Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

Janet Bevan (1151)

13/10/1865 –31/07/1946

A dressmaker and spinster

• Melanie Hilton

Plot 1151 Janet Bevan (1865-1946) (revised)

Janet was born 13 October 1865 in Marylebone, London.

In 1881 she was a boarder at the St Marylebone Charity School for Girls. It was founded in 1750 for poor and destitute children and by 1833 had over 100 students. Girls were taught reading, writing, arithmetic, religion, sewing, and cooking. Students would attend this school until the age of 15, when they left to find work in local households. This is doubtless where Janet learned her needlework and lace-repairing skills that were her profession as an adult.

She never married.

In 1901 Janet was a lodger in a large boarding house at 89, Upper Gloucester Place, Marylebone. She had one room and was a dressmaker.

In Kelly’s Directory for 1905 Janet is listed as a lace cleaner, resident at 12, Iverson Road, Kilburn, London.

In 1911 she was recorded in the census at 88, Glengall Road, Willesden, the home of George and Mary Soons and described as a “Friend”. She was a self-employed lace mender.

In 1921 she was living alone at 88, Glengall Road, Willesden and was employed in the needlework department of Messrs Toye & Co, masonic outfitters, in Red Lion Square, London WC.

The 1939 Register records her living at 58, Charles Street, Berkhamsted with spinster Mary Gardner. Both were of independent means.

Mary died 20 November 1944.

Janet died 31st July 1946 in the Three Counties hospital in Stotfold, Beds. Probate was granted to HM Treasury solicitor, implying that she had no relatives.

Mary Garner (1151)

14/12/1872 –20/11/1944

Spinster and friend of Janet Bevan

• Liz Railton

MARY GARNER

Mary Garner was born on 14 December 1872 and died on 24 November 1944 aged 72. At the time of her death, she was living at 58 Charles Street in Berkhamsted.

Mary was the fourth surviving child of John and Martha Garner. They were both born in Leicestershire in the early 1830s but were married and living in London by the time of the 1861 Census and at this point, before Mary was born, they have two daughters, but an infant son had recently died. Mary’s father, John, was an employee of the General Post Office. He was a “sorter” in 1861, and Census data shows that he continued to work for the post office until retirement, by which time he had risen through the ranks and was an ‘inspector”.

The family lived at several different addresses in London between the time of Mary’s birth in 1872 and 1911.  In 1881 Mary’s two older sisters, Martha born in 1853 and Ada born in 1861, were employed as “dressmakers” whilst Mary and her older brother James, born in 1867, were still at school. It seems likely that Mary and her surviving siblings had experienced several sibling losses during this period as there are gaps of some years between the births of these surviving children.

By 1891 the family appear to have prospered and diversified in terms of their employment. Mary’s father John is an “overseer” for the GPO, Martha, the oldest daughter is still single and a dressmaker, but Ada, James and Mary are all working as “commercial clerks”.

It seems likely that Mary’s only surviving brother prospered in the commercial world as the family are still living together in 1901, albeit Martha, the eldest daughter is no longer in the household and is likely to have died. (The 1911 Census records that John and Martha had 13 children of whom 10 had died.) in 1901 John and Martha are retired, James is described as a “member of the institute of actuaries” and Ada and Mary are described as “living on their own means”.

This arrangement continues in 1911 albeit the family have moved house to an address in Chiswick. Mary’s father remains Head of Household although Mary and James are recorded as being the owners of the house. James is 44 and single at this point and Ada is fifty. There is no trace of them after 1911 and Mary is living alone in 1921. She is “head of household “with “private means” and living at 108 Glengall Road, Willesden.

It seems likely that this is how Mary’s significant friendship with Janet Bevan developed. Mary and Janet, described as “friends reunited’ in the burial records, are buried in the same burial site in Rectory Lane Cemetery in Berkhamsted. In 1921 Janet was living alone at 88 Glengall  Road.She was employed in the needlework department of masonic outfitters in London. Janet had a background in dressmaking, and it is possible that the friends had met at an even earlier stage given that two of Mary’s sisters had been employed as dressmakers.

At some point after 1921 Mary and Janet must have moved in together as the 1939 Electoral Register records them as being single, of “independent means” and living at 58 Castle Street, Berkhamsted.

Mary next appears in the Probate Death Index of 1945.  Her estate is valued at £166 19s 7d. The Death Index identifies Janet Bevan, a spinster, and as a linked person, (possibly the Executor and beneficiary) in terms of probate. Janet survived Mary by two years and was still living at 58 Castle Street at the time of her death.

Liz Railton

March 2026