CFHS code : AG404
Parish : St Andrew the Great
Inscription : In Loving Memory of ERNEST JAMES the beloved husband of HARRIET A PULL b [23rd] June 1866 d [3 July] 1917 also of HARRIET ANN PULL widow of ERNEST JAMES PULL d ——- 1923 also of HANNAH FRANCIS POTTER d 29th Nov 1921 aged 70
Monument : Stone cross (broken)/Kerb stones
Above information from Cambridge Family History Society Survey
Lat Lon : 52.202953, 0.13726832 – click here for location
Monument
This plinth within kerbstones, in the parish area of St Andrew the Great, is located 2 rows west along the east west path from the centre circle and 4 monuments to the north. The carved inscriptions are still legible and it is likely that the cross is buried within the grave set.
Inscription
In Loving Memory of ERNEST JAMES the beloved husband of HARRIET A PULL b [23rd] June 1856 d Jul [3rd] 1917
Also of HARRIET ANN PULL widow of ERNEST JAMES PULL d [28 April 1923]
Also of HANNAH FRANCIS POTTER who died 29th Nov 1921 aged 70 years.
Relationship: Husband, wife and wife’s sister
Ernest James Pull (23 June 1856 – 3 July 1917)
Ernest was born in Heacham, North Norfolk and baptised there on 5 October 1856. He was the son of James and Ann (née Rush) Pull, his father was a house painter, his mother a dressmaker. Ernest was a painter’s apprentice when he was 14 years old (1871) and married Harriet Glasscock in Cambridge in 1877. They had two children: Herbert William James (1880-1917) and one child who died as an infant. The family lived at 7 Fair Street (at least 1881 – 1901) and then 105 Regent Street (at least 1911 onwards). Ernest was a housepainter, and later a ‘writer and grainer’ (specialist painter), working for ‘Mesrrs. Redding and Son’, whilst Harriet ran a dressmaking business. Reddings was a brick and tile manufacturer, who were based at the Cambridge Solid Brick Steam Works, with offices at Tennis Court Road.
Ernest died at home after a nine month illness. His obituary in the Cambridge Independent Press said he was ‘an old inhabitant of the Borough and formerly one of the best rifle shots in East Anglia…he was an old Volunteer and Territorial and a crack rifle shot, having won many valuable prizes at Wimbledon, Bisley and various smaller prize meetings. He was also an Oddfellow of many years’ standing and an old member of the Workmen’s Hall and Institute, Fitzroy street of which he was a trustee and former president’. His funeral was held on 7 July at All Saints’ Church ‘in the presence of a numerous assembly of relatives and friends’. Six of Ernest’s fellow employees at Redding and Son acted as bearers. The funeral was conducted by his employer ‘under the personal superintendance of Mr. A.W. Redding’.
Harriet Ann Pull (née Glasscock) (13 October 1857 – 28 April 1923)
Harriet was the fourth daughter of Josiah and Hannah (née Starling) and was baptised at All Saints’ Church on 2 September 1866, when she was 8 years old. Josiah was a bricklayer, and she grew up on Newmarket Road. Aged 13, Harriet was living at 31 Market Hill, where she was a general servant to linen draper Richard Graves and his family.
In June 1918 Private Harry Wintle was charged with sealing a ladies silver watch belonging to Harriet. At court she said she had gone upstairs and found a soldier at the top of the stairs. She said he ‘was in hospital blue, with a khaki great coat on…she asked him what he wanted and who he was, and he said he wanted the office and wanted some bandages or ropes. He said he had made a mistake he wanted the office at the corner’. That evening she noticed her silver watch was missing and reported it to the police. She then went to the 1st Eastern General Hospital and picked him out. Harriet remained at 105 Regent Street until at least 1918, but had moved to 57 Panton Street by 1921. She died at Addenbrooke’s Hospital aged 65 years old.
Ernest and Harriet’s son Herbert was killed in action at Ypres, a few weeks after his father’s death. He married Lily Susan Barker (1876-1960) in 1902 and had a son named Edward Herbert James (1904-1970). He lived at 82 Norwich Street (1907), then Norwich House, 65 Panton Street and was a builder. He served as Company Sergeant Major with the 1st Cambridgeshire Regiment and died at the front on 31 July. An obituary in the Cambridge Daily News read ‘C-S-M Pull was the only son of the late Sergt-Bugler E.J. Pull of 105 Regent-street who died on July 3rd, and like his father was a noted rifle shot and had served in the old Volunteers and the Territorials for a good many years. He was a man of splendid physique and very popular in the town and among his comrades. He was for many years a member of the Workmen’s Hall and Institute, Fitzroy Street, of which he was hon. secretary for a considerable period. He was also a member of the Salisbury Club. He leaves a widow and one son, aged 13’. Herbert Pull is commemorated at the Menin Gate Memorial.
Hannah Frances Potter (née Glasscock) (1850 – 29 November 1921)
Hannah was the second daughter of Josiah and Hannah, elder sister of Harriet and was baptised on 29 September 1850. In 1871 she was working as a housemaid at Elden House School in Clapham. She married carpenter Philip Eli Potter (1849-1909) in Cambridge in 1892 and they lived in Reigate, Surrey. She was widowed in July 1909 and moved back to Cambridge, where she ran a Lodging House from 11 Eltisley Avenue, Newnham (1911). She later lived with her sister Harriet at 57 Panton Street and died there aged 71 (although the grave monument reads 70 years). Her funeral was held on 2 December at St. Paul’s Church
NB Her middle name was Frances, and it is not known why it was spelt Francis on the grave monument.
Sources:
Ancestry
Newspaper archives
by Claire Martinsen
[If you have any information about this family, please contact us at Friendsofmillroadcemetery@gmail.com]