Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

Harry Smith (1131)

25/08/1870 –24/04/1950

A gamekeeper, off licencee and gardener

Relatives

Kate Smith — wife

• Melanie Hilton

Plot 1131 Harry Smith (1870-1950)

Harry was born 25 August 1870 in  Abbots Ann, a small village near Andover, Hants, to Charles and Lucy (née Salter) Smith. His father was a gamekeeper and Harry would follow him into the profession.

Harry married Kate Gubbins in Andover in 1899 and in 1901 living at Merrist Wood, Worpleston, near Guildford, Surrey. Harry was a gamekeeper to the Shrubb family who owned the estate. (It is now Merrist Wood College).

Florence Mabel was born in 1901 in  Worplesdon, as was Reginald (1903). By the time Frederick Thomas was born in 1904 they had moved to Wildhern Hants where Doris was born in 1906.

By 1911 Harry was out of work and he, Kate, and the four children were living with her brother George Gubbins, a former footman who had taken over the Crown in Berkhamsted High Street. (George is buried in this cemetery in Plot 638).

Rosina Joan (1917) and Leslie George (1918) were both born in Berkhamsted.

Perhaps assisted by his brother-in-law, Harry entered the licenced trade and in 1921 when the couple lived at 29, Kitsbury Road he was an Off Licence holder at that address.

The 1939 Register records them still at 29, Kitsbury Road and Harry as working as a jobbing gardener.

Harry died 24 April 1950. Kate survived him until 1964 and is buried here with 

Kate Smith

27/04/1877 –05/12/1964

A nursemaid who married Harry Smith

Relatives

Harry Smith (1131) — husband

• Melanie Hilton

Plot 1131 Kate Smith (1877-1964) (née Gubbins)

Kate was born 27 April 1877 at Silver Street, Brixworth, Northants, to William and Elizabeth (née Whittle) Gubbins. Her father was a jobbing gardener and she was the third of their children.

Kate went into domestic service and in 1891, aged 14, she was an under-nurse in the household of Percival la Trobe Harter, his wife and two young children at 4, Tilney Street, close to St George’s Hanover Square, London – a highly fashionable address. They employed a butler, a cook, a kitchen maid, a scullery maid, a housemaid and an under housemaid, a footman and a nurse for the children whose assistant Kate would have been. The presence in the house of a monthly nurse implies that Mrs la Trobe Harter was due to give birth again shortly.

Kate married gamekeeper Harry Smith in Andover in 1899 and in 1901 they were living at Merrist Wood, Worpleston, near Guildford, Surrey.

Florence Mabel was born in 1901 in  Worplesdon, as was Reginald (1903). By the time Frederick Thomas was born in 1904 they had moved to Wildhern Hants where Doris was born in 1906.

By 1911 Harry was out of work and he, Kate, and the four children were living with her brother George Gubbins, a former footman who had taken over the Crown in Berkhamsted High Street. (George is buried in this cemetery in Plot 638).

Rosina Joan (1917) and Leslie George (1918) were both born in Berkhamsted.

Perhaps assisted by his brother-in-law, Harry entered the licenced trade and in 1921 when the couple lived at 29, Kitsbury Road he was an Off Licence holder at that address.

The 1939 Register records them still at 29, Kitsbury Road and Harry as working as a jobbing gardener.

Harry died 24 April 1950. Kate survived him until 5 December 1964 and lies here with him.