PART FORTY-FIVE

The Worcestershire Connection 1700 to 2000

Updated September 2026

This is the family line of Paul Collett (Ref. 45S5) of Towcester in Northamptonshire and Adrian Collett (Ref. 45S7) of Aldershot in Hampshire.  Initially it started with Thomas Collett (Ref. 45N2) but, following further research, undertaken during 2018, the new start date has been moved back by three more generations.

The update of this file in November 2021 saw the removal of four children (in Appendix One) from the family of Alfred John Collett (Ref. 45q8) and Minnie Dyer, because they were the children of Alfred Collett (Ref. 11P36) and Gertrude Annie Dyer who feature in Part 11 – The Welford-on-Avon Line.  This error was revealed by Richard Alan Collett, the grandson of the aforementioned Alfred and Gertrude.

45L1

JOHN COLLETT, who was possibly born around 1720, was married to Hannah and their children were baptised at Naunton Beauchamp, nine miles east of Worcester, near to the villages of Abberton and Bishampton, when their surname was recorded as Collet.

45M1

Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1745 in Worcestershire

45M2

John Collett

Born in 1747 in Worcestershire

45M3

THOMAS COLLETT

Born in 1750 in Worcestershire

45M4

Richard Collett

Born in 1752 in Worcestershire

45M1

Elizabeth Collett was baptised at Naunton Beauchamp on 5^th June 1745, the daughter of John and Hannah Collett.  Tragically, she was just two years old when she died of 14^th August 1747, one month after her brother John (below) was born.

45M2

John Collett was baptised at Naunton Beauchamp on 17^th July 1747, another child of John and Hannah Collett.

45M3

THOMAS COLLETT may have been born and baptised at Naunton Beauchamp around 1750, like his three assumed siblings which, if confirmed, would place him as another child of John and Hannah Collett.  Thomas was married to Elizabeth around 1775 and all of their children were baptised at Naunton Beauchamp, and all with the Collet spelling of the surname.

45N1

John Collett

Born in 1777 in Worcestershire

45N2

THOMAS COLLETT

Born in 1780 in Worcestershire

45N3

John Collett

Born in 1783 in Worcestershire

45N4

Hannah Collett

Born in 1785 in Worcestershire

45N5

Luke Collett

Born in 1788 in Worcestershire

45M4

Richard Collett was baptised at Naunton Beauchamp on 20^th February 1755, perhaps when he was quite a few years old, the youngest child of John and Hannah Collett.  It is therefore possible, although not proved, that he may have been the Richard Collett who married Elizabeth White in 1765, whose family details can be found in Appendix One, whose youngest son married a girl from the village of Abberton.  However, upon further investigation, it would appear that Richard was the son of William and Elizabeth Collett, born at Wickhamford near Broadway in 1741.

45N1

John Collett was born east of Worcester in 1777, the eldest of the five known children of Thomas and Elizabeth Collett, who was baptised on 19^th December 1777 at Naunton Beauchamp.  It seems highly likely that he died before reaching five years of age, since the couple’s third son was also given the name of John.

45N2

THOMAS COLLETT was born to the east of Worcester in 1780, the son of Thomas and Elizabeth Collett.  It was at Naunton Beauchamp that he was baptised on 25^th December 1780.  When he attained full-age he married Robina (Rebecca) who was a few years younger, having been born around 1783, with whom he had at least the seven children listed below.  On the day their first child was baptised at Naunton Beauchamp, the family’s surname was spelt with just one t, but thereafter the name was recorded with two.  By the time of the Droitwich & Worcester census conducted in June 1841 Thomas Collett was 59 and his wife Robina (Rebecca) was 57, when they were residing at Little Park Street in the parish of St Peter Worcester.  The only children still living there with them at that time were their two youngest children Christeven Collett who was 19 and Jane Collett who was 14.  Thomas Collett senior died later that same year at Worcester, where he was buried on 14^th October 1841.

45O1

Thomas Collett

Born in 1802 at Worcester

45O2

Mary Ann Collett

Born in 1806 at Worcester

45O3

Stephen Collett

Born in 1809 at Worcester

45O4

George Collett

Born in 1811 at Worcester

45O5

Caroline Collett

Born in 1816 at Worcester

45O6

CHRISTOPHER STEPHEN COLLETT

Born in 1823 at Worcester

45O7

Jane Collett

Born in 1827 at Worcester

45N3

John Collett was born to the east of Worcester in 1783 and was baptised at Naunton Beauchamp on 26^th January 1783, another son of Thomas and Elizabeth Collett.

45N4

Hannah Collett was born to the east of Worcester, possibly in the village of Naunton Beauchamp, where she was baptised on 19^th June 1785, the only known daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Collett.

45N5

Luke Collett was born to the east of Worcester in 1788 and was the last of the five known children of Thomas and Elizabeth Collett.  It was at Naunton Beauchamp that Luke was baptised on 9^th November 1788.

45O1

Thomas Collett was born at Worcester of 12^th December 1802 and was baptised at the Nonconformist Chapel of the Countess of Huntingdon on Birdport Street in Worcester on 2^nd January 1803, the eldest of the seven children of Thomas and Rebecca Collett.

45O2

Mary Ann Collett was born at Worcester on 20^th September 1806 and was baptised at the Chapel of the Countess of Huntingdon on 12^th October that same year, the eldest daughter of Thomas and Rebecca Collett.  Her baptism was the first occasion in the family line when the surname was recorded as Collett, thereafter used in every subsequent record.

45O3

Stephen Collett was born at Worcester on 6^th November 1809 and was baptised one month later on 10^th December at the Birdport Street Nonconformist Chapel of the Countess of Huntingdon.

45O4

George Collett was born at Worcester in 1811, where he was baptised on 29^th August 1811, another son of Thomas and Rebecca Collett.

45O5

Caroline Collett was born at Worcester on 6^th April 1816 and was baptised on 30^th June that same year at the Chapel of the Countess of Huntingdon on Birdport Street.

45O6

CHRISTOPHER STEPHEN COLLETT was born within the Worcester parish of St Helens on 23^rd April 1823.  The registration of his birth confirmed that he was Christopher Stephen Collett, the son of Thomas and Rebecca Collett, as did his baptism on 27^th July 1823.  It would appear that during the early years of his life he was referred to as Christopher.  During his life he worked as a currier and a leather-stainer and in June 1841 when he was 19 years old and he was living with his parents and younger sister Jane (below) at Little Park Street near Fort Royal Park within the Worcester parish of St Peter.  On that occasion he was recorded at Chris Steven Collett.  Later that same year Christopher Stephen Collett married Eliza Matthews on 22^nd November 1841 at Whittington, on the eastern outskirts of Worcester, the event recorded at Pershore (Ref. 18 547).  Eliza may well have been expecting the birth of the first of her three children with Christopher on their wedding day, since those three children were born in quick succession.

By the time of the next census in 1851, Christopher Collett from Worcester was 30 years of age, whose occupation was that of a shoemaker, when he was living at Court 2 on Suffolk Street in the St Thomas parish of Birmingham.  Recorded there with him were his two eldest children, Clara Collett was 10 years old, and Mary Ann Collett was eight years of age, both of then also born at Worcester.  On that same day, Christopher’s wife and son Richard, where staying with Eliza’s parents at George Street in the St Martins parish of Worcester.  Richard Matthews was 53 and a baker, and his wife Sarah Matthews was 67.  Their daughter, described as Elizabeth Collett, was 25, married and a baker’s assistant from Worcester St Andrew, while her son Richard Collett from Worcester St Peter was seven years old.  It is rather curious that no further record of Eliza or Elizabeth Collett, or her two daughters, Clara and Mary Ann, have been found after 1851, nor has any record of the birth of the two daughters been identified.

During the next decade, Christopher began using his second name and it was as Stephen Collett, aged 40 years, that he was a lodger at the home of the Taylor family at Park Street in Kidderminster, from where he was working as a currier – a specialist in the leather processing industry.  By that time, it would appear that Stephen and his wife were separated, although there is a possibility that she may have died.  However, it is known that their son Richard was 17 in 1861 when he was living and working with the Ponting family at the High Street in Worcester, where he was a grocer’s apprentice with William Ponting.  Also, in 1861, there was an Elizabeth Collett, aged 35, who was living at Priest Lane in Holy Cross within the Pershore registration district, but she was the wife of Thomas Collett from Beckford near Tewkesbury, an agricultural labourer aged 43.  Living with them were their three Pershore born children Thomas 13, Jane 10 and William Collett who was nine.

Sometime after 1861 Stephen Collett left Worcestershire and moved north to Staffordshire where, around the middle of the decade, he entered into a relationship with Jane Spriggs.  Jane was considerably younger than Stephen, having been born at Duncalf Street in Walsall towards the end of 1850, the eldest daughter of William and Sarah Spriggs who were living at Freer Street in Walsall in 1861.  The later events in the lives of Stephen and Jane cast doubt as to whether they were ever actually married, since Stephen’s first wife Eliza may have still been alive.

Either way, the relationship between Stephen, who would have been around 45 when he met Jane aged 17, appears to have produced three children for the couple, all three having been born while they were living at Walsall.  According to the Walsall census of 1871, head of the household Stephen Collett from Worcester was 49 and a porter working for a grocer, while his unmarried housekeeper was Jane Spriggs aged 21.  Living at the same address was Stephen C Spriggs, who was two years of age and described as the son of the housekeeper, his middle name very likely Collett.  Certainly, the boy’s birth certificate gave his father’s name as Stephen Collett, a currier.  It is also likely that Jane was also with-child on that census day, since their second child was born there that same year, and was followed by a further two children within the next four years.

After the birth of their fourth child, Stephen again found work in the leather industry, which resulted in him taking his family to Kidderminster.  On the day of the census in 1881, every member of the household was recorded under the Collett surname when they were inmates at the Kidderminster Workhouse situated within the parish of Kidderminster Foreign, comprising the hamlets of Trimpley and Lower Habberley on the east bank of the River Severn.  Stephen Collett was 56, an unmarried leather stainer from Worcester, and Jane Collett from Walsall was 30, single and a domestic servant.  Their four Walsall born children were listed as Stephen Collett who was 12 and still attending school, Alice Collett who was nine, Alfred Collett who was seven years old and Sarah A Collett who was five years old.  At that time the Kidderminster Workhouse was home to twenty-five adults and children, including Eliza Collett who was 39 and from Neen Savage in Shropshire.  She was the daughter of William Collett (Ref. 67M2) and his wife Sarah Deuce.  See Part 67 – The Collett Family of Cleobury Mortimer

By 1891 Stephen Collett, at the age of 69, was still working as a leather stainer when he was again still living at the workhouse in Kidderminster Foreign, as an inmate.  The November 1891 marriage certificate of Stephen’s and Jane’s eldest son Stephen Collett gave his father’s name as Stephen Collett and his occupation as that of a leather-stainer.  After a further ten years, he was again recorded as an inmate in the census of 1901, when he was 80 and continuing to work as a leather stainer.  The census return that year once again confirmed his birthplace as being Worcester.  Around eighteen months later, the death of Stephen Collett was recorded at Kidderminster register office (Ref. 6c 124) during the last quarter of 1902, when he was 81 years old.

45P1

Clara Collett

Born in 1841 at Worcester

45P2

Mary Ann Collett

Born in 1842 at Worcester

45P3

Richard Stephen Collett

Born in 1843 at Worcester

The following are the children of Christopher Stephen Collett and his second wife Jane Spriggs:

45P4

STEPHEN SPRIGGS COLLETT

Born in 1868 at Walsall

45P5

Alice Collett

Born in 1871 at Walsall

45P6

Alfred Collett

Born in 1874 at Walsall

45P7

Sarah A Collett

Born in 1876 at Walsall

45O7

Jane Collett was born at Worcester where she was baptised on 26^th August 1827, the last child born to Thomas and Rebecca Collett.  At the age of 14, Jane Collett was living with her family at Little Park Street near Fort Royal Park within the Worcester parish of St Peter.

45P3

Richard Stephen Collett was born in 1843 and was baptised at the Church of St Peter-the-Great in Worcester on 29^th November 1843.  The baptism record confirmed that he was the son of Christopher and Eliza Matthews.  It was during the first few weeks of 1844 that his birth was recorded at Worcester (Ref. 18 567).  By 1851 Richard was seven years old when he and his mother Elizabeth were living at the home of Richard’s maternal grandparents Richard and Sarah Matthews at George Street in Worcester St Martin.  Ten years later in 1861, Richard S Collett of St Peters in Worcester was 17 and was working as a grocer’s apprentice with William Ponting, while living at the Ponting family’s home at 62 High Street in Worcester St Nicholas in the parish of St Swithins.

William Ponting from Wells in Somerset was 39 and a grocer employing three young men and two boys.  Richard Collett was the most junior of the three young men, the other two being assistant grocers Delabee Walker 23, and Frederick Jenkins who was 21.  William Ponting and his wife Ann, who was 30, had a one-year-old son Theophilus Ponting and they were supported by two servants, Elizabeth Allen aged 22, and Ann Bradley who was 15.

By that time in 1861 it would appear that the marriage of Richard’s parents had broken down, since his father Stephen was living in Kidderminster, while his mother was possibly living in Pershore.  Richard’s father later moved north to Walsall where he entered into a new relationship from which was born three further children.  It was just over four years later that Richard Stephen Collett married Matilda Mary Harris, the event recorded at Cheltenham (Ref. 6a 829) during the last three months of 1865.  Matilda had been born at Chertsey in Surrey, where her birth was recorded (Ref. 4 37) during the third quarter of 1838.  That means that she was around five years older than Richard, something that was never reflected in all of the following census returns.  Once married, the couple initially settled in the Bordesley area of Birmingham and it was there that the couple’s first two children were born, where one of them was also baptised.

After the birth of their second child, the family left Birmingham and returned to Cheltenham, where the remainder of Richard’s and Matilda’s children were born, which was also where they were baptised in a joint ceremony with the couple’s oldest child.  By 1871 the family was recorded as living in Cheltenham where it comprised Richard S Collett from Worcester who was 27 and a shopman working in a grocery store, his wife Matilda Collett from Chertsey who said she was 30, rather than 32, together with their four children.  Archibald Collett was four years old and Millicent E Collett was three, both born at Birmingham, Blanche M Collett was two and Emily B Collett was not yet one year old, both of them born after the family had moved to Cheltenham.

No further children were added to the family so, according to the census of 1881, the family of six was living at 71 Upper Regent Street in the hamlet of Barton St Mary within the parish of Gloucester St Mary de Lode.  The census confirmed that Richard Collett was 37 and a grocer from Worcester, and that his wife Matilda M Collett was 40 and from Chertsey in Surrey.  The four children were listed as Archibald R M Collett who was 14, Millicent E Collett who was 13, Blanche M Collett who was 12 and Emily B Collett who was 10 years old.  Staying with the family was fourteen-year-old Henry W Harbour of no occupation, who was from the Isle of Wight and simply described as a visitor.

During the next decade Archibald left the family home to make his way in the world although, by 1891, he was still living within the Gloucester area, not far from his family who were still living at Barton St Mary in the South Hamlet registration district of the city.  On that occasion grocer Richard was 47 and Matilda was 50 – instead of 52, and still living with them at Regent Street were their three daughters Millicent E Collett who was 23, Blanche M Collett who was 22, and Emily B Collett who was 20.  By around the middle of the next decade Richard’s eldest daughter Millicent had left home to be married, following which she settled in Gloucester, where she and her husband raised a family of their own.

By March 1901 the family was living at Heathville Road in Gloucester, which runs between London Road and Denmark Road, and had been reduced to just Richard S Collett of Worcester who was 56 and still working as a grocer, his wife Matilda M Collett from Surrey who was 58 – rather than 62.  Still living with them were their two unmarried daughters Blanche, a schoolteacher, and Emily who.  While the census return correctly gave the girls’ place of birth as Cheltenham, their age in each case was incorrectly recorded as 28 and 26, when they would have actually been 32 and 30 respectively.  Visiting the family was Florence Teague from Cheltenham who was 26.

Later that same year, the death of Matilda Mary Collett nee Harris was recorded at Gloucester (Ref. 6a 201) during the last three months of 1901, when the registrar was informed that she was 61 and not her actual age of 63.  That situation was confirmed in the Gloucester census of 1911, in which widower Richard Stephen Collett was 67 and the manager of a grocer’s shop, and once again the stated ages of his two unmarried daughters were incorrect.  Blanche Matilda Collett was 34 instead of 42, and Emily Beatrice Collett was 32 instead of 40.  The death of Richard S Collett was recorded at Gloucester register office (Ref. 6a 311) during the third quarter of 1912, when he was 68.

45Q1

Archibald Richard Matthews Collett

Born in 1866 at Birmingham

45Q2

Millicent Eliza Collett

Born in 1867 at Birmingham

45Q3

Blanche Matilda Collett

Born in 1869 at Cheltenham

45Q4

Emily Beatrice Collett

Born in 1870 at Cheltenham

45P4

STEPHEN SPRIGGS COLLETT was born at John Street in Walsall on 24^th December 1868, his birth recorded there (Ref. 6b 630) during the first weeks of 1869.  He was original known as Stephen Spriggs, being the son of the unmarried Jane Spriggs, and was listed as such in the 1871 Census for Walsall.  At that time, he was three years old and was living with his mother.  It has not been confirmed that his father was Stephen Collett, although there is a strong possibility that he was.  And certainly, it would appear that he and Jane had two further children over the next few years.

So, by April 1881, Stephen was listed in the census return as Stephen Collett, aged 12, who was living at the Kidderminster Workhouse with his mother Jane Collett, his likely father Stephen Collett, and his two younger siblings Alice Collett and Alfred Collett.  Stephen later joined the army and may have been stationed at garrison in Aldershot in the late 1880s, since it was there that he married Eliza East on 18^th December 1891.  Eliza was born at Feltham in Middlesex, probably in 1862 making her six younger older than her husband.

Eliza East of Feltham was living there with her mother Elizabeth East in the census of 1871 and was eight years old.  Ten years later she was 18 and was working as a domestic servant at the home of grocer Harry Atkins at Uplands Road in Camberwell.  Her place of birth was again confirmed as Feltham.  Ten years after that she was located in the 1891 Census as was living in Farnham in Surrey, just to the south-west of Aldershot.  Her age at that time was 28.  However, nearly nine months later, at the time of her marriage to Stephen at Aldershot she gave her age as 27, perhaps because she was conscious that she was older than her husband.

It would appear from the birthplace of their first child that Stephen and Eliza stayed at Aldershot only for a short while before being posted to India for three years where, at Meerut, their next three children were born, two of whom were twins.  The family then returned to England before the end of the century and may have been visiting members of Stephen’s family in Staffordshire when their fifth child was born.  By the time of the 1901 Census Eliza was 36 (another reduced age) and was living back at Farnham with her five children.

Her children were Stephen, who was eight and born at Aldershot, who was a honeymoon baby, Albert who was six years old, the twins Alfred and Florence who was four and confirmed as having been born at Meerut in India, and Mabel who was two years old and born at Wade in Staffordshire.  No record of Stephen has been found in either 1891 or 1901, so he is likely to have been abroad and possibly taking part in the Boer War for the latter date, which started on 10^th October 1899.  What is known about him is that he was a private with the Fifth Dragoon Guards when his second son was born in 1894 and had been promoted to the rank of corporal by the time the twins were born in 1896.  It is also well established that the Fifth Dragoon Guards were led by Lieutenant Colonel Robert Baden-Powell and were part of the besieged force at Ladysmith in January 1900.

Two further children were born into the family over the four years after the turn of the century and both were born while they were living in the Farnham area of Surrey.  By the time of the census of April 1911 Stephen had returned from his travels and was back living with his family at Farnham.  Two members of the family were notable by their absence, and they were daughters Florence and Mabel.  The remainder of the family was Stephen who was 44 and born at Walsall, his wife Eliza 45 and from Feltham, and their children Stephen, aged 19 who was born at Aldershot, Albert who was 17 and Alfred who was 15, who were both born in India, Henry who was nine and born at Farnham, and Winifred who was seven years old and born at Cove near Farnborough.

45Q5

STEPHEN STANLEY COLLETT

Born in 1892 at Aldershot

45Q6

Albert Victor Collett

Born in 1894 at Meerut, India

45Q7

Alfred Ernest Collett    twin

Born in 1896 at Meerut, India

45Q8

Florence Ruth Collett  twin

Born in 1896 at Meerut, India

45Q9

Mabel E Collett

Born in 1898 at Wade, Staffordshire

45Q10

William Henry Collett

Born in 1901 at Farnham, Surrey

45Q11

Winifred Maud Collett

Born in 1904 at Cove, Farnborough

45P5

Alice Collett was born at Walsall in 1871 and was the daughter of Stephen Collett and Jane Spriggs.  Around the middle to late 1870s Alice and her unmarried parents, together with her two brothers Stephen (above) and Alfred (below), moved to Kidderminster.  Times were obviously very hard then, and the five of them could only find accommodation in the Kidderminster Workhouse.  Alice was just nine years old and her birthplace was confirmed as Walsall.  Living conditions in the workhouse would not have been ideal for a young girl and it seems very likely that during the next few years Jane Spriggs removed herself and her three children from the Kidderminster Workhouse.

By 1891 when Alice was 20 years old, she was living and working in the Kings Norton registration district five miles to the south of the centre of Birmingham, while her brother Alfred was not far away at Harborne with Kings Norton.  Ten years later it would appear from the overview of the census of 1901 that both Alice, who was then 30, and her brother Alfred, were still living in Kings Norton.  However, ten years after that, in 1911 it is known that Alfred was married, and since no record of Alice Collett has been found, it may be assumed that she too was also married by then.

45P6

Alfred Collett was born at Walsall in 1874 and was the son of Stephen Collett and Jane Spriggs.  Not long after he was born, Alfred and his family left Staffordshire and moved south of Birmingham to Kidderminster Foreign where, in 1881, they were inmates at the Kidderminster Workhouse.  According to the census return, Alfred was just seven years old and his parents were not listed as being married.  That may have been a contributing factor to the future break-up of the family since, by 1891, the family had separated, with each of the five members going their own way in life.  That year his father Stephen was 69 and still living at the Kidderminster Foreign Workhouse, where he was again in 1901 at the age of 80.  The whereabouts of Alfred Collett from Staffordshire still has not been discovered.

However, it would appear that in was in 1909 that Alfred Collett married Minnie Baker, their wedding recorded at the Staffordshire West Bromwich register office (Ref. 6b 1326) during the second quarter of that year.  Minnie was born at Richmond Street in Walsall early in 1877, the daughter of Frederick Baker, an outdoor beerhouse licence holder, and his wife Maria.  On the day of the census in 1911, the couple was recorded at Olton, just north-west of Solihull, where Alfred Collett from Staffordshire was 35 and a constructional engineer working in the steel-roof and girder industry.  His wife Minnie Collett from Walsall was 34, who was expecting the birth of their first, and perhaps, only child.  The birth of their son was recorded at Solihull register office, as was the later death of Alfred Collett, which was recorded there (Ref. 6d 893) during the first three months of 1935, when he was 59.

45Q12

Harold L Collett

Born in 1911 at Olton, nr Solihull

45Q1

Archibald Richard Matthews Collett was born in Birmingham on 9^th September 1866, his birth recorded at Aston (Ref. 6d 235) as Archibald R M Collett during the last quarter of 1866. That may have taken place at Bordesley, where his sister Millicent (below) was born during the following year.  For some reason Archibald was not baptised there and at that time like his sister, but was baptised when he was five years old in a joint ceremony with his two youngest sisters.  When Archibald was two years old, and just a few months after his sister Millicent was baptised in Bordesley, his parents left Birmingham and moved south to Cheltenham where his two youngest sisters were born.

By the second of April in 1871 the Collett family was complete and was living in Cheltenham where Archibald was four years old.  Five months after the census day the baptism of Archibald and his two sisters took place at Christ Church in Cheltenham on 6^th September 1871 when the children’s parents were confirmed as Richard and Matilda Collett.  During the next ten years the family moved into the city of Gloucester where they were living in 1881 when Archibald R M Collett of Birmingham was 14 and was living with his family at 71 Upper Regent Street in the hamlet of Barton St Mary within the parish of Gloucester St Mary de Lode.

It would appear that Archibald never married and at the age of 24 in 1891 he had left the family home in Barton St Mary, although he was still living and working in the Gloucester parish of St John the Baptist, within central area of the city, at that time.  It was at Northgate Street, the home of chemist John Sadler and his wife Mary, that Archibald was working with John as a chemist’s assistant.  Over the next ten years Archibald left Gloucester and acquired a job in Coventry.  The position as assistant chemist to Thomas Sellors also came with accommodation.  So, by March 1901, Archibald Collett from Birmingham was 33 years old when he was living at 7 Cross Cheaping, near the centre of Coventry, the home of chemist and druggist Thomas Sellors, aged 58, and his wife Catherine.

Cross Cheaping lies within the parish of Holy Trinity and number seven may well have been a pharmacy as well as being a residential property.  In addition to employing Archibald Collett, Thomas Sellors was also employing 26 years old Thomas Lancaster at that time, who was also described as a chemistry drug assistant.  Also listed as supporting the household, was Ann Keys who was 50 and the cook, and servant girl Margaret Court who was 16.

Archibald was still a bachelor ten years later in April 1911 when he was still living in Coventry at Cross Cheaping although, by then, it was with chemist and optician Charles Henry Welton that Archibald Richard Matthews Collett aged 44 was again employed as a chemist’s assistant.  Twenty-two years after that census day, the death of Archibald Collett was recorded at Coventry register office (Ref. 6d 603) during the third quarter of 1933 when he was 66 years old.

45Q2

Millicent Eliza Collett was born at Birmingham in 1867, her birth recorded at Aston (Ref. 6d 256) during the month of October, following which she was baptised at the Church of St Paul in Bordesley on 6^th November 1867.  The baptism record confirmed that she was the daughter of Richard and Matilda Collett.  Shortly after that her parents travelled south from the Birmingham area and settled in Cheltenham, where Millicent E Collett was listed as being three years old in the census of 1871.  Sometime during the next decade, the Collett family left Cheltenham and moved again, that time to the county town of Gloucester where, in 1881, they were living at 71 Upper Regent Street in the Barton St Mary district of the city.  The census recorded that Millicent E Collett had been born in Birmingham and that she was 13 years old.

The family was still living at Regent Street in Barton St Mary within the South Hamlet registration district in 1891, but by then the family’s only son Archibald (above) had left the family home to make his own way in the world.  The census return that year recorded the unmarried Millicent E Collett as being 24 and a school governess.  It was around five years later that Millicent married Albert William Healey with whom she had five children during the following ten years and all born in Gloucester.  Albert Healey was a carriage builder who was born in Gloucester in 1868 and who was still living there with his young family in 1901.

The census that year confirmed that Albert William Healey was 32, and that his wife Millicent Eliza Healey was also 32 and born in Birmingham.  Living with them were the first three of their five known children.  They were Albert who was three, Millicent who was two, and Charles who was not yet one year.  The remaining two children were born during the next few years, so by 1911 the Gloucester family comprised Albert William Healey 42, his wife Millicent Eliza 43, and their five children Albert Reginald Collett Healey 13, Millicent Christine Healey 12, Charles Norman Healey 10, Basil Archibald Collett Healey who was nine, and Victor Lionel Collett Healey who was five years old.  It is not known why three out of the five children were given the Collett-Healey name, when the other two were not.

45R1

Albert Reginald Collett Healey

Born in 1897 at Gloucester

45R2

Millicent Christine Healey

Born in 1898 at Gloucester

45R3

Charles Norman Healey

Born in 1900 at Gloucester

45R4

Basil Archibald Collett Healey

Born in 1901 at Gloucester

45R5

Victor Lionel Collett Healey

Born in 1905 at Gloucester

45Q3

Blanche Matilda Collett was born in Cheltenham on 29^th January 1869, where her birth was recorded (Ref. 6a 452).  She was also recorded as being two years old in the Cheltenham census of 1871.  Five months after the census day, Blanche, her brother Archibald (above) and her sister Emily (below), were all baptised in a joint ceremony in Cheltenham.  That took place on 6^th September 1871 at Christ Church on Malvern Road in Cheltenham, at its junction with Christ Church Road, when all three youngsters were confirmed as the children of Richard and Matilda Collett.

Ten years later in 1881 Blanche and her family were living at 71 Upper Regent Street in the hamlet of Barton St Mary just south of Gloucester city centre, when Blanche M Collett was 12 years old and her place of birth was confirmed as Cheltenham.  And it was also there, at Regent Street, that the family was still living ten years later in 1891 when Blanche M Collett was 22 and working as a school mistress, perhaps working alongside her older sister Millicent (above).  By March 1901 Blanche and her sister Emily were still living in Gloucester, at Heathville Road, with their parents Richard S Collett of Worcester and Matilda M Collett of Surrey.

It seems rather strange that on the day of the census that year, both of the sisters’ ages were incorrectly recorded, when school teacher Blanche M Collett from Cheltenham said she was 28, instead of 32, leading to Emily say she was two years younger than her sister.  Just a few months later that same year, Blanche’s mother died, leaving her and her sister to look after their widowed father, which she did until his death in the summer of 1912.

The family of three was still living together in Gloucester in April 1911, when Blanche again gave an incorrect age.  At that time, she was recorded as Blanche Matilda Collett from Cheltenham, who had no occupation, whose aged was listed as being 34, when in actual fact she was 42, and yet again her sister Emily was recorded as being two years younger than Blanche.  Blanche never married and it was during the second quarter of 1923 that her death was recorded at Gloucester register office (Ref. 6a 337), at the relatively young age of 54.  At the time of her death the home of spinster Blanche Matilda Collett was ‘Ripples’ on Elmbridge Road in Gloucester, although prior to that she had been admitted into Sherborne House Nursing Home in Gloucester, where she died on 26^th May 1923.  Her estate of £315 was subject to probate in Gloucester on 12^th June that year, when the money was presented to her married sister Emily Beatrice Foxlow (below).

45Q4

Emily Beatrice Collett was born at Cheltenham on 29^th January 1871, her birth recorded there (Ref. 6a 423).  and was two months old by the time of the census that year.  Emily was just seven months old when she was baptised at Christ Church in Cheltenham on 6^th September 1871 in a joint baptism with her brother Archibald who was five years old and her sister Blanche (above) who was two and a half years old.  How long her family lived in Cheltenham is not known, but during the following few years the family moved into the city of Gloucester where they were living in 1881.  Emily’s father was grocer Richard Collett and the whole family was living at 71 Upper Regent Street in the Barton St Mary part of the city.

Emily B Collett was ten years old and the census confirmed that she had been born at Cheltenham.  Ten years later the family was still living in Barton St Mary at Regent Street where, by early April in 1891, she was listed as Emily B Collett aged 20, who had no occupation.  Another family move saw Emily and her parents residing at a property on Heathville Road in Gloucester on the day of the next census in 1901.  Although a full ten years after the previous census, Emily’s age was stated as being only 26, instead of 30, and once again she had no stated occupation.  So, it is possible that she helped her father in his grocer’s shop.

With the death of her mother towards the end of that same year, Emily and her sister Blanche remained unmarried and continued to live with their widowed father in Gloucester until his death around six months after March 1911.  According to the census that year, Emily Beatrice Collett from Cheltenham informed the census enumerator that she was only 32, when she was actually 40 years old.  On that occasion both she and her older sister had no occupation while, completing the household was their father Richard, domestic servant Florence Tylor who was 15, and visitor Annie Elizabeth Spark from London.

Only weeks after the census day in 1911, Emily Beatrice Collett married Anthony Frank Foxlow, the event recorded at Gloucester register office (Ref. 6a 637) during the second quarter of 1911.  Upon the death of her unmarried sister Blanche in the spring of 1923, it was as Emily Beatrice Foxlow, the wife of Anthony Frank Foxlow, that she was the sole beneficiary of her estate, which amounted to £315.

45Q5

STEPHEN STANLEY COLLETT was a honeymoon baby born at Aldershot on 10^th September 1892, almost nine months after his parents were married there.  His birth was registered at Farnham that same month and the following month he was baptised at the Church of All Saints in the garrison at Aldershot on 7^th October 1892.  That took place prior to the family of three leaving England for a period of military service in India.  The family lived at Meerut in Bengal for around five years where Stephen’s father was a private and then a corporal with the 5^th Dragoon Guards.

On their return to England the family settled in Farnham near Aldershot where they lived for a short while before moving to Cove near Farnborough where they were living in early 1904.  Stephen of Aldershot was listed as being aged eight in the census of 1901 and was nineteen in the April census of 1911 when he was living with his family in the Farnham registration district of Surrey.  It seems highly likely, according to the story told by his son Albert Collett, that it was around that time when Stephen was working at Farnborough aerodrome, where he is believed to have been helping the American aviator Samuel Franklin Cody with his early attempts at flying.  Stephen was also working at Farnborough when the Royal Flying Corps was established there on 13^th April 1912.  Sadly, Cody was killed in a flying accident at Farnborough on 7^th August 1913.

It was on 4^th October 1912 that Stephen Stanley Collett was enlisted directly into the RFC with the service number 415, two months after his brother Albert (below) signed-up.  It is also interesting to note that on 3^rd October 1912, and given the service number 413, was Charles Ingles Collett (Ref. 57A/P9).  Stephen was still based at Farnborough on 31^st May 1914 when he married Mary Pearl Stewart at the Church of Our Lady Help of Christians in Farnborough.  Whether by coincidence or not, Mary was born at Muttra in India on 8^th September 1895, so may have been a longstanding family friend.  Following the outbreak of war just two months later on 28^th July 1914, air mechanic Stephen was posted to France and less than a month after that he was based there at 1AM Aircraft Park on 14^th August.

He only served for a further eighteen months when, on 4^th February 1916 he was discharged from duty for reasons of sickness.  He time with the RFC earned him the Silver War Badge No. 69432.  During his war-years his wife lived in Aldershot where all of the couple’s seven children were born.  Following his departed from the RFC Stephen was employed as a bus driver with the Aldershot and District Traction Company and later became a driver for the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME).

It would appear that the couple lived all their life at Aldershot, and it was there where Stephen Stanley Collett died on 5^th October 1950.  Less than eight years after the death of her husband Mary Pearl Collett nee Stewart also died at Aldershot on 22^nd May 1958.

45R6

Stephen John Collett

Born in 1915 at Aldershot

45R7

Stanley Roland Collett

Born in 1917 at Aldershot

45R8

Ernest Henry Collett

Born in 1919 at Aldershot

45R9

RICHARD LOUIS COLLETT

Born in 1921 at Aldershot

45R10

Lawrence William Collett

Born in 1923 at Aldershot

45R11

Albert Dennis Terence Collett

Born in 1927 at Aldershot

45R12

Ralph Thomas James Collett

Born in 1930 at Aldershot

45Q6

Albert Victor Collett was born at Meerut in the Bengal area of India on 7^th October 1894 at a time when his father Stephen Collett was a private with the 5^th Dragoon Guards.  In both 1901 and 1911 he was living with his family in the Farnham registration district of Surrey, when he was seven years of age and 16 years old respectively.

During the following year, and under two years before the outbreak of World War One, Albert joined the Royal Flying Corps on 12^th August 1912, shortly after it was formed in mid-April that same year. He was based at Farnborough near to where his family was living at that time and his service number was 289, indicating that he was one of the early recruits.  By the spring of the following year he was assigned to No. 2 Squadron based at Montrose in Scotland.

When the war in Europe was declared on 28^th July 1914 Albert volunteered for flying duty and was posted to Farnborough, from where he flew to France on 13^th August in a BE2a flown by Lieutenant Emmett a pilot from South Africa.  Albert’s description of the flight was recorded in the book ‘The Forgotten Ones’ as follows:  “My armament consisted of a short-butt Lee-Enfield rifle with 150 rounds, and a Webley Mark 4 pistol and fifty rounds of ammunition.  We landed first at Shoreham to refuel, then took off for Dover.  On coming into land, the engine cut out and we crashed badly on landing.  The pilot’s right thumb was broken and I was seriously injured and taken to Dover Cliff Hospital.

On being discharged from hospital later that year, Albert was posted to C Flight of No. 7 Squadron based at Longreach near Dartford in Kent.  He later joined A and B Flights at Netheravon, where Clive Franklyn Collett (Ref. 62O36) from New Zealand was based in the summer of 1915.  From Netheravon he flew to France on 3^rd April 1915 and was based at St Omer 1AM Aircraft Park with No. 7 Squadron.  He was promoted to sergeant (aero-rigger) on 1^st August 1916, and was listed as a Sergeant Mechanic in the 1918 RAF Muster Roll. He served at two aircraft depots in France and finished his involvement in the war in very unhappy circumstances.

He had been invalided back home to England owing to an attack of poisoning and, because he had gained a wide experience of engines and aircraft during his years of service, he was posted to No. 1 School of Military Aeronautics at Reading upon being discharged from hospital.  Of this he states:  “I tried my damnedest to avoid this posting.  Every technical NCO was scared stiff of being posted there because we knew how strict it was, and that for the least thing you would be placed on a charge.  I stopped four reprimands in one month for crimes I didn’t know I had committed.  Three officers were relieved of their duties while I was there, and there were two suicides.”

It would appear that it was during the war that he met and married Hannah Pam who was born at Philadelphia in North America in 1897.  Hannah was referred to as Nan by the family.  In 1918 Albert and Nan were living at Reading where their first child was born.  It was also in 1918 that the Royal Flying Corps became amalgamated into Royal Air Force.  Five years after the war Albert was still in the air force and, at the time of the birth of the couple’s second child, he was stationed at RAF Halton near Wendover in Buckinghamshire, the child having been born in the RAF Hospital there.

Five years later in 1928 Albert had achieved the rank of Flight Sergeant and on 12^th August 1930 he was made a Warrant Officer SM2 while he was serving in India, for which he was awarded the Indian General Service Medal and Clasp.  Thirty years later, and upon his retirement, Albert and Nan were living in Blackpool in 1960.  It was four years later that Albert Victor Collett died during March 1964 and was followed four years after by Nan who died in 1968.

45R13

Leslie Edward Collett

Born in 1918 at Reading

45R14

Frederick Maurice Collett

Born in 1923 at Halton, Bucks

45Q7

Alfred Ernest Collett was one half of a set of twins born on 14^th November 1896 at Meerut in the Bengal area of India.  In the two years since the birth of his older brother his father had gone from a private to a corporal with the 5^th Dragoon Guards.  Alfred was baptised at Meerut on 16^th December 1896 in a joint christening with his twin sister Florence (below).  Not long after that the family returned to England, initially to Staffordshire, but ultimately back to Farnham near Aldershot, and three years later to Cove near Farnborough.

In the Farnham census of 1901, he was four years old and ten years later, still living with his family in the Farnham registration district, he was 15.  The only other facts known about Alfred are that he married Doris, who was born in 1911, and that he died in June 2002.  It is not established if he ever had any children from his marriage to Doris.

45Q8

Florence Ruth Collett was the other half of the twins born on 14^th November 1896 at Meerut in Bengal.  And it was also there, just over a month later that she was baptised in a joint ceremony with her twin brother Alfred (above) on 16^th December 1896.  As Florence L Collett she was listed living with her family at Farnham in Surrey in 1901 at the age of four years, although curiously there is no record of her in the census of 1911 when she would have been fourteen.  This then raises the question as to whether or not she had died during the first decade of the new century.

45Q9

Mabel E Collett was born after the family had returned from their time in India and was born at Wade in Staffordshire in 1898.  Apart from her inclusion in the census of 1901 at the age of two years, no further record of her has so far been located.  It might therefore be assumed that she died while still a child and may have been subject to the same fate as that which resulted in the absence of her older sister Florence (above) from the same census.

45Q10

William Henry Collett was born at Farnham in the second half of 1901, where his family was living on the thirty-first of March of that year.  By the time of the census of 1911 William was aged nine and living with his parents within the Farnham registration district in Surrey, although he was recorded as being Henry Collett.  William never married and was a member of the Royal Air Force.  He also worked as a conductor with the Aldershot & District traction Company and, at some time, worked at the War Service Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough.  During his life he was referred to as Bruiser Collett, which might indicate he was a boxer or just handy with his fists.  The only other detail so far known about him is that he died in 1970.

45Q11

Winifred Maud Collett was born at Cove near Farnborough on 4^th January 1904.  She was referred to as Rus within the family and was listed as being seven years old in the census of 1911 when his place of birth was confirmed as being Cove in Hampshire.  She later married George Gordon who was born on 21^st January 1901 and was a Regimental Sergeant Major with the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders.

The marriage produced four children for the couple.  Their eldest son married Francis lives in Keynsham near Bristol, the second child lives in Canada, the third child married Gwenda and remained living at Farnborough, where he worked at the Royal Aircraft Establish, and their youngest child was Jean Gordon.  George Gordon died during June 1979 and was followed almost immediately by Rus Gordon nee Collett who died on 13^th July 1979.

45Q12

Harold L Collett was born at Olton, near Solihull, in 1911 and it was at Solihull that his birth was recorded (Ref. 6d 635) during the second quarter of the year, the only known child of Alfred Collett and Minnie Baker.  He was nearly thirty, when the marriage of Harold L Collett and Regina M Cooper was recorded at Nuneaton register office (Ref. 6d 1598) during the first quarter of 1941.  After only twenty-three years together, the death of Harold L Collett was recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 9c 289) during the first three months of 1964, when he was 52.  As far as can be determined, they never had any children.

45R6

Stephen John Collett was born at Aldershot on 13^th April 1915, the eldest child of Stephen Stanley Collett and Mary Pearl Stewart.  His birth was recorded at nearby Farnham register office (Ref. 2a 209) during the second quarter of that year.  Stephen attended East End Boys School and later married Violet Ivy P Leach in 1942.  Violet was born on 18^th January 1915 and also at Aldershot, and was known as Vi within the family.  Their marriage was recorded at Aldershot register office (Ref. 2c 675) during the second quarter of 1942 and produced two children for the couple.  The first of them was born while they were living in Aldershot and the second when they were living in Farnborough.  As well as being born within a few months of each other in 1915, Stephen and Vi died within a month of each other.  Violet Ivy Collett nee Leach died first on 5^th August 1963 and was followed by Stephen John Collett who passed away on 6^th September 1963, his death recorded at the South-Western Surrey register office (Ref. 5g 774) during the third quarter of that year when he was 49 years old.

45S1

Patrick Rowland Collett

Born in 1944 at Aldershot

45S2

Janet Stephanie Collett

Born in 1947 at Farnborough

45R7

Stanley Roland Collett was born at Aldershot on 28^th March 1917 and his birth was recorded at Farnham register office (Ref. 2a 204) during the second quarter of that year.  He was one month old when he was baptised at St Joseph’s Church in Aldershot on 29^th April 1917.  He too attended East End Boys School and later enlisted with the Royal Navy at the outbreak of the Second World War, but was discharged on medical grounds.  He died shortly after that on 3^rd February 1940, the cause of death being certified as pneumonia.  As with his older brother (above), the death of Stanley R Collett was recorded at the South-Western register office (Ref. 2a 1326) during the first quarter of 1940, when he was just 22 years of age.  He never married.

45R8

Ernest Henry Collett was born at Aldershot on 19^th March 1919, with his birth also recorded at Farnham register office (Ref. 2a 179).  Like his two brothers before him, Ernest was also a pupil at East End Boys School.  He was a soldier with the 2^nd and 4^th Battalion Hampshire Regiments who saw action in Europe during the Second World War.  What is known is that it was during the early 1940s in Austria that he met and married Sophie Herzog, who was born at Klagenfurt in Austria in May 1917.  Their first child was born in Austria during the war, while their second child was born at Aldershot, where the couple had settled during the latter part of the 1940s.  It was also during that time in his life when Ernest worked for F W Woolworth.  Sometime later in their lives Ernest and Sophie moved to Cambridge where Ernest died in November 1969, his death recorded at Cambridge register office (Ref. 4a 695).  Sophie continued to live in Cambridge after the death of her husband but eventually moved to Wigan in Lancashire, where her son was living, and where she died on 12^th December 2010 at the age of 93.

45S3

Karen Collett

Born in 1943 in Austria

45S4

Stephen Collett

Born in 1950 at Aldershot

45R9

RICHARD LOUIS COLLETT was born at Aldershot on 28^th March 1921 and it was there that he was baptised on 8^th May 1921, the fourth child of Stephen Stanley Collett and his wife Mary Pearl Stewart.  His birth, like that of his siblings, was recorded at Farnham register office (Ref. 2a 260) during the second quarter of the year.  However, unlike his older brothers, he was educated at Farnborough Grammar School, and upon leaving school he went to work for F W Woolworth where he spent his entire working life.  During World War Two he served with the Royal Army Ordnance Corps at Agra in India and was Warrant Officer R L Collett No. 10538126.  It was during the early years of his military service that he met his future wife, whom he married a year after the end of the hostilities.

Eileen Mary Lenehan was born on 19^th September 1920 at Carbury in County Kildare in Ireland and she were married Richard at St Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church in Aldershot on 13^th July 1946, following which they had two children.  Whilst he was employed by F W Woolworth, Richard moved regularly round the country living in Farnham, Portsmouth, Ely, Cirencester and Upminster, finally achieving the position of Senior Head Office Manager.  He retired early in 1977 following heart problems and retired to the village of Helmdon in Northamptonshire.  Richard Louis Collett died at Helmdon on 2^nd February 1987, from lung cancer, and it was also there that he was buried a week later on 9^th February 1987.  Many years later, after thirty-five years as a widow, and at the grand age of 101, Eileen Mary Collett, nee Lenehan, passed away peacefully at home in Horsmonden, Kent, on 8^th January 2022.

45S5

PAUL ANTHONY COLLETT

Born in 1947 at Farnborough

45S6

Catherine Ann Collett

Born in 1950 at Farnham

45R10

Lawrence William Collett was born at Aldershot on 18^th June 1923 and was quickly baptised three days later on 21^st June 1923 due to a defect at birth.  His birth was later recorded at Farnham register office (Ref. 2a 231) during the third quarter of that year.  However, despite being brain damaged from birth, he survived for over twenty-nine years when he died at Aldershot on 11^th November 1952.

45R11

Albert Dennis Terence Collett was born at Aldershot on 1^st June 1927, his birth recorded at Farnham register office (Ref. 2a 275).  As with other male siblings of his family he was educated at East End Boys School.  He later entered service with REME where he was trained as a motor mechanic.  On 4^th June 1955 Albert married Maureen Mitchell just after her twentieth birthday, she having been at Aldershot on 22^nd June 1935.  Once married the couple remained living in Aldershot where, it was previously believed that, all four of their children were born.  However, the registration of the birth of the couple’s eldest daughter, Frances, took place at Huntingdon, where the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Mitchell.  And it was at Aldershot that Albert Dennis Terence Collett died from cancer on 17^th October 1999 and where he was buried on 29^th October 1999.  The cause of death was cancer.  Curiously the death of Albert Dennis T Collett was recorded at West Surrey register office (Vol. 7611e).

45S7

Adrian Paul Collett

Born in 1958 at Aldershot

45S8

Frances Teresa Collett

Born in 1965 at Huntingdon

45S9

Sarah Louise Collett    twin

Born in 1966 at Aldershot

45S10

Christopher Collett      twin

Born in 1966 at Aldershot

45R12

Ralph Thomas James Collett was born on 20^th May 1930 at 4 Lynford Villas off Highland Road in Aldershot and his birth, like that of all of his older siblings, was recorded at nearby Farnham register office (Ref. 2a 291) when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Stewart.  Ralph was baptised at St Joseph’s Church in the town on 29^th June 1930, the last child born to Stephen Stanley Collet and his wife Mary Pearl Stewart.  On leaving school he joined the Royal Navy and later become a police inspector.  At some stage in his early working life he moved to Dorset and initially settled in Weymouth where he married Patricia Ann Lawrence at St Joseph’s Church on 24^th July 1954.  It was also while the couple were living at Weymouth that the first of their two daughters were born.

His wife was less than three weeks difference in age from Ralph, and had been born on 8^th June 1930 at Dorchester where the family was living when the couple’s second daughter was born.  During the later years of their life together Ralph and Patricia left Dorchester and moved the 23 miles east to Wimborne Minster where Ralph Thomas James Collett died on 8^th July 1986 and where he was buried.  It was at Wimborne that Patricia Ann Collett nee Lawrence also passed away.

45S11

Carole Susan Collett

Born in 1957 at Weymouth

45S12

Janet Christine Collett

Born in 1960 at Dorchester

45R13

Leslie Edward Collett, the eldest of the two children of Albert Victor Collett and Hannah Pam, and was born at Reading on 29^th August 1918.  The birth was recorded at Reading register office (Ref. 2c 619) during the third quarter of 1918, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Pam.  Leslie was married twice during his life, the first time when he married (1) Anne Theresa Reynolds from Omagh in County Tyrone, the event recorded at Plymouth register office (Ref. 5b 1184) during the third quarter of 1940.  That marriage produced two daughters, whose birthdays were recorded at Blackpool and Plymouth when, in each case, the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Reynolds.

It was also back at Reading, when Leslie E Collett later married (2) Marjorie Kathleen Joyce Brooks during the second quarter of 1960, where the event was recorded (Ref. 6a 265).  Marjorie was born on 6^th August 1929, her birth recorded at East Stonehouse in Devon (Ref. 5b 400).  The first of the couple’s three children was born at Reading, before the family moved to High Wycombe where the second child was born.  Within the next couple of years, the family moved again, on that occasion back to Blackpool where their third and last child was born.  In all three cases the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Brooks.  Leslie Edward Collett died on 23^rd December 1988, his death recorded at Blackpool and Fylde register office (Ref. 40 871). It was many years later that his widow Marjorie passed away on 25^th May 2012.

45S13

Patricia Mary Collett

Born in 1941 at Blackpool

45S14

Carmel Theresa Collett

Born in 1944 at Plymouth

The following are the children of Leslie Collett by his second wife Marjorie Brooks:

45S15

Simon F Collett

Born in 1961 at Reading

45S16

Andrew Edward Collett

Born in 1963 at High Wycombe

45S17

Christopher John Collett

Born in 1965 at Blackburn

45R14

Frederick Maurice Collett was born at the Royal Air Force Hospital at RAF Halton near Wendover in Buckinghamshire during 1923.  His birth was recorded at Aylesbury register office (Ref. 3a 1662) during the first quarter of that year, the son of Albert Collett and his wife Hannah Pam - whose maiden-name was included on the register.  It was during the third quarter of 1944 that Frederick M Collett married Lorna MacPherson who was born at Port Sunlight in Cheshire during 1922, their wedding recorded at Wirral register office (Ref. 8a 1213).  The couple spent almost sixty-five years together before Lorna passed away in June 2006 at the age of eighty-four.  Her husband, a retired mathematics schoolteacher, was also an official of the Youth Hostels Association and founder of the Kendal Athletic Club and, upon his retirement, he pursued his hobby of collecting playing-cards, which eventually became a business for him and Lorna.

The following item appeared in The Times newspaper on Thursday 21^st June 2012 and related to the progress of the Olympic Torch on its journey around the British Isles, on its way to London for the 2012 Olympic Games at the end of July.  The article, under the headline, ‘Day 33 York to Carlisle - Torch Bearers’ Day in the Sun’ read as follows:

“As with the Diamond Jubilee, the question I ask myself about the Olympic Torch Relay is this:  why are so many people so excited?  No use denying that they are, even though, viewed dispassionately as a product the Torch Relay doesn't amount to much.  You stand for an hour yesterday, thankfully in the sun, then a few coppers turn up on motorbikes, followed by a few sponsor vans, followed by a rather forlorn figure in a white track suit carrying the flame.  Kids cheer, matrons wave their Union Jacks, cameras click, the show moves on. That's it.  And yet everyone loves it.  Mediocre product, massive popularity.  The Torch Relay is actually a lot like Coca-Cola, its most celebrated sponsor.  Why?  Because in places like Layburn and Aysgarth Falls and Richmond, all in North Yorkshire, the relay is as close as anyone will get to the Games in the flesh.  Because ‘It's history isn't it?  I won't see it again in my lifetime.’  Because it's something to do.  Because it's a morning off school.  Because the passage of the Torch is as much a celebration of a place and a people right here and now as it is a celebration of a gathering of millionaire athletes in far-off London at the end of next month.  And also I think because, contrary to the received wisdom in sceptical media circles, the British remain a fundamentally uncynical bunch. Yesterday, on a bridge over Aysgarth Falls in Wensleydale, Maurice Collett, 89, a retired maths teacher from Kendal, handed over to Caroline Curtis, 32, a Scout leader from London.  The event was witnessed (sort of) by Eleanor Hurn, six weeks old, from Dublin.  Mr Collett's daughter, Jurdy Brewer, had flown over from her home in Malaysia to witness her dad's big moment.  Ms Curtis is half-Malaysian.  In their exchange, something of the original, and still enduring, international spirit of the Olympics could be discerned.  Mr Collett, who was born not long before the Chariots of Fire games in 1924, has a right arm withered by childhood polio.  Nonetheless, he devoted much of his life to amateur and school athletics.  What does the flame represent to him, someone asked?  A modest man, Mr Collett said nothing.  ‘It's a recognition of a lifetime of achievement’ his daughter answered proudly.  Indeed so.  You'd have to be a fairly hardened cynic to deny a man such as Mr Collett his day in the sun.

Six years later, Maurice died on 12th July 2018 at the age of 95, with the following obituary published in the Westmorland Gazette on 26^th July 2018.  “FREDERICK MAURICE COLLETT - Passed away peacefully on 12th July aged 95 yrs.  Husband of the late Lorna and loving father of Jurdy, Paul and Sally.  Grandfather to Adam Collett and Paris Collett.  He will be sadly missed by all the family.  The funeral service will take place at Beetham Hall Crematorium (South Lakeland) on Friday 3rd August at 11.00am. Family flowers only please, donations if desired, to either the RSPB or the British Polio Foundation”

Maurice’s long-term friend, Roddy Somerville (Past Chairman of the IPCS and Past Master of the Worshipful Company of Makers of Playing Cards of the City of London), produced the following tribute, which was printed in the Journal of the International Playing-Card Society (IPCS) under the headline: Frederick Maurice Collett (1923-2018) - reflections on a long life lived to the full

“Some 30 years ago, when Maurice Collett was 65, he told me not to be surprised if he did not survive much longer as he had reached the average age attained by most members of his family.  Well, he proved everyone wrong!  Those last 30 years were to be as fulfilling as the rest of his life had been.  When he retired from teaching mathematics, he was able to devote himself to collecting playing cards (notably Dondorf packs) and to give more time to running what was less of a business and more of a service to fellow collectors, namely Kendal Playing Card Sales.  This he did with great enthusiasm and efficiency from his home near Kendal in the English Lake District, building up a band of loyal customers, thanks to his regular sales lists.  The fact that he had the full use of only one arm was not a deterrent, as he was ably assisted by his (late) wife Lorna, especially when it came to packing parcels.  Sales of playing cards were boosted by their having a presence in a local shop and hotel in Kendal.  How many tourists who bought playing cards as souvenirs later became avid collectors?  The Lake District was also the setting for Maurice and Lorna’s other passion in life, orienteering.  Both took part in competitive events over many years, with Maurice still competing in his late 80s!  In recognition of the fact that he co-founded and chaired the Westmorland Schools Athletic Association, it was fitting that, at the age of 89, he was given the honour of carrying the Olympic Torch at Aysgarth (North Yorkshire).  Age did not prevent Maurice from travelling to many parts of the world to visit friends and relatives.  He was all set to visit his daughter in Malaysia before Christmas 2016 when illness forced him to cancel the trip.  Maurice Collett was a founding member of the IPCS, serving as its first Chairman, then Secretary and later Vice-President, before becoming President in 1991.  Were there to be an IPCS “Hall of Fame”, Maurice would surely be one of the first inductees.”

45S18

Susan Jurdy Collett

Born in 1947 at Blackpool

45S19

Paul Andrew Collett

Born in 1950 at Westmorland

45S20

Sally Ann Collett

Born in 1959 at Westmorland

45S1

Patrick Rowland Collett was born at Aldershot in 1944, where his birth recorded (Ref. 2c 504) during the first three months of that year, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Leach.  He married Carol Lesley Gregory in 1964 with whom he had two children while the couple were living at Farnham in Surrey.  Tragically he died in a drowning incident in 1976 when he was only 32 years old.

45T1

Tracy Jane Collett

Born in 1966 at Farnham, Surrey

45T2

Gavin Patrick Collett

Born in 1968 at Farnham, Surrey

45S2

Janet Stephanie Collett was born at Farnborough on 22^nd October 1947, although her birth was recorded at Aldershot register office (Ref. 6b 65) during the last three months of that year.  She married (1) Barry Michael Finch on 12^th July 1969.  Barry was born at Shoreham-by-Sea in West Sussex and was the father of Janet’s two children.  After they were married the couple initially settled in Shoreham and it was during that time that their first child was born and baptised at Shoreham.

Less than two years after the birth of the child the family moved five miles west of Shoreham to Worthing where their second child was born.  The family remained living at Worthing for the next twenty years and it was there on 11^th July 1992 that Janet married (2) Leonard Roy Rogers.  Leonard was ten years older than Janet having been born in London on 19^th May 1937 and was baptised at Dulwich just over a month later on 27^th June 1937.

45T3

Jason Thomas Finch

Born on 04.01.1970 at Shoreham

45T4

Benjamin Nicholas Finch

Born in 1972 at Worthing

45S3

Karen Collett, the child of Ernest Henry Collett and Sophie Herzog, was born in Austria during 1943.  It was in London during the 1960s that she married (1) Mr Haley, but the marriage produced no children and the couple were later divorced.  She later returned to Austria where she married Adolf Schreiber with whom she had a son, who was born in Austria during 1976.  She still lives in Austria, as does her unmarried son, while her husband Adolf died in 2010.

45S4

Stephen Collett was born at Aldershot in 1950 and was another child of Ernest and Sophie Collett.  He married Miss Tennant during the early 1970s with whom he had two children, both of them being born in Wigan, when he and his wife were still living in 2013.

45T5

Emma Collett

Born in 1978 at Wigan

45T6

Ian Collett

Born in 1983 at Wigan

45S5

PAUL ANTHONY COLLETT was born at Farnborough in Hampshire on 18^th February 1947 and was baptised there that same day, the eldest of the two children of Richard Louis Collett and Eileen Mary Lenehan.  He attended school at Presentation College in Reading from 1957 to 1963 and, upon completing his education he was employed by W H Smith.  It was while he was working for them in Liverpool that he met his future wife Angela Mary Holden who was born at Farnworth in Lancashire on 7^th October 1948.  The couple were married at Farnworth, north-west of Manchester, on 30^th August 1969, and once they were married it was Paul’s work which took the couple south to Hornchurch in Essex, where their first two sons were born at Rush Green Hospital.

Following a change in his occupation, Paul and his family later moved to Towcester in Northamptonshire during 1975, and it was while they were living there that the couple’s third son was born at the Barrett Maternity Hospital in Northampton.  In 2012 Paul and Angela are still living in the Towcester area of Northamptonshire, and it was Paul who kindly provided the information that has enabled this family line to be constructed.

Footnote:  Paul and his cousin Adrian Collett (Ref. 45S7), together with Brian Collett of Brixworth in Northamptonshire, attended the opening of the Royal Flying Corps Museum at Farnborough on 12^th April 2012 to celebrate the centenary of the formation of the RFC, one of their early recruits being the cousins’ grandfather Stephen Stanley Collett (Ref. 45Q5).

45T7

Richard Paul Collett

Born in 1970 at Hornchurch, Essex

45T8

Simon Anthony Collett

Born in 1972 at Hornchurch, Essex

45T9

Timothy Edward Collett

Born in 1978 at Northampton

45S6

Catherine Ann Collett was born on 2^nd May 1950 at Farnham in Surrey where she was baptised on 18^th June 1950.  She was a schoolteacher and it seems likely that it was through her work that she met fellow teacher Malcolm Cramp who was born at Chatham in Kent on 15^th January 1949.  Catherine was thirty-three when she married Malcolm at Maidstone in Kent on 23^rd December 1983.  And it was whilst the couple was living at Maidstone that their two children were born.  Malcolm Cramp, the husband of Catherine Ann Collett, died on 31^st August 2015 at Loose Village in Kent, the cause of death being a brain tumour.

45T10

Lucy Cramp

Born on 25.10.1986 at Maidstone, Kent

45T11

Joseph Cramp

Born on 06.08.1989 at Maidstone, Kent

45S7

Adrian Paul Collett was born at Aldershot on 30^th March 1958, the eldest of the four children of Albert Dennis Terence Collett and his wife Maureen Mitchell.  His birth was simply recorded as Adrian Collett at Aldershot register office (Ref. 6b 11) during the second quarter of 1958, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Mitchell.  It was in his teenage years, when he was confirmed, that Adrian took the saints name Paul.  Upon leaving school he began a career in food retail management with MacFisheries, and later with Mac Market supermarkets.  He was a MacFisheries shop manager at 21 and a supermarket manager by the time he was 22.

On giving up his career in retail during 1980 Adrian became involved in local politics and successfully stood for election to various local councils on nineteen occasions between 1980 and 2011.  It was on 30^th March 1989 that, as Adrian P Collett, he married Pamela Mary Baldock nee Birkett at the Aldershot register office, Pamela having been born at Mitcham in Surrey on 14^th July 1948.

Just prior to becoming a married man Adrian became the youngest Council Leader in the country, a post he held from 1986 to 1988.  Since then he has stood for Parliament five times, as a Liberal Democrat for Aldershot Constituency, getting closer to winning each time but never quite getting there.  On 12^th June 2012 he was chosen as Chair of Hampshire Police Authority.

Pamela has two children, Emma and Robert Baldock, from her previous marriage, and the two children of his step-daughter Emma (Tabitha and Molly) both refer to Adrian as ‘Granddad’.

Adrian, together with his cousin Paul Collett (Ref. 45S5) and webmaster Brian Collett, attended the opening ceremony of the Royal Flying Corps Centenary Exhibition at Farnborough on 12^th April 2012.  Adrian is shown standing in front of the displays, which includes his grandfather Stephen Collett and others members of the wider Collett family.

45S8

Frances Teresa Collett was born at Huntingdon on 30^th March 1965, the base-born daughter of Maureen Mitchell, who was separated from her husband Albert Dennis Terence Collett at that time in their married life.  The birth of Frances Teresa Collett was recorded at Huntingdon register office (Ref. 4b 839) during the second quarter of 1965, where her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Mitchell.  Shortly after the birth, both mother and daughter were reunited with Albert and their son Adrian back at Aldershot.  Sometime after that Frances was adopted into the family of Albert and Maureen Collett.  It was at Aldershot register office (Vol. 495-1144) on 15^th July 1999 that the marriage of Frances Teresa Collett and Raymond John Crooke took place, the event brought forward by a year so that Frances’ poorly father could attend.  Frances and Raymond were only married for fifteen years, when Raymond died suddenly on 25^th September 2014.  Just over three years later, when Frances was only 52 years of age, she suffered with septicaemia and died on 14th December 2017 at St George's Hospital in Tooting, following which her funeral was held at Aldershot Park Crematorium on Monday 8^th January 2018.

45S9

Sarah Louise Collett was the other half of a set of twins born at Aldershot on 14^th September 1966, where her birth was recorded (Ref. 6b 94).  Thirty years later she married Ratahi Maciopa Watene in New Zealand on 20^th December 1996.  He was known as Ra, and he and Sarah have two children, Jordan Watene born at South Auckland on 26^th January 2002 and Lana Kiri Watene born on 30^th March 2004.

45S10

Christopher Collett was one half of a set of twins born at Aldershot on 14^th September 1966.  His birth, as with that of his twin sister (above), was recorded at Aldershot register office (Ref. 6b 95) when their mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Mitchell.  He lived all his life at Aldershot where he married Gwenn Bartrop on 3^rd July 1993 at the Aldershot register office.  Tragically he died less than two months before his thirty-sixth birthday on 21^st July 2002 at Aldershot, where he was buried on 1^st August 2002.  For some reason his death was recorded at West Surrey register office (Ref. 7611c), rather than at Aldershot, while the birth of their son was recorded at the Surrey North-Western register office (Ref. 7582b), the mother’s maiden-name given as Bartrop.

45T12

Damien Collett

Born on 21.12.1993 at Aldershot

45S11

Carole Susan Collett was born at Weymouth on 20^th October 1957 and was baptised there the following year on 16^th February 1958.  She married (1) Kenneth Edwards but later married (2) Colin Jarvis on 24^th September 1983 at Wimborne in Dorset where her parents were living at that time.  Colin was born at St Austell in Cornwall on 26^th July 1952 where he was baptised five years later on 8^th May 1957.  The marriage produced two children for Carole and Colin, and both were born at Poole Hospital although the couple were living at Wimborne where the two children were later baptised.

45T13

Paul Stephen Jarvis

Born on 02.05.1986; baptised on 03.08.1986

45T14

Sarah Michelle Jarvis

Born on 15.05.1988; baptised on 31.07.1988

45S12

Janet Christine Collett was born at Dorchester in Dorset on 20^th November 1960 and it was there that she was baptised during the following year.  She married Keith Michael Hickling at Wimborne on 12^th June 1993.  Keith was born in Birmingham on 1^st May 1959.  At the time of the birth of their two children, Janet and Keith were living at Frimley Park just north of Farnborough.

45T15

Katie Jane Hickling

Born on 14.10.1994

45T16

Lucy Ann Hickling

Born on 11.02.1997

45S13

Patricia Mary Collett was thought to have been born at Plymouth, like her sister Carmel (below).  However, the birth of Patricia M Collett was recorded at Blackpool register office (Ref. 8e 1286) during the second quarter of 1941, the eldest child of Leslie Edward Collett and Annie Reynolds from Northern Ireland.  Her father later on, was re-married in Reading in 1960, while Patricia may still have been living with her mother and sister at Plymouth in 1961.  By the time the marriage of Patricia M Collett and Frank Davies was recorded at Totnes register office in Devon (Ref. 7a 1439) during the fourth quarter of 1961, Patricia’s younger sister was already married.  Nine months later, Patricia gave birth to a daughter Susan A Davies, whose birth was also recorded at Totnes (Ref. 7a 934) during the third quarter of 1962, when the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett.

45S14

Carmel Theresa Collett was the second child of Leslie Edward Collett by his first wife Annie Reynolds.  Her birth was recorded at Plymouth (Ref. 5b 406) during the first three months of 1944, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Reynolds.  With her father later marrying Marjorie Brooks in the spring of 1960 at Reading, it seems highly likely that Carmel was still living with her mother in Plymouth in 1961, where she was married under eighteen years of age.  The marriage of Carmel T Collett and Graham B Harford was recorded at Plymouth register office (Ref. 7a 1580) during the third quarter of that year.  It was one year later that the birth of Catherine A Harford was also recorded at Plymouth register office (Ref. 7a 728) when the child’s mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett.

45S15

Simon F Collett was born at Reading on 1^st May 1961, the son of Leslie Edward Collett by his second wife Marjorie Kathleen Joyce Brooks.  His birth was recorded at Reading register office (Ref. 6a 123), when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Brooks.  Like his father, Simon was also married twice.  The first time was to Elaine Margaret Hardwick, who was born at Chesterfield on 30^th March 1960, the couple being married on 1^st August 1981 at Ashover, midway between Matlock and Clay Cross in Derbyshire.  The births of their two sons also took place in Derbyshire and were recorded at Chesterfield, when the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Hardwick.  However, Simon and Elaine were later divorced.  It was on 21^st October 2017, when Simon Collett married (2) Gemma Marie Connolly, who was born in Leicester on 30^th January 1981.

45T17

Adam Gregory Collett

Born in 1987 at Chesterfield

45T18

Alex Benjamin Collett

Born in 1989 at Chesterfield

45S16

Andrew Edward Collett was born at High Wycombe in 1963, the second son of Leslie and Marjorie Collett, whose birth was recorded at Wycombe register office (Ref. 6a 988) during the first three months of the year.  His mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Brooks.  Within two years of his birth the family had move north and was living in Blackpool.  It was there that Andrew met Janet Bickerstaffe during the 1980s, the subsequent marriage of Andrew E Collett and Janet Bickerstaffe recorded at Blackpool & Fylde register office (Vol. 40 421) on 25^th September 1988.  Janet was born in the village of Wesham, midway between Blackpool and Preston in Lancashire on 7^th December 1966 and she died on 10^th November 2013.  Their daughter’s birth was recorded at the Preston and South Ribble register office (Vol. 5881c c66c), when the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Bickerstaffe.

45T19

Rebecca Megan Collett

Born on 15.10.1996 at Preston

45S17

Christopher John Collett was born at Blackburn on 26^th December 1965 and was the youngest of the three sons of Leslie and Marjorie Collett.  His birth was recorded at Blackburn register office (Ref. 10b 698) during the first quarter of the following year, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Brooks.  He later married (1) Janet F Bradbury, who was born at Chester on 11^th November 1966, the marriage recorded at Vale Royal register office in Cheshire (Vol. 35 670) on 9^th September 1989. Nine years later, they were divorced on 11^th December 1998, after which Christopher married (2) Jackie Clarke on 24^th June 2007.  Jacqueline Ann Clarke was born at Burnley on 1^st June 1973.

45S18

Susan Jurdy Collett was the eldest child of Maurice Collett and his wife Lorna MacPherson and was born on 29^th November 1947.  Her birth was recorded at Blackpool (Ref. 10b 722) when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as MacPherson.  Jurdy, as she is known, was originally listed here as having been married four times during her life, the first time to Mr Burford, on the second occasion to Mr Pearce, the third was Mr Forrest and the fourth was Mr Collins.  Her first three husbands were all still living in 2008 so, on each occasion, the separation was the subject of a divorce.  Sometime prior to 2012 it was reported that Jurdy had married Richard Brewer from Peterborough -see item below.

In June 2012 her father, Maurice Collett, was a torch bearer for the 2012 Olympic Games in London and, when he was interviewed by The Times newspaper (see Ref. 45R14), his daughter Jurdy Brewer from Malaysia was with him at Aysgarth Falls in Wensleydale.

45S19

Paul Andrew Collett was born on 14^th March 1950, the second child Maurice and Lorna Collett, his birth recorded at the Westmorland South register office (Ref. 1b 837), when his mother’s maiden-name was conformed as MacPherson.  At some time in his life, he travelled north to Scotland where, in Aberdeen, he met and married Ms Robertson.  She was born in Aberdeen on 7^th June 1957 and their wedding took place on 1^st November 1986.  The couple’s first child was born while they were still living in Aberdeen.  However, their second child was born after the family had moved to Singapore.

45T20

Adam Paul Collett

Born on 29.11.1988 at Aberdeen

45T21

Paris Taylor Collett

Born on 07.11.1994 at Singapore

45S20

Sally Ann Collett was born on 12^th February 1959, the youngest child of Maurice and Lorna Collett.  Like her brother Paul (above), the birth of Sally A Collett was also recorded at Westmorland South register (Ref. 1b 856).  She first married (1) Arun H Sahni who was born at Pinner near Harrow on the outskirts of north London, their marriage recorded at Kendall in Westmorland (Vol. 1 0448) during the spring of 1979.  A divorce followed some years later, following which the marriage of Sally A Sahni and (2) John S Soady was recorded at Sheffield register office (Vol. 3 1505) during the summer of 1993.

45T1

Tracy Jane Collett was born at Farnham in 1966 and was the first-born child of Patrick Rowland Collett and Carol Lesley Gregory.  Tracy later married Nigel Davies and their marriage produced three children for the couple, and they were Natalie Davies, Matthew Davies, and Zoe Davies.

45T2

Gavin Patrick Collett was born at Farnham in 1968, the younger of the two children of Patrick Rowland Collett and Carol Lesley Gregory.

45T4

Benjamin Nicholas Finch was born at Worthing on 2^nd March 1972 and baptised at Shoreham-by-Sea, the son child of Barry Michael Finch and Janet Stephanie Collett.  He married Victoria Jane Bolingbroke at Lewes in East Sussex on 4^th January 1997.  Victoria was born on 23^rd September 1970 at Brighton, where she was also baptised.  The marriage produced two children for the couple, Maria Finch born in November 1998 and Peter Thomas Finch who was born at Worthing on 11^th November 2004.  Tragically Benjamin Nicholas Finch, the son of Janet Stephanie Collett, died in a car accident in Chichester on 29^th November 2014.

45T5

Emma Collett was born at Wigan in 1978 and was the eldest of the two children of Stephen Collett and his wife, the former Ms Tennant.  Emma studied Spanish at Aberystwyth University in Wales and left Wigan in 2003 to travel the world, spending four years teaching English to children in China and Spain.  She now lives in Brisbane, Australia, and was married in 2007, her husband was born in 1980 and originally from New South Wales.  Their first child, a daughter, was born in Brisbane during 2012, while the couple’s second child, their son, was also born in Brisbane, Queensland, in the autumn of 2014.

45T6

Ian Collett was born at Wigan during 1983, the son of Stephen Collett and his wife – whose christian name is not known.  It was also in Wigan where he was still living in 2013 with his fiancée, who is also from Wigan.

45T7

Richard Paul Collett, who is referred to as Alf, was born at the Rush Green Hospital in Hornchurch in Essex on 5^th August 1970, the eldest of the three sons of Paul Anthony Collett and his wife Angela Mary Holden.  He was baptised at Our Lady of Lourdes Roman Catholic Church at Farnworth in Lancashire, where his mother was born and where his parents were married.  He was educated at Sponne School in Towcester, to where his parents moved in 1975, and at the University of West England in Bristol, from where he graduated with a BSC (Hons) in November 1994.  He later studied for a Post Graduate Certificate in Education at the same university, and then took up a teaching post at Bangkok in Thailand during 2000.

It was two years later that Richard married (1) Alice Ruth Orton at Edinburgh Registration Office on 21^st December 2002.  Alice was born on 1^st March 1978 at Woolwich in the British Hospital for Mothers and Babies.  The witnesses at their wedding were Richard’s brother Simon Anthony Collett (below) and Kirsty Orton, Alice’s sister.  That marriage ended in November 2011, whilst it was nearly ten years later when Richard married (2) Ruth Veronica on the island of Bali in Indonesia on 23^rd July 2021.

45T8

Simon Anthony Collett was born at the Rush Green Hospital in Hornchurch on 4^th January 1972 and was baptised at nearby Upminster in St Joseph’s Church.  He later met (1) Lucy Jayne Jones who was born at Pembury in Kent on 19^th December 1978 and with whom he had a son and a daughter who were both born at Milton Keynes Hospital.  More recently, having split from his partner Lucy, Simon married (2) Maisy Provan in Cardiff, Wales, on 12^th September 2024.  Maisy was born in Cardiff on 12^th February 1996 and she and Simon have a son, Rowan Collett, who was also born in Cardiff on 16^th May 2024.

45U1

Louis Owen Maximus Collett

Born on 20.02.2007 at Milton Keynes

45U2

Darcey Rebeca Collett

Born on 23.07.2009 at Milton Keynes

The following child is the son of Simon Anthony Collett and Maisy Provan:

45U3

Rowan Collett

Born on 16.05.2024 at Cardiff, Wales

45T9

Timothy Edward Collett was born at the Barrett Maternity Hospital in Northampton on 25^th May 1978, and was baptised at St Thomas Moore’s Roman Catholic Church in Towcester.  Tim met Sarah Barrett who was born at Weymouth on 14^th December 1969 whom he married at Towcester Register Office on 22^nd August 2009.  They now have two daughters who were both born while the couple was living in Hammersmith, the first child having been born at Queen Charlotte’s Hospital in London.

45U3

Megan Rose Collett

Born on 15.12.2006 at Hammersmith

45U4

Matilda Mae Collett

Born on 25.05.2009 at Hammersmith

45U5

Hazel Erin Collett

Born on 29.08.2012 at Hammersmith

45T10

Lucy Cramp was born on 25^th October 1986 at Maidstone in Kent, the eldest of the two children of Catherine Ann Collett and Malcolm Cramp.  It was on 1^st August in 2025 that Lucy married Daniel Mark Douglas with whom she has two daughters who were born in Maidstone.  Saphire Douglas was born on  20^th July 2018, with Pearl Eileen Douglas born 18^th October 2023.

45T17

Adam Gregory Collett was born on 29^th May 1987, the eldest of the two son of Simon F Collett and Elaine Margaret Hardwick.  His birth was recorded at Chesterfield in Derbyshire (Ref. 6 165), where his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Hardwick.  It was on 27^th May 2017 when Adam married Amy Taylor, who was born on 24^th September 1988.

45T18

Alex Benjamin Collett was born on 1^st August 1989, the second son of Simon and Elaine Collett.  His birth also was recorded at Chesterfield (Ref. 6 39) and again, his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Hardwick.  He later married Emma Price on 31^st January 2015 at Ashover in Derbyshire, Emma having been born on 3^rd June 1989.

APPENDIX ONE

The Collett Family of Abberton, near Naunton Beauchamp

45l1

William Collett and his wife Elizabeth lived at Wickhamford on the main road between Broadway and Evesham in Worcestershire, where their four known children were baptised.

45m1

William Collett

Born in 1730 at Wickhamford

45m2

William Collett

Born in 1735 at Wickhamford

45m3

John Collett

Born in 1737 at Wickhamford

45m4

Richard Collett

Born in 1741 at Wickhamford

45m1

William Collett was born at Wickhamford in 1730 and was baptised there during the month of July that year, the eldest son of William and Elizabeth Collett.  It would seem, following the birth of the next son born to the couple and also named William, that the first born-son suffered an infant death.

45m2

William Collett was born at Wickhamford in 1735 where he was baptised on 6^th May 1735, the second child of that name for William and Elizabeth Collett.  It was also at Wickhamford where William Collett married Mary White on 6^th June 1772.  It is interesting to note that William’s brother, Richard Collett (below), married Elizabeth White, who was possible Mary’s sister.  The married of William and Mary may have only survived a few years because, at Wickhamford on 9^th December 1778, Mary Collett married Samuel Cox.

45m3

John Collett was born at Wickhamford in 1737 and it was there also that he was baptised on 16^th February 1737, another son of William and Elizabeth Collett.

45m4

Richard Collett was the son of William and Elizabeth Collett who was baptised at Wickhamford near Broadway on 4^th June 1741.  The marriage of Richard Collett and Elizabeth White took place at Broadway in 1765.

45n1

Mary Collett

Born in 1771 at Broadway

45n2

Robert Collett

Born in 1780 at Broadway

45n3

Robert Collett

Born in 1781 at Broadway

45n4

Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1783 at Broadway

45n5

Richard Collett

Born in 1785 at Broadway

45n1

Mary Collett was born at Broadway in 1771 where she was baptised on 7^th October 1771, the eldest child of Richard Collett and Elizabeth White.

45n2

Robert Collett was born at Broadway in 1780 and was baptised there on 27^th September 1780, another son of Richard and Elizabeth Collett, who sadly, did not survive, with the couple’s next child being given the same name.

45n3

Robert Collett was born at Broadway in 1781 and was baptised there on 25^th December 1781, the second son of that name of Richard and Elizabeth Collett.

45n4

Elizabeth Collett was born at Broadway in 1783 where she was baptised on 26^th October that year, another daughter of Richard and Elizabeth Collett.

45n5

Richard Collett was born at Broadway, where he was baptised on 7^th August 1785, the son of Richard and Elizabeth Collett.  It was at the Church of St Michael-in-Bedwardine, on Burleigh Road in Worcester, on 6^th February 1816 that Richard Collett married the much younger Sarah Willis.  Sarah was baptised at Abberton on 13^th January 1793, the daughter of Thomas and Nancy Willis.  Following their wedding day, Richard and Sarah settled in the village of Abberton, twelve miles east of Worcester, where all of their children were born.

Sometime later, Richard and Sarah moved to nearby Bishampton, between Abberton and Pershore, which was where they were residing in 1841, by which time their daughter Ann was married and their youngest son John was still living and working in Abberton.  The census that year recorded the couple as Richard Collett, with a rounded age of 60, Sarah Collett, with a rounded age of 50, who still had living with them, their eldest unmarried son Thomas Collett who was 24.  Completing the household was Sarah’s widowed mother Ann Willis who was 70.  It was exactly the same situation in 1851, when Richard was 66 and a labourer, Sarah was 58, son Thomas was 30 (sic) and also a labourer, and Nancy Willis was 80.  The census return stated that Richard had been born at Wick (Wickhamford), that Sarah and Thomas had been born at Abberton, and that Richard’s mother-in-law had been born at Crowle near Worcester.

The death of Richard Collett was recorded at Pershore (Ref. 6c 231) during the fourth quarter of 1857.  However, his widow, and their unmarried son, were still living in Bishampton, according to the census conducted in 1861.  Sarah Collett, from Abberton, was 70 and recorded in a dwelling on Principal Street.  The son living with her was said to be 45 years old, the right age for son Thomas, but was recorded as John Collett from Abberton, who was an agricultural labourer.  By that time, Sarah’s older son Thomas had become a married man three years earlier.  The third member of the household that day was four-year-old Maria Brooks from Sheriffs Lench near Evesham, who was described as the granddaughter of Sarah Collett.  She was the daughter of Sarah’s only known daughter Ann Collett.  Three years later, the death of Sarah Collett was recorded at Pershore (Ref. 6c 291) during the first quarter of 1864.

45o1

Thomas Collett

Born in 1816 at Abberton

45o2

Ann Collett

Born in 1817 at Abberton

45o3

John Collett

Born in 1819 at Abberton

45o1

Thomas Collett was born at Abberton in 1816 and was baptised there on 4^th August that year, the first child born to Richard Collett and Sarah Willis.  He was 24 years old in the census of 1841, when he was the only child still living with his parents who, by then, had moved to Bishampton.  Thomas was a labourer and still not married in the Bishampton census of 1851 when, once again, he was living with his parents, but where his age was recorded in error as only 30, instead of 34.

It was over six years after that census day when Thomas Collett married Jane Page on 27^th November 1857 at St Nicholas’ Church in Peopleton, just north of Pershore where the marriage was recorded (Ref. 6c 600).  Jane, who already had a base-born son, William Page aged eight years, was an inmate at the Union Workhouse in Holy Cross, north of Catshill, in 1851 when she was 25.  How she came to be alone and twenty miles north of where she was born near Worcester, remains an unsolved mystery, as does the fact that her son was born in Gloucestershire, forty miles south of Holy Cross just one year later.  After giving birth to her son at Stanley Pontlarge, Jane crossed the county boundary back into Worcestershire to eventually marry Thomas Collett at Peopleton.  Their marriage resulted in the birth of at least the three children listed below, when Thomas and Jane were residing in Peopleton, where the couple and their first child were recorded in the census of 1861.

Agricultural labourer Thomas Collett from Abberton was 45, his wife Jane from Grafton Flyford was 35, and their son Richard Collett was one year old.  Thomas’ stepson, William Page from Stanley Pontlarge in Gloucestershire was eight years of age.  It was again at Peopleton that the family was living in 1871, when both Thomas and Jane were said to be 50 (sic), while by that time two more children had been added to their family, although William Page was no longer living with them.  Thomas was still working as an agricultural labourer, while the couple’s three children were recorded as Richard Collett who was ten, Thomas Collett who was seven, and Mary Ann Collett who was four, all born at Peopleton.

Over the next decade the couple’s eldest son left home to join the army and the family left the Pershore area of Worcestershire which, by 1881, was recorded residing at Nursery Grove in the Aston area of Birmingham on the day of the census.  Thomas Collett from Abberton was 60 and working as a gardener, Jane from Grafton was 54, son Thomas was 17, and daughter Mary A Collett was 10 years old and still attending school.  Both of the children were confirmed as having been born at Peopleton.  No record of the family has been found after 1881.

The birth of William Humphris Page at Stanley Pontlarge was recorded nearby at Winchcombe (Ref. 6a 331) during the last three months of 1852, his second forename perhaps the surname of his unknown father.  The births of the couple’s three Collett children were registered at Pershore: Richard Collett during the summer of 1859; Thomas Collett during the spring of 1863; and Mary Ann Collett (Ref. 6c 355) was born during the third quarter of 1867.

45p1

Richard Collett

Born in 1859 at Peopleton

45p2

Thomas Collett

Born in 1863 at Peopleton

45p3

Mary Ann Collett

Born in 1867 at Peopleton

45o2

Ann Collett was born at Abberton in 1817, where she was baptised on 21^st September 1817, the daughter of Richard Collett and Sarah Willis.  Ann was of full-age when she married Mark Brooks who was baptised at Bishampton on 28^th April 1816, the son of Joseph and Mary Brooks.  The wedding was recorded at Pershore (Ref. 18 437) during the third quarter of 1839 and may have been conducted at Bishampton to where Ann’s parents had moved before 1841.  It was also at Bishampton that Mark and Ann Brooks were living in 1841, not far from Ann’s parents and brothers Thomas and John.  Mark and Ann were both aged 24, while with them was their first child Elizabeth Brooks who was one year old.

A second daughter was added to their family when they were still living in Bishampton prior to a move, the short distance to nearby Church Lench, where they were residing in 1851.  However, some time in between, the couple’s third daughter was born at Sheriffs Lench.  The five members of the family in 1851 were confirmed as Mark Brooks, a carpenter of 33 years from Bishampton, Ann Brooks who was also 33 and from Abberton, Elizabeth and Marie Ann Brooks, both from Bishampton, who were 11 and 9, Emily Brooks who was four years of age.  On that day Ann was already expecting the birth of the couple’s next child, their son Charles Brooks who was baptised at Church Lench on 21^st September 1851.

The baptism of the couple’s daughter Mary Ann Brooks took place at Bishampton on 19^th September 1841, with daughter Emily Brooks baptised at Church Lench on 21^st February 1847.  One more child was born into the family at Church Lench and that was Maria, who was born in 1856.  Rather curiously no record of the family has been found within the census of 1861, although the couple’s youngest child, Maria Brooks aged four years, was staying with her grandmother Sarah Collett at Principal Street in Bishampton, when her place of birth was recorded as Sheriffs Lench, like her older sister Emery Brooks who was born there in 1847.

Despite their absence in 1861, Maria was reunited with her family during that decade and was living with them and her brother Charles at Sheriffs Lench in 1871.  Mark and Ann Brooks were both 53, son Charles was 19 and daughter Maria was 14, with all four of them described as a labourer.  The death of Ann Brooks, nee Collett, was recorded at Evesham (Ref. 6c 210) during the last three months of 1871 when she was 54.  Twenty years later, according to the census in 1891, Mark Brooks was 73 and a carpenter, when he was residing at Badgers Hill in Church Lench, the home of his married daughter Maria.  Head of the household was her husband Job Haines aged 36, Maria being 34, who also had staying with them Job’s niece Myra M Tyler who was 11.  After a further eight years, the death of Mark Brooks was recorded at Evesham (Ref. 6c 201) during the first quarter of 1899, at the age of 81.

45o3

John Collett was born at Abberton in 1819 and it was there also that he was baptised on 19^th December 1819, the last known child of Richard Collett and Sarah Willis.  By the time of the census in 1841 John Collett had left school and was living at the Abberton home of Giles Checketts, perhaps where he was a domestic service or an agricultural labourer.  Giles Checketts would have given the census enumerator John’s age, which was incorrectly recorded as 15 to 19 years.  No record of him has been discovered in 1851 but, in 1861, John had returned to the family home to be with his widowed mother Sarah.  On that day, the age of John Collett from Abberton was again given in error, as 45, when he was an agricultural labourer residing at Principal Street in Bishampton, the home of his elderly widowed mother Sarah Collett, aged 70 years.  Staying with them that day was Sarah’s granddaughter Maria Brooks, the daughter of John’s married sister Ann (above).

Bishampton, in Worcestershire, was just over two miles west of the village of Church Lench, where John’s future wife was born.  Mary Anne Harrod was born in 1844 and, on leaving school, she entered into domestic service, but gave birth to a base-born daughter when she was barely sixteen.  Mother and daughter were together as inmates at the Evesham Workhouse in Hampton, just west of Evesham, on the day of the census in 1861, when unmarried Mary Anne Harrod was 16 and a former general servant and Lucy Harrod was one year old and had been born at Inkberrow, to the north of Church Lench.  It seems likely that Lucy did not survive beyond a few months, with the only death of a Lucy Harrod recorded at Witney, across the county boundary in Oxfordshire, during the third quarter of 1861.

Four years later, the marriage of John Collett and Mary Anne Harrod was recorded at Evesham (Ref. 6c 461) during the third quarter of 1865.  It was also at Evesham that the birth of Mary Anne Harrod had been recorded twenty-one years earlier.  Not long after they were married, the couple was living in Bromsgrove when their first child was born, but later settled in Feckenham, where their remaining children were born.  That was confirmed in the Worcestershire Feckenham census of 1871, when John Collett from Abberton was 51 and a road labourer, his much younger wife Mary Collett from Church Lench was 27, and their two daughters were Sarah Collett who was four and Emma Collett who was one year old.  Mary was well into the pregnancy for her third child, who was born within a couple of months of that census day.

When that child, their son Alfred, was one year old, he was baptised at the Church of St John the Baptist in Feckenham on 26^th May 1872, together with his two older siblings in a joint ceremony.  Towards the end of the following year, the death of John Collett was recorded at Alcester (Ref. 6d 430) during the final quarter of 1873, when he was said to be 52.  The body of John Collett was buried at St John the Baptist on 24^th November 1873.  However, by then, Mary Anne had conceived again and her fourth child by John Collett was born at Feckenham within six months of losing her husband.  Five years after being made a widow, Mary gave birth to a second son at Feckenham, for whom no baptism record has been found, so the father is not known.  The birth of that fifth child, as with the first four, was recorded at Alcester, within whose registration district Feckenham was situated.

According to the next census in 1881, the family was residing on The Square in Feckenham, where widow Mary Collett, aged 39 and from Church Lench, was earning a living by working as a charwoman.  Her three Feckenham born children living with her that day were Alfred Collett, Mira Collett and Albert Collett, aged nine years, seven years and two years, respectively.  Visiting the family on that occasion was Mary’s younger married sister Elizabeth Large who had with her, her very recently born son John Large.

No further record of Mary Anne Collett nee Harrod has been found in any census return after that census day.  Perhaps she remarried or moved away from Feckenham during the 1880s.  The only likely sighting of her is the death of Mary A Collett whose passing was recorded at Bromsgrove register office (Ref. 6c 261) during the final quarter of 1914, at the age of 70, placing her year of birth as 1844.

45p4

Sarah Ann Collett

Born in 1866 at Bromsgrove

45p5

Emma Collett

Born in 1869 at Feckenham

45p6

Alfred John Collett

Born in 1871 at Feckenham

45p7

Mira Jane Collett

Born in 1874 at Feckenham

45p8

Albert Collett

Born in 1879 at Feckenham

45p1

Richard Collett was born at Peopleton, near Pershore in 1859, and it was at Pershore that his birth was recorded (Ref. 6c 327) during the third quarter of 1859.  He was the first of the three known children of Thomas Collett and Jane Page, and was baptised at St Nicholas’ Church in Peopleton on 24^th July 1859.  In the Peopleton census of 1861, Richard was one year old, and was still living there with his family in 1871 at the age of ten years.  On leaving school, he signed up and joined the army, as confirmed in the next census in 1881.  By that time in his life, Richard Collett was a private with the army, in the Aldershot area of Hampshire at Alverstoke, when he was 20 years of age and his place of birth was said to be Pershore in Worcestershire.  That same day, his parents had already moved from Peopleton to Aston in Birmingham, where they were living in 1881.

On being discharged from military service, Richard also settled in Birmingham, where he was residing at Ellen Street.  Three months prior to the census in 1891, the marriage of Richard Collett, aged 29 and the son of Thomas Collett, and Louisa Dudley aged 30 and the daughter of Joseph Dudley, took place at All Saints’ Church in Birmingham on 4^th January 1891.  On the day of the census that year, Richard Collett from Worcestershire was 29 and working as carter, from their home on Ellen Street, together with his wife Louisa Collett from Staffordshire who was 30 with no stated job of work.  Later that year Louisa revealed to Richard that she was with-child, with their son born at Birmingham at the end of 1891.

By the time their son William was four years old, he was not in the best of help, with his baptism quickly organised just before he died.  No record of Richard and Louisa has been found after that sad event, and it was five years after the census day in 1901 that the death of Louisa Collett, aged 48, was recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 6d 82) during the second quarter of 1906.  Although no positive record of the death of her husband has been found, his military record provided the information that Richard Collett of the 15^th Brigade from Peopleton in Worcestershire, and born there around 1860, was 18 on entry to the army, and that he received an army pension in 1913, at the age of 54.  In 1936 the death of Richard Collett was recorded at Somerset register office (Ref. 5c 605) when he was 77, so he may have been Richard from Peopleton.

45q1

William Richard Thomas Collett

Born in 1891 at Birmingham

45p2

Thomas Collett was the second son of Thomas and Jane Collett and was born at Peopleton, near Pershore.  It was also at Pershore where his birth was recorded (Ref. 6c 390) during the second quarter of 1863.  In the Peopleton census of 1871, school boy Thomas was seven years old, when the whole family was still living there.  During the following years, the family moved to Birmingham, where four of the five members were recorded in 1881.  By that time in his life, Thomas had left school and his occupation was that of a chandelier maker at 17 years of age who was living at Nursery Grove in Aston (Birmingham) with his parents and younger sister Mary.  Two years later, he entered military service.

The absence of Thomas Collett from the next census in 1891 may be accounted for with the possibly he was serving with the military and out of the country, particularly since a Thomas Collett from Worcestershire was listed in the Chelsea Pensioners Service Records as being 19 when he signed up.  After serving Queen and Country for five years, it was at Birmingham on 5^th June 1897 that Thomas Collett, aged 33 and the son of Thomas Collett, and Harriet Florence White, aged 26 and the daughter of Charles William White, were married.

In 1901 the couple was residing at Farm Street in the Hockley area of Birmingham, and with them was the first of their six children.  Thomas Collett was 38 and an iron tube maker, Harriet was 32 (sic), and their two sons were Thomas Collett junior who was two years of age, and infant Charles Collett.  Over the next ten years four more children were added to their family when they may have still been living at Farm Street in Hockley.  However, only three of the four children were living in 1911, following the loss of six-month-old Dorothy five years earlier.  During those years Thomas also had a change of job, with him being a railway porter aged 48 in 1911.  Harriet was 40, Thomas junior was 12, Charlie was 11, Violet was nine, Albert was four, and Florence was three years old.  On that census day Harriet was awaiting the arrival of the couple’s last child, who was born three months later.

Just under three years later, the death of Thomas Collett aged 51, was recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 6d 394) during the first quarter of 1914.  His widow Harriet may have re-married later on, since no death of Harriet Florence Collett has been discovered.  Very little is known about the couple’s second son, except that the birth of Charles Henry Collett was recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 6d 156) during the second quarter of 1900, where his death was also recorded (Ref. 9c 376) during the last four months of 1954 at the age of 54.

45q2

Thomas William Collett

Born in 1899 at Birmingham

45q3

Charles Henry Collett

Born in 1900 at Birmingham

45q4

Lilian Violet Collett

Born in 1902 at Birmingham

45q5

Albert Victor Collett

Born in 1903 at Birmingham

45q6

Dorothy Ivy Collett

Born in 1905 at Birmingham

45q7

Florence May Collett

Born in 1907 at Birmingham

45q8

Clara Amelia Collett

Born in 1911 at Birmingham

45p4

Sarah Ann Collett was born at Bromsgrove in 1866, with her birth recorded at Alcester (Ref. 6d 557) during the last quarter of that year after her parents, John Collett and Mary Anne Harrod, had moved to Feckenham, in Worcestershire, shortly after she was born.  Sarah Ann was five years of age when she was baptised at the Church of St John the Baptist in Feckenham on 26^th May 1872, together with her two younger siblings Emma and Alfred Collett.  Fourteen months prior to that, Sarah Collett from Bromsgrove was four years old in the Feckenham census of 1871.

Rather strangely, Sarah and her sister Emma were not living with their widowed mother at Feckenham in 1881.  However, just over nine years later, the wedding of Sarah Collett, aged 23, and widower William Collins, aged 34, was conducted at Feckenham on 13^th November 1890.  Father of the bride was confirmed as John Collett, deceased, while the father of the groom was named as William Collins.  Attending the wedding was William’s daughter from his first marriage, Beatrice M Collins, who was three years of age.  That was also her age in the census which followed three months after the wedding day.  At that time the family of three was residing at Bradley Green, just west of Feckenham, where Williams Collins was 34 and a farm labourer and his wife Sarah Collins was 24 and a needle splitter.

Ten years later, William’s daughter Beatrice was no longer living with the couple, and had been replaced by the couple’s first three children, all three of them born at Bradley Green within the Parish of Stock & Bradley.  After 1896 the family moved the short distance to Stock Green, still within the Parish of Stock & Bradley, where they were living in 1901.  William Collins was an agricultural labour aged 47 who had been born at Bradley Green, Sarah Collett from Feckenham was 35, and their three children were William who was nine, Emma who was six and Elsie Collins who was four years of age.  Daughter Emma Collins may not have survived, since she was not living with the family by 1911.  During the following months, the family left Stock Green, when they moved to Park Berrow in Worcestershire, where two more children were added to the family, before then moving to Hanbury.

By that time in his life, according to the Hanbury census of 1911, William Collins was 58 and a cowman, Sarah Collins was 44, and their family that day was recorded as Will and Elsie Collins from Bradley Green who were 20 and 15 years respectively, George and Maggie Collins from Park Berrow who were eight and six, and Elizabeth Collins who was two years old and born at Hanbury.

45p5

Emma Collett was born at Feckenham in 1869, the second child of John and Mary Collett, her birth recorded at Alcester (Ref. 6d 539) during the second quarter of the year.  She was three years old when she was baptised at Feckenham on 26^th May 1872, with her older sister Sarah (above) and younger brother Alfred (below).  On the day of the Feckenham census in 1871, Emma Collett was one year old but, by the time she was three, her father had died.  In 1881, no record of Emma Collett and been found and in 1891 she was working as a general domestic servant at Victoria Street in Redditch, the home of the David and Anne Ball and their large family.

45p6

Alfred John Collett was born at Feckenham in 1871, just after the census day that year, his birth recorded at Alcester (Ref. 6d 527) during the second quarter of that year.  He was therefore one year old when he was baptised at Feckenham on 26^th May 1872 in a joint ceremony with his two older sisters, the children of John and Mary Collett.  Before he reached his third birthday, his father died, leaving Alfred, aged nine years, and his two younger siblings living with their widowed mother at The Square in Feckenham in 1881.

Alfred John Collett married Emiline Rogers, the event recorded at Bromsgrove (Ref. 6c 743) during the final quarter of 1897.  No record of the couple has been positively identified in the census of 1901, while the couple and their son were residing within the parish of Upper Ipsley near Redditch in 1911.  On that day Alfred John Collett was 36 and working as a general labourer at a local cycle works, when he confirmed that he had been born at Feckenham, south-west of Redditch.  His wife Emiline Collett was also 36 and had been born in Redditch, like their son Alfred John Collett who was nine years old.  The same census return stated that the couple had been married for fourteen years.

45q8

Alfred John Collett

Born in 1902 at Redditch

45p7

Mira Jane Collett was born at Feckenham in 1874, her birth recorded at Alcester (Ref. 6d 640) during the second quarter of the year.  It was later that same year when she was baptised at Feckenham on 28^th August 1874, another daughter of Mary Collett by her late husband John, who had died six months before Mira was born.  On the day of the next census in 1881, Mira Collett was seven years old when she was living with her widowed mother at The Square in Feckenham.  After finishing her schooling, Mira entered domestic service and in 1891 was living and working in Feckenham at a property on Cross Lane, the home of Joseph and Mary Shaw from Cheshire, when Mira was 17 and a general servant.

45p8

Albert Collett was born at Feckenham in 1879, the child of widow Mary Anne Collett nee Harrod, by an unknown father.  Albert’s birth was also recorded at Alcester (Ref. 6d 685) during the first three months of that year, where his four older half-siblings were born and baptised.  Perhaps it is not unsurprising, having regard to his abnormal birth, that no baptism record for Albert Collett has been found at Feckenham.  He was two years of age in the Feckenham census of 1881, when he was one of three children still living there with their mother.  By the time he was 13, he had left school and was employed as a domestic servant at the Feckenham home of elderly couple Henry and Ellen Handy.

During the next decade, Albert secured a better job working on the railway and, in 1901, was a railway engine stoker at the age of 22 when he was staying at a boarding house on Lea House Road in Kings Norton.  Seven and a half years later, the marriage of Albert Collett and Annie Amy Jarvis was recorded at Aston register office in Birmingham (Ref. 6d 359) during the fourth quarter of 1908.  The wedding ceremony took place at Ashted, within the parish of Aston, on 31^st October 1908, when Annie was 27 and the daughter of Joseph and Mary Jarvis, with Albert simply recorded as being 28 with no parent named.  Joseph was an iron worker of Dolmans Row in Sedgley.

Once married, the couple settled in the Aston district of Birmingham, where they were recorded in the census of 1911, when Albert Collett from Feckenham was 31 and a railway engine fireman employed by the Midland Railway Company. His wife Annie Collett from Bilston was recorded as 28 instead of 30.  So far, it is not known whether their marriage resulted in the birth of any children.

45q1

William Richard Thomas Collett was born at the end of 1891 and was the only known child of Richard Collett and Louisa Dudley.  He was four years old when he was baptised at All Saints’ Church in Hockley, Birmingham on 12^th December 1895.  His birth was recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 6d 136) during the first three months of 1892 and his baptism was quickly arranged just prior to his young death at the age of three years.  It was also at Birmingham register office that his death was recorded (Ref. 6d 147) during the second half of December 1895.

45q2

Thomas William Collett was born within the Hockley area Birmingham in 1899, the eldest of the seven children of Thomas Collett and Harriet Florence White.  And it was at St Saviour’s Church in Hockley where he was baptised on 26^th April 1899.  It is possible that he was born at Farm Street in Hockley where he and his family were living in 1901, when Thomas Collett was two years old.  The birth of Thomas W Collett was recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 6d 149) during the second quarter of 1899.  It was again at Hockley that the enlarged family was residing in 1911 when, again simply as Thomas Collett, he was 12 years of age and still attending school.  Fifteen years later the marriage of Thomas William Collett and May Owen was recorded at Birmingham South register office (Ref. 6d 685) during the second quarter of 1926.  Just less than seven years after their wedding day, their only known child was born.  The later death of Thomas W Collett was recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 9c 496) during the third quarter of 1963, when he was 64 years old.

45r1

Dennis Thomas Collett

Born in 1933 at Birmingham

45q3

Charles Henry Collett was possibly born at Farm Street in Hockley in 1900, where he and his parents were living in 1901.  It was under his full name that he was baptised in Birmingham on 17^th May 1900, the second child of Thomas and Harriet Collett.  It was as Charlie Collett aged 11 that he was living with his family in Hockley in 1911.  Not much more is known about Charles, except that he continued to reside within the Warwickshire area of the country, where the death of Charles Henry Collett was recorded (Ref. 9c 376) during 1954 at the age of 54.  It is therefore possible that the marriage of Charles H Collett and Lydia M Bayliss, which was recorded at Stratford-on-Avon register office (Ref. 6d 1553) during the second quarter of 1932, was the wedding of Charles from Hockley in Birmingham.

If Lydia was the wife of Charles Henry Collett the son of Thomas and Harriet, then it is known that she gave birth to two sons whose births were recorded at Stratford-on-Avon register office.  Both birth records confirmed that the mother’s maiden-name was Bayliss.

45r2

Bernard G Collett

Born in 1934 at Stratford-on-Avon

45r3

Gordon C Collett

Born in 1935 at Stratford-on-Avon

45q4

Lilian Violet Collett was born at Farm Street in Hockley in January 1902, her birth recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 6d 110) during the first quarter of the year.  She was the third child of Thomas and Harriet Collett and was baptised at St Saviour’s Church in Hockley as Lily Violet Collett on 26^th January 1902.  It was as Violet Collett that she recorded in the Hockley, Birmingham, census of 1911 when she was nine years old.  It was also simply as Violet Collett that she married Frederick Miller towards the end of 1926, their wedding recorded at Birmingham North register office (Ref. 6d 976) during the last quarter of the year.  Their marriage lasted only eleven years, when the death of Violet Lilian Miller was recorded at Birmingham (Ref. 6d 636) during the second quarter of 1938, when she was only 36.  During those eleven years, Violet gave birth to four children, the births of the first three recorded at Birmingham North register office, the last at Birmingham register office.  In all four cases, the mother’s maiden-name confirmed as Collett.  They were Violet L Miller in 1927, Frederick C A Miller in 1928, Alice J Miller in 1931, and Harriet F Miller in 1934.

45q5

Albert Victor Collett was born at Hockley to the west of Birmingham on 23^rd September 1903, mostly at Farm Street, another son of Thomas and Harriet Collett.  His birth was recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 6d 169) during the fourth quarter of 1903, while it was at All Saints’ Church in Birmingham that he was baptised on 14^th October 1903.  He and his family were living in Hockley in 1911, when Albert Collett was seven years old.  It was during the spring of 1931, when he was 27 years of age, that the marriage of Albert V Collett and Lydia W Penn was recorded at the Birmingham North register office (Ref. 6d 900) in the second quarter of the year.

Over the next twelve years Lydia gave birth to two sons and a daughter, with all three births recorded at Birmingham register office, when the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Penn.  The later death of Albert Victor Collett was recorded at Warwickshire register office (Ref. 9c 446) during 1952, when he was 48, and his daughter was only nine years of age.

45r4

Albert W Collett

Born in 1931 at Birmingham

45r5

Raymond Victor Collett

Born in 1934 at Birmingham

45r6

Lydia F Collett

Born in 1943 at Birmingham

45q6

Dorothy Ivy Collett was born on 24^th October 1905 at Hockley in Birmingham, and was baptised in Birmingham on 8^th November 1905, another daughter of Thomas and Harriet Collett.  She would have been around six months old when she suffered an infant death, which was recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 6d 91) during the second quarter of 1906.

45q7

Florence May Collett was born at Hockley in Birmingham on 11^th December 1907, with her birth recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 6d 67) during the first three months of 1908.  She was the fifth child of Thomas Collett and Harriet Florence White, and was baptised on 1^st January 1908.  The family lived at Farm Street in the Hockley, where three-year-old Florence Collett was the youngest member of the family in 1911, when her mother was already expecting her last child.  Twenty years later, the marriage of Florence May Collett and Albert William Spalding was recorded a Birmingham North register office (Ref. 6d 857) during the last three months of 1931.  No children appear to have been born to the couple, who both died when they were still living in Birmingham.  The death of Albert William Collett was recorded during the last quarter of 1978, while his widow survived him by twenty-five years, when Florence May Spalding died on 15^th August 2004.

45q8

Clara Amelia Collett was born at Hockley in Birmingham on 13^th July 1911, the last child of Thomas Collett and Harriet Florence White.  Her birth was recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 6d 124) during the third quarter of the year.  Shortly after being born, the baptism of Clara Amelia Collett was performed in Birmingham on 26^th July 1911.  She was twenty-five years old when the marriage of Clara A Collett and William L Olver was recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 6d 356) in the last three months of 1936.  Just like her older sister Florence (above), no children for Clara and William have been found, perhaps because William was fourteen years older than his wife, having been born in Birmingham in 1897.  He was 70 years old when he died, his death recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 9c 424) during the third quarter of 1967.  Just after the end of the century, 93-year-old Clara Amelia Olver died at Birmingham on 6^th November 2004.

45q9

Alfred John Collett was born at Redditch on 19^th April 1902, the only known child of Alfred John Collett and Emiline Rogers.  On the day of the following census in 1911, Alfred and his parents were living at Upper Ipsley near Redditch, when he was nine years of age.  It was at Bromsgrove register office (Ref. 6c 461) that the marriage of Alfred John Collett and Minnie Dyer, was conducted on 19^th December 1925, was recorded during the last quarter of 1925.  Minnie was the daughter of Arthur George and Mary Jane Dyer and was born at The Tanyard in Alvechurch, her birth recorded at Bromsgrove (Ref. 6a 367) during the second quarter of 1906.  Interestingly, her father was born at Ipsley, so may have been a link to the Collett from an earlier time.

It was originally believed that Minnie presented Alfred with six children, with the births of the first four recorded at Pershore register office, the last two at Bromsgrove.  However, it is now confirmed that the four Pershore born children were the issue of Albert Collett (Ref. 11P36) and his wife Gertrude Annie Dyer.  In every case, the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Dyer, resulting in the error, and leaving Alfred and Minnie only having twin sons.  Many years later Alfred John Collett was 78 when he died towards the end of 1980, with his death recorded at Bromsgrove register office (Vol. 29 0008).

45r7

Michael I Collett          twin

Born in 1934 at Bromsgrove

45r8

Brian M I Collett          twin

Born in 1934 at Bromsgrove

45r1

Dennis Thomas Collett was born in 1933 at Birmingham, the only known child of Thomas William Collett and May Owen.  His birth was recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 6d 620) during the first three months of 1933, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Owen.  As Dennis T Collett he later married Sheila M Hanley at Solihull, where their wedding was recorded during the fourth quarter of 1955 (Ref. 9c 1827).  The births of their three children were all recorded at Solihull register, when their mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Hanley.  Sheila Margaret Collett was born at Halifax on 3^rd November 1937 and was living in the Leagrave area of Luton when she died on 14^th December 2007 at the age of 70, her passing recorded at Luton register office.  Dennis may have still been alive at that time, as no record of his death prior to 2007 has been found.

45s1

Jonathan C Collett

Born in 1958 at Solihull

45s2

David O Collett

Born in 1959 at Solihull

45s3

Jennifer M Collett

Born in 1963 at Solihull

45r2

Bernard G Collett was born in 1934 when his birth was recorded at Stratford-on-Avon register office (Ref. 6d 1236) during the first three months of the year, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Bayliss.  It is possible he was the older of the two sons of Charles Henry Collett and Lydia W Bayliss.  Bernard was 26 when his marriage to Gillian M Dyer was recorded at Stratford-on-Avon register office (Ref. 9c 1919) in the spring of 1960.  During the summer of the following year Gillian presented Bernard with the couple’s only child.

45s4

Alison J Collett

Born in 1961 at Stratford-on-Avon

45r3

Gordon C Collett was born in 1935 with his birth also recorded at Stratford-on-Avon register office (Ref. 6d 1310) during the second quarter of the year.  His mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Bayliss, and was another son of Charles and Lydia Collett.  The wedding of Gordon C Collett and Pauline M Lilley in 1960 was recorded at Stratford-on-Avon register office (Ref. 9c 2409) during the first three months of that year.  Nine months later the first of the couple’s two daughter was born, and was followed four years after by the birth of the second child.  For both events, the mother’s maiden-name was recorded as Lilley.

45s5

Susan D Collett

Born in 1960 at Stratford-on-Avon

45s6

Julia M Collett

Born in 1965 at Warwick

45r4

Albert W Collett was the first of the three children of Albert Victor Collett and Lydia W Penn, whose birth was recorded at the Birmingham North register office (Ref. 6d 655) during the third quarter of 1931.

45r5

Raymond Victor Collett was born in Birmingham in 1934 where his birth recorded (Ref. 6d 746) during the summer of that year, another son of Albert Victor and Lydia Collett.  Raymond was 32 when he was married, with the wedding of Raymond V Collett and Maureen Halton was recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 9c 166) during the first three months of 1966.  No record of any children has been found.

45r6

Lydia F Collett was named after her mother, with her birth recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref.6d 397) during the first three month of 1943.  She was the third and last child of Albert Victor Collett, who died when Lydia was nine years old, and his wife Lydia W Penn.  The later marriage of Lydia F Collett and Oliver P Kane was recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 9c 1386) during the fourth quarter of 1966.  Three children were born to the couple, and they were Sarah Jane Kane who was born near the start of 1967 (Ref. 9c 541), Adele Louise Kane who was born early in 1969 (Ref. 9c 785), and Stuart Jeffrey Kane who was born at the start of 1979 (Vol. 32 1722).  All three births were recorded at Birmingham register office, with their  mother’s maiden-name confirmed as Collett.

45r7

Michael I Collett was the twin brother of Brian (below), his birth recorded at Bromsgrove register office (Ref. 6c 270) during the third quarter of 1934, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Dyer.  Although not proved, it is possible that Michael did not survive, because it was his twin brother who was referred to as Brian M I Collett when he was married in 1956.

45r8

Brian M I Collett was the twin brother of Michael (above), although his birth was recorded at Bromsgrove register office (Ref. 6c 270A) during the third quarter of 1934 under the name Brian M Collett.  He and his twin brother were the youngest children of Alfred John Collett and Minnie Dyer.  Upon his marriage to Valerie P Hall, it was as Brian M I Collett that he was named, having taken part of his twin-brother’s name following his assumed premature death.  The wedding was recorded at Bromsgrove register office (Ref. 9d 33) during the fourth quarter of 1956.  Their son was also named after Brian’s late brother, who also suffered an infant death shortly after he was born.

45s7

Michael Collett

Born in 1962 at Bromsgrove

45s8

Lisa K Collett

Born in 1965 at Bromsgrove

45s1

Jonathan C Collett was born in 1958 the eldest of the three children of Dennis Thomas Collett and Sheila Margaret Hanley.  His birth was recorded at Solihull register office (Ref. 9c 1728) during the first three months of the year, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Hanley.  It was also as Jonathan C Collett that his later marriage to Susan Dowler was recorded at Shipston-on-Stour register office (Vol. 31 240) early in 1984.  The birth of Susan Dowler had been recorded at Shipston (Ref. 9c 1718) during the second quarter of 1959.  Once they were married the coupled settled in Cheltenham, where the births of their three children were recorded, with the mother’s maiden-name confirmed as Dowler.  The birth of Edward was recorded during the first months of 1989, Helena towards the end of 1990, and Katrina just after the start of 1993.

45t1

Edward Michael Collett

Born in 1989 at Cheltenham

45t2

Helena Rose Collett

Born in 1990 at Cheltenham

45t3

Katrina Alice B Collett

Born in 1993 at Cheltenham

45s2

David O Collett was another son of Dennis and Sheila Collett whose birth was recorded at Solihull register office (Ref. 9c 1555) during the last three months of 1959.  Her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Hanley.  The same as his older brother (above), David also married a girl at Shipston-on-Stour, where the wedding of David O Collett and Margaret T Evans was recorded during the summer of 1985 (Vol. 31 550).  Margaret was born at Leicester where her birth was recorded during the second quarter of 1961 (Ref. 3a 858).  The births of the couple’s two children were recorded at the Mid-Warwickshire register office, Thomas during March in 1987 (Vol. 31 607), and Laura in September 1989 (Vol. 31 830).  On both occasions the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Evans.

45t4

Thomas James Collett

Born in 1987 at Mid-Warwickshire

45t5

Laura May Collett

Born in 1989 at Mid-Warwickshire

45s3

Jennifer M Collett was the only daughter and third and last child of Dennis Thomas Collett and Sheila Margaret Evans.  Her birth was recorded at Solihull register office (Ref. 9c 2123) during the first three months of 1963, where her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Hanley.  It was during June 1994 that Jennifer M Collett and Timothy J Alcock were married, their wedding recorded at South Warwickshire register office (Vol. 773 0379).  Their two children were born in 1995 and 1997, their births recorded at the Mid-Warwickshire register office, Harry James Alcock in April and Georgina Amy Alcock in July.  In each case, the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett.

45s4

Alison J Collett was the only child Bernard G Collett and Gillian M Dyer, whose birth was recorded at Stratford-on-Avon register office (Ref. 9c 1943).during the third quarter of 1961.  It was also at Stratford-on-Avon register office that the marriage of Alison J Collett and Stephen J Goodman was recorded (Vol. 31 0453) in the second quarter of 1983, when she was 22.  Just prior to the end of the century the couple were blessed with the birth of a son, with the birth of Jon-Luke Goodman recorded at the Mid-Warwickshire register office (Vol. 7751c c6a) in the summer of 1999.  The mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett.

45s5

Susan D Collett was born in 1960, with her birth recorded at Stratford-on-Avon register office (Ref. 9c 1839) during the last quarter of the year.  Her mother’s maiden-name was recorded as Lilley, being the eldest child of Gordon Collett and Pauline Lilley.

45s6

Julia M Collett was born in 1965 and her birth was recorded at Warwick register office (Ref. 9c 2394) the first three  months of the year, the younger of the two daughters of Gordon C Collett and Pauline M Lilley.

45s7

Michael Collett was born in 1962, the first-born child of Brian M I Collett and Valerie P Hall.  His birth was recorded at Bromsgrove register office (Ref. 9d 66) during the last three months of the year.  It was also during that same quarter of the year that the death of Michael Collett was recorded at Bromsgrove (Ref. 9d 34).

45s8

Lisa K Collett was born in 1965, the daughter of Brian and Valerie Collett.  Her birth, like that of her brother Michael (above) was recorded at Bromsgrove register office (Ref. 9d 1) during the second quarter of the year, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Hall.

	APPENDIX TWO
	Other so far unconnected Bromsgrove Colletts
45A2	Thomas Collett of Bromsgrove was born around 1785 and he died around 1866.  Thomas married Jane Cooper and he was the great great-great-great-grandfather of Wendy Collett of Australia.  During the 1820s the family was residing at Dodderhill Common, Hanbury, just south of Stoke Prior where the earlier children were baptised.  Thomas and Jane appeared in all the census returns for 1841, 1851, and 1861 and in the first of them they still had living with them ‘a house near the hall’ in Bromsgrove, their three youngest children.  Thomas and Jane both had a rounded age of 55, while their children were recorded as Sarah who was 15, Thomas who was 13, and Harriet who was 10.
	In the next census conducted in 1851, Thomas Collett was 65 and working as a farm servant at the home of William L Sanders in Bromsgrove, where his wife Jane was a domestic servant at the age of 66.  Thomas’ place of birth was named as Weedley in Worcestershire (not known), while Jane had been born at Upper Arley near Kidderminster.  At that same time, their son George was living at Catshill near Bromsgrove with his family.  Ten years later, in 1861, Thomas was still working as an agricultural labourer at the age of 75, when he and Jane, aged 74, were living at Little Dodford, just west of Bromsgrove, and not far from Catshill.  And it was at Little Dodford that Thomas Collett was buried on 6^th May 1866 at the age of 80.
	45A2.1		John Collett	Born in 1817 at Stoke Prior, Droitwich
	45A2.2		George Collett	Born in 1819 at Stoke Prior, Droitwich
	45A2.3		Richard Collett	Born in 1822 at Hanbury, nr Droitwich
	45A2.4		Sarah Collett	Born in 1825 at Hanbury, nr Droitwich
	45A2.5		Thomas Collett	Born in 1828 at Bromsgrove
	45A2.6		Harriet Collett	Born in 1831 at Bromsgrove
45A2.1	John Collett was born at Stoke Prior near Droitwich in 1817, where he was baptised on 3^rd July 1817, the son of Thomas and Jane Collett.  Curiously the baptism record stated that the family’s place of residence was Severn Stoke, which lies midway between Worcester and Tewkesbury, many miles from Stoke Prior.  However, the death of John Collett, son of Thomas and Jane was recorded at Stoke Prior on 3^rd March 1821.
45A2.2	George Collett was born at Stoke Prior in 1819 and was baptised there on 1^st April 1819, the son of Thomas and Jane Collett, and once again the entry gave the family’s place of residence as Severn Stoke.  It was on 23^rd March 1846 that George Collett married Ann Tilt, the daughter of Thomas Tilt, when George’s family was confirmed as Thomas Collett.  Four years later, the census in 1851 identified George and Ann living just to the north of Bromsgrove, at Catshill, where they both had a recorded age of 27 (sic), John being an agricultural labourer who had been born at Dodderhill.  Living with them were their first two children, Thomas who was four, and John who was two years old.  Also staying with the young family that day was Ann’s brother, unmarried lodger John Tilt who was 24 and another agricultural labourer who had been born at Bromsgrove.  It would also appear from later census returns that all of George and Ann’s children were born while the family was living at Catshill, their births recorded at Bromsgrove.  However, just before the census day in 1851, the couple’s third child Jane Collett was baptised at Catshill on 9^th February 1851, who would have been nearly two months old on census day had she been listed with her family.  She did not live for very long and died and was buried at Worcester on 3^rd September 1857.
	Ten years later the family was still living within the Catshill ecclesiastical district of Bromsgrove, and not far from George’s parents.  The census in 1861 revealed that the family was living at Brimstone Lane to the west of Catshill where George Collett of Dodderhill was 36 (sic) and employed as an agricultural labourer and a waggoner.  Working with him were his two eldest sons, Thomas Collett who was 14 and born at Covon Brook (?), and John Collett who was 12 and born at Bromsgrove.  The rest of the family comprised George’s wife Ann Collett of Bromsgrove who was also 36, and the couple’s three youngest Bromsgrove born children, George Collett who was seven, Sarah A Collett who was four, and one-year-old Joseph Collett.
	In 1871 the family had reduced in size, but was still living in the Bromsgrove area of Worcestershire.  Having previously credited himself as being the same age as his younger wife, from 1871 onwards his age was more accurately recorded.  Ann’s given age was close to her real age in all the census returns.  As a result, in the census of 1871, George gave his age as being 53, while his wife was 47.  The only children still living with them were sons John aged 22 and Joseph aged 11, and daughter Sarah who was fourteen.  Also living not far away, within the Bromsgrove area, were the couple’s other two sons Thomas who was 24 and George who was 16.
	Sometime during the next few years, George and Ann left the Bromsgrove area and moved north to Dudley where, in 1881, they were living at 3 Waterloo Place in the town.  George Collett was 62, with his wife Ann being 56.  Only two of their sons were still living with them in Dudley, the eldest son being married by then.  Their son John Collett was 30 (sic) and his wife Virtue Collett was 28, while unmarried George Collett was 27.  George and his two sons were employed as farm labourers, while every member of the household was recorded as having been born at Bromsgrove, rather than at Dodderhill and Catshill.
	All their children had moved on by 1891, leaving just George Collett aged 71 and a labourer, living at King Street in Dudley, with his wife Ann Collett who was 66.  Less than a year later the death of George Collett was recorded at Dudley register office (Ref. 6c 65) during January 1892, after he died on 12^th January, following which he was buried at Dudley on 17^th January 1892.  The later death of Ann Collett was recorded at Dudley register office (Ref. 6c 72) during the second quarter of 1900, when she was 75 years old, and when she was residing at Walters Row in Dudley.  Just after that Ann was buried at Dudley on 30^th May 1900.
	45A22.1		Thomas Collett	Born in 1846 at Catshill
	45A22.2		John Collett	Born in 1848 at Catshill
	45A22.3		Jane Collett	Born in 1851 at Catshill; died 1857
	45A22.4		George Collett	Born in 1853 at Catshill
	45A22.5		Sarah Ann Collett	Born in 1856 at Catshill
	45A22.6		Joseph Collett	Born in 1859 at Catshill
45A2.3	Richard Collett was born during 1822 at Dodderhill Common in Hanbury near Droitwich and just south of Stoke Prior from where his family had only recently moved.  Tragically, it was at Dodderhill where Richard Collett died and was buried on 27^th June 1826 at the age of four years, the son of Thomas and Jane Collett.
45A2.4	Sarah Collett was born at Dodderhill Common in 1825 but was baptised at nearby Hanbury on 6^th June 1825, the daughter of Thomas and Jane Collett.
45A2.5	Thomas Collett was born at Bromsgrove in 1828 and was baptised there on 19^th December 1828, the son of Thomas and Jane Collett.  At the time of the Bromsgrove census of 1841 Thomas was 13 years old and was still living with his parents and two youngest sisters Sarah Collett who was 15, and Harriet Collett who was 10.  Nine years later, the marriage of Thomas Collett and Elizabeth Price was conducted at Upton Warren, where she was born, on 10^th February 1850.  Where the couple was during that decade has not been discovered, nor have any children been found.  According to the census in 1861, Thomas Collett from Bromsgrove was 33 and a married shoe maker residing at Barbourne in the Worcestershire parish of South Claines, just north of Worcester.  His wife Elizabeth Collett from Upton Warren in Worcestershire was 29 and a dressmaker.  Living with them was the first of their children, one-year-old F E Thomas Collett from Smethwick who sadly, did not survive.
	Over the next fifteen years, the marriage produced four more children for the couple, and all of them born at Smethwick, their births recorded at Kings Norton like their first child.  By 1881 the family was living at Broomfield in Harborne where Thomas Collett of Bromsgrove was a shoemaker at the age of 53.  His wife Elizabeth was 50 and from Upton Warren, and with them were their four children William Collett who was 18, Jane Collett who was 13 (sic), Laura Collett who was 10 (sic), and Minnie who was six years old.  It seems likely that the census enumerator reversed the ages of daughters Laura and Jane.  Also living with the family was Elizabeth’s older widowed sister Mary Whitehouse who was a dressmaker.
	Five years after that census day, the death of Thomas Collett was recorded at West Bromwich (Ref. 6b 418) during the third quarter of 1886, at the age of 58.  Following the death of her husband, Elizabeth returned to Smethwick where she was living at Coopers Lane in 1891.  The census return that year recorded Elizabeth Collett, a widow who had been forced to seek employment as a nurse at the age of 60.  By 1901 widow Elizabeth Collett from Upton Warren was head of the household at Back John Street in Smethwick and, at the age of 71, she was earning a living as a monthly nurse.  The only member of her family with her that day, was her eldest son William Collett, a widower who had recently suffered the loss of his wife.
	45A25.1	Frederick Ernest Thomas Collett			Born in 1859 at Smethwick
	45A25.2	Herbert William Collett			Born in 1863 at Smethwick
	45A25.3	Laura Mary Collett			Born in 1868 at Smethwick
	45A25.4	Jane Elizabeth Collett			Born in 1871 at Smethwick
	45A25.5	Minnie Ann Collett			Born in 1875 at Smethwick
45A2.6	Harriet Collett was born at Bromsgrove in 1831 where she was baptised on 16^th November 1831, the daughter of Thomas and Jane Collett.
4522.1	Thomas Collett was born at Catshill just north of Bromsgrove in 1846, and was baptised at Catshill on 3^rd January 1847 the eldest son of George Collett and Ann Tilt.  At the age of four Thomas and his family were still living at Catshill, where they remain until around 1860.  The following year, according to the census in 1861, Thomas was 14 and he and his family were living in Brimstone Lane near Catshill where Thomas was working with his father and brother John (below) as an agricultural labourer.  Where he was after 1861 has not been determined, but in March 1901 Thomas Collett from Bromsgrove was 56 and was living in Dudley where his occupation was described as a ‘binder lader coke’ (?).  No record of him has been found in 1911.
45A22.2	John Collett was born at Catshill in 1848, his birth recorded at Bromsgrove (Ref. xviii 211) during the last three months of the year.  He was baptised at Bromsgrove on 26^th January 1849, the second son of George and Ann Collett.  In the Bromsgrove census of 1851, the family was still living at Catshill where John was two years old.  In 1861 John Collett from Bromsgrove was 12 years old and was already working as an agricultural labourer alongside his father and older brother Thomas (above).  At that time the family was living at Brimstone Lane to the west of Catshill, where he was still living in 1871 aged 22.  The years later John Collett married Virtue Nowell at Dudley where their wedding was recorded (Ref. 6c 15) during the first quarter of 1874, with whom he had four children.  By 1881 John’s parents had moved to 3 Waterloo Place in Dudley where John was possibly still working with his father, when both were described as farm labourers.  However, by that time, John Collett was a married man who gave his age as 30, when he was nearer 32.  That conscience reduction in his age may have been because his wife Virtue Collett was only 28.  That day Virtue was described as unemployed, although by that time she had already given birth to three young daughters, the first of them suffering a premature death around the time the couple’s second child was born.  Where the two surviving children were that day has still to be discovered.
	The census of 1891 identified the family living at King Edmund Street in Dudley, when John Collett born in Worcestershire was 43 and still employed as an agricultural labourer.  His wife Virtue Collett was 47 and also born in Worcestershire, while living with the couple were their three children, Sarah A Collett who was 13 with no occupation, Harriet Collett who was 11, and John H Collett who was seven years of age, all three born at Dudley.  After a further ten years, they were again residing at King Edmund Street, by which time Bromsgrove born John Collett was 53 and a domestic groom, wife Virtue Collett was 46, when the only child still living with them was unmarried daughter Sarah A Collett aged 23, who again was not credited with a job of work.  On the day of the census in 1891 and 1901, John’s brother George (below) and his family were neighbours, also living at King Edmund Street in Dudley.
	According to the next census in 1911, when the couple was once again residing in Dudley, John Collett from Bromsgrove was 63 and still working as a domestic groom when, with him, was his wife Virtue Collett who was 57 and also from Bromsgrove.  Their daughter was born at Dudley on 23^rd May 1874 and was baptised at the Church of St Thomas in Dudley on 28^th March 1875, when she was confirmed as the daughter of John and Virtue Collett.  Less than three years later the death of Virtue Hannah Collett was recorded at Dudley (Ref. 6c 90) during the first quarter of 1878.  Following her passing on 19^th February, Virtue was buried at Dudley on 24^th February 1878.
	The death of her mother Virtue Collett was also recorded at Dudley register office (Ref. 6b 1428) during the first three months of 1927, when she was 73 years old.  It was as Virtue Nowell that her birth was recorded at Bromsgrove (Ref. 6c 341) during the third quarter of 1854, the daughter of nail maker James Nowell from London and his wife Hannah Nowell from Bath.
	45A222.1	Virtue Hannah Collett			Born in 1874 at Dudley; died 1878
	45A222.2	Sarah Ann Collett			Born in 1878 at Dudley
	45A222.3	Harriet Collett			Born in 1880 at Dudley
	45A222.4	John Henry Collett			Born in 1883 at Dudley
45A22.4	George Collett was born in 1852 and very likely at Catshill like most of his siblings, with his birth recorded at Bromsgrove (Ref. 6c 337) during the second quarter of the year.  He was the fourth child of George and Ann Collett, whose family moved to Dudley during the 1870s.  By 1881 they were living at 3 Waterloo Place in Dudley where George was 27 and a farm labourer like his father and older brother John (above).  Around eighteen months later the marriage of George Collett and Elizabeth Marsh was recorded at Dudley (Ref. 6c 263) during the last three months of 1882, by which time Elizabeth was already carrying his child, the first of two children.  Curiously, in the census of 1891, Elizabeth was named as Edith (and given the wrong age), when the family was still living in Dudley, at King Edmund Street, where George Collett of Bromsgrove was 36 and an agricultural labourer, his wife Edith Collett (sic) was 33 (sic), and their two sons were James W Collett who was eight, and George Collett who was five.  Elizabeth Marsh had been born at Lower Gornal in Sedgley near Dudley, the last child of Enoch and Mary Ann Marsh, who was one year old in the Sedgley census in 1861.  It was also at Sedgley where the two sons of George Collett were born, with their births recorded at Dudley.
	Two more sons were added to the family, which was again residing on King Edmund Street in Dudley on the day of the census in 1901, where George’s married brother John (above0 was living in 1891 and 1901.  George Collett from Bromsgrove was 49 and a domestic groom, his wife Elizabeth Collett from Sedgley was 43 (sic), as were sons James Collett who was 18, and George Collett who was 15.  The two new arrivals were Harry Collett who was four, and Charles Collett who was one-year-old, both born at King Edmund Street in Dudley.  George Collett’s older brother John (above) was also working as a domestic groom that same year.  Ten years later in 1911 George Collett from Bromsgrove was 53 and a shopkeeper working within the industry of a wholesale grocer, Elizabeth Collett from Upper Gornal was 52, Harry Collett was 14 and an errand boy for a draper, Charles Collett was 11 and still at school, and Beatrice Collett was seven years of age.  The family was again living in Dudley but, by which time, their two eldest sons had left the family home.
	Both George and Elizabeth seemed reluctant, or unable, to accurately assess how old they were when answering the census enumerator’s questions, probably because of the near ten years difference in their ages.  And that also continued up until George died in 1920, with the death of George Collett recorded at Dudley register office (Ref. 6b 815) during the third quarter of that year, when his age was reported as being 64, rather than 68.  Just under twenty years after losing her husband, the death of Elizabeth Collett was recorded at Dudley register office (Ref. 6c 23) during the first three months of 1940.  On that occasion her age was reported to be 82.
	45A224.1		James Wilfred Collett	Born in 1883 at Sedgley
	45A224.2		George Collett	Born in 1885 at Sedgley
	45A224.3		Harry Clifford Collett	Born in 1897 at Dudley
	45A224.4		Charles Frederick Collett	Born in 1899 at Dudley
	45A224.5		Beatrice Amelia Collett	Born in 1903 at Dudley
45A22.5	Sarah Ann Collett was born at Catshill in 1856 and it was there also that she was baptised on 31^st May 1857, the daughter of George and Ann Collett.
45A22.6	Joseph Collett was born at Catshill in 1859 where he was baptised on 29^th May 1859, the son of George and Ann Collett.  In the following Census returns Joseph was one year old and eleven years old in 1871 when living with his family in Brimstone Lane near Catshill.  A few years later Joseph and his family moved to Dudley and it was there that Joseph met his future wife.  Just prior to the census in 1881, Joseph married Ann who was born at Dudley in 1859 and, according to the census that year, the childless couple was living at Pensnett Road in Dudley.
	Joseph Collett of Bromsgrove was 22 and his occupation was that of a carman and horse driver.  His wife was Ann M Collett, also aged twenty-two, from Dudley.  What happened to Ann is not known, while the second marriage of Joseph Collett and (2) Caroline Baker took place at St Edmund’s Church in Dudley on 25^th September 1892.  Joseph was a widower and the son of George Collett, with Caroline being a single lady from Brierley Hill in Dudley and the daughter of Samuel Baker.  Their wedding day was recorded at Dudley (Ref. 6c 35).  Before the end of the century their marriage had produced two children, with a third child added just prior to the next census day.  On that day in 1901, head of the household Joseph Collett from Bromsgrove was 35 and a bricklayer’s labourer who was living at Great Hill in Dudley.  His wife Caroline Collett from Brierley Hill was 29, their daughter Lottie A M Collett was six, and their two sons were George Collett who was two years old, and Joseph Collett junior who had only just been born.  His birth was recorded at Dudley register office (Ref. 6c 105) at the end of March 1901, with his death recorded there (Ref. 6c 56) during the third quarter of 1901.
	At the end of the decade, the family was residing at Vicarage Prospect in Dudley, when Joseph Collett from Bromsgrove was 51 and employed as a carter, his wife Caroline Collett from Brierley Hill was 41, Lottie Collett was fifteen and working as a domestic servant, and George Collett was twelve years of age and still at school.  The later death of Joseph Collett was recorded at Dudley register office (Ref. 6b 966) during the second quarter of 1924, when he was 63 years old.
	45A226.1		Lottie Ann M Collett	Born in 1895 at Dudley
	45A226.2		George Collett	Born in 1898 at Dudley
	45A226.3		Joseph Collett	Born in 1901 at Dudley; died in 1901
45A25.1	Frederick Ernest Thomas Collett was born at Smethwick in 1859, his birth recorded at Kings Norton (Ref. 6c 407) during the third quarter of 1859, after which he was baptised at Holy Trinity Church in North Harborne on 14^th November 1859.  He was the son of Thomas Collett and Elizabeth Price who, in the Barbourne (Worcester) census of 1861, was described as F E Thomas Collett when he was one year old.  Just under three years later the death of Frederick Ernest Thomas Collett was recorded at Kings Norton (Ref. 6c 354) during the first three months of 1864.
45A25.2	Herbert William Collett, who was known as William, was born at Smethwick in 1863, where he was baptised on 30^th August 1863, the eldest child of Thomas and Elizabeth Collett.  After leaving school William Collett from Smethwick took up the occupation as a (metal) turner and, at the age of 18 in 1881, he was still living with his parents but at Harborne, having moved there from Smethwick.  During the following twenty years, William was married and widowed, as confirmed by the census in 1901, by which time William Collett from Smethwick was a widower at the age of 38, when he was an iron turner and lathe worker who was living with his widowed mother Elizabeth Collett at Back John Street in Smethwick.
45A25.3	Laura Mary Collett was born at Smethwick in 1868, the eldest daughter of Thomas Collett and Elizabeth Price, her birth recorded at Kings Norton (Ref. 6c 468) during the second quarter of the year.  It was at Smethwick where her delayed baptism service took place on 5^th June 1870 at the age of two years.  The later marriage of Laura Mary Collett and Stephen William Swann took place at Harborne on 7^th October 1888 and was also recorded at Kings Norton (Ref. 6c 729).  Both the bride and the groom were twenty years old, with Laura was confirmed as the daughter of Thomas Collett, and Stephen the son of George Swann.  At the age of 43, and having raised a family Laura Mary Swann from Smethwick was a core maker in a brass bedstead works, living at Smethwick with her family.  Her husband Stephen, also born at Smethwick, was 42 and a brass raster at the same factory.  Living with them that day was Mary Elizabeth Swann who was 17 and working alongside her mother as a core maker, Stephen William Swann who was 14 and employed in a brass foundry warehouse, Samuel James Swann who was 11, and Horace Baden Swann who was nine.  The death of Laura Mary Swan was recorded at the Essex South Western register office (Ref. 5a 147) during the first three months of 1947.
45A25.4	Jane Elizabeth Collett was born at Smethwick in 1871, her birth recorded at Kings Norton (Ref. 6c 464) during the second quarter of the year, after the census that year.  It was also at Smethwick where she was baptised on 24^th April 1871.  An error in the Smethwick census of 1881 recorded Jane Collett as 13 years old instead of 10 years of age.
45A25.5	Minnie Ann Collett was born at Smethwick in 1875, the last child of Thomas Collett and Elizabeth Price.  As with all her older siblings, the birth of Minnie Ann was recorded at Kings Norton (Ref. 6c 475) during the first months of the year.  It was also at Smethwick that she was baptised on 28^th March 1875.
45A222.2	Sarah Ann Collett was born at Dudley early in 1878, her birth coinciding with the death of her older sister, the birth of Sarah Ann recorded at Dudley (Ref. 6c 151) during the first quarter of the year.  Where she was in 1881 has yet to be revealed, when her parents were recorded with her Collett grandparents at 3 Waterloo Place in Dudley.  After that her parents made their home at King Edmund Street in Dudley, where Sarah A Collett was 13 in 1891 and was 23 in 1901.  On both occasion she had no stated occupation.  The lack of a job very likely indicates that she may not have been fit to work, as she eventually suffered a premature death, which was recorded at Dudley register office (Ref. 6c 65) at the start of 1909 when she was 31 years of age.
45A222.3	Harriet Collett was born at Dudley in 1880, the third and only surviving daughter of John Collett and Virtue Nowell.  Her birth was recorded at Dudley (Ref. 6c 128) during the second quarter of the year.  Where Harriet and her sister Sarah Ann (above) were in 1881 has still to be determined.  However, by 1891, the pair of them, together with their brother John (below) were living at King Edmund Street in Dudley with their parents, when Harriet Collett was 11 years old.  Ten years later, with Harriet being aged 21, she was a live-in domestic servant at the Dudley Wellington Road home of octogenarians Edward and Mary Dingley, Edward being a collector of Poor Rates.
	Within the next two years the marriage of Harriet Collett aged 22 and Harry Hardwick was recorded at Dudley register office (Ref. 6c 206) during the last three months of 1902.  In the Dudley census of 1911, Harry Hardwick from Round Oak in Staffordshire was 33 and a licenced victualler, an employee of the Atkinsons Brewery Company.  His wife Harriet Hardwick from Dudley was 31 and assisting her husband manage the business for the Atkinsons Brewery Company.  They daughter Phyllis Hardwick was four years of age and had also been born at Dudley.  Completing the household was Finette Hardwick who was 20 and a general domestic servant, who may have been Harry’s younger sister.  At the end of that census year, Harriet presented Harry with a son, with the birth of Sidney Hardwick recorded at Dudley register office (Ref. 6c 182) during the last three months of 1911.  Harriet Hardwick was 61 when she died at Dudley on 28^th May 1940 and was buried at Dudley Cemetery.
45A222.4	John Henry Collett was born at Dudley in 1883, the only son and one of the two surviving children of John Collett and Virtue Nowell.  His birth was recorded at Dudley (Ref. 6c 112) during the fourth quarter of the year.  In 1891 the family was living at King Edmund Street in Dudley, where John H Collett was seven years of age.  After leaving school, John took up the occupation of a domestic groom, as was his father ten years earlier.  For the census in 1901, John H Collett was 17 and employed by physician and surgeon Walter Fitzpatrick from India, at his home on Wolverhampton Street in Dudley.  During the following decade, John had a change in his work and became a married man.  It was at Queens Cross in Dudley that the young couple was living with their son, when John H Collett was 27 and a dairyman with his own business, and his wife Elizabeth Collett, also from Dudley, was 25 and assisting her husband with the family business.
	Their son Arthur Melville Henry Collett was four years of age in 1911, when a visitor at the property that day was Patience Speed of Dudley who was 49 and a married lady.  The death of John H Collett was recorded at Rowley Regis register office (Ref. 9b 353) during the second quarter of 1949.  The birth of the couple’s only known child, was recorded at Dudley register office (Ref. 6c 129) during the first three months of 1907.  No record of Arthur has been found after 1911.
	45A2224.1		Arthur Melville Henry Collett	Born in 1907 at Dudley
45A224.1	James Wilfred Collett was born at Sedgley in 1883, the first-born child of George Collett and Elizabeth Marsh, his birth recorded at Dudley (Ref. 6c 86) during the first three months of that year.  He was living with his family at King Edmund Street in Dudley in both 1891 and 1901, when James W Collett was eight years old, and James Collett aged 18 and a bricklayer’s labourer respectively.  Where he was in 1911 has not been determined, nor do we know whether, or not, James was ever married.  What is known is, that he died at the age of 69, the death of James Collett was recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 9c 141) during the third quarter of 1952.
45A224.2	George Collett was born Sedgley in 1885 with his birth recorded at Dudley (Ref. 6c 75) during the third quarter of the year, the second son of George Collett and Elizabeth Marsh.  Later in his life he gave his place of birth as Lower Gornal which was where his mother was born.  It was at King Edmund Street in Dudley that he was living with his family in 1891 and 1901, when he was five years of age and 15 years old respectively.  By the time of the latter census, George had left school and was a sales assistant in a boot shop.  Later on, at the end of the first decade of the new century, George became a married and was recorded in the Sunderland area on the day of the census in 1911. The marriage of George Collett and Beatrice Gray was conducted at Dudley on 31^st August 1910, when George the son of George Collett was 25, and Beatrice was 24 and the daughter of Harry Gray.  Seven months after, the completed census return in 1911 described the married couple as being childless, when George Collett from Lower Gornal (Dudley) was 25 and the manager of a retail men’s outfitters, with Beatrice Collett from Dudley as being 25 years of age.
	The first of the couple’s three children was born within six months of that census day, and all three children had their births recorded at Sunderland register office, when their mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Gray.  The six-year gap between their second and third child, mostly indicates that George saw active service during the Great War of 1914-1918.  Three years after peace in Europe was achieved, the Collett family was recorded in the 1921 Census as residing at 250 High Street in Sunderland.  That address may well have been a combination of shop and home for the family, with George Collett from Dudley being 35 and the manager of Jackson Limited, Men’s Outfitters, by whom he was employed.  His wife Beatrice was also 35 and born at Dudley, who was undertaking home duties.  The couple three Sunderland born children were confirmed as Alice Elizabeth Collett who was nine, Beatrice Irene Collett who was eight, and George Harry Collett who was one year old.
	Completing the household that day, and assisting George in the shop, was Alice Gray from Dudley who was 13 and a men’s outfitters shop assistant, and the sister-in-law of George.  George and Beatrice remained living in Sunderland, where the death of George Collett from Dudley was recorded (Ref. 1a 950) during the first three months of 1957 at the age of 71.  For the last six years of his life, George was a widower, following the death of his wife, the death of Beatrice Collett also recorded at Sunderland register office (Ref. 1a 1097) during the fourth quarter of 1950, when she was 65.
	On 11^th May 1939, an article in the Sunderland Daily Echo & Shipping Gazette, featured the name of George Collett of 15 Cleveland Road within the High Barnes district of Sunderland.  This was at the inquest for his father-in-law, Harry Gray aged 73, who had committed suicide.  The newspaper headline stated “Retired Manufacturer Found Dead, was on holiday in Sunderland” under which was written:
	“The Coroner, Mr J C Morton, recorded a verdict that Gray wounded himself in the throat while the balance of his mind was disturbed.  Mr Collett said, I would like publicly to thank the police for their kind services this morning.  In his evidence, he said Mr Gray was his father-in-law and had come to stay with them about a fortnight ago from Dudley.  His doctor had said a change would do him good.  Sometimes he appeared to be all right, but at other times he was moody.  He had never threatened to take his own life.  He seemed all right on Tuesday night, but at 6.45 the next morning was found lying in the kitchen suffering from throat wounds.  A doctor pronounced life extinct and found a bread knife partly under the body.”
	45A2242.1		Alice E Collett	Born in 1911 at Sunderland
	45A2242.2		Beatrice Irene Collett	Born in 1913 at Sunderland
	45A2242.3		George Harry Collett	Born in 1919 at Sunderland
45A224.3	Harry Clifford Collett was born at King Edmund Street, Dudley, in 1897 where his birth recorded there (Ref. 6c 132) during the third quarter of the year, another son of George and Elizabeth Collett.  As simply Harry Collett he was four years old in the Dudley census of 1901, when the family was still living at King Edmund Street.  On leaving school, Harry went to work for a draper, as confirmed in the Dudley census of 1911, when Harry Collett was still living at the family home, where he was recorded at the age of 14 as a draper’s errand boy.  It was at the start of 1923, that the marriage of Harry Clifford Collett and Minnie E Davies was recorded at Dudley register office (Ref. 6b 1214).  Minnie Elizabeth Davies was the daughter of John and Emma Davies, born at Dudley in 1903, and she gave birth to four children, their births recorded at Dudley register office, when the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Davies.
	The first of the couple’s children was a pair of twins but tragically, only one survived.  The birth of Harry F Collett was recorded at Dudley (Ref. 6b 1763) during the second quarter of 1923 where his death was recorded during the second quarter of 1925, aged two years.  It was a similar story for son Frank, whose birth was recorded at Dudley (Ref. 6b 1681), during the second quarter of 1926, his death recorded there (Ref. 6b 1191) at the start of 1932, when he was four years old.  The couple was residing in Wolverhampton in 1956, where the death of Minnie E Collett was recorded (Ref. 9b 889) during the second quarter of that year, when she was 52.  Nearly seven years later, Harry Clifford Collett was 67 when he died, his passing recorded at the Worcestershire Stourbridge register office (Ref. 9d 309) during the first three months of 1963.
	45A2243.1		Harry F Collett	Born on 28.04.1923; died 1925
	45A2243.2		Samuel George Collett	Born in 1923 at Dudley
	45A2243.3		Frank Collett	Born in 1926 at Dudley; died 1932
	45A2243.4		Betty Collett	Born in 1932 at Dudley
45A224.4	Charles Frederick Collett was the fourth son of George and Elizabeth Collett and was born at King Edmund Street, Dudley in 1899, his birth recorded at Dudley register office (Ref. 6c 126) during the last quarter of the year.  As Charles Collett he was one year old in the census of 1901 and was 11 in 1901.  During the First World War, the military recorded of Charles Frederick Collett from Dudley served with three different units.  With the 4^th Reserve Battalion of the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry he had the service number 44882.  With the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry it was TR/5/26938, and with the 1^st Garrison Battalion of the Royal Munster Fusiliers it was 44177.
	Charles survived the war and in 1933 the marriage of Charles Frederick Collett and Rose Ann Whittaker was recorded at Dudley register office (Ref. 6b 2353) during the third quarter of that year.  Rose was a very similar age to Charles, having been born on 2^nd May 1899, and so were both in their mid-thirties when they married, and therefore had no issued.  The later death of Charles Frederick Collett from Dudley was recorded at Rowley Regis register office (Ref. 9b 447) early in 1963, when he was 63 years old.  Twenty-four years after being made a widow, the death of Rose Ann Collett was recorded at Wolverhampton register office towards the end of 1987.
45A224.5	Beatrice Amelia Collett was born at Dudley on 8^th October 1903, with her birth recorded at Dudley register office (Ref. 6c 127) during the last three months of the year.  She was the fifth and last child of George Collett and Elizabeth Marsh.  Simply as Beatrice Collett aged seven years, she was living with her family at Dudley in 1911 and it was twenty years after that when the marriage of Beatrice A Collett and Frederick Hadley was recorded at Dudley register office (Ref. 6c 1173) during the first quarter of 1931.  Just over a year later the couple’s only child was born, with the birth of Raymond Frederick Collett Hadley recorded at Dudley (Ref. 6b 1500) during the second quarter of 1932.  He later married Brenda M Chaplain in 1956.  Beatrice Amelia Hadley was 81 when she died, her birth recorded at Dudley register office (Vol. 33 556) in the summer of 1985.
45A226.1	Lottie Ann M Collett was born at Dudley in 1895, the eldest of the two surviving children of Joseph Collett by his second wife Caroline Baker.  The birth of Lottie Ann M Collett was recorded at Dudley register office (Ref. 6c 121) during the second quarter of the year.  She was six years of age in the Dudley census of 1901 when living at Great Hill, and was 15 years old ten years later, by which time she was working as a domestic servant when she was again living in Dudley at the home of her parents at Vicarage Prospect.  It was during the third quarter of 1916 that the marriage of Lottie A M Collett and Arthur Davies was recorded at Dudley register office (Ref. 6b 1651).  Over the following years Lottie presented Arthur with four sons, all of them born at Dudley, when their mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett.  They were Joseph T Davies in 1920, Arthur J Davies in 1921, Samuel Davies in 1922, and John W Davies in 1924.  Lottie appears to have lived all her life within the Dudley area of the country, and it was there also that she died, the death of Lottie A M Davies recorded at the Dudley register office (Ref. 6c 11) during the last quarter of 1942, when she was 47 years old.
45A226.2	George Collett was born at Great Hill in Dudley at the start of 1899, with his birth recorded at Dudley register office (Ref. 6c 139) during the quarter of 1899.  He was the surviving son of Joseph Collett and Caroline Baker, his only brother Joseph having died just after being born.  George and his older sister Lottie (above) were the only children living with their parents at Great Hill in 1901 when George was two years old.  Ten years later the family was living at Vicarage Prospect in Dudley where George Collett was 12 years of age and still attending school.  In 1929 George Collett sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to Canada from where, on 19^th June 1929, he crossed the border into America at Buffalo, Erie County, in New York State.  George Collett was described as an alien arrival from Dudley in England, via Canada, whose date of birth was 2^nd February 1899.
45A2242.1	Alice E Collett was the first-born child of George Collett and Beatrice Gary from Dudley.  Her birth was recorded at Sunderland (Ref. 10a 1364) during the third quarter of 1911, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Gray.  It was also in Sunderland that the marriage of Alice E Collett and William F Robinson was recorded (Ref. 10a 1215) during the fourth quarter of 1934.  Their marriage produced a son, Rodney Frederick Robinson, whose birth was recorded at Sunderland (Ref. 10a 892) during the second quarter of 1935, when the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett.
45A2242.2	Beatrice Irene Collett was born on 7^th June 1913, the birth recorded at Sunderland register office (Ref. 10a 1437) during the third quarter of the year.  She was the second of the three children of George and Beatrice Collett, whose mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Gray.  The later marriage of Beatrice I Collett and Gabriel Whitelock was also recorded at Sunderland register office (Ref. 10a 1123) during the second quarter of 1937.  Beatrice gave birth to two daughters; the births of both girls recorded at Sunderland in 1939 and 1945, when their mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett.  They were June Whitelock and Elizabeth Whitelock.  On the occasion of her passing, at the age of 78, her name was recorded as Irene Beatrice Whitelock at Sunderland register office following her death in November 1991.
45A2242.3	George Harry Collett was born on 1^st September 1919, the last of the three children of George Collett and Beatrice Gray.  His birth was recorded at Sunderland register office (Ref. 10a 1469) during the last three months of that year, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Gray.  He became a married man in 1948, when the marriage of George Harry Collett and Eleanor Rate was conducted at Sunderland by licence and was recorded at Durham register office (Ref. 1a 2855) during the third quarter of the year.  Eleanor was born at Sunderland on 2^nd August 1923 and was the daughter of John J Rate and Mary Barnett.  After giving birth to two children, it was four years after being widowed, that the death of Eleanor Collett was recorded at Sunderland in the spring of 1997 aged 73.
	George was stilling living in the Sunderland area of County Durham when he died, with his passing recorded at Durham register office (Vol. 0581c c46e) during the spring of 1993 when he was 74 years old.  Nothing is currently known about their two children, except for the details of their births which were also recorded at Sunderland register office, David during the third quarter of 1951 (Ref. 1a 1273), and Sandra during the first three months of 1954 (Ref. 1a 1373).  On both occasions their mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Rate.
	45A22243.1		David Collett	Born in 1951 at Sunderland
	45A22243.2		Sandra E Collett	Born in 1954 at Sunderland
45A2243.2	Samuel George Collett was born on 28^th April 1923 at Dudley, where his birth was recorded (Ref. 6b 1763), when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Davies.  He was the twin brother of Harry F Collett who died aged two years, and the eldest surviving child of Harry Clifford Collett and Minnie E Davies.  The marriage of Samuel G Collett and Freda A Barnes was recorded Wolverhampton register office (Ref. 6b 1602) during the last three months of 1945.  They were married for thirty-four years when the death of Samuel George Collett was recorded at Wolverhampton (Vol. 34 0740) during the first months of 1980, at the age of 56.  During that time, Freda gave birth to two sons, their births recorded at Wolverhampton register office, with their mother’s maiden-name confirmed as Barnes.  For her younger son, only his birth has been found, which was recorded at Wolverhampton during the last three months of 1952 (Ref. 9b 1261).
	45A22432.1		Keith Collett	Born in 1948 at Wolverhampton
	45A22432.2		Peter George Collett	Born in 1952 at Wolverhampton
45A2243.4	Betty Collett was born in 1932 with her birth recorded at Dudley register office (Ref. 6b 1502) during the second quarter of the year, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Davies.  She was the fourth and last child of Harry and Minnie Collett.  Betty was nearly twenty-two years old where her marriage to George L McDonald was recorded at Dudley (Ref. 9d 229) during the first three months of 1954.  Three years after their wedding day, Betty present George with a son.  The birth of Leslie C G McDonald was recorded at Dudley register office (Ref. 9d 99) during the last quarter of 1957.  After only nine years married to George, Betty died at Dudley when she was 30 years old and was buried in Dudley Cemetery.
45A22432.1	Keith Collett was born in 1948, the eldest son of Samuel George Collett and Freda A Barnes.  His birth was recorded at Wolverhampton register office (Ref. 9b 1530) during the third quarter of the year, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Barnes.  It was during the summer of 1971 that the marriage of Keith Collett and Mary E Ratcliffe was recorded at Wolverhampton (Ref. 9b 2858).  Over the following seven years, Mary gave birth to three children, their birth recorded at Wolverhampton register office, when Mary’s maiden-name was confirmed as Ratcliffe.  The birth of son Stephen was recorded at the start of 1973 (Vol. 9b 3734), Claire two years later (Vol. 34 1372) at the start of 1975, and Christian during the summer of 1978 (Vol. 34 1344).  In 2025, Christian got in touch to say that “My 12-year-old son, Maximus Collett, is currently building our family tree on Ancestry, and he tells me that your website has been an invaluable resource”.
	45A224321.1		Stephen Keith Collett	Born in 1973 at Wolverhampton
	45A224321.2		Claire Elizabeth Collett	Born in 1975 at Wolverhampton
	45A224321.3		Christian Mark Collett	Born in 1978 at Wolverhampton
45A3	Thomas Collett of the parish of St. Lawrence, Evesham married Mary Hyde of the parish of Hampton near Evesham in Worcestershire by banns on the 19^th June 1809.  Their daughter, and only known child, Ann Deborah Collett was born at Hampton, near Evesham, and was baptised at Great Hampton on 27^th August 1815, the daughter of Thomas and Mary Collett.  Ann later married George Phipps of Upper Slaughter on 28^th August 1839, when her father was again confirmed as Thomas Collett.
	45A3.1		Ann Deborah Collett	Born in 1815 at Hampton
	APPENDIX THREE
	OTHER COLLETTS BORN IN WORCESTERSHIRE
	Firstly, in Part 2 – The Gloucestershire Secondary Line there are four connections to Bromsgrove in Worcestershire, and they are: Thomas Collett (Ref. 2J20) born at Bourton-on-the-Water who died at Bromsgrove (1718-1790) Richard Collett (Ref. 2K12) born in Gloucestershire who died at Bromsgrove (1754-1808), and John Collett (Ref. 2L25) who was born at Bromsgrove in 1775 and who went to Newfoundland in 1815 and who is the subject of Part 32 – The Newfoundland Line.
	William Collett (Ref. 57M3) in Part 57 – The Bakers of Abbots Morton in Worcestershire, who married Ann Hulbert at Abberton in 1826.