Iris Carter

Iris was the daughter of Harry and Sybil Carter (née Hardy).

Her father Harry was born in Nottingham in 1892. In 1911 he was a coal miner living with his widowed mother, Sarah Ann, at 26 Bestwood Colliery. Her mother Sybil Hardy was born in Epperstone, Nottinghamshire, in 1893 and in 1911 was living with her father, Cornelius and four siblings at 37 Bestwood Colliery (her mother was not in household on night of the Census).

Harry and Sybil were married in 1911 (reg. JAS Basford) and may have had 12 children, six of whom surviving infancy.

Eight children have been identified from the 1921 Census, 1939 Register and baptismal records, two of whom died in infancy. With the exception of Laurence Spencer, whose birth and death were registered in Nottingham and was baptised in Bulwell, the other children were born in Bestwood village (registered Basford): Sybil May b. 1911 (OND) bap. Bestwood Emmanuel December 1911; Laurence Spencer b. March 1914 bap. Bulwell St John March 1914 (erroneously registered as 'Laura S.') d. 1915 JFM (reg. Nottingham); Harold b. 14 September 1918 bap. Emmanuel 13 October 1918; Joyce Mary b. 16 April 1920 bap. Emmanuel 9 May 1920 d. 1921 OND; Iris b. 2 May 1923; Ronald b. September 1924; Margaret Thelma (Thelma) b. 1931 OND and Maureen birth reg. 1937 (JFM).

There may have been four other children who died in infancy, one of whom was born in Nottingham: May b. 1913 (JFM reg. Nottingham) d. 1913 (JFM reg Nottingham), and three whose births were registered in Basford, Eric b. 1916 (AMJ) d. 1916 (AMJ); Walter b. 1917 (AMJ) d. 1917 (AMJ) and Jack b. 1926 (OND) d. 1926 (OND). All the birth registrations gave the mother's maiden name as Hardy.

Harry and Sybil were living in Bestwood village when their first child, Sybil, was born in October 1911, but the birth and death of their second child, May, were registered in Nottingham in 1913. Their son Lawrence's birth was registered in Nottingham the following year and they were living in Bulwell when he was baptised at the parish church of St John followed by his death in 1915 (JFM), which was registered in Nottingham.

Harry was working as a collier when they were living in Bulwell, and he had probably returned to work at Bestwood Colliery by 1916 when the death of one of their children, Eric, was recorded in the Basford registration district.

The family was recorded on the 1921 census at 24 Bestwood Colliery: Harry, a coal miner/hewer who was working at Bestwood Colliery (Bestwood Coal & Iron Company), his wife and their three children, Sybil, Harold and Joyce, who died at the end of the year.

By 1939 when the England & Wales Register was compiled, Harry, who was still working at the colliery, and Sybil, who was doing voluntary work as an ARP Ambulance, were living at 2 Lancaster Road, Bestwood Village. Also in the home were Iris, a packer at a tobacco factory, and Ronald, a colliery haulage worker. The records of two other members of the household remain closed but were probably those of their daughters Margaret Thelma (b. 1931) and Maureen (b. 1937).

Their daughter Sibyl had married Wilfred Henry Allsopp at Bestwood Emmanuel church on 21 September 1935 and in 1939 they were living on Hart Street, Nottingham. Wilfred was a pure silk hosiery trimmer and Sybil a hosiery web turner. Their son Stuart was born in 1946.

Their eldest surviving son, Harold, had married Rita Trotter at Bestwood Emmanual on 30 April 1938. He was killed in action in 1944. His widow has not yet been traced after 1944.

Iris, who had joined the WRNS, possibly before the end of the war, was still serving when she died in 1947 at Ransom Sanitorium, Mansfield, Nottingham.

Her father Harry died 0n 24 August 1957 (Nottingham Evening Post, 24 August); he and his wife were still living at 2 Lancaster Road, Bestwood Colliery.

His widow Sibyl was probably living at the same address when she died on 11 April 1986 aged 92. She was survived by four of their children; Sibyl, Ronald, Margaret Thelma and Maureen.

Sibyl Allsop died in 2001 aged 81 (reg. North Yorkshire); her husband Wilfred predeceased her (17 February 1989).

Ronald married Dorothy Mary Leake in 1945 and their daughter Jacqueline was born in 1956. He died in 2002 (reg. Mansfield).

Margaret Thelma married Reuben Goodwin in 1952; they had three children. Her husband died in 1997 and Margaret in 2013.

Maureen married Dennis Bispham in 1974 . He died in May 1993; the Probate record gave his address as 2 Lancaster Road, Bestwood Village. Maureen died in May 2014.