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DOCUMENTS & PHOTOS RELATED TO FLETCHERS IN THE 1900s

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The John and Maria Fletcher Story 1824 - 1911 

PHOTOS OF THE FRANK EDWARD FLETCHER CHILDREN AND THEIR WIVES 1896 - 1928

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25 January 1894 - John Fletcher dies in

Probate

Scarborough aged 71.  He now lies with Maria (died 1911) in Manor Rd Cemetery in Scarborough - grave P 18-25.

JOHN FLETCHER

BORN FEB 13 1824

FELL ASLEEP JAN 25 1894

“THE ETERNAL GOD IS MY REFUGE”

Details of Fletcher Grave

1901 Census - Maria Fletcher and two daughters are

LINK

still in Scarborough - 9 Trafalgar Square (the house without an extra storey - photographed in 2011).  Maria (63) is described as living on own means.

1901 Census - Frank Edward and family now at 20 Brockman Road, Folkestone.

20 Brockman Rd (left - semidetached house behind tree) Folkestone - the Victorian church at the end of the road is next to the Victorian railway station.  Unlike Scarborough, the centre of Folkestone only managed to stagger up the hill from the old harbour town - still a long way from the railway!

CENSUS

Tennis at "Sunnyside" in Folkestone at the turn of the century .....

And for hot days, there was always the sea ...

In the 1901 census the Fletcher Family support staff at 20 Brockman Road has been expanded to include a domestic governess as well as a maid, and one child (Frank Rex) is off at boarding school (Kent College, Canterbury).  The dapper Frank Edward must have been in reasonable demand as a music teacher and probably Elizabeth the draper's daughter, who also photographs as a striking and simpatico person, came with a bit of a Draper's dowry.

Sadly, little Edward will not survive to the next census.

1901 - Frank Rex (Rex) Fletcher (11)

Two Franks - Edward the Dad, Rex the Son c1905

CENSUS

is a boarder at Kent College (Methodist prep school) near Canterbury.  In those days there was a railway line between Folkestone and Canterbury.

Later, Rex moves to Dover College.  Heavyweight boxer, Rugby Forward, and one of the Dover College Shooting VIII which wins the Public Schools' Ashburton Shield in 1906.

Glum-glum-glum winners - Rex is L/Cpl second person from left in back row.  Fifty years' later, grandson Adrian was using pretty much the same Lee-Enfield .303 rifle to shoot in school competitions. 

1911 - Maria Fletcher now being looked after

LINK

by one daughter at 9 Trafalgar Square Scarborough.  She is to pass away in May 1911, aged 74, survived by 12 of her 14 children.  Good strong long-lived stock!  She is buried with husband John in Manor Rd Cemetery in Scarborough - grave P 18-25.

MARIA

WIFE OF THE ABOVE

WHO WENT HOME MAY 30 1911

“UNDERNEATH ARE THE EVERLASTING ARMS”

Details of Fletcher Grave

1911 - Frank Edward and family still at

CENSUS

20 Brockman Road, Folkestone.

1911 - Frank Rex (now Jimmy) lodging at 12 Mildmay Rd, Islington (no longer there).

LINK

Frank R (Jim) (21) has been a student at England's oldest medical school - the London Hospital Medical School - since 1907.   He was the United Hospitals heavyweight boxing champion.

Cambridge Ward, London Hospital c1910

Frank Rex Fletcher (wing collar) standing behind teddy bear on right. 

On left by post with toy donkey on top is Charlie Burton (bow tie), Frank Rex's bestie and his future brother-in-law.

1913 - Dr Frank Rex Fletcher

LINK

admitted to British Medical Register on 24 June 1913.  MB, BS 1913 from London Hospital Medical College.

1913 - Photos of the Frank Edward Fletcher Family between 1898 and 1928.

PHOTOS

1914 - Jimmy joins the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC)

LINK to page about Jimmy Fletcher in "RAMC in the Great War"

and starts off by getting the job of Medical Officer (MO) to the 2nd / 3rd County of London Yeomanry (The Sharpshooters) who despite their natty title were to spend the war in England with an absence of people shooting. 

1915 - Frank Rex Marriage - Sunday 15 August

PHOTOLINK

&

CERTIFICATE

Frank Rex (Jimmy) (25) - marries Ethel Henrietta Florence Burton (also 25) in the very drab Parish Church of St Mary Magdalene, (Old) Milton, Hampshire.  Why there ? - Ethel's Dad was in charge of a rehab centre for wounded Indian soldiers at Barton, and Frank Rex (now known as Jimmy) was also stationed in the area.

1915 - Jimmy looking relaxed after his wedding (10 days earlier) and honeymoont

1915 - Jimmy looking relaxed after his wedding (10 days earlier) and honeymoon motorcycling the New Forest.

September 1917 - Captain Jimmy Fletcher

seems to have spent the first three years of the WW I as MO to "B team" battalions who had opted to stay in England (as presumably he had as well).  As of mid 1917 he was the MO of the little known 2/5 Royal West Kent Regiment who were then camped happily with their horses at Barham windmill (above) near Canterbury (in fact they were so irrelevant that they were disbanded later in the year).  Our man really liked horses, as reflected in several of the photos he took, and MOs were allocated their own superior nags by the army.

Captain Fletcher had presumably decided to make a more significant contribution to the war effort without going so far as a Field Ambulance on the Western Front like his brother-in-law Charlie Burton or my other grandfather Jimmy Sproule.  In mid-September 1917 he set sail on the Union Castle Line's "Durham Castle" for a (leisurely) voyage round the Cape to Basra, and thence up the River Tigris to Baghdad (February 1918) - which had been well and truly recaptured from Ottoman forces about a year earlier by General "Systematic Joe" Maude.  Happily he also bought himself a new camera, and we have the negatives of a few hundred photos he took in Africa, Mesopotamia and India over the next 6 years.

Farewell at Barham Camp (Nr Canterbury) 10 Sept 1917 - Ethel Fletcher (pregnant wife - 27), Elizabeth Fletcher (Procter) (Mother - 51), Jimmy Fletcher (27), Gwen Fletcher (Sister - 22).

Ethel and Terry Burton at breakfast - September 1917

23 April 1918

Michael James Rex Fletcher (to be Adrian's Dad) is born back in London (Princes Gate).

1919

after the end of WWI (November 1918) Jimmy Fletcher goes regular in the RAMC, and in 1919, after a few picnics, duck shoots and horse rides, is moved on from the Tigris River to the British Military Hospital at Murree Hill, 40 miles from Rawalpindi - via Bombay and the Taj Mahal (8 May 1919) in Agra. 

Murree Hill from Clulekee Gali Rd - 1921

1919 - Capt Jimmy is Joined by Ethel and Michael in Clifden, Murree Hill, 40 miles from Rawalpindi. The Hill Station houses a sizeable military hospital.

Michael Fletcher in Clifden, Murree Hill c1921

ARMY CAREER

FRF CV

Capt Frank Rex (Jimmy), Michael James Rex (4) and Ethel Henrietta Florence (Em) - "Clifden, Murree Hills, August 1922"

They stay there till 1923 then return to a posting in Aldershot.

The photo above is reproduced from a negative, of which we have (but not scanned) about 700 covering the 1917 - 1923 period.  Contact prints from some of the photos were stuck in little home made albumettes like the ones shown below - perhaps "Indian made" rather than home made as the bindings were sewn in a professional way.

On the right, FRF in the pipe, shorts and riding boots with friend and 10 shooting assistants - c1920

3 May 1921 - Support team for Jimmy, Ethel and Michael, and their friends Dick and Kitty to travel to Kashmir for Dick and Kitty's wedding.

1925 - 1928 - Doctor Dr Major F R Fletcher

returns to the UK, and, interspersed with postings to Freetown, he becomes a specialist in Gynaecology and Midwifery and completes a doctorate (awarded in 1928) back at the London Hospital Medical School (thus becoming a "real doctor").  Also becomes MRCP London.

This hand coloured photo portrait of Dr Frank Rex Fletcher in London University doctoral robes was probably done later in the 1930s.

Frank Edward Fletcher (1864 - 1946 (82))

and

Elizabeth Stringer Fletcher (Procter) (1865 - 1953 (87))

would have led a busy community life in Folkestone in WWI and between the wars, but we presently have no memorabilia or records.

Fletcher family on the indifferent shingle of non-tropical Folkestone beach mid/late 1920s

Elizabeth, Ethel, Frank Edward, Frank Rex (Jimmy) (with beer) and Michael in front.

Ethel & Michael, 1926

1926 - 1927:  Jimmy Fletcher does two stints in Freetown, Sierra Leone.  The first one (without family) included a "mens' business" witch doctor dance on Christmas Day in 1925 (above).  The first tour ended on 13 September 1926 with his return to Plymouth on the ship "Appam".  Jimmy is promoted to Major shortly afterwards on 28th September.  The second tour (with Ethel but not 9 year old Michael, who stays in Folkestone with his grandmother Gem Burton and probably his cousins Peter and Joan Burton) involves departure August 1927 on the Accra and return to Plymouth on the "Abinsi" on 29 April 1828.  In amongst all of this he becomes a specialist in Gynaecology and Midwifery (see above) and completes a doctorate (awarded in 1928) back at the London Hospital Medical School (thus becoming a "real doctor"). 

Brits having fun in Freetown, Sierra Leone c1927 - Jimmy F is one in from the left, and Ethel ditto from the right.

And the carved and stuffed animals ? - who knows, anything can happen when Poms are having fun in the tropics !!

4th from right is a "bellows" camera - then a popular photo technology.  Smoking in pics (by men) was also popular!

Early 1931 Major Jimmy Fletcher (41) retires from the army and becomes a GP / Specialist / Surgeon in Folkestone.

1935 - Dr Frank Rex (Jim) Fletcher and Ethel now in long term Folkestone residence - Dene Court (Ingles Rd) - the left half of the house below.

LINK

c1935

Mid 1930s, at the gateway of Jimmy's house, Dene Court (Ingles Road, Folkestone).

Mystery lady (Edith Dean?), Elizabeth Fletcher, Michael Fletcher (grandson and Adrian's Dad) (1918 - 2007 (89)),

Frank Edward Fletcher, Ethel Fletcher (1890 - 1968 (78)).

Frank Rex (Jimmy), son Michael (Adrian's Dad to be) and Ethel outside Dene Ct, Folkestone, 1937.

FRF (49) Called up for WW II duties September 1939 to 1945

.

ARMY CAREER

Commissioned officers in the medical services of the British Army

In Cairo c1942

Adrian with his Great Grandmother c1948

photo from Roger Kingdon

Elizabeth Stringer Fletcher (Procter) (1865 - 1953 (87))

and Frank Edward Fletcher (1864 - 1946 (82))

first half of 1940s

October 1968 - Ethel Fletcher (Burton) (78) passes away.

May 1974 - Frank Rex (Jimmy) Fletcher (84) passes away.

OBITUARY

18 May 1974

Link to Photos of more Recent Ancestors of Angela Williams (Fletcher) & Adrian Fletcher