Gladys Louie (Hobbs) Wells (1891 - 1983)

Born 22 Nov 1891 in Alverstoke, near Gosport, Hampshire, England, UK

Ancestors

Wife of Arnold Haskins Wells — married 1937 in Worthing, Sussex, England, United Kingdom

Died 1 Jan 1983 at age 91 in Alton, Hampshire, England, United Kingdom - registration district

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Biography

Gladys was born on 22 November 1891 at Alverstoke, near Gosport, Hampshire. Her birth was registered at Alverstoke, Hampshire in the fourth quarter of 1891. She was the only daughter and third of four children of Ernest Hobbs and Louisa (Tubb) Hobbs who married at Newbury in 1886. Her father was a wine merchant.

In 1901 the census records the family at 38 Bury Road, Alverstoke, Hampshire. Present are father Ernest Hobbs (40, wine and spirit Merchant, born Gosport, Hampshire), mother Louisa Marian Hobbs (38, born Berkshire), brother Thomas Godwin Hobbs (12, born Gosport), Gladys Louie Hobbs (9) and brother Eric Hobbs (5, born Hampshire). Three servants are also noted - governess/domestic, housemaid and cook. Her older brother Ernest William Hobbs (13) is with another household elsewhere in Hampshire at this census.

Gladys' younger brother Eric Hobbs, single, was killed at the Battle of the Somme in France in 1916, aged 21.

Her brother Thomas Godwin Hobbs, aged 29 and married 3 months, was killed in battle in France in 1918 serving in the Royal Flying Corps.

Her eldest brother, Reverend Ernest William Hobbs, married in 1922, hence becoming the step-father of two boys, one of whom, Douglas Bader aged ten at the time, went on to become Group Captain Sir Douglas Robert Steuart Bader (1910-1982) [1].

Gladys' father died in early 1937, his death registered at Worthing, Sussex aged 76.

Later in 1937 Gladys Louie Hobbs married her second cousin Rev. Arnold Haskins Wells, their marriage being registered at Worthing, Sussex, in the third quarter of the year. Arnold had been widowed in 1932 and the youngest of his six children had just reached 18 years of age.

The 1939 England and Wales Register lists Gladys and her husband at The Vicarage, Wisbech, Norfolk. Details are Arnold H Wells (parish priest, with full date of birth), Gladys L Wells (with full date of birth), Gladys' widowed mother Louisa Hobbs (b. 22 September 1862, private means) and one domestic servant.

Gladys' mother died in 1944, at Wisbech, aged 81.

Gladys was widowed in October 1965, Arnold Wells dying aged 87, when they were living in retirement in Four Marks, by Alton, Hampshire

Gladys Louie Wells "of 15 Blackberry Lane, Four Marks, Alton, died 1 January 1983" (National Probate Calendar). Her death was registered at Alton, Hampshire in the second quarter of the year. She was aged 91.

Sources

• England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1837-1915 for Ernest Hobbs, 1886, Q2-Apr-May-Jun

• England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837-1915 for Gladys Louie Hobbs, 1891, Q4-Oct-Nov-Dec

• 1901 England Census for Gladys Louis Hobbs, Hampshire, Alverstoke, District 06

• England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916-2005 for Gladys L Hobbs, 1937, Q3-Jul-Aug-Sep

• 1939 England and Wales Register for Gladys L Wells, Cambridgeshire, Wisbech RD, TDEP

• England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007 for Gladys Louie Wells, 1983, Q2-Apr-May-Jun

• England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1995 for Gladys Louie Wells, 1983