Ellen Card (buried 1930)

Ellen Harriet King was born on 10th March 1867 in Royal Tunbridge Wells to Harriet King (nee Randall) (24) from Tunbridge Wells, and Henry King (27) a bricklayer from Frant, Wealdon, Sussex. 

In 1871 4-year-old Ellen lived with her mother, father and four brothers: Harry W (5), George F (2), Charles (1), and Arthur J (6 months) at 40 Goods Station Road, Tunbridge Wells. They shared the lodging with another Sussex labourer Joseph Glover, his wife Ellen and their son and daughter. Ellen would go on to be one of ten children in a family comprising four girls and six boys. 

Tunbridge Wells was founded after discovery of the Chalybeate Spring. It became the place to be seen after Princess of Babylon Margaret (so named for her stylish attire), the fashionista widower of Viscount Purbeck took the waters' in 1684. A favourite destination for fashionable society who wanted accommodation and entertainment such as gaming rooms, coffee houses and an assembly room for balls and dances. By 1841 there were 8,302 inhabitants in the fastest growing town in Kent. Entertainment for residents took place on The Common including fireworks displays, cricket matches, archery and horse racing (banned in 1845 due to the fact they were a cause of drunkenness and riotous behaviour.) 

The King family would continue to live in Tunbridge Wells until at least 1901, but by 1895 Ellen Harriet had met and married Henry William Card. Their marriage was registered in Tonbridge between October- December of the same year. 

Henry William was born on 23rd June 1885 at Speldhurst, Kent. Five kilometres from Tunbridge Wells the village name derives from the Old English for wooded hill (hyrst) where wood chips (speld) are found. 

By 1901 the couple were boarding at 9 The Colonnade, Eastbourne. They shared the property with a builders' carpenter, his two daughters, a son and their servant. No employment is recorded for Ellen Harriet, but Henry William was a club steward (usually meaning a servant within an establishment such as a private members club.) 

Eastbourne came into being in the mid-1850s. In 1859 William Cavendish, the 7th Duke of Devonshire replaced architect James Berry with Henry Currey, to draw up plans for a new town, an amalgamation of fishing villages and agricultural hamlets, principal of which was Bourne (later known as The Old Town) which included some medieval buildings. A seaside resort for gentlemen Eastbourne's population increased ten-fold in 40 years- from 3,400 in 1851 to 35,000 in 1891. 

The practice of mass absence from work developed in England in the 1880s, with people taking unofficial holidays and visitors flocked from the overcrowded squalor of polluted cities to seaside resorts aided by cheap train tickets. By the 1890s the well-to-do and the local council of Eastbourne were unsuccessfully lobbying the London and Brighton South Coast Railway (LandBSCR) to stop them selling cheap tickets from London to keep out the riff-raff. 

Before they moved to Worthing in 1911 Ellen Harriet and Henry had had two children. Dorothy was born in 1904 and died the same year (no records exist for her,) and Gladys Edith, who was born on 26th April 1906 in Eastbourne and died 17th September 1961 in Westbourne, Sussex. 

In 1911 Ellen Harriet, husband Henry and Gladys were living in a 5-room property at 6 Reigate Road, Worthing. Henry was now an own-account (self-employed) jobbing gardener. 

On 27th April 1911 Leonard Stanley was born. He died on 2nd November 1931 at 20 Western Road, Tunbridge Wells. 

Henry William Card died on 25th August 1922 at the General Hospital, Grovesnor Road, Tunbridge Wells. Wife Ellen Harriet administered his Estate. He left £418 16s 3d. 

By the time of her death Ellen Harriet had moved to 9 Reigate Road, Worthing. She died on 21st May 1930 and was buried in Heene Cemetery on 26th May 1930 by Assistant Curate W Derrett-Smith. 

Her Estate (handled by decorator Ernest Hollamby) was initially valued at £519 14s 6d. It was re-sworn (recalculated) at £719 14s 6d.