The Breach Family's Sussex Origins

A Family History Blog by Alison Vainlo (Breach)

Sunday 11 March 2018

Generation Ten - Albert W Breach and Helen L R Hall 1872 - 1960

This is Generation Ten of the Main Ancestral Line. Use the links to go forward and back and the main ancestral chart to navigate. Names in bold type continue the ancestral line down.


Click to view main ancestral chart.



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Yorkshire Map


This generation of the Breach family had origins in East Sussex but settled in Yorkshire. Places in Yorkshire include, Bedale, Northallerton, Whitwell-on-the-Hill and York.








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G10 - Albert W Breach and Helen L R Hall 1872 - 1960



Albert and Helen on their wedding day in 1902


Albert Walter Breach (known as Walter) was born on the 31st of December 1872 in Hamsey, East Sussex the son of David Breach and Elizabeth Fairhall. He was the fourth of eleven children and his early years were spent in the farming communities of Sussex. On the 1881 census the family were living at Lower Street, East Dean, and eight year old Albert was described as a scholar.

In 1891 the family were still in East Dean, at an address called ‘Cornish’. Albert was working as a shepherd like his father.

In 1901 Albert fought in the second Boer War in South Africa. He served as a gunner with the 17th Company, Western Divisino, Royal Garrison Artillery between 1901 and 1902. He was awarded the Queen’s South Africa Medal (QSA) and the King’s South Africa Medal (KSA). 

Click here for related article - The Gentleman's War - The story of the Boer War.



Albert's QSA and KSA Boer War medals (front)

Albert's QSA and KSA Boer War medals (reverse)

There is an inscription on the rim of the medals which reads:


‘94626’ GNR: A Breach 17th W.D.R.G.A.’

The clasps on the QSA read ‘Orange Free State’ and ‘Cape Colony’. The clasps on the KSA read ‘South Africa 1901’ and ‘South Africa 1902’.

It was while Albert was in South Africa that he met a British Field Nurse, Helen Lavinia Read Hall (b. 1873) (illegitimate daughter of Susan Read). When they returned to England they married in Thirsk, North Yorkshire on the 26th of December 1902.

Albert became a Police Constable for the North Riding of Yorkshire Constabulary and lived at Northallerton, where their first two children were born, and York where their third child was born.

Albert probably retired from the Police Force in the mid 1930’s. He and Helen moved to a cottage in Whitwell-on-the-Hill near the Castle Howard Estate in North Yorkshire. Albert took a job as a grounds man at Castle Howard and also looked after the church grounds in Whitwell.


Albert Walter Breach in 1942



Helen died in February 1940 leaving Albert alone. He sold half of the cottage off and continued to live in the remaining half. He employed a housekeeper, Miss Spruce to look after him.

Albert was moved into a Joseph Rowntree home in York in January 1960, however two weeks later he was taken to Yearsley Bridge Hospital where he died of broncho-pneumonia and chronic bronchitis on the 4th of February 1960, he was eighty eight.


Helen Lavinia Read Hall 1873 -1940


Helen L R Hall in 1896


Helen Lavinia Read Hall was born on the 8th of April 1873 in Queen Charlotte's Hospital, Marylebone Road, London, the illegitimate daughter of Susan Read (b. 1852). Helen's name on her birth certificate is Helen Lavinia Read.

Susan, who was from Furneux Pelham in Hertfordshire, worked as a housemaid and schoolroom maid in the early 1870's. She worked in the household of famous historian and novelist James Anthony Froude (1818 - 1894), at number five Onslow Gardens, Kensington, where a blue plaque can be seen in his memory. Susan may have left this address before Helen was born as Helen's birth certificate states Susan's address as 93 St Ann's Road, Stepney. Just how she ended up giving birth in Queen Charlotte's Hospital is a mystery, as it's quite a distance from Stepney.

In 1876 Helen’s mother Susan married Percy Hall (b. 1856) (son of Andrew Hall and Margaret Pringle), a gamekeeper from Northumberland. By the 1881 census Percy Hall had become a Police Constable and the family were living in Moorsholm, North Yorkshire.

On the 1891 census seventeen year old Helen is found in York working as a Nursery Maid for a wealthy family. Sometime after this she completed her nursing training and went out to South Africa to work as a field nurse during the Boer War of 1901 – 02. It was here that she met Albert Walter Breach and they married in December 1902 back in Yorkshire.

Helen (who was known as Lavinia) gave birth to three children (see below).





Albert and Helen had three children as follows:



1. Susan Phyllis Margerie 1904 - 1986


Susan Phyllis Margerie as a nurse in the 1920's


Susan was born in Bedale, North Yorkshire on the 3rd of November 1904. She worked as a nurse in the 1920's and possibly the 1930's.

She married Arthur Ashby (b. 6 July 1893) in 1927 in Middlesbrough.


Susan on her wedding day

 

They had one son, David Eric, who was born in 1934 in Easingwold, Yorkshire. He went on to marry Margaret Cooper (b.1939) in 1963. They had twin daughters, Mandy and Jane in 1966. David died on the 10th of February 2009.


David E Ashby

 

Susan was known as Phyllis throughout her life. Arthur Ashby died on the 9th of November 1963 at the age of 70. Phyllis  married her second husband Henry (aka Harry) Raine on the 26th November 1970. They lived in Stillington, North Yorkshire.


Phyllis and Harry (centre) with Percy and Nora Breach,
twins Mandy and Jane stand in front




Our family lost touch with Phyllis after her brother, David Percy died in 1974, however, records show she died in 1986 at the age of 82.



2. Alberta Marguerita 1906 - 1952


Alberta Marguerita in 1926


Alberta was born in Bedale, North Yorkshire, in 1906. She married Edward Franklin (b. 3 Jul 1904) in the first quarter of 1927 in Middlesbrough. 

Alberta and Edward had four children as follows:

     

  1. Albert David (b. 6 Oct 1927 - d. 1999)
  2. William Edward (Teddy) (b. 12 Jan 1929 - d. 2009)
  3. Marguerita Helen (b. 31 Mar 1941)
  4. John (b. 23 Oct 1943)

           They lived in Grangetown, Middlesbrough.


          Alberta, Edward and their two eldest boys



          Alberta (she was known as Rita) died at the age of 46 in 1952 from a Melanotic Sarcoma. Her husband Edward died on the 27th of July 1984.




          G11 - 3. David Percy 1907 - 1974


          David Percy Breach



          David was born in York on the 25th of November 1907. He married Nora Fox (b. 1910)(dau of Tom Fox and Emma Harper) on the 29th of March 1930 in Kirkby Misperton, North Yorkshire. 

          David (known as Percy) and Nora settled in Doncaster, South Yorkshire and had one son, David Norman, born in 1930. 

          Percy died on the 9th of November 1974.


          L to R, Alberta, Susan and
          David P Breach in 1911


          Albert Walter and Helen in 1939


          Albert Walter with his housekeeper Miss Spruce outside
          his cottage in Whitwell-on-the-Hill




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          Percy continues the main ancestral line in Generation Eleven, see below.





          Alison Vainlo 2022



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