Parish : St Edward
This grave was not found by CFHS during their survey of the Cemetery
Relationship: Husband, wife and son
Frank Rowling (1909 – 28 February 1915)
Known as Frankie he was the eldest child of Frank and Jessie Rowling, and was baptised at St. Matthew’s Church on 1 December 1909. He grew up at 112 York Street, then Geldart Street and died aged 5 years old. He was buried on 6 March. His parents placed a remembrance notice in newspapers in 1920 with the poem
‘Adieu sweet flower, short was thy stay
Just looked around, then called away.
Thy smiling face we all did see,
But soons we were deprived of thee’
– Gone but not forgotten
Frank Rowling (c.September 1889 – 7 March 1939)
Frank was the son of Charles Jonah Rowling (1855-1918) and Elizabeth (née Nunn) (1852-1926). He grew up at 23 Prospect Row (1891) and then 6 Albert Street (1901) and his father was a bricklayer. In November 1904 he was charged with ‘discharging fireworks and using bad language’. He denied being there, but PC Winter ‘avowed he could not have made a mistake. The Chief Constable however applied for the charge to be withdrawn, and the Bench ‘aceeded to this course’.
He married Jessie Summerfield in 1909 and they had three children: Frank, Lucy May (known as Maisie) (1911-1976) and Irene Nellie (known as Rene)(1913-1967). Frank worked as an ironmonger’s assistant (1911) and later as a carman (delivery driver) for various grocer’s companies. The family lived at York Street, Geldart Street, High Street, Sawston (1920), 13 Young Street (1921) and 27 South Street (1939).
In July 1920 Frank was living in Sawston, where he worked for Messrs. Crampton’s, of Sawston. On July 17th he did not appear at work, and a foreman (George Peasgood) called at his home to find out why. He found Frank lying on the sofa in agony and said he had taken some poison. George sent for a doctor and informed the police. Frank was admitted to Addenbrooke’s Hospital where he stayed for a week to recover. He was later charged at the LintonPetty Sessions with ‘attempting to commit suicide by means of taking a quantity of chloronaptholeum’. Jessie Rowling told the court that ‘her husband had behaved rationally since he left the Hospital’ and Inspector Haylock ‘said the prisoner was very penitent since hehad committed his foolish act’. The following year Frank was working for Henry & Co Grocers in Cambridge, and later worked for Hallack and Bond, another Cambridge grocery store.
Frank died at Addenbrooke’s Hospital aged 50 years old and was buried at Mill Road Cemetery on 10 March.
Jessie Rowllng (née Summerfield) (20 February 1888 – 15 February 1950)
Jessie was the daughter of William Charles and Mahala Summerfield. Her father was a milkman and she grew up at 12 Geldart Street. Jessie worked in the Chivers jam factory (1921) and after she was widowed lived at South Street with her brother in law Percy Rowling. She died at Addenbrooke’s Hospital aged 61 years and was buried in the family grave on 17 February.
Frank’s parents Charles and Elizabeth Rowling, were buried in the Holy Trinity area of Mill Road Cemetery. Their grave has also not yet been identified.
Charles Jonah Rowling (1855 – September 1918)
Charles was born in Wickhambrook, a small village ten miles south-west of Bury St Edmunds and was baptised there on 8 August 1856. He was the son of farmer Joseph (1818-1892) and Ann Maria (née Rutter) (1821-1887). He grew up in Wickhambrook, where his father farmed 50 acres and aged 16 was working on the family farm. he married Sarah Phillips (1851-1886) on 2 November 1876 in Lidgate, Suffolk and they had three sons: Charles Joseph (known as Charlie) (1881-1925), Stacey Frederick (1883-1933) and Percy Phillips (1884-1964).
Charles worked as a miller, and the family lived at the Mill House in Ashley (1881). He was widowed in 1886 and married for a second time the following year to Elizabeth Nunn. They moved to Cambridge, where he worked as a bricklayer, and had two children: Frank and another child who died as an infant. They lived at 23 Prospect Row (1891), 6 Albert Street (1901) and 77 Fitzroy Street (1911). By 1911 Charles was documented as being an invalid. The Cambridge Independent News reported in April 1918 that ‘news has been received by Mr Charles Rowling of 77 Fitzroy Street that his son Pte. Percy Rowling, Suffolk Regiment, was admitted to hospital on April 2nd, suffering from gunshot wounds in head and right leg’. Charles died at Addenbrooke’sHospital aged 64 years old and his funeral was held on 18 September.
Elizabeth Rowling (née Nunn) (1852 – February 1926)
Elizabeth was the daughter of James (1820 – 1897) and Ann (née Webster) (1822-1895) and was born in Needingworth, near Huntingdon. She grew up in Hemingford Grey, where her father worked as a farm labourer. In 1881 she was working as a housemaid for brewer Edward Lake in Bury St. Edmunds and married widower Charles Rowling when she was c.35 years old. Elizabeth died at 131 Fitzroy Street and was buried with her husband on 3 February.
Sources:
Ancestry
Parish bural records
Newspaper archives
by Claire Martinsen
[If you have any further information about this family, please contact us at Friendsofmillroadcemetery@gmail.com]