Walter Finch (1872-1949) and Annie Budgen (1875-1980).
My paternal great-grandparents.
Walter Finch set up the family bakery business in Croydon. He was born on 1 February 1872 according to the 1939 Register and baptised on 21 April that year in St Mary Magdelene Church in Reigate, Surrey, the son of bricklayer Isaac Finch and his wife Phoebe Ann Ward.
The 1881 census shows him living with his family in Chart Lane, Reigate, but by 1891 he’d become a baker and the census that year lists him as a visitor at 384 Caledonian Road, Islington, where German-born coffee house keeper Carl Gerlach had a property full of servants and workers. I’ve not found out why Walter was there, so far from home, but it could be that he was employed by them and learning his trade.
Walter married Reigate girl and school teacher Annie Budgen on 22 January 1898 at Dorking Register Office. He was living at 37 West Street in Dorking at the time and the witnesses were Charles Budgen and William John Lees. Annie had been living with her father Thomas Budgen, a gardener, and the rest of her family in Bell Street, Reigate.
By the 1901 census Walter and Annie had moved to 45 Bynes Road in Croydon, Surrey, and he was listed as a baker working at home. They had a boarder called Harry Lipscombe, aged 17, another baker. Walter’s wasn’t the only business in the street – his neighbours included a confectioner at number 43 and a beer seller at 47. The 1902, 1911 and 1918 Kelly’s Directories for Surrey all show Walter in Bynes Road and the 1911 census shows the family also had a domestic servant – 19-year-old Elizabeth Eames from Blaenau Ffestiniog in Merionethshire.
The bakery eventually outgrew Bynes Road. The last reference to it there is in 1923 and by 1927 the family and the business had moved to 259 Brighton Road, South Croydon. In the early years the premises included stables, and a horse and cart was used to deliver bread and confectionery.
My father believed Walter had a stroke later in life, which affected him physically and mentally. He recalls him repeatedly making loads of roll-up cigarettes and thinks he left a case of them at his death. Before he died on 26 April 1949 at Mayday Hospital in Croydon, the family had moved his bed downstairs at 259 because he couldn’t get upstairs. Walter left effects worth £7,233 to Annie. She retained a share in the business, along with her sons Gerald and Geoff, who worked there along with my dad Brian. Walter’s will.
Annie was born to Thomas Budgen and Maria Dolamore on 17 June 1875 in Merstham, Surrey, and baptised on the 30th of the month at St Katharine’s Church in the village. But by 1881 she and the Budgen family were living at Bell Street in Reigate. The 1891 census shows that grown-up Annie was teaching at a local school. On 28 October 1893, the Surrey Mirror carried a report on the Rochester Diocese teacher examinations. Annie was listed as one of the second class winners in the ‘Junior Pupil Teachers, Second Year’ category, although the ceremony was perhaps marred by the Bishop of Rochester’s gloomy and uncharitable speech, in which he commented on the poor quality of that year’s examination results.
Annie had a hands-on role in running the bakery business and in a newspaper article printed to mark her 105th birthday she recalled the bombing of the neighbouring South Croydon Bus Garage on Brighton Road during the Second World War. This devastating blast caused huge damage and left Annie and her family fleeing for their lives from their home and business at number 259. It was probably the attack on the night of 10 May 1941 that she was referring to.
After Walter died, in 1949, Annie joined her sons Geoffrey and Gerald as a partner in the business and worked well beyond her retirement age. Later, she was diagnosed with a heart condition and was told to give up smoking. She moved out of the flat at 259 when she was about 80 and went to live with her daughter Viv (Evelyn) and her husband Ted but also with family friends.
She would also stay for weeks at a time with her daughter Hilda and her husband Len, who ran The Denmark pub in West London. Annie then moved to a residential home on the corner of Stanstead Road and Church Hill in Caterham. She was there until she was in her late 90s, when the owners felt that she needed more nursing care. She moved into a nursing home in Sanderstead. Family member Sue says: “She shared a bedroom for some while. The lady she shared with died in the middle of the night. She didn’t think it worth bothering to call the nurses and lose her sleep so she turned over and waited until the morning. Very typical of her. She was an intelligent woman but sharp of tongue.
“When I was at school we used to have her on a Sunday about once a month – everybody took their turn and we had Sunday lunch and then drove her round the countryside before we stopped somewhere for tea and cake, often Hildenborough. She sat in the front with a hat on, even in mid summer, and a fur stole with animal heads. Mother and I sat in the back and kept quiet.”
I too remember Annie. As a young child, I’d be taken to the nursing home with my younger brothers to see her on such celebrations as her birthday – taking with us sweets as gifts. I always felt as if I was being ushered into the presence of someone a bit special but rather aloof, perhaps because of her grand age. She would also turn up periodically elsewhere, at special family gatherings and once when we were on holiday at Angmering – staying at one of the family’s summer homes down by the sea.
Annie died on 27 November 1980 aged 105 – having appeared on local TV news and in local papers for having reached such a grand age. She left effects worth £56,485.
Walter and Annie had six surviving children (the 1911 census records that they had also lost a child by this time):
- Rupert Walter Finch (1902–1965). He served in the RAF Police during the Second World War and then became a publican in Hastings and London.
- Hilda Irene Finch (1905–1985). Hilda married a former naval officer and together they ran a popular pub in West London.
- Gerald Wilfred Finch (1907–1995). My grandfather, who jointly ran the family bakery business.
- Geoffrey Herbert Finch (1909–1984). Geoff joined his brother Gerald in running the family bakery in Croydon.
- Evelyn Kathleen Finch (1911–2009). Evelyn was better known as Viv in the family.
- Raymond Edward Finch (1917–1941). Youngest child Raymond was killed in the war while serving as an RAF pilot with Bomber Command. I describe my visit to his grave on my travel website
Sources: BMD, directories, census and other records held at Ancestry.co.uk, Findmypast.co.uk and Surrey Records Office in Woking. England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966. Family memories.