15/07/1867 –07/08/1942
Born to a butler on Rossway Estate, school mistress and spinster, cremated Golders Green, ashes here
Relatives
Research:
ANNIE GREGORY; 1867 -1942
Annie Edith Gregory was the first of two daughters born to Robert and Elizabeth Gregory. She was born on 15th July 1867 in Northchurch at Rossway, an estate just outside Berkhamsted belonging to the Hadden family to whom her father was butler.
She was baptised on 11th August in Northchurch, presumably at St Mary’s church. Percy Birtchnell wrote in the Berkhamsted Review of August 1963 in his article “The Rossway centenary” that “On Sunday morning, winter and summer alike, everyone at Rossway marched off to St Mary’s Northchurch…Down the hill trooped the whole family followed at a respectful distance by the servants.”
Annie’s younger sister, Gertrude Jane, was born on 5th April 1869, also in Northchurch.
The census for 1871 and 1881 confirm that the family was at Rossway in those years. At the time of the 1881 census Annie (named in the census return as “Edith”) was 13 and Gertrude 11. Both girls attended the Board School in Berkhamsted.
Birtchnell in “A Short History of Berkhamsted” writes that in 1830 nine tenths of the children in Berkhamsted and Northchurch did not attend school during the week. The grammar school (now Berkhamsted School) was “moribund” and the Bourne School was limited to 30 scholars. There were a few small private “academies” but they were beyond the means of most.
In 1833 the Parish Vestry, which until the end of the 19th century was responsible for the development of the town, public health and support for the poor, supported a resolution proposed by Augustus Smith of Ashlyns Hall, “that a good parish school should be established, where both boys and girls should be taught reading, writing, arithmetic and useful work.” What was known as the British, or Chalk School was opened at the corner of Park View Road in 1834. This school later became known as the Board School. Pupils had to pay “the school pence”, between 1d and 3d, towards the cost of the school. The very poorest could apply for exemption from the school pence. With the introduction of the Elementary Education Act in 1870 it became compulsory for children between the age of five and ten to attend school.
The Hadden family suffered a reversal of financial fortune which meant that they could no longer afford to maintain Rossway and in 1886 they leased the property. Robert and Elizabeth, together with Annie and Gertrude lost their home. Robert took a pub in St Pancras, London, the Falkland Arms. Whilst Gertrude is recorded as being at the pub in 1891 with her parents, Annie is not. On the date of the census she was visiting the home of Anne Hill in Kitsbury Road. Anne Hill, a 62 year old widow, had a lodger staying at her home, Charlie Archer, a 19 year old grocer’s clerk and another visitor in addition to Annie, Edwin Garrett, also 19 and a grocer’s assistant. Annie at the time of the census was 23 years old and her occupation is recorded as assistant school mistress.
By 1899 Robert had retired from The Falkland Arms and returned to live in Berkhamsted. The 1901 and 1911 censuses tell us that Annie was then living with her family in Falkland House in Kings Road. Neither census records any occupation against her name, so presumably she had given up her work as a schoolmistress. Annie may have worked as a teacher in Basingstoke. The Hants and Berks Gazette of 9th July 1898 published minutes of the Basingstoke School Board which included the following:
“At the last meeting, when Miss Gregory’s resignation was received, she was asked by the Board to continue in office until the end of the present term. A letter was now read from Miss Gregory stating that owing to ill-health she would be obliged to terminate her engagement on the 30th Jane. Her doctor had advised her to take a complete rest. Dr. Cooper Smith said that Miss Gregory had tried to continue her duties as the Board wished, but her health was not up to it and she was obliged to leave. Miss Gregory had all through been very careful to consult the interests of the school and had done as much as was in her power to do.”
There is of course no certainty that the Miss Gregory referred to in the Basingstoke School Board discussions was in fact Annie Gregory, but it does fit chronologically with her occupation in 1891 as assistant school teacher and the fact that by 1901 she was living with her family in Berkhamsted with no apparent occupation.
Annie was 33 in 1901 and was single. She never married.
Her younger sister Gertrude died in 1913 and her father Robert in 1916. Her mother died in 1917 leaving Annie as the sole living member of the family. Following her mother’s death, she left Falklands House. The 1925 electoral roll shows that she was then living at 5 Cowper Road, the home of 42 year old Amy Dwight. Annie lived with Amy at 5 Cowper Road for the rest of her life. The 1939 records both women at that address as well as an Edith Sharpe and two other people in respect of whom the record is currently closed. (Amy and Annie are noted as single whereas Edith was married so it may be that the two the persons at the property in respect of who the record is closed were Edith’s husband and child.)
Annie may have moved away from Berkhamsted following her mother’s death in 1917 before going to live with Amy Dwight in 1925. The electoral rolls for 1921 and 1923 have an Annie Edith Gregory living at 11 Addison Road Chiswick with one Gwendolin Hankin. It is not possible to be certain if this is the same Annie Edith Gregory with whom we are concerned, but it may be.
Annie died on 7th August 1942. She was 75 years old. The relevant probate record noted “GREGORY – Annie Edith of 5 Cowper Road, Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, spinster, died 7th August 1942. Probate Oxford, 29 September to Amy Elizabeth Dwight, spinster, and Kenneth Robert Webb solicitor. Effects £6,686 10s 1d”
The inscription on the grave records that she was cremated at Golders Green and her ashes were interred alongside her sister and parents.
Whilst today cremation is commonplace, that was not the case less than 150 years ago when virtually no cremations were carried out in the United Kingdom. Interest in cremation, as an alternative to burial grew as the population increased in the 19th Century. Sir Henry Thompson, surgeon to Queen Victoria, was the first advocate for cremation in England, writing a paper in support of the practice in 1874. He cited ‘sanitary precaution against the propagation of disease’ as his prime reason for wanting bodies cremated, but also said that cremation would prevent premature burial, reduce funeral expenses and spare mourners the ill effects of bad weather at the graveside. The Cremation Society of England was founded and the Society built the first crematorium in 1879 at Woking, but the Home Secretary refused to allow cremations to proceed until 1884.
Golders Green Crematorium was one of the earliest and was the first to be built in London. Building began in 1902 and continued in four phases as money became available, being largely complete by 1939.
View burial 
Personalities of the Past
Memorial Symbolism
Military graves