Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

EMMA STERNE (NÉE WHEELER) (1852-1931) Emma was born in Bierton Road, Aylesbury, on 21 November 1852, the second of six children born to cooper father James Wheeler and mother Mary Reading.  She was baptised at St Mary’s Church, Aylesbury on 30 November 1853. In her early childhood, Emma, with her parents and siblings, George and Mary Ann, moved to Berkhamsted.  The family were living in the High Street in 1861 and, by this time, Emma and her siblings were attending school and the family had welcomed a baby, James, a little brother to Emma and her siblings.  While it is unclear as to the reason the family moved to Berkhamsted, it is likely due to Emma’s father’s occupation as a cooper.  Living in the High Street, he would’ve been in an ideal location for work.  He may have made casks that would be used to store all manner of goods and perhaps his casks were made for use elsewhere and transported by horse-drawn barges along the Grand Union Canal. Over the next four years, the family would welcome two more children, Arthur John in 1862 and Elizabeth Ellen in 1865.  Both children were born in Aylesbury and it is not yet known if the family moved back briefly or if Emma’s mother Mary was in the area staying with family at the time of the births. The 1871 Census sees Emma and her family in Berkhamsted, living in Eddy Street which was then under the parish of Northchurch.  Emma was working as a Brush Maker which wasn’t an uncommon profession for a woman at that time.  By the 1890s world-renowned brush company G B Kent & Son's would employ hundreds of women in their factories in East London and later at their site in Hemel Hempstead. The following year, on Christmas Day 1872, Emma married Harry Sterne, son of Francis Stern and Eliza George.  The couple married in Linslade, Buckinghamshire and began married life in Berkhamsted, where they welcomed their first daughter, Alice Janet on 26 March 1873 at Eddy Street.  Two years later the family were joined by another daughter, Sarah Jane, who was also born in the town. Harry was also a Brush Maker which meant he would’ve very likely been a journeyman, travelling from place to place seeking employment.  It was common practice for the men to take their families with them on their quests for work and this could explain why the family were in Ashton Under Lyne, Lancashire, the birthplace of Emma and Harry’s third child, Francis James in 1878. At the time of the 1881 Census, Emma and Harry were residing at 5 Holdom Terrace, Fenny Stratford, with their children Alice Janet, Sarah Jane, Francis James and Henry Thomas.  Joining them in the household is Harry’s brother Thomas, also a Brush Maker. Fenny Stratford was home to Emma and her family for at least three years with the arrivals of son and daughter, Henry Thomas in 1879 and Mary Eliza in 1882, both being born in the area. The family returned to Berkhamsted on or before 1884 when son, George William, was born.  The family was complete with the arrivals of three more children – Faudell Philip in 1885, Arthur John in 1887 (who went on to serve in the Royal Army Service Corps in WW1 as Private M2/149972) and Charles Sidney in 1888. The 1891 Census shows the entire family together, residing in Charles Street –Emma, Harry and their nine children – the one and only time the family would be documented together before the children start to fly the nest to begin married life or enter the military. Over the next decade, Emma and her family moved to nearby 14 Montague Road.  Emma became a Laundress and, after her husband’s death in 1904, she went on to be an employer of a laundry at Angle Place, Berkhamsted.  Emma remained at Angle Place up to her death on 13 April 1931.