This grave was not found by CFHS during their survey of the Cemetery
Parish : St Clements
Charles Emmanuel Gates (1856 – 30 November 1928)
Charles was the son of Charles Gates and was born in St Helier, Jersey. He was educated at Victoria School in Jersey before coming to England to work as a chemist’s assistant in St. Ives (c.1877) then joining the Borough Police force in April 1879. He was promoted to acting sergeant in 1885, and to sergeant in June 1900. In November 1907 he was appointed School Attendance Officer – there were nearly 200 applications for two posts. He retired from the force on 5 January 1908, but continued in the role of Attendance Officer for some time after retirement.
Charles married Sarah Ann Dear (1861-1883) on Christmas Day 1880 at St Giles’ Church and the couple had two children: Florence Emily (1881-1961) and Charles Edward (1883-1885). It is thought that Sarah might have died in childbirth, and both she and son Charles are buried in the St Andrew the Less area of Mill Road Cemetery, although their grave has not been identified.
Charles then married Susan Harriett Edwards (1866-1944) on 8 December 1884 at St. Matthews Church and they had two daughters: Alice Gertrude (known as Gert) (1885-1960) and Frances Maude (known as Maude) (1887-1974). The family lived at Sturton Street (1883), Ainsworth Street (1885) and then 7 Sturton Street (at least 1901 onwards).
Charles was a noted speaker of Esperanto – a constructed universal language devised by Dr Zamenhof. The Chief Constable of the Cambridge force was a big enthusiast for the language, running lessons for the force and encouraging his officers to attend. The Esperanto Congress was held in Cambridge in at least 1907 and 1913. There were a series of events including an Esperanto choir.
In 1907 Dr Zamenhof presented Charles with The Esperanto Cup at the Annual Police Athletics Festival. It was presented ‘to the member of the police force who has performed the most efficient ambulance work during the past twelve months’. Charles won the award for his prompt action when a man had swallowed some poison. Charles accepted the award speaking esperanto. The Cambridge Independent reported: ‘the outstanding success of the congress has been the linguistic abilities of Sergeant Gates…The Sergeant speaks Esperanto thoroughly well and throughout the week has been in great demand. Where the chief Esperanto function chanced to be taking place, there you could rely on finding Gates – unless of course, he was off duty – and since the Congress started he has answered innumerable enquiries. He has been simply inundated with congratulations and expressions of gratitude from the foreign representatives, whose delight at meeting a police officer able to speak Esperanto was unbounded and his autograph has been in great request’.
His language skills also extended to French and Latin and he was sometimes asked to act as interpreter at the Police court and Magistrates court – ‘carrying out the task with such proficiency as to gain the commendation of the Bench’.
Charles was an active member of St. Matthew’s Church and served as both vicar’s warden and people’s warden. He was a member of the choir and also a sidesman at the church. He died at home aged 72, and newspapers reported that he ‘had not enjoyed the best of health for some time, but his sudden passing came as a great shock to his relatives and friends’. His funeral was held on 3 December at St. Matthew’s church and it was a choral service with the choir singing ‘God moves in a mysterious way’ and ‘Abide with me’. Many parishioners of St Matthew’s and ex-police colleagues attended the funeral.
Susan (Susie) Harriett Gates (née Edwards) (2 April 1866 – September 1944)
Susie was born in Kentish Town, the daughter of Robert and Susan Edwards. The family returned to Cambridge soon after her birth and she was baptised at St. Andrew the Less Church on 1 December 1867. Her father was a policeman, her mother a nurse and the family lived at 4 Grafton Street (1871). Robert later worked as a gardener and the family moved to 7 Gas Lane (1881). Aged 15 Susie was working as an undernurse in a domestic household.
She married widower Charles Gates when she was 18 years old and after he died she went to continued to live at Sleaford Street until at least 1936. She then went live with daughter Gert, and son in law Harry in Wellingborough, where she died aged 78 years. She was buried at Mill Road Cemetery on 6 September 1944.
Sources:
Ancestry
Newspaper archives
by Claire Martinsen