Edith May Ford (1890-1979) Adventures in Africa

cont....

The George and Alice Ford Story Part8

Edith May Ford b: 25 Jun 1890 in Donegal Ireland, d: 23/1/1979 in Fleet, Hampshire, England; aged 89

   + James Mercer b: 25 Mar 1886 in Scotland and, m: 13 Feb 1912

Jean Iva Mercer b: 30 Apr 1915 in Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa, d: 30 Apr 2002 in Heleston Cornwall, England

+ Clement Arthur Hayes b: 28 Aug 1903 in Frimley, Surrey, England, m: 07 Apr 1937 in Camberley Surrey, d: 26 Sep 1987 in Frimley, Surrey, England

Edith May Ford was Alice and George Ford’s second daughter and 6th child.  The Irish Civil Registration Certificate shows her birth as Sept Quarter 1890 Glenties, Donegal Ireland and her death registration gives her date of birth as 25th June1890.  Edith is born of English parents who were in Ireland on behalf of the English Government her father was a Coastguard and the family moved around remote parts of Ireland and as a result nearly every child was born somewhere different.

Just after 1896 the family returned to England to a coast guard position Portobello where her father died in 1897. 

Edith May Ford in service as a cook 1911

Still as a young girl and not long after her father died the 1901 census shows Edith May living with her sister Beatrice in Hampstead at the Sailors Orphans Girls School.  She is 10 years old. Her place of birth was shown incorrectly. At the time of the 1911 census, Edith was living at The Vicarage, Ringner Lewes working as a cook servant. 

Possibly because she worked for the Vicar she had corresponded with a Corporal James Mercer and who was a military bandsman in the British Army in South Africa. At age 22 she left England to marry him in Durban, South Africa. They married on 13^th Feb 1912. 

Mercer who was originally Messor was born in 1886 in Greenlaw, Berwickshire.  His family moved to Glasgow and by the 1901 census he was found as a ‘Boy under detention” on the Industrial School ship “The Empress”.  The ship served several functions, helping naval cadets, schooling poor & deprived children and as a detention centre for children in trouble with the police.  

James Mercer 1911 census

Having changed his name to Mercer he became a career soldier who joined the 1^st Battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers in 1902. This  Scotsman from Berwick Scotland first served abroad in Allahabad, India in 1902 and then in South Africa from 1910. Along the way he was promoted to Lance Corporal in 1907 and Corporal in 1910. 

James and Edith in South Africa

Picture a young woman at the turn of the century from a large family whose mother is widowed. She has lived in various places in Ireland and England. Her education is completed in boarding school.   The 1911 census shows she has taken a position in service. Quickly she is off on another adventure to an exotic life as a military wife in South Africa married to a man she hardly knew and had never met and a long way from her home, her mother and siblings.  Then he takes a job away from home…..

  

His discharge from the Army was confirmed at Pretoria 22/12/1913 after service abroad of 10 years 321 days. At this time  Edith’s man was 27 years 8 months,  5'9 ¼ " with  fresh complexion , blue eyes and light brown hair. His conduct had been exemplary. Corporal Mercer did a short stint with the S.A. Railway as Station Foreman : Waterval Onder. With the war starting in 1915 it seems he did Military service with the  British Army in Gauteng, Johannesburg South Africa,

While her husband James Mercer was away working for the railway Edith had an affair with another soldier, a Hampshire man named Herbert Legg.  Legg b 1885 was in the Hampshire regiment 2^nd Battalion.  He was also a career soldier having enlisted in 1902 at Portsmouth.  His Regiment served in Malta 1903, Bermuda 1905, South Africa 1907, Mauritius 1911 arriving in Mhow Bengal in 1913-14 a centre of Indian military development.

Military records show his regiment was en route from Mhow to Portsmouth and presumably via South Africa during 1914. There he met young Edith somewhere around July.  She fell pregnant to Legg. Her daughter Jean (Mercer) was born in 30 Apr 1915 in Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa.

Meanwhile, Herbert Legg had returned to England arriving 22/12/ 1914. After a break to Romsey and Stratford upon Avon in February they came under the orders of the 88^th Brigade in the 29^th division and moved to Warwick. They sailed for Gallipoli via Egypt landing in Alexandria on the 2^nd April and landing in Lemnos which was to be an advance base for operations at Gallipoli their battalion landed at Cape Hellos on the “River Clyde” on that fateful day for the ANZACS  25^th April 1915.   

The Battalion was evacuated from Gallipoli in Jan 1916 to Egypt. By 20^th March 1916 they had landed at Marseilles for service in France.

 

Herbert was gassed on the Somme battlefield shortly after returning to Europe and was Killed in Action. The fateful day was 9th Aug 1916. 2nd Batt Hampshire regiment diary p96-97 reports on number of casualties and deaths on that day. On the night of 8th / 9th August 1916 the Germans launched a gas attack on the 29th Division front at Potijze; there were heavy losses, especially in the 2nd Hampshires (4 officers and 125 men died out of nearly 240 casualties).

 

Legg’s burial grave is in Belgium Grave no27, Row A POTIJZE Chateau Wood. Apparently, there is a good account of the gas attack on 2/Hants in the book "I Survived Didn't I?" which records the Great War Reminiscences of Private 'Ginger' Byrne.  

https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/119886-2nd-battalion-hampshire-regiment-war-diary/

He never knew Edith had given birth to his baby. DNA testing of Jean’s sons has finally confirmed the parentage.  

Edith and daughter Jean taken in Durban

Meanwhile Mercer had given his name to little Jean and the three continued to live in South Africa until after the war. Edith and Jean arrived from Durban South Africa on 12^th October 1919 at Southampton UK with her infant daughter then aged 4 on the '"Balmoral Castle". A copy of her passport received from her grandson describes her as height 5’ 6", low forehead, grey eyes, normal nose and mouth, pointed chin, brown hair pale complexion and oval face.  Edith May, aged 29 had returned to England from South Africa on her own with Jean but James Mercer followed her and they reunited following pressure from her family. 

Edith and Jean's passport page 3 

When he returned from South Africa James took a job working at London Bridge Station as a ticket collector until 27/5/21. He resigned from railways and took a post as a bandsman at Sandhurst Royal Academy near Camberley in Surrey. They lived in quarters in the grounds of the Academy for some time (Jean, her daughter recalled swimming in the lake).

Jean at Camberley

In 1937 Edith saw her daughter Jean marry Clement Hayes. Among the well-wishers was cousins Vera and Harold Holness and Uncle Joe Ford, Lottie and Peggy from Newhaven.  The 1939 register shows them working in the jewelry and watch making business. At the same time the 1939 register shows Edith living at the Royal Military College. 

Jean and Clem's wedding

From 1921 until his discharge in 1943 James served 22 years with the Bands Corps. Promoted to Sergeant he was described as “of high character, honest, sober, hardworking and conscientious in the highest degree. He is above average in intelligence and has the knack of getting the best out of others.”

Edith and James remained married and together until his death. James brought up the baby, Jean as his own. Jean did not find out about Herbert until her forties and her children Martin and John until much later.   It’s taken DNA to confirm the right “Herbert” and match him to his military records and therefore his story. 

James Mercer died in 1974. Edith May died not long after aged 88 on 23/1/ 1979 in the North East Hampshire registration district of England.  She had lived with her daughter, Jean and her husband Clem for many years in Surrey. Clement died in 1987 and Jean lived until 2002.

She was the last of George and Alice’s children to die.

Jean with sons  John and Martin

Daughter Jean had two boys, Martin and John. Jean died in Cornwall in 2002. While researching the Ford family story that I made contact with her sons and daughters in law who revealed the story of Edith May and her family. They shared some photos and memorabilia which revealed contact and connection with relatives and cousins tied to the other Ford siblings. These old letters and telegrams are rare gold and prove connection to the Ford siblings despite the distance.  Despite the size and dispersal of the family they remained in correspondence together.  

My husband has several DNA matches to this family