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6 Ainsworth Street

Railway workers, Barnwell Schoolboys and a new life in Queensland

Number 6 is one of a terrace of three houses on the east side of Ainsworth Street.

1891

Painters labourer John Ellis Jaggs lives at no. 6 with his wife Eliza (nee Clayton) and three of their children.  Martha is 20 and a dressmaker, George is 15 and a House Boy. The youngest is 4-year-old Hilda. The family is from Fulbourn. They also have a lodger, Henry W. King, who is also from Fulbourn. By 1901 the family (and the lodger) have moved to Melbourn Place.

In later years George will become a painter. During WW1 he serves with the Royal West Surrey Regiment and in the Middlesex Regiment, 326 (Home Service) Labour Company.

George is buried in Mill Road Cemetery with his wife, Fanny.

Hilda Jaggs in later life. Used with permission from her granddaughter.

1901 – 1933

James Thomas Howlett, Railway Fireman, has moved to no.6 from no.22, with his wife Mary Ann and their now nine children:

Edith Sophia (23) is a tailoress in 1901. She marries Walter Dixon in 1904.

Albert Edward (19) is a boiler maker on the Great Eastern Railway in 1901. He moves to Nottinghamshire, marries Maria Tebbett in 1907 and becomes a boilersmith for the GNR. In 1918 he joins the National Union of Railwaymen.

Arthur Robert (17) is an Errand Boy in 1901 and a Hotel Porter in 1911. Arthur served as a Private in the Suffolk Regiment, 2nd Battalion. He died of wounds in France and is buried in Dive Copse Cemetery.

James Frederick (13) is an Errand Boy in 1901. He joins the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners in June 1910, but in 1911 he transfers to Brisbane. James marries Catherine Milligan in 1913 and they live in Townsville, QLD. In 1933 he stands for Alderman of Townsville.  He died in 1948 – Obituary in Townsville Daily Bulletin.

Henry John (11) is an Errand Boy in 1901 and living with his brother Albert as a wood machinist in 1911. During the First World War he joins the Royal Engineers as a Sapper.  In 1917 he qualifies as a superior carpenter and marries Hannah Hawkes at the Congregational Chapel in Chesterton.

Percy Wilfred (8) attended Barnwell Boys School between 1902 and 1907.  He is a plumber in 1911. During World War One he serves with the 228th Field Company of the Royal Engineers as a Pioneer. He died in Belgium on the 9th August 1918, his memorial is in Vis-en-Artois

Ernest Sidney (5) attends Barnwell Boys School between 1902 and 1909.  He is a carpenter for a builder in 1911.  Ernest moves to Towcester and marries Gertrude Payne in 1920.

Reginald Donald (2) attends Barnwell Boys School between 1905 and 1912.  He marries Hilda Brown in 1923. By 1939 Reginald and Hilda are living at Hillside Farm in Foxton with his brother Henry.

Amy Mary Frances is 6 months old in 1901.

By 1911 James and Mary have been married for 34 years and ten of their eleven children are still alive. Arthur, Percy, Ernest, Reginald and Amy are still living at home. Sarah Ann is now a Woolnough and is living with her parents with her three children, Edith, Galadys and John.

James died in 1916.

The 1921 census shows Reginald, aged 22, working as a plumber for Arthur Negus & Son, Builders & Decorators, of 52 Regent Street.  Amy is 20 and works as a tailoress of A. Bodger & Co. of 12-14 Sidney Street.

The family have taken in a lodger.  Her name is Violet Clarke, and she works in the China & Glass department of the Universal Stores on Fitzroy Street.

Mary Ann continues to live at no.6 until her death on the 29th January 1932. She and James are buried in Mill Road Cemetery. The 1933 Electoral Register shows Amy continuing to live here with Violet Clark.  Amy and Violet move to 6 Hartington Grove.  Amy never marries and lives at 6 Hartington Grove until her death in 1965.

1934 – 1967

Th electoral register for 1934 shows Percy Charles Moule now living here with his wife Iris (nee Clark).  The 1939 register also shows Dorothy Edith Alice Rayment (born in Islington in 1911), tailoress, and Margaret J Rayment, housekeeper. There are three closed records at this property

Electoral Rolls and Kelly’s directories show Percy and Iris living together at number 6 until Percy dies in 1958 aged 54.  He is buried in Cambridge City Cemetery.

Kelly’s Directories for 1964 and 1967 show Mrs I Moule still living at no.6

Sources

UK census records (1881 to 1911), General Register Office birth, marriage and death indexes (1837 onwards), the 1939 England and Wales Register, The Long, Long Trail, British Army Service Records 1914-1920, Townsville Daily Bulletin (Thu 26 Jun 1913, Tues 4 Apr 1933 & Mon 2 Feb 1948), Trade Union Membership Registers, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1995, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, National School Admission Registers & Log-Books 1870-1914, Kelly’s Directory of Cambridgeshire (1964, 1967), and Cambridgeshire, England, Electoral Registers, Burgess Rolls and Poll Books (1914-1966), Mill Road Cemetery, FindAGrave,

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