Biography:
Florence Rance
10/03/1892 –1943
Florence Rance
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Plot 890 Florence (née Wesley) (1892-1943)
Florence was born 10 March 1892 in Berkhamsted to unmarried mother Louisa Wesley.
On 3 May 1897 she began school at Pitstone National School. Her father’s name was given as George Wesley, which appears to be a fiction.
In 1901 she was living with her mother and grandmother, Emma Wesley, “near the railway arch” in Pitstone. The two women were straw plaiters.
By 28 October 1908 she had left school.
Florence entered domestic service and in 1911 was a live-in general domestic servant employed by widow Mary Ann Reddy and her son in Hampstead.
William J Wesley was born in 1913. (His father is not known, but by 1939 he was using the surname Rance, so his stepfather may possibly have been his real father. However he was still recorded as Wesley on the 1921 census return.)
Florence married Alfred Rance in Berkhamsted 1915.
They were to have six children: Winifred C (1916), Alfred John (1922), Arthur Leslie (1924), Kathleen Margaret (1925), Philip David (1928) and Geoffrey Leonard (1930).
In 1921 the family lived at Bank Mill Cottages, Bank Mill. Alfred was a coal carter.
Alfred died May 1932 at 39, Highfield Road and is buried here.
At the time of the 1939 Register Florence lived at 28, Highfield Road with William J, Arthur, Kathleen and Geoffrey L, plus gardener Robert Snowdon and charwoman Winifred Snowdon who may have been lodgers.
She died in 1943.
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Plot 890 Florence (née Wesley) (1892-1943)
Florence was born 10 March 1892 in Berkhamsted to unmarried mother Louisa Wesley.
On 3 May 1897 she began school at Pitstone National School. Her father’s name was given as George Wesley, which appears to be a fiction.
In 1901 she was living with her mother and grandmother, Emma Wesley, “near the railway arch” in Pitstone. The two women were straw plaiters.
By 28 October 1908 she had left school.
Florence entered domestic service and in 1911 was a live-in general domestic servant employed by widow Mary Ann Reddy and her son in Hampstead.
William J Wesley was born in 1913. (His father is not known, but by 1939 he was using the surname Rance, so his stepfather may possibly have been his real father. However he was still recorded as Wesley on the 1921 census return.)
Florence married Alfred Rance in Berkhamsted 1915.
They were to have six children: Winifred C (1916), Alfred John (1922), Arthur Leslie (1924), Kathleen Margaret (1925), Philip David (1928) and Geoffrey Leonard (1930).
In 1921 the family lived at Bank Mill Cottages, Bank Mill. Alfred was a coal carter.
Alfred died May 1932 at 39, Highfield Road and is buried here.
At the time of the 1939 Register Florence lived at 28, Highfield Road with William J, Arthur, Kathleen and Geoffrey L, plus gardener Robert Snowdon and charwoman Winifred Snowdon who may have been lodgers.
She died in 1943.
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