Dinah Bessie Easterbrook was born on 21st July 1902 in Holsworthy, Devon, to Ezekiel Herd Easterbrook (63), a blacksmith and farrier, and Alice Brownscombe Easterbrook (nee Fisher) (33), a housewife and former housekeeper.
Dinah was one of two daughters:
- Dinah Bessie 1902 - 1976
- Alice Brownscombe 1904 - 1981
By 1907, Dinah and her family had moved to Henwood Cottage in Broadwoodkelly.
By 1909, they had moved to Park View, also in Broadwoodkelly.
1911 Census:
Dinah would have been a teenager during the First World War.
As a young woman, Dinah worked as a domestic servant in Exbourne.
In Apr/May/Jun 1920, when Dinah was seventeen, her father Ezekiel passed away, aged eighty. Dinah, unmarried, was between three and five months pregnant at the time with her first child. Family legend says Dinah had been kicked out by her parents for falling pregnant before marriage.
In the early 1920s, Dinah lived in 1 Castle Walk, Okehampton. She gave birth to her first two children (both illegitimate) there:
- Evelyn Mary 1920 - 2009
- Donald Jasper 1924 - 2002
Dinah was forced to give her first child, Evelyn (later known as Eva Annie Huxtable), up for adoption. Family legend tells that about five years later, Dinah, with her life more settled, tried to take Evelyn back, but the young girl didn't recognise the stranger to be her mother.
Dinah's future first husband, William Batchelor, came to work in the that area of North West Devon in January 1923, constructing railway lines. He was based in and around Hatherleigh, just a few miles from Stockleigh Farm in Highampton, where Dinah, by 1924 was working as housekeeper. The farmer, John Isaac, was rumoured to be the father of Dinah's second chid, Donald. Dinah was able to keep Donald with her. It seems Dinah at some point started living at Stockleigh Farm. Sometime soon William also found work and a home at Stockleigh Farm.
On 8th April 1924, Stockleigh Farm was burgled in the night.
From the Western Times on 11th April 1924:
Also on 18th April 1924, the Shepton Mallet added that the keys, which unlocked the drawers where the money and bonds were kept, were taken from John Isaac's trouser pocket.
Neighbouring Blackhele Farm was burgled too in the July.
From the Western Times on 11th July 1924:
The daringness of the burglary at Stockleigh Farm and the modesty of the burglary at Blackhele Farm is intriguing. The burglar/s appeared to know precisely where the money was kept and how to get to it. Was John Isaac in his bedroom when it was burgled? Or, if indeed the father of Dinah's four month old son, was he with Dinah? With a baby now to look after, was Dinah in need of money? Were Dinah and William suspects? If not, they would certainly at least have known about the burglaries.
On 1st May 1928, farmer John Isaac passed away. Soon his funeral took place and principle mourners included Dinah and William. Days after John Isaac's funeral, Dinah (25) married William (about 46) on 10th May 1928.
Their wedding was reported in the Western Times on 18th May 1928:
That summer, John Isaac's brother sold Stockleigh Farm, meaning Dinah and William had to find work else. Five years earlier, William had alas been badly injured in a road accident; consequently he found it hard to work. The pair, with their young children, moved around mid Devon following work.
In his will, John Isaac had left Dinah "a legacy of two hundred pounds... [and] for her absolute use my freehold cottage known as 'Legge Cottage' in the parish of Highampton with the land attached". He also left Donald "a legacy of five pounds". Despite this inheritance, Dinah and her family did not stay in Highampton. Family legend says Dinah had to sell Legge Cottage to get money to get by.
In Apr/May/Jun 1929, when Dinah was twenty-seven, her mother Alice passed away, aged sixty.
William unofficially adopted Dinah's young son Donald. Dinah and William also had four more children:
- Victor W J 1929 - 2016 (87)
- Bessie 'Bette' Anne 1930 - 2010 (79)
- Stillborn twin (or died shortly after birth) 1930 - 1930
- Audrey Dinah 1934 - 2001 (66/67)
1939 Census:
In December 1939, when Dinah was thirty-seven, William passed away, aged about fifty-seven.
After William's death, their young daughter Bette was distraught. Dinah, not knowing what to do, sent Bette to live with an 'Aunt Braund' in a cottage near Meldon Quarry, near Okehampton. Bette didn't known if 'Aunt Braund' was a blood relation or family friend. It seems likely 'Aunt Braund' was a family friend, and likely a relation of the Walter Braund who was William's best man in 1928.
Dinah's eldest son, Donald, then only fifteen, became the breadwinner. He worked as a farm labourer, and found cottage homes for his mother and young siblings on or near the farms where he worked. Within a few years, Dinah's second son, Victor, was also working as a farm labour.
Still the family struggled to get by. Dinah's daughter, Bette, remembered that because of their poverty, they often had to accept help from the church.
In 1945, just as the war was ending, Dinah found work for Bette, then only fifteen, as a nanny to young children. Bette would sent her earnings home to her mother.
In late 1947, when Bette, seventeen, asked her mother if she could marry Desmond Sandry, Dinah's first response was to ask if Bette was pregnant. Bette was not, though Dinah herself had been at that young age.
In Apr/May/Jun 1948, Dinah, forty-five, married for the second time to widower George Luxton, whom she had also been housekeeper for. Dinah's daughter, Bette, did not like her step-father, believing he had mistreated his first wife. George passed away in the mid 1950s.
In the summer of 1959, Dinah, aged fifty-six or fifty-seven, married for the third time to widower George 'Len' Leonard Yeo Sandford, aged fifty-seven. A few years later, Dinah's daughter Bette, then a young widow, married Len's son George.
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| Photograph of Dinah (59) at her daughter Bette's wedding, 1962 |
Dinah and Len lived in Crediton. Bette would daily visit them to cook and clean.
Dinah passed away, aged seventy-three, in 1976, in Crediton.
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