If you are of a certain age you may remember Turn, Turn, Turn, a song released by The Byrds in 1965. The lyrics were written in 1959 by Peter Seeger and are taken from the book of Ecclesiastes Chapter 3 verses 1-8.
So, what do you think? Is there a time to be born and a time to die.
Emma Flower died in March 1912. She had lived to see her only surviving child, Edwin Brian Flower, marry. She was 49 years old. A tragedy to die at that age both now and then. Had she suffered a long, painful illness, in which case it might have been a time to die?
Emma Head was born in 1861 the daughter of John Head and his wife Hannah. She married Edwin Flower at the church in South Marston on Christmas Eve 1888. At the time of the 1891 census the young couple and their baby son were living at 36 Avening Street, Gorse Hill. By 1911 the family had moved to 23 Florence Street where their son Edwin Brian was married from on October 21, 1911 and where Emma would die five months later. She was buried on March 14, 1912 in grave plot B3209 where she lies alone. Her husband Edwin married again in 1913 to widow Jane Martha Stone (nee Head) most probably Emma’s elder sister.
Edwin Brian Flower was the only one of Emma’s three children to survive childhood. He was born on September 23, 1889 and lived in Gorse Hill all his life. At the age of 13 he started work as an office boy/messenger in the Carriage Works, later transferring to the Wheelwright Shop. He married Ethel Woodman in 1911 and they had a daughter Iris Minnie born the following year. By 1917 Edwin was serving with the 9th Light Railway Operating Company as a Sapper in the Royal Engineers. He was killed in action on October 4, 1917 aged 28 and is buried in the Rocquingny-Equancourt Road, British Cemetery, Manancourt. Was it his time to die?
This is Emma Flower’s boy, Edwin.
Radnor Street Cemetery 