Lydia Fisher

Born on 20 October 1860 in Woolwich Lydia lived there with her parents until she married Corporal George Jolliffe of the Royal Engineers on 23 December 1879 at Woolwich. At the time of the 1881 census they were both aboard India troop ship Jumna.  George, by then a sergeant died from cancer on 11 March 1883 and was buried the next day in Bangalore, Madras.   George Jolliffe was born c.1851 in St Helens on the Isle of Wight and until he joined the RE lived with his parents, bricklayer/mason Henry L Jolliffe and Caroline at Sea View near Ryde, Isle of Wight. In the 1871 census George was a bricklayer.  There was a large family of Jolliffes on the Isle of Wight at that time so George’s family tree would be easy to research.

By the 1891 census Lydia had returned to Woolwich and was living with general labourer John Britt.  On the 1891 census return John and Lydia are living with 8 year old Grace Britt.  In fact Grace was Grace Darling Jolliffe born 15 August 1883 in Woolwich.  Therefore Lydia was pregnant when George Jolliffe died and while she made the voyage home. By the 1901 census Grace had become a maid and remained so in the 1939 register before marrying  Thomas Hollis in 1940.  Grace was the informant when John Britt died being described as ‘step daughter  of the deceased’. Grace died ……

The census returns show John and Lydia as man and wife but in fact they did not marry until 1906.

Brendan would you like to add something about Lydia and John’s family and John Britt’s background? Probably easiest if you wrote something in the comment box below as this website does not recognise Word and similar programmes.