CFHS code : MG82a
Parish : St Mary the Great
Inscription : In Loving Memory of my dear husband ERNEST JOSEPH HIPKIN d 14 July 1945 aged 55 and of EMILY MAUD HIPKIN d 4 Nov 1971 aged 85 also their darling children ERIC RONALD HIPKIN d 8 July 1926 aged 10 EDNA JOYCE MAUD HIPKIN d 5 Nov 1932 aged 14
Monument : Headstone/Kerb stones
Above information from Cambridge Family History Society Survey
Lat Lon : 52.202143, 0.13782944 – click here for location
Monument
Inscription
Ernest Joseph Hipkin (27 April 1890 – 14 July 1945)
Ernie was born in Horseheath and was the son of blacksmith Emery Thomas Hipkin and Eleanor (Nellie) (née Cottage). He was baptisted in Horseheath on 29 June 1890. The family subsequently moved to live at 10 St. Andrew’s Court (1901) and then 7 East Road (1911). Aged 21 Ernest was working as a general labourer before joining ‘C’ company 1st Batallion Cambridge Regiment in September 1914. He was promoted to sergeant with the Cambridge Regiment and then served with the 2/6 North Staffordshire Regiment. It is known he was taken prison of war in 1918.
He married widow Emily Maud (known as Maud)Turner in 1915 and they had two children, both of whom died young and are buried in the same grave set. Ernie worked as a gas light inspector for the Cambridge University and Town Gas Light Company from 1912-1939. In his role Ernest often appeared at court, to estimate the cost of damages to gas-lamps – Cambridge undergraduates were often called in front of magistrates for this charge. In November 1916, Crawford Marshall Douglas-Jones (Jesus), George Andrew Richmond (Queens), Thomas Derek Shaw (Pembroke) and Philip Fontana Jucker (Caius) were all charged with seperate offences. Ernie gave the cost of each damage at 4s, and the undergraduates were fined 40s each by the Mayor.
The family lived at 38 Petworth Street (1922) 155 Fitzroy Lane (1930) but by at least 1932 had moved to run the Granville Hotel/pub on East Road. He died at the Granville aged 55 years old and his funeral was held at St. Matthew’s Church. The service was ‘attended by a large congregation of friends, testifying to the esteem in which Mr Hipkin was held’.
Emily Maud Hipkin (née Arnold) (5 March 1886 – 4 November 1971)
Maud was born in Cambridge and aged 15 was living with her grandparents Walter and Susan Tabor at 48 New Street. She married William Benjamin Turner (1878-1913) in 1909 and married for a second time in 1915.
Maud continued to run the Granville until at least 1955 and then moved to live at 22 Vicarage Terrace (1966).
Eric Ronald Hipkin (1916 – 8 July 1926)
Eric died aged 10 years old at the Sanitorium, Mill Road. He was buried ‘amid scenes of great sympathy from neighbours and friends’. Newspapers reported that Eric was ‘of a bright disposition and was a scholar of New Street school, and was also a member of the People’s Mission Sunday School’.
Edna Joyce Maud Hipkin (1918 – 5 November 1932)
Edna died ‘suddenly’ aged 14 years old at the Evelyn Nursing Home.
Ernie’s parents are buried in the St. Andrew the Great area of the Cemetery, but their grave has not been found yet, and is unlikely to be discovered.
Eleanor (Nellie) Hipkin (née Cottage) (1866 – August 1912)
Nellie was born in Rampton, the eldest daughter of Joseph John and Ellen Cottage. She was baptised in Rampton on 16 September 1866 and grew up on Bartlow Road, Linton where her father was an assistant gamekeeper. Aged 16 she was working as a general servant for the Buxton-Ashton family who lived on the High Street in Histon (1881). She married Thomas Hipkin on 30 April 1885 in Linton and they had five children: Mabel Annie (1885-1952), Ethel Georgina (1887-1957), Ernest Joseph, Ellen Elizabeth (known as Nellie) (1892-1968) and Winifred May (1897-1897). Thomas worked as a blacksmith and they started married life in Horseheath (1891). In 1901 they were living at 10 St Andrew’s Court, and Thomas was working as a bricklayers labourer, before moving to 7 East Road (at least 1911 onwards) and he worked for Great Eastern Railway as a blacksmith/mechanic/boiler maker.
Nellie died at 7 East Road aged 46 years old and her funeral was held on 12 August.
Emery Thomas Hipkin (March 1861 – 14 September 1923)
Known as Thomas, he was born in Saxthorpe, Norfolk – a village 12 miles west of Cromer and baptised there on 5 May 1861. Thomas was the second son of Benjamin (1830-1913) and Georgiana Jane (1836 -1924) and grew up in Saxthorpe where his father was a gamekeeper. In 1881 he was lodging in Linton and working as a blacksmith, before marrying Nellie Cottage there when he was 24 years old. After her death he continued to live at East Road, with daughter Ethel and her family and was documented as being a blacksmith working for Great Eastern Railway in the 1921 census.
Thomas died aged 57 as a result of a work related accident.He worked in the railway blacksmith’s shop, and had gone to see Jack Shearman, the head of the stores department, which was located on the opposite side of the tracks. The resulting inquest heard that the blacksmiths crossed the line up to 20 times a day, moving parts back to the workshop. Whilst crossing, Thomas was hit on the shoulder by a truck, knocked down and then run over. A young colleague found him, and tried to administer first aid, before calling Dr Burn. Dr Burn was worried enough to order a police ambulance, but by the time it arrived Thomas had died. Dr Burn said that although Thomas Hipkin ‘was quite conscious and quite clear in his mind. He died from shock before the ambulance could arrive’. The Coroner was critical of the working practises of GER, saying that the stores and the workshop should be on the same side of the track. A verdict of ‘accidental death’ was returned.
His funeral was held on 19 September – the coffin was carried from the house to Mill Road Cemetery Chapel ‘by six of his fellow workers and escorted by a large number of others’. His obituary noted that ‘he had been employed by the railway company for the long period of 23.5 years and was a valued servant. He was very well liked by those in authority, as well as by his fellow workmen, and his tragic end was a matter of general regret’.
Sources:
Ancestry
Newspaper archives
by Claire Martinsen
[If you have any further information about this family please contact us at Friendsofmillroadcemetery@gmail.com]