james malindine + eliza delevat
James, known as Jim, was born at 2 Weatherhead Gardens in Bethnal Green on 27 April 1869 to Charles Frederick Malindine and Emma Tweed. He was baptised at the local church of St Matthias on 16 May. Two years later, his family moved to Mount Street near the Old Nichol area of Bethnal Green where they lived for the next twenty years. By 1891, twenty-one year old Jim and his two brothers, Charlie and Jack, left the family home on Mount Street and lived together in three rooms at 63 Virginia Road which was just round the corner from Mount Street. Jim was working as a Confectioner while brother Charlie was a Book Binder and Jack a Compositor in a printer’s shop.
Jim married Eliza Delevat on 27 October 1895 at St Peter, Bethnal Green with his brother-in law Nathaniel Miller as one of the witnesses. Eliza was born on 17 August 1869 to Joshua Delevat, also spelled Delivett, and Elizabeth Brown and she grew up on New Street which ran between Newcastle Street and Mount Street. Jim was still working as a Confectioner and living on Virginia Row when he married.
After marrying, they settled in rooms at 71 Quilter Street, just off Columbia Road, where the first of their seven children, daughter Eliza, was born on 27 March 1898; she was baptised at St Peter on 17 April. Florence Rosina was also born on Quilter Street on 29 May 1900 and baptised at St Peter on 1 April.
When the 1901 census was taken, Jim and Eliza were still living on Quilter Street, occupying just two rooms, and Jim’s occupation was listed as a Sugar Boiler. It isn’t clear if this change from Confectioner to Sugar Boiler also meant that Jim’s job changed. A sugar boiler or sugar baker was usually used to describe a worker in a sugar refinery rather than someone who made sweets or sold them in a sweet shop and the most of London’s major sugar refineries were in Whitechapel.
The first stage of refining sugar was the removal of impurities by mixing it with water and heating it until just below the boiling point in a large vat and then running it first through pipes fitted with cotton cloth to capture the larger particles and then through a charcoal filter to remove the smaller ones. The sugar syrup mixture is then boiled in an enclosed steam powered vacuum pan to remove enough water to allow the sugar to reach a granulated state. The sugar is then heated one last time in an open pan to purify it further and workers are employed with long poles to stir it to prevent it burning. Once the sugar syrup is purified, it is transferred to molds where it cools and crystalizes. Jim was likely responsible for either monitoring the vacuum pan or stiring the syrup in the open pan.
In the fall of 1901, their daughter Florence died aged about 18 months and at the time, Eliza was pregnant with their third child. James Frederick was born on 23 May 1902 and when he was baptised at St Peter on 15 June, the family was living at 23 Durant Street which ran north/south and intersected with Quilter Street. The family remained in this house for 30 years. Lilian May was born on 15 Dec 1904 and baptised at St Peter on 8 January 1905 followed by Rosina on 29 May 1907 and Edwin Thomas on 1 January 1910.
In 1911, they were recorded in the census at 23 Durant Street but the family of seven occupied just three rooms and James was listed as a Confectioner Sugar Boiler. On 12 October 1913, Winnifred Doris was born in Bethnal Green.
James and Eliza appear in the Electoral Registers at 23 Durant Street until 1931 but by 1939, they had left the East End and settled at 376 Markhouse Road in Walthamstow, Essex. Their 32 year old daughter Rosina was the only one left at home and she was working as an Upholsterer of soft furnishings but James was unemployed. In the spring of 1943, Rosina married James Adamson Bywater in Edmonton, north London but later that year, on 16 December, James died in Walthamstow and was buried at Manor Park Cemetery on 23 December.
Rosina and James moved from the east to the west side of London to 143 Broomgrove Gardens in Harrow about 1946 and Eliza moved with them. They had one daughter born in Harrow but by 1950, they had moved back to James’ home town of Liverpool and again, Eliza followed them to their new home at 12 Sunnygate Road. She died in Eastbourne, Sussex in the summer of 1952 but it is not known if she moved to the south coast or if she was on holiday at the time. Rosina and James remained in Liverpool and last appear in the Electoral Registers in 1970 at 33 Chalfont Road but at some point they moved to Cambridge where Rosina died in 1992. James died in Uttlesford, Essex in 1999.
Jim and Eliza’s eldest daughter Eliza never married and died in Epsom, Surrey in 1933. Their son James married Rosetta Lawford in Bethnal Green and they went on to have two children. They settled in Hammersmith after their wedding before moving further west to Ealing and in 1939, they were living at 311 Bilton Road with their two children and at least one lodger. James’ occupation is unclear but it appears to read ‘Saw Doctor & Sharpener’. Not long after, their two children were evacuated to Blackwater in Cornwall to escape the Blitz and lived with Mr and Mrs Odgers at the Silverwell Post Office. By 1948, they had moved to 18 Courtmead in Ruislip and lived there for more than 20 years. James died in Hillingdon in 1973 and Rose died in Uxbridge in 1995.
Lilian married Herbert George Bonner, known as George, in West Ham in 1930 and they had three children. In 1939, Lilian was living on Mill Street in Harrow with the Phillips family and two of her children may have been with her but the 1939 Register record is still sealed. They lived at 25 Cadogan Gardens in Woodford, Essex for many years. Lilian died in Hainult, Essex in 1969 and George in 1975.
Edwin was living in the family home on Durant Street when he married Audrey Lilian Fitch in Lambeth in 1937 and they had three children. In 1939, Edwin, Lilian and their young son were living at 31 Elmer Close in Enfield and he was working as Commercial Traveller selling lubricating oils. He was also active in the Liberal Party and was elected as a councillor in the Bethnal Green Borough Council and in 1935, he ran in the general election for East Leyton but was unsuccessful.
Edwin served as a Captain in the Army Service Corps and after the war, he ran for election several more times and later became the president of the Liberal Party. He eventually left politics to focus on his business career and rose to the position of Managing Director of Sternol Ltd which manufactured and distributed oil and lubricants. Edwin and Audrey lived at 4 Woodcroft in Winchmore Hill near Edmonton in north London for many years before moving to Gerrards Cross in the 1970s. Edwin died on 5 September 1993 in Amersham, Buckinghamshire; he was cremated and interred at the Chilterns Crematorium in Amersham. His wife Audrey died on 6 December 1994 in Amersham.
Winnifred, known as Winnie, married Reginald Arthur Brockington in Bethnal Green in 1938 and they settled in a house at 108 Middleton Road in Hackney. The following year, Winnie had been evacuated from London and was living with the Purnell family at 47 Tivoli Crescent in Brighton but Reg hasn’t been found in the 1939 Register although he may have been serving in the army at the time. They returned to Hackney after the war where their only daughter was born in 1947 but later moved to Essex and lived at 8 Woodview Ave in Chingford in the 1960s. Winnie died on 18 February 1989 in Waltham Forest followed by Reg in 2002.