Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

GERTRUDE  GREGORY; 1869 -1913
Gertrude Jane Gregory was the second child born to Robert and Elizabeth Gregory. She was born on the 15th April 1869, on the Rossway Estate near Northchurch, Berkhamsted, where her father was butler to the Hadden family who owned Rossway. Like her older sister, Annie Edith who had been born two years earlier in 1867, Gertrude was baptised at St Mary’s church in Northchurch.

Annie and Gertrude both attended the Board School in Berkhamsted.  What was known as the British, or Chalk School and latterly became the Board School, had first opened at the corner of Park View Road in 1834. Pupils had to pay “the school pence”, between 1d and 3d, towards the cost of the school. The very poorest could apply for exemption from the school pence.

Gertrude was an able student. Notices concerning the Board School were regularly published in local newspapers and Gertrude’s name appears on a number of occasions as a winner of prizes for academic achievement. For example, on 9th August 1884 (Gertrude was then 15) The Bucks Herald published the following notice on “Lady Sarah Spencer, assisted by Mr Hadden and the clerk, gave away the prizes. The winners of the Augustus Smith bible – best boy and girl – were Frederick Wood and Gertrude Gregory.”

The following year Gertrude applied for and won a position as a sorter for the post office. The Bucks Herald of the 12th June 1886 carried the following notice. “The Board School – Gertrude Gregory daughter of Mr Gregory of Rossway was recently been successful in a competitive examination of candidates for female sorters at the General Post Office. The number of places open was 15 and of candidates 174. Miss Gregory was educated at the Board School Berkhamsted.”

If Gertrude ever took up her hard-won position at the Post Office, she could not have remained there for very long. In 1884 the Hadden family had been financially stricken when disease struck Ceylonese coffee plantations from which they derived their income and they could not afford to maintain Rossway. The estate was leased in 1886 and The Bucks Herald of 30th October 1886 carried the following notice “THURSDAY…- Sale of household furniture and effects at Rossway, near Berkhamsted by Messrs W. Brown & Co.” Gertrude’s father lost his position as butler to the family and the family lost their home. The Gregorys and the other domestic servants at Rossway had to move on.

Robert took a public house in St Pancras, London, The Falkland Arms, and we know from the 1891 census that Gertrude lived there with her parents. Her occupation is described as “assistant”, so presumably she was helping her parents run the pub.
Robert did not run the pub for many years and he and his family had moved back to Berkhamsted by the time of the 1901 census. The family moved into a substantial property in Kings Road, Falkland House (so named, presumably, after the pub Robert had just retired from). Both Gertrude and her sister also lived there. Annie was then 33 and Gertrude 31. Both daughters were single and neither of them has any occupation noted against their name. The family was sufficiently well-to-do to be able to employ a 19 year old general servant girl who also lived at the house.

In 1911 Annie and Gertrude were still spinsters and living with Robert and Elizabeth at Falkland House. The family then employed two domestic servants.

Two years later on 15th April 1913, Gertrude died at Falkland House. She was 43 years old. Her sister Annie was with her. Her death certificate reveals that the primary cause of her death was Myasthenia Gravis. Myasthenia Gravis is a chronic autoimmune, neuromuscular disease that causes weakness in the skeletal muscles. These muscles are responsible for functions involving breathing and moving parts of the body and the death certificate records that dysponea – shortness of breath – was a secondary cause of Gertrude’s death.

She was the first of her family to be buried in Rectory Lane Cemetery.  Her older sister Annie lived until 1942 and was then buried with her.