[1GGP] Ernest Benjamin MAYHEW & Amelia Elizabeth COWLEY

My maternal great-grandparents were Ernest Benjamin MAYHEW and Amelia Elizabeth COWLEY.

Ernest Benjamin MAYHEW was born on 19th July 1885 at Joyce’s Yard, High Street, Kempston, Bedfordshire, England. He was the third of eleven children born to Walter Charles MAYHEW, a general labourer, and his wife Elizabeth FINDING, a pacemaker. Four of his siblings died in childhood.

Amelia Elizabeth COWLEY (known as Millie) was born on 4th February 1887 at Priory Street, Bedford, Bedfordshire. She was the second (but most likely third) of six children born to Joseph James COWLEY, a coachman and groom, and his wife Eliza KEECH, a former domestic servant and nurse.

Ernest, aged 15, was working as a non-domestic groom (e.g., for a business rather than a family) in 1901, which is likely how he met Millie, whose father was a domestic coachman. The MAYHEW family was living at 222 Bedford Road, Kempston New Town, whilst the COWLEY family was living to the west of the old village at The Stables (aka Grooms Cottages), Kempston House, Green End.

Ernest and Millie married on 20th May 1907 in Kempston, aged 21 and 20. They had four children between 1908 and 1927, my grandfather Cecil being the first, followed by Ernest 7 years later, Jack just over 5 years after that, and lastly Marjorie another 6 years later. The children were born in Kempston and nearby Biddenham.

1. Joseph Benjamin Cecil Mayhew, known as Cecil (1908-1991) m.1931 to Daisy Elkins ~ Motor Engineer
2. Ernest Frank Mayhew (1915-1986) Unmarried ~ Labourer & Tractor Driver (1939)
3. Samuel John Mayhew, known as Jack (1921-2007) m.1953 to Madeline Joan Bradley ~ Motor Engineer
4. Marjorie Dorothy Mayhew (1927-2006) ~ m.1970 to Eric Jason Hill ~ Musician and Music Teacher

The young family of three were living at Church End, Biddenham by 1909, where Ernest was employed as a domestic groom for Roger Estcourt BUCKNALL of Biddenham Manor, where he worked for many years.

Ernest enlisted as a Private in the Royal Army Service Corps sometime before June 1915, as per a letter Millie received regarding her separation allowance application. The Army Service Corps kept the British Army in supplies. In 1918, Ernest was assigned to the 357th Water Company, Royal Engineers, which was stationed in Palestine in April. He was still in Haifa, Palestine, in early 1919, as confirmed by his daily pass dated 12th February. Sadly, his military records were destroyed along with so many others in the bombing of 1940, so it has not been possible to discover any more. He was awarded the British War Medal and Victory Medal after demobilisation in 1919, but as he did not receive the 1914-1915 Star, he would not have seen action until 1916 or later.

Stored inside an old Spinet Tobacco tin are Ernest’s ASC cap badges, the Lord’s Prayer and a photograph. On the back is written “three native boys at a tea shop when we stop for dinner. Y M & A.” The initials suggest Ernest is the chap in the middle.

Ernest’s brother Walter served with the Royal Engineers, but was discharged at the beginning of November 1917 as he was no longer fit to serve. His other brother, Frank, was killed in action in Belgium on 3rd Oct 1918. He had been serving with the Queen’s Royal West Surrey Regiment and was just 19 years old. More information on Ernest’s brothers can be found on their parents’ page here.

Whilst Ernest was away, Millie and their two children moved in with her parents at The Stables, Green End. On his discharge, the family remained in Green End, and Ernest found employment with Cryselco (an electric lighting company) in Kempston as their lorry driver. When the 1921 census was taken, their third son, Samuel, was 9 weeks old. Their fourth and final child, Marjorie, was born in 1927, and by 1937 the family were living in a groom’s cottage at Church End, Biddenham (just south of Green End up the River Great Ouse) where Ernest was employed at Biddenham Manor next door. Millie became a member of the local Women’s Institute, Mothers’ Union and Village Hall Committee.

My grandfather, Cecil, married Daisy ELINKINS on 6th April 1931 when his little sister Marjorie was just 3 years old, and their first child was born in 1933. His mother’s health began to decline in 1935, and Millie died of pernicious anaemia (a B12 deficiency) at home on 12th April 1937, aged 50, with her husband Ernest present. She was buried three days later at the Parish Church.

Ernest remarried just over a year later to 38-year-old Ida Mary WHITTEMORE on his 53rd birthday on 19th July 1938 at St. Neots Church, Huntingdonshire (Ida was born close by in Eynesbury). Ernest’s daughter Marjorie was only 9 when her mother died, which no doubt played a part in Ernest wanting to get married again. The speed with which it happened caused much speculation as to their relationship prior to Millie’s death, as the pair had worked together at Biddenham Manor for some years. Ida has been in the employ of Roger Estcourt BUCKNALL as the family’s domestic servant between (at least) 1921 and 1931 in another of their homes at Sheringham, Norfolk. She and Ernest were given a bedstead as a wedding gift by Mr and Mrs Bucknall.

When the 1939 Register was taken, Ernest (54) was working as a groom whilst  Ida (39) was performing “unpaid domestic duties.” Also living with them was his son Ernest Jr. (age 24), who was working as a labourer and tractor driver, and his daughter Marjorie (age 12), who was at school. They also had one unknown redacted child living with them, along with Ronald Arthur John JENNINGS, age 8. The whereabouts of Ernest’s son Jack, who would have been 18, is unknown. Ernest, Ida, Ernest Jr. and Marjorie continued to live at 18 Church End, Biddenham, for many years.

Jack, who was 5ft 3in, served with the Navy during WWII from October 1944 to August 1946. He married Madelaine Joan BRADLEY in 1953 when they were 32 and 37. They did not have any children.

Ernest died at the Three Counties Hospital, Stotfold, Bedfordshire, on 30th January 1965 at age 75, leaving Ida, Ernest Jr. and Marjorie at 18 Church End until Marjorie married widower Eric Jason HILL in 1970. Eric, a highly qualified music teacher, was seventeen years older than Marjorie and recently widowed. His first wife, Stella Narcissa Kathleen ELLIS, had died the previous year on 21st May 1969, aged 61, at their home of 12 Elger Close, Biddenham, where they had just moved. Marjorie (aged 42) joined Eric (aged 59) at 12 Elger Close after they married (they had no children together, nor had Eric any from his first marriage). Eric died on 17th Oct 1994 aged 84, and Marjorie continued to live at 12 Elger Close until 2003 when she moved into Kimbolton Lodge, 1 Kimbolton Road, Bedford, Bedfordshire. She died there on 1st Dec 2006, aged 78.

Ernest Jr. continued to live with Ida until 1945, when he moved to 26a St. Michaels Road, Bedford, Bedfordshire, where he remained until his death in 1986, aged 70, living on his own. Ida lived on her own at 18 Church End until at least 1986, then moved into Fenwick House Care Home, 1 Cowper Road, Bedford, Bedfordshire, where she died aged 92 on 26th March 1993.

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Newspaper articles reproduced with the permission of the British Newspaper Archive and The British Library Board. Maps reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland.