For a certain generation of Swindonians the name Wise will be synonymous with the bakery at Headlands Grove, established in 1938 and which went out of business in 2001. However, this Wise family are railway through and through.
Charles Wise was a Railway Signal Inspector. In 1903 he is recorded in the UK Railway Employment records as having been employed by the GWR for 30 years.
Born in Ufton, Berkshire in about 1848 he married Jane Smith at St Mary’s Church, Reading on December 29, 1874. Their first child Charles was born in Wargrave and their second Thomas in Devizes. By 1879 they had arrived in Swindon where they were living at 14 Sanford Street, their home for more than 10 years.
A daughter Alice Mary who died aged just a year old in 1880, before the cemetery opened, was buried in St Mark’s churchyard and is remembered on this headstone.
Their youngest daughter Gertrude Grace trained as a teacher before marrying in 1917. Her husband was architect Granville Walter Henry George the son of local politician Reuben George.
Jane Wise died at her home 62 Eastcott Hill in August 1920. She was buried in grave plot A238 which she shares with her small son Sydney George who died in 1886 aged 3 years 4 months and her husband Charles who died in 1933 aged 85. Their fallen headstone has been cleared and cleaned by our volunteers.
Radnor Street Cemetery 