Great Great Aunt Ellen Emma Worth (formerly Prin; nee Boobier)

My Great Great Aunt Ellen (1903 - 1977) was a housewife, mother of two, and the older sister of my Great Grandmother Ivy Jane Wright (nee Boobier) (1905 - 1978).

Ellen was born on 23rd June 1903 in Exeter, Devon, to Walter Boobier (32), a municipal labourer, and Mary Ann 'Polly' Boobier (nee Manning) (34), a former laundress.

Ellen was baptised on 5th August 1903 in Holy Trinity, Exeter.

Ellen was the eldest of two daughters:

• Ellen Emma  1903 - 1977  (74)
• Ivy Jane  1905 - 1978  (73)

Very young Ivy and Ellen, c.1906

Ellen and Ivy grew up at 4 Colleton Grove, Exeter, just around the corner of the Quay.

A month before her third birthday, on 6th June 1906, Ellen began attending Holloway Street Infants' School. Her younger sister Ivy joined her at the school in June 1908. Originally Ellen was going to move up to Holloway Street Girls' School on 3rd June 1910, but this is later crossed out and written above it that she was at the time deemed "too delicate to attend". Instead she stayed at the infants school for another year, and started at the upper school on 29th August 1911. She left the school on 22nd June 1917, aged fourteen.

1911 Census:

Early in 1916, when Ellen was twelve, her mother Polly passed away, aged forty-six, in Exeter.

In the summer of 1919, when Ellen was about sixteen, her Aunt Kate also passed away, aged forty-eight, in Exeter.

Ellen, her father Walter, and sister Ivy in the early 1920's

Unfortunately, it is difficult to tell the sisters apart, though at a guess, by looking at Ivy's wedding photographs, I'd say Ivy may be on the right and Ellen on the left.

In the summer of 1924, when Ellen was about twenty-one, her father Walter passed away, aged fifty-three, in Exeter. Ellen (21) and Ivy (19) were left orphans, as their father and his brothers had been at a similar age. One hopes kind relations took then in.

In Jul/Aug/Sep 1928, Ellen (25) married Edward Arthur Prin (24), an ironmonger and warehouseman, in Exeter. Ellen was between two and half to five and half months pregnant, when she married, for she gave birth to her eldest child, Joan, on 13th January 1929.

Ellen and Edward had two daughters:

• Joan Valerie  1929 -
• Margaret Jean  1932 - 

Come the dawn of the Second World War, Ellen was living with her husband and daughters at 72 Briar Crescent in Exeter.

1939 Census:

In Jan/Feb/Mar 1953, when Ellen was forty-nine, her husband Edward passed away, aged forty-eight, in Devon.

Ellen soon remarried. In Oct/Nov/Dec 1953, Ellen (50) married George Worth, in Exeter.

In Oct/Nov/Dec 1977, Ellen passed away, aged seventy-four, in Exeter.