The youngest daughter of my 2xgreat grandparents, Violet suffered the loss of two brothers and both her parents by the time she was 20, and her only child died in infancy. She worked for a stationer before marrying a Stockbroker. He may have been a WW2 prisoner of war, and worked in the same street where my parents were employed in the late 1940s. Outside of these events, their lives are little documented, but here is what I know.

Losses in a young life

Violet was the 18th of my 2xgreat grandparents’ 19 children, and their youngest daughter. She was born on 16 October 1900, and baptised at St Mark’s, Camberwell, on 3 December.

Extract from parish register, St Mark’s Camberwell (Ancestry) showing her date of birth

The year before Violet was born, her much older sister Emma Mary Ann gave birth to an illegitimate daughter, named Violet Stocking. The baby had been born on 10 October 1899 and died five weeks later, on 16 November, of acute bronchitis. Was Violet Rose May Ivy Stocking, born just over a year after the anniversary of her death, named in memory of her? She made her first census appearance in 1901, at the family home at 44 Herman Road, aged five months.

On 8 August 1904, when she was 3 1/2 years old, her brother Richard Henry Stocking died of septic arthritis, aged 14. When she was six, her mother Alice Mary (nee Wales) died at the young age of 49. Her widower was left with seven children under 18. By the time the 1911 census was taken, he had moved the family to 16 Beechfield Road, Catford, next door to his eldest son (my great grandfather James Aaron Stocking and his family – including my Grandfather, who would have been ten in 1911), and sharing no.16 with another son, John Arthur Stocking and his wife Hannah. In fact, in 1911, ten year old Violet is enumerated with her Uncle and Aunt, who had no children of their own.

Violet was 14 years old when WW1 broke out. Several of her brothers and brothers-in-law joined up to fight. Two of them were awarded the Military Medal. Her brother Aaron Archibald Stocking was killed in action in France in 1917. It must have been a terrible time for the family and their neighbours.

On 2 August 1919, Violet’s father James Thomas Stocking married his deceased wife’s widowed sister, Margaret Emma Goodchild. The marriage was sadly short-lived, as James died on 8 December the following year; his widow died two days later.

At the time the 1921 census was taken, now orphaned Violet was still living with her Uncle and Aunt at 16 Beechfield Road, Catford. By then, she had left school and was working as a Relief Stamper for printers and stationers Baddeley Brothers of 19 Moor Lane, in central London. My grandmother Jessie Ephgrave and other members of the family also worked there around the same time, and the firm is still a going concern.

On 4 August 1928, according to a transcript of the parish register at FreeREG, she married Albert James Golder. In 1921, he was living with his parents and siblings at 178 Sandhurst Road, Lewisham, and working as a Junior Clerk for ‘Bone Oldham Mordaunt’, Stock Jobber, of 5 Copthall Buildings in central London. Interestingly, some 30 years later, our parents were both working for stockbrokers Keith, Bayley and Rigg at 15 Copthall Avenue where they met and started courting.

The marriage took place at St George’s Church, Perry Hill, Catford. The groom was 23, a Bachelor, son of Alexander Golder, a Warehouseman, and living at 18 Beechfield Road. His own occupation was Stock Exchange Clerk. The bride was 27, of 16 Beechfield Road, spinster, the daughter of James Aaron [sic] Stocking, Builder (deceased). James Aaron Stocking was actually the name of her brother and her nephew (my great grandfather and grandfather); perhaps she didn’t actually know her father’s middle name. The witnesses were members of Albert’s family: Alexander William Golder and Mabel Alice Golder, his older brother and younger sister, who was just 14 years old.

A few years before the marriage, The Surrey Mirror of 24 April 1925 (FindMyPast) featured a list of those fined for exceeding the 10 mile speed limit through Old Oxted Village, including Albert James Golder of 178 Sandhurst Road, Catford. He was fined £2 for driving at 25 miles an hour. Oxted is nine miles south of Croydon, in Surrey.

The couple made their home at 32 Holme Lacey Road, Lee according to electoral registers in the 1930s and 1940s. Their only known child, Maureen Mildred Golder, was born prematurely at seven months, and died at a week old.

She is described on the death certificate (above) as the daughter of Albert James Golder, Member of the Stock Exchange, of 32 Holme Lacey road, Lee. He registered her death on 17 September 1934, the day after she died at 15 Woolstone Road. From Google street view this looks as though it may have been a cottage hospital (not far from where Albert and Violet married), but I haven’t been able to find out anything about it.

Later lives

At the time of The 1939 Register, Violet Rose May Ivy Golder is recorded living at the same address, but there is no sign of her husband, who may have been serving in the forces.

They are both also registered to vote in 1939 at 5 Draper’s Gardens, not far from Copthall Buildings, their home address shown as Holme Lacey Road. This may have been because Albert James Golder was still working for Stock Jobbers Bone, Oldham, Mordaunt. Sir Nigel Mordaunt, Bart is also registered at the same address.

FindMyPast has various records in its WW2 Allies and Casualty records for 7875449 Staff/Squadron Sergeant Major A J Golder of the Royal Armoured Corps (RAC) 4RTR. He had been reported as missing in Cyrenaica (Libya) in June 1942, but shortly after was believed to have been taken Prisoner of War. By 1945, his name appeared on a list of those previously thought to be PoWs, but now found not to be. Unfortunately, there is nothing in these records to confirm or otherwise that this is the same man. He would have been about 38 years old at the outbreak of WW2.

He is still registered to vote at 5 Draper’s Gardens in 1945 electoral registers. They then seem to disappear from online records until Violet’s death, which was registered in Lewisham in the first quarter of 1963 (FreeBMD). The probate calendar shows that she died on 14 January 1963 at Lewisham Hospital; her usual address was 232 Baring Road, Lee, Lewisham and she is described as the wife of Albert James Golder. Probate was granted to her widower and George Edward Golder (Albert’s youngest brother), both members of the London stock exchange.

Extract from National Probate Calendar (Ancestry)

There is a marriage index record at FreeBMD for Albert James Golder to Rosetta Grace Blanche Sturley in Lewisham in the Jul-Sep quarter of 1963. She was a widow (maiden name Cole), whose husband Alfred Thomas Sturley had died in 1958. They had had a son, Graham Thomas Sturley, who was born in Wakefield, Yorkshire in 1944; he would have been about 18 years old when his mother married Albert. In 1966, Albert and Rosetta Golder are registered to vote at 232 Baring Road, Lee. He died in Bickley, Kent, in 1977. Rosetta Grace Blanche Golder died in Bexhill-on-Sea in 1995.

In an intriguing twist, Rosetta’s son by her first husband was under police investigation over the disappearance (and possibly murder) of his wife Linda J Sturley, an ‘Avon Lady’, who disappeared in 1981. He died of a heart attack in Bromley in 1982, before he could be charged. Her body has never been found.