occupation

Housewife

dates

Born: 1879, Oxford

Married: 1) William HOWARD, 1902;
                2) Ernest HOBBS, 1918, Oxford

Died: 1963, Emberton, Bucks

residence

Initially Oxford; New York, USA; later Emberton, Bucks

submitted by

Jane EDDIES (granddaughter)

Background information

Edith May AYERS, born 1879 Oxford, was the daughter of Reuben AYERS and Jane PEARCE. Edith's siblings were Maud, Percy and Ida.

Edith's first husband was William HOWARD, married in 1902. They had one son, Henry Christian. The family travelled to New York three times between 1905 and 1915 as William was a business man. In 1915 they decided to return to England for good. Edith went on ahead whilst William closed the business, he set sail later on the Lusitania, which was sunk by a German submarine torpedo on May 7 1915. William's body was never recovered.

Edith and her son returned to Oxford, where she met and married Ernest HOBBS in 1918. They fostered three children and adopted my mother. My mum was abandoned as a baby on a train in 1930 and went to live with Edith and Ernest when she was 9 months old.

The family ended up in Emberton Buckinghamshire, Ernest's birth place, and spent the rest of their lives there. Edith died in 1963 and was cremated at Bedford Crematorium.

Edith was a wonderful, kind woman, and I am proud that she was my grandmother.