PART SEVENTY-SIX

Bidford-on-Avon to North America and Australia

previously an appendix in Part 57

Updated June 2024

This is the family line of Michael Collett (Ref. 76R10) in Australia and

Sarah Marie Taylor, nee Collett (Ref. 76R3) in America

and Christopher William Collett (Ref. 76R20) in Canada

Introduction

The settlements of Willersey in Gloucestershire, Badsey in Worcestershire, and Bidford-on-Avon in Warwickshire, roughly lie due north of each other, to the south of Birmingham, each approximately five miles apart. This family line commences in Willersey, and steadily moves north, through Badsey, Bidford, and onto Birmingham, North America and Australia.

There may still be a link to be established between the Collett family in Part 57 – The Bakers of Abbots Morton in Worcestershire, through the Ingles family of James Collett (Ref. 76M1) in this family line, and William Collett of Badsey (Ref. 57m1) in the main body of that file, where there is a Will reference to a Mrs Ingles. Furthermore, there is also a prevalence of the same occupation of bakers within the two families in Part 57 and Part 76, indicating another link between the two families.

In April 2019, Cheryl Anne Saul, nee Collett, (Ref. 20T3) received an enquiry from Mike Collett in Australia, who was looking for his Collett family in England. At that time there was no family link to any of seventy-five Collett family lines displayed on the website. The initial information received from Mike, by Cheryl and forwarded onto Brian Collett, website manager, reads as follows:

“I married Christine Redden on 8^th February 1969 and we moved to Australia in 1971. Her brother was Reginald (passed away some years back, no offspring) and has an older sister Dorothy. My younger brother Stephen has carried on the family tradition of nil-communication but, thankfully, not so with my sister Carolyn, who is married to Ted Telford and took his surname. My older brother Paul is also helpful, so I'll contact him for his kids and their kids’ names (he is not tech literate, so no email.). Mom (Doreen) had two sisters Muriel and David and Sheila and Gordon Harry”.

Since then, work has progressed and the following brief details confirmed. Brothers Michael and Paul Collett were born in Birmingham and their twin siblings Stephen and Carolyn were born in Solihull. All four births confirmed the mother’s maiden-name was Harry, their parents being Cyril Collett and Doreen Harry. Cyril was apparently one of eight children born in Birmingham, when their mother’s maiden-name was Hamblett. That makes Mike’s grandparents as James Collett and Grace Dora Hamblett.

The Will of Henry Byrd, a blacksmith of Badsey, who died there on 25^th January 1774 and was buried there, was made on 29^th June 1772, and was proved on 5^th February 1774 at Worcester. Within the Will, Henry’s two daughters were named as Mary and Elizabeth Byrd, both under twenty-one years of age. However, it was his son-in-law, William Collett who was to take over Henry’s estate at Little Comberton and his house and buildings in Badsey, and all goods, chattels and personal estate. Provision was also made who William Collett, grandson, was to inherit the estate at Little Comberton or £200 on reaching the age of 21. A little later that same year, on 4^th April 1774, William Collett, a yeoman, sold a messuage and garden at Badsey, previously part of the estate of Henry Byrd, to blacksmith Richard Oldaker for Fifty Pounds. This raises the question, is William who starts this family line, the grandson of Henry Byrd.

Another interesting early record is the burial of Ann Collett at Badsey on 24^th January 1837 at the age of 64, placing her year of birth around 1773. The burial record does not state whether she was a married or single lady. If single, she could well have been a daughter of the aforementioned William Collett. in addition to this, the Will of Ann Collett of Badsey was proved at Worcester on 21^st June 1837.

76L1

William Collett was married to Nelly and they had a son James who was born and baptised at Willersey in 1815. It is likely that other children were also born to the couple, in particular another son Robert, who was living with his older married brother James by 1851. William Collett died at Willersey in 1839, with his death recorded at Evesham (Ref. xviii 21) during the second quarter of that year. On the day of the census in 1841, his widow Nelly Collett had a rounded age of 50, when she was living with the large Hopkins family in Willersey, the only member of the household not born in Gloucestershire. After well over five years as a widow, Nelly Collett marriage Joseph Clark, their wedding recorded at Evesham (Ref. xviii 81) during the last three months of 1844. That situation was confirmed in the next census conducted in 1851, when Joseph Clark from Bourton-on-the-Water was 73 and his wife Nelly Clark from Bishampton in Worcestershire was 63. Visiting the couple that day, at their home in Chipping Campden, was Nelly’s eldest son James Collett, aged 28 and from Willersey, who was described as the son-in-law of Joseph Clark. Following the death of her second husband, Nelly Clark returned to live on the High Street in Willersey, where she was residing in 1861 at the age of 72. The only person living there with her, was her granddaughter Mary Ann Collett from Willersey who was eight years of age, the youngest child of her son James.

The following article relates to William Collett (Ref. 57m1) of Badsey 1770 to 1850, and his wife Mary Yardington. In 1812, at the time of the Badsey Enclosure Act, a plot of land referred to as Church End, was part of the garden of an old enclosure which belonged to William Collett. It comprised a house (The Firs, High Street) and land amounting to just over an acre. It passed out of the Colletts’ hands in 1865, following the death of Mary Collett, when it was sold at public auction. The Firs was later bought by Victor Cockerton in 1920, whose grandson was still living there in 2008. The eastern-most section of the plot was sold in the 1990s for the building of three bungalows, when the close in which they were built, off Chapel Street, Badsey, was named Church End.

In 2001 a financial document was rescued from a skip during a house-clearance and passed to the Badsey Society. The Bond revealed the following details. “On 9^th January 1813, in the 53^rd year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord George III, King, Defender of the Faith, Joseph Jones of Badsey and Piercy Jones of the same place, Gentlemen, are held and firmly bound to William Collett of Badsey aforesaid, Gentleman, in the sum of Four Hundred and Forty Pounds.”

76M1

James Collett

Born in 1815 at Willersey

76M2

Robert Collett

Born in 1822 at Willersey

76M1

James Collett was born at Willersey around 1815 and was baptised there on 7^th August 1815, the son of William and Nelly Collett. And it was also at Willersey that James Collett married Mary Ingles on 13^th September 1837, as recorded at Evesham (Ref. xviii 139). Mary was baptised at Willersey on 26^th January 1817, the daughter of Richard Ingles and Mary Knight, and it was at Willersey that their children were born and where the family was living in 1841. According to the census that year, James Collett was 25, his wife Mary Collett was 20, and their two sons were Charles Collett who was three and William Collett who was one year old. Visiting the family that day was Mary’s future brother-in-law Peter Bandey who, just over a year later, married Mary’s younger sister Elizabeth Ingles in Birmingham and together, raised their family in Willersey. Sadly, only the older of those two sons survived, with the younger one suffering a childhood death at the age of three years and, following the birth of the couple’s third son prior to their loss, it was the couple’s fourth son who was given the name of his deceased older brother.

By 1850 Mary had given birth to a total of six children, all male, five of whom were recorded in the Willersey census of 1851. On that day, head of the Willersey household James Collett was absent from the family home, because he was visiting Joseph and Nelly Clark, at their home in Chipping Campden, where James Collett from Willersey was 36, married, and an agricultural labourer. James was referred to as the son-in-law of Joseph Clark, his wife being James’ re-married mother. The remainder of his family at Willersey was recorded as Mary Collett who was 36 and an agricultural labourer, Charles Collett who was 13, James Collett who was seven, William Collett who was five, Hubert Collett who was three, and Robert Collett who was not yet one year old. On that census day, James’ younger brother Robert Collett (below), aged 29, was staying with the family at Willersey. Not long after that day, Mary gave birth to a daughter who, rather curiously, was not listed with the family in the subsequent census returns.

In 1861 only two sons, James and Hubert, were still living with their parents, so the census that year listed the family still living in Willersey on Broadway Road as James Collett who was 45 and an agricultural labourer, his wife Mary Collett who was 44, James Collett who was 18, and Hubert Collett who was 13, all four of them born at Willersey. What is interesting is that their son William Collett, aged 15, was a servant at the Badsey home of the Ingles family of Mary’s older brother Richard. During the next few years James moved out of the family home, leaving just Hubert aged 23, the only one living with ag lab James 55, and Mary 54, in the Willersey census of 1871. According to the next census in 1881, it was only James and Mary that were still living on the main village street in Willersey. James Collett, aged 65 and born in the village, was a market gardener, while his wife Mary, who was 64 and also from Willersey, was employed as an agricultural labourer.

Nearly seven years later the death of James Collett of Willersey was recorded at Evesham (Ref. 6c 81) early in 1888, when he was 72. Mary’s loss was confirmed in the Willersey census of 1891, when Mary Collett of Willersey was still living there, but as a widow of 74, who was still described as an agricultural labourer. Staying with Mary was her widowed younger sister Elizabeth Bandey, wife of the late Peter Thomas Bandey from Bedford. By 1901, 84-year-old Mary Collett was living with the family of her married daughter Mary A Taylor at Winchcombe, when she was described as the mother-in-law of Alfred Taylor, both mother and daughter’s place of birth being Willersey. Just over two years after that day, Mary Collett, nee Ingles, passed away at the age of 86, her death recorded at Winchcombe register office (Ref. 6a 65) during the third quarter of 1903.

76N1

Charles Ingles Collett

Born in 1838 at Willersey

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William Ingles Collett

Born in 1840 at Willersey

76N3

James Collett

Born in 1842 at Willersey

76N4

William Collett

Born in 1845 at Willersey

76N5

Hubert Collett

Born in 1847 at Willersey

76N6

Robert Collett

Born in 1850 at Willersey

76N7

Mary Ann Collett

Born in 1852 at Willersey

76M2

Robert Collett was born at Willersey around 1822, another son of William and Nelly Collett, and the brother of James (above). Although no positive record of him has been located within the census returns for 1841, Robert Collett from Willersey was 29 and an unmarried agricultural labourer in 1851 when he was still living and working in the village, but at the home of the family of his brother James. He was also absent from the census in 1861, while it was six years later that the married of Robert Collett and Betsey Castle was recorded at Evesham (Ref. 6c 191) during the first three months of 1867. Betsey was born at Willersey during the summer of 1840, a daughter of William and Elizabeth Castle. Betsey was 26 and Robert was nearly twenty years older and, during the first five years of their life together, Betsey presented Robert with three children, the first being named after his father and another being named after his older brother (above).

The Willersey census in 1871 recorded the family as Robert Collett aged 48, an agricultural labourer, Betsey Collett aged 30, William Collett who was three, Robert Collett who was one, and Jane Collett who was only nine weeks old. Every member of the family had been born at Willersey. Just one more child was added to their family around four years later so, by 1881, Robert and Betsey had all four of their children living with them at village street in Willersey. Robert, an agricultural labour from Willersey, was 59, his wife was 40, while the ages recorded for their children were not correct taking account of the registration of their births at Evesham. William was said to be 12 and not 14, Robert was said to be 10 instead of 12, Jane was said to be eight and not 10, with James more accurately recorded as being five years of age.

The whole family was still together and residing at Willersey in 1891, when every member of the household was described as working as an agricultural labourer. Robert was 67, Betsey was 51, William was 23, Robert was 21, Jane was 20, and James was 15. After a further five years, the death of Robert Collett was recorded at Evesham (Ref. 6c 93) during the fourth quarter of 1895, when he was 73 years old. Just over five years after her loss, Betsey Collett was still living in Willersey with no stated occupation on the day of the next census in 1901 when she was 62. However, by then, and possibly earlier, after the death of her husband, she was earning an income by taking in lodgers, three listed living there with her in 1901, one of them being William Hands who later married Betsey’s daughter Jane, while five years earlier Betsey’s eldest son had married Ellen Hands, most likely the sister of William Hands. Also still living with Betsey were two of her unmarried children, her son Robert who was 31 and her daughter Jane who was 30.

Living nearby, in Willersey, was her eldest son William and his wife Ellen who by then had a family of their own. By that time in his life, her youngest son James had found work in Birmingham, where he was married by 1911, when he and his wife were living within the Aston area of the city. After Betsey’s daughter Jane was married in 1908, mother-in-law and old age pensioner Betsey Collett, aged 70 and from Willersey, was living with William and Jane Hands at their home Willersey in 1911. The death of Betsey Collett was later recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 6c 96) during the first quarter of 1926 when she was 85.

76N8

William Collett

Born in 1867 at Willersey

76N9

Robert Collett

Born in 1869 at Willersey

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Jane Collett

Born in 1871 at Willersey

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James Collett

Born in 1875 at Willersey

76N1

Charles Ingles Collett was born at Willersey in 1838, his birth recorded at Evesham (Ref. xviii 23) during the second quarter of that year. He was three years old and 13 years old in the Willersey census returns for 1841 and 1851, when he was living there with his parents James Collett and Mary Ingles. Seven years later Charles was married to (1) Victoria Dones during the third quarter of 1858, the event recorded at Winchcombe (Ref. 6a 27), Victoria being a daughter of William and Mary Dones. It was during the following quarter of 1858 that the birth of their first child was recorded at Evesham. Within the next two years a further son was added to their family, both of them baptised at Cleeve Prior. That was confirmed by the census in 1861, by which time the family was living at The Leys (a row of terraced cottages that were demolished in the 1970s, since then known as Hither Green) on Bretforton Road in Badsey, within the Evesham & Broadway registration district. Charles Collett from Willersey was 23, and his occupation was that of a blacksmith. His wife Victoria was also 23 and was born at Laverton, to the south of Broadway, while the couple’s two Cleeve Prior born sons were James Collett who was two, and John Collett who was under one year old.

Over the following decade five more children were added to their family. The first of them was born while the family was still living at Badsey near Evesham in 1862, and it was there also that Charles Collett was named as a witness at a wedding in Badsey church on 27^th February 1864. However, shortly after that Charles took his family to live in the hamlet of Bickmarsh to the south of Bidford-on-Avon, where his next four children were born. With no church at Bickmarsh, the children were baptised at Bidford, with the enlarged family still living at Bickmarsh by 1871. Charles I Collett from Willersey was 33 and a blacksmith, his wife Victoria from Laverton was also 33 when, with the couple were their seven children. They were James who was 12, John who was 10, Catherine who was seven, Ellen who was five, Charles who was three, William who was one year of age, and Mary V Collett who was only a few months old.

Tragically, the premature death of Victoria Collett, aged only 34, was recorded at Stratford-upon-Avon (Ref. 6d 244) during the second quarter of 1872, perhaps even during the birth of a further child who also did not survive. It was later that same year, when the marriage of widower Charles Collett and (2) Elizabeth Harris was conducted at the Church of St Matthias on Farm Street in Birmingham in 19^th October 1872. Charles was 34 and confirmed as the son of James Collett, while Elizabeth was 40 years old and a widow, whose father was named as William Dones, making Elizabeth the older sister of his late wife Victoria, who had also been born at Laverton. At some point after Charles and Elizabeth were married, the family made a return to Cleeve Prior, where they were recorded in the census conducted in 1881.

Once again Charles Collett, aged 43, was a blacksmith from Willersey. His new wife Elizabeth Collett was 49 and a laundress from Laverton and, by that time, only four of Charles’ children were still living with him and his second wife. They were Ellen Collett who 15 and a domestic servant, Charles Collett who was 13 and an agricultural labourer, William Collett who was 11 and Mary V Collett who was 10, both of them still attending school. All four children were confirmed as having been born at Bickmarsh. Charles and Elizabeth were still living at Cleeve Prior in 1891, but with just the two youngest children. Charles I Collett was 53, Elizabeth Collett was 59, William Collett was 21 and assisting his father with his blacksmith work, and Mary V Collett was 20 and an assistant school teacher. With her advancing years, Elizabeth died before the end of the century, the death of Elizabeth Collett, aged 66, was recorded at Evesham (Ref. 6c 125) during the fourth quarter of 1898, leaving Charles free to marry for a third time.

The parish records at Cleeve Prior included the entry that Charles Collett of Cleeve Prior married (3) Ann Fairfax in the village on 1^st June 1899. Their wedding was recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 6c 271), when the bride was named as Annie Fairfax. Ann had been baptised at Cleeve Prior on 8^th May 1842 and was the daughter of Samuel and Anne Fairfax. Two years later, it was just Charles and Ann who were still living in Cleeve Prior, by which time Charles from Willersey was 63 and had given up being a blacksmith for a lighter job as a fruiterer. Ann from Cleeve Prior was 54. It was the same situation in 1911, with Charles Collett, aged 73 and a dealer in fruit from Willersey, who was still living and working in Cleeve Prior with his wife Annie Collett who was 64. Four years after the death of his son and namesake Charles Ingles Collett junior, the death of Charles Ingles Collett senior was recorded at Winchcombe register office (Ref. 6a 59) during the last three months in 1923, when he was 85 years old.

76O1

James Collett

Born in 1858 at Cleeve Prior

76O2

John Collett

Born in 1860 at Cleeve Prior

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Catherine Collett

Born in 1863 at Badsey, nr Evesham

76O4

Ellen Collett

Born in 1865 at Bickmarsh, nr Bidford

76O5

Charles Ingles Collett

Born in 1867 at Bickmarsh, nr Bidford

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William Collett

Born in 1869 at Bickmarsh, nr Bidford

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Mary Victoria Collett

Born in 1870 at Bickmarsh, nr Bidford

Other Collett families of Cleeve Prior can be found in Part 56 – The Alcester & Bidford-on-Avon District Line

76N2

William Ingles Collett was born at Willersey early in 1840, his birth recorded at Evesham (Ref. xviii 1) during the first quarter of the year. He was one year old in June 1841 when he was living at Willersey with his parents and older brother Charles (above). Tragically he did not survive, with the death of William Ingles Collett was also recorded at Evesham (Ref. xviii 73) during the second quarter of 1843. The next child born to James and Mary Collett after 1843 was also given the William, but without the second forename Ingles.

76N3

James Collett was born at Willersey in 1842, with his birth also recorded at Evesham (Ref. xviii 15) during the second quarter of that year. He was baptised at Willersey on 26^th May 1842, the son of James and Mary Collett, and was just over one year old when his brother William (above) died. He was seven years old in the Willersey census of 1851, and was 18 years of age ten years later, when he was still living there with his parents, from where he was working as an agricultural labourer. Less than four years later, the marriage of James Collett and Elizabeth Warmington was recorded at Evesham (Ref. 6c 8) during the first three months of 1865. Elizabeth was born at Bidford-on-Avon, where she was baptised on 8^th December 1844, the daughter of John and Mary Ann Warmington. Once they were married, James and Elizabeth settled in the Gloucestershire village of Aston Subedge, two miles north-east of Willersey, where their first child was born around nine months after their wedding day. The child’s birth was also recorded at Evesham. By the time of the next census in 1871, the couple already had three children who had been born there. Agricultural labourer James Collett from Willersey was 28, his wife Elizabeth Collett from Bidford was 26, and their three Aston Subedge born children were Mary A Collett who was five, James who was three and Harry who was one year old. On that day, the Collett family was staying at the home of Ann Ainge, the grandmother-in-law of James Collett. Ann was a widowed aged 86 and from Didbrook in Gloucestershire, who was the tollgate keeper.

In 1822 a new Act of Parliament extended the Bretforton Turnpike to Weston-sub-Edge, left to Aston Subedge and onto nearby Chipping Campden. As a result, a new tollgate was constructed at a place called Paul’s Pike, halfway up the hill to Chipping Campden, with the cottage and name sign still there to this day.

Four more children were added to the family during the next decade, three of them while they were still living at Aston Subedge. Around 1878 the family left Aston Subedge when they moved two miles to Mickleton, where the seventh child was born. In 1881 the census that year recorded the family living at Pauls House in Mickleton, from where James Collett, aged 38 and from Willersey, was again working as an agricultural labourer. His wife Elizabeth was 36, and their seven children were Mary A Collett aged 15, who was helping her mother at home, scholars James aged 13, Harry aged 11, Kate who was nine, Fanny who was seven, and Hubert who was five, all of them born at Aston Subedge. The latest arrival was two-year-old William Collett whose birth was recorded at Shipston-on-Stour in 1879, where the premature death of his mother was also recorded later on in 1881. It was during the third quarter of 1881 that the death of Elizabeth Collett was recorded at Shipton-on-Stour (Ref. 6d 161) when she was still only 36 years of age.

By 1891, widower James Collett of Willersey was 48 and employed as a shepherd who was still living in Mickleton at Campden Road with his eldest daughter Mary A Collett aged 25, who was acting as his housekeeper, and his two sons James aged 23, and William who was 12. Living nearby in the same census registration district of Shipton-on-Stour & Blockley were two more of James’ children, they being Harry and Fanny. It was just under two years after that census day, when the death of James Collett was recorded at Shipton-on-Stour (Ref. 6d 333) during the first quarter of 1893, when he was 50 years old. It should be noted that more than one of his children gave their place of birth as Campden or Chipping Campden in the later census records, rather than Aston Subedge.

76O8

Mary A Collett

Born in 1865 at Aston Subedge

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James Collett

Born in 1867 at Aston Subedge

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Harry Collett

Born in 1869 at Aston Subedge

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Kate Collett

Born in 1871 at Aston Subedge

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Fanny Collett

Born in 1874 at Aston Subedge

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Hubert Collett

Born in 1876 at Aston Subedge

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William Collett

Born in 1879 at Mickleton

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William Collett was born at Willersey in 1845, the son of James Collett and his wife Mary Ingles. On leaving school William entered domestic service and, at the age of 15, he had left Willersey and was working at the Badsey home of Richard Ingles from Chipping Campden and his wife Sarah on Bretforton Road, as confirmed by the census in 1861 when he was described as one of two servants employed at the house, who had been born at Willersey. Richard Ingles was William’s uncle, being the older brother of William’s mother. It was three years later, on 27^th February 1864, that William Collett, aged 19 and a labourer, was married by banns to Charlotte Robins, aged 20, at the Church of St James in Badsey. James Collett, a labourer, was confirmed as the father of the groom, and William Robins, another labourer, was the father of the bride, when the witness were Charles Collett and Sarah Robins. It was also at Badsey that that the couple’s their first child was born and baptised four months after their wedding day. The birth of Charlotte Robbins at Badsey was recorded at Evesham (Ref. xviii 10) during the last quarter of 1843, the daughter of William and Hannah Robbins. It may be of interest, that William’s great-nephew and the grandson of his older brother Charles Ingles Collett (above), Charles Harry Collett (Ref. 76P1) from England married Sarah Eleanor Robbins from Utah in 1905.

The newly married couple stayed in Badsey following the birth of their daughter Mary Ann, since it was there that all of their later children were born and baptised, and where William and Charlotte eventually established a thriving market gardening business. During the first six years of their life together the couple was blessed with the birth of three children prior to 1870, although sadly in the second month of that year the couple suffered the death of their first son when he was still under one year old. According to the Badsey census in 1871, the young family of agricultural labourer William Collett from Willersey were living at The Leys (a row of cottages) in Badsey where William’s older brother Charles Ingles Collett (above) was living in 1871. William Collett was 25, his wife Charlotte was 27, and their two surviving children were Mary A Collett who was six, and Lydia E Collett who was four years old. The three females were all confirmed as having been born at Badsey, where Charlotte was working at home as a glover.

After a further ten years another four children had been added to the family which, in 1881 was living at Silk Mill Cottages in Badsey, which comprised old corn mill cottages which were demolished during the 1970s. Living there was William Collett from Willersey who was 35 and a market gardener, Charlotte Collett who was 37, Mary A Collett who was 16, Lydia E Collett who was 13, while their three sons were attending the village school, and they were John Collett who was nine, Thomas W Collett who was seven and Charles J Collett who was five. The couple’s youngest child was Kate Collett who was two years old. On the day of the census Charlotte was already pregnant with the couple’s eighth child and it was in August that their son Alfred was baptised at Badsey. However, he only lived for a short while, and was buried there on 24^th September 1881. Nearly one year later William and Charlotte’s eldest daughter Mary Ann was married, when William was named as one of the witnesses, and two years after that the couple’s second eldest daughter Lydia Ellen was also married during 1884.

By 1891, the family still living at Badsey, in the old corn mill cottage at the Silk Mill – as confirmed by the Electoral Roll that year, comprised market gardener William who was 45, Charlotte, aged 47, John who was 19, William (aka Thomas) who was 17, Charles who was 15, Kate who was 12, Ernest who was eight, George who was three, and Rosa Collett who was one year old. Just after the start of the new century the majority of the family was living together at Belle Vue, 11 Chapel Street in Badsey. By then William Collett, aged 55 and from Willersey, was a market gardener, his wife Charlotte was 57, and with them were five of their children. They were market gardeners Thomas W Collett aged 27, and Charles I Collett aged 24, Ernest H Collett aged 18 who was a labourer at the family’s market garden, George Collett who was 13, and Rosa A Collett who was 11, both of them possibly still at school.

The freehold property “Belle Vue” at 11 Chapel Street in Badsey, was a large detached house built in 1894. From August that year, the property was owned and occupied by William Collett, and was passed onto his youngest son George when he died in 1927, where George died in 1947, and where his widow Winifred died in 1953. The building itself comprised a brick and tile house, with 2 front rooms, a back kitchen, a pantry, 3 bedrooms, 1 over back kitchen, a privy, plus a brick and tile stable and cart house. The property was subject to a valuation survey on 23^rd October 1912, when the 700 square yards house was described as being in good repair and valued at £300. The present-day house name at 11 Chapel Street is Fairhaven.

Over the next few years most of the children left the family’s home in Badsey and, by the time of the census in 1911, it was only unmarried son George and married daughter Rosa who were again living at Belle Vue 11 Chapel Street with their parents. William from Willersey was 65 and had been married for 47 years, during which time he and Charlotte had given birth to eleven children, with two of them not alive in 1911. Charlotte from Badsey was 67, and their son George was 23, the two men working together as market gardeners. The couple’s recently married daughter Rosa Jelfs was 21, and with her was her husband William Jelfs who was 22 and another market gardener from Badsey, and their son Douglas Jelfs who was not yet one year old. The Kelly’s Directory in 1912 once again confirmed that William Collett was a market gardener. Six years later the death of Charlotte Collett at Badsey was recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 6c 16) during the second quarter of 1918, when she was 74, after which she was buried at St James’ Church in Badsey on 10^th June 1918. The Badsey census in 1921 included William Collett, a widower aged 76 and a retired market gardener, with his unmarried son George Collett. They were living at Belle Vue 11 Chapel Street, while at 23 Chapel was William’s on Thomas William Collett and his family, another part of the Collett market gardening business set up by William and now jointly managed by his sons.

With the knowledge that William’s son William Collett junior had died while still very young, it is most likely that it was William senior who was included in the Electoral Roll for Badsey in 1924, when he was living at Belle Vue, 11 Chapel Street, which was also the home of his youngest son George. He would have been 78 years old and was a widower by then. Less than three years after that, William Collett died at Badsey in February 1927, with his death also recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 6c 46) during the first three months of 1927, after which he was buried at St James’ Church in Badsey on 15^th February 1927.

76O15

Mary Ann Collett

Born in 1864 at Badsey

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Lydia Ellen Collett

Born in 1867 at Badsey

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William Collett

Born in 1869 at Badsey

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John Collett

Born in 1871 at Badsey

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Thomas William Collett

Born in 1873 at Badsey

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Charles Ingles Collett

Born in 1876 at Badsey

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Kate Collett

Born in 1878 at Badsey

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Alfred Collett

Born in 1881 at Badsey

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Ernest Hubert Collett

Born in 1883 at Badsey

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George Collett

Born in 1887 at Badsey

76O25

Rosa Annie Collett

Born in 1889 at Badsey

76N7

Mary Ann Collett is a mysterious member of the Collett family of James Collett and Mary Ingles, simply because she was never recorded living with her parents, that is, until after her father had passed away, when her widowed mother joined her in 1901, by which time she had been married for twenty years. Mary Ann Collett was born at Willersey in 1852, the seventh and last child in the family and the only daughter, whose birth was recorded at Evesham (Ref 6c 17.) during the last three months of that year. Curiously, at the age of eight years, Mary A Collett, of Willersey, was living there at the High Street home of widow Nelly Clark from Bishampton in Worcestershire who was 72 and Mary’s grandmother who had married for a second time after the death of Mary’s grandfather William Collett in 1839. On that same day her parents and two of her brothers were living nearby in Willersey, at Broadway Road. Her grandmother died one year before the next census, so in the census of 1871, Mary Collett from Willersey was 18 and employed by the Holtom family as a housemaid at their home in Cleeve Prior.

It was nine years after that census day, when the marriage of Mary Ann Collett and Alfred Taylor was recorded at Guisborough in North Yorkshire (Ref. 9d 289) during the second quarter of 1880. Alfred Taylor was baptised at nearby Stokesley, to the south of Middlesbrough, on 25^th September 1852, the son of William Taylor and his wife Mary Agnes. The couple’s only child was born at Stokesley just days before the census was conducted in 1881, when the three of them were living at Back Street in Stokesley. Mary Taylor from Willersey was 28, when Alfred Taylor was also 28 and a currier working in the leather processing business, while the birth of daughter had still yet to be recorded. It was shortly after that census day, when the birth of Lina Mary Taylor was recorded at Stokesley (Ref. 9d 115) during the second quarter of 1881.

During the following decade, the three of them left the north-east of England, when they travelled south to Gloucestershire and Winchcombe, where they were recorded in the census of 1891. The family home was then on Hailes Street, when Alfred was a county court bailiff aged 38, his wife Mary Ann was also 38, and their daughter Lina Mary was ten years old. After a further ten years, and following the death of her father, Mary’s elderly widow mother was staying with the family, when the four of them were listed in the Winchcombe census of 1901 as county court bailiff Alfred Taylor, who was 48, as was Mary A Taylor, Lina M Taylor was 20, and Mary Collett was 84 and the mother-in-law of head of the household Alfred. By the time of the census in 1911, it was just Alfred and Mary who were living alone in Winchcombe, both at the age of 58, when Alfred was still working as a bailiff for the county court. On that day, their daughter was an elementary school teacher employed by Hertfordshire County Council Education Department. Lina Mary Taylor, aged 30 and from Stokesley in Yorkshire, was staying at a boarding house in Stevenage in 1911.

76N8

William Collett was born at Willersey in 1867, the eldest son of Robert Collett and Betsey Castle, his birth recorded at Evesham (Ref. 6c 312) during the third quarter of the year. The census in 1871 placed him and his family living at a dwelling on the main street in Willersey when William was three years old. They were still there ten years later when William was incorrectly recorded as being 12 years of age, by which time he had left school and was already working as an agricultural labourer. William was 23 in 1891 and on that occasion he and his three siblings were still living at the family home in Willersey.

Just over five years later, the marriage of William Collett and Ellen Hands was recorded at Shipston-on-Stour register office (Ref. 6d 347) during the last quarter of 1896. Ellen’s birth was recorded at Shipston-on-Stour (Ref. 6d 103) during the fourth quarter of 1864 after she was born at Watery Lane in Chipping Campden, a daughter of William and Ellen Hands. Twelve years after they were married, William’s sister Jane Collett (below) married William Hands who was Ellen’s younger brother who had been a lodger at the home of Betsey Collett, William’s widowed mother. By the time of the census in March 1901, Ellen had given birth to the first three of the couple’s ultimate five children. Sadly, the first of them did not survive. The family of four was living in Willersey although, only a short time prior to that time, Ellen had given birth to her second child while presumably staying with her parents in Campden. The census that year recorded the family as William, who was 33 and an agricultural labourer of Willersey, Ellen from Campden who was 35, Elsie Collett who was one year old and born at Willersey, and William R Collett from Campden who was not yet one year old.

The next three children were born while the family was still living in Willersey, but during the three months before the next census in April 1911 William took his family to the village of Wormington, three miles to the west of Broadway, most likely for work reasons. According to the census that month William Collett, aged 44 and from Willersey, was employed as a farm labourer while living in a three-room dwelling in Wormington. His wife of fifteen years, Ellen aged 46 and from Campden, had given birth to five children, all of whom were listed with them even though the census return stated that one of them had died, with four still alive. The five children were named as Elsie who was 11, William Robert who was 10, Betsey who was seven, and James who was five.

The death of Ellen Collett nee Hands was recorded at Winchcombe register office (Ref. 6a 114) during the third quarter of 1935, when she was 70 years old.

76O26

Jane Collett

Born in 1898 at Willersey

76O27

Elsie Collett

Born in 1899 at Willersey

76O28

William Robert Collett

Born in 1900 at Campden

76O29

Betsey Collett

Born in 1904 at Willersey

76O30

James Collett

Born in 1905 at Willersey

76N9

Robert Collett was born at Willersey in 1869, the second of the four known children of Robert and Betsey Collett, whose birth was recorded at Evesham (Ref. 6c 93) during the last quarter of that year. He was one year old in 1871 and 10 years of age in 1881 when, on both occasions, he was living with his family at Willersey, and for the latter census he was still attending the village school. Robert was 21 in the Willersey census of 1891 and was still living with his parents. Not long after that his father passed away so in 1901 it was just Robert, aged 31 and an agricultural labourer, and his sister Jane (below) who were the only children still living at Willersey with their widowed mother. It is possible that Robert never married since he was still single and living in Willersey as a lodger with the large Proctor family in 1911 when, at the age of 41 he was a labourer employed at the local market garden. The later death of Robert Collett was recorded at the North Cotswold register office (Ref. 6a 102) during the last quarter of 1943, when he was 73.

76N10

Jane Collett was born at Willersey early in 1871, her birth recorded during the first three months of the year at Evesham (Ref. 6c 17). She was the only known daughter of Robert and Betsey Collett and was nine weeks old in the Willersey census that year. In the next census of 1881 Jane was incorrectly described as being only being seven years when she would have been 10 years of age. Jane Collett was 20 in 1891 when she and her three brothers were still living at Willersey with their parents while four years later her father passed away. With neither Jane nor her mother having any means of income, and Jane’s brother Robert (above) being the only working member of the family, her mother started to take in boarders, as confirmed in the Willersey census of 1901. By then, Jane and Robert were the only children still living there with her widowed mother, when unmarried Jane was 30. On that day her mother had three gentlemen staying at the family home as boarders, one of whom was thirty-one-year-old William Hands, an agricultural labourer from Chipping Campden.

It is very interesting that just over eight years later Jane Collett and William Hands were married, their wedding recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 6c 27) during the last three months of 1909. William was the son of William and Ellen Hands of Watery Lane in Chipping Campden, born there in 1870, with his birth recorded at Shipston-on-Stour. He was also the younger brother of Ellen Hands who married Jane’s eldest brother William Collett (above). After being married for less than two years, builder’s labourer William Hands was 41, his wife Jane Hands was 40, and living with the couple was Jane’s mother Betsey Collett. It is possible that Jane may have given birth to their only child within a few weeks of the census day in 1911, with the birth of Ellen M Hands recorded at Evesham (Ref. 6c 18) during the second quarter of that same year.

76N11

James Collett was born at Willersey in 1875, with his birth recorded at Evesham (Ref. 6c 178) during the third quarter of the year. He was the last child born to Robert Collett and Betsey Castle and was five of age in the Willersey census of 1881 and was 15 in the Willersey census of 1891. Prior to that latter census day, and on leaving school, James initially took up work on the land, as an agricultural labourer, but later on secured a position on the railway, which ultimately resulted in a move to Birmingham. Unfortunately, he was not recorded very accurately in the census of 1901 when James Collett, a railway porter, was described as having been born in Gloucestershire, who was 29 (sic) and a boarder at the Aston (Birmingham) home of Harry and Esther Haynes. Although no later marriage of James and his wife has been located, the childless couple was living in the Aston area in 1911. On that occasion he was more accurately recorded as James Collett aged 35 and from Willersey, who was again employed as a railway porter, while his wife was described as Catherine Ellen Collett from Birmingham who was 32, whom he had married in 1904. They were both young enough to have children but, without knowing Catherine’s maiden-name, it is not easy to identify them. Catherine Ellen Collett was 57 when she died on 13^th January 1938, following which her Will was proved in Warwickshire on 17^th March 1938, when the main beneficiary was Percy Dixon.

76O1

James Collett was born at Cleeve Prior, and was baptised there on 30^th January 1859, the eldest child of Charles Collett and his first wife Victoria Dones. His birth was recorded at Evesham (Ref. 6c 16) during the last three months of 1858. On both of those occasions his name was recorded only as James Collett, as it was in the following three census returns for 1861, 1871 and 1881. In the first of them, he was two years old when he and his family were residing at Bretforton Road in Badsey, and was 12 when he was living with his large family at Bickmarsh in 1871, where many of his siblings were born. Upon leaving school, James became a blacksmith, like his father, and he eventually left the family home to pursue his career. The census in 1881 placed him as a lodger with blacksmith George Taylor at his home at 8 Greenhill Street in Stratford-upon-Avon. George Taylor from Newbold-on-Stour was 40, his wife Ellen from Little Wolford near Shipston-on-Stour was 42, and their two children were Ellen H Taylor aged 11 and George A Taylor who was nine. Living with the family was George’s father, blacksmith John Taylor who was 80, and blacksmith James Collett from Cleeve Prior, who was 23 and unmarried.

Later that same year, at St Paul’s Church in Leamington on 14^th December 1881, James Collett married Sarah Anne Clack, the event recorded at Warwick (Ref. 6d 101). Sarah was the daughter of agricultural labourer Henry Clack and Sarah Lidsey Clack, who had been born at Banbury Road in Stratford-upon-Avon where her birth was recorded (Ref. 6d 480) during the second quarter of 1857. Sarah was still living with her family at Banbury Road in 1881, just prior to being marriage, when her occupation was that of a dressmaker at the age of 22. James, who was confirmed as the son of Charles Collett, and Sarah, were blessed with two sons, Charles Harry Collett and James Alfred Collett, when they were residing in Leamington. It was also at St Paul’s Church in Leamington that they were baptised, although their births were also recorded at nearby Warwick. However, not long after the birth of their sons James was admitted to Hatton Asylum near Warwick, where he died of a brain haemorrhage in 1888, following which he was buried in the Hatton Cemetery (Grave #1019). The premature death of James Collett was recorded at Warwick (Ref. 6d 80) during the last quarter of 1888, when he was 29.

One year after losing her young husband, Sarah Anne Collett and her two sons immigrated to the United States, to the town of Ogden in Weber County, Utah, where one of her older sisters (Eliza or Mary Ann) was already living. It was around two years after arriving in America, that Sarah Anne Collett was married for a second time, when she married Thomas White during 1891. The couple then moved to south-western Wyoming where the two boys were raised on a ranch there. Sarah Anne White, formerly Collett, nee Clack died in 1941. It was between the summer of 2016 and the spring of the following year that contact was made by Sarah Marie Taylor nee Collett in the USA, the daughter of Charles James Collett, who was the eldest son of Charles Harry Collett (listed below) and the grandson of James Harry Collett of Cleeve Prior. During that time Sarah generously provided all the details from James Harry Collett (1859-1888), her great grandfather, to the present day where there was nothing previously.

76P1

Charles Harry Collett

Born in 1882 at Leamington

76P2

James Alfred Collett

Born in 1884 at Leamington

76O2

John Collett was born at Cleeve Prior, where he was baptised on 10^th March 1861, the son of Charles and Victoria Collett. His birth was recorded at Evesham (Ref. 6c 151) during the first two months of that year. He was under one year old at the time of the Cleeve Prior census in 1861 and, after a temporary move to Badsey near Evesham, his family lived at Bickmarsh, south of Bidford, before they moved to Old Stratford where the family was living in 1871 when John was 10 years old. Nearly nine years later, the marriage of John Collett and Ellen Thornton took place at Bidford-on-Avon on 4^th October 1879, when the bride and the groom were both 19 years of age. John was confirmed as the son of Charles Collett, with Ellen’s father named as Charles Thornton. Ellen gave birth to her first child around three months later at South Littleton, near Evesham, close to where Ellen herself had been born, with his baptism at Bidford before the end of January 1880. That situation was confirmed in the Bidford census of 1881, where John Collett was an agricultural labourer from Cleeve Prior, who was 20, as was his wife Ellen, who was from North Littleton, one mile south of Cleeve Prior, and the first of his eight known children Albert C Collett was one year old. On that day, the family of three was residing on Tower Hill in Bidford-on-Avon.

Five more children were added to their family during the 1880s while the couple was still living at Bidford. So, by 1891, the family living on the High Street in Bidford comprised John who was 30 and a general labourer, his wife Ellen who was 31, and their son Charles (previously Albert) who was 11, plus the five new arrivals. They were Harriet and Elizabeth, who were both said to be nine but were not twins, James who was six, Mary who was three, and Catherine who was one year old. In March 1901 the family was again living at Tower Hill in Bidford, although by then the couple’s two eldest children had left the family home, but also by then, a seventh child had been added to their family. However, the new child, Albert, was curiously given the same name as his eldest brother, who was married by then and living at Temple Grafton, near Stratford-upon-Avon, with his young family when he was using his second forename, as Charles Collett.

According to the census that month, John Collett, who was 41 and from Cleeve Prior, was working as a labourer on main roads. His wife Ellen from North Littleton was 42, and their six children were Elizabeth who was a domestic cook aged 19, James who was a railway porter, aged 18 rather than 16, Catherine who was 11, and Albert Collett who was seven. Their daughter Mary Victoria Collett had already left home and was working nearby in Bidford where, at the age of 13, she was a general domestic servant.

Just shortly after the census day, Ellen presented John with the couple’s last child and, by the time of the next census in April 1911, the family was living at 3 Coronation Row, Icknield Street in Bidford-on-Avon. Curiously both John and Ellen said they had been born at North Littleton and both of them were 51. John was a farm labourer, and only three of their eight children were still living there with them. They were unmarried James Collett who was 26 and a bricklayer’s labourer, Albert Collett who was 17 and a farm labourer working with his father, and Hilda Ellen Collett who was nine years old and still attending school. It was as Jack and Ellen Collett that the couple was recorded in the army records of their youngest son Albert Collett, who was killed in action in 1916. The later death of John Collett was recorded at Stratford-upon-Avon register office (Ref. 6d 5) during the third quarter of 1938, when he was 77 years old. Five years earlier, the death of Ellen Collett aged 72 was recorded at Alcester register office (Ref. 6d 105) during the third quarter of 1933.

76P3

Albert Charles Collett

Born in 1880 at South Littleton, nr Evesham

76P4

Harriet Collett

Born in 1881 at Bidford-on-Avon

76P5

Elizabeth Jane Collett

Born in 1882 at Bidford-on-Avon

76P6

James Collett

Born in 1884 at Bidford-on-Avon

76P7

Mary Victoria Collett

Born in 1887 at Bidford-on-Avon

76P8

Catherine Collett

Born in 1889 at Bidford-on-Avon

76P9

Albert Collett

Born in 1894 at Bidford-on-Avon

76P10

Hilda Ellen Collett

Born in 1901 at Bidford-on-Avon

76O3

Catherine Collett was born at Badsey near Evesham in 1863, and it was at Evesham that her birth was recorded (Ref. 6c 131) during the second quarter of the year. A few weeks later she was baptised at Badsey on 19^th July 1863, the eldest daughter of Charles and Victoria Collett. Not long after she was born her family left Badsey and settled in Bickmarsh, just south of Bidford-on-Avon, where they were again living in 1871, where Catherine was seven years old. Ten years later she was working at The Three Tuns Royal Hotel in Pershore where, as Catherine Collett, aged 19 and from Badsey, she was described as a servant at the inn. A search for Catherine in 1891, either single or married, has failed and we now know why. The death of Catherine Collett was recorded at Evesham (Ref. 6c 112) during the second quarter of 1890, when she was just 27 years of age.

76O4

Ellen Collett was born in the hamlet of Bickmarsh, to the south of Bidford-on-Avon, in 1865 and was baptised at Bidford on 16^th July 1865, the fourth child of Charles and Victoria Collett. On the day of the census in 1871, when Ellen was five years old, she and her family were still living at Bickmarsh. Following the death of her mother during the 1870s, her widowed father eventually returned to Cleeve Prior where he was married for a second time. The Cleeve Prior census in 1881 recorded that Ellen Collett, aged 15 and from Bickmarsh, had already left school and was employed in domestic service while she was still living at the family home with her father and her stepmother. Within the next few weeks or months, young Ellen died at Cleeve Prior, her premature death recorded at Evesham (Ref. 6c 231) during the second quarter of 1881, when she was only 16 years old.

76O5

Charles Ingles Collett was born at Bickmarsh during 1867 and was baptised at Bidford-on-Avon on 28^th July 1867, the son of Charles and Victoria Collett. His birth was recorded at Stratford-upon-Avon (Ref. 6d 287). He was three years old in the Bickmarsh census of 1871, but sometime after that, possibly following the death of his mother, his father took the family to live at Cleeve Prior, where they were living in 1881 when Charles, aged 13, was working as an agricultural labourer. It would appear that Charles and his younger brother William (below) both sought work in the area of Shipston-on-Stour, since it was there, just three miles north of the town, within the registration district of Halford, that Charles was living with his wife Sarah in 1891. The marriage of Charles Ingles Collett and Sarah Jane Turner was recorded at Evesham (Ref. 6c 319) during the fourth quarter of 1889, with the name Turner given to the couple’s second child. The 1891 census included the couple, together with their first child, as Charles I Collett of Bickmarsh and Sarah J Collett of Childswickham, who were both 24, and their son Charles I Collett, who was one year old and born at Newbold-on-Stour.

It was very likely at Newbold-on-Stour, just one mile from Halford, that Charles and Sarah settled just after their wedding day since, not only was their first child born there, it was also while the family was still living there that their next three children were born. According to the next census in 1901, Charles and his enlarged family were still living in the village of Newbold-on-Stour within the Tredington registration district. The occupation of Charles Collett, aged 33 from Bickmarsh, was that of a blacksmith, like his father and his eldest brother James (above). Charles’ wife Sarah was 34, their two sons were Charles who was 11, and William who was seven, and their daughters were Agnes who was three, and Amy who was not yet one year old. Amy was later referred to as Eva Collett, so she may have been so young on the day of the census that her name was changed at the time of her baptism.

Sometime after 1901 and before 1905, the family left Newbold-on-Stour when they moved to Stratford-upon-Avon, where the couple’s last two children were born and baptised. A further move, after the birth of their last child, saw the family living in the village of Arrow, just south-west of Alcester, where they were living in 1911. and, during the next seven years, two more children were added to the family. When their move from Newbold took place is not known for sure, but by April 1911 the family was living in the village of Arrow, just south-west of Alcester, by which time the two eldest sons had left home, to make they own way in the world. Therefore, the census that year recorded the family as Charles Collett who was 43 and a blacksmith from Bickmarsh, Sarah Collett who was 44 and from Childswickham, Agnes Collett who was 13, Eva Collett (rather than Amy) who was 10, Ethel Collett who was five, and Alfred Collett who was two years old. Of the couple’s two missing children, Charles Collett from Newbold-on-Stour was 21 and was living and working in the area of Stratford-upon-Avon, while William Collett from Newbold-on-Stour was 17 and was living and working in the Kings Norton area, south of Birmingham. The death of Charles Ingles Collett was recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 6c 11) during the last three months of 1919, exactly four years before the death of his father, of the same name, being recorded there.

76P11

Charles Ingles Collett

Born in 1890 at Newbold-on-Stour

76P12

William Turner Collett

Born in 1894 at Newbold-on-Stour

76P13

Agnes Helen Collett

Born in 1898 at Newbold-on-Stour

76P14

Amy Eva Collett

Born in 1901 at Newbold-on-Stour

76P15

Ethel Frances Collett

Bapt. on 11.10.1905 at Stratford-upon-Avon

76P16

Alfred Thomas Collett

Born in 1908 at Stratford-upon-Avon

76O6

William Collett was born at Bickmarsh but was baptised in the parish church at Bidford on 8^th August 1869, the youngest son of Charles Ingles Collett and Victoria Dones. He was one year old in the Bickmarsh census of 1871 and during the following decade his mother died and his father re-married. By 1881, when William was 11, he was still attending school when he and his family were living at Cleeve Prior. It was also at Bridge Street in Cleeve Prior that twenty-one-year-old William was still living in 1891, when he was working with his father as a blacksmith’s assistant, while it was four years later that William Collett married Mary Ann Abbots at Newbold-upon-Stour on 16^th January 1895. Mary Ann was born at Armscote, near Shipston-on-Stour in Warwickshire, where the couple’s first two children were born, before the family settled in Cleeve Prior, where the next two children were born before the end of the century.

By the time of the census in March 1901 the young family was living at Queen Street in Cleeve Prior, where William Collett, aged 31 and from Bickmarsh, was working as a labourer at a market garden. His wife Mary A Collett was 30 and born at Armscote, as were her two eldest children, Albert H Collett who was five and Charles E Collett who was four, plus Olive M Collett who was two and Percy W Collett who was one year old, who had been born after the family had settled in Cleeve Prior. It was during the first few years of the new century that, it would appear, William’s work took the family to Stratford-upon-Avon, where a further four children were added to the family. By April 1911, the family was still living there, and was made up of William Collett from Bickmarsh was 41 and a blacksmith at brickyard, Mary A Collett from Armscote was 39, Albert Collett was 15 and a saddler’s apprentice from Armscote whose birth was recorded at Shipston-on-Stour, Charles Collett was 14 and an apprentice at a local bakery, May Collett was 12, Percy Collett was 11, the younger two children born at Cleeve Prior, with their births recorded at Evesham, as was Charles, although he had been born at Armscote. The last four children were Ida Collett who was six, Doris Collett who was four, Gladys Collett who was two, and Ralph Collett who was just nine months old, all of them born at Stratford-upon-Avon.

Just over five years later, William and Mary Ann received the sad news that their eldest son Albert Henry Collett had been killed in frontline action at Thievpal. The couple continued to reside in the area of Stratford-upon-Avon for the remainder of their long lives, and it was there that their deaths were recorded within three years of each other. The passing of William Collett was recorded at the Stratford register office (Ref. 9c 138) during the first three months of 1955, when he was 85. Mary Ann Collett was 86 when her death was recorded there during the last quarter of 1957 (Ref. 9c 65).

76P17

Albert Henry Collett

Born in 1895 at Armscote (Shipston-on-Stour)

76P18

Charles Edgar Collett

Born in 1896 at Armscote (Evesham)

76P19

Olive May Collett

Born in 1898 at Cleeve Prior (Evesham)

76P20

Percy William Collett

Born in 1900 at Cleeve Prior (Evesham)

76P21

Ida Nancy Collett

Born in 1904 at Stratford-upon-Avon

76P22

Doris Hannah Collett

Born in 1906 at Stratford-upon-Avon

76P23

Gladys Mary Collett

Born in 1908 at Stratford-upon-Avon

76P24

Ralph Edwin Collett

Born in 1910 at Stratford-upon-Avon

76O7

Mary Victoria Collett was born at Bickmarsh in 1870 and was baptised at Bidford-on-Avon on 4^th December 1870, the last child of James and Victoria Collett. Not long after she was baptised her family left Bickmarsh and moved to Old Stratford in Stratford-upon-Avon where they were living in 1871 when Mary V Collett was just a few months old. Sometime after 1871 Mary’s mother died, perhaps during the birth of a subsequent child who also did not survive. Following his loss, her father then married the older Elizabeth presumably to look after his young family. By 1881 Mary V Collett was 10 and was living with her family at Cleeve Prior, and ten years later she was one of just two children still living at Cleeve Prior with her father and her stepmother. Mary V Collett was 20 at that time in 1891. It is very likely that Mary Victoria Collett was married during the next decade as no record of her as an unmarried lady has been found in the next census of 1901, by which time her father had married for a third time and was still living at Cleeve Prior.

76O8

Mary Ann Collett was born in 1865 at Aston Subedge, two miles north-east of Willersey, the eldest child of James Collett of Willersey and his wife Elizabeth Warmington from Bidford-on-Avon. The marriage of her parents was recorded at Evesham at the end of 1864 or early in 1865, and it was there also that the birth of Mary Ann Collett was recorded (Ref. 6c 53) during the third quarter of 1865, making Mary a honeymoon baby. In the Aston Subedge census of 1871, Mary A Collett was five years old, but by 1881 she and her family were living at Pauls House in Mickleton where Mary A Collett was 15 and had left school and was presumably helping her mother look after the rest of her family. With the death of her mother sometime during the 1880s, Mary A Collett, aged 25, was keeping house for her widowed father at the time of the Mickleton census of 1891. It was also in November 1891 that Mary Ann Collett was the witness at the wedding of her brother Harry (below) at Badsey near Evesham. Following the death of her father before the end of the century it is assumed that Mary was eventually marriage, since no record of her as a single lady has been found in the next census in 1901.

76O9

James Collett was born at Aston Subedge in 1867 the second child and eldest son of James and Elizabeth Collett. His birth was recorded at Evesham (Ref. 6c 277) during the last three months of the year. He was three years old in 1871 when living at Aston Subedge with his family, and by 1881, at the age of 13, he was attending school in Mickleton while living with his family at Pauls House in Mickleton. And it was there also that he was still living with his widowed father ten years later in 1891, but at Campden Road, when James was 23 and working as a shepherd alongside his father. Before the end of the century James married Rose Ellen from Broad Campden, although no record of their wedding day has so far been found.

However, they were living together on the day of the census in 1901, when the childless couple was living at Leysbourne in Chipping Campden. James Collett from Aston Subedge was 33 and a farm labourer, while his wife Rose E Collett, also aged 33, was from Broad Campden. Ten years later, in April census of 1911, they were again recorded in the census return for Chipping Campden, where James was 43 and a labourer working on a farm, and his wife Rose Ellen Collett was also 43 years old. James lived to be 91 years of age, when his death was recorded at the North Cotswold register office (Ref. 7b 43) during the first quarter of 1959. For the last three years of his life, he had been a widower, following the death of Rose Ellen Collett recorded at the Chipping Campden Cotswold District register office, after which she was buried at St James’ Churchyard in Chipping Campden on 4^th March 1956, at the age of 88.

76O10

Harry Collett was born at Aston Subedge at the end of 1869 or just after the start of the following year, another son of James and Elizabeth Collett. The birth of Harry Collett was recorded at Evesham (Ref. 6c 175) during the first three months of 1870. It was as Harry Collett that he was recorded with his family at Aston Subedge in 1871, when he was one year old, and again in 1881, by which time he and his family were living at Pauls House in Mickleton. On that occasion he was 11 years old and was attending school there, where his mother died shortly after the day of the census. By 1891, Harry Collett was 21, with the occupation of a baker, when he was lodging at the Chipping Campden home of elderly Caroline Moss at Leysbourne Street. Harry’s sister Fanny (below) was also living and working at Leysbourne Street that same day.

However, later that same year, it was as Henry Collett, aged 22 and a baker, that he was married by banns to Julia Dyer, aged 23, at Badsey on 9^th November 1891. The groom’s father was confirmed as James Collett, a shepherd, the father of the bride was recorded as George Dyer, a labourer. One of the four witnesses at the ceremony in St James Church was Henry’s eldest sibling, sister Mary Ann Collett. It would appear from the birth of the couple’s first child that the first year or so of their married life was spent living in Chipping Campden, but that they later returned for a while to live in Badsey, where the next three children were born. Tragically, the birth of their first son was tinged with sadness, when he died and was buried at Badsey just one month after he was baptised there. According to the Badsey census conducted at the end of March in 1901, Harry Collett from Campden was 31 and his occupation was that of a journeyman baker. His wife was Julia, also 31, was from Kidderminster. Their two children at that time, living in the family home at South View Terrace, 15 Brewer’s Lane, in Badsey were Elsie Collett from Campden who was eight, and Lilian Collett of Badsey who was six years old.

Within a few months of the census day in 1901, Julia fell pregnant with the couple’s fourth child and, just after the start of the following year, Julia presented Harry with their second son while the family was still living at Badsey. Over the following years Harry’s bakery business took the family back to Chipping Campden, where they were living and working from premises in the High Street in April 1911. Harry Collett, aged 42 and from Chipping Campden, was a baker dealer, and his wife of nineteen years Julia Collett from Kidderminster was also 42. Living with the couple that day were their three surviving children, two of whom were assisting with the family business, and they were daughters Elsie Collett who was 18 and from Chipping Campden, and Lily Collett who was 16 and from Badsey, both of whom were shop assistants. Completing the family was the couple’s son Francis Collett who was nine years old, and also born at Badsey, who was attending the local school.

Julia Collett was 63 when she was still living at Chipping Campden, where she died on 8^th November 1933 and was buried in the churchyard of St James’ Church. Nineteen years after her passing Harry Collett was 82 when he died, his death recorded at the North Cotswold register office (Ref. 7b 46) during the final quarter of 1952.

76P25

Elsie Collett

Born in 1892 at Chipping Campden

76P26

Lilian Kate Collett

Born in 1894 at Badsey

76P27

Herbert James Collett

Born in 1897 at Badsey

76P28

Francis Harry Collett

Born in 1902 at Badsey

76O11

Kate Collett was born at Aston Subedge possible at the end of 1871 or early in the following year, with her birth recorded at Evesham (Ref. 6c 221) during the first three months of 1872. Just after the middle of the following decade her parents took the family to live in the adjacent village of Mickleton, where Kate was living at Pauls House at the age of nine years in 1881. Following the premature death of her mother that same year and, upon leaving school, Kate secured work in domestic service and at the time of the next census in 1891, Kate Collett from Chipping Campden was 19 and was living and working at the Melbourne Square home of the Morriss family within the Lambeth district of London, where she was a general domestic servant. Five years later, during the first three months of 1896, the marriage of Kate Collett and William George Barnes, a local Pastry Cook from the Brixton area of London, was recorded at Lambeth register office (Ref. 1d 274).

Over the next five years Kate gave birth to two children, with the family of four living at Cowley Road in Lambeth on the day of the census in 1901. By that time in their young lives, William Barnes from Brixton was 28 and still working as a pastry cook, Kate Barnes from Chipping Campden was 29, Olive Barnes was three and had also been born at Brixton, while Ethel Barnes was under one year old and had been born at South-end-on-Sea. Staying with the family that day were two of William's brothers, Frank Barnes who was 30 and a bricklayer, and Ernie Barnes who was 21 and a commercial clerk, both of them also born at Brixton. The birth of William George Barnes had been recorded at Lambeth near the end of 1872, and he was the eldest child of William and Elizabeth Barnes. On leaving school he initially worked as stores porter when he was still living with his family at Alfred Road in Paddington.

On the occasion of the Norwood (Lambeth) census in 1911, when William was 38, he was employed as a laundryman, his wife Kate was 39, Olive was 13, and Ethel was 10. Seven years prior to that day, Kate had given birth to a third daughter Violet who was recorded as having been born at West Norwood. The birth of Olive Beatrix M Barnes was recorded at Lambeth early in 1898. Her sister Ethel Irene Barnes, who curiously married Jack A Barnes at Lambeth in 1925, has born during the summer of 1900 with her birth recorded at Rochford in Essex. The birth of Violet Inez Barnes was also recorded at Lambeth near the end of 1903. The death of William George Barnes was recorded at Lambeth register office (Ref. 1d 104) during the final quarter of 1928, when he was around 56 years old. Sometime after being widowed, Kate settled in the county of Surrey, and it was at the North-Western register office (Ref. 5g 187) where her passing was recorded during the first three months of 1964 when she was said to be 94.

76O12

Fanny Collett was born at Aston Subedge in 1874, her birth recorded at Evesham (Ref. 6c 338) during the second quarter of the year. She was around two years old when her family moved the short distance to Mickleton, where they were living in 1881 when Fanny was seven years old. Not long after that day, Fanny‘s mother died and, by 1891, Fanny Collett aged 17 was living at Leysbourne Street in Chipping Norton, the home of elderly widow Elizabeth Hands who was living on her own means, where Fanny was one of two general domestic servants. That same day her older brother Harry (above) was also living and working at a property on Leysbourne Street. By the end of the century the absence from the census in 1901 of Fanny Collett very likely suggests that she was married by then.

76O13

Hubert Collett was born at Aston Subedge in 1876 just prior to his family moving two miles north to Mickleton. It was after the move, that his birth was recorded at Shipston-on-Stour (Ref. 6d 228) during the first three months of the year. where they were recorded in the census of 1881 residing at Pauls House in the village, where Hubert was five years old. No record of him has been found in either 1891 or 1901, while it was during the following year that the marriage of Hubert Collett and Elizabeth Minnie Dickens was recorded at Kingston-upon-Thames register office (Ref. 2a 6) during the third quarter of 1902. Elizabeth was the second daughter of Charles and Harriet Dickens and had been born at Wimbledon. On the occasion of the baptism of their first child, the occupation of Hubert Collett was recorded as being that of a baker, who was residing at 26 Hartfield Crescent in Wimbledon, not far from Wimbledon Railway Station. That conflicts with the family details recorded in the census conducted in 1911, which stated all three children of Hubert and Elizabeth were both at Herne Hill in South London.

In the Lambeth census of 1911, Hubert Collett from Gloucestershire was 35 and a baker and a van driver employed by the Davies Bakery Company. Twenty years earlier, it was his older sister Kate (above) who was living and working in Lambeth. Recorded living with Hubert in 1911 was his wife and their three children. Minnie Elizabeth Collett from Wimbledon was 29 and their three children were Hubert C P Collett who was eight, Minnie Elizabeth Collett who was five, and Charlie Henry Collett who was just one month old, all three said to have been born at Herne Hill, not far from where the family was living. Two years after that census day, Minnie presented Hubert with another daughter, with the birth of Elsie M Collett recorded at Lambeth register office (Ref. 1d 39) during the first quarter of 1913. The death of Hubert Collett was recorded at Lambeth register office in London (Ref. 5c 89) during the first three months of 1952, when he was 76.

76P29

Hubert Christopher Percy Collett

Born in 1903 at Wimbledon

76P30

Minnie Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1905 at Wimbledon

76P31

Charlie Henry Collett

Born in 1909 at Lambeth

76P32

Elsie M Collett

Born in 1913 at Lambeth

76O14

William Collett was born at Mickleton to the north of Chipping Campden on 24^th February 1879, the youngest child of James Collett and Elizabeth Warmington, birth was recorded at Shipston-on-Stour (Ref. 6d 289) during second quarter of that year. He was born just after his parents arrived in the village of Mickleton from the neighbouring village of Aston Subedge. In the Mickleton census of 1881, William Collett was two years old when he was living with his family at Pauls House. A few months later, during that same year, William’s mother passed away, and that sad event seems to have been a reason for the break-up of the family. So, by 1891, it was just William aged 12, who was already working as a plough boy, and his two older siblings James and Mary (above), who were the only children still living with their widowed father in the family home at Campden Road in Mickleton.

Sometime between 1891 and 1901 William followed in his sister Kate and brother Hubert's footsteps when they moved to London, initially to a boarding house in Lewisham. It was during that period of his life that he quit working on the land, to take up the occupation of a journeyman baker, two of his older brothers Harry and Hubert both being bakers. And it was as a journeyman baker that he was residing at 82 Ennersdale Road in Lewisham in 1901, when William Collett from Chipping Campden was 21 and a boarder with the family of Albert and Ellen Hall.

His future wife was Flora May Swan from Brixton in Surrey, whose birth was recorded at Lambeth (Ref. 1d 308) during the second quarter of 1878, following which she was baptised at St Saviour’s Church in Brixton on 2^nd June 1878, the daughter of James and Sarah Elizabeth Swan. By the day of the census in 1901, and as simply May Swan, she was 23 and employed as a domestic housemaid at the Hulse Hill, Lambeth home of elderly couple Frank and Elizabeth Whitlock. Flora May Swan from Brixton was the youngest of the three servants working for the couple and their two middle-aged unmarried daughters. With William’s sister Kate Collett also working in domestic service in that area of London that same year, it is possible that it was through his sister that he met Flora.

It was during the second quarter of 1905, that the marriage of William Collett and Flora May Swan conducted at All Saints’ Church in Edmonton on 4^th June 1905, was recorded at Edmonton register office (Ref. 3a 222) in Middlesex, North London. The couple’s first child was born one year later at Battersea, his birth recorded at Wandsworth register office, as it was for their second Battersea born daughter. Two years later the family of four was still residing in Battersea when William Collett from Chipping Campden was 32 and a master baker in the census if 1911. His wife Flora May Collett from Brixton was also 32, and their two children were four-year-old William James Collett and two-year-old Ida May Collett, both confirmed as having been born at Battersea. According to the completed census return that year, Flora’s mother had died prior to that, with her widowed father James Swan aged 63 and a house decorator from Worthing in Sussex living with the young Collett family. Also on the census day, Flora was anticipating the birth of her third child, who was born at Battersea in September 1911.

William continued to be a master baker as confirmed in the 1939 Register compiled that year with war in Europe on the near horizon. At that time in their life William and Flora were residing at Earlsfield area to the south of Wandsworth, where they were running a bakery and grocer’s shop. William was 60 years old and simply described as a baker and retail grocer. When he retired a few years later, he and Flora moved to 34 Barttelot Road, Horsham in West Sussex to live out their final years. It was at that address that they listed within the electoral registers from 1949 to 1960. Flora May Collett, nee Swan, died at 34 Barttelot Road on 30^th July 1960, when the probate process recorded her husband as a retired master baker. Her death was recorded at Horsham register office (Ref. 5h 86) during the third quarter of 1960, when she was 82 years old.

Less than three years later, William Collett passed away at St Annes, Redhill in Surrey on 2 February 1963, a couple of weeks before his 84^th birthday. His eldest child and only son William James Collett of 8 Benbrick Road, Guildford in Surrey was the informant. Footnote: St Anne's Home for the Aged was bought by Surrey County Council in 1936 while it was housing paupers from the Reigate Union Workhouse. By 1948 it was also accommodating chronically sick elderly patients referred from Reigate General Hospital. A decade after William died there, it ceased to be used for elderly accommodation for the chronically sick and went back to housing the homeless. It closed in 1975 after a fire caused £40,000 damage during the previous year and was eventually demolished in 1987, with the site redeveloped for housing.

76P33

William James Collett

Born in 1906 at Battersea

76P34

Ida May Collett

Born in 1908 at Battersea

76P35

Muriel Amy Collett

Born in 1911 at Battersea

76O15

Mary Ann Collett was born at Badsey in 1864, where she was baptised as Mary Anne Collett on 28^th June 1864, the eldest child of William Collett, a labourer, and his wife Charlotte Robins who were only married four months earlier. The birth of Mary Ann was recorded at Evesham (Ref. 6c 144) during the second quarter of the year. The Badsey census in 1871 described her as Mary A Collett aged six years, while in 1881 she was 16. It was just eighteen months later that she married Charles Knight, aged 20 and a labourer. at Badsey on 19^th September 1882 when Mary’s father William Collett was one of the witnesses. Charles was born at Badsey on 17^th October 1861 and baptised at Claines on 8^th June 1862, the son of Richard and Ann Knight. He may well have been related to Mary Ann’s grandmother’s side of the family, since her grandmother, Mary Collett nee Ingles, was the daughter of Richard Ingles and Mary Knight. The marriage of Mary Ann Collett and Charles Knight produced nine known children, all born at Badsey, the first two when the couple was residing at Phipps Alley, where they and those first two children were living in 1891. The births of all nine children were recorded at Evesham register office. Also living at Phipps Alley was Mary Ann’s married sister Lydia Ellen Crane, nee Collett (below), with her husband and their first two children.

Charles Knight was a market gardener, and he and his family were living at Summerfield Cottage, 14 Badsey Fields Lane in Badsey from 1906 to 1916. His children were Mary Ann Knight (1884), William Knight (1887), Emma Knight (1888), Charles Knight (1890), Richard Knight (1892), Charlotte Knight (1894), Jane Knight (1897), May Knight (1900), and Edith Knight (1901). It seems highly likely that Charles and Mary Ann lived all her life at Badsey, since it was at the churchyard of St James’ Church in Badsey that Mary Ann was buried following her passing on 19^th February 1939, when she was 74 years old. Five years later, her widowed husband died on 20^th October 1944, at the age of 83, and was buried with Mary Ann in the grounds of St James’ Church in Badsey. The death of Charles Knight was recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 6c 89), when his home address was recorded as 19 Synehurst in Badsey. In 1939, and living at 20 Synehurst Crescent in Badsey was Emma Collett the widow of John Collett (below) and her unmarried daughters. Emma was Charles Knight’s sister-in-law, through her late husband, the younger brother of Charles’ wife Mary Ann Knight, nee Collett.

The Evesham Journal for Saturday 25^th February 1939 including the following obituary for Mary Ann Knight: “The death occurred on Sunday after a long illness of Mrs Mary Ann Knight, wife of Mrs Charles Knight of Sands Lane, Badsey. Mrs Knight was the eldest daughter of the late Mr & Mrs William Collett of Belle Vue, Badsey. She was born in the village where, except for a period of four years at Worcester, she lived in the village all her life. Mr & Mrs Knight had been married for 56 years. Mrs Knight was 74 years of age, and is survived by her husband, three sons and four daughters, with whom deep sympathy is expressed. The funeral was at Badsey on Thursday afternoon, the interment taking place in St James’ Churchyard, following a service in St James’ Church.

The mourners were Mr C Knight Senior (husband), Mr & Mrs William Knight (son and daughter-in-law), Mr C Knight Junior and Mr R Knight (sons), Mr & Mrs G C Cole, Mr & Mrs C Haines, Mr & Mrs J Andrews, Worcester, and Mr & Mrs J Ford (sons-in-law and daughters), Mr & Mrs W T Collett (brother and sister-in-law), Mr G Collett (brother), Mr & Mrs W D Sparrow (brother-in-law and sister), Mrs W H Jelfs, Chelmsford (sister), Mrs C Collett (sister-in-law), Miss L Knight, Miss E Ford and Miss D Ford (granddaughters), Mr R Knight and Mr T Ford (grandsons) and Miss B Collett (niece). The bearers were Messrs W C Knight, G E Knight, A Knight, W Capener, R Knight and R Andrews (all grandsons).

76O16

Lydia Ellen Collett was born at Badsey in 1867 and was baptised there on 13^th March 1867, the second child of labourer William and Charlotte Collett. It was simply as Lydia Collett that her birth was recorded at Evesham (Ref. 6c 197) during the first two months of that year. In the two consecutive census returns for Badsey in 1871 and 1881 she was listed as Lydia E Collett when she was three years old and again as Lydia E Collett when she was 14, had already left school, and was described as a gardener’s daughter. Like her sister Mary Ann (above), Lydia was also not of full age when, just over three years after, she married (1) Thomas Crane at Badsey, a labourer and a bachelor aged 33, on 21^st October 1884. Their wedding day was recorded at Evesham (Ref. 6c 215) during the last three months of the year, when Lydia’s father was confirmed as William Collett a market gardener. The two witnesses at the wedding were Charles Knight and Mary Ann Knight, Lydia’s sister and brother-in-law. Thomas Crane was born at Wickhamford in 1851, where he was baptised on 11^th May 1851, the son of labourer William and Sarah Crane. Two daughters were born to the Thomas and Lydia prior to the next census in 1891, by which time the family was residing at Phipps Alley in Badsey. It was also at Phipps Alley that Lydia’s older married sister Mary Ann Knight, nee Collett, was living with her young family on that same day.

Thomas Crane was 39 and an agricultural labourer in 1891, when his wife Ellen Crane (sic) was only 24, and their two daughters were Charlotte Crane who was three and Eliza Crane who was one year old. Six more children were added to the family over the following decade, which was still living in Badsey, but at Mill Lane when Thomas from Wickhamford was 49 and a market gardener, the same occupation as his brother-in-law Charles Knight (above). The rest of his large family was recorded at Lydia E Crane aged 34, Lottie Crane 13, Eliza Crane 11, Thomas W Crane who was nine, Ellen Crane who was eight, Ernest Crane who was six, Walter Crane who was four, Ethel Crane who was two, and Rose Ann Crane who was under one year old. Every member of the household, apart from Thomas as head, had been born at Badsey, their births recorded at Evesham.

Over the next nine years Lydia presented Thomas with a further three children while they were still living in Badsey and where their address in 1911 was recorded as the Old Silk Mill, the former home of father parents William and Charlotte Collett in 1891. Market gardener Thomas was 59, Lydia Ellen was 44, and the eight children still living with them were Ellen 18, Ernest 16, Walter 14, Ethel 12, Rose Annie 10, Edith Crane who was eight, May Crane who was four, and Charlie Crane who was not yet one year old. A double tragedy hit the family just father that day, first with the death of Thomas Crane at the age of 60; his death recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 6c 5) during the third quarter of 1911, and five years later his son Walter Crane (1896-1916) was a private serving with the Royal Worcestershire Regiment when he was killed in action. However, between those two sad events, the marriage of Lydia Ellen Crane and (2) Theodore J Hall took place at Badsey, with the event recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 6c 64) during the first quarter of 1914.

Theodore James Hall was born at Badsey in 1845 and his first wife was Jane Field whom he had married at Cleeve Prior around the time that Lydia Ellen Collett was born. He was a cordwainer (a shoemaker) and was one of the sons of Thomas and Elizabeth Hall. After only ten years being married to Lydia Ellen, he died on 10^th March 1924, with his Will proved two months later at Worcester on 23^rd May 1924, when the sole beneficiary was his widow Lydia Ellen Hall. The deaths of just two ladies with the name Lydia E Hall born during the 1860s has been located, the first recorded at Poplar in London during the summer of 1929 aged 60, and the second at St Albans during the summer of 1940 aged 75.

76O17

William Collett was born at Badsey in 1869, where he was baptised on 28^th March 1869, the first son born to William Collett, a labourer, and Charlotte Robbins. His birth was recorded at Evesham (Ref. 6c 268) during the first three months of that year. Tragically, he did not survive to see his first birthday, since he died at Badsey on 12^th February 1870 and was buried in the grounds of the Church of St James. It was also at Evesham where his death was recorded (Ref. 6c 278).

76O18

John Collett was born at Badsey in 1871 and it was there also that he was baptised on 26^th November 1871, the eldest surviving son of William and Charlotte Collett. He was nine years old by the time of the Badsey census in 1881, when he was still attending the village school. He was still living with his family at Badsey in 1891 when he was 19 and described as a market gardener’s son. However, it was later that same year he became a married man. John Collett of Badsey, aged 20 and a gardener, was married by banns to Emma Knight of Badsey, aged 19, at St James’ Church in the village on 12^th October 1891. Emma was baptised at Badsey on 28^th July 1872, the daughter of market gardener Richard Knight of Badsey and his wife Jane. It is also likely that she was related to Charles Knight who married John’s eldest sister Mary Ann Collett (above) in 1882. The witnesses at the wedding were John’s married sister Lydia Ellen Crane (above), his brother-in-law Charles Knight, and Henry Knight.

It was a few years after they were married that Emma presented John with a son while the couple were still living in Badsey where they were helping to run the family business of market gardeners. So, at the time of the census in 1901 the family of three was recorded living at Belmont Terrace on Willersey Road in Badsey as John Collett aged 29 and Emma Collett aged 28, both of them market gardeners having their own account and working from home, and their son Samuel J Collett was five years old. Just over one year later Samuel Collett commenced his education at Badsey School, the date being 2^nd April 1902, although he was registered using his second name of John, born in 1895. Three years after that John and Emma added to their family with the birth of a daughter. By 1911, the family was still living at Badsey, at ‘Rosemere’ 13 Chapel Street, and was made up of John Collett who was 39 and a market-gardener, having his own account and working from home, his wife of 19 years Emma who was 38, Samuel John Collett who was 15 and had left school and was working as a shop lad, and Blanche Maria Collett who was four. Also lodging with the family that day, was bachelor Samuel Knight of Badsey, aged 41 and a gardener’s labourer, who was most likely Emma’s older brother.

The property ‘Rosemere’ was owned by Mrs S Jane Hutchings and occupied by John Collett under a quarterly renewed tenancy agreement for a rental cost of £12. The dwelling comprised brick and tile construction, built around 1894, a sitting-room used as a shop, a kitchen, back kitchen, pantry, furnace, water closet, and 3 bedrooms. Sometime after 1912, the Collett family moved out of the semi-detached property at 13 Chapel Street.

It was during the last year of the First World War that John Collett, aged 46, died and was buried at Badsey on 18^th February 1918, with his passing recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 6c 212) during the first three months of the year. Twenty-one years later John’s widow Emma Collett was still living in Badsey at 20 Synehurst Crescent. Living with her were two unmarried ladies, her daughter Blanche M Collett, born in 1907, and Gladys Mary Collett, born on 19^th November 1921, three years after John had passed away, who was a crate maker at a canning factory, where Blanche was also employed. How she was related to the family, if indeed she was, is currently not known. The only Gladys M Collett born in 1921 had her birth recorded at Kings Norton register office (Ref. 6c 279), when her mother’s maiden-name was Shonk, while no Collett-Shonk marriage has been found. Living at 19 Synehurst Crescent in 1939 was Charles Knight whose late wife was Mary Ann Collett, the eldest sibling of Emma’s late husband.

Eight years later, the death of Emma Collett, the widow of John Collett, died at Badsey, where she was buried on 17^th November 1947 in the churchyard of St James’ Church. She was 75 years old and had been living at 20 Synehurst Crescent when she passed away.

76P36

Samuel John Collett

Born in 1895 at Badsey

76P37

Blanche Maria Collett

Born in 1907 at Badsey

76O19

Thomas William Collett was born at Badsey on 15^th January 1874 and was baptised there on 7^th February 1874, the son of William and Charlotte Collett. His birth was recorded at Evesham (Ref. 6c 172) during the first month of 1874. He was seven years old at the time of the Badsey census in 1881 when he was named as Thomas W Collett, and was 17 years of age ten years later in 1891 when he was simply named as William Collett, a market gardener’s son. In the March census of 1901 unmarried Thomas W Collett was 27, by which time he was still living at Badsey with his family, where his occupation was that of a market gardener working with his father in the family business. Also, immediately after the census day that year the marriage of Thomas William Collett and Felicia Ellen Smith was recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 6c 212) during the second quarter of 1901. Felicia was born in 1870 and was 20 years of age in 1891 when she was a machine gloveress who was still living at the family home on Main Street in Offenham, near Evesham where her birth was recorded. She was the youngest child of Charles and Hannah Smith.

Their marriage resulted in the birth of two children before the next census in 1911, when they and their young family were living at Stone Cottage, 2 Chapel Street in Badsey. Thomas William Collett from Badsey was 37 and continuing to work as a market gardener, Felicia Ellen Collett from Offenham was 40, and their two children were Eva Helen Collett who was nine, and Reginald William Collett who was four, both of them having been born at Badsey. Three years earlier, their daughter Eva was recorded as being admitted into Badsey School on 4^th August 1908, while in Kelly’s Director in 1912, her father’s name was reversed when the entry read that William Thomas Collett of Badsey was a market gardener.

The cottage ‘Stone Cottage’ was owned by Thomas Byrd senior of Adlington and was rented by Thomas William Collett as the occupier. The tenancy agreement term was half yearly, with the rent being £9 10s. The property comprised brick, stone and tile, a living-room, back kitchen, lean-to wash-house, privy, 2 bedrooms, brick and tile shed, water closet, shed and pigsty. Also, at the same time, Thomas was renting over three acres of agricultural land at Little Briar Croft, part of the Badsey Fields estate owned by Percy H Byrd.

According to the census in 1921, the family of four was residing at 1 Lindwood Villas at 23 Chapel Street in Badsey, a five-roomed dwelling. Thomas W Collett was 47 years and 6 months, a market gardener with his own account, working from home. Felicia E Collett from Offenham was 50 years and 6 months, carrying out domestic duties, and their two children were Eva H Collett who was 19 years and 6 months whose was helping her mother, and Reginald W Collett who was 14 years and 10 months and assisting his father in the family business. Living at 11 Chapel Street was Thomas’ father William Collett and with him, Thomas’ unmarried brother George.

Three years after that, the Electoral Roll for Badsey in 1924 placed Thomas William Collett and Felicia Ellen Collett as residing in a house at 23 Chapel Street in the village. After a further fifteen years, the Electoral Roll for Badsey included an entry for Thomas William Collett of 1 Lindwood Villas, 23 Chapel Street. Those details were also confirmed in the 1939 Register, together with the facts that Thomas William Collett was born on 15^th January 1874, whose occupation was that of a market gardener having his own account, when his wife was Felicia Collett whose date of birth was 1^st January 1871. The name of Thomas William Collett of 1 & 2 Lindwood Villas, Chapel Street, Badsey, was listed in the 1941 National Farm Survey No. 38 for Badsey having just under four acres which he had worked for forty years, owned by him, and having an annual rental value of £3 4 Shilling and 6 Pence per acre.

It was on 16^th September 1957 that Felicia Ellen Collett aged 86 was buried at Badsey and, three months after, Thomas William Collett of 1 Lynwood Villas in Badsey died on 19^th December 1957 and was buried at St James’ Church. His Will was proved on 17^th February 1958 at Birmingham, when probate was granted to Reginald Hodgetts, a solicitor.

76P38

Eva Helen Collett

Born in 1902 at Badsey

76P39

Reginald William Collett

Born in 1906 at Badsey

76O20

Charles Ingles Collett was born at Badsey, his birth recorded at Evesham (Ref. 6c 36) during the second quarter of 1876, after which he was baptised at Badsey on 25^th May 1876, the son of labourer William and Charlotte Collett. In 1881 the Badsey census that year listed him with his family as Charles I Collett aged five years. Ten years later it was simply as Charles Collett aged 15 and a market gardener’s son, and after a further decade he was recorded in 1901 as Charles I Collett aged 24 from Badsey, who was still living there with his family when his occupation was that of a market gardener in the family business. Just over three years prior to that Charles Ingles Collett was the witness at the marriage of his sister Kate Collett (below) at Badsey on 21^st December 1897. Charles himself was married four years into the new century, with the marriage of Charles Ingles Collett and Annie Saunders recorded at Pershore register office (Ref. 6c 348) during the second quarter of 1904.

Sometime between their wedding day and the day of the census in 1911, Charles Ingles Collett entered into a tenancy agreement with James Brewer, the owner of Brook House, on Lanket Lane (later referred to as Brewer’s Road) in Badsey. The property comprised a brick and tile cottage including 3 bedrooms, a sitting-room, kitchen, back kitchen, a pantry, and a coalhouse and water closet. In a valuation survey conducted on 24^th October 1912, the property was valued at £280, was in good repair, and had a rental value of £12, the tenancy term with Charles Collett being on a rolling half-yearly basis. At that same time in his life, Charles was also the occupier of over two acres of agricultural land at Badsey Fields owned by Percy H Byrd, at which Charles employed his brother-in-law Thomas Crane, the husband of his older sister Lydia (above), to work the land, one of three agricultural labourers.

Seven years after they were married, the couple was residing at Brook House on Brewer’s Road (later renamed Brewer’s Lane) in Badsey where, only a few months earlier, they had suffered the loss of their daughter Daisy, at the age of six years. The completed census return described Charles Collett from Badsey as being 35 and a market gardener (an employer), when his wife of six years Annie Collett from Charlton in Worcestershire was 31, who had given birth to a child who had not survived. The birth of Daisy Georgina Collett at Badsey on 10^th March 1905 was recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 6c 327) during the second quarter of the year. It was as Daisy Collett, the daughter of Charles Collett of Badsey, that she first attended Badsey Infant School on 30^th March 1908. The same school record gave her last day of attendance as 1^st March 1910, with the reason for her future non-attendance being that she had died within a year. The subsequent death of Daisy G Collett at Badsey was recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 6c 193) during the first quarter of 1911, after which she was buried at St James’ Church on 22^nd March 1911.

Eighteen months after her passing, Annie presented Charles with a son, whose birth at Badsey was also recorded at Evesham, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Saunders. The Midwife Register for Badsey recorded that the midwife arrived at the Collett’s dwelling at 9.30 a.m. on 23^rd September 1912 for the birth of the couple’s second child. She also reported that the child was a boy, who was given the name Alfred, but curiously said the mother’s name was Clara Collett. A follow-up visit my the midwife on 30^th September confirmed that mother and baby were “quite well”.

The Kelly’s Directory for 1912 confirmed that Charles Collett of Badsey was a market gardener. According to the Badsey census of 1921, the three members of the family were still living at Brook House, Brewer’s Road, when Charles Collett was 45 years and 3 months old and a market gardener with his own account working in the village of Badsey. His wife Annie Collett was 41 years and 5 months from Charlton in Worcestershire, who was helping on the land and undertaking household duties, while their son Alfred Cecil Collett was 8 years and 8 months old and attending the village school. Three years later, the 1924 Electoral Roll for Badsey included Charles Ingles Collett and his wife Annie Collett as residents of Brewer’s Road, and it was there also that they were still living when Charles Ingles Collett died on 26^th March 1937. Following that day, administration of his estate, amounting to £356 16 Shillings and 4 Pence, was granted at Worcester on 17^th April 1937 to his widow Annie Collett. The death of Charles Collett was recorded at Evesham (Ref. 6c 108), when he was 60 years old.

After twelve years as a widow, Annie Collett was still residing at Brook House, 24 Brewer’s Lane in Badsey on the day the 1939 Register was compiled. She was 59 years of age and continuing to manage the market garden business established by her late husband, the business account then being in her name. The Register also confirmed her date of birth as 1^st January 1880. Annie Collett nee Saunders was nearly ninety years old when she died at the end of February 1969, her death recorded at Worcestershire register office (Ref. 9d 112). On being buried at St James’ Church in Badsey on 3^rd March 1969, the parish record stated she had been living at The Bell Inn, Badsey, and the Annual Parish Review confirmed her burial was the second of only two in 1969.

76P40

Daisy Georgina Collett

Born in 1905 at Badsey; died 1911

76P41

Alfred Cecil Collett

Born in 1912 at Badsey

76O21

Kate Collett was born at Badsey in 1878, with her birth recorded at Evesham (Ref. 6c 79) during the second quarter of the year. That meant she was around nine months old when she was baptised at Badsey on 19^th February 1879, the daughter of William and Charlotte Collett. In the two following census returns Kate was noted as being two years of age in 1881, and 12 years old while living at Mill Lane in Badsey with her family in 1891, when she was described as a gardener’s daughter. Nearly seven years later Kate Collett, aged 19, was married by banns to William Douglas Sparrow, also 19 and a labourer, at Badsey on 21^st December 1897. The witnesses were her brother Charles Ingles Collett (above) and Helen Sparrow, very likely the sister of the groom. The wedding was conducted at St James’ Church in Badsey, when both fathers of the couple were market gardeners, and when the event was recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 6c 151). William Douglas Sparrow had been born on 10^th October 1878, his birth recorded at Evesham (Ref. 6c 297) during the fourth quarter of 1878, the second of the four children of Alfred Sparrow and Lucy Hards of Green Road in Badsey, although William had been born at Church Lench. It was at The Leys in Badsey that the couple was living with their daughter in 1901. William D Sparrow from Church Lench was 22 and a garden labourer, Kate Sparrow from Badsey was also 22, and Rose A Sparrow of Badsey was two years of age.

At the start of 1904, Kate presented William with a son who was given his father’s full name. Tragically, the child did not survive, with the death of five-year-old William Douglas Sparrow recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 6c 324) at the start of 1909, the cause of death being diphtheria. No more children were added to the family, so the Badsey census in 1911 still only listed the original three members. By them William had advanced to being a market gardener, when he was 32, as was his wife, with daughter Rose Annie Sparrow (1898-1976) being 12 and still attending school. Three years after that day, Kate gave birth to another daughter, with the birth of Lilian M Sparrow (1914-2001) recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 6c 122) during the third quarter of 1914. Two years later, William enlisted with the Royal Worcestershire Regiment, service number 20977. He also served with the Machine Gun Corps with the service number 9739. The much later death of William Douglas Sparrow was recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 9d 45) during the second quarter of 1956, when he was 77 years old. Kate Sparrow nee Collett was 80 years of age when she died at Badsey, following which her death was recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 9d 2) during the third quarter of 1958.

The family of William D Sparrow (1878-1956) and Kate Collett were the first occupants of 4 Synehurst, following completion of the five semi-detached council houses (1 to 10) in 1920. A year later, daughter Lilian transferred from the Badsey Infant School to the Mixed Department of Badsey Council School in April 1921, when her address was recorded in error as 14 Synehurst. This is known to be incorrect because the phase of the building of the semi-detached council houses at Synehurst, numbered 11 to 22, was not completed until 1927. Furthermore, the Electoral Roll in 1924 again placed William and Kate residing at 4 Synehurst. By that time, their daughter Rose had been married to Thomas Keen since 1919. The council house at 4 Synehurst was most likely allocated to families, so with the forthcoming marriage of their last child, William and Kate left the property, with Kate’s nephew Reginald William Collett, his wife Doris, and their two very young children moving in during 1934.

On the marriage of daughter Lilian in 1934, the family home was at Cothome in Badsey, which was previously the home of William’s late father, but after another five years, the 1939 Register recorded William and Kate Sparrow living at the home of their eldest married daughter 2 Synehurst. The couple’s final home was at Green Leys in Badsey, having lived at The Leys in 1901. Having lost her husband in 1956, Kate may have been suffering with poor health in 1958, when she was being cared for by her daughter Rose at 2 Synehurst, where she died.

76O22

Alfred Collett was born at Badsey immediately after the census day in 1881, his birth recorded at Evesham (Ref. 6c 359) during the second quarter of the year. It was at Badsey where he was baptised on 14^th August 1881, another son of labourer William and Charlotte Collett. Tragically, he died shortly after, and was buried at Badsey St James’ Church on 24^th September 1881, his death recorded at Evesham (Ref. 6c 341) during the last quarter of the year.

76O23

Ernest Hubert Collett was born at Badsey on 23^rd February 1883, and it was there also that he was baptised on 15^th April 1883, the son of market gardener William and Charlotte Collett. As Ernest Collett he was listed in the 1891 census for Badsey as being eight years old and attending the village school, the school records confirming his start date as 30^th January 1890, when his father William Collett was living at Badsey Mill. Eleven years after that, at the age of 18, he was recorded as Ernest H Collett in the Badsey census of 1901, who was working as a labourer in the family’s market gardening business. Four years later Ernest Hubert Collett was 22 when he was married by banns to Elsie Emmie Aldington who was 20 at Salford Priors on 16^th July 1905. Ernest’s father was confirmed as William Collett, while Elsie’s father was named as George Adlington. By April 1911, the childless couple was presuming renting the 6-roomed Grosvenor House in Badsey where Ernest Hubert Collett was 28 and a market gardener having his own account, and his wife Elsie Emmie Collett from Dunnington in Warwickshire was 26. In the following year, the Kelly’s Directory again confirmed that Ernest Hubert Collett was a market gardener. It was also around that time, when E H Collett was the tenant of nine acres of agricultural land, referred to as Briar Croft in Badsey, the land owned by Mrs Emily Byrd of The Firs in Badsey, plus another seven acres adjoining Sandy Lane and Yew Close, owned by the Trustee of J P Lord

It was also in 1912, on 9^th November, that E H Collett showed an interest in purchasing the property referred to as Grosvenor House, part of Yew Close, in Badsey, which had been built in 1910. He eventually became the owner of the very grand detached house on 27^th February 1913, which is still there to this day. On the outset of war in Europe, Ernest received his call-up papers but entered a plea that he was unable to leave his invalid wife to look after his 4½ acre market garden and 200 head of poultry. That resulted in a Military Tribunal hearing being held on 18^th April 1916, which offered Ernest, aged 33, a temporary exemption until 1^st October 1916. With no follow-up recorded or found, it is assumed that he had enlisted before that expiry date.

No record of any children born to the couple has been found, as confirmed by the 1921 Census for Badsey, when they were still residing at Grosvenor House, when Ernest was 38 years and 5 months, and Elsie was 35 years and 11 months. They were still there for the 1924 Electoral Roll, at Grosvenor House, as Ernest Hubert Collett and his wife Elsie Emme Collett. Fifteen years later, Ernest and Elsie were no longer living at Grosvenor House which, according to the 1939 Register was the home of market gardener Harry E Osborne born on 2^nd November 1898, his wife Eunice, and their two children Mavis and Peter. Today, the full address for Grosvenor House is 12 Sands Lane in Badsey.

76O24

George Collett was born at Badsey on 4^th August 1887 and was baptised later that year on 2^nd October 1887, the youngest son of William and Charlotte Collett. He was four years old when he was admitted into the Badsey School, the date being recorded as 11^th August 1891. Four months earlier, the census included George Collett aged four years living at Badsey with his family. In the following two census returns George was again recorded with his parents at Badsey at the age of 13, after he had left school, and again in 1911 when he was 23 and working with his father as a market gardener. For the latter, it was only George and his younger married sister Rosa (below) and her husband and their daughter who were still living there with their parents in 1911.

On 20^th March 1916 the first hearing of a military tribunal was held relating to conscientious objector to the war 28-year-old market gardener George Collett of Badsey. He did not believe in war, in addition to which, he also appealed against military service on the grounds that he looked after his father and his mother. He further added that he owned one-and-a-half acres of land, and helped his sister who had five acres, while her husband was already away on duty. Despite the arguments, George Collett was sent on non-combatant service. A second hearing was held on 9^th May 1916 when, once again he appealed on the grounds of hardship, saying he was a market gardener who helped to support his father and mother, and that he did not recognise that he had any duty to serve his country. Mrs Sparrow, a sister of appellant (the former Kate Collett), said her brother helped her with her 5½ acres of land with her husband on war service. She added that she had two children (one a daughter aged 17), that her separation allowance was £1 a week, and that her brother looked after his parents. As a result of their joint appeal, George was placed on temporary exemption, which expired on 31^st July 1916.

At a third hearing on 2^nd August 1916, George and his sister Kate Sparrow presented exactly the same case as three months earlier, the outcome of which was an extension to the temporary exemption until 31^st December 1916. Two more hearings were held in 1917, the first of them on 29^th January, when a further extension was granted up to 31^st March, the second on 17^th April 1917 when the final date for exemption was set as 30^th April 1917. Thereafter, George Collett was enlisted into the Royal Army Medical Corps, later transferred to the 627 Agricultural Company.

Following the death of his mother in 1918, George was the only person living with his widowed father on the day of the Badsey census of 1921 at Belle Vue, 11 Chapel Street. George Collett from Badsey was 33 years and 10 months, unmarried, a market gardener and an employer, who was living only a few doors away from his older brother Thomas William Collett (above) and his family.

By 1924, George Collett from Badsey was the owner of land at Aldington, one mile from Badsey, when his home residence at that time was Belle Vue, 11 Chapel Street in Badsey, the home of his father William Collett. Curiously, that same year, the Electoral Roll gave George’s address as Belle Vue, 11 Chapel Street. Two years later, when bachelor George Collett was 39 years old, and still working as a market gardener, he was married by banns to spinster Winifred Keen, aged 34, at St James’ Church in Badsey on 28^th October 1926. Their wedding day was recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 6c 93) during the last three months of 1926. The bride and the groom were both residing in Badsey prior to that day, with Winifred described as the daughter of market gardener Richard and Sarah Keen of Cotswold View in Badsey, where she had been born at the start of 1892. The father of the groom was confirmed as market gardener William Collett. The three witnesses were Arthur George Keen, Elsie Connie Keen, and Douglas Austin Jelfs who was the only child of George’s married sister Rosa Annie Jelfs (below).

George and Winifred’s daughter, and their only child, was a honeymoon baby, whose birth at Badsey was also recorded at Evesham register office the following year. When their daughter was twelve years old, as confirmed by the 1939 Register, the three members of the family were living at Belle Vue, 11 Chapel Street in Badsey, where George was still working as a market gardener with his own business, Winifred was 47, having been born on 2^nd March 1892. The couple enjoyed a fairly short married life together, with both of them buried in the churchyard of St James’ Church in Badsey, where a headstone marks the grave, with the following inscription:

In Loving Memory of GEORGE COLLETT Died November 1^ST 1947 Aged 60 Years Memory is a Golden Chain That binds us till we meet again AND WINIFRED His Wife Died January 19^TH 1953, Aged 60

George Collett did not leave a Will but his personal effects to the value of £3,842 14 Shillings and 1 Penny were subject to administration in Birmingham on 10^th February 1948. The record confirmed that George Collett of Belle Vue, Badsey in Worcestershire died on 1^st November 1947 and that the administrators of his estate were his widow Winifred Collett and Douglas Austin Jelfs, council clerk – his nephew (below). The death of George Collett was recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 9d 80) in November 1947. It was there also that the death of his widow was recorded (Ref. 9d 77) during the first month of 1953, following which she was buried with her husband at Badsey on 23^rd January 1953. An obituary was printed in the Evesham Standard and the West Midland Observer and read: “Mrs Winifred Collett, widow of the late Mr George Collett of Belle Vue, Badsey, died in Evesham Hospital on Monday, only two days after being taken ill. Aged 60, she was the third daughter of the late Mr & Mrs Richard Keen of Ivy House, Badsey, and lived in the village all of her life. Her husband predeceased her five years ago. She is survived by her only child Mrs Ruth Double of Drayton near Daventry.”

The Will of Winifred Collett of Belle Vue in Badsey, who died in The General Hospital in Evesham on 19^th January 1953 and was buried at St James’ Church on 23^rd January, was proved at Birmingham on 11^th February 1953, when probate was granted to Ruth Winifred Georgina Double, wife of John Frederick Double, for an estate valued at £4,344 11 Shillings and 7 Pence.

76P42

Ruth Winifred Georgina Collett

Born in 1927 at Badsey

76O25

Rosa Annie Collett was born at Badsey on 17^th May 1889, her birth recorded at Evesham (Ref. 6c 278) during the second quarter of the year. It was at St James’ Church in Badsey, where she was baptised on 21^st July 1889, the last child born to William Collett and his wife Charlotte Robins. She was one-year-old Rose Collett in the Badsey census of 1891, and it was as Rose Annie Collett on 18^th September 1893 that she was admitted into Badsey Infant School, her school record also stating that she was re-admitted on 14^th February 1894, presumably after an absence through illness. She was still at school in 1901 when Rose A Collett was 11 years old, and living with her family at Badsey. Her last day at school in Badsey was 26^th April 1902. Less than eight years later, the marriage of Rosa Annie Collett, aged 20, and William Herbert Jelfs, aged 21, took place at St James’ Church in Badsey on 3^rd February 1910, and was recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 6c 296) during the first three months of 1910. William was a market gardener, the son of George Jelfs, himself a market gardener, with Rosa confirmed as the daughter of market gardener William Collett. There were four witnesses to the marriage, J W Collett, G Collett, A L Jelfs, and E Knight.

It was also at Badsey that their first child was born six months later, on 6^th August 1910, with his birth also recorded at Evesham (Ref. 6c 63) during the third quarter of the same year. He may have been the couple’s only child and was living with his parents at the Badsey home of his maternal grandparents, William and Charlotte Collett in 1911. William Jelfs was 22 and a market gardener like his father-in-law, Rosa Jelfs was 21, and Douglas Austin Jelfs was eight months old, his later death recorded at Blackpool & Fylde register office in December 1988, when he was 78. Twenty-two years prior to his passing, the death of Rosa A Jelfs was recorded at the Chelmsford register office in Essex (Ref. 4a 94) during the first three months of 1966, when she was 76. For the last eighteen months of her life, she was a widow living in the Chelmsford area, where the death of William H Jelfs was recorded during the last three months of 1964 (Ref. 4a 44) when he was 76 years of age.

In the Badsey Parish Review of 1969, their son Mr D Jelfs was recorded as a member of the Annual Vestry & Parish Council meeting, when he would have been 59.

76O26

Jane Collett was born at Willersey in 1898, the eldest of the five children of William Collett and Ellen Hands. Her birth was recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 6c 353) during the first quarter of that year. Tragically, it was during that same three-month period that the death of baby Jane Collett was recorded at Evesham (Ref. 6c 243). It was therefore Jane who was referred to in the details contained within the 1911 census return, as the one child born to the couple who did not survive.

76O27

Elsie Collett was born at Willersey in 1899 and was the eldest of the four surviving children of William and Ellen Collett. The birth of Elsie Collett was recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 6c 342) during the second quarter of the year. In the Willersey census of 1901, she was a couple of months short of her second birthday, so was recorded as being one year old when she was living there with her family. Over the next four years Elsie’s two youngest siblings were at Willersey, before the completed family moved to the village of Wormington, just west of Broadway. It was there that 11-year-old Elsie Collett was living with her family in 1911. Eleven years later the marriage of Elsie Collett and Harley Edwin Davies was recorded at Winchcombe register office (Ref. 6a 58) during the last three months of 1922. Harley was born at Leominster in Herefordshire on 14^th November 1897, where he was baptised on 22^nd December 1897, the son of Harley and Hannah Davies.

Once they were married, Harley and Elsie made their home in the Leominster area, where the birth of their two children were recorded at the Leominster register office, when their mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett. They were Minnie F Davies whose birth was recorded during the fourth quarter of 1923 (Ref. 6a 69), and Bryant William Davies whose birth was recorded during the first three months of 1925 (Ref. 6a 133) following his birth on 31^st December 1924. Elsie and Harley were still residing in the Leominster area of Herefordshire in 1966, where the death of Elsie Davies, aged 66 Davies was recorded (Ref. 9a 206) during the second quarter of that year. Her widowed husband was nearly 72 when he died three years later, the death of Harley Edwin Davies recorded at Hereford register office (Ref. 9a 63) towards the end of 1969.

76O28

William Robert Collett was born in 1900 but, unlike his siblings, he was not born at Willersey. Instead, he was born at Chipping Campden, with his birth recorded Shipston-on-Stour register office (Ref. 6d 357) during the second quarter of 1900. He was approaching his first birthday when he and his family were living in Willersey on the day of the census in 1901, maybe indicating that he was born at the Chipping Campden home of his maternal grandparents, William and Ellen Hands. Sometime between 1905 and 1911, the family left Willersey, when they settled in Wormington, near Broadway, where William Robert Collett from Chipping Campden was 10 years of age. No later military service has been unearthed for William, while his premature death was recorded at Winchcombe register office (Ref. 6a 36) during the second quarter of 1918, at the age of 18.

76O29

Betsey Collett was born in 1904 at Willersey, with her birth recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 6c 383) during the second quarter of that year. Within a couple of years of being born, Betsey’s parents William and Ellen Collett took the family to living in Wormington, where Betsey Collett was seven years of age in the census of 1911.

76O30

James Collett was born at Willersey in 1905, the last of the five children of William Collett and Ellen Hands. His birth was recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 6c 361) during the third quarter of the year. Not long after he was born his father’s work resulted in the family moving to Wormington near Broadway, where they were residing in 1911, when James was recorded as being five years old.

76P1

Charles Harry Collett was born at Leamington, near Warwick, on 27^th March 1882 the eldest of the two sons of James Harry Collett and Sarah Anne Clack. It was in Warwick that his birth was recorded (Ref. 6d 610) during the second quarter of 1882, while he was baptised at St Paul’s Church on Leicester Street, north of the River Leam, in Leamington on 30^th August 1882, when he was confirmed as the son of James and Sarah Ann Collett. Following his father’s admission into the Hatton Asylum near Warwick, it would appear that the family left the Leamington parish of St Pauls, a short distance to the south side of Leamington and the parish of All Saints, where Charles’ younger brother was baptised just a few months before their father suffered a premature death towards the end of 1888.

During 1889 Charles’ widowed mother took him and his brother to America, and initially to Ogden in Weber County, Utah, where Sarah Anne’s sister was already living. His mother remarried in 1891 and the new family settled on a ranch in Wyoming. Charles Harry Collett was 23 years old when he married Sarah Eleanor Robbins in Wyoming during 1905, when Sarah was only 16 years old. By the time of the census in 1910 Sarah had presented Charles with two sons, both born in Wyoming, where the family of four was living at Aspen in Uinta County. The census that year recorded the family as Charles H Collett from England who was 28, Sarah E Collett from Utah who was 21, Charles James Collett who was four and Henry Harry Collett who was two.

No more children were added to their family, as confirmed by the subsequent census returns. The next census in 1920 placed the family residing at Robertson in Uinta County, when England born Harry C Collett was 37, Sarah E Collett was 31, Charles J Collett was 13 and Henry H Collett was 11. After a further ten years the family was again living at Robertson, although by then the couple’s eldest son was married with children of his own and was living in Colorado. The census that year (in 1930) also confirmed that Charles had entered America in 1889 and that both of his parents had been born in England. Sometime during the following decade, Charles and Sarah moved first to Rural in Uinta County and then to Evanston in Uinta County, where they were still living in 1940, the census return stating their previous resident was in Rural. That year only the couple’s eldest son was living with them again, when Harry was 58, Sarah was 51 and Charles was 33, the later having already been married twice, and divorced and then widowed.

Charles senior spent his life working on ranches in Wyoming, both for others and on his own property. He was diagnosed with diabetes and spent his later life in ill-health. He passed away at Fort Bridger on 16^th August 1956 and was buried at Fort Bridger Cemetery in Uinta County, Wyoming, where he was reunited with his wife twenty-two years later. The death of Sarah Eleanor Collett nee Robbins was also recorded at Fort Bridger in 1978, when she was 89 years of age.

76Q1

Charles James Collett

Born in 1906 at Wyoming; died 1961

76Q2

Henry Harry Collett

Born in 1908 at Wyoming; died 1931

76P2

James Alfred Collett was born at Leamington, near Warwick, his birth recorded at Warwick (Ref. 6d 589) during the third quarter of 1884. However, perhaps because his father was taken ill not long after he was born, he was nearly four years old when he was baptised at All Saints Church on Priory Terrace, south of the River Leam, in Leamington on 14^th April 1888. By that time, his father was a patient at the Hatton Asylum to the west of Warwick, where he died a few months after the baptism. It was during 1889 that James and his brother Charles (above) were taken across the Atlantic Ocean to America, to be reunited with James’ mother’s sister in Utah.

When his widowed mother married for a second time in 1891, the new family group of four settled in Wyoming. In his later teenage years, he married (1) Ida Louise Tydeman from Georgia, with whom he had ten children between 1903 and 1921, although four of them did not survive beyond infancy. Sometime after the birth of their last child, James and Ida were divorced and in 1931 James Alfred Collett married (2) Norma Blanche Smith. Norma was born in 1895 and died in 1956, three years after the death of her husband. They had no children and James and Norma are both buried at Evanston City Cemetery in Wyoming.

On the day of the census in 1910 the family was recorded at Cold Springs in Elmore County, Idaho. James A Collett from England was 26, his wife Ida was 24, and their three children that day were listed as Frank who was seven, Nicholas who was six and Catherine who was three years of age, all three children having been born in Wyoming. Living with the family, on their ranch that day, were three middle-aged male hired hands. On that census day James and Ida were awaiting the arrival of their next child, who was born shortly after April 1910. All of the other children added to the family over the following years were born in Idaho, and in 1915 it was at Blackfoot in Bingham County that they were living for the birth and death of their daughter Dorothy.

According to the census in 1920 James and his son Nicholas were both absent from the family home which, by then, was at Idaho Falls in Bonneville County. The head of the household that day was Ida Collett aged 34, and with her were her seven surviving children. They were Frank Collett aged 17, John Collett aged 15, Catherine Collett aged 12, Ida Collett aged 10, Velma Collett aged 8, Mary Collett who was three and Eveline Collett who was under one year old. One more child was added to the family during the following year, but sadly he died shortly after being born.

No record of any member of the family has been identified within the census of 1930, by which time James and Ida had been divorced, with James marrying Norma during the following year. Nine years later, the census in 1940, revealed James A Collett from England was 66 and living with his wife Norma B Collett, who was 45 and from Wyoming, residing at Evanston in Uinta County, Wyoming. The census return indicated that it was there also that the couple had been living previously.

76Q3

Frank Collett

Born in 1903 at Wyoming

76Q4

Nicholas Collett

Born in 1904 at Wyoming; died by 1920

76Q5

John Collett

Born in 1906 at Wyoming

76Q6

Catherine Collett

Born in 1908 at Wyoming

76Q7

Ida Ann (or Alberta) Collett

Born in 1910 at Idaho

76Q8

Velma N Collett

Born in 1911 at Idaho; died 1974

76Q9

Dorothy Thelma Collett

Born in 1915 at Idaho

76Q10

Mary Louise Collett

Born in 1916 at Idaho; died 1978

76Q11

Eveline Florence Collett

Born in 1919 at Idaho

76Q12

James H Collett

Born in 1921 at Idaho

76P3

Albert Charles Collett was the first-born child of recently married John Collett of Cleeve Prior and Ellen Thornton of North Littleton near Evesham, who was born at nearby South Littleton towards the end of 1879. After that, the three of them moved north to Bidford-on-Avon and Tower Hill, from where Albert Charles Collett was baptised on 25^th January 1880. The Tower Hill census in 1881 included Albert with his parents at the age of one year. He was very young when he may have been pressured into marrying Annie Stephens at Bidford, who gave birth to their first children within a few months of their wedding day. The marriage of Albert Charles Collett and Annie Stephens was recorded at Alcester (Ref. 6d 320) during the last three months of 1896. Annie was very likely the sister of Sydney Charles Stephens, who married Albert’s sister Harriet (below). Two years earlier, Albert’s parents gave birth to another son which they also named as Albert and, it would appear from the time that Albert Charles Collett only every referred to himself as Charles.

It is understood that Annie gave birth to two sons before the end of the century, both of whom were listed with the couple in the census of 1901. By that time, the family was residing at Temple Grafton, near Stratford-upon-Avon, where Charles Collett was 21 and working as an agricultural, who gave his place of birth as Pebworth (adjacent to South Littleton). His wife Anne Collett was 23 and born at Temple Grafton, and their two Bidford-born sons were William Collett who was four and Sydney Collett who was two. Their time at Temple Grafton was short-lived because it was at Bidford that the family was recorded in the census of 1911. Charles was 31 and a labourer working at a market-garden, Annie was 34, William was 14 and Sydney was 12.

76Q13

William Charles Collett

Born in 1897 at Bidford-on-Avon

76Q14

Sydney Frederick Collett

Born in 1898 at Bidford-on-Avon

76P4

Harriet Collett was born at Bidford-on-Avon, with her birth recorded at Alcester (Ref. 6d 179) during the fourth quarter of 1881, and her baptism conducted at Bidford on 13^th November 1881, the eldest daughter of John and Ellen Collett. She was nine years old in the following Bidford census and, upon leaving school she entered domestic service and was a general domestic servant in 1901, at the age of 19, when she was employed by the large Harris family in Temple Grafton, the job possibly arranged by her sister-in-law Annie Collett nee Stephens (above), who had been born there. It was four years later, at the start of 1905, that the marriage of Harriet Collett and Sydney Charles Stephens was recorded at Alcester register office (Ref. 6d 305.) The wedding ceremony took place at Bidford-on-Avon on 2^nd February 1905, when Harriet was 24 and the daughter of John Collett, and Sydney was 27, the son of Belis Stephens. It is possible that Sydney was the brother of Annie Stephens who married Harriet’s brother Albert Collett (above).

According to the Bidford census of 1911, every member of the Stephens, household had been born there, and they were Sydney Charles Stephens who was 31 and a carter for the local Co-Operative Society of Grocers, Harriet Stephens who was 29, Frederick Stephens who was five, Charles Stephens who was three, and James Stephens who was one-year-old. Three further children were added to their family, with the births of Hilda M Stephens in 1912, Sydney H Stephens in 1914, and Molly K Stephens in 1922. In each case, the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett and the birth recorded at Alcester register office. It was during the second quarter of 1944, that the death of Harriet Stephens was recorded at Alcester (Ref. 6d 9), when she was 62 years old.

76P5

Elizabeth Jane Collett was born on 24^th December 1882 at Bidford-on-Avon and was nine years of age in the census of 1891, when Elizabeth Collett and her family were living on the High Street in Bidford. After completing her education, Elizabeth Collett, aged 19, was still living with her family at Tower Hill in Bidford, when she was working as a domestic cook. Just over two years later, on reaching full age, the marriage of Elizabeth Jane Collett, aged 21, and George Arthur Bennett, aged 26, was recorded at Alcester register office (Ref. 6d 135) during the third quarter of 1903. The bride’s father was confirmed as John Collett, while the groom’s father was also recorded as George Arthur Bennett. Three children were born to the couple, as confirmed in the census for Bidford-on-Avon in 1911. They were Cyril Bennett who was five, Albert Bennett who was three, and Winifred N Bennett who was not yet one year old. That year, George was 34 and a bricklayer’s labourer, while Elizabeth was absent from the family home that day. Two more children were added to the family, Sylvia J Bennett in 1913 and Sydney Bennett in 1916. For both of them, the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett. The much later death of Elizabeth Jane Bennett was recorded at Alcester during the early months of 1974, at the age of 91.

76P6

James Collett was born at Bidford-on-Avon in 1884 and was the fourth child of John Collett and Ellen Thornton, who was baptised at Bidford on 2^nd November 1884, with his birth recorded at Alcester (Ref. 6d 306) during the last three months of that year. In consecutive census returns, James Collett was six years old in 1891 and living on Bidford High Street, was 16 years of age in 1901 when living at Tower Hill in Bidford, when he was employed as a railway porter, and again in 1911, when he was still living with his family at the age of 26, by which time he was a bricklayer’s labourer. In 1911, the family was residing at 3 Coronation Row, off Icknield Street in Bidford-on-Avon. It was ten years later that James became a married man, with the wedding of James Collett and Grace Dora Hamblett recorded at Aston (Birmingham) register office (Ref. 6d 109) during the fourth quarter of 1921. However, by that time, the Collett-Hamblett union had already produced three sons and a daughter, in all four cases, the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Hamblett, as it was for the four children born after their wedding day. Maybe the intervention of war years was the reason for their much-delayed wedding day.

The birth of younger Grace Dora Hamblett was recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold during the summer of 1891, the youngest child of James and Sarah Hamblett. In the Ganborough-with-Longborough, Gloucestershire, census of 1901, Grace D Hamblett was nine years old and her birthplace recorded as Ganborough, while in 1911, as Grace Hamblett, she was 19 and from Longborough, with no occupation, still living there with her parents. The death of Grace Dora Collett was recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 9c 69) during the third quarter of 1958, when she was 66 years old. Six years earlier, the death of James Collett was recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 9c 149) during the third quarter of 1952, when he was 69 years old.

76Q15

Albert James Collett

Born in 1914 at Birmingham

76Q16

Dora K Collett

Born in 1916 at Birmingham

76Q17

Arthur Edward Collett

Born in 1919 at Birmingham

76Q18

Norman Collett

Born in 1921 at Birmingham

76Q19

Horace A Collett

Born in 1923 at Birmingham

76Q20

Dennis Collett

Born in 1926 at Birmingham

76Q21

Cyril Collett

Born in 1930 at Birmingham

76Q22

James H Collett

Born in 1932 at Birmingham

76P8

Catherine Collett was born at Bidford-on-Avon in 1889, another daughter of John and Ellen Collett, whose birth was recorded at Alcester (Ref. 6d 249) during the second quarter of the year. She and her family were living on the High Street in Bidford in 1891, when one-year-old Catherine was approaching her second birthday. By 1901, her family had returned to Tower Hill in Bidford, where they had been living in 1881, where Catherine Collett was 11 years of age. Within the next couple of years, and after completing her education, she entered domestic service and in 1911 Catherine Collett from Bidford-on-Avon was 22 and the older of the two servants employed by the Hickinbotham family at the home in the Edgbaston area of Birmingham. Four years later she was back near where she had been born, when her marriage to Henry John Marshall was recorded at Stratford-upon-Avon register office (Ref. 6d 14) during the second quarter of 1915. The war years, and then the influenza pandemic, may have been the reasons for the delayed birth of their only child John Henry Marshall, being registered at Stratford fifteen years later near the end of 1930 (Ref. 6d 142). The couple remained living at Stratford for the rest of their lives together, with first the death of Henry John Marshall recorded there in 1968, when he was 84, followed by his widow Catherine Marshall, whose death was recorded there at the start of 1977 when she was 87.

76P9

Albert Collett was born at Bidford-on-Avon early in 1894, with his birth recorded at Alcester (Ref. 6d 98) during the second quarter of the year. He was the youngest son of John Collett of Cleeve Prior and his wife Ellen Thornton from North Littleton and was baptised at Bidford on 8^th April 1894. He was seven years old and living with his family at Tower Hill in Bidford in 1901. On leaving school, Albert worked on the land and was a farm labourer at the age of 17, when he was still living with his family, but at 3 Coronation Row, Icknield Street in Bidford-on-Avon. It was during the second quarter of 1916, that the marriage of Albert Collett and Marie Jones was recorded at Aston register office (Ref. 6d 4). At that time in his life, with war raging in Europe, Albert was a private [service no. 16326] serving with 1^st Battalion South Midland Division Royal Warwickshire Regiment when he was killed in action on 5^th September 1916 at the age of 22. That tragic event took place during the Battle of Guillemont on the Somme, following which he was buried at La Neuville British Cemetery in Corbie. His name is also one of the many listed on the Bidford-on-Avon War Memorial. Albert Collett was married just prior to the war, and it was his wife Marie Collett of 122 Golden Hillock Road, Small Heath in Birmingham, who was named as his next-of-kin, in addition to him being described as the son of Jack and Ellen Collett.

76P10

Hilda Ellen Collett was born at Bidford-on-Avon on 7^th October 1901, and was the last child born to John Collett and Ellen Thornton. Her birth was recorded at Alcester register office (Ref. 6d 209) during the last quarter of the year, and she was baptised at Bidford on 10^th November 1901. Hilda Ellen Collett of Bidford was nine years old in the Bidford-on-Avon census of 1911. Less than nine years later, the marriage of Hilda E Collett and Walter G F Dyson was recorded at Stratford-upon-Avon register office (Ref. 6d 1) during the first three months of 1920. It is possible, that Hilda realised that she was already carrying Walter’s child prior to their wedding day, since that first child was born in the summer of that same year. In total, she gave birth to three children, the births of the first two being recorded at Alcester register office, when their mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett. They were Vera E Dyson (Ref. 6d 116) whose birth was recorded there during the third quarter of 1920, and Edith J Dyson whose birth was recorded there (Ref. 6d 50) during the first three months of 1923. The birth of the couple’s last child Margaret N Dyson was recorded at Stratford-upon-Avon (Ref. 6d 24) during the third quarter of 1924. The later death of Hilda Ellen Dyson was recorded at the South Warwickshire register office during the month of March in 1992 at the age of 91. Three years earlier, the death of Walter George F Dyson was recorded at the Mid-Warwickshire register office in February 1989, when his date of birth was stated to have been 20^th April 1896.

76P11

Charles Ingles Collett was born on 22^nd February 1890 at Newbold-on-Stour, with his birth recorded at Shipston-on-Stour (Ref. 6d 156) during the first three months of 1890, the eldest son of Charles Ingles Collett and his wife Sarah. He was one year old in April 1891 and was 11 years of age in March 1901 when on both occasions he was living with his family at Newbold-on-Stour. By April 1911 he had left his overcrowded family home, and was living and working within the Stratford-upon-Avon area of Warwickshire. By that time in his life, he was already a bombardier with the Royal Horse Artillery, with whom he had enlisted on 5^th April 1909. He continued his life with the army until the outbreak of war on 28^th July 1914, when he left the RHA on 2^nd October, to join the newly form Royal Flying Corps at Farnborough on 3^rd October 1912 with the service number 413. It is worth noting that Stephen Stanley Collett (Ref. 45Q5) also enlisted with the RFC on 4^th October that same year, with the service number 415, and just two months earlier on 12^th August 1914 Stephen’s brother Albert Victor Collett (Ref. 45Q6) had also joined the RFC. All three are referred to in the book ‘A Contemptible Little Flying Corps’, the following being the details written about C I Collett.

He was issued with the usual RFC ‘walking-out dress’ which comprised half Wellington boots, tight dark blue overalls down which there was a broad red stripe, a light blue buttoned-up-to-the-neck tunic with crossed silver cords, and a dark blue peaked cap with a red band carrying the RFC crest. In August 1914 he based at 1AM with No. 5 Squadron and served overseas from 3^rd April 1915 earning the 1914/1915 trio. On 1^st September 1916 he was promoted to temporary Sergeant Major and four weeks later secured the rank of Sergeant Major Gunner/Observer. On 27^th December that year he was shown in his origin NCO Flight Sergeant rank, when he was awarded the Military Medal for recovering a crashed aeroplane under fire when serving with No. 12 Squadron. By the time of the Royal Air Force Muster Roll in 1918 Charles was named as the Chief Master Mechanic [Technical]. In addition to the Military Medal, he also received the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal, and the Victory Medal.

Returning to 1911, and the census conducted that year, Charles Collett from Newbold was 21 years of age, was unmarried, and working as a plumber, when he was a lodger at the home of elderly David and Fanny Harris family in parish of Old Stratford Within in Stratford-upon-Avon. Four years later, he was still in the Stratford area, with the marriage of Charles I Collett and Lucy E Coley recorded at Stratford register office (Ref. 6d 78) during the third quarter of 1915. Lucy Eleanor Coley was born at Stratford-upon-Avon in 1888, the daughter of Frederick and Elizabeth Coley, who was a dressmaker in 1911, when she was 22 years of age. With Charles then being involved in the First World War, it was during the third quarter of 1918 that the birth of the couple’s only known child was recorded at Stratford-upon-Avon register office (Ref. 6d 31). Towards of his life, Charles appears to have retired to the Kent area of the country, with the death of Charles Ingles Collett recorded at Folkestone register office (Ref. 5f 10) towards the end of 1971. Just over twenty years earlier, Charles was widowed, when the death of Lucy E Collett, aged 61, was recorded at Stratford-upon-Avon (Ref. 9c 20) during the first three months of 1950.

76Q23

Charles Ingles R Collett

Born in 1918 at Stratford-upon-Avon

76P12

William Turner Collett was born at Newbold-on-Stour on 29^th January 1894 while his birth was recorded at nearby Shipston-on-Stour register office (Ref. 6d 679) during the first quarter of that year. He was still living with his family at Newbold-on-Stour in 1901 when he was seven, but by 1911 they were residing at Alcester where William was 17. It was nine years later when the marriage of William T Collett and Janet Maud Cluney was recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 6c 481) during the third quarter of 1920. Three years later the couple’s only known child was born, the birth also recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 6c 263) during the third quarter of 1923. William Turner Collett was 80 years of age when he died in 1974, his death recorded at Evesham (Vol. 29 0632) during the second quarter of that year.

76Q24

Percival William Collett

Born in 1923 at Evesham

76P13

Agnes Helen Collett was born at Newbold-on-Stour in 1898 and her birth was recorded at Shipston-on-Stour (Ref. 6d 749) during the first quarter of the year. It was simply as Agnes Collett that she was still living at Newbold-on-Stour with her family in 1901 at the age of three years. She was 13 in 1911 by which time her family was settled in Alcester where she was again listed as Agnes Collett.

76P17

Albert Henry Collett was born at Armscote in Warwickshire in 1895, the eldest child of William Collett and Mary Ann Abbotts, whose birth was recorded at Shipston-on-Stour (Ref. 6d 16) during the third quarter of the year. Albert H Collett was five years old in 1901 when he was living with his family at Queen Street in Cleeve Prior and, within the next ten years, the family moved to Stratford-upon-Avon where Albert Collett from Armscote was 15 and already working as an apprentice saddler in 1911. With the outbreak of way in 1914, Albert joined the Royal Warwickshire Regiment as a private [service no. 265814]. Tragically, he was killed in action at Thievpal on 25^th July 1916 at the age of 20. His name appears on the Thievpal Memorial.

76P18

Charles Edgar Collett was born at Armscote in 1896 immediately prior to his family moving to Queen Street in Cleeve Prior in Worcestershire. That was the reason why his birth was recorded at Evesham (Ref. 6c 91) during the fourth quarter of 1896 by his parents William and Mary Ann Collett. It was at Queen Street that he and his family were living in 1901, when Charles E Collett from Armscote was four years old. Two years later the family left Cleeve Prior, when they settled in Stratford-upon-Avon, where Charles Collett, aged 14 and from Cleeve Prior, was already working as an apprentice at a bakery in Stratford. He was twenty-one years of age when the marriage of Charles E Collett and Kate Gibbs was recorded at the Worcestershire Kings Norton register office (Ref. 6d 123) during the third quarter of 1918. Kate was born in 1897, a daughter of Frederick and Elizabeth Gibbs of Smethwick, whose birth was recorded at Kings Norton (Ref. 6c 220) during the second quarter of 1897. On their wedding day, Kate was already pregnant with the couple’s first child, which was born before the end of the year, with their second child born five years later, both births also recorded at Kings Norton, where their mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Gibbs.

76Q25

Leslie Charles Collett

Born in 1918 at Kings Norton

76Q26

Lilian A Collett

Born in 1923 at Kings Norton

76P19

Olive May Collett was born at Cleeve Prior in 1898 and her birth was recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 6c 234) during the second quarter of the year. She was the first daughter and the third child born to William and Mary Ann Collett. As Olive M Collett who was two years of age in the Cleeve Prior census of 1901, when living at Queen Street with her family. Around two years later, the family moved north-east to Stratford-upon-Avon where, as simply May Collett from Cleeve Prior, she was 12 years old and still attending school. Exactly ten years after that census day, the marriage of Olive May Collett and John Henry Stockley was recorded at Stratford-upon-Avon register office (Ref. 6d 41), during the second quarter of 1921. John had been born at Woodlands in Charterhouse, Somerset, on 17^th July 1890, where he was living with his parents John and Annie Stockley on the day of the census the following year.

The marriage produced four children for John and Olive, and they were John William Stockley born in 1922, Avis May Stockley born in 1923, Cynthia M Stockley born in 1927, and Norma M Stockley born in 1933. The births of all four children were recorded at Shipston-on-Stour register office, when their mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett. Shipston-on-Stour lies eleven miles due south of Stratford-upon-Avon, and it was at Stratford that John and Olive were living later in their lives. The death of John Henry Stockley was recorded there at the register office (Vol. 31 12) during the spring of 1977, when he was 86. His widow eventually left Stratford and, twenty-three years after losing her husband, Olive May Stockley was living in the Oxfordshire town of Bicester, where she died on 1^st December 2000.

76P20

Percy William Collett was born at Queen Street in Cleeve Prior early in 1900, with his birth being recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 6c 108) during the first quarter of the year. It was also at Queen Street that his family was living on the day of the census in 1901, when Percy W Collett was one year old. Not long after that day, his father’s work took the family to Stratford-upon-Avon, where Percy Collett was 11 year of age and still at school in 1911. The only marriage found for Percy William Collett was at Evesham in Worcestershire on 24^th December 1943, which could easily have been his second marriage. He was 43 and his bride Edna May Brookes was 35, having been born at Worcester during the second quarter of 1908. It was at Pershore register office (Ref. 6c 2), at the end of 1943, that their wedding was record. Perhaps it is because of their advanced years, that no children have been credited to the couple. Furthermore, after nearly fifteen years together, the death of Edna N Collett was recorded at Birmingham during the last three months of 1958 (Ref. 9c 94). Percy’s later death was also recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 9c 72) during the second quarter of 1967, when he was 67.

76P21

Ida Nancy Collett was born on 11^th April 1904 at Stratford-upon-Avon where her birth was recorded (Ref. 6d 351) during the second quarter of 1904, another daughter of William and Mary Ann Collett. Very shortly after her parents registered her birth, they arranged for Ida to be baptised at Stratford on 29^th May 1904. And it was as Ida Collett that she was six years old in the Stratford census of 1911, just weeks away from the seventh birthday. When Ida Nancy Collett and Ernest Percival Bennett were later married, the event was recorded at Stratford-upon-Avon register office (Ref. 6d 82) during the last quarter of 1931. At the end of that decade, Ida gave birth to two daughters, the first being Enid M Bennett whose birth was recorded during the second quarter of 1938, and the second Joan E Bennett during the last three months of 1939. Both births were recorded at Stratford-upon-Avon register office, when their mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett. Ida Nancy Bennett was 78 years old when she died, her passing recorded at the Warwick & Leamington register office (Vol. 31 135) early in 1983. Eight years after being made a widower, the death of Ernest Percival Bennett was recorded at the South-Warwickshire register office in the month of February 1991.

76P22

Doris Hannah Collett was born at Stratford-upon-Avon on 4^th April 1906, when her birth was recorded there (Ref. 6d 78) during the second quarter of the year. As Doris Collett she was four years old in the Stratford census of 1911. Twenty years later, the marriage of Doris Hannah Collett and Horace William Dale was recorded during the second quarter of 1931 at Stratford-upon-Avon register office (Ref. 6d 18). Horace had been born at Stoke-on-Trent on 21^st February 1906, the eldest child of William Littler Dale and his wife Clara. Doris gave birth to a son and a daughter when the couple was living in the Coventry area, where the births of the two children were recorded and where the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett. Norman Edwin Dale was born on 11^th December 1933 and died on 12^th July 2012 in Stratford-upon-Avon, and Margaret A Dale was born at the start of 1939. Doris Hannah Dale was around 66 years old when her death was recorded at Coventry register office (Ref. 9c 23) in the spring of 1972. Many years later, when Horace William Dale was 91, his death was recorded at the South-Warwickshire register office during September 1997.

76P23

Gladys Mary Collett was born at Stratford-upon-Avon in 1908, youngest daughter and seventh child of William and Mary Ann Collett, who was two years old in the Stratford census of 1911. Her birth was also recorded at Stratford register office (Ref. 6d 127) during the second quarter of 1908. At the age of twenty-seven, Gladys Mary Collett married Percival W Clarke at Stratford-on-Avon (Ref. 6d 140) during the second quarter of 1935. The only child apparently born to the couple was Michael J Clarke who birth was recorded at Coventry register office (Ref. 9c 93) in the second quarter of 1947.

76P24

Ralph Edwin Collett was born on 13^th June 1910 at Stratford-upon-Avon and was nine months old in the census of 1911. He was the last child of William Collett and Mary Ann Abbotts and was 59 years old when his death was recorded at Stratford-upon-Avon register office (Ref. 9c 40) early in 1970. No record has been found to suggest he was ever married.

76P25

Elsie Collett was born at Chipping Campden on 7^th May 1892, the eldest child of Harry Collett from Aston Subedge and his wife Julia Dyer from Kidderminster. Not long after she was born, her parents settled in Badsey where Elsie was admitted into the village’s infant school there on 25^th June 1895. It was on 1^st April 1896 that she entered Badsey School for her primary education, which she completed on 30^th March 1899, the last day she attended the school, after which she was transferred to a ‘mixed department’. The school record confirmed that her parent/guardian was Henry Collett. By the time of the Badsey census in 1901, Elsie Collett was eight years old. Sometime after that she and her family left Badsey when they returned to premises in the High Street in Chipping Campden in Gloucestershire, within the Shipston-on-Stour registration district, where they were living in 1911 when Elsie Collett of Chipping Campden was 18 and was working with her father as a shop assistant.

76P26

Lilian Kate Collett was born at Badsey on 10^th August 1894, where she was baptised on 21^st October 1894, the daughter of baker Henry (aka Harry) Collett and Julia Dyer. Her third birthday was her first day at Badsey Infant School when, as Lillie Kate Collett, the daughter of Harry Collett of Badsey, she was first admitted on 10^th August 1897. Two days before the Badsey census in 1901, Friday 29^th March was Lillie’s last day at the infant school, after which she transferred to the primary school. On the census day that year, Lilian Collett was living at Badsey with her family at the age of six years, and was looking ahead to Monday 1^st April 1901 and her first day at her new school. Upon leaving school a few years later, it would appear her father’s business took the family back to Chipping Campden, where the whole family was living on the High Street in 1911. Lily Collett aged 16, was confirmed as having been born at Badsey and, on that occasion, she was working with her sister Elsie (above) in her father’s baker shop, as a shop assistant.

76P27

Herbert James Collett was born at Badsey on 25^th April 1897, and was baptised at St James Church in the village on 22^nd May 1897, the third child of baker Harry and Julia Collett. Tragically, around one month later, he died and was buried at Badsey on 19^th June 1897.

76P28

Francis Harry Collett was born at Badsey on 16^th December 1901, with his birth recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 6c 340), and with his baptism conducted at Badsey on 16^th February 1902, the only surviving son of Harry Collett and his wife Julia Dyer. Shortly after he was born his parents took the family from Badsey back to Chipping Campden where Francis’ eldest sister had been born. It was at a baker’s shop in the High Street of Chipping Campden, that the family was living in 1911, when Francis Collett of Badsey was nine years old and still attending school. It was in 1926 that the marriage of Francis H Collett and Mabel D Bridge was recorded at Shipston-on-Stour register office (Ref. 6d 1960) - which covers Chipping Campden, during the second quarter of that year. Over the following four years Mabel presented Francis with two children, their births also recorded at Shipston-on-Stour, when their mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Bridge. The birth of John F H Collett was recorded (Ref. 6d 1315) during the first quarter of 1929, with the birth of Marie T Collett recorded (Ref. 6d 1383) during the third quarter of 1930.

The only other details for the family are that Francis was living at 89 Bretforton Road in Badsey when he died at the age of 71 on 21^st November 1973, following which he was buried in the churchyard at Chipping Campden parish church on 26^th November 1973. The passing of Francis Harry Collett was reported in the Badsey Parish Journal in January 1974, under the heading ‘parishioners not buried at Badsey’, and was recorded at Worcestershire register office (Ref. 9d 893).

76Q27

John Francis Harry Collett

Born in 1929 at Kings Norton

76Q28

Marie T Collett

Born in 1930 at Kings Norton

76P29

Hubert Christopher Percy Collett was born at Wimbledon on 5^th September 1903, the eldest child of Hubert Collett and Elizabeth Minnie Dickens. His birth was recorded at Lambeth register office (Ref. 1d 275) during the third quarter of that year. However, it was at the Church of Holy Trinity and St Peter in South Wimbledon that he was baptised on 25^th October 1903, when the family’s home address was written in the parish register as 26 Hartfield Crescent in Wimbledon. He and his family were recorded within the Lambeth area of London in 1911, when Hubert C P Collett was eight years old but, curiously, his place of birth, like that of his two younger siblings, was recorded as Herne Hill, to the south of Lambeth. Fourteen years later, the name of Hubert Christopher Collett appeared in the 1925 Electoral Roll for Lambeth, when he would have been twenty-one or twenty-two years of age.

It was during the third quarter of 1934 that Hubert C P Collett married Olive Hann, the event recorded at Wandsworth register office (Ref. 1d 2). The couple’s only known child was born within the next two years, the birth of Barbara C Collett recorded at Lambeth register office (Ref. 1d 36) during the first three months of 1936, when the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Hann. Hubert Christopher Percy Collett was 55 when died on 12^th June 1959 at the West Middlesex in Isleworth when he and Olive were residing at 10 Arlington Gardens in Chiswick, London, while his death was recorded at Ealing register office (Ref. 5e 105) during the second quarter of that year. Administration of his estate of £1,151 19 Shillings and 7 Pence was granted to his widow Olive Collett at the London Probate Office on 22^nd July that same year. Two years earlier, Hubert was able to walk his daughter down the aisle at the marriage of Barbara C Collett and Royston E Wilson which was recorded at the Ealing register office (Ref. 5e 84) during the first quarter of 1956.

76Q29

Barbara C Collett

Born in 1936 at Lambeth

76P31

Charles Henry Collett was born at Lambeth on 18^th October 1909, where his birth was recorded (Ref. 1d 364) during the last quarter of that year. He was the youngest son of James Collett and Elizabeth Minnie Dickens. Whether a mistake by the census enumerator in 1911, or a misinterpretation of the facts presented by his parents, but Charlie Henry Collett was recorded as being two months instead of two years, when his place of birth was said to be Herne Hill, just south of Lambeth. It was as Charles H Collett that he married Marjorie F Crisp, the event recorded at Lambeth register office (Ref. 1d 120) during the third quarter of 1932. By the time their two sons were born, the family was living within the Croydon area of Surrey, where their births were recorded. The death of Charles Henry Collett was recorded at Reading register office (Ref. 6a 108) during the final three months of 1970 when he was 61 years of age. His widow survived him by twenty-four years, when the death of Marjorie Florence Collett was recorded at Henley register office in the summer of 1994. Marjorie Florence Crisp was born in Lambeth, where her birth was recorded (Ref. 1d 295) during the first quarter of 1908, her date of birth being 16^th January 1908, the third child of Henry and Florence Crisp.

76Q30

Charles A Collett

Born in 1936 at Croydon

76Q31

Richard C Collett

Born in 1939 at Croydon

76P33

William James Collett was born at Battersea on 3^rd May 1906, the eldest of the three children of William Collett and Flora May Swan. His birth, like those of his two sisters below, was recorded at Wandsworth register office (Ref. 1d 111) during the second quarter of the year. In the Battersea census in 1911, William James Collett was four years of age, when his father was a master baker from Chipping Campden in Gloucestershire. Sometime during the late 1920s, having reached full age, William met Elsie Irene Dodson while out cycling around the Cobham area of Surrey. She was the daughter of Charles William and Alice Dodson, and was born on 22^nd June 1910, her birth recorded at Epsom register office (Ref. 2a 77) during the third quarter of 1910, following which she was baptised at Cobham on 21^st August 1910. When she met William, she was working as a waitress in a small café in Cobham, where William would go to get a drink before cycling home.

The resulting marriage of William J Collett, aged 24, and Elsie I Dodson, who was 20, took place at Cobham and was recorded at Epsom register office (Ref. 2a 101) during the second quarter of 1930. Over the next eighteen years, Elsie gave birth to six children, their birth all recorded in Surrey, the first at Epsom, those other five at the Surrey South-Western register office in Guildford, when the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Dodson on each occasion. The later death of Elsie Irene Collett was recorded at the same register office during September 1990, at the age of 80. It may seem remarkable, that William James Collett, who was born on 3^rd May 1906, passed away on 17^th February 2010 at Midhurst in West Sussex, when he was nearly one-hundred-and-four years of age.

76Q32

Joan Margaret Collett

Born in 1930 at Cobham

76Q33

John David William Collett

Born in 1939 at South-West Surrey

76Q34

Janet Dawn Collett

Born in 1942 at South-West Surrey

76Q35

James William Collett

Born in 1944 at South-West Surrey

76Q36

Brian F Collett

Born in 1946 at South-West Surrey

76Q37

Paul F Collett

Born in 1948 at South-West Surrey

76P34

Ida May Collett was born at Battersea on 3^rd February 1908, her birth recorded at Wandsworth register office (Ref. 1d 17) during the first three months of the year. She was two years old in the Battersea census of 1911. It was during the second quarter of 1932 that the marriage of Ida M Collett and Oswald F Mills was recorded at Wandsworth register office (Ref. 1d 23). Seven years later, their only child was born, when the birth of Margaret S C Mills was recorded at the Surrey North-Western register office (Ref. 2a 4) during the fourth quarter of 1939, with her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett. Oswald Francis Mills, who was known as Frank, was born on 26^th October 1905, possibly at Battersea, with his birth also recorded at Wandsworth. He was 71 when he died in 1976, his death recorded at Kingston-upon-Thames (Surrey) register office (Vol. 13 77) during the summer of that year. His widow survived him by twenty-six years, when Ida May Mills died at Bognor Regis in West Sussex on 26^th September 2002, her passing recorded at Chichester register office.

76P35

Muriel Amy Collett was born at Battersea on 14^th September 1911, the third and last child of William Collett and Flora May Swan. Her birth, as with her two older siblings, was also recorded at Wandsworth (Ref. 1d 85), during the last three months of 1911, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Swan. Muriel A Collett was twenty-four years of age when she married Frederick J Penrose, their wedding day recorded at Wandsworth register office (Ref. 1d 54) during the third quarter of 1937. The couple’s only known child was born in 1940, with the birth of David J G Penrose recorded at the Hendon register office (Ref. 3a 118) during the second quarter of the year, where his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett. At the end of her life, Muriel was residing within the Camden area of London, where the death of Muriel Amy Penrose was recorded (Vol. 14 60) during the spring of 1983. It was ten years later, when the death of Frederick John Penrose, who had been born on 30^th November 1911 at Battersea, was recorded at Barnet register office during the spring of 1993.

76P36

Samuel John Collett was born at Badsey on 25^th May 1895, the eldest child of John Collett and his wife Emma Knight. His birth was later recorded at Evesham (Ref. 6c 46) during the third quarter of that year. It was as Samuel J Collett aged five years that he was the only child listed with his parents in 1901 at Belmont Terrace in Badsey, and as Samuel John Collett aged 15, who had already left school and was a shop lad with a cycle agent, he was recorded at Badsey-with-Aldington with his parents and younger sister Blanche, ten years later in April 1911. Five years later, when Samuel was 20 and working as a market-gardener, he enlisted with the Somerset Light Infantry when he was still residing in Badsey and when his mother was confirmed as Emma Collett. Sometime years the Great War, the marriage of Samuel J Collett and Florence Jones was recorded at Abergavenny, where she was born in 1905, during the first three months of 1923 (Ref. 11a 88), when she was 17 years old. Their first two children were born in Wales, the last two after the family had settled in the Evesham area of Worcester.

On the occasion of the compilation of the 1939 Register, the family was residing at Samuel’s childhood home at 1 Belmont Terrace, on the Willersey Road in Badsey. However, at that time, the head of the household was recorded as John S Collett aged 44 and a market gardener’s labourer. His wife Florence was 35, whose date of birth was 20^th April 1904, who was described as carrying out unpaid domestic duties and land work. Curiously, there were ten entries for the family, with the third, sixth, eighth, nineth and tenth, being redacted for people who were living when the document was later released. The entries were for Emma Collett aged 14 who was a deliverer of newspapers, Joan Collett who was 12 and attending school, as was Doris Blanche Collett who was eight years old.

The only other known details of Samuel at this time have been taken from his headstone in the churchyard of St James’ Church in Badsey. That indicates his wife Florence Collett died on 24^th February 1959 at the age of 52, her age being out of line with her date of birth stated in the 1939 Register, which would mean she was approaching her fifty-fifth birthday when she died. She was buried at Badsey on 27^th February 1959, her home address being 1 Belmont Terrace, Willersey Road in Badsey. Seventeen-years after being widowed, Samuel John Collett died on 20^th March 1976 at the age of 80, and was buried at Badsey on 23^rd March 1976.

76Q38

Mona Collett

Born in 1923 at Pontypool, Wales

76Q39

Emma Florence Collett

Born in 1925 at Brecknock, Wales

76Q40

Joan Collett

Born in 1928 at Badsey

76Q41

Ivor John Collett

Born in 1930 at Badsey

76Q42

Doris Blanche Collett

Born in 1931 at Badsey

76Q43

Hilda Jane Collett

Born in 1933 at Badsey

76Q44

Mary Collett

Born in 1936 at Badsey

76Q45

Lucy M Collett

Born in 1939 at Badsey

76Q46

Christine A Collett

Born in 1941 at Badsey

76Q47

Doreen Collett twin

Born in 1944 at Badsey

76Q48

Peter Collett twin

Born in 1944 at Badsey

76P37

Blanche Maria Collett was born at Badsey on 7^th March 1907, her birth recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 6c 329) during the second quarter of the year, the second child of John Collett, a market gardener, and Emma Knight. When she was baptised at Badsey on 21^st April 1907, her second forename was recorded as Marie. It may have been at 13 Chapel Street in Badsey that she was born, where four-year-old Blanche Maria Collett and her family were living in 1911. As the daughter of John Collett, she attended Badsey Infant School and, on 6^th May 1912, Blanche transferred to the Primary School, from where she moved to the Mixed Department at Badsey Council School on 1^st August 1913. Twenty-six year later, Blanche was still a single lady who was living with her widowed mother at 20 Synehurst Crescent in Badsey, as confirmed by the 1939 Register and the Electoral Roll that year, following the death of her father in 1918.

At that time in her life, she was working in a food canning factory, and her future married name Baker was also noted on the register entry. Within the next twelve months the marriage by banns of Blanche Maria Collett, aged 33, and Charles William Baker, aged 32, took place at St James’ Church in Badsey on 20^th July 1940, the event recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 6c 747) during the third quarter of the year. They were both single when Charles was a labourer at a market garden, who was living in Bengeworth, the son of Alfred Baker (deceased), a groom, with Blanche still living in Badsey and the daughter of market gardener, deceased. The four witnesses were simply listed as S J Collett, G M Collett, A Knight, and M Collett.

Over the next five years, Blanche gave birth to two daughters, when the births of Velma Blanche Baker and Carol Maria Baker were recorded at Evesham register office, when their mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett. The first of them was (Ref. 6c 466) during the first quarter of 1942, and the second (Ref. 6c 544) during the second quarter of 1945. Within the Annual Badsey Parish Review for 1969, the name of Charles Baker was listed under the Jottings Section, as was that of Miss P Baker. of

76P38

Eva Helen Collett was born at Badsey on 18^th January 1902, where she was baptised on the following day, January 19^th, the first of the two known children of Thomas William Collett and his wife Felicia Ellen Smith. Her birth was recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 6c 227) during the first two weeks of 1902. She was just over three years old when she attended the infant school in Badsey, her first day of attendance recorded as 2^nd May 1905. The school records also named her father as William Collett, and her last day in the infant school was 31^st July 1908, before moving onto the mixed department of the Badsey Primary School was 4^th August 1908. Three years later, Eva was nine years old, when she and her family were recorded as still living in Badsey-with-Aldington. The later marriage by banns of Eva Helen Collett, aged 29, and Percy Marshall, aged 28 and an outfitter’s assistant, was conducted at Badsey on 14^th July 1931 and was recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 6c 62) during the third quarter of 1931.

Percy Marshall was born at Offenham, where Eva’s mother had been born, the youngest son of Arthur, a market gardener, and Alice Mary Marshall, whose born was recorded at Evesham during the second quarter of 1903. As far as can be deduced, Eva gave birth to only one child, their son Graham J Marshall, whose birth was also recorded at Evesham (Ref. 6c 75) during the last three months of 1936. It was only thirty years later, that the death of Percy Marshall was recorded at Evesham (Ref. 9d 58) during the second quarter of 1966, when he was 62. Following the loss of her husband, Eva moved to Worcester, and it was there that the death of Eva H Marshall was recorded during the first three months of 1967 (Ref. 9d 66), at the age of 65.

76P39

Reginald William Collett was born at Badsey on 10^th August 1906, the second child and only known son of Thomas William Collett and his wife Felicia Ellen Smith, whose birth was recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 6c 295) during the third quarter of the year. He was baptised at St James’ Church in Badsey 16^th September 1906 and was four years old when he first attended Badsey Infant School on 5^th September 1910, when his father was named as William Collett, a market gardener. Six months later, on the day of the census in 1911, Reginald was still four years of age when he and his family were still living in Badsey. After nearly three years at infant school, his last day there was 1^st August 1913, at which time he transferred to the primary school. On completing his education, Reginald entered the world of market gardening in which his father and his grandfather both worked, and had established the family business. During the last quarter of 1930, the marriage of Reginald William Collett and Doris Mabel Drinkwater was recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 6c 139). Doris had been born on 1^st October 1908 at Bengeworth, midway between Evesham and Badsey, the eldest child of Alfred and Lizzie Drinkwater.

It was also at Evesham where the births of their two children were recorded in 1931 and 1933, when their mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Drinkwater. With their family enlarged, Reginald took over 4 Synehurst (a council house) in Badsey, the former occupants being Reginald’s aunt Kate Sparrow (nee Collett) and her husband William Douglas Sparrow, who had lived at 4 Synehurst immediately after it was built in 1920. They had vacated the property following the marriage of their youngest daughter in 1934. It is not known how long Reginald and his family lived there, but twenty-five years after that, Reginald William Collett of Chapel Street, Badsey, was 53 years old when he died, his death recorded at Evesham during the fourth quarter of 1959 (Ref. 9d 34), with his body laid to rest at St James’ Church in Badsey on 28^th October 1959. His widow survived him by forty-one years, with the death of Doris Mabel Collett recorded at Maidstone in Kent during April 2000, when she was 91 years old.

76Q49

Norman William Collett

Born in 1931 at Evesham

76Q50

Jean Diane Collett

Born in 1933 at Evesham

76P41

Alfred Cecil Collett was born at Badsey on 23^rd September 1912, the only known son of market gardener Charles Ingles Collett and Annie Saunders, and their only surviving child. The birth of Alfred C Collett was recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 6c 543) during the final quarter of that year, and was baptised at Badsey on 20^th October 1912. He entered Badsey Infant School on 18^th June 1917, where he stayed until 30^th June 1919, when he transferred to the Mixed Department of Badsey Council School on 1^st July 1919, where he remained until 13^th April 1927. The school records confirmed he was the son of Charles Collett of Brewer’s Lane in Badsey. He was twenty-four years old when the marriage of Alfred C Collett and Helen Attwood was recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 6c 442) during the first three months of 1937. Two years later, the 1939 Register identified Cecil A Collett (aka Alfred Cecil) living at 4 Brewer’s Lane in Badsey with his wife Helen Collett, whose date of birth was 22^nd July 1916, Cecil’s occupation being that of a market gardener having his own account. Staying with the couple was 11-year-old Norman Griffiths. Later that year, according to the 1939 Electoral Roll for Badsey included Ellen Collett residing at 4 Brewer’s Road, by which time her absence husband may have already joined the armed forces at the start of the Second World War.

Thirty-six years later, Alfred Cecil Collett died at Badsey during the last week of May 1975, his death recorded at the Worcestershire register office (Vol. 29 0191), when he was 62 years old and his body was laid to rest at St James’ Church in Badsey on 3^rd June 1975. Helen lived the next twenty-four years of her life as a widow, and was 83 years of age when she died during the first week of August 1999, and was buried with her husband on 9^th August 1999. A granite headstone marks the joint grave. On the day that she died, Helen was living at Greenhill Park Residential Care Home on Brewer’s Lane.

76P42

Ruth Winifred Georgina Collett was born at Badsey on 1^st June 1927, round about nine months after her parents George Collett and Winifred Keen were married there, at the Church of St James. Her birth was recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 6c 116) during the second quarter of 1927, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed at Keen. By the time she was twelve years of age, Ruth and her parents were living at Belle Vue, 11 Chapel Street in Badsey, as confirmed by the 1939 Register. She was twenty years old when her father died and was at Badsey, six years later, followed by her mother. Two years prior to the latter, the marriage of Ruth W G Collett and John F Double was recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 9d 27) during the last quarter of 1951. Their only known daughter Anne Double was born within the next eighteen months, during the second quarter of 1953, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett. Sadly, just prior to the birth, Ruth’s widowed mother died in hospital on 19^th January 1953 and, on the proving of her Will, Ruth inherited her mother’s personal effects recorded as £4,344 11 Shillings and 7 Pence. The later death of Ruth Winifred G Double was recorded at Evesham register office (Vol. 29 91) during the summer of 1976, when she was only 49 years of age. A year later her daughter Anne married John Pritchard, with their marriage also recorded at Evesham (Vol. 29 41) during the summer of 1977.

76Q1

Charles James Collett was born at Robertson in Wyoming on 17^th May 1906, the eldest of the two sons of Charles Harry Collett and Sarah Eleanor Robbins. In 1910, at the age of four years, Charles J Collett was living at Aspen in Uinta County, Wyoming with his family. Ten years later it was at Robertson in Uinta County that Charles was still living at the family ranch when he was 13. Five years later Charles James Collett married (1) Clara G Walsh at Steamboat Springs in Colorado on 16^th June 1925. Clara was born in Colorado during 1909, the daughter of Robert and Etta Walsh, and said she was 17, while Charles gave his age as being 21, both being slightly older than their actual ages.

That was the first of three marriages for Charles, which produced two daughters, Jessie Mae Collett and Cecile Clara Collett, before Charles and Clara were divorced. Both daughters were born in Colorado, possibly at Oak Creek in Routt County, where the family of four was recorded in the census of 1930. On the day of the census Charles J Collett from Wyoming was 27 (sic), Clara Collett was 22, Jessie M Collett was four and Cecile C Collett was one year old.

It must have been just after 1930 that Charles and Clara parted company, leaving Charles to marry (2) Agnes Coleman of Heber City in Utah. Tragically, she died during 1938 with a heart problem, without issue, following which Charles returned to the home of his parents at Evanston in Uinta County, where he was recorded in the census of 1940 at the age of 33 (sic). He served in the United States Army during World War Two, both in France and Germany. When the war was over, he returned to Wyoming and married (3) Blanch Amelia Bartlett in 1947. They had one daughter, Sarah Marie Collett. Charles James Collett died on 7^th March 1961 and was buried at Fort Bridger Cemetery with his second wife Agnes, and where his brother Henry had been buried in 1931, his father had been buried in 1956 and where his mother was buried in 1978.

76R1

Jessie May Collett

Born in 1926 in Colorado; died 2012

76R2

Cecile Clara Collett

Born in 1929 in Colorado

The following is the daughter of Charles James Collett and his third wife Blanch Bartlett:

76R3

Sarah Marie Collett

Born in 1948 in Colorado

76Q2

Henry Harry Collett was born in Wyoming in 1908, the second son of Charles Harry Collett and Sarah Eleanor Robbins. He was two years old in the Aspen (Uinta) census of 1910, was 11 years old in the Robertson (Uinta) census of 1920. He was diagnosed with diabetes as a young man and he never married. Tragically, he died when he was 22 years old after falling into a diabetic coma. Insulin was new at that time and he was unable to receive it in time to save his life. He passed away at the family ranch during 1931 and was the first of the four members of his family to be buried at Fort Bridger Cemetery in Uinta County, Wyoming.

76Q3

Frank Collett was born at Wyoming on 24^th December 1903, the eldest child of James Alfred Collett and Ida Louise Tydeman. It was at Cold Springs in Elmore County, Idaho, where he was seven years old in 1910 and was 17 in 1920 when he and his family were residing at Idaho Falls in Bonneville County. The death of Frank Collett, whose mother’s maiden-name was Tydeman, took place at San Francisco in California on 13^th January 1949.

76Q5

John Collett was born at Wyoming in 1906, another son of James and Ida Collett. In the census of 1910 John Collett was four years of age when he and his family was living at Cold Springs in Elmore County, Idaho. Ten years later he was still living in the family home which, by then was at Idaho Falls in Bonneville County, where John Collett from Wyoming was 15. It would appear that it was only two years later that John Collett married Blanche H Jensen on 4^th February 1922 at Blackfoot, when his family had been living in 1915.

76Q7

Ida Ann (or Alberta) Collett was born at Cold Springs in Elmore County, Idaho, in 1910 after the census day in April that year, a daughter of James and Ida Collett. She was 10 years of age in the census of 1920 when living with her family at Idaho Falls in Bonneville County. Around 1929 she married Francis H Hansen and their son James Ward Hansen was born at Burley in Idaho on 10^th May 1930. He was 74 when he died in Idaho on 2^nd February 2005, when his late parents were confirmed as Francis H Hansen and Ida Alberta Collett Hansen. The death of Ida A Hansen nee Collett was recorded in 2001.

76Q9

Dorothy Thelma Collett was born in Idaho on 14^th May 1915, a daughter of James and Ida Collett. She survived for only twenty-eight weeks when she died at Blackfoot in Bingham County, Idaho on 1^st December 1915 and was buried the following day in the G C Cemetery in Blackfoot. The burial record confirmed that her father was James A Collett from England and Ida Tydeman from Georgia.

76Q11

Eveline Florence Collett was born on 29^th April 1919, most likely born at Idaho Falls in Bonneville, where her family was recorded in the census of 1920, and where Evelyn Collett was not yet one year old. She later married, and it was as Evelyn Florence Solon that she died at Nevada in California on 14^th October 1982. The death certificate confirmed that her father’s surname was Collett.

76Q12

James H Collett was born in Idaho on 25^th May 1921, the last child of James Alfred Collett and Ida Louise Tydeman. During the previous year Ida Collett and her children were residing at Idaho Falls in Bonneville County. Sadly, James was just over three weeks old when he died on 19^th June and was buried at Idaho Falls on 20^th June 1921. Once again, the burial record confirmed that his father was James A Collett from England and Ida Tydeman from Georgia.

76Q13

William Charles Collett was born in 1897 at Bidford-on-Avon, with his birth recorded at Alcester (Ref. 6d 208) during the first quarter of that year. And it was at Bidford where he was baptised on 28^th February 1897, the eldest of the two known sons of Charles Albert Collett and Annie Stephens. By the time he was four years olds, he and his family were recorded at Temple Grafton, near Stratford-upon-Avon, in the census of 1901 although, by 1911, they were back living in Bidford where William was 14.

76Q14

Sydney Frederick Collett was born on 7^th May 1898 at Bidford-on-Avon, where he was baptised on 10^th July 1898, when his father was named as Albert Charles Collett, rather than Charles Albert, and his mother as Annie Collett. His birth, like that of his brother (above), was also recorded at Alcester (Ref. 6d 235) during the second quarter of the year. Not long after that, the family of four was listed in the 1901 census at Temple Grafton, when Sydney was two years of age. After a further ten years, the same family group was again recorded at Bidford on the day of the census in 1911, where Sydney was 12. Seven years later, Sidney Frederick Collett, aged 19 and the son of Charles Collett, married Florence Mary Britton, aged 21 and the daughter John Britton, at the Church of St James the Less in Ashted, within the Aston area of Birmingham, on 16^th March 1918.

From the day of his wedding, Sydney used the Sidney spelling of his name, right up to the day he passed away. The couple’s three children were born in that same area of Birmingham, with their births recorded at Aston register office, when their mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Britton. Many years later, Sidney was still living in the Birmingham area, when the death of Sidney Frederick Collett was recorded at Birmingham register office (Vol. 32 94) at the start of 1979, when he was 80 years of age.

76R4

Sidney Charles Collett

Born in 1919 in Birmingham

76R5

Joan Collett

Born in 1920 in Birmingham

76R6

George H Collett

Born in 1921 in Birmingham

76Q15

Albert James Collett was born on 9^th June 1914, the first of the eight children of James Collett of Bidford-on-Avon in Warwickshire and Grace Dora Hamblett of Longborough in Gloucestershire, who were not married until 1921. His birth was recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 6d 106) during the third quarter of the 1914, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Hamblett. The later marriage of Albert J Collett and (1) Elsie M Jackson was also recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 6d 93) during the third quarter of 1936. That would appear to be the first of two marriages for Albert, since, during the third quarter of 1950, the marriage of Albert J Collett and (2) Betty I Doidge was recorded at Birmingham (Ref. 9c 74). Just less than twenty-four years later, the death of Albert James Collett was recorded at Birmingham register office (Vol. 32 45) during the spring of 1974, when he was approaching his sixtieth birthday.

76Q16

Dora K Collett was born in early 1916 and, when her birth was recorded at Meriden register office (Ref. 6d 149), near Solihull, in the first quarter of the year, her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Hamblett. No later record of a marriage or a death of Dora has been found.

76Q17

Arthur Edward Collett was born on 13^th November 1919, his birth recorded at Aston register office (Ref. 6d 69) during the fourth quarter of the year, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Hamblett. No record of a marriage for him has been found, while the later death of Arthur Edward Collett was recorded at Birmingham register office near the beginning of 2005, when he was 85 years old.

76Q18

Norman Collett was born at Aston, Birmingham, on 5^th August 1921, his birth recorded at Aston register office (Ref. 6d 1) during the third quarter of the year, where his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Hamblett. He was just over three weeks old when he was baptised at Birmingham on 28^th August 1921, the fourth of the eight children of George H Collett and Grace Dora Hamblett. Just as with his old brother (above), it is likely that Norman never married, with the death of Norman Collett recorded at the Mid-Warwickshire register office in early 1998, when he was 76 years old.

76Q19

Horace A Collett was born in 1923 at Aston in Birmingham, and it was at Aston register office where his birth was recorded during the second quarter of the year (Ref. 6d 142). As with all of his siblings, his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Hamblett. He was twenty-six years old when the marriage of Horace A Collett and Eileen M Jarvis was recorded at Birmingham register office during the third quarter of 1949. The marriage produced two children for Horace and Eileen, both births recorded at Birmingham register office when, in each case, the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Jarvis.

76R7

Stephanie Collett

Born in 1950 in Birmingham

76R8

Peter Collett

Born in 1956 in Birmingham

76Q20

Dennis Collett was born in 1926 at Aston in Birmingham, with his birth recorded at the Birmingham North register office (Ref. 6d 49) during the last three months of the year, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Hamblett.

76Q21

Cyril Collett was born in 1930 at Aston in Birmingham, with his birth also recorded at the Birmingham North register office (Ref. 6d 71) during the first three months of the year, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Hamblett. It was during the last three months of 1947, when a very young Cyril Collett married Doreen Harry, the event recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 9c 29). Nine months later, the first of their four children was born, with all four births recorded at Birmingham, where the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Harry.

76R9

Paul Collett

Born in 1948 at Birmingham

76R10

Michael Collett

Born in 1950 at Birmingham

76R11

Stephen Collett twin

Born in 1957 at Solihull

76R12

Carolyn Collett twin

Born in 1957 at Solihull

76Q22

James H Collett was born in 1932 at Aston in Birmingham, the eighth and last child of George H Collett and Grace Dora Hamblett. with his birth also recorded at the Birmingham North register office (Ref. 6d 71) during the first three months of the year, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Hamblett. He was twenty-three years of age, when the marriage of James H Collett and Sylvia J Parsons was recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 9c 99) during the second quarter of 1955. Sylvia presented James with two children, the first born at the end of the year in which the couple was married. On both occasions, the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Parsons.

76R13

Gordon James Collett

Born in 1955 at Birmingham

76R14

Esther V Collett

Born in 1957 at Birmingham

76Q23

Charles Ingles R Collett was born on 4^th July 1918, the only child of Charles Ingles Collett and Lucy Eleanor Coley, his birth recorded at Stratford-upon-Avon register office (Ref. 6d 31), when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Coley. The later marriage of Charles I R Collett and Alice M Boswell was also recorded at Stratford register office (Ref. 6d 9) during the third quarter of 1940. Over the following years Alice presented Charles with a daughter and twin sons, all of their birth recorded at Shipston-on-Stour register office, where their mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Boswell. It would appear that Charles lived his whole life in Warwickshire, since it was there, at the South Warwickshire register office (Vol. 31) that the death of Charles Ingles R Collett was recorded in the spring of 1989.

76R15

Sandra E Collett

Born in 1944 at Shipston-on-Stour

76R16

John Collett

Born in 1947 at Shipston-on-Stour

76R17

Michael Collett

Born in 1947 at Shipston-on-Stour

76Q24

Percival William Collett was born during 1923, the only known child of William Turner Collett and Janet Maud Cluney. His birth was recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 6c 263) during the third quarter of 1923 when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Cluney. At the age of 21 he was Private 5125386 with the Second Airborne Battalion of the South Staffordshire Regiment, when he was killed in action on 19^th September 1944. His military record confirmed that he was the son of William Turner Collett and Janet Maud Collett and the husband of Edna May Collett of Wadborough in Worcestershire. He was buried at Arnheim Oosterbeek War Cemetery and his name is included amongst those listed on the Stoulton War Memorial near Wadborough.

76Q27

John Francis Harry Collett was born on 22^nd February 1929 and was the first of the two children of Francis Harry Collett and Mabel D Bridge. His birth was recorded at Shipston-n-Stour register office (Ref. 6d 1315) during the first the months of the year, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Bridge. The marriage of John F H Collett and Eileen E Priday was recorded at the Herefordshire Leominster register office (Ref. 9a 140) during the second quarter of 1951. Eileen had been born towards the end of 1931, with her birth recorded at Leominster register office (Ref. 6a 695), and it was there also that the births of the couple’s five children were also recorded and, in each case, the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Priday. It is also established that it was still in Herefordshire that John Francis Harry Collett was living when he died in 1997, with his passing recorded at the county register office (Vol. 5201 9) at the age of 68.

76R18

Ann Collett

Born in 1951 at Leominster

76R19

Robert John Collett

Born in 1955 at Leominster

76R20

Rosemary Collett

Born in 1956 at Leominster

76R21

Jonathan Harry Collett

Born in 1960 at Leominster

76R22

James Francis Harry Collett

Born in 1967 at Leominster

76Q30

Charles A Collett was born at Croydon in 1936, where his birth was recorded (Ref. 2a 93) during the third quarter of the year, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Crisp, being the first of the two children of Charles Henry Collett and Marjorie Florence Crisp. He was in his mid-thirties when the marriage of Charles A Collett and Jean M Collett was recorded at the Kingston-upon-Thames register office (Ref. 5c 74) during the summer of 1972. It is possible, but not yet proved, that Jean M Collett was the daughter of Richard Frank Collett and Beatrice Victoria Hiscock, her birth recorded at Croydon register office during the last three months of 1931 (Ref. 2a 661). Richard and his family can be found in Part 30 – The Suffolk & Norfolk Line, at Ref. 30Q30.

76Q31

Richard C Collett was born at Croydon in 1939, the second son of Charles and Marjorie Collett. His birth was recorded at Croydon register office (Ref. 2a 32) during the last quarter of 1939, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Crisp. Just as with his older brother Charles (above), Richard also married late in his life, with the marriage of Richard C Collett and Elizabeth Heller recorded at Kensington & Chelsea register office (Vol. 13 45) during the summer of 1981.

76Q32

Joan Margaret Collett was born at Cobham in 1930, her birth recorded at Epsom register office (Ref. 2a 88) during the last three months of the same that her parents were married, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Dodson. She was the first-born child of William James Collett and Elsie Irene Dodson. She later married David L Larby, whose birth was recorded at Alton in Hampshire, when their wedding was recorded at the South-Western register office in Surrey (Ref. 5g 124) during the third quarter of 1958. Joan was 27 and David was 21 and, nine years later, Joan gave birth to twins. It was during the last three months of 1967 that the twins were born, their births also recorded at the Surrey South-Western register office, first was Julie Margaret Larby (Ref. 5g 16), followed by Nicholas David Larby (Ref. 5g 17). The twins’ birth records confirmed that their mother’s maiden-name was Collett. Joan Margaret Larby passed away around 2018, when she was in her late eighties.

76Q33

John David William Collett was born near the end of 1939, the eldest son of William and Elsie Collett, and their first child to have his birth recorded at the Surrey South-Western register office (Ref. 2a 16) during the fourth quarter of 1939, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Dodson. It was also at the Surrey South-Western register office (Ref. 5g 55) where the marriage of John D W and Sonya A M Ford was recorded during the first three months of 1961, and where Sonya’s birth was recorded in the summer of 1940. The couple had been married for nearly eleven years when their only child was born, the birth of their son recorded at the North Surrey register office during November 1971.

76R23

Alan William Collett

Born in 1971 at North Surrey

76Q34

Janet Dawn Collett was born in 1942 at South-West Surrey where her birth was recorded (Ref. 2a 1) during the last quarter of the year. Her mother’s maiden-name was recorded as Dodson, being the third child of William and Elsie Collett. Either just before, or just after her twentieth birthday, the marriage of Janet Dawn Collett and Terence N King was recorded at the South-Western register office in Surrey (Ref. 5g 10) near the end of 1962. Not long after they were married, Janet gave birth to the first of her three children, with the birth of Dawn M King recorded at South-West Surrey in the second quarter of the following year (Ref. 5g 71). It was also at the same register office that the birth of the next two children, twin daughters, was recorded less than three years after. The first of them listed was Ann Susan King (Ref. 5g 67), the second being Sally Ann King (Ref. 5g 71), both within the first quarter of 1966 with their mother’s maiden-name confirmed as Collett. By the time Sally was nearly ten years old her parents were divorced, with the second marriage of Terence N King and Dorothy Wilson also recorded at the Surrey South-Western register office (Vol. 17 78) early in 1976.

76Q35

James William Collett was the fourth child and second son of William and Elsie Collett. His birth was recorded at the Surrey South-Western register office (Ref. 2a 78) during the third quarter of 1944. Surrey, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Dodson. It was in that same area of the country that the 1966 marriage of James and Kathleen B Triggs was recorded at the South-Western Surrey register office during the first quarter of the year (Ref. 5g 46). Kathleen presented James with three children, all of their births recorded at the same register office in South-West Surrey, where their mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Triggs. And it is thanks to the couple’s eldest child, their daughter Michelle, that Part 76 of the global Collett family has been updated with lots of new details in the autumn of 2021.

76R24

Michelle Louise Collett

Born in 1969 at South-West Surrey

76R25

David James Collett

Born in 1972 at South-West Surrey

76R26

James Mark Collett

Born in 1979 at South-West Surrey

76Q36

Brian F Collett was born around the time of the first anniversary of peace being declared in Europe at the end of the Second World War, and was therefore a ‘war baby’. It was during the second quarter of 1946 that his birth was recorded at Surrey’s South-Western register office (Ref. 2a 128), when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Dodson. It was during the summer of 1966 when he married Margaret E Ellis, with their wedding also recorded at the South-Western register office (Ref. 5g 85), and with whom he had two children. Barry was born in 1968 and Maxine in 1971, but their births were recorded respectively at the South-Western and North-Western register offices in Surrey and, on both occasions, the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Ellis. It was also at the South-Western register office in Surrey (Ref. 5g 120) where the birth of Margaret E Ellis was recorded during the first three months of 1948. She was therefore around 68 years of age when she died in 2016, or shortly thereafter.

76R27

Barry Mark Collett

Born in 1968 at South-West Surrey

76R28

Maxine Alane Collett

Born in 1971 at North-West Surrey

76Q37

Paul F Collett was the sixth and last child born to William James Collett and Elsie Irene Dodson in Surrey. His birth was recorded at the Surrey South-Western register office (Ref. 5g 31) during the second quarter of 1948 and his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Dodson. Paul was still a teenager when his marriage to Jennifer M Williams was recorded at the same register office as his birth, during the third quarter of 1967 (Ref. 5g 126). The birth of Jennifer M Williams, known as Jenny, was also recorded at the same register office during the first quarter of 1950 (Ref. 5g 71). They had one son who was born when the couple was residing in Hampshire near Aldershot, his birth recorded during the first three months of 1981 at the North-East Hants register office (Vol. 20 61), when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Williams. Jennifer M Williams was in her early sixties when she died around 2010 of just after.

76R29

Michael Paul Collett

Born in 1981 in North-East Hampshire

76Q38

Mona Collett was born at Pontypool, Monmouthshire in Wales, where her birth was recorded (Ref. 11a 1) during the second quarter of 1923, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Jones. She was first of the eleven children of Samuel John Collett and Florence Jones. On the day of the 1939 Register was compiled Mona and her family were residing at 1 Belmont Terrace, Willersey Road in Badsey, when Mona would have been 16 years of age. However, she was just one of five siblings to have her entry redacted, due to them being alive when the register was later released to the public. Six years later, Mona Collett was twenty-two-years-old when she was married by banns to Harold James Webb, also 22 and a private with His Majesty’s Armed Forces, at the Church of St James in Badsey on 25^th April 1945. The event was recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 10c 106) during the third quarter of 1945. It is interesting that in 1959 Mona’s mother Florence Collett was living at 1 Belmont Terrace when she died.

Harold was living at Whitfurrows Farm in Wickhamford, the son of Ernest Webb, a market gardener, while Mona was confirmed as the daughter of Samuel John Collett, also a market gardener, residing at Old Post Office Lane in Badsey. The marriage produced two sons for the couple, both born at Badsey with their birth also recorded at Evesham register office, when their mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett. They were Peter J Webb (Ref. 9d 122) during the last quarter of 1947, and David J Webb (Ref. 9d 135) during the first three months of 1952. The youngest child was thirty-years-old when Harold James Webb died, his death recorded at Worcestershire register office (Vol. 29 0672) in 1982, when his date of birth was recorded as 21^st July 1913.

76Q39

Emma Florence Collett was born on 26^th August 1925 at Brecknock in Wales, with her birth recorded there (Ref. 11b 112) on during the fourth quarter of that year, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Jones. Emma was 14 years of age in 1939 when the Pre-War Register was produced, in which she and her family were living at 1 Belmont Terrace on Willersey Road in Badsey. She never married and was 57 years old when she died on 28^th January 1983 and was buried at St James’ Church in Badsey on 8^th February 1983, with the death of Emma Florence Collett recorded at Evesham register office (Vol. 29 0259). Her address at the time of her passing was 12 The Poplars in Badsey.

76Q40

Joan Collett was born at Badsey on 23^rd January 1928, another daughter of Samuel John Collett and Florence Jones, with her birth recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 6c 256), when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Jones. Joan was eleven years old in the 1939 Register when she and her large family were recorded at 1 Belmont Terrace, Willersey Road, in Badsey. It was nearly twelve years after that, when the marriage of Joan Collett and Joseph G Robbins was recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 9d 201) during the second quarter of 1951. The marriage produced two children, they being Janet L Robbins in 1954, and Michael J Robbins in 1962, both births recorded at Evesham register office when the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett.

76Q41

Ivor John Collett was born at Badsey on 7^th March 1930 and was the fourth of eleven children, and the eldest son, of Samuel John Collett and Florence Jones, whose birth was recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 6c 242) during the first quarter of 1930, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Jones. He was nearly ten years old when he and his family was living at 1 Belmont Terrace on Willersey Road in Badsey. It was in the 1939 Register that the family was recorded, although the details for Ivor and four of his sisters were redacted because they were still living when the register was published many years after. It was during the summer of 1952, when the country was celebrating the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, that the marriage of Ivor J Collett and Margaret R Dyde was recorded at Worcestershire register office (Ref. 9d 274) during the third quarter of 1952.

Margaret R Dyde is very interesting, since her birth was recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 6c 205) during the third quarter of 1934, when her mother’s maiden-name was Collett. A further search reveals that her father was William S Dyde (1910-1961) and her mother was Nellie Collett (1914-1997), whose marriage was recorded at Evesham (Ref. 6c 323) during the first three months of 1932. Nellie Collett (Ref. 14Q3) was the daughter John William Henry Collett and Eva L Millward of Evesham, whose family feature in Part 14 – The John Kyte Collett Line.

Ivor and Margaret’s daughter Karen may have been born at Badsey, when her birth was recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 9d 145) during the fourth quarter of 1962 and might have been their only children. No obvious record of Ivor, Margaret, or Karen, has been found after 1962. The death of someone with virtually the same name as Ivor, was also born during the first three months of 1930 and died at Weymouth in 2006. That Ivor, known as John, had a daughter Melonie, and their story is detailed in the Appendix at the end of this file.

76R30

Karen A Collett

Born in 1962 at Evesham

76Q42

Doris Blanche Collett was born at Badsey on 12^th May 1931, while her birth was recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 6c 249) during the second quarter of the year, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Jones. Doris married Ronald T Pinchin in 1961, the event recorded at Evesham (Ref. 9d 43) during the last quarter of that year. Just as with her sister Emma (above), Doris was also 52 years of age, when the death of Doris Blanche Pinchin was recorded at Evesham register office at the start of 1985. Two years prior to her wedding day, Doris Blanche Collett was confirmed at St James’ Church in Badsey, as reported the Parish Review for 1959, the same year, and perhaps on the same day, as four of her younger siblings (below).

76Q43

Hilda Jane Collett was born at Badsey towards the end of 1934, another daughter of Samuel John Collett and Florence Jones, with her birth recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 6c 214) during the first three months of 1935, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Jones. The 1939 Register included Hilda’s family at 1 Belmont Terrace, Willersey Road, Badsey, but because five of the children were living when the register was published, their details were redacted, so we do not yet know the date of birth for Hilda and younger sisters Mary and Lucy (below), and old siblings Mona and Ivor (above). Hilda was twenty-seven when the marriage of Hilda J Collett and Michael J Keyte was recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 9d 290) during the second quarter of 1961. A year later the couple was blessed with the birth of a son, Martin K Keyte, which was also recorded at Evesham (Ref. 9d 125) during the second quarter of 1962. Two years prior to her wedding day, Hilda Jane Collett was confirmed at St James’ Church in Badsey, as reported the Parish Review for 1959, one of five siblings confirmed there that year.

76Q44

Mary Collett was born at Badsey in 1937, another daughter of Samuel John Collett and Florence Jones, and her birth was recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 6c 313) during the second quarter of that year, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Jones. The details for Mary in the 1939 Register were redacted, as were the details for another four of her siblings, simply because they were all alive when the register was made available to the general public. So, the only thing we know about Mary that day is that she and her family were residing at 1 Belmont Terrace, Willersey Road, Badsey. Later on, during the first three months of 1957, the marriage of Mary Collett and Brian Vann was recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 9d 309). Fifteen months later the birth of Beverley J Vann was recorded at Evesham (Ref. 9d 329) during the second quarter of 1958.

76Q45

Lucy M Collett was born at Badsey in 1939, another daughter of Samuel John Collett and Florence Jones, with her birth recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 6c 551) during the last three months of the year, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Jones. Just as with four of her older siblings, Lucy’s details in the 1939 were redacted, when she and her family were living at 1 Belmont Terrace on Willersey Road in Badsey. The marriage of Lucy M Collett and Ivor R Powell was recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 9d 238) during the second three months of 1957, just a couple of months after the wedding of her sister Mary (above). During the following year their son Ronald Powell was born, and two years after the daughter Linda Powell was born, both recorded at Worcestershire register office in 1958 and 1960, when the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett.

76Q46

Christine A Collett was born at Badsey late in 1941, possibly at 1 Belmont Terrace, Willersey Road, another daughter of Samuel John Collett and Florence Jones, and her birth was recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 6c 462) during the first quarter of 1942, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Jones. She was eighteen years of age when she was confirmed at St James’ Church in Badsey according to the Parish Review for 1959. Unlike her older sisters, who married early in their lives, Christine was over forty when her marriage to Martin Tilley was recorded at Bromsgrove register office (Vol. 29 31) during the second quarter of 1985.

76Q47

Doreen Collett was born at Badsey on 14^th July 1944, the twin sister of Peter (below) the last two children born to Samuel John Collett and Florence Jones. Her birth, the same as her twin brother, was recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 6c 389) during the second quarter of that year, when their mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Jones. At the age of fifteen Doreen Collett was confirmed at St James’ Church in Badsey, as stated in the Parish Review for 1959, the same year as her three older sisters Doris, Hilda, and Christine (above), and brother Peter (below). She was twenty-four, when the wedding of Doreen Collett and David A Pritchard was recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 9d 157) during the last quarter of 1968. Dawn Louise Pritchard was born in 1969, and Alan John Pritchard was born in 1971, their births recorded at Evesham, when their mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett

76Q48

Peter Collett was born at Badsey on 14^th July 1944, the youngest child and only the second son of Samuel John Collett and Florence Jones. His birth, like his twin sister’s (above) was recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 6c 389), when their mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Jones. It seems highly likely that Peter were confirmed at St James’ Church in Badsey on the same day as four of his older sisters, as they were all listed in the Parish Review of 1959. The marriage of Peter Collett and Kathleen Bailey was recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 9d 162) during the second quarter of 1966, with whom he had two sons. The birth of their first child was recorded at Worcester register office, the second at Evesham, both confirmed as the sons of a mother whose maiden-name was Bailey. He was 56 when he died, the death of Peter Collett being recorded at the North Cotswold register office (Ref. 20a 4851) during March 2001, and just prior to the wedding day of his eldest son.

76R31

Neal Martin Collett

Born in 1969 at Worcester

76R32

Dean Collett

Born in 1971 at Evesham

76Q49

Norman William Collett was born at Evesham on 14^th August 1931, the son of Thomas William Collett and Doris Mabel Drinkwater. It was during 1951 that Norman moved from Evesham to Maidstone in Kent for the purposes of work. Three years later he married Jean Mary Andrews on 30^th October 1954 at Boxley, two miles from Maidstone. Jean Mary Andrews was born in 1929 and she presented Norman with a son in 1957. At the start of their life together, they purchased a house at Bearsted, just to the east of Maidstone, where Norman William Collett passed away on 8^th June 2012. He was survived by his wife for almost four years when, on 18^th February 2016, Jean Mary Collett, nee Andrews, passed away at the age of 87. In 2017 their son Chris, erected a memorial bench in honour of his parents on The Green in Bearsted, which is overlooked by the house in which they lived from 1954 until the end of their lives.

76R33

Christopher William Collett

Born in 1957 at Maidstone

76Q50

Jean Diane Collett was born at Evesham on 3^rd June 1933, the younger of the two children of Thomas and Doris Collett. She later became Jean Diane Lewis, following her wedding which was recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 9d 2) during the second quarter of 1952, when she married Percival C Lewis. Percival Charles Lewis was born on 3^rd November 1927, with his birth also recorded at Evesham register office (Ref. 6c 127) during the last quarter of that year. It was at Wickhamford in Worcestershire, south-east of Evesham, and just south of Badsey, that Percival Charles Lewis died on 21^st December 2005, where he was buried in the grounds of the Wickhamford Cemetery. Eleven years after being widowed, Jean Diane Lewis was living in Badsey when she passed away during 2016 at the age of 83, after which it is assumed that she was buried with her late husband. During their lives, they were blessed with the birth of a son, Kevin Charles Lewis whose birth was recorded at Evesham (Ref. 9d 98) during the second of 1954, when his mother was twenty-one years old and her maiden-name was confirmed as Collett. Kevin married Deborah M West during the summer of 1988, their wedding also recorded at Evesham register office.

76R1

Jessie May Collett was born in Colorado during 1926, the eldest of the two daughters of Charles James Collett and his first wife Clara G Walsh. It is likely her younger sister Cecile did not survive beyond childhood, since she was not included in the family history provided by Sarah Marie Taylor nee Collett, Jessie’s half-sister (below). She later married Elwin C Dickson who was born in 1918, and who died in 2006. They were the parents of two girls, Ila (ILA) Mae Dickson and Jean Dickson. Ila Mae went on to marry Bob Gaydos and they had one daughter, Patience Gaydos. Ila Mae passed away in 2004 after suffering from a brain tumor. Jean Dickson is the mother of two daughters, Melody Joy and Linda Loraine. Jessie May Dickson died during 2012.

76R3

Sarah Marie Collett was born in Wyoming during 1948, the only daughter of Charles James Collett by his third wife Blanch Bartlett. She married Lester Taylor in 1964 and they are the parents of seven children, Clinton Taylor, Jennice Taylor, Clayton Taylor, Charles Taylor, Calob Taylor, Christopher Taylor and Cameron Taylor. And it was Sarah Marie Taylor nee Collett who kindly provided all of the new details for her family back to her great grandfather James Harry Collett (1859-1888).

76R4

Sidney Charles Collett was born on 2^nd January 1919 at Rowland Street in Birmingham, around nine months after his parents were married there. His birth was recorded at Aston register office (Ref. 6d 17) during the first three months of 1919, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Britton. Just over three weeks later, he was baptised on 28^th January 1919, the eldest of the three children of Sidney Frederick Collett and his wife Florence Mary Britton. The later marriage of Sidney Charles Collett and Gladys May Hubbard took place at St Matthews Church in Duddeston within the Ashted area of Birmingham on 22^nd September 1945. Sidney was confirmed as the 26-year-old son on Sidney Frederick Collett, while Gladys was 25 and the daughter of Frederick George Hubbard. The births of their three children were all recorded at the Birmingham register office and, in each case, the mother’s maiden was confirmed as Hubbard. Gladys May Collett died in Birmingham on 22^nd January 1988 at the age of 67, when she was residing just east of Duddeston. The last seven months of her life were spent as a widow, following the death of Sidney Charles Collett during the month of May in 1987.

76S1

Margaret E Collett

Born in 1947 at Birmingham

76S2

Graham J Collett

Born in 1948 at Birmingham

76S3

Kenneth C Collett

Born in 1950 at Birmingham

76R5

Joan Collett was born at Rowland Street in Birmingham on 11^th January 1920, with her birth was recorded at Aston register office (Ref. 6d 32) during the first three months of the year, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Britton. She was just two weeks old when she baptised there on 25^th January 1920, the only daughter of Sidney and Florence Collett.

76R6

George H Collett was born in 1921, most likely at Rowland Street in Birmingham, when his birth was recorded at Aston register office (Ref. 6d 52) during the second quarter of that year, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Britton. He was in his thirties, when the marriage of George H Collett and Sheila A Barlow was recorded at Solihull register office (Ref. 9c 93) during the first quarter of 1957. Later that same year, the first of the couple’s two sons was born. George H Collett was 78 years old when he died at Wednesbury on 1^st March 2000.

76S4

Mark R Collett

Born in 1957 at Birmingham

76S5

Paul A Collett

Born in 1960 at Birmingham

76R7

Stephanie Collett was born at Birmingham in 1950, where her birth was recorded (Ref. 9c 50) during the last quarter of that year, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Jarvis. She was the older of the two children of Horace A Collett and Eileen M Jarvis. It is possible she was around eighteen years of age when she married Alun T Williams during the first quarter of 1969, with the event recorded at Dudley register office (Ref. 9b 138). It was also at Dudley where the births of their two children were recorded, when the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett. Cory Williams was born nine months after the couple’s wedding day, with Haze Williams born during the summer of 1974.

76R8

Peter Collett was born at Birmingham in 1956, his birth recorded there (Ref. 9c 50) during the first three months of that year, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Jarvis. It is likely that his parents later moved the short distance to Dudley, since it was there that both Peter and his sister Stephanie (above) were married. The marriage of Peter Collett and Elaine M Edwards was recorded there (Vol. 33 143) during the spring of 1979. Five years later, the couple’s two sons were both in the same year, David’s birth recorded at Walsall during the second quarter, and Ryan’s recorded at Dudley during the fourth quarter of 1984. The birth record for both sons, confirmed that their mother’s maiden-name was Edwards.

76S6

David George Collett

Born in 1984 at Walsall

76S7

Ryan Collett

Born in 1984 at Dudley

76R9

Paul Collett was born in 1948 at Birmingham, around nine months after his parents were married there in 1947. His birth was also recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 9c 30) during the second quarter of the year, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Harry, being the first-born child of Cyril Collett and Doreen Harry. Paul is married with children and has grandchildren as well.

76R10

Michael Collett was born in 1950 at Birmingham, the second of the four children of Cyril and Doreen Collett, whose birth was recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 9c 118) during the second quarter of the year. His mother’s maiden-name being Harry, as in Doreen Harry, the wife of Cyril Collett. Mike, as he is known, married (1) Christine Redden on 8^th February 1969 and two years later emigrated to Australia in 1971. Christine was the daughter of William Redden and Catherine Burn, and was born at Solihull in 1949. They had three children, and later, when Mike married (2) she presented him with another son. His daughter Leia is married with three children of her own. It is thanks to Mike, who made contact in 2021, that this brand-new family line now runs from before 1800 to the present day.

76S8

Cleve Luke Collett

Born in Australia

76S9

Reece David Collett

Born in Australia and died shortly after

76S10

Leia Jael Collett

Born in Australia

The following child is the son of Mike Collett by his second wife Kay:

76S11

Grant Steven Luke Collett

Born on 14.09.1988 in Australia

76R11

Stephen Collett was born in 1957 at Solihull and was the twin brother of Carolyn Collett (below). Although acknowledged as twins, the records of their birth do not run concurrent with each other. The birth of Stephen was recorded at Solihull register office (Ref. 9c 107) during the first three months of 1957, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Harry.

76R12

Carolyn Collett was possibly born at Acocks Green but with her birth recorded at Solihull register office in 1957, the youngest child of Cyril Collett and Doreen Harry, and the twin sister of her brother Stephen (above). In the birth records for both children the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Harry. However, for some reason they were not consecutive birth record numbers, as you might expect. The birth of Carolyn was recorded at Solihull (Vol. 16 92) during the first quarter of 1957. It was then at Acocks Green in the Yardley area of south-west Birmingham that she was baptised on 19^th May 1957. It was also at Solihull register office, nearly twenty-five years after, when the marriage of Carolyn Collett and Edward Ted Telford was recorded during the start of 1982 (Vol. 34 112). Their two known children are Claire Shirley Telford, whose birth was recorded at Solihull South register office during the summer of 1987, and Bradley Thomas Telford whose birth was recorded at Birmingham register office in the month of August 1991. On both occasions the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett.

76R13

Gordon James Collett was born in 1955 at Birmingham, the first-born child of James H Collett and Sylvia J Parsons. His birth was recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 9c 81) during the last three months of the year, which was also the year his parents were married there. The birth record also confirmed that his mother’s maiden-name was Parsons. Gordon was nearly thirty, when his marriage to Janice E Green was recorded at Walsall register office in the spring of 1984. In between the births of the couple’s first and last child at Stourbridge, near Dudley, the family must have spent a short while at Southampton, where their middle child was born. On all three occasions, the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Green.

76S12

Joshua Jordon Collett

Born in 1994 at Stourbridge

76S13

Jordon James Collett

Born in 1996 at Southampton

76S14

Daniel Jacob Collett

Born in 1998 at Stourbridge

76R14

Esther V Collett was born in 1957 at Birmingham and was the second of the two children of James and Sylvia Collett. Her birth was also recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 9c 37) during the second quarter of 1957, when the mother’s maiden-name was again confirmed as Parsons. It was in 1979 that Esther V Collett married Naivaid Nazir, their wedding recorded at Sandwell register office in Staffordshire (Vol. 33 20) during the summer that year. Over the following years, Esther presented Naivaid with three children, and they were Kyle James M Nazir at Sheffield in 1987, Ria Sylvia A Nazir at Walsall in 1988, and Jasmin Laura Nazir at Macclesfield in 1997. For all three births, the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett.

76R15

Sandra E Collett was born in 1944 and her birth was recorded at Shipston-on-Stour register office (Ref. 6d 138) during the second quarter of that year, the first of the three children of Charles Ingles R Collett and Alice M Boswell. It was near the end of 1963, with Sandra approaching her twentieth birthday, that her marriage to Raymond G Elvin was recorded at Stratford-upon-Avon (Ref. 9c 179) during the last three months of the year. Two years later Sandra gave birth to their only child, with the birth of Roy A Elvin recorded at Stratford register office (Ref. 9c 80) during the final quarter of 1965.

76R16

John Collett was born in 1947, the twin brother of Michael (below), the sons of Charles and Alice Collett. As with their sister (above), the twins’ birth was also recorded at Shipston-on-Stour during the last three months of the year (Ref. 6d 105), when their mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Boswell. The marriage of John Collett and Margaret Davis was recorded at Stratford-upon-Avon register office (Ref. 9c 71) during the spring of the 1972, where the births of their three children were also recorded. Their births also confirmed that the children’s mother’s maiden-name was Davis.

76S15

Rebecca Collett

Born in 1975 at Stratford-upon-Avon

76S16

Victoria Collett

Born in 1978 at Stratford-upon-Avon

76S17

David John Collett

Born in 1983 at Stratford-upon-Avon

76R17

Michael Collett was born in 1947 the slightly younger twin brother of John (above) whose birth was registered second at Shipston-on-Stour (Ref. 6d 109). He was the third and last child born to Charles Ingles R Collett and Alice M Boswell. At twenty-two years of age, the marriage of Michael Collett and Sylvia Roberts was recorded at Stratford-upon-Avon (Ref. 9c 15) during the last months of 1969. Over the next six years the couple gave birth to two children, with both births recorded at Stratford, when the mother’s maiden-name in each case, was confirmed as Roberts.

76S18

Joanna Marie Collett

Born in 1972 at Stratford-upon-Avon

76S19

Stuart Daniel Collett

Born in 1975 at Stratford-upon-Avon

76R18

Ann Collett was born in Herefordshire during 1951, the first of the five children of John Francis Harry Collett and Eileen E Priday. Her birth was recorded at Leominster register office (Ref. 9a 91) during the fourth quarter of the year, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Priday. Ann was twenty-five years of age when her marriage to Bernard F Radnor was recorded at Leominster (Vol. 29 0534) during the spring of 1976. They had been married for nearly five years when their son was born, the birth of Samuel Bernard Radnor recorded at Birmingham register office (Vol. 32 1089) at the start of 1981

76R19

Robert John Collett was born in 1955, the eldest son of John and Eileen Collett, his birth also recorded at Leominster register office (Ref. 9a 96) during the spring of that year, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Priday. He was 27 years old when the marriage of Robert John Collett and Joanne D Marston was recorded at Ludlow register office in Shropshire (Vol. 30 124) during the summer of 1992. Once married, the couple settled in the Shrewsbury area of the county, where the births of their two children were recorded, when their mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Marston. They were Jade Elizabeth Collett (Vol. 7151a a96a) during January 1993, and Adam Robert Collett (Vol. 7151a a106a) during December 1994.

76S20

Jade Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1993 at Shrewsbury

76S21

Adam Robert Collett

Born in 1994 at Shrewsbury

76R20

Rosemary Collett was born in 1956, the third children and second daughter of John and Eileen Collett. Her birth like those of her four siblings, was recorded at Leominster register office (Ref. 9a 101) during the third quarter of the year, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Priday. Rosemary was 24 when her marriage to Colin J E Carter was recorded at Leominster register office (Vol. 29 0488) near the end of 1980. Prior to the birth of their two children, Rosemary and Colin moved north to Shrewsbury, where Rosemary’s brother Jonathan (below) initially living in 1987, and later her brother Robert (above) who also set up home after he was married in 1992. The births of the two children of Rosemary and Colin were both recorded at Shrewsbury register office, Emma Marie Luke-Carter (Vol. 30 319) in February 1988, and Graeme John Luck-Carter (Vol. 30 562) in May 1992. On both occasions, the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett

76R21

Jonathan Harry Collett was born in 1960, another child of John and Eileen Collett, whose birth was recorded at Leominster register office (Ref. 9a 108) during the third quarter of the year, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Priday. The later marriage of Jonathan H Collett and Amanda J Corfield was recorded at the Shropshire Ludlow register office (Vol. 30 98) during the summer of 1985. Over the following eight years, Amanda presented Jonathan with three children, the birth of first of them recorded at Shrewsbury, the next at nearby Ludlow, and the last back at Leominster. Each time the mother’s maiden-name was recorded as Corfield.

76S22

Harry Benjamin Collett

Born in 1987 at Shrewsbury

76S23

Jacob Henry Collett

Born in 1992 at Ludlow

76S24

Joseph Louis Collett

Born in 1993 at Leominster

76R22

James Francis Harry Collett was born in Herefordshire, the fifth and last child of John Francis Harry Collett and Eileen E Priday. His birth was recorded at Leominster register office (Ref. 9a 118) during the third quarter of 1967. James later married Susan E Powell during the summer of 1989, their wedding also recorded at Leominster (Ref. 29 878). It was also at Leominster that the births of their daughters were recorded in June 1994 (Vol. 5201 2), and in April 1997 (Vol. 5201 3), when their mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Powell.

76S25

Zara Louise Collett

Born in 1994 at Leominster

76S26

Zita Marie Collett

Born in 1997 at Leominster

76R23

Alan William Collett was born in 1971, when his birth was recorded at the North Surrey register office (Ref. 5g 101) during the last three month of that year, and when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Ford. Alan was the only child of John David William Collett and Sonya A M Ford. He was twenty-six years old when his marriage to Nicola Chatfield was recorded at the West Surrey register office during the summer of 1998. There was no issue from the marriage, which later end in divorce.

76R24

Michelle Louise Collett was born in 1969, the eldest of the three children of James William Collett and his wife Kathleen B Triggs. Her birth was recorded at Surrey South-Western register office (Ref. 5g 72) during the second quarter of that year, where her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Triggs. In early 2024, Michelle generously provided some new details relating to her great grandfather William Collett [Ref. 76O14].

76R25

David James Collett was born in 1972, with his birth also recorded at Surrey South-Western register office (Ref. 5g 14) in the spring of the year. The birth record also confirmed that his mother’s maiden-name was Triggs.

76R26

James Mark Collett was the youngest of the three children of James William Collett and Kathleen B Triggs. He was born in 1979, with his birth recorded at Surrey South-Western register office (Vol. 17 29) towards the end of that year, when Triggs was confirmed as his mother’s maiden-name.

76R27

Barry Mark Collett was born on 11^th December 1968, two years after his parents Brian F Collett and Margaret E Ellis were married, with his birth also recorded at the Surrey South-Western register office (Ref. 5g 18) in the last month of the year. The record of his birth also confirmed that his mother’s maiden-name was Ellis. Barry was twenty-nine years old when he married Lynne Marie Spreadborough at All Saints Churchyard in Long Sutton on 15^th August 1998, the event recorded at the North-East Hampshire register office. Lynne had been born at Alton in Hampshire on 19^th August 1972 and, when she and Barry were on day two of their honeymoon, they were involved in a tragic accident which took both their lives. It was on 17^th August, when they were in Yorkshire, that a flash flood on River Strid was the cause of their deaths. The burial was delayed, because Barry’s body was not found until October, when the inquest into their deaths was held. He was buried with his wife at All Saints Churchyard, Long Sutton, in November 1998. The death of his wife was recorded at Bradford register office in November 1998, where Barry’s death was also recorded.

76R28

Maxine Alane Collett was born in 1971 but, unlike her older brother Barry (above), her birth was recorded at the Surrey North-Western register office (Ref. 5g 116) towards the end of the year.

76R31

Neal Martin Collett was born in 1969, his birth recorded at Worcester register office (Ref. 9d 73) during the spring of that year. He was the eldest of the two sons of Peter Collett and Kathleen Bailey. It was following the death of his father in the spring of 2001, that the marriage of Neal Martin Collett and Joan Carr was recorded at Evesham register office, who gave birth to twins just less than three years later. The twins’ births, with the same reference number (479/1 and 479/2), were recorded at Cheltenham register office during the spring of 2004. In each case, the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Carr.

76S27

Amy Louise Collett

Born in 2004 at Cheltenham

76S28

Liam Joseph Collett

Born in 2004 at Cheltenham

76R33

Christopher William Collett, who is known as Chris, was born at Maidstone on 5^th December 1957, the only child of Norman William Collett and Jean Mary Andrews. Chris left the United Kingdom during 1979 when he moved to Vancouver in Canada, where he attended university and has lived ever since. Two years later he married Barbara Gail Horsburgh in Vancouver on 30^th May 1981 with whom he had a son who was born in the Vancouver suburb of Burnaby. It was during the summer of 2015 that Chris made contact and kindly provided his family’s information which enabled this family line to be updated.

Christopher Collett & Associates Limited is an indoor air quality research and consulting company located in Vancouver. The company was founded in 1995 and Company Principal, Chris Collett, is one of the most experienced indoor air quality practitioners in Canada, having worked as an IAQ researcher and consultant for more than 30 years.

76S29

Nicholas Edward Norman Collett

Born in 1996 at Vancouver

76S1

Margaret E Collett was born at Birmingham in 1947, her birth recorded there (Ref. 9c 109) during the second quarter of the year, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Hubbard, being the first of the three children of Sidney Charles Collett and Gladys May Hubbard. She was around twenty-six years of age, when the marriage of Margaret E Collett and Edward C Lee was recorded at Birmingham (Ref. 9c 34) during the second quarter of 1973. No record of any children has been found.

76S2

Graham J Collett was born at Birmingham in 1948, where his birth was recorded (Ref. 9c 16) during the second quarter of that year, when Hubbard was confirmed as his mother’s maiden-name. It was also at Birmingham register office (Ref. 9c 11) that the marriage of Graham J Collett and Phyllis G Lanchester was recorded during the fourth quarter of 1968. Four years later their son and only child was born at Birmingham during the first three months of 1973 (Ref. 9c 14), when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Lanchester.

76T1

Andrew James Collett

Born in 1973 at Birmingham

76S3

Kenneth C Collett was born at Birmingham in 1950 and was the last child born to Sidney Charles Collett and Gladys May Hubbard. His birth, like those of his two older siblings, was recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 9c 109) during the third quarter of 1950. With his mother’s maiden-name confirmed as Hubbard. At the age of twenty-six, the marriage of Kenneth C Collett and Geraldine M Earle was also recorded at Birmingham (Vol. 32 71) during the second quarter of 1977. Geraldine gave birth to two children, with both births recorded at Birmingham register office, when the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Earle, Louise towards the end of 1979 (Vol. 32 32), and Darren during the summer of 1982 (Vol. 32 60).

76T2

Louise Ann Collett

Born in 1979 at Birmingham

76T3

Darren Anthony Collett

Born in 1982 at Birmingham

76S4

Mark R Collett was born in 1957 at Birmingham, where his birth was recorded (Ref. 9c 49) during the third quarter of the year, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Barlow. His parents George H Collett and Sheila A Barlow were only married at the start of that same year. It was during the spring of 1981, that the marriage between Mark R Collett and Sally A Washington was recorded at Solihull register office (Vol. 34). The births of their two daughters were recorded at the Solihull South register office (Vol. 34) in 1986 and 1991, when their mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Washington.

76T4

Christina Marie Collett

Born in 1986 at Solihull

76T5

Georgina Victoria Collett

Born in 1991 at Solihull

76S5

Paul A Collett was born in 1960 at Birmingham and was the youngest of the two sons of George and Sheila Collett, his birth also recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 9c 38) during the second quarter of the year, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Barlow. Unlike his brother Mark (above), no evidence has been found to suggest that Paul was later married.

76S8

Cleve Luke Collett was born in Australia during the 1970s, the eldest child of Michael (Mike) Collett from Birmingham and his first wife Christine Redden from Solihull. He later married a Chinese girl who is only know as Candy, not her real name, and together they have two boys.

76T6

Leon Sasha Collett

Born in 2009 in Australia

76T7

Kingston Finn Collett

Born in 2012 in Australia

76S16

Victoria Collett was the second of the three children of John Collett and Margaret Davis, her birth recorded at Stratford-upon-Avon register office (Vol. 31 23) early in 1978, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Davis. It was during the month of August in 2005 that the marriage of Victoria Collett and Matthew S O’Rourke was recorded at the South Warwickshire register office. Approximately nine months after their wedding day, Victoria gave birth to a son, when the birth of Louis Matthew O’Rourke was recorded at Leicester during the month of May in 2006.

76S17

David John Collett was born in 1983 at Stratford-upon-Avon where his birth was recorded (Vol. 31 1) during the first weeks of the year, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Davis. Tragically, twenty-seven years later the death of David John Collett and was recorded at Nuneaton on 14^th May 2010.

76S18

Joanna Marie Collett was born in 1972, the first-born child of Michael Collett and Sylvia Roberts. It was at Stratford-upon-Avon register office (Ref. 9c 73) that her birth was recorded during the summer of that year, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Roberts. She was around twenty-one years of age when Joanna Marie Collett and Christopher John G Laing were married in 1993, the event recorded at the South Warwickshire register office during the spring that year. Christopher’s birth was recorded at Epping register office in Essex (Ref. 4a 109) during the spring of 1971. Six years after their wedding day, Joanna gave birth to a daughter, Taylor Marie Laing, whose birth was recorded at the Mid-Warwickshire register office at the end of 1999.

76S19

Stuart Daniel Collett was born in 1975, his birth recorded at Stratford-upon-Avon register office (Vol. 31 35) during the summer of the year. He was the younger of the two children of Michael Collett and Sylvia Roberts. He was twenty-seven when his marriage to Jody A Brewster was recorded at the South Warwickshire register office during February 2003. Nine months after their wedding day, Jody presented Stuart with the first of their two children whose birth was recorded at the Mid-Warwickshire register office in November 2003. Two years later their son was born and his birth was recorded at the Warwickshire South register office during March 2006. For both children, the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Brewster.

76T8

Abigail May Collett

Born in 2003 in Warwickshire

76T9

Dylan James Collett

Born in 2006 in Warwickshire

76S29

Nicholas Edward Norman Collett was born at Burnaby in Vancouver on 4^th September 1996, the son of Chris and Barbara Collett. At the end of 2016, Nick was an undergraduate at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, where he plays rugby for the UBC Varsity team, and has represented British Columbia and Canada on the rugby field.

APPENDIX

The case of the mysterious Ivor John James Collett aka John Ivor James Collett

This all started with Ivor John Collett (Ref. 76Q41) and the obvious coincidences with Ivor John James Collett, known as John (below). What is strange, is that only one birth and one death for these two seemingly different members of the wider Collett family have been found. Therefore, this second Ivor’s details have been included here in the hope that someone might see it and be able to add further information for identification purposes.

76A1

For these brief family details we start with the death of Ivor John James Collett whose birth in early 1930 has not been located yet. He was living in Weymouth, Dorset, where he died on 14^th March 2006 when his passing, at the age of 76 and under his full name, was recorded at Weymouth register office (Vol. 4291c c1f). It was his daughter Melonie Holford nee Collett who composed the following tribute to her father, dated 15^th August 2011, when she posted it on the internet in the hope of hearing from anyone who knew him:

“John Collett passed away peacefully on 14^th March 2006 after a long battle with cancer. He is still very much sadly missed. I have very fond memories of my dear old dad and remember many happy times during my childhood in the army. My dad served in the Royal Signals: 22 Signal Regiment in Germany (Lippstadt and Bockenforde), Malta (Sliema Bay), South Yemen (Aden in 1966), Dorset (Blandford Camp in 1976), and many other postings. All my Dad's army memorabilia was donated to The Nothe Fort in Weymouth Dorset. I would be really interested and thrilled to hear from anyone who knew my dad.”

With no birth or baptism found, it is just the earlier record of his marriage, followed by the birth of two daughters, that enables this short story to be told. The marriage of John Ivor James Collett and Cherine V Nicholls was recorded at the Middlesex Hendon register office (Ref. 5e 832) during the last quarter of 1956. The birth of his wife was also recorded at Hendon (Ref. 3a 906) during the third quarter of 1936. Their first child was Amanda J Collett whose birth was recorded at Weymouth register office (Ref. 6a 956) during the summer of 1958, when the mother’s maiden-name was Nicholls.

76A1.1

Amanda J Collett

Born in 1958 at Weymouth, Dorset

76A1.2

Melonie Jane Collett

Born in 1966 at Aden, South Yemen

76A1

Melonie Jane Collett was born in Aden, South Yemen, on 3^rd April 1966, the daughter of Ivor John James Collett with the Royal Signals of the British Army. The mother’s maiden-name was recorded as Nicholls. The later marriage of Melonie and Gerald Holford was recorded at Weymouth register office (Vol. 23 1019) during the third quarter of 1984. The births of their two sons were also recorded at Weymouth register office, Grant James Holford in 1988 (Vol. 23 705), and Gareth Joss Holford in 1994 (Vol. 4331b b12d).