CFHS code : BE2
Parish : St Benedict
Inscription : In Loving Memory of CLARA LOUISE CROUCH b May 5th 1871 d Oct 4th 1949 In Loving Memory of CHARLES the beloved husband of CLARA CROUCH d Jan 27 1912 aged 45 also EDWARD VICTOR CROUCH d April 4 1918 aged 17
Monument : Headstone/Kerb stones/Flowerholder
Above information from Cambridge Family History Society Survey
Lat Lon : 52.202344, 0.13715127 – click here for location
Monument
Inscription
In Loving Memory of CLARA LOUISE CROUCH born May 5th 1871 died Oct 4th 1949
In Loving Memory of CHARLES the beloved husband of CLARA CROUCH who passed away January 27 1912 aged 45 years
Also EDWARD VICTOR CROUCH d April 4 1918 aged 17
Clara Louise Crouch [nee Peacock] (5 May 1871 – 4 October 1949)
Clara was born in Cambridge and was the daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Peacock. Her father kept the King William Pub on Huntingdon Road. He died when Clara was three years old. Her mother took a second husband, Henry Moden and in 1881 aged 9 Clara was living at the Wheatsheaf Inn, where Henry Moden was the landlord. In 1891 she was living at the Marquis of Granby Pub, 36 Bridge Street, where she was working as a barmaid.
She married Charles Crouch in 1982 and they had nine children : Clara Maud [1892-1956], Ada Eveline [1893-1977], Charles Ernest [1896-1961], Walter Lesley John [1899-1918], Edward Victor [1901-1918], Arthur Leonard [1902-1973], Ivy Constance [1904-1984], Doris Irene [1906-1980] and Ena Kathleen [b 1910].
They lived at 22 Ainsworth Street. When Clara was widowed in 1912 she was 40 years old. She continued to live at 22 Ainsworth Street, and took in laundry and tailoring repairs from the college. Also in the form of a pension she was to receive one bowl of dripping per week.
In 1939 her daughter Ada Eveline was living with her. She died in 1949 at the age of 78 years old, leaving an estate valued at £673. In her will each of her 15 grandchildren was to received half a gold sovereign.
Charles Crouch (c.1867 – 27 January 1912)
Charles was the son of John and Mary Ann Crouch. He was born in Cambridge, and grew up on Castle Street. His father was a cordwainer. Charles worked as a kitchen porter at Trinity College for the whole of his life. He was a member of the rugby & cricket teams
He died aged 44 years old when his youngest daughter was just 18 months old.
Edward Victor Crouch (1901 – 4 April 1918)
Edward was the fifth son of Charles and Clara Couch. After leaving school he became a number taker for the Great Eastern Railway. When he was 17 he was killed whilst crossing the railway line near Hills Road bridge. Edward had been tending the family allotment nearby when he walked in front of the oncoming London Express train, which was travelling at around 20 miles per hour. The inquest jury returned a verdict of accidental death. Cambridge Station Master Mr. Peacock ‘expressed sympathy with the relatives saying that the occurence was all the more sad in that the lad was the only wage-erarner of the home’.
On 18 October six months after Edward’s fatality Clara was to hear of the death of her second son Walter killed whilst fighting with the 50th Battalion of the Machine Gun Corps (infantry) in France. He was buried where he fell at Le Cateau in the Highland Cemetery. The Cambridge Indepdendent Press ran an In Memoriam advert on 29 November which read: Crouch: In loving memory of Driver Walter S J Crouch M.G.C. who was killed in action, somewhere in France, October 18th 1918, aged 19 years. The unknown grave is the bitterest blow, None but our arching hearts can know – From his sorrowing Mother, Sisters and Brothers’.
Source:
Ancestry
by Claire Martinsen and Robin Mansfield