My Great x3 Aunt Alice (1877 - 1943) was a domestic servant on a farm, housewife, mother of twelve or thirteen (two or three illegitimate sons born when she was young), step-mother of seven, and a younger sister of my Great Great Grandfather Mark Sandford (1872 - 1945).
Alice was born on 23rd March 1877 in Feniton, Devon, to George Anley Sandford (about 33), a farm labourer, and Sarah Ann Sandford (nee Willis) (about 37), a lacemaker and housewife.
Alice was baptised 21st April 1878 in Feniton.
Alice 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.
Alice was the third 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 1882 - after 1939 (at least 57)
- Henry 'Harry' 1884 - 1917 (32 or 33)
Around 1880, when Alice was a toddler, she and her family moved about two miles north from Feniton to Payhembury.
1881 Census:
In the early 1880's, when Alice was about three, the family made a bigger move, about twenty-six miles west from Payhembury to Zeal Monachorum.
They moved again in the late 1880's, when Alice was in her tweens, five miles east from Zeal Monachorum to Morchard Bishop.
In the 1880's and 1890's, Alice's older half-brother William Willis served as a gunner in the Royal Artillery. He would serve for twelve years, including six years (from 1886 to 1893) in Gibraltar.
As young as thirteen, Alice was living away from home, living and working as a domestic servant on a farm. At the time of the 1891 Census, she lived with and worked for farmer William Kelland and his wife Elizabeth at Middlecott, in Morchard Bishop.
1891 Census:
Living with Alice's father George, her older half sister Mary Pike (formerly Gill; nee Sandford), and other family members on the 1901 Census, is a William George Sandford, who is described as George's grandson.
William was born Jan/Feb/Mar 1895, in the district of Crediton - his mother's maiden name was Sandford. Either unmarried seventeen year old Alice or her unmarried twenty-one year old older sister Jane was William's mother; however, Jane doesn't have any other children, whilst young Alice has two other illegitimate sons, so I think she is the most likely. William seems to have remained closer to his Aunt Mary Pike, for it is Mary, rather than Alice or Jane, whom he puts as his next of kin on his World War One Army Service Records.
In Oct/Nov/Dec 1896, nineteen-year-old Alice give birth to an illegitimate son called Archibald John. He was baptised on 16th May 1897, in Zeal Monachorum.
In Jul/Aug/Sep 1897, when Alice was twenty, her mother Sarah Ann passed away, aged fifty-seven, in the district of South Molton.
In the 1890's and early 1900's, both of Alice's brothers, Mark and Harry, like their older half-brother William before them, served in the army. In 1896, twenty-four year old Mark enlisted as a private in the 4th Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment. He served for three years. In 1901, eighteen year old Harry enlisted as a private, also in the 4th Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment.
Mark and Harry seemingly looked alike as young men: both had fresh complexions, fair hair and blue eyes. I wonder if Alice was fair as well.
Alas by the time of the 1901 Census, twenty-four year old Alice was a pauper in Crediton Workhouse. There she gave birth to another illegitimate child. Some poor and or unmarried women simply went to workhouse to give birth - this might have been the case for Alice, as her occupation is still given as a domestic servant. Alice christened her son Cyril Daniel Vodden Sandford. I wonder if Vodden was the father's surname.
A little more research revealed: that on the 1901 Census, there was a thirty-four year old thatcher called Daniel Vodden living at Bow, with his wife and two surviving daughters. A third child, a son named Cyril, had been born and died in 1900. As Vodden is quite an unusual surname, and with the same combination of uncommon names (Cyril, Daniel and Vodden), it seems likely Alice named her son for the thatcher, who may well have been her son's father.
Alice's illegitimate sons:
- William George 1895 -
- Archibald John 1896 -
- Cyril Daniel Vodden 1901 -
1901 Census:
In Jul/Aug/Sep 1902, Alice (25), a domestic servant and single mother of three, married widower William Smith (about 45), a farm labourer and father of seven (five surviving), in the district of Crediton. Alice's son Cyril was only one years old at the time, and on the next Census (the 1911) he has gained the surname of Smith and is described as William's son. I cannot confirm if William was Cyril's biological father, but going by records it looks like William came to consider Cyril his (unofficially adopted?) son.
From her marriage to William, Alice gained seven step-children (five living) - William's children by first wife Thirza, who had passed away two years earlier, in 1900. At the time of their mother's death at only thirty-six or thirty-seven, and then their father's remarrying, the five surviving Smith children would have been aged between five and seventeen.
Alice's seven step-children (three boys and four girls):
- William Henry 1885 -
- Alice Maud 1886 -
- Rosina/Rosanna Sarah 1887 - 1889 (between 16 and 21 months)
- Ernest Samuel 1889 - 1890 (between 10 and 14 months)
- Dora 1891 -
- Jessie 1893 -
- George 1895 -
Alice and William then had ten children (nine sons and one daughter) (including Alice's firstborn son Cyril, born before their marriage and possibly the biological son of Bow thatcher Daniel Vodden):
- Cyril (born Cyril Daniel Vodden Sandford, later simply went by Cyril Smith) 1901 -
- Harry 1903 -
- Reggie 'Reg' 1904 -
- Arthur 1906 -
- Thomas 'Tom' 1908 -
- Edward 1910 -
- Annie 1912 - 1927 (14 years old)
- Charles 1915 -
- Percival 1918 -
- Frank 1920 -
Alice and her family lived at New Inn Cottage in Chawleigh for many years.
1911 Census:
Alice's younger brother Harry - whom she may have named her second son for - 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, Alice's father George also passed away. In Apr/May/Jun 1917, when Alice was forty, George passed away, aged seventy-four, in the Crediton district.
Nine month after armistice, Alice's eldest son, eighteen year old Cyril, followed in the footsteps of his Uncle Harry and cousin Arthur, and joined the army. His service number was 205937. On 29th August 1919, he enlisted as a private in the Royal Army Medical Corps. He served for one year at 'Home'. During that year, he had recurrent bouts of influenza. He spent first 21 days in hospital with influenza, from 2nd - 22nd March 1920; then two weeks later, he was back in hospital with influenza, and remained in hospital for over a month, from 6th April to 8th May 1920. He was discharged on 28th August 1920.
Cyril's Army Service Records gives a physical description of Alice's eldest son as a young man. He was 5'2 3/4'' and weigh 8st 1lb (essentially my size! as I'm just 5'3'' and 8st). He had a fresh complexion, fair hair and grey eyes. He also had flat feet and varicose veins on his legs.
In Oct/Nov/Dec 1923, when Alice was forty-six, her husband William passed away, aged about sixty-six, in the district of Crediton.
Three and half years later, in February 1927, when Alice was forty-nine, her daughter Annie also passed away after one week's illness, aged only fourteen, in Chawleigh. Though Alice had given birth to many sons - Annie had been her only daughter.
From the
Exeter and Plymouth Gazette of 18th February 1927:
Annie had passed away from 'sleeping sickness' (encephalitis lethargica), a disease which attacks the brain and leaves the victim in a statue-like state, speechless and motionless. There was a worldwide epidemic of sleeping sickness between 1915 and 1926, which affected nearly five million people, of whom a third passed away from the disease. Of those who survived, many never returned to their former 'aliveness'.
From
Awakenings (1973) by Oliver Sacks:
"They would be conscious and aware - yet not fully awake; they would sit motionless and speechless all day in their chairs, totally lacking energy, impetus, initiative, motive, appetite, affect or desire; they registered what went on about them without active attention, and with profound indifference. They neither conveyed nor felt the feeling of life; they were as insubstantial as ghosts, and as passive as zombies."
1939 Census:
Many of Alice's sons were young men at the time of the Second World War. Did they serve?
Alice did not live to see the end of the Second World War. In February or March 1943, Alice passed away, aged sixty-five, in Chawleigh.
From
Western Times of 5th March 1943:
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