Frederic George LEE and Lily BAMBER

As part of my family history certificate, I had to write biographies, fully referenced, about my ancestors. So here are my two grandparents in modified form- the biogs would be too long otherwise!

To go back to home page; for all-Hayward family; click for LEE.

Frederic George LEE [1885- 1967]

Frederic George LEE was born 27th April 1885 in Bolton, to parents Henry LEE [1851-1902] and Hannah ROBERTS [1851-1898] and he was one of seven children; this was the second marriage for his father, who had been married earlier in 1871 to Ann FARNWORTH [1853- 1877] and they had had three children, two surviving, being: James Henry b 1873 and Jane Ellen born 1875 [Walter born and died in 1877]. without getting a death certificate, it is likely that Ann FARNWORTH died as a result of childbirth . We think that the two surviving childrem lived at least part of the time with Henry and Hannah, and indeed Jame Henry LEE was a watchmaker like his father. We also know that when Henry died in 1902 Henry’s thrid wife Mary didnt want to know them, so James Henry and sister Jane Ellen went back to live with their Farnworth relatives.

Frederic George LEE had six full siblings, whose mother was Hannah ROBERTS, and their marriage partners were:

Harold Hague LEE [1879-1950] married Harriet JONES: 8 children- Edward b1909, Harold H b1904, Arthur b1919, Phylis, Elsie, Florrie b1915, Muriel b1917, Ruby.

Edith Jessie LEE [1882- ] married William KITCHEN: 3 children Clariss, Edith, Irene

Harry LEE [1884- 1946] married Mary RAMSDEN: 2 sons

Arthur Johnson LEE [1889-1977] married Lillian KIRKHAM. one son, Herbert William who married Eileen Joy Anderson and they had 3 children: Brian, Iain and Christine.

Florence Beatrice LEE [1891- ] married James LEES. Had one son, Clifford b1920. The family lived at Timperley.

Herbert LEE [1894- 1928] married Rhoda GREEN. Herbert died eventually of emphysema caused by having been gassed in WW1.

My mother May, to whom these were aunts and uncles, has some memories: for example Auntie Rhoda remained close to Fred and Lily and was always there at Christmas parties and games dos they held. Rhoda gave May a bible. She also recalled being taken round to ‘tea’ with uncle Harold and also uncle Harry who May recalls as being a ‘nice, kind man’ and he and his wofe played cards a lot with Lily and Fred.

After Hannah died in 1898, Henry remarried in Nov 1901 to Mary Alice WOOD a widow with 2 sons and who hated all Henry’s children, so when Henry died suddenly on April 26th 1902, she had them all thrown out and they were dispersed to live with relatives: the two Farnworth children went to their mother’s family; Arthur J went to live with brother Harold H in Stretford; Harry went to live with the Ramsden family; Herbert and Florence Beatrice lived with the Winterbottom family.

Lily BAMBER [1888- 1977]

Lily was born on 9th Oct 1888 at White Lion Brow, Bolton. She was the 4th child of 7 of Robert BAMBER [1857- 1901] and Hannah ECKERSLEY [1859-1907] who had married in 1880 in Bolton. Robert had been a carter and a groom and then a bus tram driver- in the days when the trams and buses were open at the front, and therefore cold and wet in the winters; no wonder then he died at the age of only 44. When he died, we know that Hannah took in washing, as the children had to help her; Hannah was also young when she died suddenly in March 1907- aged only 47- and we know the children had to return the unwashed washing to its owners.

The children of Robert and Hannah, being Lily’s siblings were:

William BAMBER [1881- post 1930] married Florence DAVIES: 4 children Hilda, Florence, Bertha plus Annie who died young.

Mary E BAMBER [1883- ] possibly married Daniel JACKSON but not sure

Annie BAMBER [1884- 1943] and we know a lot more about her. She married Herbert HORTON in 1908 and had two daughters Marion and Annie. After Annie died, Herbert married again, to Evelyn W Bliss- he was 62 and she was 25; May says his daughters didnt approve of this.

Norman BAMBER [1891- ] married Esther Astle in 1911 [Auntie Ettie to May, and Ettie was good to Lily when Lily was in a home]. They had 3 children: Willie, Gladys and Marjorie.

Robert BAMBER [1894- ] We dont know much about him as he came to Fred and Irenes’ wedding [Mays brother Fred marrying Irene Holt] and was drunk, so go thrown out. In 1911 he was living with brother William and his wife Florence and their three children.

Dorothy BAMBER [1900- ] was very young when both her parents died and we are struggling to find out where she lived, as she may have been under the surname of whoever took her in. Doroty married Albert HAWORTH in 1923 and they had one daughter that we know of- Joan who in 1945 married Clarence R HUNT in Bolton.

The value of looking at the whole page in a census: in 1891 Lily and her family were living at 24 White Lion Brow, and at the same time her maternal grandparents were living at number 30. White Lion Brow is a steep road, but only numbers 2-10 still exist as small stone houses. We worked out that number 30 would be at the bottom of the dip, and we know there were bleachworks ‘above’ the dip- it must have been full of fumes, as there would also be cotton mills in the vicinty creating the cotton cloth to be bleached. Noisy and smelly. There is nothing to see of numbers 24 or 30. A copy of the census is enclosed here.