last update 28 April 2012

 

Recent Ancestors of Angela Williams (Fletcher) & Adrian Fletcher

 

 

 

 

 

SPROULE / ALDOUS / STEWART / SEWARD SIDES

 

 

PARENTS

 

 

GRANDPARENTS

 

GREAT-GRANDPARENTS

 

Name Links in this column lead to the ancestor tree for each of Adrian and Angela's  great-grandparents

 

 

 

Marguerite Aldous (Peggy) Fletcher (Sproule)

 

 

b 30 July 1917, Plymouth, Devon

 

1918 Peggy & Clare share Jimmy's brief (uniformed) leave from the Western Front at the beach at Bigbury-on-Sea

 

Clare & Peggy, shortly before setting sail for India in November 1920

 

1930s, Fintona, Co Tyrone

 

Clovelly, Cornwall, 1939

 

Early 1940s, Cairo, Egypt

 

m 21 May 1941 in the Anglican Cathedral in Cairo, Egypt.  The marriage ended at the end of the forties.

 

22 March 1944, Adrian's Christening in Cairo Cathedral

 

2 January 1947 Angela is christened in St Peters, Fremlington (Devon)

 

Late 1950s

 

l: Seabrook (nr Hythe, Kent) for over 50 years, where she brought up Adrian & Angela, was a wonderful granny to their children and became a much loved  participant in many many community activities.

 

1980s

 

Early 2000s

 

d 22 August 2005 (88) in Dover Hospital.  Ashes buried in St Peters, Limpsfield.

 

 

Clare Stewart Sproule (Aldous) 1891 - 1958 (67)

 

b 27 March 1891, Charlton House, Compton Gifford, Plymouth - christened but never addressed as "Claribel".

 

Clare Aldous aged 2 - 16 April 1893

 

m 28 July 1915 at Emmanuel Church,

Compton Gifford, Plymouth.

 

Big Game Hunter, India - Christmas 1930

 

Adventurer - River Nile 1930s

 

Snipe Shooter - Egypt 1930s

 

l: many places as an army wife, and did lots of expeditioning and photograph taking on the journey.  Retired in  1947 to Somerton (Somerset).

 

Studio Photo - 1930s

 

March 1943, Weybourne Cottage, Farnham

 

mid 1950s, Old Bell House, Somerton - taken by Adrian on a Brownie 127 and encapsulating the essence of this lovely person.

 

d 1958 (67) Edinburgh, Scotland (living in Somerton (Somerset)).  Buried in Coldstream, Berwickshire.

 

 

Isabella Henderson Aldous (Stewart) 1865 - 1938 (73)

 

 

b  5 January 1865 in Fitzroy in Melbourne.

 

 

m. September 1887, Gloucester Road, London Where the Melbourne girl met George Frederick is presently a mystery!

 

c1932 at Harrow-on-the-hill with grandson Brian Sproule

 

d 5 July 1938 (73) Harrow-on-the-Hill, London.

 

 

Isabella's dad was James Cooper Stewart, son of a Scottish house painter and  sometime Mayor of Melbourne and a leading Australian lawyer

 

 

James C Stewart and family - 1886, Melbourne

 

 

Link to illustrated story of the life and times of James C Stewart

 

Descendants of James Cooper Stewart

 

 

Dr George Frederick Aldous FRCS Edin 1861 - 1937 (76)

 

 

b  24 August 1861, his mother died of Scarlet Fever on Christmas day 1862.

 

Trained at Barts Hospital London, and  became LRCP & S & Apoth in 1885.  In 1897 became Fellow of Royal College of  Surgeons, Edinburgh.

 

l  All his working life as a doctor and surgeon in Plymouth, then on retirement in 1921 moved to Harrow (London).

 

Early 1900s, Plymouth - George Frederick Aldous photographed well, with a twinkle in his eye!  A territorial (not regular) RAMC soldier, our man liked a bit of uniform and in retirement titled himself "Major, RAMC" in the telephone directory.

 

d  27 September 1937 in Harrow.

 

 

George's father, Alex Aldous (grog supplier to the Royal Navy, Portsmouth who was born in Harleston, Norfolk) married into the Seward yeoman tenant farmer family of Weston (nr Buriton, Hampshire).  They ran a major hop, sheep, milling, lime burning etc business there for nearly 150 years. 

 

 

Tragically George's mother Elizabeth Aldous (Seward) died of Scarlet Fever when he was only 1.

 

 

Memorial to Elizabeth Haw Aldous in the Buriton Parish Church of St Mary (below).

 

 

 

Brig James Chambers (Jimmy) Sproule CBE LRCP&S Irl 1887 - 1955 (67)

 

b 28 August 1887 "Denamona", Fintona, Co Tyrone

 

28 August 1902 - on left - "first Day at Boarding School" - aged 15

 

Trained at the Royal Colleges (of Surgeons and of Physicians) in Dublin, becoming a Licentiate and registered doctor in 1912, after which he was commissioned into the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC).

 

c1910 - Dublin Medical Student

 

m 28 July 1915 at Emmanuel Church, Compton Gifford, Plymouth.

 

Much of WWI spent at the Western Front, initially as MO of famous 2nd Battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers (including in the Mons Retreat).  Latterly he commanded 131 Field Ambulance,  serving the 38th (Welsh) Division who in the final months of 1918 fought through Amiens, Albert & Bapaume.  Where was he between 21 September 1915 and 24 February 1918 ??

 

 

Royal autograph hunter - Amiens, February 1919

 

More about Jimmy Sproule and WWI

 

At Jamrud just west of Peshawar, Christmas Day 1920

 

l: Many places in India, England & Egypt as a regular army officer in the RAMC specializing in Hygiene.

 

Notes made on 1930 trip to visit his brother Harpur in South Africa (9 Mb)

 

link to army service record 1912-47.

 

Col J C Sproule in Cairo, Mid 1930s

 

Link to citation for Col J C Sproule's CBE (1941)

 

Retired in 1947 to live in Somerton (Somerset).

 

Jimmy & Clare c1950

 

d 15 May 1955 (67) Taunton (living in Somerton).

 

Link to Jimmy Sproule's obituary in the BMJ.

 

 

Matilda Sproule (Sproule) 1849 - 1918 (69)

 

 

 

Sproule family detail - "Denamona", Fintona - late 1890s

Jenny Sproule, Harpur Sproule

Alex H R Sproule, Matilda Sproule

Jimmy Sproule

 

 

b 16 May 1849 Carrickamulkin, Co Tyrone

 

Probably emigrated to Canada c 1871.

 

m. February 1874 in Peterborough, Ontario, to first cousin and photographer A H R Sproule (we have record).

 

l. Back in "Denamona", Fintona (Co Tyrone) after hubbie was left house and 209 acre farm by his uncle.  Census entries in 1901 and 1911.

 

d "Denamona" 1918 (69).

 

 

 

 

 

Denamona, Fintona, Co Tyrone

"Denamona", Fintona (Co Tyrone) early 1900s, complete with "Monet" hay stack.

 

 

 

Late 1890s, Alex H R Sproule with wife and children at "Denamona", Fintona (Co Tyrone)

 

 

 

 

There is now a page for our Sproule Narrative and Document links.  These include discoveries in the Canadian census and BMD data bases, and also the 1901 and 1911 Irish censuses.

 

 

 

Alex Harpur Robinson Sproule JP 1846 - 1921 (75)

 

 

 

photo above

 

b 3 April 1846 Carrickamulkin, Co Tyrone

 

Emigrated to Peterborough, Ontario with family in May 1860.  In Canadian censuses 1861 1871 1881.

 

m Cousin Matilda February 1874

 

l Peterborough, working without trace as a professional photographer until at 35 he inherited (but only as trustee for his children) his uncle's Irish palazzo & 209 acre farm in 1881, redefined himself as a gentleman, and returned to live in "Denamona", Fintona (Co Tyrone).  He was soon made a JP, then in 1886 .....

 

 

l "Denamona" until his death in 1921 (75).  Census entries in 1901 and 1911.

 

 

By contrast on the photographer front, AHR's younger brother George Buchanan Sproule was a very successful photographer in Peterborough Ontario and then Helena Montana.  His works can still be found in Canadian galleries.

 

 

WWI, James Sproule, 2nd Battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers, 131 Field Ambulance and the 38th (Welsh) Division

 

 

Captain Jimmy Fletcher RAMC photographs WWI in Mesopotamia 1917-18

 

 

In Egypt 1935-1944

 

 

           

 

 

FLETCHER / PROCTER AND BURTON / MIDDLECOAT SIDES

 

 

PARENT

 

 

GRANDPARENTS

 

GREAT-GRANDPARENTS

 

Name Links in this column lead to the ancestor tree for each of Adrian and Angela's  great-grandparents

 

 

 

Col Michael James Rex Fletcher, MBE

 

 

 

b 23 April 1918, London

 

 

Michael in Clifden, Murree Hill (Rawalpindi) c1920

 

Murree Hill (Rawalpindi) c1921 - Michael and servants

 

1926

 

Michael and mother Ethel at Folkestone Beach c1926

 

1930s - Epsom School and Sandhurst Military College

 

 

1938 - Dene Court, Folkestone

 

From Jan 1938, 5 years in Egypt, latterly as 8th Army Cipher Officer. 

 

Link to citation for MBE (1941-43)

 

Early 1940s, Egypt

 

 

Married Peggy Sproule 21 May 1941 in All Saints Cathedral, Cairo

 

Final years of WWII in France, Germany then Instow (Devon)

 

 

l: divorced and remarried later in 1940s, and lived in several places during career as a regular army officer (Royal Signals), living in parents' home in Folkestone from early 70s and retiring at 55 in 1973.

 

photo: Piers Fletcher

1993 Folkestone (75)

 

d 2007 (89)  in Ashford Hospital

 

 

Ethel Henrietta Florence (Em) Fletcher (Burton) 1890 - 1968 (78)

 

b 12 August 1890, Mangalore, SW India

 

Ethel (17) in Bedford 1907

 

Ethel in Herne Bay 1908

 

Sent to boarding school in England & told me that she only saw her parents once during this time.  Family home established in Upper Norwood after their father retired from IMS in 1910.  Future husband "Jim" Fletcher used to visit as he was a friend and fellow medical student of her brother Charlie.

 

1915 - Old Milton, Hampshire

 

m 15 August 1915 at St Mary Magdalene Church, Old Milton, Hampshire

 

Kashmir Expedition - May 1921

 

Studio photo - late 1930s?

 

1940s - "Mad Bess" Cottage

 

d 1968 (78) Folkestone, Kent

 

 

Georgiana Ernstin (Gem) Burton (Middlecoat) 1871 - 1953 (82)

 

 

24 December 1871, Great Malvern where her parents were on an extended furlough from India.  Her father Francis and grandfather George were officers in the Madras Army, and she was the only one of her siblings not to be born in India, though she was brought up there.

 

m. 25 April 1888 Pallavaram (suburb of Madras & hub of Madras Army), Tamil Nadu, India.

 

Gem at a Picnic in Bellary 1907 (36)

 

l India mostly (except around 1901) before returning to UK permanently when John Adolphus retired in 1910.  Must have moved to Folkestone at some stage after the death of JAB in London in 1924.

 

"Gem" Burton (Middlecoat) 1920s

 

d 1953 (82) Folkestone

 

 

Gem's father, the awful Lt Col Francis Middlecoat

1839 - 1922 (83)

 

Gem's mother, the suffering Mary Middlecoat (Locke)

(1850 - 1928 (78)) in 1912

 

 

Gem Burton's copy of the Madras Cookery (Pocket) Book by "An Old Lady Resident", originally published in 1874 and by 1901 into its 5th edition.  200 + receipts (sic) for English and Indian food (the latter woven around Crosse and Blackwell's Genuine India Curry Powder).

 

 

Thanks to help from FIBIS and Family Search we have now traced the Middlecoats back to CornwallNicholas Middlecoat jnr (1752 - 1844 (92)) and his dad Nicholas snr (1718 - 1801 (83)) and their womenfolk came from Tregony, near Truro.

 

 

 

 

Nicholas Jnr was an interesting political fixer in the dying days of rotten boroughs (and in fact died at the age of 92, after the death of the boroughs).

 

Nicholas' jnr's son George (Capt George Middlecoat, b1802 and Georgiana's grandfather) was number 11 in a 12 children Cornish family, and escaped to be an officer in the Madras Artillery.  He married Susannah Palmer Hampton in Madras in 1826.  He was one of the few men in these family pages to die relatively young (42).

 

George's son Francis Middlecoat (b in Hackney 1839 and not a nice guy we think), Georgiana's dad, also had a large family, and retired as a Lt-Colonel in 1891 to live in London with wife and remaining family until his death in 1922 aged 83.  His unhappy wife, Mary Locke, whom he married in St George's Cathedral, Madras, in 1866, was the daughter of Samuel Richard Locke, a civil servant and magistrate who defied the norm by marrying a Danish woman with a lot of Christian names who was 11 years' older than him.  The Dane died in India, the others all died back in the old country!  

 

 

 

John Adolphus' father was a writer called Charles Benjamin Burton (who married Priscilla Burton (Webber)), and his paternal grandfather was another John Adolphus Burton (married to Susanna).  John Adoplphus Jnr (from Dublin labourer to Madras Artillery) and all CB's siblings had died by the time he was 6, and he was brought up as an only child by his widowed native mother.

 

 

Surgeon Lt-Col John Adolphus Burton LRCS&P Edin 1854 - 1924 (69)

 

Surgeon Major J A Burton c1900 aged 46

 

b Madras 10 December 1854 & educated there

 

Attended Doveton College (Madras) for Anglo Indian boys.

 

LRCS & LRCP (Medical degrees) Edinburgh 1879

 

m. 25 April 1888 Pallavaram (suburb of Madras & hub of Madras Army), Tamil Nadu, India.

 

Officer in the Indian Medical Service (IMS) from 2 October 1880.  Served in various places in British India (which then included Burma and Pakistan) until retiring aged 56 in December 1910 with the rank of Lt Col.  Awarded China Medal 1900.

 

Returned to UK with wife and 3 adult children in 1910 to live in SE London.  Rejoined British Army for war service 1914-16 and ran a rehab hospital for Indian troops in Barton-on-Sea.

 

c1920

 

d 1 January 1924 (69) in Wallington, London

 

Link to obituary in BMJ - a nice guy and a "real gent".

 

 

Dr Frank Rex (Jim) Fletcher MD MRCP 1890 - 1974 (84)

 

b 9 January 1890 Folkestone, Kent

 

FRF and sisters Gwen and Doris 1890s

 

Dover College School - First XV, and shooting team which won the Ashburton Shield.

 

MB BS 1913 London Hospital Medical College.  Whilst a student he became London Hospitals' Heavyweight Boxing Champion. 

 

m 15 August 1915 at St Mary Magdalene Church, Old Milton, Hampshire

 

 

Durban Swimming Pool - October 1917 - on the way to Mesopotamia

 

RAMC doctor during WWI, going to River-Sick Convoys in Mesopotamia (Iraq) in 1917, followed in 1919 by Clifden in the Hill Station of Murree (nr Rawalpindi) with Ethel and Michael to 1923.

 

Home at Clifden, Murree Hills (Rawalpindi) - Aug 1922

 

Then two spells in Sierra Leone between 1925 and 1928.  During this time he also returned to London Hospital and undertook doctorate (MD + MRCP 1928).  "Retired" from RAMC as a Major in 1931. 

 

3 generations at Folkestone Beach c1928

Elizabeth (Procter) Ethel (Burton) Frank Edward Frank Rex and young Michael

 

 

1930s (maybe 40s) Folkestone

 

l: back in civilian Folkestone from early 1930s where he was a G P then consultant general physician until retirement in 1956, except for WWII which he spent back with the RAMC in British Hospitals in France, England, Egypt and Gambia.  After National Health retirement he was a consultant to Pfizer Ltd for several years.

 

More about his RAMC career.

 

c1940 (50) in Cairo

 

d 18 May 1974 (84) Folkestone, Kent

 

Obituary

 

 

Frank Edward Fletcher 1864 - 1946 (82)

 

 

b  28 February 1864 in Oxenhope (West Yorkshire), where his dad John Fletcher (1823 - 1894 (71)) had risen from a very lowly woolcomber family to become a plumber & fitter, then later moved to Scarborough to be an ironmonger.  Frank, one of 12 children,  helped as apprentice plumber (Oxenhope) then ironmonger (Scarborough) and then went a big big leap further and became a music professor in Folkestone, Kent.

 

m 24 April 1889  in the Wesleyan Chapel, Queen Street, Scarborough.

 

c1913 Frank Rex, Frank Edward Fletcher, Jack

Doris, Elizabeth (Procter), Hugh, Gwen

in Folkestone

 

Folkestone was the major embarkation port for drafted troops leaving for the hell of the trenches in France in WWI, many of them stationed beforehand at the huge Napoleonic war Shorncliffe Garrison just up the road from where Peggy Fletcher later lived.

 

The troops used to march down the steep hill in Folkestone from the Leas to the harbour (now called Remembrance Hill), and the unwounded survivors marched back again - as others did during the Dunkerque evacuation only just over 20 years' later.

 

 

 

Frank Edward was organist at Christchurch, Folkestone, which was hit and destroyed by a WW II German bomb on 17 May 1942.  Folkestone was also a victim of bombing in WW I on May 25 1917.

 

d 1946 (82) - another lovely man who was never the same after the 1942 bombing destruction of his beloved church.

 

 

 

Shaw Lane (Oxenhope) - Brooksmeeting Mill & Coldwell (in middle distance) were Fletcher Country in the mid 1800s, but none remained in 2009!

 

 

Elizabeth Stringer Fletcher (Procter) 1865 - 1953 (88)

 

Elizabeth Fletcher (Procter) - 1890s

 

b 26 December 1865 in Scarborough - her mother's maiden name was Dobson, and her maternal grandmother was a Stringer - we have traced back a further 3 generations of Stringers in Scarborough.

 

l  Brought up living over parents' large drapers' shop at 108 Westborough (Scarborough's main shopping drag) where the building remains in a well preserved state surrounded by worse-than-bland late c20 shopping centre "architecture".

 

m Frank Edward, 24 April 1889  in the Wesleyan Chapel, Queen Street, Scarborough.  Frank's father John's ironmonger shop was in North Street, just round the corner from the Joseph Procter drapery shop. 

 

l After the marriage they moved to Folkestone for the rest of their lives. 

 

September 1917 - Ethel, Elizabeth, Jimmy,

Gwen (Jimmy's sister)

 

Elizabeth (Procter) & great grandson

Adrian Fletcher late 1940s

 

d  Near Folkestone in 1953 (88).

 

Think she was something special as well!

 

 

 

 

 

Barnard Castle - Grave of Mary Procter (d1795) Adrian's g-g-g-g-grandmother

 

The Procters descended from a farmer in Staindrop near Barnard Castle (Robert - early 1700s) ...

 

 

... who begat another farmer Robert, who begat a Chemyst (Joseph) in Barnard Castle (husband of the above tombed Mary), who begat another chemyst (Robert) who moved to Walmgate (York), who begat a successful draper (Joseph) in Scarborough who had a daughter named Elizabeth (left) who married an ironmonger turned music professor called Frank Edward Fletcher (Adrian's great-grandfather). 

 

 

Distant Left - Shop front at 108 Westborough, the Procter shop & home in Scarborough c1900 and below - the same facade in 2011.