Edwin George Gascoyne

Edwin George Gascoyne was born in 1883 at Cosgrove, Northamptonshire and was the son of George and Sarah Gascoyne. From the form completed by his father for the Army in 1919 which listed his son's surviving blood relatives, he had at least eight brothers and sisters. The ages in brackets are as at the time the form was completed: Brothers: Francis (39), Jess (26) Sisters: Matilda (36), Annie (34), Lillian (32), Mary (27), Florence (22) and Ellen (18). Violet, who was named on the 1901 Census and was aged 16 at the time, may be the eldest girl, Matilda. All six girls had the surname 'Gascoyne' so can be presumed to be unmarried. At the time of completing the form, Edwin's parents were still living at 39 Bridge Street [Bradwell], Buckinghamshire, where they lived at the time of the 1901 and 1911 census, and although the entries on the form are rather indistinct it does seem that none of their children were living at home. In 1901 Edwin (18) a tin plate worker, was living at 60 Bridge Street, Bradwell, Buckinghamshire, with his parents George (41) and Sarah (41) and his siblings Violet (16), Lillian (14), Francis (10), Mary H (9), Jess (6), Florence (3) and Ellen (3 months). Also in the household was George's widowed mother-in-law, Mary Hilton (76). In the 1911 census his family are living at 39 Bridge Street, Stantonbury. His father states he has been married for 30 yrs and that he and his wife have had 12 children, 3 of whom had died. George 50 yrs, a gas maker, is living with his wife Sarah 51 yrs and their children Frank 20 yrs a brass finishing railway carriage worker, Mary 19 yrs working in printing works Jess 16 yrs a tinsmith and Annie Ellen 10 yrs a scholar. Edwin married Alice Mary Twigg (b. 1884, J/A/S Nottingham) at Hyson Green Church on 3 August 1907. The two witnesses were George Trigg and Jane Ann Robinson. Jane Ann Robinson was the daughter of Mary Ann Robinson and in 1881 she was living with her mother in the home of her maternal grandparents, James Clayton, an agricultural labourer, and his wife Rebecca, in Willoughby on the Wolds, Nottinghamshire. She was still living in the village with her grandparents in 1901 along with their grandson William Trigg (19) a gardener's labourer; Jane was 23, single and working as a hosiery seamstress. Jane was later to be named the guardian of Edwin and Alice Mary's son, George Frederick (b. 8 August 1908, J/A/S Nottingham), and may have had this legal status before Edwin's death in 1917. Jane may have been the 'sister-in-law' who put a notice of Edwin's death in the local paper in 1917. Edwin's wife, Alice Mary, died aged 24 in 1909 (A/M/J Nottingham, buried 7 April 1909) and by 1911 their son, George Frederick, now two years old, was living in Willoughby on the Wolds with James and Rebecca Clayton, who were described as his grandparents (although they were probably his great grandparents), and Jane Ann Robinson (34). However, at the time of the same census the widowed Edwin (38) a tin smith, was living with his parents-in-law, George Trigg (52), a bricklayer and Mary Ann (54), at 18 Randall Street, Hyson Green, Nottingham. George (52) and Mary had had three children of whom only two survived. A letter was sent by the Ministry of Pensions on 26th October 1917 to JA Robinson, Willoughby on the Wolds, awarding a pension of 7 shillings a week to George Frederick with effect from 30th October 1917. Later, Lady Maud Rolleston, county secretary of the Solders and Sailors Help Society, Nottinghamshire Branch (acting for the Nottinghamshire War Pensions etc. Local Committee), wrote to 11th Battalion KRRC appealing on behalf of Mrs (sic) JA Robinson, who had the care of Edwin's son, for help in establishing whether Edwin had made a Will and if so if there was any further money due to George Frederick as his father had intimated there would be some money for the child. No further correspondence on the matter is held with Edwin's service documents. Jane was sent Edwin's personal items and decorations to hold in trust for his son. Edwin was engaged to Alice at the time of his death. The 1939 England and Wales Register records a George Frederick Gascoyne (b. 8 August 1908), occupation 'constructional electrical', living in Loughborough, Leicestershire, with his wife Rosa C Gascoyne (b. 23 July 1910) and daughter Rosalie P. (b. 1 February 1939). George Frederick died in 1974 (September Leicestershire Central).

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