PART SIXTY-TWO

 

The Wiltshire Line to New Zealand & Australia

 

(including the line to Canada from Langley Burrell in Wiltshire)

 

This is the second of two sections of this family line

 

Updated October 2023

 

 

62N28

Fanny Harris Collett was born at Keevil in 1860, the first-born child of Joseph Collett and Susan Harris Collett (nee Collett), whose birth was recorded at nearby Westbury (Ref. 5a 112) during the third quarter of that year.  She was the only child living at Keevil with her parents in 1861, when she was listed as being under one year old.  It was also at Keevil, where she died later that same year, when her death recorded at Westbury (Ref. 5a 71) during the last three months of 1861.

 

 

 

 

62N29

Edith Matilda Collett was born at Keevil in 1862, with her birth also recorded at Westbury (Ref. 5a 127) during the third quarter of the year.  She was eight years old by the time of the Keevil census in 1871.  During the late 1870s, Edith and her family left Keevil, when her father took over a farm in the village of Bowerhill, immediately to the south of Melksham.  By the time of the census in 1881, Edith had left the family home and was living and working in London.  The census return for the Fulham & Hammersmith registration district recorded her as Edith Collett from Keevil in Wiltshire, who was 18 years of age and a pupil teacher at a girls’ school on Hammersmith High Road run by Alfred and Louisa Davis.

 

 

 

Over the next few years her work as a nurse took her to Hastings in Kent where she was living and working in the St Mary in the Castle area of the town in 1891.  Her next move was to the Isle of Wight, and it was there, in the centre of the island at Gatcombe, that she was living and working in 1901.  By that time in her life Edith Collett from Keevil was 38 and was a sick nurse caring for elderly couple Robert and Marianna Urry.

 

 

 

During 1909 Edith’s father died, so she returned to the family home in Bowerhill to look after her elderly mother.  That was confirmed in the April census in 1911 when Edith Collett, aged 48 and from Keevil, was described as a farmer’s daughter and domestic, who was living at Bowerhill with her elderly mother Susan Collett and her brother Percy Collett (below).  Edith Matilda Collett, a spinster, died on 6th February 1936 with her death recorded at Melksham register office (Ref. 5a 145), at the age of 73.

 

 

 

 

62N30

Frances Louisa Collett was born at Keevil in 1864, her birth recorded at Westbury (Ref. 5a 137) during the second quarter of that year.  She was seven years old by the time of the Keevil census in 1871, when she was living there with her family as Frances L Collett.  Sometime around the mid-to-late 1870s, her family moved to a farm in Bowerhill where Frances from Keevil was living with her parents at the age of 17, when she was described as a farmer’s daughter.  She was still living there with her parents and her brother Charles (below) ten years later, the census on that occasion listing her as Frances Louisa Collett, aged 26 from Keevil.  By March 1901 she was still not married, and was once again living at Bowerhill with her parents when she was 36 and with no stated occupation.

 

 

 

However, on that occasion, the Charles Collett living with Frances and her parents was not her brother Charles from Keevil, but her cousin Charles Henry Collett (above) from Chippenham, the son of Henry Collett and his first wife, the late Elizabeth Buckland.  It would appear that Frances never married, since by 1911 she was living in the Westbury area of Wiltshire where she was recorded as Francis Louisa Collett from Keevil who was 46.  On that occasion she was living with her Aunt Rosa Jane Hunt nee Collett (Ref. 62M13) who died just four days after the census day.

 

 

 

Like her sister Edith Matilda Collett (above), Frances Louisa Collett also lived the life of a spinster and she passed away on 16th August 1936 at Frome in Somerset.  Her death was recorded at Frome register office (Ref. 5c 353), following which probate of her estate was settled at Somerset on 16th September 1936, in favour of first beneficiary Edward Collett and second beneficiary Walter Henry Taylor.  It seems likely that Edward Collett was the nephew of Frances Collett, that is the eldest son of her brother, Charles Edwin Collett (below).

 

 

 

 

62N31

Charles Edwin Collett was born at Keevil in 1867, who birth was recorded at Westbury (Ref. 5a 157) during the third quarter of the year.  He was three years old by the time of the Keevil census in 1871.  By 1881 he and his family had left Keevil and were settled on a farm in Bowerhill near Melksham where the family lived for many years thereafter.  In 1881 Charles E Collett from Keevil was 13 and was still attending school at Bowerhill.  At the age of 23, farmer’s son Charles Collett from Keevil was still living with his parents at Bowerhill, but it was eleven years later that he married Mary Louisa Ellis in Melksham on 16th April 1902.  Their wedding was recorded at Melksham (Ref. 5a 211), with Mary having been born at Seend, near Melksham, during the last quarter of 1879, the second of the four children of farmer Richard Ellis from Keevil and his wife Susannah Fry Ellis from Steeple Ashton.  The marriage register recorded at Charles was 34 and the son of Joseph Collett, while Mary was only 22 and the daughter of Richard Ellis.

 

 

 

According to the census conducted one-year earlier 1901 Charles Collett from Chippenham (sic) was 34 when he was living at Bowerhill (Melksham), where he was a bachelor, described as living on his own means.  His much younger future (Mary) Louie Ellis from Seend was only 21 when she was working in domestic service in the Chippenham area in March 1901.  Over the following years Mary presented Charles with two children, although others may have been born to the couple after April 1911.  The census that month listed the family living at Bowerhill as Charles Collett, aged 43 and a farmer from Keevil, and his wife Mary who was 31 and from Seend, and with them their two children Edward Collett who was seven, and Joseph Collett who was one year old.  It was as Charles Edwin Collett, a farmer, that he was named as the sole executor of his mother’s Will in 1922, having also been one of the executors of his father’s Will in 1910.

 

 

 

Charles Edwin Collett died at Keevil on 29th September 1935, while his wife survived him by thirteen years when Mary Louisa Collett nee Ellis died in Wiltshire on 17th November 1948.  Probate of Charles’s Will was resolved on 11th November 1935 in Bristol and stated that he was living at Keevil in Wiltshire when he died on 29th September and that disposal of his personal effects of Ł1,102 9 Shillings and 10 Pence was granted to Mary Louisa Collett, his widow, and Edward Collett, a farmer, who was mostly his eldest son.

 

 

 

62O19

Edward Collett

Born in 1904 at Bowerhill, near Melksham

 

62O20

Joseph Charles Edwin Collett

Born in 1910 at Bowerhill, near Melksham

 

 

 

 

62N32

Alice Eliza Collett was born at Keevil in 1869, her birth recorded at Westbury (Ref. 5a 134) during the third quarter of the year.  She was one year old by the time of the Keevil census in 1871.  Ten years after that, she and her parents were living at Bowerhill, where Alice E Collett from Keevil was 11 years old and attending school.  There is something puzzling about the next census in 189.  Alice and her future husband, Albert William Gale from Seend in Wiltshire, appear to have run away from home, and were lodging at the family home of Samuel and Betty Knock at 6 New Covenant Place in Rochester in Kent.  Albert W Gale, aged 24, was a fitter from Seend who said he was a married man, while his future wife Alice E Gale, from Keevil, was 22 and said she was a single lady.  Furthermore, it is possible the census enumerator made an error upon entering her details on the form, and incorrectly assumed she was already Albert’s wife, when in fact she was still Alice Eliza Collett.

 

 

 

It was therefore, three years later, that Alice Eliza Collett married Albert William Gale at Bowerhill on 11th July 1894, the event recorded at Melksham register office (Ref. 5a 185), when Alice was 24 and Albert was 26.  Albert William Gale was baptised at Seend on 12th August 1868, the son of John and Elizabeth Gale, his father being a licenced victualler and a farmer.  The wedding register at Melksham described the groom as a bachelor and a civil engineer living at Bishops Road in Paddington, the son of John Gale, a gentleman, while the bride was described as being from Melksham, the daughter of Joseph Collett, an auctioneer. It is also rather odd that no record of the couple has been found in either 1901 or 1911. 

 

 

 

 

62N33

Mary Florence Collett was born at Keevil in 1871 but after the day the census was conducted that year.  It is believed that she was the youngest daughter of Joseph and Susan Collett although she was not living with her family in either 1881 or 1891.  Instead in 1881 Mary F Collett from Keevil was eight years old when she was living with her maternal grandmother Maria Collett nee Harris (Ref. 62A/L1), a widow of 82, at Lowbourne Road in Melksham.  Her grandmother died in November 1889 when she was still living with her and her daughter Louisa Maria Collett. 

 

 

 

Fourteen months later Florence Mary Collett, aged 18 from Keevil, was recorded in the census of 1891 as the niece and housekeeper for her maiden aunt Louisa Maria Collett (Ref. 62A/M1) and her widowed uncle Edward Collett (Ref. 62A/M4) on their farm in Bowerhill.  Assisting Mary was Annie Elizabeth Farmer who was 13 and a domestic servant.  On the same census return, and therefore living close by in Bowerhill, were Mary’s parents Joseph and Susan Collett on their farm.

 

 

 

By March 1901 Florence M Collett said she was 27 when she was a domestic servant living and working at the Rose & Crown Inn at 14 Market Street in Chippenham where the inn keeper was her cousin Roland Collett (Ref. 62N21) also 27 and from Chippenham.  It was later that same year that Mary Florence Collett aged 28 and from Keevil, the daughter of Joseph Collett, became a married lady when she married her first cousin, 27-year-old Roland Collett at Melksham on 4th September 1901.  The event was recorded at Melksham (Ref. 5a 231), when Mary’s place of birth was stated as being Trowbridge just a few miles west of Keevil, while Roland was the son of Henry Collett and Rosa Wright, the older brother of Mary’s father Joseph.

 

 

 

Further details of the continuation of this family line can be found under

Roland Collett Ref. 62N21)

 

 

 

 

62N34

Percy Harris Collett was born at Keevil during the first three months of 1873, just prior to his family’s move from Keevil to the village of Bowerhill to the south of Melksham.  He was the youngest child of Joseph Collett and Susan Harris Collett and was named after his maternal grandmother – see Appendix at the end of this section.  In the Bowerhill census of 1881 Percy H Collett from Keevil was seven years old.  At the age of 17 he was recorded as residing within the Devizes area of Wiltshire, when he was described as Percy H Collett from Keevil, in the 1891 Census.  During the next ten years he returned to his family, to work with his father on the farm at Bowerhill.

 

 

 

The census in 1901 gave his full name as Percy Harris Collett and the fact that he was born at Keevil.  At that time, he was described as a farmer’s son, even though he was not actually with his father Joseph Collett on that occasion.  Joseph Collett was at Bowerhill, while Percy, aged 27, was staying with his widowed aunt Rosa Collett at Frogwell House in the Chippenham.  However, his father died in 1909 and in 1911 Percy Collett, aged 37 and of Keevil, was once again living with his mother Susan Collett at Bowerhill.  He was still a bachelor, and living there with him was his older sister Edith Collett of Keevil (above), who was caring for their elderly mother, together with his maiden aunt Louisa Maria Collett (Ref. 62A/M1) his mother’s older sister.

 

 

 

 

62N35

William Collett was born at Biddestone in 1863, where he was baptised on 1st November 1863, the first child of Henry Collett and Mary Bird.  He was 17 years old in April 1881, by which time he had followed in his father’s footsteps by becoming a journeyman baker, while he was still living at the family home in Church Street in Lacock just north of Melksham.  During the next decade William Collett married Emily Jane Bath who was born at Lacock in 1865, the daughter of John and Eliza Bath, whose birth was recorded at Melksham (Ref. 5a 121) during the first quarter of 1866.  The wedding took place at Lacock and was recorded at Chippenham (Ref. 5a 131) during the last three months of 1887.  It was also at Lacock where the couple settled, where their children were born and where the family was living in 1891.  That year’s census recorded the family at West Street in Lacock as William Collett, a baker who was 27, his wife Emily J Collett 25, and their two children as Maud who was two, and Clara who was not yet one-year old.

 

 

 

Ten years later the family living at Lacock comprised William Collett from Biddestone who was 37 and a butcher, his wife Emily who was 35, and their three children, Maud who was 12, Clara who was 10, and Louie who was eight years old.  Two other men were staying with the family that day, and they were Harry Collett who was 26 and William’s brother from Biddestone, and William Bath his brother-in-law who was 20 and born at Lacock, like his sister Emily Jane.  According to the Lacock census of 1911, William Collett of Biddestone was 47 and a butcher, his wife Emily Jane was 45 and was assisting her husband in the family business.  Still living with them were their three daughters, Maud who was 22, Clara who was 20, and Louie who was 18, all of them confirmed as having been born at Lacock, like their mother.  The census return that year confirmed William and Emily had been married for twenty-two years.  Also living at the same address in the High Street at Lacock was William’s younger brother Harry Collett (below).

 

 

 

The birth of the couple’s three daughters were recorded at Chippenham, Maud Collett during the third quarter of 1888 (Ref. 5a 70) and Clara Collett during the 

 

 

 

62O21

Maud Collett

Born in 1888 at Lacock

 

62O22

Clara Collett

Born in 1890 at Lacock

 

62O23

Louie Collett

Born in 1892 at Lacock

 

 

 

 

62N36

Emily Collett was born at Biddestone in 1865 and was baptised there on 7th January 1866, the daughter of Henry and Mary Collett.  With the next daughter also given the name Emily (below) and only the younger child living with her parents in 1871, it must be assumed that Emily Collett suffered an infant death.

 

 

 

 

62N37

Emily Jane Collett was born at Biddestone early in 1868, where she was baptised on 9th February 1868, not long after her sister and namesake Emily (above) passed away.  She was the second daughter of Henry and Mary Collett, and may have also died in childhood as she was no longer living with her family in 1881, having been three years of age in the Biddestone census of 1871, when listed as Emily J Collett.

 

 

 

 

62N38

Edwin Collett was born at Biddestone the first quarter of 1870, the fourth child of Henry Collett and Mary Bird, and was baptised at Biddestone on 1st April 1870.  He was one year old in the Biddestone census of 1871 and was 11 years of age in 1881, by which time he and his family were residing in a dwelling on Church Street at Lacock, near Chippenham.  His family was still living in Lacock ten years later, although no record of Edwin has been found anywhere in Great Britain at the time of the census in 1891.  What is now established is that Edwin Collett was only 30 years old when he died, his death recorded at the Chippenham register office (Ref. 5a 48) during the final three months of 1899.

 

 

 

In addition to the information about his premature death, it is also now known that it was Edwin Collett who married Maria Yeoman at the Parish Church of St. Philips Lambeth on 13th May 1894, the event recorded at Lambeth in London (Ref. 1d 543).  The marriage record confirmed that Edwin was 24, a bachelor and a stoker, of 10 Brook Street in Lambeth, the son of butcher Henry Collett.  Maria was 21 and a spinster, also of 10 Brook Street whose father was Harry Yeoman, a horse-keeper.  Maria had been born at Lambeth in 1873 and, once she was married, her three children were all born in London. 

 

 

 

Two years after the third of the couple’s third child, the family of Edwin Collett was residing at 62 Surrey Lane in Battersea, as confirmed by the electoral role of 1899.  Later that same year, the young family made the journey to Wiltshire, perhaps intending it to be on a permanent basis or simply just to visit Edwin’s parents at Lacock.  Either way, it was there, at Chippenham register office (Ref. 5a 48), that the death of Edwin Collett was recorded during the last three months of 1899, when he was only 30 years of age.  Following the untimely death of her husband, Maria did not return to London, instead she settled in Lacock, where she and her three children were recorded in 1901 and 1911.  As a result, widow Maria Collett, aged 28 and from Lambeth, was living and working as a laundress at Lacock in 1901, when her three children were listed as Winifred Collett who was five, William Collett who was four, and Harry who was three years old, and all three of them had been born at Battersea.

 

 

 

According to the next census in April 1911 the family of four was still living in Lacock at Nethercote Hill.  Maria Collett was 37 and was a laundry worker, while her Battersea born children were Winifred Minnie Collett who was 15, William Edwin Collett who was 14, and Harry Collett who was 13.  Three years later Maria eldest son became involved in the First World War and after a further three years Maria Collett was named as the sole next-of-kin, when she was notified of the death of their son William during October 1917 at the Battle of Ypres Salient.  Her address at the time was the same as six years earlier, that being Nethercote Hill in Lacock, near Chippenham in Wiltshire.  Maria remained living at Lacock, where she died in 1934, her death recorded at Chippenham register office (Ref. 5a 73) during the fourth quarter of that year, when she was 60 years old.

 

 

 

62O24

Winifred Minnie Collett

Born in 1895 at Battersea

 

62O25

William Edwin Collett

Born in 1896 at Battersea

 

62O26

Harry Collett

Born in 1897 at Battersea

 

 

 

 

62N39

Harry Collett was born at Biddestone, possibly at the end of 1872 or early in the following year, with his birth recorded at Chippenham (Ref. 5a 64) during the first three months of 1873.  He was aged eight years in the census of 1881 when he was living with his family in a cottage at Church Street in Lacock.  He was still living at Lacock with his parents in 1891 when he was 18.  After a further ten years Harry Collett from Biddestone was 28 and a house painter who was unmarried and still residing in Lacock, but at the home of his older married brother William Collett.  He was still a bachelor at the time of the Lacock census in 1911 when house painter Harry was 38 and again living with the family of his older brother William (above) at a dwelling on the High Street in Lacock.  Eight years after that day, the marriage of Harry Collett and Annie C Hellard was recorded at Chippenham register office (Ref. 5a 234) during the last three months of 1919.  Annie was the daughter of William and Eliza Hellard, whose birth was recorded at Bradford-on-Avon (Ref. 5a 127) during the third quarter of 1877.

 

 

 

 

62N40

Herbert Lewin Collett was born at Melksham in 1874.  He was six years old in 1881 when he was living at the family home in Church Street in Lacock, and was still there ten years later in 1891 when he was 16.  A few years later he secured a job with the Great Western Railway in Chippenham, where he met his future wife.  During the third quarter of 1897 Herbert Lewin Collett married Annie Smith, the event recorded at Chippenham register office (Ref. 5a 103).  Annie is known to have presented Herbert with at least four children and all of them were born whilst the couple was living at Chippenham.  In 1901 Herbert was 26 and was employed as a carpenter by the GWR, at their signal works in Chippenham.

 

 

 

His wife Annie of Chippenham was 26 and their first two children were Frederick aged two and Ethel who was not yet one year old.  The couple’s next two known children were born eight years apart, which may indicate that there might have been other children in between, who did not survive.  According to the next census in April 1911, the family of six was living within the Foghamshire district of the town of Chippenham, where Herbert was a carpenter of 36 from Melksham, living with his wife Annie also 36, and their four children Frederick 12, Ethel 10, Herbert who was eight years old, and baby Elsie who was ten months old.

 

 

 

Herbert Lewin Collett was living at 21 Foghamshire in Chippenham when he died on 23rd October 1928, while probate was awarded to his widow Annie on 10th December that same year for his personal effects of Ł742 12 Shillings and 3 Pence.

 

 

 

62O27

Frederick Collett

Born in 1898 at Chippenham

 

62O28

Ethel May Collett

Born in 1900 at Chippenham

 

62O29

Herbert Lewin Collett

Born in 1902 at Chippenham

 

62O30

Elsie Annie Collett

Born in 1910 at Chippenham

 

 

 

 

62N41

Paulina Victoria Elizabeth Collett was born at Melksham in 1856, the eldest child of William Collett and Harriet Austin.  As P V E Collett she was four years old in the Melksham census of 1861 when she was at home with just her father, while her mother was visiting Paulina’s maternal grandparents in Kington St Michael.  However, the family was altogether at Melksham in 1871 when Paulina was 14.  She was 21 years old when, as Paulina Victoria Elizabeth Collett, she married William Blake at Melksham during the second quarter of 1878, where William was also born during the first three months of 1852.  It was also at Melksham where the couple set up home and where their three children were all born.  William Henry Blake was born in 1879, Herbert Stanley Blake was born in 1886 and Evelyn Florence Blake was born during 1888.

 

 

 

On the day of the census in 1881 the couple was residing at Union Street in Melksham where William Blake was 28 and a painter, plumber and glazier employing one boy, Paulina V E Blake was 24 and with them was their first child William Henry Blake who was two years old.  Working as a general servant for the family was Kate Richards who was 13.

 

 

 

Over the following decade their family was completed with the birth of a further two children, as confirmed by the Melksham census of 1891 when the family was recorded at Bank Street in Melksham.  William Blake was 38 and still a plumber, painter and glazier, Paulina V E Blake was 34, William H Blake was 12, Herbert S Blake was five and Evelyn F Blake was two years old.  The family’s general domestic servant on the day of the census was general servant Esther Clifford aged 14.  Sometime after that William changed occupations when he became a dairy shop manager and, on the day of the next census in 1901, William was 48 when he and his family were recorded at 96 Northbrook Street in Newbury in Berkshire.  With him there was his wife Paulina V E Blake who was 44 and their daughter Evelyn F Blake who was 12.  The couple’s two sons were still living and working in Melksham but with other members of their extended Collett family when William Blake was 22 and Herbert Stanley Blake was 17. 

 

 

 

On that day in 1901 William Blake was living and working on the farm of his uncle, Albert Henry Collett (below) and his aunt Emily Collett at Melksham Without.  At that same time his brother Herbert Stanley Blake was living at Ark Terrace in Melksham the home of his elderly paternal grandmother Harriet Collett who was a retired farmer and her two unmarried children Charles L Collett and Florence E Collett, when Herbert was described as a manager’s assistant.  Seven years later, when she was 51, Paulina Victoria Elizabeth Blake nee Collett died at Newbury where her death was recorded during the second quarter of 1908.

 

 

 

In the 1911 census her widowed husband William Blake was 58 and still the manager of a dairy shop manager.  The census return also confirmed that during his married life he had fathered three children who were all still living.  His address that day was the same as ten years earlier, when 96 Northbrook Street was described as a four-roomed house.  His two youngest children were still living there with him, and they were Herbert Stanley Blake who was 25 and Evelyn Florence Blake who was 22, both of them assistants in the dairy shop.  His eldest son William H Blake had married Susan Mary Ferris during 1909 and the childless couple was living in Eastbourne in April 1911.  It was two years later that Herbert Stanley Blake married Jane I M Scott during 1913.

 

 

 

 

62N42

Albert Henry Collett was born at Melksham during 1858, the second child of William and Harriet Collett.  On the occasion of the census in 1861 Albert’s mother and his younger brother William (below) were visiting Albert’s maternal grandparents at Kington St Michael, while Albert was living at the family home in Bath Road, Melksham, with his butcher father and sister Paulina, where he was recorded in error as Robert H Collett who was three years of age.  However, at the start of the next decade Albert’s family was altogether and living in Melksham when Albert was 13.

 

 

 

A double tragedy struck the family during the next ten years when first Albert’s youngest brother Gilbert died when he was three years old in 1875 and, five years later, his father William died at Melksham during September 1880.  So, six months after that, the census in 1881 recorded the family, less their father, youngest son, and Albert’s older sister Paulina who was married by then.  That meant Albert H Collett, aged 23, was the eldest child supporting his widowed mother Harriet with the running of Holbrook Farm, which comprised 58 acres on which she employed one labourer.

 

 

 

With Albert’s brother Charles (below) having left school by then, and being able to help support their mother with the farm, it was later that same year when Albert Henry Collett married Emily Ann Rison at Amesbury in Wiltshire during the final three months of 1881, Emily having been born at Trowbridge.  Once married the couple remained living in Melksham, not far from Albert’s mother, where they raised two children.  By 1891 their family was complete, with Albert H Collett aged 32, his wife Emily A Collett who was 33, and their two children, being Lillian Collett who was eight, and Albert E Collett who was three.

 

 

 

The Melksham census in March 1901 confirmed the family again as Albert Collett, a farmer aged 42, Emily Collett, who was also 42, Lilian Collett who was 18 and Albert Collett who was 13.  Staying with the family that day was Albert’s nephew William Blake, the eldest son of his married sister Paulina Blake (above), who was most likely working on the Collett’s farm.  Over the following years Albert and Emily moved to Hampshire where they were recorded as residing in the Romsey area in the census of 1911.  Albert Henry Collett from Melksham was 52, as was his wife Emily Anne Collett from Trowbridge.  Their two children had remained in Melksham where their daughter was either staying with, or just visiting, her paternal grandmother Harriet Collett at her home in April 1911, where she was simply listed as unmarried Lilian Collett aged 28 from Melksham.  By that time their son Albert Edwin Collett, aged 23, was also still living in Melksham, but not with any member of the Collett family.

 

 

 

62O31

Lillian Collett

Born in 1882 at Melksham

 

62O32

Albert Edwin Collett

Born in 1887 at Melksham

 

 

 

 

62N43

William James Collett was born at Melksham in 1860, the son of William and Harriet Collett.  On the day of the census in 1861 one-year old William Collett was with his mother visiting her Austin parents at Kington St Michael.  However, it was at the family home in Melksham that William was living in 1871 when he was 11.  On leaving school he took up the trade of his father and his grandfather Henry Collett, when he became a butcher.  In 1880 William’s father died and by the time of the census the following year William and his sister Ada were no longer living with their widowed mother in Melksham.  Instead, the siblings were recorded as Bath Buildings in Melksham under entry 85 on the census return.  However, presumably through an enumerator error, they were not shown separately from entry 84 which was the adjacent Linden House, the home of London tailor John Hayter and his family.  William J Collett, aged 21 and a butcher of Melksham, was labelled as the son of John Hayter, while his sister Ada J Collett, who was 18, was recorded as the daughter of John Hayter.

 

 

 

It was five years later at Westbury in Wiltshire that William married (1) Annie Maslen White during the third quarter of 1886 with whom he had two children who were both born at Melksham.  Annie was born at Bulkington in Wiltshire in 1860 and it is possible that in some way or other she may have been related to Joseph Maslen who married Marianne Collett (Ref. 62M11).  The birth of couple’s son and their eldest child was recorded at Melksham during the last three months of 1887.

 

 

 

In the Melksham census of 1891 butcher William J Collett was 31, as was his wife Annie M Collett, while their son Gilbert W Collett was three years old, when the family was living in premises on the High Street.  The couple’s daughter was born two years after that and in 1901 the family of four was still residing at the same premises on the High Street in Melksham, which presumably included a shop.  William Collett of Melksham was 41 and a butcher who was an employer working at home, his wife Annie M Collett from Bulkington, south-east of Melksham, was 41, while their two children were Gilbert W Collett who was 13, and Olive E Collett who was seven.  Supporting the family was general servant Margaret A Hanell from Melksham, aged 17.

 

 

 

Sometime during the first decade of the new century William gave up the premises in Melksham and took his family to live in the Chippenham & Calne registration district, and it was there during the second quarter of 1908 that Annie Maslen Collett nee White died at the age of 48.  Around fifteen months later William married (2) Alice Maud Brown, the event being recorded during the third quarter of 1909.  According to the census conducted in April 1911 William James Collett from Melksham was 51 and a dairy farmer living at East Tytherton, while his new wife was Alice Maud Collett who was 42.  The census return also confirmed that Alice had been married to William for one and a half years and that she had not given birth to any children.  Living with the couple was William’s daughter Olive Ethel Collett who was 17, together with his unmarried sister-in-law visitor Emily Alexandra Brown who was 48 and a governess.  By that time in his life William’s son Gilbert William Collett from Melksham was 23 and a bachelor when he was living and working within the Croydon area of Surrey.

 

 

 

William Collett, a butcher, was named as one of the two joint executors in the Will of Edward Collett (Ref. 62A/M4) of Bowerhill near Melksham which was proved at Salisbury in May 1900.  It was almost twenty-six years later that William James Collett died at East Tytherton near Chippenham on 27th February 1927.  His Will was proved in London on 30th May 1927 when he was recorded as William James Collett of Bambridge, East Tytherton, Chippenham in Wiltshire.  Executors of the Will were named as Gilbert William Collett, a hosier, and Arthur Leopold Pocock, a farmer, while his personal effects were valued at Ł8,827 0 Shillings and 3 Pence.  His son Gilbert William Collett was 77 years old when he died in Wiltshire on 24th July 1964, although no further details about him or his life are known at this time.

 

 

 

62O33

Gilbert William Collett

Born in 1887 at Melksham

 

62O34

Olive Ethel Collett

Born in 1893 at Melksham

 

 

 

 

62N44

Ada Jane Collett was born at Melksham in 1862 the second of the three daughters of William and Harriet Collett.  She was eight years old in the Melksham census of 1871 but, following the death of first her younger brother Gilbert in 1875 and then her father in 1880, she had left the family’s Holbrook Farm in Melksham before April 1881.  On that occasion the census return, under Entry 85, included Ada and her brother William (above) who were staying at Bath Buildings in Melksham.  At the age of 18, Ada J Collett was not credited with an occupation, unlike her brother who was a butcher.

 

 

 

It may have been around four or five years after that when Ada Jane Collett married Walter Tilt Bigwood at Melksham, where the couple initially settled and where their first three children were born.  Walter had also been born at Melksham in 1862, while not far away in Devizes was another branch of the Bigwood family, whose daughter Mary Maud Bigwood, born in 1889, married Arthur Stephen Alan Collett (Ref. 2P33) in 1916.  By 1891 Ada had presented Walter with their first two children, as confirmed by the Melksham census that year.  Walter T Bigwood was 28, his wife Ada J Bigwood was 27, their son Reginald C Bigwood was three, and their daughter Dorothy Bigwood was one year old.

 

 

 

The young family was still living in Melksham later that same year when their third child was born.  However, by the middle of the 1890s the family had moved to Birmingham, where they were living in 1901.  It was at Balsall Heath where the family was listed as Walter T Bigwood, aged 39 and a builder’s ironwork manufacturer, Ada J Bigwood, aged 38, Reginald C Bigwood, aged 13, Dorothy A Bigwood, aged 11, Lillian F Bigwood who was nine, Leonard W Bigwood who was six, and Kathleen V Bigwood who was three, the last two children having been born in Birmingham.

 

 

 

The next census in 1911 revealed much more about the children of Ada and Walter, insofar as they carried forenames from the family’s past.  It was at the nine-roomed accommodation that was 69 Trafalgar Road in Moseley, to the south of Birmingham, where the family was living in April 1911.  Ada and Walter had been married for 29 years and had 5 children all still alive. Reginald was a traveller, Dorothy and Lillian were post office clerks, Leonard was a joiner and Kathleen a scholar. Living with the family was Violet Turner 17 a servant within the Kings Norton area of Birmingham that the family was living at that time when it comprised Walter Tilt Bigwood, who was 49, Ada Jane Bigwood, who was 48, Reginald Collett Bigwood, aged 23, Dorothy Austin Bigwood, aged 21, Lillian Florence Bigwood, aged 19, Leonard Walter Bigwood, aged 16, and Kathleen Violet Bigwood who was 13.

 

 

 

 

62N45

Charles Lewin Collett was born at Melksham in 1865, the youngest surviving son of William and Harriet Collett whose birth was recorded at Melksham (Ref. 5a 105) during the second quarter of that year.  As simply Charles Collett he was six years old in 1871 and, following the death of his father just over nine years later, he was named in the census as Charles S Collett who was 16.  On that occasion he was described as a farmer’s son, the farmer being his widowed mother at Holbrook Farm in Melksham, where his older brother Albert (above) was also working. 

 

 

 

One year later Charles Lewin Collett began worked with the Great Western Railway in the Passenger Department at Melksham Station.  Curiously though the GWR Records state that his date of birth was 27th October 1865, during the last quarter of the year instead of the second quarter as indicated above.  His salary from 27th February 1882 on a salary of Ł20 and received a pay raise in April 1883 which took his salary up to Ł30.  The record also stated that he resigned in December 1884, having received no salary since 10th September that year due to his absence with an illness.  In addition, he received Ł100 from GWR Fund No 6180 on 14th June 1883.

 

 

 

It was as Charles L Collett, aged 27, that he was still living with his mother and sister Florence (below) at Melksham in 1891, while by 1901 he was described as a retired farmer, as was his mother, when he was included in error in the census return that year as Charles L Collett who was 29, instead of being 36.  That error was corrected in the census of 1911, when Charles Collett of Melksham was 46 and still living there with his mother and younger sister.  It therefore seems likely that Charles never married and stayed with his elderly mother until she passed away at Melksham in 1919, where she was buried with Charles’ father and Charles’ baby brother Gilbert.  Just over twenty years later the death of Charles L Collett, who was 75, was recorded at Trowbridge register office (Ref. 5a 460) during the first quarter of 1940.

 

 

 

 

62N46

Florence Emily Collett was born at Melksham in 1870, the penultimate child of William Collett by his wife Harriet Austin, her younger brother Gilbert sadly dying at Melksham where he was buried when he was only three years old.  Five years after that event, Florence’s father passed away during September 1880 and was buried at Melksham with his son.  Florence Collett was one year old in the Melksham census of 1871 and was 11 at the time of the next census in 1881 when she and her family were living at Holbrook Farm in Melksham.  It would appear that she may not have married since, she was still living with her widowed mother and older brother Charles (above) at Melksham in 1891, when she was 21, in 1901, when she was 31, and again in 1911, when she was a spinster at the age of 40.

 

 

 

Florence Emily Collett was 84 when she died on 10th March 1954.  At that time in her life, she was residing at 35 Sandridge Road in Melksham, although it was as a patient at Melksham Hospital that she passed away.  Probate of her personal effects of Ł1,156 17 Shillings and 2 Pence was processed at Winchester on 31st May 1954 when her two nephews Albert Edwin Collett and Gilbert William Collett were named as the joint executors.  They were the sons of Florence’s older brothers Albert Henry and William James (above).

 

 

 

 

62N48

Adine Collett was born at Dalston in Hackney on 9th December 1853, the eldest of the three children of Charles Collett by his second wife Martha Yates nee Bellamy.  Her birth, as Adine Collett, was recorded at Hackney (Ref. 1b 283) during the final three months of 1853.  Following the death of her father in 1860, her mother was married for a third time three years after being widowed.  It was therefore with her mother and her stepfather, George William Smith, that Adine Collett was 17 years old in 1871, when they were living at 3 Stoke Place, West Green in Tottenham.  Two years later, Adine Collett was 19 when she was still living at 3 Stoke Place, where she died of phthisis on 2nd January 1873, her stepfather being present at the time of her passing. 

 

 

 

 

62N49

Herrman Collett was born at Dalston in Hackney on 3rd February 1855, the only son of Charles and Martha Collett, his birth recorded at Hackney (Ref. 1b 327).  He was only 14 when he died on 1st May 1869 of advanced phthisis, from which he had apparently suffered for the four years prior to his death.  At that time, he was a patient under treatment at the Hospital for Diseases of the Chest at Bethnal Green in London.  His death was recorded at Hackney (Ref. 1c 179) during the second quarter of 1869 when, under occupation, it stated that he was a schoolboy.  He was buried on 8th May 1869 at Abney Park Cemetery, where his father and younger sister were buried in 1860, and where his older sister was buried less than four years later.

 

 

 

 

62N50

Edith Collett was born at Hackney on 11th December 1859, the youngest of the three children of Charles Collett and Martha Yates nee Bellamy.  Her birth was recorded at Hackney (Ref. 1b 328) during the first three months of 1860.  Sadly, she was only seven months old when she died on 19th July 1860 at 26 Oxford Road in Halliford Street, Islington in Middlesex.  The cause of death was noted in her death entry as being marasmus, while she was named as the daughter of Charles Collett, deceased, clerk with the General Post Office (GPO).  Edith Collett was buried with her father at Abney Park Cemetery on 24th July 1860.  The death of Edith Collett was also recorded at Hackney (Ref. 1b 140).

 

 

 

 

62N51

HORACE EDWIN COLLETT was born at Lambeth on 20th January 1848, the eldest child of Edwin Collett and his wife Mary Cook.  He was three years old in 1851 when he and his family were living within the West Ham & Leyton registration district of London.  Ten years later he and his family were living in Hackney where he was 13 in 1861 and where he was 23 in 1871.  Three years later he sailed out of Gravesend on 23rd November 1874, when he emigrated to New Zealand.  The Auckland Star newspaper in Putanga reported on 9th March 1875 that the barque Ada had arrived at the North Head yesterday evening from Gravesend after encountering severe weather conditions on the journey.  Included on the ship’s passenger list was the name of Horace Collett.

 

 

 

When he arrived in New Zealand has not been determined, but it was there on 4th September 1882 that he married Alice Marguerite Radford.  The wedding took place at a private residence in Marlboroughtown which today is Spring Creek in the Marlborough region of New Zealand’s South Island.  Alice had been born on 21st November 1860 at Shoreditch and was the daughter of Samuel Radford and his wife Sarah Anne Helena Benham.  How or when she sailed to New Zealand has also not been discovered, but there is a possibility that she met Horace during the sea voyage.

 

 

 

At the time of the birth of the couple’s second son at Blenheim within the Marlborough district, the child’s birth record stated that his father Horace Collett was from Tauranga on the Bay of Plenty to the south of Auckland on the north island of New Zealand.  And certainly, Horace was living on the North Island of New Zealand when he died at the age of 54 on Saturday 20th December 1902 at Grafton Road in Auckland, where he was buried the following day at Purewa Cemetery at Meadowbank in Auckland.  The Bay of Plenty Times published the following article in the newspaper on 22nd December 1902.

 

 

 

Death of Captain Collett – Auckland.  This day, Horace Collett, Stock Inspector for Bay of Plenty District, and Captain of the Tauranga Mounted Rifles, died in Auckland early on Saturday morning. The deceased came to town recently for the purpose of undergoing a military examination, and on account of ill-health.  He was suffering from an internal complaint and an operation was performed on Tuesday and he appeared to be progressing favourably, but on Friday evening alarming symptoms set in and he died shortly after midnight.  The funeral took place yesterday at Purewa Cemetery, with military honours.  A firing party was furnished by the Mounted Rifles, under Captain Wynyard and Lieutenant P. Salmon, whilst the senior officers acted as pall-bearers.  A gun carriage and detachment were provided by the A Battery under Captain Bosworth.

 

 

 

There would however appear to have been a complication with his estate, since his Will was not proved until 1st November 1924 when it was passed through probate system in London.  By that time his estate was valued at Ł233 11 Shillings and 1 Penny and, rather being given to his wife, it was given to the Honorable Sir James Allen KCB, High Commissioner for New Zealand, and the Attorney of Public Trustee of New Zealand.

 

 

 

His widow Alice Marguerite Collett nee Radford survived him by almost thirty years when she later died at Epsom (near Meadowbank) in Auckland on 18th August 1931, following which she was buried with Horace at Purewa Cemetery in Meadowbank the day after she had died.  During the time of the First World War, Mrs A M Collett, the mother of Clive Franklyn, was residing at Manukau Road in Parnell, although by then she had married for a second time.  It was during 1907 that she married Alfred Washer and during the following year her grandson Kenneth Paul Collett was born to her eldest son Horace Claude.  When he was but a few years old, Kenneth went to live with Alice and Alfred where he received his primary education, only returning to his family in Wellington when he was 13 years old to complete his education there.

 

 

 

That was also confirmed in the New Zealand newspaper the Bay of Plenty Times on Friday 4th February 1916 with the following article.  “The many friends in this district of Flight Lieutenant Clive Collett, will be pleased to hear that he has made a good recovery from the serious accident which he met with some time ago.  In a letter to his mother [Mrs Collett-Washer, of Parnell, Auckland], dated 15th November he said he was shortly rejoining his aviation squadron on active service at La Bassee, in France.”

 

 

 

62O35

Horace Claude Collett

Born in 1883

 

62O36

Clive Franklyn Collett

Born in 1886

 

62O37

Norman Edwin Collett

Born in 1888

 

62O38

Spencer Huia Collett

Born in 1892

 

 

 

 

62N52

Mary Louise Collett was born at Lambeth on 15th March 1849 and was two years old in the West Ham & Leyton census of 1851.  She was around 11 years old when she died on 1st November 1860 at Hackney and was buried at Abney Park Cemetery on 6th November 1860, as confirmed by her absence from the family in the Hackney census of 1861.

 

 

 

 

62N53

William Edwin Collett was born at Leytonstone on 30th September 1850 and was six months old in the West Ham & Leyton census of 1851.  Over the following years his family settled in Hackney, where he was living in 1861, aged 10 years, and again in 1871 when he was 20.  Having seen his older brother Horace (above) sail off to a new life in New Zealand, it seems likely that it may have influenced William to emigrate to South Africa. 

 

 

 

Once in South Africa William met and later married Anna Susanna Basson during 1879, Anna having been born at Uitenhage in South Africa in 1860.  Their marriage produced five children for William and Anna and that may have happened after the couple were established in the family home which was Cadles in the Van Stadens River Valley just west of Port Elizabeth.  The children were educated by a private tutor and at some time in their life William and Anna set up the Honeymoon Hotel in Van Stadens river Valley.

 

 

 

William Edwin Collett died at Moor Park in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, on 21st November 1902 at the age of 53, the cause of death being blood poisoning following a bite.  His widow Anna lived on at Port Elizabeth for another forty-three years, before she died on 17th July 1945 at Port Elizabeth.  However, following the death of her husband Anna married for a second time to become Anna Susan McGragh and that was how she was addressed as the widow of William Collett when his Will finally passed through probate in London over twenty years after his death on 7th October 1924.  The attorney representing his widow was Eugenie Collett, William’s younger unmarried sister (below).  The estate of William Collett of Strandfontein in Uitenhage, Cape of Good Hope, was valued at Ł138 15 Shillings.

 

 

 

62O39

Constance Louise Beatrice Collett

Born in 1881 at Port Elizabeth

 

62O40

William Edwin Collett

Born circa 1884 at Port Elizabeth

 

62O41

Horace Owen Collett

Born circa 1888 at Port Elizabeth

 

62O42

Reginald Harry Collett

Born circa 1890 at Port Elizabeth

 

62O43

Neville Collett

Born circa 1892 at Port Elizabeth

 

 

 

 

62N54

Clara Collett was born at Leytonstone on 3rd April 1852 but it would appear that she too, like her sister Mary (above), also suffered a childhood death as no further record of her has ever been found.  Certainly, she was not listed with her family at Hackney in 1871.

 

 

 

 

62N55

Julia Collett was born at Leytonstone on 30th December 1853.  Around 1857, her parents took the family to living in Hackney, where they were recorded in 1861 and 1871, when Julia Collett was seven years old and 17 years old respectively.  She later married Henry Astill Geake at All Hallows Church in Tottenham on 13th April 1882.  Henry was born at Mayfair in 1855 and both of their children, Harry Blake Geake and Frances Constance Geake, were born at Southwark in 1883 and 1885.  When Frances was baptised on 29th April 1885 the family was living at 43 Borough High Street in Southwark and it was her father Henry Geake who performed the baptism as the curate of the Church of St George the Martyr in Southwark.

 

 

 

In 1901 Julia and Henry were still living within the St Saviours area of Southwark.  Julia was listed as being 47 and born at Leyton in Essex, while Henry was 45 and of St Georges Hanover Square in Mayfair.  His occupation was described as being a clerk in holy orders with the Church of England.  Still living with them was their son Harry B Geake who was 17 years old and working as a bank clerk.  His place of birth was confirmed as having been at Southwark.  The couple’s daughter Frances C Geake was 15 and was undertaking her education at Devonport in Plymouth. 

 

 

 

According to the next census in 1911 Henry Astill Geake was 55 and a clerk in holy orders for the establishment church who had been married to Julia for thirty years.  Julia Geake was 57 and had given birth to three children, of which only two were still alive.  Still living with the couple at their ten-roomed home at 113 Blackfriars Road in Southwark was their unmarried daughter Frances Constance Geake who was 25 and a clerk.  The couple’s other surviving child, Harry Blake Geake, was a bank clerk who was a lodger/boarder at the home of the widow Marian Mace aged 75 at Tenterden in Kent.

 

 

 

Henry Geake died at Croydon in Surrey on 1st November 1915 and was followed six years later by his wife Julia Geake nee Collett who died on 7th January 1921.  For the earlier Will of her husband, which was proved in London on 13th February 1916, the following was recorded.  The sole executor of the Will of the Reverend Henry Astill Geake of 113 Blackfriars Road in Croydon, a clerk on holy orders, whose personal effects were valued at Ł1,148 15 Shillings and 1 Penny, was named as Charles Beckham Geake, a solicitor.  He was very likely Henry’s brother.  The Will of Julia Geake was proved in London on 19th February 1921 and confirmed that she was a widow when she died at 117 Central Hill in Upper Norwood, Surrey, when administration of her personal effects worth Ł224 9 Shillings and 10 Pence was granted to her son Harry Blake Geake, a bank cashier.

 

 

 

 

62N56

Eugenie Collett was born at Leytonstone on 4th April 1856 and was baptised at Leyton in Essex six months later on 19th October 1856, the daughter of Edwin and Mary Collett.  During the following year the family moved to Hackney where they were living in 1861 and 1871.  At the time of the Hackney census in 1861 ‘Eugene’ Collett was five years old and by April 1871 she was 14, when she was still living at Hackney with her family.  No record of Eugenie or her family has been found in the census of 1881. 

 

 

 

According to the census of 1891, Eugenie Collett, aged 35, was living in the Wandsworth area of London with her elderly parents, not long after which her father died.  So, by March 1901, Eugenie was 44 when she was living with her widowed mother in Croydon.  In April 1911 unmarried Eugenie Collett was living in the Lambeth area of London at the age of 54, which would seem to indicate that she remained a spinster all of her life.  The only other detail known about her is that Eugenie Collett died at Croydon on 8th April 1935.

 

 

 

Her older brother William Collett (above) died in South Africa in 1902 and, although he was married and his wife only died in 1945, it was spinster Eugenie Collett who was the attorney acting for William’s widow Anna Susan McGragh formerly Collett nee Basson when his Will was proved in London over twenty years later on 7th October 1924.  The delay may have been caused by his wife remarrying and her contesting of the Will.  In the end Eugenie’s brother estate amounted to Ł138 15 Shillings.  Eugenie was also named as the sole beneficiary of her spinster sister Flora Emily Collett (below) following her death on 7th December 1892.  However, her Will was only proved thirty years later in London on 20th July 1922 when Eugenie received Ł138 15 Shillings, coincidentally for the same amount as her brother’s estate which was settled two years later.

 

 

 

 

62N57

Flora Emily Collett was born at Hackney on 19th December 1858 and was two years of age and 12 years old at the time of the Hackney censuses in 1861 and 1871 when she was still living with her parents on both occasions.  With apparently no record of any member of her family in England on the day of the census in 1881, it was after a further ten years that Flora was one of two daughters still living with her elderly parents in the Wandsworth & Streatham area of London, when she was recorded as Flora E Collett, a spinster of 32.  Not long after that Flora Emily Collett died while at Guys Hospital in Southwark, London on 7th December 1892.  Probate of her Will confirmed that she was a spinster and that her place of residence was 43 High Street in Southwark, when administration of her estate of Ł138 15 Shillings was granted in London on 20th July 1922 to her spinster sister Eugenie Collett (above).

 

 

 

 

62N58

Lily Collett was born at Hackney on 26th July 1860, where birth recorded there (Ref. 1b 166), the eighth child of Edwin Collett and Mary Cook.  She was recorded as being 10 years old and attending school in the census of 1871, when she was living at Hackney with her parents and six of her siblings.  It seems very likely that she may have emigrated to South Africa with her older brother William (above), but that happened after she was married and after her four children had been born in London.

 

 

 

She married boot maker William Thomas Hooker on 8th August 1883 at All Hallows Church in Tottenham.  William was the eldest child of William Thomas Hooker and Sarah Elizabeth Massingham and was born at Bethnal Green in 1853.  On the day he was baptism on 8th September 1853, at St Matthias Church, Bethnal Green, his parents were residing at 121 Church Street.  Two years before her married Lily, William aged 28 was living with his family at King Edwards Road in Hackney, from where his father was a successful boot manufacturer employing forty men and ten boys.  The first two of the couple’s four children, Cecily Hooker and Violet Louisa Hooker, were born at Stoke Newington in 1884 and 1886, while their third child, William Edwin Hooker, and their fourth child, Henry Charles, were born after the family had moved to Stamford Hill in 1887 and 1889 respectively.

 

 

 

It was sometime after 1890 that the whole family emigrated to South Africa, where they settled at Pinetown in Natal.  William died when his youngest child was around twelve years of age, leaving Lily to bring up her children single-handedly.  William Thomas Hooker died at Pinetown on 18th January 1902 and was buried there in the St John’s Church Cemetery.  Lily lived a widow’s life for the next forty-two years, before she too died at Pinetown on 2nd September 1944, after which she was buried with her husband in St John’s Church Cemetery.  It is believed, although not confirmed, that their two sons William Edwin Hooker and Henry Charles Hooker died in 1912 and 1959 respectively, when they were still living in South Africa.

 

 

 

 

62N59

Elvena Mary Collett was born at South Hackney the last known child born to Edwin and Mary Collett.  At the time of her birth, and that of her baptism over three years later, her name was written Elvena Mary Collett.  She was baptised on 4th November 1866 at the Church of St. Michael & All Angels on Lamb Lane, to the east of London Fields in Hackney, which was only consecrated in 1864.  And it was her baptism record that confirmed she was born on 8th March 1863, the daughter of post office clerk Edwin Collett of 22 Mare Street in hackney.  It was as Elvina Collett aged eight years that she was listed with her family in the Hackney census of 1871.  It seems unlikely that she ever married but it would appear that she joined her sister Lily (above) when she and her family emigrated to South Africa.  Elvena Mary Collett died at Pinetown in Natal on 9th August 1931 and, like her brother-in-law and her sister Lily, she too was buried in the cemetery of St John’s Church in Pinetown.

 

 

 

 

62N68

Charles Frederick Collett was born at Shoreditch on 25th September 1857 and, at the time his parents registered the birth, they were living at 18 Weymouth Terrace in Shoreditch.  The census return completed in 1861, recorded the family as residing at 28 Allerton Street in Shoreditch, where Charles F Collett was three years old and had been born at Shoreditch, when his parents were confirmed as Frederick Collett from London, who was 27 and a cabman, and his mother was Lidia F Collett who was 26 and a milliner from London.  In fact, his mother was Lydia Frances Turner from Bethnal Green.  By 1871, Charles F Collett had already left school and, at the age of 13, was an errand boy, when he was living with his parents at Shoreditch.  On that occasion, his father was named as William Collett and his mother as Lydia F Collett.  Charles later took up the occupation as a gold chain maker and, eight years later, the marriage of Charles Frederick Collett and (1) Louisa Grist was recorded at Islington (Ref. 1b 535) during the final quarter of 1878.  Louisa was born at Chelsea in 1857, the daughter of Henry and Sarah Grist, whose occupation was that of a tie maker, when she was living with her parents and older sister Georgina Grist at Shoreditch in 1871.  The couple’s first child was born at Shoreditch two years later, following which, the three members of the family were recorded at 115 Shaftesbury Street in Shoreditch in 1881.

 

 

 

Charles Frederick Collett from Shoreditch was 24 and a gold chain maker, his wife Louisa Collett from Chelsea was also 24, and their daughter Florence L Collett of Shoreditch was one year old.  Lodging with the family was the widow Mary Ann Thompson who was 41 and a mantle maker from Whitechapel.  Shortly after the census day, between six and nine months later, Louisa presented Charles with their second daughter.

 

 

 

In the mid-1880s, Charles moved out of the family home in Shoreditch, leaving Louisa to look after her two daughters alone.  A divorce for the couple may have followed, since Charles later married or simply lived with (2) Mary Ellen Carter.  Mary was the daughter of Peter Carter and Emma Gee and was born at Poulton, midway between Cirencester and Fairford in Gloucestershire, in 1855.  Certainly, on the birth certificate for the couple’s first child, their names were recorded as Charles Collett – the father, and Mary Collett – the mother.  The same birth certificate, which was for their son Frederick, gave their address, at that time, as 85 St John Street Road in Holborn.

 

 

 

No record of Charles has been found in 1891 but, during the following years, another son and twin daughters were added to the family.  Just after the start of the new century, Charles F Collett, aged 43, was working as a commercial coachman, while he and his family were residing at Albert Street in Clerkenwell.  With him was his wife Mary E Collett, who was 46 and from Fairford, and their three children, all of whom were listed as having been born at Clerkenwell.  They were Frederick C Collett who was 13, and the twins May Collett and Rose Collett who were six.  Living with the family was Charles’ widowed mother Lydia Collett who was 65.

 

 

 

Ten years later, the same family group was still living in Islington, as recorded within the census of 1911.  Charles F Collett was 54 and curiously was noted as born at Hackney, when he was working as a watchman in the building industry.  Mary Collett from Poulton near Fairford was 56, and the couple’s three children were again confirmed as Fred Collett who was 23 and a married man, and the twins May and Rose Collett who were both 16.  Fred must have been simply visiting his parents, as he was also listed in the Islington census in 1911 with his wife and their first two children.  Staying with the family that day, were elderly mother and son Eliza Jones, aged 73, and Harry Jones, aged 57, from Great Missenden in Buckinghamshire.  Seven years later, the death of Charles F Collett was recorded at Islington register office (Ref. 1b 684) during the fourth quarter of 1918, at the age of 60.

 

 

 

So, what happened to Louisa Collett, nee Grist, the first wife of Charles Frederick Collett?  Just as with Charles, no record of Louisa and her two daughters has been found within the census of 1891.  However, the three of them were included in the next census of 1901, when they were still living in the Shoreditch sub-district of Hoxton New Town.  On that day, Louisa Collett 41 from Knightsbridge was once again earning a living by working as a tie and scarf maker.  Working with her in that capacity were her two unmarried Hoxton born daughters, Florence Collett who was 21 and Eleanor Collett who was 19.  Staying with them, on a permanent basis, was Louisa’s unmarried sister Georgina Grist, who was 43 and also employed as a tie and scarf maker.  Completing the household was a friend and workmate, another tie and scarf maker Elizabeth Cornish, who was still living with the family at Shoreditch in 1911.

 

 

 

By that time in her life, tie maker Louisa Collett from Knightsbridge was 51, when she described herself as a widow, even though her former husband was alive and living nearby in Islington.  In addition to her two daughters, her sister Georgina and friend Elizabeth Cornish, the group had been extended with the arrival of Louisa’s widowed mother-in-law, milliner Sindia Frances Collett from Bethnal Green, who was 71, and spinster Henrietta Adams, who was 73, a doll maker from Poplar.  Louisa Collett, nee Grist, was still residing within the Shoreditch area of London when she died, her death recorded there (Ref. 1c 64) during the first three months of 1937, when she was 76.

 

 

 

62O44

Florence Louisa Collett

Born in 1880 at Shoreditch (Hoxton)

 

62O45

Eleanor Gertrude Collett

Born in 1881 at Shoreditch (Hoxton)

 

The following are the children of Charles Frederick Collett by his second wife Mary Ellen Carter:

 

62O46

Fredrick Charles Philip Collett

Born in 1887 at Clerkenwell

 

62O47

May Carter Collett        twin

Born in 1894 at Clerkenwell

 

62O48

Rose Carter Collett       twin

Born in 1894 at Clerkenwell

 

 

 

 

62N61

Aimee Eugenie Collett was born on 7th August 1858 at Maryborough in Victoria, the second child of George Collett and Anne Maria Hemming.  It was also in Victoria where she married London born carpenter Frederick William Boden in 1886, with whom she had ten children.  Their first two children were born at Armadale and Prahran, respectively, while the other eight were born at Williamstown, all in Victoria.  The ten children were William Godfrey Hall Boden (1886-1979), Annie (Aimee) Louise May Boden (1889-1923), Agnes (Aggie) Fanny Boden (1889-1962), Amy Maida Boden (1890-1943), Frederick (Fred) Augustus Boden (1891-1915), Harold Collett Boden (1896-1897), Daisy Florence Boden (1898-1983), Lillian (Lily) Mabel Boden (1899-1987), Ada Eugenie (Dot) Boden (1900-1980), and Ivy Collett Boden (1903-1903).  Aimee Eugenie Boden died on 10th October 1943 in the family home at 3 Lynch Street in Footscray, Victoria, when she was 85.  Three years later, widower Frederick William Boden died and was buried with his wife at Footscray Cemetery on 26th June 1946, aged 83.  Their son Fred was killed on 7th August 1915 at Lone Pine, Gallipoli in Turkey during the First World War.

 

 

 

 

62N62

Horace Wellesley Hemming Collett was born at Maryborough in Victoria during 1860, the third child and eldest son of George and Annie Collett.  His occupation was that of a brewer with the Standard Brewery at Castlemaine.  He was married three times in his life, the first time to (1) Alice Olivia Ardlie at St Matthew's Church in Prahran, Victoria on 2nd December 1886.  Alice was the eldest daughter of John Henry Ardlie of Balmoral, Green Street in Windsor, just south of Melbourne.  After just over ten years, the marriage was dissolved at Castlemaine on 22nd July 1897.  Two years after that, Horace married (2) Adelaide Norton, a widow, in Melbourne on 7th August 1899.  Adelaide was previously married to Hugh Norton, a solicitor, who died on 17th July 1896 at Hay in New South Wales aged just 37.  That second marriage for Horace may have lasted longer than the first one, because it was during 1913 when Horace married (3) Florence Tregoning in Victoria. 

 

 

 

The death of Horace Wellesley Hemming Collett happened at home, 121 Danks Street in the Albert Park area of south Melbourne on 23rd July 1930.  The Melbourne Argus announced his passing two days later, on Friday 25th July, as Horace Wellesley Hemming, beloved husband of Florence Collett, and loving father of Horace, Annette, Jack, Beryl, and Walter, aged 70 years.  A private interment. 

 

 

 

62O49

Horace Leslie Collett

Born in 1888 at Campbell’s Creek, Vic.

 

62O50

Samuel Hemming Collett

Born in 1889 at Williamstown, Victoria

 

62O51

Annette Christina Collett

Born in 1895 at Oakland, Victoria

 

The following is the only child of Horace W H Collett by his second wife Adelaide Norton:

 

62O52

John Wellesley Collett

Born in 1900 at Campbell’s Creek, Vic.

 

The following are the two children of Horace WH Collett by his third wife Florence Tregoning:

 

62O53

Beryl Victoria Collett

Born in 1914 at Ballarat, Victoria

 

62O54

Walter Hemming Collett

Born in 1916 at Ballarat, Victoria

 

 

 

 

62N65

Ernest Augustus Plato Collett born at Maryborough in Victoria during 1864, the sixth child of George Collett and Anne Maria Hemming.  He married Lucie Alice Batten at St Albans, Armadale in Victoria on 9th May 1888.  Lucie was the second daughter of William H Batten.  In 1913, the family’s home was at Hokitika, Ferncroft Avenue, Malvern in Victoria, which was also his last known address when Ernest Augustus Plato Collett died on 28th July 1920 at Melbourne Hospital in East Melbourne at the age of 55.  The first of their seven children was born at Hawksburn, South Yarra in Victoria.  The couple’s second and fourth children were born at Malvern, with the other four children born at Caulfield.  Sadly, it was also at Caulfield where sons Reginald and Leslie both died.  Twenty-one years after the death of Leslie, son Ernest died from gas poisoning during the First World War

 

 

 

62O55

George Augustus Collett

Born in 1889 at Hawksburn, Victoria

 

62O56

Florence Agnes Collett

Born in 1890 at Malvern, Victoria

 

62O57

Reginald Bromell Collett

Born in 1892 at Caulfield; died 1893

 

62O58

Leslie William Collett

Born in 1895 at Malvern; died 1896

 

62O59

Ernest Oswald Collett

Born in 1897 at Caulfield, Victoria

 

62O60

Vincent Selwyn Collett

Born in 1900 at Caulfield, Victoria

 

62O61

Linda Alice Bromell Collett

Born in 1902 at Caulfield, Victoria

 

 

 

 

62N66

Edwin Reginald Collett was born at Collingwood in Victoria during 1867, the seventh child and youngest son of George and Anne Collett.  He married (1) Annie Selma Jaeschke at St Bede's Church, Semaphore, South Australia on 21st April 1900, with whom he had two children, the first born in New South Wales, the second in South Australia.  Annie was the fourth daughter of August Jaeschke of Mannum.  Many years later, presumably after he was widowed, Edwin married (2) Sarah.  It was just after the Second World War that Edwin Reginal Collett at Carnegie in Victoria on 11th November 1945, following which he was buried at Springvale Botanical Cemetery in Springvale, Victoria - Church of England Comp H, Section 15, Grave 39.

 

 

 

62O62

Sylvia Eugenie Collett

Born in 1901 at Silverton, New South Wales

 

62O63

Levinia Evelene Collett

Born in 1904 at Birkenhead, South Australia

 

 

 

 

62O1

Gertrude Annie Collett was born at Small Heath in Birmingham in 1875 and was baptised on 2nd January 1876 at the Parish Church of St Thomas in Birmingham when her parents were confirmed as Richard and Sarah Ann Pook, her father being an artist in stained glass who was residing at Myrtle Road in Evington to the east of Leicester, to where the family had moved from Small Heath.  It was around that time when her father, who had been born as Richard Pook, adopted his mother’s maiden name to become Richard Pook Collett.  By the time of the census in 1881 the Collett family was living at 61 Myrtle Road, when Gertrude was five years old.  Myrtle Road in Evington lies within the ancient parish of Leicester St Margaret, approximately one mile east of the main line railway station and is still there today, just off Evington Road.  The 1891 Census recorded the family as still living at East Leicester, where Gertrude was 15.  With her father dying in 1900, Gertrude was supporting her widowed mother at the time of the census in 1901, when she was helping her look after the family, while her mother carried on the family glass business.

 

 

 

Sometime later in her life, Gertrude eventually married Emile Paul Victor Foucard.  He was born in London in 1869 and it was with him that she had three children.  It would appear that once they were married, the couple emigrated to Australia.  And it was in Brisbane that Emile died in 1946, followed by Gertrude, who died in Sydney during 1959.  One of their three children was Jeanne Rose Foucard who was born in 1919, who was still living in Australia in 2007.  She was the mother of Don Cameron of Belmont in New South Wales, who kindly provided the details of his family back to William Henry Collett of Slaughterford.

 

 

 

 

62O2

Herbert Frank Collett was born at Evington on the eastern outskirts of Leicester in 1877.  By 1881 he was three years old when he was living with his family at 6 Myrtle Road in Leicester, from where his father ran a successful glass making business, which Herbert joined on leaving school.  He was 13 in 1891 and in the next census in 1901 he was a worker in leaded glass at the age of 23.  At that time, he was living with his mother and his four sisters in Leicester, his mother having taken over the family business following the death of Herbert’s father during the previous year, when Herbert Frank Collett, a leaded glass worker, was named as the sole executor of his estate.

 

 

 

Herbert Frank Collett was still a bachelor in April 1911, when he was living with his widowed mother and two younger sisters at 26 Mayfield Road in Leicester.  At that time in his life he was 33, his place of birth was confirmed as Evington, and for his occupation he was described as an employee in the manufacturer of lead lights who was working at home.  With for his father in 1900, it was again Herbert Frank Collett, an engineer, who was named as a joint executor of his mother’s Will following her death in 1919.

 

 

 

 

62O3

Edith Mary Collett was born at Evington to the east of Leicester in September 1880, and six months later she was recorded as living with her family at 6 Myrtle Road in Leicester.  She was 10 years old in 1891 and was still living in Leicester with her family, as she was ten years later.  At the age of 20, in the census of 1901, she was living with her widowed mother Sarah Ann Collett and rather oddly she gave her occupation as being ‘act needles fancy’ (?).  Edith Mary Collett was still living with her mother, her brother Herbert (above) and sister Mabel (below) at 26 Mayfield Road in Leicester in April 1911 when she was unmarried at 29 and described as an ecclesiastical employee working at home.

 

 

 

 

62O4

Beatrice Emily Collett was born at 61 Myrtle Road in Leicester in 1883 and was living there in 1891 at the age of seven.  Ten years later in 1901 she had left school and was working as a pupil teacher at the age of 17, while she was still living in the family home in Leicester with her widowed mother and her siblings Herbert and Edith (above) and Mabel (below).  After a further ten years Beatrice Emily Collett from Leicester was 27 when she was teaching at a school in Wells in Somerset.

 

 

 

 

62O5

Mabel Eveline Collett was born at 61 Myrtle Road in Leicester in 1885.  She was five and fifteen in the Leicester censuses of 1891 and 1901 and in the latter, she was living with his mother and may have been hoping to work with her sister Beatrice (above) as she was described as a candidate for pupil teacher.  Ten years later in 1911 Mabel Eveline Collett was 25 and a teacher at a nearby elementary school when she was still living with her mother Sarah Ann Collett at 26 Mayfield Road in Leicester, with her two older unmarried siblings Herbert and Edith (above).

 

 

 

 

62O6

Richard Ernest Collett was born at 61 Myrtle Road in the Evington area of Leicester the youngest of the six children of Richard Pook Collett and Sarah Ann Hulin, whose birth record was recorded at Leicester (Ref. 7a 195) during the first three months of 1888.  He and his family were still living at 61 Myrtle Road in 1891 when the census that year confirmed he was three years old.  His father passed away in 1900 leaving Richard Ernest Collett aged 13 years still living with his widowed mother Sarah in March 1901, together with his five siblings.

 

 

 

No obvious record of Richard Ernest Collett has been found within the Great Britain census of 1911, by which time he may have already emigrated to Australia.  It was then three years later on 4th June 1914 that he married Margaret Emily Melvin in Adelaide, South Australia (Ref. 259 864).  For Margaret it was her second marriage, having been born on 31st July 1871 at The Brooks in Macclesfield, South Australia, the daughter of Thomas Henry Ellis and his wife Helen Campbell Ward, whose birth was recorded at Strathalbyn (Ref. 99 305).  On his wedding day the father of Richard Ernest Collett was confirmed as Richard Pook Collett, while he was married to Margaret for fifty-one years when Richard Ernest Collett died on 13th June 1965 in South Australia where his death was recorded (Ref. 992 3611).

 

 

 

 

62O7

Patience Emily Collett was born at Marylebone in London on 14th May 1887, the eldest of the two daughters of Henry Edwin Collett and his wife Emily Hurst March.  The birth of Patience Emily Collett was recorded at Marylebone (Ref. 1a 616) during the third quarter of 1887.  The two sisters were baptised together in a joint ceremony on 14th May 1899 at Holy Trinity Church in the Selhurst area of Croydon when their birth dates were recorded as 14th July 1887 for Patience and 10th January 1891 for Dorothy (below) and when their parents were living at Northern Road.  By 1891, when she was three years old, Patience and her family were living within the St Olave Southwark district of London, while within the next census of 1901 Patience was 13 when she and her family were living at Avenue Road in the Acton area of London.

 

 

 

After a further ten years, according to the census of 1911, it was at Acton that Patience Emily Collett from Marylebone was 23 when she was still living with her family and where Patience and her sister were assisting their father in the family business of being a shop keeper and off-licence holder.  Patience Emily Collett never married and was recorded as a spinster at the time of her death on 22nd October 1954 when her home address was 24 North Drive at Hounslow in Middlesex.  Her Will was proved in London on 22nd January 1955 when her unmarried sister Dorothy Martha Collett was named as the executor of her considerable personal effects of Ł3,700 0 Shillings and 1 Penny.

 

 

 

 

62O8

Dorothy Martha Collett was born at Southwark in London on 10th January 1891, the younger of the two daughters of Henry and Emily Collett, and was baptised with her older sister Patience at Holy Trinity Church on 14th May 1899.  It was at St Olave Southwark that she was recorded with her family in 1891 when, as Dorothy M Collett, she was still under one year old, while ten years later, when she was 10, she and her family were living at Avenue Road in the Acton area of North London.  Another moved saw the family end up in Brentford in 1911 where Dorothy Martha Collett was 20.

 

 

 

Just like her older sister Patience (above), Dorothy never married and was very likely living at 24 North Drive in Hounslow with her sister when Patience died in 1954.  Upon the proving of her sister’s Will at London in January 1955 Dorothy Martha Collett, spinster, was named as the sole executor.  Dorothy survived her sister by sixteen years when the death of spinster Dorothy Martha Collett was recorded at Honiton register office in Devon (Ref. 7a 1155) during the third quarter of 1970.

 

 

 

 

62O9

Ernest Edwin Collett was born at Acton in 1877, the eldest child and only son of Robert William Collett and Christine Louisa Grove.  No trace of him or his parents and younger sister Florence has been found in 1881, but by 1891 he and his family were living at 67 Manor Street within the Battersea and Clapham area of London.  On that occasion Ernest was 13 years old, and ten years later in 1901 he was 23 when he was working as an ironmonger’s assistant, while living with his family at The Two Brewers Inn at 76 Perry Hill in Lewisham, where his father was the pub manager.

 

 

 

It was just over two years later that Ernest married Ellen Hocknell, their marriage registered at Lewisham register office (Ref. 1d 2161) during the third quarter of 1903.  By the time of the next census in April 1911 the marriage had provided the couple with two children.  That year’s census return placed the family living in the Lewisham area of London when Ernest Collett from Acton was 33, his wife Ellen was 29, and their two children were Doris Collett who was six and Ernest who was two years old.  In 1922 it was Ernest Edwin Collett, a licenced victualler of The Fox and Hounds public house in Romford, who administered the personal effects of his mother Christine.

 

 

 

Thirty years after that Ernest Edwin Collett was landlord of The White Horse Inn on King Street in Maidenhead, Berkshire, when he died on 3rd March 1941.  His Will was proved at Llandudno on 9th September 1941 which left his personal effects valued at Ł2,625 9 Shillings to his widow Ellen Collett.

 

 

 

62P1

Doris Evelyn Collett

Born in 1904 in London

 

62P2

Ernest Leonard Collett

Born in 1909 in London

 

 

 

 

62O11

Cecil Henry Collett was born at Banwell near Weston-super-Mare in Somerset during 1891, but after 5th April.  He was the eldest of the two sons of Frank Walter Collett and his wife Lucie Elizabeth Rich.  In the middle of that decade the family left Banwell and by 1901 they were residing at 44 Peasecod Street in New Windsor, Berkshire, when Cecil was nine years old.  He was only eighteen years old when he emigrated to Canada and arrived in Quebec on 30th September 1901 on board the ship Tunisian.  The passenger list for the vessel, sailing out of Liverpool, stated that the destination for Cecil Collett, aged 19, was Ontario where he intended to take up farming. 

 

 

 

Prior to the outbreak of war in 1914 Cecil was a member of the 106th Militia Regiment and it was on 4th June 1915 that Cecil Henry Collett enlisted with the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force at Winnipeg, Manitoba.  On entry he named his father and next-of-kin as Frank Collett of Broadfields, East Tytherton in Chippenham, England.  At that time in his life he was unmarried and had the occupation of a butcher.  Cecil eventually saw action in the First World War when he served as a member of 27th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force.

 

 

 

Having survived the war Cecil was later in trouble with the law when The Lethbridge (Alberta, Canada) Daily Herald newspaper printed on 25th May 1925 ran a story from Winnipeg which read as follows: “Four men were committed on charges of conspiring to defraud the Canadian National Railway by means of forged meal checks.  In the City Police Court Cecil H Collett, H Davie, Jean C Demaisseau and Otaire Sauve were committed for trial and Norman Geffen, former dining car waiter, was dismissed”.  However, it is not known if he was found to be guilty of the charges or discharged and found to be an innocent party.

 

 

 

After a further eleven years, when Cecil was a waiter, he was listed among the incoming passengers on board the Cunard White Star ship Ascania, which arrived at the Port of London on 28th July 1936 from Montreal.  The reason for his visit was noted as the Vimy Pilgrimage.  Historical Note:  King Edward VIII had unveiled the Canadian National Vimy Memorial at Vimy Ridge in France just two days earlier.  The memorial was dedicated to the memory of the Canadian Expeditionary Force members killed during the First World War, so it seems highly likely that Cecil had lost some comrades during the Great War.

 

 

 

In 1949 and 1953 Cecil Henry Collett was named on the list of the Canadian Voters in the Electoral District of Nanaimo, Rural Polling Division No. 10, Ganges, address RR 2, Nanaimo, British Columbia.  He was the only Collett living at that address and under occupation his status was recorded as retired.  So, it would appear that he was never married and, in addition to which, it is understood that he never made any contact with any other members of the Collett family from England who had settled in Canada.

 

 

 

Two years after the latter list was prepared Cecil Henry Collett died at Saanich in British Columbia on 24th March 1955, following which he was buried at St Marks Anglican Cemetery on Salt Springs Island, British Columbia.  The headstone on his grave bears the inscription “Cecil H Collett – Private - 27 Battalion C E F - 24 Mar 1955 – age 63”.

 

 

 

 

62O12

Francis Austin Collett was born at Banwell during the last three months of 1893, the youngest son of Frank and Lucie Collett.  He was named in the 1901 Census when he was living with his parents and older brother Cecil at 44 Peasecod Street in New Windsor.  After that his family returned to their roots in Wiltshire since by April 1911 Francis and his parents were residing at Broadfields in East Tytherton, Chippenham.  Francis Austin Collett was 17 and an apprentice to the corn trade.  What happened to him after 1911 is not known even though he was 72 years old when Francis Austin Collett died on 16th March 1966 at Chippenham District Hospital.  His Will was proved in London on 10th May that same year when his personal effects of Ł39,299 were handled by Lloyds Bank Limited.  He was buried with his parents at the London Road Cemetery in Chippenham, all of which perhaps suggests that he never married or had any children of his own.

 

 

 

 

62O13

Herbert Neville Collett, who was known as Neville, was born at Grenfell in the North-West Territories of Canada on 27th August 1904, the eldest of the five children of Herbert James Collett and Florence Mary Hextall. 

 

Neville was listed in the census of 1906 for the Western Provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan & Alberta as Herbert N Collett, aged one year, when he was living at Grenfell, in the Qu’Appelle District with his parents Herbert J and Florence M Collett and his sister Phyllis.  In 1911 the census that year described him Neville Collett aged six years, when he was living with his mother and his three siblings at Saskatchewan, Qu’Appelle District 22 Township 17 in Range 6.  Where his father was on that day is not known.

Photograph courtesy of Gerri Hopkins

 

 

 

The whole family was together again in 1916 when their address was the same as in 1911 except that it was Range 7 instead of Range 6, while living nearby were his Hextall cousins, Thomas, Frederick, Dorothy, and Gwen.  On leaving school Herbert Neville Collett worked in the dairy industry in Regina, Saskatchewan and later in the towns of Trail and Nelson in British Columbia, before running his own dairy at Grand Forks in British Columbia, which was known as the Sunshine Valley Dairy.

 

 

 

It was also at Grand Forks that he married Janet Marie Bonthron on 25th June 1930.  Janet was born on 28th December 1908, the daughter of William Logie Bonthron and Stella Maude Davidson.  Their marriage produced just the one son for Neville and Janet who was born at Regina.  Neville and Janet were both documented in the Canadian Voters list as living at 1418 Queen Street in Regina, Saskatchewan in 1945 where Neville was a milk salesman.  Four years later the voters in 1949 gave their address as 301 Second Street in Nelson, British Columbia, by which time Neville was simply a salesman.

 

 

 

Herbert Neville Collett died at 121 Sixth Street West in Grand Forks on 9th December 1971 at the age of 67.  Nearly twenty-two years after the death of her husband Janet also died while she was living at Grand Forks, when she passed away on 26th July 1983 at the age of 74.  They were both buried at Grand Forks.

 

 

 

62P3

Wayne Neville Collett

Born at Regina, Saskatchewan

 

 

 

 

62O14

Phyllis Mary Collett was born at Grenfell in Saskatchewan on 19th March 1906, the eldest of the three daughters of Herbert and Florence Collett.

 

Phyllis was recorded in the 1906, and 1911, and 1916 Census Reports for Saskatchewan and, prior to being married, she worked as a legal secretary.

 

It was on 17th July 1937 that she married Lewis Aytoun McCombie at St. Andrews Ceylon Church, near Grenfell.  Lewis was born on 1st August 1901 at Troon in Scotland.

Photograph courtesy of Gerri Hopkins

 

Two years earlier the 1935 Voters List of Canada recorded Phyllis M Collett as a stenographer living at 2134 Hamilton Street in Regina, Saskatchewan and had her brother Eric Leslie Collett (below) living there with her.  After she was married both Phyllis and Lewis McCombie were documented in several Voters Lists as living in Winnipeg, where Lewis was a dental technician.  Their various addresses over the years were Valour Road and Mullvey Avenue in Winnipeg, while after the death of her husband Phyllis was residing at the Lutheran Sunset Home in Saskatoon.

 

 

 

Lewis A McCombie died at Winnipeg in Manitoba on 20th February 1991, aged 90, and was survived by his wife by nearly seventeen years.  The marriage produced two children for Phyllis and Lewis, and they were Sylvia Joan McCombie, who was born at Winnipeg on 12th December 1938, who died there on 23rd February 1989, and Ronald Lewis McCombie who married Jacqueline Verna Robertson at Nipawin in Saskatchewan on 14th May 1966, with whom he has two children, Katherine Zoe McCombie and Lewis John McCombie.

 

 

 

Sylvia Joan McCombie married (1) Allen Ross Pallen during May 1961, with whom she had three children, Gregory Ross Pallen, David Stuart Pallen, and Valdene Joan Pallen, before they were divorced.  She later married (2) Bruce Cairns, and her son David eventually adopted the name David Stuart Cairns.

 

 

 

After the death of her husband, Phyllis left Winnipeg and moved to Saskatoon in Saskatchewan where she celebrated her 100th birthday with many of her immediate and extended family travelling to Saskatoon on 19th March 2006.  Phyllis Mary McCombie nee Collett died at Saskatoon just under two years later, when she passed away on 15th January 2008.  Both Phyllis and Lewis were buried at Green Acres Memorial Gardens in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

 

 

 

 

62O15

Doris Mabel Collett was born at Grenfell on 2nd November 1907, the daughter of Herbert and Florence Collett.  Doris, who was named after her Aunt Mabel Collett, her father’s sister in England, was three years old in 1911 and was nine years old in the Grenfell census of 1916, when she was living there with her family.

 

On 5th July 1941 she married James Francis Alexander Magee who was born on 22nd December 1907 at Wolseley in Saskatchewan, the son of Richard Magee and Eva Porter.  Doris was a schoolteacher in Saskatchewan and Sandy Magee, as he was known, was a butcher and owned Magee’s Meat Market in Regina.

 

Photograph courtesy of Gerri Hopkins

 

During their life together they lived in Regina at various addresses including, Smith Street, Osler Avenue, and Dewdney Avenue.  The Canadian Voter’s Lists for 1957 and 1963 confirm that Doris and Sandy were residing at 2340 Osler Avenue in Regina and that Sandy’s occupation was that of a butcher.  They also owned a cottage at Sandy Beach, Lake Katepwa in Saskatchewan, which their family and extended families enjoyed. 

 

 

 

Upon the death of both Doris and James, the cottage was passed onto their children, and they were Sandra Joyce Magee, Trevor Brooke Magee, and Murray Kenneth Magee.  James (Sandy) Magee died on 1st June 1989, at the age of 82, while the couple were living at Regina in Saskatchewan, where Doris Mabel Magee died just a few years later on 31st March 1993 at 85.  Both Doris and Sandy were buried in the Magee Family plot at Wolseley Cemetery in Saskatchewan.  Their son Trevor Brooke Magee was born on 5th July 1946 at Regina and died on 20th August 2010 at Winnipeg. On 9th October 1971 Trevor married Doreen Suzanne Ellert in Assiniboia, Saskatchewan with whom he had three children.

 

 

 

 

62O16

Eric Leslie Collett, who was only ever known as Les, was born at Grenfell on 25th June 1909, the youngest son and fourth children of Herbert and Florence Collett.  In the 1911 Census, Les Collett was two years old when he was living in the town of Grenfell with his mother and his three older siblings (above).  Where his father was at that time is not known.  By 1935 he was a dairyman living with his sister Phyllis Collett at 2134 Hamilton Street in Regina.  Two years later Les married Vera Helene Medforth at St Chads Chapel in Regina, Saskatchewan on 18th September 1937.  Vera was born on 19th December 1909 at Toronto in Ontario, the daughter of Charles Nelson Elsworth Medforth and Catherine Jane Ostrom.

 

Photograph courtesy of Gerri Hopkins

 

Les was still a dairyman ten years later in 1945 when he and Vera were living at 1156 Angus Street in Regina.  However, in 1949 he and his brother-in-law Bill Elder (below) the husband of Les’ sister Evelyn, had started their own business ‘Modern Insulators’.  Four years later Les was described as an insulator who was still at 1156 Angus Street with his wife Vera, as they were again in 1953.  By 1957 the business had expanded to included roofing and insulation when he was recorded as a roofer and insulator living at 1327 Royal Street with Vera.  In 1963, 1965 and 1968 he and Vera were still living on Royal Street when his occupation was given as a roofing and insulator contractor manager.  The record for 1965 stated that their daughter Geraldine Leslie Collett, a student, was living there with them.

 

 

 

During their married life Vera presented Les with three daughters, who were all born in Regina and who are all still living in 2010, so their personal details have been withheld.  The family home on Royal Street in Regina was built by Les, and he also built a cottage on Pasqua (Qu’Appelle) Lake, in Saskatchewan.  Eric Leslie Collett died at Regina, Saskatchewan on 22nd May 1974.  It was over twenty-five years later that Vera died at Regina on 15th July 1999.  Les and Vera are both buried in Riverside Memorial Park in Regina.

 

 

 

Just prior to his death the electoral lists in 1972 and 1974 described Les and Vera as retired while they were still living on 1327 Royal Street in Regina, but were also listed on the roll for Fort Qu’Appelle, Saskatchewan where they had their summer cottage.  Also living two doors away from Les and Vera Collett were Emma Jane Elder and George Gabriel Elder, the parents of his business partner and brother-in-law Bill Elder.  It may be of interest that residing at 1345 Forget Street in Regina, the street behind Royal Street, was an Albert E Collett with his wife Dorothy Collett, who was employed by the Regina Fire Department.  So far, they have no known relationship to this line of the Collett family.

 

 

 

62P4

Roberta Frances Collett

Born at Regina; date of birth withheld

 

62P5

Geraldine Leslie Collett

Born at Regina; date of birth withheld

 

62P6

Dianne Mae Collett

Born at Regina; date of birth withheld

 

 

 

 

62O17

Florence Evelyne Collett was born at Grenfell on 28th May 1919, and was the youngest of the five children of Herbert James Collett and Florence Mary Hextall. 

 

She married William James Elder at Regina, Saskatchewan on 17th July 1943.  James was known as Bill Elder and was born on 21st July 1913 at Kipling in Saskatchewan, the son of George Gabriel Elder and Emma Jane White.

 

During their married life Evelyne, as she was known, presented Bill with two daughters, Gaylene Florence Elder, and Joyce Evelyn Elder.

 

Photograph courtesy of Gerri Hopkins

 

Bill Elder and his brother-in-law, Les Collett (Eric Leslie Collett above) were business partners in Regina, where they owned and operated Modern Insulators, a roofing and insulation company.  Bill was also an active member of the Regina Home Builders Association.  Over the years, Evelyn and Bill resided at Eighth Avenue and Horace Street in Regina, and the couple spent many happy years trailering through Western Canada.  Bill Elder died at Regina on 21st April 2003 at the age of 90 while, in 2010 his widow Evelyne was living in Regina at the age of 91.

 

 

 

 

62O18

Stanley Beaconsfield Collett was born at Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in Canada during 1921, the only child of Godfrey (Joe) Collett from England and Maria Eidem nee Chatten.  Stanley was married and divorced three times.  His first wife was (1) Florence Helen Salmon who was the mother of Stanley’s two daughters.  Sadly, Stanley never had much contact with the girls after his divorce. His second wife was (2) Ada and his third wife was (3) Ida.  His daughters are still living in Vancouver, British Columbia. Stanley was documented on the Voters Rolls for Canada in 1957, 1962, 1965, 1968, and 1972 when he was living at 7028 132nd Street in Surrey, British Columbia.  His occupation was that of a bus driver. Florence H Collett was also documented at that address and in 1972 she was employed as an IBM Programmer.  The Canadian Phone Directory 1995 – 2002 listed a Stanley B Collett as living at 15875 20th Avenue, Suite 84 in Surrey, while it was on 21st December 2000 that he died in Surrey, BC.

 

 

 

62P7

Sylvia Collett

Date of birth unknown

 

62P8

Joyce Collett

Date of birth unknown

 

 

 

 

62O19

Edward Collett was born in 1904 on the family farm at Bowerhill near Melksham, his birth recorded at Melksham register office (Ref. 5a 115) during the third quarter of the year.  He was the older of the two sons of Charles Edwin Collett and Mary Louisa Ellis, and was seven years old in the Bowerhill census of 1911, when he was attending school, while still living there with his family.  No record has been found to suggest he married but he was named as the main beneficiary in the 1936 Will of his maiden aunt, Frances Louisa Collett, his father’s older sister.  Seven years later, the early death of Edward Collett was recorded at Devizes register office (Ref. 5a 119) during the first three months of 1943, when he was only 39.

 

 

 

 

62O20

Joseph Charles Edwin Collett was born at Bowerhill and that may have taken place at the end of 1909 or within the first few weeks of 1910, as his birth was recorded at Melksham register office (Ref. 5a 100) during the first quarter of 1910.  He was one year old in the Bowerhill census of 1911, and suffered a premature death at the age of only nineteen years.  The death of Joseph C E Collett was recorded at Melksham (Ref. 5a 101) during the third quarter of 1929.

 

 

 

 

62O21

Maud Collett was born on 19th June 1888 at Lacock, midway between Chippenham and Melksham, her birth as the eldest of the three daughters of William Collett and Emily Jane Bath was recorded at Chippenham (Ref. 5a 70) during the third quarter of that year.  She was living with her family at Lacock in 1891, aged two years, in 1901 aged 12 and again in 1911 when she was 22 and a dressmaker, working with her sister Clara (below).  Five years later, the marriage of Maud Collett and Albert Fenner was recorded at Chippenham register office (Ref. 5a 139) during the second quarter of 1916.  They were married for fifty-six years, when the death of Maud Fenner was recorded at Chippenham (Ref. 7c 1722) during the summer of 1972.

 

 

 

 

62O22

Clara Collett was born at Lacock in 1890, her birth recorded at Chippenham (Ref. 5a 74) during the third quarter of 1890.  She was around six months old in 1891, 10 year of age in 1901 and 20 in 1911, by which time she was a dressmaker, on all three occasions she was living with her family in Lacock.  After a further six years Clara married Bernard Charles Woodbridge, the event recorded at Swindon register office (Ref. 5a 5) during the second quarter of 1907.

 

 

 

 

62O23

Louie Collett was born at Lacock, , in 1892, her birth recorded at the former (Ref. 5a 80) during the last quarter of that year, as the third child of William Collett and Emily Jane Bath.  She was eight years of age in the Lacock census of 1901 and was 18 in the Lacock census of 1911, when she was not credited with a job of work.  It was during the third quarter of 1919 when she married Herbert E J Edwards, their wedding day recorded at Chippenham register office (Ref. 5a 182).

 

 

 

 

62O24

Winifred Minnie Collett was born at Battersea in 1895, the eldest of the three children of Edwin Collett and Maria Yeoman.  Her birth was recorded at Wandsworth register office (Ref. 1d 692) during the second quarter of the year.  By the time of the census in 1901, her father had died over twelve months early and after the family had left London to settle in Lacock, where her Collett grandparents lived.  That year Winifred Collett from Battersea was five years old.  As Winifred Minnie Collett aged 15, she was still living with her widowed mother at Nethercote Hill in Lacock, with whom she was working, when she was described as assisting in the laundry. 

 

 

 

Ten years after that day, the marriage of Winifred M Collett and William G Passmore was recorded at Chippenham register office (Ref. 5a 157) during the first three months of 1921.  On their wedding day, Winifred was only a few months from giving birth to the first of the couple’s two known children.  The birth of William H Passmore was recorded at Chippenham (Ref. 5a 125) during the second quarter of 1921 and, just less than five years later, the birth of Maria J Passmore was recorded there (Ref. 5a 114) during the first three months of 1926.  She was 68 years of age, when the death of Winifred M Passmore was recorded at Trowbridge register office (Ref. 7c 588) during the second quarter of 1964.

 

 

 

 

62O25

William Edwin Collett was born at Battersea in 1896, the son of Edwin Collett of Biddestone in Wiltshire and his wife Maria Yeoman of Lambeth in London, his birth recorded at Wandsworth (Ref. 1d 649) during the last quarter of that year.  Just prior to the early death of his father during the last quarter in 1899, the family had left Battersea and travelled to Lacock, to be near his paternal grandparents.  The fatherless family was residing at Nethercote Hill in the village of Lacock, just south of Chippenham, in 1901, where William Collett from Battersea was four years old.  After a further ten years, William and his two siblings, were still together and living with their widowed mother at Nethercote Hill, by which time Battersea born William Edwin Collett was 14 years of age and working as an errand boy in the census of 1911.

 

 

 

William later enlisted with the army and eventually became Corporal 48324 William Edwin Collett with C Battery of the 82nd Brigade Royal Field Artillery.  He saw front line action in Belgium at the Ypres Salient, during the Third Battle of Ypres, which was also referred to as the Battle of Passchendaele.  Tragically he was killed on 27th October 1917 at just 21 years of age, and his name appears on the Tyne Cot Memorial for those missing in action.  He was posthumously awarded the Military Medal.  At the time of his death his next-of-kin was named as his mother Maria Collett who was still living on Nethercote Hill in Lacock.

 

 

 

 

62O26

Harry Collett was born at Battersea, perhaps at the end of 1897 of during the first few weeks of the following year, the last child of Edwin and Maria Collett.  His birth, like those of his two older siblings, was recorded at Wandsworth register office (Ref. 1d 677) during the first three months of 1898.  A year later, he and his family returned to the Wiltshire village of Lacock, where his father’s family lived, and where Harry’s father died towards the end of 1899.  It was at Nethercote Hill in Lacock that three-year-old Harry Collett from Battersea was living with his family in 1901 and, again in 1911, when he was 13 and still attending the village school.

 

 

 

 

62O27

Frederick Collett was born at Chippenham during the second quarter of 1898, the eldest child of Herbert Lewin Collett and his wife Annie, his birth recorded at Chippenham (Ref. 5a 78).  He was two years old in 1901 and was 12 and still at school in 1911 when he and his family were living within the Foghamshire district of Chippenham.  It is possible that he lived in Chippenham all his life, and it may have been this Frederick Collett who married Vera L Butler at Chippenham register office (Ref. 5a 193) during the second quarter of 1925.  The birth of Vera Lilian Butler was also recorded at Chippenham (Ref. 5a 74) during the quarter of 1902.  That marriage produced a son for the couple, the birth of Cecil Frederick Collett being recorded at Chippenham register office (Ref. 5a 109) during the first quarter of 1928, when the mother’s maiden name was confirmed as Butler.

 

 

 

62P9

Cecil Frederick Collett

Born in 1928 at Chippenham

 

 

 

It was previously written here (in error) that Frederick’s wife may have been Annie Collett who died on 15th April 1948, the pair of them were living at 6 Clift Avenue in Chippenham.  In her Will, proved at Winchester on 25th May that year, her husband Frederick was described as an engineering costs clerk and her estate was valued at Ł1,293 3 Shillings and 3 Pence.  From her death certificate, it is now determined that Annie was 73 when she died, meaning that she was have been well over twenty years older than Frederick, and therefore very unlikely to be the wife of Frederick born at Chippenham in 1898.

 

 

 

 

62O29

Herbert Lewin Collett was born at Chippenham on 26th May 1902, the son of Herbert and Annie Collett.  The census in 1911 placed Herbert, aged eight years, and his family living within the Foghamshire area of Chippenham.  Herbert was twenty-six when he married Florence May Smith who was born at Chippenham on 5th May 1907.  Their wedding was recorded at Chippenham register office (Ref. 5a 147) during the third quarter of 1928.  Over the next nine years, Florence presented Herbert with three children, the births of all three recorded at Chippenham.  Nothing more is known about their life together, but it was as Herbert Lewin junior that his death was recorded at Chippenham register office (Ref. 23 1848) during the last three months of 1976 when he was 74.  His widow Florence May Collett nee Smith was still living in Chippenham when she passed away during December 2000.

 

 

 

62P10

Keith Collett

Born in 1929 at Chippenham

 

62P11

Frederick T Collett

Born in 1934 at Chippenham

 

62P12

Joan Collett

Born in 1937 at Chippenham

 

 

 

 

62O30

Elsie Annie Collett was born at Chippenham on 14th May 1910, the youngest child of Herbert Lewin Collett and his wife Annie, who was ten months old in the Foghamshire, Chippenham census of 1911.  The marriage of Elsie A Collett and William J Harrison was recorded at Cheltenham register office during the fourth quarter of 1931 and it was as Elsie Annie Harrison that she died in 1988, her passing at the age of 78 was recorded at Trowbridge register office (Ref. 23 2453) in the final three months of that year.

 

 

 

 

62O32

Albert Edwin Collett was born at Melksham in 1887, the son and second child of Albert Henry and Emily A Collett.  He was three years old in the Melksham census of 1891 and was still living there with his parents ten years later in 1901.  When his parents eventually settled in the Romsey area of Hampshire, Albert and his older sister Lillian continued to live in Melksham but were not together in the census of 1911 when Albert Edwin Collett was 23.

 

 

 

What happened to Albert after 1911 is not known at this time, and the only record of him so far found was in 1954 following the death of his aunt Florence Emily Collett, his father’s unmarried sister.  Albert Edwin Collett was described as a retired butcher during the probate process for her Will when he was named as one of the executors with his cousin Gilbert William Collett (below).

 

 

 

 

62O33

Gilbert William Collett was born at Melksham in 1887, the eldest child and only son of William James Collett and Annie Maslen White.  His father had a butcher’s shop on the High Street in Melksham above which the family was living in 1891 when Gilbert was three years of age.  It was at that same address that he was still living with his family in 1901 at the age of 13 but, on leaving school, Gilbert took up work in the hosiery trade and was still unmarried and staying at a boarding house in Croydon, Surrey in 1911. It was as Gilbert William Collett from Melksham who was 23 years old and employed as an outfitter’s assistant, while staying at the home of the Piper family.

 

 

 

Upon the death of his father in 1927, and at the proving of his Will in London that same year, it was his son Gilbert William Collett, a hosier, who was named as one of the two executors of his personal effects valued at Ł8,827 0 Shillings and 3 Pence.  In 1954 Gilbert was again named as a joint executor with his cousin Albert Edwin Collett (above) following the death of their aunt Florence Emily Collett when, at that time in his life Gilbert was described as a retired outfitter. 

 

 

 

Ten years later, Gilbert William Collett was 77 years old when he died in Chippenham on 24th July 1964.  His Will was proved at Winchester on 17th September 1964 and the supporting probated statement revealed that at the time of his death Gilbert was living at 174 Sheldon Road in Chippenham but had died in Chippenham District Hospital.  His considerable personal effects, amounting to Ł134,944, were awarded jointly to executors Thomas Gerald Collett, a transport manager, and Alfred Routledge, a solicitor’s manager.  This raises the question that Gilbert may have been married and that Thomas Gerald Collett may have been his son.

 

 

 

 

62O35

Horace Claude Collett was born on 23rd September 1883 at Blenheim in the district of Marlborough on New Zealand’s South Island.  He later moved across to live on the north island and settled in Wellington. 

 

It was in the Petone district of Wellington that Horace married Elizabeth Farr on 24th May 1905.  Elizabeth was born on 3rd April 1882 at Waverley in the Taranaki district of the north island of New Zealand and was the daughter of Frederick Farr and his wife Ellen McConagy.  And it was also while the couple were living at Petone that all of their children were born. 

 

This caricature was drawn by a courtroom artist in 1913 – see details below.

 

 

 

In 1913 Horace was working in Wellington at the shop of Spencer George Radford where he was the manager.  During the period from 26th December 1912 to 13th January 1913 they had been a number of night-time burglaries in the town, including a break-in at Radford’s Shop.  The culprit was eventually arrested and appeared before the Wellington Senior Magistrates Court on Wednesday 5th February.

 

 

 

The proceedings from the court case were reported in the New Zealand Truth newspaper on Saturday 8th February 1913 under the headline “A Burglarious Bobby – Constable Remmer’s Remarkable Raids”.  It was reported that Alfred Charles Remmer, an imported English Police Constable, owed money in England and carried out numerous raids on a least five different shops while he was on night duty.  His haul included clothes, jewellery, cigars, cigarettes, razors, cutlery, etc.  The newspaper article included the above drawing of Horace Collett, who was described as the head shop-man at Radford’s, who identified the items stolen from his shop.

 

 

 

Elizabeth Collett nee Farr died on 22nd March 1938 while she and Horace were still living at Wellington and was it was there that she was buried in Karori Cemetery.  Horace must have moved north from Wellington to Auckland after the death of Elizabeth as he died while a patient at Auckland Public Hospital.  Horace Claude Collett passed away on 29th March 1952 and was buried at Waikumete Cemetery in the Henderson South district of Auckland on 1st April 1952.

 

 

 

62P13

David Horace Collett

Born in 1905

 

62P14

Claude Frederick Collett

Born in 1907

 

62P15

Kenneth Paul Collett

Born in 1908

 

62P16

Desmond Bruce Collett

Born in 1910

 

62P17

Clement Joseph Collett

Born in 1912

 

62P18

Clive Emmett Collett

Born in 1915

 

62P19

Joy Mary Collett

Born in 1917

 

62P20

Philip Edwin Collett

Born in 1919

 

62P21

John Anthony Collett

Born in 1920

 

 

 

 

62O36

Clive Franklyn Collett was born on 28th August 1886 at Spring Creek, just north of Blenheim within the Marlborough district of the South Island of New Zealand.  He was the second child born to Horace Edwin Collett from Lambeth in London and his wife Alice Marguerite Radford from Shoreditch in London, even though they met and were married in New Zealand.

 

It may be of interest to note that, within the register of electors for Blenheim, which was first established in 1894, there was no record of any Collett living there.  However, within the birth record for Clive Franklyn Collett, his father Horace Edwin Collett was recorded as being from Tauranga, which is on the north island, at the Bay of Plenty to the south of Auckland.

 

 

 

He was educated at Queens College in Tauranga and, on the early death of his father at Auckland in 1902, Clive took an engineering course with William Cables at Wellington, following which he was employed by Turnbull & Jones Ltd. in Christchurch, promoting electrical machinery.  At some time in his young life he also worked as a Stock Inspector for the Bay of Plenty district, was a member of the Mounted Tauranga Rifles, and a promoter of the Marlborough Hussars with whom he was a Lieutenant.  Following the outbreak of hostilities in Europe he travelled to England on board the S S Limerick and arrived in London on 23rd December 1914.  While in London he lodged at the home of spinster Harriet Martha Collett (Ref. 62N12), a distant maiden aunt.

 

 

 

On arrival in England he enrolled at the London and Provincial Aviation Company at Hendon.  It was throughout all of January 1915 that he received his training, and on Friday 29th January he has awarded his pilot’s licence [RAeC No. 1058].  On 17th February 1915, he reported to Brooklands military aerodrome and eventually joined the Royal Flying Corps as a pilot in March 1915.  He was granted a commission as a Second Lieutenant on probation in the RFC Special Reserve on 25th March 1915 and after three months at Brooklands he left for Netheravon on Salisbury Plain, where he joined No. 11 Squadron and flew the Vickers FB. 5 'Gunbus'.

 

 

 

It was during his time in the London area that he met Margaret Cumming – who was known as Peggy, with whom he subsequently had a daughter.  Margaret had been born at Lambeth in London on 23rd May 1899, and was in her mid-to-late teenage years when they met, but it was his very busy schedule at the height of the conflict that meant they never had the opportunity to become a married couple.  Sadly, at the time of his death, during a flying accident at the end of 1917, he was still a bachelor, even though by then he was the father of a nine-month-old girl.  At the start of that year, Clive was stationed at Orfordness in Suffolk, where he made two successful parachute jumps from a BE2c biplane, the first man to use a Guardian Angel parachute.  One of the creamy white silk parachutes was presented to his sweetheart Peggy, to make a wedding dress, she being an accomplished dressmaker.  However, when she unfurled it, she found sprinkled with sand from Orfordness beach.  At that time, she was close to giving birth to their daughter, who later received the benefit of some items of silk clothing made by her mother.

 

 

 

That tragic accident happened when he crashed into the Firth of Forth on 23rd December 1917, while flying a captured German Albatros fighter plane that he was testing.  His body was buried at the Comely Cemetery in Edinburgh, grave reference number K903, where the headstone to the right marks his grave.  The inscription reads: Captain C F Collett, MC Royal Flying Corps 23rd December 1917 age 31 – The Lord Hath Called Him To Peace.

 

Nine months earlier his only child Marion Collett was born at Lambeth, just across the River Thames from the Houses of Parliament in London, where the girl’s mother Margaret had also been born.

 

More details of his military career can be found in the website folder entitled Clive Franklyn Collett.

 

 

 

Six weeks prior to his death, the following report was provided by James McCudden, who recorded:

“On November 5th I went to Hendon with Capt. Clive Collett to fly a V-strutter Albatros which he had for demonstration purposes, and I had a nice ride in it, but I could not think how the German pilots could manoeuvre them so well, for they were certainly not easy to handle.  It was of course just a few weeks later that Capt. Collett was killed flying this same Albatros over the Firth of Forth, apparently when a portion of the exhaust manifold came loose from the engine and struck him and stunned him, resulting in a straight dive into the water."

 

 

 

Following his death his Royal Air Force service record dated 13th August 1918 included the name of Miss Harriet M Collett as the person to be informed of any casualty.  In that document she was referred to as ‘aunt’ and her contact address was given as 117 Central Hill at Upper Norwood in London.  That information would have been recorded at the start of his military service and so before he had formed a relationship with Margaret Cumming, the mother of his daughter.  Furthermore, the fact that there was no reference at all to him leaving a wife and child may once again confirm that he was never married. 

 

 

 

The Will of Clive Franklyn Collett of Pentone, Auckland in New Zealand, temporarily of 117 Central Hill in Upper Norwood, Surrey, Captain RFC drowned 23rd December 1917 in the River Forth was proved in London on 11th April 1918 when settlement of his personal effects valued as Ł262 11 Shillings and 2 Pence was granted to Charles Henry Wilham Osborn, a solicitor.  What is of particular interest, is the fact that living at 46 Central Hill in Upper Norwood in 1911 was Clive’s paternal grandmother Mary Collett, the 88-year-old widow of his grandfather Edwin Collett.

 

 

 

Nearly ninety years after he was killed, Clive’s grand-daughter was living in Australia.  She was Mandy Perry nee Wade and she was interviewed on New Zealand radio in 2005 about her grandfather when she was one of the guests of honour at the Omaka “Wings over New Zealand” festival, that being a display of military and commercial aircraft.  See extra items below, including a detailed account of the interview, together with other items regarding the life of Capt C F Collett.

 

 

 

It may be of interest to know that in 2011, David Provan of Christchurch in New Zealand, was building a model of the Albatros in which Capt Clive Franklyn Collett died all those years ago.  Also, Peter Jackson, of Lord of the Rings fame, is the proud owner of a Camel aircraft which flies in the same colours as those flown by Captain Collett.

 

 

 

62P22

Marion Renee Collett Cumming

Born on 16.03.1917 at Lambeth

 

 

 

Below are the two citations written at the time of his awards,

together with an extract from a letter written by Clive to his brother Horace (above).

 

 

 

Citation for Military Cross (MC): "Lt. (T/Capt.) Clive Franklyn Collett, R.F.C. Spec. Res. For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty as a leader of offensive patrols during a period of three weeks.  He has on numerous occasions attacked large formations of enemy aircraft single-handed, destroyed some, and driven others down out of control.  He has led his formation with great skill, and has on several occasions extricated them from the most difficult positions, and in every engagement his gallantry and dash have been most marked."  [Source: London Gazette, issue 30466, published on 8th January 1918.]

 

 

 

Citation for Bar to Military Cross (MC): "Lt. (T/Capt.) Clive Franklyn Collett, M.C., R.F.C., Spec. Res. & Gen. List.  For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty in leading offensive patrols against enemy aircraft. Within a period of three weeks he successfully engaged and destroyed five enemy machines (three of them in one day), attacking them from low altitudes with the greatest dash and determination. His brilliant example was a continual source of inspiration to the squadron in which he served. [Source: London Gazette, issue 30561, published on 5th March 1918.]

 

 

 

In a letter written from his farm billet behind the lines in early 1916 to his elder brother, Mr Horace Claude Collett, he reports the following "On offensive patrols over the hottest patch opposing our First Army, getting vital photographs.  Total weight about 2000 lbs including machine gun and ammunition, Observer, camera and plates, wireless gear to report to our gunners, up to 11 000 feet to avoid some accurate Archie fire.  A burst under our machine sent us out of control, but managed to level out at a low altitude with burst engine valve and gun stoppage in face of very heavy ground fire, riddling our plane.  The photos of this special mission caused the cancellation of a planned offensive which, had it proceeded, would have been a disastrous exercise for our troops, with heavy casualties."  It was for that situation, Captain Collett was awarded his first Military Cross.

 

 

 

The following are newspaper articles relating Captain Clive Franklyn Collett

 

 

 

This first article appeared in the Wellington Evening Post on 1st February 2001.

 

 

 

“Lord Of The Rings director Peter Jackson has set his sights on recreating the heroic acts of a Blenheim man for this year's Classic Fighters Marlborough Airshow.  Mr Jackson owns an authentically-finished replica of a First World War Sopwith Camel, which will fly for the first time at the Easter air show.  While the Camel is best known as the machine flown by cartoon character Snoopy in his fantasies, Mr Jackson's plane will not play on that theme.  When the biplane battles with a Fokker Triplane, it will be in the livery of Marlborough First World War flying ace Clive Collett, who clocked up 12 kills before dying at the age of 31.  Captain Collett, who was born in Spring Creek, went to war with the Royal Flying Corps.  He crash-landed and died in Scotland in 1917, while flying a captured Albatros, the type of aircraft he had shot down at least eight times.”

 

 

 

 

 

The second article, written by Robert Smith, was published in the Malborough Express on 28th March 2005.  The grand-daughter mentioned in the article was Mandy Wade, the daughter of Marion Renee Collett Wade nee Cumming (Ref. 62P22). 

 

 

 

“The grand-daughter of Blenheim-born pilot Clive Collett, the first ace to score a victory in a Sopwith Camel in World War 1, was on hand to see the replica of her grandfather’s plane soar above the crowd at the air show over the weekend.  For Australian woman Mandy Perry, seeing the replica aircraft with the same colours and number as Captain Collett’s was a dream come true.  Mrs Perry’s mother was born out of wedlock when Captain Collett was based in the UK, with marriage plans tragically cut short with Collett’s death in a crash in 1917.  Mrs Perry said her grandmother was working in a music hall when she met Captain Collett in 1916.  The two had planned to marry after the war, with Collett illegally sending her one of his silk parachutes to turn into a wedding dress.  Collett, who was born in Spring Creek in 1886, was killed while flying a captured German fighter in Scotland on December 23, 1917.  Mrs Perry’s mother married an Australian airman in World War Two and while Mrs Perry was always aware of her connection to Collett, she only recently met members of her extended family in New Zealand.  When she attended the Wanaka air show last year, she saw the replica of Collett’s plane on display there, but it was only a static display and she decided to return to the Omaka show to see it in flight.  Returning to New Zealand to see the Camel fly also gave her the chance to see her grandfather’s place of birth.  ‘It was a bit of a double whammy.  I’ve already visited his grave in Edinburgh and now I’ve been to his place of birth as well as seeing his plane.’  Mrs Perry said it was ‘just magic’ to see her grandfather’s plane flying.  ‘It was just so easy to imagine that it was him up there in the fields over France.  It felt like a crossover between reality and unreality. I certainly never expected to ever see it flying.”  Before his death, Collett was a pioneer in many areas, including parachuting, for which he put on a display for the royal family.”

 

 

 

 

 

This third article was written by journalist Geoff Collett (Ref. 62R8) and was printed in the Nelson Mail on 18th April 2011, in the lead up to Anzac Day.

 

 

 

“In the lead-up to Anzac Day, Nelson Mail journalists are sharing their family war stories. Today, Geoff Collett writes about a World War I flying ace”.

 

“My great, great uncle Clive killed Germans in the war.  He lined them up in his sights and shot them, mostly using a couple of Vickers machine guns attached to his Sopwith Camel biplane, high above the hell holes of the European battlefields of the Great War.  Sometimes, they nearly killed him.  A couple of times he nearly killed himself.  And once – that's all it takes, of course – he did, accidentally but inexplicably.  I've never been one for family history and always been ambivalent about war stories. I was vaguely aware of the various feats which had made Captain Clive Collett world-famous in the Collett family, but when I started reading through my father's Clive Collett file, I have to say awe was the over-riding feeling.  His was a war fought at the very edges of technology and risk.  He was a flying ace, downing 12 German aircraft in combat within the space of about six weeks – three of them in one 45-minute burst. He had the dash, the daring and the big balls that made the fly boys of that war, the stuff of so much legend.”

 

 

WAR HERO: Captain Clive Collett pictured here with his Sopwith Camel.

 

 

 

“His story is filled with scrapes and near things, various accounts of his flimsy biplane coming to one form of grief or another – perhaps shredded and crippled by Hun shells, or blowing a valve after he overdid an attacking dive on enemy aircraft, usually forcing him to nurse it back to safety and an emergency landing.  One of his combat reports tells of how he and his foe were so close that they nearly collided as he emptied his Vickers into its fuselage.  Another recounts following a stricken German plane until it landed; Clive finished it off with a long burst until it exploded into flames.  Then he fled home with a badly injured hand, keeping to 30 feet above the trees of Houtholst Forest to prevent the other pursuing Germans getting a fix on him with their guns.  Sometimes he didn't quite make it.  He smashed his face up badly in one crash, removing him from combat duties for most of a year.  Instead, he did experimental stuff, including becoming the first man under British command to jump from a plane with a parachute.  The story of that tells how he drolly noted the presence of ambulance and fire tender on the airfield below just before he jumped, pointing out what a fat lot of use they would be if things didn't work out.”

 

 

 

“He got a medal – the Military Cross, and then its Bar.  His citation talked of gallantry, devotion and dash, and his habit of single-handedly taking on large formations of enemy aircraft.  In a weird way it seems almost inevitable that he died pointlessly, miles from the nearest enemy gun.  He was flying a captured German Albatros off the coast of Scotland a few days before Christmas 1917 when for no known reason the plane crashed into the water.  Some speculate a part broke loose and hit him, knocking him out or worse. He was 31.  He left a young widow (although the record is contradictory as to whether they had ever married) and a baby daughter.  I've never known anything of his offspring. We're a big and widely-scattered family. My great uncle, also a Clive, accumulated plenty of material on him, however, and made sure the legend lived on in our branch of the family tree.  Clive Franklyn Collett's grave is somewhere in Edinburgh; a memorial plaque stood for some time in his hometown of Tauranga.  He has a section devoted to him in the website on Collett genealogy.  Someone has given him a Wikipedia page.  My brother, also a military man, advises that the RNZAF museum holds material on him.  I read somewhere that Peter Jackson, the film-maker, modelled his replica Sopwith Camel on Clive's.  Such are the ways we remember our war dead.”

 

 

 

 

 

In addition to the above articles, the following item was published in Flight Magazine on 14th February 1918.  It read:

 

 

 

“Captain Clive Franklyn Collett, MC, RFC, was accidentally killed on December 23rd while flying in Scotland.  Born in 1887, he was the second son of Mr Horace Edwin Collett, of Tauranga, Auckland, New Zealand, and came over shortly after the outbreak of war and joined the RFC in March 1915.  In the same year he saw several months of active service in France, but a serious accident which occurred while he was bringing a machine to England prevented his flying for a long period and caused him injuries from which he was always troubled afterwards.  In spite of this, he insisted on flying again, and in August 1916, was given command of a flight.  For the rest of that year and for the greater part of 1917 he was engaged in experimental work, for which his experience and ability as an engineer (his profession before the war) and his great skill as a pilot made him especially useful.  In September 1917 he again went to France, and of this short period his late commanding officer writes ‘Captain Collett served under my command in France for some months.  During this time, he himself accounted for fifteen enemy machines, all of which were confirmed.  His devotion to duty was officially recognised during this period by the reward of the Military Cross and Bar’.

 

 

 

 

 

The next item is an extract from the book entitled “Observer – Memoirs of the RFC 1915-1918” by Jack Insall.  Jack flew with Captain Collett as his observer and recalls:

 

 

 

“He was a big man who joined us at Netheravon just a few weeks before we were to be fully equipped with the Vickers Fighters, Capt C F Collett already experienced in handling these new planes.   Not long after, I travelled with him on a flight to Brooklands.  The flight was without incident, except that we had to land near Basingstoke on our return, with plug trouble.  This gave me the first opportunity of starting up the Monosoupape engine.” 

 

 

 

On another occasion Jack recalled having to accompany Capt Collett on a flight to Bournemouth, when again they landed mid-journey to clean the plugs.  Unfortunately, the chosen meadow near Ringwood proved to be a water-meadow, so the resulting take-off was rather swift, much to the disappointment of the approaching locals.  They eventually touched down on the outskirts of Bournemouth to sort out the plug problem, where the plane was soon surrounded by a large crowd of some hundred or more people.  They were then offered a lift by one of the locals who drove the two of them in his car to the nearest Post Office to make a telephone call back to base.  Upon their return, the crowd had grown even more and, by the time the pair were airborne once again, it was a good job that it was a trouble-free take-off, because there would have been no room to land again, such was the size of the crowd.  Instead Capt Collett flew back over the field, to the flutter of hands and handkerchiefs, dipping the bows of the plane as they passed.

 

 

 

 

62O37

Norman Edwin Collett was born at Blenheim in the Marlborough district of South Island New Zealand on 15th January 1888.  By the time his father died in 1902 the family had moved to Auckland on the north island.  He later married (1) Kathleen Emily Tuthill on 3rd September 1911 at Greerton near Tauranga on the Bay of Plenty where she was born in 1895.  Her parents were Robert Tuthill and Alice Jane Litchfield.  Sometime after the birth of the couple’s fourth child and last known child Norman appears to have left the family home and that absence was the grounds for divorce as later filed by his wife Kathleen.

 

 

 

A report in the New Zealand Herald, published on 27th November 1936 under the heading ‘Divorce Actions’ was the following: Petitions were granted as follows on the ground that the parties had been separated for three years and over, Kathleen Emily Collett against Norman Edwin Collett.  Ten years later Norman Edwin Collett married (2) Viola Alla Elizabeth Soar in 1946, with whom he spent the last twenty years of his life.  It was at Glen Eden on the western outskirts of Auckland that Norman Edwin Collett died on 2nd April 1966, following which he was buried at the Waikumete Cemetery in nearby Henderson South on 5th April 1966.

 

 

 

62P23

Edwin Robert Chateauneuf Collett

Born in 1912

 

62P24

Eric Franklin Collett

Born in 1913

 

62P25

Eileen Alice Ethel Collett

Born on 29.12.1917

 

62P26

Kathleen Ruth Collett

Born on 24.02.1919

 

 

 

 

62O38

Spencer Huia Collett was born at Blenheim in the Marlborough district of South Island New Zealand on 6th November 1892.  By the time he was ten years old he and his parents were living at Auckland on the north island where Spencer’s father Horace died just six weeks after his tenth birthday.

 

 

 

After the Great War in which his brother Clive was killed, Spencer later married Charlotte Sarah Minnie Archer at Auckland in 1920.  Charlotte was the daughter of Edmund Archer and Mary Neild and was born at Auckland in 1877.  It would appear that Spencer and his wife lived at Epsom where Spencer’s widowed mother also lived, and it is possible that they lived at the same address.

 

 

 

Although fifteen years younger than his wife, it was Spencer Huia Collett who died relatively young on 15th July 1937 at Auckland Infirmary in Epsom.  Two days later he was buried at Purewa Cemetery on 17th July 1937 where his mother Alice had been buried with her husband almost exactly six years earlier.

 

 

 

Spencer’s wife survived her husband by over thirty-two years and sometime after his death she moved to the Grey Lynn district of Auckland not far from the city centre.  And it was while at Grey Lynn that Charlotte Sarah Minnie Collett nee Archer passed away on 1st November 1969.  Like her husband and his parents, Charlotte was also buried at Purewa Cemetery at Meadowbank in Auckland on 3rd November 1969.

 

 

 

 

62O39

Constance Louise Beatrice Collett was born at Uitenhage near Port Elizabeth on 17th April 1881, the eldest child of William and Anna Collett.  She and her siblings were all educated by a private tutor and it was when she was twenty-two that she married James Percy Frederick Grose on 27th May 1903.  The marriage produced a single child for the couple when Constance Maud Owen Grose was born nine months later on 8th March 1904 at Port Elizabeth.  Constance Louise Beatrice Grose nee Collett died at Port Elizabeth on 6th June 1965, while her daughter Constance was living at Lecanto in Florida when she died on 5th December 1999.

 

 

 

 

62O40

William Edwin Collett was the eldest son of William Edwin Collett (1850-1902) of Leytonstone in London and Port Elizabeth in South Africa and his wife Anna Susanna Basson (1860-1945) of Uitenhage and Port Elizabeth.  It seems likely that William was born at Port Elizabeth around 1884, although the date and place are not confirmed.  What is known is that William and his family lived in a property called Cadles in the Van Stadens River Valley near Port Elizabeth.  The only known fact about him is that he died in 1957.

 

 

 

 

62O41

Horace Owen Collett was the second son of William and Anna Collett of Port Elizabeth where he was probably born around 1888.  He later married Lillian J Norton, but no further information about him or his wife, or whether they had any children, has been discovered at this time.

 

 

 

 

62O42

Reginald Harry Collett was the third son of William and Anna Collett of Port Elizabeth in South Africa. It is possible that he was also born at Port Elizabeth around 1890, but it has been confirmed that he died in died 1961.

 

 

 

 

62O44

Florence Louisa Collett was born at Hoxton in 1880, her birth recorded at Shoreditch (Ref. 1c 69) during the second quarter of that year, the eldest child of Charles Frederick Collett and his first wife Louisa Grist.  She one year old in the census of 1881, when she was living with her parents at 115 Shaftesbury Street in Shoreditch.  Shortly after that census day, her family was extended with the birth of a sister for Florence but, for whatever reason, a couple of years later, their father walked away from his young family, leaving the two sisters in the sole care of their mother.  Although unusual at that time, her parents may or may not have been divorced, when Florence’s father took up with his second ‘wife’ or partner.

 

 

 

By 1891, her father and his new lady, already had a son, who was followed later by the birth of twin daughters.  Neither that family or that of Florence, her sister and her mother, have been discovered in 1891, while both groups were identified with the census returns for 1901.  According to the census that year, Florence Collett from Hoxton was 21 and a tie and scarf maker, living at Hoxton New Town with her mother and younger sister Eleanor (below), who were also employed in tie and scarf making.  It was the same situation in 1911, by which time Florence Louisa Collett from Shoreditch was 31 and simply a tie maker. 

 

 

 

She remained unmarried all her life, and was still residing within the Shoreditch area of London with her sister Eleanor, when she died at the age of 81.  The death of Florence L Collett was recorded at Shoreditch register office (Ref. 5d 625) during the first quarter of 1962.

 

 

 

 

62O45

Eleanor Gertrude Collett, whose birth was recorded at Islington (Ref. 1b 435) during the last three months of 1881, was later said to be born at Hoxton (in 1901) and Islington (in 1911).  After not being identified anywhere in the census of 1891, Eleanor Collett from Hoxton was 19 and was working with her mother and older sister Florence (above) as a tie and scarf maker in 1901, while living at Hoxton New Town within the Shoreditch registration district of London.  Ten year later, as Eleanor Gertrude Collett from Islington, she was 29 and a tie maker who was still living with her family at Shoreditch.  Following the death of her mother at Shoreditch in 1937, Eleanor continued to live there with her sister Florence until she died in 1963, just over a year after her older sister passed away.  The death of Eleanor G Collett was recorded at Shoreditch register office (Ref. 5d 449) during the second quarter of 1963, at the age of 81.

 

 

 

 

62O46

Fredrick Charles Philip Collett was born at 85 St John Street Road in Holborn on 31st December 1887, according to his birth certificate.  In the following census returns his place of birth was recorded as Clerkenwell, despite his birth being recorded at Holborn register office (Ref. 1b 764) during the first quarter of 1888.  On the day of the census in 1901, Frederick C Collett was 13 and was living with his family in Clerkenwell.  St John Street is a long road that starts at Finsbury in the north and runs south through Clerkenwell to Holborn, so it is possible that the family’s address in 1901 was the same as thirteen years earlier.

 

 

 

Seven years later, when Frederick Charles Collett was 20 years old, he married (1) Alice Emily Webb on 12th July 1908 at St Thomas’ Church in Islington.  Alice was the daughter of Harry Webb and his wife Elizabeth Moore and was born at Islington in 1888.  Frederick’s occupation at the time of his wedding was that of a carman, as confirmed on the marriage certificate.  It is possible that the couple’s first child was a honeymoon baby, either that or Alice was in the early days of her first pregnancy on her wedding day.  Three years after they were married, the couple already had two children and were still living in Islington, where Fred Collett from Clerkenwell was 23 and a mail van driver who was employed by the General Post Office, and his wife Alice Collett from Islington was 22.  Living there with them, were their two daughters, Mary Collett who was two and Ada Collett who was just seven months old, both of them born at Islington. 

 

 

 

Although it is most unusual, the census in 1911 reported on Fred Collett aged 23 and from Clerkenwell in two separate places in Islington.  The obvious one above, when he was with his wife and children, while the alternative census was completed by his parents, when they recorded that their married son was visiting them.  At that location, he was described again as Fred Collett from Clerkenwell who was 23, but whose occupation was not as accurately reported, as being that of a cabman delivering parcels.  During the next ten years, Alice gave birth to three more children, all of them born at Islington and, in each case, the mother’s maiden name was confirmed as Webb.

 

 

 

At the outbreak of the First World War Frederick initially joined the Rifle Brigade but later transferred to the Royal Engineers.  He reached the rank of sergeant and saw active service during the campaign.  He is seen in the photo on the right in uniform and with the medals he received after the war.  Sadly, a few years after the war, Alice Emily Collett nee Webb died at the age of 33, following a cerebral apoplexy which caused her to collapse in the street on 19th July 1921.  The death of Alice E Collett was recorded at Islington register office (Ref. 1b 248). 

That tragedy happened just six months after she had given birth to her last child, who was born while the family was living at 29 London Road in Islington.

 

 

 

The year after losing his wife, Frederick C Collett married (2) Louisa Prestage, the event recorded at the London Holborn register office (Ref. 1b 1382) during the third quarter of 1922.  After that, he and the family left the family home on London Road in Islington, when they travelled to Hammersmith.  Tragically that marriage was also short lived for Frederick, when he died at Hammersmith on 4th October 1928 after being with Louisa for just six years.  His death was recorded at Hammersmith register office (Ref. 1a 231) when he was just 40 years of age, following which he was buried nearby at Mortlake Cemetery.  At the time of his death he and Louisa were living at Duncane House in Duncane Road in Hammersmith and his occupation, as stated on the death certificate, was that of a (horse) mail driver.  The cause of death was given as a tubercular abscessed lung.  Frederick’s occupation around the time of the birth of his youngest child in Islington was that of a coal carman, as confirmed on the birth certificate for his son James.

 

 

 

62P27

Mary Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1909 at Islington

 

62P28

Ada May Collett

Born in 1910 at Islington

 

62P29

Lilian (Lily) R Collett

Born in 1912 at Islington

 

62P30

Henry F Collett

Born in 1915 at Islington

 

62P31

James Charles Collett

Born in 1921 at Islington

 

 

 

 

62O47

May Carter Collett, who was one half of a set of twins born to Charles Frederick Collett and his second wife Mary Ellen Carter.  She was born at Clerkenwell, with her birth recorded at Holborn register office (Ref. 1b 697/292) during the third quarter of 1894.  In both the 1901 and 1911 census records, as simply May Collett from Clerkenwell, she was living with her family at Clerkenwell in 1901, at the age of six, and again in 1911 when she was 16 and working as a lift attendance in a restaurant, by which time the family was living at Islington.

 

 

 

 

62O48

Rose Carter Collett was the younger twin sister of My Carter Collett (above), who was born at Clerkenwell but whose birth was also recorded at Holborn register office (Ref. 1b 697/295) during the third quarter of 1894.  She was the last child born to Charles Frederick Collett by his second wife Mary Ellen Carter and was six years old in the Clerkenwell census of 1901 and was 16 years old in April 1911 when she was still living with her family but at Islington, from where she was working with her twin sister at a nearby restaurant, as a kitchen maid.

 

 

 

 

62O49

Horace Leslie Collett was born at Campbell’s Creek in Victoria on 6th January 1888.  He was baptised at Prahran in Victoria on 19th February 1888, the eldest child of Horace Wellesley Hemming with his first wife Alice Olivia Ardlie.  His occupation was that of a law clerk in a solicitor’s office, and he married Dora May Kent at the Methodist Church on Glendeag Grove in Malvern, Victoria, on 30th October 1913.  Dora was born at Caulfield in 1890, the elder daughter of George Samuel Kent and Emma Phillis Bisdee, of Park Crescent in Caulfield.  Their marriage produced two sons before Horace suffered a premature death at Richmond in Victoria on 17th September 1937 when he was 49 years of age.  Dora lived a long life and died at Caulfield in 1970.

 

 

 

62P32

George Wellesley Collett

Born in 1914 at Caulfield, Victoria

 

62P33

Harold Wellesley Collett

Born in 1918 at Caulfield, Vic: died 1918

 

 

 

 

62O50

Samuel Hemming Collett was born at Williamstown in Victoria on 31st December 1889, the second and last child of Alice Olivia Collett before she was divorced from Horace W H Collett.  He was only three years old when he died at Campbell’s Creek, Victoria, on 12th July 1894, where he was buried the following day.

 

 

 

 

62O51

Annette Christina Collett was born at Oakleigh in Victoria in 1895, the third child of Horace W H Collett who was born two years prior to his divorce from Alice Olivia Ardlie who was not Annette’s mother.  She married Charles Henry Hall Young in Victoria during 1924 and died at Huntingdale, Victoria, on 20th February 1977.  For around the last seven years of her life, she resided at 268 North Road in Oakleigh.

 

 

 

 

62O52

John Wellesley Collett, who was known as Jack, was born at Campbell’s Creek, Victoria, on 26th June 1900, the third child of Horace W H Collett, and the only child by his second wife Adelaide Saville.  He was a coil maker and he married Hilda Myrtle Dawson in Victoria during 1926.  Once married the couple settled 14 Errard Street North in Ballarat, Victoria, but on the occasion of the death of John Wellesley Collett he was living at Carnegie in Victoria in 1955.  His wife Hilda was the daughter of Harry and Alice Dawson and was born at North Carlton in Lincolnshire, England during 1905.  The last twenty years of her life were spent as a widow, having died at Prahran in 1975.

 

 

 

 

62O53

Beryl Victoria Collett was born at Ballarat in Victoria in 1914, the daughter of Horace W H Collett by his third wife Florence.  She was married to Henry MacPherson, who was known as Harry, at St Silas' Church in the Albert Park district of south Melbourne on 25th December 1937.  No record of any children is known, while it was at Prahran in Victoria that Beryl Victoria MacPherson passed away during 1970.

 

 

 

The detailed report of the couple’s wedding was printed in the Melbourne newspaper The Age, as follows:

 

Salmon Pink for Maids.  Two grown-up maids and two children attended Miss Beryl Victoria Collett when she was married to Mr Henry McPherson at St Silas's Church of England, Albert Park, on Christmas Day.  The bride is the younger daughter of the late Mr H W H Collett and of Mrs F Collett, of Albert Park; The bride groom is the eldest son of the late Mr McPherson and of Mrs McPherson, of Bolton. England. The grown-up brides-maids were Misses N Brownfleld and A Harbor, and the younger maid was the bride’s niece, Miss June Young.  Little Pauline Casemore was the flower girl, Mr A Wood was the best man, and Mr F A Prowse the groomsman.  The bride was a lovely picture as she entered the church on the arm of her brother, Mr W Collett, who gave her away.  Her satin frock was of a rich deep cream shade, and was cut on long straight lines.  The neckline was heart-shaped, and was caught at the corners with clusters of orange blossom, the skirt extending to form a wide, full train.  A beautiful hand-worked veil, mounted on cream tulle, was caught to her head with a halo of orange blossom and leaves, and trailed far out beyond the train, and she carried a shower, bouquet of water lilies and frangipani.  All the attendants wore attractive frocks of salmon pink taffeta, cut on straight lines, with fully flared skirts.  The neckline, shoulder-line and sleeves were unusually fashioned with upstanding peaks, mid the halos in their hair were also of taffeta, with tulle veils reaching to the shoulders.  The brides-maids carried bouquets, and the flower girl a gold basket of delphiniums.  After the ceremony, a reception was held at The Palms, where salmon pink and blue flowers were used in decoration.”

 

 

 

 

62O54

Walter Hemming Collett was born at Ballarat in Victoria in 1916, the last child of Horace Wellesley Hemming Collett and Florence Tregoning, his third wife.  Walter was an engineer and was around twenty-five years of age when he married Phyllis Lilian Scott in Victoria during 1941.  Phyllis was known as Billie and was born on 23rd November 1918, and she presented Walter with two sons.  From 1977, the family’s home address was 1 Jackson Street in the Croydon area of Victoria.  It was also in Victoria that Walter Hemming Collett died on 24th May 1983, following which he was buried at Lilydale Lawn Cemetery in Lilydale, Victoria.  When Phyllis Lilian Collett died on 26th February 2009, she was buried with her husband at Lilydale Lawn Cemetery.

 

 

 

62P34

Robert John Collett

Born after 1941; had passed by 2019

 

62P35

Geoffrey Alan Collett

Born after 1941; had passed by 2019

 

 

 

 

62O55

George Augustus Collett was born at Hawksburn, South Yarra in Victoria during 1889, the first-born child of Ernest Augustus Plato Collett and Lucie Alice Batten.  During his life George had a variety of jobs of work, including a clerk, an orchardist, a poultry farmer, and a bombardier with the military.  He married Alice Jane Minnie Short in Victoria during 1915 and, from 1924 there were two addresses at which the pair of them lived.  They were Westhock in Baxter, just south of Frankston in Victoria, and Sheffield Road in Montrose, Victoria.  It was at Heidelberg in Victoria where George Augustus Collett died in 1970.

 

 

 

 

62O56

Florence Agnes Collett was born at Malvern in Victoria during 1890, the second child of Ernest and Lucie Collett.  She died at Kew, Victoria in 1977.  During her life she resided at Barkley Avenue in Burney, Victoria.

 

 

 

 

62O59

Ernest Oswald Collett was born at Caulfield, Victoria in 1897, another child of Ernest and Lucie Collett.  On leaving school he took up work as a clerk, but then enlisted for military service in Melbourne and was assigned to the 8th Brigade of the 29th Royal Field Artillery as a Bombardier Ernest Oswald Collett service number 19618.  He saw action in France during the Great War and suffered from gas poisoning on the battlefield, as a result of which he died in the 11th Stationary Hospital in Rouen, Haute-Normandie, on 28th September 1917.  The body of Ernest Oswald Collett was subsequently laid to rest at St Sever Cemetery Extension at Rouen, Block P, Plot 111, Row B, Grave 3b.  His military record confirmed the was 20 years old when he died and that his next-of-kin was his father Ernest Augustus Collett of Hokitika, Ferncroft Avenue, East Malvern in Victoria.

 

 

 

 

62O61

Linda Alice Bromell Collett was born at Caulfield, Victoria in 1902, the last child of Ernest Augustus Plato Collett and Lucie Alice Batten.  She was married to Leighton Torrence Thomas Martin in Victoria during 1926 and died at Concord in New South Wales on 24th June 1976.  The couple’s only known address was Fraser Street at Homebush in New South Wales during the early 1930s. Leighton T T Martin was born at Fremantle, Western Australia, on 6th February 1902, his occupation being that of an engineer.  Four years after being widowed, he was residing at 101 Port Hacking Road in Sylvania, New South Wales, where he died on 16th November 1980.  It was at Rookwood Cemetery in Rookwood, New South Wales, that he was buried.

 

 

 

 

62O62

Sylvia Eugenie Collett was born on 30th January 1901 at Silverton in New South Wales, the eldest of the two daughters of Edwin Reginald Collett and Annie Selma Jaeschke.  Sylvia was twenty-six years old when she married Archibald James Brown at Manthorpe Memorial Congregation Church in Unley, South Australia, on 19th February 1927, with whom she had a daughter Rosalie Brown.  Sylvia was seventy-one years of age when she died at Sale in Victoria on 2nd October 1972, and was buried at the Springvale Cemetery in Victoria.  Her passing was reported in the Melbourne The Age newspaper on Thursday 5th October as follows:  “BROWN, Sylvia Eugenie - suddenly died on October 2, at Sale, dearly loved wife of the late Archibald James, loving mother of Rosalie (Mrs. McLachlan) and mother-in-law of Arthur, and loving nana of Ian, John, Leigh.  In God's loving care.”  Archibald James Brown was born at Goodwood in South Australia on 3rd October 1884 and he died Malvern in Victoria on 1st September 1956.

 

 

 

Before she was married, Sylvia was at the centre of a court case, as reported in Adelaide Observer on Saturday 5th April 1924.  The newspaper article, reproduced below, was a record of the case, under the headline Woman Sent to Prison.

“Annie McDonald was charged, before Jlr K M Sabine, P M, at the Adelaide Police Court, with having stolen Ł8 10 Shillings, the property of Sylvia Collett, at the Home for Lienables, at Fullarton [a suburb of Adelaide within the South Australia city of Unley] on March 22.  She pleaded guilty.  Detective Sgt Allchurch said that Miss Collett and the defendant were employed at the home, and had occupied the same room.  Miss Collett left the money in a drawer.  The defendant took the money and went to the Plough and Harrow Hotel and bought half a bottle of whisky and half a bottle of gin.  When questioned by Plainclothes Constable Golding, the defendant said a gentleman friend gave her Ł4 10 Shillings.  Later she admitted having taken the money from the drawer at the borne, and added, ‘I am sorry I took it from the poor little girl. Tell her I only borrowed it.’  Evidence was submitted by Sylvia Collett and Plainclothes Constable Kottage, of Unley.  The latter said that when questioned as to the name of the man who gave her the Ł4 10 Shillings, the defendant added ‘I can find out.  That’s what I’m here for.’  Asked why the man had given her the money, the defendant confessed that she had taken it from the home.  She said she had given some of the cash to her mother and some to her sister.  Sgt Allchurch intimated that there was a previous conviction against the defendant for unlawful possession in 1917.  The defendant in her statement said she had intended to return the money.  The P M said that in consideration of her promise of restitution, he would order only two months’ imprisonment.”

 

 

 

 

62O63

Levinia Evelene Collett, who was known as Venie, was born at Birkenhead in South Australia on 21st October 1904, the younger of the two children of Edwin Reginald Collett and Annie Selma Jaeschke.  She married bricklayer Henry Gordon Spencer in South Australia during 1922 and presented him with three children.  They were Gordon Collett Spencer who was born on 21st April 1923 at Semaphore, Selma Dorothy Patricia Spencer who was born on 26th September 1925 at Peterhead, and Harry Spencer who was born at Mildura, Victoria on 1st December 1930.  He was known as Goog and he died in New South Wales on 30th July 1961.  Daughter Pat was married and, as Pat Cockerham, she died at Wilkes General Hospital, North Wilkesboro in North Carolina on 14th March 1962.  It was as Lavinia Evelyn Spencer that she died in New South Wales and was buried at Point Clare Cemetery in Point Clare on 27th May 1994.  From 1977 until the day she passed away, as she was approaching her one hundredth birthday, she lived at 47 Jonathan Street, Warner’s Bay in New South Wales.  Her headstone at grave number twelve, includes the inscription “In Loving Memory of Lavinia Evelyn Spencer [nee Collett] 1904 – 1994, buried 27-5-1994, Mother of Gordon, Pat and Harry”.  She was buried with her husband, who was buried at Point Clare Cemetery twelve months earlier on 18th May 1993.  His headstone inscription stated that he was a veteran of Gallipoli and France, and had been born in 1896.

 

 

 

 

62P1

Doris Evelyn Collett was born in London in 1904, her birth recorded at Lewisham register office during the third quarter of that year, when her parents were confirmed as Ernest Edwin Collett and Ellen Hocknell.  It was also in the Lewisham area of London that Doris was six years of age in the census of 1911.  She later married Christopher Whitaker, their wedding recorded at Lewisham register office (Ref. 1d 2102) during the fourth quarter of 1928.

 

 

 

 

62P2

Ernest Leonard Collett was born at Lewisham in London on 27th March 1909, the son of Ernest and Ellen Collett who, in the Lewisham census of 1911 was two years old.  The later marriage of Ernest L Collett and Jean M Steele was recorded at Camberwell register office (Ref. 1d 2144) during the third quarter of 1936.  Jean was born in the Lambeth area of London where her birth was recorded (Ref. ) during the second quarter of 1913, when her mother’s maiden name was Groves.  Nothing further is known about the couple, except that Ernest Leonard Collett died in 1986, his death recorded at Canterbury register office (Ref. 16 266) during the third quarter of that year.

 

 

 

 

62P3

Wayne Neville Collett was born after 1931 at Regina in Saskatchewan, the only child of Herbert Neville Collett and Janet Marie Bonthron.  He married Catherine Kimberley Elizabeth MacLachlan on 10th November 1966 at Chilliwack in British Columbia.  Catherine was the daughter of John Murdock MacLachlan and Ann Oliver MacClure.

 

 

 

62Q1

Elizabeth Annamarie Collett

Date of birth not disclosed

 

62Q2

Meghan Catherine Collett

Date of birth not disclosed

 

 

 

 

62P4

Roberta Frances Collett, whose date of birth is not known, was the eldest daughter of Les and Vera Collett, and was born at Regina.  She married Anthony Roy Theaker on 4th August 1962 at St. Peters Anglican Church in Regina.  Tony was born on 19th June 1938 at Sacramento in California, USA, the son of James Arthur Theaker and Ila Faye Welliver.  Roberta was a teacher in Calgary, Vancouver, and Regina, while Tony was an insurance agent and farmer at Wilcox Saskatchewan.  Their marriage produced a son for the couple, Trent Peter Theaker.  Tony Theaker died at Calgary in Alberta on 22nd November 2000, while Roberta was still living in 2010.

 

 

 

 

62P5

Geraldine Leslie Collett, whose date of birth is not known, was the second of three daughters of Eric Leslie (Les) Collett and Vera Helene Medforth, and born at Regina.  Geraldine married Reginald William Hopkins on 4th August 1975 at St. Georges-on-the-Hill Anglican Church in Islington, Ontario.  Reginald was the only son of William Rowland Hopkins and Norah Carolyn Erson.  Over the years, Gerri presented her husband with two children, Shawn Michael Hopkins, and Daren Andrew Hopkins.  And it is to Gerri that we are indebted for the tremendous amount of information that she kindly supplied during 2010, to enable a major update of this family line to be completed.

 

 

 

 

62P6

Dianne Mae Collett, whose date of birth is not known, was the youngest daughter of Les and Vera Collett, and was born at Regina.  She married David Bruce Melville Ness at Calgary on 30th June 1973.  David was the son of Thomas Robertson Melville-Ness and Alice Isabelle Richards.  Dianne Mae Collett is Dave’s second wife and they have no children.

 

 

 

 

62P9

Cecil Frederick Collett was born at Chippenham in 1928, where his birth was recorded (Ref. 5a 109) during the first quarter of the year, when his mother’s maiden name was confirmed as Butler.  He would appear to be the only child of Frederick Collett and Vera Lilian Butler.  He was twenty-seven years old when he became a married man, the marriage of Cecil F Collett and Pamela J Hancock recorded at Chippenham register office (Ref. 7c 855) during the second quarter of 1955.

 

 

 

 

62P10

Keith Collett was born at Chippenham in 1929, the first of three children of Herbert Lewin Collett and Florence May Smith.  His birth was also recorded there (Ref. 5a 94) during the last quarter of the year, when his mother’s maiden name was confirmed as Smith.  It was during the first three months of 1957 when his marriage to Myra P P Mason was recorded at Chippenham register office (Ref. 7c 1077).

 

 

 

 

62P11

Frederick T Collett was born at Chippenham in 1934, his birth recorded at Chippenham (Ref. 5a 99) during the second quarter of the year.  The birth record also confirmed that his mother’s maiden name was Smith.  Nothing further is known about him at this time.

 

 

 

 

62P12

Joan Collett was born at Chippenham in 1937, the last of the three children of Herbert Lewin and Florence May Collett.  As with her two older siblings, her birth was also recorded at Chippenham register office (Ref. 5a 93) during the second quarter of that year, when the mother’s maiden name was confirmed as Smith.

 

 

 

 

62P13

David Horace Collett was born on 16th November 1905 at Petone near Lower Hutt in the Wellington district of the north island of New Zealand.  He later married Mabel Whaler on 6th January 1933 with whom he had two children.  Tragically, Mabel died only six years after the marriage on 17th July 1939, while David Horace Collett never remarried and died on 7th April 1983 and was buried at Karori Cemetery in Wellington.

 

 

 

62Q3

John David Collett

Born in 1933

 

62Q4

Pauline Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1935

 

 

 

 

62P14

Claude Frederick Collett was born on 22nd May 1907 at Petone near Lower Hutt in Wellington.  He later married Eileen Frances Mary Abbott on St Valentine’s Day 1936 at Basilica in Wellington. Eileen was born on 4th November 1912 at Wellington and was the daughter of Oliver Power Abbott and his wife Catherine Mary Patterson.  Claude Frederick Collett died on 27th October 1961 at the Home of Compassion in Wellington and was buried on 30th October 1961 at Pauatahanui about fifteen miles north of Wellington.

 

 

 

62Q5

Kevin Michael Collett

Born in 1938

 

62Q6

Roger Oliver Collett

Born in 1939

 

62Q7

Catherine Frances Collett

Born in 1942

 

62Q8

Juliet Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1944

 

62Q9

Christopher Edwin Collett

Born in 1950

 

 

 

 

62P15

Kenneth Paul Collett was born at Petone near Lower Hutt in Wellington on 26th August 1908, the son of Horace Claude Collett and Elizabeth Farr.  For what every reason, the most likely being overcrowding in the family home with him having six younger siblings, Kenneth went to live with his grandmother Alice Marguerite Washer, formerly Collett nee Radford, in Auckland when he was still quite young, and while he was there his received his primary education.  However, he was 13 years old when he returned to the family home from where he attended St Patrick’s College in Wellington during 1922 and 1923.

 

 

 

After leaving school he initially worked for the Wellington-based company of J O'Brien, an import-export firm, after which he spent some time employed by Hope Gibbons, another Wellington company.  With the coming of the Second World War Kenneth joined the Royal New Zealand Air Force in 1942 and eventually reached the rank of warrant officer.  That same year he did his basic training at Rotorua before sailing to Canada on the 'Bloemfontein' during August 1942, where he completed further training.  By early 1943 he was with Bomber Command in the United Kingdom, attached to 460 Squadron of the Royal Australian Air Force.

 

 

 

It was at 22.54 hours on 22nd April 1944 that he took off from RAF Binbrook in Lincolnshire, flying an Avro Lancaster Mark III Bomber with 460 Squadron, and headed for Dusseldorf on a bombing mission.  During the mission the Lancaster was intercepted by a night fighter and shot down from 21,000 feet, crashing at Sythen, four kilometres north-east of Haltern in the North Rhine area of Germany killing Flight Sergeant Russell Allen of the RAAF.  The records show that Kenneth Collett parachuted to safety but was captured three days later, together with the other five surviving members of the crew.  On 26th April 1944 the men were taken to Stalag Luft 3 when Kenneth was assigned the prisoner number 4183.

 

 

 

However, before he was imprisoned in Stalag Luft 3 he was first taken to hospital because of wounds he had sustained during the crash.  During the previous month Stalag Luft 3 - either Sagan or Belaria – was the site of the mass escape of officers which took place in late March 1944, after which many of those who were recaptured were handed over to the Gestapo and executed on the direct orders of Adolf Hitler.  Kenneth’s Collett's administrative abilities led to him being given the role of Administrative Officer by his fellow prisoners.  He was also involved in the infamous 'Death March', during which he fashioned a sled made from a chair.  He also managed to obtain eight food parcels which he shared amongst his fellow prisoners.

 

 

 

After being freed by the liberating American armed forces he was flown back to England where he spent time in hospital before being repatriated.  On his later return to New Zealand he resumed his customs import-export work by helping out a friend, Paddy O'Callaghan.  He was recommended to and was subsequently employed by Reid & Reid, a Wellington-based liquor merchant firm, where he stayed for the next five years.  Through a close association with the Williamson family, he became the South Pacific Manager for the Shantung Shipping Line and was later Managing Secretary for Miss Liana Williamson, a position requiring extensive world travel.  Upon the death of Liana Williamson in 1969, Ken Collett retired at the age of 61. 

 

 

 

According to his military record Kenneth Paul Collett was a Roman Catholic, whilst there is no mention of him ever being married or having children.  The final twenty-five years of his life was spent in Wellington, where he died on 30th September 1994 when he was 86, following which he buried in Karori Cemetery on 4th October 1994.  In 2017 his great nephew Phillip John Collett (Ref. 62R1) provided some additional family details, including that Kenneth P Collett was also a member of the crew on board the famous Lancaster bomber G for George.  The aircraft survived over ninety missions and ended up in the Canberra War Memorial Museum, where it remains to this day.

 

 

 

 

62P16

Desmond Bruce Collett was born at Petone near Lower Hutt in Wellington on 27th March 1910.  Much later in his life, when he was forty-one, he married Betty Ellingham in 1951 with whom he had one son.  His wife Betty was born on 24th August 1911.  Desmond Bruce Collett died on 23rd August 1981 at Hastings near Napier in the Hawkes Bay district of the north island of New Zealand.

 

 

 

62Q10

Jonathan Desmond Collett

Born in 1953

 

 

 

 

62P17

Clement Joseph Collett was born at Petone near Lower Hutt in Wellington on 9th October 1912 and he later married Joyce Rownall in 1936, Joyce having been born on 8th October 1916.  Clement Joseph Collett died on 30th October 1978 and was buried at Waikumete Cemetery in Henderson to the west of Auckland on 1st November 1978.  At some time in his later life he resided at 5 Tawa Road in Te Atatu North and lived near to Mrs Anne Stent, whose young son Richard was paid by Clement to tend to his garden.  The Stent family also provided Clem with odd meals and even took him into their home at Christmas time.  Below are some of the recollections that Richard Stent has of his neighbour Clem Collett during the years from 1961 to 1979.

 

 

 

“I lived as a neighbour to Clem at 11 Tawa Road with my three sisters.  Clem to me, as a young boy, was always an old man.  He had no TV, no letterbox and no car and walked everywhere in his long grey overcoat.  To me he was a retired bachelor and he never had visitors.  He drank a lot and gambled on the horses.  He never told me he had any family, and he never ever mentioned his wife or any of their children.  He was an enigma to me and I often think about him and why was he living alone in a small two-roomed shack the way he did.  His shack was there since 1954 from photos I have of it, which was around the same time that my parents built their home there in July 1954.  The shack had no power or sewerage and he did not have a flush toilet.  Clem had no letterbox, no driveway and no car.

 

 

 

I was 13 or 14 in 1974 when I worked for him.  It was slave labour; a whole day, normally Sunday, for just $5.  I chopped weeds and mowed the lawns with a Flymo hover mower, the only one in the street.  Clem had a ľ acre plot with a huge garden.  Often he would send me up some tree to trim back the branches.  He was a real green thumb – his flowers and bulbs were legendary around Tawa Road.  During the spring each year the yellow daffodils and other colours were a picture.  [Somewhere my Dad has photos of these in bloom].  One day my eldest sister and myself were in deep trouble because of this floral display.  She told me that Clem’s flowers were in bloom and we should get some.  We snuck over hoping nobody could see, but we were wrong.  Another neighbour dobbed us in and told our father – we were told off, sent to bed without dinner and had to apologise to Clem in person for the theft.

 

 

 

I would work most summers on his property and also would go shopping for him.  We knew he drank and sometimes he would be heavily hung-over from his Saturday night drinking sessions.  Clem would scribble his shopping list on the back of a used TAB ticket, and I would drag my trolley up to the nearest dairy (milkbar) where he had a tab.  He used old style things; chicory coffee in a bottle and HP sauce are two items I recall.  Condensed milk was also popular with him.  I suppose now that he did not have a fridge, so his shopping had to match that.  He was always courteous to me – we had a common passion working with his garden and watching things grow and bloom.  He would be away from time to time, off gambling on the horses I suppose.  Sometimes he would listen to his battery radio to some race or another.  If it was hot, he sometimes had lemonade for me.  I did not know then what Wingatui or Trentham were, which he would travel to by train, later to discover they were racecourses.

 

 

 

As a family we would have Clem over for dinner periodically.  He was always on his best behaviour whenever in our home, a real gentleman with his thankfulness.  My mother’s cooking was probably a treat for him.  He was with us at 11 Tawa Road for Christmas Day in 1974.  Our extended family and grandfather were also there – over 30 people.  He was fairly quiet but I learnt many years later that my Dad had bailed him out of jail, he having spent that Christmas Eve locked up for drunkenness.  I did not attend his funeral in 1978 – my final year at school in the 7th Form, but I worked out it was around my final exams when my father attended; I regret not going myself now.  The final thing my Dad said about Clem is that he was very sick in hospital during October 1978.  Dad tried to cheer him up and told him that he would be back soon to see his lovely spring flowers, to which Clem responded ‘No I’m not, I won’t be leaving here’ (meaning the hospital).  Sadly, he was right and he never went back to his home at 5 Tawa Road.

 

 

 

Postscript:  His shack was eventually bulldozed, along with his garden and trees, and now has a block of flats built on the plot.  I often wonder if any of his bulbs survived and sprout there now.  I learnt a lot of things from Clem.  He was kind and generous to me as a young man and he also gave me a lot of stamps, as that was another of his hobbies and, on another day, he gave me a pair of Polaroid sunglasses, which was most unexpected.”

 

 

 

62Q11

Evan Collett

Born in 1936

 

62Q12

Maxine Collett

Born in 1938

 

62Q13

Neil Collett

Born in 1940

 

62Q14

Ronald Collett

Born in 1942

 

62Q15

Ireala Collett

Born in 1944

 

62Q16

Brian Collett

Born on 29.05.1956

 

 

 

 

62P18

Clive Emmett Collett was born at Petone near Lower Hutt in Wellington on 29th December 1915, one of the sons of Horace Claude Collett and his wife Elizabeth Farr.  He later married Joyce Marie Thomas on 6th April 1940, following which the marriage produced two sons for Clive and Joyce.  During the Second World War, Clive served as an infantryman in the 3rd New Zealand Division and saw active service in the Solomon Islands campaign.  While Clive Emmett Collett died at Nelson on New Zealand’s South Island on 3rd October 2003, he was buried six days later on 9th October 2003 at St Peter Chanel Catholic Church in Motueka, which lies about thirty miles north of Nelson.  It was Clive Emmett who gathered much of the information regarding his uncle, and the younger brother of his father, Clive Franklyn Collett. 

 

 

 

62Q17

Paul Clive Collett

Born in 1945

 

62Q18

Glenn Allen Collett

Born in 1948

 

 

 

 

62P19

Joy Mary Collett was born at Petone near Lower Hutt in Wellington on 1st March 1917.  In 1938 she married Cyril Balmforth who was born in 1917.  It would appear that Joy and Cyril lived all of their life together at Wellington as it was there that Joy Mary Balmforth nee Collett died on 5th October 1951 and was buried at the Karori Cemetery.  Cyril lived the next thirty years as a widower before he passed away on 30th December 1982.

 

 

 

62Q19

Colleen A Balmforth

Born on 05.01.1939

 

62Q20

Thomas Ed Balmforth

Born in 1941

 

 

 

 

62P20

Philip Edwin Collett was born at Petone near Lower Hutt in Wellington on 26th May 1919.  There is currently no record to suggest that he ever married.  What is known is that he died at Hutt Hospital in Lower Hutt on 18th November 1987 and was buried in Taita Lawn Cemetery at Lower Hutt on 20th November 1987.

 

 

 

 

62P21

John Anthony Collett was born at Petone near Lower Hutt in Wellington on 9th July 1920.  He later married Dorrell Jean Sprange on 8th March 1947 at Knox Church in Christchurch on New Zealand’s South Island.  John Anthony Collett, who was known as Tony, died on 21st January 2000 (Ref/ 2000/2147) at Hillsborough Hospital in Auckland and was buried there on 25th January 2000 at the Waikumete Lawn Cemetery.  His widow survived him by over seventeen years, when Dorrell Jean Collett nee Sprange passed away on 6th November 2017.  Her obituary was published in The New Zealand Herald on 8th November, as follows:  “Collett, Dorrell Jean.  Passed away peacefully at Sunset Retirement Village on 6th November, 2017, aged 94 years.  Dearly loved wife of the late John Anthony (Tony), much loved mother and mother-in-law to Sandra and Dave and Lorena (deceased).  Loving grandma and great granny to Jen, Cheryl, Steven and their families.  She will be greatly missed by all.  A service will be held in the Garden Chapel of the Morrison Funeral Home, 220 Universal Drive, Henderson on Friday 10th November, 2017 at 1.30 p.m., the funeral then leaving for the Waikumete Cemetery.”

 

 

 

62Q21

Sandra Elizabeth Collett

Born on 07.07.1948

 

62Q22

Lorena Dorrell Collett

Born on 13.08.1951

 

 

 

 

62P22

Marion Renee Collett Cumming was born at Lambeth in London on 16th March 1917, the only child of Clive Franklyn Collett and Margaret Cumming, her birth recorded at Lambeth register office (Ref. 1d 627) during the second quarter of 1917.  Marion was just nine months when her father died in a flying accident during December of that same year.  It is now believed that her father was never married to her mother, possibly due to his very busy schedule as a fighter pilot during the Great War.  New information received from Justin Wade in New Zealand in May 2010 also confirms, that following the death of her father, Marion and her mother Margaret remained living in England after the war and that they were both still living there during the Second World War.

 

 

 

It was during that time in her life, when she was in her mid-twenties, that she met Ronald Lindsay Wade.  He was from Adelaide in South Australia and was attached to the Royal Air Force as a bomber pilot.  At the end of the war in 1945, Ronald returned to Australia from where he wrote to Marion asking her to join him there, so that they could be married.  And so, it was that Marion Renee Collett Cumming left England for Australia, where she married Ronald Lindsay Wade.  No actual details of the wedding are known at this time, although it is hoped further information will be received in due course regarding this and her life down under.

 

 

 

What is known at this time is that Marion presented Ronald with a daughter Mandy Wade who was born in Australia.  In 2005 Mrs Mandy Perry, nee Wade, was the guest of honour at the “Wings Over New Zealand” festival of military and commercial aircraft at Omaka, when she was interviewed on New Zealand radio about her grandfather Captain Clive Franklyn Collett, the First World War fighter pilot. 

 

 

 

During the interview she commented that she was currently living in Australia at that time.  It is also possible that she was not the only child of Marion Collett and Ronald Wade, and it is again hoped that further details will follow.  See Clive Franklyn Collett for details of the interview published in the Malborough Post.  The only other known fact about Marion Wade nee Collett Cumming, is that she died in Australia on 3rd September 1984.  The father of Justin Wade, who kindly supplied this information, was the brother of Ronald Wade.

 

 

 

 

62P23

Edwin Robert Chateauneuf Collett was born in New Zealand on 31st March 1912 and was the eldest child of Norman Edwin Collett and Kathleen Emily Tuthill.  When he became a married man, he and his wife had four children, one of which was Christine Collett, the mother of Steve Outtrim in New Zealand, who made contact in 2019, and from whom more details may be provided.

 

 

 

 

62P24

Eric Franklin Collett was born in New Zealand on 25th October 1913.  It is not known if he was ever married but he died on 6th April 1993 at Tauranga on the Bay of Plenty where he was buried on 10th April 1993.

 

 

 

 

62P27

Mary Elizabeth Collett was born at Islington, either near the end of 1908 or earlier in 1909, the eldest child of Frederick Charles Collett and his first wife Alice Emily Webb, who were married there during July in 1908.  The birth of Mary Elizabeth Collett was recorded at Islington register office (Ref. 1b 272) during the first three months of 1909 and two years old in the Islington census of 1911.  She was 21 years old when she married Edward J Fenton, their wedding day recorded at Holborn register office (Ref. 1b 758) during the first quarter of 1930.

 

 

 

 

62P28

Ada May Collett was born at Islington on 24th August 1910, her birth recorded there (Ref. 1b 219) during the fourth quarter of the year.  By the time of the national census for Islington in April 1911 she was simply listed as Ada Collett aged seven months, the daughter of Fred Collett and Alice Webb.  She later married Solomon Smith of Coventry in 1935, with whom she had two children.  Solomon was born at Coventry and he was the son of John William Smith and his wife Sarah Ann Tolley, his birth recorded there (Ref. 6d 514) during the second quarter of 1911.  The marriage of Ada M Collett and Solomon Smith was recorded at Brentford register office in North London (Ref. 3a 921) during the third quarter of 1935.

 

 

 

Their son Cyril James Smith was born on 9th November 1936 and their daughter Doreen was born twelve years later in December 1948.  Later in their lives, Ada and Solomon moved to Gloucester to be close to where their daughter Doreen was living at Cinderford, in the Forest of Dean.  And it was at Gloucester that Solomon died in 1999, closely followed by Ada in 2000.

 

 

 

 

62P29

Lillian R Collett, who was known as Lily, was born at Islington in 1912, where her birth was recorded (Ref. 1b 466) during the fourth quarter of the year, when her mother’s maiden name was confirmed as Webb.  It was again as Lillian R Collett that her marriage to George A Hicks was recorded at Fulham register office (Ref. 1a 863) during the second quarter of 1936.  It was previously reported here, that the family believed Lily had died during the Second World War, while it is now confirmed that it was just over three years after peace was declared that she died at the age of only 36.  The death of Lillian R Hicks was recorded at the Somerset Bath register office (Ref. 7a 19) during the last quarter of 1948.

 

 

 

 

62P30

Henry F Collett was born at Islington in 1915, his birth recorded there (Ref. 1b 400) during the last three months of the year, when his mother’s maiden name was confirmed as Webb.  He was only a few days old, when the death of Henry F Collett was recorded at Islington register office (Ref. 1b 402) within the same quarter of the year.

 

 

 

 

62P31

James Charles Collett was born at 29 London Road in Islington on 4th January 1921, his birth recorded at Islington register office (Ref. 1b 452), the youngest child of Frederick Charles Collett and Alice Emily Webb.  Tragically, his mother suffered at premature death later that same year, after which his father re-married.  Further tragedy hit the family when James was only seven years old, with the death of his father in 1928.  Whilst still in his teenage years, James was conscripted into the Royal Artillery but, after just forty days, he was discharged on medical grounds.  He then spent the war years in London, working at the Royal Navy stores in Harrods.  He also worked as a fire watcher and volunteer fireman.

This photograph of James was taken during 2001.

 

 

 

He married Peggy June Battersby on 4th April 1953 at Christchurch near Bournemouth in Hampshire.  Peggy had been born on 23rd September 1931 and was the daughter of Thomas H Battersby and Eva Coote Johnston, her birth recorded at Bournemouth register office (Ref. 2b 909).  Sadly, Peggy died when she was only 52 years of age on 14th January 1984, the death of Peggy June Collett being recorded at Bournemouth register office (Ref. 23 305).  Her husband survived for a further twenty-one year, at the end of which the death of James Charles Collett was also recorded at Bournemouth, after he passed away at the age of 81 on 15th June 2002.

 

 

 

62Q23

Shirley Ann Collett

Born in 1954 at Bournemouth

 

62Q24

David John Collett

Born in 1957 at Christchurch

 

 

 

 

62Q3

John David Collett was born at Christchurch on 25th August 1933, the older of the two children of David Horace Collett and his wife Mabel Whaler.  John later married Pauline Mary Blogg on 12th May 1962 with whom he had six sons.  It was his third son, Geoff, who provided new family details in 2011, following publication of an article about his great great uncle Clive Franklyn Collett in the Nelson Mail in April 2011.  It was during the subsequent exchange of emails that Geoff said his father was still living in New Zealand, where he died in 2016, either sometime during the evening of 12th September, or the early hours of 13th September.  John spent most of his working life as a surveyor with the Lands and Survey Department.  He also had a passion for gardening, which seems a common theme among many of the members of this and other Collett family lines.

 

 

 

62R1

Phillip John Collett

Born in 1963

 

62R2

Paul David Collett

Born in 1964

 

62R3

Geoffrey Peter Collett

Born in 1966

 

62R4

Michael Anthony Collett

Born in 1968

 

62R5

Dean Joseph Collett

Born in 1970

 

62R6

Brent Patrick Collett

Born in 1971

 

 

 

 

62Q4

Pauline Elizabeth Collett was born on 6th June 1935, the daughter of David and Mabel Collett.  It was her nephew Phil (Phillip John) Collett of Karori, Wellington in New Zealand who informed of her death in 2022.  Upon being married, she became Pauline Elizabeth Bateup who passed away peacefully with her children Chris and Helen present on 8th January 2022.  Pauline had lived her entire life in Auckland and was a kind and outgoing person who spent her working years as an executive assistant, who had a passion for cooking, good food and good company.

 

 

 

 

62Q5

Kevin Michael Collett was born on 17th May 1938 at Wellington in New Zealand.

 

 

 

 

62Q6

Roger Oliver Collett was born on 21st October 1939 at Wellington in New Zealand where he later married Catherine Barbara Ellerm on 30th January 1965 at the Church of the Holy Cross in Mirmar.  Catherine was born also at Wellington on 13th May 1942 and she was the daughter of Percy Ellerm and his wife Gwendoline Letitia Wilson.

 

 

 

62R7

Martin Roger Collett

Born in 1965

 

62R8

Michelle Frances Collett

Born in 1967

 

62R9

Antony Gerard Collett

Born in 1975

 

 

 

 

62Q7

Catherine Frances Collett was born on 31st January 1942 at Wellington in New Zealand where she later married Gerald Bernard Wagg on 9th May 1964.  Gerald was born on 23rd September 1941 at Lower Hutt in Wellington and was the son of Terence and Rachel Wagg nee Fitzgerald.  The couple’s first child was born at Wellington, while the other three children were all born at Taupo in the Waikato district of the north island of New Zealand overlooking Lake Taupo.

 

 

 

62R10

Michael Damian Wagg

Born on 08.04.1965

 

62R11

Bernard Mark Wagg

Born on 02.02.1967

 

62R12

Claudine Mary Wagg

Born on 23.10.1970

 

62R13

Rebecca Therese Wagg

Born on 15.05.1975

 

 

 

 

62Q8

Juliet Elizabeth Collett was born on 12th March 1944 at Wellington where she later married Raymond Jones on 3rd June 1967.

 

 

 

62R14

Vanessa Jones

Date of birth unknown

 

62R15

Gregory Jones

Date of birth unknown

 

 

 

 

62Q9

Christopher Edwin Collett was born at Wellington on 8th May 1950.  His work may have taken him to Germany where, in his late twenties, he met Ingrid Reiger whom he married on 28th September 1978.  It has not been established whether the marriage produced any children for Edwin and Ingrid.

 

 

 

 

62Q10

Jonathan Desmond Collett was born in New Zealand on 28th May 1953 and he later married Donna Gibbons with whom he had a son who was born in Australia.

 

 

 

62R16

Adam Desmond Alister Collett

Born in 1987 in Australia

 

 

 

 

62Q11

Evan Collett was born in New Zealand on 24th October 1936 and he later married Ann Parker on 20th August 1960.

 

 

 

62R17

Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1961

 

62R18

Lyall Collett

Born on 04.11.1962

 

62R19

Ronald Collett

Born on 22.11.1965

 

62R20

Janine Collett

Born on 08.04.1970

 

 

 

 

62Q12

Maxine Collett was born in New Zealand on 22nd May 1938 and she later married (1) Trevor Burney on 8th June 1960.  Tragically Trevor died relatively young on 8th January 1986 but not before the marriage had produced three children for the couple.  Following Trevor’s death, Maxine then married (2) James McGindey on 26th March 1988.

 

 

 

62R21

Mark Burney

Born in 1962

 

62R22

Angela Burney

Born in 1965

 

61R23

Lorena Burney

Born in 1972

 

 

 

 

62Q13

Neil Collett was born in New Zealand on 12th December 1940 and he later married Pauline Harris on 7th June 1962.

 

 

 

62R24

Donna Maria Collett

Born in 1964

 

62R25

Dean Anthony Collett

Born on 24.07.1965

 

62R26

Tina Michelle Collett

Born on 16.09.1966

 

62R27

Shane Joseph Collett

Born in 1968

 

62R28

Cindy Ann Collett

Born on 07.11.1970

 

62R29

Gwendoline Rose Collett

Born on 06.07.1974

 

62R30

Belinda Jane Collett

Born on 12.01.1976

 

 

 

 

62Q14

Ronald Collett was born in New Zealand on 4th May 1942 and tragically died while still a young man on 16th October 1965.

 

 

 

 

62Q15

Ireala Collett was born in New Zealand on 2nd February 1944 and she later married Steven Nixon on 6th February 1965.  Their two children are Fiona Nixon, who was born on 18th July 1968, and Louise Nixon who was born on 3rd December 1970.

 

 

 

 

62Q17

Paul Clive Collett was born in New Zealand on 4th April 1945 and he tragically died when only eighteen years of age on 16th July 1963.

 

 

 

 

62Q18

Glenn Allen Collett was born in New Zealand on 2nd December 1948 and he later married Jacquie.

 

 

 

 

62Q19

Colleen A Balmforth was born at Wellington on 5th January 1939 and she later married Ian Jesson in 1960.

 

 

 

 

62Q20

Thomas Ed Balmforth was born at Wellington in October 1941 and he later married Alison Maunder in 1965.

 

 

 

 

62Q21

Sandra Elizabeth Collett was born on 7th July 1948 and that may have been at Christchurch, on the South Island of New Zealand, where her parents Tony and Dorrell had been married during the spring of the previous year.  Sandra was twenty-one when she later married David Roper in 1969, and their marriage produced three children.  They are (a) Jennifer Anne Verdellen-Knowles nee Roper born on 2nd February 1973, who kindly provided these new details in 2017, plus the sad news of the passing of her grandmother Dorrell Jean Collett, (b) Cheryl Lynne Petrie-nee Roper born 28th May 1975, and (c) Steven John Roper who was born on 19th January 1985.

 

 

 

 

62Q22

Lorena Dorrell Collett was born on 13th August 1951 and was the youngest of the two daughters of John Anthony Collett and Dorrell Jean Sprange.  At the time of her death on 20th July 2012 at Auckland in New Zealand her obituary confirmed that her parents were Dorrell and Tony Collett and that her sibling was Sandra whose husband was Dave.

 

 

 

 

62Q23

Shirley Ann Collett, whose birth was recorded at Bournemouth register office (Ref. 6b 209) during the first quarter of 1954, was a member of the Women’s Royal Air Force.  She was the older of the two children of James Charles Collett and Peggy June Battersby.  It was while she was in the Women’s Royal Air Force that she met Andy, Irwin John Anderson, to whom she was later married, the event recorded at Bournemouth register office (Ref. 23 0041) during the summer of 1974.

 

And it was Shirley that kindly provided the additional information that has enabled this family line to be developed.

 

 

 

 

62Q24

David John Collett was born in Hampshire, with his birth recorded at Christchurch register office (Ref. 6b 320) during the quarter of 1957, when his mother’s maiden name was confirmed as Battersby.  He later married Diane Ryall around 1990.

 

 

 

 

62R1

Phillip John Collett, who is known as Phil, was born in New Zealand on 5th April 1963, the eldest of the six sons of John David Collett and his wife Pauline Mary Blogg.  He was a graduate of the United States Army Command and Staff College and later, the U S Army War College.  During December 1987 he married (1) Cindy Morris who was born on 26th March 1965.  The couple’s three sons were born while the family was living at Palmerston North.  Phil was divorced from Cindy in 2010, after which he (2) married Radha Odean on 1st January 2016, Radha originally from Labasa in Fiji.  In 2017, when Phil supplied some new family details, he and Radha were living Karori, Wellington.

 

 

 

As a Colonel with the New Zealand Army, Phil was made an Officer of the United States Legion of Merit in 2006.  It was during 2014, after a 32-year career with the New Zealand Army, that Phil took up employment as a Programme Manager in the New Zealand Defence Force.  His life in the army saw Phil visiting such places around the world as Antarctica, Iran, East Timor, Bougainville and Afghanistan.  It was hearing the stories about his great great uncle Clive Franklyn Collett, from his father John and his great uncle Clive Emmett Collett, that Phil was inspired to join the armed forces.  Phil also recalls, when he was younger, seeing the great man’s Military Cross and bar.  The family is justifiably proud of their association with such an illustrious ancestor and, to this day, a photograph of the World War One ace can still be found displayed in Phil’s house.

 

 

 

In 2022 Phil was residing at Karori, Wellington, New Zealand, when he providing the sad news of the passing of his aunt Pauline Elizabeth Bateup, nee Collett.

 

 

 

62S1

Mathew James Collett

Born on 01.12.1991 at Palmerston North

 

62S2

Andrew Allan Collett

Born in 1993 at Palmerston North

 

62S3

Max William Collett

Born in 1995 at Palmerston North

 

 

 

 

62R2

Paul David Collett was born in New Zealand on 10th December 1964, the second son of John and Pauline Collett.  In 2011 Paul is living in Japan, where he is married to Akiko Yamamoto.

 

 

 

 

62R3

Geoffrey Peter Collett, who is known as Geoff, was born in New Zealand on 9th November 1966, the third son of John and Pauline Collett.  In April 2011 when Geoff was a journalist working at the Nelson Mail, he had an article published in the newspaper about his great great uncle Clive Franklyn Collett that was spotted by Martin Collett in Australia, who then informed Brian Collett in England.  There then followed an exchange of emails that resulted in Part 31 – The New Wiltshire Somerset Line being updated.  Geoff currently lives with his partner Katie MacBeth in Nelson, near Richmond, at the northern end of South Island.

 

 

 

As well as his own newspaper article from the Nelson Mail, it is also thanks to Geoff that we now have copies of two earlier newspaper articles relating to Captain Clive Franklyn Collett.  The first was printed in the Evening Post in February 2001, and the second in the Malborough Express during March 2005.  All three articles can be found in Appendix One at the end of this file.

 

 

 

 

62R4

Michael Anthony Collett, who is known as Mike, was born in New Zealand on 18th March 1968.  He is married to Katie Drury, and they and their two children currently live in Palmerston North.

 

 

 

62S4

Zoe Collett

Date and place of birth unknown

 

62S5

Thomas Collett

Date and place of birth unknown

 

 

 

 

62R5

Dean Joseph Collett was born in New Zealand on 15th July 1970, the son of John and Pauline Collett.  In the spring of 2011 Dean was living in Melbourne with his partner.

 

 

 

 

62R6

Brent Patrick Collett was born in New Zealand on 26th August 1971, and was the youngest of the six sons of John David Collett and his wife Pauline Mary Blogg.  In June 2010 Brent’s partner Nicola Henry of Loburn, north Canterbury, gave birth to their son while the couple were living in Melbourne, Australia. In 2017 they were living in Hurstbridge, Melbourne.

 

 

 

62S6

Frederick Henry Collett

Born on 07.06.2010 at Melbourne

 

 

 

 

62R7

Martin Roger Collett was born on 1st November 1965 at Wellington in New Zealand and was later baptised at the Church of the Holy Cross in Miramar to the east of Wellington.

 

 

 

 

62R8

Michelle Frances Collett was born on 31st May 1967 at Wellington.  On 1st December 2001 she married Mark Campbell Gallagher at St Stephen’s Anglican Church in Parnell on the east side of Auckland city.  Mark was born on 6th January 1961 at Auckland.  Their son Blake Mark Gallagher was born in Auckland on 26th November 2003.

 

 

 

 

62R9

Antony Gerard Collett was born at Auckland in New Zealand on 29th October 1975.

 

 

 

 

62R11

Bernard Mark Wagg was born on 2nd February 1967 at Taupo in the Waitako district of the South Island of New Zealand.  He later moved to Australia where he married Ilse Barbara Brooks.  Barbara was an Australian girl having been born at Victoria in 1970.  The couple were married in Melbourne on 14th July 2001 and the marriage produced three children for Bernard and Barbara.  They were all born in Melbourne and they were Saskia Barbara Wagg, who was born on 19th October 2000, Quinn Gerry Wagg, who was born on 18th September 2001 who sadly did not survive, and Astrid Catherine Wagg who was born on 17th April 2004.

 

 

 

 

62R14

Vanessa Jones, whose date of birth is not known, later married Mark Spackman in 1993 at Palmerston North on New Zealand’s north island.

 

 

 

 

62R15

Gregory Jones, whose date of birth is not known, was born in New Zealand and he later married Anita Ciesionik on 11th September 2003 at Rarotonga in the Cook Islands.

 

 

 

 

62R17

Elizabeth Collett was born in New Zealand on 8th June 1961.  She later married Michael Power in 1980 with whom she had three children.  They were Richard Power, who was born on 6th April 1980, Veronica Power, who was born during 1982, and Antonia Power who was born on 20th December 1988.

 

 

 

 

62R22

Angela Burney was born in New Zealand in 1965 and she later married Carl Walker.

 

 

 

 

62R24

Donna Maria Collett was born in New Zealand on 3rd June 1964 and she later married to become Donna Maria Porteous.  The marriage produced three children for Donna and her husband and they were Michael Porteous, who was born on 19th December 1984, Christine Porteous, who was born during 1986, and Emma Jane Porteous who was born on 18th July 1989.

 

 

 

 

62R27

Shane Joseph Collett was born in New Zealand on 9th February 1968 and he later married Robyn Binnee on 19th November 1988.

 

 

 

 

62S2

Andrew Allan Collett was born at Palmerston North on 24th March 1993, the second of the three sons Phillip John Collett and Cindy Morris.  Andrew is a musician in Wellington, and he and his father currently play together in a band in 2017.

 

 

 

 

62S3

Max William Collett was born at Palmerston North on 15th June 1995 and is the youngest of the three sons of Phil and Cindy Collett.  Max is a graduate of the New Zealand Film and Television School and, in 2017, was working as a sound engineer in Wellington.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

APPENDIX

 

 

 

The Collett and Buckland Families of Kington St Michael near Chippenham

 

 

62k1

Jacob Buckland married Mary Day at Kington St Michael on 17th April 1798.  And it was at Kington St Michael that the couple’s four known children were born, although there may have been others.  One of them, a possible fifth child, Elizabeth Buckland, has been added to the list of children since, at her marriage to Joseph Collett in 1833, the two witnesses were Edwin Buckland and his sister Ann Buckland.  Five years earlier in 1828, their sister Mary Buckland had married Joseph’s older brother Daniel Collett, and in between Edwin Buckland had married Louisa Collett of Kington St Michael.  In the Chippenham & Christian Malford census in June 1841 Jacob Buckland was given a rounded age of 70 years, while his wife Mary’s rounded age was 65, and living nearby in Kington St Michael was their son Edwin with his wife Louisa and their family.

 

 

 

62l1

Elizabeth Buckland (unconfirmed)

Born circa 1805

 

62l2

Mary Buckland

Born in 1807

 

62l3

Edwin Buckland

Born in 1809

 

62l4

Ann Buckland

Born in 1810

 

62l5

William Buckland

Born in 1816

 

 

 

 

62l1

Elizabeth Buckland, the unconfirmed eldest daughter of Jacob Buckland and Mary Day, was born at Kington St Michael around 1805.  On 9th May 1833, when Elizabeth was around twenty-seven years of age, she married Joseph Collett, a 43-year-old bachelor of Kington St Michael and the brother of Daniel Collett who had already married Elizabeth’s sister Mary (below) by then.  It was the eldest daughter of Joseph Collett and Elizabeth Buckland who married Edward Buckland during the early 1860s, Edward being the son of Elizabeth’s brother Edwin Buckland (below) and his wife Louisa Collett.

 

 

 

Further details of the family of Joseph and Elizabeth Collett,

and the continuation of this line are provided from Ref. 62L8 onwards

 

 

 

 

62l2

Mary Buckland was born at Kington St Michael in 1807, the daughter of Jacob Buckland and Mary Day.  She was twenty-one when she married Daniel Collett at Kington St Michael on 18th February 1828.  Daniel was in his late forties, having been born at Kington St Michael in 1779, and was the older brother of Joseph Collett who later married Mary’s older sister Elizabeth (above).

 

 

 

Further details of the family of Daniel and Mary Collett,

and the continuation of this line are provided from Ref. 62L3

 

 

 

 

62l3

Edwin Buckland was born at Kington St Michael in 1809, the eldest son of Jacob Buckland and May Day.  He was just approaching twenty-five when he married Louisa Collett at Kington St Michael on 4th January 1830, Louisa having been born at Kington St Michael around 1805 and baptised at nearby Hullavington on 13th March 1806, the daughter of Arthur and Anne Collett – see Ref 64n1 in the appendix to Part 64 – The Upper Swell Oddington (Glos) Line.  By 1841 Edwin was 33, and his wife Louisa was 35, and they were recorded in the census as residing within the Chippenham & Christian Malford registration district.  Listed with them on that occasion were their first five children.  Sarah was 11, Jacob was nine, Elizabeth was seven, Edward was four, and Arthur was two years old.  In total, the marriage produced eight children for the couple, all as detailed below.

 

 

 

However, Louisa Buckland nee Collett died during the birth of the couple’s last child, who also did not survive the ordeal.  It may have been that tragic event which was the reason why two of Edwin’s sons were sent as boarders to Weston Browning Boarding School at Weston in Somerset, since it was there that the two brothers were recorded in the census of 1851.  Upon completing their education, Edward and Arthur were once again living with their widowed father, as confirmed in the next census of 1861.

 

 

 

So, on the day of the census in 1851, farmer Edwin Buckland was a widower at the age of 43.  His place of birth was confirmed as Kington St Michael, and it was there that he was still living on a farm of 150 acres, where he employed six labourers.  Living there with him were five of his seven surviving children, and they were unmarried Sarah aged 20 who was a school teacher, Jacob aged 19 who was a butcher, Elizabeth aged 16 who was ‘at home’, and sons Joseph who was nine, and Edwin who was seven, who were both attending the village school, possibly where their older sister worked.

 

 

 

Such was the status of the family that Edwin employed two house servants, and they were Elizabeth Gale who was 22, and James Miles who was 20.  Everyone in the household was born at Kington St Michael except James Miles who came from nearby Chippenham.  Ten years later in 1861 Edwin Buckland was 53, and the only children still living with him at Kington St Michael were his two sons Edward who was 24, and Arthur who was 21.

 

 

 

Of the eight children of Edwin Buckland and Louisa Collett the two most noteworthy of them were (a) Elizabeth Buckland who later married her cousin Henry Collett, the son of Daniel Collett and Mary Buckland, her father’s sister, and (b) Edward Buckland who married Emma Jane Collett, the eldest daughter of Joseph Collett and his wife Elizabeth Buckland.

 

 

 

62m1

Sarah Buckland

Born in 1829 at Kington St Michael

 

62m2

Jacob Buckland

Born in 1831 at Kington St Michael

 

62m3

Elizabeth Buckland

Born in 1834 at Kington St Michael

 

62m4

Edward Buckland

Born in 1836 at Kington St Michael

 

62m5

Arthur Henry Buckland

Born in 1838 at Kington St Michael

 

62m6

Joseph Buckland

Born in 1841 at Kington St Michael

 

62m7

Edwin Buckland

Born in 1843 at Kington St Michael

 

62m8

George Frederick Buckland – infant death

Born in 1848 at Kington St Michael

 

 

 

 

62l4

Ann Buckland was born at Kington St Michael in 1810, where she was baptised on 3rd June 1810, the daughter of Jacob Buckland and Mary Day.  She was around twenty-five years of age when she married James Wright at Kington St Michael on 7th May 1835.  The married is known to have produced a number of children for the couple, one of which, Rosa born within the Chippenham area, since the birth was recorded at Chippenham registration office during the third quarter of 1842.  The couple’s other known children were Alfred Wright (born 1839), James Wright (born 1843), Henry Wright (born 1845), and Elizabeth K Wright (born 1851).

 

 

 

The census in 1851 James Wright and his wife Ann were both 39, while living with them at Chippenham was their four children Alfred 11, Rosa who was eight, James who was seven, and Henry who was six.  Ten years later their daughter Rosa Wright was eighteen and was living and working in the Highworth area of Swindon.  The rest of her family was still living in the Chippenham area in 1861, when James Wright was 48, his wife Ann was 50, and their four children at that time were Alfred 21, Henry 16, and Elizabeth K Wright who was nine years old.  The most noteworthy of the children of James Wright and Ann Buckland was Rosa Wright (below) who later became the second wife of her cousin Henry Collett, the son of Daniel Collett and Mary Buckland, her mother’s sister.

 

 

 

62m9

Rosa Wright

Born in 1842

 

 

 

 

62l5

William Buckland was born at Kington St Michael before 1816, and it was there that he was baptised on 29th September 1816, the youngest son of Jacob Buckland and Mary Day.

 

 

 

 

62m3

Elizabeth Buckland was born at Kington St Michael in 1834, where she was baptised on 12th June 1834, the third child of Edwin Buckland and Louisa Collett.  She later married Henry Collett, the son of Daniel Collett and Mary Buckland.

 

 

 

Further details of the family of Henry Collett and Elizabeth Buckland,

and the continuation of this line are provided from Ref. 62M10

 

 

 

 

62m4

Edward Buckland was born at Kington St Michael in 1836, the fourth child of Edwin Buckland and Louisa Collett.  Shortly after 1861 Edward married Emma Jane Collett, the eldest daughter of Joseph Collett and Elizabeth Buckland

 

 

 

Further details of the family of Emma Jane Collett and Edward Buckland

are provided at Ref. 62M21

 

 

 

 

62m5

Arthur Henry Buckland was born at Kington St Michael in 1838, the fifth child of Edwin Buckland and Louisa Collett, who married his sister-in-law Mary Anne Collett the sister of Emma Jane Collett who married Arthur’s brother Edward Buckland (above).

 

 

 

Further details of the family of Mary Anne Collett and Arthur Henry Buckland

are provided at Ref. 62M22

 

 

 

 

62m9

Rosa Wright was born in July 1842, the daughter of James Wright and Ann Buckland of Kington St Michael.  The birth was registered at nearby Chippenham during the third quarter of that year, although she was baptised at Chippenham on 14th July 1842, when she was recorded as the daughter of James and Ann Wright.

 

Rosa Wright married her cousin Henry Collett at Bath Avon in Somerset during the second quarter of 1873, following the death of his first wife in 1872.  Henry’s first wife was also Rosa’s cousin, she being Elizabeth Buckland, the niece of Rosa’s mother Ann Buckland, and the daughter of Edwin Buckland and Louisa Collett.

 

Rosa Collett nee Wright died at Langley Burrell on 8th November 1923, which disproves earlier information which suggested she had died at Highworth in 1895.

1912 Photograph courtesy of Gerri Hopkins

 

Curiously though, it was at Highworth that Rosa Wright was living away from her family at the time of the census in 1861 when she was eighteen years of age.  On that occasion she was a visitor at the home of her future husband Henry Collett of Hillsworth Farm in Lushill who was still married to Elizabeth Buckland.  Ten years later unmarried Rosa, aged 28, was still described as a visitor at the home of Henry and Elizabeth Collett which by 1871 was at Langley Burrell, on the outskirts of Chippenham.

 

 

 

Further details of the family of Henry and Rosa Collett,

and the continuation of this line are provided from Ref. 62M10