Bertha Ellen (Kelley) Fowler (abt. 1869 - 1923)

Born about Jun 1869 in Shirley, Hampshire, England

Wife of John Allan Fowler — married Jan 1884 in South Stoneham, Hampshire, England

Descendants

Died Dec 1923 at about age 54 in West Hartlepool, Co.Durham, England

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Bertha Ellen Kelley was born in June 1869 in Millbrook, Shirley, Southampton, England. Her father John Kelley was a Navy Pensioner, which means he had been wounded in action while serving in the Royal Navy. He was originally from Cork in Ireland, many Irishmen served in the Royal Navy. Her mother Mary was from Dartmouth in Devon which was a big naval base at that time. If they were living on a Navy Pension alone they would have been quite poor. When Bertha Ellen was 15 she married John Allan Fowler from Aberdeen ( my Great Grandfather ) who was working in Southampton as a rivetter on 'iron' ships. They had a child Albert Allan Fowler ( my Grandfather ) who was born in a pub called the White Horse or White Hart in Southampton. Before their child was a year old John Allan Fowler took the family back to his home town of Aberdeen Scotland. They lived in a part of Aberdeen called Footdee ( pronounced Fittie ) which is right on the shore where the River Dee joins the North Sea and was then a fishing village. The life there was quite hard and I wonder what Bertha Ellen made of it. The family had another child there ( William ) then moved to the new town of West Hartlepool in County Durham England which was founded in 1854 and was a 'boom town', expanding very rapidly on ship building, iron and steel production, railways and coal shipping. The new houses being built for workers were better than anything that they had known before even though today we would consider them to be slums. Bertha's husband John Allan Fowler died of tuberculosis aged only 33 leaving her a widow of 23 with two young sons.