Minnie/Matilda or Malinda?

[SimonCullum]

The person you are searching for, Melinda Loëtitia Collinson Flatman, is my great grandmother. She died a few days after giving birth to my grandfather, also Henry Westhorpe Cullum, in April 1898. She has a beautiful grave with a statue in Mellis churchyard in Suffolk - I will brave the Corona Virus and go and take some photos if anyone would be interested? I have a fair number of papers on the Cullum family connection to the Flatmans. My great grandfather was so upset by her death that he abandoned my grandfather and fled to Canada, where he joined the gold rush...
Contact me if you wish,
Simon Westhorpe Cullum

[SimonCullum]

So, briefly, Arthur Flatman was born in Redgrave, Suffolk, son of an agricultural labourer. He went from that start, via being a butler, then a lodging house keeper, to being a multiple hotel owner in London. Not bad going! He married Mary Jane Mead on 10th March 1869 in the Wesleyan Chapel, Farnham, near Aldershot in Hampshire. They were both 21. This is on the marriage certificate. According to the 1871 census, Susannah Collison was an unmarried servant in Prospect House in Maidstone with Arthur Flatman and his wife Mary...

[Keziah2]

Hello Simon

Yes as you say a beautiful memorial to Minnie and I am pleased to say the ash sapling has now been removed.  I will send you a PM later.

K

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[SimonCullum]

Yes, I was there today - the chain link fence is broken around it and I will fix it in the near future. I also noted that Arthur Flatman’s grave is next to it - and his wife Susannah is on it - so he clearly remarried after Mary Jane Mead

[Keziah2]

I have sent you a PM Simon.   Yes he certainly married Susanna but it’s a long and interesting story with some twists.

K