Could this be a wedding photograph of William and Maud? She looks very young; only 20 years old at the time of their marriage in 1893. William was 8 years older and had already seen service in the Warwickshire Regiment.
We find them next on the 1901 census living at Wroughton Road. William is working as a ‘Collector and Salesman for Singer Sewing Machines.’ The family had moved around with the elder children’s birthplaces recorded as Cheltenham and Fairford.
By 1911 they were living in Ashton Keynes with further children born in Swindon, Faringdon, Stanford in the Vale and Ashton Keynes. By then Maud had had 10 children, 9 of whom were still living. At least 3 more sons were born between 1911 and 1915 but only one survived to adulthood.
Another baby, Thomas Reginald Brotheridge, was born in 1915 and died aged just 7 months old when the family were living at 90 Montagu Street. By then war was raging. William and Maud’s eldest son, also named William, had joined his father’s old regiment, the Warwickshires. On May 27, 1918 he was on board the Leasowe Castle, an armed troop transport ship, when it was torpedoed and sank off the coast of Alexandria. A total of 83 officers and men were drowned that day, including 21 year old William. He is remembered on the Chatby Memorial in Egypt. He left a small sum of money, including a War Gratuity of £17, to his mother, as previously agreed with his father.
William and Maud were just one of many Rodbourne couples who lost a loved one during that awful conflict.
Montagu Street, Rodbourne
Maud died in February 1924 at 90 Montagu Street. She was 51 years old – no age to die, we would say now. She had given birth to at least 13 children and along with the babies she lost she also lost a son to war.
She was buried in Section Lower C grave plot C3953 where in 1934 her daughter Elizabeth Maud Mary joined her. Elizabeth was 38 years old and unmarried.
William Brotheridge died at 86 Montagu Street in November 1941. He was laid to rest with his wife and daughter.
Radnor Street Cemetery 