The Thorpe family lived in Nayland for many years. There are numerous Thorpes in the 1851 and 1881 census returns.
The 1901 census shows Margaret A Thorpe, 21, living with her widowed grandmother, Mary A Thorpe in Court Street. She was listed as a domestic servant. In March 1906 she is sent a postcard at The Stores, Park St., Stoke.
In 1907 she is in South Kensington c/o Miss Moss with a break in February when she is at Goodmayes near Ilford. In July 1909 she receives a coloured birthday card addressed to Bear Street and in 1911 she is living at Birch Street.
There are Thorpes on the Nayland War Memorial and Mary George's book For King & Country page 25 lists them.
James Thorpe, of whom there are several photos, was a carpenter who worked for Deaves builders and undertakers for 50 years, a member of the volunteer fire brigade for 40 years and a member of the church choir and bellringers for 50 years.
Three of his four sons, Ernest, Herbert and Walter, were killed between 1916 and 1918. Charles survived and is listed on the Roll of Honour in St James Church.
Herbert Humphrey, whose bible was also given to the Society, is listed one of the bellringers at Edward Clover's funeral in 1935 (Memories of Nayland in the Twentieth Century page 89). Herbert Humphrey was married in 1919. |