| Rita Webb's Father, Henry Augustus Webb, known
to all as "Gus" was born on Friday 2nd January 1880
at Tracey Villa, Iverson Road, Hampstead. His father Henry
Richard Webb was a Dentist and married Gus's Mother Rosa Jane
Cane in Islington at the Parish Church on 28th April 1873
(Gus was 20 when his father died aged 53 on 30th March 1900
of chronic asthma and acute bronchitis.) |
 |
A rare picture of The Webbs together circa 1896
Gus was a young man when he fought in the Boar war with
his Brothers, Richard and George. He was a Private in the
30th Battalion and spent 321 days in the army, 200 of which
were spent abroad.
He was discharged on 8th January 1902 and his discharge
was confirmed at Malmesbury, Cape Colony on 24th November
1902. His height was listed as 5 '4" and his occupation
was listed as a clerk.
Less than a year later Gus married Rose Jeannette Durlacher
a divorcee who had seven year old twins Leslie & Gordon
by a previous marriage.
Rose was pregnant with their first child by the time they
married at Hendon registry office on 18th July 1903. (Rose
bore him a daughter Olive (Rita) and 2 years later a son
Henry Richard.) The marriage it seems was a happy one, but
the ill wind of fate would shatter what happiness the couple
had two years after their second child was born. |
Rita's Mother Rose Jeannette Webb |
In 1908 Rose died of cancer, Gus was 28 years
old and left alone with four children to look after. The twins
were sent to live with their grandma Julia Kyezor while Gus
kept his own children Henry and Olive.
Four months after Rose's death Gus travelled to Australia
with the merchant navy. He remarried three years later while
the family lived at 36 Tavistock Crescent, Bayswater. The
wedding took place on 7th September 1911 at St Michael's church
in Pirbright, Surrey.
Gus in 1911 marrying for the second time to Gertrude
Bolingborke |
Gus's new bride was 30 year old Gertrude Bolingbroke (nick
named Billy) a milliner and spinster who's father Alfred Bolingbroke
was a sculptor. At this stage Gus is listed as being a steward.
(It is not known where the family settled after the marriage,
but they probably lived in London, possibly in Lambeth.) the
couple had three children, George Augustus Webb, born on 6th
March 1912 at 41 St Luke’s Road, Paddington (He would
have a certain amount of fame later in life playing the non-speaking
role of Daddy in "Keeping Up Appearances" George
died on 30th December 1998 and had one son, Michael) the next
child born to Gus and Gert was the ill fated Denis Alfred
Webb on 21st September 1913, poor Denis died in tragic circumstances
in 1918 when he was picking flowers for his mother he was
run over by an army car, still clutching the flowers in his
hand he died under the wheels of the car witnessed by his
Brother and sister (something they never got over) The final
child born was Joan Webb on 11th August 1915 (she would marry
three times and have one daughter Judith) Joan committed suicide
in 1989 after years of ill health |
Gus (seated front row far right) at the 1913 wedding of
Gert's sister Daisy
|
Gus also fought in the great war (1914 - 1918) where
he was badly gassed. In October 1919 he travelled to the
west Indies returning in December the same year. He made
one last voyage with the Navy in 1920 when he was 40 years
old.
It’s been said that Gus was a heavy drinker who took
his two step sons and his own son around the local pubs,
making them wait outside for hours at a time forcing them
to sell lantern wicks. Henry Webb wasn’t keen on his
father, but Olive (Rita) adored her father, whom she called
“My Darling Dada” , at some point in their Marriage
Gert and Gus parted ways (there are family stories of Gus
completely naked chasing after Gertrude down the street)
.and it seems he lived the remainder of his life alone.
|
Gert with Denis, Joan and George
|
Gus's mother Rosa died on 18th July 1924 at New End hospital
at the age of 77. Two years later his daughter Rita married
and six months after this event Gus was sent to St Mary's
Hospital in Paddington where he died of heart failure on
21st August 1926. He was buried in an unmarked grave at
Willesden cemetery.
Rita can be seen behind the bride, her half sister
Joan's first marriage in 1935 |
|
On a foot note Gus's sister
Ethel was a colourful character, who lived a bright
and exciting life. She was born Ethel Mina Webb on 4th
August 1887, the youngest of five children to Henry
Richard Webb and Rosa Jane Webb, Ethel was the last
of her siblings to leave home, it is believed that the
same Ethel Webb and Rosa Webb resident at 41 Dynham
road, Hampstead, listed on the 1901 census are Rita's
aunt Ethel and paternal grandmother Rosa. If this is
Ethel she was working aged 15 as an assistant in a confectioners
shop, although it is believed Ethel worked as a Manicurist
in a barbershop at a young age, this is where the widowed
Charles Archibald Samuells, a retired Judge, first met
her, he was 40 years her senior and they married in
1908 in Hendon, Ethel had a long term relationship with
Archie’s Nephew, Major Richard Brocksopp (Brockie)
Archie was in full knowledge of his wife’s infidelity,
and the three travelled around the world together, living
for many years all over Europe, Ethel who is mentiond
in the autobigraphy of Mr Justice Humphreys was also
a gaiety girl from 1904 to 1918, under the name of Estelle,
and a male impersonator too!
Ethel and Archie had no children, and doted on her sister
May's children (Gladys and Barbara) instead of Gus's
children (Rita and Henry) it was Ethel who paid for
a head stone when her mother Rosa died in 1924.
In 1931 Archie died in the South of France, Eventually
Ethel settled in South Africa, she made her final
will and testament there in 1954 leaving most of her
money to charity, she died on 3rd December 1954 in
South Africa, Ethel left behind a stack of memories
from her life including a scrapbook diary of pictures,
postcards and comments some of which are included
on this page
|
|
Gus's younger brother Dick
(born Richard Lewis Webb-6th July 1882) was an electrical
engineer who married Gus's second wife’s sister Kate
(Kit) Bolingbroke on 5th August 1912 at St Cuthbert’s
Church, Hampstead.
Dick was a witness at Gus's first marriage to Rose Durlacher
in 1903, he was also present at Kit's sister Daisy's wedding
in 1918 (signing his name Richard Louis Webb)
Eight years after they married the couple had a child, a
boy they named Luke Webb, born 27th July 1920, he died in
tragic circumstances on 22nd March 1922 when he crawled
unnoticed out into the snow and died of hypothermia.
In 1924 Dick was in attendance at his Mother Rosa's death,
and the imformant at Gus's death in 1926, his address for
these events were 10 Lee Terrace, Blackheath, he was also
present with Kit at Rita's half sister Joan's wedding in
1935 He liked wearing a boater, like his father Henry R,
he also smoked heavily.
Dick and Kit were married for 42 years when he died on
14th February 1954, Kit followed him to his grave five years
later when she died on 14th June 1959
|
| Gus's brother George married a woman named Mary Lydia
Marshall, known as Lyddie (who was Vester Tilley's
understudy and died in her 90's), George never returned
from the Boar War- at least not for seven years, when Lyddie
put a notice in the Times of her intention to remarry. He
was listed missing presumed dead. Apparently he had been living
in South Africa and had a family there-he reappeared before
WW1 and tried to blackmail Lyddie. The couple had two daughters
together, Gladys Maud Webb (who would marry a man named William
Victor Sherwell, at some point they emigrated to Canada, having
at least one daughter they named Pauline and she married a
man named Christopher Nunn and they had two daughters Jill
and Jane Nunn) the second daughter born to George and Lyddie
was Irene Muriel Webb (Renee) on 26th March 1902 |
MARY ANN MARGARET
ELIZABETH WEBB |
| Gus's oldest sister was born Mary Ann Margaret Elizabeth
Webb, although the family called her May, she had at least
two daughters possibly Florence and Barbara whom Ethel took
abroad several times. May married a man named Charles William
Frederick Hewitt at the Holy Trinity church in Kilburn on
14th July 1894. |
Pictures copyright of Geraldine
Lewis, Louise Webb, Judith Howard,
Allan and Marg Dale
These images are the exclusive ownership of the copyright holders
and are strictly prohibited from being reproduced, copied or used
by any individual anywhere else other than this website.
|
Rita's cherished photograph of her Father 
