Joseph Needham

Joseph Needham was the son of James and Sarah Needham. Given that the birth place of both Sarah Needham and their oldest child, also called Sarah (b.1882), was Malta, the likelihood is that the Needhams married out in Malta. Their next oldest, James (b.1883), was born in Woolwich, London, all suggestive that James Needham had probably been serving in the Army when the couple first met. Their other children were: Mary (b.1884), Thomas Herbert (b.1885), Frank (b.1889), Henry (b.1892) and Joseph (b.1894). The Needham family lived at 16 Gate Street Radford [C.1891, C.1901 & C.1911]. However James’s wife, Sarah, is absent from both the 1901 and 1911 censuses. James Needham continued to state in the 1901 and 1911 censuses that he was married rather than widowed - suggesting that Sarah was still alive. James Needham, who was colliery labourer, died at Nottingham, aged 68, in 1922. His wife, Sarah, does not appear to die in Nottingham, so one presumption must be that, some time between 1894 and 1901, Sarah Needham went back to live in Malta.