Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

Mary Elizabeth Bamford (688)

1832 –01/03/1916

Originally from Leicestershire, married a printer who became a gamekeeper and moved to Berkhamsted

Relatives

Fanny Bamford (402) — other

Thomas Charles Bamford — son

Florence H. Bamford — daughter

• Melanie Hilton

Plot 688: Mary Elizabeth Bamford née Colpman (1832-1916)

Mary Elizabeth was born in 1832 in Foxton, Leicestershire, the daughter of Emanuel Colpman, a farmer/grazier, & Mary (née Nixon). She was part of a large family, with two older brothers and a sister, and three brothers and two sisters younger than herself.

It is impossible to gain more than a sketchy outline of Mary’s early life. The 1851 census records her living with an aunt and uncle who were farmers, although whether as a guest or part of the family cannot be established. Then in 1861 she was working as an assistant to a linen draper in Gosport, Hampshire.

Something brought her to London, for on the 19th May 1863 she married Charles Bamford, a printer, at St Bride’s, Fleet Street, London, the famous “wedding cake” church.

Charles, who gave his place of birth variously as Ashridge Park, Pitstone and Little Gaddesden, was apprenticed to a printer in 1851 and in 1861 was working as a printer and bookbinder in Hemel Hempstead.

The couple must have returned to Hemel Hempstead where their first child, Thomas Charles, was born 2^nd April 1864. Their two daughters, however, were born elsewhere – Fanny in Sleaford in 1866 and Florence Hitchin in 1867 in, as her name records, Hitchin.

At some point between 1861 and 1871 something must have caused Charles to take a radical change of career, for the 1871 census finds the family living at Blackhall Lodge, North Huish, near Totnes, Devon and Charles’s occupation is given as gamekeeper – his own father’s profession.

In 1881 they had moved again to Upper Gravenhurst near Ampthill, Bedfordshire where Charles was a “park & gamekeeper”. It was usual for gamekeepers to move about fairly frequently as landowners preferred to employ men who were not too well embedded in the community where they might make friends with the local poachers.

Both daughters Fanny and Florence were at home, but Thomas had left and was working as a railway clerk.

Charles died in 1889 at Gravenhurst aged fifty six and the 1901 census records Mary Elizabeth living with her unmarried son Thomas and her unmarried daughter Florence at 2, Cowper Road.

By 1911 they had moved to 3, Boxwell Road and that is where Mary died 1^st March 1916, aged seventy nine. She is buried here with Thomas and Florence.

Thomas Charles Bamford

02/04/1864 –04/02/1943

Son of Mary Bamford, Railway clerk who remained a batchelor

Relatives

Mary Elizabeth Bamford (688) — mother

Fanny Bamford (402) — other

Florence H. Bamford — sister

• Melanie Hilton

Plot 688: Thomas Charles Bamford (1864-1943)

Thomas was born 2nd April 1864 in Hemel Hempstead the son of Charles Bamford, a printer and bookbinder and Mary Elizabeth née Colpman. He was baptised in the parish church on the 18th April.

His father left the printing trade and followed his own father’s occupation of gamekeeper after Thomas’s birth and the family moved about the country, as gamekeepers tended to do. By 1881 Thomas, aged seventeen, had left home and become a railway clerk in Berkhamsted, living with his aunts Isabella Loader and Fanny Bamford in the High Street. He was to follow that occupation for his entire working life. He never married.

His father died in 1889 and in 1901 his widowed mother and unmarried sister Florence were living with Thomas at 2, Cowper Road, Berkhamsted.

By 1911 they had moved to 3, Boxwell Road where his mother died 1st March, 1916

Thomas and Florence were still living together at the same address at the time of the 1939 register and that is where Thomas passed away on the 4th February 1943, aged 80. He was buried with his mother and three years later his sister Florence was laid to rest with them.

His aunt Fanny Bamford, his father’s sister, is buried in Plot 402.

Florence H. Bamford

13/03/1867 –24/10/1946

Daughter of Mary Bamford, a dressmaker and spinster

Relatives

Mary Elizabeth Bamford (688) — mother

Thomas Charles Bamford — brother

Fanny Bamford (402) — other

• Melanie Hilton

Plot 688: Florence Hitchin Bamford (1867–1946)

Florence was born 13th March 1867 and named for her place of birth, Hitchin.

She was the daughter and youngest child of Charles Bamford, a printer and bookbinder who later changed careers to become a gamekeeper, and Mary Elizabeth, née Colpman.

Florence never married and lived with her parents until the death of her father in 1889.

In 1901 Florence, then working as a dressmaker, was living with her widowed mother and unmarried brother Thomas, a railway clerk, at  2, Cowper Road, Berkhamsted.

They had moved to 3, Boxwell Road by 1911 and her mother died there in 1916. This was to remain Florence’s home until her death at the age of eighty two on the 24th October 1946.

She was buried with her mother and her brother Thomas who had died in 1943.