Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

Margaret Crighton Temple Fischer

d.20/02/1943

Born in Scotland, lost her minister father at 5, mother of three, died in Blackpool, buried here

• Karen Evans

Plot no 710: M Temple Fischer born Afton Manor, Freshwater, Isle of Wight, died at ‘Beverley’, Berkhamsted on Easter Day 1923. 
Margaret Crighton Temple Fischer, wife of M Temple Fischer, died 20th February 1943 aged 78.
Tom Gordon Temple Fischer, their son, Lieut. 9th Gurkha Rifles, died 13th August 1943 aged 45.

Margaret’s story
Margaret Crighton (sic)Temple Fischer was born Margaret Smith Crichton on 18th June 1864 at 4 Millbank Terrace, Edinburgh. She was the daughter of Andrew Crichton, a Minister of the Free Church,  and his wife Mary Ann nee Fraser. Her birth certificate states that her parents had married on 24th July 1861 at Arbroath.
Margaret was the middle of three children, her elder sister Catherine Fraser Crichton was born on 14th July 1862 at Edinburgh, whilst her younger brother, David, was born on 2nd April 1866.

Margaret’s father, Andrew Crichton, was born on 22nd May 1837 at St Andrews, the son of the Reverend David Crichton, the English Master at Madras College. Rev David was later appointed the Minister of Inverbrothock, in Arbroath.

In 1852 Andrew Crichton was awarded a competition bursary from the University of Edinburgh, where he obtained a number of scholarly achievements. He entered the New College of the Free Church at Edinburgh in 1856, where he studied theology for four years. As part of his training Andrew spent a summer at Woolton in Derbyshire where he had charge of a small mission congregation. In June 1860 he was formally licenced as a preacher, and became the assistant to Rev Charles J Brown of the New North Free Church, Edinburgh. Letters survive that Andrew Crichton wrote to his friend, Rev Charles G. M’Crie, and they give his address in 1862 as 12 Arniston Place, Edinburgh.

Andrew died aged just 30 on 13th July 1867 at 4 Cumin Place, Edinburgh, of a liver infection. His remains were laid to rest at The Grange Cemetery and funeral sermons were preached at Chapelshade Church, Dundee by his friend, Rev Robert Taylor of Free Greyfriars Church in Edinburgh.

This meant that Margaret was just 5 years old when her father died, and her mother Marion, or Mary Anne, was a widow of just 26 years of age.

So, what would any widow with three young children do? Mary Ann returned back to her home town of Arbroath. In 1871 she was living at 30 Victoria Street with Catherine, Margaret and David and a domestic servant. How could the widow of a Free Church Minster be able to afford a domestic servant? She was described in the census as an “Annuitant”, that is she was living on an annual income. Mary Anne Crichton nee Fraser was actually one of the many children of a local industrialist, Douglas Fraser. Douglas Fraser was born in Oathlaw, Angus in about 1804.
By 1828 he had moved to the Angus coast and was living in the Parish of Craig.
On 12th November 1828 he married Catherine Fraser at Montrose. The couple then went on to have six children including Margaret’s mother, Marianne:
William, born 29th November and baptised 8th December 1829 at Montrose
Elizabeth, born 23rd January 1832 at Montrose
Catherine, born 6th May 1834 and baptised 12th May 1834 at Arbroath
Ann, born 10th September and baptised 12th October 1836 at Arbroath
Marianne, baptised 9th May 1840 at St Vigeans.
James, baptised 11th August 1841 at St Vigeans.
In 1841, the family was living at Cross Gate Road, Arbroath (today called West Keptie Street).

Catherine appears to have died between 1841 and July 1844, because on 25th July 1844, Douglas married an Englishwoman, Mary Anne Brydon, at St Vigeans. Six children obviously was not enough for Douglas, as he and his second wife had a further eight children at St Vigeans as follows:
Henry, baptised on 19th September 1844
Isabel, born 17th May and baptised 26th July 1846
Douglas, born on 28th April and baptised on 9th July 1848
Thomas, born on 27th December 1849 (see more later)
John, born on 7th November 1851
Patrick, born on 19th August 1853
Robert, born on 22nd May 1855
Norman, born on 28th October 1857

During the Industrial Revolution, Arbroath’s economy boomed and the population of the town expanded, with new housing having to be constructed to accommodate the influx of workers. Arbroath became moderately well known for jute and sailcloth production, with 34 mills employing 1,400 looms and producing over one million yards of osnaburg cloth and 450,000 yards of sailcloth in 1875. Arbroath is believed to be the source of the sails used on the Cutty Sark. In 1867, the mills in Arbroath employed 4,620 people.

In 1832 Douglas Fraser had set up a factory called Wellgate Works. Douglas seemed able to adapt to the demands of the market. Originally, he called himself a line manufacturer. By the time of the 1851 census this had changed to being a sail-cloth manufacturer. In 1861 he described himself as a “Flaxspinner & Manufacturer Employing 137 Males & 257 Females”. In 1864 his company was the second largest textile employer in the area. The 1886 Commercial Directory of Scotland gives the company the following entry: Douglas Fraser & Son, flax spinners and sail-cloth manufacturers and bleachers, Wellgate Works, & 37 Jury St. Aldgate, London,E.C., 2 Covent Garden, Liverpool, & 79 Virginia St. Glasgow. Later in the 19th century the company moved to focus its activities onto machine manufacture, following the success of a braiding machine designed by Norman Fraser. The firm had significant interests in South America and India. In 1959 the family-run firm was taken over by the American company Giddings & Lewis and renamed Giddings & Lewis-Fraser. Its headquarters remained at the Wellgate Works in Arbroath.

With such a huge family for support and the family business in Arbroath, the Crichton family appear to have been comfortably off. Marianne remained a widow and her three children appear to have remained living with her. In 1881 they had moved to Lochshade, Arbroath.

By 1891 young Margaret had left home, and was living at 56 & 58 Ravensdown, Berwick with her bachelor Uncle Thomas Fraser. Thomas was a GP, practicing in Berwick in 1881 & 1891. He had received his medical training at Edinburgh University. In 1871 he was a Medical student lodging at 14 Cumberland Street, Edinburgh. Thomas was Douglas Fraser’s tenth child and so the half-brother of Margaret’s mother, Mary Anne Fraser.

This letter is from Dr Thomas Fraser to George Tweedie, Inspector of the Poor at Swinton.
Ravensdowne Berwick on Tweed 4th Oct 1882
Sir,
A woman named Aitchison residing in Church Street Berwick, called on me today and asked me to attend her child stating that your parish would pay me for attendance and medicine supplied.  In July and August I attended the child when suffering from measles on the strength of the Same statement would you now oblige me by letting me know whether you will authorise me to attend the child as well as pay me for past attendance.
I am Yours truly
Thomas Fraser, MD

At the age of 31, Margaret Smith Crichton married Max Temple Fischer on 12th June 1895, at Doddington near Berwick. We do not know how they met but Max had been raised in St Andrews and educated at Fettes College in Edinburgh, so would have socialised with Scotland’s educated and monied society. Within two weeks of their marriage, on the 24th June 1895, Max applied for his passport. Travel was very much part of the way of life for the Fischer family. Max’s Aunt Cornelia Mary Cotton, later Speedy, travelled extensively with her husband across the Sudan, Ethiopia and India, whilst his brother Francis Norton made a career in Law, that took him into the Indian Civil Service where he was a Magistrate and Collector in Bengal. Even Max’s only sister, Emily Sophia, had her marriage to the Reverend Denham Smith Boyd in March 1911, registered at the British Consulate in Cairo. This contrasts very much with Margaret’s upbringing which was based very much around Arbroath.

The following year Margaret gave birth to their eldest child, Thomas Gordon Temple Fischer, who was baptised at Christ Church, Esher on 24th December 1896. The family appear to have lived in Surrey during Tom’s early years as in 1901 the family were lodging back at Hindhead, at The Lodge.

In 1902 they were living at 12 Palewell Park, East Sheen, when Max received an inheritance from his Uncle Richard Godman Temple Cotton, who died on 5th April 1902. They stayed at East Sheen until at least 1907, as this was the correspondence address that Max gave when he was administering the will of his Uncle’s widow, Jane Shershell Cotton.
After Tom, Margaret and Max had just two daughters:
Margaret Crichton Temple Fischer was baptised on 3rd July 1903 at Berwick-on-Tweed.
Rosamund Crichton Temple Fischer was born in 1905 in Aberdeen.

The first instance of any member of the Fischer family being associated with Berkhamsted is recorded in 1907, when Max Temple Fischer is listed in that town’s Electoral Register. The register states that he was living at Blandworth, Charles Street. It could be that with a growing family, Margaret and Max needed to settle down in a family home of their own.

The 1911 census has Margaret and Max with their three children living at Blandworth, Charles Street along with a cook and a governess. Max Temple aged a mere 49, gave his occupation as “Retired Solicitor”. The make-up of their staff was very interesting, as the Governess, Franciska Helm, was a German and their maid, Susan Lees came from Stonehaven in Scotland. By 1914 Max gave his address in the Electoral Register as Beverley, Charles Street. It seems likely that Margaret and Max renamed their home, from Blandworth to Beverley.

Other residents at Beverley House included Max’s previously mentioned Aunt Cornelia Speedy. One can only assume that Aunt Cornelia moved in with Margaret and Max, sometime after her husband’s death in 1910. The atmosphere in Beverley House must have been wonderfully exotic for Margaret’s children. As mentioned before, Max’s Aunt Cornelia was a seasoned traveller, and a celebrity of her day. She and her husband had a considerable collection of Abyssian and Sudanese artifacts which they donated to the British Museum in 1912. She died at Beverley on 28th January 1917 leaving an estate of £2,000, including a house, and her life interest in the £5,000 trust fund.

It could be that Aunt Cornelia’s travel stories influenced her great nieces and nephew.

The London Gazette dated 5th September 1916 tells us that on 29th June 1916 “The KING has approved the admission of the undermentioned Gentleman Cadets, from the Cadet College, Quetta, to the Unattached List for the Indian Army” – Tom Gordon Fischer was one of those gentlemen cadets. He was then attached to the 9th Gurkha Rifles regiment of the Indian Army on 3rd July 1916, where he was promoted to Lieutenant on 29th June 1917. Fortunately, he survived the First World War and returned back to live with his parents in Berkhamsted.

Max Temple Fischer died on 1st April 1923 at Beverley (Blandworth is cited in the Probate record) Charles Street. His estate at the time of his death was valued at £5,060 8s 10d. The Electoral registers show that Margaret remained living at Beverley House with her son, Tom, throughout the 1920s.

As for Margaret’s daughters, much less is known. The following extract from The London Gazette, lists the assignment of shorthand typists to various Government departments.

Her eldest daughter Rosamond married Julius Vivian Southon, who had been born in Willesden on 27th September 1888, in Kensington in 1934. Julius served as a Lieutenant in the Royal Flying Corps from 1914 to 1922.The couple then appear to have moved north to the Wirral.They had three daughters all baptised at the parish church of Neston:
Diana Rosamond Temple Southon was born 1935 and baptised on 1st February 1936
Vivien Yolande Temple Southon and Jean Crichton Temple Southon were twins born in 1938 and baptised on 8th January 1939.Shortly after the baptism of the twins Julius is listed as a Pilot Officer in the Royal Air Force Voluntary Reserve. If he saw action at all he survived, because Julius died on 24th January 1965. Rosamund survived her husband by 30 years. She died aged 90 and was buried in 1995 at St Mary the Virgin, Bathwick – Smallcombe Cemetery.

The 1930s have proved more difficult to detail exactly what was happening in Margaret’s life and when she left Berkhamsted. What is known is that in 1939 Tom was at St Andrews Hospital, Northampton where he was described as “formerly an Officer Indian Army”, so if Margaret was in Berkhamsted she would have been alone. Tom stayed at St Andrew’s hospital until his death on 13th August 1943, surviving his mother by just 6 months.

Margaret although buried at Rectory Lane, appears to have died in Blackpool, Lancashire.