Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

Mary Nash (548)

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MARY NASH: 1883 – 1940

Mary was born on 3^rd August 1883.[1]  She was the sixth of eight children[2] born to Alfred and Emma Ing. The Ing family lived in Ellesmere Road, Northchurch. Alfred was a garden labourer.[3]  Thirteen years before Mary had been born, the Education Act of 1870 made school attendance compulsory for children between the ages of five and ten years and Mary duly attended school. She was recorded as being a scholar at the age of seven years when the 1891 census was taken. Living as she did in Northchurch, she would no doubt have attended the National School at Northchurch.[4] Ten years later, at the age of 17, Mary was still living with her family in Ellesmere Road, but she and her younger sister, Florence, were then both working as tailoresses.

It was no doubt through her work as a tailoress that Mary met her husband to be, Harry Nash. Harry, some 5 ½ years older than Mary, was himself a tailor and had been bought up by his grandmother with whom he lived in Victoria Road in Berkhamsted. Mary and Harry married in 1907 and the newly weds set up home together at 17 Castle Street where they were both to live for the rest of their lives. On wedding, Mary seems to have given up her tailoring work to undertake unpaid home duties.[5] However, in Mary’s case, home duties did not include caring for children. Both the 1911 and 1921 census note that Mary and Harry had no children.

Mary died in August 1940. Although the St Peter’s burial record notes her address as 17 Castle Street, her death was registered in Hemel Hempstead, suggesting that she probably died in St Paul’s Hospital.

Mary was buried in Rectory Lane Cemetery on 23^rd August 1940. She was buried by the Congregational Minister, H Lansdown West[6] which indicates that she was non-conformist.

She was joined by Harry when he died in 1954.