Charles Frederick Angell – marry in haste, repent at leisure

The re-imagined story …

Marry in haste, repent at leisure was one of my mum’s often repeated phrases. As an impressionable young girl with a tendency to fall in love, I was never sure if this maxim was a piece of warning advice for me or a comment on her own life. Turned out it was both!

But this story isn’t about me and my mum. It’s about Mr Charles Angell who worked in the stores with my dad. Mr Angell and his wife Mary lived just round the corner from us in Florence Street.

Dad knew him well – they had worked together for many years. ‘Unless he has come into a secret inheritance he can’t be worth a lot of money,’ my dad said.

You’ll understand what I’m getting at when I tell you the rest of the story.

Mary Angell died in August 1917. Mum didn’t even know she was ill. She would have helped out had she known. Dropped off a hot meal for the couple, done a bit of shopping for them, that kind of thing. Then just seven months after his wife died, Mr Angell upped and married again. People do funny things in grief, dad said but mum said he was old enough to know better.

His new wife was a Miss Neall. Dad said she was a nice looking woman, not young, but nice looking. That got a glare from mum.

“Well I hope he knows what he’s doing. Marry in haste, repent at leisure.”

The facts …

Charles Frederick Angell married Mary Tanner at St Mark’s Church on August 31, 1889. He worked as a labourer and she worked as a domestic servant. Two years later they were living at 21 Avenue Road, Old Town.

By 1901 they had left the leafy suburbs of Old Town for a more modest property in Beatrice Street, Gorse Hill where they lived with Mary’s widowed father Daniel and her sister Emma and nephew William.

At the time of the 1911 census they had moved just down the road to 28 Omdurman Street. They state on the census returns that they had been married for 21 years and had no children.

Mary died in August 1917 when the couple lived at 9 Florence Street. The funeral took place on August 20th when Mary was buried in grave plot A2534 in Radnor Street Cemetery.

Charles Frederick Neall was 61 years of age when he married Julia Elizabeth Neall 54, at St. John’s Church, Paddington on March 30, 1918 but less than a year later the marriage had obviously soured.

The following notice was published in the North Wilts Herald, Friday 10th January, 1919.

I, Charles Frederick Angell, late of 3 Florence Street, Swindon, will NOT BE RESPONSIBLE for any DEBTS incurred by my wife, JULIA ELIZABETH ANGELL, now residing at 7 Market Street, Swindon.

Julia eventually left Swindon and when she died in the September quarter of 1923 her death was registered in the Tonbridge area of Kent.

Within a year, Charles took the plunge again. He married Alice Pring Johnson on June 9, 1924 at St Mary’s church, Charlton Kings, Glos.

Charles died on January 1, 1930 at his home 28, Hunter’s Grove, Swindon. He was 72 years old. The death announcement published in the North Wilts Herald described him as ‘the loving husband of Alice Angell.’ His funeral took place on June 4, when he was buried with his first wife Mary.