I am unable to find a 1901 census record for Sarah Ann (Nance) but Mary Ellen (aged 18) is in service to an educated family - the Whittakers - in Rose Hill Street Derby. There are no parents present although all the adults are described as “daughter” or “son” suggesting that the parents are still the owners of the house. Nell is described as “General Servant Domestic”.
Fanny (aged 16) is also in service with the family of William Morley - a grocer in John Street, Derby. She is described as Servant Domestic.
Sparkes Family - 1901-1910
The six eldest Sparkes children were all married in Derby in the next decade and most had almost completed their families. (Most of the information below comes from FreeBMD - the index of registrations of births, marriages, and deaths.)
Thomas
Sparkes & Sarah Elizabeth Wray - Marriage 1901
Thomas Sparkes (b 1880) was Arthur and Fanny’s eldest son. He & Sarah had 4 daughters - Annie b 1902; Margaret (Nelly) b.1904; Florence (Flossie) b. 1907; and Nora b 1911. He is the grandfather of JM - a user of Ancestry with whom I swapped information in 2014-15. She supplied a copy of his BC (see Sparkes <1900) and this, the only known photograph of him (3rd from the right) taken in 1949 at the wedding of his grandson, Ronald James Smedley.
Nance Sparkes & Bert Mountford - Marriage 1904
Sarah Annie Sparkes (Nance) was Arthur & Fanny’s firstborn. She and Bert Mountford had only one child Maurice Mountford b.1911.
The long delay between their marriage and Maurice’s birth could be explained by the death of newborn (or stillborn) Mountford twins in Derby in 1908 (George Edward and Jessie Richard). There is another tragic child death that could also be a son of Nance and Bert: Reginald born in 1912 who died in 1914 at the age of 2.
I do not have these death certificates and thus cannot be sure that these are the children of Nance and Bert.
Arthur L Sparkes & Annie Gertrude Ashford (Gert) - Marriage 27 January 1907
A record from England Select Marriages shows this wedding to have taken place on 27th January 1907. Arthur and Gert had 6 children, all born in Derby:- Freddie b.1908, Irene b.1910, Sidney b.1912, Ernest b.1914, Benjamin (Bennie) b.1916 and Annie Gertrude (Gertie) b.1918.
The 1911 census (see below) shows that they also had a child who died. Arthur William lived for only a few months.
George Sparkes b. 1917 in Derby is something of an enigma as he did not figure in the list of names of children in this family which came from Hetty’s old birthday book. However the inclusion of mother’s maiden name as Ashford in the registration index make it fairly certain that he does belong to this family. The fact that his cousins did not know of him might suggest he died in childhood but I could find no record of this.
Fanny Sparkes & Percy Rankin - Marriage 1907
Fanny Sparkes and Percy Rankin had 3 children Connie b.1908, Gordon b.1909 and Margaret b. 1911 - all births registered in Derby.
Nell Sparkes & Sid Abbott - Marriage 1908
Nell Sparkes and Sid Abbott had 2 children Reggie (Francis Reginald) b.1909 and registered in Kingston and Doris L b.1911 and registered in Guildford. I knew from family records (see References section) that this family had moved south and later lived in Worthing so the Surrey registrations do fit.
Flo Sparkes & Alick Howard Brewster - Marriage 1910
Flo and Howard had one child Muriel Brewster b.1911 in Cheltenham. However they had also suffered an infant death as shown by the record of 1 child who had died on the 1911 census (see below). This was probaly Eric H Brewster b. & d. 1910 in Derby.
Sparkes family Military Service - 1914 - 1918
I have been surprised by how little information I have been able to find about the WW1 military service records of the Sparkes family.
Thomas Sparkes would have been 33 when WW1 broke out. Information from Jill Mills a direct descendent of Thomas is that he had a spoon from WW1 years with the number INF 3481 - possibly his service number. She reported that, "He was attached to those who looked after horses for the guns and helped to drag them through the mud. He was stationed at Albert in France and fought in the battle of Ypes and Paschendale. He may have been in the Pioneers attached to the Royal Engineers". I cannot find any service record on-line. He survived the war.
John Bertram Mountford - husband to Nance - would have been 34 when WW1 broke out. I cannot find any service record on-line. He may not have served as he is not in uniform in the 1917 family photograph or the photo of the wedding of Margaret May Sparkes and Tom Swinburn. However I do not know why he might have been exempt from conscription.
Sid Abbott - husband to Nell - would have been 30
when WW1 broke out. I have found a
short service record for him showing his enlistment at the age of 32 - ie in
1916 (I cannot make out a date on the document). He survived the war.
Percy Rankin - husband to Fanny - would have been 30
when WW1 broke out. I cannot find
any service record on line. but I have this small photograph of him in uniform and
he is also in uniform in the photo of the wedding of Margaret May Sparkes and
Tom Swinburn at which he was Best Man.
Arthur Leonard Sparkes would have been 30 when WW1 broke out. I cannot find any service record on-line but there is a possible service medal record. There is very little information on these and nothing to confirm identity. He survived the war.
Aleck Howard Brewster - husband to Flo - would have been 24 when WW1 broke out. He served in the Worcestershire Regiment. He died on 22 January 1917 and is buried at Nottingham Road Cemetery, Derby.
Nance Mountford (Sarah Annie Sparkes) & Bert - In 1911 Bert worked as a gas fitter. He and Nance lived in Derby until their deaths Bert in the second quarter of 1923 (aged 43) and Nance (aged 63) in the second quarter of 1939.
Thomas Sparkes & Sarah Elizabeth (nee Wray) - In 1911 Thomas also worked as a gasfitter. According to Jill Mills Thomas had an illegitimate child Phyllis Eileen James in 1929 who was raised from the age of 14 months by Thomas and Sarah. In 1930 the family were living at 25 Uttoxeter Old Road, Derby. He and Sarah also remained in Derby until their deaths - Sarah on 6th February 1947 (aged 65) and Thomas on 7th March 1954 (aged 73).
Nell Abbott (Mary Ellen Sparkes) & Sid - They moved to Worthing soon after their marriage where Sid worked as a warehouseman in a laundry. I have found a possible death for Nell in 1939 (aged 56) in Burton on Trent. I cannot find evidence of the death of Sid.
Fanny Rankin (Fanny Sparkes) & Percy - They were living in Derby in 1911 with Percy working as a grocers assistant. Percy was Best man at the marriage of Margaret May Sparkes to Tom Swinburn. There is a possible death for Percy in the first quarter of 1958 in Shardlow, Derbyshire but I cannot find a record of Fanny’s death.
Arthur
Leonard Sparkes & Gert (Annie Gertrude nee Ashford) - In
1911 Arthur was a wagon repairer and the fam
ily lived in Blackshaw Street,
Derby. According to Helen Ainsworth Arthur & Gert had 7 children including Irene May (b.27/5/1910) and Ernest (b.1914). According to Jill Mills Arthur later worked in a biscuit factory in
Liverpool and died in his sleep when in his 30s. This information may have come
from Don Handley. The closest fit I can find is a death of Arthur L Sparkes
(aged 35) in Wakefield - not Liverpool - in the third quarter of 1922. This age
fits with his birth in 1887. I cannot find a death for Gert.
Flo Brewster (Florrie Sparkes) - was widowed at the age of 28 when Howard Brewster was killed in WW1. She was left with a 6-year-old child, Muriel. Flo had a breakdown on the occasion of the marriage of Margaret May to Tom Swinburn. She was committed and spent the rest of her life in an institution. Her daughter, Muriel Brewster, was brought up by her grandparents, Fanny and Arthur Sparkes. I do not know when Flo died.
Hetty Handley (Hetty Sparkes) and Leo had one son, Donald Handley, in 1920 - see photo right. Leo died in 1933 and Hetty remarried in 1941 to John Athya who had a daughter Joyce. Hetty died on 28th February 1977.
George
Lawrence Sparkes married Pearl Fraser in
the first quarter of 1924 in West Derby. They had 6 children Sylvia (Muriel S b.1925
in Skirlaugh) Donald C (b. 1927 in Shardlow), Agnes G (b. 1929 in West Derby),
Constance (b. 1931 in Romford) George W A (b. 1937 in Dartford), and Bernard
(Lawrence B b. 1944 in Macclesfield). These births seem to indicate a lot of
moving around but the names fit with those already known. I cannot find deaths
for George or Pearl.
Sydney
Bertram Sparkes was married in Derby in 1925 to Grace
Linnett. They had one child, Delphinia, born in Derby in the second quarter of
1931. I cannot find evidence of their deaths. (JM tells me that Sydney had an oriental restaurant in Babington Lane, Derby in the 1950s which she visited.)
Catherine Dora Sparkes - see photo left - was married to Bernard Lloyd in Shardlow in the final quarter of 1924. Their daughter Marjorie was born in Derby in the first quarter of 1925. I understand that Dora died in 1992. I do not know of Bernard’s death.
*****
Brief Biography of Margaret May Sparkes (17/4/1895 - 12/9/1973)
Margaret May Sparkes was born on 17th April 1895 at Alvaston, Derby. She was the eighth of eleven children of Arthur Sparkes, a plasterer and builder, and his wife Fanny (nee Holmes). Little is known of her childhood, although she probably attended St Augustine's Church in Derby and possibly Clarence Rod School. At the age of 14 (then living at 80, Clarence Road, Derby) Margaret May started work at Rolls Royce, a major employer in the city. There she may have met her husband to be, Tom Swinburn, although they more likely had known one another from an early age, as both originally lived in Alveston only a few streets away from each other. They may even have been in the same class at Clarence Road School. [1901 Census shows the Sparkes family in Clarence Road and the Swinburn family in Hastings Street.]
Tom and Margaret May were married, by special licence, on 1st August 1918 at St Augustine's Church in Derby. Matron of Honour at the wedding was Margaret May's favourite sister, Hetty, who had been married the previous year with Margaret May her bridesmaid. The wedding was marred by the distress of another sister, Flo, whose husband had been killed in the war. Flo refused to attend the wedding, remaining at home singing hymns. This was taken as a sign of insanity, and Flo was committed to Derby mental institution where she lived the rest of her life. Flo's daughter, Muriel Brewster was then brought up by her grandparents.
After their marriage, Tom
and Margaret May lived in a rented, terraced house, 91 Belvoir Street, and it
was here that their three sons, Ray, David and John, were born over a period of
12 years. Soon after the birth of John, in 1934, the family moved to a semi-detached house at 14 Ainsworth Drive, Derby where Margaret May and Tom
continued to live until Tom's death in 1960.
In the later 1920s, Tom was very ill with septicaemia. This kept him off work for 18 months during which time the family faced considerable hardship and Margaret May was both mother and father to the two young boys and full time nurse to her bed-ridden husband. Sanctuary could be found at the home of her parents, a pretty cottage on Shelton Lock, Derby where the boys loved to play and where they enjoyed the attentions both of their grandparents and of their older cousin Muriel Brewster.
In 1962, considering the house too large for a widow living alone, and wishing to be closer to her eldest son and his family, Margaret May moved to a bungalow, 16, Sundown Avenue where she lived until 1972.
Margaret May enjoyed quite good health for most of her life although in her early fifties (around 1946) she had a hysterectomy, 'the big one'. In her final three years she suffered from Alzheimer's disease and became incapable of looking after herself. In 1972 she went to live with her eldest son's family at 331 Stenson Road Derby, with two-week stays with her other sons and their families, organised to give Monica and Ray the occasional short break.
Margaret May died in Kingsway Hospital Derby on 12th August 1973 at the age of 78. She had been in hospital since June. The cause of death was 1a) bronchopneumonia 2) senile dementia and the death was reported by her son Tom Raymond Swinburn. The funeral was held in St Giles church followed by interment in Normanton Cemetery.
The photograph taken c. 1960 shows Tom & Margaret May at their home in Ainsworth Drive, Derby
