Remembering Mrs Stanier on Mother’s Day

The re-imagined story …

Grace Stanier (2)

I have such wonderful memories of childhood Christmas’s. I suppose most children would say the same.

With five of us in the family, we didn’t have much, not like children today. We would hang our stockings on the bedposts on Christmas Eve and try to keep awake all night to wait for Father Christmas to come, but of course we never saw him. Does any child?

And on Christmas morning we took our bulging stockings beneath the bedcovers to keep warm as we opened them. There was always a tangerine and some walnuts and some humbugs and a little toy. I remember the year my brother Bert received a real guard’s whistle and blew it until I thought my ear drums would burst. Mother told him he wasn’t to blow it again until Boxing Day.

As soon as we could read, we received a book. Sometimes a character improving story like The White Feather but one year Fred received a copy of Treasure Island and I got a copy of Little Women!

And as members of the Congregational Chapel Sunday School we always received a little gift from Mrs Stanier. The Stanier family was very involved with the Chapel. We were all a bit frightened of Mr Stanier. He was a bigwig in the factory and you had to mind your ps and qs around him. But we were all very fond of Mrs Stanier. We used to think she was very old but of course she wasn’t. As a child you can never imagine older people as they might have been when young; vibrant and vital with loves and lives of their own. You never take account of the sorrow and the losses they may have suffered. I suppose we didn’t consider her much at all.

It was only after her funeral that mother told me she had been buried with her little daughter Grace who died when she was seven years old. Mrs Stanier had also lost two little boys, Francis John who was three years old when he died and Alfred, who was just a baby. She probably thought of those children when she wrapped up our gifts every Christmas.

The facts …

Grace Ball was born in Southport, Lancashire in 1847, the daughter of Robert Ball, a shopkeeper and farmer and his wife Ann. Grace grew up at North Moels and worked as a teacher in a small private school there.

Grace married William Henry Stanier in the Ormskirk registration district during the September quarter of 1875. By 1881 they were living at Church Place, Swindon with their three children William, Annie and Charles. The couple went on to have five more children but sadly three of these died in childhood. The couple’s last home together was at Oakfield, Bath Road.

The funeral of the late Mrs Stanier, wife of Ald. W.H. Stanier, of “Oakfield,” Bath Road, Swindon, took place on Tuesday afternoon, and evidence of keen regret and deep sympathy was everywhere apparent.

At 2.30 pm an impressive service was commenced at the Sanford Street Congregational Church, of which the deceased lady had been a prominent member. As the procession entered the building, “O Rest in the Lord” was played on the organ. The service was conducted by the Rev J. Stroud Williams (Pastor), and the Rev T. Garbutt Vinson (Pastor of the Victoria Street Congregational Church). The hymns, “Light after darkness,” and “When the day of toil is past” were sung during the service, and the Dead March in “Saul” was played as the procession slowly filed out of the building.

During the service the Rev Stroud Williams said: We little thought a few days ago when we met in this Church on a similar occasion that we should meet here to-day. Our sister, greatly beloved, has been called to her rest, after a long and painful illness. Her departure leaves a keen sense of loss and bereavement behind. We cannot estimate the loss. Hers was a bright, sunny soul. In early years she came to know Christ as her Saviour, and consecrated herself and her life to His service. In very many ways she sought to help forward His work. She was full of cheerfulness and strong hope, and that cheerfulness and hope bore her through all the years of weakness and of pain, and when the call came it did not find her unprepared. She knew in whom she believed. She knew she was going to Christ. “Blessed are they that die in the Lord.” Why should we be sorry? Our sorrow is not sin. It is manly, it is Divine. For Jesus Himself wept at the graveside. We sorrow, but not as those who have no hope of a reunion. We see only the going down into the valley, and not the climbing up the hill of God and the entrance into life. Our sister has seen the face of Christ. She knows what she longed to know. We are thankful for the memory that she has left behind, and we pray for the grace that we may follow as she followed Christ.

At the graveside the committal sentences were said by the Rev. J.S. Williams.

The inscription on the coffin was as follows: “Grace Stanier, died 10^th November, 1905, aged 58 years.”

The chief mourners were Mr W.H. Stanier (husband), Messrs. W., C., and G. Stanier (sons) Misses Stanier (daughters), Mrs C. Stanier, Mr and Mrs H.A. Stanier, Miss B. Stanier, Mr T.W. Stanier (Newcastle), Mr and Mrs H. Hill, Miss Hill, Miss Morse, and Mr E. C. Riley.

Others following were: …

The following were present representing the GWR Loco and Carriage Department Staffs: Messrs. J. Lockyer, J.W. Rose, W.H. Adams, C. Godsell, W.J. Burleigh, and John Clark. The Stores Department was represented by Messrs W. Jones, J. Wood, E.H. Page. A.H. Dunn, J. Dowling, V.R. Daines, J.H. Barker, A.H. Jervis, W. Davies, W.S. Clark, C.T. Smith, W.J. Smith, A. Tyler, H. Brown, F.J. Etherington, C.A. Plaister, H.J. Edmonds, R. Brock, J. Hart, D. Sheward, A.J. Rolls, F.S. Westlake, E.A. Blackman, J.W. Smith, S.F. Adams, C.E. Barker, J.E. Lockyer, and H.L. Smith.

Councillor George Brooks was unable to be present in consequence of his having to attend to some business in London that day, in the place of Mr Stanier.

Many members of the Sanford Street Congregational Church were also present.

The funeral arrangements were carried out by Messrs Chandler Bros of Wood Street, under the personal direction of Mr J.H. Chandler.

Extracts published from The Swindon Advertiser, Friday, November 17, 1905

Mrs Stanier was buried in plot A2508/9 in a double plot where she lies with her young daughter Grace who died in October 1890 aged 7 years. On the other side of the footpath lie her two young sons, Francis John and Alfred, buried in plot A188.

International Women’s Day

I couldn’t let International Women’s Day pass without celebrating the life and times of two extraordinary Swindon women – Edith New and Mary Slade – even though, unfortunately, neither of them are buried in Radnor Street Cemetery.

Edith Bessie New was born in North Street, Swindon on March 17, 1877, the youngest surviving child of Frederick New, a railway clerk, and his wife Isabella, a music teacher.

Isabella raised her three children alone following the death of her husband in an accident while he walked along the railway line. Perhaps this example set by her independent mother and the struggles she encountered led Edith to spend her life campaigning for women’s rights.

Edith trained as a teacher at Queenstown School, Swindon before moving to London. Here she joined the Women’s Social and Political Union, becoming one of that organisations earliest militant members.

Following her retirement from teaching Edith moved to Polperro, Cornwall where she lived with her sister Nell. It was here that she died on January 2, 1951. She is buried with Nell in the cemetery there.

For more about Edith’s life and work you might like to read on…

Mary Elizabeth Slade was born in Bradford on Avon on July 12, 1872 one of two children born to cloth weavers Frank and Susan Slade.

By 1901 she had moved to Swindon and a teaching position at King William Street School, boarding with builder’s foreman Edwin Colborne and his family at 64 Goddard Avenue. At the time of the 1911 census she was living at 63 Avenue Road with her widowed mother Susan.

At the outbreak of World War I Mary headed a team of volunteers who collected and dispatched comforts to members of the Wiltshire Regiment serving overseas. However, the dire plight of those soldiers taken prisoner of war soon came to the attention of Mary and her team and they directed their efforts to sending parcels to these men.

For more about Mary’s work you might like to read on… (please note that this article was originally written in 2014).

Mary continued to live in Swindon until her death on January 31, 1960. She died suddenly at her home in Avenue Road. She is buried in Christ Church churchyard, Swindon.

Alice Arman and Women’s History Month

There have been an awful lot of words written about Queen Victoria, but it always come back to just how tall (or small) she was. You probably know that she was lacking in stature, something she frequently mentioned herself. It’s one of the facts of her life still talked about today. She had nine children, she was not amused and she was – how tall, 4ft 10ins, 4ft 11ins. In fact, she was probably a little over 5ft.

So what does Alice Arman have in common with Queen Victoria?

Well, she had 4 children not 9 and she didn’t become Empress of India neither was she the subject of countless books, TV series and films. Alice Arman quietly (or maybe loudly) spent a lifetime of service to the people of Swindon, which is now lost and forgotten. There does remain however this rather spectacular photograph of Alice in which she doesn’t look particularly small (or tall).

So which women of history would you like to meet during Women’s History Month. I’ve got a very long list, and I’d also rather like to have met Alice Arman.

The facts …

Alice was born in Oldham in 1857, the daughter of Jacob and Elizabeth Schofield. She married William Fairclough at the church of St Wilfrid, Standish, Lancashire on July 16, 1883. At the time of the 1891 census Alice and her first husband, William Fairclough, were living at 3 East Vermont Street in the Govan district of Glasgow with their three children, Mary, William and Alice. A fourth child, Norman was born in 1891 but died before his first birthday. The family moved to Swindon in around 1893 when William secured a job as a boilermaker in the Works.

Industrial New Swindon probably looked quite familiar to Alice who had grown up in Oldham, Lancashire where her parents ran a greengrocer’s shop. But sadly the move to Swindon didn’t herald a brave new future for the family as William died that same year.

In 1896 Alice (sometimes known as Alison) married widower Thomas Arman. The couple lived first in King Street where Thomas was employed as a carpenter in the GWR Works and Alice worked as a trouser machinist. Her son William lived with them along with Thomas’s three children by his first wife, Alfred, Mabel and Rosie. On the 1911 census Alice and Thomas Arman are living at 15 Lowestoft Street with Thomas’s daughter Rose Mary Arman and Alice’s daughter Mary Elizabeth Fairclough. Alice’s occupation is described as ‘part time student.’ I hope this is correct and not an error when the census return was filled out. I love the thought that Alice is studying at the age of 50.

In 1909 Alice was involved with the Bridge Street Men’s Adult School. An article published in the Swindon Advertiser on February 26, 1909 reporting on a recent meeting when ‘at the Social Hour at eight p.m. Mrs A. Arman read, by request, her paper entitled “From Gypsy Lane to the Workhouse” to an appreciative audience’ a subject no doubt informed by her work with the Poor Law Board of Guardians.

In 1894 the Local Government Act enabled the election of women to the Poor Law Board of Guardians for the first time. In Swindon Maria Matthews, Elizabeth Williams, Elizabeth House and Elinor Buller were the first four women to serve as Guardians. At the beginning of the 20th century Alice was also elected a member. We know she served as a Guardian for several years because an election in 1922 produced some shock results. Seven of the old members were defeated including Mrs Elizabeth Williams, the Deputy Mayor Alderman E. Jones and Mrs Alice Arman.

Alice continued with her community work after the First World War when she served as secretary of the Comrades’ Club, which met at Bridge Street.

In 1920 Alice unsuccessfully stood as one of six Labour candidates in Swindon’s local elections, however, her political colleague Mrs Ellen Anglesea Tanner won the West Ward seat for the Labour party.

Alice died at her home in Princes Street aged 68. She was buried three days before Christmas 1927 in plot C24a in Radnor Street Cemetery. She is buried alone with her first husband William Fairclough remembered on her headstone.