charles mallandain + mary mclean
Charles was born on 24 May 1831 and baptised on 21 August at St Luke’s church on Old Street in Finsbury; he was the son of Peter Mallandain and Elizabeth Hodges. Charles initially studied to become an actuary and a notice in the Assurance Magazine and Journal of the Institute of Actuaries in 1855 lists Charles as an Associate living at 5 James Place, St Lukes. However, his career as an actuary was short lived as he enlisted in the 1st Royal Dragoons on 25 October 1855 and served as a non-commissioned officer for two years before being discharged from military service and re-engaged as an Army Schoolmaster.
The Corps of Army Schoolmasters was created in 1846 as part of a major overhaul of the education system within the Army and these changes included the creation of a teacher’s training school at the Royal Military Asylum in Chelsea. Prospective schoolmasters, both civilians and regular army personnel, were required to complete a two year training program before being assigned to a regimental or garrison school and they were responsible for teaching children during the day and soldiers during the evening. Army schoolmasters enjoyed job security and the prospect of an army pension but these benefits were offset by the lower salaries than those in private employment.
Charles studied at the Royal Military Asylum from 16 October 1857 until 14 July 1859 when he was appointed a Schoolmaster with his old regiment. One week after completing his training, Charles married Mary Alice McLean on 20 July 1859 at Christ Church in Hoxton. Mary was born in Malta in 1835 and her father, John McLean, was a pipe major in the 42nd Foot, Black Watch. At the time of their wedding, Mary was living at the Royal Military Asylum in Chelsea and Charles, who was living in Bridport Place, was listed as an Army Schoolmaster.
Over the next ten years, Charles and his family moved as his regiment was assigned to duties across both England and abroad and his children’s birthplaces provide a map of their travels — Ireland, Warwickshire, Hampshire, Canada, Hampshire, Kent and Sussex. Their first son, Charles John, was born abt 1861 in Ireland but neither his birth record nor baptism has been located. One year later, they were back in England and living in the West Midlands near Birmingham. Walter George was born on 6 March 1862 in Ashted, which was then in the county of Warwickshire but is now part of the city of Birmingham, and he was baptised at St James the Less on 25 August. Sadly, he died only weeks after his baptism.
Charles was then posted to Aldershot in Hampshire on the south coast of England. Aldershot was a small village that was developed as a garrison town in the 1850s in response to the Crimean War and it continues to be a military town to this day and is now known as the home of the British Army. Their daughter, Marian Alice, was born on 12 April 1864 in Aldershot and baptised at the camp church on 25 September while son, Edgar Peter, was born on 7 July 1865 in nearby Farnham. Two years later, Charles was transferred to the Canadian Rifles, based in Kingston, Ontario and remained in Canada for three years. His wife travelled with him but there is no record of whether their young children travelled with them or if they remained in England with relatives. Maud Mary was born on 1 July 1868 in Quebec City, Canada and baptised at the Catholic Church of St Patrick on 2 September.
On 4 April 1870, Charles was transferred to the 46th regiment and they returned to England and settled in Winchester. In 1871, they were living at the District Barracks and Charles’ occupation was listed as Army Schoolmaster with the 1st Royal Dragoons. On the return voyage from Canada, Mary gave birth to twin daughters, Beatrice Marina and Louisa Olga, and their birthplace on the census is listed as ‘at sea’. Once the family settled in Winchester, the two girls were baptised at St Thomas on 6 July 1871.
Charles served with the 46th regiment for a short time, until 7 August 1871, when he was transferred to the military depot at Chatham in Kent. They settled in nearby Gillingham and one month later, Mary gave birth to a second set of twins — Arthur Ernest and Ethel Florence — born on 26 September 1871 and baptised at the Garrison Church at Chatham Barracks. Further details of Charles’ military assignments are not available but the family left Kent and returned to the south coast where they settled in Brighton. They lost their second child when three year old daughter, Beatrice, died in Brighton on 19 May 1873
Their tenth child, William Leopold, was born in Brighton on 30 March 1874. Charles was discharged from the army on 24 September 1878 and he was granted a pension for his 19 years of service. It is not known if they stayed in Brighton or returned to London after Charles’ retirement but by 1881, the family was living at 86 Munton Road in Newington in South London. Charles was working as a Timekeeper to augment his army pension and two of his sons were also working — Charles as a Clerk and Edgar as a Draper's Assistant — while the younger children were all in school. Shortly before the census was taken, their ten year old daughter Ethel died and three years later, they lost a fourth child when fourteen year old Louisa Olga died.
Ten years later, the family had moved to north London and were living in Islington, in the Ebenezer Buildings on Rotherfield Street, and Charles was employed as an Estate Agent's Assistant. Only sons Arthur and William remained at home and they were both working as Engineers. Their daughter, Marian, was the first to leave home when she married Frederick Rickards in West Ham in 1888 and Maud Mary left one year later when she married Francis Cossum at Christ Church in Hoxton. Charles John followed in his father’s footsteps and joined the army and soon after, he married Elizabeth Lepage on 9 January 1890 at Christ Church in Milton, Kent. Arthur Ernest lived at home with his parents until he married Elizabeth Webster at St Columba in Haggerston on 21 January 1894.
Charles died at home on Rotherfield Street on 9 February 1895, aged 64 years. Mary remained in Islington and one year later the family celebrated the marriage of son Edgar to Clara Henrietta Page on 29 March 1896 at Christ Church, Hoxton with his sister Maud and her husband Francis Cossum acting as witnesses. Edgar and Clara had one daughter, Rosina Marion, who was born in Islington on 13 February 1897. Edgar was working as a Furrier at the time of his marriage but he later joined the army and served in the Boer War, and according to the Marshall Report, he died of enteric fever while serving in South Africa and his wife and daughter received ‘an allowance from the Government’, presumably a widow’s pension. In 1901, Clara and her daughter lived at 96 Shepperton Road in Islington where she worked as a Charwoman and ten years later, they were renting one room in a house on Downham Road in Islington with Clara working as a Kitchen Cleaner for the London County Council. On 16 August 1915, Clara was admitted to the Islington Workhouse and three days later, she was transferred to the Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum in Barnet, north London. There are no further records to shed light on why Clara was committed to the asylum or what happened to her 18 year old daughter but since Clara died in the Barnet registration district in 1916, it seems she likely died while still a patient at Colney Hatch. Sadly, Rosina died three years later, aged 22 years, and was buried at Abney Park Cemetery.
William married Beatrice Young at Christ Church, Hoxton on 25 December 1898 and although his name was registered as William Leopold, his name was recorded as William Henry on his marriage certificate. At the time of his marriage, William was living at 5 South Street in Hoxton and working as a Marble Fixer. Beatrice was born on 1 April 1881, the daughter of Charles Young and Louisa Vago. Her father was an Artificial Eye Maker and ran a shop on Brittania Street.
One year after William’s wedding, Mary McLean died in Islington and she was buried at the Islington Cemetery on 30 December 1899. Sadly, William died in 1908 aged only 34 years and at present the cause of death is not known. Beatrice Young remarried one year after William’s death to William Clark at Holy Trinity church in Hoxton. They went on to have one son and Beatrice died in Southend on Sea, Essex in 1965.