William HIBBERD coal man trowbridge

[jan.jan]

Hi.

I have a link to a William Hibberd who was born 1883 in West Lavington and had his own coal business in Trowbridge and was a Salvation Army Bandmaster.

I assume he had the business after WW1.

Can anybody help in finding out any info on the business or links to him.

Thanks

[Joanna Tolhurst]

We have William (Bill) Hibberd who married Emily Rose 28 Dec 1918 in Mountain Ash.   At the time his age was 37, he was a coal wharf foreman, his address was 18 Frome Road Trowbridge, his father was Frank Hibberd, cowman.  Emily was his second wife and he had 2 children, George and Margaret, who must must have been very young at the time.
18 Frome Road changed to 44 sometime afterwards.
Emily was my great aunt who died late 1940s.
Jo

[jan.jan]

Whow, A connection to William at last!!

Frank Hibberd was born 1861 and married Sarah Jane Weeks in 1882.
They had these children:-

William b 1883.
Mabel Annie b 1884.
Robert b 1886 (my ex husbands grandfather)
Albert Edward b 1889.
Ernest b 1891.
Elsie Sarah b 1895.
Sylvia b 1899.
Joseph Archibald b 1901.

I was told that William had married twice, with one being called Emily and the other Nelly.
He was in the 1st Wilts Division during the First World War and there is a memorial in All Saints Church West Lavington that gives the names of the Hibberd men, who went to War but luckilly all came home safe.

I have photos of Frank and Sarah but nothing on William. Have you any photos?

It is strange in that you mentioned Mountain Ash because Joseph married a Helena Newman and they had a son called George.
He still lives in Devizes and he married a lady called Betty who came from Mountain Ash but she had sadly died.

Whereabouts are you?

George said that William was a bit of a soft touch and would let people owe him money and wouldn't chase them up when it was time to pay back.

Can I have your E.Mail address and I'll send you the family tree.

Lovely to hear from you.

Jan

[julieann1]

Hi
Have you got any further back than your William Hibberd born West Lavington. 
I have a Sarah Hibberd in my family tree, who was born 1809 West Lavington and married  John Rumble of West Lav.  Sarah parents were Thomas and Susannah Hibberd, there are a few siblings.  All born lived died West Lavington. I'll follow the males on the census and see if theres any connection
Julie

[sippy]

william (Bill) was my grandfather and I loved him dearly - I remember traveling with him when I was tiny to deliver coal on the the horse and cart. My father was the brother of Margaret and he was george william. My grandad is fondly remembered by the elderly members of the Salvation Army Citadel in Trowbridge. One of the members told me that he had bought her first ever icecream when she had taken the wheelbarrow down for some coal. She said the icecream was chocolate and was sold by italian vendor on a bicycle.
My father was the son of the first wife and I was told she died of leukemia. She was a very beautiful woman, and I also have a picture of my dad in what looks like girls clothes with sister margaret.
Grandad was a kind and gentle man who loved his garden and his vegetables. If anyone is interested, or knows more, I would love to hear more about him.

[Joanna Tolhurst]

Hi Sippy,
My mother's Aunt Emily was Bill's second wife. Emily was one of 10 children of George Rose and Sarah Ann. George had left Trowbridge to go to South Wales to work down the mine, hence the children were all born in Mountain Ash. Sarah Ann died giving birth to number 13 (2 had died in infancy) in 1910 and George died in 1917.
We think 3 of Emily's sisters moved from Mountain Ash to Trowbridge around 1915/6: Lucy, Elizabeth (known as Tim) and Alice with brother Charles following about 1916. Lucy married Percy Sutton in Trowbridge 24 Sept 1918.

The story is that George's sister Kate (aunt to Emily) who had married William Bailey knew Bill Hibberd possibly through the Salvation Army. She had a photo of Emily which Bill (sometime after his first wife's death) had remarked upon. Great Aunt Kate thought that Emily would make a good wife for Bill and a good mother for his children, and that this would be a way for Emily to leave Mountain Ash where we think she was working as a children's nurse for a well-off family. The plan worked and Bill married Emily in Mountain Ash 28 Dec 1918. Emily moved into Bill's home at 44 Frome Road Trowbridge just 3 houses away from where Emily's sister Elizabeth (Tim) lived later with her husband Charlie Townsend.

My Mum remembers your father George as a very good looking young man who went to college to be a teacher. She last remembers him living near Cambridge, teaching in one of the Cambridgeshire Village Colleges, married with 2 children, Jane and Ann. My grandmother, Priscilla, was particularly fond of George and Mum remembers travelling from London to Cambridgeshire with her to stay with his family. To Mum you seemed then as the ideal family just like in a storybook.

In the early twenties we're sure that Emily's sister Elizabeth (Tim) lived with them before she married. In 1926 (we think) Emily's brother Idris moved up from Mountain Ash to Trowbridge and lived with Bill and Emily until he married in 1935.

In 1945 Emily died and her sister Annie (who was now widowed) came up from Mountain Ash to look after Bill. My Mum came to stay with Aunt Annie in Bill's house in 1946. She remembers delivering Salvation Army leaflets from one hand for Bill and Communist party leaflets from the other for Uncle Idris! In 1947 Annie bought her house in Cardiff and Mum moved down with her.

If you send me your email by personal message, I'll put you in contact with Mum (Val).
Jo

[sippy]

If emily was the second wife, who was the first one? I remember his third wife, Nellie. I also remember my parents talking about Tim. I did not realise this was a woman. I wonder if there would be any photos of the coal yard or the cart?

[Joanna Tolhurst]

Bill's first wife was Edith F Bennett, born 1890, died 1917. Bill and Edith married in 1910.
I have some family photos:
my mum and grandmother in the garden of 44 Frome Road about 1947,
George and Margaret Hibberd sitting on a gate with Aunt Lucy, her daughter Joan and Phylis (daughter of Aunt Sally), dated 1927
and then copies of:
Aunt Annie sitting outside 44 Frome Road about 1920,
Bill, Emily, George and Margaret about 1924,
George sitting with Aunt Tim and her husband Charlie, Aunt Alice and Vera (Aunt Polly's daughter),
George Hibberd holding my mum as a baby,
Mum as a bridesmaid alongwith George's daughter Ann at Margaret Hibberd's wedding,
If you haven't got any of those, I'll scan them and can then email them to you.
Jo

[sippy]

That was so helpful and yes, I would love to see some photos as I have only got two - the one on the gate and the one of my Dad and Auntie Margaret as babies. I feel very emotional finding out that there are still other people remembering my Grandad. My father, George, was an amazing man who was very generous to others, and very undemanding for himself. He continued to work in FE in the cambridge area and was eventually Principal of Young Street Further Education Centre. He set up and ran a local athletics club (Coleridge) and this later merged with Cambridge City to become Cambridge and Coleridge AC. He was still coaching youngsters right up until his death.
My sister Ann became an historian and wrote several books including the Sack of Rome before she sadly died during one of her research trips to Italy.
My father did not talk much about his family as he was a very private person, but we did visit Trowbridge quite often, and I remember being taken to visit the relatives in West Lavington. I thought that he told me there were Welsh connections to the family. Grandad Hibberd and my father shared a love of gardening and growing vegetables.
I continued to receive the Young Soldier and later War Cry until my Grandfather's death.