Herbert William Whiting 1885-1928

Parents: Joseph Whiting and Alice Lucy Moore (1,2)
Born: 2nd April 1885 in Burton End, Haverhill. (1,2)
Baptised: 19th February 1887 at St Mary's Church, Haverhill. (1)
Married: Eliza Storey, 20, spinster of 27 Tobin Street, daughter of Henry Storey, deceased, on 28th October 1907 at St Clements Church, Kensington. Witnessed by J Whiting and Lily Watts(3,4)
Children: Sidney Joseph Whiting b.1908, Albert Henry Whiting b.1912 and Alice Maude Whiting b.1918
Died: 1928 in Kensington.(5)

Bio: Herbert was born at Burton End on 2nd April 1885, but would only spend the first few years of his life in Haverhill and doesn't feature on any censuses here.

He had an older brother Frederick James, who was blind, and a younger brother John Arthur who was also born in Haverhill. It seems that Herbert's parents Joseph and Alice took the family down to London just before December 1890 as this is when their fourth son Reginald is born at 21 Hurstway Street, Kensington.

On the 1891 census Herbert is living at 22 Hurstway Street, Kensington, with his parents and three brothers. Father Joseph is working as a general labourer. Their eldest son, Frederick, is listed as 'blind' on this census.

The next census in 1901 sees the family still living in Kensington, at 12 Hurstway Street. Joseph is now a horse keeper, and Herbert and John are working as van guards. Herbert was still living at this address in 1907 when he married Eliza Storey, of Tobin Street, which was the street his aunt Esther lived in. Eliza was Kensington born-and-bred. Her late father Henry had been a general dealer in the area.

The 1911 census finds Herbert, 27, and Eliza, 24, living at 12 Martin Street, Bramley Road, Notting Hill. Herbert is now a general dealer himself, and Eliza is a laundress. They have one son, Sidney Whiting, 3, and also living with them are Eliza's brothers William Storey, 18, a law clerk, and Albert Storey, 13, who is at school.

From GRO registers it appears that Herbert and Eliza had another son and a daughter. In 1912 Albert Henry Whiting with mother's maiden name Storey is born in the Fulham district and in 1918 Alice M Whiting is born in the Kensington district with the same mothers maiden name.

The London Electoral registers suggest that Herbert and Eliza stayed in Kensington, but moved to 18 Kenilworth Street over the next few years.(7)

It then seems that when Herbert's mother Alice died in 1926, he and Eliza were to live at his parents house 12 Hurstway Street with Herbert's blind brother Frederick.

It seems that Herbert died at the age of 44 in 1928. A Herbert W Whiting of the correct age dies in the Kensington district at this time.(5) This is then confirmed when we see widowed Eliza living with her brother-in-law Frederick and her son Sidney at 12 Hurstway on the 1930 Electoral registers.(7)

Five years later in 1935 Eliza and Frederick are still there with Eliza's other son Albert Henry.

When Eliza died is unclear at present, but there is no reason to suspect that she left the Kensington area.

Sources:

(1) Suffolk Records Office, Bury St Edmunds, Parish Registers of St Mary's Church, Haverhill. Fiche 578/4/p15 of 37
(2) Birth Register. 2nd Quarter 1885, Risbridge District, Volume 4a Page 585
(3) Marriage Register. 4th Quarter 1907, Kensington District, Volume 1a Page 325
(4) London Metropolitan Archives, Saint Clement, Notting Hill, Register of marriages, P84/CLE, Item 018.
(5) Death Register. 2nd Quarter 1928, Kensington District, Volume 1a Page 169
(7) Ancestry.com, London Electoral Registers, 1835-1965