Herbert Henry Owen Taylor

The CWGC record gives his name as HH Owen-Taylor. He was the son of Herbert Owen Taylor (baptised St Peter, Nottingham, 25 September 1850) and his first wife, Mary Ann (born Ramsdale, Arnold, Nottingham on 12 April 1852, died 27 December 1899). His father was described on the census returns as either a general practitioner or as a physician and surgeon. He had four siblings, Annie Zoe, Dulce Josephine, Leonard and Meryl Hope. His father remarried and had at least three children by his second wife; Audrey Emily Leslie (sic) Owen Taylor, Doreen Owen Taylor and Leslie Herbert Owen Taylor. In 1881 Herbert and Mary were living at 17 Castle Gate, Nottingham, with their daughter, Annie Zoe (5, b. 1876). Also in the household were Andrew Honman (22) who was Herbert's assistant and a licentiate of the Apothecary Society London, Matilda Soar (27) a cook, Martha Sandford (23) a housemaid, Ellen Kirkland (23) a nurse, and John Leek (16), also a servant. They also had a visitor the night of the census, Elizabeth Cox (67), a dressmaker. Their daughter, Annie Zoe, has not been traced after this census record. By 1891 they had moved to Pelham Crescent, Nottingham, and there were four children in the home on the night of the census; Dulce Josephine (9), Herbert Harry Owen (7), Leonard W Owen (4), Meryl Hope (2). Herbert now employed a governess, Hedwig Thalheimer (20), four female servants; Florence Kate Lonsway (24), Ellen Kirkland (32), Alice Maud Gill (19) and Marion Skeggs (34); and a footman, Isaac Mills (19). Herbert's mother died in 1899 and in 1901 his widowed father was living at 10 Oxford Street, Nottingham, with his children Dulcie (19) and Leonard (14). Only two servants were recorded in the household on the night of the census; Hannah Storey (49, widow), described as a nurse, and Lizzie Allen (40, widow), a cook. Herbert, meanwhile, was a pupil at Haileybury College, Hertfordshire (1899-1901). Herbert Owen Taylor married Miriam Emily Cherry in Kensington. London, in 1901 (Apr/May/Jun). Miriam was born in London in 1872 (baptised 4 November), the daughter of James Frederick and Emily Louisa Cherry. Miriam had a brother, Charles Cameron Leslie Cherry. Their father was a civil servant (clerk and librarian) at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, and the family lived in the college. Although Miriam lived in London she was in Nottingham in 1901 as on the night of the census she was a visitor in the home of John and Eloise Lambert, who lived at 7 Third Avenue, Hyson Green. She probably had a private income as she is not listed as having an occupation on either the 1891 or 1901 census. In 1911 Herbert and Miriam were living in the family home in Oxford Street, Nottingham, with their three children; Audrey (7, b. 1904), Doreen (3, b. 1907) and Leslie Herbert (2, b. 1909). None of Herbert's children by his first marriage were in the house on the night of the census. There were, however, seven servants; two nurses, Amy Voice Higgens (37) and Mary Finemore (23), a parlourmaid, Gertrude Frances Ping (23), a housemaid Eva Wells (30), a domestic servant Winifred Annie Harvey (18), a cook Frances Helen Claster (18) and a footman Alfred Whitwell (22). On the same census (1911), Herbert Henry (23) was listed as a visitor at 25 Shakespeare Villas, the home of Samuel Kirk, a photographer, and his wife Ada Elizabeth. Herbert probably went to Canada in 1912, and lived in Miniota, Manitoba (see military history). Herbert's father died on 13 November 1921. His sister, Dulce Josephine married Charles Richard Morris in 1905 and died on 23 October 1922. His sister, Meryl Hope Owen-Taylor, died on 13 December 1972. His half-brother, Leslie Herbert Owen Taylor died aged 81 in 1991 (registered Jan).