Biography:
Alfred Charles Mead (972)
12/12/1860 –04/01/1941
Alfred Charles Mead (972)
View full burial details
ALFRED CHARLES MEAD; 1860 – 1941.
Alfred was born on 12th December 1860. He was the youngest of six children born to John and Sarah Mead. The family lived in the small hamlet of Nettleden, a few miles north of Berkhamsted. In 1861 John Mead was working as a shepherd, but ten years later in 1871 his occupation was recorded in the census of that year as agricultural labourer. His wife Sarah, like many poorer women in the area, supplemented the family income by working as a straw plaiter. In 1871 Alfred was ten years of age and attending school, but his older brothers, like their father, were working as agricultural labourers and two of his sisters, 13 and 15 years old, were like their mother, also straw plaiters.
On the 7th December 1883, a few days before his twenty-third birthday, Alfred married in the parish church at Edlesborough. His bride was Mary Ann Mead. Mary was Alfred’s first cousin. Her father William Mead was the younger brother of Alfred’s father. She too came from a humble rural background. Her father was also an agricultural labourer.
The marriage record tells us that Alfred’s occupation at the time of the wedding was that of stableman, although by the time of the 1891 census he too was working as a labourer. Alfred and Mary were living in River Terrace in Northchurch in 1891. Mary had given birth to four children, Margaret, born about 1885, Emily, 1887 and twins, William and Beatrice in 1890 The youngest, Herbert, was born in 1901. William did not survive infancy; he died in 1892 and the census of 1911 confirms that Mary gave birth to five children, of whom one had died.
By 1901 the family had moved from Northchurch and were then living in Castle Hill Cottage in Berkhamsted. Alfred had returned to working with horses as a groom, an occupation which he followed until retirement. The Mead family were still living in Castle Hill in 1911, but by 1919, Alfred and Mary had moved to 16 Cross Oak Road, where Alfred was to live for the rest of his life until his death in 1941.
At the date the 1939 Register was compiled, Alfred was then 60 years of age. He was no longer working and is noted in the Register as being “incapacitated.” Living with Alfred and Mary in 1939 was their oldest daughter Margaret, who had not married, and 20 year old Grace Camroux. (Grace was Alfred and Mary’s granddaughter. Their daughter Beatrice married Lionel Clowe. Beatrice and Lionel had a daughter, Grace, who married Frederick J Camroux. Curiously, although Grace is noted in the Register as being single, her surname of “Clowe” is crossed out and is overwritten with “Camroux”).
Alfred died on 4th January 1941 at the age of 80. Mary survived him by ten years before dying in 1951 and joining Alfred in the grave in Rectory Lane cemetery in which he had been buried.
View this burial in the cemetery
ALFRED CHARLES MEAD; 1860 – 1941.
Alfred was born on 12th December 1860. He was the youngest of six children born to John and Sarah Mead. The family lived in the small hamlet of Nettleden, a few miles north of Berkhamsted. In 1861 John Mead was working as a shepherd, but ten years later in 1871 his occupation was recorded in the census of that year as agricultural labourer. His wife Sarah, like many poorer women in the area, supplemented the family income by working as a straw plaiter. In 1871 Alfred was ten years of age and attending school, but his older brothers, like their father, were working as agricultural labourers and two of his sisters, 13 and 15 years old, were like their mother, also straw plaiters.
On the 7th December 1883, a few days before his twenty-third birthday, Alfred married in the parish church at Edlesborough. His bride was Mary Ann Mead. Mary was Alfred’s first cousin. Her father William Mead was the younger brother of Alfred’s father. She too came from a humble rural background. Her father was also an agricultural labourer.
The marriage record tells us that Alfred’s occupation at the time of the wedding was that of stableman, although by the time of the 1891 census he too was working as a labourer. Alfred and Mary were living in River Terrace in Northchurch in 1891. Mary had given birth to four children, Margaret, born about 1885, Emily, 1887 and twins, William and Beatrice in 1890 The youngest, Herbert, was born in 1901. William did not survive infancy; he died in 1892 and the census of 1911 confirms that Mary gave birth to five children, of whom one had died.
By 1901 the family had moved from Northchurch and were then living in Castle Hill Cottage in Berkhamsted. Alfred had returned to working with horses as a groom, an occupation which he followed until retirement. The Mead family were still living in Castle Hill in 1911, but by 1919, Alfred and Mary had moved to 16 Cross Oak Road, where Alfred was to live for the rest of his life until his death in 1941.
At the date the 1939 Register was compiled, Alfred was then 60 years of age. He was no longer working and is noted in the Register as being “incapacitated.” Living with Alfred and Mary in 1939 was their oldest daughter Margaret, who had not married, and 20 year old Grace Camroux. (Grace was Alfred and Mary’s granddaughter. Their daughter Beatrice married Lionel Clowe. Beatrice and Lionel had a daughter, Grace, who married Frederick J Camroux. Curiously, although Grace is noted in the Register as being single, her surname of “Clowe” is crossed out and is overwritten with “Camroux”).
Alfred died on 4th January 1941 at the age of 80. Mary survived him by ten years before dying in 1951 and joining Alfred in the grave in Rectory Lane cemetery in which he had been buried.
Military graves