BOULDEN, Rhoda Sarah Emma née CLARKE
Born 6 July 1880, Essex, England; died 3 December 1918; buried 4 December 1918; age 38
Rhoda’s parents were John Thomas CLARKE (i), a carpenter and Rhoda SAYER (ii) who had married in the parish church in West Hackney, Middlesex, on 12 September 1874. By 1881, John Clarke was employing four men in Walthamstow, Essex, where their first daughter/fifth child, Rhoda, was born in 1880. Her parents had nine children altogether: William, Alexander, Patrick and Reginald were Rhoda’s older brothers, while Violet, Albert, Terence and May followed Rhoda. Her older brothers were born in Tottenham (London), Stoke Newington (London), Bromley (Kent), and Peckham (London), while younger siblings arrived in Bromley (Kent) and in Fellwell (Norfolk) and Brandon (Suffolk). Brandon was the birthplace of their mother and the domicile of the family in at the time of the national census in 1891.
Records show that Rhoda attended the new school in Addison Road, Southwark that had opened in 1884 and presumably then other schools elsewhere as her father moved around in his employment. We know from school records that, in common with her siblings and classmates, Rhoda was not exempt from religious teaching in her schooling.
It is not clear where or when Rhoda took up with Henry BOULDEN (iii) who was to become her husband in January 1903 when Rhoda was 23. Henry, who is listed in the 1901 Census as a patient in Guy’s Hospital in London (iv), was about 40 years old at the time of the marriage at All Saints church, Edmonton, Enfield, London. Henry was described as being of St Stephens church, Portsmouth, where banns were read on 7, 14, and 21 December 1902. They were presumably also read at All Saint’s on the same dates.
Born 6 July 1880, Essex, England; died 3 December 1918; buried 4 December 1918; age 38
Rhoda’s parents were John Thomas CLARKE (i), a carpenter and Rhoda SAYER (ii) who had married in the parish church in West Hackney, Middlesex, on 12 September 1874. By 1881, John Clarke was employing four men in Walthamstow, Essex, where their first daughter/fifth child, Rhoda, was born in 1880. Her parents had nine children altogether: William, Alexander, Patrick and Reginald were Rhoda’s older brothers, while Violet, Albert, Terence and May followed Rhoda. Her older brothers were born in Tottenham (London), Stoke Newington (London), Bromley (Kent), and Peckham (London), while younger siblings arrived in Bromley (Kent) and in Fellwell (Norfolk) and Brandon (Suffolk). Brandon was the birthplace of their mother and the domicile of the family in at the time of the national census in 1891.
Records show that Rhoda attended the new school in Addison Road, Southwark that had opened in 1884 and presumably then other schools elsewhere as her father moved around in his employment. We know from school records that, in common with her siblings and classmates, Rhoda was not exempt from religious teaching in her schooling.
It is not clear where or when Rhoda took up with Henry BOULDEN (iii) who was to become her husband in January 1903 when Rhoda was 23. Henry, who is listed in the 1901 Census as a patient in Guy’s Hospital in London (iv), was about 40 years old at the time of the marriage at All Saints church, Edmonton, Enfield, London. Henry was described as being of St Stephens church, Portsmouth, where banns were read on 7, 14, and 21 December 1902. They were presumably also read at All Saint’s on the same dates.
The church of All Saints, Edmonton from Wikipedia
Henry and Rhoda’s only child, a daughter called Susie, was born on 2 March 1910 in Hertford. By April 1911 Rhoda and Susie were boarders with the Delameres, an army family in Portsmouth. Henry seems to have set off to New Zealand in the preceding months, as by the time the electoral roll was compiled in New Zealand for the 1911 election, Henry was registered as a grocer, resident in Featherston. Rhoda and Susie set sail from Portsmouth aboard the Ionic on 7 September 1911 to join Henry.
By 1914 the family was well established. Henry was trading as a grocer in Queens Drive, Lyall Bay. Rhoda was registered to vote, and was resident in the family home in Pearce Street, Karori, renamed Lewer St in 1915 by the Karori Borough Council. The family was still living there when Rhoda became ill with influenza in 1918, and was taken to the Temporary Hospital at the Normal School in Thorndon (v) where she died on 3 December 1918. Rhoda was buried in the Anglican section of Karori Cemetery the next day. Her plot, which is across the road from the main area of Anglican burials during the epidemic, remains unmarked. Susie, her daughter, was just 8 years old.
By 1914 the family was well established. Henry was trading as a grocer in Queens Drive, Lyall Bay. Rhoda was registered to vote, and was resident in the family home in Pearce Street, Karori, renamed Lewer St in 1915 by the Karori Borough Council. The family was still living there when Rhoda became ill with influenza in 1918, and was taken to the Temporary Hospital at the Normal School in Thorndon (v) where she died on 3 December 1918. Rhoda was buried in the Anglican section of Karori Cemetery the next day. Her plot, which is across the road from the main area of Anglican burials during the epidemic, remains unmarked. Susie, her daughter, was just 8 years old.
Rhoda Boulden's unmarked grave
Rhoda’s husband Henry inserted a death notice in the Evening Post of 4 December reporting her sudden death from diabetes. Rhoda’s death certificate records both ‘diabetic coma following diabetes and influenza’ as causes of her death.
Insulin from non-human sources did not become available until the mid-1920s, too late for it to help Rhoda.
Rhoda died intestate and Henry sought letters of administration to make a claim on a small life insurance policy to help the family after her death.
Henry never remarried, and continued to raise his daughter Susie, who married George RYAN in 1936. Henry was cremated when he died aged 81 in November 1945, and his ashes were buried with Rhoda.
Researched and written by Jenny Robertson
Grave Information:
Section: CH ENG2
Plot: 361 D
(i) Born in Chatteris, Cambridgeshire
(ii) The NZ death record for Rhoda Sarah Emma Boulden says her mother was Elizabeth Violet Sayer, but her parents’ marriage record (from Ancestry) give her mother’s name as Rhoda Sayer. This is supported by the 1891 census record for the family, then living in West Sussex. Perhaps in his grief, Henry Boulden confused the name of Rhoda’s next younger sister with that of her mother; he was likely to have been the supplier of this information.
(iii) Born 23 September 1874 in Rye, Sussex.
(iv) Henry’s occupation was recorded as ‘Warehouseman (felt hat)’.
(v) A ‘normal’ school is one where teacher training is undertaken and in 1918 this was provided in Wellington at Thorndon School. The Normal School at Thorndon provided 91 beds for the medical care of flu victims in 1918. Twenty-first century visitors to Thorndon school at 20 Turnbull Street in Thorndon will see an old building on the site, but this was not where Rhoda died. This building was relocated to the school site in the 1990s from Sydney Street (now Kate Sheppard Place) and was originally the St Paul’s schoolroom.
Insulin from non-human sources did not become available until the mid-1920s, too late for it to help Rhoda.
Rhoda died intestate and Henry sought letters of administration to make a claim on a small life insurance policy to help the family after her death.
Henry never remarried, and continued to raise his daughter Susie, who married George RYAN in 1936. Henry was cremated when he died aged 81 in November 1945, and his ashes were buried with Rhoda.
Researched and written by Jenny Robertson
Grave Information:
Section: CH ENG2
Plot: 361 D
(i) Born in Chatteris, Cambridgeshire
(ii) The NZ death record for Rhoda Sarah Emma Boulden says her mother was Elizabeth Violet Sayer, but her parents’ marriage record (from Ancestry) give her mother’s name as Rhoda Sayer. This is supported by the 1891 census record for the family, then living in West Sussex. Perhaps in his grief, Henry Boulden confused the name of Rhoda’s next younger sister with that of her mother; he was likely to have been the supplier of this information.
(iii) Born 23 September 1874 in Rye, Sussex.
(iv) Henry’s occupation was recorded as ‘Warehouseman (felt hat)’.
(v) A ‘normal’ school is one where teacher training is undertaken and in 1918 this was provided in Wellington at Thorndon School. The Normal School at Thorndon provided 91 beds for the medical care of flu victims in 1918. Twenty-first century visitors to Thorndon school at 20 Turnbull Street in Thorndon will see an old building on the site, but this was not where Rhoda died. This building was relocated to the school site in the 1990s from Sydney Street (now Kate Sheppard Place) and was originally the St Paul’s schoolroom.
