Biography:
Bessie Edna Gower
15/04/1888 –24/06/1946
Bessie Edna Gower

Unmarked grave Bessie Edna Gower (1888-1946)
Bessie was born 15 April 1888, the daughter of Samuel and Jemima (née Saunders) Gower who lived in Chesham High Street.
Her parents, members of the Evangelical church, had lived a varied life, including a short spell in Worcester, Massachusetts and, according to the 1911 census, Jemima had given birth to 11 children, 6 of whom had died by 1911. Of the 9 who can be traced, Bessie was the fourth.
In the 1891 census Charles is recorded and a seedsman and, by 1901, a seedsman and florist.
Bessie left home to a life in domestic service, apparently specialising in looking after elderly people. In 1911 she was a servant to the Misses Bett, two spinster sisters of independent means who lived in Paddington. The 1921 census shows that Bessie moved with the surviving Bett sister, Miss Lydia, aged 87, to 8, Warrington Gardens, West London. An elderly widow was also at that address and the ladies employed another servant.
In Bessie was a 1930 live-in domestic help to Mary and Walter Timson at 20, Boxwell Road and was still there in 1939, looking after Walter who was by then widowed and an invalid.
Bessie died 24 June 1946 at 25, Leyland Avenue, St Albans aged 58.
Her parents lie in this cemetery in plot 829.

in the cemetery
Unmarked grave Bessie Edna Gower (1888-1946)
Bessie was born 15 April 1888, the daughter of Samuel and Jemima (née Saunders) Gower who lived in Chesham High Street.
Her parents, members of the Evangelical church, had lived a varied life, including a short spell in Worcester, Massachusetts and, according to the 1911 census, Jemima had given birth to 11 children, 6 of whom had died by 1911. Of the 9 who can be traced, Bessie was the fourth.
In the 1891 census Charles is recorded and a seedsman and, by 1901, a seedsman and florist.
Bessie left home to a life in domestic service, apparently specialising in looking after elderly people. In 1911 she was a servant to the Misses Bett, two spinster sisters of independent means who lived in Paddington. The 1921 census shows that Bessie moved with the surviving Bett sister, Miss Lydia, aged 87, to 8, Warrington Gardens, West London. An elderly widow was also at that address and the ladies employed another servant.
In Bessie was a 1930 live-in domestic help to Mary and Walter Timson at 20, Boxwell Road and was still there in 1939, looking after Walter who was by then widowed and an invalid.
Bessie died 24 June 1946 at 25, Leyland Avenue, St Albans aged 58.
Her parents lie in this cemetery in plot 829.