After a friend contacted me about the fate of the four Worrall children following their parents’ divorce it occurred to me that others may also be similarly curious.
Here therefore, is a résumé of their life stories in birth order.
Philip: - (born Altrincham, Cheshire 28th May, 1880).
As a young man Philip Worrall was invited along with his two younger brothers to “The Mayor of Manchester’s Juvenile Ball” at the Manchester Town Hall on the 13th January, 1891 (1)
He attended Trinity College, Cambridge University where he gained a degree in History
He married Dorothy Hester (née Worrall) on the 7th November, 1912 at St. Peter’s Church, Wing, Rutland. Fairly unusually Dorothy bore two sets of multiple births. Firstly, on the 25th January, 1914 she was delivered of a set of triplets, all boys. Sadly, only one, James Philip Edward survived; Henry died after just one day and James a day later. Then in the July of 1917 she gave birth to twin daughters Ann and Elizabeth who, thankfully, both lived into adulthood. (In the twins’ baptismal register, dated 28th July, the father’s occupation is recorded as Lieutenant in the Territorial Reserve Force)
Philip died at “The Hall”, Wing, Rutland on the 28th April and was cremated on the May 1st, 1946. In his will he left to his widow and two brothers the large sum of £56,264-16s-2d (Value today = £2, 374, 174).
Stephen Henry (born Altrincham, Cheshire 20th December, 1881)
Stephen Henry Worrall was a career soldier in 1st Battalion, The Border Regiment of the British Army rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. After “passing out” from The Royal Military College, Sandhurst in 1900 he joined his regiment on the 11th August that year, later serving from 19th January, 1901 in South Africa during the Second Boer War. He never married and lived in his retirement at his father’s home, Culmington House, Culmington, Ludlow, Shropshire. He died on the 6th May, 1956 at the Overton Grange Nursing Home, Ludlow. Probate of his estate, valued at the slightly more modest £43,436-3s-5d, was granted to his brother, Bertram.
Bertram (born Altrincham, Cheshire 28th March, 1883)
On the census return of 1901, Bertram Worrall is recorded as a student at the College of Surveyors. He and his brother, Philip were the only family members living in the family home “Crimsworth” on Upper Chorlton Road, Whalley Range. They were however being looked after by no less than five servants. On the 21st May, 1901 he was appointed 2nd Lieutenant in the 3rd Lancashire Royal Engineers (Volunteers). He resigned his commission in November, 1905.
During World War 1 he was initially on the list of reserve officers but he was mobilised on the 17th April, 1917 as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Scots (attached to the Dragoons) and sent to France in February, 1918. He was wounded during the German Army’s final advance on the Somme the following month. After treatment in London he was transferred, for specialised treatment, to The Imperial Hospital (2), St. Annes-on-the-Sea, Lancashire.
Bertram married Millicent Vera Barnett in the June quarter of 1918 in the Marylebone district of London. The couple had two daughters Grace J. (3) born in the Marylebone district on the 27th April, 1919 and Janet C. born in Steeple Ashton, Oxfordshire in the September quarter of 1922. For more than a decade on either side of his Great War service Bertram was a successful land agent and prize-winning farmer at Seven Springs, Steeple Ashton, Oxfordshire. In the early 1930’s he re-located to Long Ashton near Bristol where he worked at The Ashton Court estate office and took an active part in local affairs. He became President of the local branch of The British Legion as well as the church warden of All Saints Church, and chairman of both the Long Ashton Cricket Club and the local Conservative Association. He also somehow found time to act as chair of the committee to organise the village’s preparations for celebrating the coronation of George VI on 12th May, 1937.
Bertram in his retirement moved to Cornwall living at Sammyshute, Curgurrell, Portscatho, Cornwall. He died at the Falmouth and District Hospital, Falmouth, Cornwall on the 19th August, 1959. His estate was valued at £35, 356-2s-2d.
Louisa Grace: - (born Altrincham, Cheshire 13th February, 1887)
Being their youngest child and the centre of a custody battle between her divorcing parents it is likely that Henry and Louisa Worrall’s only daughter, Louisa Grace, was the person most adversely affected by the divorce. She was only eight years old at the time and still just ten when her mother died in Brighton, Sussex on the 12th July, 1897. Louisa Grace is not recorded as living with her father in the 1901 census but as a visitor, coincidentally also in Brighton, at 7, Norfolk Square, with Mr. John A. C. Tanner (4), his wife, Grace Mann and their three children.
The census of 1911 shows Louisa Grace living at the family home, Crimsworth, with her father, his new wife, Janet (née Greener), one of her brothers, Stephen Henry and four servants.
She married, quite late in life, at Manchester Cathedral in the December quarter of 1919 to Rev. John Talbot Canton who was then the Rector of Christs Church, Bradford with Beswick, Manchester (a parish he had previously served as a curate). One of Rev. Canton’s first positions as a young clergyman had been as a curate at St. Margaret’s Church, Whalley Range. Rev. John and Louisa Grace had no children and, as was the custom with clergymen at the time, moved between parishes quite frequently. From Christs Church he moved, in 1924, to St. Lawrence’s Church, Longridge in the Ribble Valley, Lancashire. After less than four years there he moved, again, in December 1927, to the parish church of St. Andrew in Great Billing, Northamptonshire. In April, 1934 another move took Rev and Mrs. Canton further south after accepting the post of Rector of Clayton with Keymer, Sussex. In the 1939 register he is down as living in retirement due to ill-health at Orchard Tatworth Street, Tatworth, Chard, Somerset. Rev. John Talbot Canton died on the 5th March, 1955 at “Stonehurst”, Sulgrave, Northamptonshire. His estate was valued for probate purposes at the quite considerable sum of £21,301-18s –3d. His widow moved to live with her brother, Stephen Henry, in her father’s old home Culmington House, Ludlow. Outliving her husband by just over three years she died, by coincidence in the same town as one of her other brothers would die the following year, on the 20th May, 1958 at the Pennance Nursing Home, Pennance Road, Falmouth, Cornwall.
Pictures; Wing Hall, South Face by Wesley Trevor Johnston and Church of All Saints, Long Ashton both geogaph.org.uk. Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 2 0 Generic License, "Crimsworth" in 1960 by A. H. Downes m40768 courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass
Notes: -
1) As reported in the Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser on the 14th January, 1891.
2) This was the pre-war Imperial Hydropathic Hotel, thought to be the largest seaside hotel in England, which was commandeered by the War Office to house recuperating officers.
After the war it was returned, in 1920, to civilian use and renamed The Majestic.
3) Grace J. married a Church of England clergyman Rev. Lionel George Watson who was a named executor on her father's will.
4) John Arthur Charles Tanner had an unusual occupation; he was a “taxing master for the High court (bankruptcies). He also gave his children some interesting names. Viz.
John Rupert Waldron
Oriel Charles Robert
Winifred Lucy Aldridge
Dorothy Ruth (a professional violoncellist)
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