Florence Pattison 1886-1977

Hi Rod and welcome to POE from Anna and Ron.

We have a very special guy here in the forum who always seems to come up with the answers, and I suspect he will answer your question as soon as he can. His initials are 'PH' ....watch this space!!! Lol

By the way why don't you introduce yourself in 'User Introductions' and let this great group of POE members know a little bit about yourself?

In  1901, there's a Richard Thomas Pattison from Cornwall living at the coast guard station at Sizewell, Sufflolk with his wife Mary born in Salcombe.  Also with them is his niece Florence Pattison born c.1887 at Polpero, Cornwall.   Richard's father was also in the coast guard.

Is this the family now moved to Suffolk?  Start Point lighthouse below.

Picture by Helaine Cummins

In the 1800's. the Pattison families are dotted about all over Cornwall, but as the 1900s approaches, many of them seem to move away, just as Rod's ancestors did as well, and the Pattisons weren't of Cornish origin, though began to appear there in the 1800s.

C.1895 to 1900, Richard and his family were also living in  Harwich, Essex.  Rose seems a bit of a mystery.  They seemed to have missed the 1891 Census too.

Richard Thomas Pattison married Mary Hellings Ash in the summer of 1893 in the region of Kingsbridge, Devon. Mary was born c.1869 at Salcombe, daughter of David and Mary Ash.

Richard's mother was Mary A. Pattison, b. 1821 at Milford, Wales.  He had an older brother John, 9 years his senior, born in Looe, Cornwall, who was a mariner. 

It seems clear Florence was still a little girl when she lived near the lighthouse and didn't stay there all that long. 

Richard's father was Henry Pattison (1817-1864) and Richard had a sister, Rosina (1851-1872).  So, this elusive Rose you mentioned I suspect is another Rosina Pattison of later years.

Richard passed away 23 Aug. 1938 in Walthamstow, while his wife Mary had died in 1932.

This is fascinating, and it complements the research my daughter Victoria Georgina Ovelgonne nee Northway (nickname and widely known as Plum) has been doing with the aid of the Ancestry system.   According to this, Florence Pattison (Flo) was indeed born in 1886 and her father was John Pattison.   When John and his wife died early and within weeks of each other Flo and here sister Rose (as far as I know this was Rose, not Rosina) went to live with her uncle Richard Thomas.   Plum has some information on Rose's birth and, in support of what I have always understood, Plum reckons that Rose was the younger of the two sisters   Flo married Jack Donovan in about 1914 and they had an only daughter Gladys Rosina who was born in 1915 in Montreal, Canada where Jack had gone to try to join the Mounties (he failed because he was half an inch too short for the 5 ft 11 in qualifying limit).   Gladys Rosina was my mother - she never used her first name, she was known to all as Rosina - a name with a family connection that I did not know until now.   Her aunt, Rose married a guy called George but never had any children.

In recent weeks I have come to think it likely that the lighthouse at Start Point is the "lighthouse at Salcombe" that became the home of my grandmother Flo and her sister Rose.  Flo used to tell me about the "lighthouse at Salcombe" but only recently did I realise that the Start Point lighthouse could be the lighthouse she thought of as being at Salcombe.   Among other things she used to talk about the effectively private beach from which they (she, Rose and the 6 or 7 cousins) used to skinny-dip, and the cove below the Start Point lighthouse certainly fits the description.   A few days ago Plum put me in touch with a website called www.francisfrith.com which has a couple of photographs of Start Point lighthouse taken in 1890.   Does the Start Point forum have these?   I don't know how to get them on to this POE website but perhaps Plum can.   I wonder how we can find out if Richard Thomas Pattison did indeed live at Start Point in the 1880's / 1890's before moving on to Sizewell in Suffolk.

I kow that pretty well all of Richard Thomas's children and Flo were living in Walthamsow during WW2, and that tallies with his place of death in 1938.

Hi Rod. Isn't this the best website ever, and didn't I tell you about a certain 'very special guy'....thanks Paul, and CathyML of course.

Rod, as for getting the pictures that you refer to onto the POE website, you can only do this if you own the copyright. So copying them from the website that you mention is not permissable simply for that reason.

Very glad that the members are able to help you.