CFHS code : MG150
Parish : St Mary the Great
Inscription : Revd W T SOUTHWARD MA Music Bach Fellow of St Catherines College b Oct 28 1851 d July 5 1919 also of ELLEN his wife b Feb 16 1867 d Aug 27 1935
Monument : Stone cross (broken)/Kerb stones
Above information from Cambridge Family History Society Survey
Lat Lon : 52.20216, 0.13834251 – click here for location
Monument
The plinth, in the parish area of St Mary the Great, is only just visible under the brambles. Only part of the inscription was visible in 2016.
Inscription
Revd W T SOUTHWARD MA Music Bach Fellow of St Catherines College born Oct 28 1851 died July 5 1919
Also of ELLEN his wife born Feb 16 1867 died Aug 27 1935
Rev Walter Thomas Southward (1851-1919)
Walter was born in Liverpool, the youngest son of printer Jackson Southward (1811-1875) and Margaret (née Proud) and was baptised at St. Peter’s Church on 8 February 1853. He went to Liverpool College before being admitted as a scholar at St Catharine’s on June 15 1871. He matriculated at Michaelmas of that year, gaining his BA (16th Classic) in 1875 , his MA in 1878 and Mus Bac in 1888. He became a Fellow in 1876 and tutor in 1892.
He was Assistant Master at Dulwich College from 1875 to 1876 and a private tutor in Liverpool in 1876. From 1898-1899 he was a Junior Proctor and a Senior Proctor from 1889-1890.
In 1876 he was ordained as a deacon and as a priest in Chester in 1877. From 1876- 1878 he was Curate of Fairfields in Lancashire, moving to St Michaels in Liverpool from 1878-1879 and then on to from Huyton Lancashire from 1879-1884.
He is recorded as “An excellent musician and brought the chapel services at St Catharine’s to a high degree of efficiency.
Walter married his first wife, Ellen Bartlett (1851-1898) on 28 August 1889 and they had one son: Walter Christopher Bartlett (1891-1955). After he was widowed he married Ellen Banks (1867-1935) on 8 April 1904 in Kirkley, Lowestoft. They appear to have split their time betwen living at Brookfield, Newnham and Highfield, Lowestoft, which is also where his spinster sister lived. Walter died suddenly in Lowestoft of heart failure and his funeral was held on 9 July at St. Catherine’s College. It was described by local newspapers as being a quiet funeral, held in the college where ‘Mr Southward for many years had officiated as chaplain and precentor’. The college choir were in attendance at the service. A memorial was held at the College the following term.
Ellen Southward (née Banks) (1867-1935)
Ellen was born in Norwich and was the daughter of William and Sarah. Her father was a woollen draper and she grew up on London Street, Norwich. William eventually retired to live in Kirkley, and aged 34 Ellen was living with her parents and brother Ernest, who had attended Cambridge University and had an interest in organ music – perhaps she met her further husband through her brother’s love of music.
After she was widowed she moved to live at 28 Green Street (1923) and then 2 Trinity Street (at least 1928 onwards) and died at home aged 68 years old. Her funeral was held on 30 August and the details of her will were published in the Saffron Walden Weekly News in December of that year. In her will she left £1.000 to her companion and friend Margaret Edith Driver for the purchase of an annuity, a further £1.000 upon trust to Margaret Driver for her life, £500 to her step son, £300 to her godson, £200 to her goddaughter and £300 to ‘the Master, Fellows and Scholars of St. Catherine’s College upon trust for the erection of a memorial window to the memory of her husband….the subject to such window to be St. Christopher’.
From burial records it is know that Walter’s first wife Ellen was also buried in the St. Mary the Great area of the Cemetery
Ellen Southward (née Bartlett) (1851 – 14 March 1898)
Ellen was the only daughter of Alfred Durling Bartlett (1817-1887) and Ellen (née Maggs) (1817-1855) and was born in Abingdon, near Oxford. Her father was a solicitor and she had four brothers. Her mother died when she was 4 years old as a result of childbirth. In 1881, aged 30 Ellen was in Liverpool, where her brother Frederick was a vicar at St. Michaels Church. She married Walter Southward in August 1889 at St. Michael’s, where two of her brothers officiated at the wedding. Local newspapers reported that the ‘marriage was a very quiet one, only the immediate relatives of the parties interested and a few friends being present to wintess the ceremony’. Ellen wore a ‘travelling dress’ and it was reported that ‘the service was rendered with considerable effort by the choir, and Mr Podfield, the organist, played with excellent taste a wedding march which had been specially composed for the occasion by Mr F.O. Carr, organist of Trinity College, Cambridge’. The newly weds honeymooned in the Lake District and then lived at Brookfield, Cambridge.
She died ‘after a long illness’ at home and was buried at Mill Road Cemetery on 16 March.
Ellen and Walter’s son Walter was a professional violinist and teacher of music.
Sources:
CFHS transcripts of MG Burial Records and Grave book
Cambridge Street Directories
ACAD – A Cambridge Alumni Database
by Mary Naylor and Sheila Plaister with additional information by Claire Martinsen
[If you have any information about this family, please contact us at Friendsofmillroadcemetery@gmail.com]