Posted By:	Graham Peters
	Email:
	Subject:	Gertrude and Florence Baines of Preston Lancashire 1892-1896
	Post Date:	April 25, 2007 at 05:13:13
	Message URL:	http://genforum.genealogy.com/baines/messages/574.html
	Forum:	Baines Family Genealogy Forum
	Forum URL:	http://genforum.genealogy.com/baines/

G'day My wife, Judy Edmonds is the grand-daughter of Gertrude Baines of Preston Lancashire who was aged 9 at the time of the 1901 census (born about 1892). She became a teacher and supported her mother and younger sister, teaching for a time at Bibury (cannot remember whether that is in Oxon or Gloucs. – too long since I left England). Subsequently, she married John (Jack) Edmonds, also from Preston and had three sons, of whom Francis was killed whilst flying over Germany in second world war, and James (Jimmy) died when the HMS Gloucester was sunk off Crete in 1941. Her third, and much younger son, Thomas Anthony (Tony) Edmonds was born in 1936 and is my wife’s father. Gertrude Baines had a younger sister Florence (Census data suggest Florence L born in about 1895) who became an ambulance driver in France during the first world war. Gertrude’s father was a printer and family stories suggest he died from lead poisoning from the type. Gertrude was firmly Roman Catholic and had been engaged to a soldier killed in action during the firs world war. When he was first posted missing then dead, she prayed and was answered with the advice (curse) to marry a non-catholic and convert him. Jack Edmonds appears to have been a lively type, having run away to sea at age 12 when his mother delivered the latest of a long line of baby sisters. He appears to have led an “interesting life” dying in 1949 aged 56. Gertrude died in about 1986, after living in Overton, near Basingstoke in Hampshire since about 1938. If you are able to shed any light on Gertrude or Florence, we would be very interested. Graham Peters Melbourne, Australia