charles christopher arno + sophia pearce
Charles was born on 29 May 1866 at the family home on Sale Street to Eliza Mallindine and Joseph Arno and baptised at the local church of St Matthias on 24 June 1866. He grew up on Sale Street and in 1976, he was enrolled in the Turin Street School with his younger brother Henry.
By the time he turned 14, he had left school and started work as a Cabinet Maker, possibly in the same factory as his father. He worked in the trade his entire life except for a brief stint between March and September 1885 as a Vanguard for the Great Western Railway at Smithfield Station.
Charles was living on Peter Street when he married Sophia Pearce at St Peter, only steps from his home, on 11 October 1890. Both were able to sign the register with their names but his mother Eliza could only make her mark as one of the witnesses. Sophia was born in Clerkenwell in 1869 to John Pearce and when she married, she lived at 12 Pollard’s Row. It was a marriage of necessity as one month later, their son Charles Christopher was born at 10 Hague Street and baptised at St James the Great on 11 December.
When the census was taken one year later, they were still living on Hague Street but occupied only a single room. Charles was still working as a Cabinet Maker but the census return also noted ‘drawers’ so perhaps his work was limited to on part of the process. In March 1893, Charles’ mother died and two months later Sophia gave birth to their second son, Joseph Thomas. He was born on 21 May but his baptismal record has not been found. On 14 December 1895, Henry William was born at the Arno family home on Sale Street and baptised at St Andrew on 5 January 1896.
Sophia died in Whitechapel in the spring of 1898 but the cause of her death is not known nor has her burial record been found. She was 28 years old.
elizabeth frances evans
With three young children to care for, Charles remarried less than one year after his wife’s death to Elizabeth Frances Coals, nee Evans, on 16 January 1899 at St Andrew. Elizabeth was born in Shoreditch on 13 Sep 1857 in Shoreditch to William Evans, a Cabinet Maker, and his wife Louisa. She was widowed in 1897 when her husband John Thomas Coales died; they married in 1874 when she was just 17 years old and had three children. She was living on Mape Street when she married Charles and although she gave her age as 37 she was in fact 42 years old, nine years olders than her new husband. Charles’ occupation was now listed as a Japanner like his father and he was still living on Sale Street, so it appears he had returned to live permanently in his father’s house several years previously.
Shortly after they married, they moved to 33 Wadeson Street and on 10 January, Charles’ son Joseph transferred from the Hague Street school to the Mowlem Street School. On 1 January 1900, Charles and Elizabeth welcomed a son they named Christopher. The following year, they were still living on Wadeson Street along with Elizabeth’s two youngest children, 23 year old Elizabeth who was working as a Cigar Maker, and 11 year old Reuben, as well as and Charles’ three young sons. In all, eight people occupied just four rooms.
They were still on Wadeson Street in four rooms in 1911 but Elizabeth’s children had left home leaving just the four Arno boys — 20 year old Charles was working as a Storekeeper for a camera manufacturer, 17 year old Joseph as an Indian Rubber Teat Maker and 15 year old Henry as a Vanguard for a House Contractor (a security like position that involved guarding a van or wagon to ensure the load wasn’t stolen).
Charles appears in electoral registers in 1918-19 at 10c Wadeson Street but shortly after, they moved to Hackney and into a house at 58 Brougham Road. In the summer of 1924, Elizabeth died in Hackney, aged 66 years, and Charles was once again a widower.
clara rosina day
Two years later, 60 year old Charles married Clara Rosina Goode, nee Day, at the Hackney Register Office. Clara was born on 9 October 1879, 15 years younger than Charles, and was also a widow. She married James Goode in 1907 and they had two children, Primrose Violet in 1910 and Henry in 1912, before James’ death in 1921.
In 1939, Charles and Clara were living at 58 Brougham Road in Hackney and he was still working as a cabinet maker despite being 73 years old. Clara’s 27 year old son Henry, a Wire Worker, was also living with them along with Charles’ step-son Reuben Coals who was working as a Motor Engineer. Two years later, Charles died and was buried at West Ham Cemetery on 22 October. Clara reamined in their home on Brougham Road unitl her death on 13 February 1949; she was buried at West Ham Cemetery five days later.
The family line continues through Charles’ four sons — his eldest son Charles Christopher married Ada Sarah Williams at the Hackney Register Office on 22 May 1915 and they had two children, Charles Joseph and Doris. By 1923, they had moved to Willesden in north-west London and were still there in the mid 1950s. In 1939, they were living at Cryflo Cottage on Acton Lane and Charles was working as a Transport Manager for an electric machinery company while his son was working as a Technical Assistant in a laboratory. Charles died in Stubbington, Hampshire on 9 April 1969 and his wife Ada died in 1981.
Son Joseph Thomas enlisted in the Essex Regiment on 7 September 1914 and served as a Lance Corporal in France before his discharge in 1919. In addition to the Bristish, Victory and 1915 Star medals, he was also awarded the Silver War badge which was awarded to soldiers who had been honourably discharged due to wounds or illness resulting from military service. His service record has not been found so the details of his service, injuries or discharge are not known. In the early months of 1924, Joseph married Elizabeth Jane Long in Bethnal Green, a woman 14 years his senior and twice widowed. They stayed in Bethnal Green after their marriage and settled in a house at 34 Felix Street before moving to Essex in the 1930s. In 1939, they lived at 440 Lea Bridge Road in Leyton where Joseph worked as an Inside Collector at the General Post Office and Elizabeth’s son, Thomas Henry, his wife and their daughter Edith were also living with them. Elizabeth died in Leyton on 23 August 1950 and six years later, Joseph remarried to Alicia Kearney but after only six years of marriage, Joseph died at Whipps Cross Hospital in Leyton on 28 March 1962; he left an estate valued at £1200 to Alice.
Son Henry William married Rose Eleanor Bradley in Bethnal Green in the fall of 1924 and they had two daughters. They lived in Bethnal Green until the 1930s when they moved to 174 Downing Road in Dagenham and they were still there in 1939 but their daughters were not in the household and may have been evacuated due to the war. Henry was employed as a Mould Maker. Their eldest daughter Joyce emigrated to Canada with her husband shortly after their marriage in 1954 and Henry and Rose joined them some time later. Rose died in Wallaceburg, Ontario on 5 January 1974 and Henry on 27 July and they were buried together at Riverview Cemetery in Wallaceburg.
No records have been found relating to Charles and Elizabeth Evans’ son Christopher between his birth in 1900 and his death in Hendon in 1987.