Yesterday we met Ellen Victoria Astill. Today let me introduce you to three more Astill siblings. Quigley, Ella and Annie occupied consecutive placing in the Astill line up. Quigley was born in 1878, Ella in 1880 and Annie in 1882.
Annie Kathleen Wootton Hall Astill
Quigley, along with his brothers, attended King William Street School. There is no mention of the girls in the family attending this or any other school. There were several private girls’ schools in Old Town at this time, so perhaps they attended one of these.
Annie in particular must have had some further education as she later became a nurse. The 1911 census records her working as a Rescue Worker at a home for unmarried mothers and their babies in Ladywood Road, Birmingham.
Quigley Wallace Astill seated in deckchair and surrounded by family members
Quigley trained as a printer, presumably in the family firm. However he later went on to work for the Swindon Press where an accident lifting heavy machinery left him disabled.
Ella Alice Ward Astill
The unmarried Astill siblings lived at a couple of addresses in Old Town including 14 Springfield Road, but by the 1920s they were settled at 28 Avenue Road. We have already discovered Ellen living here in the 1920s. Quigley and later Ella and Annie also lived at this address.
Apparently Annie and Ella had a volatile relationship. In old age the two sisters were admitted to St. Margaret’s Hospital where they had to be accommodated on separate floors because they argued so much. Annie died on February 14, 1966. Ella died just a month later on March 17. With the death of her lifelong adversary she lost the will to live.
The two sisters were buried together in Christ Church churchyard where they joined their brother Quigley who died in 1957.
Many thanks to Rhonda in Australia and the late Eric Barrett from Wroughton for information, photos and family memories.
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