Alice and Frederick Legg

This is the story of Alice and Frederick Legg.

Alice Legg was not a local girl. She was born in Wimbledon in 1886, the daughter of Frederick and Catherine Lovegrove.

Her first job was as a kitchen maid at a private girl’s school in Wimbledon. The duties of a kitchen maid were many and varied and involved a lot of cleaning and some cooking under the supervision of the cook. In this her first job, Alice was roughly the same age as the pupils at the school.

At the time of her marriage in 1911 Alice was working as a domestic servant for a Wine & Spirit retailer. Her husband Frederick was born in 1887, possibly in Faringdon.

They married at All Saints Church, Wimbledon on June 5, 1911. Both Alice and Frederick give their address as 65 Norman Road. The UK Railway Employment Records state that Frederick had begun working for the GWR here in Swindon on May 29, 1911 as a Boilermakers Helper, just weeks before his wedding.

Frederick later worked as Watchman in the Loco Manager’s office. He left the Works on Jan 4, 1943. The couple’s last home together was at 75 Okus Road.

Alice died at the Isolation Hospital. Frederick died at 432 Ferndale Road, most probably the home of one of their children.

The couple died within months of one another. Alice in June 1961 and Frederick in October of the same year.

Alice and Frederick’s story was kindly given to me by a Radnor Street Cemetery follower who joined one of our guided cemetery walks some years ago.