George William Frost

George William was the son of John George Foster and Mary Hannah Frost. John George Foster was the son of John and Eliza Foster (nee Woodcock) and was born in Mansfield Woodhouse, Nottinghamshire, in 1873 (J/A/S Mansfield). In 1881 his parents were living on Fishers Row, Mansfield Woodhouse, with their four children including John George. Mary Hannah Frost was born in Shirland, nr, Alfreton, Derbyshire, on 5 May 1878 (A/M/J Chesterfield) the daughter of Isaac and Mary Frost (nee Blount). In 1881 her parents were living at New Higham, Shirland, and had seven children, including Mary Hannah. John George and Mary Hannah did not marry until 1901 (parish of St Leonard, Shirland). Their son George William was born in Nottingham, birth registered 1899 (J/F/M Nottingham), and it is likely that he lived with his paternal grandparents from a very young age as he was included in the members of their household at the time of the 1901 Census. John Foster (61, b. Ruddington, Notts), a labourer in a stone quarry, and Eliza (62, b. Ruddington) were living at 10 Fisher's Row, Mansfield Woodhouse with their daughter Mary Ellen (17) a lacquerer at a tin works and grandchildren Mabel Agnes Foster (10) - who had also been living with them in 1891 - and George William (2) who was listed with the surname 'Foster'. By 1911 the widowed John Foster (69), now working as a stone mason, was living at 9 Fishers Row with his daughter Mary Ellen (27) whose occupation was given as housekeeper, probably for the family, and George William (12), surname 'Frost', who was still at school. Their other grandchild, Mabel Agnes Foster (20), who had been living with her grandparents ten years earlier, was a boarder in the household of William and Elizabeth Mosley and working as a winder at a cotton factory. George William's parents were living on Chesterfield Road, Shirland, in 1911. John (36) was surface banksman at a colliery. He and Mary (31) had been married for eight years and declared on the census that they had had five children of whom only four were living. Four children were in the home on the night of the census: Sydney (8), Jack (7), Frederick (5) and Catherine E. (4), so it appears that they had not included their first child, George William, among their children. They had at least two more children after 1911: Elizabeth (?k/a Bessie) and Dorothy. Mary Hannah completed a form for the army on 21 May 1919 listing her late son's surviving blood relatives. She named herself and her husband and their children Sydney (16), Jack (15) and Frederick (14), Catherine (12), Elizabeth (the name 'Bessie' written below) and Dorothy. The family was still living in Shirland. George's father probably died in 1933 (A/M/J Derby) and in 1939 at the time of the England & Wales Register the widowed Mary Hannah was living at Rose Cottage, Shirland, Chesterfield, with her unmarried son, Jack (b. 23 October 1903, d. 1979 A/M/J Derby) a miner conveyor. Mary Hannah probably died in 1944 (J/A/S Derby) at the age of 67.