Basil St. Merryn Cardew

Basil was the second son of Reverend William Berry Cardew and his wife Frances Augusta Garnsey (nee Barrett). His father was born on 7 September 1858 in Hampshire, the son of the Reverend John Haydon Cardew. His mother was born in Rodborough, Gloucestershire, about 1866 (bap. 2 September 1866 Rodborough), the daughter of William Parish Barrett and Mary Hannah Garnsey Barrett. William and Frances were married on 8 July 1890 at Christ Church, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire; he was 32 and she was 23. They had four children: William Francis b. Cheltenham 2 April 1891 (A/M/J Cheltenham), Haydon Teresa b. 1 June 1892 (J/A/S Southwell), Basil St Merryn b. 20 August 1895 (O/N/D Southwell) and Mary Esme b. 5 May 1901 (A/M/J Southwell); the three youngest children were born in Perlethorpe. Basil's father was the Curate in Charge at Perlethorpe St John for Earl Manvers, and held services at Perlethorpe from 1890 to 1924. (For more details see 'Southwell & Nottingham Church History Project' website.) In 1901 William (42), a 'clerk in Holy Orders', and Frances (34) were living at Perlethorpe Parsonage, Perlethorpe. Only two of their three children were in the home on the night of the census; Hayden Teresa (8) and Basil (5). William, who would have been 10 years old, has not yet been traced on the 1901 Census but may have been away at school. Also in the household were three female servants; a nurse (domestic), a cook and a housemaid. Basil's parents were still living in Perlethorpe in 1911 but only his youngest sibling, Mary Esme, was in the home on the night of the census. His parents employed at least one female domestic servant. On the night of the 1911 Census William Francis (19) was a boarder in the household of Matthew and Mary Coombes at 20 Heathfield Avenue, Crewe, and an apprentice engineer with the London North Western Railway. LNWR records suggest he had been employed by the company since the age of 16 in 1908. Basil (15) was a pupil at the St John’s Foundation School for the Sons of Poor Clergy of the Church of England, on Epsom Road, Leatherhead, Surrey. Their eldest sister, Hayden Teresa, who would have been 18 years old, may have been away from home training as a nurse as later records show she was a qualified nurse and midwife. Basil's mother, Frances, died aged 60 on 4 June 1929 (buried Presbury, Gloucestershire); she was then living at 25 Shaw Green Lane, Prestbury, Gloucestershire). His father, William, died on 11 April 1936; he was still living at 25 Shaw Green Lane, Prestbury. Of Basil's siblings: William Francis appears to have been working in India during the war as there is a record of an application for the award of medals for his service as a sergeant in the South Indian Railway Volunteers (Royal Engineers). There is also a record of a marriage in India. However, at the time of his death on 7 February 1936 he was living in Southern Rhodesia (see probate record, 'Extra Information'); he left a widow, Winifred. Hayden Teresa did not marry and died in 1994 (April Kingston-upon-Thames) aged 101. Mary Esme married Emlyn Capel Stewart Wade (b. 31 August 1895) in 1924 (O/N/D Southwell). In 1939 at the time of the England & Wales Register she and her husband, a barrister at law, Fellow of Gonville & Caius College Cambridge and a captain RA 117 AA Battery, were living in South Cambridgeshire with their daughter, Rosemary (b. 10 April 1926). Mary died on 6 December 1981 aged 80; she was then living at 13 Highworth Avenue, Cambridge.