The Alley family reunion

Local history is a wonderful discipline. When I first began researching those buried in Radnor Street Cemetery I came across a fascinating family by the name of Alley. Fast forward some 15 years and yesterday I was a guest at the Alley family reunion where more than 30 members of the local family (plus Colin and his wife who travelled from Bedfordshire) gathered to celebrate their shared ancestry. The event was organised by Wendy and Christine who welcomed not only local cousins but Di and George from Australia and Kay from Canada.

It was an afternoon packed with stories and discoveries, fun and laughter. There were photographs and spread sheets and family tree charts that people were adding to and updating.

Di, George and Kay joined me on a cemetery visit to the grave of their common ancestors Frederick and Elizabeth Alley. We also paid a visit to the grave of George Richman Alley and his wife Emma and marvelled at the story of their seven daughters, one of whom was Emma Louisa Hull, suffragette.

I’m waiting for the reunion photos to circulate, which I will add to this blogpost, but meanwhile here is the story of Frederick and Elizabeth Alley.

As promised, here a few reunion photographs

Frederick married Elizabeth Gould in 1864 in Trowbridge. He was 19 and she was 17. They had a very large family – 18 children, although sadly seven of them died in childhood.

Frederick arrived in Swindon in 1868 to a home in Cheltenham Street and a job as a railway labourer, later becoming a machine man. He worked in the GWR factory for 51 years and when he retired he set up the GWR Retired Workmen’s’ Association.

The couple were members of the Baptist church where Frederick was a lay-preacher for more than 45 years and from 1890-1924 he was a Trustee of the Baptist Tabernacle.

Elizabeth died in 1927 aged 80. Frederick died the following year aged 83 at 45 Buller Street, the home of his daughter Ada.

The couple had already purchased this grave ten years previously when their youngest son Edgar died in 1918. Edgar had joined the navy as an 18 year old in 1909, initially for a 12 year period. However, in the middle of his service war broke out. Edgar was invalided out of the navy in 1916 – family sources say he had suffered shell shock – and returned to Swindon and a job as an electrician in the ammunitions factory known locally as the Powder Works.

He died on November 28, 1918 suffering from broncho pneumonia and influenza. Edgar was 27 years old when he died. He left a widow and two young children.