Annie Collingham
Nurse
Annie Collingham was born on 17th January 1892, the daughter of Bright and Ann Elizabeth Collingham, nee Holmes. She was baptised on 7th January 1894. She had one older brother, William, three younger brothers, Bright, Thomas and Victor, and a younger sister, Minnie.
Annie Collingham's baptism record
In 1901 they lived at 72 Clifton Street in Keighley. Bright was a wholesale grocer and produce merchant. By 1911 they had moved to Fernleigh, Highfield. Her brothers William and Bright were working as wholesale grocer’s clerks, so may have been working with their father, Thomas was a railway clerk, Annie was a domestic housemaid. Victor and Minnie were still at school. They also had a lady called Ada Marion Ruth Johnson, a sick nurse, living with them.
From 18th August 1916 until 21st March 1917 Annie worked as a nurse at a military hospital in Ripon.
Annie married Percy Foster, a grocer, on 27th December 1921 at the Parish Church in Keighley. I have not been able to find any further records of Percy, but on electoral registers Annie lived with her parents and siblings throughout the late 1920s and 1930s at Fernleigh, 33 Barlow Road until 1938.
I have found an Annie Foster on the 1939 Register living in Kingston Upon Hull who is a widow, born 1st January 1892 (her baptism record says she was born 17th January 1892), working as a ‘Barclay Corsetiere’ and there is also a Thomas V Foster, born 1st December 1922 who is an apprentice aircraft worker.
The entry on the 1939 Register of England and Wales, which I believe is likely to be this Annie Foster nee Collingham
I think it may be reasonable to assume this is the same Annie Foster – two of her brothers were called Thomas and Victor so her son may have been named after them, she disappears from the electoral registers with her family at this time, and is a widow where previously there is no husband living with them. If this is the same lady, she again worked as a nursing auxiliary during the Second World War.
I believe Annie moved back to Keighley some time after, as there is a probate record for Annie Foster of Castle Villas, 153 Skipton Road on 8th January 1979.
Sources:
England and Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837-1915
West Yorkshire, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1935
1901 England Census
1911 England Census
West Yorkshire, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1813-1935
West Yorkshire, England, Electoral Registers, 1840-1962
1939 England and Wales Register
England and Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007
England and Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1995
