Olive Madge (Fothergill) Carter (1898 - 1970)

Born 6 Sep 1898 in St Saviour Southwark, London, England

Ancestors

Wife of Leonard Charles Carter — married 17 Nov 1923 in Christ Church, Forest Hill, Kent, England

Descendants

Died 11 Nov 1970 at age 72 in Biggin Hill, Kent, England

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Jessie Gregor [send private message]

Biography

Olive (Fothergill) Carter was born in England.

(Written by Jessie Gregor.)

Olive Madge Fothergill was born at 36 Old Kent Road in St Saviour Southwark, London, England in September 1898, the oldest of six children. She always celebrated her birthday on the 5th September so we were very surprised when her birth certificate turned up which recorded her birth date as the 6th September! The birth certificate confirms her parents were Christina Espie Fothergill formerly Johnstone, and Frederick Pelham Fothergill, proprietor of a dining room.^[1] It is difficult to read but you can see from the attached image that Olive was baptised on Sunday 29th October 1899 at St George the Martyr, Southwark. (The first sponsor was her maternal aunt, Alexandrina.)

Her Scottish mother had her first five children in six years and relied quite heavily on Olive so I think she grew up with ‘an old head on young shoulders’. Her father was a self-confessed gambling addict who was declared bankrupt when Olive was only nine.^[2] It is so sad to read the list of everything that was taken away to be sold including the children’s toys and their beloved piano.

The first UK Census in which Olive appears is in 1901 when the family were living at 112 London Road, Southwark, London and her father was working as a ‘refreshment house proprietor’.^[3] Olive is only two years old but already has two younger siblings, her younger sister Elsie (a one-year-old) and their brother, Frederick Percival (three months old). Although this census is difficult to read, it’s useful for confirming that Olive’s mother was known by her middle name of Espie and that her younger brother was known as Percival. For a family living with the highs and lows of a gambling addict, this was one of their wealthy phases because they have two ‘servants’, one working as a waitress and the other as domestic nurse.

By the 1911 UK Census, the family are now living at 153 Devonshire Road, Forest Hill, Lewisham, London.^[4] After his bankruptcy, Olive’s father Fred appears to have picked up the pieces and is still recorded as a caterer who can afford to employ a domestic servant. Olive is now the oldest of six children (three girls and three boys).

The next official record for Olive is when her marriage banns (with Leonard Charles Carter) were published on Sunday 29th May, 5th June and 12th June in Christ Church with St Paul, Forest Hill.^[5] Mysteriously, they didn’t actually marry until two and a half years later on 17th November 1923 at Christ Church, Forest Hill, Kent, England. Their marriage certificate confirms her age of 25 and her residence as 23 Gaynesford Road, Forest Hill, Kent, the same address as the groom. The witnesses were Frederick Pelham Fothergill (Olive’s father, a restaurant proprietor), and Frederick George Carter, the groom’s younger brother.^[6][7]

My Nana was a very private person so she would not want the love letters sent by her husband, Len, to be public. Suffice to say, he clearly adored her when they married and four children followed in four and a half years. Olive was a wonderful mother, forever idolised by her four children and grandchildren, but this was a stressful time for her. The birth of her first child was a difficult one, so much so that the doctor warned her husband that she would be risking her life to have a second one within two years.^[8] During this time, she was also trying to support her mother who looked to Olive to help her out financially. When Olive became pregnant with her second child, she also lost her half-sister who died in childbirth in 1928. This must have added greatly to her own stress of falling for another child so soon after her doctor’s warning. Shortly after the birth of Olive’s second daughter, her mother then sadly died of flu and pneumonia. Two more children (boys this time) followed in quick succession and her family was complete. For various reasons, the family moved around a lot with the children attending about 17 different schools. Olive was an excellent cook and homemaker. She had many talents from playing the piano and making clothes, to wallpapering and decorating! There are two sides to every story, of course, but Len was not the loyal husband or consistent father he had probably wanted to be. Olive was virtually a single mother with Len away so much (partly because he was in the RAF) but her children were the centre of her universe for sure.

In the 1939 Register,^[9] there is no sign of Len but Olive and her four children are living at 30 Lawrence Road, Beckenham, Kent, England along with her sister-in-law, Edith Carter. Soon after this, Olive was to enjoy one of the happiest periods of her life when the family were evacuated to Cornwall during the Second World War (see photo). It was a time of food-rationing which must have been a welcome relief to Olive because at least she knew her children would be fed regularly. (One of my Mum’s earliest memories was being evicted from one of their houses in London just when they were cooking their tea and, as Olive pleaded with the baliff, the children had to watch outside as the saucepans bubbled away on the stove, with their noses pressed hungrily against the window. Luckily, some wonderful neighbours took them in.) The family were posted to Trevone, a beautiful village near Padstow on the North Cornish coast. Their house was about fifty yards from the beach and Olive made many new friends in the village. She watched happily as her two eldest daughters grew up alongside the two local Gregor brothers. Within ten years both couples were to marry so, even when Olive had to return to London, she still had the ties and opportunity to return to Cornwall as often as she could.

In Feb 1951, Olive joined the Post Office originally working as a telephonist although this later involved other duties.^[10] She was appointed to the Bromley and Beckenham area of Kent and always said she’d enjoyed her time there.

Olive’s husband Len died in 1969 although they had been separated for a long time by then and he had started another family. Despite that, she had always remained faithful to him.

Olive was to pass away on the 11th November 1970 at Biggin Hill in Kent with her eldest daughter, Joyce, by her side as she was throughout their lives.^[11][12]

If you can imagine a perfect grandmother, that would be our Nana. She was a wonderful, kind soul … and such a ‘lady’. She had a really tough life but still managed to be full of love, hope and generosity, and she couldn’t have been a better role model for all her children and grandchildren. We all remember her with great love and affection, and she would be quietly proud that we still try to follow her values … always bearing in mind that ‘actions speak louder than words’.

Sources

1. ↑ Birth Certificate: St Saviour Dec quarter of 1898, volume 1d, page 26.
2. ↑ The National Archives, Records of the Bankruptcy Department: Bankruptcy Cases, High Court Papers, reference BT 226/2244 Fothergill, Frederick Pelham, 1907.
3. ↑ "England and Wales Census, 1901," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X9HS-X46 : 8 April 2016), Olive Fothergill in household of Frederick Fothergill, St George The Martyr Southwark, London, Middlesex, England; from "1901 England, Scotland and Wales census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing London Road subdistrict, PRO RG 13, The National Archives, Kew, Surrey.
4. ↑ "England and Wales Census, 1911," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XWRV-891 : 1 August 2017), Olive Fothergill in household of Frederick Fothergill, Lewisham, S E, London, England; from "1911 England and Wales census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing PRO RG 14, The National Archives of the UK, Kew, Surrey.
5. ↑ Parish Register of Marriage Banns [1]
6. ↑ Marriage Certificate: Lewisham, December quarter, volume 1d, page 1942
7. ↑ Parish Register of Marriages [2]
8. ↑ Conversation with my Auntie Jo (Joyce Olive Mary Gregor nee Carter) in 2014 at Biggin Hill, Kent
9. ↑ 1939 Register at Find My Past [3]
10. ↑ British Postal Service Appointment Books 1737-1969 available on Ancestry. Registered number on nomination paper: 20919. Minute number: A. 17466/51
11. ↑ Death Certificate
12. ↑ FreeBMD Index: Bromley, December quarter, volume 5a, page 1210