Gertrude Maud Emms was born on 1 October 1885 in Bermondsey, the fourth of the seven children of George Edmonds Emms (1849-1908) and Alice Ann Emms née Harwood (1854-1927). On 31 January 1886 she was baptised at Christ Church, Bermondsey, where the baptismal register confirms that the family were living at 11 Jamacia Road, Bermondsey, and that her father was a tobacconist.
When the 1891 census was compiled she was still living at 11 Jamaica Road, Bermondsey, with her parents and four siblings: Alice Lorian Emms (1879-1971), Hannah Elizabeth Emms (1881-1965), Charlotte Edith Emms (1883-1974) and Beatrice Lillie Emms (1888-1968). Her father's occupation was again recorded as a tobacconist.
In the 1901 census she was described as clerk, still residing at 11 Jamaica Road, Bermondsey, with her parents and four siblings: Hannah Elizabeth Emms, Charlotte Edith Emms, Rosa May Emms (1891-1974) and George Henry Albany Emms (1898-1968). Her father was recorded as a tobacconist shopkeeper.
Her marriage to Henry Gage Spicer (1875-1944) was registered in the 2nd quarter of 1911 in the St George Hanover Square registration district, London. This surely was an unusual marriage: a tobacconist's daughter to the director of a major wholesale stationer and paper manufacturer with a house he had recently built for himself in St James's. He was 10 years her senior and had just emerged from a publicly humiliating divorce. See his page for details.
Their son, Oliver Edward Gage Spicer (1915-1978) was born on 21 October 1915 and when he was baptised on 19 December 1915 at the Wesleyan-Methodist Chapel, Horseferry Road, Westminster, the baptismal register shows that the family residence was 20 Old Queen Street, Westminster.
On 20 April 1934 she, together with her husband and their son, embarked at Southampton, Hampshire, on board the Empress of Australia of the Canadian Pacific steamship line as first-class passengers bound for Quebec, Canada. The ship's manifest gave their address as 20 Old Queen Street, Westminster. On 16 May 1934 they made their way to Buffalo, New York, USA, before returning to England.
Electoral registers from 1918 to 1939 show her and her husband listed at 20 Old Queen Street, Westminster and from 1920 to 1938 they also show them both at Holmwood, Sawston, Cambridgeshire.
The 1939 England and Wales Register confirms her living at 20 Old Queen Street, Westminster with her husband, together with a cook, a parlour-maid and a house-maid.
Probate records confirm that she died, aged 58 years, just two months after her husband, on 13 May 1944 at Holmwood, Sawston, Cambridgeshire. It lists her other address as 20 Old Queen Street, Westminster. Administration with a will was granted on 11 August 1944 to her son, army Captain Oliver Edward Gage Spicer. Her effects totalled £20,520-11s-5d.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
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