Alice Jane Day was born in Clerkenwell on July 11th 1866, and christened in August at the Thomas Charterhouse,
Finsbury, London. Her father was Robert Joseph Day of Hoxton, listed in the 1881 census as
a wardrobe dealer; her mother was Ann
Jane Day née Hurrell of Clerkenwell.
Ann was the sister of Sarah Hurrell,
who had married EWTH's uncle, James Treadaway Hoare. Thus Alice
was EWTH's first cousin by marriage.
When Alice was born, her father and mother were 20 and 21
respectively. Alice was the couple's oldest daughter; their
subsequent children were: Rose, born in 1869; Maud, in 1870; Robert Joseph
Hurrell, in 1872; Ernest in 1874; William in 1875; and Sydney in 1879; all born in Islington; then
came Oliver in 1882 and Thomas in 1883, born in St Phillips Aldersgate; and Reginald in 1887, born in St Johns Hackney.
Alice was 18 when, on December
26th, 1884, she and EWTH, 21, ran off to
get married. "Ran off" because she was under age, they fibbed about
their ages on their marriage certificate, claiming to be 21 and 24
respectively, and were wed by license, thus avoiding the publication of bans, in the parish church of Hackney, a location away from their homes. Moreover,
none of the people noted as witnesses on their marriage certificate are
relatives of either Alice or EWTH.
Their two sons were born in Islington. The first,
named Edward William Treadaway Hoare after his
father, was born September 3rd 1885; the
second, Edmund Joseph Downer Hoare, born April 5th 1889.
In testimony during the lawsuit brought against EWTH by his second wife,
it was stated that Alice and EWTH had separated in 1895. They were
shown living together with their two sons in the 1891 census, at 83
Parkhurst Road, St Mary, Islington. On EWTH's father's 1897 death certificate, EWTH stated
his residence to be 31 Aldersgate, the tavern owned by his father.
The 1901 census lists both Alice and EWTH, but shows them living separately,
he alone in Musbury House in Devon, she in a boarding house in Aldershot.
Their two sons are not listed as being with either of them, nor can
the boys be found elsewhere in that census. Perhaps they were out of
the country at the time (possibly in France where EWTH was said to have
visited frequently?).
EWTH filed for divorce in 1904; it was finalized in
1905.
At some point around the turn of the
century, Alice became involved with a soldier named Alexander Barnett,
of Brixton, London, and had two sons with him, John Harold Barnett
Hoare born in 1903, and Sidney Alexander Barnett Hoare in 1907 (CLICK
HERE TO VIEW THE FAMILY TREE). Barnett was shown in the
1891 census to have been serving at Aldershot
with the Royal Engineers, married, with a wife
and five children, two of whom had been born in India. In the 1901
census he was listed as single and living alone at Sandhurst, Royal Military
College, Caraby Barracks, serving as a groom. He was 48 at
the time of that census, Alice 34.
We do not have a copy of the birth certificate of the first
of Alice's and Barnett's sons, but we have a form Alice filled in requesting
it, wherein she names Barnett as the father. The birth certificate
of the second son does not name the father, but both boys were given
Barnett as middle names, and Sidney's death certificates confirmed Barnett
was his father.
It may be noteworthy that Alice gave her sons with Barnett the
last name of Hoare, even though by the time the second was born, she
had been divorced by EWTH. While the relationship of these boys
to EWTH consequent to his being Alice's husband is convoluted and doubtful
- sort of step-sons in reverse - he was in any event related to them
by virtue of having been Alice's first cousin (by marriage); inasmuch
as Alice was EWTH's first cousin, the boys were his first cousins once
removed.
The older son, John Harold Barnett Hoare, born 1903, started
school at Sandhurst Council Infant School on 2 September 2nd 1907. He
left on 18 October 18th 1907, started again on April 27th 1908 and left
again 19 June 19th 1908. It was stated that "he had gone home".
John eventually ran away from his father and went to sea as a boy
sailor on the old wood-hulled ships on the Thames, becoming a merchant
marine on board the HMS Arethusa. He married an American woman, Emily Harding,
in 1925, with whom he had three children; their descendants are located
in England.
The younger son, Sidney, started school at Sandhurst Council
Infant School on 3 June 1912. He left there on 30 March 1915 and transferred
to Sandhurst Council mixed School which he left on 30 July 1915 (cause
of leaving "Gone Away").
In 1923, when Sidney was 16 and in a Salvation Army orphanage, he was made
a candidate to be sent abroad, either to Canada or Australia. His
mother's choice was Australia. He was told that his mother was in
an institution, given a Prayer and New Testament Book with an East Hampstead
Church photo from E M Parham, and put aboard the SS Benella. He arrived
at Fremantle, Western Australia on 26 February 1923, was escorted to a
train, eventually to end his journey at a farm at Benjabbering, north-west
of Wyalkatchem in Western Australia, where he was put to work as a farm
hand.
Sidney was probably one of the "Lost Children of the Empire" (a reference
to the orphans and uncared-for British children who were shipped off
to Canada and Australia in first part of 20th century, a program with
the best of intentions but too often resulting in abuse of the children
by those that took them in).
When he reached adulthood, Sidney married Christiana Nekel, with
whom he had three children; their descendants are located in Australia.
**********
In testimony given by EWTH in conjunction with his divorce
from his second wife, he stated that his first wife, Alice, "drank".
Evidently she indeed had a problem with alcohol, for she spent
the final period of her life institutionalized in the
Crimp
Hill House, a work-house in Old Windsor, England, where
she died in 1931. She was buried in Windsor Cemetery on September
14th 1931.
