Great x3 Aunt Susan Hall (formerly Chapman; nee Sandford)

My Great x3 Aunt Susan (1881 - after 1939) was a housemaid, housewife, mother of four, step-mother of nine (eight surviving), and a younger sister of my Great Great Grandfather Mark Sandford (1872 - 1945).

Susan was born in Apr/May/Jun 1881 in the district of Honiton, Devon, to George Anley Sandford (about 38), a farm labourer, and Sarah Ann Sandford (nee Willis) (about 41), a lacemaker and housewife.

Susan was baptised on 5th June 1881 in Payhembury.

Susan had two older half siblings, her mother's illegitimate children born before her marriage:

• William Willis  1864 - 1922  (58)
• Mary Willis  1868 - 1937  (69)

William and Mary lived with their maternal grandparents.

Susan was the fourth of five children born to George and Sarah Ann (two sons and three daughters):

• Mark  1872 - 1945  (73)
• Jane Mary  1873 - after 1911  (at least 38)
• Alice  1877 - 1943  (65)
• Susan  1881 - after 1939  (at least 57)
• Henry 'Harry'  1884 - 1917  (32 or 33)

When Susan was a young baby, the family made a big move, moving about twenty-six miles west from Payhembury to Zeal Monachorum.

They moved again the late 1880's, five miles east from Zeal Monachorum to Morchard Bishop.

In the 1880's and 1890's, Susan's older half-brother William Willis served as a gunner in the Royal Artillery. We would serve for twelve years, including six years (from 1886 to 1893) in Gabraltar.

1891 Census:

In Jul/Aug/Sep 1897, when Susan was only sixteen, her mother Sarah Ann passed away, aged fifty-seven, in the district of South Molton.

At some point in her teens, Susan made a big move from her native Devon all the way to Heston in Middlesex (now absorbed by London). There she worked as a housemaid for Stanley family - retired Royal Navy Captain George Stanley, his wife Catherine and their three grown-up daughters. Susan was one of only two live-in servants (the other a cook).

1901 Census:

In Jan/Feb/Mar 1902, Susan (20), a housemaid, married Emery Oscar Chapman (about 25), a house painter from Pimlico, in the district of Brentford, Middlesex. Susan was very heavily pregnant (or had just given birth) when she married, for her eldest son Arthur was born on 25th February 1902.

Susan and Oscar had four children (two sons and two daughters):

• Arthur Jack  1902 -
• Edward 'Eddie' George  1910 -
• Marie Joyce  1918 -
• Ruby G  1923 - 

In 1902, when their eldest son Arthur was baptised, the family lived on Wellington Road; but by the time of their second son Edward's baptism in 1910, they had moved to 9 Albion Road, Hounslow. Susan would continue to live at this address for at least the next thirty years.

Also living the family on the 1911 Census is three year old Maud Quinn Williams - I wonder if she was the daughter of a relative or friend.

1911 Census:

Susan's younger brother Harry served and was sadly killed in the First World War. Her nephew, Arthur Harry Gill, the son of her older half sister Mary Pike (formerly Gill; nee Willis) also served and was killed in action.

Her brother Harry, having served as a private in the early 1900's (service number 6687), was re-conscripted as a corporal (service number 3/6687) in the 8th Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment. He was listed as wounded on the casualty list of 31st January 1915 and again on the casualty list of 28th February 1915. He was killed in action on 25th March 1917, aged thirty-three. Harry's name appears on the Bow War Memorial; as well as at the Mory Abbey Military Cemetery, Pas-de-Calais, France.

Her nephew Arthur (service number 71781) was a private in the 5th Battalion (Territorials) of the Devonshire Regiment. He was killed in action on 27th September 1918, less than two years before the end of the war, aged twenty-three or twenty-four. Arthur's name appears on the Eggesford War Memorial; as well as on the Vis-en-Artois (British Cemetery and) Memorial at Haucourt, Departement du Pas-de-Calais, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France.

During the First World War, as well as losing her younger brother and nephew, Susan's father George also passed away. In Apr/May/Jun 1917, when Susan was about thirty-six, George passed away, aged seventy-four, in the Crediton district.

In Apr/May/Jun 1927, when Susan was about forty-six, her husband Oscar passed away, aged fifty, in the district of Brentford.

Eight years later, Susan remarried. In Jan/Feb/Mar 1935, Susan (54), a widow and mother of four, married widower and father of nine (eight living), James William Hall (about 59), then a boot repair instructor and former soldier, in the district of Brentford.

James was from Cliburn, a village all the way up in Cumbria (then Westmorland), in the very north-west of England. James had been a career soldier, serving from 1900 all the way to 1923! - including the First World War. He was a gunner and then a corporal in the Royal Artillery. (service number 1043298; former service number 11186)

With her second marriage, Susan gained nine (eight living) step-children, aged eleven to twenty-nine - James' children with his first wife Rose, who had passed away eight year earlier, in 1928, aged only forty-two - :

• Gladys Emily  1906 -
• William Alfred  1907 -
• May  1909 -
• Nora  1910 -
• Stanley  1911 - 1911  (2 days old)
• Francis 'Frank' Leslie J  1915 -
• Albert  1919 -
• Dorothy 'Dolly' Margaret  1922 -
• Grace  1923 -

Photographs of Susan's eldest four step-children (Gladys, William, May and Nora Hall), early 1910's

The 1939 Census shows James living at 9 Albion Road. He lives with four other persons, but unfortunately their records are closed. It is likely Susan's is one of these closed records; the other, three of his or her children.

Sadly, Susan and James' marriage lasted less than five years.

On Sunday 29th October 1939, when Susan was fifty-eight, James passed away suddenly, aged sixty-three, of pulmonary thrombosis, whilst at the Earl Russell public-house, Hasworth Road, Hounslow.

From Middlesex Chronicle of 4th November 1939:

James' funeral took place at Hounslow Cemetery on Friday 3rd November 1939.

From the Middlesex Chronicle of  11th November 1939:

Unfortunately, now with a common surname of Hall, it is presently proving difficult to pin down the later years of Susan's life. We leave her, widowed for a second time, in her late fifties, in her home of 9 Albion Road in Hounslow, at the beginning of the Second World War, surrounded by friends, her children and step-children.

A 1944 newspaper advertisement shows number 9 (along 11, 13 and 15 Albion Road) up for sale. The properties are described as 'freehold cottages' with 'each containing 3 bedrooms (2 with stoves), living room, kitchen and scullery and outside W.C., forecourt and rear garden'. It looks like Susan and her husbands rented their home, for the properties in 1944 are described as being 'let at low rentals of 9s 5d, 15s, 10s and 13s 4d'. If listed in order of house number, number 9's rent in 1944 was 9s 5d (presumably per month).