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Kate Antoinette Clarke1887-1982 |
This directory contains the information we have about Kate and Anthony Clarke's 3rd child Kate Antoinette.
For details of Kate senior's life, see her own directory.
For details of Kate senior’s very interesting first husband Anthony, including his families with other wives, see the AJCheeper/Clarke directory.
Kate junior's birth certificate shows her as being born on 27 Sep 1887, in Cardiff. Her father is shown as Anthony Clarke, commercial traveller, and her mother as Kate Clarke formerly Davidge. Kate's granddaughter Barbara Sidebotham acquired a copy of the page from the Baptism Register at St John's. It is dated 23 October 1887, and shows the address as 'Shrotonville, Edwards' Terrace'. (This was typical of Anthony's ability to embellish and mislead: after Kate's father died and her mother re-married Isaac Russell, Kate lived in what was probably a hovel, at the northern end of Iwerne Courtney, beside Shroton House).
Their address was shown as 24 Edwards Terrace, St John, Cardiff. On her expedition to Cardiff, Barbara found the street (which seems to be missing from on-line street directories). The even-numbered side of the street has succumbed to redevelopment, but the other side of it is still intact. The remaining buildings date from 1877, so the area may well have been modern and well-to-do when Anthony Clarke installed Kate Davidge and her growing brood there for at least a couple of years in the 1885-90 timeframe.
She appears in the April 1891 census entry as Kate A., 3 years, born Cardiff.
She appears in the April 1901 census entry, with her parents, as Kate A., 13 years, born Cardiff. The understanding Barbara has is that Anthony had left the household when Kate A. was 13, in which case his departure was during the latter two-thirds of 1901.
Vivian Watson provided the above photo of young Kate (we suspect c. 1905 at c. 17, and certainly while she was still single).
Vivian Watson says that Kate worked for a time at the Durley Dee Hotel in Branksome, at the western end of Bournemouth. (In 2005, the BT phone-book places Branksome on the Poole side of the boundary, and doesn't know the Hotel any more). Vivian says she remembered the visit to England of the German Kaiser. (Brisk research on the Web suggests that Kaiser Wilhelm II visited Bournemouth in 1907, when Kate would have been 19-20).
Kate's marriage certificate shows that on 12 Jan 1915, at 27, she married Charles Edward Copeland, of Camberwell (London). Their address at the time of the marriage was 33 Acorn Street, Camberwell.
Charles was born at 9 Phil(l?)ip Terrace Camberwell on 31 Dec 1880 (and hence was 34 when they were married, to her 27). His father was Arthur Thomas Copeland, carpenter, and his mother was Mary Ann, formerly Bell. He was a vansman who drove the horse and cart for the bakers. Kate's younger brother Edward Bertie was a witness.
Kate's father Anthony appears on the marriage certificate as Bible Maker. (This is the only instance of this occupation; but it is apparent that he tried quite a few ventures, and it's quite feasible this was one of them. Or at least that this was one story he'd told her that she wanted to believe. She had quite probably seen him for the last time at least a decade earlier, at 13-15 years of age).
Kate and Charles had 4 children. Some information on them is below.
Vivian Watson says that they lived (in the 1920s?) in Collingwood House, Camberwell (upstairs).
Kate's nephew / my uncle Ken Clarke (b. 1935) may have met 'Nettie', perhaps soon after the War (when she would have been c. 60). They may then have lived at 6 Winkley Court, St James Lane, Muswell Hill N10. Vivian Watson provided this photo of Kate (I suspect from about that time, with Kate c. 60, with Charles approaching 70).
Charles died in 1961, aged 80.
Kate's death certificate shows that she passed away on 25 Jul 1982, at 94, at 302 Watford Road, Croxley Green. She was stated to be ordinarily resident at 56 Chester Rd (where she was living with her elder daughter, Gwendoline). Her last years may not have been all that pleasant. The informant was Peter Jarvaise Watson, son-in-law, then of 21 Bishops Avenue, Northwood, Middx.
There were 4 children of the marriage.
Nelson was born in Camberwell on 21 Oct 1915 (the register entry is Dec Qtr 1915 - 1d 1368). He disliked 'Nelson' (given because he was born on the centenary of the Battle of Trafalgar), and to his family he was Charlie.
Vivian also said that his grandmother Kate told him that "Nelson used to climb the Mulberry Tree at the bottom of the garden from where he could overlook the wheelwright".
Nelson married Maureen E. Neale on10 June 1939 at Watford. She was born in Croxley Green near Watford on 18 Nov 1916. They moved to 18 Sydney Rd Watford (5 miles as the crow flies east of where I lived in Chenies in 1977-78. But of course I didn't know any of this back then).
Nelson and Maureen had two children:
I don't have a note of when Charlie died.
Maureen lives in Wimborne in Dorset.
2. Gwendoline Iris Copeland
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Gwen was born at Collingwood House, Camberwell, 9 Mar 1926. (Note the 10-year gap in the family).
The photo above, provided by her eldest son Vivian, was taken in 1943, when she was 17. It's available in slightly larger size.
Gwendoline was married on 2 April 1949 at St Michael's, Watford. Her husband was Peter Jervaise Watson. He was a 22-year-old chemist's assistant, she a 22-year-old bus conductress. Their residence was shown as 56 Chester Rd, Watford. Charles was shown as an electrician, and Peter's father William as a civil servant.
Gwen and Peter had 3 children:
Gwen died in 1983, aged 57, at 21 Bishops Avenue. The cause of death was "bronchopneumonia, lung metastases and carcinoma of the breast (she was a persistent smoker to the end)".
Keith was born 1 Jun 1928.
He married Jeanne and they had four children, two in the 1950s (David, now in Poole, and Janice), and two in the 1960s (Heather and Russell). They live in Watford. Heather has a daughter, born in 1991.
Pat was born on 17 Mar 1932.
She was a nurse.
Pat married Don Freeman and had three children, Helen, Colin and Ian (born in the 1950s/60s?). They lived in Croxley Green. Don passed on in the mid-1990s. Pat died at Christmas 2004, at 72, of a heart attack, while on holidays at Palma.
Helen married Richard Wilson in about 1954, and had Barry, Craig and Dean (born in the 1970s/80s?). Barry is also researching the family tree.
This a page within Roger Clarke's Family Web-Site
Contact: Roger Clarke and/or Anne Kratzmann
Created: 4 October 2005; Amended: 10 January 2006; Last Amended: 1 September 2006
