CFHS code : MC15
Parish : St Michael
Inscription : In Loving Memory of SUSANNAH ELIZABETH RUST d March 31st 1927 aged 7[1]
Monument : Kerb stones
Above information from Cambridge Family History Society Survey
Lat Lon : 52.202634, 0.13799938 – click here for location
Monument
These kerb stones, in the parish area of St Michael, are the second grave south from path that runs east from the centre circle. The inscription has been eroded and one corner post has separated from a kerb.
Inscription
In Loving Memory of SUSANNAH ELIZABETH RUST died March 31st 1927 aged 71
Susannah (Susan) Elizabeth Rust (1855 – 31 March 1927)
Susan was born in Writtle in Essex and was the daughter of labourer Joseph Rust and his wife Louisa. Aged 15 years old she was working as a nursemaid to the family of John and Mary Mumford in High Laver, Essex. John was a farmer of 120 acres and they had six children under 10 years old.
By 1891 she mad moved to Cambridge and was living at 4 Belvoir Terrace and working as a domestic nurse to the Wallis family. Arnold Wallis was a university fellow and lecturer in Mathematics. He and his wife Mary Ann had three small children. She remained in service to the Wallis family until she died in 1927. By 1901 they had moved next door to 5 Belvoir Terrace, and Susan was still working as a domestic nurse to the now six Wallis children. In 1911 she was working as their cook, alongside a footman and a housemaid. Arnold Wallis was by this time Bursar at Corpus Christi College. Susan was still working as cook to the by now widowed Mary (known as May) Wallis in 1925. She died in 1927 aged 71 years old. She had been in service to the Wallis family for 50 years. Her obituary noted that she ‘was a woman of remarkable character. Humorous, unselfish and tireless in good works of every kind, she was, of course, best known and loved by the members of the family in which she lived. But as a member of some 43 years standing of the Emmanuel Congregational Church, she had also won the affection and respect of a wide circle of friends, who now mourn the loss of a devoted Christian and well-beloved friend’. May Wallis’ wreath at the graveside read ‘In loving memory of Susan, my faithful and devoted friend of 50 years’.
Sources:
Ancestry
Newspaper archives
by Claire Martinsen
[If you have any further information about this person, please contact us at Friendsofmillroadcemetery@gmail.com]