She was born as Violet May Peters on 10 May 1899, the youngest of the three children of Edwin Peters (1856-1933) and Jane Peters née Ralph (1864-1957). Her birth was registered in the 2nd quarter of 1899 in the St. Saviour registration district, Southwark. On 28 May 1899 she was baptised in St Saviour's Church, Southwark, where the baptismal register shows the family residing at 73 Park Street, Southwark and that her father was a boiler maker.
The 1901 census confirms that she was still living at 73 Park Street with her parents, two siblings: Lititia Peters (1884-1937) and Edwin Francis Peters (1892-1932), together with four male boarders. Her father was still recorded as a boiler maker and her sister was shown as a mantle machinist.
She was still residing at 73 Park Street at the time of the 1911 census that describes her as a schoolgirl, living with her parents, her brother, her maternal uncle Adam Rolfe née Ralph (1870-1911) - the Ralph family seem to have changed the spelling of their surname from Ralph to Rolfe sometime between 1881 and 1891, together with two male and two female lodgers. Her father's occupation was listed as an 'engineer's labourer' whilst her brother was shown as an 'iron moulder (improver)'.
On 6 September 1919 she married William James Jenks Preston (1875-1940) at St Peter's Church, Southwark. In the marriage register she is shown as a spinster, aged 20 years, a booking clerk, giving her address as 73 Park Street whilst her husband is described as a bachelor, aged 43 years (he was in fact aged 44 years), a paper manufacturer also of 73 Park Street, whose father was John Preston, a hay dealer.
Electoral registers from 1929 to 1939 show her and her husband listed at 140A Union Street, London, SE1 and this address was confirmed in the 1939 England and Wales Register which incorrectly shows her date of birth as 10 May 1900. Her occupation was recorded as 'unpaid domestic duties' and her husband was shown as a 'newspaper packer'.
She died, aged 40 years, on 10 September 1940, as a result of enemy action when a bomb fell on the Ewer Street air raid shelter. Her husband was also killed in the air raid. Her name can be found on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's website and it is also recorded in The Civilian War Dead Roll of Honour 1939-1945 that is kept just outside the entrance to St George's Chapel at the west end of Westminster Abbey. These incorrectly show that she was living at 140 Union Street as we know this was the home of Joyce and Lottie Helen Hackett.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
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