For International Women’s Day this year, we focused mainly on the wives of men in the services, who often accompanied their husbands to the countries where they were serving, coped with children and households in sometimes difficult circumstances and not infrequently were left as widows to raise those children. We laid flowers on their graves and remembered their stories.
We started with Rosamund Blackford, who doesn’t fit this scenario, being the wife of Herbert, who did come home from WW1, but died soon after in 1919 from related causes. She continued to live in Folkestone for nearly 50 years, never marrying again and bringing up their three children alone.
Isabella O’Grady was the wife of Standish, a Royal Navy Surgeon. She went to Bermuda with him, where they had two daughters. He had a qualification in obstetrics and was the head of the hospital, so luckily, she was in fairly safe hands.
Mary Anness married Frederick, a doctor and was probably with him at the Boer concentration camps in Durban. Three children were born out there, but by 1914 they were back in England. Fredrick was too old to fight in the Great War, but he took the place of a younger man at Tooting Bec Mental Hospital to free him to enlist. Isabella and their three young sons would have been there, in south London all through the war. She also served as a councillor in Folkestone, where she expressed her opinions quite forcibly.
Emma Rotton married John in 1855. He was on his way to the Crimea, but died in Malta in 1856. She was now a widow, after only 20 months of marriage and initially went back to her mother in Cheshire. She died 12 years later, aged just 34.
Rose Owen was the wife of General William. She married him in Calcutta and as they can’t be found on many censuses, probably made a life out there until he retired.
Catherine Hicks was also married to an East India soldier, a Colonel, 12 years older than her. She gave him two sons in her late 30s and a daughter, born when Catherine was over 40. She died at a hotel in Italy and was brought back here to be buried with her sister.
The third lady who went to India was Harriet Grimes. She was the daughter of a Scottish clan chief and was born in Kilravock Castle, Nairn. At least two sons were born in India, one became an Army Captain, the other joined the Royal Navy. Her husband, George died in 1863 and was buried in Surat, India. Harriet returned to England, where she died 5 years later.
Finally, we visited Sarah Kingsley, at the request of a member. She was an Evangelistic, Temperance & Preventive Rescue Worker. She was extremely keen on temperance, but also worked for the protection of servants and young girls. Before moving to Sandgate, she said it was a place where there was ‘an enormous amount of indifference and a great deal of sin.’ She did her best to change this.
There are many other remarkable ladies, with interesting stories, in the cemetery. We hope to record as many as we can on Find A Grave and also on our web site: fofc.uk
Carole Moody
