Great x3 Uncle Gilbert James

My Great x3 Uncle Gilbert (1889 - 1972) was a head farm carter, farm labourer, father of five, and the youngest brother of my Great x2 Grandmother Lucy Vernon (nee James) (1868 - 1897).

Gilbert was born in 17th August 1889 in Morchard Bishop, Devon, to Henry James (about 49), an agricultural labourer, and Louisa James (nee Edwards) (about 37), a housewife.

On 15th September 1889, Gilbert was baptised, in Morchard Bishop. At the time of Gilbert's baptism, the family resided at Knightstone [likely cottage, or farm].

Gilbert was the youngest of eight children (four daughters and four sons):

• Lucy  1868 - 1897  (29 years old)
• Bessie  1869 - 1945 or 1956  (77 or 86 years old)
• Edwin  1875 - 1896  (21 years old)
• Louisa  1878 - 1966  (87 years old)
• Emily Maude  1880 - 1967  (86 years old)
• Charles  1883 - 1965  (82 years old)
• Francis Robert  1886 - 1962  (76 years old)
• Gilbert  1889 - 1972 (82 years old)

Gilbert and his siblings grew up in Morchard Bishop.

1891 Census:

1901 Census:

1911 Census:

When Gilbert was about twenty-six/twenty-seven, his father Henry passed away, aged around seventy-nine, in Jul/Aug/Sep 1916. Gilbert, the youngest James child and only one still living at the family home, likely became the breadwinner, supporting his elderly widowed mother, Louisa. Thankfully, though a young man during the First World War, Gilbert was given exemption from serving (at least for six months after the introduction of subscription in 1916) due to his being head horseman on his farm and deemed 'essential'.

From the Western Times of 20th October 1916:

In Jan/Feb/Mar 1922, Gilbert (32), the head horseman at Brownstone Farm, married Minnie Evelyn Edwards (20), in the district of Crediton. 

At the time of their wedding, young Minnie was seemingly somewhere between 7 and nearly 9 months pregnant, as the couple's eldest child Louie was born on 3rd March 1922.

Gilbert and Minnie had 5 daughters:

• Florence 'Louie' Louise Bessie  1922 - 
• Marjorie Muriel  1924 - 
• Phyllis Rosalind  1926 - 
• Patricia 'Pat' I  1938 - 
• Brenda S  1942 - 

From 1936, when eldest Louie first joined, into the 1940's, when 'Major Pat' and 'Captain Brenda' contributed, Gilbert's daughters were members (described as 'nieces and nephews', and given ranks) of the 'Uncle Fred's Young Folk's League' - a children's club, which took up a small section of the Western Times newspaper. Thus at Brownstone Cottage, Morchard Bishop, in the early twentieth century, maybe after their father had finished the newspaper, a small gaggle of girls poured over stories, games and contributions, marvelling at seeing their names in print. They may have had a rural hard-working up-bringing, but these girls read, wrote and had fun. Partially Pat, with younger sister Brenda, whose names appear most. 

By 1939, Gilbert and Minnie's eldest daughter Louie, in her late teens, lived at and worked as a domestic help at Brownstone Farm. Whilst her parents and younger sisters lived next door at Brownstone Cottage.

1939 Census:

On 11th June 1970, when Gilbert was eighty, his wife Minnie passed away, aged sixty-eight, in Devon. Less than two years later, on 14th January 1972, Gilbert himself passed away, aged eighty-two, also in Devon. 'Our Dear Parents' - they are buried together in St Mary's Churchyard, Morchard Bishop.