Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

Annie Catherine Hathaway

1876 –06/11/1939

Boarding house keeper who moved to Berkhamsted to live with daughter late in life

• Melanie Hilton

Unmarked grave Annie Catherine Hathway (née Schmittdiel, late Riglin) (1876-1939) 

Annie was born in 1876 in Marylebone, London, the daughter of Henry Schmittdiel, a master baker born in Germany, and his London-born wife Winifred.

The 1881 census records her as the eldest of their three daughters and the family was living at 43, Walnut Tree Court, Lambeth.

Annie married John George William Riglin, a beer house keeper, in Southwark’s Roman Catholic cathedral on 14 February 1899. Stella was born in 1899 and in 1901 they were living at 65, Stockwell Road, Lambeth with their one year-old son William and Winnie Schmittdiel, Annie’s sister, who was employed as a servant – perhaps in the beer house. Stella is not recorded.

What became of John Riglin is not known. His death has not been traced, but in 1911 Annie is shown on the census as the wife of William Hathway, a sheet metal worker making gas meters. With them were Stella Riglin Hathway and William Riglin Hathway, described as William’s stepchildren, and Hilda Hathway, born 1905, his daughter.

However, the Marriages registration clearly shows that Annie did not marry William Hathway until the last quarter of 1915. Hilda’s birth registration gives her mother’s maiden name as Schmittdiel.

Their daughter Phyllis was born in 1915.

William died 14 October 1918 in St Thomas’s Hospital, Lambeth. His home address was 110, Camberwell New Road, a late Georgian end of terrace house of two stories with a basement near Kennington Park. He left Annie £194 7s 11d.

In 1921 Annie was a boarding house keeper in Ramsgate at 52, Bellevue Road – a three-storey end of terrace house a short walk from the sea. Living with her were Hilda and Phyllis and one boarder.

The 1939 Register records her living at 75, Charles Street in the home of her daughter Hilda who had married Sydney Crompton.

Annie died 6 November 1939 aged 66.