Nurse. Voluntary Aid Detachment, St. John Ambulance Brigade.
Early life:
Annie Powell was born Annie Tate at Uttoxeter on the 12th of February 1886. We know little of her very early life.
According to the Red Cross V.A.D. records 25 year old Annie lived at 7 John Street in Oakworth at the time of her service. In 1911 she was at the same address with her husband, John William Powell, a wool sorter originally from Cullingworth, who was 17 years her senior. His daughter Mildred, age 15, was also living there at the time. Annie is documented as being born in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire. They had been married for five years. There is a marriage record for John William Powell marrying Annie Tate in the fourth quarter of 1905 in Keighley.
In attempting to establish her earlier life I have worked backwards. The only Annie Tate of the correct age from Uttoxeter that I can find on the 1901 census was living and working as a domestic servant in Pendleton, Lancashire for a congregational minister named James Neil and his family. In 1891, again the only Annie Tate of the correct age from Uttoxeter was living with a sister called Alice, three years older. The head of the household was George Tate, a single man who was a grocer, his aunt Lois Buckley (widower), cousin Lois Ellie Buckley and nieces Alice and Annie, ages eight and five respectively.
These details match with a BMD birth record for Annie Tate, born in the first quarter of 1886 in Uttoxeter. I have not found a baptism record but have found one for Alice Tate who was baptised in the Anglican faith on 24th September 1882 in Uttoxeter, her parents were Joseph and Mary Jane Tate. I have found an 1861 census record for Joseph Tate who was age six, living with his grandparents George and Lois Elly, and their daughter Jane Elly, presumably Joseph’s mother.
War service:
Annie worked at Morton Banks Hospital during 1916 and 1917 as a nurse, principally undertaking night duties. Although part time, she managed to clock up 1170 hours in those two years.
Post war:
In the 1921 census they were still living at number 7 John Street in Oakworth. John William was aged 52 and was a wool sorter for William Haggas and Son limited; Annie was aged 35 and on home duties; their daughter Mildred was aged 18 and a weaver of cotton goods for Edmund Harrison. Boarding with them at the time was Jane Ellen Kirk aged 28, she was an elementary school teacher at Eastwood School in Keighley.
Annie’s husband John William Powell died in 1931 and was buried at Oakworth Wesleyan Methodist Burial Ground with his seven year old daughter Leilia (who had died in 1901) and his first wife Margaret Ann, who had died aged 26 in 1904. Another man named Maurice Clement Couffinhal of Paris, France, was also buried there in 1951. He was a family friend who had died during a walk lin Haworth. Annie gave up her future place in the family grave for him.was a long-standing friend of Maurice Clement Couffinhal and during a walk around Haworth in 1951 he collapsed with a brain haemorrhage and died. Because it was so expensive to return his body to France, Annie gave up her place booked beside her husband in the family grave so that Maurice could be laid to rest there. Maurice Couffinhal’s father was influential in the significant formation of the Keighley town twinning deal with Poix du Nord.
In the 1939 Register Annie was widowed and living at 7 John Street in Oakworth. She was aged about 53 and on domestic home duties, but she appears to have been working as a nursing auxiliary for the St. John Ambulance Brigade, which may have been as part of the war effort.
Annie married Harry R. Feather in Oakworth in 1948.
Harry died at the age of 81 in 1957.
Annie was living at Granville House, Exley Road when she died aged 77 on the 5th of April 1963 and her probate record shows she left the sum of £2574 17s 0d to Mr. Richard Ogden, painter and decorator.
Information sources:
1861 England Census (father Joseph).
Staffordshire, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1900.
England and Wales, Civil registration Birth Index, 1837-1915.
1891 England Census.
1901 England Census.
1911 England Census.
1921 Census.
England and Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1837-1915.
1939 Register.
West Yorkshire, England, Electoral Registers, 1840-1962.
West Yorkshire, Non-Conformist Records, 1646-1985.
England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007.
England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1995.
With special thanks to Andrew Heaton of the Dockroyd Graveyard Trust.
