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86 Sturton Street

The York Family

Aston Cottages

1881

Walter Hardy, 27, house painter, b. St Andrew the Less

Minnie Sarah Jane Hardy, 23, b. Cambridgeshire

Walter Robert Hardy, 3, b. St Andrew the Less

Percy A Hardy, 8 months, b. St Andrew the Less

Walter and Minnie moved to 80 York Street and then to Gwydir Street.  They are buried in Mill Road Cemetery.

1891

Arthur E Milburn, 29, Decorator, b. Chelsea, London

Laura Milburn, 21, b. Hitchin, Hertfordshire

Arthur L Milburn, 6 months, b. Cambridge

1899 – 1930

This family have moved here from 108 Sturton Street. We know they were at number 86 by November 1899 as the three eldest boys are all registered at Barnwell Boys School on that date and give 86 Sturton Street as their address.

Head of household in 1901 is Charles Yorke, a 38 year old points shunter for the Great Eastern Railway.  He was born in Wickham Market, Suffolk and is married to Laura (nee Gray), who was born in Cambridge.

The couple have five children.  Harold Charles is 14 and working as an errand boy.  Sidney Arthur is 13, Alfred James is 11, Gertrude is 6 and Stanley Gray is 4.  Laura’s sister, Lizzie Gray, is staying with the family at the time of the census.  She’s 33 years old and works as a laundry maid

In 1911 Charles is still working as a shunter on the G.E.R. and  Sidney is working as a carman for the G.E.R. Gertrude and Stanley are still living with their parents and there is a nine year old daughter called Hilda Laura.  The census records that the couple have had eight children, two of whom have died. The baptism registers record Leonard Gray born 1891 and Ethel May born 1892.

Harold joined the Royal Navy in June 1905, and is described as having a fair complexion with light brown hair and blue eyes. He has two scars on the back of his left hand.  He is working as a stoker on the HMS Hearty by 1911.  He appears on the census visiting his uncle William John Ayling.

On the 27th May 1915 Harold was working as Leading Stoker on board the minelayer H.M.S. Irene.  She was at moored on the  Medway Estuary being loaded with mines.  At 11:14 am, she exploded.  Wreckage was found up to 20 miles away and civilians died from shrapnel.  There was only one survivor.  Harold’s body wasn’t recovered.

His name is on the Chatham Naval Memorial.

“Mr. and Mrs. Charles Yorke, of 86 Sturton Street, have received tidings of the death of their youngest son, Pte. Stanley Grey Yorke of the Oxford and Bucks. L. I. The Chaplain on January 2nd wrote stating that Pte. Yorke was killed on 31st December by a bullet whilst he was putting out wire in front of a trenches and died almost immediately.  He was buried on New Year’s Day in a military cemetery close to the trenches, and a cross has been put up at the head of the grave.  Before joining up soon after the outbreak of war Pte. Yorke, who was 20 years of age, was employed as a porter at March Station, G.E.R.

This is the second son that Mr. Yorke has lost in the war.  His eldest son, 1st Class Stoker Harold Charles Yorke, was lost on the Princess Irene in May 1915.  Mr Yorke’s two remaining sons are still serving.  His second son, Pte. Sidney Yorke, of the Royal West Kents, lost an eye in the Battle of Loos on March 15th 1915.  After recovering from an operation, he returned to duty, but has had to go into hospital again, and is now a convalescent in Epsom Hospital.  The third son, Pte. Alfred James Yorke, R.A.M.C. has recently returned to this country from Egypt.”

Cambridge Independent Press 12 January 1917

Sidney married Ivy Elizabeth Brown at St Mary Magdalene in Gillingham in 1916.  In the 1930s they are living at 69 Sturton Street.

Hilda married Charles Oakley in 1935 and couple moved to Oxford.

Gertrude married Charles Phillips in 1938.  On the 1939 register, the couple are living at 51 Riverside.  Laura is with them on the night of the 1939 register, Charles is living at 10 French’s Road.

Sources – 1881, 1891, 1901, 1911 Census, Mill Road Cemetery, Cambridgeshire Electoral Registers (1722-1966),Cambridgeshire Baptisms, National School Admission Registers & Log-Books (1870-1914), Royal Navy Registers of Seamen’s Services (1848-1939), Wikipedia, FindAGrave.com, Cambridge Independent Press 12 January 1917, Kent Marriages And Banns,

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