres employing 16 men and 6 boys, that Ellen was sent. The farm was situated at Inn Street in the village of Welford and it was there that Ellen lived and worked as a domestic servant. She was listed as being aged 20 and of Rissington.
		The second interesting fact was that John Parsons aged 18 of Northleach and the father of Ellen’s illegitimate baby, was a lodger and agricultural labourer at the Colcutt home of grocer Isaac Smith in Coln St Dennis. Ellen’s connection with Coln St Dennis was that it was the village where her grandmother Elizabeth Goodway nee Freeman was born so may still have had connection around 1880.
		Also a lodger at the house in Colcutt was Arthur Hall 22 of Northleach another agricultural labourer and there were earlier Collett connections with Northleach and the Hall family.
		Strange as it may seem, John Parsons may have eventually made a permanent connection with the Collett family as sometime between 1891 and 1901 he is believed to have married Emily Rebecca Collett. See Ref. 33P29 for more details.
		33Q22	John Collett Parsons		Born in February/March 1881
33P28		JOSEPH COLLETT was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in March 1875. At the age of 16, according to the 1891 Census, Joseph was an apprentice carpenter and wheelwright at the Bourton home of 62 years old Joseph Griffin of Lower Slaughter and his wife Elizabeth aged 66 of Bourton. By 1901 Joseph Collett was a fully fledged carpenter at Bourton. Nine months after his twentieth birthday on 25.12.1895 he married Ruth Burdock at St Lawrence’s Church in Bourton. Three years earlier, Ruth’s sister Kate Burdock from Birmingham had married Paris Collett (Ref. 33P3) at Bourton.
		Ruth, who was born in 1877 at Great Rissington, was the daughter of journeyman baker Edward Burdock of Ablington in Gloucestershire and his wife Hannah of Enstone in Oxfordshire. At the time of the 1901 Census Joseph aged 26 and Ruth 24 were living at Sherborne Street in Bourton with sons Wilfred aged 4 and Victor aged 2, when Joseph was described as a house carpenter. 1901 was also the year that the couple’s only daughter Doris was born, but this happen just six weeks after the census date.
		All of Joseph and Ruth’s children were born at Bourton-on-the-Water, and the previous inclusion of a son John Edward Collett was proved to be incorrect according to the census of 1911, when there was no such child listed with the family. He has therefore been removed.
		According to the April census of 1911, the family comprised Joseph 36, his wife Ruth 34, and their five surviving children Wilfred 14, Victor 12, Doris 10, Allan 7, and two years old Ivor.
		Joseph died on 08.05.1950 at Frenchay Hospital in Bristol and was buried that same month at St Lawrence's Church Cemetery in Bourton. Almost three years later Ruth passed away on 13.04.1953 and was laid to rest at St Lawrence’s with her husband. There is a long side stone on the grave in the cemetery that carries their names. (see Headstone Epitaphs)
		33Q23	Wilfred Harry Collett	Born on 10.10.1896
		33Q24	Frank Collett	Born on 15.11.1897; infant death
		33Q25	Victor Joseph Collett	Born on 08.11.1898
		33Q26	DORIS MAY COLLETT	Born on 12.05.1901
		33Q27	Allan George Collett	Born in 1903
		33Q28	Ivor John Collett	Born in 1910
33P29		Emily Rebecca Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water on 05.12.1859. She was listed in the 1861 Census as the only child at that time of Charles and Sarah Collett, a grocer in Bourton. By the time of the 1871 Census she was aged 11 and living with her auntie Amy Hall a 42 years old milliner of Bourton.
		The 1881 Census for Bourton revealed that Emily was back living with her family aged 21 and was not yet married. However it is established from her gravestone in the churchyard of St Lawrence’s Church in Bourton that she later married Thomas Parsons who was born at Islington in London in 1860.
		By 1891 Emily Parsons was 31 and her husband Thomas was 30 and they were living at Sevenoaks in Kent with their two years old daughter Dora Mary Parsons. Over the next ten years further children were born into the family including Basil, Ruby, Florence, William and Eva.
		Just after the turn of the century the family was still living at Sevenoaks and comprised Emily R Parsons aged 41 who was born at Bourton-on-the-Water, Thomas Parsons who was 40 and born at Islington, and their children Basil 13, Dora 12, Ruby 9, Florence 7, William 2 and Eva aged one year.
		All of the children had been born at Sevenoaks where Thomas was working as a chemist and a druggist.
		Emily lived and exceptionally long life and died on 12.08.1960 aged 101. She was buried with her husband at St Lawrence’s Church in Bourton where a gravestone bears her married and maiden names. The grave adjoining that of Emily and her husband is shared by her brother George Collett (below) and his wife. (see Headstone Epitaphs)
		Thomas Parsons died on 29.09.1939 aged 79 and the couple’s joint headstone reads as follows: “In Loving Memory of Thomas Parsons who entered into rest on 29^th September 1939. Also Beloved wife of above Emily Rebecca (nee Collett) born 5^th December 1859 died 12^th August 1960.
33P30		John Charles Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in the second half of 1861 and appeared in the 1871 Census as Charles Collett aged 9, but was restored to being John C Collett by 1881. In that year he was living at Lansdowne in Bourton with his parents, where he was a grocer like his father Charles Collett.
		He married Kate who was born at Notgrove in 1861 and together the couple appear in the 1891 Census for Bourton-on-the-Water, but with no children at that time. John was listed as a farmer of Bourton aged 29, with Kate also aged 29 but of Notgrove.
33P31		Amy L Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1863 but curiously was absent from the family home on 2^nd April 1871. However, she was back at the family home at Lansdowne in Bourton in 1881 and 1891 when she was aged 17 and 27 respectively and unmarried.
		By 1901, when she would have been 37 years old, it would appear that she may have married as there was no Amy L Collett listed in the census for that year.
33P32		Albert William Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1866 and, like his sisters and his brother, he was living with his parents at Bourton in 1871, 1881 and 1891 and was unmarried. His occupation was that of a grocer like his father with whom it is assumed he worked at the family business.
		At sometime during the first half of the 1890s but after April 1891 Albert married Edith who was born at Lower Slaughter in 1868.
		Albert was still a grocer at Bourton in 1901, then aged 33 and married to Edith F Collett aged 32. The marriage had produced two children for the couple by that time, son Walter was aged 3 and daughter Freda was two years old. Both children were born at Bourton.
		Two further daughters were added to the family, one later in 1901 and the second two years after that. So at the time of the next census in April 1911 the family was still living in Bourton and comprised Albert who was 44, Edith who was 42, and their four children Walter 13, Freda 12, Hilda 10, and Iris who was 8. The couple’s three oldest children were attending the local school, but curiously not eight years old Iris.
		At that time in 1911, the Collett family was supported by a general domestic servant by the name of Gladys Davis who was 17 and from nearby Naunton. The census return also stated that Albert and Edith had been married for seventeen years, and that their address in Bourton was simply ‘Lansdowne’, which was where Albert was living with his family in 1881 when he was fourteen years old.
		All five family members were buried in the same grave at St Lawrence’s Church in Bourton. Albert died on 01.04.1947 aged 80 and was followed exactly five months later by Florence who passed away on 01.09.1947 aged 79. (see Headstone Epitaphs)
		33Q29	Walter John Collett		Born in 1897
		33Q30	Freda Mary Collett		Born in 1899
		33Q31	Hilda Gertrude Collett		Born in 1901 but after 1^st April
		33Q32	Iris Collett		Born in 1903 at Bourton
33P33		George F Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1868. As with his brother Albert, he too was listed in the 1871, 1881 and 1891 Censuses as living at the home of his grocer father and mother.
		And just like his brother he followed in his father’s profession as a grocer and was a grocer’s assistance in 1891 aged 22, becoming a fully fledged grocer by 1901. Although it was recorded that he had not married by 1891, he later married Mary Jane during the middle of the 1890s with whom he had three sons.
		Mary may have been Mary Jane Batsford since on 17^th December 1899 their three month old son Roy Batsford died and was buried at St Lawrence’s Church in Bourton. (see Headstone Epitaphs)
		According to the March census of 1901, the family was living at Bourton where 32 years old George was a grocer of Bourton. His wife Mary J Collett was 31 and from Whatcote near Shipston-on-Stour in Warwickshire and their two surviving sons were Bernard who was 3, and Howard who was 2.
		Ten years later the complete family was still living in Bourton where George was 42, Mary Jane was 41, Bernard George was 13, and Howard John was 12.
		George died on 11.06.1925 aged 57, while many years later Mary Jane died on 23.05.1958 aged 88. Both were buried at St Lawrence’s Church in Bourton where a gravestone marks the plot. (see Headstone Epitaphs)
		Also buried with George and Mary Jane in the adjacent and adjoining grave was George’s sister Emily Rebecca Parsons nee Collett (above) who died thirty-one months after Mary Jane and was buried with her late husband Thomas Parsons. (see Headstone Epitaphs)
		33Q33	Bernard George Collett		Born in 1897 at Bourton
		33Q34	Howard John Collett		Born in 1898 at Bourton
		33Q35	Roy Batsford Collett		Born in September 1899 at Bourton
33P34		Florence Mary Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1873. She was listed in the 1881 and 1891 Censuses as aged 7 and 17, living with her parents and her family at Lansdowne in Bourton.
		She was still not married at the time of the 1901 Census when she was aged 27 and still living at home with her parents. No record of Florence Collett has been found in 1911 so it may be assumed that she was married by then.
		However, a Florence Mary Potter, who was 37 and had been born in Bourton-on-the-Water in 1873, was living at Oxford with her husband Christopher 44, together with their two sons Christopher Bruce Potter 5, and John Gordon Potter aged two years.
33P36		John Brain Collett was born in 1878 at Bledington in Oxfordshire just over the county boundary from Gloucestershire. In the 1881 Census he was aged 2 years and was living with his family in Upper Slaughter where his father John Brain Collett was a farmer.
		No trace of John or his family has been found in the 1891 Census but ten years later John had left the family home and was living and working in the Ladywood district of Birmingham. The census confirmed he had been born at Bledington and that he was aged 22, and at that time in 1901 he was working on the railway.
		It was around this time that John married Annie Marie Carter and the couple settled down to live in the Lady Wood district of Birmingham where their first child was born. A further three children were born into the family before Annie sadly died while still relatively young.
		By April 1911 John Brain Collett was 32 and his wife Annie Marie was 31. Living with them in Ladywood at that time were five of their children, these being John Brain junior 7, Leonard George 5, Albert Edward 3, Hilda Annie 2, and six weeks old Beatrice Ethel Collett.
		John’s brother Arthur (below), together with other members of the Collett family emigrated to New Zealand around 1921. Included in the party was John’s eldest son, eighteen years old John Brain Collett junior, a move that may have been prompted by the death of his mother.
		Following the death of his wife Annie Marie, John was married for a second time and that marriage produced a further three children for John, these being Arthur, Estelle and Walter.
		Three more of John’s children emigrated to New Zealand at later times, to be reunited with their older brother, and these were son Leonard and daughters Hilda and Estelle.
		John Brain Collett senior and his second wife remained living in Birmingham for some years but the couple later moved to Ludlow in Shropshire, when John eventually retired. And it was at Ludlow that he died and was buried in 1976 aged 98.
		Walter, the youngest member of John’s family also lived at Ludlow and was still living there in 2008, while another son (either Albert or Arthur) remained living in the Birmingham area, but has since passed away. The other son (Albert or Arthur) was thought to have moved to live around the London area, but he too had also died by 2008.
		33Q36	John Brain Collett	Born on 14.05.1903
		33Q37	Leonard George Collett	Born in 1905
		33Q38	Albert Edward Collett	Born in 1907
		33Q39	Hilda Annie Collett	Born in 1909
		33Q40	Beatrice Ethel Collett	Born in 1911
		33Q41	Arthur Collett	Born after 1921
		33Q42	Estelle Collett	Born after 1921
		33Q43	Walter Collett	Born after 1921
33P37		Arthur Frederick Collett was born on 12.04.1893 in Oxfordshire, which may have been at Bledington like his brother John (above). No record of him or his parents has been found within the census of 1901, although it is known that his much older brother John Brain Collett (above) had already moved to Birmingham by then. Ten years later in April 1911 Arthur was 17 and was living at Witney in Oxfordshire with his father John Brain Collett senior and his mother Annie, who were both in their late fifties.
		What is known is that after the death of his father and before the start of the First World War, Arthur emigrated to New Zealand. On 10^th January 1916 at Masterton he enlisted with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force and took up his duties on the following day. It is established from his military records, as supplied by Susan Jenkins at the New Zealand Archives Office, that he was already married to Ella Mary by then. Furthermore his entry papers confirmed he was the son of Mrs Annie Collett of Burford in Oxfordshire, and that he had been born in that county of England on 12^th April 1893. He was 5 feet 10 inches tall, weighed 168 pounds, had brown hair, bluish grey eyes, and a fair complexion.
		The same records showed that he was a shepherd at the time of his entry into military service, and that he was employed by John Clulow of Alfredton. As Private A F Collett, service number 10316, he served with the 2^nd Battalion of the Wellington Infantry Regiment for a total of two years and three hundred days, of which all bar 160 days were spent overseas. His discharged came on 6^th November 1918 when he was declared no longer physically fit for service on account of wounds received in action, following which he was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. The injury he had sustained at Rouen in France was noted as affecting his face with the loss of a bone in his lower jaw. His address immediately after the war was Bushgrove Pori, Pahiatua.
		On 6^th May 1916 Arthur sailed from New Zealand and arrived at Suez in Egypt on 23^rd June, where he spent the next 33 days. On 26^th July he left Egypt and arrived at Southampton in England on 7^th August, and was there in London for 21 days, after which he landed on French soil on 29^th August. Two and a half months later on 12^th November 1916 he was seriously wounded during the fighting at Rouen, but it was not until 2^nd December that he was taken to a military hospital in Boulogne. Two day later he was on a boat back to England where he was admitted into King Georges Hospital at Shelford Street in London.
		How long he was there is not clear, while the next entry states that he was transferred to the A M Hospital in Sidcup, Kent on 25^th April 1918. From there, two days later, he was transferred to the General Hospital in Walton, where two weeks later he was declared unfit by the Medical Board. There then following a period a month’s of convalescence in Torquay before he was placed on board the troopship Marama which sailed out of Southampton on 31^st July 1918 bound for New Zealand.
		Arthur Frederick Collett and his wife Ella Mary Collett lived at Pahiatua in New Zealand, although it is also known that the marriage produced no children for the couple in the relatively short time that they were together. This is because Arthur died on 2^nd September 1927 at the age of 34 while in Wellington Hospital, the details of his passing being published in the Pahiatua Herald. His military records state that his death had nothing to do with the injuries he had sustained during the war.
33P38		Francis George Brain Collett was born at Upper Slaughter in 1895 and it was there he was living with his family in the 1901 at the age of six years. The only clues so far to his life can be found in the words on his headstone in the graveyard of St Peter’s Church in Upper Slaughter.
		This simply reads “In Loving Memory of Francis George Brain Collett a dear husband and father who died on 8^th June 1977 aged 82”
		It seems highly likely that the wife of Francis Collett was Phyllis Collett Tyler. If this can be proved to be correct, bearing in mind the Tyler connection for Francis’ sister Violet (below), then it is known that Francis and Phyllis had a son George William Collett who was born in 1951 who, around the time of the Collett Reunion in 2006, was in the process of moving from Watford to Thornbury, just north of Bristol..
		Within the written history of Upper Slaughter, there are two references to Mrs F G B Collett. The first of these talks about the remodelling of the whole of Bagehott's Square in the village to accommodate eight cottages, the details of which were recorded by Mrs Collett of the Woman’s Institute, while the second related to the village school, and was written by Mrs Collett, the school correspondent, as follows: “In 1874 it was enlarged and placed under a management committee appointed in vestry. A certificated mistress taught about 33 children who paid fees of 2d. or 3d. Attendance rose to 43 in 1904, but fell immediately after reorganisation to 19 in 1932. The older children then went to Bourton-on-the-Water. In 1961 the school, an 'aided' school with two teachers, drew some of its 30-odd children from neighbouring parishes.”
		Following the death of her first husband in 1977, Phyllis Collett married for a second time to become Phyllis Collett Tyler. And again around 2006 she was living at Dickler Close in Bourton-on-the Water.
		In 2001 Phyllis Collett Tyler wrote a booklet entitled ‘Cotswold Romance’ the 17^th Century story of John Collett of Upper Slaughter who first married his cousin Anne Collett and, when she died in 1675, he then married her sister Mary. In doing so John committed the most vile and detestable sin of incest. His marriage to Anne produced no children, but with Mary he had nine children.
		So upset were the authorities by this, the sentence of divorce between John and Mary was pronounced in the parish of Upper Slaughter on 1^st November 1685, the sentence confirmed by the Dean of the Archbishops Court of Delegates. The three individuals referred to in this little tale can be found in Part 14 – The John Kyte Collett Line at references 14H6, 14H7, and 14H8.
		33Q44	George William Collett	Born in 1951
33P40		Frederick Holt Collett was born at Upper Slaughter in 1898 and was the youngest son of Francis William Collett. This information is based on the inscription on a headstone in the churchyard of St Peter’s Church at Upper Slaughter which reads “In Loving Memory of Fred Holt younger son of Francis W and Margaret E Collett entered into rest February 13^th 1931 aged 33 years”. It seems unlikely that he was married.
33P41		Violet Mary Collett was one half of a set of twins born at Upper Slaughter in September 1900. She married Mr Tyler and was buried in the churchyard of St Peter’s Church at Upper Slaughter. Her headstone reads “In Loving Memory of my wife Violet Mary Tyler nee Collett who died on 18^th September 1975 aged 75”
33P42		Dorothy E Collett was one half of a set of twins born at Upper Slaughter in September 1900. Tragically she died when she was only twenty years old and was buried in the churchyard of St Peter’s Church at Upper Slaughter. Her headstone reads “In Loving Memory of Dorothy Elizabeth Collett youngest daughter of Francis William and Margaret Bell Collett who entered into her rest on 20^th December 1928 aged 28”
33Q1		Edith Emily Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1875. Her mother died before 1881 at which time she and her sister Helen (below) and their widowed father William were living with their grandparents at The Bank in Bourton.
		Over the next five years the girl’s father remarried and by turn of the century Emily had two half brothers and two half sisters. However, Emily and her sister Helen continued to live with their grandparents and where in 1891 Emily was aged 15.
		Around the middle of the 1890s Emily married William Packer of Bourton-on-the-Water and not long after they were married their first child was born at Bourton. The couple then moved to Birmingham their daughter was born after the turn of the century. It was very likely William’s work that took them north since in 1901 his occupation was that of a railway goods porter.
		According to the census of 1901 the family was recorded as living in the Aston district of Birmingham where railway goods porter William and Emily, who was referred to as Edith, were both described as being from Bourton and were aged 33 and 25 respectively. Their son was listed as William aged 5.
		Emily may have been expecting the couple’s second child on the census day in 1901, since later that year or early in the following year she gave birth to a daughter. During the next few years the family of four returned to Bourton where they were living in 1911. William was 43, Edith Emily was 35, and their son Harlon William was 15, while their daughter Polly was nine.
33Q2		Helen Louisa Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1877. Following the death of her mother shortly after she was born, she and her sister Emily (above) were taken in by their grandparents Paris and Lucy Collett to live with them in their home at The Bank in Bourton.
		It was at The Bank that Helen was living with her sister, and the girls’ father, in April 1881 and was recorded as Helen L Collett aged 3. Ten years later she was still living with her grandparents at the age of 13.
		Where Helen was living in 1901 has not been determined but it is established that she married William Stanford a few years later. The couple initially settled in Bourton where all of their four children were born before the family left Gloucestershire and move south to Shaftesbury in Dorset.
		William and Helen Louisa were both 33, and their children were Charlotte Annie, 6, Agnes Helen 4, Ethel Harriet 3, and George William who was two years old. Helen Louisa Collett confirmed her place of birth as being Bourton-on-the-Water, and the same for all of her children.
33Q3		Percival William Collett was born at Bledington on 24.10.1887 and possibly at the home of his grandparents on his mother’s, since his parents are known to have been living at Bourton-on-the-Water at that time.
		By 1891 Percival aged 3 and his brother Ernest (below) were living with their parents at Bourton. Just after the turn of the century in March 1901 the family had been increased by two daughters and the family of six was still living at Bourton where Percival W Collett was then employed as a grocer’s errand boy at the age of 13.
		Almost exactly five years later on 13^th March 1906 at the age of eighteen Percival was taken on by the Great Western Railway. Where this actually happened was noted in the GWR Staff Records, but just over twelve months later he finished with the GWR on 26^th March 1907 and this happened at Fairford.
		Four years later at the time of the census of 1911, an unmarried Percival Collett of Bledington was 23 and was still living at Fairford.
33Q4		Ernest Reginald John Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water on 06.06.1890 and was ten months old and living in Bourton with his family according to the census of 1891.
		He was recorded as Ernest R J Collett aged 10 in the census return of 1901 when he was still living at Bourton with his parents, his brother Percival (above) and his two younger sisters.
		Six and a half years after this, his full name and date of birth was listed in the Great Western Staff Records as starting work with the company on 25^th September 1907. He continued working for the company until 18^th October 1910 when his employment was recorded as ending while at Chippenham.
		And it was at Chippenham that single Ernest Reginald Collett was still living by April 1911 when he was listed in the census return as being twenty years old and from Bourton-on-the-Water.
		Sometime during the next decade Ernest married Emma Elizabeth and, it is believed, that the couple continued to live in Chippenham where their known son was very likely born. It was also at Chippenham that the couple was recorded as living during the Second World War when they received the news that their son had been killed in action.
		33R1	Stanley John Collett	Born in 1920
33Q7		Herbert Paris Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1893 and it was there that he was living with his family in March 1901 aged seven and again in April 1911 when he was eighteen.
		With the onset of the Great War three years later Herbert joined the 7^th Battalion The Queen’s Royal West Surrey Regiment with whom he was Private Collett 242048. The regiment had previously been known as the Somerset Light Infantry.
		Sadly towards the end of the war he was killed in France whiling fighting in the Aisne area of the country. He died on 23.05.1918 and was buried in the British Extension of the Chauny Communal Cemetery at Aisne.
		The British Extension to the cemetery was established after the Armistice and was used for the burial of remains brought in from the battlefields of Aisne and the smaller cemeteries from the surrounding countryside.
		Over 1,000 casualties from the 1914-18 War are commemorated on this site, the majority of them having died in 1918. Included in the total figure are six soldiers of the United Kingdom whose identity had been established with reasonable, but not absolute certainty and who are commemorated by special memorial headstones bearing the superscription 'Believed To Be'.
		In addition to these, there are 26 soldiers of the United Kingdom and five from Canada whose graves can be identified collectively but not individually and who are commemorated by special memorial headstones bearing the superscription 'Buried Near This Spot'.
33Q8		Arthur Edward Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1895. At the time of the census of 1901 he was recorded as Arthur E Collett who was six years old and living at Bourton with his family.
		Ten years later in the April census of 1911 he was listed under his full name of Arthur Edward Collett when he was still living in the family home at Bourton aged sixteen. Arthur later married Irene Strange of Oxford with whom he had three daughters. However, because of the ten years difference in their ages, it seems highly likely that the couple were married in the earlier 1920s.
		Irene Violet Strange was born at Oxford in 1904, the fourth of the twelve children of James H Strange from Manchester and his wife Sarah from Oxford. In March 1901 James was 22 and his occupation was that of a bookmaker and repairer. At that time his wife Sarah was 20, and living with the couple in the St Thomas district of Oxford was their first child Florence M Strange who was one year old.
		Ten years later the family was still living in Oxford, when the family comprised James Strange 32, wife Sarah who was 30, and their seven children. They were Florence 11, Gladys 9, son Leslie 8, Irene 6, Marjorie 4, Gwendoline 2, and Margaret who was eleven months. Further children were added to the family after 1911 and they included Muriel, Ronald, Winifred, Eileen, and Evelyn.
		33R2	Barbara Collett	Date of birth unknown
		33R3	Marion Collett	Date of birth unknown
		33R4	Doreen Collett	Date of birth unknown
33Q12		William George Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1883. He appeared in the 1891 Census aged 7 living with his unmarried mother Mary Ann Collett at her parent’s house in Bourton. By 1901 he was seventeen years old and was working as a railway porter at Bourton where he was still living with his grandparents Paris and Lucy Collett (Ref. 33O1). By this same time his mother was now married to Charles Bowles and the couple were living at Donnington just north of Stow.
		It was probably through living at Donnington that William eventually met and married Margaret Amelia Iles.
		In 1891 Margaret was aged 7 and was living with her parents at Fairford. Ten years later, at the age of 17, she was working as a domestic servant at Bibury at which time she gave her place of birth as being Barnsley near Cirencester. This could mean that she was the daughter of farm carter Henry Iles and his wife Martha, both of Ampney St Mary and living at The Lodge in Barnsley in 1881.
		At the time that William married Margaret her father was working at the brewery in the village of Donnington where William’s mother also lived. William appears to have been employed by the Great Western Railway for most of his life, during which he is known to have worked at stations in the villages of Fairford in Gloucestershire, and Langford and Alvescot in Oxfordshire.
		William and his young family were living at Fairford in 1911. By that time his marriage to Margaret had produced three children for the couple. The census return listed the family as William George Collett born at Bourton and aged 27, his wife Maggie Amelia aged 26, and their children Maggie Amelia 5, Cyril George 4, and Harold who was just one months old on 2^nd April that year.
		His continued employment with the Great Western Railway was confirmed after 1911, with it being established by his later family who recall that he held the post of Station Master at Alvescot. This position was confirmed in the GWR Records (undated) which show W G Collett as the Station Master at Kelmscot, three miles south of Alvescot. From the six different classifications of employees, William was Class 6, with a salary of twenty-seven shillings.
		33R5	Margaret Amelia Collett	Born in 1905
		33R6	Cyril George Collett	Born in 1907
		33R7	Harold Collett	Born in 1911
		33R8	William George Collett	Date of birth unknown
33Q17		Charles Robert Collett was born at Winstone in 1888 and was still living there with his family in March 1901 when he was twelve years old and had already started work as a carter on a farm, probably with his father Charles Collett who was also a carter on a farm in Winstone.
		During the following few years Charles’ family moved north to Cheltenham but he was not living there with them in April 1911. Instead unmarried Charles Robert Collett aged 22 and of Winstone in Gloucestershire had moved much further north to Derbyshire where he was living in the town of Bakewell.
33Q18		George Collett would have been born at Winstone but his date of birth is not known. It may have been between 1888 and 1895, the years in which his two brothers Charles (above) and Albert (below) were born. Even more mysterious is his absence from the 1901 and 1911 census returns.
		What is known is that he was married and the marriage produced two sons for George and his wife, one of which married Queenie Whitfield.
		33R9	? Collett (son)	Date of birth unknown
		33R10	? Collett (son)	Date of birth unknown
33Q19		Albert E Collett was born at Winstone in 1895 and was 5 years old by March 1901 and was still living in Winstone with his family. A little later Albert and his parents moved to Cheltenham where they were recorded as living in 1911 when Albert was 15.
		It is established that Albert was married and that he and his wife had four children. It is also known that his only son married Ena Goodhall and that they in turn had a Collett son of their own. The information relating to all of these members of the family has been withheld upon request as they are living in 2007.
		33R11	? Collett (daughter)	Date of birth unknown
		33R12	? Collett (son)	Date of birth unknown
		33R13	? Collett (daughter)	Date of birth unknown
		33R14	? Collett (daughter)	Date of birth unknown
33Q23	Wilfred Harry Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1896, the son of Joseph and Ruth Collett as confirmed in the Bourton 1901 Census. The record confirms his age as being 4 years, with the family living at Sherborne Street in Bourton. He married Agnes Botrill of Witney in Oxfordshire who was a nursery nurse. Wilfred worked in sales at the company of McVitie & Price.
		A calendar printed in the name of W H Collett Grocer Confectioner of Lansdowne in Bourton-on-the-Water seems likely to relate to Wilfred.
		Wilfred and Agnes had two children born in 1920 and 1924 but the names have been with-held as both are still alive in 2007. Wilfred Collett died at Oxford in 1980.
		33R15	? Collett	Born in 1920
		33R16	? Collett	Born in 1924
33Q25		Victor Joseph Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1899, the son of Joseph and Ruth Collett as confirmed in the Bourton 1901 Census. The record confirms his age as being 2 years, with the family living at Sherborne Street in Bourton. He was a motor engineer and founded the company V J Collett Garage at Bourton in 1921. He married Phyllis Winifred Ravenhill who was born at Knighton in Radnor in 1898, the daughter of Alfred S Ravenhill and Mary A Lloyd who were from Leominster in Herefordshire.
		The couple had a total of five children born at Bourton, of which two are still alive in 2007, the un-named son being the current owner of V J Collett Garage at Bourton.
		Victor died from a heart attack at 9 a.m. on 14.03.1959 and was buried in St Lawrence’s Church Cemetery at Bourton on 17.03.1959. Phyllis lived as a widow for the next seventeen years before she too died on 20.02.1976 and was buried with her husband at Bourton. (see Headstone Epitaphs)
		33R17	Olive Beryl Collett	Born on 09.06.1924
		33R18	Donald Victor Collett	Born on 27.04.1927
		33R19	Brian John Collett	Born in 1935; died in 1935
		33R20	? Collett (daughter)	Born in 1937
		33R21	? Collett (son)	Born in 1942
33Q26		DORIS MAY COLLETT was born at Bourton-on-the-Water on 12.05.1901 where she was baptised on 07.07.1901. She was Confirmed on 13^th December 1916 and received her first communion on Christmas Day that same year. She married Bert Owen Hiscock of Salem Avenue at Wimborne in Dorset, Doris being his third wife. It would appear that the wedding possibly took place in 1928 after which the couple seem to have moved to live at The Mill House in Lansdowne at Bourton. The property is still there today. It was at Bourton-on-the-Water that their three sons were born.
		In the early 1940s the family returned to live at Wimborne where their eldest son attended the Canford School for Boys. Tragically Bert died from a sudden heart attack in 1947 leaving Doris with three young sons. Some years later for just a couple of years Doris lived in a caravan, but by the 1970s she was living at 70 West Borough in Wimborne.
		Doris, who was known to play the mandolin (see photo above), died at Poole General Hospital on 27.03.1978 and was buried in Wimborne Cemetery with her husband in an un-consecrated plot (grave 10182) having no memorial plaque.
		33R22	Derek Owen Joseph Hiscock	Born on 25.05.1929
		33R23	a Hiscock son	Born on 28.12.1934
		33R24	VICTOR BERT HISCOCK	Born on 08.02.1939
33Q27		Allan George Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water on 09.09.1903. He married Mabel Lord of Sherborne in Gloucestershire, but shortly after the ceremony he was made a widower when Mabel died. As a result of this, Allan remained a single gentleman for the rest of his life and lived with his parents Joseph and Ruth Collett at Bourton.
		His occupation was that of a carpenter and in the 1920s he was working for a Gloucester builder. He died at Bourton on 09.12.1964 aged 61 just fifteen years after his father had passed away and was buried at St Lawrence’s Church Cemetery on 11.12.1964 where a memorial stone marks the grave. (see Headstone Epitaphs)
		Also buried at Bourton, but so far unconnected to this family, was Winifred Olive May Collett who died on 19.04.1965 aged 64. (see Headstone Epitaphs)
33Q28		Ivor John Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1910 and his occupation was that of a garage mechanic. He married (1) Alice Winifred James who came from Littlebredy near Weymouth and with whom he had three children. In 2007 the eldest child was living in the London area, the second at Swindon, and the third at Weymouth. Tragedy struck the family in 1943 when Alice died at only 36 years of age. Her gravestone in the churchyard of St Lawrence’s Church in Bourton reads “Cherished Memories Alice Winifred Collett 1907 – 1943 Beloved wife of Ivor Dear mother of John, Pat and Gill. (see Headstone Epitaphs)
		Ivor later married (2) Edith Northing probably at the end of the Second World War and this coupling produced a further two children for Ivor. The youngest daughter Pauline was living at Oxford in 2007.
		It was at Oxford in the Radcliffe Hospital that Ivor died on 28.02.1961. He was buried a few days later at St Lawrence’s Church Cemetery in Bourton on 03.03.1961 but, at the time, without a memorial to mark the plot.
		However, by the summer of 2008 this had been rectified with a new headstone for both Ivor and Edith. It reads “Treasured Memories Ivor John Collett 1910 – 1961 Beloved husband and father Edith Collett 1914 – 2005 Loving wife and mother of Peter and Pauline”. (see Headstone Epitaphs)
		33R25	John Collett	Born in 1930
		33R26	Patricia Collett	Born in 1932
		33R27	Gill Collett	Born in 1940
		33R28	Peter Collett	Born in 1946
		33R29	Pauline Collett	Born in 1952
33Q29		Walter John Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1897 and was aged 3 and living at Bourton with his family in 1901. The only information currently to hand regarding Walter has been gathered from his gravestone at Bourton.
		This indicates that he married Ella Katherine, that he was born in 1897 and died in 1960. Katherine died fourteen years after Walter in 1974 and both were buried with Walter’s parents and his two spinster sisters Freda and Hilda (below) in the churchyard of St Lawrence’s Church at Bourton. (see Headstone Epitaphs)
33Q30		Freda Mary Collett was born in Bourton-on-the-Water in 1899. She never married but lived a long life and died on 07.06.1979 aged 80. Freda was buried with her parents and two siblings at St Lawrence’s Church in Bourton where a headstone, coupled with her brother’s flat gravestone, identify the location of the grave. (see Headstone Epitaphs)
33Q31		Hilda Gertrude Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in the latter part of 1901 and certainly after the first of April that year. She died on 06.07.1983 aged 82 and just like her older brother and her sister (both above), Hilda was buried in the churchyard of St Lawrence’s Church in Bourton. Hilda also remained a spinster during her life like her sister. (see Headstone Epitaphs)
33Q36		John Brain Collett, who was referred to as Jack, was born at Ladywood in Birmingham on 14.05.1903. He and his parents were still living at Ladywood in April 1911 when, as John Brain Collett, he was seven years old.
		When he was around eighteen years of age Jack decided to leave Birmingham for a new life in the colonies and sailed to New Zealand with his uncle Arthur Frederick Collett around 1921. It was also around this same time that Jack’s mother died and his father remarried and this may have been the reason for him leaving.
		It was while in New Zealand that he married school teacher (1) Margaret Janet Shirley at Levin on 19.12.1931. The marriage produced six children for Jack and Margaret before her untimely death just over twenty years later on 04.04.1952 aged 49.
		Following the death of wife, John and his eldest daughter Shirley were ably supported by John’s sister Hilda and her husband Murray in looking after the younger children of the family.
		At some later date Jack married (2) Olive before he died at the age of 80 on 22.09.1983.
		33R30	John Brian Collett	Born on 26.10.1932
		33R31	Alan Maxwell Collett	Born on 29.12.1934
		33R32	Shirley Anne Collett	Born on 23.06.1936
		33R33	Jean Margaret Collett	Born on 28.05.1940
		33R34	Judith Lynne Collett	Born on 08.04.1943
		33R35	Patricia Collett	Born on 09.11.1945
33Q37		Leonard George Collett was born at Ladywood in Birmingham in 1905 and was five years old according to the census return for Ladywood in 1911, where he and his family were still living.
		Sometime later he and his sister Hilda (below) sailed to a new life in New Zealand where they were reunited with their brother Jack (above). Leonard never married and remained a bachelor all his life.
		During World War Two he served in the Pacific campaign. After the war he lived at Levin where both brother Jack and sister Hilda also lived with their families. He was 52 years of age when he died.
33Q38		Albert Edward Collett was born at Ladywood in Birmingham in 1907 where he was living with his parents in April 1911 at the age of three.
		Unlike other members of his family Albert continued to live with his father in Birmingham when other members of his family emigrated to New Zealand.
		And it was at Birmingham that he lived all his life and where he was married and where his three children were born. During his life he was a tram driver and/or a bus driver. One of Albert’s two sons was still believed to be living in Birmingham in 2008.
		33R36	Robert (Bob) Collett	Date of birth unknown
		33R37	Ian Collett	Date of birth unknown
		33R38	Maureen Collett	Date of birth unknown
33Q39		Hilda Annie Collett was born at Ladywood in Birmingham in 1909 and was two years of age at the time of the census in April 1911 when she was living with her family in Ladywood.
		Later in her life, she and her brother Leonard (above) followed in the footsteps of their older brother Jack (above) by emigrating to New Zealand where Hilda married Murray.
		The couple had three children, the two sons having already passed away by 2008. At this time daughter Marie was still living at Levin where her parents had lived before they died.
33Q40		Beatrice Ethel Collett was born at Ladywood in Birmingham during February 1911 and was six weeks old on the census day on 2^nd April that year. At that time she was living with her family in the Ladywood district of Birmingham.
33Q41		Arthur Collett was born at Birmingham but after his eldest half-brother John Brain Collett (above) had emigrated to New Zealand in 1921. When in his later teenage years it had always been planned that he would join his older brother John and other members of the Collett family in New Zealand.
		However, with the outbreak of war in 1939 this did not happen. At that time Arthur joined the British Army and played an active part in the Second World War, possibly in the Middle East and/or Far East. What is known is that after the war he was stationed with the army in India.
		He was married twice resulting in two families. His second wife was Jeanette and in 2008 Jeanette was a widow living at Botley in Hampshire.
33Q42		Estelle Collett, who was referred to as Stella, was born at Birmingham and was the second child of John Brain Collett and his second wife. Much later in her life, when she was presumably in her late twenties, she emigrated to New Zealand around 1951.
		And it was in New Zealand that Stella was married and where she and her husband raised their three children.
33Q43		Walter Collett was born at Birmingham, possibly around 1910-1915. He too remained behind in Birmingham with his father when some of his siblings emigrated to New Zealand around 1920. Walter married Betty and the couple were living at Ludlow in 2008.
33Q44		George William Collett was born at Bourton-on-the Water in 1951, the son of Francis George Brain Phyllis Collett. George and his mother, Phyllis Collett Tyler, attended the Collett Reunion in Shepton Mallet in 1996, and around 2005 he was living in Watford, but sometime after that he moved to Thornbury, just north of Bristol.
		His mother did a lot of work on her first husband’s family history which is expected to will be eventually taken over by George to continue.
33R1		Stanley John Collett was born in 1920 and very likely at Chippenham where it is known his father was living prior to marrying and where Stanley’s parents were recorded as living during the Second World War.
		At the outbreak of war in 1939 he joined the Royal Air Volunteer Reserve and eventually rose through the ranks to become Flight Sergeant Collett 1186962. Sadly he was killed in action on 22.08.1942 at the age of twenty-two.
		His parents were named as his next-of-kin and these were Ernest Reginald John and Emma Elizabeth Collett of Chippenham. The name of Stanley John Collett is included on Panel 73 of the Runnymede Air Forces Memorial at Englefield Green in Egham. The Runnymede Memorial commemorates the names of over 20,000 airmen who lost their lives in Europe during WWII who have no known grave.
33R2		Barbara Collett, whose place and date of birth is not known at this time. She was the daughter of Arthur Edward Collett of Bourton-on-the-Water and Irene Strange of Oxford. Barbara married and became Barbara Mollyneaux.
		It is thanks to new the information received from Barbara’s granddaughter, Jaye Mollyneaux that this family line has been extended. It is also hoped that further information about this branch of the family, and that of Jaye’s great grandfather Arthur Edward Collett will be received in due course.
33R6		Cyril Collett, whose date of birth is not known but is believed to have been around 1908-1912, married Doris Cooper. In the churchyard of St Lawrence’s Church in Bourton-on-the-Water there is a headstone that reads “In Loving Memory of Cyril Charles Collett passed away 14^th February 1945” although it has not been confirmed that this relates to this Cyril Collett. (see Headstone Epitaphs)
		33S1	Phyllis Collett	Date of birth unknown
33R7		Harold Collett, whose date of birth is not known but is believed to have been around 1910-1914, married Kate Jefford. Harold died at Langford in 2000
		33S2	Mervyn Collett	Born in 1933/4
33R8		William George Collett, whose date of birth is not known, is believed to have been born after April 1911. What is known is that he married Ethel Surman. Ethel’s brother Harry Surman was a plumber and lived at Carterton in one of two bungalows near to St Joseph’s Hall.
		33S3	Jean Collett	Date of birth unknown
		33S4	Donald Collett	Date of birth unknown
33R17		Olive Beryl Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water on 09.06.1924. She married Toric Zachariah an Indian Royal Air Force Officer at Calcutta on 03.07.1949. Toric was the son of Seema Cohen (1885-1968) and Shaikh Mohammed Joseph Zachariah (1881-1948) whose family possible originated in Persia.
		Joseph Zachariah was a Muslim who converted to Judaism in order to marry Seema whose ancestors were persecuted Jews who left Spain for India during the Spanish Inquisition.
		Olive and Toric’s family lived in India until around 1960 when they returned to Harrow in Middlesex, where Toric became an insurance advisor.