George Pickard (abt. 1847 - abt. 1913)

Born about Jan 1847 in Loxhore, Devon, England

Ancestors

Husband of Lucy (Slocombe) Pickard — married Jul 1870 in Swansea, Glamorgan, Wales

Died about Apr 1913 at about age 66 in Swansea, Glamorgan, Wales

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Biography

Born about 1847 at Loxhore, George left home before the 1861 census (age 14) and sooner or later made his way to Swansea in Wales. There he met Lucy (Lilly) Slocombe, who had been born in 1851 at Llansamlet near Swansea, to parents William & Harriet Slocombe.

George Pickard & Lucy Slocombe married in the Jul-Sep summer of 1870 at Swansea and their first child Gertrude was born in Jun 1871, but lived only a few months. They had 14 children born at Swansea, although 5 died in infancy. Most of the surviving children married late in life or not at all, and stayed with the family business, the bakery that George established at 28 Catherine St, Swansea.

By 1881, George listed himself as a Master Baker employing 1 man; by 1891 eldest son Frederick 18 was also a baker and by 1901 most of the children were employed in the business, which continued operating vigorously – G. Pickard is listed in Furrier’s 1913 Swansea Directory as a Baker at 28 Catherine St.

George Pickard died in 1913 at Swansea.

Their 9 surviving children were:

1. Frederick Ernest George Pickard, born in 1873, was an assistant baker in the family business. He did not marry until he was 39, to Harriet Davis in 1912. But he is single again by 1929, when he was sharing a house with unmarried siblings Edgar, William, Hilda (Lucy) & Annie. Fred died at Swansea in 1938, aged 65

2. Alice May Pickard was born 1878. She remained at home working in the family bakery business. She married grocer’s assistant Richard Henry Moore in 1904 at the Walter Road Congregational Church. He was later an insurance agent. They had 3 children between 1906 and 1910 and Alice died at the early age of 43 in 1920. There is no death record found for Richard Moore.

3. Olive Maud Pickard was born in 1879. She too worked in the bakery until marrying at the age of 28 to Leonard Hedley Johns in 1907. He was a coal miner and they lived in a tenement house in the semi-rural village of Pantyffynnon until moving into Swansea after WW1. They had at least two daughters. Leonard died in 1953 and Olive died in 1968 at the age of 89.

4. Florence Minnie Pickard was born in 1880 and was still living with the family at 28 Catherine St in 1901 but was not working in the bakery, she was a music teacher. She married Walter George Hemmings in mid 1904, a ‘seal maker’ who later became a ‘branch manager’. They lived at Swansea and had at least two sons there. Walter died in 1931 at age of 54 but there is no death record for Florence.

5. Wilfred Stanley Pickard was born 1881. He enlisted twice at an early age, the first at 18 into the Royal Welsh Fusiliers and the second at 20 in the Dragoons – no further records associated with that military life. In 1911 he was listed in the census as Stanley and was the driver for the family grocery/bakery business. He married Bridget Curran in 1913 at the age of 32 (she was 22) and they had a son in 1915. According to Ancestry trees Bridget died in 1919 at Belfast, Northern Ireland but no source is cited. However, Wilfred’s electoral registration for Swansea in 1918 & 1921 is NM, designating the registered voting address of someone who does not reside there but is in the navy/military, and Bridget is not registered at that address. He joined the Royal Irish Constabulary in 1920 and died soon afterwards in 1923 at Swansea, aged 42. It’s not known who cared for their son George Wilfred Pickard but he grew up to marry and live to age 86

6. Thomas Edgar Pickard was born mid 1882 and became a baker’s assistant in the family business (listed as Edgar on the 1911 census). In 1916 he enlisted in the 6th Welsh Regiment, giving his address 6 Brunswick St Swansea and his next of kin as his mother Lucy Pickard, but no information on his service life is found. He did not marry and in later years he lived at Swansea with unmarried siblings Annie and William. He died early in 1950.

7. William Pickard was born mid-1885 and he too became a baker’s assistant in the family business and did not marry. In later years he lived at Swansea with unmarried siblings Hilda, Annie and Thomas. He died early in 1956.

8. Lucy Hilda Pickard was born late 1886 and used the name Hilda. She too remained close to the family and did not marry, working at the bakery at the age of 24 in 1911. By 1930, she is 43 and living with siblings William, Frederick, Edgar & Annie in a tenement house in St Helen’s Ave.

She then took up a position as servant to Rev & Mrs Williams & their daughter Nina at the Bryn Road Vicarage. After the war she moved into another tenement house with Annie & William Pickard and in her final years was at a large house at 82 Eaton St with sister Annie, a boarding house or nursing home as there were 22 other female residents. Hilda died in late 1957.

9. Annie Pickard was born 1889 and also never married and remained with her parents and then siblings all her life. In the late 1930s she and William shared a tenement house with Mary Sara Utting (relationship unknown) and Hilda joined them after the war. She and Hilda later lived at the large boarding house / nursing home at Eaton St and she died less than two years after Hilda, in 1959.

Sources

Birth & baptism

Free BMD: England & Wales, FreeBMD Birth Index, 1837-1915; Registration Year 1847; Registration Quarter Jan-Mar; Registration district Barnstaple; Volume 10; Page 42

Marriage to Lucy Slocombe

Free BMD: England & Wales, FreeBMD Marriage Index, 1837-1915; Registration Quarter Jul-Sep; Registration district Swansea; Volume 11a; Page 759

FindMyPast: England & Wales Marriages 1837-2005; Marriage quarter 3; Marriage year 1870; District Swansea; County Glamorganshire

Residence / Occupation / Family

Ancestry.com: 1851 England Census; Class: HO107; Piece: 1892; Folio: 575; Page: 19; GSU roll: 221043

No record found for 1861 / 1871 census

Ancestry.com: 1881 Wales Census; Class: RG11; Piece: 5362; Folio: 69; Page: 21; GSU roll: 1342292

Ancestry.com: 1881 Wales Census; ED 32; Piece 4482; Folio 104; Page number 7

Ancestry.com: 1901 Wales Census; Class: RG13; Piece: 5076; Folio: 166; Page: 39

Ancestry.com: 1911 Wales Census; Class: RG14; Piece: 32766; Schedule Number: 41

Death & burial

FreeBMD: England & Wales, FreeBMD Death Index, 1837-1915; Registration Year 1913; Registration Quarter Apr-Jun; Age at Death 66; Registration district Swansea; Volume 11a; Page 997