Maud(e) Beatrice Magee Life after Gerald
Now we are truly into the realms of the imagination as we currently have virtually no facts available. The pictures above show some of the radically different scenarios. Let’s consider the possibilities from what we know
The salient fact is that Gerald is dead and she has been left out of the will, although her first three children are provided for. What does this mean and where does this leave Maude, particularly as there now seem to be two more children - Violet and Harry?.
My original scenario 2 is a variation of scenario 1 - in that Violet and Harry did indeed have just one father (not Gerald) who loved her, but for some reason was unable to marry her - and so they lived in sin together until she died, back in Southend, where she enjoys a happy enough, modest family life, crushing together with the other Southenders and the day trippers, on the beach.
Well she may have had a lover in Southend, but the children were definitely not there.
I notice, however, that I do not seem to have considered the possibility that she went on living with Gerald until his death - probably because of the will.
South London?, Southend-on-Sea 1915-1925
Scenario 1 is that she is the fallen woman, the woman who betrayed her husband with another man. If they had been divorced she would have had the children taken from her and been left with nothing but shame and disapproval. Divorced or not, she has been left penniless and the three children, Florence, Stanley and Roland have been possibly been returned to their grandmother and the aunts. From the very little that my father ever said about his early life, one can assume that this might indeed have been what happened. He did say he was brought up by the aunts. Maude is left to fend for herself with Violet and Harry. I had initially thought that her own family was probably unable to help much - they didn’t seem to have helped her paternal grandparents after all - they died in the Workhouse. But I have since discovered that they were taken in by Maude's aunt and basically brought up as part of her family. Maude does not seem to have had anything else to do with them - well they didn't live with her anyway.
So was she destitute like the woman in the photograph, forced to beg in the streets? Or did Violet and Harry’s father(s) support her? Or a succession of men? If she truly was beautiful and a ‘bringer of joy’, then perhaps this wasn’t too hard to do. Did she get a job? How did she feel though about losing Gerald’s children? When Gerald died they were 11 (Florence), 9 (Stanley) and 6 (Roland). Surely this would have been heart-breaking for her?
Until the 1921 census is released, I doubt we shall be able to find out more, so can only imagine. What did she live on though? From the earlier census records, she does not ever seem to have had paid work. And now that we do indeed know that Violet and Harry survived, and where, we need to know how much contact she had, and whether she helped with their support or was helped by their father whoever he was.
It's a serious question - where did she get her money, because when she died, she had a fair bit.
But that’s not all. There are two more surprising facts, just to astonish us.
On January 25, 1924 a baby girl is born at 41 Quebec Avenue in Southend-on-Sea. She is named June, by her mother - Maud Beatrice Mollett. Her father is Gerald Osmond Mollett, timber surveyor of the same address. Tragically, baby June dies on the 14th of May of bronchitis, though apparently she was one month premature, which would not have helped. The death was registered by her sister Florence.
But Gerald has been dead for four or five years, so is obviously not the father. Besides he was never a timber surveyor - so this is perhaps a clue as to the identity of the father. There are two possible explanations.
History of Southend-on-Sea - from the History House site, lots of links for family historians with ancestors who lived in Southend.
Southend PierMuseum - not all that relevant to Maude’s story but interesting.
The first possibility is that the child is actually Florence’s. Florence is now 19, and later that year, on September 6 she marries George Leonard Chalk, a gas works employee, who, like Florence, gives Maud’s home as his address. Their first child Leonard George is born in the following March so she would have been pregnant when she married. Doctors do not certify births, like they do deaths, so the parents could be anybody - proof is not requested at registration. And although the doctor certified the death, he might not necessarily have really known who the mother was - or, even if he did know, he might have turned a blind eye. Perhaps a bit unlikely. But then the same doctor certified Maude’s death, so was presumably the family doctor, and would surely have been consulted during the pregnancy. What it does show though, is that Florence had returned home (if she had ever left) to live with her mother. Also one of the witnesses at the wedding appears to be S. A. Mollett (the first initial is unclear). Who is this? My father (wrong initials), a cousin?
But what if the child is indeed Maude’s? She is only 39 after all, so it is possible. Mind you she must have been ill as she only had just over a year to live, but then this might have explained why the child was born prematurely. Who was the timber surveyor father? It's a weird profession to pick out of the air is it not? Indeed what does a timber surveyor do? So really it is more likely that Maude was June’s mother. Surely if it had been Florence’s, Florence would have been too upset to register the death, and Maude would have done it for her? But then I suppose Maude could by now have been bedridden with TB. Obviously there are more investigations to be made here.
If the child is Maude’s it shows she was either extremely stupid and reckless or a hopeless romantic who loved children. And let’s face it, birth control was not what it is today. Let’s hope she was happy at this point in her life.
Links
Life after Gerald
Magee
Gerald Osmond Hubert Mollett
Hubert Stanley Mollett
Peckham
Southend-on-Sea