Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

Margaret Agnes Mewburn

1894 –15/02/1913

Grand daughter of Mary Turner and niece of Constance Turner, died age 19 years in Strasbourg

Relatives

Mary Louisa Blachley Turner (811) — other

Constance Margaret Turner(811) — other

• Melanie Hilton

Plot 811: Margaret Agnes Mewburn (1894-1913)

Margaret was born in early 1894 in Kensington, the daughter of George Richmond Mewburn, solicitor, (1865-1941) and Annie Catherine Maria Turner (1866-1961).

Her mother came from a family distinguished in both church and law and more details can be found in the biography of her grandmother, Mary Louisa Blachley Turner, who was also buried in this plot.

Her paternal grandparents had strong connections with India, where her grandfather had been an East Indies merchant and her grandmother, Julia Bell Delavigne, was born.

In 1901 the family were living in Stanmore, Middlesex where Margaret and her older brother Edward shared a resident governess, but ten years later Margaret, then aged seventeen, was at boarding school in Bexhill-on-Sea.

Margaret died in Strasbourg, which was then in Germany, on 15^th February 1913, aged only nineteen.

Constance Margaret Turner(811)

1863 –08/05/1913

Daughter of Mary and Edward Turner, died at the age of 49, a spinster.

Relatives

Mary Louisa Blachley Turner (811) — mother

Margaret Agnes Mewburn — other

• Melanie Hilton

Plot 811: Constance Margaret Turner (1863- 1913)

Constance was born in 1863 at 10, Park Village West, a charming stucco villa built by John Nash in the 1820s as part of the wider development around Regent’s Park. She was baptised at Christchurch in nearby Albany Street. (Now the Antiochian Orthodox church).

She was the daughter of Edmond Robert Turner and his wife Mary Louisa Blachley (née Turner). Her parents were second cousins, sharing a common great grandfather, the Reverend Francis Turner of Great Yarmouth.

Her father was a barrister at the time of her birth, and his family was distinguished in both the law and the church. Her grandfather was Sir George James Turner, barrister, who in 1853 was promoted to lord justice of the Court of Appeal in Chancery, and in 1857 was sworn in as a privy councillor. “As a judge, he was reputed to be grave, painstaking and legally erudite…” (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography)

Margaret’s mother was descended from a line of clergymen. (for more details see the biography of  her mother Mary Louisa Blachley Turner, also buried here.) Margaret had an older brother and two older sisters and the last child of the family, Annie Catherine Maria was born in 1866.

By the time Constance was seven her father had been appointed a County Court judge for the North Riding of Yorkshire and the family moved to Leases Hall, Leeming Bar, a large and handsome eighteenth century house.

Constance and her four sisters (her brother was probably at school at the time of the 1871 census) grew up surrounded with considerable luxury. They shared two governesses – one Irish one Swiss – and her parents employed a large domestic staff.

The 1881 census found Constance, now aged seventeen, with her grandparents, the Reverend William Hamilton Turner, his wife Emily, their widowed daughter and Constance’s mother. It may be that they were only visiting the vicar of Banwell, Somerset, as Constance’s father was still alive at the time.

Constance did not marry. The 1891 census records her, aged twenty seven, visiting the vicar of Warley, Essex and his wife, but by 1901 she had settled with her mother and unmarried older sister Emily, an artist, at “Beverley”, Charles Street, Berkhamsted. Ten years later Emily was no longer living at “Beverley” and in August 1912  their mother, Mary Louisa B Turner died, aged eighty six. She was buried in this plot, to be joined only a year later by her daughter and her granddaughter.

Constance must have sold the house and in 1914 it was owned by Max Temple Fischer (buried in this cemetery in plot 710).

 Constance died 8th May 1913 at 495, Kingston Road, Raynes Park, Surrey, aged forty nine. She named as executor her recently-bereaved sister Annie Mewburn who had just lost her daughter Margaret (also buried here) aged only nineteen.