1857 –1945
A dtraw plaiter and domestic help; wife of a labourer
Relatives
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Unmarked grave Elizabeth Allen (née Gates) (1857-1945)
Elizabeth Gates was born in 1857 in Berkhamsted to wheelwright William Gates and his wife Charlotte, a straw plaiter. In 1861 they lived in Canal Side, Berkhamsted.
In 1871 Elizabeth was living with her uncle and aunt Robert and Sophia Winfield in Mill Street Alley. Robert was a labourer and Sophia, their daughter and Elizabeth were all straw plaiters, producing plait for the Luton and Dunstable hat industry.
Elizabeth married labourer Thomas Allen in Berkhamsted in 1879.
In 1881 she and Thomas were lodgers in the home of Robert and Sophia Winfield in Bridge Street, Berkhamsted. She was a straw plaiter.
John Thomas was born in 1881 followed by Alfred (1886), Mary A (1888) and Bertie (1891).
In 1891 the family lived in Bridge Street. Her widowed uncle Robert Winfield was with them.
Elizabeth (Lizzie) was born in 1893 and William in 1896. Annie was born in January and died in March 1898. She is buried in this cemetery.
In 1901 they lived at 2, Bridge Street. Thomas was employed in a market garden, Elizabeth was a “domestic help” and Alfred, the oldest child left at home, was employed at Cooper’s sheep dip factory.
Harry was born in 1902.
Their son John Thomas died in February 1906 aged 24. He is buried in this cemetery.
Thomas died in January 1911. His burial place is unknown. Elizabeth remained at 2, Bridge Street with Alfred, a bricklayer’s labourer; Bertie, a dairyman’s assistant; Elizabeth, a brush drawer and Harry, a bottle labourer. The census of that year shows that of the couple’s nine children, three had died by that date.
In 1921 Elizabeth senior and Elizabeth junior were still at 2, Bridge Street and the younger woman was still employed at Kent’s brush factory in Apsley. Living with them were Harry, employed as a labourer at John Dickinson’s in Apsley Mills; her 17 year old nephew Arthur Dunscomb, a general labourer, and a male lodger.
In the 1939 Register Elizabeth and her daughter Elizabeth are shown living alone at 2, Bridge Street. Elizabeth was still a brush drawer at Kent’s factory.
On 20th November 1939 Elizabeth’s grandson Reginald Allen, son of her son Alfred, committed suicide in Suffolk where he was based with his regiment, 2nd Battalion Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire regiment. As he was an orphan he had given 2, Bridge Street as his home address. He is buried in Plot 862, a Commonwealth War Grave.
Elizabeth died in the third quarter of 1945 aged 88.
Son Harry is buried in Plot 1089 and Bertie in Plot 558.
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