charles malindine + mary ann dearing
Charles, known as Charlie, was the eldest son of Charles Frederick Mallindine and his wife Emma Tweed. He was born on 7 August 1866 at 16 St John’s Terrace in Bethnal Green and baptised at St Leonard, Shoreditch on 2 September. He grew up on Mount Street where his father worked as a Costermonger selling fruits and vegetables first from a barrow and later from a shop. After finishing school, Charles worked as an Errand Boy before apprenticing as a Book Binder. The trade consisted of gluing the backs and rounding the spine, trimming and decorating the edges of the pages, and covering the pasteboard covers in cloth or leather.
By 1891, twenty-four year old Charlie and his two younger brothers, Jim and Jack, left the family home on Mount Street and lived together at 63 Virginia Road in Bethnal Green. He was still working as a book binder but his brothers had taken up other occupations with James working as a Confectioner and John as a Compositor in a printer’s shop.
One year later, on 31 January, Charlie married Mary Ann Dearing at St James the Less in Bethnal Green and his mother and Mary’s brother Thomas stood as witnesses. Mary was born in Shoreditch on 7 January 1865 to Thomas Dearing and Mary Ann Fenn. Her father was a Paper Ruler, someone who worked in the printing industry and operated an inking machine that applied the ruled lines on sheets of paper, but he died two years after her birth and neither Mary, her mother or brother Thomas have been traced in the years after his death.
When they married, Mary was living at 49 Fournier Street, which ran alongside Christ Church between Commercial Road and Brick Lane, and is still lined with Huguenot weaver’s houses while Charlie’s address was listed as 111 Mount Street, where his parents lived. Their first daughter, Mary Ann Alice, was born on 17 October 1892 and baptised at St Luke Old Street on 13 November. At the time, the family was living at 5 Lizard Street which was only a few streets away from the church and Charlie was still working as a book binder. They moved to Newcastle Street where daughter Annie Florence was born on 20 December 1894 and baptised at St Peter on 20 January 1895.
They moved again to 13 New Tyssen Street which was not far from Charlie’s parents on Mount Street and his previous home in Virginia Row. Their two daughters were followed by two sons: Charles Frederick was born on 13 January 1897 and baptised on 7 February at St Peter, and Arthur William was born on 27 July 1900. Annie was admitted to the Turin Street School on 10 January 1898 and attended until 24 July 1901 but no records have been found regarding eldest daughter Mary.
In 1901, they were still living at 13 New Tyssen Street with their four children and occupied 3 of the 6 rooms in the house while three other families, a total of 9 people, occupied the other three. They were still on New Tyssen Street two years later when Charles Frederick was admitted to the Turin Street School on 31 March but by 1907, they have moved north of the Hackney Road to 102 Weymouth Terrace and Charles was listed as a Confectioner in the Post Office Directory.
Ten years later, they were still on Weymouth Street, living in 5 rooms, with their four children aged 10 to 18 years. Charles was once again working as a book binder and Mary was the one working as a confectioner ‘on her own account’, which meant she was self-employed and possibly running a shop from their house. Eldest daughter Mary Ann Alice was working in a factory as a Machinist making Linen collars along with Annie who was making ladies undergarments. Fourteen year old Charles was a book binder’s apprentice, most likely with his father and 10 year old Arthur was attending school.
Charlie appears in Post Office Directories and electoral registers at Weymouth Terrace from 1907 to 1928. He died at home on 19 December 1931 and was buried at Manor Park Cemetery nine days later. Probate on his £200 estate was granted to his wife Mary. She carried on their confectionary business after Charlie’s death and appears in Post Office Directories throughout the 1930s. By 1939, Mary and daughter Annie had left the East End and were living at 14a Christchurch Gardens in Harrow north-west of London. Seventy-four year old Mary was listed as being ‘incapacitated’ and Annie’s occupation was ‘unpaid domestic duties’. Mary died in Brentwood, Essex in 1958.
Mary Ann Alice married William Samuel Fuller in Leyton, Essex in the fall of 1938 and after their wedding, they settled in a house at 42 Theobald Road where they remained for the rest of their lives. Mary Ann was 46 years old when she married and William was 57 and worked as a French Polisher and Varnish Manufacturer. After Mary Ann’s mother died, her sister Annie moved in with them and stayed after Mary’s death in 1963. William died on 23 October 1975 and he was buried one week later at Manor Park Cemetery. He left an estate valued at £13 500.
Annie never married and after her sister and brother-in-law died, she stayed in their house on Theobald Road until her death on 7 January 1976. She was buried at Manor Park Cemetery on 13 January and left an estate valued at £13 000 but the beneficiaries are not known.
Charlie and Mary’s eldest son Charles Frederick enlisted in the Labour Corps when he was 19 and was called up for service on 31 October 1916. He was still working as a book binder’s apprentice when he enlisted and his attestation papers note that he was 5’7” and 109lbs. On 14 April 1918, he was injured in action when he suffered a gunshot wound to his left ankle and was treated in an army hospital near Boulogne-sur-Mer in northern France. He was discharged on 20 November 19 and later applied for a disability pension due to pain and swelling in his ankle after walking but when examined, the army doctor determined that the wound had healed and there was nothing to note in his examination so his claim was denied.
On 6 September 1925, Charles married Louisa Jane Elizabeth Coates at St Mark in Clerkenwell and his sister Annie signed the register as one of the witnesses. Louisa, known as Lou, was born on 9 September 1897 in Islington to Charles Coates, a Carman, and his wife Elizabeth Keyser. After their wedding, they moved to Stoke Newington, north of the City of London, and took rooms at 58 Brownswood Road where they appear in Electoral Registers until 1935. In 1937, they were living at 4 St George's Avenue in Wembley to the north-west and they were still there when the 1939 Register was completed. By 1962, they had moved further north to the London borough of Barnet and lived at 15 Bookbinders Cottage on Bawtry Road in Whetstone. Charles died in Hendon in 1975, aged 78 years, and two years after his death, Louisa remarried to Cecil J Richardson. She died in Hendon in 1980.
Arthur married Martha Ann Carter in Shoreditch in 1928 and one year later, their only child, Evelyn Martha, was born on 23 October 1929. They lived in Islington until the mid-1930s at 47 Petherton Road and later at 33 Leconfield Road before moving to 11 Marlborough Close in Friern Barnet in 1937. When the 1939 Register was completed, they were living at 37 Prince George Road in Stoke Newington and Arthur was working as a Lithographic Printer but their daughter was not living with them. From 1946 until the mid-1960s, they lived at 99 Christchurch Avenue in Harrow but they later retired to Poole in Dorset where Arthur died in 1981. Martha also died in Poole, on 24 August 1987, as did their daughter Evelyn in 1997.