Tricia's Family

Frederick Drew was born in Northgate, Canterbury, in 1830. He was a carpenter. He enlisted in the 64th Regiment of Foot at Westminster on 14 September 1848, and was given the service number 2733. He gave his age as 17 years 11 months, and from his discharge papers, it seems his birthday was on 15 October. However, on his final discharge on 9 December 1856, his age was given as 26 years 11 months, implying a January birthday.

The 64th Foot served in India, and Frederick was there for 5 years 1 month, and then in Turkey for ten months. The regiment did not participate in the Crimean War, so it is possible that Frederick was in hospital there. His conduct was described as good but "not in possession of a good conduct badge". In fact he had been granted a badge on 14 October 1853, only to be deprived of it on 19 August 1854.

A medical report issued by the surgeon at Chatham on 10 October 1856 certified that he labours under Chronic Hepatitis caused by Climate and Military Service in consequence of which he is rendered incapable of further Military Service, and the chief medical officer confirmed the discharge on grounds of 'hepatic and pulmonic disease'. He was described as 5'6" tall, with dark brown hair, hazel eyes and a dark complexion.

In 1857 he was living in Kennington. He married Frances Aldon, or Alden, at Kennington on 20 September 1857.

Frances had been born in Bentley, Hampshire, the daughter of Stephen Aldon. She was recorded as 24 in 1861, 36 in 1871, 42 in 1881, and 52 in 1891. She is probably the Frances Alden, aged 5, recorded in Binsted (Bentley's sister village) in 1841 as the daughter of Steven and Mary Alden.

Between 1859 and 1866 the family were at Portland, Dorset, where Frederick was a civil guard at the convict prison. Civil guards were in charge of security outside the prison, where convicts were working in the quarries. Portland had an establishment of 42 civil guards, against over 100 warders and assistant warders. Before 1854, the civil guards had been regular soldiers, who were replaced in that year by armed pensioners. This arrangement was unsatisfactory, and from 1857, younger men were recruited, often with military backgrounds. Their uniform was described as "a sort of cross between a policeman and a soldier. The men were armed with a loaded rifle at full cock." The annual pay for a civil guard was £49/8/-, considerably less than the £60 to £65 paid to an assistant warder, and guards had to find their own lodging.

By 1871 Frederick and Frances had moved to Battersea, living at 35 Cross Street. Frederick was working as a carpenter. In 1881, the family were at 58 Dashwood Road, Battersea. Frederick was a railway porter, Frances was an ironer. In 1891, he was a carpenter at 122 Stewarts Road, Battersea, with Frances and his sons George and Charles. His married daughter Sarah was staying with them, with her son Albert. Frances died in the Wandsworth registration district in the first quarter of 1898, aged 63, and Frederick died in the same district in July 1899. He was buried at Morden Union Infirmary on 26 July 1899.

1. EMMA ANN DREW (1858-??), born in Bentley in the third quarter of 1858.

2. SARAH ANN DREW (1859-??), born in Portland in the last quarter of 1859 and baptized there on 9 October 1859. She is recorded as aged 20 in 1881, when she was a tailoress. She married Albert Field in the Wandsworth registration district in the third quarter of 1882. They had a son:

2.1 ALBERT FIELD (1883?-??), aged 7 in 1891.

3. CAROLINE DREW (1862-??), born in Portland in the first quarter of 1862 and baptized with her (presumably twin) brother on 2 March 1862. She is recorded as aged 18 in 1881, when she was a tailoress.

4. ALBERT GEORGE DREW (1862-1863), also born in Portland in the first quarter of 1862 and baptized there on 2 March 1862. He died shortly after his first birthday, and was buried on 2 April 1863.

5. ALBERT GEORGE DREW (1864-??), known as George, baptized in Portland on 13 March 1864. He began work at Battersea in the last week of November 1877 as an engine cleaner for the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, paid 1/4d per day, "aged 16 at next birthday", but the census records him as aged 17 in 1881. By 1891 he was an engine driver, but his age was given as 22.

6. FREDERICK LEWIS DREW (1866-1921) aged 16 in 1881, see below.

7. ARTHUR JOHN DREW (1869-1872), born in Battersea in the first quarter of 1869. He died in the second quarter of 1872.

8. JOHN DREW (1871-??), born in Battersea in the third quarter of 1871 and aged 9 in 1881. He was probably a stoker on HMS Pactolus in 1901, and on HMS Glory in 1911, and married before 1901.

9. CHARLES DREW (1877?-??), born in Battersea and aged 4 in 1881. In 1891 he was a post messenger boy. He is probably the Charles Arthur Drew born on 6 October 1877 and recorded in the 1901 census as in the Royal Navy, lodging in Brixton, and in the 1911 census as lockkeeper at Abingdon lock, on the Thames. If so, he married Lucy Katherine Norfolk, from Bedwyn, Wiltshire, in Lambeth in the second quarter of 1901, and had two children, Charles Henry, born in Lambeth at the end of 1905 and a child who had died before 1911. His naval service record has him as a gunner on HMS Wildfire for 18 months from 1 September 1902, "very zealous and attentive to his duties. Recommended.", and on the Welland, a torpedo destroyer: "Good physical abilities... & trustworthy." At the end of the First World War he was serving at a technician in the Royal Naval flying station at Eastchurch on Sheppey, transferred to the newly formed RAF in 1918.

FREDERICK LEWIS DREW (1866-1921), known as Fred, was born in Portland, Dorset, in the fourth quarter of 1866, and baptized there on 7 October 1866. In 1881, he was a messenger boy. He married Mary Anne Nolan in Wandsworth in the first quarter of 1885. She was from Kennington, London, and had been born in the first quarter of 1860. At the time of his son Percy's baptism in 1888 he was at Star Terrace, Mansfield. In 1891 he was a locomotive stoker, and later he became a railway engine driver. Between 1891 and 1904 the family was in Mansfield, lodging in a bedroom on the second floor of 14 Commercial Street. (In 1901 the census listed this as 6 Carlton Terrace, Commercial Street, Mansfield.) In 1911 the family was at Marlborough Road, East Kirkby, Kirkby in Ashfield. Mary Ann died in 1915, and Fred died at the end of 1921. He was living at 3 Diamond Avenue, East Kirkby. Mary and he had five children:

1. PERCY ROBERT DREW (1888-1949), born at Mansfield in the second quarter of 1888 (but giving his date of birth variously as 3 March or 13 December 1888). He was however baptised on 1 April 1888. On 1 May 1903 at the (stated) age of 15, he began work as a railway clerk with the Midland Railway, at a wage of 6/- a week. On 24 August he was transferred to Kirkby-in-Ashfield on the opening of a new shed there. On 22 March 1904 his staff record notes that he failed to pass his clerk's examination. "Must improve and come again.". His pay rose to 8/- a week, and on 1 January 1905, he became salaried - at £20/16/- p.a. - the same pay, though this was raised to £26/-/- in March, and to £31/4/- a year later. On 24 October 1906, he again failed his examination, and on 22 January 1907, he resigned, failing to work out his notice. The staff record notes: Competence good, but weak educationally. Conduct, excepting above, good.

His departure without notice was because on 23 January 1907 he took on a twelve-year engagement in the Royal Navy. He was described as 5'4¾" tall, with brown hair, brown eyes, a fresh complexion, with scars on his left thumb and forefinger and a small scar on the back of his head. He passed his examination as Petty Officer in 1 December 1908 and as Senior Petty Officer three years later. He was granted a stokehold certificate on 11 June 1913, and was passed for Chief Stoker on 10 February 1915.

He served on numerous ships as a stoker and engineer. In 1911, he was serving on HMS Terpsichore as leading stoker. For most of the war he was on the convoy ship Leviathan. His service ended in August 1922. (He was briefly mobilized for six days on 28 September 1938.)

2. LILIAN FRANCES DREW (1890-1968). She was born in Mansfield on 30 December 1890 and baptized there on 25 January 1891. She and was a boot factory clerk in 1911. She married Edgar Hufton, a colliery stoker born on 12 September 1891, in the fourth quarter of 1913. In 1939, they were at Haven Corner, Orchard Road, Kirkby-in-Ashfield. Edgar died at the end of 1953, and Lilian died in Mansfield, aged 77, in the third quarter of 1968.

3. ELSIE GLADYS DREW (1895-1982). She was born in Mansfield on 26 August 1895 and was a mantle maker's assistant in 1911. She married William Cresswell in the third quarter of 1913. At the time of National Registration in 1939, she was living at 71 Allen Street, Hucknall, and working as a hosiery finisher. She married Jack Roddis at the end of 1959.

Elsie and William Cresswell had a daughter:

3.1 AUDREY M CRESSWELL (1915-??), born in the Basford registration district on 24 April 1915. She married Arthur F Redgate at the end of 1933. In 1939 she was a WRAF orderly, and living with her mother.

4. IDA DREW (1898-1962), born in Mansfield on 9 November 1898 and baptised at St John the Evangelist, Mansfield on 21 November 1898. At the beginning of 1921 she was a general domestic servant at 46 Diamond Avenue, East Kirkby, the house of Dr William McCombie and his wife. She married Arthur F Derrick in the third quarter of 1921. He had been born on 25 August 1899. In 1939,they were living at 52 Milton Street, Kirkby-in-Ashfield. Arthur was a railway locomotive fireman. Ida died, aged 63, at Hitchen in the third quarter of 1962.

5. CHARLES ARTHUR DREW (1900-1970), born in Mansfield, see below.

CHARLES ARTHUR DREW (1900-1970), born in Mansfield on 16 May 1900. In 1921 he was boarding with the Hufton family at 76 Edward Street, Kirkby-in-Ashfield. He was working as a coal miner at Butterley and Co's colliery (or in 1939, above ground as a colliery yard labourer). He married Alice Randall (or Randal), née Redfin, at Basford in the fourth quarter of 1931.

Alice was a widow with three young children. She had been born in Lenton, Nottinghamshire, the third of six children of John and Mary Redfin, on 2 May 1899. (John Redfin, her father, had been born in Atherstone, Leicestershire in the first quarter of 1871. He had married Mary at the beginning of 1895.) Alice had married an engine driverfor the Midland Railway, Charles H Randall, at the end of 1919. They had had three children:

Eva May Randall, born on 5 April 1920. She married John T H Stark at the beginning of 1940. They had a daughter, Janet Stark, born at the end of 1944.
Joyce Randall born on 11 May 1923. In 1939, she and Eva were employed as gown machinists. She married Kenneth Dawn at the beginning of 1943. Their son, Terry Dawn, born at the beginning of 1944, marred Sandra Hoe in Mansfield at the end of 1967.
Denis J Randall born in 1928. He married Margaret Holmes in the third quarter of 1952. They had three children, John David Randall (1955-2019), born in Kirkby-in-Ashfield in the third quarter of 1955, Jill M Randall, born there at the end of 1958 and Heather D Randall, born at the beginning of 1964. Jill is an artist and sculptor who lectures at the University of Salford and who lives in Rossendale, Lancashire. Heather married Mark Richards in the summer of 1983.

Charles Randall had died in the last quarter of 1929 at the age of 33.

In 1931, they were living at 72 Diamond Road, East Kirkby, and in 1939 at 14 Marlborough Road , Kirkby-in-Ashfield, Charles and Alice had a son:

1. ROYLE DREW (1932-2011), born in Kirkby-in- Ashfield, see below.

Sheila had been born on 15 September 1934. She was the daughter of Charles Gordon Parkin, who had married Ethel May Cecilia Cirket in 1930.

He joined the Liberal Party in 1965, becoming chairmen of the Central Norfolk Liberal Assciation in 1969 and standing as Liberal candidate for the Norfolk Central constituency in the 1970 General Election. He obtained 6172 votes, 10.62% of the poll.

He became a Norwich magistrate in February 1972. He and Sheila separated in 1973 and divorced in 1986.

In April 1972, Royle became a Fellow of the Chartered Insurance Institute and was promoted to London and then again to Birmingham, returning to Norwich in 1984 in a senior executive position until retiring early in 1992.

In January 1989, he remarried, to Heather D Burton-Pye, née Angell. (She had been born on 27 August 1944, and had married Gerald Burton-Pye in the North Walsham registration district in the third quarter of 1965.) They lived in Wymondham.

Heather died on 30 August 2009. and Royle died on 28 April 2011. An obituary was published in the Eastern Daily Post.