Essex - Sterry wedding - Lydney - 1913.
Courtesy of: Eileen Phelps, via Margaret Higgins (nee Virgo), via Rog Dennis!. Uploaded:
Essex-Sterry wedding, Lydney 1913
Row
3: Archie Humphries, Charles Lewis*, Buller Lewis*, Elsie Brown,
Dorothy Hale.
Row 2: Rev. Colinwood, Flossie Sterry**,
Arthur Sterry**, Mrs Emily Pryer (groom's mother), Clara Sterry (nee
Pritchard), Henry Sterry, Oscar Sterry**, Frank Sterry**.
Row 3: Henry Sterry's mother (nee Coles)#,
Dolly Pryer***, Ivy Sterry**, Frank Essex, Frances Sterry**, Louise Pryer***,
Bert Smith, Hilda Sterry**.
* brothers - sons of Rose Pritchard from previous marriage
** children of Henry and Clara Sterry
*** step-sisters to Frank Essex - but see below.
# see below.
Rog added (July 2007): "Rose Pritchard, Clara Sterrey's youngest surviving sister, was born Rosina. Charles and Buller Lewis were sons by her first marriage to Charles Lewis. She later married a Dovey. If she is also Rosanna Mary Pritchard (on the I.G.I.), there was a third marriage to one Henry Robert George Trigg, this being on 9 Aug 1897. She would then have been only 25 years old - which seems to be pushing the envelope somewhat!"
Peter Essex added (July 2007): "William Frank Essex, born 1887, left
home in Cheltenham and pitched up in Lydney. We do not know his means
of travel,
or the
date of his arrival, but I think my father said the departure from Cheltenham
was at age 16.
The story goes that William entered Lydney in much need of a glass of
water and came by such refreshment at a house containing Sterrys, which
was how he met our grandmother Frances. My embroidery is that he staggered
down Highfield Hill, turned right into Albert Street gasping for liquid,
was pitied at 29 Albert Street, and lived happily ever after. Ivy Salcombe
nee Sterr(e)y was still living at 29 Albert Street in my lifetime".
"... only recently have we detected, through Rog, that in a 1910 directory
(also showing H Sterry - thus spelt - at 29 Albert Street) there was
a G Essex at 6 High Street, Lydney. The 1891 census gives William Frank
Essex and his elder brother George Edmund Essex at home in Cheltenham.
But now,
from
the latest transcriptions on forest-of-dean.net, we have one Leonard
George Essex being baptised at Lydney on 20 December 1908, the father
being George Edmund Essex. In the absence of another known Essex around
that time around Lydney, I hold that 6 High Street contained not only
G Essex but also his wife
and son. However, these Essexes are otherwise
a mystery to the living, and any traces on them would be welcome
".
Peter Essex further added (Nov 2007)
: ""...information from Peter Webb - the great-grandson of Emily Pryer,
formerly Essex, nee Hyde. Following the disappearance of William Henry Essex
(probably around 1890) his wife, Emily, married Henry Pryer in Cheltenham in
1910, and she is highly likely to be the "Mrs Pryer" in the photo.
The Webb tree indicates that Dorothy (aka Dolly) Pryer was the half-sister of
William (Frank) Essex".
"
Louise Pryer" in the photo may have changed her name to Pryer following
her mother's re-marriage but now appears more likely to be Frank Essex's full
sister (whom some of us recall as "Auntie Lou in Cheltenham"). The
Webb tree confirms that William Frank Essex had such a sister, as well as the
brother George mentioned in my addition to the annotation.
Other research (mainly on sterryworldwide.com) has indicated that the elderly
woman at the left end of the front row, if indeed Henry Sterry's mother, was
called Eliza, nee Jay, and not named Coles at any stage as far as we know".
If you can help further, please see below.
Ruth Probert (nee Lewis) added (April 2008): I believe the man in the back row - second from left is my grandfather - Charles Lewis - can anyone help with further information to clarify this. My father (deceased) also referred to an uncle 'Buller'. Could this be them? probertfamilyATtiscaliDOTcoDOTuk
Peter Essex added (July 2009): "With the help of research by Ruth Probert, I report a tragedy that occurred after this wedding, as well as explaining the presence of the hitherto mysterious 'Archie Humphries' Scrutinise this photo and you observe that Archie's hand rests on the shoulder of Flossie (Florence Maud) Sterrey. According to a transcription of an inquest report in the newspaper archive of 31 October 1913 at Cinderford Library, he (shown in the report as "Arthur Humphrey") had come with girlfriend Flossie from Leicestershire for the wedding of her sister Frances. Flossie had somehow gravitated from Lydney to Hinckley to work in a hosiery factory. The day after the wedding, they left 29 Albert Street get back to Leicestershire, but Flossie collapsed on the platform at Lydney Town station where she died, aged 23, of heart failure. The report tells how the Coroner's jury had been to Albert Street and viewed both the body and the still strewn confetti".
Peter Essex added (April 2010): "Mysteries continue to unfold. The G. Essex living in the High Street, Lydney in 1910 is highly likely as there are no other candidates to have been George Edmund Essex whose son Leonard George was baptised at Springfield Church in 1908. From the seemingly inexhaustible well of this photo and from 'Genesreunited' and the 'Wellcome Institute Library' we can say that George Edmund joined the Royal Army Medical Corps and in the 1914-18 war won the Military Medal and bar for exploits in the trenches. Afterwards he became the chief nurse of the Devon County Asylum which had its own fire brigade of which he was also chief. He was also prize winning conductor of the local brass band. Leonard George was his second child by his wife Louisa nee Barnfield whilst their fourth was Ronald Essex killed at El Alamein in 1942. We have traced Ronald's daughter living at Orpington Kent. She had believed she might be the only surviving Essex with Lydney roots. But no, there are a few of us still dotted around even if none as far as we know remain in or around the Forest".
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