Edward Charles Stolliday (1873-1966) and Margaret Elizabeth Bowles (1876-1939).
My great grand-uncle and aunt.
Born on 2 March 1873 to parents Edward Stoliday and Harriet Goulty, young Edward Charles Stolliday was baptised at St Nicholas’s Church in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, on 28 February 1875.
He grew up in the town’s crowded row houses, although his fisherman father would’ve been away at sea regularly. By the time of the 1891 census he was working as a baker and then married Margaret Elizabeth Bowles on 10 February 1896 at Great Yarmouth parish church. She was the daughter of labourer Charles Bowles and his wife Margaret Snr and was born in the town on 3 January 1876.
By the 1901 Census the couple were living at 26 Boreham Road, Great Yarmouth, an address they would keep for many years but at this time Edward was working as a ballast labourer. The Yarmouth Independent of 12 October 1901 also reported that he was one of several men who’d been appointed a Town Hall porter, perhaps a means of making additional money.
I’ve only found two children born to the couple and both died young.
Margaret turned up as a witness in an inquest reported in the Downham Market Gazette of 13 October 1906. A cooper from Fraserburgh in Scotland, George Buchan Cardno, had been lodging with the Stollidays and had gone out on the evening of 29 September, never to return. His body was later recovered from the Roads by a fishing boat and was identified by his brother John, a fellow cooper who’d come to Lowestoft for the fishing season. It transpired that George had drowned in the harbour after spending the evening with fellow fishermen, although witnesses said that he wasn’t drunk. Another witness described how they saw and heard a man in the water but before help could arrive, he had gone under and disappeared. The fact that the street lights had been turned off – something that astonished the coroner – may have contributed to the accident. Margaret told the hearing that she hadn’t been too concerned when George didn’t return home that night as she thought he might have gone to Lowestoft, as he had the previous season. She said he was sober when he’d left.
Margaret was in the papers again four years later. The Yarmouth Independent of 24 September 1910 reported a curious case before the magistrates in which Margaret was summonsed for using abusive language to her Boreham Road neighbour Elizabeth Chapman. The complainant’s lawyer claimed Stolliday had caused her annoyance for some time. The report added: “On Saturday afternoon she shook a mat in the passage and smothered the complainant with dust. When she (Chapman) remonstrated, the defendant used vile language to her and threatened to knock her head off with a broom. She would not leave off until the witness said she would throw a pail of water over her.” Margaret said the neighbour had insulted her first and the magistrates dismissed the case.
The 1911 Census listed Edward as a baker but 10 years later he was described as a chef at the Royal Naval Hospital in Great Yarmouth, which had been built early in the 19th century to care for sick and injured seamen caught up in the Napoloeonic Wars. By the latter part of the century it had chiefly become a hospital for naval officers and men with mental health problems.
The 1939 Register showed the couple still living at Boreham Road, but noted that Edward was an unemployed chef. Margaret died not long after in October 1939 and her funeral was held on 12 October at Caister Cemetery just north of her home town. Edward lived until 1966 and died at the town’s Northgate Hospital. His funeral was held on 4 February that year, also at Caister Cemetery.
Their children were:
- Margaret Lilian Stolliday (1905-1910) was born and died in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. The Yarmouth Mercury of 18 November 1911 featured an emotional memorial message to their daughter as the “flower we cherished so”.
- Edward Charles Stolliday Jnr (1907-1907) was born and died in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk.
Sources: Birth, marriage, death and burial records including civil registrations from the General Register Office, census returns and other records at Ancestry.co.uk, Findmypast.co.uk and Norfolk Family History Society.
British Newspaper Archive (titles in text).
Royal Naval Hospital Great Yarmouth information.