Edith Mary Sims (1883 - 1973)

Born 9 Jun 1883 in Barham, Canterbury, Kent, England

Ancestors

Wife of Alfred Newing — married [date unknown] in Barham, Kent, England

Descendants

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Ann Lamb [send private message] and Robert Anthony Grant [send private message]

Biography

This biography is a rough draft. It was auto-generated by a GEDCOM import and needs to be edited.

Death

Death:

Date: 3rd April 1973

Could not interpret date in Death Date (3rd April 1973).

Event

Event:

Type: life history

Note: Written by Ethel Ried: daughter of Edith Mary Sims

Edith Mary Sims

Edith was the last child of the family with two sisters and six brothers, the eldest sister Annie was married and away from home when Edith was born, the other sister Lizzie was 16 and the six brothers were between Lizzie and Edith.

It was a happy home and she had a happy childhood although tended to be almost like an only chide with her parents busy in the business and brothers engaged in boyish pursuits. She adored her father and liked watching him at work in the Saddlers shop and listening to him discussing national, political events, which was probably the basis of her won life long interest in politics.

He was a strong adherent of the Liberal cause and many, many years later Lizzie said to my mother that she would never vote other than Liberal because her father was one. My mother replied that their father was very radical for his time and he if he had been alive then would almost certainly become a socialist.

In later life she was very hard of hearing and always suspected this was due to her having scarlet fever as a child. She was barrier nursed at home with sheets hanging at the door of the bedroom, which had been soaked in eucalyptus oil as a precaution against the spread of disease.

A lighter event from her childhood was the hilarity she and some school friends enjoyed when they had to go to the vicarage after school for confirmation preparation classes and found the vicar stretched out in his arm chair asleep and snoring still from his postprandial nap.

She was great friends with her niece Ethel who was approximately the same age. They both had cycles and went for rides together; one time they had a holiday in Kendal staying with Edith's brother Frank and his wife Jenny, Olive was a wee girl at the time. They arrived in Canterbury after the holiday without their luggage, they had forgotten to transfer it in London from the guards van where all but hand luggage was stowed in those days, it was thankfully was safely retrieved in due course.

Edith went to the village school, she also had piano lessons and years later taught her children to read music. My father was five years older than my mother and also went to the village school but it was unlikely they knew each other as he left at the age of ten. The standard school leaving age at that time was 12 but if bright younger pupils could pass the required tests in reading and writing they could leave earlier. What an incredible way of treating intelligent children it now seems!

As a young woman Edith was asked by Mr Lee the head teacher of the school to become a pupil teacher and this she did, she had completed two years when her mother died

And with the change of circumstances she felt that "The Sportsman's Arms" was no longer her home and planned to train as a nurse in one of London's hospitals. This plan was thwarted when the "Lady" she approached for a reference refused to recommend her on the grounds that London was not a place where a young girl should go. Consequently she took a living in Post at "The wool pack Hotel" in Tenterden where she had an aunt and Cousins whom she could visit when she had time off.

All this time she was writing to my father who had finished an apprenticeship as a bricklayer and immigrated to Canada, they were married in Barham on the 7th of Dec 1905 and after the honeymoon in London and around of farewell visits to relations set sail for Canada in January 1906. Their first home was in Calgary Alberta; within sight of the Rocky Mountains. My two brothers were born in 1907 and 1910 and in 1912 they returned to England for a holiday, then back to Calgary where I was born in 1913.

After the 1st world war started my father joined the forces and thinking he would be sent to France my parents decided it best for mother to return to England with the children and this is what she did. At first we lived at Bridge in a house in the High street bur when my father was de mobbed and joined us in 1919 we moved to Ramsgate then to London, which became our home.

We had a small flat in Islington until I went to college in 1931 and my parents then moved to a very large house in Lewisham taking in boarders.

Aunt Lizzie lived with us from 1934 until she died in 1939. In that year when the 2nd world war started my mother became a full time worker at the first aid post treating bombed casualties. George and I were married in 1940 when the blitz was at its height and we shared the house, which was conveniently arranged as two flats.

Edith was gifted with a great sensitivity and the ability to recognise and understand emotional problems whilst at the same time being very practical and capable. She always put her family first and was entirely selfless, throughout our whole childhood there was never any punishment or sanctions, she believed self discipline could only be achieved by example and had to come from within. Both she and my father cared deeply about education and were proud of the successes achieved by their grandchildren.

While their mother was ill in hospital Lizzie and Edith had been running "The Sportsman's Arms" and after they had gone to bed as usual one night Edith called out to Lizzie that their mother had come but was told by Lizzie to go to sleep and not be foolish. The next morning they had a telegram to inform them that their mother had died at 8.30 the previous evening.

Years later my brother Stanley had a half-holiday form school, which was only, announced on the morning of the day its self, he decided to meet my mother from work. (At that time she did a mid-day stint at a City restaurant) When she left work she "knew" she would meet Stanley on the way home but not why.

Later still in Lewisham we moved to a house with a very well kept garden, the house had been willed to the landlady by her Uncle who had lived there himself for many years. One summer evening soon after moving in my mother was working in the garden and became aware of a man standing there, she alerted my father but no one could be seen. Sometime later the landlady showed my mother a photograph of her Uncle in his garden of which he was very proud and my mother had at once recognised him as the man she had seen.

Edith could "tell fortunes" making predictions which were often uncannily correct as when she told the husband of one of my friends he would be asked to do a special job at work. He went to work the next day taking his specialist tools with him and was able to surprise his boss by reporting that he had the necessary tools with him and could start the job immediately.

I once asked her the secret of her predictions to which she replied, "Oh it is just the tale of the old iron pot, I say whatever comes into my head" but I am convinced it is more than that. The close one to one contact like holding the hand (palm reading) or holding the cup recently held by the enquirer (tea cups) gave the opportunity for some sort of interaction. After such sessions she would appear quite exhausted as if some inner strength had gone.

After the death of my father in 1963 she lived with us surviving a broken hip in 1970 but died in 1973 following another fall in which she broke her thigh. She died on the 3rd of April the anniversary of her mother's death.

Date Coincidences: -

9th of June was her birthday also the birthday of her sister Fanny born four years earlier but only lived 7 months.

7th Dec was her Wedding day also the Wedding day of her grandson George sixty-three years later.

3rd of April when she died exactly 71 years after her mother.

Her six brothers were very fond of Edith and clubbed together to buy her a gold ring inset with emeralds on her 21st birthday. In turn she gave it to me on my 21st and I did likewise for my granddaughter Jennifer when she became 21.

Event:

Type: info

Note: UK Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960

Name: Edith Mary Newing

Birth Date: abt 1883

Age: 33

Port of Departure: New York, New York, United States

Arrival Date: 30 Apr 1916

Port of Arrival: Liverpool, England

Ship Name: Philadelphia

Shipping line: American Line

Official Number: 159617

User ID

User ID: 2E40D8909A414142B1B1D72449B1BB589EC1

Data Changed

Data Changed:

Date: 27 Feb 2011

Time: 14:24

Prior to import, this record was last changed 14:24 27 Feb 2011.

Object

Object:

Format: jpg

File: j:\All Albums\Sims related folders\Newing family including Anita Newing\Edith Newing dec 1905 Jan 1906.jpg

Title: Edith Mary Sims

Scrapbook: Y

Primary or Preferred: Y

Type: PHOTO

Marriage

Husband: Alfred Newing

PREF Y

Wife: Edith Mary Sims

PREF Y

Marriage:

Date: 7th December 1905

Place: Barham, Kent, England

Event:

Type: Marriage

Date: 1905

Place: Barham, Kent, England

Note: Groom's Name: Alfred Newing

Groom's Birth Date: 1879

Groom's Age: 26

Bride's Name: Edith Mary Sims

Bride's Birth Date: 1883

Bride's Age: 22

Marriage Date: 07 Dec 1905

Marriage Place: Barham, Kent, England

Groom's Father's Name: Israel Newing

Bride's Father's Name: George Sims

Indexing Project (Batch) Number: I00355-7

System Origin: England-EASy

Source Film Number: 1836199

Reference Number: item 1-4p 201 # 402

Collection: England Marriages, 1538-1973

Child: Albert Victor Newing

PREF Y

Child: Stanley Newing

Child: Ethel Frances Newing

Data Changed:

Date: 13 May 2010

Time: 08:19

Could not interpret date in Marriage Date (7th December 1905).

Sources

• WikiTree profile Sims-468 created through the import of Ann Lambs feb 2011 gedcom.ged on May 27, 2011 by Ann Sims. See the Changes page for the details of edits by Ann and others.

Biography

This biography is a rough draft. It was auto-generated by a GEDCOM import and needs to be edited.

User ID

User ID: 67075082EF62E54090AA1DF1530DF29CECEB

Note

Note: Info from Ann Lamb

Data Changed

Data Changed:

Date: 27 Dec 2011

Time: 20:37:55

Prior to import, this record was last changed 20:37:55 27 Dec 2011.

Sources

• WikiTree profile Sims-1233 created through the import of Rob-Grant-pruned.ged on Dec 28, 2011 by Robert Grant. See the Changes page for the details of edits by Robert and others.

• Source: S11 Repository: #REPO1 Title: 1881 England Census
• Repository: REPO1 Name: www.ancestry.co.uk