CFHS code : AL100
Parish : St Andrew the Less
Inscription : In Memory of JOHN BRACHER d Nov 1 1890 aged 73 also his wife ELIZABETH MARY d July 31 1868 aged 44 also daughter SARAH LOUISA WEBB d Jan 24 1936 aged 72 Erected by friends of the Beaconsfield Club
Monument : Headstone/Kerb stones/Flowerholder
Above information from Cambridge Family History Society Survey
Monument
Located to the east of the central path where it turns south.
Inscription
In Memory of JOHN BRACHER. Died Nov. 1. 1890. Aged 73 yeas.
Also his wife ELIZABETH MARY. Died July 31. 1868. Aged 44 years.
Also daughter SARAH LOUISA WEBB. Died Jan 24. 1936. Aged 72 years.
Erected by his friends of the Beaconsfield Club.
John Bracher (3 December 1816 – 1 November 1890)
John was born in London, and baptised at St. Anne’s Church, Soho on 12 January 1817. He was the son of sawyer Edward Bracher (1788-1851) and Mary Ann (née Turner) (1789-1865). In 1841 he was working as a tennis marker and was living with the Tattle family in Marylebone. He married Elizabeth Tattle and they had at least six children: Mary Ann (1846-), Ellen (1849-), John Edward (1857-1923), Edward (1859-1934), George (1860-1937) and Sarah Louisa (1863-1936). They lived at Ordnance Road, Marylebone (1851) before moving to 40 Bradmore Street (1861), then 20 South Street. John worked as a tennis marker at the Philip’s University Tennis Courts, with fellow marker H. Harradine. In 1864 John was marker at the New Court, and Harradine at the Old Court. In November 1864 the two men played a match, with John Bracher winning the match. The following day a match took place at the New Court, East Road between George Lambert and the Hon. C.G. Lyttleton (later 8th Viscount Cobham). George Lambert was a marker from Oxford and was reported to be ‘a young man who bids fair to become the Champion Tennis player of England’. An annual handicap was played for the benefit of the two Cambridge markers and in June 1870 The Cambridge Independent Press reported that the game was marked ‘as usual by the well-known Bracher’. The 1880 Handicap was won by A.C. Norman of Trinity College and newspapers reported that the ‘handicap was made and marked by John Bracher, who has performed similar duties for many years’. John also worked as a tennis teacher.
In 1884 Mr Phillips who leased the two Cambridge Tennis courts died and the courts were closed. News was reported in the national press that ‘in consequence the two markers, J.Bracher and H. Harradine, are thrown out of employment. The case of these two old and well conducted servants of the public is a very hard one. Harradine having been on the establishment for fifty years, and Bracher (who is the older man) for twenty-five years. It has excited much sympathy in tennis circles, and especially amongst the Cambridge tennis players. Through the kindness of the Rev. E.W. Blore and of Mr Ewbank, the use of the Clare and Trinity tennis court has been granted for a match for the benefit of Bracher and Harradine’. A subscription fund was also opened at Fosters Bank to raise funds for the two men.
John was a member of the Beaconsfield Club, which was a Conservative Club and opened in 1884. There was a ‘Smoking Concert’ at the Club in January 1890, where John sang a song and he sang at many other concerts at the club. He died at 20 South Street aged 73 years and his funeral was held on 6 November.
Elizabeth Mary Bracher (née Tattle) (9 January 1824 – 31 July 1868)
Elizabeth was also born in London and baptised at St. Mary’s Church, Marylebone on 12 February 1824. She was the daughter of publican Charles Tattle (1789-1837) and Elizabeth (née Harris) (1791-). She died at South Street and was buried at Mill Road Cemetery on 3 August 1868.
Sarah Louisa Webb (née Bracher) (1863 – 24 January 1936)
Known as Louisa, she was the youngest daughter of John and Elizabeth and aged 18 she was working as a domestic servant for solicitor’s clerk Edmund Cross and his family, who lived at 15 Grafton Street. She married Ernest George Webb in 1890 and they had one daughter: Elizabeth Mary (1891-1968). The marriage does not appear to have been harmonious and the couple lived separately. Louisa and Elizabeth lived with sister Mary and her family at 19 Norfolk Terrace (1901/1911). Louisa worked as a college bedmaker and after her daughter Elizabeth’s marriage to Edward Hazlewood in 1912, she lived with them at 162 Thoday Street.
Sources:
Ancestry
Newspaper archives
Parish burial records transcribed by CFHS
by Claire Martinsen
[If you have any information about this family, please contact us at Friendsofmillroadcemetery@gmail.com]