At last we have been able to get away to the West Country, to spend a few days continuing the search, and finally bringing Antony's story to its natural conclusion. In 1910 he and Julia were on holiday, one can only presume, in Torquay, staying at her sister's home. Drucilla Hubbard had married William Cleeve in 1877 in Bristol, and after living in Weston-super-Mare, they moved to the Babbacombe area of Torquay, initially in Bedford Terrace, Torquay Road, and then Union Terrace (the next block). 8 Union Terrace is the address where Antony died, on 20 July. At the time it was the Cleeves' butcher's premises.
Finding his grave took some time. Derek had given me the section and number in Hele Road Cemetery, and we knew it was unmarked. It is understood that Julia and their family had too little ready cash to take his body back to Cardiff, and so he was buried in the town where he died. The woman in the cemetery office, used to people popping in to find their relatives, gave us a map and helped to work out which 'end' the numbering was from, and we took a few photos of the documents. Eventually we found his grave, number 7789, which is one of 34 in a line, in an old part, in common ground. Only two people have got names on the plan, and only one, Samuel Mitchell, has a headstone... so by finding the Mitchell stone, and counting, we think we located the place where he is, second in a grave with three others. It is a quiet and green place, undulating, looked after and neat.
The Cleeves are also buried in Hele Road, though in a different section, William in 1932, Drucilla in 1939, as well as his sister, Sarah Ann, from 1922.
The Cleeves are also buried in Hele Road, though in a different section, William in 1932, Drucilla in 1939, as well as his sister, Sarah Ann, from 1922.
Searching for the Cleeves' shop was also intriguing. The road is now St Marychurch Road, and the houses have been renumbered three times, but John Tucker, our doughty Family History Librarian in Torquay library, was as delighted as we were to find it on an old map, as it is just around the corner from where he was brought up! Today it is a charity shop, for the Mare & Foal Sanctuary... and we discovered that we had parked virtually opposite Union Terrace, a block up from the Waitrose carpark. More will be written about Julia's sister Drucilla in the section on my main site here, about the Sederman women.
We knew that Ellen Maria Morgan, Julia and Antony's first child, had also died in Torquay, in 1897, and had surmised that it might have been in her Aunt's home. Now, having received her death certificate, I see that she died aged 28 of "pulmonary and abdominal phthisis", tuberculosis, on 16th December 1897, in "Smyrna", the Mildmay Home for Consumption in Torquay, with husband Albert at her side. It was in Bronshill Road, just around the corner from Union Terrace, and I suspect she had been there for some time, as she was suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis for 15 months. Maybe the family decided that Torquay would be good for her health, but was she sent there soon after Sidney's birth in 1895? Albert's home address is given as Penarth, so she was clearly away from her young family when she died. She's not in Torquay cemetery records, she must have been taken 'home', unlike her father later..
A curious note is that Drucilla and William have with them in 1901 and 1911 a Niece called Gwendoline Morgan... I have recently found that this was Ellen Maria & Albert's third child, born in 1894 in London. Maybe she came to Torquay when her mother was taken ill, possibly she visited her? It's possible she was 'farmed out' in 1900 when Albert married again, as Sidney is also living elsewhere, with his grandmother Julia Sederman, in the 1901 census. Clearly, Gwendoline never went home to Penarth...
We knew that Ellen Maria Morgan, Julia and Antony's first child, had also died in Torquay, in 1897, and had surmised that it might have been in her Aunt's home. Now, having received her death certificate, I see that she died aged 28 of "pulmonary and abdominal phthisis", tuberculosis, on 16th December 1897, in "Smyrna", the Mildmay Home for Consumption in Torquay, with husband Albert at her side. It was in Bronshill Road, just around the corner from Union Terrace, and I suspect she had been there for some time, as she was suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis for 15 months. Maybe the family decided that Torquay would be good for her health, but was she sent there soon after Sidney's birth in 1895? Albert's home address is given as Penarth, so she was clearly away from her young family when she died. She's not in Torquay cemetery records, she must have been taken 'home', unlike her father later..
A curious note is that Drucilla and William have with them in 1901 and 1911 a Niece called Gwendoline Morgan... I have recently found that this was Ellen Maria & Albert's third child, born in 1894 in London. Maybe she came to Torquay when her mother was taken ill, possibly she visited her? It's possible she was 'farmed out' in 1900 when Albert married again, as Sidney is also living elsewhere, with his grandmother Julia Sederman, in the 1901 census. Clearly, Gwendoline never went home to Penarth...
Torquay Library had another surprise for me: on the table where we were working, was book called The New Maritime History of Devon, by a few authors including Basil Greenhill. Mr Greenhill wrote, with his wife Ann Giffard, a book I found early in my researches about Antony: The British Assault on Finland, a forgotten war 1854-1855, in which the shabby history of the Royal Navy's conduct at the beginning of the Crimean War is recounted, including the attack on Gamla Karleby. I picked up the History and flicked through... only to find a chapter about John Bagwell Holman, owner of several of the ships that Antony sailed on, out of Exeter, and that he listed on his re-application for his Mate's certificate in 1894. It felt like a satisfying full circle to our great-grandfather's story, just waiting to be noticed...
Next day we left Devon for Somerset, to finally get to West Monkton and Creech St Michael, to find the Hubbard family trail, for Julia's side of the family.
Next day we left Devon for Somerset, to finally get to West Monkton and Creech St Michael, to find the Hubbard family trail, for Julia's side of the family.