Monday 19 April 2010

Edith Frances .... my Great Aunt

Edith Frances Mobsby ...nee BULLOCK ...b 1867... m1900.... d1949



Edith was the third of George and Emma Bullock's children. Sadly her first two siblings had died before she was born. Ada Sophronia was just one and Ralph Yelland, barely two. A year after his death, Edith arrived ...how her parents must have worried...would she too be taken from them? She survived and was joined by a little brother, Horace Yelland, seven years later. (My Grandfather). It was told to me that George had been a church organist but I have no evidence of this. Both of the children were encouraged to play an instrument, Edith ... Piano and Horace ... Cello and as a result of George's encouragement and their hard work, they became accomplished musicians.
I feel that Edith was special to her father and so when she started to ' walk out' with Herbert Mobsby he was not a happy man. He did not approve of her choice of future husband and tried to discourage the match ...wanting her to pursue her music. Edith, however, chose Herbert which ...it is said ... resulted in her father refusing to attend their wedding in 1900. She was 33 so he could not forbid it but it has been said that he totally cut her off. This might be the case but in George's will he did in fact leave her several properties that he owned but worded it in such a way, that Herbert himself could never gain from any inheritance Edith would receive. They had a daughter Irene and a son Eric but the two halves of the family never had much to do with each other and after Horace moved to Scotland, in 1916, I do not think he ever saw his sister or any part of her family again.

This year ...nearly 100 years on ....I have made contact with Irene's son. We found that through out most of our lives we managed to live only a stones throw away from each other but knew nothing of each others existance. Now we have exchanged some family history and tied up loose ends....small world.