Thomas Bearman

“There is a family tradition that the Sandells descended from a Norman knight, John de Sandell, who came over with William the Conqueror. Joseph was a school master who founded a school in Oxford which closed only in 1975. Joseph died in 1866 and Leah then brought her young family to Hackney.” — Frank Middlemiss’s online notes

Christened about 29 Jan 1815, Old Church, Saint Pancras. On her death she left a Personal Estate of £562 14s. 5d. with Thomas Bearman sole executor.

Thomas was a baker, who ended life quite wealthy. He married Catherine Boyd in 1845 and the record of this shows his father to be Thomas, a coach builder.

The censuses show him as born 1812-13 Chelmsford but his death record shows he was born 1811-12. However, no birth or baptism record has so far been found for him. The person most likely to be his mother died in October 1811 and his father was buried with her 16 years later - so it must be presumed that she died in child-birth or soon after, and that Thomas was born on or before October 9th 1811

There is record of a coachbuilding business with substantial 'genteel' residence in Springfield, near Chelsmsford Essex run by a Thomas Bearman (see attached images and the comments attached to Thomas his father), who married Sarah Elizabeth Balls in Cheltenham and had several children in Springfield.

FMP have his death as 6th May 1868, at St Thomas’s, Hackney citing National Burial Index.

Probate record dated 9 June 1868 showed Thomas leaving Effects under £4,000 to wife Catherine Bearman of 101 Mare Street as sole Executrix.

Keturah “was an energetic, determined woman of incisive personality. After her husband’s death she remained at 8, Tudor Road for two years until Donald was married, but in 1923 moved to 17, Sandringham Road, Leyton, immediately opposite Kate and Tom. I stayed with her there for some time in 1926 while my mother was in hospital. She later paid for my music lessons at the Metropolitan Academy of Music in Leytonstone.

She continued right up to 1928 to spend most of the summer at Beach Crest, as she and her husband had done. During 1929 she was too ill to travel and Beach Crest was hardly used by anybody that year. She usually had a maid at Beach Crest. A notable one during the 20s was Hilda Spicer, who also came back with her to Leyton. The Spicers were a big family of fisher folk who lived at 11, Golden Street, Deal. Hilda's elder sister Irma Spicer was at one time a particular friend of Edward Thomas Middlemiss.”

Frank Middlemiss’s online notes

On her death she was living at 17 Sandringham Road and left £1838 7s to Donald Boyd Bearman according to probate records.

Thomas “was brought up as heir to his father’s business and took it over when he was only 22. His father had taken a lot of care over his education and used to take him travelling, including a tour of Ireland during which he actually kissed the Blarney Stone. Under Thomas Bearman III the shop prospered as a high class bakery and confectionary. Hackney had many wealthy inhabitants at that time and Bearmans catered for what was called "the carriage trade". It was also his practice to serve lunch daily to a select group of customers in the back room of the shop. Some blue-rimmed Wedgwood soup plates from this room have been passed down in both my family and Kate’s family.

“He married Keturah Sandell on 3rd June 1873 and for the first five years of their married life they lived in rooms at Fremont Street, Hackney. By 1878 he was able to buy a fine big house, Melbourne House, 8, Tudor Road, Hackney. His mother continued to live over the shop until her death in 1888. By about 1894 he was able to sell the shop and retire and during the next few years came to acquire property all over London, as well as "Beach Crest" (bought in 1897) and "The Moorings" both at Deal and a house in Sandwich Market Place. A photograph of Beach Crest, as it is now, is at the top of the Contents page of this website.

“He was a noted numismatist, specialising in mediaeval English and Scottish coins. Bernard Roth's book "Ancient Gaulish Coins" was dedicated to him. When he died, his collection was sold for £600, a considerable sum in those days. His whole estate was left to a family trust, the Bearman Trust. The original trustees were his sons-in-law, Tom Stutchbury, Charlie Carrington and Edward Middlemiss, with Tom as Secretary. On Tom's death in 1941 his son Tom became Secretary. Among many other things, the Trust administered Beach Crest as a holiday home for the family until 1975, when they sold it to Frank and Florence Middlemiss. Also in 1975 Donald Bearman, the last Tenant for Life of the Trust, died and the Trust was then broken up and the assets distributed among the family.”

Frank Middlemiss’s online notes

Probate records show Thomas left £16,079 14s 1d.

Kate “was in many ways a daintier version of her mother, from whom she inherited her flaming red hair. As a child she hated her red hair because the rude urchins used to shout "carrots" after her, but her husband later particularly admired it. Kate was educated at Lady Eleanor Holles' School, which was at that time situated in Mare Street, Hackney. She loved music and played both piano and violin. Her husband Tom bought her a piano when they married (8th October 1904) and this same piano was still very much in use by Kate's Merkin great-grandchildren ninety-four years later. She also loved animals, especially cats, of which she nearly always had one. In 1934 the family got a Chow dog called Ruff, which can be seen in many photos taken in the 1930s. Ruff was a splendid big dog, very strong; unfortunately he pulled Kate over, causing her to break her hip in 1938.

Like her mother, Kate was a woman of strong opinions and precise and proper ways. She lived all her life after her marriage at 16, Sandringham Road, Leyton even though this involved sleeping in the coal cellar during the Blitz of the 2nd World War. Before her marriage she had been a rather reserved person; afterwards, when she was stuck out at Leyton with nobody to talk to, her sisters were astonished at her flood of conversation when she visited the family home in Hackney. However, in 1911 her sister Hilda also moved to Leyton.”

Frank Middlemiss’s online notes

Thomas “worked all his life for the Civil Service in the Post Office Secretarial Department. He was a Fabian socialist, a supporter of the Labour Party, and a keen chess player. He also took an active interest in the League of Nations Union and spent much time in literary pursuits. He regularly played chess in Essex teams and was secretary of the Leyton Chess Club. When Donald Bearman was in prison during the 1st World War Tom wrote out books for him in longhand and sent them to him as letters, since Don was not allowed access to books. He suffered a stroke in late March 1941 and died within a few days.”

Frank Middlemiss’s online notes

Thomas of 16 Sandringham Road, probate Llandudno 28 June to Kate Stutchbury widow and Thomas Stutchbury analytical chemist. Effects £1773 19s 6d.

Thomas Stutchbury Jnr. “was known as Stutch until the death of his father. He was educated at Mrs. Press's Oxford House School in Leytonstone and then at Bancroft's School, Woodford Wells. He gained the B.Sc. in Chemistry of London University at Sir John Cass College, London. He was the first person in the direct line of descent of the family to take a university degree. He spent his life as a professional chemist, first working for Siemen (electrical) but later became Chief Chemist at the Royal Institute of Public Health and Hygiene in London. Actually he used to say to us that he would rather have been an accountant- he was very good at figures and used to try to coach me in mathematics when I was a boy (without much success I am afraid).

He was also very good at electrical and radio matters. He collected stamps and in later years also had a large collection of cacti and became quite an expert on them. He was also very interested in photography and was rarely without his bag containing camera and lenses. Before colour photography became widespread he would develop and enlarge his black and white photos in the cellar at Sandringham Road. For many years until 1975 he was Secretary of the Bearman Trust.

In the summer of 1947 my future wife Florence Fozzard stayed with us at "Beach Crest" for the first time. Tom and his mother were also there and his mother, referring to Florence, remarked

"I wish Tom could find a nice girl like that!".

Thus inspired he went out as soon as they were home and found Eileen Smith. They were both keen tennis players and they met at the Tennis Club. They were married that same autumn. Tom lived at 16, Sandringham Road, Leyton, all his life until he and Eileen moved to Sidmouth in 1993 to be near their daughter. The family had lived in that house for nearly ninety years; it was newly built when Tom and Kate bought it in 1904. Eileen died on the 29th February 2008, at the great age of 96.”

Frank Middlemiss’s online notes

Edith “was the intellectual one among the Bearman girls. She was an impressive person to meet with her level gaze, deep well-modulated voice and beautiful articulation. Charles Carrington (12th Dec. 1877-30th April 1946) was an accountant. Charles and Edith married on the 22nd August, 1903 and from about 1911 they lived in an elegant house at 11, Willifield Way, Hampstead Garden Suburb, Golders Green. London.

They had been medically advised to move there from Clapton for the sake of Edith's health, which had never been very good. Charles lost his job early in the great depression (about 1929) and they invested in a book shop, The Temple Fortune Book Shop, 1071, Finchley Road, Golders Green, London, which they ran successfully until Edith died. Several of the books in our collection were bought there. They had to leave Willifield Way for two months, September-November 1940, as there was an unexploded German bomb in the ground just behind the house. The very day after they had arrived back home the house in which they had been staying temporarily was flattened by a bomb. When Elsie Bearman was admitted to a mental hospital in 1922 Charlie took on the thankless job of Receiver of her property under the Court of Protection. When Charlie died I took on this job until Elsie died in 1970. Edith died in November 1945, of pneumonia after getting soaked in a rain storm. I met Charlie that Christmas, when he seemed quite lost without his wife, and he died only four months later.”

Frank Middlemiss’s online notes

Hilda “was educated at the Misses Pitman’s school in Hackney until 1890, then at Lady Eleanor Holles’ School, which she left in 1895. In 1894, 1895 and 1896 the family went on holiday to Margate (by "Eagle" steamer from Tower Bridge). These were the first family holidays they had had, which suggests that Thomas Bearman probably retired from the shop in 1894.

About 1900 Hilda met Edward Middlemiss, as the Middlemiss family was at that time living next door at 10. Tudor Road. They became engaged in 1901 and married in 1907. Hilda, having a clear soprano voice, was in the choir at Mare Street Baptist Church, took part regularly in the Nonconformist Union Choir Festivals at the Crystal Palace, and sang in several Handel and other oratorios. This was with her fiance, who had a good baritone voice. In addition she was a fairly competent pianist. She was also an excellent draughtswoman and was often employed by her father to make detailed drawings of his coins. She was a keen tennis player and, in the winter, a skater on the lake in Victoria Park.

After their marriage, Hilda and Edward lived for 3½ years in rooms at 32, Poole Road, Hackney, London, and here their first child, Edward Thomas Middlemiss, was born. They moved to 38, Canterbury Road, Leyton on the 11th March 1911. Here Edward was able to indulge his interests in gardening, carpentry, photography and in having a dog - the Airedale Bob was the first.

Hilda was a less assertive person than her sisters Kate and Edith but was a woman of strong principles and knew her own mind. She was more concerned with fundamentals than with more trivial matters; she was not worried if the house was a bit untidy or about such details as the precise time of meals as long as her children grew up with the right principles in life. Like her husband and like her sister Kate, she was very fond of animals and we grew up in close contact with dogs, cats, tortoises, etc. Many of her letters from the time of the second World War have been preserved and shed a vivid light on what housekeeping, shopping and travelling were like in the dark days of the Blitz. On reading them, the word "indomitable" comes to mind as descriptive of her.”

Frank Middlemiss’s online notes

Edward “was born on Michaelmas Day , September 29th, at 58 Brownlow Road, Dalston. London.

“He left school at 13 and was mainly self- educated. He spent some time working in his father's glass factory (he was working there in 1901, when the census describes him as a glass silverer) but also worked in about 1902- for Ever-Ready Batteries at Tottenham. He married Hilda Bearman on the 7th September 1907. From 1903 he was in the finance department of Yardley (soap and scent), Carpenter’s Road, Stratford, London.

“They gave him a handsome canteen of cutlery as a wedding present, some items from which are still in use in 2009. He remained with the firm for the rest of his life, latterly ranking as Cashier. His salary in 1931 was £600 per annum.

“He was a keen gardener and fond of travel. He had a good baritone voice and was active in the Nonconformist Union Choir Festivals at the Crystal Palace and sang in several Handel and other oratorios. Although he never learned to read staff notation and relied always on Tonic Sol-Fa, he became for a time Choirmaster at Cann Hall Baptist Church, Leyton, which he and his family attended during their early years at Leyton.

“However, something very unpleasant happened (I was never able to find out exactly what) and he not only resigned the Choirmastership but gave up forthwith all interest in the Church and all interest in music. This must have been some time during the 1st World War.

“In 1925 he left his family and went to live with a Miss Flo Bedwell, a fellow employee at Yardleys. It is an interesting comment on the customs of the time that, although I knew her quite well, I never learnt her Christian name; I used to call her "Auntie Bed". They lived first at Pinner, later at Thundersley (Essex) and finally at 27 (or 29) Winchester Road, Northwood Hills Middlesex.

“He always fully maintained his family, visited us regularly every week and often came on holiday with us. He was bitterly disappointed in 1925 when a promised business trip for Yardleys to New York failed to materialize, but later travelled extensively on holiday (presumably with Miss Bedwell) to the Channel Islands, a Mediterranean cruise, the Rhineland and especially Switzerland, which he loved.

“In 1926 he bought his first car, a Wolsley YO4854. He was the first in the family to have a car. He learned to drive but never did in fact drive, always leaving the driving to his son Edward. He underwent an operation for cancer of the colon in London Hospital (Royal Ward) but a few days later an abscess on the site of the operation necessitated a second operation, which he did not survive. He died on Easter Sunday, 9th April 1939.”

Frank Middlemiss’s online notes

On his death at London Hospital, Whitechapel Road E1, Edward, of 25 Winchester Road, Northwood Hills, Middlesex left £1152 14s 4d to Edward Thomas Middlemiss, motor mechanic, according to probate records.

Another probate grant the same day showed Edward “3 July to Florence Mabel Bedwell spinster. Effects £975. Resworn £900. Another Grant same day.”

Edward “was educated mainly at Mrs. Press's Oxford House School in Leytonstone and the Leyton Technical College. Leaving school at 16 he was first apprenticed to the plumbing firm of Alexander Grant (an old family friend) but had great difficulty in settling down and passed through many and varied jobs during the 20s and early 30s. About 1926 he started to train as a draughtsman by correspondence course, but soon gave it up. Finally, about 1935, he found his niche as a car repair fitter with Stewart and Ardern, the Morris specialist in Ilford.

“In 1938 he transferred to John Knight, the soap manufacturers of Silvertown, for whom he worked until retirement. For many years he maintained their vans and lorries at their Silvertown depot, acting there as Air Raid Warden during the 2nd World War. His value to the firm is shown by the fact that his job was a reserved occupation, i.e. he was exempt from service in the armed forces. He was, however, a member of the Home Guard from 1942, in addition to his Air Raid Warden and fire-watching duties. When he became too old to climb under the lorries he was made gate-keeper of the depot until he retired about 1968.

“He was a very keen sportsman, especially swimming, cycling and tennis, and claimed that there was not a sport that he had not at least tried. He was also an expert ballroom dancer.

“Ethel May Smith (16th August 1907-16th February 1991), always called "Elsie" (although her husband always called her "Apple" or "Ap"), came from a rather overcrowded home at 53 Cambridge Road, Walthamstow (demolished after the 2nd World War), and round about 1930 moved in with us at 38, Canterbury Road.

“Ed and Elsie married in July 1937 and eventually the house was divided into two flats, Ed and Elsie downstairs, my mother and I upstairs (this was in 1940). This arrangement continued when the Canterbury Road house was destroyed by bombing in 1940 and we moved to 204 Hainault Road, Leytonstone.

“Ed was a heavy smoker, as his father had been, and died of lung cancer at the age of 66. After his death in 1975 Elsie remained at Hainault Road only one year and in 1976 moved to a house at Lindfield, Sussex, close to her sister Emily (and Emily's husband Eric Ditton and their daughter Christine). For the last few years of her life Elsie was in a home at Shoreham, Sussex.”

Frank Middlemiss online notes

Donald “was a sturdy lad, much like his father and elder brother. One day in early February 1919 he went up to the snow-covered Forest with his brother and got thoroughly chilled. Unfortunately this was in the midst of the terrible diphtheria epidemic of 1919 and he contracted the disease and died within a few days.

“The bill for his funeral makes interesting reading. The bill is for ‘An elm coffin, covered with white swansdown, with nickel fittings and ornaments and an inscribed plate, and lined with cambric. To be drawn in a glass coach by a pair of horses; undertaker in attendance’. The total cost of this was £4.10. 0 (£4.50 in 1990s money) - a quite astonishing comment on the inflation of the late 20th Century.”

Frank Middlemiss online notes

Frank “was born at 38, Canterbury Road, Leyton and educated at Canterbury Road School, Leyton, and the Leyton County High School, along with his cousins Ernest and Douglas. He spent the 2nd World War in the Royal Army Medical Corps, serving in all the countries from India to Italy. He was taken prisoner on the Anzio beachhead in February 1944 and spent fourteen months as a prisoner of war in Italy and Germany. When he eventually came out of the Army he was fortunate enough to obtain a Government Further Education grant and went to London University, where he took his B.Sc. (and later his Ph.D.) in Geology.

“He was taken on to the staff of his own college (Queen Mary College) and remained there for the rest of his working life, gradually rising through the ranks of Assistant Lecturer, Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, University Reader and finally Emeritus Reader. He loved his job, as he always got on well with students, and went on working until he was 76. From 1981 until 2004 he was Chairman of ACE Residents' Association, the residents' association covering the whole of his part of Woodford.

“In his first week at the College he met fellow student Florence Fozzard (9th February 1919- ), from Oldham, and they were married in 1949. Florence had spent the war years as Secretary, Bursar and Assistant Matron at a boys' boarding school in her native Oldham and had come to College as a mature student. Afterwards she had a variety of jobs, mainly secretarial, including being Personal Secretary to the man who ran the National Industrial Relations Court, and she finished up by being an Inspector in the Department of Health and Social Security until she retired at the age of sixty.”

Frank Middlemiss online notes

Elsie was “educated at Lady Holles’ School. She was the artistic one among the Bearman girls. She had a thorough training, including a painting tour of Holland, and was excellent at both drawing and painting. Several of her pictures have been handed down through the family, although one of the best, a still life with oranges, was destroyed when 38, Canterbury Road was bombed in 1940. When the Middlemiss family were living next door, about 1900, and Hilda and Edward became engaged, Elsie and Edward's younger brother, Alec , were very interested in each other; this was during 1900 - there was no mention of it in 1901. It is said that an engagement was vetoed by Mrs. Bearman. Elsie never did marry, but continued to live at Tudor Road. In 1921 she suffered the unpleasant shock of finding her father dead. About that time she was becoming progressively more withdrawn and peculiar and at the beginning of 1922 she was diagnosed as suffering from schizophrenia and committed to Horton Hospital, Epsom. She remained in hospital for the rest of her life, for many years in Garden Villa 3, Horton Hospital, but during the 2nd World War she was transferred to West Park Hospital, where she eventually died. She was not an unreasonable patient; she was always helping with the chores at the hospital and in the 1940s took up drawing and painting again quite successfully. Under modern ideas she would never have been kept in hospital all her life.”

Frank Middlemiss’s online notes

Donald “was educated at the Parmiters' School, Bethnal Green, and became a Chartered Accountant, although he once said that he would rather have done something literary with his life, like Charlie Carrington in his latter years (and cf. Tom Stutchbury Jnr.). Don was a keen Quaker and, like Tom Stutchbury Snr., a Fabian socialist.

During the 1st World War he was an absolute conscientious objector and spent much time in prison. In prison (1916-1919) the regime was very tough and he disliked recalling such unhappy memories in later life. He was severely restricted in how often he could write home, what he could write and how much. The letters survive and are written in minute writing to get more on a page. They say nothing about life in prison and consist entirely of his own philosophical thoughts.

Quakers hold meetings rather than services, so on a Sunday he was always off to meeting, where he would take his little notebook to remind him of the thoughts that had come to him during the week, which he would then share with others at the meeting. He was a colourful figure - six feet five inches tall and slim, quite a health fanatic and a strong believer in homeopathy. Most days, right up until his late seventies, he could be seen high up on his specially designed two-barred bicycle cycling down to the River Lea at Broxbourne, summer and winter, to swim. (It is only fair to add that the water was warmed by discharge from the power station upstream). He was keen on nudism - perhaps as a reaction against Victorian stuffiness towards sexual matters. The large extended garden and pool at Noonsun enabled him and his children (not his wife) to swim and sunbathe in the nude, and later in life he liked to visit nudist camps.

He had a tendency to have his head in the clouds - a trait which could be infuriating when practical family matters needed attention. His wife was the extreme opposite in this respect - very down-to-earth. As a young man after the War he travelled much in Europe and met Ethel Webb in Paris.”

Frank Middlemiss’s online notes

Lived at 25 Churchfields, Broxbourne - Ancestry have phone records from 1941-1960. At death was living at 52 Hertford Road, Hoddesdon according to probate records.

Ethel “was brought up in the Plymouth Brethren and was a Sunday School teacher before going to university. She graduated with 1st Class Honours in French at Somerville College, Oxford, in 1916. While on a travelling scholarship to Paris she met Don at the "Rue de Sevres Meeting" in January 1920 and they were married in September 1922. We have been told that Don first spotted Ethel on a bus in Paris and was so attracted by her that he followed the bus on his own bicycle. In 1924 they had their house Noonsun, 25, Churchfields, Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, built to their own designs. Here their three children, Eirene, Rosalind and Peter were born. Ethel later obtained her Oxford M.A. and was an active academic all her life, mainly at the London University Institute of Education and as G.C.E. Chief Examiner. One person who has particularly made a point of telling me that he studied under her at the Institute is Mr. Southey, organiser of the Spring and Autumn concert seasons at Deal. Her nickname at the Institute of Education was Prudence, and her character in later life probably reflected the influence of the Plymouth Brethren in her childhood. Like her husband, she was an ardent pacifist.”

Frank Middlemiss’s online notes

Was living at 52 Hertford Road at time of death. Probate showed her leaving £13,184

Eirene “was always called "Pippa", because her father was so fond of Browning’s poem Pippa Passes. She trained as a nurse, working in London hospitals until she emigrated on a £10 ticket to New Zealand in about 1949. She met Stan Cave in the summer of 1953 on her return voyage from New Zealand, announcing her engagement on her arrival. After their marriage they both emigrated to Tasmania, where their three children, Christopher, Elizabeth and Nigel, were born.

They returned to England for the sake of their children’s education in 1961. They lived at 52, Hertford Road, Hoddesdon, although after Pippa’s death Stan moved to Hertford. Stan was a chain smoker and suffered badly from emphysema. He died on Christmas Day, 1996.”

Frank Middlemiss’s online notes

“Rosalind ... read Social Science at the University College of Hull, where she met her husband-to-be, Robert Hammond. She worked as a Child Care Officer in London, married in 1953, and after living in Hoddesdon, Hemel Hempstead and Basildon, settled in Keyworth, near Nottingham. Robert taught Geography at Trent Polytechnic (now Nottingham Trent University) and Rosalind taught in a primary school for thirteen years. Their main interests in retirement, apart from travelling the world, are research into local history and promoting social justice - particularly in relation to Third World Countries - through Oxfam and similar institutions. Rosalind died of cancer in March 2000.”

Bearman Family tree by Dr. Frank Middlemiss