Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

Mary Anne was born in January 1861 in Berkhamsted and baptised that month.  Her parents were Thomas and Sarah Anne Andrews. By the age of 20 in 1881 she was living with her widowed 64 year-old grandmother Harriet Holloway, Harriet’s two daughters, son and son-in-law on the High Street and working as a Laundress. Two years later she married Charles Pocock in Ruislip. They went on to have three children: Mildred born on 12th December 1885, Ethel Beatrice on 19th February 1889 and Gertrude Grace on 15th July 1891. Prior to Gertrude’s birth they were living in Ruislip with Mary Anne’s parents, Thomas and Sarah Andrews. Within a few years the family had moved out and were living in Berkhamsted, along with a relative of her husband’s Fred Pocock. Throughout her life she worked as a laundress. Her three adult daughters were variously a dressmaker, coat assistant and a domestic. Her husband died in 1918 leaving his goods to Mary Ann and their daughter Mildred. She lived on for a further 18 years, dying in September 1936.