My maternal grandmother was one of eight children, four girls and four boys. Her three surviving brothers worked in market gardens before and after their service in WW1. Her three sisters were still alive when I was young, and both she and her sister Vera lived to be over 100, but I knew little about their lives beyond those faint memories and photos in my Mum’s albums. What else could I find?

My maternal great grandparents William John Fage and his wife, born Alice Cade, had a total of eight children. Their son Jim Edward Fage died, aged 11, when his older sister, my grandmother Elizabeth Sarah Fage, later Lizzie Brown, was 14 years old. The surviving three boys’ stories – including their service in WW1 – have already been told. The two centenearian Fage sisters’ tale is told elsewhere, as is Nana Brown’s story of life in service before marriage. But what of the other two sisters, Susie and Vi?

Susan Elizabeth Fage (1906-1968): Domestic servant and mother

My grandmother was born in 1901, following the birth of three older brothers. Next in the family was another daughter, Susan Elizabeth Fage. Known as ‘Susie’, she was born on 4 February 1906. By the time the 1921 census was taken, Susan Elizabeth Fage was 15 and, like her older sister Lizzie, was in service. She was working as a General Servant for a Mr R G Gilbert. He was an insurance agent for the Royal Insurance Co. Ltd., whose premises were at 8 Bank Buildings, High Street, Bedford. He and his family – and Susie – were living at 17 Goldington Avenue, Bedford.

Today’s Google Street View shows 17 Goldington Avenue as one of a pair of semi-detached, brick built late Victorian villas with enclosed front garden and ground floor bay window, although little can be seen behind the large front hedge. The rest of the properties in the avenue appear to have been built around the same time, in the same style. Behind the properties across the road was the Bedford Union Workhouse and the Hospital.

This photocopy (left) is of a photo from my Nana’s collection, and is said to show Susie probably around 1924, when she would have been 18, or perhaps a little later. It has been enhanced and partly-colorised at MyHeritage, but is not very good quality. Nonetheless, she looks an attractive girl with her bobbed hair and loose Summer dress.

She seems to disappear from records for about a decade, until in 1932, she is listed amongst those registered to vote at 14 Longfield Road, Sandy, with her parents, so presumably had moved back home from working in Bedford by then. 

On 20 April 1935, she married Frederick Charles Plumbly at Sandy parish church. The Biggleswade Chronicle of 26 April described the event in some detail (see right).

The groom was of Bridge Street, Bedford, and the couple were to make their home at Mile Road, Elstow. a small village about two miles South of Bedford.

From the description of their clothes and flowers, it sounds as though it was, as the paper says, a ‘pretty wedding’. Miss June Fage was Susie’s niece, daughter of her sister Vera. A poignant touch is the act of placing her wedding bouquet on the grave of her brother, Jim Edward Fage, who died aged just 11.

By the outbreak of WW2, The 1939 Register shows the couple living at 50 Miller Road, Elstow, Bedford, which would be their home for the rest of their lives. Was this ‘Mile Road’, mis-reported in the newspaper?

Again, Google Street View shows that 50 Miller Road is still standing, another semi-detatched, bay-windowed house with front garden, but probably built post-WW1, perhaps in the late 1920s or 1930s. It may even have been a new build when they moved in in 1935.

The 1939 Register shows that Frederick Charles Plumbly was working as a Press Operator, which suggests some kind of engineering firm, perhaps a printers or publishers. The couple had two children, both boys: John Plumbly, born towards the end of 1940, and David William Plumbly, born in the Summer of 1943. The photo below shows Susie with her two sons, taken from my Mum’s photo album of 1948.

Electoral registers through the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s show Susie and her husband and, later, her sons, registered to vote at 50 Miller Road. She died on 14 March 1968, aged just 62. Her widower survived her for 20 years, his death registered in the first quarter of 1982. Both sons married, but David died in 2019. As far as I know, her descendants are still living in and around Bedford.

Violet Emma ‘Dot’ Fage (1913-1996): Baby of the family

My Nana Brown was 12 years old when her youngest sibling, another sister, was born on 17 January 1913. 18 months later, WW1 would start, which would see all three of her brothers go off to fight. She was still only eight years old when the 1921 census was taken, and was still at school full-time. This poor photocopy of a photo from Nana’s collection is said to show Violet Emma Fage – who was known as Dot – when she was about 17, which would mean it was taken around 1930. I have tried to enhance and colourise it to bring out more detail, but not very successfully.

I know nothing more of her early life until she married, aged 20, in 1933. It is likely that she followed her older sisters into domestic service when she left school, but I have no evidence of that.

On 9 June 1933, The Biggleswade Chronicle reported on the marriage of the youngest daughter of Mr and Mrs John William Fage of Longfield Road, Sandy and Frederick John Francis, youngest son of Mr and Mrs Henry Francis, of Chapel Yard. Unusually the bride was dressed in pink – perhaps her best dress, or perhaps it was a recent fashion trend. Her brother, Frederick Fage, gave her away, although her father was still alive at the time. Her older sister Annie Vera Fage was one of the bridesmaids, with their niece Violet Fage. They were to make 18 Ivel Road their marital home.

Biggleswade Chronicle, 9 June 1933

They had four daughters between 1935 and 1941. In 1938, Frederick John Francis of 24 Longfield Road was summoned for exceeding the speed limit on 21 July that year, as reported in the Biggleswade Chronicle, 19 August 1938.

A year later, at the outbreak of WW2, they are still living at 24 Longfield Road, where he is working as a Lorry Driver holding a heavy (HGV) licence. He later served during WW2, although I do not know any details of his service.

He died in a London Hospital on 13 September 1979; the notice of his death and funeral in The Biggleswade Chronicle gives some information about his career and family, stating that he had worked for A Campbell & Sons for 40 years and had served during the War. He left a widow, four daughters, ten grandchildren and four great grandchildren. The floral tributes were many, including from his wife’s parents, my grandparents Beth and Horace Brown, our Uncle and Aunt Vera and Harold Lean, and many other identifiable family members (click to see full image, below).

Biggleswade Chronicle, 28 September 1979

This photo (left) of Dot and Fred was probably taken in the 1970s, not long before he died, and was shared by another member of the family via Ancestry.

I know nothing else about his widow’s life until her own death, on 16 March 1996 at Bedford Hospital. Her death certificate (again, shared by a family member) shows that her usual address was 5 Peels Place, Sandy, and that she was the widow of Frederick John Francis, Lorry Driver (retired). She died of Bronchopneumonia, Cancer of the right lung and Congestive heart failure. One of her daughters registered the death.

I have traced something of the lives of their four children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, particularly through the British Newspaper Archive, but as many are still alive, I am not publishing that information here.