What did Emma Think?

I don't know about you, but I do like a biscuit with my mid-morning coffee. I am privileged to keep my ready supply in an antique wooden biscuit-barrel. It bears a silver shield, inscribed "Silver Wedding 1937", and was a family gift to my grandparents.

The happy couple were married on the 12th October, 1912.  I wonder whether it was a happiness that was tinged with a streak of sadness for, according to family legend, it should have taken place during the spring of the previous year.  Sadly, James, the bridegroom's father, had died on 4th May at the early age of 53, after a long illness.

The 1911 census reveals that he was a farmer, and I would say that, despite his illness, he was a determined one at that.  Susannah, his well-meaning wife, had completed the first two lines of the census form in a neat feminine hand.  She provided details of the two of them and, perhaps with a degree of pride, declared that, in 27 years of marriage, she had borne him eleven children all of whom were still living.  James then took the pen and struggled to add the name of James William, his eldest son and trusted farm manager, and those of the seven other sons who were also living with them: three farm labourers, three scholars and the youngest - at four years old, was he Charles Henry or Henry Charles? - still at home.

Bridge Farm in 2011

Although the census form was addressed to Fen Street, the electoral registers for the period show James' residence, and voting qualification, clearly as Bridge Farm.  My mother left family photos that had been taken there, and it was still standing, albeit in a derelict state, until two or three years ago, when it was reduced to a shell by fire.

My grandfather, the aforementioned farm manager James junior, but always known as Jimmy, had been courting Emma for several years.  When his father died, he realised that his duty to his mother lay in keeping the farm running smoothly, however much he would have liked to be setting up his own home with Emma.

Bridge Farm after the fire

When they finally married, it isn't clear where they first made that home.  Susannah had moved out of the farm for, although not entitled then to vote in parliamentary elections, women were allowed to vote in local elections, and she appeared on the electoral register for 1913 living just down the road at a house in the tiny hamlet of Crackthorne ... while of Jimmy there is no mention.

By 1915, Susannah was still at Crackthorne, and Jimmy had appeared in a house on the village green.  Another uncertainty is the changes that had occurred at the farm during those years.  One possibility is that Jimmy had still been running it, although not actually living there.  In 1916, the younger two of those three 1911 labourers died on the Somme, John in September, Alfred in November, and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission records their next of kin as Susannah ... now at Bridge Farm again.

in the RFC: Jimmy is at the back
 on the right

Having claimed two of the brothers and, as the 1919 electoral register shows, with at least one more also in the services, the war rumbled on.  After another harvest, Jimmy decided - or a change in legislation required of him - that it was time to go.  Just a week before Christmas, 1917, he enlisted as Private 112539 in the Royal Flying Corps.  I wonder what Emma thought of that.  My mother was less than a year old.  With another infant at home, and pregnant with her third child, she must have been either resentful or very courageous in waving her husband goodbye at such a time when she would be needing him most.  By then they were living at Bridge Farm; I can only hope that she had family support around her.

Although I don't understand all of the military abbreviations, it seems that my grandfather never saw active service.  Having been moved from a training unit to what might be a commissioning squadron in December 1918, he was transferred to RAF reserve in February 1919 and his service record ends with the words, "Deemed discharged 30.4.1920".

There must have been sighs of relief all round.