Frank Edward and Elizabeth Stringer Fletcher (Procter) and their children

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BACKGROUND

Frank Edward Fletcher was born in Lower Town, Oxenhope (West Yorkshire) on 28 Feb 1864, the 6th of 14 children from the marriage of John and Maria Fletcher.  John came from a long line of West Yorkshire woolcombers who had lived around Coldwell (Shaw Lane) since at least the mid 1700s, Maria Dixon came from a cotton spinning family who had moved north to Brooksmeeting (cotton) Mill (also Shaw Lane) from Midge Hole Cotton Mill (Wadsworth).  John Fletcher broke free of the woolcombing life to become a tin & iron plate worker and gas fitter, servicing the two dozen or so mills around Oxenhope.  In the 1870s he and Maria moved their large family to Scarborough, where he opened an ironmongers shop with Frank Edward's assistance - firstly in North Marine Road, then in North Street near the new Westborough shopping strip.  John died in Scarborough in 1894, aged 69.  Maria died in Scarborough in 1911 aged 73.  They are buried in Manor Road Cemetery, Scarborough.

Frank Edward's wife to be, Elizabeth Stringer Procter, was the daughter of a successful Scarborough main street Draper, Joseph Procter (originally from York though his grandfather and other ancestors came from in and around Barnard Castle), and his Milliner wife Elizabeth (Dobson), who was a descendant of three generations of Stringers in Scarborough.  Joseph (d 1902) and Elizabeth (d 1911) are also buried in Manor Road Cemetery, Scarborough.

Frank Edward Fletcher became the Organist and Choirmaster of Christ Church Folkestone in 1886, moving down from Scarborough to live in Folkestone.  Two and a half years' later, on 24 April 1889,  Frank and Elizabeth Procter were married in the original Wesleyan Methodist Chapel in Queen Street, Scarborough. 
 

The new Mrs Elizabeth Stringer Fletcher (Stringer was her motjher's maiden name), enjoying a speedy and well deserved pregnancy, came down to Folkestone to join Frank Edward and servant at 6 Brockman Rd, and little Frank Rex Fletcher (Adrian's grandfather) was born on 9 January 1890.  Doris was born on 29 May 1893, and Gwen in January 1896.  Later in the '90s they bought the newly built  number 20 Brockman Rd as a long term family home, and sons Jack (16 April 1900) and Hugh (21 July 1908) got added to the family. 

 

How an Ironmonger from Scarborough became an Organist & Choir Master in Folkestone

On January 23 1937 a function was held at the Majestic Hotel, Folkestone, in honour of Mr F.E.Fletcher Mus Bac, FRCO, LTCL, Hon RCM, MRST, to commemorate 50 years service as organist and choirmaster at Christ Church, Folkestone.    In his speech, Frank Edward explained how he had come to be an organist, and a Folkestone one at that!   Mr Fletcher said it might interest some of them to know how he had come to be organist of Christ Church.  Before coming to Folkestone he had been organist at two churches at Scarborough.  He had really played his first Church service in a little village in the West Riding of Yorkshire, when he was about 12 or 13 years of age*.  "That was on a rickety little organ tied together with string."   “I had only fulfilled my second Scarborough appointment a few months” Mr Fletcher went on “when I received a letter from my old coach, Dr Storer, then organist at the Folkestone Parish Church, asking me to come to Folkestone at once as an organist and choirmaster was required for Christ Church.  That was over 50 years ago.”   “Dr Storer wrote a strong letter of recommendation to the Rev Claude Bosanquet, the Vicar of Christ Church, and Mr Bosanquet was kindness itself.  I played to him just after the week’s service, and a few weeks later, after my references had time to be investigated, I was offered the appointment.”   *Frank Edward Fletcher was born in Oxenhope, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, on 28 February 1864, and moved to Scarborough with his family between 1877 and 1881.  The two churches he was organist for in Scarborough were South Cliff and the Queen Street Wesleyan Chapel.  He was appointed organist and choir master of Christ Church, Folkestone, in 1886.

Frank Edward Fletcher in a studio portrait done in Glasgow (!) c1890 (c26)

Thanks to Roger Kingdon for this photo

Elizabeth Fletcher (Procter) c1890 (c24)

Thanks to Roger Kingdon for this photo from Gwen's album

Frank Rex Fletcher (b1890) with sisters Doris (b1893) & Gwen (b1896) or Gwen & Doris - Folkestone, late 1890s

Mum and Dad play Tennis at "Sunnyside" Folkestone

Adrian's grandfather, Frank Rex (Rex) Fletcher, aged c16 c1906 (and with hair!)

Studio photo of the Frank Edward Fletcher family probably taken in Folkestone 1914 when their ages were:  Doris Maude (21), Frank Rex (Jimmy) (24), Elizabeth Stringer (née Procter) (49), Frank Edward (50), Frederick Hugh (Hugh) (6), John Lionel (Jack) (14), Lillie Gwendolen (Gwen) (19).

Wedding of Frank Rex (Jimmy) Fletcher and Ethel Burton at St Mary Magdalene Parish Church, Old Milton, Hampshire - 15 August 1915

follow this link to see who they all were and see all of the wedding guests

A family on bikes c1915 - Gwen, Ethel, Rex, Frank Edward, Elizabeth, Doris

Farewell at Barham Camp 10 Sept 1917

Ethel Fletcher (27) (wife, pregnant), Elizabeth Fletcher (Procter) (51) (Mother), Jimmy Fletcher (27), Gwen Fletcher (21) (Jimmy's favourite Sister)

Link to Jimmy Fletcher's Photos from Africa, Mesopotamia (Iraq) and India 1917 - 1923

6 December 1923 - Rex ("Jimmy"), Ethel and Michael are back in England from an army posting as a Surgeon at the 18th British General Hospital, Rawalpindi (Bengal)

The Fletchers gather partners - Gwen's wedding reception at the Hotel Majestic, Folkestone on 6 December 1923

back row:  Hugh (15) (to marry Margaret Bowra 1935) (and to be a Royal Navy Captain), Frank Edward (Aged 59 - born into a wool combing dynasty in West Yorkshire and escaped to be an Organist and Music Teacher in far south Folkestone), Jack (also to be a Royal Navy Captain) and Molly (née Sprague) (married August 1923), Bill Kingdon (groom) (to be RN Commander), Dr Rex ("Jimmy") Fletcher (33 and a Captain in the RAMC),

front:  Ethel (née Burton) (Jimmy's wife, 33, daughter of an Indian Army doctor), Michael (Jimmy & Ethel's only child, aged 5), Elizabeth Fletcher (née Procter, aged 57) (daughter of a successful Scarborough Draper and his Milliner wife), Gwen (bride - aged 28), Doris Fletcher (Gwen's bossy sister, aged 30) (to marry Herbert "Berry" Hanauer in October 1924).

Frank Edward was one of  15 children, and Elizabeth one of 8.  By contrast, Gwen was to have two children, the three Fletcher boys had one child each and Doris none. 

Three generations of the Fletcher family having an English picnic around a bucket of "Slade's Dandy Toffy" on the welcoming (not) shingle of Folkestone beach - late 1920s.

Elizabeth, Ethel, Frank Edward, Frank Rex (Jimmy) and son Michael.

(early colour !) photo provided by Roger Kingdon

6ft+ Brothers and  Dover College Old Boys Dr Frank Rex Fletcher,

Jack Fletcher RN and Hugh Fletcher RN. 

Jack and Hugh both rose to the rank of Captain in the Royal Navy - in the submarine service, an unlikely spot for tall men!

Mid 1930s, at the gateway of Jimmy's house, Dene Court (Ingles Road, Folkestone).

Mystery lady (Edith Dean?), Elizabeth Fletcher (Procter), Michael Fletcher (grandson and Adrian's Dad) (1918 - 2007 (89)), Frank Edward Fletcher, probably Ethel Fletcher (Burton) (1890 - 1968 (78)).

photo provided by Roger Kingdon

Elizabeth Stringer Fletcher (Procter) (1865 - 1953 (87))

and Frank Edward Fletcher (1864 - 1946 (82))

and a fox

link to ancestors of Frank Edward Fletcher and Elizabeth Stringer Procter