Kate Ethel Whiting 1882-1960

Parents: Walter Whiting and Emily Jane Thake (1)
Born: 1882 in Haverhill. (1)
Baptised: ?
Married: Frederick Holliday, 29, batchelor, cook, son of Isaac Holliday, Upholsterer, in the first quarter of 1908 in York registration district.(2)
Children: Catherine Florence Holliday b.1909
Died: 11th May 1960 at 16 Derwent Avenue, Hatch End, Harrow.(3,8)

Bio: Kate Ethel was the eldest child of Walter Whiting and Emily Thake and was born in 1882 in Haverhill. I've not been able to find a baptism entry for her.

On the 1891 census she is at school and living at 14 Eden Road with her parents and younger siblings Arthur and Minnie.

Ten years on, we have the family living at 12 Wratting Road at the time of the 1901 census. Here, Kate is listed as a hair weaver along with her mother and brother Arthur.

At some point over the next few years Kate met Frederick Holliday, who was originally from Chesterton, Cambridgeshire. He is listed on the 1901 census as a pastry cook living at 26 Green Street, Cambridge, so how they came to meet up is unclear. What we can deduce from marriage records is that they married in early 1908 in the York registration district.(2) Again, we have no clues as to why it was here that they married, or if indeed they lived in this part of England for any length of time.

When we see them again, it is at 2 Eleanor Road, Bounds Green, London, on the 1911 census. Here we find Kate with a daughter Catherine, 2, who was born in Haverhill, and also present is Kate's brother Albert, 16, a commercial clerk, who is staying with them. Frederick is missing from this census entry, and the reason why becomes apparent when a search reveals him to be at the Manor Hotel, Datchett, where he is hotel chef. Presumably he stayed there some of the time, or at least was working at the time the census was taken. We see that the Manor hotel is run by Thomas Jenkins, a northerner with a wife from Yorkshire. A hint of a connection, perhaps, between Frederick's employer and his Yorkshire marriage.

With the onset of war in 1914 Frederick would not have been amongst those needing to join up until the Military Service Act came into force in 1916 and was eventually altered to conscript men from 18-51 including those who were married.

Frederick did end up being conscripted as his surviving service records show.(4) He attested on the 28th August 1916 and was attached to the 2nd Battalion 8th Lancashire Fusiliers as a private. His occupation was 'chef' and he is listed as living at 6 Seymour Buildings, Euston Road at this time.

It seems Frederick's cooking skills were utilised as he is entered as 'private - cook' on his statement of services. It looks like he was in various battalions of the Lancashire Regiment and went under numbers 307373 and 266474 during his service. He was in France for 44 days from 27th February 1917 to 11th April 1917 until returning to England where he remained for the rest of the war.

London Electoral Registers(5) allow us to trace where Kate and Frederick lived during the years after the war. They remained at 5 Seymour Buildings from 1919 up to 1927 when they moved to 17 Fleetwood House, Wandsworth. In 1930 they moved again, this time to 42 Nigel Buildings, Portpool Lane.

It is hard to know if this was just a coincidence, but several doors down from them at 49 Nigel Buildings was Ethel Gertrude Rampling nee Whiting, who was not closely related at all, but was nevertheless another Haverhill Whiting.

Kate and Frederick remained here until 1937 at least. Their daughter Catherine lived with them too. She married Eric George Stoakley Batterby in 1937.(6)

It looks likely that Frederick died in 1956 in the Harrow district.(7) Kate Ethel died four years later on 11th May 1960 at 16 Derwent Avenue, Hatch End, Pinner.(3) Probate records show she left £1552 9s 6d to her daughter and her daughter's husband Eric, a hairdresser.(8)

Sources:

(1) Birth Register. 2nd Quarter 1882, Risbridge District, Volume 4a Page 562
(2) Marriage Register. 1st Quarter 1908, York District, Volume 9d Page 8
(3) Death Register. 2nd Quarter 1960, Harrow District, Volume 5f Page 328
(4) Ancestry.com. British Army WWI Service Records, 1914-1920
(5) Ancestry.com. London, England, Electoral Registers, 1847-1965
(6) Marriage Register. 4th Quarter 1937, Edmonton District, Volune 3a Page 2255
(7) Death Register. 4th Quarter 1956, Harrow District, Volume 5f Page 339
(8) Ancestry.com. England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966