Mary Ann Budgen (1863-1953).
My great-grand aunt.
Born in 27 August 1863 in Worth, Sussex, Mary Ann Budgen was baptised on 4 October that year at St Nicholas’ Church. Her parents were Thomas Budgen and Maria Dolamore.
At the time of the 1881 census she was living at the 123-acre Hazel Grove Farm in Abbots Langley, Hertfordshire, described as the niece of farmer John Toovey and his wife Anne. Mary married Frederick John Lunnon on 18 October 1890 at St Mary’s in nearby Watford. He came from another nearby village, Kings Langley, where he was baptised on 14 September 1864 to parents George Lunnon, a tailor, and his wife Ellen.
After their marriage, Mary Ann and her commercial traveller husband went to live in Harrow, Hammersmith and Chiswick but they were clearly struggling to make a living, as a report in the London Evening Standard of 14 February 1895 made clear. Frederick, of 82 Coningham Road, Shepherd’s Bush, and now described as a jeweller, was charged with disposing of two watches belonging to Charles Dixon.
The report went on: “It appeared that the watches had been entrusted to the care of the prisoner to repair by Mrs Dixon, who gave information to the police as she was unable to recover them. Detective Sergeant James of the T Division… asked the prisoner what he had done with the two watches. He replied: ‘I am very sorry to tell you I have put them away for bread.'” He told the policeman that he’d been unable to get a job and was in great distress, had a wife and three children. The report continued: “It was true that the prisoner was in great distress, there not being any fire in the room and only one piece of bread for all of them… Witness commiserated with the family in their distressed condition and temporarily relieved them out of his own pocket.” The magistrate thanked the officer for his kindness and said he could deal with the case for unlawfully pawning, but he would not do so under the special circumstances. Instead, he gave Lunnon, who’d already recovered one of the watches, a month to return the other. In the meantime, he ordered that the family should receive assistance from the poor box.
I don’t know what happened after the hearing as there’s no follow-up report. However, in the West London Observer of 23 February 1895, Frederick published a personal ad thanking all those who had kindly assisted him during his recent distress. He called out Sergeant James in particular for the help he had given his family.
They family then moved to Market Street, Newbury, Berkshire, where Frederick worked as a watch repairer.
He signed up with the Royal Berkshire Regiment in September 1914 at the outbreak of the First World War but was discharged through ill health the following summer. By the 1921 census, he was working as a packer for a toy manufacturer.
The couple had eight children who survived into adulthood, all but one girls, but the 1911 census showed that four other children had died. Frederick died on 30 January 1932 at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading, Berkshire, with his funeral held at Shaw Cemetery, Newbury, on 6 February. The 1939 Register showed widowed Mary Ann living with her single daughter Millicent in Newbury. Mary Ann died on 16 March 1953 and the funeral was held at Shaw Cemetery on 20 March.
Their children were:
- Linda Mary Lunnon (1892-1971) was baptised in Acton Green, Middlesex, and moved with her parents to Newbury in Berkshire. In 1913 she married local man and house painter Arthur James Povey, who joined the Royal Berkshire Regiment when war broke out in 1914. He served on the home front and was later posted to the Royal Defence Corps, discharged in 1917 with varicose veins and flat feet. The couple raised several children in Newbury. Arthur died in 1952 and two years later Linda married Albert Rose. He died in 1960, Linda in 1971.
- Olive May Lunnon (1893-1971) was baptised in Hammersmith, Middlesex, grew up in Newbury and married William Edward Smith in 1916. The 1921 census noted that he worked as a lead burner and battery attendant for the local electricity company but by 1939 he had become a diesel engine driver. The couple had children and lived in the Newbury area until their deaths – William in 1955 and Olive in 1971.
- Iris Winifred Emmeline Lunnon (1895-1956) was baptised in Hammersmith and didn’t marry until 1930. Her husband was Stanley Blackford, a lorry driver and, later, haulage contractor. Iris worked as an ironer at a laundry and the couple lived in the Newbury area. She died in 1956, Stanley in 1984.
- Millicent Melina Lunnon (1898-1984) was born in Newbury and remained there throughout her life. She never married, worked as a laundress and lived with her widowed mother for many years. She died in 1984.
- Vera Chrissie Lunnon (1900-1989) was born in Newbury and married soldier John Donnelly in 1927. She lived in military homes for some years before joining members of her family in Newbury at the start of the Second World War. Her death was registered in Glasgow in 1989.
- Freda Dolamore Lunnon (1902-1983) was born in Newbury and married Henry / Harry Cozens in Hampshire in 1924. A mariner, he drowned the following year after falling overboard from a vessel off the Hampshire coast. She married Albert Kingham in Berkshire in 1947 and remained in the Newbury area. He died in 1961, Freda in 1983.
- Leslie Roxeth Lunnon (1906-2002) was born in Newbury and married Kathleen Smith in Middlesex in 1938. The following year they were domestic servants at East Shefford House in Berkshire. The couple remained in the county, Kathleen dying in 1993 and Leslie in 2002.
- Greta Lelia Lunnon (1908-1998) was born in Newbury and married painter and decorator Richard Valentine Taplin in 1930. They lived in Devon in their later years, Greta dying in 1998 and Richard in 2001.
Sources: BMDs, census and other records on Ancestry.co.uk, Findmypast.co.uk and familysearch.org. Newspaper reports at the British Newspaper Archive, titles and dates in text. Sussex Family History Group records online. Berkshire Family History Society records on Findmypast.co.uk.