Jean

Jean Annie Edith Wolfenden (known as Jinnie) was born in St Marys, Bedford on November 15th 1910. Her parents were Robert Leslie (1889-1966) and Helen Fraser Wolfenden neé Wilson (1889-1942). Jean’s brother Robert Ian (known as Jack) was born in St Pancras in January 1913. The 1911 census shows the family living at 18 Firbank Road, Bedford with Jean aged 4 months.

Jean married George Cedric Beardmore on July 20th 1935. A year later in June 1936 Ian married Mary Moore. Ian and Mary had one son: Robert John.

Jean’s maternal grandparents were John Williams Wilson (1859-1935) and Jane Ann MacKay (1863-1919).  Her mother had one brother, John Williams who died young, and five sisters: Jessie Fraser, Catherine Garden (Katy), Jean Ann, Henrietta Elizabeth (Betty), Beatrice Alexandria (Rita).

George and Jean had two daughters: Victoria Helen, born in 1939, and Anthea Frances (Tiffa), born in 1944.

After Jean’s father Leslie , known in the family as Panky, was widowed at 53 he went to live on a houseboat on the Great Ouse in Bedfordshire. Eventually he moved to Four Marks to live with Jean and George at Burchfield. He died on March 31st 1966.

Tiffa remembers that a woman in woman in cloth coat came to Panky’s funeral. Nobody knew her and she stood at the back. It transpired that she was Florence Winifred Chambers, appointed by Panky to administer his will, and described in the probate listing as ‘a married woman’.

Jean’s father’s family, from her great-great-grandfather Philip Skelton Wolfenden (born about 1782 in Lisburn, Ireland) down to Jean and her brother Ian, is shown in the Wolfenden family chart.