Tag: Montagu Street

William and Maud Brotheridge

Could this be a wedding photograph of William and Maud? She looks very young; only 20 years old at the time of their marriage in 1893. William was 8 years older and had already seen service in the Warwickshire Regiment.

We find them next on the 1901 census living at Wroughton Road. William is working as a ‘Collector and Salesman for Singer Sewing Machines.’ The family had moved around with the elder children’s birthplaces recorded as Cheltenham and Fairford.

By 1911 they were living in Ashton Keynes with further children born in Swindon, Faringdon, Stanford in the Vale and Ashton Keynes. By then Maud had had 10 children, 9 of whom were still living. At least 3 more sons were born between 1911 and 1915 but only one survived to adulthood.

Another baby, Thomas Reginald Brotheridge, was born in 1915 and died aged just 7 months old when the family were living at 90 Montagu Street. By then war was raging. William and Maud’s eldest son, also named William, had joined his father’s old regiment, the Warwickshires. On May 27, 1918 he was on board the Leasowe Castle, an armed troop transport ship, when it was torpedoed and sank off the coast of Alexandria. A total of 83 officers and men were drowned that day, including 21 year old William. He is remembered on the Chatby Memorial in Egypt. He left a small sum of money, including a War Gratuity of £17, to his mother, as previously agreed with his father.

William and Maud were just one of many Rodbourne couples who lost a loved one during that awful conflict.

Montagu Street, Rodbourne

Maud died in February 1924 at 90 Montagu Street. She was 51 years old – no age to die, we would say now. She had given birth to at least 13 children and along with the babies she lost she also lost a son to war.

She was buried in Section Lower C grave plot C3953 where in 1934 her daughter Elizabeth Maud Mary joined her. Elizabeth was 38 years old and unmarried.

William Brotheridge died at 86 Montagu Street in November 1941. He was laid to rest with his wife and daughter.

James and Annie Gardner – 5 Montagu Street, Rodbourne

They say every picture tells a story and I love these photos of the Gardner family shared on the Swindon Local Studies Flickr page. Meet James Gardner and his wife Annie pictured in their garden at 5 Montagu Street, Rodbourne taken in about 1935. I’d love to know what was said just before the camera shutter clicked.

Annie was James’s second wife. They married in St. Swithins Church, Walcot, Bath on December 27, 1905. James was 52 and Annie 39. James had several children by his first wife Sarah and presumably Florence Gardner was the daughter of one of these. She appears on the 1911 census aged 3 years old living with James and Annie and Annie’s mother Margaret at 5 Montagu Street.

These two charming photos of Florence appear with those of James and Annie.

James died at his home in Montagu Street in 1939 aged 86 years old. Annie died in 1947 aged 82. Her last address was Ford Street, just a stone’s throw away from Rodbourne. Perhaps she ended her days living with Florence?

James and Annie are buried in grave plot C639, Radnor Street Cemetery.