annie clara mallandain + edgar stowe
Annie was born in Islington on 14 November 1892, the daughter of George Mallandain and Annie Devine. Both of her parents died within months of her birth and she was raised by her maternal grandparents. In 1901, Annie was living with her grandparents, brother, sister and aunt in the Ravenscroft Buildings in Bethnal Green.
In 1911, Annie was living her aunt, Clara Howard, at 37 Campbell Road in Walthamstow. Eighteen year old Annie was working as a Draper’s Assistant and her aunt as a Cotton Spinner. The census also notes that they occupied only one room in the building. In 1920, Annie and Clara left London and emigrated to Canada to join her brother James in Vancouver.
They departed from Liverpool on 9 June 1920 on board the Grampian bound for the port of Montreal followed by a cross country rail journey on the Canadian Pacific Railway. From 1919, all immigrants had to complete a Passenger Declaration or Form 30a on arrival in Canada that included their personal information, intended destination, next of kin and so on. Annie declared that she was employed as a Draper’s Assistant, that she intended to work as a Shop Assistant in Canada and her reason for coming to Canada was to live with her brother who had also paid for their passage. She listed her sister E. Banham of 41 Somers Road in Walthamstow as her next of kin in England. Annie arrived in Canada with £20 and her aunt Clara with £25.
Six months after arriving, Annie married Edgar Stowe at St Michael’s Anglican Church in Vancouver on 4 December 1920. Her sister-in-law, Maud Mallandain, and Maud’s brother William Porter acted as witnesses. At the time of her marriage, Annie was employed as a saleslady and lived with her brother and sister in law at 138 6th Avenue in Vancouver. Edgar Stowe was born in Leeds, the son of Thomas Henry Stowe and Helen Wynn, and he had emigrated to Canada in 1903 along with his two brothers, William and George.
Their son, Edgar Stanley, was born in Vancouver on 26 December 1921. In October 1922, Edgar, Annie and their ten month old son emigrated to America and sailed from Vancouver to Los Angeles, California. Edgar’s occupation was listed as Painter and it’s possible that he worked with his brother-in-law James prior to moving south.
They had three more children — Patricia Helen was born in Los Angeles on 30 March 1925 followed by twins Nance and Iris who were born on 27 March 1929. The family appears in the 1930 US Census renting a house in the Assembly District of the city located to the west of Burbank but it appears the twins died soon after their birth as they do not appear in the census. At the time, Edgar was employed as a Painter in the public school system. Sadly Edgar died of a heart attack only six years after the census was taken and Annie, her children and her aunt Clara Howard moved to nearby Inglewood where they remained until the census in 1940.
Annie Mallandain died, aged 50, in Los Angeles on 6 March 1942. Her son Edgar was 20 years old and daughter Patricia only 17 but there is no record of what happened to them after their parent’s death. They may have remained in the house in Inglewood along with their elderly great aunt, Clara Howard, until her death on 14 January 1951.
Nothing further has been located in the limited public records available other than Edgar Stanley’s death in South Pasadena, California on 22 September 2008.