CFHS code : AG126
Parish : St Andrew the Great
Inscription : In Loving Memory of WILLIAM EDWARD [SPOLTON] d Aug 23 1907 aged 35
Monument : not described
Above information from Cambridge Family History Society Survey
Monument
Inscription
William Edward Spolton (1873 – 23 August 1907)
William was born in Fen Drayton, and was the son of Alfred and Rebecca Spolton. His father worked as an agricultural labourer (1881) and later as a railway plate layer (1891). By 1891 the family had moved to live at the Mow Fen gate house in Swavesey with Alfred’s job, and William was working as an agricultural labourer. He became a guard with Great Eastern Railway soon after.
William married Edith Mary Starr (1874-) on 27 May 1900 at Christ Church, Doncaster and they went to live at 112 Thoday Street. The couple had three children: Elsie Minnie (1901-), May Evelyn (1903-1994) and Frank William (1905-1972). He died at home after ‘a week’s illness’ and was buried at Mill Road Cemetery on 26 August. The Cambridge Independent Press reported the funeral noting ‘the respect in which the deceased was held by his colleagues of all grades on the line was shown at the funeral…about fifty being present, including the G.E.R. station master at Cambridge, Mr Frederick Holdich and Inspector Harradine…six railway men carried the coffin to the grave’.
Edith later worked as a school caretaker (1911) and remained living at 112 Thoday Street until at least 1960. No record of her death has been found.
Sources:
Ancestry
Newspaper archives
by Claire Martinsen
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