The Bodger Family

(last updated: 20 May 2008)

Charles Bodger was born at Kings Ripton in the county of Huntingdonshire in England. His wife Jane was born at Hartford which is on the outskirts of the town of Huntingdon also in Huntingdonshire. They were married in the All Saints Church of England (pictured on the left and below) in the village of Grafham on 26 May 1823. The transcript of the wedding shows that Jane was under age and had to have parental consent to marry. Both the bride and bridegroom were said to be 'of this parish', and signed the certificate with a 'mark' or cross. The witnesses to the wedding were James Wright and Rebecca Favell.

The UK censuses show that after their marriage, Charles and Jane lived at Grafham where Charles worked as an agricultural labourer. In 1841 they had with them: Joseph (15 years), James (10), Charles (8), William (5) and Walter (2). Sarah was probably visiting Charles' sister Mary Lyon in Elsworth in Cambridgeshire. In 1851 they had living with them: Joseph (24), William (15), Walter (12) and David (8). James was doing his apprenticeship with his uncle-in-law Joseph Wright in Broughton. Sarah (22) had by this time married her cousin John Wright and was living with him in Broughton (see below).

The National Burial Index indicates that Jane Bodger died at the age of 57 years and was buried at Grafham on 13 September 1860. The 1861 census shows the 61 year-old widowed Charles living by himself on the High Street of Grafham. Charles died at Grafham six years later and was buried in the local cemetery on 7 January 1867.

Charles and Jane had seven children whose lives and times are described below. Known details of their children and grandchildren can be seen on my Rootsweb site for the Wright and Bodger Families.

• Joseph Bodger (1826-91) married Anne Layton (1833- )

  Joseph Bodger was living with his parents in Grafham at the time of the 1841 and 1851 censuses. He married a local girl Anne Layton (born in Grafham in 1833) at Grafham in 1856. Ann's parents were George and Elizabeth Layton/Leighton who came respectively from Stow and 'Winick' in Huntingdonshire and were living at Grafham at the time of the 1851 census.

  The 1861 census has Joseph (a 24 year-old agricultural labourer) lodging at the house of William and Mary Peacock at Eye in Northamptonshire. His wife Ann (29) and daughter Naomi (9) were living with Ann's parents at Grafham (and next door to Charles Bodger jnr). The 1871 and 1881 censuses have Joseph and Ann back in Grafham. Also present in 1881 were Joseph's younger brother James Bodger and two nephews: Harry Layton and John Charles Bodger (James' only son). They were living next door to Ann's parents, George and Elizabeth, who had with them their son George (36), daughter-in-law Elizabeth (34) and three grandchildren, Fred (3), Arthur (1) and Mary (3m).

  The 1891 census shows Annie Bodger, a 59 year-old labourer's wife who was said to be married, living in the village of Grafham. With her was her grandson Leslie Joseph Sharman, the son of Frederick and Naomi Sharman (nee Bodger). At the time Joseph was away working in Bedfordshire. The Catherine House records show that he died in the Biggleswade district of Bedfordshire shortly after the census was taken. The widowed Anne was still living Grafham in 1901. With her this time was her granddaughter Annie Jane Tysoe (nee Sharman), Annie's husband John and their four children (see below).

  Joseph and Anne's only daughter Naomi Bodger married Frederick Sharman at Grafham in 1870. In 1871 the couple and their 4 month-old daughter, Anne Jane Sharman, were living with Naomi's parents at Grafham. In 1881 they were at the home of Frederick's father, William Sharman (a 69 year-old widower, woodman and parish clerk who was born at Grafham) at Grafham Street in Grafham. Also present were Frederick and Naomi's three children - Annie Jane Sharman (10), Ernest Bodger Sharman (8) and Frederick P. Sharman (2) - Joseph's cousin May Layton (6) and a visitor Sarah 'Phantin', a 19 year-old domestic servant who was born at Stanwick in Northamptonshire. The 1891 census has Frederick (41) and Naomi (39) living in the village of Grafham. Also present were Ernest (18, agricultural labourer), Frederick (12, plough boy), William (6) and Maud Mary (2).

  The 1901 census has Frederick (57) and Naomi (49) still living in a cottage in Grafham village. Also present were their children: Frederick (23 year-old woodman), Leslie (19 year-old agricultural labourer), George (16 year-old agricultural labourer), Maud (12) and Florence (3) all of whom had been born at Grafham. Ernest (a 28 year-old railway worker) was married and he and his wife Sarah Jane Sharman (nee Cowley) were living on Station Road in Grafham. Annie Jane had also married (to John Tysoe of Brampton in 1893) and she, John and their four children - Frederick, Agnes Naomi, Frank and Lilian Maud - were living at Grafham with Annie's grandmother Ann Bodger (nee Layton).

  Frederick Sharman died in 1920 at the age of 72. He is buried in Grafham churchyard with his wife Naomi who died in 1922 at the age of 70. The churchyard also has in it several other Sharman family graves.

  One of John and Annie's descendants, Jayne Tysoe, sent us the photo on the right which is of a memorial stone in the All Saints Anglican Church at Grafham and shows that Frank Tysoe from Grafham was killed in the First World War. The same plaque notes that an F. P. Sharman (probably Frank's uncle Frederick) and Frederick Tysoe (Annie and John's other son) also served in the British forces during the First World War. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission website confirms that a Frank Tysoe of the 8 Battalion Royal Fusiliers died at Arras on 19 Jul 1917 and is commemorated on the Arras memorial. Unfortunately it provides no details of his age or NOK.

  Jayne tells us that John and Annie's son, Frederick Ernest Sharman Tysoe, became a railwayman. In 1920 he married Hilda Evelyn Janet Tilling and settled in Hilda's home town of Long Eaton in Derbyshire. They had five children: Kathleen who died in childhood, Frederick Stanley who was killed during the Second World War and is buried in Heliopolis in Egypt, Hilda Marion, Marjorie and Frank William Tysoe. Jayne, Frank's daughter who has been researching the family tree, still lives in Long Eaton. She adds that 'a fascinating link is that the death certificate of David Bodger, son of Charles and Jane, shows that he died on 7 May 1896 while lodging in Long Eaton although the reason for his presence in the town remains a mystery'.

• Sarah Bodger (1828-1910) married John Saunders Wright (1826-1888).

  Sarah Bodger was born in Grafham in Huntingdonshire in England in 1828. The parish transcripts show that she was baptised with her younger brother James at Grafham on 24 April 1831. She married her cousin John Saunders Wright at Grafham on 28 February 1848. He was a batchelor aged 22 years and she a twenty year-old spinster. Both were said on the wedding certificate to be labourers where he lived in the village of Warboys and she in Grafham itself. The marriage was witnessed by Sarah's brother James Bodger and an Elizabeth Eynsby where all signed the certificate with a 'mark'.

  The 1851 English census showed John Saunders (aged 25 years) and Sarah Wright (22) and their one year-old daughter, Jane Elizabeth Wright, living in the village of Broughton in the county of Huntingdonshire. Living with them was a 56 year-old widow, Mary Hunter, who was a nurse and former school mistress.

  The following year the family emigrated to Australia where John had been employed to work on Philip Russell's sheep station (pictured on the left) at Carngham in central Victoria.

  Click here to read about John and Sarah's life in Australia.

• James Bodger (1831- ) married (1) Naomi Fairey (1855-1880) and (2) Ann Holmes (1840-)

  The parish transcripts show that James was baptised with his sister Sarah at Grafham on 24 April 1831. The 1841 census shows him living with his family at Grafham. In 1851 James was doing his apprenticeship with his uncle-in-law Joseph Wright in Broughton. The Catherine House Records show James Bodger and Naomi Fairey were married in the St Neots district of Huntingdonshire in 1859 (vol. 3b, page 467). The 1861 census shows James (30 and working as a shoemaker) living at 2 North Street North in Aldershot in Hampshire with his wife Naomi (26, milliner and dressmaker). Naomi was born at Easton in Huntingdonshire.

  In 1865 James and Naomi Bodger (aged 31 and 30 respectively) emigrated to Australia on the FOREST RIGHTS. They had a child, John Charles William Fairey Bodger, in Streatham in Victoria in 1875. The child was baptised in the Carngham Church of England. The baptism notice records James as a station overseer who resided in Emerdale at Streatham. Naomi Bodger died there in 1880, aged 45 years (we have not been able to find her gravestone). According to her death certificate Naomi's father was John Fairey and her mother was Thomasine Voss. Gill Gorman writes that Thomasine (usually spelt Thomasin) was the illegitimate daughter of Elizabeth Lawson of Eynesbury (the family think that the father was a John Dixey although this has not been confirmed). Elizabeth married Richard Voss in 1809. Thus although her marriage certificate records her surname as Lawson, Thomasin was probably generally known as Thomasin Voss.

  Gill further notes that after Naomi's death, James and his son returned to England where James remarried. This is confirmed by the 1881 census which shows James and his son John Charles living at Grafham in the house of James' older brother Joseph Bodger. The 1891 census shows James (56, cordwainer) living at Ruislip in Middlesex with his new wife Ann (50 and said to be born in Farnborough in Kent) and son John (16 year-old gardener born at Everdale in Victoria). The Catherine House records show that a James Bodger and Ann Holmes were married in the Lewisham district of Kent in 1886 (vol 1d, page 1063). By the turn of the century, James (70) was living on Montague Road West Hillingdon in Middlesex with his wife Ann (61) and son John (26 and working for a wholesale grocer). Ann was said to come from Sevenoaks in Kent.

  In an interesting twist to the tale, Gill has subsequently discovered that one of Naomi's brothers, Amos Fairey, married Annie Church, Gill's great-grandmother and first cousin of Sarah Cox, the wife of Charles Bodger, the younger brother of James (see below). Gill is thus twice connected to the Bodger family! She also tells us that another of Naomi's brothers, Josiah Fairey, 'travelled to Australia in 1870, and another brother, James, went to New Zealand. Two sisters and a brother went to the US with their widowed 70 year-old mother' (recorded as 'Thomagin Ferry' in the 1880 Kansas census).

• Charles Bodger (1833-1906) married Sarah Cox (1836-1911)

  A copy of the wedding certificate provided by Irene Restall, shows that Charles married after banns Sarah Cox at Grafham on 1 May 1855. Charles was described as a 22 year-old bachelor who was living at Grafham. He was a groom by profession and his father was Charles Bodger, a labourer. Sarah was a 19 year-old spinster from Buckden in Huntingdonshire. Her father was James Cox. The wedding certificate was witnessed by a William Sharman and a Sarah Fisk (?).

  Gill Gorman has recently discovered that Sarah was the daughter of James Cox and Sarah Church, 'the sister of my gt-gt-grandfather William Church. This means', she continues, 'that Sarah (1837) and William's daughter, my gt-grandmother Annie Church/Fairy, were cousins. Moreover, some time after her husband's death Annie married a John Cox - was it her cousin and Sarah's brother?'

  The 1861 census shows 'Charley' Bodger (a 28 year-old general servant) living on High Street in Grafham with his wife Sarah (25) and children Harry Glover, Edwin and Louisa. At the time of the 1871 census Charles (36) and Jane (33) were living at Hill End in Harefield in Middlesex. With them were Harry Glover (13, Grafham), Edwin (11, Grafham), Louisa Jane (10, Grafham), Elizabeth Ann (8, Grafham), William Walter (5, Buckden), Charles John (3, Kings Langley Hertsfordshire) and Frederick David (1, Kings Langley).

  The 1881 census has Charles (40) and Sarah (44) at 1 Wilton Cottage in Hillingdon in Middlesex. With them this time were Edwin (21 year-old labourer), William (15, baker), Charles (13, gardener), Frederick (12), Sarah Ann (9, Harefield, Middlesex) and Florence (2, Hillingdon). By the 1891 census, about when the photo on the left was taken, they were living at Walthamstow in Essex with four of their ten children: William, Charles, Frederick and Ada. In 1901 Charles (66) and Sarah (64) were living with their youngest daughter Ada Reen and her husband Albert F. Reen at 22 Collingwood Road in Walthamston in Essex. Also there was Albert and Ada's daughter, Ada, who was born at Walthamston in 1896. By this time Charles and Sarah's two sons, William and Frederick, were married and were also living in Walthamston.

  Both Charles and Sarah died in their local workhouses, 'the equivalent', Irene Restall muses, 'of today's nursing and rest homes, but without the home comforts!' Charles, aged 72 years, died in the Leytonstone Union Workhouse on 7 May 1906. Sarah died in the West Ham Union infirmary five years later. She was 74 years old. They had had altogether ten children: Harry Glover, Edwin, Louisa Jane, Elizabeth Ann, William Walter, Charles John, Frederick David, Sarah Ann, Ada and Florence Bodger.

  What of Charles and Sarah's children? Irene Restall tells us that Harry Glover Bodger married first Margaret Harriet Toplis in Holborn in London in 1876 and then Bertha Louise Palmer in 1924. Harry and Harriet lived in London after their marriage and had three children there: John Charles, Clara Jane and Alfred Harry. She continues that their youngest son, Irene's grandfather, Alfred Harry Bodger married Harriet Emily Seymour at Clerkenwell in London in 1904. Research done by her and Len Hammond from Bournemouth (the grandson of Elizabeth Ann Bodger and George John Harding James) shows that Alfred and Harriet had six children: Alfred Edward (born in London in 1905), Harriet Margaret (London, 1906), Clara E., Violet J., Leonard Francis and Frederick Henry (Irene's father).

  Frederick Henry ('Fred') Bodger (pictured on the left in 1933) was born at Inverness in Scotland in 1918 and died at Glasgow in 1971. He married a Welsh girl, Agnes Ada Williams (1914-1982), at Edmonton in London in 1938 and had three daughters: Cynthia, Elizabeth and Irene. Cynthia and her twin sister, Elizabeth, were born at Glamorgan in South Wales where their mother had been evacuated to from London during the Second World War. Their father was then serving as a private soldier in the Wiltshire Regiment. In 1964 Cynthia Tizzard and her husband David Tizzard and their two daughters emigrated to Australia on the ORCADES. They settled in Ballarat in Victoria where they and their family (pictured on the right in Ballarat in 2000) have lived for most of their 42 years in Australia.

  Cynthia and Elizabeth's younger sister, Irene Restall (nee Bodger) who was born at Hampstead in London, lived for a time in France with her second husband Brian David Restall (Brian was born at Portsmouth in southern England). They have since returned to England and live at Gosport only, Irene tells us, a few minutes walk away from where Brian's great-grandmother was baptised in 1844.

  Click here to see more photos of Frederick Henry ('Fred') Bodger and his family.

  Another of Charles and Sarah's descendant, Victoria (Vicky) Bremner nee Bodger, tells us that Harry and Margaret's eldest son, John Charles Bodger, married Mary Ann Harridge at Brecon in Powys in Wales in 1899. They initially lived at Brecon with Mary Ann's widowed mother, Emily Harridge, and later in London. The couple had at least three children Vicky is aware of: Clara Jane, John Joseph and David Henry Glover Bodger. The last of these, Vicky's grandfather, was born on 27 April 1904 at Warrington in Cheshire/Lancashire. His birth certificate indicates that his father, John Charles Bodger, was then a corporal in the Army Pay Corps.

  Vicky's grandfather worked as a painter and decorator. He married Tessey Southgate, (a widow whose maiden-name was Davenport) in the Edmonton district in 1927. 'They had three children together. The first was Tessey Emily G Bodger [born in 1927]. She married James W. A. Johnson (Jim) in ... 1947 ... lived in Royston, Hertfordshire, and had 4 children, my cousins, who I have completely lost touch with since Tessey's death. She died in July 1994 ... Jim had already died (May 1985 I think).'

  Their second child, Vicky's father, was David John Alexander Bodger. 'He was born in June 1929 ... As a young man, he was a tank driver in the army, based in Egypt. He had a nasty accident where his left hand got shut in the tank door, and was very lucky that the whole hand wasn't completely mangled'. After being invalided out of the army, David jnr went to Bristol, where he worked as a ship's rigger at Avonmouth docks, and 'where his half-brother George Southgate was living. He met my mum on a blind date, whilst she was in between stints in the Winsley Sanitorium for TB'. Vicky's mother, 'Lilian Audrey Bodger (known always as Audry) and David were married on 3 July 1954 at the Kingswood Registry Office in Bristol.

  

  Wedding of David John Alexander Bodger and Lilian Audrey Williams at Bristol in 1954.
  David's father, David Henry Glover Bodger is on the far left of the photo next to his half-brother, George Southgate.
  On David's right is his mother Tessey Bodger nee Southgate nee Davenport. On her right is David's youngest sister.

  'Around this time', Vicky continues', dad's parents David Henry Glover and his wife Tessey went to live in Australia [where they lived] 'for a number of years. Dad's two half-brothers, George and James Southgate also went over there, and are still there if they're still alive. I have lots of half-cousins in Australia who I've completely lost track of. Dad was a naturally brilliant mathematician, and he decided to train to be an accountant, and then became Company Secretary of Premier Transport in Bristol. My grandparents came back to this country around the late 60's early 70's and settled in the Oxfordshire area, first in Didcot I think, and then in Wallingford. Sadly, my parents divorced in 1969, and dad married again in 1973 and acquired 3 teenage step-children. In July 1976, he and my step-mother were on holiday in Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia, when he seemed to suffer from some sort of sun-stroke. He deteriorated very rapidly and died there, either of a stroke or a brain tumour'.

  'My grandfather Henry Glover had already died in February 1974. I had only really met him a couple of times and don't feel I knew him at all. Mum says she thought both her in-laws were good-looking ... Dad was extremely good-looking as a young man, so I suppose it must have come from somewhere. Mum also tells me that David and Tessey ran a pig farm at some point, which really surprised me! After my grand-dad's death, gran went to live in Australia again, with her son James Southgate in Sydney, but it didn't work and she came back to Wallingford. Dad's death was a huge shock to her - as her only son, he was the apple of her eye! She went on to the ripe old age of 90, finally dying in September 1991 in Wallingford'.

  What of the other members of Charles and Sarah's family? We know nothing of Louisa, Charles jnr, Sarah Ann and Florence beyond their dates of birth. Edwin Bodger married Eliza Chapman, from Chalfont in Buckinghamshire, in Middlesex in 1881. The 1901 census shows Edwin worked as an 'electric light service layer'. He and Eliza were living at 106 Mayfield Road in Hackney in London. By this time they had at least eight children: Elizabeth Ann (18, Yiewsly in Middlesex), Louisa E. (16, St Luke's London), Lily Edith (13, Shoreditch London), Rosie Ada (11, St Lukes), Esther Emma (9, Dalston London), Edwin (7, Dalston), William Charles (4, Dalston) and Dorothy May (2, Dalston). Elizabeth Ann Bodger married John George Harding James. We think that William Bodger married Louisa Price and had three children: Albert, Grace Everline and William Walter jnr. Frederick David Bodger married Louisa Maria Thain at West Ham in 1891. They were living at Walthamson in 1901 and had three children: Frederick, William and Louisa. Finally, as already described, Ada Bodger married Albert Reen and had at least one daughter, Ada.

• William Bodger (1836-1916) married Elizabeth Ainsworth (1841-1905)

  Baptised at Grafham on 17 July 1836, William was living with his parents there in 1851. A newspaper cutting obtained by Irene Restall indicates that he served in the 1st Battalion of The Rifle Brigade and 'went through the seige of Sebastopol for which he received two medals and a clasp'. Both the 1st and 2nd battalions of the Rifle Brigade fought in the Crimea, the 2nd leading the advance over the River Alma and both taking part in the hard fought battle of Inkerman and the long siege of Sebastopol where they suffered severely from the bitterly cold Russian winter.

  The report continues that William was one of the many who suffered from frost-bite and was sent to the Soutara Hospital where he was nursed by Florence Nightingale. On recovery he was sent back into the trenches where he 'had many marvellous escapes but was always fortunate enough to escape being hit by a shot. He had, however, severe bruises by stones, caused by the explosion of shells or big shots'.

  William came home with the Regiment of Lord A. G. Russell. After landing at Portsmouth they proceeded 'to Aldershot, where the Queen inspected the Army of 30,000 men. After being at home for two years, Mr Bodger went with the Regiment to Edinburgh, Glasgow, Penecuiche, Newcastle-on-Tyne and Sunderland, and then to Dublin and the Curragh Camp where H. R. H. the Prince of Wales was learning his drill'. After serving two years in Canada from 1861, William returned to England and was discharged from the Army at Winchester. He 'then joined the Police Force, serving under four Chief Commissioners: Sir Richard Main, Colonel Henderson, Sir Charles Warren and Mr Munro. He joined the Marylebone Lane Division on January 9th 1865, and was present at the disturbance at Hyde Park'.

  On 9 October 1865, William married Elizabeth Ann Ainsworth, the daughter of Daniel and Elizabeth Ainsworth nee Hills, at Grafham on 9 October 1865. Elizabeth was born at Huntza Grafham in Huntingdonshire in 1841. At the time of the 1861 census, she was working as an under housemaid at 23 Grafton St in Hanover Square in Mayfair in London. After their marriage the couple lived initially at Marylebone in London. In 1870 William was promoted to Sergeant and transferred to Islington and then Leyton where he was made Inspector of Police. In 1881 William and Elizabeth were living at 1 Argyll Terrace in Leyton Low in Essex together with Elizabeth's widowed mother, 72 year-old Elizabeth Ainsworth (born at Hartford in Huntingdonshire). They were still there in 1891 with all their children except Hector who was undergoing training for the Royal Navy. By 1901 the family had moved to 56 Chadwith Road in Leyton. The photo on the right, sent to us by Doreen Reeve, was probably taken around this time. It shows William with three of his sons (probably Hector, William and Arthur).

  Elizabeth Ann Bodger nee Ainsworth died at Leytonstone in Essex on 23 January 1905, aged 64 years. Her husband, William Bodger, died there on 7 February 1916. He was 79 years old. What of their children? William and Elizabeth had altogether eight children: Frederick A. (born in 1867 at Marylebone), Ada E. (1871, Marylebone), William Ainsworth (1873, Stoke Newington), Hector Charles (1874, Stoke Newington), Francis A. (1877, Loughton), Arthur Joseph (1879, Loughton), Mabel C. (1884, Leyton) and Herbert Ainsworth (1888, Leyton). We know from a letter written to his cousin Amy Chibnall in Australia in 1916, and supplied to us by Helen Bretherton, that Frederick lived in an artists' quarter in Chelsea in London. Although he worked as a publisher's clerk, Fred informs his 'dear cousin' that he 'puts in a good deal' of his spare time painting. 'I have just returned from my holiday ... [where] I have done a little sketching in Huntingdon and Bedfordshire. They are pretty counties. I passed the cottage the other day where my father and your mother were born, it is still in good repair but empty, the old lady who had it for some years has recently died'.

  Fred then turns to the other members of his family. 'At the moment of writing my brother Will is in Egypt while Hector who was in the Navy has served his time some years ago and is married with five children. Frank is a recruiting serjt [sic] at Bath and Bert is, as you know at Salisbury. Arthur has been refused the Army on account of a deformed foot and I, the eldest am too old, so that sums us all up with the exception of the two girls who are in business. Ada is in the War Office and Mabel is an Insurance Officer'.

  Fred continues with the observation: 'We are not a marrying family I'm afraid, there are only two out of the eight married, that is Frank and Hector, but they have eight children between them'. The ratio of married to unmarried members of the family eventually increased but not by much. We believe that Fred, who died in 1927, remained unmarried as did his sister Mabel, who died at Portsmouth in Hampshire in 1962, and brother Arthur, who, Doreen Reeve tells us, died in 1919 in his 40th year. We suspect, but don't know for certain, that William jnr also remained single all his life. We do know that Ada eventually married, although we don't know who to, or whether she had any children. To date we have discovered nothing about Frank's marriage or his family. As described below, this has not been the case for Hector and Bert.

  Hector Charles Bodger (pictured on the left) married Florence Beatrice Fountain at West Ham in London in 1909. Florence was the daughter of Edwin Fountain and Emma de Rose. She was born at Bow in London in 1889 and died at Romney in Essex almost ninety years later. According to one of Florence's descendants now living in South Africa, Suzi Homans, Hector and Florence had seven children: William Ernest Bodger (born in 1909), Florence May Bodger (1910 and who is believed to have moved to Australia), Hector Arthur ('Buster') Bodger (1912-1941), Elizabeth Ainsworth Bodger (1913 and still living), Mabel Emily Bodger (1916-1992) Ada Rosemary Bodger (1919-2005) and Hilda Bodger (still living). Suzi continues that following Hector Charles' death in 1919, Florence married Albert Ernest Cooper (Suzi's grandfather). She then became known to the family as 'Nanny Cooper'.

  Click here to see a photo of Florence Beatrice Cooper (nee Bodger nee Fountain) and some of her Bodger in-laws.

  What of their children? The records of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission show that Hector Arthur Bodger was killed while on duty as a civilian fire watcher at Leytonstone on 11 May 1941. He was 29 years old and his wife was said to be Sylvia A. Bodger. Another of Hector and Florence's descendants, Doreen Reeve, tells us that Elizabeth Ainsworth Bodger married Sidney Cazabon in 1939, Mabel Emily Bodger married George Arthur Barker in 1940, Ada Rosemary Bodger married Walter James Stepton at Barking in Essex in 1941, and Hilda Bodger married Walter Frederick Carvell in 1947. These various unions provided Hector and Florence with at least 15 grandchildren many of whom, with their children, continue to live in Essex in England.

  Another descendant, Simon Burton, tells us that Hilda and Walter Carvell's children were Denise Elizabeth (1952-2002), Lynda, who married Brian Affleck, and Lance Carvell 'who has lived in Germany since the late 1970s and has two children.' He adds that his grandmother Hilda, with whom he shares a birthday, lives in Billericay in Essex. She 'often talks of her brother, Buster, who was killed during an air raid (WWII). She also had another brother known as Bert Cooper born around the 1920s'.

  William and Elizabeth's youngest son Herbert Ainsworth Bodger commenced work with a publishing firm, George Newnes Ltd of London, from 1905 until 1910. He emigrated or travelled to Australia some time between 1910 and 1915 and took up farming at Gin Gin near Bundaberg in Queensland. The records of the Australian War Memorial show that he enlisted in the Ist AIF in Brisbane in Queensland on 8 November 1915. Sergeant Bodger, as we was then, embarked from Sydney for Europe on the HMAT BORDA on 5 June 1916. He served in the 42nd Infantry Battalion and returned to Australia on 12 June 1919. Herbert, or Bert as he was known as, is pictured on the right of the photo shown below. It was provided by his son Ian Bodger who thinks the other two soldiers in the photograph could be Bert's older brothers, Arthur and William, but adds that the handwritten caption on the photo may also suggest otherwise.

  

  Ian tells us that after he returned from the war Bert worked for a time as a clerk in the Brisbane Soap Company before moving to the Stanthorpe area where he worked until August 1920. In 1922 he signed an agreement with the British Administrator of former German New Guinea to be employed in Rabaul as a Plantation Overseer for the salary of £300 per annum. In 1925 Bert was transferred to Madang and then Kaewieng in New Guinea. He goes on to say that the 'discovery of gold at Edie Creek above Wau in 1926 sparked off a gold rush of massive proportions, which led to the development of Salamaua as capital of the Morobe District'. Bert joined the Ellyou Goldfields Development Company in April 1929. 'By this time there were about 200 miners and three tons of gold being removed each year'. He was sent to take charge of the company's Salamaua office. Six months later Ellyou was taken over by New Guinea Goldfields Ltd and Bert, who was reappointed by the new company as its district secretary, was transferred to Edie Creek.

  It was here that Bert met and married his wife Edith Maud Bennett. Edith or 'Edie' was born at Hillgrove in New South Wales in 1907. After attending school at Thirroul and Wollongong, she worked as a clerk for the Sydney-based Electric Light & Power Supply Corporation. Early in 1930 she threw in her job and travelled by ship to New Guinea with the Newberry family. 'Mr Newberry was employed by New Guinea Gold as an engineer' and Edie worked as his childrens' governess. After their marriage on 22 August 1931, Edie travelled with Bert to England for their honeymoon and met up with members of his family (see photos). Shipping documents collected by Irene Restall show that Bert and Edith returned from England to Australia on the Hobson's Bay which was owned by the Aberdeen and Commonwealth Steamship Line and sailed from Southampton on 20 July 1932. Their last address in England had been '8 Gainsburo Road E 11' and they were to disembark in Sydney.

  Together with their son Ian, the couple lived at Edie Creek until 1938 when Bert was transferred to Wau to be Secretary to the General Manager of New Guinea Goldfields. 'On 25 August 1935 he was [also] appointed as a Commissioner of the local Supreme Court for which he took affidavits'. In December 1939 ill-health forced Herbert to resign his position and return to Australia. 'Ian and Edith remained in New Guinea until news came through that Herbert was terminally ill. They returned to Australia on the passenger boat NEPTUNA (which was sunk in Darwin harbour during the Second World War)'.

  Bert died in Tamworth in New South Wales in August 1940. He was aged 52 years. His death certificate shows he died of cancer of the bladder and was survived by his wife and only son, Ian Ainsworth Bodger, who had been born in Carlton in Sydney in 1933. Edith and Ian continued to live in Tamworth after Bert's death. Edith worked initially as a book keeper at Goonoo Goonoo Station - a large grazing company approximately twenty miles from the town - and then in Tamworth itself, first with Fielders Flour Mill and then Keech's Amalgamated. She retired in 1967 and continued to live in Tamworth until her death in 1976. Ian was apprenticed to the Tamworth City Council as an electrical mechanic in 1948, and married Moina Joyce Barber in Tamworth in 1954. Ian and Moina had two sons, one of whom died in 1988, and still live in Tamworth.

  Click here to see more photos of William and Elizabeth Bodger nee Ainsworth and their family.

• Walter Bodger (1838- ) married Annie (1852- )

  Born at Grafham in 1838, Walter served in the British Army at Farnborough in Surrey and then as a policeman in Kent. The 1881 census shows Walter (44) living at 94 Maltham Road in Lewisham in Kent. With him were his wife Annie (29 and born in Weldon, Northampton) and son Walter C. Bodger (7 years old and born in Sydenham in Kent). The 1891 census shows Walter and Annie still living in Lewisham with their son Walter C. By the turn of the century, Walter had retired and he and Annie were at 12 Monarch Road in Lewisham. Walter jnr had married an Annie from Erith in Kent and was working as a coal merchant in Lewisham.

• David Bodger (1842-1896) married Alice Erwood (1866- )

  The 1871 census shows David (29 and single) serving as a corporal in the Rifle Brigade and stationed at Woolich in Kent. By 1881 he was a widower and living at the Kings Head Inn, Frieston in Lincoln. The 1891 census has David Bodger (a 47 year-old gardener) lodging at Christchurch in Hampshire with his wife Alice (born in Netley in Hampshire in 1866) and daughter Martha Jane (born in Netley in 1897).

  Jayne Tysoe, a descendant of David's older brother Joseph Bodger, tells us that David died on 7 May 1896 while lodging in the Derbyshire township of Long Eaton, where Joseph's grandson, Frederick Ernest Sharman Tysoe, and his family later lived. Whether or not this was merely a coincidence and why David was lodging there remains unknown. The Catherine House index indicates that David's wife, Alice, married a Fred House in the July quarter of 1899 in the South Stoneham district of Hampshire (vol. 2c, page 183). House, born at Christchurch in Hampshire was a driver in the Royal Horse Artillery (RHA) at Christchurch in Hampshire and may well have been a colleague of David's.

  The 1901 census shows an Alice House (34, married and born at Netley) as the head of the house she is living in on Iford Lane in Iford in Hampshire. With her are five daughters: Martha J. Bodger (13, Netley), Beatrice Bodger (10, Bournemouth, Hants), Martha May House (5, Christchurch, Hants), Laura House (3, Christchurch) and Rose House (1, Christchurch). Her husband, Fred House, is shown on the list of soldiers in the Royal Horse Artillery who were stationed at Christchurch. According to Neil Turner, Laura House married a Horace Charles House in Pokedown in Hampshire in 1895.

Last updated: 20 May 2008.