My paternal grandparents Harry Edwin Cole and Lilian Ruth Tucker married on 4th September 1913 at St Mary’s Church in Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex.
Harry was a native of Burnham and was from a long line of ‘oyster dredgers’. Ruth, as she was always known, was from Bridport in Dorset. For many generations her family had been involved as merchants and manufacturers of hemp and flax products.
Although from different backgrounds they shared a love of boats and the sea. Ruth’s childhood home overlooked Bridport harbour. The harbour and the nearby beach provided plenty to keep Ruth and her brothers Stan and Hubert entertained. It is likely that Harry spent much of his childhood in and around boats as nearly all his male relatives were mariners of one sort or another.
However Harry probably saw enough of the fishing and oyster dredging industry to know that the future did not look promising. After war service in the West Ham shipyards, Harry started his own boat building business in Leigh on Sea.
Harry and Ruth had a son and a daughter while living in West Ham. The family’s new life begun on a houseboat, moored close to the boatyard on the Leigh marshes. A couple of years later they moved to a newly built bungalow where Ruth remained for many years.
Harry was not to live to see his children grow up. He died in 1932.
Ruth lived a long life as a widow. She saw her four grandchildren grow almost to adulthood. She would now have 8 great/grandchildren and an increasing number of Great/great grandchildren.
Ruth died in 1968.
© 2007 Susan Cole