Ethel Winifred Evelyn Whiting 1902-1980

Parents: John Whiting and Kate Kiddy.
Born: 13th July 1902 in Haverhill.(1,4)
Baptised: ?
Married: William T Ough in 1st Quarter 1944 in Surrey N.E. district (2,3)
Children: None
Died: 1st Quarter 1980, Thanet, Kent.(4)

Bio: Ethel was the youngest surviving child of John Whiting and Kate Kiddy, who ran and lived in the Royal Standard pub in Burton End, Haverhill. She was born on 13th July 1902(1,6), and appears on the 1911 census where she is living at home and is at school. Her family are now living at 96 Burton End, and John is no longer the publican of the Royal Standard. He is working as a silk weaver. Ethel has sisters, Lily May, Beatrice, Gladys and Annie living with her as well as a lodger, Walter Mayes.

Ethel left Haverhill, and on the 1921 census she is shown, aged 18 years and 2 months, working as a sewing maid at Leeds City Hospital for Infectious Diseases, Seacroft(7). How she came to be here, we do not know.

We get a good idea of the path she chose for herself in later life when she shows up on the 1939 Register(3) living at 31 High Street, Irthlingborough, Northamptonshire, along with someone called Hilda Carter, and two other people whose records are closed. Ethel and Hilda are both Salvation Army Captains. To this day, there is a still a Salvation Army shop in Irthlingborough High Street just two doors down from where Ethel was in 1939. The organisation seems to have a strong affiliation with the town.

Another branch of the Whiting family had a connection with the Salvation Army - brothers George James and Charles William were both keen members.

In 1944, at the age of 42 she married William Thomas Ough in Surrey North East district (2). He was born in 1904 in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, the son of William Ough a shoe maker who was originally from Launceston, Cornwall, and Sarah Ann Thomas.

Ethel and William lived in London and can be seen living at 22 Cholmondeley Avenue, Willesden West, on the 1952 Electoral Register, before living at 303 Wightman Road, North Haringey, in 1953 and returning to 22 Cholmondeley Avenue the next year. The couple can be seen at 29 St Erkenwald Road in Barking in 1964 and 1965 and Ethel's great niece Anne says they moved to 150 Wear Bay Road, Folkestone in about 1966. William died in Folkestone in 1968 (6). Ethel died at 150 Wear Bay Road, Folkestone, in 1980. (4)

Sources:

(1) Birth Register. 3rd Quarter 1902, Risbridge District, Volume 4a Page 891
(2) Marriage Register. 1st Quarter 1944, Surrey N.E. District, Volume 2a Page 171
(3) 1939 Register, RG101/6114A/005/36 Letter Code: RJFB, Findmypast.co.uk
(4) Death Register. 1st Quarter 1980, Thanet District, Volume 16 Page 1898
(5) London Electoral Registers 1832-1965, Ancestry.co.uk
(6) Death Register. 4th Quarter 1968, Folkestone District, Volume 5F Page 486
(7) 1921 Census. Leeds City Hospital, Seacroft, Leeds. Reg District: 500, Sub-District: 5, Enumeration District: 33. Findmypast.co.uk