From Russia to Suffolk

 

Herbert Graham Tidmarsh was born in 1903. His parents, George and Constance, had four children including Wilfred, who travelled extensively (confirmed by passenger lists) and married in Ecuador. Constance became a governess and Herbert, an engineer. Unfortunately, Oliver’s profession wasn’t recorded in any official documents available to me.

George (their father) was a miller’s agent in the corn industry. Like his children, George was born in Combs, Suffolk. Constance Graham, their mother, was born in Russia – as were her siblings. In 1881, she is a pupil in Berkshire with her sister, who was three years older. Their father, William, was an engineer. He later, in Suffolk, was a farmer, and the family lived in Crepping Hall, Stutton, now a listed building.

Siblings in Suffolk

 

Ada Hammond lived at the address on the card (Shaftesbury) with her brother and sister. Robert was a carpenter and their father, Robert, was a builder. Also at the address was another sister, Helen. Their youngest sister, Annie, was a servant in 1911 and lived in Ipswich. Another sister, Charlotte, married a tailor’s cutter and lived in Wallingford.

Mrs Garrad's Lodgers

Mrs Garrad was the second wife of retired gardener, Charles who was born in Nayland, Suffolk in 1825. Sarah Stock (born in Writtle, Essex in 1836) was a spinster when the couple married in 1889.

In 1901, the couple appear in the census return with Charles’s son, David. With them at the address are five lodgers. Apart from a butcher, all the lodgers worked in engineering jobs.

It’s possible that the postcard was sent to Sarah from a lodger – although none of those in the census returns matched the initials on the postcard.

 

Sisters and Servants

Lily Elmer was born in Hadleigh, Suffolk in 1890. Her father and at least one brother were carpenters. Lily appears in the 1911 census return working as a maid at the address on the postcard. One of her brothers was killed during the First World War. Like the very first postcard I ever researched (sent to Gilbert Freeman), Robert Elmer is remembered in Thiepval, France.

Lily’s employer was the widowed Catherine Farnham. Catherine Scott was born in Great Barr, Staffordshire in 1859. Her father was Sir Francis Scott and the family home was Great Barr Hall.

The postcard was sent to Lily by her sister, Edith. Although I haven’t researched Edith’s life, I believe she worked as a nurse in a children’s home.

Despite only buying this card for a talk, there’s so much to research that I might be tempted to offer it as a talk on its own!