PART FIFTY-FOUR

The London, Russia, and Canada Line

July 2010

	During 2010 two pieces of information came to light regarding a Collett family that lived in the British Colony on the banks of the River Neva in St Petersburg in Russia. The first of these details was received from Dave Burnett (Ref. 54S1) of Alberta in Canada who kindly provided the brief details of the life of his great grandfather John Holmes Collett. The second source was a book published in 1989 under the title “Collett’s Farthing Newspapers” loaned to me by John Collett of Boston in Lincolnshire (Part 3 – The Chedworth Line). The book covered the life of the Reverend Edward Collett of Bowerchalke near Salisbury in Wiltshire, who was the son of the aforementioned John Holmes Collett, and the producer of the farthing newspaper for forty-six years from 1878 to 1924. Although the Reverend Edward Collett never married or had any children of his own, it was his brother Augustus and his family who were responsible for taking this line of the Collett family to Canada and hence the connection to Dave Burnett. Delving further back in time, it was in 1992 that Margaret Chadd contacted the author of the “Collett’s Farthing Newspapers” in the hope of meeting Harry Collett of Orford in Suffolk, the only apparent living Collett relative of Edward who had helped with some of the information in the book. Tragically when contact was attempted, it was revealed that Harry had passed away. His widow did however suggest contacting their daughter Mary Sheriden in Ireland who in turn put forward the name of Maurice Harvey in Canada. He was a grandson of the aforementioned Augustus Collett. The following is therefore a brief history of this Collett family using all of the available information above, together with the family tree depicted in the first supplement to The Collett Saga produced by Margaret Chadd in 1996.
	It is acknowledged that some of the illustrations used in this family line have been extracted from Rex Sawyer’s book ‘Collett’s Farthing Newspaper’, while others have been generously given by Jayne Hyslop in Canada, who also supplied much of the fine detail associated with the Etheridge Colletts from whom she is descended.
54L1	ANTHONY COLLETT would have been born prior to 1725, since it was in 1745 that he married Jane Mary Holmes at St Botolph’s Church in Bishopsgate, London. In 1722 two possible Janes were baptised in London but at this time is has not been verified which one was the Jane who married Anthony Collett.
	The first was Jane Holmes who was baptised at St Giles Church in Cripplegate on 10.02.1722, the daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth Holmes. The second was Jane Homes who was baptised at St Botolph’s Church in Bishopsgate on 14.10.1722, and she was the daughter of John and Margaret Homes.
	The marriage is believed to have produced at least five children for the couple, and all of them born in London and baptised at St Botolph’s Church, Bishopsgate. However, there may have been other children born between the time they were married and the birth of their first known child over ten years later.
	54M1	Judith Collett			Baptised on 13.02.1756
	54M2	Thomas Collett			Baptised on 22.02.1757
	54M3	George Frederick Collett			Baptised on 03.07.1760
	54M4	Judith Collett			Baptised on 28.06.1761
	54M5	RICHARD COLLETT			Born circa 1765
54M1	Judith Collett was born in London and baptised at St Botolph’s Church in Bishopsgate on 13.02.1756. She was the eldest known daughter of Anthony Collett and Jane Mary Holmes, and tragically she only survived for just over one year, when she died at Bishopsgate on 25.03.1757.
54M2	Thomas Collett was born in London and was baptised at St Botolph’s Church, Bishopsgate on 22.02.1757, the eldest known son of Anthony Collett and Jane Mary Holmes.
54M3	George Frederick Collett was born in London where he was baptised at St Botolph’s Church in Bishopsgate on 03.07.1760, the son of Anthony Collett and Jane Mary Holmes. Just like his older sister (above), he too passed away when he was only just over one year old, when he died at Bishopsgate on 08.02.1761.
54M4	Judith Collett was the second known daughter of Anthony Collett and Jane Mary Holmes to be named Judith, following the death of her namesake four years earlier. Judith was baptised at St Botolph’s Church in Bishopsgate on 28.06.1761.
54M5	RICHARD COLLETT was possibly born between 1762 and 1770, although no birth or baptism record has yet been found to confirm this. It is known that he married Elizabeth Heepy at St Botolph’s Church in Bishopsgate on 21.02.1792.
	For Elizabeth Heepy, there are again two options, and both of them were born in Derbyshire. Elizabeth Heapy who was baptised at Crich on 26.03.1769 was the daughter of Daniel Heapy, while the other was baptised at Wirksworth on 10.09.1769 and she was the daughter of John Heapy.
	The marriage of Richard and Elizabeth is known to have produced a son, although no birth or baptism record has been unearthed at this time.
	54N1	JOHN COLLETT			Born circa 1794-1796
54N1	JOHN COLLETT was the son of Richard Collett and Elizabeth Heepy and is seems highly likely that he was born with a few years of the couple being married. This would place his date of birth around 1794 to 1796.
	There were two marriages of a John Collett in London twenty years later and these were John Collett and Sarah Grainger which took place on 27.12.1814 at St Helen’s Church in Bishopsgate; and John Collett and Mary Ann Daines which took place at St Luke’s Church in Old Street, Finsbury on 02.04.1816. It is the latter of these which has been the option selected by Margaret Chadd.
	Mary Ann Daines was the daughter of Robert Daines and Mary Catchpole, and she was born at Pakefield in Suffolk on 13.05.1796, making her just passed her twentieth birthday when she married John Collett.
	The only known child of John and Mary was a son who was named in memory of John’s grandmother Jane Mary Holmes.
	54O1	JOHN HOLMES COLLETT			Born circa 1820
54O1	JOHN HOLMES COLLETT was very likely born within a year or two of his parents’ wedding in 1816, although no actual birth or baptism record has been found to date.
	It seems likely, in the lack of any other more positive information, that John Holmes Collett was educated in London, following which he became a merchant trader and that it was his work that eventually took him to Russia where he lived out the rest of his life.
	Around the time that his parents were married, the Russian Revolution was centred in and round the city of St Petersburg, where their son settled after the uprising. In order to get the country back on its feet, the Russians encouraged more merchants and traders to join the British Colony established on the banks of the River Neva.
	John Holmes Collett was believed to be involved in the cotton trade, and it was very likely through his work that he made his home in St Petersburg, where he eventually met and married Sophia Eleanor Wilson. Sophia (Eleanora) was the eldest child of William Wilson and a Russian girl whom he had married in Russia during 1814, with Sophia being born in 1815. The Wilson family was involved in the cotton business and had settled in St Petersburg as part of the British Colony of Traders established there at an earlier time.
	The wedding of John Holmes Collett and Sophia Eleanor Wilson took place at the British Chaplaincy in St Petersburg on 19.02.1842 when John would have been in his early twenties. The marriage produced an unknown number of children, but certainly included three known sons, the eldest of which also became a cotton trader like his father.
	Whilst it is confirmed that the eldest and youngest sons were both born in St Petersburg, there is a question over the place of birth of the couple’s middle son. He was certainly baptised in London, at the same church where his grandparents had been married in 1816. This may have taken place during a brief visit to London, but all later records for that son indicated he was also born in London, not Russia.
	Just three years after the birth of his third son, John died in St Petersburg on 12.05.1850, following which he was buried at Lonolesko Cememtery. The St Peterburg death entry described him as John Home Collett aged 38 years, although this may have been 32 – see Editor’s Note below. The photo shown here was very likely taken just prior to the death of John Holmes Collett, and shows Sophia with her three sons. It is not known what happened immediately to his widow Sophia after this sad and unexpected event, but it is seems highly likely that she remained in Russia where her own family had lived for many decades.
	Staying with her would have been her children, who probably completed their education in St Petersburg. By 1865, Sophia and her children had left Russia and had travelled across Europe to England and were living in the Brixton district of London. Their absence from the Great Britain census in 1861 probably indicates that they were still living in St Petersburg at that time.
	It was in 1866 that Sophia Eleanor Collett nee Wilson died at Brixton at the age of fifty-one. It was also around this time that her son Edward was attending St Bees Theological College in Cumberland.
Editor’s Note:	During the research into this family line I came across another John Holmes Collett who married Jane Leonard in Aberystwyth on 07.04.1828. This would possibly place his date of birth around 1810 which corresponds more closely with the age of thirty-eight given to John Holmes Collett at the time of his death in Russia in 1850. However, it is understood that John Holmes Collett was a bachelor when he married Sophia Wilson in 1842, and that the Aberystwyth John Holmes Collett was very likely connected to a Gloucestershire Collett family, hence the reason for his exclusion. Therefore it seems highly likely that the John Holmes Collett depicted in this family line would have been around 32 years of age when he died in 1850, thus indicating that there may have been an error in translation or transcription, when 32 was mistakenly recorded as 38.
	54P1	AUGUSTUS COLLETT			Born on 29.11.1843
	54P2	John William Collett			Born on 01.05.1845
	54P3	Edward Collett			Born on 13.04.1847
54P1	AUGUSTUS COLLETT was born at St Petersburg on 29.11.1843, and was baptised at the British Chaplaincy there on 23.12.1843. The baptism confirmed that he was the son for John Holmes Collett and Sophia Eleanor Wilson, although John’s second forename was recorded as Home.
	Probably following the death of his father in Russia in 1850, and then the death of his mother at Brixton in 1866, Augustus Collett had settled in Brixton where he became a successful cotton trader, both with the continent of Europe and Russia. Three years later in Brixton on 23.12.1869 Augustus married the much younger Susannah Harriet Etheridge who was also born in Russia in 1851.
	The British National Census on the second of April in 1871 recorded twenty-seven years old Augustus Collett from Russia and his nineteen years old wife Susannah H Collett living at 25 Burton Road in Brixton, where Augustus was working as a Russian Merchant. Living with the couple was Augustus’ younger brother John William Collett (below).
	Over the next ten years Susannah presented her husband with six children, and all eight of the family members with listed in the 1881 Census as living at 41 Somerleyton Road in Brixton. Augustus and Susannah were both confirmed as having been born at St Petersburg, while all six of their children had been born at Brixton.
	At the age of 37, Augustus was described as a Russian merchant, his wife Susannah was 29, and their children were John 9, Sophia 8, Edward 5, Augustus 4, Henry 2, and baby Eustace who was only eleven months old.
	Living with the family was Susannah’s younger sister Catherine A S Etheridge who was a school governess aged twenty-six from Birkenhead, just across the River Mersey from Liverpool. The wealth and status of the Collett family could perhaps be measured by the fact that they were supported by three servants.
	These were Matilda Wilson who was 29 and a nurse from Holywell in Huntingdonshire, Sarah J Quinton who was 28 and a cook from Cardiff, and sixteen years old Bertha Webb who was the under-nurse from Bermondsey.
	Two further children were added to the family during the next four years, so by May in 1885 Augustus and Susannah had reached their full complement of eight children. This photograph of Augustus Collett and Susannah Etheridge with their eight children was taken around three years later in 1888. From 1884 to 1888 Augustus was an Executive Committee Member of the Waifs & Strays Society.
	By April 1891 the enlarged family was living at a house in Madeira Road in Streatham named ‘Ramenskoye’ after a Russian town twenty-nine south-east of Moscow. In 1831 a textile factory was founded in Ramenskoye and by the second half of the 19th century, the textile (cotton) factory had grown to be one of the largest enterprises in the Russian Empire. On the fifteenth of March 1926, Ramenskoye was given city status.
	Only the couple’s eldest son John was absent from the family home on that occasion and, although not located it is possible that at the age of twenty he had moved to Liverpool. The remainder of the family were listed as Augustus 47, Susannah 39, Sophia 18, Edward 15, Augustus 14, Henry 12, Eustace 10, Amelia 8, and Susannah who was five years old
	It was shortly after 1891 that Augustus entered into a business partnership with other merchant traders based at the Cotton Exchange in Liverpool and sometime during that decade Augustus and part of his family left London and moved north to settle in Liverpool. This may have happened after the death of his wife, since Susannah H Collett nee Etheridge died at Madeira Road in Streatham in 1897.
	Those members of the family remaining in London were Augustus’ three sons Edward, Henry, and Eustace. This was confirmed by the next census in March 1901 when widower Augustus Collett aged 57 who was recorded as a British subject born in Russia, was living in the Toxteth Park district of Liverpool to the south of the city centre, near to Sefton Park.
	It was also around this time that Augustus’ partnership with the Cotton Exchange began to flounder, and he was eventually declared bankrupt, although he did continue to be a respected citizen in Liverpool society. His financial fall may well have been reflected in his occupation in 1901. This indicated that he was then employed as a Russian Merchant’s clerk, rather than a Russian Merchant.
	Living at 16 Hartington Road in Toxteth Park with him in 1901 was four of his eight children. Only his son Augustus Collett, who would have been twenty-four, has not been accounted for at that time and that is because he was serving with the British Army in Boer War in Africa.
	The four children with him were John who was 29, Sophia who was 28, Amelia who was 18, and Susannah who was fifteen and still attending school. The census return in 1901 indicated that Amelia and Susannah had both been born while their parents had been living at Streatham in London.
	By April 1911 he was still living in the Toxteth Park area of Liverpool but on that occasion his address was 105 Hartington Road, from where he was still employed as a clerk working for a Russian Merchant. The census return also stated he was born in St Petersburg, and that he was a Russian resident, although the word ‘resident’ was written in a different style and may have been added later.
	By that time only his three unmarried daughters were still living there with him. Augustus Collett was 67, and looking after him in his old age and failing health was Sophia Annie Collett 38, Amelia Katherine Collett 28, and Susannah Mary Collett who was 25.
	Even with their financial problems, the family still managed to employ a general servant in the form of 28 years old Eleanor Hutchinson from Gawthrop in Yorkshire.
	Just five months later Augustus Collett died in Liverpool on 30.09.1911, following which he was buried at Toxteth Park Cemetery. It is understood that following his death, his daughter Susannah sailed to Canada to seek out her brother Augustus Etheridge Collett. He had been an officer in the British Army and, on leaving the army, had emigrated to Victoria in British Columbia, Canada.
	The continuation of this story can be found under the separate entry for Susannah Mary Collett.
	54Q1	John Etheridge Collett			Born on 11.05.1871
	54Q2	Sophia Annie Collett			Born on 17.03.1873
	54Q3	Edward Frederick Etheridge Collett			Born on 21.04.1875
	54Q4	Augustus Etheridge Collett			Born on 17.09.1876
	54Q5	Henry Etheridge Collett			Born on 04.12.1878
	54Q6	Eustace Etheridge Collett			Born on 24.04.1880
	54Q7	Amelia Katherine Collett			Born on 17.08.1882
	54Q8	Susannah Mary Collett			Born on 28.05.1885
54P2	John William Collett was originally thought to have been born at St Petersburg on 01.09.1845, where his older and younger brothers were both born. However, he was baptised at St Luke’s Church in Old Street, Finsbury in London on 24.09.1845, when he was confirmed as the son of John Holmes Collett and his wife Sophia Eleanor. It was in the subsequent census returns (in England) that he gave the place of his birth as London St Lukes. It therefore seems likely that his parents may have been on a business trip to London when he was born.
	After he was born he continued to live with his family in St Petersburg, and was still living there with his mother and other sibling after the death of his father when he was only five years old. It would appear that he and his family returned to England just a short while later. Although the family has not been identified in the census of 1861 it is understood that they were living somewhere in the Brixton area of London, and it was there that John’s mother died in 1866.
	By 1871 John W Collett was twenty-five and a student of theology living in Lambeth at the home of his married brother Augustus (above) and his new bride.
	At the end of that decade he was appointed to the position of Curate of Spernall, a village near Alcester in Warwickshire. According to the census in 1881, John William Collett from London St Lukes was the Curator of St Leonard’s Church in the village of Spernall four miles north of near Alcester. St Leonard’s Church is pictured here. In 1881 he was thirty-five and was living at The Rectory in Spernall with his 18 years old companion William Edward Stone from Cornwall.
	In addition to his duties at the church in Spernall, John was also appointed to the role of the chaplain at the chapel adjacent to the Alcester Union Workhouse. The chapel is shown in the photograph on the right, against the backdrop of the union workhouse.
	His time spent in Warwickshire was limited, and from 1891 onwards he was living within the Guildford area of Surrey where he was described as a clergyman of the Church of England. As a man of the cloth, like his brother Edward (below), he too never married and in 1891 he was recorded as being 45, and was 55 in March 1901, when his place of residence was listed as Stoke-next-Guildford which indicated that he was the Vicar at the Church of St John’s the Evangelist.
	John William Collett was still there ten years later in April 1911 when he was sixty-five and living at Coity Villas in Worplesdon Road. On every occasion he gave his place of birth as being London St Luke, which lies midway between Finsbury and Shoreditch. Old Street, where he was baptised at St Lukes, is still a main thoroughfare today.
	The final known facts about John William Collett are, that as the Reverend John Collett, he was one of the two chief mourners at the 1924 funeral of his younger brother Edward Collett the Vicar of Bowerchalke (below); following which he moved to Bowerchalke and was living at Glen Cairn in the village when he died in 1932.
54P3	Edward Collett was born at St Petersburg on 13.04.1847, and it was there also, at the British Chaplaincy, that he was baptised on 15.05.1847, the son of John Homes (Holmes) Collett and Sophia Eleanor Wilson. Some few years after his father died at St Petersburg in 1850, Edward and his mother and two brothers crossed Europe to end up in England. Once they arrived in London the family of four set up home in Brixton where it is believed they were living in 1861 although no record has yet been found. And it was during the mid-1860s that Edward began to attend St Bees Theological College in Cumberland.
	In 1816 the first Church of England college for the training of clergy outside Oxbridge was established at St Bees by William Law, the Bishop of Chester. Edward’s studies there were interrupted in 1866 when he received the sad news that his mother had died at the family home in Brixton.
	After completing the course at St Bees, Edward was ordained Deacon at Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford in 1870 by the Lord Bishop of Oxford, and the following year he was recorded at High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire.
	The census in 1871 described him as Edward Collett from Russia who was 23. After this he was offered appointments on the Isle of Man, where he spent the next five years in a number of different parishes, and then at Silverstone in Northamptonshire, where he worked for two years.
	On leaving Silverstone, he travelled south and arrived in the Wiltshire village of Bowerchalke on 30^th September 1878, by which time he was thirty-one years old. Once settled at Bowerchalke, he remained there for the rest of his life.
	Shortly after he took up his post as the Vicar of Bowerchalke, he became very interested in the village newspaper which he eventually took over and managed; writing the articles, using his own press to print the newssheet, and distributing the copies. This he did for the next forty-two years, until his failing health brought it to a close. An almost complete set of the ‘Parish Papers’ produced by Edward during those years is retained at the Bodleian Library in Oxford.
	Prior to this he had long held an interest in writing and in 1874 he published a book entitled ‘A Book of Meditations’, and this was followed two years by the publication of his second work ‘A Simple Plan of Preparation for Confirmation’. Both documents were reviewed favourable in The Guardian in 1876.
	Accompanying Edward to Bowerchalke from Silverstone were two young people. The first of these was his housekeeper, Sarah Stone was eighteen and who retained that position until she later married into the Foyle family of Bowerchalke. The second was John Linnell who was twelve years old and who wished to study for the ministry.
	Both of these were still living with Edward in the spring of 1881. The census that year listed the people at the vicarage as the Rev. Edward Collett who was 33 and a British subject from Russia, servant Sarah Stone who was 22 and from Combeinteighhead in Devon, and John Linnell from Silverstone who was 16.
	Two other people were visiting at that time, and they were 22 years old theology student Henry Head from Winchester, and 28 years old Thomas Salmon from Blackford in Somerset.
	Over the following decade Edward Collett was recorded living at Bowerchalke in all of the subsequent census returns aged 43 in 1891, 53 in 1901 when he was described as a clergyman of the Church of England, and again in 1911 when he was 63.
	On the 12^th April 1922 the final copy of the ‘Parish Paper’, edition number 1703, was produced by Edward Collett. Two years later in May 1924 Edward Collett died at Bowerchalke at the age of seventy-seven.
	An article in the Salisbury Journal read as follows: “We regret to announce the death of the Rev Edward Collett, Vicar of Bowerchalke, which occurred on Wednesday night. Mr Collett, who had been 54 years in Holy Orders and Vicar of Bowerchalke for 44 years, was greatly beloved by his parishioners for whom he lived a self sacrificing life”. At his funeral, which took place in torrential rain, every house in the village was represented, and the chief mourners were his life-long companion the aforementioned John Linnell, and his brother the Reverend John Collett (above). The grave of Edward Collett is marked by a plain tombstone and can be found on the left of the church porch. Inside the church, a stained glass window at the west end of the nave is dedicated to his forty-six years of faithful service. This is shown on the right.
54Q1	John Etheridge Collett was born at 25 Burton Road in Brixton, London on 11.05.1871.
	It was as John E Collett aged nine years and from Brixton that he was recorded in the census of 1881 when living with his family at 41 Somerleyton Road in Brixton. Within the next year or two his parents left Brixton, and it was around the same time that John attended Taylor’s Merchant School at Northwood in Middlesex. He had previously received the Stuart Exhibition Scholarship which allowed him to attend the merchant school for five years up to completion in 1888.
	By 1891 his family was living at Madeira Road in Streatham, and by this time John had completed nearly two years at St John’s College in Oxford where he obtained a 4^th Class Bachelor of Arts Degree in Law in 1893. The census in 1891 confirmed that he was a student of law at St John’s.
	His mother died at Madeira Road in 1897 and this may have prompted his return to the family. After the death of his mother, his father moved north to live in Liverpool with some of his children, including John.
	Around three years later in March 1901, John E Collett from Brixton was 29 and was living with his father and his three sisters Sophia, Amelia, and Susannah at 16 Hartington Road in Toxteth Park, Liverpool. His occupation on that occasion was that of a journalist and author.
	Three years later on 23.04.1904, John Etheridge Collett married Alexandra Marie Borgen by licence at St Lukes in Chelsea, London. The following year their daughter was born when the couple were living at 69 Oakley Street in Chelsea. Alexandra was born on 31.12.1873, the eldest daughter of Adolph Emile Borgen from Denmark and his wife Hannah Rachel Norton from Gravesend in Kent.
	According to the census in 1881, 38 years old Adolph Borgen was a manager of business living with his family at 12 Queens Road in London. His wife Hannah was 36, and their two daughters were Alexandra who was seven and born at St Georges Westminster, and Margaret who was four and born at Kensington. Working for the family was servant Jane Geale, spinster of 31 from St Pancras.
	By the time of the census in April 1911, John Etheridge Collett was confirmed as being a married man, but was strangely living alone at 35 Coram Street in the South St Pancras district of London. He was 39 and from Brixton, and was continuing with his work as a journalist.
	Perhaps because of the recent death of her father, Alexandra Marie Collett was staying with her widowed mother Hannah Rachel Borgen, at her home at 33 Burlington Avenue in Kew Gardens. Hannah was head of the house and was 66, and on this occasion her place of birth was given as Milton in Kent.
	Alexandra was 37 and the census return also confirmed she was from London and that she had been married for seven years. Accompanying her Alexandra was her daughter Rachel Meliron J Collett who was six years old. Hannah Borgen also employed a general servant, Ethel Florence Wright who was 22 and from Hammersmith.
	From 1932 to 1935, John was a journalist and sports correspondent (specialising in lawn tennis) working for The Field magazine. The only other piece of information so far known about John Etheridge Collett is that he died on 25.09.1951 when he was living at East Budleigh in Devon.
	54R1	Rachel Milora Irene Collett			Born on 21.01.1905
54Q2	Sophia Annie Collett was born at Brixton on 17.03.1873 and was baptised one month later at St James’ Church in Camberwell on 13.04.1873. She was eight years old in the census of 1881 when she was living with her parents at 41 Somerleyton Road in Brixton. It was very likely at this address that her parents were living when she was born.
	Not long after this, the family moved from Brixton the short distance south to Streatham where they were recorded as living in 1891, when Sophia A Collett was eighteen. Six years later the family suffered the loss of their mother, when she died at Streatham in 1897.
	This sad event appears to have seen the break-up of the family, with Sophia and her two sisters Amelia and Susannah (below), and her brother John (above), together with their father, moving to live in Liverpool, leaving three of her brothers still living in London.
	This was confirmed by the census in March 1901 which placed Sophia A Collett from Brixton as living at Toxteth Park in Liverpool with her widowed father Augustus, brother John, and Amelia and Susannah. Sophia was twenty-eight with no stated occupation, so was very likely the housekeeper for the rest of the family.
	Ten years later in April 1911, Sophia Annie was 38 and unmarried, and was still looking after her elderly father, supported by her two younger sisters and a general servant, while living at 105 Hartington Road in Toxteth Park. Whether as a result of his age or failing health, Sophia’s father died in September that same year.
	The only other known fact about Sophia Annie Collett was that she died in Surrey during 1942.
54Q3	Edward Frederick Etheridge Collett was born at Brixton on 21.04.1875 and was baptised at the Church of St John the Evangelist on 25.05.1875. In 1881 he was five years old and at that time he and his family were living at 41 Somerleyton Road in Brixton, and it is possible that it was at that address where he was born.
	Around the latter half of 1881, or at the beginning of 1882, Edward’s parents moved the relatively short distance from Brixton to Madeira Road in Streatham to the south. And it was there at the family home ‘Ramenskoye’ in Madeira Road that he was living at the age of fifteen in 1891.
	Upon the tragedy of losing his mother in 1897, Edward decided to stay in London with his brother Henry and Eustace when his widowed father took the rest of the family north to live in Liverpool. A few years later in March 1901, the three brothers were still living together in the Hammersmith area of London. Edward Collett from Brixton was 25 and was working as a clerk for a Jute Merchant.
	According to the census in April 1911, Edward was living 8 Girdlers Road in Hammersmith, which is still there today and only a few yards from Colet Gardens. Living at 6 Girdlers Road at that time was Edward’s brother John Etheridge Collett (above).
	The house at 8 Girdlers Road was a boarding house run by Edward’s aunt, and at that time in his life his occupation was that of a mercantile clerk.
	Edward Frederick Etheridge Collett never married and eventually moved to Devon, like his brother John (above), where he died on 29.10.1942 at Newton Abbot.
54Q4	Augustus Etheridge Collett was born at Brixton on 17.09.1876 and most probably at 41 Somerleyton Road where the family was living in 1881. He was baptised at the Church of St John the Evangelist on 16.10.1876, the ceremony being conducted by his uncle the Reverend Edward Collett, Curate of Silverstone. It should be noted that, for whatever reason, Augustus often referred to himself as Austin Collett, although in all of the British records and census returns he was always Augustus.
	According to the census in 1881, Augustus E Collett was four years old and born at Brixton, while living with his parents at 41 Somerleyton Road in Brixton. During the next two years his family left Lambeth and settled in Madeira Road in Streatham where he was recorded with his family in 1891 at the age of fourteen.
	Six years later his mother Susannah died at Streatham and shortly after that his father and some of his siblings moved north to Toxteth Park in Liverpool. By the time of the census in 1901, Augustus would have been 24, and it was at this stage in his life that he was serving with the British Army in the Boer War in Africa.
	Augustus was involved in the battles at Transvaal, Orange Free State, and Natal, for which he was awarded the South Africa Campaign Medal. The medal is currently in the possession of Dave Burnett in Canada and on which are the bars for the battle honours above, together with the South Africa 1901 and South Africa 1902 bars. His rank by the end of the campaign was that of sergeant.
	Sometime after the end of the war, Augustus left the army and emigrated to Victoria in British Columbia, Canada where he hoped to establish himself as a successful architect. According to the 1911 Census for Victoria, Austin Collett had arrived in Canada in 1909. However, his plan to become a successful architect was not realised and around 1911 he had given up the challenge and had moved on to seek better fortune in Sydney, Australia.
	Once in Australia he again tried to become a successful architect, but this time his ambition was halted by the impending war in Europe. So on 24^th December 1914 Augustus left Australia on board SS Makura which sailed to Vancouver, arriving there on 8^th January 1915.
	From Vancouver he sailed on the SS Grampian to Liverpool, arriving in England on 8^th February 1915. At this time in his life he gave his home address as 6 Girdlers Road in London, the home of his brother John Etheridge Collett.
	What part Augustus Etheridge Collett took in the Great War is not known precisely, but it is known that, during the peace time period immediately following the end of the war, he was sent to Russia where he was an officer commanding a contingent of the British Army. It is understood that he was a major in charge of logistic with the 1919 secret expeditionary force to Murmansk.
	Following his retirement from military service Augustus, then only known as Austin Collett, returned to lived in Australia and was living in East Sydney in 1943, which is where he later died.
54Q5	Henry Etheridge Collett, who was known as Harry, was born at 41 Somerleyton Road in Brixton on 04.12.1878, and was baptised at the Church of St John the Divine in Camberwell near Brixton on 05.01.1879. It was at that same address that the family was living in 1881 when Henry E Collett was two years of age.
	During the following year Henry’s family moved the few miles south to Streatham where they were living in 1891 when Henry was twelve years old. In 1897 his mother passed away and, while his father moved to Liverpool shortly after this sad event for the family, Henry and his brother Edward and Eustace continued to live and work in London.
	Henry was simply listed as Harry Collett aged 22 in the census of 1901, and at that time he was living in the Hammersmith area of London with his two brothers Edward (above) and Eustace (below). By that time in his life Harry was already established as an artist and sculptor.
	In 1907 Henry married Bertha Cecilia Mary Burke who was born at Stoke Newington in London in 1878. The couple initially settled in Richmond in Surrey, on the south side of the River Thames in London where their son was born, before moving to Kensington where they were living in April 1911.
	The census that year confirmed the family of three was living at Flat 10, 28 Colville Square in the Notting Hill area of Kensington. Henry Etheridge Collett from Brixton was 32 and a painter and artist. His wife Bertha Cecilia Mary Collett was also 32, and their son Henry Burke Collett was two years old.
	Living with the family at that time was Bertha’s younger sister, the unmarried Elizabeth Mary Burke who was 26 and from Shepherd’s Bush.
	Henry Etheridge Collett is known to have died at Wexford in Ireland.
	54R2	Henry Burke Collett			Born on 02.07.1908
54Q6	Eustace Etheridge Collett was born on 24.04.1880 at 41 Somerleyton Road in Brixton where he and his family were also living at the time of the census in 1881 when Eustace was eleven months. He was baptised on 23.05.1880 at the Church of St John the Divine in Camberwell, and was ten years old in 1891 by which time he and his family were living at Madeira Road in Streatham to where they had moved when he was just a year old.
	The death of his mother at Streatham in 1897 appears to have caused a parting of the ways for some members of the family, with his father taking four of his siblings to live with him in Liverpool, leaving Eustace and his brothers Edward and Henry in London when they moved to Hammersmith.
	It was within the Hammersmith registration district of the city the Eustace and his brothers were living in March 1901, when Eustace Collett from Brixton was 20 and working as a wharf manager.
	Tragically Eustace Etheridge Collett died at Barrow-upon-Soar in Leicestershire in 1905 when he was only twenty-five.
54Q7	Amelia Katherine Collett was born at Madeira Road in Streatham on 17.08.1882 and was baptised at St Leonard’s Church in Streatham. And it was at ‘Ramenskoye’ in Madeira Road that she was living with her family in 1891 at the age of eight years. It was also at that address that she was living in 1897 when her mother died.
	This changed the structure of the family, when her father gave up living in London to settle in Liverpool, taking with him Amelia, her sisters Sophia and Susannah. These were also joined by their brother John, while three of Amelia’s remaining four brothers stayed on in London.
	According to the census returns for 1901 and 1911 Amelia was living at 105 Hartington Road in Toxteth Park south of Liverpool city centre on both occasions, being 18 and 28 respectively, but with no stated occupation in 1901, although by 1911 she was a governess like her sister Susannah (below).
	All that is known of Amelia Katherine Collett is that she never married and lived most of her life in London with her faithful maid Rose. It was at Lambeth that she died in 1966.
54Q8	Susannah Mary Collett was born at Madeira Road in Streatham on 28.05.1885. She was just one month old when she was baptised at St Leonard’s Church in Streatham on 28.06.1885, the youngest child of Augusta Collett and Susannah Etheridge from Russia. The Streatham census in 1891 recorded her living with her family at ‘Ramenskoye’ in Madeira Road the age of five years. She was only around twelve years of age when her mother died at Madeira Road in 1897, following which she accompanied her father and three other siblings in a move that took the depleted family to Liverpool.
	The next census in March 1901 placed Susannah M Collett from Streatham as being 15 and living at 16 Hartington Road in Toxteth Park, Liverpool with her father Augustus, and sibling John, Sophia, and Amelia.
	Ten years later she was still there at 105 Hartington Road in Toxteth Park at the age of twenty-five, when she was named as Susannah Mary Collett. At this time in her life she had living with her, her father and sister Sophia and Amelia, the family also being supported by a general servant. Susannah’s occupation, like that of her sister Amelia (above) was that of a governess.
	Just five months later her father died during September 1911. One year later Susannah sailed to Canada, with her aunt Sarah Etheridge as her travelling companion, in the hope of finding her older brother Augustus Etheridge Collett. She sailed from Liverpool on 1^st September 1912 on board the SS Adriatic and arrived in New York on 29^th September. The ship’s passenger listed included the next-of-kin of Susannah Collett as being John E Collett of 6 Girdlers Road in London.
	From New York she made the overland trek to Victoria in British Columbia. However, upon arrival she was disappointed to discover that her bachelor brother had failed in his attempts to become a successful architect and, as a consequence, he had left Canada to seek success in Sydney, Australia.
	Despite the disappointment, Susannah decided she would make the move to Canada a permanent one, while her aunt Sarah returned to England. It was during the next two years in Victoria that she met her future husband, and in mid-1914 she returned to England to put together her trousseau.
	The passenger list for the return sailing back to Canada stated that the ultimate destination for Susannah Collett was Fishburn in Alberta. At that time Fishburn was a postal address used by ranchers south of Pincher Creek in Alberta, which is no longer used today.
	Two years later on 29.09.1914 Susannah married Samuel Joseph Harvey, the son of Joseph Harvey and Mary Varley. Samuel was born 29.07.1872 in Barrie, Ontario.
	The marriage took place at Regina in Saskatchewan and resulted in the birth of four children, the first three of which were born while the couple was living in Alberta, with the fourth born after the family had moved to live in New Westminster, British Columbia.
	Samuel Joseph Harvey died on 25.05.1942 at South Westminster in Surrey, British Columbia, and it was nearly twenty-five years after that Susannah Mary Harvey nee Collett died on 15.01.1967 at Coquitlam in British Columbia, Canada.
	54R3	Phyllis Mary Harvey				Born on 20.07.1915
	54R4	Kenneth Etheridge Harvey				Born on 22.09.1916
	54R5	Roger Harvey				Born in 1918
	54R6	Maurice Henry Harvey				Born on 01.06.1921
54R1	Rachel Milora Irene Collett was born at Chelsea on 21.01.1905, and it was there at St Luke’s Church that she was baptised on 03.03.1905, the daughter of John Etheridge Collett and Alexandra Marie Borgen. In 1911 Rachel and her mother were staying with her widowed grandmother at 33 Burlington Avenue in Kew Gardens, while her father was at their home at 35 Coram Street in St Pancras.
	Nearly thirty years later Rachel married Philip Derwent Radcliffe at Hatfield in Hertfordshire during 1940, and at some time during their life together, the couple moved to Devon where Rachel died at Exeter in 1977.
54R2	Henry Burke Collett, who was also known as Harry Collett like his father, was born at Richmond, Surrey on 02.07.1908 and by 1911, at the age of two years, he and his parents were living at Flat 10, 28 Colville Square in Notting Hill. His second forename was the maiden name of his mother Bertha Burke.
	In 1936 the name of Henry Burke Collett was included in the voting list for Woolhara in Wentworth, New South Wales, which suggests that he lived in Australia during the middle part of his life.
	Henry was forty-two when he married the widow Cicely O’Flagon at Manchester in 1950. Cicely already had children from her first marriage, and it seems most unlikely that the couple had any children of their own in view of their advancing years.
	Henry Burke Collett died in April 1993 at Waveney in Suffolk.
54R3	Phyllis Mary Harvey was born at Pincher Creek in Alberta on 20.07.1915. She married Wilson David Burnett at New Westminster in British Columbia on 08.05.1939. He was the son of Wilson Burnett and Helen Neilson and was born at New Westminster on 10.06.1913.
	And it was at New Westminster that the couple was living when Phyllis presented her husband with three children. Wilson Burnett died at Langley, BC on 07.12.1990, and today Phyllis is now living in Penticton, British Columbia.
	54S1	David Christopher Burnett				Born on 13.02.1940
	54S2	Ann Burnett				Born in 1943
	54S3	Neal Burnett				Born in 1944
54R4	Kenneth Etheridge Harvey was born at Fishburn in Alberta on 22.09.1916. He married (1) Mary Peebles, and later (2) Geraldine Anna McGillivray whom he married at Burnaby in British Columbia. Geraldine was born in Vancouver on 18.08.1917 and died at Hope in British Columbia during November 2004, while Kenneth had passed away nearly twenty years earlier at Hope on 25.11.1985.
	The marriage of Kenneth and Geraldine produced just one child for the couple, that being Steven Harvey who was born at Chilliwack in British Columbia in 1952.
54R5	Roger Harvey was born at Pincher Creek in Alberta in 1918. He married Marion Palmer during 1945 at Bridlington in Yorkshire, England, Marion having been born at Bromley in Kent. Once marriage Roger returned to Canada with his bride and it was at Kamloops in British Columbia that their three children were born. These are Calista Harvey born around 1947, Susan Harvey born around 1949, and Lynette Harvey who was born around 1951. Today Roger and Marion are still living in Kamloops.
54R6	Maurice Henry Harvey was born at New Westminster in British Columbia on 01.06.1921. He married Marion Edmondson at Rosedale in British Columbia in 1952. Marion was born at Chilliwack, British Columbia, and their first two children were born at Burnaby with the third born at New Westminster.
	Donald Harvey was born around 1955, Lois Harvey was born around 1957, and Joan Harvey was born around 1963. It was also at Chilliwack where Maurice died on 05.03.2006.
54S1	David Burnett, who is known as Dave, was born at New Westminster on 13.02.1940, and it was there also that he married Linda Margaret Tytler in 1962. Linda was born at Medicine Hat in Alberta around 1943. Dave and Linda have two sons Bill born in 1963 and Eric born in 1965.
	Today Dave and Linda live in Alberta, and a big vote of thanks must go to Dave, since it was he who first contacted the Collett Family History website in January 2010, and who six months later has helped, with others, to put this family line together.
54S2	Ann Burnett was born at New Westminster in 1943, and today Ann lives with her husband at Maple Ridge in British Columbia, and they have children and grandchildren.
54S3	Neal Burnett was born at New Westminster in 1944. He never married and today is retired and living at Penticton.