William Henry Finch (1874-1949).
My 2nd great-uncle.
William Henry Finch was the son of Isaac Finch and Phoebe Ann Ward. He was baptised on 12 July 1874 at St Mary’s in Reigate, Surrey.
He grew up in the town with his siblings and by the 1891 Census was working as a gardener/domestic servant. On 16 October 1898 he married Elizabeth Martha Yates at St Mary’s in Reigate. She’d been born in Chelsea, Middlesex, on 29 October 1870 to french polisher George Charles William Yates and his wife Elizabeth.
In 1901 William and his family were living at 4 Glovers Road, Reigate, along with his mother Phoebe Ann, and by then he was working as a carpenter’s labourer. Ten years later the family were at 48 Allingham Road, Reigate, and he was billed as an under-gardener. Changing again, he was listed as a carpenter in the 1921 Census. By the time of the 1939 Register he was still working as a carpenter and had moved to a house called Roselea in Slipshatch Road, Reigate.
Elizabeth died on 2 December 1940 at East Surrey Hospital – her funeral at the parish church was reported in the Surrey Mirror of 13 December. William died after a short illness at home on 23 December 1949 according to the Surrey Mirror of 6 January 1950. His funeral was held at Reigate Parish Church with internment at Redstone Cemetery in Redhill.
William left effects worth £134 14s 9d.
The couple had four children:
- William George Finch (1899-1971) was born on 15 September 1899 and lived in Reigate for most of his life. It’s possible that he was the gardener of Reigate who signed up for military service in 1917 but there is no further material about what that entailed to provide clarification. William married Bertha Holder in the town in 1928. They were living with his parents in Slipshatch Road at the time of the 1939 Register, when he was listed as a builder’s labourer and she as a charwoman or cleaner. He died in Reigate on 26 July 1971 and Bertha died there on 8 February 1976.
- Dorothy Louise Finch (1901-87) was born on 25 April 1901 and was still living at home in Reigate at the time of the 1939 Register, when she was working as a shop assistant. She married Julien Louis Brems in 1948. He’d been born in Liège, Belgium, in 1898 but the family had escaped from the Germans during the First World War. Initially, Julien worked for an electro-plating business he’d set up with his father in Redhill. He then ran his own radio manufacturing and repair firm (Surrey Mirror 16 April 1948). Dorothy and Julien lived in Redhill. He died in 1967, Dorothy in Redhill Hospital in 1987.
- Arthur Thomas Finch (1907-1992). Arthur was born in Reigate on 20 February 1907 and by the 1921 Census was already working as a gardener’s mate. He was living in Reigate at the time of the 1939 Register, working as a bricklayer and married to Edith (although I’ve found no record of their marriage). They lived in Earlswood in Surrey and later Heathfield in Sussex. Edith may have died in 1978, but I cannot be certain. Arthur died in Eastbourne Hospital, Sussex, on 29 January 1992 after a short illness (Surrey Mirror 6 February 1992) and was survived by two daughters.
- Lena Elizabeth Finch (1910-2002). Lena was born in Reigate on 14 September 1910. In 1944 she married Harry / Henry Frederick Michael Cannon, who served in the King’s Royal Rifle Corps in the Second World War and also worked as an engineer with Monotype. The couple stayed in the Reigate/Redhill area and had a family. The Surrey Mirror of 10 October 1969 reported on his exhibition of paintings of local pubs, houses and dogs. He died in 1980, Lena on 9 September 2002.
Sources:
Birth, marriage, death and burial records including civil registrations from the General Register Office, census returns, probate and other records at Ancestry.co.uk, Findmypast.co.uk and Surrey Family History Centre.
British Newspaper Archive, titles in text.
England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966.