Our Family History
Alice Emily Tisdall Gill
(1865 - ?)
Alice was born in December 1864 and was baptised in Kensington on 22 January 1865.
She grew up in Hammersmith, London and was working in her parents Dyer's shop in Goldhawk road, in 1881 by the time she was aged 17.
On 1st July 1984 she married 20 year old Charles Gill who was employed as a taster in the tea trade. By 1891 he was travelling with the business and they lived at 50 Radipole Road in Fulham, London with their two sons, Albert Charles (b.1887) and Clarence Sydney (b.1890). They employed one domestic servant, 14 year old Selina Moore.
By 1901 Charles Gill had risen to the rank of Inspector and the Couple had three daughters - Gladys (b.1893), Estelle (b.1899), and Angela (b.1907).
In 1911 Charles Gill was able to "Live off his own means" so he may have come into a family inheritance. 21 year Clarence was working in London as an electrical engineer or a company in Finchley Road. All the family were living together in the house at Radipole Road and Edwardian life seemed to be treating them well.
Then war broke out in 1914 and tragedy struck the family threefold.
Clarence joined up and became a Sgt. in the 13th Kensington Regiment and went away to fight in France and Belgium.
In 1915 Charles Gill died. Alice must have been beside herself with geief at losing her husband. Then she had terrible news about Clarence. At first the family were informed that he had been shot through the head and killed. Then they heard another report that he was alive and had been taken prisoner. Eventually his death was confirmed.
A pair of field glasses, a key ring with 12 keys, a whistle, a wallet and some letters were all Alice had to remind herself of her son Clarence who died - wounded: missing in action - on 9 May 1915 in Flanders. He is remembered at The Ploegsteert Memorial, Comines-Warneton, Arrondissement de Mouscron, Hainaut, Belgium.
After his brother's death, Albert Gill joined up. He was killed in France on 15 Sep 1916. He is remembered at The Thiepval Memorial, Departement de la Somme, Picardie.
Sidney Tisdall
(1868 - 1933)
Sidney was born in 1868 and grew up in Hammersmith.
In 1891, aged 23, he was living and working in Paddington as a Ticket Writer. A "ticket writer" was a sign-painter who produced the small coloured advertising cards or "tickets" that were displayed in shop windows announcing the price of goods and special offers.
In 1901, after his father's death he returned home to live at 32 Goldhawk Road with his widowed Mother & sisters and was still employed as a Ticket Writer at 16 Little Tichfield Street London .
In 1903, aged 36 he married 28 year old Clara Elizabeth Budgen at All Souls Church in Marylebone. In 1905 their only son Glyn Alfred Sydney Tisdall was born.
In 1911 the family were living at Langham House, Hide Road, Wealdstone, Hendon and Sidney was still working as Ticket Writer.
In July 1914 his son Glyn died aged just 9 years old.
In 1932 Sidney was living at 139 Studland Road London W7 and passed away a year later in 1933. Clara died on 14th April 1946.
Percy Tisdall
(1882 - 1906)
Percival Tisdall, was born in 1882 and grew up in his parents Dyer's shop in Shepherds Bush.
At the age of 19 in 1901 he was working as a barman at The Mail Coach Public House, 28 Uxbridge Road, Shepherds Bush, for Mr Alfred Sannes, Licensed Victualer.
He was a handsome young man who sadly died of TB in a hospital in Hampshire, aged just 24, in 1906.
Albert "Bert" Tisdall
(1878 - 1957)
Albert Tisdall grew up in the family home in Hammersmith. On the 18th July 1901 he married to Elizabeth "Lizzie" Anderson at St Dunstan's Church in Acton.
In 1911 he was living at 54 Abdale Road, Shepherds Bush, London with his wife and two daughters - Edith and Doris. He was working on the railways as a carriage repairer.
We know from Emily's letters to William, that Bert served in the army during the 1st World war. Before being sent off to fight in 1916 he was supposed to get 6 days leave - but he didnt get it and none of his family got to say goodbye to him. After that, they had no idea where he had been posted to - they just recieved ocassional letters saying he was well.
In 1917 he was stationed out in Fort Dehli, India and had been there for about a year.
When he returned from the War he went back to work on the railways. His health was not good, he suffered from stomach problems and died in Brentford on 12th December 1957.
Kate Lily Tisdall
(1870 - 1949)
Kate was born at 3b Gane Place, Hammersmith but grew up in her parent's Dyer's shop in Shepherds Bush. She helped her mother and father with the business, and after Sidney died in 1901, she and her mother ran it alone for another 10 years.
Kate never married. When her mother sold the business, she & Kate moved in with her sister Madeline in Chiswick.
When she died, Emily's estate was to be shared equally amongst her children. However her dying wish was that all her children agree to waiver their right to inherit, in order for the money to be given to Kate instead. Emily was worried that as an umarried woman in her 50's Kate needed the money more than anyone else. All the Tisdall children agreed to this, except for her brother William in America. He believed there should have been more money than there was and accused his brother in Laws of defrauding Emily at the time of the sale of her business, This caused a huge rift between William and his family.
After her mother died Kate left her sisters house.
In 1930 she was living at 11 Granville Mansions, Hammersmith with a couple named George and Adelaide Tack. She died aged 79 in Mar 1949 in Ealing, West London.
It was during the 19th century that tuberculosis had been dubbed the "White Plague". It was seen as a "romantic disease." Suffering from tuberculosis was thought to bestow upon the sufferer heightened sensitivity. The slow progress of the disease allowed for a "good death" as sufferers could arrange their affairs. The disease began to represent spiritual purity and temporal wealth, leading many young, upper-class women to purposefully pale their skin to achieve the consumptive appearance. British poet Lord Byron wrote, "I should like to die from consumption," helping to popularize the disease as the disease of artists.
After TB was determined to be contagious, in the 1880s, it was put on a notifiable disease list in Britain; campaigns were started to stop people from spitting in public places, and the infected poor were "encouraged" to enter sanatoria that resembled prisons (the sanatoria for the middle and upper classes offered excellent care and constant medical attention). Whatever the (purported) benefits of the "fresh air" and labor in the sanatoria, even under the best conditions, 50% of those who entered died within five years.
Francis "Frank" Tisdall
(1872 - 1899?)
Nothing much is known about Frank, apart from the fact that he was born in 1872 and died at the young age of 27.
The Tisdall Children
Henry Adolphus "Harry" Tisdall
(1872 - 1899?)
Harry Tisdall grew up in Shepherds Bush in the family home and unlike some of his borthers and sisters, who helped in the family business from an early age, he attended Saunders Road School from the age of 12.
In 1901 Harry was working as a Barman & Cellarman. He had married Lydia Foulsham and they had three children - Edna Lydia, Harry Ernest and Stanley Sidney.
He must have fallen on very hard times because on 22 October 1907 the entire family ended up being admitted to the Newington Workhouse in Southwark. On 23 Oct Sidney was discharged and on 31 Oct 1907 younger son Harry Ernest was discharged.
A year later in 1908 Henry Adolphus "Harry" Tisdall died.
On 7 Apr 1908, his widow Lydia was admitted back into the Newington Workhouse. She had been working as a "Charwoman". She was listed as being "Temporarily Disabled" and on an "Invalid Diet". She was discharged a few months later on 20 Jun 1908. Her son Sidney had also been admitted but was discharged on 21 May 1908.
We shall never really know why the family ended up sick and destitute in the workhouse - but there is a small clue in a letter that Emily wrote to Harry's brother William Tisdall in America in 1915. She mentions that unlike his late father, Harry Ernest is a teetotaler. There is a good possibilty that Harry Senior had developed a drink problem whilst working in Public Houses and that this had led to his downfall.
In 1911 Lydia's fortunes had taken a turn for the better. She was working at 69 High St, Watford, as a servant for Publican Samuel Carter and his wife.
In the same year, Harry and Stanley were sent away to the Kensington And Chelsea, Workhouse School in Ewell, Surrey. Edna was sent to live at 36 Denmark St, Watford, with Lydia's sister - Flora Pickering and her family. It seems that Lydia's family did give them some help when she most needed it.
From Emily Tisdall's letters to her son William in America we know that around 1915 Harry Ernest Tisdall was living in Manchester and working as an apprentice carpenter. His Aunt, actress Madeline Tisdall, sent him some money so he could come and see her ( perhaps at her touring theatre performance or at her Manchester lodgings?).
In another letter written in 1917, Emily Tisdall gives more information on Lydia & Edna Tisdall:
"Do you know Harry's wife is married again? He has been dead 9 years & I do hope she has a good husband. He seems to be very fond of her & Edna likes him very much, so I hope they will all get on well together. Edna has been bought up with Lydia's sister, and they don't like parting with her. so she is sometimes with her aunt, and sometimes with her mother. She is pretty with hair the colour of her father's -the most like our family."
In 1920 Harry Ernest Tisdall died in Watford aged 21. Emily sent William a newspaper cutting reporting about his nephew's death but we do not know how he died.
Edna also died young - she was only aged 27 when she passed away in June 1932.
Stanley Sidney Tisdall married Mary Dora Proctor in June 1933 but he died four years later aged 35 on 2rd March 1937
Lillian "Lily" Tisdall Carter
(1870 - 1949)
Lillian grew up in her parent's Dyer's shop in Shepherds Bush.
Her marriage to shipping clerk, John "Jack" Robert Christopher Carter took place on 3rd June 1899 at St Thomas' church, Hammersmith.
In 1911 she lived at 1 Oxberry Avenue, Fulham with her husband and two young children John and Muriel.
In 1917 the family came into some money after her husband's cousin died. Jack, and his 2 children were left £500 each & Lily was left £100.
In 1922 she went to live in Westcliffe Essex in order to try and regain her health.
Ella Tisdall Hollis
(1870 - 1949)
Ella grew up in Hammersmith and married Albert Hollis. She had one daughter called Barbara. Ella suffered with bad health and died on 21st October at the young age of 35.
Madeline wrote to her brother William in America to let him know about Ella's death:
"Dear Will, I am about to tell you the sad news that your poor sister Ella died Oct 21st. Poor girl, it was a happy release for her; she had been suffering 3 and a half years. She died in her husbands arms as she wished to. She had a lovely lot of flowers which she was so fond of."
