Albert Edward Waghorn was born on 1st March 1889 in St Paul’s, Tottenham,bi and
baptised at All Hallows Church, Tottenham on 31st March 1889 ch.
He was the youngest of five children of David and Mary Waghorn. In 1891 cs the family was living at 4 Siddon Road, Tottenham, and by 1901 the census shows him as a 12 yearold living with his father, David, his mother, Mary, and 3 older siblings, Charles D, Jane M and Arthur E at 52 Foyle Road Tottenham. This house was 300yards north of Siddon Road, it was a solidly built terraced house with a bay window in the front room and a small yard in front of the house. His father and two older brothers worked in "engineering", his sister as a dressmaker. Albert was the last of David and Mary’s children to leave home. He married Florence Ida Smith on 30th October 1915 when he was 25 years old. His occupation at this time is stated as ‘insurance agent’, and their address as 89 The Avenue. One of the witnesses was George James David Waghorn mc, Albert’s eldest brother, an engineer, married and with children living in Edmonton.
This was a wartime marriage. On 25th May 1916 conscription for all able-bodied men between the ages of 18 and 41 became law. Albert Edward joined the Royal Navy as an Able Seaman (AB) on 24th January 1917, and spent two months at HMS Pembroke, a shore barracks at Chatham. He then moved to HMS Ganges. This 3-masted vessel was the base ship of the Royal Navy Training Establishment at Shotley, Suffolk. hb He was demobbed on 1st August 1919. mil(1) He was awarded the British War Medal 1914-1920 mil(2)
Service location: Europe
Campaign: World War 1
Service No.: J 65797
We have 3 photographs of Albert E showing him in naval uniforms. One of these has a note on the back describing him as ‘Albert Waghorn, violinist’. The uniforms tell us that he was a bandsman both in the Royal Navy and in the merchant navy corr. He must have joined the merchant navy after the war, perhaps when Florence and Son were living with her parents at Somerset Road.
His first child, Victor (A.H.) was born during the last quarter of 1916. He was always known to the family as ‘Son’. His second child, Dennis Albert, Den, was born almost 9 years later, on 15th September 1925.
In 1922 Albert E and Florence with the young Victor (‘Son’ ) were living at 95 The Orchard, but by 1927 they were living with their two sons, Florence’s parents and her three brothers, Victor, Leonard and John, at 17 Somerset Road. At some time during the 1920s a foster son, Eric Cave also came to live with them. In 1929 Albert and Florence moved to 84 Compton Crescent, still in Tottenham. er
Den never spoke of his father, but Joan remembered Florence talking about him as a lazy sort of person. The marriage may well have been on the rocks, but the final reason for Albert leaving his family, as he did in 1935 or early 1936, was that he had been embezzling funds from his insurance work and his supervisors found out. He was not taken to court over this because he had previously been a good employee, but lost his position and his family. When he left home Eric went with him. It was in 1936 that Florence moved back to 17 Somerset Road to live with her parents and youngest brother, John. er
After the Second World War Joan remembered that Albert tried to make it up with Florence, “but she would have none of it”.
Between 1946 and 1954 he lived at 50 Marine Parade in Sheerness , dir , a place that the family had visited on holiday before the war. Did he live there because the town was known to him, or did the family visit Sheerness to visit him? Certainly Sheerness is close to Chatham where he had spent some time during the war. He died in the last quarter of 1971, aged 82, his death was registered in the Chatham district of Kent di.
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