Thanks very much, Dave. Now I'll add a potted history of Alfred, who apparently was known as Ernest after his return to England.
....Alfred was born c.1866/67, the second son of Alfred Hulme, manager of Courtauld's silk winding mill at Chelmsford, and then at Halstead, Essex (Alfred senior died at sea, probably in January 1899, returning from a business trip to America). The Chelmsford factory seems to have been Alfred junior's first place of work - one item of interest, from 1885, is his organising a collection there for the wife and family of James Manson, who had been hanged at Springfield Gaol, Chelmsford, in May of that year, for the murder of a policeman. Little did Alfred know that he too would see the inside of the same prison in the future!
....The factory was temporarily closed between October 1889 and April 1890, due to lack of orders, and a month before the re-opening Alfred had married Edith Mary Denniss, of London Road, Chelmsford, eldest daughter of Frederick Denniss, of High Street, Colchester, at East Stockwell Street Chapel, Colchester; they went on to have five sons and three daughters.
....Alfred was offered the managership of the factory, which he accepted, and he seems to have had the interests of his workers at heart, organising day trips for them, being involved with a social club, and was secretary of their provident society. However, the final closure of the factory in 1894 seems to have affected him badly. He tried to make a go of it in accountancy, but that failed, and by 1901 he was living off Edith's income. He'd been an insurance agent for the Phoenix Fire Office from 1890 to 1901, and his name was still appearing in their local adverts as late as February 1902, by which time he was in South Africa.
....In 1898 the factory building became the first wireless factory in the world.
www.marconiheritage.org/hallstreet-2.html
....By 1901 Alfred was drinking, not heavily, but "slyly," and had begun to assault his wife at home. Eventually she called the poilce in, Alfred was arrested, and appeared in court in September that year. He made wild accusations about Edith's behaviour, but the magistrates found him guilty of assaulting her, and as he was unable to meet the sureties imposed on him, he was sent to Springfield Gaol for 21 days. Things moved quickly while he was inside, a steamship passage to South Africa was arranged, and no sooner was he released than he was on his way. I wonder if he got the opportunity to say goodbye to his children.
...."Mr. A. E. Hulme, of Chelmsford, sailed from Southampton for South Africa, on Saturday last, by the steamship "Goorkha." This was in accordance with an arrangement suggested by good friends and advisers, and it will probably be felt to be the best solution of the difficulties that were brought to a head by the legal proceedings which Mrs. Hulme was recently obliged to take. Mrs. Hulme, as most of our readers are aware, carries on a considerable business as a
modiste and milliner, in London-road, Chelmsford. It is a business which she has created by her own skill and industry, and, having five young children to maintain, unaided by her husband, she is naturally anxious that her patrons and the public should know what dispositions have been taken to prevent all further unpleasantness. Mr. Hulme seems also desirous that it should be understood that his wife is not in fault, for, just before embarking at Southampton, he sent us a letter for publication, in which he says: -
............Before leaving England I should like the following statement to appear in your valuable paper: -
............I was very much upset at my arrest, knowing nothing about it, and in the heat of the moment I certainly spoke against my wife, who has always been a good wife to me, and a good mother to the children.
....Mr. Hulme concludes his letter by intimating that his wife assures him that she would not have taken the action she did against him if it had occurred to her that it might involve the form of punishment it did."
Essex County Chronicle, Friday 18th October 1901
....Edith was building up a successful business, her first advert in the local paper appearing in February 1900. No doubt she was spurred on by her husband not being able to provide a regular income for the family.
....As in the first post, Alfred returned to England in early June 1902, although it was said that if he regained the use of his legs, he would return to South Africa. There's no mention in his obituary of him doing that, so perhaps staying in England, starting a new life, and not wanting his past to be brought up, was behind his being known by his middle name at the time of his death. The obituary also tells us that Edith had had a big change to her life - she had a religious conversion in 1905, had taken against drink, and by at least 1913 she was a speaker for the Women’s Total Abstinence Union, and was living in London. (
white-ribbon.org.uk/our-history/women-wh...history-mary-docwra/
)
....She moved to London, but re-visited Chelmsford to give talks, and at one, in March 1914, she referred to Alfred, "who had been raised up from hospital by God's grace, and had since never required a doctor," showing that the two must have maintained some contact over the years.
...."DEATH OF MR. ERNEST HULME. - The death is announced of Mr. Ernest Hulme (son of Mr. Alfred Hulme, manager of Messrs. Courtauld's former factory at Chelmsford, and husband of Mrs. Edith Mary Hulme, who at one time carried on a milliner's business at London Road, Chelmsford), who passed away at his residence, Princes Court, Leicester Square, W.C.2, at the age of 52 years, and has been buried in Paddington Cemetery with his eldest son, John, who died over two years ago at Newcastle. Mr. Hulme was in business on the Saturday, although feeling unwell, but acute bronchitis and heart failure set in, and he gradually got worse, dying at 5.40 on the following Tuesday morning. His two sons joined the Colours in August, 1914, and have both returned, one losing the use of three fingers and the other queer with heart complaint, but the father lived to see their return from the war. There are now three sons and one daughter. For nine years the deceased had been at Messrs. Stagg and Mantle's, and held a responsible position. Beautiful wreaths were sent to his funeral from the dispatch department, of which he was manager, and from Mr. J. Orpen, managing director of the firm. Mrs. Hulme is carrying on a considerable social and religious work in the slums of London, as leader and secretary of a Sisterhood, in which she receives help from, among others, Mrs. Harrison Gray, Mr. and Mrs. P. H. Gray, Mrs. Copland, Mrs. Fletcher and the W.T.A.U., Seven Kings, etc."
Essex County Chronicle, Friday 7th March 1919
....Edith died in a nursing home, at Bayswater, London, April 1923, at the age of 60, and, like Alfred and son John, she was laid to rest in Paddington Cemetery. Four of their children were still living then - Mary Violet, Richard E., William E., and James N. Hulme.
