joseph george arno + ellen catherine savage
Joseph was the eldest son of Joseph Arno and Eliza Mallindine and he was born at the family home at 14 Hereford Street on 14 February 1859. After leaving school, Joseph worked as an Errand Boy before starting to work alongside his father as a Furniture Japanner — a trade that involved the painting and polishing of a lacquer finish on furniture and decorative objects.
Joseph was living in the family home on Sale Street when he married Ellen Catherine Savage at St Jude Bethnal Green on 18 May 1880. Ellen was born in Bethnal Green on 25 November 1861 to Charles Savage and Grace Leckie and at the time of her marriage, she lived on Tredaway Street but had previously lived down the street from the Arno family at 8 Sale Street.
After the wedding, they moved to rooms at 1 Berry Place in Pundersons Gardens and Joseph continued his work as a Japanner. Their first son William Joseph was born there on 26 May 1881 and baptised at St James the Less on 28 August, on the same day as Joseph’s younger brother and sister. They moved from Berry Place to 55 Pundersons Gardens and two more sons followed but both of them died in infancy — Charles Henry was born on 21 June 1883 and Frederick on 8 January 1886. They were still at number 55 when Albert was born on 6 July 1888,and baptised on 29 July at St James the Great, but they moved to 68 Seabright Street by the time their first daughter, Ellen Emily, was born on 2 September 1890; she too was baptised at St James the Great on 21 September.
When the census was taken the following year, Joseph and Ellen were still on Seabright Street with their three surviving children and the census return notes that they occupied three rooms. There is no record of the family until the next census when they were living at 9 Minson Road in Hackney with their eldest son, William, now working with his father as a Japanner. On 24 November 1901, William married Mary Ann Haynes, known as Polly, at St Simon in Bethnal Green. His wife was born in Bethnal Green about 1880 to James Haynes, a Dock Labourer, and his wife Mary Ann Peters. William was living at 1 Prospect Terrace in Bethnal Green at the time, although it is not known if the whole family returned to Bethnal Green, and Polly was living at 54 Green Street and working as an Artificial Flower Maker. Although when the census was taken earlier in the year, she was living with her family at 1 Burnham Square off Globe Road but it was a crowded home as ten people were living in just three rooms.
William and Polly Haynes had ten children but only seven survived infancy. In 1911, William, Mary and their two children were living in five rooms at 1a Burnham Square but the Haynes family no longer lived on the street.
Joseph and Ellen had returned to Bethnal Green by 1911 and were living in four rooms at 59 Cyprus Street with their two youngest children, 22 year old Albert working as a Japanner and 20 year old Ellen was helping her mother at home. In 1915, the family celebrated two weddings when both Ellen and Albert got married. On 6 March, Ellen married John Jones at St John in Bethnal Green. John worked as a Commercial Traveller and lived at 10 Bessie Street. They settled in Hackney and had two children: Alfred born in 1918 and Doris in 1922. In 1939, Ellen and John were living alone at 31 Langley Gardens and John was working as a Dispatch Clerk.
On 8 May 1915, Albert married Florence May Harrow at St Stephen in Bow and his brother-in-law John Jones acted as one of the witnesses along with Lena Harrow. Florence was eight years older than Albert and her father, Edward, was also a Japanner. They had one son, Albert Edward Joseph, born on 27 March 1916 in Bethnal Green. Albert enlisted in the army as a private in the Coldstream Guard's 30th Battalion but he was killed in action at Neuf Berquin near Lille, France on 12 April 1918 and buried at Ploegsteert Memorial Cemetery in Hainaut, Belgium. Florence never remarried and in 1939, she was living in Orpington, Kent along with her son Albert who was working as a Civil Servant. Florence died in Maidstone in 1976 and Albert, who never married, died in Sidcup in 1980.
His older brother William Joseph also enlisted but in the Middlesex Regiment at Finsbury Barracks on 27 September 1915 and served on the Western Front before he was taken prisoner by the Germans. After his release, he returned to his family on Bessy Street in Bethnal Green and continued to work as a Japanner but he suffered from lung problems for many years and on 12 March 1929, he died of bronchial pneumonia at 214a Cambridge Road. He was buried at West Ham Cemetery on 23 March. Mary Ann never remarried.
Ellen Savage died in the summer of 1917, aged 55 years, and was buried at West Ham Cemetery on 25 August.
rose mary garner
Joseph married a second time to Rose Mary Garner at St James the Less in Bethnal Green on 20 April 1924 and his sister-in-law, Rose Haynes, was one of the witnesses. He was still living at 59 Cyprus Street but his occupation was now listed as a Cabinet Maker so perhaps he had moved on to doing more than finishing work on furniture. By 1939, he had retired but stayed in the same house on Cyprus Street.
Joseph died at home on 4 December 1947 of cardiac failure and was buried at West Ham Cemetery one week later; he was 88 years old. His second wife, Rose, died two years later and was also buried at West Ham Cemetery.