CFHS code : BE80
Parish : St Bene’t
Inscription : In Ever Loving Memory of my dear husband HJ BRIGGS GATLIFFE of 40 Regent St b Aug 3 1845 d Jan 3 1914
Monument : Kerb stones (some missing)
Above information from Cambridge Family History Society Survey
Lat Lon : 52.202611, 0.13628602 – click here for location
Monument
This set of kerbs in the parish of St Benet’s are east of and next to the east path. The inscription is partially buried. I kerb has sunk below ground level.
Inscription
In Ever Loving Memory of my dear husband H J BRIGGS GATLIFFE of 40 Regent St b Aug 3 1845 d Jan 3 1914
“A faithful servant of the Lord”
Henry John Briggs Gatliffe (3 August 1845 – 3 January 1914)
Henry was born in Peterborough and was the son of Henry and Selina Gatliffe. He was baptised at St Clement’s Church on 2nd August 1846. He married Angelina Ealham in Peterborough in 1869 when he was 24 years old.
He was a shoemaker by trade, and after getting married was working in Peterborough, and living at 2 Chapel Place [1871]. By 1880 the couple had moved to 96 Fitzroy Street and Henry was working as a foreman in a bootshop. He then moved to 6 Green Street [1880-1881], 11 Regent Street [1900-1901] and finally Croyland House, 40 Regent Street [1904 onwards]. In each location he is described as a shoe and boot manufacturer.
Henry as very involved in the Methodist Church, and was ‘one of the pioneers of the movement for the building of the new church on Christ’s Pieces, and it was a great joy for him to live to see the completion of the scheme.’ The church opened in October 1913 His religion was said to have ‘permeated all that he did’ and he was a preacher within the church, often conduction services at the common lodging houses across the town. He also lead services at the Asylum and ‘was alrways ready to do any duty however small at a moment’s notice’. He initiated Sunday evening services on Parker’s Piece.
Henry and Angelina did not have any children and he died aged 68 years at home. Newspapers noted that ‘he had been in failing health for some years and for the last 12 months had borne considerable suffering with great patience’. His funeral was held on 8 January at the Wesley Church, Christ’s Pieces and his was the first funeral to be held in the church. Rev. Lewis gave a rousing address saying ‘Mr Gatliffe is gone, but the memory of his earnest devotion, his pity for the poor, his yearning for lost men and women, his tenderness for the weak, and the way in which he did not allow his feelings in all these things to end in themselves, but went and met and handled men face to face and strove to win them for Chirst – all this will remain an example worthy the imitation of us all’.
The Cambridge Independent wrote a sizable obituary saying he ‘was one of the old type of tradesmen of whom Cambridge is justly proud, friendly in his rivalry and strict upright with his customers’.
After Henry’s death Angelina returned to live in Crowland, Lincolnshire where she had been born and brought up. She died there in 1928.
Claire Martinsen
Sources:
Ancestry
Newspaper archives
[If you have any further information about this person, please contact us at Friendsofmillroadcemetery@gmail.com]