Part 71 The Lambeth and Bermondsey Collett

PART SEVENTY-ONE

The Lambeth and Bermondsey Colletts

Updated February 2024


71L1	John Collett, about whom no details are known, may have belonged to one of the many Collett families originating in Gloucestershire. He was born around 1739 and was 30 years old when he married widow Sarah Shaw at St Mary’s Church in Lambeth on 13^th November 1769. John was a bachelor working as a bricklayer at that time in his life, while Sarah came from St Giles parish in Camberwell, where the couple settled after they were married. All that is believed to be known about them, is that their marriage produced at least two sons; Timothy who was born in 1775 and John born in 1776. John Collett senior was said to be seventy when he died in 1820, although this conflicts with his age at the time of his marriage. So, there is a possibility this may be another John Collett who was buried in the ground of St Nicholas’ Church in Deptford, within the London Borough of Greenwich, on 24^th January 1820. His last address was stated to be Flagon Row, which is now McMillan Street.

	Towards the end of 2023, we were grateful to receive from Dayna Collett her family details starting with John and Sarah’s younger son John William Collett. She also reported that on Ancestry in Canada, it states that the parents of John William Collett were John Collett and Martha Harris. That cannot be correct, since the marriage of John and Martha was recorded at the Church of St Luke in Chelsea on 2^nd July 1781 five and six years after the births of John and Sarah’s two sons.

	71M1	Timothy Collett				Born in 1775 at Camberwell, Surrey
	71M2	John William Collett				Born in 1776 at Camberwell, Surrey


71M1	Timothy Collett was born at Camberwell during 1775 and baptised at St Giles Church in Camberwell, within the London Borough of Southwark, on 21^st January 1776, when his parents were named as Jno and Sarah Collett. Just over twenty-four years later, according to the Bishop’s Transcript, he married Susannah Pearson within the London Borough of Westminster, in the parish of St George Hanover Square, on 30^th May 1800. One of the witnesses at their wedding was Susannah’s mother Grace Pearson, the other being John Honey, Susannah’s brother-in-law, the husband of her sister Sarah Pearson. Susannah was born on 9^th April 1781, the daughter of William Pearson and his wife Grace.

	It is interesting that married Susannah Collett Pearson was baptised at the Church of St Mary in Lambeth on 14^th May 1802, when she was confirmed as the daughter of William Pearson and his wife Grace. That event took place just over a year after the baptism, at the same church, of her eldest known child. One unanswered question relates to one of the couple’s six known children, their eldest son William, who was the only one for whom no baptism record has been found. Even more curious, in the later census records, William stated that he had been born at Liverpool in Lancashire, while all the other children were baptised at Lambeth, when the parents were confirmed as Timothy and Susannah or Susan or Susanna Collett.

	Susannah Collett nee Pearson was 59 when she died on 31^st January 1841, following which she was buried at St Mary’s Church in Lambeth on 8^th February 1841. Four months later, on the day of the first national census conducted during June 1841, Timothy was a widower living at Carlisle Street in Lambeth with his two youngest daughters; his place of birth was Surrey. Also living with them was Ann Rice who, ten years later, was a visitor at the home of Timothy’s son William in 1851. In that first census adult ages were rounded to the nearest five years, so Timothy Collett had a rounded age of 65. His daughter Sarah was 30 and his daughter Jane was 25. It was five years and four months later that Timothy Collett aged 69 years, died on 9^th October 1846, following which he was buried at the Church of St Mary in Lambeth on 15^th October 1846.

	An inscription at the Church of St Mary Lambeth contains the following information: “To the memory of Mr William Pearson who died September 22^nd 1821 aged 85 years / Also Mrs Grace Pearson, wife of the above who died 9^th of July 1824 in her 85^th year / Also Mrs Sarah Honey daughter of the above who died September 14^th 1824 aged 57 years / Also Mrs Susannah Collett wife of Timothy Collett, daughter of the above Wm Pearson, who died 31^st Jan 1841 aged 59 years / Also Mr Timothy Collett who died 9^th Oct 1846 aged 69 years”

	71N1	Susannah Collett				Born in 1801 at Lambeth
	71N2	William Pearson Collett				Born in 1807 at Liverpool
	71N3	Sarah Collett				Born in 1809 at Lambeth
	71N4	John Collett				Born in 1811 at Lambeth
	71N5	Ann Hosier Collett				Born in 1814 at Lambeth
	71N6	Jane Collett				Born in 1817 at Lambeth


71M2	John Collett was born at Camberwell in 1776 and was baptised as Jno Collett at St Saviour’s Church in Southwark on 15^th November 1779, the younger son of John Collett and Sarah Shaw. His amended date of birth stems from the fact that he was 73 when he died in 1849 (below), meaning he was around three years old when he was baptised. John would therefore have been around twenty-three when he married (1) Sarah Harrison at St Giles Church in Camberwell on 6^th January 1801, with whom he had at least four daughters over fifteen years and all of them born and baptised at Camberwell. Within the burial records at Camberwell, after the baptism of their fourth daughter in 1820, there are three for Sarah Collett; 14^th June 1821, 13^th September 1822, and 23^rd December 1827, the last perhaps being the wife of John. It was on 31^st May 1830 when John Collett, a widower aged 41, married the much younger (2) Frances Holyman at St Peter’s Church in Walworth, Walworth being within the London Borough of Newington. Frances had been born on 3^rd May 1811 in London and was baptised at St George the Martyrs in Southwark on 22^nd September 1811, the daughter of William and Rebecca Holyman. The couple’s first child was born exactly one year after they were married.

	Once married the couple initially settled in Walworth, and later at Bermondsey, while it was during the first decade that they were together when Frances presented John with six children. On the day of the census in 1841, the large family was residing at Ann’s Place within the London Borough of Bermondsey. John Collett had a rounded age of 60 and Frances Collett was 30, while their children were listed as Mary who was ten, Henry who was nine, Frances who was seven, Betsey who was six, John who was three years of age, and Richard Collett who was only five months old. Apart from Frances and her eldest daughter Mary, all the other members of the family had been born in the County of Surrey, south of the River Thames. Four more children were added to the family during the next nine years, all of them living with the family in 1851. Sadly, by then, John Collett had already died and had passed away, prior to the birth of his last child. John Collett died from Asiatic Cholera on 24^th July 1849 at the age of 73, his death recorded at Bermondsey (Ref. iv 76) during the third quarter of 1849.

	The census return in 1851 listed his family as living at Russell Street in Bermondsey, where widow Frances Collett was head of the household at the age of 40, when her occupation was that of a shoe binder. Seven of her ten children were still living with her and they were Mary Collett who was 21 and Frances Collett who was 17 – both born at Walworth, John Collett who was 15, Edward Collett who was eight, Sarah Collett who was six, Emily Collett who was four years of age, and James Collett who was fourteen months old - every one of them born at Bermondsey. Curiously, their mother’s place of birth was recorded as Bermondsey, when she was born north of the River Thames.

	After a further ten years Frances was still living in Bermondsey, but at Hickman’s Folly. Frances Collett from Bethnal Green was 48 years of age and earning a living as a laundress. Living with her that day were just her four youngest Bermondsey born children, Edward Collett who was 18 and working as a labourer, Sarah Collett who was 16 and a domestic servant, as was Emily Collett who was 14, and James who was 11 and still attending school. By the time of the next census in 1871 only two of Frances’ children were still living with her at Bermondsey and they were Emily Collett who was 24 and James Collett who was 21 and employed as a warehouse man, when head of the household Frances Collett from St Giles Camberwell was 58 and still working as a laundress. In 1851 it was Bermondsey, in 1861 it was Bethnal Green and in 1871 it was Camberwell. Interestingly, it was Bethnal Green that was named as her place of birth in 1881 when she was 70 years of age and working as a charwoman, while residing at 1 Frean Street in Bermondsey.

	Frances Collett, the widow of John Collett, was not listed within the next census of 1891, and that was because she had died just prior to that day. Her death was recorded at St Olave Southwark (Ref. 1d 199) during the first three months of 1891 when she was 79 years old. However, that was the only time in her life that she was recorded as Frances Ann Collett.

	The Story of John Collett, as told by Reginald D Squires – grandson of John’s youngest daughter Emily Collett, focuses on his military career leading up to the Battle of Waterloo, as reproduced below. John Collett was a Private in the 1^st Battalion of the 1^st Foot Guards, which he joined in October 1803. He served at Corunna and was later transferred to the 2^nd Battalion 1^st Foot Guards in June 1813. He also saw action at the Decisive Battle of Quartres Bras on 16^th June 1815, where he was wounded and subsequently evacuated, first to Brussels and then home to Great Britain. The Battle of Waterloo inflicted horrendous losses on the 2^nd Battalion with almost 500 of John’s comrades being killed. Private John Collett continued his career with the 2^nd Battalion up until he was discharged from duty on 12^th April 1823. He received an army pension as an ‘out-pensioner’ of the Royal Hospital Chelsea and his discharge papers stated his conduct had been ‘good’ and that the reason for his discharge was because he had ‘diseased lungs.’

	71N7	Mary Collett				Born in 1805 at Camberwell
	71N8	Sarah Elizabeth Collett				Born in 1808 at Camberwell
	71N9	Emma Collett				Born in 1814 at Camberwell
	71N10	Caroline Collett				Born in 1820 at Camberwell
	The following are the children of John Collett by his second wife Frances Holyman:
	71N11	Mary Ruth Collett				Born in 1831 at Walworth, Newington
	71N12	John Henry Collett				Born in 1832 at Walworth, Newington
	71N13	Frances Ann Collett				Born in 1834 at Walworth, Newington
	71N14	Elizabeth Priscilla Collett				Born in 1836 at Walworth, Newington
	71N15	John William Collett				Born in 1838 at Bermondsey
	71N16	Richard Collett				Born in 1841 at Bermondsey
	71N17	Edward Collett				Born in 1842 at Bermondsey
	71N18	Sarah Collett				Born in 1845 at Bermondsey
	71N19	Emily Collett				Born in 1847 at Bermondsey
	71N20	James Thomas Collett				Born in 1849 at Bermondsey


71N1	Susannah Collett was born at Lambeth in 1801, the eldest known child of Timothy Collett and Susannah Pearson. She was baptised at St Mary’s Church in Lambeth on 19^th April 1801 when her parents were confirmed as Timothy and Susannah Collett.


71N2	William Pearson Collett was born at Liverpool in 1807, the son of Timothy Collett and Susannah Pearson. He was married twice in his life, his first wife being (1) Mary Thomson, with whom he had a daughter, his wife perhaps not surviving the ordeal, or dying shortly thereafter. It is established that his daughter did survive and would have been two years old when William was married for a second time early in 1839.

	That marriage, between William Pearson Collett and (2) Amelia Eustace, was recorded at Newington in London (Ref. iv 251) during first three months of 1839. Amelia was baptised at Christ Church in Southwark on 15^th October 1809, having been born on 28^th February 1809, the daughter of William and Mary Eustace. The couple’s first and only child was born later in the same year they were married. By the time of the census in 1841 William and Amelia Collett, aged 32, had with them their son William who was eighteen months old when they were living on Great Charlotte Street in Christ Church.

	According to the census in 1851, the family was living at Cornwall Road in Lambeth where William P Collett from Liverpool was 44 and working as a clerk to a proctor, his wife Amelia from Christchurch in Surrey was 42, and their son William E Collett was 11 years of age. Visiting the family was annuitant Ann Rice who was a spinster at 62 who was also born at Lambeth. Ten years later their son had left the family home which, by 1861 was at Kennington Oval where William Collett, a visitors’ clerk, was 54 and Amelia was 50. The death of Ann Rice at the age of 79, was recorded at Lambeth (Ref. 1d 257) during the last three months of 1868, when she was living at 6 Clayton Street in Kennington (aka Clayton Street, Lambeth), following which she was buried at Lambeth on 16^th October 1868. Her Will was proved at the Principal Registry on 28^th April 1869, when William Pearson Collett was named as the sole beneficiary.

	After a further decade, the 1871 census included William P Collett from Liverpool who was 64 and a proctor’s clerk, and his wife Amelia Collett who was 62 and from Blackfriars in London. Four years later the death of Amelia Collett aged 66 was recorded at Lambeth (Ref. 1d 333) during the last quarter of 1874. Widower William P Collett from Liverpool was 74 in 1881 when living at Clayton Street in Lambeth where he was described as living on income from dividends. His servant/housekeeper that day was Martha Dunn who was 54 and from Lambeth.

	On the day of the next census in 1891, William P Collett was 84 and was staying with his daughter-in-law Hannah Collett, the wife of his son William, at the family home on Camberwell New Road, which today is the trunk road A202 running between Kennington and Camberwell. It was seven years later that William P Collett passed away on 1^st June 1898, with his death recorded at Lambeth register office (Ref. 1d 258) at the age of 93. It was at Lambeth that he was buried on 6^th June 1898. Three weeks later his Will was proved in London on 27^th June, the probate documentation confirming that his last known address was 52 Aytoun Road in Stockwell, Surrey.

	The sole executor of the estate of William Pearson Collett, amounting to £3,129 8 Shillings and 5 Pence, was his grandson Francis Glenister Collett, a bank clerk, of 52 Aytoun Road in Stockwell. It therefore seems that grandfather William was living with his grandson at the end of his life. And why that was, and why was it not his son William who was named as the executor of his father’s estate. It may have been something to do with the fact that William Eustace Collett appears to have separated from his family during the 1880s.

	71O1	Julia Anne Collett				Born in 1836 at Lambeth
	The only known child of William Pearson Collett by his second wife Amelia Eustace:
	71O2	William Eustace Collett				Born in 1839 at Lambeth


71N3	Sarah Collett was born at Lambeth, possibly on 8^th January 1809 and it was there that she was baptised at the Church of St Mary on 11^th June 1809 when her parents were confirmed as Timothy and Susan Collett.


71N4	John Collett was born at Lambeth in 1811 and was baptised there at St Mary’s Church on 12^th May 1811, the fourth known child of Timothy and Susanna Collett. He was twice married the first time to (1) Katherine Elizabeth – the named used at the baptism of their first child - with whom he was living in 1841. The census that year listed John Collett with a rounded age of 30 and his wife Catherine having a rounded age of 25. At that time in their lives, they were living in an institution at Charles Street in the Covent Garden area of London and by then Catherine had presented John with three children. They were John who was five, Catherine who was three and Ellen who was one year old. Just over two years later Catherine Collett died, possibly during the birth of the couple’s fourth child, after which her younger daughter was known as Ellen Wilmshurst Collett, perhaps indicating that Catherine’s maiden-name was Wilmshurst. The death of Catherine Collett was recorded at St Pancras during the third quarter of 1843 (Ref. i 205).

	John Collett was still listed as a widower in the census of 1851 when he was 39 years of age and residing at Britannia Street in Shoreditch. Under occupation it simply said ‘theatrical’ when his place of birth was said to be Westminster. Still living with him were his three children Jno P Collett who was 14, Kate S Collett who was 13 and Julia Collett who was eight years old and born around the time of the death of her mother. The place of birth for the two older children was recorded as St Pancras, while the youngest one was described as having been born at Clerkenwell.

	Sometime during the 1850s widower John Collett married (2) Elizabeth Hadcock, a widow from Norwich who already had at least one child from her first marriage. By 1861 the census that year placed John and his family at Richmond Grove in Islington. John Collett from Lambeth was 49, his wife Elizabeth from Norwich was also 49 and with the couple that day was Elizabeth’s daughter Elizabeth Hadcock who was 27 and from Great Yarmouth, together with John’s unmarried daughter Julia Collett from Islington who was 18. Staying with the family that day was John’s married daughter Ellen W Morley who was 21 and born at Islington. She had with her, her husband John S Morley who was 25 and from Kingston-Upon-Hull in Yorkshire, together with his sister Salome Morley who was 28

	Three years later the couple’s youngest daughter left the family home to be married and on her marriage certificate her father’s occupation was stated to be that of a comedian, also confirmed in the subsequent census returns. In the census of 1871 John, aged 59, and Elizabeth, aged 58, were living as lodgers at a house in Islington. John was again earning a living as a comedian, so it therefore seems highly likely that it may have been his work that resulted in him travelling around the country, making it more difficult to identify him in the earlier census returns.

	According to the next census in 1881, comedian John Collett from Lambeth was 69 and a lodger at 45 Hunter Street in Bloomsbury, the home of Alfred Brennan and his wife Mary Brennan. Still accompanying John on his travels was his wife Elizabeth who was also 69.

	71O3	John Pearson Collett				Born in 1836 at St Pancras
	71O4	Catherine Sarah Collett				Born in 1837 at St Pancras
	71O5	Ellen Wilmshurst Collett				Born in 1839 at Islington
	71O6	Julia Collett				Born in 1843 at Islington


71N5	Ann Hosier Collett was born at Lambeth on 27^th February 1814, where she was baptised eighteen months after at the Church of St Mary on 3^rd September 1815, another daughter of Timothy and Susannah Collett. It was also at St Mary’s Church that she married Joseph Groom on 3^rd April 1838, when her family was confirmed as Timothy Collett and Joseph’s father was named as John Groom. Their marriage produced at least eight children over the following fifteen years. On the day of the census in 1841 Joseph and Ann were staying at the home of widow Mary Morgan at Mount Row in Lambeth with their eldest daughter Jane Groom who was five months old. Where the couple’s first child was that day is not known, but their son Alfred Groom would have been two years of age.

	Ten years later Alfred was living with his family at Lavina Grove in Islington. Joseph from Clerkenwell was 39 and a clerk working for a solicitor. His wife Ann H Groom from Lambeth was 37 and their six children that day were listed as Alfred who was 12, Jane who was 10, Mary who was eight, Susannah who was five, Charles who was four and Joseph who was two years old. Employed by the family was servant Margaret Flynn from Ireland who was 21. Curious on the day of the census in 1861 Joseph Groom was living on Richmond Crescent in Islington, but not with his family which was also living in the same street. By then he was 49 and a solicitor’s managing clerk.

	Living nearby was his wife Ann H Groom who was 47 with seven of Joseph’s children. There were Alfred H Groom aged 21, Mary Anne Groom aged 17, Susan Groom aged 15, Charles Collett Groom aged 14, Joseph Groom aged 12, George Groom aged nine, and Frederick Groom who was seven. The family’s servant that day was Eleanor Sophia Tasker from Bethnal Green who was 24. After a further ten years the reduced family was still in residence in Islington, where clerk Joseph Groom was 59, his wife Ann was 57, and their sons were Charles who was 24, Joseph who was 22 and Frederick who was 17. Harriet Mason aged 19 and from Marylebone in London was their servant that year.

	It was very likely at Richmond Crescent that the family was living in 1871, since it was at 5 Richmond Crescent in Islington that they were still living on the day of the census of 1881. Joseph Groom from Clerkenwell who was 69 was again described as at solicitor’s managing clerk and his wife Ann H Groom from Lambeth was 67. Only two of their children and one servant were recorded with them that day, and they were daughter Mary A Groom who was 38, son George Groom who was 29, and servant Emma Joulson who was 23.


71N6	Jane Collett was born at Lambeth in 1817 and was the youngest child of Timothy Collett and Susannah Collett Pearson. She was baptised at the Church of St Mary in Lambeth on 30^th March 1817 when she was confirmed as the daughter of Timothy and Susannah Collett. Following the death of her widowed father in 1846, with whom she had been living together with her older sister Sarah at Carlisle Street in Lambeth, Jane married James Owen Tomkins at St Mary’s Church on 12^th August 1848. The marriage register confirmed that Jane was the daughter of Timothy Collett, while James described as the son of William Tomkins.


71N7	Mary Collett was born at Camberwell on 7^th March 1805 and was baptised there at St Giles Church on 15^th April 1805, the eldest known child of Jno Collett and Sarah Harrison.


71N8	Sarah Elizabeth Collett was born at Camberwell on 8^th February 1808 and it was there at St Giles Church where she was baptised on 18^th April 1808, the second child of John and Sarah Collett.


71N9	Emma Collett was born at Camberwell in 1814, the third daughter of John and Sarah Collett who was baptised at St Giles Church in Camberwell on 3^rd July 1814.


71N10	Caroline Collett was born at Camberwell in 1820 and was the last known child of John Collett and Sarah Harrison. She was baptised at St Giles Church, Camberwell, on 2^nd April 1820 and was only a few years old when her mother died, following which her father married Frances Holyman who was half his age.


71N11	Mary Ruth Collett was born at Walworth on 22^nd May 1831 but was not baptised until she was nearly three years old. She was the first child of John Collett and Frances Jane Holyman and was baptised at St Mary’s Church in Newington, London in a joint ceremony with her brother John (below) on 29^th January 1834. In June 1841 Mary Collett was 10 years old when she and her family were living at Ann’s Place in Bermondsey. She was 21 in 1851 when she was living with her mother at Russell Street in Bermondsey after the passing of her father in 1849.


71N12	John Henry Collett was born at Walworth on 10^th August 1832 and was baptised with his sister Mary (above) on 29^th January 1834 at the Church of St Mary in Newington when their parents were confirmed as John and Frances Collett. The census of 1841 included Henry Collett aged nine years living with his family at Ann’s Place in Bermondsey. On leaving school, it was as John Collett, date of birth 1832, that he joined the Merchant Navy, but sadly he may have suffered some tragic accident because his death was recorded at Bermondsey (Ref. iv 76) during the third quarter of 1849.


71N13	Frances Ann Collett was born at Walworth in 1834 and was baptised at the Church of St John the Evangelist in Lambeth on 17^th December 1834, the daughter of John and Frances Collett. As simply Frances Collett she was seven years of age in the Bermondsey census of 1841 living with her family at Ann’s Place. After her father died in 1849 the family moved to Russell Street in Bermondsey where Frances Collett was 17 in 1851, although she had left home by 1861 when she may have been married.


71N14	Elizabeth Priscilla Collett was born at Walworth during 1836 and was baptised on 20^th November 1836 at St John the Evangelist Church in Lambeth, another daughter of John and Frances Collett. It was as Betsey Collett aged six years that she was living with her family at Ann’s Place in Bermondsey in 1841. There was no child named Elizabeth or Betsey living with the family in 1851, but seven years later she married Joseph Legg at St James Church in Shoreditch on 14^th November 1858, the event recorded at Shoreditch (Ref. 1c 308) during the final quarter of that year. Elizabeth and Joseph were both 22 years old, and the bride’s father was named as John William Collett, the groom’s father named as Henry Legg.


71N15	John William Collett was born at Bermondsey in 1838, where he was baptised at St Mary Magdalen on 26^th August 1838, the son of John and Frances Collett. John Collett was three years of age in the June census of 1841 when he and his family were recorded at Ann’s Place in Bermondsey. As simply John Collett, he was recorded as aged 15, rather than 13, having left school. Under occupation on the census return for 1851, were the words “at home”. That may have been because, as the eldest son, living with his widowed mother at Russell Street in Bermondsey, he may have been assisting his mother with domestic chores following the death of his father two years earlier.

	John eventually ended up married with him and his wife and two children emigrating to Canada. Their daughter was born around 1860, before the family moved abroad. Louisa’s married name was Louisa Cousins, and it was on 28^th October 1919 that she died in Toronto and was buried at St John’s Cemetery. The record of her death, confirmed that she was 59 and residing at 37 Morse Street in St Johns, had been born in England and was the daughter of William John Collett and Mary Messenger. The cause of her death was a cerebral haemorrhage over the previous three days.

	From this initial information about the family, it was revealed that William John Collett married Mary Hannah Messager during the summer of 1857, with their wedding recorded at Bermondsey (Ref. 1d 82). As Mary Anna Messenger, the daughter of Samuel and Anna Messenger, she was baptised on 28^th January 1838 at the Church of St Mary Magdelene in East Ham, Newham, London. The baptism record also confirmed that she was born on 1^st January that same year.

	In total the couple gave birth to six children when they were still living England, the eldest being their only son, who was very likely a honeymoon baby.

	By 1871 all eight members of the family were recorded at York Township in the Canadian census for East York, Toronto, York County. On that day, it was as John William Collett, a labourer, that he was 33, as was his wife Mary H Collett, when the six children were listed as Henry James Collett 13, Louisa Collett 11, Amelia Collett was eight, Mary Ann Collett who was seven, Emily Collett who was four, and Hannah Collett who was one year old. The four eldest children were attending school.

	Sometime after that census day, baby Hannah did not survive, while four further children were added to the family which, by 1881, was residing within the St Lawrence Ward of the City of Toronto. Head of the household John Collett was 43 and still working as a labourer, Mary H Collett was also 43, Henry J Collett was 23 and another labourer, Amelia Collett was 19 and a domestic servant, so too was Mary Ann Collett aged 17, and Emily Collett who was 15. The four new children were Ellen Collett who was nine, Alfred Collett who was seven, Charles Collett who was four, and Samuel Collett who was two years old.

	71O7	Henry James Collett				Born in 1858 at Bermondsey
	71O8	Louisa Collett				Born in 1859 at Bermondsey
	71O9	Amelia Collett				Born in 1861 at Bermondsey
	71O10	Mary Ann Collett				Born in 1865 at Bermondsey
	71O11	Emily Collett				Born in 1867 at Bermondsey
	71O12	Hannah Collett				Born in 1869 at Bermondsey
	71O13	Ellen Collett				Born in 1872 at Toronto
	71O14	Alfred Collett				Born in 1874 at Toronto
	71O15	Charles Collett				Born in 1877 at Toronto
	71O16	Samuel Collett				Born in 1879 at Toronto


71N16	Richard Collett was born at Bermondsey in January 1841, the son of John and Frances Collett, whose birth was recorded at Bermondsey (Ref. iv 2) during the first quarter of that year. He was five months old in the census of 1841 but tragically died in 1848 when he was seven years old and was buried in Bermondsey on 8^th November 1848.


71N17	Edward Collett was born at Bermondsey towards the end of 1842, his birth recorded there (Ref. iv 13) during the last three months of the year. It was on 15^th March 1843 that he was baptised at the Church of St James in Bermondsey, the son of John and Frances Collett. His father died when Edward was seven years old, following which he was living with his widowed mother at Russell Street in Bermondsey in 1851 when he was eight years old. By 1861 the family home was at Hickman’s Folly in Bermondsey where Edward was 18 and working as a labourer, the eldest of the four children still living with his mother. It was seventeen months later when the marriage of Edward Collett and Mary Ann Charlotte Pearcey from the St Lukes area of London was recorded at St Bartholomew’s Church in Moor Lane in the City of London on 22^nd September 1862. Mary was 19 and the daughter of Richard Pearcey and Edward was 21 and confirmed as the son of John Collett.

	Perhaps it was his work as a labourer that was the reason why their children were born at different locations within the London area. However, the couple had returned to Bermondsey by 1871 when the census that year described the family as follows. Edwd Collett who had been born at Bermondsey was 30 and still working as a labourer, Mary Ann was 28, Edwd junior was eight, John was six, Mary Ann junior was four and Thos Collett was two years of age. Another four children were born into the family over the next decade during a period of stability in their life, as all four were born at Bermondsey.

	In 1881 the extended family was residing at Salisbury Street in Bermondsey where Edward Collett, aged 40, was a dock worker, his wife Mary was 39, and their eight children were Edward aged 19, John aged 17, Mary aged 15, Thomas aged 12, Louisa who was nine, Joseph who was six, James who was four and Richard who was one year old. Edward’s occupation was still that of a dock worker ten years later in 1891, when he and his family were living at Marigold Place in Bermondsey. He was 50 years of age and had fathered a further two children by then. His wife Mary A Collett was also described as being 50, which was incorrect, while they still had seven of their ten known children living there with them. They were Thomas aged 22, Louisa aged 19, Joseph aged 16, James aged 13, Richard aged 11, Daniel who was nine and Frances who was six.

	Almost exactly nine years later Edward Collett, the father, passed away, his death recorded at Southwark St Olave (Ref. 1d 135) during the second quarter of 1900. Having lost her husband, Mary Ann was staying at the home of her married daughter Louisa Matthews at Abbey Street in Bermondsey within the Southwark St Olave registration district. Mary A Collett from St Lukes, whose age was incorrectly entered as 50, instead of 58 or 59, was described as a widow and the mother-in-law of head of the household James Matthews. Also living at the property, in addition to Mary Ann’s two Matthews grandchildren, were Mary Ann’s three youngest children, Richard who was 19, Daniel who was 18 and Elizabeth who was 16.

	From the Electoral Register for 1907 Mary Ann Collett was residing at 229 Abbey Street, although there was no one by the name of Matthews living in the street at that time. Four years later Mary Ann Collett, a widow of 68 from London St Lukes, was described as a grandmother when she was living with the eight-strong Smith family of William Henry Smith and his wife Margaret at 21 Litlington Road in Rotherhithe. Very shortly after that census day death of Mary A Collett aged 67 was recorded at Southwark St Olave register office (Ref. 1d 96) during the second quarter of 1911.

	71O17	Edward Charles James Collett				Born in 1862 at Bermondsey
	71O18	John Henry Collett				Born in 1864 at Poplar
	71O19	Mary Ann Collett				Born in 1867 at Rotherhithe
	71O20	Thomas Collett				Born in 1869 at Bermondsey
	71O21	Louisa Jane Collett				Born in 1872 at Bermondsey
	71O22	Joseph M Collett				Born in 1875 at Bermondsey
	71O23	James Collett				Born in 1877 at Bermondsey
	71O24	Richard Collett				Born in 1880 at Bermondsey
	71O25	Daniel Charles Collett				Born in 1882 at Bermondsey
	71O26	Frances Elizabeth Collett				Born in 1885 at Bermondsey


71N18	Sarah Collett was born at Bermondsey in early 1845, the birth recorded at Bermondsey (Ref. iv 11) during the first quarter of that year. Sarah was baptised at St James Church in Bermondsey on 13^th July 1845, when her parents were confirmed as John and Frances Collett. Sarah was six in 1851 and was 16 in 1861, on both occasions she was living with her widowed mother, first at Russell Street in Bermondsey and then at Hickman’s Folly.


71N19	Emily Collett was born at Bermondsey on 11^th January 1847 and her birth was recorded there (Ref. iv 7) during the first quarter of that year. She was baptised at Bermondsey on 12^th February 1847, the ninth child and youngest known daughter of John and Frances Collett. She was four years old in 1851 when living with her widowed mother at Russell Street in Bermondsey following the death of her father two years earlier. In 1861 Emily was 14 and a servant when she was one of the four children living with her mother at Hickman’s Folly in Bermondsey where she was one of only two children still living with her in 1871 at the age of 24.

	At that time in her life Emily may have been ‘going steady’ since it was during the following year that she became a married woman. The marriage of Emily Collett and James Aslett Clark took place at St John’s Church in Walworth on 11^th March 1872. The church register confirmed that Emily’s father was John Collett, while James was named as the son of Jesse Aslett Clark. Once married they had six children, the last of which was Phoebe who was born at Bermondsey on 10^th February 1890. Phoebe Aslett Clark married Albert Thomas Squires on 26^th December 1912 and that union produced five children, all born at Bermondsey, the youngest being Reginald D Squires who was born during October 1929, and the author of the earlier report on the military life of his great grandfather John Collett


71N20	James Thomas Collett was born at Bermondsey during December 1849 and was fourteen months old in the census of 1851. His birth was recorded at Bermondsey (Ref. iv 6) during the first three months of 1850, the last known child of John Collett, who had died before he was born, and his wife Frances Jane Holyman. James was fourteen months old in the census of 1851 when living with his widowed mother at Russell Street in Bermondsey. During the next decade the family moved to Hickman’s Folly in Bermondsey where James was 11 years of age in 1861. After a further ten years James, at the age of 21, was a warehouse man and one of only two children still living with his mother in Bermondsey. Just over one year later, James Thomas Collett was 22 and a shopman when he was married by banns to Esther Tatum, aged 19, at Christ Church on 7^th July 1872. Father of the groom was John Collett, an oil boiler, and the father of the bride was Hiram Tatum (deceased).

	Esther Tatum was born at Raydon in Suffolk, the eldest child of Hiram and Mary Tatum who moved to Bermondsey not long after Esther was born, where the family was living in 1861 and 1871. By 1881 Esther had given birth to five children, the fourth child having already suffered an infant death, and the census that year confirmed that the family of James Collett was residing 18 Frean Street in Bermondsey, the same street where his mother Frances was also living that year at 1 Frean Street. James R Collett was 29 and a storeman at a marine store (general dealership). Esther was 27 and their four children were Esther Collett who was seven, George T Collett who was six, Frances M Collett who was four, and Edith Collett who was not yet one year old, each of them born at a different location in London. Esther could easily have been expecting the birth of her fifth child on the day of the census in 1881, as another son was born not long after, and he was followed by a further five children before the end of the decade.

	It is likely that James took over the management of the marine store because, according to the next census of 1891, he and his family were residing at Marine Street, off Jamaica Road, in Bermondsey, not far from the south bank of the River Thames. Their previous home at Frean Street was also only a very short distance away, while the census return in 1891 described James Collett from Bermondsey as 39 years of age and a marine store dealer. Wife Esther was 37, from Shelley near Raydon, and the ten children were Esther aged 17, George aged 16, Frances aged 14, Edith aged 10, James who was nine, John who was seven, Ernest who was five, William who was three, Florence who was two, and Albert who was only five months old. It is very interesting that also in 1891, the family of Alfred George Collett was living at Marine Street, although no direct connection between the two families has been found. The details relating to the known family of Alfred George Collett, born Bermondsey in 1861, can be found in Appendix One at the end of this file.

	Just three more children were added to the family at Marine Street, where they were still living in March 1901. However, on that occasion only eight of their thirteen children were still at the family home with James and Esther, with son Ernest Hiram Collett already in the navy. James was 51 and a general merchant, Esther was 47, Frances was 24, Edith was 20, John was 17, William was 13, Albert was 11, and the three new children were Arthur Collett who was nine, Gertrude Collett who was six, and Leonard Collett who was four years of age. The Electoral Register published for Bermondsey in 1907 and again in 1910 confirmed that James Thomas Collett was residing at 1 Marine Street.

	The next census in 1911 reveals some interesting facts. The family was once again confirmed as being the occupants of the five-roomed property that was 1 Marine Street in Bermondsey when, for some reason, the census return was signed by son William Collett on behalf of his father. For the previous version of this family line, only thirteen children were credited to James and Esther. During 2023 the couple’s previously missing fourth children has been added to complete the list below, thanks to information received from James’ great grandson. The 1911 census return confirmed that Esther had given birth to that number of children during 39 years of being married to James, of whom only eleven were still living. Whilst it is established that their previously undiscovered daughter Rose died prior the 1881, the other two children who did not survive may have come from James, Ernest, and Florence, all of whom were absent from the household after 1891.

	The complete list of those living at 1 Marine Street in April 1911 comprised James T Collett who was 60 and a marine store dealer and an employer, Esther Collett who was 58 and from Raydon in Suffolk – just east of Shelley, William Collett who was 24 and a journeyman butcher, Albert Collett who was 20 and a lithograph printer’s apprentice, Arthur H Collett who was 17 and a stockbroker’s clerk, Gertrude G Collett who was 16 with no occupation, and Leonard Collett who was 14 and a factory boy working for a tea salesman. Eleven years following that census day, James T Collett was 72 when he died in 1922, his death recorded at St Olaves London (Ref. 1d 163) during the second quarter of that year. According to the electoral rolls, James Thomas Collett was a resident at 91A Lower Road in Rotherhithe in 1919 through to 1922, although it was at 48A Lower Road where he died. Following his passing, his wife continued to live there until 1934 and, after eighteen years as a widow, the death of Esther Collett was recorded at Lewisham register office (Ref. 1d 1852) during the quarter of 1940, when she was 86.

	71O27	Esther Julia Collett				Born in 1873 in the City of London
	71O28	George Thomas Collett				Born in 1875 at Clerkenwell
	71O29	Mary Frances Collett				Born in 1876 at St Pancras
	71O30	Rosina (Rose) Collett				Born in 1878 at Clerkenwell
	71O31	Edith Elizabeth Collett				Born in 1880 at Bermondsey
	71O32	James Edward Collett				Born in 1881 at Bermondsey
	71O33	Henry John Collett				Born in 1883 at Bermondsey
	71O34	Ernest Hiram Collett				Born in 1885 at Bermondsey
	71O35	William Collett				Born in 1887 at Bermondsey
	71O36	Florence Grace Collett				Born in 1888 at Bermondsey
	71O37	Albert Collett				Born in 1890 at Bermondsey
	71O38	Arthur Henry Collett				Born in 1893 at Bermondsey
	71O39	Gertrude Grace Collett				Born in 1894 at Bermondsey
	71O40	Edward Leonard Collett				Born in 1896 at Bermondsey


71O1	Julia Anne Collett was born at Lambeth in 1836, where she was baptised at the Church of St John the Evangelist on 27^th July 1836, the only know child of William Pearson Collett and Mary Thomson. Either during the birth or just after, her mother died, and when Julia was two years old her father married Amelia Eustace, that second marriage producing a half-brother for young Julia. She was twenty years old when the marriage of Julia Anne Collett and John Calvert / Joseph James Harrison was recorded at Lewisham (Ref. 1d 968) during the third quarter of 1856.

	By 1861 the couple was residing at Green Street in the Christchurch area of Southwark, south of the River Thames, and very close to Lambeth. John Calvert from Hull was 32 and a blacksmith, and his wife Julia Calvert was 27 and she was born within that area of South London. Twenty years later, the childless couple was living at Church Row in Limehouse, Middlesex from where John was 52 and ‘a smith’, and Julia was 46. Once again, their respective birthplaces were recorded as Hull and Surrey. Staying at the same address that day were the four members of the Collins family, the two adult children having been born at Limehouse.

	After a further twenty years, Julia A Calvert aged 65 and her husband John Calvert aged 72, were the owners of a lodging house at Tweddell Street in Hartlepool who, on that census day in 1901, had thirteen tradesmen staying on the premises, mostly dock workers. Julia from Surrey was 65, and John was 72 and from Hull, who described himself as a lodging house keeper and former blacksmith. Prior to that day, the couple had adopted Ethel Long who was twelve years of age and from Southampton.


71O2	William Eustace Collett was born at Lambeth on 24^th September 1839 and was the only known child of William Pearson Collett from Liverpool and Amelia Eustace from Southwark. His birth was registered at St Saviour Southwark (Ref. iv 420). He was baptised at Christ Church in Southwark on 8^th March 1840 when his parents were confirmed as William Pearson Collett and his wife Amelia. The marriage of William Eustace Collett to Hannah London was recorded at Newington (Ref. 1d 310) during the third quarter of 1859. Hannah was born in 1837 and was the daughter of Francis London and Hannah Glenister. According to the census in 1871 the family of William E Collett was residing at 48 Clayton Street, Kennington (aka Clayton Street, Lambeth) within the London Borough of Lambeth. William was 32 and employed as a solicitor’s clerk who had been born at Lambeth, like all the other members of his family. His wife Hannah was 33 and their seven children were named as William E Collett who was 11, Francis G Collett who was eight, Henry P Collett who was six, Percy J Collett who was five, Frederick A Collett who was four, Sidney N Collett who was three, and Septimus E Collett who was one year old.

	Just two more children were added to their family over the following three years and it was also during that decade when William ceased working in a solicitor’s office, since his occupation by 1881 was that of a proctor’s clerk, most likely at a university nearby. Also, the family was still living on Clayton Street, but had moved from number 48 to number 3 sometime during the intervening years. One of the children, scholar Frederick, was not recorded as living at the family home, but instead was included with a family nearby at number 6 Clapham Road in Lambeth. The Collett family recorded at 3 Clayton Street was listed as William E who was 41, Hannah who was also 41, William E who was 21, Francis G who was 18, Henry P who was 16, Percy J who was 14, Sidney H who was 13, Septimus E who was 11, Clarence A who was nine, and Amelia H who was six years old.

	Staying with the large family on that census day in 1881 was Hannah’s unmarried sister Martha London who was 34 with no stated occupation, so was perhaps helping Hannah look after her family. On the day of the census in 1891 William was absent from the family home at 104 Camberwell New Road in Brixton, to the south-east of Kennington, leaving Hannah Callett (sic) who was 53 and the head of the household. Four of her sons and her only daughter were the only children with her, together with her widowed father-in-law William P Collett who was 84. The five children of William and Hannah were listed as Francis G who was 28, Percy J who was 25, Fredk A who was 24, Sidney H who was 23 and Amelia H who was 15. The Electoral Registers from 1890 through to 1901 confirmed the address of William Eustace Collett as 104 Camberwell New Road, Brixton but, shortly after publication of the 1901 listing, the family left Camberwell New Road. The census that year placed William and Hannah as living at separate addresses, with William described as a lodger at nearby St Agnes Place to the east of Kennington and his wife as head of the household at St Stephen’s Terrace in South Lambeth.

	According to the census in 1901 Hannah Collett was 63 who, had living with her, her daughter Amelia H Collett who was unmarried at 25, and her grandson Clarence H Collett who was 12 years of age. Clarence was the third child of Hannah’s eldest son William Eustace Collett and his wife Emma Caroline Thomson. On that same day William E Collett, also aged 63, was living on his own means as a boarder at the home of Mary E Emmett at St Agnes Place in Walworth. Mary from Greenwich was the sister-in-law of William’s son Francis Glenister Collett and had living with her, her six-year-old daughter Edith M Emmett.

	It is apparent that William and his wife Hannah lived apart for the last fourteen years of their life. It was not surprising, that three years later, after the death of William Eustace Collett was recorded at Lambeth register office (Ref. 1d 170) during the second quarter of 1904, that the sole beneficiary under the term of his Will proved in Surrey on 14^th June 1904, was Mary Eliza Emmett. He had passed away six weeks earlier and was buried at Lambeth on 5^th May 1904, aged 66.

	71P1	William Eustace Collett				Born in 1859 at Kennington
	71P2	Francis Glenister Collett				Born in 1862 at Kennington
	71P3	Henry P Collett				Born in 1864 at Kennington
	71P4	Percy John Collett				Born in 1865 at Kennington
	71P5	Frederick Arthur Collett				Born in 1867 at Kennington
	71P6	Sidney Herbert Collett				Born in 1868 at Kennington
	71P7	Septimus E Collett				Born in 1869 at Kennington
	71P8	Clarence Alfred Collett				Born in 1872 at Kennington
	71P9	Amelia Hannah Collett				Born in 1875 at Kennington


71O3	John Pearson Collett was born at St Pancras in 1836, the eldest child of John and Catherine Collett. It was as John Pearson Collett that he was baptised at St Pancras on 13^th July 1836, the son of John Collett and Katherine Elizabeth Collett. Simply as John Collett, he was five years old in 1841 when he was living at Charles Street in Covent Garden with his family. Ten years later he was described as Jno P Collett from St Pancras in 1851, when he was 14 and living at Britannia Street in Shoreditch. It was towards the end of the following decade that he married school teacher Rosalind Huntley Nicholls Howitt from Cheltenham. By the time of the census in 1861 the childless couple was living at Selattyn within the parish of Hengoed in Shropshire. John P Collett was from London was 24 and a railway station master and his wife Rosalind was 23.

	From the information provided by Gordon Howitt in 2018, his great great aunt Rosalind was born in 1836 and baptised at St Mary's Cheltenham, the illegitimate daughter of Felix Huntley Howitt and possibly Eliza Preedy of the parish of St Nicholas in Gloucester. It would appear her early years were spent in the care of her paternal grandparents William and Sarah Howitt. In 1841 Rosa Howitt was four years old when she was living with her grandparents at the Spa and Pump Rooms in the village of Hempsted, to the south-west of the City of Gloucester. Rosalind Howitt from Cheltenham was 14 in the next census of 1851 when she was still living with her grandparents, lay clerk William Howitt and his wife Sarah at their home on Princes Street in the Barton St Mary district of Gloucester.

	During the 1860s Rosalind gave birth to three daughters, the first of them born at High Wycombe, the other two in Shropshire, although the middle child was not living with John or Rosalind in 1871. The other two girls were living with their father on the day of the census that year, while their mother was a governess and a boarder at a nearby school in Drayton Magna, now a part of Market Drayton. John P Collett from London was 33 and was still employed as a railway station master. His two daughters were Katherine E Collett who was six and from Buckinghamshire and Edith Collett who was two years of age and born at Market Drayton. Staying with the family, most likely to look after the two girls while John was at work, was his sister Catherine S Collett (below), also from London, who was 32. The girls’ mother, Rosalind Collett from Cheltenham, was also 32 and described as a daily governess and a boarder at the home of master blacksmith John Bruckshaw and his wife Elizabeth. That probably means she returned to the Bruckshaw home at the end of each school day, which raises two questions. Had Rosalind separated from her family by then and where was her missing daughter Rosalind Mary?

	The baptism of the couple’s absent daughter was confirmed within the records at Market Drayton as follows. Rosalind Mary Collett was baptised on 16^th March 1868, the daughter of John Pearson Collett and Rosalind Huntley Nicholls Howitt Collett. It was four years after she was born that John Pearson Collett divorced his wife, following the discovery that Rosalind had given birth to twins John Bruckshaw and Henry Bruckshaw, the father being John Bruckshaw of Market Drayton. It seems very poignant that John’s daughter Rosalind Mary Collett was 14 in 1881 when she was again living with her father but simply as Mary Collett, having drop her mother’s christian name. Sometime during the 1880s John left Shropshire and moved south to Weymouth in Dorset, and it was at Ranalagh Terrace in the Melcombe Regis district of Weymouth that he was living with two of his three daughters in 1891.

	John P Collett from London was 40 (rather than 44) and was still working on the railway. Still helping John look after his daughters was his sister Catherine Collett who was 30 (rather than 43), while the two girls were Mary Collett and Edith Collett who was 12, both them born at Market Drayton. One decade later the same four members of this Collett family were still residing in Melcombe Regis, but at a dwelling in Cobourg Place. As in the earlier census return the ages of all of them were at odds with their real ages. Widower John P Collett was continuing to work as a railway station master and was recorded as being 50 instead of 54. His sister Catherine, listed as K S Collett, said she was 45 instead of 53, and John’s daughters were described as Rosalind M Collett who was 22 and not 24 and Edith Collett who was recorded as 20 years of age instead of 22.

	It was a very similar situation ten years later when, according to the census in 1901, John Pearson Collett from St Pancras and a widower was again recorded as still living in Melcombe Regis. Also, once again his age was incorrectly entered on the census return as 60 and not 64. Still living with him was his sister Katherine Sarah Collett who was 55 and his daughter Rosalind Mary Collett who was 31. Their live-in domestic servant was Elizabeth Alice Harren who was 19 years of age. John Pearson Collett was residing at 4 Gloucester Road in Weymouth when he died on 8^th February 1909 at the age of 70 (sic). He was buried at Melcombe Regis on 10^th February and it was his eldest daughter Catherine Eliza Collett, a spinster, who was granted administration of his personal estate valued at £468 19 Shillings and 9 Pence.

	71P10	Catherine Eliza Collett				Born in 1865 at High Wycombe
	71P11	Rosalind Mary Collett				Born in 1867 at Market Drayton
	71P12	Edith Collett				Born in 1868 at Market Drayton


71O4	Catherine Sarah Collett was born at St Pancras in 1837 and was the second child and eldest daughter of John and Catherine Collett. Her birth was recorded at St Pancras (Ref. i 151) during the final quarter of 1837 and she was baptised at Old Church in St Pancras on 3^rd December 1837, the baptism record also confirming that she was the daughter John and Catherine and had been born on 12^th November 1837 who were residences of the parish of St Peter’s Camden Town. It is possible that she never married because from 1871 through to 1901 she was living with her brother John Pearson Collett (above), looking after his three daughters. It was at Drayton Magna in Shropshire that she was 32 in 1871 and at Melcombe Regis in Weymouth in 1881 when she was said to be 30 (?) and 45 in 1891 when she would have been around 53. Ten years later the next census in 1901 described unmarried Katherine Sarah Collett from St Pancras as being 55, when she was really 63, and still living at the home of her brother in Melcombe Regis.


71O5	Ellen Wilmshurst Collett was born at Islington at the end of 1839, a daughter John Collett and his first wife Catherine who died when Ellen was four years old. It is possible she was born when her parents were living on Charles Street in Covent Garden, where the family was living in 1841 when Ellen was one year old. However, it was at St Pancras where her birth, as simply Ellen Collett, was recorded (Ref. i 256) during the first three months of 1840. Where she was on the day of the census in 1851 remains a mystery, as she was not living with her widowed father, a theatrical performer, and the rest of her family at Britannia Street in Shoreditch.

	Eight years later, as Ellen Wilmshurst Collett, she married omnibus conductor John Septimus Morley from Hull during the second quarter of 1859, the event recorded at Lambeth (Ref. 1d 539). Two years later, on the day of the census in 1861, Ellen and her husband were staying with Ellen’s parents at Richmond Grove in Islington. Ellen W Morley was 21 and her husband John was 25. John’s older sister Salome Morley aged 28 was also living there at that time and she later married to become Salome Newman.

	By 1871 the couple had no children when they were still living in Islington where John was 34 and a travelling salesman and Ellen was 31. Also living at that same address was Ellen’s younger married sister Julia (below) with her base-born daughter Mary Collett. On that occasion Ellen may well have been due to give the birth because, tragically not long after, the death of Ellen Wilmshurst Morley nee Collett, aged 31, was recorded at Islington (Ref. 1b 143) during the second quarter of 1871. Following the premature death of his wife John returned to Yorkshire and was living at Patrington to the east of Hull where his death was recorded three years later during the first quarter of 1874 when he was 37.

	John Septimus Morley was born Kingston-upon-Hull on 28^th January 1836, the son of Josephus and Sarah Morley. He was two months old when he was baptised at the Ebenezer Chapel in Dagger Lane in Hull on 22^nd March 1836, when his parents were once again confirmed and Josephus and Sarah Morley. He was the third of four children born to clerk Josephus who work eventually took the family to live in London when John was around four years old. It was at City Road in the St Luke’s district of Middlesex that John was 15 years of age and still attending school, when living there with his family in 1851. By 1871 Josephus and Sarah, both 64, were living in Islington with their married daughter Salome Newman who was 38.


71O6	Julia Collett was born at Islington in 1843 and was the youngest child of John Collett and his first wife Catherine who tragically did not survive the ordeal of her birth. She was eight years old in the census of 1851 when she was living with her widowed father at Britannia Street in Shoreditch. On that day her place of birth was recorded as Clerkenwell. During the following years her father remarried and it was with him and her stepmother that Julia was living in 1861 at Richmond Grove in Islington when she was 18. The census return that year gave her place of birth as Islington. Three years later at St James’ Church in Clerkenwell, when Julia Collett was 21, she married John Richardson Dighton who was 24 on 20^th March 1864. John was named as the son of Dighton, while Julia was confirmed as the daughter of John Collett, a comedian. In the Islington census of 1871 Julia Dighton, aged 28, was described as the sister-in-law of John Septimus Morley, the husband of Julia’s sister Ellen (above). Where John Dighton was on that day is not known.

	John R Dighton was born at Cambridge Street in Godmanchester, Huntingdonshire, in 1839 and was the son of police constable John Dighton and his wife Joanna Weldon. Shortly after the census in 1871 John and Julia settled in London and it was at Battersea that their only known child was born. However, by 1881 the family was recorded living in Palmerston Road in Wimbledon. John R Dighton was 41 and a railway engine fitter, Julia was 38 and their son Ernest was six years of age. Visiting the family was Kate Collett from High Wycombe who was 16, the daughter of Julie’s brother John Pearson Collett (above).

	It was at Merton Road in Wimbledon that the family of three was living in 1891, by which time John R Dighton was working on a farm as a farm engineer. He was 51, Julia was 47 and Ernest J Dighton was 16. Another change of address occurred in the next few years since it was at Latimer Road in Wimbledon that they were recorded in the census of 1901. John R Dighton was 61 and his occupation was that of a steam engine maker and fitter, Julia was 57 and Ernest J C Dighton was 26. At that time in their life the employed a servant, Caroline Mitchell from Battersea who was 23.

	It was just less than six years later that Julia died, with the death of Julie Dighton recorded at Kingston-on-Thames register office (Ref. 2a 312) during the first quarter of 1907. Four years after being widowed, John Richardson Dighton from Godmanchester was 71 and living in Wimbledon when his only companion was his housekeeper and sister-in-law 66-year-old Emily Le Marshall from Mile End in London. John R Dighton survived his wife by fifteen years and was still living in the Wimbledon area when he died in 1922, with his death at the age of 83 also recorded at Kingston-on-Thames register office (Ref. 2a 465) during the last three months of that year.


71O7	Henry James Collett was born at Bermondsey in 1858, the first-born child of William John Collett and Mary Hannah (Anna) Messenger. His birth was registered at Bermondsey (Ref. 1d 71) during the first quarter of that year, around nine months after his parents’ wedding day. It was around 1870 that his whole family sailed to a new life Canada, as confirmed in the Toronto census of 1871 when Henry James from England was 13 and still at school, when living with his family at York Township. Henry James Collett married Lilian Cutmore and their son Arthur Thomas Collett was born in Toronto in 1889, and was followed two years after with the birth Alfred Wildale Collett.

	Henry was only 38 years old when his life ended, when he was an express driver, so there is the possibility that he died on 4^th March 1897 as the result of an accident at work. The record of his death confirmed he had been born at London in England and had died at The Beaches in Toronto and was buried at St John’s Norway Cemetery & Crematorium.

	71P13	Arthur Thomas Collett				Born in 1889 at Toronto
	71P14	Alfred Wildale Collett				Born in 1891 at Toronto


71O8	Louisa Collett was born at Bermondsey in 1860, where her birth was register (Ref. 1d 54) during the third quarter of 1859. She was the eldest of the five daughters of William and Mary Collett. Louisa’s married name was Louisa Cousins, and it was on 28^th October 1919 that she died in Toronto and was buried at St John’s Cemetery. The record of her death, confirmed that she was 59 and residing at 37 Morse Street in St Johns, had been born in England and was the daughter of William John Collett and Mary Messenger. The cause of her death was a cerebral haemorrhage over the previous three days.


71O9	Amelia Collett was born at Bermondsey on 31^st October 1862, where her birth was registered (Ref. 1d 67) during the last three months of that year, another daughter of William and Mary Collett. No record of her or her family has been found in 1861 while, by 1871 the whole family was living at York Township in Toronto, Canada, where Amelia was eight years of age. It was the same situation in 1881, except it was within St Lawrence Ward in the City of Toronto that they were residing, when Amelia Collett was 19 and working as a domestic servant like two younger sisters. Shortly after that census day Amelia married Alfred Edward Herington and their Toronto born children were Florence Edith Maud Herington in 1884, Herbert Charles Herington in 1886, Gordon Herington in 1887, Clifford Herington born on 14^th October 1888, Bertha Collett Herington in 1892, Harold Percy Herington in 1895, and Claude Jeffery Herington in 1897. Amelia Herington, nee Collett, died in Toronto on 30^th August 1954.


71O10	Mary Ann Collett was the fourth child of William and Mary Collett and was born at Bermondsey in 1865. It was also at Bermondsey that her birth was registered (Ref. 1d 58) during the second quarter of the year. She was five or six years old when her family left London for a new life in Toronto, Canada, where Mary Ann was seven years old in 1871, and was 17 and a domestic servant in 1881.


71O11	Emily Collett was born at Bermondsey in 1867, with her birth registered there (Ref. 1d 58) during the last three months of the year. By 1871 Emily was four years old and living with her family was York Township in Toronto where, in 1881 she was 15 and a domestic servant still living with the family within the St Lawrence Ward of the City of Toronto.


71O12	Hannah Collett was the last child of William and Mary to be born in England in March 1869 before the family emigrated to Canada, where they were recorded in the Toronto census of 1871, at York Township where Hannah was one year old. Her birth, like those of her older siblings, was registered at Bermondsey (Ref. 1d 83) during the second quarter of 1869. She was only nine years and ten months when she died on 3^rd May 1879. The cause of her premature death was consumption of the bowels with which she had suffered for four months prior.


71O15	Charles Collett was born at Toronto on 2^nd June 1877, another child of John (William) and Mary Collett from London, England. Tragically, he was another son who died while in his thirties, when he died on 29^th November 1911 at Thessalon in Algoma County, Ontario. He was 34 years of age and working as a cook, with the record of his passing confirming he was the son of William John Collett and Mary Hannah Messenger.


71O17	Edward Charles James Collett was born at Bermondsey near the end of 1862 and was the first child born to Edward and Mary Ann Collett. It was also at Bermondsey (Ref. 1d 85) that his birth was recorded during the first quarter of 1863. Although the family moved around the south London area during the years following his birth, they were once again living in Bermondsey in 1871 when Edward Collett was eight years of age. After that census day, all four of Edward’s youngest siblings were born at Bermondsey where, ten years later, the extended family was residing at Salisbury Street in Bermondsey where Edward Collett was 19 and a dock labourer working with his father.

	During the 1880s, his family moved to Marigold Place in Bermondsey where they were all living in 1891, although, by that time Edward was a married man. Edward C Collett was 28 and still employed as a dock labourer. His wife Alice Collett was also from Bermondsey and was 26, while their three children were Edward Collett who was five, James Collett who was two and John Collett who was around five months old. Three daughters were added to the family during the last decade of the century. However, by the time of the birth of the last child, the death of Edward Collett, aged 36, had already been recorded at St Olave Southwark (Ref. 1d 182) during the first three months of 1899.

	Two years after he died, his family was living at Llama Place in Bermondsey on the day of the census in 1901, where Alice Collett, aged 38, was head of the household. Only five children were living there with her, and they were Edward who was 15, James who was 12, Ellen who was nine, Alice who was six, and Lily who was one year old. Ten years later, it was just Alice Collett, a widow at the age of 48 who was a furrier working in the fur trade, and her three daughters who were living in Bermondsey in 1911. Ellen Collett was 19, Alice Collett was 16, and Lily Collett was 11 years of age.

	The only other information currently known about this family, is that the eldest son Edward Collett was still residing in the London area when he died, with his death recorded at Camberwell register office (Ref. 1d 954) during the first three months of 1942, when he was 56. The death of son James Collett was recorded at Bermondsey register office (Ref.1d 44) during the first quarter of 1944, when he was 55.

	71P15	Edward Collett				Born in 1886 at Bermondsey
	71P16	James Collett				Born in 1888 at Bermondsey
	71P17	John Collett				Born in 1890 at Bermondsey
	71P18	Ellen Collett				Born in 1892 at Bermondsey
	71P19	Alice Collett				Born in 1894 at Bermondsey
	71P20	Elizabeth Lily Collett				Born in 1899 at Bermondsey


71O18	John Henry Collett was born at Poplar at the end of 1864 but his birth was recorded at Rotherhithe (Ref. 1d 638) during the first quarter of 1865 when the family moved there shortly after he was born. He was another son of Edward and Mary Ann Collett who in 1871 were living in Bermondsey where John was six years of age. It was at Salisbury Street in Bermondsey that John, aged 17, was with his family in 1881. His father was a docker and by 1901 John Collett from Rotherhithe was working as a waterside labourer at the age of 37. By that time, he had been married for around eight years, the marriage having given him and his wife Mary two children. Fulford Street in Rotherhithe was where the family was living in 1901 when John’s wife Mary from Bermondsey was 28. Their two sons were named as John Collett who was seven and born at Rotherhithe and James Collett who was four and born at Bermondsey.

	The census return for 1911 contains some interesting information, insofar that it states Mary had given birth to fourteen children of which only nine were still living. Curiously though, only four of those nine surviving children were recorded with couple that year, one of which, their daughter Mary, was not living with the couple and their two sons ten years earlier. This therefore means that there are five children missing from the family home in April 1911. The remainder of the household at 11 Hargrave Place in Bermondsey was listed as follows: John H Collett was 46 and a dock labourer, his wife Mary was 39, daughter Mary Collett was 18 and a tin box maker, John Collett was 17 and a car man at a sawmill, James Collett was 14 and an errand boy also the sawmill, and Timothy Collett was six years of age and attending school. All four children had been born at Bermondsey.

	John survived for just over two more decades, when the death of John H Collett aged 68 was recorded at St Olave register office (1d 112) during the third quarter of 1933. The birth of his eldest child Mary, was recorded at St Olave Bermondsey register office (Ref. 1d 230) during the third quarter of 1892, as it was for James (Ref. 1d 255) during the third quarter of 1896. In between them, a record of the birth of son John has not been found, nor has the one for Timothy.

	Knowing the couple had a total of 14 children, a search for the five who did not survive has revealed just two who could be the deceased children of John and Mary. They are Thomas Collett born in 1899 who was buried at Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey on 18^th August 1899, and Margaret Collett born in 1907 who was buried on 11^th September 1907. They both died at Bermondsey with their deaths recorded at St Olave Southwark register office (Ref. 1d 162) during the third quarter of 1907, and (Ref. 1d 89) during the summer of 1907. That still leaves three passed children unaccounted for, plus the surviving five not identified in the 1911 Census.

	71P21	Mary Collett				Born in 1892 at Bermondsey
	71P22	John Henry Collett				Born in 1894 at Bermondsey
	71P23	James Collett				Born in 1896 at Bermondsey
	71P23	Timothy Collett				Born in 1904 at Bermondsey


71O19	Mary Ann Collett was born at Rotherhithe very early in 1867 and it was at Rotherhithe where her birth was recorded (Ref. 1d 692) during the first three months of 1867, the third child and eldest daughter of Edward and Mary Ann Collett. In 1871 her family was living in Bermondsey where Mary Ann was four years of age and they were still living there at Salisbury Street in 1881 when Mary was 15.


71O20	Thomas Collett was born at Bermondsey in 1869, the birth recorded there (Ref. 1d 52) during the third quarter of the year. ‘Thos’ the son of Edward and Mary Ann Collett was two in 1871 and as Thomas Collett was 12 in 1881 at Salisbury Street in Bermondsey. Thomas was 22 on the day of the next census in 1891, by which time he and his family were recorded at Marigold Place in Bermondsey. That may have been a busy time in the Collett household, as both Thomas and his sister Louisa (below) were very likely preparing for their respective wedding days later that year. It was four months later when Thomas married Mary Ann Elizabeth Warnock at the Church of St John in Walworth. The wedding took place on 2^nd August 1891 when Thomas was (still) 22 and confirmed as the son of Edward Collett and Mary from Rotherhithe was 19 and the daughter of John Warnock.

	After ten years of marriage the couple only had one child which had survived, although there may have been others who suffered infant deaths. It was at Paradise Street, near the south bank of the River Thames and between Bermondsey and Rotherhithe that the family of three was living in 1901 when Thomas Collett was 30 and a carman from Bermondsey, Mary Ann Collett from Rotherhithe was 28, when their son Thomas Collett was five years of age and born at Rotherhithe. The Electoral Register for 1907 also confirmed that Thomas Collett was residing at 54 Paradise Street.

	Sometime after 1907 the family of three left Paradise Street and in April 1911 they were residing at 23 Tranton Road in Bermondsey. Today Tranton Road is almost adjacent to Collett Road. Thomas Collett, aged 41 and from Bermondsey, was a waterside labourer, his wife Mary Ann Collett from Rotherhithe was 38, and their son Thomas Benjamin George Collett was 14 and his place of birth was also confirmed as Rotherhithe. Staying with the family that day in 1911 was George Bridges who was 39.

	71P25	Thomas Benjamin George Collett				Born in 1895 at Rotherhithe


71O21	Louisa Jane Collett was born at Bermondsey in 1872, most likely in December, while it was during the early weeks of 1873 that her birth was recorded at Bermondsey St Olave (Ref. 1d 276). Louisa was nine years old in the 1881 census when living with her family at Salisbury Street in Bermondsey. In the next decade the family left Salisbury Street when they moved to Marigold Place in Bermondsey from where Louisa J Collett aged 19 was preparing for her wedding day in April 1891. Later that same year the marriage of Louisa Jane Collett and James Robert Matthews took place at St Philip’s Church in Camberwell on Christmas day, 25^th December 1891. Louisa was 20 and the daughter of Edward Collett, and James was 22, the son of William Henry Matthews.

	Louisa gave birth to at least two children over the next ten years, towards the end of which her father died. At that tragic time Louisa’s widowed mother and Louisa’s three youngest siblings were taken in by Louisa and James. James Matthews from Bermondsey was 30 and described as a dustman and a cycle repairer in the evenings. His wife Louisa Matthews was 29 and their two daughters were Louisa Jane Matthews who was nine and Frances Matthews who was two years of age. Completing the household was James’ mother-in-law, Mary A Collett, and her three children Richard Collett, Daniel Collett and Elizabeth Collett.


71O22	Joseph M Collett was born at Bermondsey in 1875 the son of Edward and Mary Ann Collett, his birth recorded at Bermondsey St Olave (Ref. 1d 287) during the last three months of that year. Joseph was six years old in the 1881 census when he and his family were living at Salisbury Street in Bermondsey, while when he was 16 in 1891 the family home was at Marigold Place in Bermondsey. Towards the end of the old century Joseph married Charlotte Bygraves, the daughter of John Bygraves, at the Church of St Mary Magdalen in Southwark on 17^th October 1897. Curiously the marriage register gave the name of the groom’s father as John Collett, rather than Edward, which raises the question was the entry made in error and was he not the son of Edward and Mary Ann. Certainly, the census in 1901 (below) suggests he was the brother of John Henry Collett the son of Edward and Mary Ann.

	By March 1901 they had a one-year-old son. The census that year revealed the family living in a room at 8 Dunlop Place in Bermondsey, the home of Arthur Hutchings. Joseph Collett was 25 and a waterside labourer like his older brother John Henry Collett (above), and Charlotte was 23. Joseph and Charlotte were both described as being deaf and dumb. The birth of their son was recorded at Bermondsey St Olave (Ref. 1d 256) during the first quarter of 1900. What happened to the family after that day is not known, as no record of any of them has been found in the census of 1911.

	71P26	Edward Collett				Born in 1900 at Bermondsey


71O23	James Collett was born at Bermondsey, another son of Edward and Mary Ann Collett, whose birth was recorded at Bermondsey St Olave (Ref. 1d 327) during the first three months of 1878. In 1881 the family was residing at Salisbury Street in Bermondsey when James was four years of age and, ten years later, he was 13, by which time he and the family were living at Marigold Place in Bermondsey. In 1899 the Electoral Register identified a James Collett listed at 180 Long Lane in Bermondsey, although there appears to be no record of him within the census of 1901. However, it is known that James Collett, aged 21 and a bricklayer, the son of Edward Collett, married Emily Sarah Pooley, the daughter of Richard Pooley, at St James Church in Bermondsey on 7^th May 1899.

	It was the census in 1911 that revealed James had been married to Emily for eleven years, who had presented him with six children by April that year. Sadly, only three of them were still alive and living with the couple at 34 Stockton Street by that time. James, who was 33 and a bricklayer’s labourer, stated he had been born at Paradise Street in Rotherhithe, where his older brother Thomas Collett (above) had been living in 1901 and 1911. Emily was 32 from Horsleydown in Bermondsey, while their three children had all been born at Salisbury Street off Jamaica Road (where James had lived as a child), and they were James junior who was eight, Julia who was six, and Mary who was four years old. Boarding with the family was carman Daniel Leonard from Rotherhithe.

	What may be significant in the census return that year, is that it was Emily Collett who signed the form and not her husband. Just over four years later the death of James Collett at the age of 37 was recorded at Southwark register office (Ref. 1d 52) during the last three months of 1915, when it was stated that he died at Southwark. A check for the three children who had died prior to 1911 has only revealed Ellen Collett born at the end of 1900, her birth recorded at St Olave Bermondsey register office (Ref. 1d 280) at the start of 1901, who died on 23^rd January 1901, when she was only a few weeks old. The other two were possibly still with no birth or death reported.

	71P27	James Collett – alive in 1911				Born in 1902 at Bermondsey
	71P28	Julia Ann Collett – alive in 1911				Born in 1904 at Bermondsey
	71P29	Mary Collett – alive in 1911				Born in 1906 at Bermondsey


71O24	Richard Pearson Collett was born at Salisbury Street in Bermondsey in 1880 and was one year old in the census of 1881. His birth was recorded at Bermondsey St Olave (Ref. 1d 276) during the second quarter of that year. It may have been just after he was born that his parents, Edward, and Mary Ann, took their family to Marigold Place in Bermondsey, where they were living in 1891 when Richard was 11. Upon the death of his father in 1900 Richard’s widowed mother moved in with Richard’s married sister Louisa Matthews (above), taking Richard and his two younger siblings with her. And it was there, at Abbey Street in Bermondsey, that Richard Collett aged nineteen years was living in 1901, from where he was working as a carman.

	Two years later, at Kingston-upon-Thames in Surrey register office (Ref. 2a 885), a Richard Pearson Collett became a married man, the event recorded during the third quarter of 1903. Pearson was a name from an earlier generation of this family line, and it does seem highly likely that this does relate to Richard Collett, the son of Edward and Mary Ann. The wife of Richard Pearson Collett was either Elizabeth Jane Rumbelow or Elizabeth Langsdon. Furthermore, no obvious record of Richard Collett or Richard Pearson Collett has been unearthed in the census of 1911, even though the Electoral Register in 1907 included the name of Richard Collett as a resident of 35 East Lane in Rotherhithe, who was still living there in 1910.


71O25	Daniel Charles Collett was born at Bermondsey in 1882, his birth recorded there (Ref. 1d 268) during the fourth quarter of the year, the youngest son of Edward and Mary Ann Collett. Unless mistaken in a later census return, Daniel Charles Collett may have been born after his family left Salisbury Street and settled in Marigold Place. Upon the occasion of the census in 1891 Daniel was nine years of age when he and his family were living at Marigold Place in Bermondsey. On leaving school he became a cycle maker, as confirmed in the next census of 1901, by which time his father had passed away, with Daniel aged 18 and two of his siblings and their widowed mother living at the home of James Matthews and Louisa Matthews nee Collett, Daniel’s married older sister.

	Over the following years, perhaps even after the death of his mother, unmarried Daniel became a lodger at the home of William Henry Pitts, a labourer with a tent maker, at 57 Gedling Street in Bermondsey. His wife Jessie Elizabeth Pitts was 33 and their only child was William Robert Pitts who was nine. Daniel Collett, aged 28, was a pot man working for a licenced victualler whose place of birth was stated as being Marigold Place in Bermondsey. However, just over four years later Daniel married Elizabeth Pitts, who was presumably related to William Henry Pitts, and may have even been his wife, the wedding taking place at St Luke’s Church in Victoria Docks, London, on 25^th December 1915. Two years later Daniel Charles Collett from Bermondsey, aged 34 years and residing in London, entered military service with the Army Service Corps during 1917. He was attached to the Second depot Company and assigned the service number T/278989. His time in military service was very short-lived, since it was on 24^th February 1917 that he was deemed to be no longer fit for service, due to chronic bronchitis and emphysema. His address at the time of discharge was 33 Lansdown Road, Tidal Basin Road, close to Victoria Docks.


71O26	Frances Elizabeth Collett was born at Marigold Place in Bermondsey in 1885. On the registration of her birth at Bermondsey St Olave (Ref. 1d 256) during the first quarter of 1885 she was named as Frances Elizabeth Collett but in the later census returns she was either referred to as Frances or Elizabeth Collett, the last child born to Edward and Mary Ann Collett. It was in 1891, at Marigold Place in Bermondsey, that Frances Collett was six years old. She was around fifteen years of age when her father died, following which her widowed mother took Frances and her two brothers Richard and Daniel (above) to live with their married sister Louisa Jane Matthews at Abbey Street in Bermondsey. After completing her education Frances took up factory work, Elizabeth Collett was 16 and a machinist in the census of 1901.


71O27	Esther Julia Collett was born in London in 1873 and was the first of the fourteen children of James Thomas Collett and his wife Esther Tatum. Her birth was registered at London City as Julia Collett (Ref. 1c 26) during the second quarter of 1873, having been born on 12^th May at 39 Bartholomew Close. At the age of seven years, Esther was living with her family at 18 Frean Street in Bermondsey, when her place of birth was recorded as the City of London. After a further ten years Esther was 17 with no stated occupation and residing at Marine Street in Bermondsey with her family, presumably helping her mother with domestic chores.

	Upon becoming a married woman, she was named as Esther Julia Collett whose husband was Joseph Robert Gilmour Forster when their wedding was recorded at St Olave Southwark register office (Ref. 1d 558) during the last three months of 1893. Their four children were: Joseph Forster born in 1895; Esther Dorothy Forster born in 1899; Ernest John Gilmour Forster born in 1904; Amy Beatrice Forster who was born in 1909.


71O28	George Thomas Collett was born on 16^th December 1874 at 20 John Street in Holborn, and not at St John Street in Clerkenwell as stated in error in the census returns in 1881 and 1901. He was the eldest son of James and Elizabeth Collet, whose birth was registered at Amwell with Holborn (Ref. 1b 725) during the first three months of the following year. Over many years his two forenames were reversed in census returns and electoral registers. In 1881, as George T Collett he was six years of age and living with his family at 18 Frean Street in Bermondsey. By 1891 George was 16 and had completed his education but did not have a job of work, when once again he was living with his family which was living at Marine Street in Bermondsey by then.

	Five years after that census day, as George Collett, he married Hannah Haley on 6^th June 1896 at the Church of St John Horsleydown in Southwark. Hannah, who was from Bermondsey and was known as Anna, gave birth to eight children between 1897 and 1912. George was recorded in the next census as Thomas Collett from Clerkenwell (sic) who was 26 and employed as a carman while living at Drappers Road in Bermondsey with his wife and their second child. Anna Collett was 27, with daughter Florrie Collett being two years of age, both of whom had been born at Bermondsey. By that time, the couple’s first-born child, son George, and their third child, daughter Hannah, had already suffered infant deaths.

	Even though the children were born at Bermondsey, with their births recorded at St Olave Bermondsey register office either side of the next census in 1911, no census record of any member of the family has been found. Over forty years after the birth of their last child, the death of George Thomas Collett (aka Thomas George Collett) was recorded at London register office (Ref. 5c 93) in 1954 at the age of 79.

	71P30	George John Collett				Born in 1897 at Bermondsey
	71P31	Florence Collett				Born in 1898 at Bermondsey
	71P32	Hannah Esther Collett				Born in 1900 at Bermondsey
	71P33	Ellen Rose Collett				Born in 1901 at Bermondsey
	71P34	Edith Elizabeth Collett				Born in 1903 at Bermondsey
	71P35	John James Collett				Born in 1906 at Bermondsey
	71P36	Esther Collett				Born in 1908 at Bermondsey
	71P37	James Collett				Born in 1912 at Bermondsey


71O29	Mary Frances Collett was born at St Pancras on 3^rd August 1876, with her birth registered there (Ref. 1b 71) during the third quarter of the year. She was four years old in the census of 1881 when, as Frances M Collett, she and her family were residing at 18 Frean Street in Bermondsey. Sometime after that day the family moved to Marine Street in Bermondsey where Frances Collett from St Pancras was 14 in 1891, having finished school by then, but was not employed that day. According to the next census in 1901, 24-year-old Frances Collett still had no occupation when she was still living with her family at Marine Street. In that census return her place of birth was recorded in error as Clerkenwell, where the family had initially settled immediately after Mary was born.

	Just over one year after the census in 1901, Mary Frances Collett married Henry Dumphreys, with their wedding recorded at St Olave Southwark during the third quarter of 1902. The marriage produced two daughters for Mary and Henry and they were Henrietta Grace Dumphreys born at Croydon in 1903, who married Charles M Beeson at Lewisham in the summer of 1926, and Irene Phyllis Dumphreys born at Lewisham in 1908, who married Bertram L P Anthony at Woolwich during the summer of 1928


71O30	Rosina Collett was born at Bermondsey during the month of September in 1878, as registered at Bermondsey St Olave (Ref. 1d 255), and tragically died there at 18 Frean Street on 10^th February 1880, her death as Rose Collett recorded at St Olave Southwark (Ref. 1d 230). She was the first of the three children of James Thomas Collett and Esther Tatum who did not survive, the others being Florence and James Edward (below).


71O31	Edith Elizabeth Collett was born at 18 Frean Street in Bermondsey in 1880, with her birth registered at Bermondsey St Olave (Ref. 1d 294) during the second quarter of 1880, another daughter of James and Esther Collett. And it was at 18 Frean Street that Edith’s family was still living nine months later. During the next decade the family moved to a more permanent home at Marine Street in Bermondsey, where Edith Collett from Bermondsey was ten years of age.

	After a gap of nineteen years, there being no record of the family found in 1900, it was during the third quarter of 1909 when the marriage of Edith Elizabeth Collett and James Richard Howard was recorded at St Olave Bermondsey, sometimes transcribed as St. Olave Southwark. Two daughters were born into the family, the eldest being Edith Mary Howard who was born nine months later, on 3^rd May 1910, followed by Nellie Frances Howard on 24^th September 1915. Upon the later death of James Thomas Collett, Edith’s father, James Howard, son-in-law, was named as the informant of his death.


71O32	James Edward Collett was born at 18 Frean Street, Bermondsey in 1881, with his birth registered at Bermondsey St Olave (Ref. 1d 283) during the second quarter of 1881, the sixth child of James Thomas Collett and his wife Esther. During the next few years, the family moved within Bermondsey to Marine Street, where James Collett was nine years old in 1891. It was James who was the third child of the family to suffer a premature death, when the death of James Edward Collett was recorded at St Olave Southwark register office (Ref. 1d 129) during the second quarter of 1899 at the age of just 18.


71O33	Henry John Collett, who was known as Jack, was born at Bermondsey on 28^th July 1883 at 2 Victoria Place, Marine Street. His birth was recorded at Bermondsey St Olave (Ref. 1d 274) during the third quarter of 1883, another son of James and Esther Collett. Although no further record of him has been found in the subsequent census returns, it was on 27^th February 1910 at St James Church in Bermondsey that he married Elizabeth Harriet Phillips, the daughter of James Richard Phillips, who was born on 12^th May 1889. The father of the groom was confirmed as James Collett. It was seven months after their wedding that when the couple’s first child was born at Willesden, with the family of three recorded as living at 80 Delaford Road, Rotherhithe New Road in South Bermondsey in April 1911. Henry John Collett from Bermondsey was 27 and working as a carpenter in the house building trade, his wife Elizabeth H Collett was 21, and their daughter Doris Collett was seven months old.

	Within the present-day family, members remember ‘Granny Collett’ saying that in addition to Henry and Elizabeth having eight children, Elizabeth was pregnant on two other occasions. One of them went full-term but was still born, and the other sadly was miscarried. It was after the birth of their fourth child that Henry joined the Royal Fly Corps.

	His military record completed on 22^nd June 1916 provided the following details. He was 32 years of age on enlistment, when he was working as a carpenter and a joiner, and was assigned the military service number 33476. He was married on 27^th February 1910, his wife confirmed as Elizabeth Harriet, and their four children’s dates of birth were recorded as 16^th August 1910, 10^th June 1912, 11^th January 1914, and 25^th November 1915. On the recording of the births of the couple’s seven youngest children, the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Phillips.

	Henry and Elizabeth's last four children were all born at 437 Southwark Park Road in Bermondsey, after Henry had returned home from serving King & Country during the Great War, from January 1920 through to June 1926. When the last child was around two years old, the family moved to 91A lower Road in Rotherhithe, the home of Henry’s widowed mother Esther Collett, as confirmed by the electoral registers for the period 1928 to 1933. It was during that latter year when Henry John Collett purchased 38 Laleham Road in Catford to where the family moved and where they stayed until the younger children were marriage.

	And it was at 38 Laleham Road, Catford, in the London Borough of Lewisham, where the couple, and unmarried daughter Hilda, were still living when Henry was taken into Guys Hospital in London, where he died on 27^th March 1954. Administration of his personal estate, amounting to £1,388 and 8 Shillings, was granted to his widow Elizabeth Harriet Collett. Eighteen years after being widowed, Elizabeth, and daughter Hilda being the last Collett occupiers of 38 Laleham Road, sold the property and left Catford, when they moved to Whitstable in Kent where, ten years later, Elizabeth Harriet Collett died on 3^rd July 1981. Her death was recorded at Kent register office (Vol. 16 0146) at the age of 92.

	71P38	Doris Mavis Collett			Born in 1910 at Willesden, London
	71P39	Hilda Elizabeth Collett			Born in 1912 at Camberwell
	71P40	John Henry Collett			Born in 1914 at Lewisham
	71P41	Elsie Margery Collett			Born in 1915 at Lewisham
	71P42	Francis James Collett			Born in 1920 at Bermondsey
	71P43	Alec Leonard Collett			Born in 1922 at Bermondsey
	71P44	Eileen Grace Collett			Born in 1924 at Bermondsey
	71P45	Audrey Irene Collett			Born in 1926 at Bermondsey


71O34	Ernest Hiram Collett was born at Bermondsey in 1885, his birth recorded at Bermondsey St Olave (Ref. 1d 266) during the final quarter of that year, but minus the Hiram. He was the eighth child of James Collett and Esther Tatum. There has been a difficulty in tracing his life as he chose to refer to himself as Ernest Hiram Collett, his maternal grandfather being Hiram Tatum. Ernest was born on 11^th October 1885 at 2 Victoria Place, Marine Street in Bermondsey when, for his birth and baptism, he was recorded simply as Ernest Collett, with Hiram being adopted a few years later. Again, as Ernest Collett, he was five years old in the Bermondsey census of 1891 when he and his family were living at Marine Street off Jamaica Road. After completing his education, Ernest became a member of the Royal Navy and, by the time of the next census in 1901, 16-year-old Ernest Hiram Collett from Bermondsey was described as a Boy – 2^nd Class and part of the (ship’s) complement at Harwich St Nicholas in Essex.

	During the spring of 1910, when he was 24, Ernest Hiram Collett married (1) Kathleen Hannah Carpenter at Bermondsey, with their wedding day recorded at St Olave Southwark register office (Ref. 1d 271). Within the next twelve months Kathleen gave birth to the first of the couple’s eight children, when they were residing at New Cross in Deptford, near Greenwich. The census in 1911 recorded the three members of the family at Deptford, where Ernest from Bermondsey was 25 and employed by London County Council as a tram conductor. His wife Kathleen was also from Bermondsey and aged 25, when their daughter Ivy was just two weeks old and born at New Cross, Deptford. Visting the family that day was Eliza Davis from Rotherhithe, a widow and a nurse who was 58.

	All their children were born at Deptford, perhaps even at New Cross, with all their births recorded at Greenwich register office, where their mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Carpenter. After Kathleen died at Greenwich in 1930, one year later the marriage of Ernest and (2) Maud Long was recorded at Deptford register office during the first three months of 1931, Maud having been born on 29^th March 1899. It is interesting that daughters Ivy and Phyllis were both married in Devon, within a few years of each other.

	71P46	Ivy Kathleen Collett			Born in 1911 at New Cross, Deptford
	71P47	Ronald Ernest Collett			Born in 1912 at Deptford
	71P48	Stanley Collett			Born in 1913 at Deptford
	71P49	Lily Florence Collett			Born in 1915 at Deptford
	71P50	Alfred Henry Collett			Born in 1917 at Deptford
	71P51	Phyllis Rose Collett			Born in 1919 at Deptford
	71P52	Victor Arthur Collett			Born in 1921 at Deptford
	71P53	Margaret Collett			Born in 1924 at Deptford


71O35	William Collett was born on 1^st September 1887 at 27 West Street in Bermondsey. His birth was recorded at Bermondsey St Olave (Ref. 1d 240) during the final quarter of that year. He was 27 years old when he married Florence White on 6^th September 1914 at St James, Bermondsey, Florence having been born on 9^th August 1887. Over next eleven years the couple moved around London and the South East, with their four sons all born at different locations.

	71P54	Arthur Leonard Collett			Born in 1915 at Bermondsey
	71P55	Charles William Collett			Born in 1916 at Greenwich
	71P56	Henry George Collett			Born in 1920 at Orsett, Essex
	71P57	Walter James Collett			Born in 1925 at Billericay, Essex


71O36	Florence Grace Collett was born at Bermondsey, either at the end of 1888 or early in 1889 and it was at Bermondsey St Olave (Ref. 1d 270) that her birth was recorded during the first quarter of 1889. She may have been born at Marine Street in Bermondsey where her family was living in 1891 when Florence Collett was two years of age. Within days of that census day young Florence died, following which her death was recorded at St Olave Southwark register office (Ref. 1d 195) during the second quarter of 1891. She was the second of the fourteen children of James Thomas and Esther Collett not to survive.


71O37	Albert Collett was born at 1 Marine Street in Bermondsey on 3^rd November 1890, his birth recorded at Bermondsey St Olave (Ref. 1d 245 37) during the final quarter of that year. At the age of 22, Albert married Jessie Smith, when their wedding was recorded at St Olave Southwark register office during the third quarter of 1912. Following that day, the couple settled in Bermondsey where their three children were born.

	71P58	Gladys E Collett			Born in 1913 at Bermondsey
	71P59	Albert E Collett			Born in 1915 at Bermondsey
	71P60	Edna Jessie Collett			Born in 1920 at Bermondsey


71O38	Arthur Henry Collett was born at 1 Marine Street in Bermondsey on 19^th June 1893, another son of James and Esther Collett whose birth was recorded at Bermondsey St Olave (Ref. 1d 245 30) during the third quarter of that year. He entered military service on 18^th February 1915 at the age of 21 when, as Albert Henry Collett from Bermondsey, he joined the Third 14^th Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment service number 291354 while being a resident at 50 Reculver Road in Rotherhithe, Surrey. It was just after he enlisted, that the marriage of Arthur Henry Collett and Beatrice Maude Holland was recorded at St Olave Southwark at the end of 1915. It was only after returning from the Great War that they started a family, with first the birth of a daughter, following two years later by the arrival of a son. The much later death of Arthur Henry Collett aged 74, was recorded at Surrey South Western register office (Ref. 5g 565) during the first three months of 1968.

	71P61	Vera I Collett			Born in 1919 at Greenwich
	71P62	Leslie James Collett			Born in 1921 at Bermondsey


71O39	Gertrude Grace Collett was born at 1 Marine Street in Bermondsey on 6^th December 1894, the last daughter and penultimate child of James Thomas Collett and his wife Esther. Her birth was recorded at Bermondsey St Olave (Ref. 1d 257) during the first quarter of 1895. Gertrude Grace Collett married George Samuel Newcombe on 4^th September 1920. After four years together, their only child was born on 24^th December 1924 at 48A Lower Road in Rotherhithe, the same address where Gertrude’s father James Thomas Collett died in 1922, presumably leaving the house to his daughter. The only child of George and Gertrude was Eva Olga Newcombe.


71O40	Edward Leonard Collett was born at Bermondsey on 22^nd June 1896, where his birth was recorded at Bermondsey St Olave (Ref. 1d 236) during the third quarter of that year. He was last child born to James Thomas Collett and his wife Esther Tatum. It was at 1 Marine Street in Bermondsey that he was living with his family in 1901, when he was four years old, and again in 1911, when he was 14 and a factory boy working for a tea salesman. On both occasion he was named as Leonard Collett. The marriage of Edward Leonard Collett, aged 25, and Florence Alice Kilner, aged 28, was recorded at St James Church in Bermondsey on 20^th August 1921. Edward was a porter and the son of James Collett, a marine store dealer, while Florence was a cigarette packer and the daughter of William Kilner. In the Electoral Register for 1928, Leonard Collett was listed as living at 91A Jolly Sailor in the Southwark Ward of Bermondsey. Tragically, Florence Alice Collett was killed during the blitz on London during the Second World War, her death recorded on 13^th July 1944, when she and Edward were residing at 352 Bromley Road in Lewisham.

	It was at St Olave Bermondsey register office that the birth of the couple’s three children was recorded, when the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Kilner. The three daughters were subsequently married, while nothing further is about their father, except that the death of Edward Leonard Collett was recorded many years later at Lewisham register office (Ref. 5d 776) during December 1971 when he was 75.

	71P63	Jane Frances Grace Collett				Born in 1923 at Bermondsey
	71P64	Yvonne Rose Lilian Collett				Born in 1926 at Bermondsey
	71P65	Daisy May Florence Collett				Born in 1930 at Bermondsey


71P1	William Eustace Collett was born at Kennington in 1859, the first child of William Eustace Collett and Hannah London, whose birth was recorded at Lambeth (Ref. 1d 377) during the first three months of 1860. As William E Collett aged 11 years he was living with his family at 48 Clayton Street in Kennington/Lambeth in 1871, as he was in 1881 but, on that occasion, the family was recorded at 3 Clayton Street in Kennington/Lambeth when William was 21 and working as a clerk. Exactly four years after that census day William Eustace Collett married Emma Caroline Thomson at Kennington on 31^st March 1885. William was described as 25 years of age and the son of William Eustace Collett, while Emma was 30 and the daughter of Francis William Thomson. The event was recorded at Lambeth (Ref. 1d 421) and the couple’s first child was born one year later.

	Emma was nearly seven years older than William, with her birth registered at Lambeth (Ref. 1d 297) during the summer of 1853. Whether it was an enumerator error when completing the census return for 1891, or whether it was William himself who misinformed him of his much younger age, to cover his embarrassment, or perhaps even an error reading the handwriting because, instead of being 31, William was said to be 37.

	Not long after the birth of the couple’s fourth child the family moved to a house in Balham, and it was at Roman Hurst on Cavendish Road that the couple was living in 1891 with just two of their three sons, and their baby daughter. Absent from the family that day was the couple’s eldest son Francis, when William Eustace Collett was 37 (sic), his wife Emma Caroline Collett was 38, Denzil P E Collett was three, Clarence H E Collett was two, and Emma Eustace Collett was just one month old.

	Tragically, it was during the following year that the death of Emma Caroline Collett nee Thomson, aged 39, was recorded at Wandsworth register office (Ref. 1d 433) during the second quarter of 1892. By that time, their son Clarence had not been baptised, and it was delayed further when his father died three years after being widowed, who was eventually baptised when he was nearly ten years old at Stockwell Green, midway between Balham and Kennington. No actual death record has been found for William Eustace Collett, while the death of William Collett was recorded at Kennington register office (Ref. 1a 105) during the third quarter of 1895.

	Another William Collett, of the right age and living in South Lambeth at 105 Herne Hill in 1911, was a silversmith from Birmingham who was 53 who had been married to Jane from Lambeth for 21 years. Jane was 50 and had given birth to three children, one of which was no longer alive. The couple’s surviving children were Maggie Collett who was 19 and a college student, and Arthur Collett aged 18 who was a clerk at London University. Both children had been born at Peckham. So far, all attempts to identify the family line of this William Collett have failed, with these brief details retained here in the hope that this can be resolved at some time in the future.

	Following the death of their mother the eldest son and the only daughter of the family were looked after and brought up by their grandparents, the elderly parents of their late mother Emma Caroline and it was with them that they were living in 1901. When the grandparents passed away during the first six years of the new century, the two of them, Francis, and Emma, continued to live with their mother’s sister at the same dwelling at 17 Old Town in Clapham. What happened to the remaining two sons, Denzil, and Clarence, at that stage in their lives is not clear.

	71Q1	Francis William Eustace Collett				Born in 1886 at Kennington
	71Q2	Denzil Percy Eustace Collett				Born in 1887 at Kennington
	71Q3	Clarence Herbert Eustace Collett				Born in 1889 at Kennington
	71Q4	Emma Agnes Eustace Collett				Born in 1891 at Balham, London


71P2	Francis Glenister Collett was born at Kennington in 1862, another son of William and Hannah Collett, whose birth was recorded at Lambeth (Ref. 1d 348) during the third quarter of the year. In 1871 the family was living at 48 Clayton Street in Kennington where Francis G Collett was eight years of age. Ten years later Francis G Collett was 18, by which time he was working as a clerk when he was still living with his family but at 3 Clayton Street in Kennington. Francis was still unmarried and living with his mother in 1891, although the family name was recorded in error as Callett. It was at 104 Camberwell New Road that they were living, from where Francis was still working as a clerk in a local bank at the age of 28. Two years later the Electoral Register in 1893 included the names of Francis and his younger brother Percy (below) when each of them was occupying a room at 104 Camberwell New Road, where their mother Mrs H Collett was their landlady.

	What is very interesting is that Francis Glenister Collett was an adult when he was baptised at St Mark’s Church in Kennington on 6^th May 1885, the son of William Eustace and Hannah Collett, unless of course there is an error in the year, with 1865 being more realistic. Just over three years after the census in 1891 the marriage of Francis Glenister Collett and Eleanor Eunice Emmett was recorded at Lambeth (Ref. 1d 755) during the third quarter of 1894. The details of their wedding were recorded as follows: Francis Glenister Collett was 32 and the son of William Eustace Collett when he married 24-year-old Eleanor Eunice Emmett on 3^rd September 1894 at St Mary’s Church in Lambeth. The bride’s father was named as Jonathan Christopher Emmett.

	The Electoral Register for 1895 and 1896 located Francis Glenister Collet (sic) and his wife at 59 Aytoun Road in Stockwell, where they were still living in the summer of 1898. Staying with the couple at that time was Francis’ grandfather William Pearson Collett who died at that address in June 1898. However, by the time of the census in 1901 the couple and their first child were residing at 37 Cook’s Road in Walworth to the east of Kennington, as also confirmed by the electoral roll published for that year.

	Eleanor was most likely expecting the arrival of the couple’s second child on the day of the census, which was born later that year. The family of three recorded at Cook’s Road comprised Francis G Collett who was 38 and a bank clerk, his wife Eleanor E Collett from Newington who was 31, together with their son Frank G Collett who was two years old and born within the London Borough of Newington which included Walworth. Living with the family was Martha London, aged 57, who was the sister of Francis’ mother Hannah Collett nee London.

	Later that year Eleanor gave birth to a daughter and two years later she presented Francis with the couple’s third and last child while the family was still living at 37 Cook’s Road. Sometime during the following few years, the family moved to the larger eight-roomed property that was 23 Narbonne Avenue in Clapham, near Clapham Common and within the London Borough of Wandsworth, where they were living in 1908, through to at least 1912, according to the electoral rolls.

	In the census conducted in April 1911 the larger family was living at 23 Narbonne Avenue. At number 34 Narbonne Avenue in 1911 was Francis’ brother Percy John Collett (below), while their younger brother Frederick (below) had been living at 19 Narbonne Avenue in 1901. Rather oddly, every member of Francis’ family was recorded as having been born at Kennington, rather than Newington. They were listed as Francis Glenister Collett who was 48 and a bank clerk, Eleanor Eunice Collett who was 42, Frank Gerald Collett who was 12, Eleanor Evelyn Collett who was nine and Arthur Glenister Collett who was seven years of age. The census return also confirmed that the couple had been married for sixteen years, during which time three children had been born. Still staying with the family was Martha London, who was described as an unmarried aunt of 67 years who was living on private means.

	The death of Francis G Collett at the age of ninety was recorded at the Mid-Eastern register office in Surrey (Ref. 5g 356) during the first three months of 1953. Properties at Narbonne Avenue and the nearby Cavendish Road and Abbeville Road, all in Clapham Park and close to Clapham Common, were owned or occupied by many other members of this family line around the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century.

	The notice of his death produced by the probate office in London revealed that Francis Glenister Collett died at his home at 9 Quarry Rise in Cheam, Surrey, on 2^nd January 1953. Probate was resolved on 11^th February 1953 in favour of his eldest son Frank Gerald Collett, a bank clerk, for an estate valued at £6, 612 and 1d.

	71Q5	Frank Gerald Collett				Born in 1898 at Walworth, Newington
	71Q6	Eleanor Evelyn Collett				Born in 1901 at Walworth, Newington
	71Q7	Arthur Glenister Collett				Born in 1903 at Walworth, Newington


71P3	Henry P Collett was born at Kennington in 1864, a son of William and Hannah Collett. It was at 48 Clayton Street that Henry P Collett was living with his family when he was six years old in 1871 and in 1881 it was at 3 Clayton Street in Kennington that carpenter Henry P Collett, aged 16, was still living with his parents. What happened to Henry after that time is unclear, as no positive records for him have been unearthed. The death of Henry P Collett was recorded at Canterbury register office (Ref. 2a 2610) during the final three months of 1939. He was 75 years of age, which would place the year of his birth around 1864, so this could well be Henry P Collett from Kennington.


71P4	Percy John Collett was born at Kennington in 1865, another son of William and Hannah Collett, whose birth was recorded at Lambeth (Ref. 1d 382) during the fourth quarter of 1865. Percy J Collett was five years old in 1871 when living at 48 Clayton Street in Kennington and was 14 in 1881 having moved to 3 Clayton Street in Kennington, from where he was employed as a clerk, like two of his older brothers William and Francis (above). After a further ten years unmarried Percy J Collett was 25 and a stationer’s clerk still living at the family home which, by 1891, was at 104 Camberwell New Road near Kennington. Two years later the Electoral Register in 1893 included the names of Percy and his older brother Francis (above) when each of them was occupying a room at 104 Camberwell New Road, where their mother Mrs H Collett was their landlady.

	After a further three years Percy John Collett married Emma Sharpington, the event recorded at Lambeth (Ref. 1d 693) during second quarter of 1894. In 1898 the family home was 34 Narbonne Avenue in Clapham, as detailed in the electoral roll that year, while in the listing published in 1900 gave the address as 36 Narbonne Avenue. The marriage of Percy and Emma had produced three children by the time the census was conducted in March 1901 when the family of five was living at Narbonne Avenue in Clapham. And it was there at 19 Narbonne Avenue that Percy’s younger brother Frederick Arthur Collett (below) was living in 1901, with his older brother Francis Glenister Collett living at 23 Narbonne Avenue in 1911, close to where Percy’s family was also living in 1911.

	Percy J Collett was 35 and a stationer’s traveller in 1901, Emma Collett was 34 and their three children were Jessie M Collett who was five and from Newington, Doris S Collett who was one year of age and Harold P Collett who was only two months old, both born at Clapham. Employed as a servant at the house was Phoebe F Butcher from Greendale in Kent who was 19. After a few more years three further children were added to the family, although only two of them survived. The next census in 1911 located the family residing at the eight-roomed property that was 34 Narbonne Avenue. Curiously though, the Electoral Register of 1908 contained the name of Percy John Collett living at 121 Narbonne Avenue, while in 1908 and 1909 he and his family were listed at 12 Streathbourne in Balham. It was then in 1910 that the electoral roll gave his address as 34 Narbonne Avenue, the same as in 1912.

	In 1911 Percy John Collett from Kennington, which was crossed out and replaced by Lambeth on that year’s census return, was 45 and a commercial traveller working for a stationery and printing company. His wife of sixteen years, Emma Collett from Lambeth was 44 and had given birth to six children, five of which were still alive. Those five children were listed as Jessie Mirabel Collett from Camberwell who was 15, Doris Sybil Collett from Clapham who was 11, Harold Percy Collett who was 10, who were all attending school, plus Betty Marjorie Collett who was three, and Stanley John Collett who was two, both born at Wandsworth. The death of Percy John Collett at the age of 88 was recorded at Hertford register office (Ref. 4b 74) during the third quarter of 1954.

	71Q8	Jessie Mirabel Collett				Born in 1895 at Camberwell
	71Q9	Doris Sybil Collett				Born in 1899 at Clapham
	71Q10	Harold Percy Collett				Born in 1901 at Clapham
	71Q11	Betty Marjorie Collett				Born in 1907 at Wandsworth
	71Q12	Stanley John Collett				Born in 1908 at Wandsworth


71P5	Frederick Arthur Collett was born at Kennington in 1867, the son of William E Collett and Hannah London, whose birth was recorded at Lambeth (Ref. 1d 420) during the first quarter of that year. For the census in 1871 Frederick A Collett was four years of age when he and his family were living at 48 Clayton Street in Kennington, while ten years later he was still attending the local school but staying with his widowed uncle at 6 Clapham Road in Lambeth. Head of the household, Meshach J Turtle from Lambeth, was 51 and a fruiterer, whose late wife was the sister of either Frederick’s father or his mother. In addition to nephew Frederick A Collett, aged 14, Meshach’s niece Elizabeth M Buchanon, who was 16, was also staying at the property together with Meshach’s older unmarried sister Mary A Turtle who was 52. The final member of the household was Emily Thatcher, 19 and a domestic servant. All the occupants of the premises had been born at Lambeth.

	Unmarried Fredk A Callett (sic) from Kennington was 24 in the census of 1891 when he was a clerk, living at the home of his mother at Camberwell New Road in Lambeth. It was during the third quarter of that same year when he married Amy Matilda Butler, the event recorded at Lambeth (Ref. 1d 648). Amy was the daughter of metropolitan police inspector James Butler and Mary Ann Roberts, her birth register at Chelsea (Ref. 1a 215) during the last three months of 1864. At the age of six years Amy Matilda Butler was living with her family within the St George Hanover Square census registration district of London, the third of the seven children of James and Mary. Ten years later, the census in 1881, placed the family residing at 12 Meadow Road in Lambeth where Amy was 16 and a draper’s apprentice, the second eldest child still living with her parents.

	Just months prior to her wedding day Amy M Butler, aged 26 and a draper’s assistant, was the eldest of the six children of James and Mary still living with them at Trigon Road in Kennington, not far from the Kennington Oval. Amy and Frederick were married at St Marks Church in Kennington on 22^nd September 1891 when Amy was 26 and Frederick was 25 and confirmed as the daughter of James Butler and the son of William Eustace Collett. During their first decade together, Amy presented Frederick with five children, all of them born at Clapham, where the family was residing in March 1901. Around the time of the birth of sons Harry and Frederick the Electoral Registers in both 1896 and 1897, for the Vauxhall Ward within the Registration District in Kennington, listed their father as living at 57 Binfield Road in Clapham.

	On the day of the census that year the family was recorded at 19 Narbonne Avenue in Clapham, within the London Borough of Wandsworth, the same street where his older brother Percy John Collett was also living in 1901. Frederick A Collett was 34 and a commercial clerk whose place of birth was Kennington. His wife, Amy M Collett, was 36 and from Chelsea, with their five children all confirmed as having been born at Clapham. They were Winifred A Collett who was eight, Reginald A Collett who was six, Harry F Collett who was four, Frederick J Collett who was three and Kathleen M Collett who was one year old. Employed by the family as a general domestic servant was Matilda Everett from St Helier in Jersey who was said to be single and “around 20 years”.

	Sometime during the following years, the family moved from Clapham to Beckenham, where they were living in April 1911. The six-roomed property at 11 MacKenzie Road, Kent House in Beckenham, leads off the A234 Beckenham Road. Frederick Arthur Collett from Kennington was 44 and a commercial clerk who had been married to Amy for nineteen years. Amy Matilda Collett from Chelsea was 46 and during her married life she had given birth to five children, all of whom were still living. Of those five children, only four were still living at the family home and they were Reginald Arthur Collett who was 16 and a junior clerk working at the telephone engineer’s office, Harry Francis Collett was 14 and still attending school, as were his younger siblings Frederick James Collett aged 13 and Kathleen Maud Collett who was 11. The census return also confirmed that all the children had been born at Clapham.

	Although confirmed as still being alive in 1911, no record of the couple’s eldest child, Winifred, has been identified in that year’s census. And it was at that same address in Beckenham that Frederick and Amy were still living when they received the tragic news of the death of their youngest son Freddie. Frederick passed away in 1956, his wife Amy having died twelve years earlier in 1944.

	71Q13	Winifred Amy Collett				Born in 1892 at Clapham, London
	71Q14	Reginald Arthur Collett				Born in 1894 at Clapham, London
	71Q15	Harry Francis Collett				Born in 1896 at Clapham, London
	71Q16	Frederick James Collett				Born in 1897 at Clapham, London
	71Q17	Kathleen Maud Collett				Born in 1899 at Clapham, London


71P6	Sidney Herbert Collett was born at Kennington in 1868, the sixth child of William Eustace Collett and Hannah London, whose birth was recorded at Lambeth (Ref. 1d 419) during the second quarter of 1868. In error, he was named as Sidney N Collett aged three years in the census of 1871 when he and his family were recorded at 48 Clayton Street in Kennington. Ten years later he was correctly described as Sidney H Collett who was 13 and still living with his family, but at 3 Clayton Street in Kennington. Upon leaving school he followed others in his family who became clerks, and at the age of 23 in the census of 1891 Sidney H Collett was working as a bank clerk.

	Sidney Herbert Collett married Jessie Woolnough in 1895, the event recorded at Islington (Ref. 1b 391) during the second quarter of that year. Their son was born at Holloway and in March 1901 the family of three was settled at Seymour Road in Harringay within the London parish of Hornsey, where thirty-two-year-old Sidney H Collett from Kennington was a junior cashier at a stock bank. His wife Jessie Collett from Islington was also 32 and their son Sidney T Collett was four years of age. Helping Jessie was domestic servant Kate Bartlett from Somerset who was 18.

	It was at 66 Seymour Road in Harringay that the family was living in 1911. The census return that year described Sidney Herbert Collett as being 42 and born at Kennington, whose occupation was that of an accountant working at a bank at 20 Eastcheap in the City of London. He had been married to Jessie Collett from Clerkenwell, who was also 42, for fifteen years during which time she had presented her husband with just the one child. Their son Sidney Thomas Collett was 14 and still attending school, while the place of his birth was confirmed as Holloway.

	The death of Sidney H Collett, who was born around 1868, was recorded at Southend-on-Sea register office (Ref. 4a 717) during the final three months of 1954 when he was 86 years of age.

	71Q18	Sidney Thomas Collett				Born in 1896 at Holloway, London


71P7	Septimus E Collett was born at Kennington in 1869, another son of William and Hannah Collett, whose birth was recorded at Lambeth (Ref. 1d 427) during the first quarter of 1870. Septimus E Collett was one year old in the census of 1871 when he was living with his family at 48 Clayton Street in Kennington, while ten years later Septimus was 11 years of age when he and his family were recorded at 3 Clayton Street in Kennington. He was still unmarried on the day of the next census in 1891 when he was 22 and a coachman lodging with John Short at his home on Stannary Street midway between Kennington and Walworth.

	Septimus E Collet was 65 years old when he died at Camberwell, his passing recorded there (Ref. 1d 949) during the first three months of 1936.


71P8	Clarence Alfred Collett was born at Kennington in 1872, the last son born to William and Hannah Collett. His birth was recorded at Lambeth (Ref. 1d 438) during the second quarter of the year and as Clarence A Collett he was nine years old in the census of 1881 when living with his family at 3 Clayton Street in Kennington. By the spring of 1891 Clarence had left home and was working as a room boy while living at an address in Fleet Street in the City of London. His employer, who completed the census return, entered his name as Clorence Alfred Collet and gave his age as 16 when he was nearer 18 or 19. After a further ten years the census in 1901 located Clarence A Collett aged 28 as working as a club steward at Old Broad Street in the London parish of St Peter le Poer.

	Historical Note: The Church of St Peter le Poer on Old Broad Street in the City of London was established to serve the poor of London. It was demolished in 1907 and the land sold for development, with the money raised from the sale used to build two new churches in North London, one of them being a new St Peter le Poer at Muswell Hill.

	It is expected that Clarence Collett never married since he was still a bachelor in April 1911. The census that year recorded Clarence Alfred Collett from Kennington as being 39 when he was living at 3 Abbeville Mansion in Abbeville Road in Clapham Park within the London Borough of Wandsworth. It was just over twenty years later that Clarence A Collett passed away while he was still living in London, his death recorded at the City of London register office (Ref. 1c 21) during the last three months of 1931.

	It was the probate notice that confirmed C A Collett of 4 Bonneville Road in Clapham Park died at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London on 21^st November 1931. On 15^th January 1932 probate was granted in London to Alfred Stanley Harvey, a clerk for the personal estate amounting to £315 4 Shillings and 9 Pence.


71P9	Amelia Hannah Collett was born at Kennington in 1875 and was the last child of William Eustace Collett and Hannah London. Her birth, like those of her eight brothers (above) was recorded at Lambeth (Ref. 1d 483) during the first three months of 1876. Amelia H Collett was six years old in 1881 at 3 Clayton Street in Kennington and was 15 and still in education in 1891 when the family home was at 104 Camberwell New Road to the south-east of Kennington. Around the time of the next census Amelia’s mother left Camberwell New Road and in March 1901 mother and daughter were living at St Stephen’s Terrace in South Lambeth. Unmarried Amelia H Collett from Kennington was 25 and the only other occupant of the house was Amelia’s nephew Clarence H Collett aged 12 years and the son of her eldest brother William. Amelia’s father was a lodger at St Agnes Place in nearby Walworth.

	It is possible that Amelia never married, and certainly in the census of 1911 there was an Amelia Collett aged 35 who gave her place of birth as Clapham who was living in Long Ditton near Kingston-upon-Thames in Surrey.


71P10	Catherine Eliza Collett was born at High Wycombe in 1865, her birth as the daughter of John Pearson Collett and Rosalind Huntley Nicholls Howett was recorded there (Ref. 3a 422) during the second quarter of that year. Not long after she was born her father’s work on the railway took the family to Shropshire and in 1871 Katherine E Collett from Buckinghamshire was six years old. Ten years later, and following the death of her mother, Kate Collett from High Wycombe was visiting her father’s youngest sister, her married aunt Julie Dighton at Palmerstone Road in Wimbledon where she was 16 and already working as a school teacher, the same occupation as her late mother and her younger sister Edith (below).

	After a further ten years Kate Collett from Buckinghamshire was 26 and unmarried, presumably still working as a school teacher, when she was a visitor at the home of spinster Sarah James at Hungerford Road in Islington, London. No trace of her has been found within the census of 1901 but in February 1909 Catherine Eliza Collett, a spinster, was named as the administrator of her late father’s estate of £468 19 Shillings and 9 Pence. He was a resident of Melcombe Regis, but died at 4 Gloucester Road in nearby Weymouth which may have been where Catherine was living at that time. Two years after, the census in 1911, spinster Catherine E Collett from High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire was 46 and was a boarding house proprietor having her own account. At that time in her life, she was a visitor at the home of Birmingham born Rosina Agnes Nash who 51 and a widow, the sub-postmistress at Manning Terrace Post Office in Felixstowe. With her were her three Wimbledon born children, perhaps an indication that Catherine Collett knew Rosina Nash from earlier in her life.


71P11	Rosalind Mary Collett was born at Market Drayton in either late 1867 or early 1868 and was the second known child of John and Rosalind Collett who was baptised there on 16^th March 1868. Rather curiously she was not living with her mother or her father in the census of 1871, when both of her parents were living apart from each other, while both were still living and working in Drayton Magna. Following the premature death of her during that decade her father took the family south to Dorset and in 1881 ‘Mary Collett’ from Market Drayton was 14 and living at Ranalagh Terrace in Melcombe Regis, Weymouth. Looking after Rosalind and her sister Edith (below), while their father was at work was the girl’s aunt Catherine Collett, their father’s sister. It was a similar situation ten years later when Rosalind M Collett aged 22 (sic) was still living with her father, his sister, and Rosalind’s sister, in 1891 but at Cobourg Place in Melcombe Regis.

	Rosalind Mary Collett was recorded as being 31 on the day of the census in 1901, when she would have been around 33 or 34. On that day, as ten years earlier, she was still living with her widowed father and his sister Katherine Sarah Collett at Melcombe Regis. By the time of the next census in April 1911 Rosalind Mary Collett aged 44 and from Market Drayton was still a single lady living at 12 Granville Road in Boscombe Park, Bournemouth. At that time in her life she was working as a governess. She was still a spinster seventeen years later when her death was recorded at Dorchester register office in Dorset (Ref. 5a 344) during the last three months of 1938, Rosalind M Collett being 72 years of age.


71P12	Edith Collett was born at Market Drayton in 1868 where her birth was recorded (Ref. 6a 779) during the second quarter of that year. She was still living at Drayton Magna in 1871 but with her father John Pearson Collett and her older sister Catherine (above), and her maiden aunt Katherine Collett. Her mother Rosalind Collett nee Howett was a live-in governess at a nearby school in Magna who tragically passed away during the 1870s. That sad event resulted in the family moving to Weymouth on the south coast where Edith from Market Drayton was 12 years old in the census of 1881 when she was living with her widowed father and his sister Katherine Collett at Ranalagh Terrace in Melcombe Regis just north of the centre of Weymouth.

	It was at Cobourg place in Melcombe Regis that she was still living with her father and her maiden aunt in 1891 when Edith was 20, rather than 22. Curiously no record of any member of her Collett family was been discovered with the next census of 1901, but in April 1911 unmarried Edith Collett from Market Drayton was 42 and living in a 14-roomed property at 4 Gloucester Row in Weymouth. The premises was a school for young ladies, where Edith was the owner and school mistress employing three governesses to look after the education of one female student aged 16 and four pupils aged 11 to 14.


71P14	Alfred Wildale Collett was born at Toronto in 1891, the second son of Henry James Collett and Lilian Cutmore, and was only six years old when his father suffered a premature death at just 38 years of age. Alfred later married Ada Holding with whom he had seven children. The couple’s youngest son, Albert Cecil Collett, was the great grandfather of Dayna Collett who kindly provided the new details in 2023 and 2024 for this family line to be updated early in 2024. Shortly after Albert was born, Alfred Wildale Collett died resulting in his seven children being placed within the care system because Ada was unable to look after them.

	71Q19	Willard Collett	Born in 1917 at Toronto
	71Q20	Lydia Collett	Born in 1919 at Toronto
	71Q21	Arthur Collett	Born in 1921 at Toronto; died in 1921
	71Q22	Kathleen Collett – not verified	Born in 1923 at Toronto
	71Q23	Rose Collett	Born in 1926 at Toronto
	71Q24	Roy Collett	Born in 1927 at Toronto
	71Q25	Albert Cecil Collett	Born in 1928 at Toronto


71P15	Edward Collett was the eldest of the five children of Edward Charles James Collett and his wife Alice, whose birth was registered at St Olave Bermondsey (Ref. 1d 297) during the second quarter of 1886. He was five years old in 1891 when the family home was at Marigold Place in Bermondsey, and in 1899 his father died. That made Edward aged 15 as the sole breadwinner in 1901 when he was living at Llama Place in Bermondsey where his widowed mother was head of the household at 38. On leaving school Edward took up employment with a local chemist where, in 1901 he was described as a chemist’s and a druggist’s assistance. It was nine years later when the marriage of Edward Collett and Sarah L Clark was recorded at St Olave Bermondsey register office (Ref. 1d 266) during the fourth quarter of 1910. Sarah was also born at Bermondsey, with her birth registered at St Olave Bermondsey (Ref. 1d 266) as Sarah Louise Clark during the month of March in 1887. It was also at St Olave Bermondsey that the births of the couple’s six children were recorded when their mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Clark.

	For whatever reason, just a few months into their married life together, no trace of Edward has been found in Britain 1911, when his wife Sarah Louisa Collett from Bermondsey was 24 and a mineral water bottler who was living at Bermondsey with her parents Thomas Clark and Sarah Clark, whose son Alexander Clark, aged 14, was the only other member of the family living there. Tragically, not long after the birth of her last child, the death of Sarah L Collett at St Olave Bermondsey was recorded at the London register office (Ref. 1d 121) in March 1925 aged 38. With young children to care for, it is possible that Edward was subsequently married for a second time. Four years later, Sarah’s brother Alexander Clark married Edward’s young sister Elizabeth Lily Collett (below). The only possible recording of the death of Edward Collett was at Camberwell register office (Ref. 1d 954) during the first three months of 1942, at the age of 56.

	71Q26	Edward J Collett	Born in 1912 at Bermondsey
	71Q27	Thomas James Collett	Born in 1915 at Bermondsey
	71Q28	Francis Alexander Collett	Born in 1917 at Bermondsey
	71Q29	Sarah L Collett	Born in 1920 at Bermondsey (Ref. 1d 468) Qrt1
	71Q30	Alice E Collett	Born in 1921 at Bermondsey
	71Q31	Henry S Collett	Born in 1924 at Bermondsey


71P16	James Collett was born at Bermondsey in 1888 and was another son of Edward and Alice Collett, although no obvious record of his birth has been found. He was two years old in 1891 when James and his family were residing at Marigold Place in Bermondsey, and was 12 in 1901, but at Llama Place in Bermondsey two years after his father had suffered a premature death. James was still living in the London area when he died at the age of 55, with his death recorded at London register office (Ref. 1d 44) during 1944. It is possible that he never married.


71P17	John Collett was born at Bermondsey in 1890, the third child of Edward and Alice Collett, when his birth was registered at St Olave Bermondsey (Ref. 1d 216) during the last three months of 1890. He was therefore around five months old in the census of 1891 when with his family at Marigold Place, where he may have been born. He only survived for another few weeks, when the death of John Collett was recorded at nearby St Olave Southwark (Ref. 1d 176) during the second quarter of 1891.


71P18	Ellen Collett was born at Bermondsey in 1892 and was the eldest daughter and fourth child of Edward and Alice Collett. Her birth was recorded at St Olave Bermondsey register office (Ref. 1d 287) during the first quarter of the year. She may have been born at Marigold Place where her family was living in 1891. Ellen was seven years old when her father died young, and by 1901 she was nine years of age and living with her widowed mother at Llama Place in Bermondsey. After a further ten years, when Ellen was 19 and a packer with a tin box manufacturer, it was just her and her two younger sisters who were still living in Bermondsey with their mother.


71P19	Alice Collett was born at Bermondsey in 1894, with her birth recorded at St Olave Bermondsey register office (Ref. 1d 245) during the summer of that year, another daughter of Edward and Alice Collett. By the time she was five years old her father had died, leaving six-year-old Alice living with her widowed mother at Llama Place in Bermondsey in 1901. On completing her schooling, Alice managed to get employment with a tin box manufacturer as a packer, where her old sister Ellen (above) also worked.


71P20	Elizabeth Lily Collett was born at Llama Place in Bermondsey on 24^th September 1899, the last child born to Edward Charles James Collett and his wife Alice. Tragically, her father died earlier in that same year, with the birth of Elizabeth Lily Collett recorded at St Olave Bermondsey register office (Ref. 1d 224) during the last three months of the year. It was at Llama Place that the family was living in 1901 where, as Lily Collett, Elizabeth was one year old, as she was in 1911 when Lily Collett was attending school at the age of eleven. Eighteen years later, the marriage of Elizabeth Lily Collett and Alexander Clark was recorded at St Olave Southwark register office (Ref. 1d 363) during the second quarter of 1929. He was the son of Thomas Clark and Sarah Clark, and it was his older sister, the deceased Sarah Louise Collett nee Clark, who had married Elizabeth’s eldest brother Edward Collett (above).

	Their marriage just one child for the couple, and that was daughter Lily Clark, whose birth was recorded at St Olave Bermondsey register office (Ref. 1d 202) during the spring of 1931, when the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett. The later death of Elizabeth Lily Clark, nee Collett, was recorded at Hampshire register office (Vol. 20 0108) during 1978. Shortly thereafter her husband’s death was also recorded there (Vol. 20 0712) in 1979, when the date of birth of Alexander Johnstone Clark was reported as 8^th July 1899.


71P24	Timothy Collett was born at Bermondsey, London on 15^th September 1904 and was six years old in the census of 1911, the youngest surviving child of John Henry Collett from Poplar and his wife Mary from Bermondsey. He may have been born at 11 Hargrave Place in Bermondsey, where he was living with his family in 1911. By that time in his life, he had eight surviving siblings from a total of fourteen, although only three of them were living at Hargreave Place, the other five still to be discovered. At the age of 22, Timothy Collett married Amy F Leonard in 1926, with their wedding recorded at St Olave Southwark register office (Ref. 1d 278) during the last three months of that year.

	Their marriage produced three sons; all of them born at Bermondsey with their births recorded at St Olave Bermondsey register office where their mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Leonard. It would appear Timothy lived much of his life in London, where his death was recorded (Vol. 14 431) in 1990, shortly after he was widowed. Amy Florence Leonard was born at Bermondsey during the spring of 1906, the second daughter of Reuben Edward Leonard and his wife Caroline. The record of her death at Southwark register office (Vol. 15 78) at the end of 1989 confirmed her date of birth as 16^th May 1906.

	71Q32	Timothy J Collett				Born in 1927 at Bermondsey
	71Q33	Leonard E Collett				Born in 1932 at Bermondsey
	71Q34	John H Collett				Born in 1935 at Bermondsey


71P25	Thomas Benjamin George Collett was born at Rotherhithe in 1895, the only known child of Thomas Collett and Mary Ann Elizabeth Warnock. He may have been born at 54 Paradise Street, midway between Rotherhithe and Bermondsey where he was living in 1901 at the age of five years and later in 1907. By 1911 he and his parents were living at 23 Tranton Road in Bermondsey when he was 14 and recorded in the census return under his full name. It was also under his full name that he was married in 1918. The details recorded at the London Borough of Southwark register office confirmed that Thomas Benjamin George Collett was 21 and a cable repairer living at 25 Tranton Road, the son of carman Thomas Collett. His bride was Florence Louisa Burton, also 21, the daughter of George Burton deceased. The wedding took place at St James’ Church in Bermondsey on 4^th August 1918.

	It is not known at this time whether Thomas and Florence had any children, but it is known that Thomas died in 1967 when he was thought to be 70 years old. The death of Thomas B G Collett was recorded at Lewisham register office (Ref. 5d 251) during the second quarter of that year.


71P27	James Collett was born at Salisbury Street, off Jamaica Road, in Bermondsey during 1902 and was the eldest of three surviving children from a total of six offspring of James Collett and Emily Sarah Pooley. His birth was recorded at St Olave Bermondsey register office (Ref. 1d 233) during the third quarter of the year. It was also at Salisbury Street that he was eight years old in 1911. What happened to him after that day has still to be discovered.


71P28	Julia Ann Collett was born at Salisbury Street in Bermondsey in June 1904 the second of the three children of James and Emily Collett. Her birth was recorded at St Olave Bermondsey register office (Ref. 1d 188) during the summer of that year. She was baptised simply as Julia Collett at St Crispin’s Church in Bermondsey on 9^th June 1904 when her parents were confirmed as James and Emily Sarah Collett. The family was recorded as still living at Salisbury Street in 1911, when Julia was six years of age. The later marriage of Julia A Collett and Edward W Martin was recorded at St Olave Southwark register office (Ref. 1d 268) during the last quarter of 1924.

	The marriage resulted in the birth of three children at Bermondsey, whose births were recorded at St Olave Bermondsey register office, where the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett. They were Joyce M Martin in 1925, Edward J Martin in 1927, and Eileen Martin in 1930. Julia A Martin, nee Collett, was 64 years old when her death was recorded at London register office (Ref. 5d 214) in 1968.


71P30	George John Collett was born at Bermondsey in 1897 and was the first of the eight children of George Thomas Collett and Hannah Haley. His birth was recorded at St Olave Bermondsey register office (Ref. 1d 247) during the first three months of the year. Just over one year later, the death of baby George John Collett was recorded at Southwark register office (Ref. 1d 120) during the second quarter on 1898.


71P31	Florence Collett was born at Bermondsey on 22^nd May 1898 although, unlike her siblings, no record of her birth at St Olave Bermondsey has been found. If, however, she was born on 22^nd March that year, then her unnamed birth was recorded there (Ref. 1d 251) during the first three months of that year. In the Bermondsey census in 1901, Florence Collett was recorded as Florrie aged two years who was living with her family at Drappers Road when her parents were described as Thomas and Anna Collett. She was 21 years of age when the marriage of Florence Collett and Frederick Leversha was recorded at St Olave Southwark register office (Ref. 1d 220) during the first three months of 1920. Fourteen years later, Florence’s youngest sister Esther Collett (below) married Alfred Leversha, Frederick’s brother.

	The children of Frederick and Florence Leversha were: honeymoon baby Stanley Frederick Leversha born at Greenwich in 1920; Esther Leversha at Bermondsey in 1922; Thomas George Leversha also there in 1923, where he died that same year; and Arthur J Leversha at Bermondsey in 1926. In every case, the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett.


71P32	Hannah Esther Collett was born at Bermondsey on 18^th May 1900, with her birth recorded at St Olave Bermondsey register office (Ref. 1d 203). She was not living with her family in 1901 and, with no further record of her, it is assumed that she too had suffered an infant death, like her older brother (above).


71P33	Ellen Rose Collett was born at Bermondsey on 20^th August 1901, the fourth child of George and Hannah Collett. Her birth was recorded at St Olave Bermondsey register office (Ref. 1d 217). The marriage of Ellen Rose Collett and Christopher Percival Sellens was recorded at St Olave Southwark register office (Ref. 1d 331) during the summer of 1929, which was where her parents’ wedding was recorded in the summer of 1896. The marriage of Ellen and Christopher was a very short one but did produce two daughters; Constance Y Sellens was born in 1932 at Greenwich and she married John R Cox in 1953 in Sidcup, Kent, and Sylvia R Sellens was born in 1938 at Maidstone in Kent, who married Keith L Roberts in 1961 at Kingston-upon-Hull. For both births, the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett. Sadly, neither parent was alive to attend their wedding days, nor was either daughter named in their parents’ Wills.

	Christopher was only 44 when he died at Maidstone on 16^th July 1938, not long after the birth of his second daughter, when his death was recorded at Kent register office (Ref. 2a 932). The Will of Christopher Percival Sellens was proved in Kent on 13^th September 1938 when the sole beneficiary was Ellen Rose Sellens. His widow was 48 when she died in 1950, with the death of Ellen Rose Sellens recorded at London register office (Ref. 5d 557). Her Will was proved in London on 28^th April 1950, with the probate process confirming the following details; that Ellen Rose Sellens died on 20^th February 1950, with the two beneficiaries named as George Thomas Collett and Nellie Rose Willison.


71P34	Edith Elizabeth Collett was born at Bermondsey on 9^th December 1903 when her birth was recorded at St Olave Bermondsey register office (Ref. 1d 227) during the first quarter of the following year. She was thirty-years-old when the marriage of Edith Elizabeth Collett and Alfred G Bennett was recorded at the City of London register office (Ref. 1c 36) near the end of 1934. Earlier that same year Edith’s sister Esther (below) also married and, after the birth of her first child Esther and her family moved to Middlesex, to where Edith and Alfred also moved and where their two daughters were born.

	They were Iris E Bennett born in 1935 and Wendy Y Bennett born in 1936, whose births were both recorded at Edmonton register office, with their mother’s maiden-name confirmed as Collett. One of the daughters of Edith’s older married sister Ellen Rose (above) was also given a second forename with an initial letter Y. The later death of Edith E Bennett was recorded at London register office (Ref. 5c 1299) in 1950.


71P35	John James Collett was born at Bermondsey on 28^th February 1906 and was another son of George (Thomas) and Hannah (Anna) Collett whose birth was recorded at St Olave Bermondsey register office (Ref. 1d 182). It seems that he lived virtually all his life in London, and it was there, at the London register office (Ref. 5e 14), that the death of John James Collett was recorded in 1966 at the age of 60.


71P36	Esther Collett was born at Bermondsey on 17^th June 1908 and was the youngest daughter born to George and Hannah Collett. Her birth, like those of all her siblings, was birth recorded at St Olave Bermondsey register office (Ref. 1d 185). No member of her family has been found within the census of 1911, and she was nearly 26 years old when the marriage of Esther Collett and Alfred Leversha was recorded at Bermondsey register office (Ref. 1d 348) during third quarter of 1934. Interestingly, in 1920, Esther’s eldest sister Florence (above) married Frederick Leversha, Alfred’s brother. Two years after their wedding day, Esther presented Alfred with a son, with the birth of Frederick Leversha recorded at Camberwell register office (Ref. 1d 862) during the summer of 1936, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett.

	After the birth of their first child the family moved to North London and Middlesex, where the birth of other children was recorded. They were Ronald S Leversha in 1938, Edward J Leversha in 1942, Victor C Leversha in 1944, and Maureen G Leversha in 1948. Esther was living in the Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, when she died in April 1984 at the age of 75, with her death recorded at the Elstree & Potters Bar register office (Vol. 10 217).


71P37	James Collett was born at Bermondsey on 23^rd March 1912, the eighth and last child of George Thomas Collett and Hannah Haley. His birth was recorded at St Olave Bermondsey register office (Ref. 1d 306) when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Haley. At the age of 27, the marriage of James Collett and Ellen M Callaghan was recorded at Bermondsey register office (Ref. 1d 555) during the summer of 1939. Ellen was just over one year older than James, having been born at Bermondsey in 1910 with her birth also recorded at St Olave Bermondsey (Ref. 1d 201) during the final three months of the year.

	Only two births of a child to Collett-Callaghan parents have been found, but with only their son Bernard born in the same area of South London. The earlier birth of Barbara S Collett was recorded at Aston-under-Lyne register office (Ref. 8d 772) in 1943. This location, to the east of Manchester, was also a known area for training soldiers for action in the Second World War. Which may have been a reason for the couple to be billeted there. However, the fact that Barbara S Collett was later married in Southwark, is a positive enough reason to included here as the couple’s first-born child. James Collett was around 73 years old when he died in 1985, when his death was recorded at London register office (Vol. 14 658).

	71Q35	Barbara S Collett				Born in 1943 at Ashton-under-Lyne
	71Q36	Bernard James Collett				Born in 1951 at Southwark


71P38	Doris Mavis Collett was born at Willesden on 16^th August 1910 the eldest child of Henry John Collett and Elizabeth Harriet Phillips who were only married seven months earlier. It was also at Willesden register office that her birth was recorded (Ref 3a 323) during the third quarter of that year. As simply Doris Collett, she was seven months old when she was living with her parents at Camberwell, with her place of birth confirmed as Willesden. Doris Mavis Collett was 29 when she married Ernest H Jordan, when their wedding was recorded at Lewisham register office (Ref. 1d 3629) during the third quarter of 1939. The only birth of a Jordan/Collett child was that for Ernest Henry Jordon, known as Ernie. Doris Mavis Jordan was 45 and in Kent, where her death was recorded during 1956 (Ref. 5b 127).


71P39	Hilda Elizabeth Collett was born on 10^th June 1912 (accounting to her father’s military record of 1916), with her birth recorded at Camberwell register office (Ref. 1d 1631) during the third quarter of the year, the second child of Henry and Elizabeth Collett. Her father died in 1954, and later, in 1971, when her mother left Catford and moved to Whitstable in Kent during 1971, unmarried Hilda went with her mother. Hilda continued to live there after her mother passed away in 1981, and twelve years later Hilda Elizabeth Collett died on 10 April 1993 at the Kent & Canterbury Hospital in Canterbury. The death of Hilda Elizabeth Collett was recorded at Kent register office (Vol. 5601b b5s) when she was 81.


71P40	John Henry Collett, who was known as Jack, was born at 99 Brownhill Road in Catford on 11^th January 1914 with his birth recorded at Lewisham register office (1d 2113) when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Phillips. Eighteen years after his father died in 1954, John’s mother and his sister Hilda (above) made a new home at Whitstable in Kent, where they both passed away. John Henry Collett was twice married, on the first occasion on 4^th March 1939 it was to (1) Doreen Rosina Ruth Aldous at St John, Leytonstone in Essex, from whom he was later divorced. It was during the spring of 1947 at Southwark that he married (2) Winifred Florence Monkhouse who was known as Winnie Q2 1947, Southwark. At the end of his life Jack was residing within the Orpington area of Kent, fifty miles from Whitstable, when he died on 24^th March 1990 in Orpington Hospital, with his passing recorded at Kent register office (Vol. 11 1267) in 1990 three years before his sister passed away. Their children are still alive in 2023.


71P41	Elsie Margery Collett was born on 25^th November 1915 at 53 Elswick Road, Lewisham and, like her older brother John, her birth was also recorded at Lewisham (Ref. 1d 1952) and her mother’s maiden-name was also confirmed as Phillips. Later, Elsie Margery Collett married Kenneth Burwood Walter at St Andrew’s Church in Mottingham, their wedding recorded at Woolwich register office (Ref. 1d 2732) during the third quarter of 1940. They had some children, still living at the time of writing, and it was the son of Elsie’s third daughter who kindly supplied previously missing the details for his branch of the family in 2021.


71P42	Francis James Collett, who was known as Frank, was born on 28^th January 1920 at 437 Southwark Park Road, Bermondsey, the fifth child of Henry and Elizabeth Collett and the first of them whose birth was recorded at Bermondsey St Olave register office (Ref. 1d 495), when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Phillips. Frank was married twice, the first time to (1) Lilian Davis, known as Wendy, at Biggleswade during the summer of 1944, from whom he was later divorced. His subsequent marriage took place towards the end of 1973 at Bridge in Kent, when his second wife was divorcee Rita Sylvia Court, former wife of Robert E Appleton who were married at Canterbury in 1960. After eleven years with his second wife, the death of Francis James Collett was record at Canterbury register office (Vol. 16 317) in May 1984, when he was 64 years of age. Frank’s children are all living in 2023.


71P43	Alec Leonard Collett was born on 21^st January 1922 at 437 Southwark Park Road within the Bermondsey area of South London, with his birth recorded at Bermondsey St Olave register office (Ref. 1d 35) during the first three months of the year, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Phillips. What happened to Alec after he was born did remain a mystery, until that is, he popped up being mentioned in the New York press on 15^th November 2007 under his full name of Alec Leonard Collett, where his date of birth was confirmed as written above.

	Armed with this very recent information, a search of the earlier records in the USA reveals the following details. Alec was 29 years old when she sailed from Southampton onboard the S S Caronia of the Cunard White Star Line Company on 23^rd June 1951. Born in England in 1922, the passenger list indicated that his occupation was that of a journalist, bound for New York and arriving there on 30^th June 1951. Although he travelled alone, on arrival in New York the immigration form described him as Alec L Collett, a married man and a visitor, curiously having a forward address that was simply listed as ‘Department of State, Washington.’ Within the family it is known that at some time he did work for, or with, the United Nations.

	It is now confirmed that Len, when aged 15, commenced his career in journalism by writing short articles for the local press about the Old Brownhill Dramatic Club formed by Old Boys from Brownhill Road School in Catford. It is believed that Len appointed himself to be the Press Secretary for the Club. He was 17 at the outbreak of the Second World War and took the opportunity to broaden his work by reporting on wartime incidents. He was married twice, the first time to (1) Mariana Ivanova Sakazova, known as Marian, in Prague, Czechoslovakia, on 1^st April 1948. The marriage took place at the British Embassy in Prague, following Mariana's arrest and interrogation for twelve hours by Czech police, after she had refused to join the Communist Party. The marriage was a means to obtain British Citizenship so that Mariana could leave Czechoslovakia with Len. It is understood that many years later Marian commenced successful legal proceedings to have the marriage declared null and void. He later married (2) Elaine Lolita Jones in New York on 3^rd July 1970. All of Len’s children are still living.

	Around the time that he died, Len was in Lebanon as a freelance journalist working for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinians (UNWRA) when he was taken hostage by the Revolutionary Organisation of Socialist Muslims (part of Abu Nidal's Fatah Organisation). Len was murdered on 17^th April 1986 at Aitta al-Fukhar, Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, following the USA bombing of Libya, after being accused by his captors of being an American spy. His tragic death was reported in national newspapers at that time, with the subject still being discussed in print during the first decade of the twenty-first century, as recently as 2009.


71P44	Eileen Grace Collett was also born in the Bermondsey area of London on 27^th April 1924 at 437 Southwark Park Road, when her birth was recorded at Bermondsey St Olave register office (Ref. 1d 196), another daughter of Henry and Elizabeth Collett. She was 22 years old when the marriage of Eileen Grace Collett and Francis J Carlin was recorded at Lewisham register office (Ref. 5d 30) during the second quarter of 1947. Over the following eighteen years Eileen gave birth to eight children, the first two in London and Kent, the last six at Lewisham when, in every case, the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett.

	It seems Eileen lived much of her life in the Lewisham area of South London, and it was there, at Lewisham register office (Vol. 2421c c92a) that the death of Eileen Grace Carlin was recorded in March 2005 at the age of 81. Her husband was born in Scotland, and it was in Glasgow that he died on 6^th December 2007.


71P45	Audrey Irene Collett was born at 437 Southwark Park Road in Bermondsey on 21^st June 1926, the eighth and youngest child of Henry John Collett and Elizabeth Harriet Phillips. Her birth was recorded at Bermondsey St Olave register office (Ref. 1d 217) during the third quarter of the year, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Phillips. Just prior to her thirty-first birthday Audrey married Brian Lionel Burt on 1^st June 1957 at Lewisham, with their wedding recorded at Lewisham register office (Ref. 5d 55). Brian was much younger than Audrey, with the birth of Brian L Burt recorded at Lewisham (Ref. 1d 1253) during the second quarter of 1933. Their marriage produced two children, the births for whom were both recorded at Lewisham when the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett. The family emigrated to Australia in 1970 and, two years later, Brian was died during December 1972 after being involved motor accident.


71P46	Ivy Kathleen Collett was born at New Cross in Deptford on 16^th March 1911, the first of the eight children of Ernest Hiram Collett and Kathleen Hannah Carpenter. Her birth was recorded at Greenwich register office (Ref. 1d 903) during the second quarter of 1911. As simply Ivy Collett she was two weeks old in the Deptford census of 1911. The much later marriage of Ivy took place in Devon when she was 32, and she gave birth to her only child when she was still 40 years old. The wedding of Ivy Kathleen Collett and George Bareham was recorded at Newton Abbot register office (Ref. 5b 411) during the second quarter of 1943. The couple were still residing in Devon when the birth of Ruth Bareham was also recorded at Newton Abbot (Ref. 7a 527) during the first quarter of 1952, when the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett. Ivy’s younger sister Phyllis (below) was also married in Devon two year prior to Ivy’s wedding day.

	George Bareham was born at Tiverton in Devon on 7^th April 1910, one of the younger children of organist and music teacher Richard Bareham from Christow near Newton Abbot and his wife Mary Lord Bareham from Plymouth. After the birth of their daughter, it was very likely George’s occupation that took the family away from Devon. Where they initially settled after leaving the county is not currently known, except that all three members of the family were living in County Durham in North-East England, when they passed away. Tragically, the first of them was unmarried Ruth Bareham, whose death was recorded at Durham register office (Ref. 1a 1948) in 1973 at the age of 21, when her date of birth was recorded as 9^th February 1952. Next was George Bareham in 1982 recorded at the same register office (Vol. 2 1617) whose date of birth was confirmed as 7^th April 1910. After twenty years as a widow, the death of Ivy Kathleen Bareham was also recorded at Durham register office (Vol. 0581b b65e) in 2002, when her death of birth was confirmed as 16^th March 1911.


71P47	Ronald Ernest Collett was born at Deptford on 12^th February 1912, the second child and eldest son of Ernest and Kathleen Collett. His birth was recorded at Greenwich register office (Ref. 1d 1849) during the first quarter of the year, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Carpenter. By the time Ronald emigrated to Australia on 22^nd January 1955, he was 43 years old and a married man, who date of birth was recorded on the P & O passenger list as 11^th February 1912. His occupation was that of a process worker and his ultimate destination was Adelaide in South Australia. Travelling with him was his wife Lily J Collett aged 36 and a housewife, whose date of birth was 18^th December 1919. From that information the marriage of Ronald E Collett and Lily J Weaver can be positively identified as being recorded at the Kent, Bromley register office (Ref. 2a 2859) just south of Greenwich, during the summer of 1940.

	Sailing with the couple to Australia were their three children, as listed below, with the first two births recorded at Kent register and the last at Bromley register office when, on all three occasions, the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Weaver. The passenger list confirmed that Robin A Collett was eight years of age, having been born on 6^th February 1947, with two-year-old Alan J Collett’s date of birth being 25^th June 1953. The latter’s death was also recorded in Australia at Bridgeman Downs, in Brisbane, on the 8^th September 2013, following which he was laid to rest in the Queensland Garden of Remembrance.

	71Q37	Janet P Collett				Born in 1944 at Kent (Ref. 2a 1516)
	71Q38	Robin A Collett				Born in 1947 at Kent (Ref. 5b 168)
	71Q39	Alan J Collett				Born in 1953 at Bromley (Ref. 5b 95) Q2


71P48	Stanley Collett was born at Deptford in 1913 and his birth and infant death were both recorded at Greenwich register office (Ref. 1d 1880) during the last three months of 1913 when Carpenter was confirmed as his mother’s maiden-name, and shortly after (Ref. 1d 1207) during the first three months of 1914, the third child of Ernest and Kathleen Collett.


71P49	Lily Florence Collett was born at Deptford in 1915 and her birth was also recorded at nearby Greenwich register office (Ref. 1d 1963) during the summer of that year, where her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Carpenter.


71P50	Alfred Henry Collett was born at Deptford on 4^th November 1917 with his birth recorded at Greenwich register office (Ref. 1d 1211) during the last months of the year, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Carpenter. He was another son of Ernest Hiram and Kathleen Hannah Collett and was 26 years old when the marriage of Alfred H Collett and Irene V Palmer was recorded at Lewisham register office (Ref. 1d 1189) during the third quarter of 1944. The birth of Irene was also recorded at Lewisham (Ref. 1d 1786) during the first three months of 1917. Their marriage produced two children, with the birth of son Clive recorded at Lewisham and the birth of daughter Judith recorded at Lambeth, in each case the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Palmer. Alfred was still residing in the London area of the country when he died at the age of only 51, the death of Alfred Henry Collett recorded at London register office (Ref. 5d 755) in 1969. Twenty-one years later Irene Collett died at Bexley on 15^th November 1990 aged 73, and was buried at nearby Sidcup Cemetery.

	For their son, there are three marriages of Clive M Collett and all at Bromley in Kent, the first towards the end of 1976 when the bride was Elizabeth Forester (Vol. 11 0970), the second in October 1987 with Patricia A Barrett (Vol. 11 862), and the last in the spring of 1996 to Christine E Henson (Vol. 222 0432).

	71Q40	Clive M Collett				Born in 1953 at Lewisham (Rf. 5d 71)
	71Q41	Judith C Collett				Born in 1954 at Lambeth (Rf. 5c 1635)


71P51	Phyllis Rose Collett was born at Deptford on 27^th May 1919, possibly at New Cross, Deptford, but with her birth recorded at Greenwich register office (Ref. 1d 1415) during the third quarter of that year, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Carpenter. And it was at All Saints Church in Deptford where she was baptised on 10^th July 1919, the daughter of Ernest Hiram and Kathleen Collett. Her old sister Ivy was married in Devon in 1943, which was also where two years earlier the wedding of Phyllis Rose Collett and Ernest J Smith was recorded at Honiton register office (Ref. 5b 24) during the third quarter of 1941. Phyllis Rose Smith, whose date of birth has been confirmed as 27^th May 1919 died in Surrey at the age of 71, when her passing was recorded at Surrey register office (Vol. 17 798) during 1991.

	It was also in Surrey that the couple was living when they gave birth to three children. The first of them was Brian E Smith in 1945 (Ref. 2a 219), the next Terence R Smith in 1947 (Ref. 5g 367), and Martyn C Smith in 1950 (Ref. 5g 650). All three births were recorded at Surrey register office, with the mother’s maiden-name confirmed as Collett.


71P52	Victor Arthur Collett was born at Deptford on 5^th February 1921, the youngest son and seventh child of Ernest and Kathleen Collett. His birth, like all his siblings, was recorded at Greenwich register office (Ref. 1d 1692) during the early months of that year, when Carpenter was confirmed as his mother’s maiden-name. It was Victor who was the first member of the family to travel to Australia, which happened on 12^th October 1951 when the passenger list described Victor A Collett as being 30 years of age, an army recruit bound for Melbourne. Nearly three years later, Victor’s eldest brother, his wife, and their children, sailed into Adelaide at the start of 1955. At the time that he died in Australia on 29^th August 1987 he was residing at Clearview, Port Adelaide, Enfield City in South Australia, and it was at Enfield Memorial Park that he was buried at the age of 66.


71P53	Margaret Collett was born at Deptford on 4^th November 1924 when her birth was recorded at Greenwich register office (Ref. 1d 1316) at the end of 1924, with her mother’s maiden-name confirmed as Carpenter. She was the eighth and last child of Ernest Hiram Collett and Kathleen Hannah Carpenter. Margaret was still living within the Deptford area of South London when she was married at the age of 24, her marriage to Thomas W A Maxey recorded at Deptford register office (Ref. 5c 1251) during the summer of 1949. Thomas was much older than Margaret and was a widow, his first marriage to Anne Higgins recorded at Deptford (Ref. 1d 1307) in 1932. He had been born on 6^th September 1908 at Camberwell in London. The only child of Margaret and Thomas was John P Maxey, whose birth was recorded at Greenwich (Ref. 5c 631) during the spring of 1951 when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett. Thomas William Albert Maxey died at Lewisham on 13^th September 1981 as recorded at London register office (Vol. 14 0515) when he was 73 years old.


71P54	Arthur Leonard Collett was born at Bermondsey on 16^th June 1915 and was the eldest of the four sons of William Collett and Florence White. His birth was recorded at St Olave Bermondsey register office (Ref. 1d 370) when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as White. Arthur was 24 when the marriage of Arthur L Collett and Doris E Payne was recorded at the Essex Rochford register office (Ref. 4a 2527) during the first quarter of 1940. Doris was born early in 1917, when her birth was recorded at West Ham register office (Ref. 4a 334). Once they were married, they settled in Brentwood where the couple’s first two children were born and where their last child was born. The births of other three children were simply recorded as Essex register office. The births of all six children confirmed their mother’s maiden-name was Payne. The death of Arthur Leonard Collett was recorded at Essex register office (Vol. 9 1573) in 1982 aged 67.

	71Q42	Barbara R Collett			Born in 1941 at Brentwood, Essex
	71Q43	Shirley A Collett			Born in 1942 at Brentwood, Essex
	71Q44	Yvonne J Collett			Born in 1945 at Essex
	71Q45	Doreen J Collett			Born in 1946 at Essex
	71Q46	John J Collett			Born in 1950 at Essex
	71Q47	Stephen L Collett			Born in 1953 at Brentwood, Essex


71P55	Charles William Collett was born at Greenwich on 20^th December 1916, another son of William and Florence Collett. His birth was recorded at Greenwich register office (Ref. 1d 1491) early in 1917, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as White. When his older brother Arthur (above) married and settled in Brentwood, Charles seemed to follow him there, since it was at Brentwood register office (Ref. 4a 2107) that the marriage of Charles W Collett and Marie H Stone was recorded during the spring of 1941. Eighteen months later Marie gave birth to the first of their two daughter Jeanne M Collett, whose birth was recorded at Chelmsford register office (Ref. 4a 1032) during the last three months of 1942. After nearly four years their second and last child Sally was born and her birth was recorded at Essex register office (Ref. 4a 694) in 1946.

	71Q48	Jeanne M Collett			Born in 1942 at Chelmsford, Essex
	71Q49	Sally Collett			Born in 1946 at Essex


71P56	Henry George Collett was born at Orsett in Essex on 18^th March 1920, the third son of William and Florence Collett. His birth was recorded there (Ref. 4a 1369) during the second quarter of the year when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as White. Henry was 27 when he married Gwendoline M Hopper with their wedding recorded at the Essex South-Western register office (Ref. 5a 476) during the last quarter of 1947. No record of any children has been found.


71P57	Walter James Collett was born at Billericay in Essex on 25^th March 1925, the last child of William Collett and Florence White, whose birth was recorded there (Ref. 4a 1120), with White confirmed as his mother’s maiden-name. It was at Brentwood register office in Essex that the wedding of Walter James Collett and Alma E Bourne was recorded (Ref. 4a 905) during the first quarter of 1953. The births of their three children were also recorded at Brentwood, where their mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Bourne. The much later death of Walter James Collett was also recorded at Brentwood register office (Vol. 9 1825) in December 1989 at the age of 63.

	71Q50	Elizabeth Collett			Born in 1953 at Brentwood, Essex
	71Q51	Alan T Collett			Born in 1956 at Brentwood, Essex
	71Q52	Donna L Collett			Born in 1959 at Brentwood, Essex


71P58	Gladys E Collett was born at Bermondsey on 30^th August 1913, the eldest of the three children of Albert Collett and Jessie Smith, whose birth was recorded at St Olave Bermondsey (Ref. 1d 482) when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Smith.


71P59	Albert E Collett was born at Bermondsey on 8^th July 1915, the only son of Albert and Jessie Collett. His birth was recorded at St Olave Bermondsey (Ref. 1d 392) where his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Smith. It would appear that he was married twice in his life, with both events recorded at Lewisham register office. The first of them was when Albert E Collett married (1) Gladys S Cox during the summer of 1938 (Ref. 1d 2710), and later in the spring of 1957 with the marriage of Albert E Collett and (2) June M Samways. Albert was around forty-three years old when his second wife presented him was a daughter whose birth was recorded at Chelmsford register office (Ref. 4a 774) when the mother’s maiden-name was Samways, during the third quarter of 1958.

	71Q53	Mary E C Collett			Born in 1958 at Chelmsford, Essex


71P60	Edna Jessie Collett was the last child of Albert and Jessie Collett and was born at Bermondsey on 12^th September 1920 with her birth also recorded at St Olave Bermondsey (Ref. 1d 360) where her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Smith. Just like her brother Albert (above) Edna was also married at Lewisham, where the wedding of Edna J Collett and Peter L J Hoare was recorded (Ref. 5d 4) during the third quarter of 1946. Their three children were Gillian E Hoare in 1949, Stephen Peter Hoare in 1951, and Anne Hoare in 1956. Much later in her life, Edna was residing in Hampshire, and it was there that the death of 82-year-old Edna Jessie Hoare was recorded (Vol. 4961 41c) in 2003. Her younger husband survived her by five years, when Peter John Leslie Hoare died at Aldershot, Hampshire on 25^th October 2008 at the age of 80, having been born at Hackney in London in 1928.


71P61	Vera I Collett was born at Greenwich on 27^th June 1919, the older of the two children of Arthur Henry Collett and Beatrice Maude Holland. It was at Greenwich register office (Ref. 1d 1433) that her birth was recorded when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Holland. Vera was very young when she married, with the wedding of Vera I Collett and Frederich H Hundey recorded at Surrey South-Western register office (Ref. 2a 1194) early in 1941. Four years after that day, Vera gave birth to a son, Ian M Hundey, whose birth was recorded at Surrey register office (Ref. 2a 889) in 1945 when the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett. On 19^th July 1955, Vera flew out of London Heathrow Airport on KLM Dutch Royal Airlines flight PH-DBE bound for New York, accompanied by her three children. They were Ian Hundey aged ten, Ricky Hundey aged five, and Pamela Hundey who was four. No birth records for the two younger children have been found, so they may have been adopted. Later in her life, Vera married for a second time while living in North America, and it was as Vera Hundey Johnston that she died at Oldcastle, Tecumseh, Essex in Ontario during 2012,with her ashes buried at Greatlawn Memorial Gardens in Oldcastle.


71P62	Leslie James Collett was born at Bermondsey on 6^th June 1921 with his birth recorded at St Olave Bermondsey (Ref. 1d 240) when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Holland. The later marriage of Leslie J Collett and Ivy M Tellett was recorded at Lewisham register (Ref. 1d 1789) during the first three months of 1942. Ivy presented Leslie with a daughter and a son whose births were recorded at Lewisham and London respectively, when Tellett was confirmed as the mother’s maiden-name. Like other members of this London family line, Leslie was another one who moved south into Kent later in his life, and it was at Kent register office that the death of Leslie James Collett was recorded (Vol. 5641j kdj1) in 2003 when he was 82 years old. Six years after losing her husband, Ivy May Collett was living in the Kent village of Longfield near Dartford on 8^th December 2009.

	71Q54	Lesley A Collett				Born in 1943 at Lewisham (Ref. 1a 705)
	71Q55	Martin R Collett				Born in 1946 at London


71P63	Jane Frances Grace Collett was born at Bermondsey in 1923 with her birth recorded at St Olave Bermondsey (Ref. 1d 295) during the last quarter of 1923, when the child’s mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Kilner. She was the first-born child of Edward Leonard Collett and Florence Alice Kilner, with her mother killed in 1944 during the war, so not present when Jane was married towards the end of 1949. It was at Wood Green Middlesex register office (Ref. 5f 1124) that the wedding of Jane F G Collett and Raymond G S Carron was recorded. It was very likely Raymond’s occupation that was the cause of the children being born at various locations within the Middlesex area of London. Their four children were: Ray Carron whose birth was recorded at London register office (Ref. 5c 1415) in 1950; Peter Carron his birth recorded at Islington register office (Ref. 5c 1345) on 1958; Robert D Carron at Edmonton register office (Ref. 5e 484) in 1962; and daughter Jane Margaret Carron whose birth was recorded at Enfield register office (Ref. 5b 429) at the end of 1965. For each birth, the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed at Collett.


71P64	Yvonne Rose Lilian Collett was born at Bermondsey either at the end of 1925 or early in 1926 and was the second daughter of Edward and Florence Collett. Her birth was recorded at Bermondsey register office (Ref. 1d 303) during the first quarter of 1926 when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Kilner. During the summer of 1948 the marriage of Yvonne R L Collett and Douglas A Bailey was recorded at Lewisham register office (Ref. 5d 25). It was there also there that the birth of their son Stephen D Bailey was recorded (Ref. 5d 37) at the start of 1956. Five years earlier the birth of daughter Linda C Bailey was recorded at London register office (Ref. 5d 37) during 1950. In both cases the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett and, it was a coincidence that both births had the same reference number and not an error in reporting.


71P65	Daisy May Florence Collett was born at Bermondsey on 15^th May 1930 and was the third and last child of Edward and Florence Collett. Her birth was recorded there (Ref. 1d 237) during the second quarter of the year, when Kilner was confirmed as her mother’s maiden-name. She was 14 years of age when her mother was killed in a bombing raid on London during the Second World War. As the youngest sister, Daisy was the last to be married, when the wedding of Daisy M F Collett and Walter J Crack was recorded at Woolwich register office (Ref. 5d 2283) during the summer of 1951. The births of the two children were recorded at Horsham in Sussex, when their mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett. They were Judith Florence Crack in 1955, and John Walter Crack in 1958. The later premature death of Daisy May F Crack was recorded at Kent register office in 1979 at the age of 49 (Vol. 11 1138). Walter J Crack, who was born on 26^th July 1928 at Medway in Kent, survived his wife by twelve years, when his passing was also recorded at Kent register office (Vol. 16 1918).


71Q1	Francis William Eustace Collett was born at Kennington in 1886, the son of William Eustace Collett and Emma Caroline Thomson, who was baptised there on 25^th April 1886. His birth was recorded at Wandsworth (Ref. 1d 533) during the second quarter of that year. Curiously, both he and his baby sister Emma (below) were absent from the family on the day of the census in 1891, on the day when the rest of the family was residing at a property named Roman Hurst on Cavendish Road in Balham. One year later Francis’ mother died, at which time it seems highly likely that Francis and his baby sister were taken into the home of his grandparents, the parents of their mother, although it is unclear what happened to their widowed father and their other two brothers.

	It was the census in 1901 which placed Francis and his sister Emma as staying at 17 Old Town in Clapham with Francis W Thomson, a retired builder of 83 years, and his wife Jane S Thomson who was 72. Francis W Collett was 15 years old and was already working as a railway clerk, while his sister Emma was 10 years of age. Completing the household was Francis’ maiden aunt, the sister of their mother, Eleanor A Thomson who was 37 and a fancy draper working at home and having her own account. The elderly Thomson couple probably passed away during the next six years, because their daughter Eleanor was the landlord of Francis W E Collett from then onwards.

	With his youngest brother Clarence (below) having been baptised at Stockwell Green, it is possible that the William Collett who was 26 and listed in the Stockwell census of 1911 was in fact Francis William Eustace Collett. Three years earlier, the Electoral Register of 1908 included Francis William Eustace Collett as living at a one-room first floor furnished apartment at 17 Old Town in Clapham, just south of Stockwell, where he was still living in 1910, 1911 and 1912. His landlady on all those occasions was Miss Thomson, also of 17 Old Town, who was Eleanor A Thomson, his late mother’s sister.

	It was on 2^nd May 1914 that Francis William Eustace Collett, aged 28, was married by banns to Jane Taylor, aged 26, at Holy Trinity Church in Clapham within the London Borough of Lambeth. Sometime during the following years Jane presented Francis with a son, although there may have been other siblings born into the family. Francis William Eustace Collett was residing at 88 Cheyne Walk in Horley, Surrey, when he died on 21^st October 1959. Probate of his personal effects, valued at £1,922 4 Shillings and 3 Pence, was granted in London on 21^st October 1960 in favour of his son Richard William Collett, a railway clerk.

	71R1	Richard William Collett				Born in 1917 at Watford


71Q2	Denzil Percy Eustace Collett was born at Kennington in 1887, where he was baptised on 13^th July 1887, the son of William Eustace Collett and Emma Caroline Collett. The birth of Denzil Percy E Collett was recorded at Wandsworth (Ref. 1d 555) during the third quarter of that year. He was one of the two sons living with his parents at Roman Hurst on Cavendish Road in Balham in 1891 when Denzil P E Collett was three years old. He was only four years old when his mother passed away, perhaps during the birth of another child who also did not survive. No further record of him has been found, which may suggest that he did not survive beyond childhood.

	Denzil Percy E Collett was 65 when he sailed from Montreal in Canada to Liverpool in England on the Empress of France, a ship of the Canadian Pacific Line, which arrived in Liverpool on 15^th August 1952. The passenger listed confirmed his last country of residence was Canada and that was intended to stay at 32 Elkin Road in Morecombe, Lancashire.


71Q3	Clarence Herbert Eustace Collett was born at Kennington in 1889, the third son and youngest child of William and Emma Collett. As the youngest of their three sons, Clarence H E Collett was two years of age when the family was living at Roman Hurst, Cavendish Road in Balham in 1891. Following the death of his mother during the following year, his baptism was delayed for many years when he was eventually baptised, using his full name, at Stockwell Green on 25^th December 1898. No obvious record of him has been discovered within the next two census returns for 1901 and 1911.

	He was 29 years of age when he married Dora Bowers, who was 27, at Southwark on 4^th June 1918, when he was confirmed as the son of William Eustace Collett, while the father of Dora was named as Robert Woodger Bowers. Baby Dora was two months old in the census of 1891 and the third daughter of Robert and Lily Bowers of Canterbury Road in Lambeth. It was at Albert Square in South Lambeth that Dora Bowers was 10 years of age in the census of 1901 when her place of birth was stated as having been Brixton.


71Q4	Emma Agnes Eustace Collett was born at Roman Hurst on Cavendish Road in Balham on 12^th March 1891. She was the only daughter, the fourth and last child of William Eustace Collett and Emma Caroline Thomson. The birth of Emma Agnes E Collett was recorded at Wandsworth (Ref. 1d 798) during the second quarter of 1891, whilst the death of her mother was recorded when Emma was nearly one year old. In the census of 1891 Emma Eustace Collett was one month old, but what happened to two of Emma’s three brothers following the death of their mother, shortly followed by the death of Emma’s father, is not known for sure. However, it is known that Emma and her eldest brother Francis (above) were taken in by their maternal grandparents Francis and Jane Thomson.

	That situation was confirmed by the census in 1901 when Emma A Collett, aged 10 years and from Balham, was living with retired builder Francis W Thomson and Jane S Thomson at 17 Old Town in Clapham. Also living there was Francis W Collett, Emma’s brother, and their maiden aunt and the sister of their mother Eleanor Thomson. It is known that Emma’s brother was still living at that address for many years to come and, in the next census of 1911, Emma A E Collett from Balham was 10 years old and described as the niece of spinster Eleanor A Thomson who was a fancy draper with her own account still living at 17 Old Town. Her brother Francis was also still living at that address up to 1912, in a separate furnished room within the house.

	Emma Agnes E Collett never married and was eighty-one when her death was recorded at Worthing register office (Ref. 5h 2309) during the last quarter of 1972. It was her death certificate that confirmed she had been born on 12^th March 1891, that is before the census day that year, which raises the question, where was she when she was only three weeks old.


71Q5	Frank Gerald Collett was born at 37 Cook’s Road in Walworth on 18^th December 1898, his birth recorded at Southwark St Saviour (Ref. 1d 114) during the first month of 1899, the first child of Francis Glenister Collett and Eleanor Eunice Emmett. By the time Frank G Collett was two years of age in March 1901 he and his parents were still living at 37 Cook’s Road, but in 1908 their home address was 23 Narbonne Avenue in Clapham. And it was there where they were still residing in 1911 when Frank Gerald Collett was 12. What happened to him after that day is not known except that the death of Frank Gerald Collett was recorded at the Surrey Mid-Eastern register office (Vol. 17 0020) during the second quarter of 1979. Upon the death of his father at Cheam in Surrey at the start of 1953 it was Frank Gerald who was name as the executor of his estate of £6,612.


71Q6	Eleanor Evelyn Collett was born at 37 Cook’s Road in Walworth on 22^nd December 1901, the only daughter of Francis and Eleanor Collett, whose birth was recorded at Southwark register office (Ref. 1d 10) during the first three months of 1902. Six years later she and her family were living at 23 Narbonne Avenue in Clapham, and it was there also that Eleanor Evelyn Collett aged nine years was recorded in the census of 1911. However, every member of the family was recorded as having been born at Kennington and not at Walworth in the Borough of Newington where Eleanor was born. It would also appear that Eleanor never married, but lived a very long life. The death of Eleanor Evelyn Collett was recorded at Surrey South East register office (Vol. 7601a 1a1f) at the end of 1996.


71Q7	Arthur Glenister Collett was born at 37 Cook’s Road in Walworth, within the London Borough of Newington, on 6^th June 1903. He was the third and last known child of Francis Glenister Collett and Eleanor Eunice Emmett whose birth was recorded at Southwark register office (Ref. 1d 99) during the third quarter of 1903. Arthur Glenister Collett who was seven years of age in the census of 1911 when he and his family were residing at 23 Narbonne Avenue in Clapham. It is possible, although not proved, that he never married and may have lived with his sister Eleanor in Surrey in his later life, since the death of Arthur Glenister Collett was also recorded at Surrey South East register office (Vol. 7561b 2b) towards the end of 1995, exactly one year before his sister whose death was recorded there in 1996.


71Q8	Jessie Mirabel Collett was born at Camberwell in 1895, the eldest child of Percy John Collett and Emma Sharpington. Jessie never married and was still living in London when she suffered a premature death in 1930 at the age of 36, her passing recorded at Battersea register office (Ref. 1d 369) during the last three months of that year.


71Q9	Doris Sybil Collett was born at either 34 or 36 Narbonne Avenue in Clapham during 1899 and was baptised at Great Amwell near Ware in Hertfordshire in 1900, the second child of Percy and Emma Collett. The discovery of the registration of her birth at Wandsworth (Ref. 1d 688) reveals she was born during the third quarter of 1899. Doris S Collett was one year old in the Clapham census of 1901. Ten years later in 1911 Doris Sybil Collett from Clapham was 11 when she and her family were recorded at 34 Narbonne Avenue in Clapham, from where Doris was still attending school. Doris was 25 when she married Henry Norris, who was 24 and the son of Frederick William Norris, on 27^th September 1924 at St Andrews Church in Hertford.

	It is interesting the Doris’ cousin Harry Francis Collett (Ref. 71Q15) married Olive Maud Norris at Bromley in Kent in 1929, whose three daughters were born in Surrey between 1930 and 1937.


71Q10	Harold Percy Collett was born at 36 Narbonne Avenue in Clapham on 26^th January 1901, the eldest son and third child of Percy and Emma Collett who was only a few weeks old in the census that year. His birth was recorded at Wandsworth register office (Ref. 1d 691) during the first quarter of 1901 and was listed in the census that year as Harold P Collett who was two months old. As Harold Percy Collett he was 10 years of age in the census of 1911 and was at school, by which time the family home was at 34 Narbonne Avenue in Clapham. Thirteen years later, during 1924, Harold Percy Collett the son of Percy John Collett and Emma Sharpington married Vera Mabel Looker.

	It was reported in the London Gazette of 16^th May 1941 that Harold Percy Collett (Royal Air Force service number 64754) was granted a commission for the duration of the hostilities of the Second World War as an Acting Pilot Officer on probation as from 20^th April 1941. By August that same year he was promoted to pilot officer. No records have been found to reveal that Harold and Vera ever had any children, but it is known that Percy lived a long life in London, where he died at the age of 80, his death recorded at Westminster register office (Vol. 15 2168) during the month of December in 1981.


71Q11	Betty Marjorie Collett was born at Wandsworth in 1907 where her birth was recorded (Ref. 1d 690) during the third quarter of that year, although it may have been at 121 Narbonne Avenue in Clapham where she was born. She was the fourth child and youngest daughter of Percy and Emma Collett and was three years of age in the census of 1911. At that time in their life the family was residing at 34 Narbonne Avenue in Clapham, while between 1908 and 1910 the family home was at 12 Streathbourne in Balham. When Betty was 23, she married Jack Davies Garratt who was 28 and the son of Douglas Garratt, the wedding taking place at Sacombe, to the north of Ware in Hertfordshire during 1931.


71Q12	Stanley John Collett was born at Wandsworth and most likely at 121 Narbonne Avenue in Clapham in either late 1908 or early in 1909, the fifth and last known child of Percy John Collett and Emma Sharpington. It was also at Wandsworth that his birth was recorded (Ref. 1d 695) during the first quarter of 1909. Shortly after he was born the family moved again and, from 1910 through to 1912, he and his family were recorded at 34 Narbonne Avenue, as confirmed in the census of 1911 when he was described as Stanley John Collett who was two years of age and from Wandsworth.

	What happened to Stanley after that time is not known. At the time of the Second World War another Stanley John Collett was serving with the Royal Nay as an able seaman, service number P/JX143881, and he was assigned to the battle cruiser HMS Hood which, with HMS Prince of Wales, was involved in the tragic Battle of the Denmark Strait with the German vessels the battleship Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen on 24^th May 1941. The object of the exercise was to sink the Bismarck but, in the end, it was the Hood which was destroyed, with the Prince of Wales being damaged. The name of Stanley John Collett is included on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial – Panel 47, Column 3.

	However, this S J Collett was 22 when he died and was born at Surbiton in Surrey on 14^th June 1918, the uncle of Geoffrey King. He joined the Navy as a Boy on 24^th January 1935 and was subsequently trained at HMS St Vincent in Gosport. He made Boy 1^st Class on 26^th October 1935. His first sea assignment came in January 1936 when he was posted to the "W" class destroyer HMS Wallace for training. This was followed by a training post aboard the battleship HMS Royal Sovereign in February 1936. During the autumn of 1937 Stanley was assigned to HMS Victory barracks in Portsmouth. From May 1938 to December 1940, he served on board the battleship HMS Nelson and it was during April 1941 that he was assigned to HMS Hood.

	It was established in 2023, that while Stanley John Collett was born in Surbiton, he and his two older siblings were baptised at the Church of St Mary, on Mill Lane in the Iffley area of south Oxford, when they were confirmed as the three children of Charles Edward Collett and his wife Amelia of 46 Kings Road, Ditton Hall in Surbiton, Surrey. The three children were: Vera Olive Hannah Collett who was born on 24^th February 1911 and baptised at Iffley on 15^th May 1912; Edwin Matthew Collett born on 17^th May 1913 and baptised on 18^th June 1916; and Stanley John Collett born on 14^th June 1914, who was baptised on 26^th September 1918. The couple and their first child were recorded at Long Ditton in 1911, when Charles Edward from Oxford was 35 and a cricket groundsman, Amelia from Clapham was 35, and Vera Olive was one month old and born at Surbiton. Completing the family was 10-year-old Margery May Wood from Wandsworth, Amelia’s daughter from an earlier marriage.

	The birth of Vera Olive Collett was recorded at Kingston-upon-Thames register office (Ref. 2a 475) during the second quarter of 1911, and she later married Thomas B R King, when their wedding was recorded at the Surrey North-Eastern register office (Ref. 2a 71) during the fourth quarter of 1935. Apart from the war years, when Vera and her family were in Oxford, it would appear she spent most of her life in Surrey, with her death recorded there (Vol. 6702b 7c) in 1993, when Vera Olive King was 82.

	Her father’s birth was registered at Oxford Headington (Ref. 3a 651) during the third quarter of 1875, the second son of carpenter and joiner Arthur William Collett from Cottisford (35 in 1881), and his wife Emma from Thorpe Mandeville who was 34 in 1881. Their eldest son William (Willie) H J Collett was seven, Charles Edward Collett was four, and daughter Mary Hannah Collett was one-year-old, when the family was recorded at Pembroke Street in Oxford. Shortly after that census day, Mary died in 1883. Charles’ later marriage to Amelia Wood was recorded at Wandsworth register office (Ref.1d 1320) during the fourth quarter of 1904.


71Q13	Winifred Amy Collett was born at Clapham in London during 1892, her birth recorded at Lambeth (Ref. 1d 439) during the third quarter of that year. She was baptised at Kennington on 23^rd October 1892, the eldest child of Frederick Arthur Collett and Amy Matilda Butler. It was at 19 Narbonne Avenue in Clapham, within the London Borough of Wandsworth, that Winifred was living with her family in the census of 1901 when, as Winifred A Collett from Clapham, she was eight years old. By the time of the next census in 1911 Winifred was no longer living with her family at 11 MacKenzie Road at Kent house in Beckenham. She never married and was living at Maidstone in Kent when she died at the age of 40, her death recorded at Maidstone register office (Ref. 2a 1555) during the first three months of 1933.


71Q14	Reginald Arthur Collett was born at Clapham during 1894 and his birth was recorded at Lambeth (Ref. 1d 454) during the third quarter of that year. He was baptised at Kennington on 3^rd October 1894, one of sons of Frederick Arthur and Amy Matilda Collett. It was at 19 Narbonne Avenue in Clapham that he was with his family in 1901 when he was six years old. After a further ten years he had left school and as Reginald Arthur Collett aged 16, he was working as a junior clerk at a telephone engineer’s office. The death of Reginald A Collett aged 72 was recorded at Worthing register in Sussex (Ref. 5h 802) during the first three months of 1967.


71Q15	Harry Francis Collett was born at 57 Binfield Road in Clapham on 12^th April 1896, another son of Frederick and Amy Collett, who was four years of age in the census of 1901 when living at 19 Narbonne Avenue in Clapham. As Harry Francis Collett aged 14 and from Clapham he was still living with his family in 1911 at 11 MacKenzie Road, Kent House in Beckenham. Harry later married Olive Maud Norris, who was born on 7^th August 1901, and with whom he had three daughters, all born in Surrey, the first two specifically in Epsom, when their mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Norris. The marriage of Harry F Collett and Olive M Norris was recorded Bromley register office in Kent (Ref. 2a 1934) during the summer of 1929.

	Five years earlier, Harry’s cousin Doris Sybil Collett (Ref. 71Q9) married Henry Norris at St Andrews Church in Hertford on 27^th September 1924. Whether Henry was related in some way to Olive is not currently known, perhaps it was just a pure coincidence.

	Harry and Olive may have lived in South Africa for part of their life since they were named on the passenger list of the Union Castle Mail Steamship Company vessel Pretoria Castle which sailed into Southampton from Durban on 5^th April 1957. Their destination address was ‘Fingle’ on Cunningham Road in Banstead in Surrey. It was also in Surrey that the death of Harry Francis Collett was recorded at Sutton register office (Vol. 15 0373) during September 1982 when he was 86. By that time Harry had been a widower for just over eight years following the death of Olive Maud Collett nee Norris, her death also recorded at Sutton register office (Vol. 15 0720) during June 1974 when she was 72.

	71R2	Ruth A Collett				Born in 1930 at Epsom
	71R3	Doreen Mary Collett				Born in 1932 at Epsom
	71R4	Brenda M Collett				Born in 1937 at Epsom (Surrey)


71Q16	Frederick James Collett was also very likely born at 57 Binfield Road in Clapham, as that was that family’s address in the Vauxhall Ward Electoral Register for the Kennington District of South London in both 1896 and 1897. He was a son of Frederick and Amy Collett whose birth was recorded at Wandsworth register office (Ref. 1d 708) during the third quarter of 1897. He was three years of age in March 1901 when he was living with his family at 19 Narbonne Avenue close to Clapham Common. It was on 8^th November 1915 that Freddie, as he was known, joined the Royal Navy and was Able Seaman Frederick James Collett service number J/46313 attached to the destroyer HMS Mary Rose. Tragically the vessel was sunk off the coast of Norway on 17^th October 1917 by the German cruisers Brummer and Bremes with no survivors. Frederick was only 20 years old at the time of his death, even though his naval record stated he was 21, when he was confirmed as the son of Frederick Arthur Collett and his wife Amy Matilda of 11 MacKenzie Road at Beckenham in Kent. The name of Frederick James Collett appears on the Chatham Naval Memorial, reference 21.

	The following was the obituary published in the Beckenham Journal in 3^rd November 1917: “Roll of Honour – Frederick J Collett. By the sinking of HMS Mary Rose the war has claimed another of Beckenham's promising sons. Frederick James Collett (Freddie), youngest son of Mr and Mrs Collett of MacKenzie Road, fell in action in this unequal fight on the 17^th October. Young Collett, who was an old Bromley Road boy, was starting life in the head office of the City and Midlands Bank, London, and in 1915, when 18 years of age, said "Now's my time to serve my King and country" and in November of that year joined the Royal Navy. In 1916 he took part in the memorable Jutland battle, was passed as able seaman, and came home on his last leave in August last. As a boy he was a keen follower of every kind of sport, and was the proud possessor of many prizes won. As a scholar at Elm Road Church he was a regular attendant and gained my prizes. The parents have the sincere sympathy of all who knew the boy, who was a general favourite.”

	Nearly one year later, in October 1918, a further mention of his passing was published again in the same paper as follows: “In Memoriam. COLLETT - In fond and loving memory of our dear sailor boy (Freddie), killed in action October 17th, 1917. Out of the stress of the doing, Into the peace of the done.”


71Q17	Kathleen Maud Collett was born at 19 Narbonne Avenue in Clapham during 1899, the youngest child of Frederick Arthur Collett and Amy Matilda Butler, whose birth was recorded at Wandsworth (Ref. 1d 679) during the third quarter of 1899. In the census of 1901, she was one year old and still living with her family at 19 Narbonne Avenue. During the next decade the family moved to Beckenham and in 1911 it was at 11 MacKenzie Road, Kent House in Beckenham that Kathleen Maud Collett from Clapham was 11 years old.


71Q18	Sidney Thomas Collett was born at Holloway in London during 1896 and was the only known child of Sidney Herbert Collett and Jessie Woolnough. His birth was record at Islington (Ref. 1b 317) during the second quarter of 1896 and he was four years old in the census of 1901 when living with his parents at Seymour Road in Harringay. It was there also, at 66 Seymour Road, that he was still living in 1911 when he was 14 and still at school. Tragically, it was just over two years later that the death of Sidney T Collett aged 17 was recorded at Edmonton register office (Ref. 3a 355) during the third quarter of 1913.


71Q19	Willard Collett was born at Toronto on 15^th September 1917, the eldest of the seven children of Alfred Wildale Collett and Ada Holding. He was around eleven or twelve years old when his father died, after which Willard and his six siblings were taken into care, with his mother unable to cope with seven young children. All that is currently know about Willard, is that he was around eighty years of age when he passed away.


71Q23	Rose Collett was born at Toronto in 1926 and was the second daughter of Alfred and Ada Collett, and was still a very young child when her father suffered a premature death. Later in her life, Rose was married and became Rose Pomfret, and it was as Rose Pomfret that she died in 2001.


71Q25	Albert Cecil Collett was born at Toronto in 1928, the youngest of the seven children of Alfred Wildale Collett and Ada Holding. Not long after he was born, his father tragically died. That shocking event must have had an unimaginable effect on his wife who could not deal with the situation in which she found herself, with the sad outcome that her children were taken into care. Albert Cecil Collett married (1) Kathleen Preston, known as Kay, whose maiden-name was Muir, an immigrant from Poland just prior to WW2. They were very young on their wedding day and when their first child was born Albert was only 15 and Kay was 16. In total, they had three sons, Donald (Don), Robert (Jerry), and Stephen (Steve) when they were living in Montreal. Shortly after the birth of Steve, Albert abandoned his wife and his sons, leaving them in Montreal, when he travelled west.

	After the separation, Kay had no wish to talk about what had happened, and all that is known is that Albert settled in British Columbia where he married (2) Jean and had a further two children. In 1996, Albert’s son Don travelled to British Columbia in the hope of meeting his father but sadly, Albert had already passed away a year earlier in 1995 and was buried at Fort St John in BC. However, Don did get to speak with his widow Jean, who he said “was a lovely woman", when he also met some of his half-siblings. No details of Albert’s second family are currently known.

	71R5	Donald Collett				Born in 1943 at Montreal
	71R6	Robert Gerald Collett				Born in 1945 at Montreal
	71R7	Stephen Collett				Born in 1947 at Montreal


71Q26	Edward John Collett was born on 12^th September 1912 and was the first-born child of Edward Collett and Sarah Louise Clark. His birth was recorded at Bermondsey register office (Ref. 1d 317) during the last three months of that year, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Clark. At some point in his life, after the premature death of his mother in 1925, Edward was living in Sussex and it was there at Cuckfield register office (Ref. 5h 274) that the marriage of Edward J Collett and Florence L Rowe was recorded during the second quarter of 1951 when he was 28 years of age. Very shortly after their wedding day, and still within the second quarter of 1951, their daughter Stephanie L Collett was born, with her birth also recorded at Cuckfield (Ref. 5h 216) when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Rowe. It was also at Cuckfield register office, three years later, that the birth of son Rodney was recorded there (Ref. 5h 160) during the summer of 1954. The later death of Edward John Collett was recorded at Sussex register office (Vol. 18 1753) in 1981 at the age of 68.

	71R8	Stephanie L Collett				Born in 1951 at Cuckfield, Sussex
	71R9	Rodney A Collett				Born in 1954 at Cuckfield, Sussex


71Q27	Thomas James Collett was the second child of Edward and Sarah Collett who was born at Bermondsey on 15^th December 1915 where his birth was recorded (Ref. 1d 286) at the start of the following year, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Clark. It was also at Bermondsey register office twenty-three years later that the marriage of Thomas J Collett and Mary Felton was recorded (Ref. 1d 324) during the fourth quarter of 1938. Within a very few months Mary presented Thomas with their one and only known child, with the possibility that she was already with-child on their wedding day. The birth of Richard W Collett at Bermondsey was recorded there during the first three months of 1839 (Ref. 1d 74) with his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Felton.

	Thomas was only 57 years of age when he died at Chislehurst in Kent on 31^st October 1973 after which he was buried at Chislehurst Cemetery. The death of Thomas James Collett was recorded at Kent register office (Ref. 5a 1286). His widow Mary was born on 16^th November 1915 and she survived her husband by nearly twenty years, when the death of Mary Collett was also recorded at Kent register office (Vol. 2221d d17) in 1993.

	71R10	Richard W Collett				Born in 1939 at Bermondsey


71Q28	Francis Alexander Collett was born at Bermondsey on 12^th October 1917 where his birth was recorded (Ref. 1d 212) toward the end of that year, with his mother’s maiden-name confirmed as Clark, the third son of Edward and Sarah Collett. It is possible that Francis may have been married twice in his life. If not, then it was when he was approaching forty years of age, when the marriage of Francis A Collett and Jean M Page was recorded at Lewisham register office, south of Bermondsey, at the start of 1954 (Ref. 5d 7). Jean was much younger than Francis, with her birth recorded at Lewisham register office (Ref. 1d 1307) during the first quarter of 1931, so it is not surprising that they had children. The problem appears to be that there were six Collett/Page children born within the area of South London between 1955 and 1965.

	Of the six, two seem more likely to be the children of Francis and Jean, and they were Mark F Collett and Paul E Collett, with both births recorded at Lewisham register office (Ref. 5d 12) in the second quarter of 1958 and (Ref. 5d 17) in the first quarter of 1961. Their father was 79 and living in Kent when he died, with the death of Francis Alexander Collett recorded at Kent register office (Vol. 11 986) in 1987.

	71R11	Mark F Collett				Born in 1958 at Lewisham
	71R12	Paul E Collett				Born in 1961 at Lewisham


71Q30	Alice E Collett was born in 1921 with her birth recorded at Bermondsey register office (Ref. 1d 221) during the last three month of that year when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Clark. She was the youngest daughter of Edward and Sarah Collett. The later wedding of Alice E Collett and Ernest T Woodgates was recorded at Bermondsey register office (Ref. 1d 137) during the summer of 1943. Their two sons were David E Woodgates whose birth was recorded in London (Ref. 1d 28) in 1946, and Stephen J Woodgates whose birth was recorded at Southwark (Ref. 5d 615) at the start of 1953.


71Q31	Henry S Collett was born at Bermondsey in 1924 and was the sixth and last child of Edward Collett and Sarah Louise Clark. His birth was recorded at St Olave Bermondsey (Ref. 1d 2) during the first quarter of that year, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Clark. Sadly, his mother died shortly after he was born, with nothing currently know about what happened to Henry and his widowed father and five older siblings. Certainly, Henry was later married in Cheshire when he was 27,with the wedding of Henry S Collett and Joan Widdowson from St Olave Bermondsey was recorded at Wirral register office (Ref. 10a 1265) during the second quarter of 1951. Joan had been born at Bermondsey during the last three months of 1925 (Ref. 1d 281). The marriage of Henry and Joan produced a son Richard J Collett who was born on the Wirral in 1954.

	71R13	Richard J Collett				Born in 1954 at Wirral, Cheshire


71Q32	Timothy J Collett was born at Bermondsey in 1927, the eldest of the three children of Timothy Collett and Amy Florence Leonard. His birth was recorded at St Olave Bermondsey register office (Ref. 1d 195) during the first three months of the year, only a few months after his parents were married there. He was just twenty years of age when he married Mary K Reeves, the event recorded at Bermondsey register office (Ref. 5s 192) during the second quarter of 1947. Mary gave birth to two children almost ten years apart, when their son was born in 1949 and his birth recorded at London register office, while it was at Bermondsey register office that the birth of their daughter was recorded during the first three months of 1958. Both records confirmed that their mother’s maiden-name was Reeves.

	71R14	Timothy J Collett				Born in 1949 at London
	71R15	Julie K Collett				Born in 1958 at Bermondsey


71Q33	Leonard E Collett was born at Bermondsey either at the end of 1931 or at the beginning of 1932, when his birth was recorded during the first quarter of the latter at St Olave Bermondsey register office (Ref. 1d 163) where their mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Leonard, the son of Timothy Collett and Amy Florence Leonard. He very likely married Grace C Monks at the start of 1956 and recorded at Lewisham register office (Ref. 5d 190).


71Q34	John H Collett was born at Bermondsey on 6^th December 1935, the youngest of the three sons of Timothy Collett and Amy Florence Leonard, his birth recorded at Bermondsey register office (Ref. 1d 72) during the last quarter of that year. There were many marriages in and around London for men named John H Collett, with the most likely for John Henry Collett being recorded at nearby Lambeth register office (Ref. 5d 79) towards the near of 1965 when the bride was Laureen A Catterall. Their marriage did not last long, with the later wedding of Laureen A Collett and Brian Hucks recorded at Lewisham (Ref. 5d 539) in 1973. The later death of John Collett was recorded at Wrekin register office in Shropshire (Vol. 7161b 24b) early in 1998, aged 62.


71Q35	Barbara S Collett was born in 1943 when her birth was recorded at Ashton-under-Lyne register office in Lancashire (Ref. 8d 772) during the fourth quarter of the year, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Callaghan. She was the first of the two children of Bermondsey born couple James Collett and Ellen M Callaghan. After the war, the family of three returned to South London where, at Southwark register office (Ref. 5e 186) the marriage of Barbara S Collett and Antonio Cozzolino was recorded in summer of 1971.


71Q36	Bernard James Collett was born at Southwark in 1951, the only child of James Collett and Ellen M Callaghan. His birth was recorded at Southwark register office (Ref. 5d 572) during the fourth quarter of the year, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Callaghan. He was twenty years old when his marriage to Pauline Martin was also recorded at Southwark register office (Ref. 5e 90) at the end of 1971. By that time, Pauline had already given birth to daughter Hayley Rose Collett, whose birth had previously been recorded at Greenwich during the third quarter of 1971, and whose birth was re-register there just after the wedding day.

	71R16	Hayley Rose Collett				Born in 1971 at Greenwich


71Q55	Martin R Collett was born in London during 1946 when his birth was recorded at London register office (Ref. 1d 991) with Tellett confirmed as his mother’s maiden-name, the younger child and son of Leslie James Collett and Ivy May Tellett. He was twenty-two years old when the marriage of Martin R Collett and Mary P Weekly was recorded at Lewisham register office (Ref. 5d 682) during the summer of 1968. By the time their daughter and only child was born, Martin and Mary were living in Hertfordshire, with Sarah’s birth recorded at St Albans register office (Ref. 4b 958) during the third quarter of 1973 when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Weekley. It was also at St Albans that the marriage of Sarah C Collett and Piers K Lawson was recorded (Vol. 535 0050) in the summer of 2001. Martin and Mary’s grandson was born five years later, when the birth of William George Lawson was recorded at Lambeth in London (Vol. 2411e e158) in July 2006, the mother’s maiden-name being Collett.

	71R17	Sarah Carolyn Collett				Born in 1973 at St Albans


71R1	Richard William Collett was born on 2^nd October 1917, the only child of Francis William Eustace Collett and Jane Taylor, whose birth was recorded at Watford register office (Ref. 3a 1102), when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Taylor. The later marriage of Richard W Collett and Joan H O’Sullivan was recorded at Westminster register office (Ref. 5c 945) during the spring of 1948, with their only child born in London during 1950 (Ref. 5c 446). Nine years later, following the death of his father, Richard William Collett, railway clerk, was the sole beneficiary of his father’s estate of £1,922 4 Shillings and 3 Pence. At the end of his life Richard was living in Lancashire, where his death was recorded (Vol. 1 0577) in 1978. By a strange co-incidence, his son and namesake, also named a member of the O’Sullivan family.

	71S1	Richard William M Collett				Born in 1950 at London


71R2	Ruth A Collett was the eldest daughter of Harry Francis Collett and Olive Maud Norris, whose birth was recorded at Epsom register office (Ref. 2a 27) during the third quarter of 1930, with her mother’s maiden-name confirmed as Norris. On being married she became Ruth Millns, and it was the middle of her three sons, the tennis commentator Barry Millns, who kindly supplied some of the basic details for this family line.


71R3	Doreen Mary Collett, who was known as Mary, was another daughter of Harry and Olive Collett, her birth also recorded at Epsom (Ref. 2a 53) during the first three months of 1932, and again, her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Norris. On marrying, she became Mary Tustain, although Mary was the second of her two christian names. The marriage produced at least one child, a son Gregory Tustain.


71R4	Brenda M Collett may have also been born in the Epsom area of Surrey, like her two older sisters, except that her was recorded at the Surrey Mid-Eastern register office (Ref. 2a 378) during the third quarter of 1937, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Norris.


71R6	Robert Gerald Collett was born at Toronto in 1945, the younger of the two sons of Albert Cecil Collett and Kathleen Preston. He was known as Jerry and died in 2009, and was the grandfather of Dayna Collett who kindly provided details of her passed family.


71R11	Mark F Collett was born at Lewisham in 1958 the older of the two sons of Francis Alexander Collett and Jean M Page. When he was born his father was 41 and his mother was 27, with his birth recorded at Lewisham register office (Ref. 5d 12) in the second quarter of 1958 when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Page. The initial F in his name may be for Francis, after his father. It seems Mark may have been married on two separate occasions. Both events were recorded at Lewisham, the first of them near the start of 1981 between Mark F Collett and Linda S Seabrook (Vol. 14 0213), and the second in the spring of 1990 between Mark F Collett and Sarah T McAleavy (Vo. 14 440).

	There were no children from Mark’s first marriage, while the second one produced four off-spring, with the first two recorded at Lewisham and the second two at Bexley. In all four cases, the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as McAleavy as follows: Rachel (Vol. 14 1039) in the second quarter of 1991; Thomas (Vol. 2421a a56a) at the end of 1993; Joel (Vol. 2201b a58b) in the summer of 1998; and Eleanor (Vol. 2201b a71b) in the summer of 2001.

	71S2	Rachel Marie Collett				Born in 1991 at Lewisham
	71S3	Thomas Vincent Collett				Born in 1993 at Lewisham
	71S4	Joel James Collett				Born in 1998 at Bexley, Kent
	71S5	Eleanor Louise Collett				Born in 2001 at Bexley, Kent


71R13	Richard J Collett was born on the Wirral in 1854 where his birth was recorded (Ref. 10a 910) during the third quarter of 1954, the only child of Henry S Collett and Joan Widdowson, both born in Bermondsey. Richard was 30 years of age when he married Lesley N Sykes in 1984, their wedding recorded at Birkenhead register office (Vol. 37 617). Two children were born to Collett / Sykes parents in the north of England at that time and, although not confirmed as the children of Richard and Lesley, they were Claire Elizabeth Collett in 1988, and Christopher Jonathan Collett in 1990, both recorded at Huddersfield register office when the mother’s maiden-name was said to be Sykes.


71R14	Timothy J Collett was born in London during 1949 the older of the two children of Timothy Collett and Mary K Reeves, where his birth was recorded (Ref. 5d 618), with his mother’s maiden-name confirmed as Reeves. He was around 23 years old when he married Eileen J Howell during the spring of 1972, with their wedding recorded at Southwark register office (Ref. 5c 39). It was five years later that Eileen presented Timothy with a son, who birth was also recorded at Southwark register office (Vol. 15 84) during the spring of 1977.

	71S6	Paul Collett				Born in 1977 at Southwark, London


71R15	Julie K Collett was born at Bermondsey in 1958 and was twenty years of age when she married Michael T Barrett in 1978. Julie was the daughter of Timothy and Mary Collett whose birth was recorded at Bermondsey register office (Ref. 5c 39) during the first three months of 1958 when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Reeves. Following her older brother, Julie’s wedding day was also recorded Southwark, but six years later during the second quarter of 1978 (Vol. 15 0123). There were many children born around the London area after 1978 to parents Barrett and Collett but, none have so far been positively identified as the issue of Julie and Michael.


71S1	Richard William M Collett was born in London during 1950, where his birth was recorded (Ref. 5c 446), the only child of Richard William Collett and Joan H O’Sullivan. It was at Haringey in London where the marriage of Richard W M Collett and Eileen T O’Sullivan was recorded (Vol.12 1635) during the last three months of 1976. After being married for five years, Eileen gave birth to a son, whose birth was recorded at the Windsor & Maidenhead register office (Vol. 19 955) during the summer of 1982, when the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as O’Sullivan.

	71T1	Jamie Sean D Collett				Born in 1982 at Windsor





	APPENDIX ONE – ANOTHER BERMONDSEY FAMILY

71m1	Oliver Collett was married to Elizabeth and their known son Henry was born at Bermondsey in 1806. Ebenezer Collett has been included here because he later had a son Oliver, in addition to which he married into the Hagger family which also had a connection with the family of Henry Oliver Collett who was very likely his brother.

	71n1	Henry Oliver Collett				Born in 1806 at Bermondsey
	71n2	Ebenezer Collett				Born in 1813 at Southwark


71n1	Henry Oliver Collett was born at Bermondsey on 21^st September 1806, the son of Oliver and Elizabeth Collett. It was many years later, and four years after he was married, that Henry Oliver Collett aged 30, was baptised at Southwark Wesleyan Chapel on Long Lane in Bermondsey on 26^th July 1835, when he was again confirmed as the son of Oliver and Elizabeth Collett. Long Lane was where his brother Ebenezer Collett (below) was living in June 1841. Four years earlier Henry Oliver Collett married Anna Maria Meinert St Saviour’s Church in Southwark during the month of February 1831. The couple’s first child was born later that same year in Bermondsey and was followed by four further children.

	On the day of the census in June 1841 Henry Collett had a rounded age of 30 when he was recorded at St Olave in Surrey residing at Bermondsey Street Grammar School. With him was his wife Anna who had a rounded age of 25, and just two of their three daughters, although the whereabouts of the missing child, who was four, has not yet been determined. The two girls were Caroline who was nine and Eliza who was six. Ten years later the St Olave census of Southwark listed the enlarged family as Henry O collett from Bermondsey who was 44, his wife Anna M Collett also from Bermondsey who was 41, Caroline Collett who was 19 and born at Bermondsey, Eliza Collett who was 16 and born at St John’s in Surrey, as was Maria Collett aged 14, and Oliver Collett from Southwark who was six years old. Their absent son Henry may not have survived beyond infancy, while during the following year Anna presented Henry with their fifth and last child.

	Not one member of the family has been located within the next census of 1861, while the next recorded event for the family was the marriage of daughter Eliza in 1864. It was during the next year that the death of Henry Oliver Collett was recorded at St Olave Southwark (Ref. 1d 41) during the second quarter of 1865. Six years later the census in 1871 identified his widow Anna M Collett aged 61 living within the St John’s Hackney district of London with just her two youngest children. Oliver was 26 and Edwin H Collett was 18, and all three members of the household had been born at Southwark. Living just two doors away on that day was her married daughter Eliza Burkill.

	During the following decade Anna’ younger son Edwin left the family to be married, leaving just Oliver living with his mother in 1881. By then Anna was taking in lodgers to provide her with an income. On that occasion her place of birth was stated as being Bermondsey when she was described as Anna Collett aged 70 who was an annuitant who was living at New Cross Road in Deptford St Paul. Her unmarried son Oliver was 35 and working as a clerk who was also said to have been born in Bermondsey. Helping Anna run the boarding house was 20-year-old domestic servant Kate McMahon from Dublin. Lodging at the house was Samuel Wells from Reading who was 25 and, more interestingly Alfred Hagger aged 35, a mechanical engineer from London, and his wife Mary T Hagger.

	Alfred had been born at St Martin-in-the-Fields on 12^th June 1844 and was the son of Thomas and Susanna Hagger. It may have been a coincidence he and his wife were staying with Anna, but there may have been a family connection. Anna’s brother-in-law Ebenezer Collett (below) had married Jane Hagger forty-four years earlier, so it is possible that Alfred’s father Thomas was the brother of Jane Hagger. Two years after the census in 1881 Anna Maria Collett nee Meinert passed away at the age of 73, her death recorded at Greenwich (Ref. 1d 536) during the second quarter of 1883.

	71o1	Caroline Collett				Born in 1831 at Bermondsey
	71o2	Eliza Collett				Born in 1834 at Bermondsey
	71o3	Maria Collett				Born in 1836 at Bermondsey
	71o4	Henry Benoni Collett				Born in 1842 at Southwark
	71o5	Oliver Collett				Born in 1845 at Southwark
	71o6	Edwin Henry Collett				Born in 1852 at Southwark


71n2	Ebenezer Collett was born at St George Southwark around 1813 and he married Jane Hagger at St Olave’s Church in Southwark on 23^rd October 1836, the witnesses at their wedding were James and Mary Ann Mitchell. Ebenezer and Jane had two sons prior to June 1841, when the census that month included the family of four as Ebenezer Collett, Jane Collett, Alfred Collett and William Collett at Long Lane in Bermondsey, the home of elderly widow Elizabeth Oakes. Also listed with them was Fanny Hagger, Jane’s mother. Ten years later the enlarged family was living at Minto Street in Bermondsey in 1851 where Ebenezer was 36 and a leather shaver, Jane was 34 and from St Saviour Southwark, and their five sons were Alfred Collett who was 13 and from St George Southwark, William H Collett who was 11, Charles E Collett who was nine, Oliver Collett who was six and Henry Collett who was one year old. The four youngest sons had all been born at Bermondsey.

	One more child was added to his family during the next decade with the birth of his son Frederick in 1856. A year later the death of Jane Collett was recorded at Bermondsey (Ref. 1d 56) during the third quarter of 1857 when she may well have died during the birth of a seventh child who also did not survive. By the time of the next census in 1861 widower Ebenezer Collett had with him his two youngest sons when he was staying at the home of John and Catherine Magness at Alfred Street in Bermondsey. Ebenezer was 46 and a leather shaver from Bermondsey who was a visitor at the Magness household, his son Henry Collett was 11 and Frederick Collett was four years of age.

	71o7	Alfred Collett				Born in 1837 at St George Southwark
	71o8	William Hagger Collett				Born in 1839 at Bermondsey
	71o9	Charles Edwin Collett				Born in 1841 at Bermondsey
	71o10	Oliver Collett				Born in 1844 at Bermondsey
	71o11	Henry Collett				Born in 1849 at Bermondsey
	71o12	Frederick Collett				Born in 1856 at Bermondsey


71o1	Caroline Collett was born at Bermondsey in 1831 and was baptised at the Church of St Mary Magdalen in Bermondsey on 25^th December 1831, the eldest child of Henry Oliver Collett and Anna Maria Meinert. She was nine years old in the census of 1841 when she was living with her parents at Bermondsey Street Grammar School in Southwark and was 19 in 1851, by which time the family had moved to Maze Pond in Southwark.


71o2	Eliza Collett was born at Bermondsey in 1834 and was baptised at the Church of St Mary Magdalen in Bermondsey on 27^th July 1834, the second child of Henry and Anna Collett. She was six years old in the census of 1841 when she was living with her parents at Bermondsey Street Grammar School in Southwark. Ten years later Eliza Collett was 16 years old and still living with her family but at Maze Pond in Southwark. It was during the first three months of 1864, when Eliza was 29, that she became a married woman, her wedding recorded at Bermondsey (Ref. 1d 111) when the groom was named as James Burkill.

	According to the census of 1871 Eliza Burkill from Bermondsey was 35 and living at Hackney with her husband, draper James Burkill who was 33 and from River Head in Yorkshire. Living with them was their son, one year old James B Burkill who had been born at Islington. Living in the same street, just two doors away, was her widowed mother and her two youngest brothers Oliver and Edwin (below). James Burkill senior had been born at Allerthorpe-by-Pocklington in Yorkshire where he was baptised on 10^th December 1837, the son of John and Mary Ann Burkill. He had moved to London prior to 1861 since, within the census that year, he was working at a shop in the High Street in St George Southwark where he was a linen draper and a shop assistant. The record of the birth of his son James Barton Burkill was made at Islington (Ref. 1b 376) during the last three months of 1869. No member of the family has been revealed in the census of 1881.


71o3	Maria Collett was born at Bermondsey in 1836 and was baptised at the Church of St Mary Magdalen in Bermondsey on 16^th October 1836, the third child of Henry and Anna Collett. When she was on the day of the census in 1841 has still to be determined, since she was 14 years of age in the next census of 1851 when she and her family were residing at Maze Pond in Southwark.


71o4	Henry Benoni Collett was born at Southwark in 1842 and was baptised at St Olave Southwark on 3^rd July 1842, the fourth child and eldest of the two sons of Henry and Anna Collett. No record of Henry living with his family in 1851 or any late census has been found, which may mean that he suffered an infant death.


71o5	Oliver Collett was born at Southwark on 9^th March 1845 and was the second of the three sons born to Henry and Anna Collett, who was baptised two months later at St Olave’s Church in Southwark on 4^th May 1845. He was six years of age in the census if 1851 when living at Maze Pond in Southwark with his family. Where he and his parents were in 1861 is not currently known, but following the death of his father in 1865 Oliver Collett aged 26 was one of two children still living with their widowed mother in 1871 at Hackney in the same street as his married sister Eliza (above). He was still a bachelor at the age of 35, ten years later, when he was working at a clerk, the only child still living with his mother at New Cross Road in Deptford, where his mother died two years later during the second three months of 1883.

	Not long after the death of his mother, Oliver Collett aged 38 and the son of Henry Oliver Collett, married 34 years-old Ada Stillman on 4^th August 1883 at St Botolph without Bishopsgate. She was born at Newbury in Berkshire where her birth was recorded during the second quarter of 1849, the daughter of shoemaker William Stillman and his wife Elizabeth. The census in 1891 revealed the couple residing at Hunsdon Road within the parish of St Pauls in Deptford. Oliver Collett, ‘from Surrey,’ was 45 and living on his own means, while his wife Ada Collett from Newbury was 40. Living with the couple was their only known child, their son Oliver E R Collett, who was three years old and born in Kent.

	According to the electoral rolls, Oliver Collett was living at 127 Avondale Square off the Old Kent Road in Camberwell from 1893 to at least 1904. That was certainly confirmed in the next census of 1901 when Oliver Collett from Bermondsey was 56 and working as a clerk for a scientific journal, while living at a dwelling in Avondale Square. His wife Ada was 52 and a teacher of music having her own account, and their son Oliver E R Collett was 13 and from New Cross in the London borough of Lewisham. The Electoral Registers from 1909 to 1912 list him as Oliver Collet when he was living at 55 Gellatly Road in Nunhead within the New Cross area of south-east London. The census conducted in April 1911 described Oliver Collett from Bermondsey as being aged 66 and a gentleman, which may be an indication that he was retired. Ada was 62 and their son Oliver E R Collett was 23 and employed as a bank clerk. Staying with the family was day was Ada’s younger brother Edward Stillman, a travelling salesman aged 53.

	71p1	Oliver Edward Rene Collett				Born in 1888 at New Cross, Kent


71o6	Edwin Henry Collett was born at Southwark on 6^th July 1852 and his birth was recorded at St Olave Bermondsey (Ref. 1d 35) during the third quarter of that year. He was less than three weeks old when he was baptised there on 25^th July that same year, the last known child born to Henry Oliver Collett and Anna Maria Meinert. No record of him has been found in 1861 but by 1871 he was 18 and living with his widowed mother and older brother Oliver in Hackney, while two doors from their home was Edwin’s married sister Eliza (above). Just four years later the marriage of Edwin Henry Collett was recorded at Hackney (Ref. 1b 615) during the second quarter of 1875 when his wife was either Louisa Saubergue of Alice Starkey.


71o7	Alfred Collett was born at St George Southwark where his birth was recorded (Ref. iv 93) during the third quarter of 1837, the eldest son of Ebenezer Collet and Jane Hagger. He was three years of age and 13 years old in the two census returns for Bermondsey in 1841 and 1851. Nine years later, on 31^st March 1860, Alfred Collett married Ann Buck at the Church of St James in Bermondsey. Alfred’s father was confirmed as Ebenezer Collett and Ann’s father was named as George West Buck.

	By 1861 Alfred was 23 and was working as a leather shaver, the same occupation as his father. His wife Ann Collett, who was also born at Southwark, was 24 when the couple was residing at Park Street in Bermondsey with their first child. Their son Alfred George Collett had been born during the previous weeks, being one month old on the day of the census. Three more children were added to the family at Bermondsey during the following decade, with the family still living there in 1871.

	The census that year listed the family as leather shaver Alfred Collett aged 33, Ann Collett aged 34, Alfred G Collett aged 10, Frances Jane Collett who was eight, Frederick C Collett who was four and Eliza M Collett who was two years old. It was at Alderminster Road in Bermondsey that the family was recorded in 1881 where father and eldest son were both employed as leather shaver curriers and every member of the household was stated as having been born at Bermondsey. Alfred was 43, Ann was 44, Alfred G Collett was 20, Frances J Collett was 18, Frederick C Collett was 14, Eliza M Collett was 12, Jane F Collett was nine, Alice M Collett was six and Charles E Collett was three years of age.

	Alfred and Ann had been married for just less than twenty-nine years when Alfred passed away at the age of 52. It was at Southwark St Olave that his death was recorded (Ref. 1d 176) during the first quarter of 1890. As regards his eldest Bermondsey born daughters, the birth of Frances Jane Collett was registered there during the second quarter of 1863 (Ref. 1d 80), as was Frederick C Collett during the third quarter of 1866 (Ref. 1d 95), and Eliza Margaret Collett during the first three months of 1869 (Ref. 1d 103). The births of the three youngest children were registered at St Olave Bermondsey, as distinct from just Bermondsey in the case of the other daughters.

	71p2	Alfred George Collett				Born in 1861 at Bermondsey
	71p3	Frances Jane Collett				Born in 1863 at Bermondsey
	71p4	Frederick C Collett				Born in 1866 at Bermondsey
	71p5	Eliza Margaret Collett				Born in 1868 at Bermondsey
	71p6	Jane Flora Collett				Born in 1871 at Bermondsey
	71p7	Louisa Alice M A H Collett				Born in 1873 at Bermondsey
	71p8	Charles Edwin Collett				Born in 1877 at Bermondsey


71o8	William Hagger Collett was born at Long Lane in Bermondsey in 1839, the second child of Ebenezer Collet and Jane Hagger, whose birth was recorded at Bermondsey (Ref. iv 38) during the third quarter of that year. It was at Long Lane that he and his family were living in 1841, sometime after which they moved to nearby Minto Street in Bermondsey, where they were residing in 1851. The census that year listed William H Collett as being 11 years of age and still living at the home of his parents. No obvious record of him has been found after 1851 and he should not be confused with William John Collett who was also born at Bermondsey, but in 1838, who married Mary and gave birth to Henry James Collett and Louisa Collett at Bermondsey in 1858 and 1859.

	The death of William Haggar Collett was recorded at St Olave Southwark register office (Ref. 1d 165) during the first three months of 1899, when he was 60 years of age.


71o9	Charles Edwin Collett was born at Bermondsey in 1841, his birth recorded there (Ref. iv 12) during the last three months of that year. It is likely he was born at Long Lane in Bermondsey, where his family had been living in June that same year. On the day of the next census in 1851 the family was recorded at Minto Street in Bermondsey, when Charles E Collett was nine years old. His mother died six years after that and, by 1861, Charles had joined the Royal Navy. The census that year described his as Charles Collett from Bermondsey who was 20 and a private serving with the Royal Navy at sea and in ports abroad. Over the following decade he was promoted to the rank of corporal and in 1871 when was based at Walmer, near Deal, to the north of Dover, where unmarried Charles Collett from Bermondsey was 29.

	During the following ten years, Charles married Alice, although where and when the wedding took place has not yet been determined. According to the next census in 1881 the childless couple was residing at Bank Street in the coastal market town of Hyde near Folkestone. At that time in his life, Charles was described as a sergeant volunteer and a Royal Navy pensioner aged 39. His wife Alice Collett was 35 and born at Sandwich in East Kent. What happened to them after that day has also not been discovered, but in was on 19^th October 1923 that Charles Collett was buried at Streatham in Surrey, following his death at the age of 82.


71o10	Oliver Collett was born at Bermondsey in 1844, another son of Ebenezer and Jane Collett whose birth was recorded there (Ref. iv 19) during the second quarter of 1844. His cousin, another Oliver Collett (above), married Ada Stillman and was born at Southwark in 1845, the son of Henry Oliver Collett, the brother of Oliver’s father Ebenezer. Therefore, there is an opportunity for confusion between the two Olivers of a similar age later in their lives. However, it was at Minto Street in Bermondsey that Oliver Collett from Bermondsey was six years of age in the census of 1851 when he was living there with his parents Ebenezer and Jane Collett and the rest of his family. The other Oliver Collett was also six years old but was living with his family in Southwark St Olave, just to the west of Bermondsey on the south bank of the River Thames.

	No census return for either of the two Olivers has been identified within the next census of 1861, while in 1871 the ‘other Oliver Collett’ from Southwark was still living with his widowed mother in Hackney. No record of Oliver the son of Ebenezer has been found in 1881, while the ‘other Oliver’ was still living with his mother and was married to Ada Stillman two years later in 1883. What happened to Oliver the son of Ebenezer from that time onwards is unknown, except that within the electoral roll for Dulwich in 1907, a certain Oliver Collett was residing at 99 Choumert Road in that area of London, while ‘the other Oliver, together with his wife Ada, was living at 127 Avondale Square in Camberwell at that time.


71o11	Henry Collett was born at Bermondsey in 1849, his birth recorded there (Ref. iv 23) during the fourth quarter of that year, the fifth of the six sons of Ebenezer Collett and Jane Haggard. Not to be confused with Henry Collett of a similar age who was also born in Bermondsey, as detailed in Appendix Two. He was one year old in the Bermondsey census of 1851 when he and his family was living at Minto Street, where he may have also been born. Just over six years later his mother died so, in the Bermondsey census of 1861, Henry Collett, aged 11 years, and his younger brother Frederick (below) were with their father who were described as visitors at the Alfred Street home of Catherine Magness. On leaving school, Henry became a full-time soldier and on the day of the census in 1871 he was based in Portsmouth, where he was recorded as an unmarried soldier aged 23 (sic), having been born in London, Surrey. And it was at Portsmouth where he met his future wife, whom he married two years later.

	It was originally believed that Henry eventually ended up living in the Birmingham area of England where the census in 1901 included Henry Collett from Bermondsey as a commercial traveller and a married man, with a family, living within the Yardley area of East Birmingham. However, it has now been established that he married Sarah Ann Knight from Alcester in Warwickshire at Birmingham in 1873, as detailed in Appendix Two.

	As a result of the research, it is now confirmed that Henry Collett, born at Bermondsey and the son of Ebenezer Collett, married Ann Louisa Williams of Portsmouth at Gillingham in Kent around the same time in 1873. That happy event took place at the Church of St Mary Magdalene on The Green in Gillingham on 27^th January 1873. Bachelor Henry Collett was 23 and a serving member of Queen Victoria’s Army Service Corps, the son of leather dresser Ebenezer Collett, residing in barracks at Gillingham. His bride Ann, was described as 18 years old, a spinster of Gillingham, whose father was photographer Benjamin Williams. Henry and Ann signed the register in their own hand, while neither of the witnesses appear to have been related to the couple.

	No record of Ann’s birth, baptism, or her family around the time of her birth has been found, just an earlier record of her parents and older siblings at Portsea, Portsmouth in 1841. Furthermore, she and Henry had run away to Gillingham to be married without her father’s consent, since she was certainly younger than the eighteen-years she said she was on her wedding day.

	For whatever reason, no children were living with Henry and Ann in the next two census returns, after the Henry had returned to his army base which, in 1881 was at Woolwich Barracks. Henry Collett from Bermondsey was 32 and a sergeant with the Army Service Corps. His wife Ann Louisa Collett from Portsmouth was 26. Ten years later, the census in 1891, listed the two of them residing at St Johns Road in Portsea, Hampshire. By that time Henry had retired from the army and was described as an army pensioner from London who was 41, while Ann L Collett was 36.

	One year later the death of Henry Collett was recorded at Portsea register office (Ref. 2b 286) during the second quarter of 1892 when he was 42 years old. According to the next census in 1901, his widow Ann Collett from Portsmouth was 47 when she was having to work, to make ends meet, as a housekeeper at the Portsmouth Hereford Road home of seventy-year-old James Tunnicliffe from Staffordshire.


71o12	Frederick Collett was born at Bermondsey, the last child of Ebenezer Collett and Jane Hagger, his birth recorded there (Ref. 1d 99) during the third quarter of 1856. His mother either died one year later, perhaps during the birth of a seventh child. By 1861 Frederick Collett aged four years was living with his father and older brother Henry Collett (above) at Alfred Street in Bermondsey, the home of Catherine Magness. Thirty-four-years later in the 1895 Electoral Roll for Bermondsey, a certain Frederick Charles Collett was paying twelve shillings each week for a room at 300 Rolls Road, the home of Ann Collett. Frederick had one furnished room on the first floor and the use of the sitting room. No other record of any Frederick Collett of Bermondsey has been discovered, either before or after 1895.


71p1	Oliver Edward Rene Collett was born at New Cross within the London Borough of Lewisham in Kent, the only known child of Oliver Collett and Ada Stillman. His birth was recorded at Greenwich (Ref. 1d 1074) during the first three months of 1888, following which he was baptised on 25^th March 1888 at All Saints Church in Deptford. He was three years old in the Deptford census of 1891 when he and his parents were living on Hunsdon Street. Around two years later the family of three moved to Camberwell where they took up residence at 127 Avondale Square and where Oliver R E collett was 13 in 1901. Between 1904 and 1907 the family moved once more, on that occasion to 55 Gellatly Road in Nunhead where they were living in 1911, by which time Oliver E R Collett was 23 and a bank clerk.

	Four and a half years later Oliver Edward Rene Collett, aged 27, married Lily Selina Rouse who was 27. The wedding took place at St Catherine’s Church in Hatcham within the London Borough of Lewisham on 18^th September 1915. Oliver was confirmed as the son of Oliver Collett, while Lily was named as the daughter of William James Rouse. It is unclear whether Lily presented Oliver with any children before he died in 1936. The death of Oliver E R Collett at the age of 47 was recorded at Bromley register office in Kent (Ref. 2a 1004) during the first quarter of that year.

	His Will was proved in London on 8^th April 1936 when it was revealed that he died on 11^th February 1936 at the family home at Rookery Nook on Eastbury Road in Petts Wood (near Orpington) Kent. The executor of his estate of £496 5 Shillings was named as widow Lily Selena Jane Collett.


71p2	Alfred George Collett was born at Park Street in Bermondsey in February 1861, his birth recorded there (Ref. 1d 103) during the first quarter of that year, the eldest son of Alfred and Ann Collett. He was one month old in the census that year and still living at Park Street in Bermondsey and was 10 years of age in 1871. By 1881 the family was living at Alderminster Road in Bermondsey when Alfred, aged 20, was working alongside his father as a leather shaver currier. Within the next year Alfred George Collett married Harriet Seckree and by 1891 their marriage had produced five children.

	According to the census in 1891, the young family of Alfred and Harriet Collett was residing at Marine Street in Bermondsey close to the family of James Thomas Collett (Ref. 71N20), whose occupation was that of a marine store dealer, who was also a resident of Marine Street. So far as can be determined they were not directly related, but may have been distant cousins. Alfred was a leather shaver at 30, his wife Harriet was also 30, and their five children were Alice Collett who was seven, Alfred Collett who was five, Harriet Collett who was four, Edward Collett who was two and Frederick Collett who was one year old.

	The family was still recorded at Marine Street in 1901, as was James Collett, who was still there in 1911 at No 1 Marine Street. The March census in 1901 revealed that Harriet had given birth to another five children, while all ten of her children were entered on the census return. Alfred G Collett senior was 40, Harriet was also 4, Alice was 17, Alfred G junior was 15, Harriet was 14, Edward was 12, Frederick was 11, Rose was nine, Henry was seven, Charles was five, Margaret was three and Sarah was one year old.

	What happened to Alfred and Harriet between 1901 and 1911 is not known for certain, bit by April 1911 the couple was no longer living with their children who, by then had left Marine Street and moved the short distance east to 93 Spa Road in Bermondsey. The five-roomed premises housed eight of their children, plus Harriet’s widowed brother Henry Seckree who was 54 and a house painter at Lloyds Wharf. Every member of the household had been born at Bermondsey, while head of the household was Alice Collett who was 27 and a punching ball machinist at Sports works. Harriet Collett was 24 and a helmet trimmer with a helmet manufacturer, Edward was 22 and a motor fitter at a garage and Frederick was 21 and a glover cutter at Sports Works. Looking after the home was Rose Collett who was 19 and described as the housekeeper at home, with her younger siblings named as Henry Collett who was 17 and a case maker, Charles Collett who was 15 and an errand boy for a case maker and Margaret Collett who was 13 and still attending the local school.

	71q1	Alice A Collett				Born in 1883 at Bermondsey
	71q2	Alfred G Collett				Born in 1885 at Bermondsey
	71q3	Harriet F Collett				Born in 1886 at Bermondsey
	71q4	Edward C Collett				Born in 1888 at Bermondsey
	71q5	Frederick C Collett				Born in 1889 at Bermondsey
	71q6	Rose Collett				Born in 1891 at Bermondsey
	71q7	Henry W Collett				Born in 1893 at Bermondsey
	71q8	Charles Collett				Born in 1895 at Bermondsey
	71q9	Margaret Sarah Elizabeth Collett				Born in 1897 at Bermondsey
	71q10	Sarah J Collett				Born in 1899 at Bermondsey


71p6	Jane Flora Collett was born at Bermondsey in 1871 and, although she was the fifth child of Alfred Collett and Ann Buck, her birth was registered at St Olave Bermondsey (Ref. 1d 208) at the end of that year, when the births of her four older siblings were registered at simply Bermondsey. Home in 1881 was on Alderminster Road in Bermondsey, where Jane F Collett was nine years of age. Nine years later her father died, with the resulting effect that no member of the family has been found in either the census of 1891 or again in 1901. Two years later Jane Flora Collett married Alfred Martin with their wedding recorded at Camberwell register office (Ref. 1d 1359) at the end of 1903.

	By the time of the census in 1911, Jane had given birth to three children. The census return revealed the family living at Brixton in the Lambeth area of South London, where Alfred Charles Martin from Sewardstone near Waltham Abbey in Essex was 37 and an engine fitter at an iron foundry. His wife of seven years was Jane Flora Martin from Bermondsey who was 35, Margaret Martin was five, Alfred Charles Martin was three, both born at Deptford, and Doris Martin who was one year old and born after the family had settled in Brixton. Jane F Martin was 78 years old when she died in London in 1950, where her death was recorded (Ref. 5c 99).


71p7	Louisa Alice M A H Collett was born at Bermondsey in 1873 when her birth was recorded in that way at St Olave Bermondsey (Ref. 1d 286) during the last three months of the year. She was six years old and living with her family at Alderminster Road in Bermondsey in 1881. Following the death of her father in 1890, no trace of any member of the family has been discovered in 1891 and in 1901. Five years later, as Alice Louisa M A H Collett she married Thomas North Sanders at St Margaret’s Church in Westminster, with their wedding recorded at Westminster register office (Ref. 1a 1106) during the second quarter of 1906. No issue has been found and it was at Wandsworth that 81-year-old Alice Louisa Sanders died and was buried at Streatham Cemetery on 15th July 1952. Seven years after being widowed, the death of Thomas North Sanders was recorded at Surrey register office (Ref. 5g 234) in 1959. His earlier birth was registered at Lewisham (Ref. 1d 999) during the second quarter of 1879, making him 80 years old when he passed away.


71p8	Charles Edwin Collett was born at Bermondsey near the end of 1877 with his birth registered at St Olave Bermondsey the start of 1878 (Ref. 1d 241). He was the eighth and last child of Alfred Collett and Ann Buck and was three years old in the Bermondsey census of 1881, when he and his family were residing at Alderminster Road. Tragically, his father died in 1890 and for some reason no record of any member of the family has been found in 1891 or again in 1901. One reason for Charles absence in 1901 may well have been because of military service overseas, it being acknowledged that he was listed as a Chelsea Pensioner whose service began at the age of 18 in 1895, with the militia service records stating he had been born in Surrey in 1877. He remains to be a man of mystery, with the death of Charles E Collett was recorded at Surrey register office (Ref. 5g 543) in 1956 when he was almost 80 years of age.

	Where it would be easy to provide incorrect details, it should be highlighted that the Charles Edwin Collett who married Agnes Lydia Davis from Trowbridge in Wiltshire, was not Charles Edwin of Bermondsey. Their wedding was recorded at the London Whitechapel register office (Ref. 1c 253) during the first quarter of 1907 and were recorded at Reigate in Surrey in 1911 where Charles Edwin Collett from Carshalton was 28 and the shop keeper of a drapery store. His wife Agnes Lydia Collett was 31 and assisting Charles in the family business. So far, no record has been found on the Collett database of Charles Edwin Collett born at Carshalton around 1883.

	However, the following details are known. His birth was registered at Epsom in 1882 Qrt 4, and was baptised at Carshalton on 6^th November 1882, the son of Alfred Collett and his wife Anne Maria. Not long after the census in 1911, Charles Edwin Collett a married man aged 29 and a draper sailed across the Atlantic to Quebec onboard the S S Lake Manitoba, bound for Vancouver. His death was recorded in London when he died on 5^th June 1949, and probate of his Will was granted to his widow Agnes Lydia Collett on 29^th July 1949.


71q9	Margaret Sarah Elizabeth Collett was born at Bermondsey in 1897 and her birth was recorded there (Ref. 1d 254) during the last three months of 1897. She was also baptised on 17^th October 1897, the penultimate child of Alfred George Collett and Harriet Seckree.





	APPENDIX TWO – ANOTHER HENRY COLLETT [71b3] Not Henry [Ref. 71o11] who was the son of Ebenezer Collett [Ref. 71n2]


71a1	William Collett was born at Bermondsey in 1817, and in 1841 had a rounded age of 25 when he was recorded with the Gale family at White Hart Yard, the High Street in Southwark. Three years later the marriage of William Collett was recorded at London Farringdon (Ref. xi 238a) in 1844. His wife Louisa gave birth to two children during the remainder of that decade, although tragically, the first of them died two years later. That situation was confirmed in the Bermondsey census of 1851 when the three members of the family were residing at Maltby Street. William Collett from Bermondsey was 34 and a leather dresser, his wife Louisa Collett was 35, and their son Alfred Collett was two years old, both born in Bermondsey. In one of the later baptism records Louisa was referred to as Louisa Mary, with her surname still waiting to be discovered.

	With no trace of the family in 1861, by 1871 Louisa Collett was 57, a widow, and the head of the household at Maltby Street in Bermondsey. The members of the family still living with her, were sons Alfred Collett who was 22 and a printer’s compositor, as was Henry Collett who was 18, plus daughter Alice Collett was 14.

	Two years earlier, the family was confirmed again as living at Maltby Street where William Collett died at the age of 51, following which he was buried at the South Metropolitan Cemetery in Lambeth on 12^th December 1868. And it was still at Maltby Street that Louisa was living alone in 1881 at the age of 67. Louisa Collett was 77 when she passed away, with her death recorded at St Olave Southwark (Ref. 1d 156) during the fourth quarter of 1891.

	71b1	William Edward James Collett				Born in 1845 at Bermondsey
	71b2	Alfred Oliver Collett				Born in 1848 at Bermondsey
	71b3	Henry Collett				Born in 1852 at Bermondsey
	71b4	Alice Caroline Collett				Born in 1856 at Bermondsey


71b1	William Edward James Collett was born at Bermondsey in 1845 and was the first child of William and Louisa Collett, his birth registered at Bermondsey (Ref. iv 34) during the third quarter of 1845. He was baptised at the Church of St Mary Magdalene in Bermondsey on 13^th July 1845, but sadly died two years later. William’s death was recorded at Bermondsey (Ref. iv 28) during the third quarter of 1847, after which he was buried there on 19^th August 1847.


71b2	Alfred Oliver Collett was born at Maltby Street in Bermondsey possibly near the end of 1848 and was baptised there at the Church of St Mary Magdalene on 28^th January 1849, the second child of William and Louisa Collett. Curiously, he was the only child listed with his parents at Maltby Street in 1851 at the age of two years. After his father died in 1868, Alfred was preparing for his forthcoming marriage on the day of the census in 1871, while he was still living with his family at Maltby Street with his widowed mother and two younger siblings. Alfred Collett was 22 and a compositor working alongside his brother Henry (below) for a printing company. It was at the end of that same year when the marriage of Alfred Oliver Collett and Mary Ann Charlotte Whetcombe was recorded at St Olave Southwark (Ref. 1d 308) during the last three months of 1871. Mary Ann was the daughter of Charles and Catherine Whetcombe and was baptised at the Church of St Mary Magdalene in Bermondsey on 26^th December 1845.

	According to the next census in 1881, the family was residing at Alfred Street in Bermondsey where Alfred Collett was 31 and a compositor, Mary Ann Collett was 33 and close to giving birth to her fifth child, Louisa Collett was eight, Henry Collett was six, Alfred Collett was four, and Beatrice Collett was two years of age. Those four children’s births were recorded at St Olave Bermondsey. Every member of the household had been born at Bermondsey, conflicting with what was presumably recorded in error twenty years later. Three more children were added to their family during the 1880s which was recorded at John Street in Southwark on the day of the census in 1891.

	That census day, only Alfred senior and Alfred junior were said to have been born in Bermondsey; for all the other members of the household they were simply confirmed as having been born in London. Alfred Collett was 42 and continuing to work as a compositor, Mary Ann Collett was 44, Henry Collett was 16, Alfred Collett was 13, Beatrice Collett was 11, William Collett was nine, Maud Collett was six, and Minnie Collett was four years old.

	By the end of March in 1901 head of the household at Hall Road in Camberwell Alfred Collett was 52 and a printer living there with his large family. His wife and their three eldest children had been born at Brixton, the same given in error as Alfred’s birthplace. Mary A Collett was 54, daughter Louisa Collett was 27, son Henry Collett was 26 and a printer, and Alfred Collett was 23 and a labourer at the electric light works. The couple’s next three children had been born after settling in Hall Road, and they were William Collett who was 19 and a book binder, Maud Collett who was 16 with no occupation, as was Minnie Collett aged 14.

	Within days or weeks of that census day, Alfred Oliver Collett died while he was still 52 years old. It was also under his full name that his death was recorded at Camberwell register office (Ref. 1d 487) during the second quarter of 1901. Following the death of her husband, widow Mary Ann Collett assumed the role of head of the household, which was how she was described in 1911 when she was 63 and once again living in Camberwell. Still living with her with her two youngest unmarried daughters, Maud Collett who was 25 and a book folder working for a printer, and Minnie Collett who was 24 and a tobacco porter employed by a tobacconist. Temporarily staying with the family that day was unmarried son William Ernest Collett aged 27 and a steward with a steam ship company.

	It was not long after that day when Mary Ann Collett died at Camberwell, with her death recorded at St Olave Southwark register office (Ref. 1d 96) during the second quarter of 1911. Either through poor handwriting, or from being misinformed by whoever notified the register office of her passing, her age was incorrectly entry as being 67, rather than 63.

	71c1	Louisa Jane Collett		Born in 1873 at Bermondsey
	71c2	Henry Charles Collett		Born in 1874 at Bermondsey
	71c3	Alfred Oliver Collett		Born in 1877 at Bermondsey
	71c4	Beatrice Lilian Collett		Born in 1879 at Bermondsey
	71c5	William Ernest Collett		Born in 1882 at Bermondsey
	71c6	Maud Collett		Born in 1884 at Southwark
	71c7	Minnie Collett		Born in 1886 at Southwark


71b3	Henry Collett was born at Maltby Street in Bermondsey in 1852, and was another son of William and Louisa Collett of Bermondsey whose birth was registered there (Ref. 1d 79) during the third quarter of 1852. It was at the Church of St Mary Magdalene in Bermondsey where he was baptised on 29^th September and confirmed as the child of William Collett and his wife Louisa. On leaving school, Henry followed his older brother Alfred (above) into the printing business and in 1871 he was employed as a compositor at the age of 18. On that census day he was still living at the family home within the Bermondsey parish of St Mary Magdalene with his widowed mother, brother Alfred and sister Alice.

	Apart from that census return in 1871 and the one completed thirty years later, on all other occasions Henry simply stated that he had been born in London. One thing that is slightly confusing is, that Henry Collett from Bermondsey who was 49 and living within the Yardley area of Birmingham in 1901, as a married man with a family of his own, often referred to himself as Heber, the second forename of his eldest son and the name of one of his grandsons. Furthermore, at the baptism of that eldest son the parents were recorded as Heber Henry Collett and Sarah Ann Collett. Even more curious is that fact that, upon the marriage of the third son of Henry from Bermondsey, his name was recorded as Percy Cornelius Knight Collett, his wife’s maiden-name being Knight.

	It was two years after the census day in 1871 when the marriage of Heber Henry Collett and Sarah Ann Knight from Alcester in Warwickshire was recorded at Birmingham (Ref 6d 149) during the first three months of 1873. It is possible that the wedding service was conducted at Ashted where the couple’s first two children were born. The first child of Henry and Sarah Collett was born towards the end of that same year, but did not survive. By 1881 Sarah had given birth to a further two children when the family was living in Birmingham. On that census day they were residing at Belgrave Street in Kings Norton when the family comprised Henry Collett from London who was 30 and a shop assistant and a traveller, his wife Sarah Collett who was 28, Alfred Collett who was three, and Arthur Collett who was one year old.

	The family was extended by the birth of two further children towards the end of the decade and on the day of the census in 1891 the enlarged family was living at Edwardes Street in Kings Norton. Head of the household was Heber Collett from London who was 40 and a manufacturer’s agent. His wife Sarah Ann Collett from Warwickshire was 38 and their four children were Alfred Collett who was 13, Arthur Collett who was 11, both attending school, Lily Collett who was three, and Percival Collett who had only just been born.

	The family was completed within the next five years with the birth of two daughters and they, and their three older siblings, were all living with their parents in 1901, but at Clarence Road in Yardley, Birmingham. On that occasion, the census return listed the family as Henry Collett who was 49 and from Bermondsey whose occupation was that of a commercial traveller in oils and colour. Sarah Ann Collett from Alcester was 48 and all five of the children were recorded as having been born in Birmingham. They were Alfred Collett who was 23, Lilian Collett who was 13, Percy Collett who was 10, Elsie Collett who was six, and Cecily Collett who was five. By that time in their life, the couple’s second son Arthur was a sailor with the Royal Navy.

	After a further ten years the family had settled in the Smethwick area from where Henry Collett from London was 60 years of age and a commercial traveller in ‘brass papers’ in the wall-paper industry. Sarah was 58 and their four youngest children were recorded as Lilian Collett aged 24, Percy Collett aged 21, both working as clerks, Elsie Collett aged 16 and a warehouse woman, and Cecily Collett who was 16 and a warehouse assistant.

	Twelve years after that census day, the death of Henry H Collett was recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 6d 222) during the second quarter of 1923 when he was 72. Just less than seven years later the death of Sarah A Collett was recorded at the same register office (Ref. 6d 338) during the first quarter of 1930 when she was 76.

	71c8	Florence Sarah Ann Collett				Born in 1873 at Ashted, Birmingham
	71c9	Alfred Heber Collett				Born in 1878 at Aston, Birmingham
	71c10	Arthur John Collett				Born in 1880 at Aston, Birmingham
	71c11	Lily Collett				Born in 1887 at Birmingham
	71c12	Percy Cornelius Knight Collett				Born in 1890 at Birmingham
	71c13	Elsie Collett				Born in 1894 at Birmingham
	71c14	Cecily H Collett				Born in 1896 at Birmingham


71b4	Alice Caroline Collett was born at Maltby Street in Bermondsey during the summer of 1856, where her birth was registered (Ref. 1d 73) during the third quarter of the year. Just as with her older brothers (above) Alice was baptised at the Church of St Mary Magdalene, as Alice Carolyn (sic) on 29^th June 1856, the last know child of William and Louisa Collett, although no record of the family has been found in 1861. So, by 1871, 14-year-old Alice was suffering the loss of her father three years earlier, when she was living with her widowed mother and two older brothers at Maltby Street, Bermondsey. She and her mother had no stated occupation, so were likely undertaking housekeeping duties for the family.

	Nine years after that day, the marriage of Alice Caroline Collett and Albert James Watts was recorded at St Olave Southwark (Ref. 1d 309) during the second quarter of 1800. Albert was born at Southwark, with his birth registered at St Olave Bermondsey (Ref. 1d 17) during the second quarter of 1852. Ten years before he married Alice, he was living with his family in London, when Albert J Watts was 18 and a printer’s compositor, the same line of work as Alice’s two older brothers (above). So, maybe it was through them that Alice met Albert.

	After around nine months together, the census in 1881 recorded the couple residing at Northampton Street within the Southwark parish of St George the Martyr. Albert J Watts was 28 and again working as a compositor, with his wife Alice C Watts being 23, when they both said they had been born at Southwark. The first of their children was born at the end of the following year, with the birth of Albert William Watts recorded at Southwark during the first quarter of 1883. Unfortunately, no record of the family has been found within the next census, but by 1901 they had moved north of the River Thames and were living at Aldbridge Street in Newington Green, near Hackney in Middlesex.

	Albert J Watts from Horsleydown, Southwark was 48 and a printer’s reader (a proof reader), Alice C Watts was 43 from Bermondsey, Albert William Watts was 18 and a compositor, Ethel Margaret Watts was 15, William Watts was 13, Walter Watts was ten, and Alice May Watts was eight years old. All the children, except Albert, had been born south of the River Thames at Walworth. After a further decade, it was at Catford in the London Borough of Lewisham that the reduced family was living. Albert was 58 and a corrector of press (a proof reader), his wife of 13 years (sic) Alice was 53, and sons Albert and William were 28 and 23, both compositors, and son Walter was 19 and a print machine manager.

	Seventeen years following that census day, Alice Caroline Watts died on 10^th February 1928 and her Will was proved in Kent on 10^th March 1928, with the beneficiary being her husband Albert James Watts. He survived his wife by five years, when he died in London during 1933 at the age of 80.


71c1	Louisa Jane Collett was born in 1873 at Bermondsey and was the first of the eight children of Alfred Oliver Collett and Mary Ann Charlotte Whetcombe. Her birth was registered at St Olave Bermondsey (Ref. 1d 276) during the first three months of that year and she was eight years old in the Bermondsey census of 1881 when her family was living at Alfred Street. Although Louisa was not with her family at John Street in Southwark in 1891, she was employed as a domestic nursemaid at the home of Land Agent, Surveyor & Auctioneer Richard A H Seymour and his family at Knightrider Street in Maidstone, Kent. It was perhaps her occupation that enabled to return to her family when the health of her father was failing towards the end of the century.

	Whether or not that was the reason, she was certainly living with her family at Hall Road in Camberwell. Louisa Collett was 27 with no stated job of work, like her mother, the pair of them likely to be tending to the needs of her father, who died very shortly after that census day in 1901. Thereafter, no record of Louisa Collett or Louisa Jane Collett, born around 1873, has been found.


71c2	Henry Charles Collett was born in 1874 at Bermondsey, the eldest son of Alfred and Mary Ann Collett, whose birth was registered at St Olave Bermondsey (Ref. 1d 265) during the last quarter of that year. He was six years in 1881 at Alfred Street in Bermondsey, and was 16 in 1891 at John Street in Southwark. After that he joined his father in the printing trade, as confirmed in the census of 1901 when their occupation was that of a printer, with 26-year-old bachelor Henry still living with his family, but at Hall Road in Camberwell. Just after that census day in 1901, Henry’s father died, and five years later Henry Charles Collett suffered a premature death which was recorded at Camberwell register office (Ref. 1d 540) during the last three months of 1906 when he was 32.


71c3	Alfred Oliver Collett junior was born at Bermondsey in 1877, another son of Alfred Oliver Collett senior and his wife Mary Ann Charlotte Whetcombe. His birth was registered at St Olave Bermondsey (Ref. 1d 231) during the second quarter of that year and was four years old in the Bermondsey census of 1881 when he and his family were listing at Alfred Street. He was 14 in 1891, when the family was living at John Street in Southwark and in 1901, at the age of 23, Alfred was working as a labourer at the electric light works when he was unmarried and still at home which, by then was Hall Road in Camberwell.

	Almost precisely one year later, the marriage of Alfred Oliver Collett and Florence Louisa Campbell was recorded at Southwark register office (Ref. 1d 63). It was on 29^th March 1902 that Alfred aged 24, and the son of Alfred Oliver Collett, married Florence Louisa Campbell aged 23 and the daughter of James Campbell. The couple’s first child was born eighteen months later at Walworth within the London Borough of Southwark. The next child was born at Tooting, the third at Peckham, before the family arrived at Clerkenwell where the fourth child was born, and where the family was living in 1911.

	By then Alfred had changed jobs and had entered the world of printing, like so many of his earlier family. At the age of 33, Alfred Collett from Bermondsey was a printer’s cutter, his wife Florence Collett from St Giles London was 32, and their four children were Alfred Collett who was seven, Beatrice Collett who was four, Hilda Collett who was two, and baby Irene Collett who was under one year old.

	No more children were added to the family after that day, but Alfred was listed in military service records in both 1915 and 1919. On the first occasion it was as 37-year-old Alfred Oliver Collett servicing with the King’s Own Scottish Borders, service number 18294 while, in the latter record, he was 42 and living in London, a member of the Labour Corps of 801^st Area Employment Company. At the end of his life Alfred was residing in Hertfordshire where his death was recorded (Ref. 3a 1883) in 1940 at the age of 62.

	71d1	Alfred James Collett				Born in 1903 at Walworth, London
	71d2	Beatrice Lilian Collett				Born in 1906 at Tooting, London
	71d3	Hilda Florence Collett				Born in 1908 at Peckham, London
	71d4	Irene Collett				Born in 1910 at Clerkenwell, London


71c4	Beatrice Lilian Collett was born in 1879 at Bermondsey, possibly at Alfred Street, the fourth child of Alfred and Mary Ann Collett whose birth was registered at St Olave Bermondsey (Ref. 1d 247) during the last quarter of the year. She was two years old in the census of 1881 when she and her family were recorded at Alfred Street in Bermondsey, and in 1891 she was eleven years of age, by which time the family was residing at John Street in Southwark.


71c5	William Ernest Collett was born at Alfred Street in Bermondsey near the start of 1882, when his birth was registered at St Olave Bermondsey (Ref. 1d 264). It was simply as William Collett that he was recorded at the family home on John Street in Southwark in 1891 when he was nine years old. On leaving school he joined the Merchant Navy, possibly the reason why he was not living with his family at Hall Road in Camberwell in 1901. During a period of shore leave in 1911, William Ernest Collett returned to what was left of his family at Camberwell, after his father died in 1901 when, at the age of 27 (sic) he was a steward with a steam ship company. It was later recorded that he served as a seaman with the Merchant Navy during the First World War.

	Although not yet proved, it seems likely that it was William Ernest Collett who married widow Florence M Pring, when their wedding day was recorded at Camberwell register office (Ref. 1d 1933) during the spring of 1920. Having survived through two world wars, William Ernest Collett was 70 years old when he died in London during 1953, where his death was recorded (Ref. 5c 328). Four years earlier, the death of Florence M Collett was recorded at London register office (Ref. 5c 193) in 1949 at the age of 63. Her first husband was Alfred Charles Pring (who died in 1914) whom she married during the summer of 1910 at Southwark when she was Florence Maud Gray, her birth having been registered at Lambeth (Ref. 1d 437) during the first three months of 1886.


71c6	Maud Collett was born at Southwark in 1884, her birth registered at St Saviour Southwark (Ref. 1d 85) during the last quarter of the year. She may have been born at John Street in Southwark, where her family was living in 1891 when Maud was six years old. After leaving school Maud was 16 in 1901 when living at Hall Road in Camberwell, but with no stated job of work. That may have been because her father was not well, his death recorded just after that census day. In 1911 it was only Maud and her younger sister Minnie (below) who were continuing to live with their widow mother, although also making a temporary return to Camberwell was their older brother on leave from the merchant navy. By that time in her life Maud Collett was 25 and a book folder for a printing company.


71c7	Minnie Collett was born at Southwark in 1886, the seventh and last child of Alfred Oliver Collett and Mary Ann Charlotte Whetcombe. Her birth was also registered at St Saviour Southwark (Ref. 1d 36) during the last three months of 1886 and she was four years of age in 1891 when living at John Street in Southwark. Ten years later Minnie was 14, had completed her schooling and was living at the family home on Hall Road in Camberwell when she was not recorded as having an occupation. Following the death of her father just a short time after that census day, Minnie, and her sister Maud (above) became the bread-winners when they were the only children living with their widowed mother through the first decade of the new century. In 1911 the three of them were recorded in the Camberwell census, when Minnie was 24 and was working as a porter for a local tobacconist.


71c8	Florence Sarah Ann Collett was born during 1873 at Ashted in Birmingham, where she was baptised at the Church of St James the Lesser on 28^th December 1873. She was the first-born child of Heber Henry Collett and Sarah Ann Knight and was only a few months old when she died at her mother’s former home of Alcester, where her death was recorded (Ref. 6d 443) during the first quarter of 1874.


71c9	Alfred Heber Collett was born at Aston, Birmingham, in 1878, where his birth was recorded (Ref. 6d 381) during the first three months of 1878. He was the eldest surviving child of Henry Heber Collett and Sarah Ann Knight and was three years old in the Kings Norton census of 1881, when the family was living at Belgrave Street. The family was still in Kings Norton in 189 but at Edwardes Street where Alfred was 13, while in 1901 it was at Clarence Road in Yardley that unmarried Alfred Collett aged 23 was a pianoforte finisher who was still living with his family. Six months after that census day, the marriage of Alfred Heber Collett and Florence Garside was recorded at Solihull (Ref. 6d 1117) during the last quarter of 1901. The marriage produced at least two children, who were both born in Birmingham, before the family settled in the Balsall Heath area of the city.

	The Balsall Heath census in 1911 recorded the family as Alfred Collett who was 33 and a pianoforte finisher and regulator, Florence Collett who was 31, Dorothy Collett who was nine, and Alfred Collett who was seven years of age. It is likely that their daughter never married because, in 1935, the death of Dorothy M Collett was recorded at Birmingham register office during 1935 when she was 34 years old.

	71d5	Dorothy Mabel Collett				Born in 1901 at Birmingham
	71d6	Alfred Ernest Collett				Born in 1904 at Birmingham


71c10	Arthur John Collett was born at Duddeston in Birmingham early in 1880, with his birth recorded at Aston (Ref. 6d 356) during the first quarter of that year. He was one year old when living with his family at Belgrave Street, Kings Norton in 1881 and was 11 years of age in 1891 at Edwardes Street in Kings Norton. On leaving school he joined the Royal Navy and in 1901, the census that year, described him at Arthur J Collett from Duddeston who was 21 and an ordinary seaman, a member of the crew serving at sea or in ports abroad. On leaving the navy, Arthur returned to midlands and married Rose in Wolverhampton, where their son and first child was born. By 1911 the family of three was residing in Smethwick, where Arthur John Collett from Duddeston was 31 and a time-keeper and a packer. His wife Rose Collett from Wolverhampton was 25 and their son Arthur Alfred Heber Collett was only a few weeks old, his birth recorded at Kings Norton (Ref. 6c 431) during the first quarter of 1911. Two young people were visiting the family and they were Emma Poyner who was ten and Frederick Broomfield who was four, both born at Wolverhampton.

	71d7	Arthur Alfred Heber Collett				Born in 1910 at Wolverhampton


71c11	Lily Collett was born at Kings Norton, Birmingham in 1887 and her birth was recorded there (Ref. 6d 72) during final quarter of 1887. In the following census she was also Lily Collett aged three years when she was recorded at Edwardes Street in Kings Norton. However, in the following two census returns her parents gave her name as Lilian Collett who was 13 in 1901 at Clarence Road in Yardley and 24 in 1911 when she was working as a clerk from the family home in Smethwick.


71c12	Percy Cornelius Knight Collett was most likely born at Edwardes Street in Kings Norton, Birmingham in 1890, although no record of his birth, or his baptism, have been found and then, in the census the following year, he was simply named as Percival Collett for the only time in his informative years. As Percy Collett he was living with his family at Clarence Road in Yardley in 1901 when he was 10 years of age and, again in 1911, Percy Collett was still living with his family at Smethwick, from where he was employed as a clerk.

	Four years later the marriage of Percy C K Collett and Jessie A Lowe was recorded at Aston register office (Ref. 6d 853) during the second quarter of 1915. It was at St Mary’s Church, Aston Brook that the couple was married on 23^rd May 1915 when Percy Cornelius Knight Collett was 24, the son of Heber Collett, and Jessie Augusta Lowe was 22 and the daughter of William George Lowe. So far, the research has not revealed any children.


71c13	Elsie Edith May Collett was born at Birmingham in 1894 and was six years old in the census of 1901 when she and her family were living at Clarence Road in Yardley. Her birth was recorded at Aston register office (Ref. 6d 193) during the third quarter of 1894, and very shortly after she was born, she was baptised at Sparkbrook in Birmingham on 8^th July, with her parents confirmed as Heber and Sarah Ann Collett. Her father’s work as a commercial traveller resulted in a move to nearby Smethwick, where the family was living in 1911, when Elsie Collett was working as a warehouse woman at the age of 17. It was towards the end of 1915 when Elsie Collett married Benjamin Fisher, the event recorded at Aston register Office (Ref. 6d 1085).


71c14	Cecily H Collett was born at Birmingham in 1896 and was five years of age in the Yardley census of 1901 when the family was residing at Clarence Road. Ten years later Ciccy Collett was 16 and was living with her parents in Smethwick, where she was employed as a warehouse assistant, most likely working alongside her older sister Elsie (above). Exactly seven years later, the marriage of Cecily H Collett and William H Maguire was recorded at Birmingham (Ref. 6d 305) during the second quarter of 1918. The marriage produced three children whose births were recorded at Birmingham register office, they being Norman W Maguire (Ref. 6d 315) during the third quarter of 1919, Robert Maguire (Ref. 6d 464) during the last three months of 1925, and Patricia Maguire (Ref. 6d 471) during the second quarter of 1930. On each occasion, the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett.


71d1	Alfred James Collett was born at Walworth within the London Borough of Southwark on 25^th October 1903, when his birth was recorded at Southwark register office (Ref. 1d 165). He was baptised at Walworth on 13^th November 1903, the first-born child of Alfred Oliver Collett and Florence Louisa Campbell. He was seven years old in the Clerkenwell census of 1911, having previously lived in Tooting and Peckham prior to that. Alfred J Collett was 26 years old when he married Hettie Harvey, their wedding recorded at Fulham register office (Ref. 1a 1096) during the third quarter of 1930. Florence presented Alfred with two children, both births recorded at Hendon register office when their mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Harvey. Alfred was living in Kent when he died, where his death was recorded (Ref. 5f 1763) in 1971 at the age of 68.

	71e1	Charles H Collett (Ref. 3a 620) Q4				Born in 1937 at Hendon, Middlesex
	71e2	Joan I Collett (Ref. 3e 974) Q1				Born in 1940 at Hendon, Middlesex


71d2	Beatrice Lilian Collett was born at Tooting within the London Borough of Wandsworth on 26^th June 1906, the eldest daughter of Alfred and Florence Collett. Her birth was recorded at Wandsworth register office (Ref. 1d 672) during the third quarter of 1906 and she was four years old in the Clerkenwell census of 1911. It was back on the south bank of the River Thames at Lambeth where the marriage of Beatrice L Collett and George Radley was recorded (Ref. 1d 502) during the summer of 1932. Just under six years after their wedding day, Beatrice gave birth to a son, with the birth of Michael Radley recorded at Edmonton register office (Ref. 3a 1346) during the second quarter of 1938, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed at Collett. Beatrice died at Hove in Sussex on 1^st April 1996 only a few weeks before her ninetieth birthday, with the death of Beatrice Lilian Radley recorded at Sussex register office (Vol. 4571 78c).


71d3	Hilda Florence Collett was the third child of Alfred and Florence Collett and was born at Peckham within the London Borough of Southwark in 1908. Her birth was recorded at Camberwell register office (Ref. 1d 910) during the second quarter of that year and she was two years old in the census of 1911, by which time the family was living in Clerkenwell, within the London Borough of Islington. Twenty-four years later the marriage of Hilda Florence Collett and Wilfred Thomas V Reed was recorded in London (Ref. 1b 770) during the second quarter of 1935. Their only child was born in 1938, when the birth of Patricia H Reed was recorded at the London Hampstead register office (Ref. 1a 815) during the second quarter of that year.

	Wilfred was born on 14^th February 1909 at Tottenham in London the son of stonemason George Reed and his wife Eliza. Wilfred was a builder and between 1936 and 1947 he travelled across the Atlantic Ocean, on one such occasion to New York it was aboard the line Queen Elizabeth. He was 60 years old when his death was recorded at Middlesex register office (Ref. 5c 1108) in 1969.