I happened to be in the Willesden area today & it occurred to me that one of my Great Grandfathers was buried in Paddington Cemetery which confusingly is in Willesden. George Henry Small died on 23rd February 1917 and was buried here on 2nd March 1917 aged but 49 years.
There's a story, told to me by my Dad, attached to his demise.
He was a coach painter & was working at the Royal Mews in Buckingham Palace (more of that later), my Gran (his daughter) used to take him his lunch but one day she either forgot or for some reason couldn't get there so he returned to Paddington where they lived and got run over by a bus on the way home, from which he died. However I have a copy of his death certificate and that has no mention of being knocked down, cause of death is recorded as 'carcinoma of the stomach and exhaustion.'. So stomach cancer killed him. I have learnt that in genealogy it is dangerous not to note all family stories & indeed tittle tattle as there maybe a grain of truth buried there somewhere. I thought it may just be that later, after he'd been run over he complained of stomach problems leading to cancer and his family blamed these on the accident. I'll never have a satisfactory answer to this of course though I haven't checked the local papers of the time to see whether an accident is noted. I'll add it to my 'to do' list.
The gates photoed must have been the same entrance that his funeral cortege would have gone through, I presume a horse drawn hearse. It seems a long way from Paddington where they lived but there wasn't a nearer cemetery, it would seem they were not at all wealthy on the electoral roll George, his wife Annie and their six children lived in two rooms at 28 Church Street. In 1906 they were paying 7shillings a week rent.
He is buried in a common grave in section 3e. This is pretty well a paupers grave, the bodies being buried up to ten deep ( must have been one hell of a hole!) and there is no headstone. The cemetery has been neglected, the gate houses either side of the entrance seem to have been sold off and the chapel in the middle, where I expect my Great Grandfather would have had his funeral service, has gone to rack and ruin, as you can see from the photos it is surrounded by fencing, I can only hope the authorities intend to renovate at some stage.
I don't know much about George really and have no photos of him but I can tell you he was born in 1867 in Marylebone, I haven't found his baptism yet so his age is worked out from census returns. He was the sixth of eight children to William George & Sarah Elizabeth Small (nee Hutchins), they were both born in Salisbury, Wiltshire and moved to London somewhere between 1854 and 1861 where they lived at 24 Exeter Street, two of their six children were born in Wiltshire, the rest in London, the Marylebone area which later gets called Paddington. William is noted as a coach painter on all the census returns and George followed him doing the same job. Buckingham Palace didn't employ coach painters, they employed outside companies so he must have worked for one of them. I have a list of companies used but so far I haven't found out which one he may have worked for.
George married Annie Eliza Cunningham on 23rd December 1888 at the parish Church of St Marylebone, they lived at 31 Exeter Street to start with. They had eight children in total,two of them dying very young, my Grandmother being the fifth born. How they'd have got on once George was dead I do not know. My Gran would have been 16 so I expect, along with her sisters & brother contributed to the family coffers.
I would think my Dad was named after him as he too was George Henry. He always hated both his names but said he reckoned his parents thought no further than the name of the King for him, you'd have thought they may have told him he was named after his Grandfather.
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| Views of area 3E where George Henry Small is buried |
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| Area 3E |
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| Area 3E |
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| Memorial to all buried in unmarked graves. |
