Sidney Robert Armitage

Sidney Robert was the son of Stephen and Margaret Armitage (née Robinson).His father Stephen was born in Nottingham on 24 April 1864, the son of Samuel Fox Armitage and his wife Joanna née Jarratt (b. 10 September 1836 Shipston on Stour, parents Stephen and Susannah) who were both Quakers. Samuel Fox was a wholesale grocer and provision merchant and Stephen also joined the family business. His mother Margaret was born in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, the daughter of Robert and Mary Ann Robinson. Margaret's older sister, Mary Ellen, married Stephen Armitage's older brother, Wilson, and they too had a son who was killed in the war.Stephen and Margaret were married in 1888 in Burton upon Trent and had four children who were born in Nottingham: Stephen Cecil b. 16 July 1889; Elsie Margaret b. 6 April 1892 bap. Nottingham All Saints 8 May 1892. Sidney Robert birth registered 1894 (J/F/M) and Hilda Winifred b. 20 May 1895.In 1891 Stephen, a grocer provision and seedsman nurseryman, and Margaret were living at 12 Tennyson Street, Nottingham, with their son Stephen (1). Stephen employed a general domestic servant and a nurse (domestic). By 1901 the family was living at Rock House, Epperstone, Nottinghamshire. Stephen's occupation was given on the census as a director of a joint stock company. Also in the home were his wife and two of their four children, Sidney (7) and Hilda (5), as well as a cook, nurse (domestic) and a governess. Stephen Cecil was at a preparatory school in Easthampstead, Berkshire, and Elsie was in the home of an aunt, Ellen A Robinson (married), in Burton upon Trent on the night of the census.By 1911 Stephen and Margaret had moved to Broadgate House, Beeston. Only three of their children, Elsie (18), Sidney and Hilda were in the home on the night of the census. Also in the household were Margaret's widowed mother, Mary Ann Robinson, a cook and a housemaid. Stephen Cecil was a law student and one of four boarders in the household of Mary Smith, in Wandsworth, London.Stephen snr. died on 15 Februry 1915 aged 50. His father Samuel Fox Armitage had died on 18 March 1914 and his brother Wilson in 1913.Sidney's mother, Margaret, died on 9 November 1938.Of Sidney's three siblings:Stephen Cecil, a solicitor, served in the war as a captain in the Army Service Corps (Notts and Derby Regiment). He married Ellen L (Irene) Bowen Smith (b. 30 October 1898) in 1920 (reg. Woodbridge Suffolk) and they had three chldren: Irene M Armitage b. 27 August 1921 (m. Hon Robert Nivison later 3rd Baron Glendyne 25 April 1953, 3 children, d. 19 January 2016); Stephen Robert b. 1924 (reg. J/F/M, d. 8 July 2010) and Elizabeth Armitage b. 1930 (reg. J/F/M, m/ Reginald Dodd 1943, two children, d. 4 September 2014). In 1939 when the England & Wales Register was compiled, Stephen and Irene were living in Lenton Fields, Derby Road, Nottinghamj; his occupation was given as miller and farmer. Also in the home was their daughter Irene while the record of one member of the household remains closed. Stephen was a JP, awarded Freedom of the City of Nottingham (1950), High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire (1953) and knighted (CBE). He and his wife later lived at Hawksworth Manor, Nottinghamshire; he died on 6 May 1962. His wife survived him.Elsie Margaret was living on Wollaton Vale, Beeston, in 1939; her occupation was given as chartered masseuse. Also in the home was Dorothy Mary MEssan (b. 1907) whose occupation was given as 'domestic'. Elsie died in 1974.Hilda Winifred married Bernard Webster (b. 19 April 1878), a yarn agent, in 1939 and when the England & Wales Register was compiled the same year they were living on Middleton Crescent, Beeston. Hilda died on 10 November 1981; the PRobate record gave her address as Derbyshire House, East Leake.