Daughter of Joseph Swindale and Mary Jane Gregg, born on the 10th of April 1883 in Haverigg 1
Married John Stephens ("Jan") in 1914 (3/8/85 - 19/1/63)
Children
John Swindale, born 1919 (died in infancy)
Hilda Joan, born on the 25th of October 1921
Died on the 2nd of September 1942 in Liverpool 1
PersonID 05649
" My mother was known as Lillie (or King of the Kids, from her fondness for
looking after other peoples' babies) and she grew up to be a telegraphist and
counter clerk in the Post Office in Millom. They moved to No 4 Crown Street in
Millom in 1892, opposite the Baptist Chapel, and Joseph helped to install the
organ there; he played for the services for a long time, and when he retired my
mother took his place until she married and left the town. It can't have been a
very peaceful house, with seven of them in and out, especially as they all
played some sort of musical instrument - William the violin, Tom, the cello,
Clara, the mandoline, Lillie the piano - I don't know what Jack did, maybe he
just sang with them!
Mary Jane died in June 1903 after a long illness, and gradually the family
dispersed .... Willie to Nantwich in Cheshire, where he married Henrietta
Barnet, and had one son, Joseph Barnet; they had a very good confectioner's shop
there, and one in Crewe, too. Tom, after an adventurous career in the army and
in America, married and went to South Africa, Clara went to work in Liverpool
where she married Edward Owen Roberts, and Jack taught in London, where he
married Mabel Minnie Larkins. Lillie stayed in Millom, working in the Post
Office, playing the organ at church, and singing in the Operatic Society and the
Choral Union until her marriage to my father in 1914. Her father, Joseph,
married again to Barbara ------, and there was some sort of family disagreement
about this time, but I don't know what it was about, or even if she lived at
home, as she never mentioned her stepmother to me, so I know little of that
period. She married my father, John Stephens, in November 1914, the year her
father died, and her brothers and sister returned to Millom to attend the
wedding, Willie giving her away, and Clara's young daughter, Beryl Millicent,
being her flower girl.
John and Lillie went to live in Liverpool at 27, Cedardale Road, Fazakerley, not
far from where Clara and Owen had a house in Chapel Avenue, This was at the
beginning of the Great War, 1914-1918, and John who had been working for the
Cooperative Society, joined the King's Liverpool Regiment in, I think, 1915. For
a time, Lillie's sister-in-law, Mabel Swindale, came up from London with her
first son, John Alexander, and there her second child, Harold, was born. When my
father, John, was reported 'Missing, believed killed', my mother went back to
Millom to stay with her mother- in-law in Devonshire Road; some time later the
news came through that John was a prisoner of war in Germany, which must been a
great relief to the whole family. After the Armistice, when John was released
and returned to Millom to be discharged on medical grounds, he and Lillie went
back to their home in Liverpool and to his work in the furnishing department of
the Co-op." 1
1 Information from Joan Shrewsbury (Hilda Joan Swindale)
2 Margaret Swindale says John Stephens was of Cornish extraction, a strong Methodist and very keen organist/choirmaster. After Lily's death he remarried - Muriel, who died 'shortly' before December 1979.
3 John Stephens remarried to Muriel who survived him.
a)
1891 UK census
Living with her parents at at 5, Main Street, Haverigg, Millom
(Millicent)
1901 UK census,
cont
Living with her parents at 4 Crown Street Millom, a stationer's
assistant (Lilly).
1911 UK census
Living with herfather and step-mother at 4 Crown Street,
a post-office clerk (Millicent)
1939 Register
Not found
b) The birth of Millicent Mary Swindale,
mother's maiden name Gregg, was registered in the second quarter
of 1883 in the Bootle district (FreeBMD / GRO 10b 677)
The marriage of Millicent M
Swindale and John Stephens was registered in the fourth quarter
of 1914 in the Bootle district (FreeBMD 10b 1385)
The death of Millicent M
Stephens aged 59 was registered in the third quarter of 1942 in
the Liverpool N district. (FreeBMD 8b 195)
c) The marriage of a John Stephens and
Muriel Griffiths was registered in the second quarter of 1947 in
the Liverpool North district (FreeBMD 10d 854)
The death of John Stephens aged 77
was registered in the first quarter of 1863 in the Crosby
district (FreeBMD 10c 113)