Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

Plot 529 Lizzie Gent (née Cook) (1872-1952)

Lizzie was born 24 October 1872 in  Berkhamsted. Her father was Thomas Cook, a gardener born in Berkhamsted and her mother Mary had been born in Poplar, London..

In 1881 family was living in Park Street. Her mother was a laundress, her elder brother working with her father and learning gardening and Lizzie and her two younger brothers were at school.

Lizzie married Arthur William Gent, a grocer, in Islington parish church, 7 August 1893. Arthur was from a canal boat building family, the youngest of seven children, and had obviously decided that he would chose a different career. Lizzie must have met him when the family moved from their London home near the Regent’s Canal where Arthur had been born, to Berkhamsted. Arthur must have wanted to return to his home area because they were to have two children, both born in Islington: Henry Thomas (1896) and Helena Mary (1898). Sadly they were never to know their father because Arthur died aged only 26 on 2 May 1898.

Lizzie returned home to Berkhamsted with her children and Arthur was buried here in this plot.

In 1911 the family lived at 290, High Street. Lizzie was running her own general store from the premises and young Henry was a grocer’s assistant

Lizzie died on Christmas Day 1952 in St Paul’s hospital, Hemel Hempstead, aged 80