31 Ainsworth Street

31 Ainsworth Street

Number 31 is one of a terrace of four houses standing on the west side of Ainsworth Street.

1881 census

Elias Prime, head, 26, sawyer, b. Triplow, Cambridgeshire
Elizabeth Prime, wife, 27, b. Ireland
Minnie L Prime, daughter, 3, b. Cambridge
Arthur Prime, son, 1, b. Cambridge
Caroline Prime, daughter, 1 week, b. Cambridge

1891 census

Sarah A Burbage, head, widow, 30, b. Girton, Cambridgeshire
Henrietta Burbage, daughter, 10, scholar, b. Cambridge
Cyril James Burbage, son, 4, scholar, b. Cambridge
Percy W Burbage, son, 2, b. Cambridge
Charles J Burbage, son, 13 days, b. Cambridge

It appears that Sarah Ann Burbage wasn’t a widow. In 1901 she was living at 15 Sleaford Street with her husband James (41, carpenter and joiner) and their five children.

1901 census

George Woor, head, 34, insurance agent, b. Cambridge
Louisa E Woor, wife, 26, b. Cambridge
Sidney G Woor, son, 5, b. Cambridge
Leonard W Woor, son, 2, b. Cambridge
Gladys W Woor, daughter, 6 months, b. Cambridge

George Woor married Louisa Elinor Lilley in 1894. The Electoral Register shows that they lived at 31 Ainsworth Street from 1897.

1911 census

Louisa Woor, wife, 35, b. Cambridge
Sidney Woor, son, 15, draper’s porter, b. Cambridge
Leonard Woor, son, 12, b. Cambridge
Cyril Woor, son, 8, b. Cambridge
Ernest Woor, son, 3, b. Cambridge

Louisa filled in the 1911 census, leaving the top line blank for George, who was absent. She states that they had been married 17 years and had six children, two of whom had died. At this time, George was working as a farmer in Winnipeg, Canada. In June 1916, aged 43, he enlisted as a Sapper with the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force. He gave Louisa as his next of kin.

George died of bronchitis and cardiac dilation on 11 March 1918. He was back in England at No.5 Southern General Hospital, which was mobilized in three locations across Portsmouth. (See this article in the British Journal of Nursing from 1914.) He is buried in Milton Cemetery in Portsmouth.

In May 1915 Sidney Woor enrolled in the 3rd Battalion of the 1st Cambridgeshire Regiment.

In January 1917 Leonard, like his father before him, enlisted in the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force. By then he had become a farmer in Western Ontario. Leonard was invalided back to Canada in June 1919.

1921 census

Louisa Woor, head, 46, widow, home duties, b. Cambridge
Cyril Conrad Woor, son, 18, dairy work, b. Cambridge
Ernest William Woor, son, 14, b. Cambridge

Cyril Woor was working as a dairyman for Mr A Parren at 8 Ainsworth Street.

1939 register

Louisa R Woor, b. 18 Oct 1875, widowed, house work outdoor, paid domestic duties

Louisa Woor died in September 1954, still living at no. 31.

Ernest Woor married Lilian Taylor in 1936. He was working as a clerk and Lilian was a needlewoman, and they lived at ‘Glenlyn’ on Green Park.

Cyril Woor is on the 1939 Register with his wife Dorothy. He worked as milk roundsman and lived at 20 Milford Street.

Sources: UK census records (1881 to 1921), 1939 Register, Cambridge Independent Press 28 May 1915, Cambridgeshire, England, Electoral Registers, Burgess Rolls and Poll Books, 1722–1966, England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916–2007, Canada, World War I CEF Personnel Files, 1914–1918, Cambridgeshire Marriages,