BATTERSBY Guinevere Rita
Born 1915; died 4 December 1918; buried 5 December 1918; age 3
Guinevere was the only child born to English parents, Emily Guinevere BATTERSBY née SILLENCE and her husband William. The couple had married in New Zealand in 1910 when Emily was 24. William supported his family by his work as a picture framer or mount cutter; which he continued throughout his working life. The newly married couple made a home for themselves first in Freeling Street, Island Bay, moving to 62 Herald Street, Berhampore, around the time of Guinevere’s birth.
Very little is now known about the short life of their only living child. Guinevere died aged 3 years and 3 months at home in Herald Street from what her parents reported as ‘double pneumonia’ in the public notices columns of the Evening Post on 6 December 1918. Her death was unusual in that she was much younger than those most affected by the flu i.e. men aged 20 to 45.
Tragedy struck the family again a few months later in August 1919 when Emily died suddenly, also at home at 62 Herald Street, and while in labour giving birth to a new child. She had been in New Zealand for about 10 years having been born in Hampshire, England to William James Sillence, a baker, and his wife Sarah Jane Sillence née BUDD. Emily died when she was just 33 and had experienced convulsions associated with malignant jaundice from a deteriorating liver that the coroner, Mr W G Riddell, S.M. called ‘early, acute yellow atrophy’ (NZ Times 19 August 1919, page 6).
Guinevere and her mother share a grave in the Church of England 2 section of Karori cemetery.
In 1921 William married again, this time to Emily’s sister, Flora Gertrude Sillence, to whom he left his estate in a will made on 16 January 1922. Moving away from Wellington, the scene of considerable sadness for William and no doubt Flora too, the new couple made a home in the Hawkes Bay starting in Hastings and ending in Te Awanga. William died in 1941.
Taking a more practical and realistic stance than in the United Kingdom, New Zealand had made it possible for people to marry their deceased partners’ siblings by Acts of Parliament, the first of which was given effect to in 1880 and known as the Deceased Wife’s Sister Marriage Act. A similar provision for deceased husbands followed. The first measure was introduced some 27 years earlier than it was in the United Kingdom.
Researched and written by Jenny Robertson
Grave Information:
Section: CH ENG2
Plot: 176 E
Born 1915; died 4 December 1918; buried 5 December 1918; age 3
Guinevere was the only child born to English parents, Emily Guinevere BATTERSBY née SILLENCE and her husband William. The couple had married in New Zealand in 1910 when Emily was 24. William supported his family by his work as a picture framer or mount cutter; which he continued throughout his working life. The newly married couple made a home for themselves first in Freeling Street, Island Bay, moving to 62 Herald Street, Berhampore, around the time of Guinevere’s birth.
Very little is now known about the short life of their only living child. Guinevere died aged 3 years and 3 months at home in Herald Street from what her parents reported as ‘double pneumonia’ in the public notices columns of the Evening Post on 6 December 1918. Her death was unusual in that she was much younger than those most affected by the flu i.e. men aged 20 to 45.
Tragedy struck the family again a few months later in August 1919 when Emily died suddenly, also at home at 62 Herald Street, and while in labour giving birth to a new child. She had been in New Zealand for about 10 years having been born in Hampshire, England to William James Sillence, a baker, and his wife Sarah Jane Sillence née BUDD. Emily died when she was just 33 and had experienced convulsions associated with malignant jaundice from a deteriorating liver that the coroner, Mr W G Riddell, S.M. called ‘early, acute yellow atrophy’ (NZ Times 19 August 1919, page 6).
Guinevere and her mother share a grave in the Church of England 2 section of Karori cemetery.
In 1921 William married again, this time to Emily’s sister, Flora Gertrude Sillence, to whom he left his estate in a will made on 16 January 1922. Moving away from Wellington, the scene of considerable sadness for William and no doubt Flora too, the new couple made a home in the Hawkes Bay starting in Hastings and ending in Te Awanga. William died in 1941.
Taking a more practical and realistic stance than in the United Kingdom, New Zealand had made it possible for people to marry their deceased partners’ siblings by Acts of Parliament, the first of which was given effect to in 1880 and known as the Deceased Wife’s Sister Marriage Act. A similar provision for deceased husbands followed. The first measure was introduced some 27 years earlier than it was in the United Kingdom.
Researched and written by Jenny Robertson
Grave Information:
Section: CH ENG2
Plot: 176 E