Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

Unmarked grave Alfred Dolling (1864-1934) Alfred was born in early 1864, the son of Ernest and Mary Dolling, and was baptised in St Peter’s in February. In 1871 his father was a groom employed by a private household. Alfred had an elder sister and three younger brothers. 16 August 1879 the Herts Advertiser reported on the annual examinations of religious knowledge of  “the monitors, candidates and pupil teachers of the Church of England schools in each diocese.” Alfred Dolling of Great Berkhamsted had passed as a Monitor. By 1881 17 year-old Alfred was employed as a “cutter in an emery factory”, presumably cutting up sheets of emery paper. His younger brother Arthur, aged 15, worked in a brush factory and their mother, now widowed, was a laundress. Life must have been hard with three of the boys still at school and those in work presumably not being paid very much on account of their age. Things were probably rather easier ten years later. The family had moved to George Street and, although Mary was not working, all five siblings were living at home and in employment. Mary Ann was a parlour maid, Alfred a printer’s warehouseman and the three younger sons all brush finishers. Shortly after the 1891 census that year Alfred married Eleanor Stapleton in Berkhamsted and their daughter Nellie was born in 1892 and son Ernest in 1900. The family had moved to 14, Ravens Lane when the 1901 census was taken. Alfred was to live there for the rest of his life and continue to be employed at the printing warehouse. The Watford Observer of October 6 1901 reporting on the trial of a bicyclist accused of homicide as a result of a fatal collision on Gravel Path quoted Eleanor Dolling of 14, Ravens Lane as a witness. (The accused was found innocent.) Alfred died at home in June aged 70 and was buried 7 June 1934. His father Ernest (died 1875) also lies in this cemetery in an unmarked grave, as does his uncle Edwin (died 1888).