Anna Maria Woods was born on 7 June 1889 in Southwark. She was one of the nine children of William Henry Woods (1855-1919) and Annie Woods née Wilkinson (1855-1936). Her birth was registered in the 3rd quarter of 1889 in the St Saviour registration district, Southwark. On 3 February 1890 she was baptised at St George the Martyr Church, Southwark, where the baptismal register shows the family living at 58, D Block, Queens Buildings, Southwark Bridge Road, and that her father was a labourer.
The 1891 census shows her still living at the same address with her parents and four siblings: Ann Elizabeth Woods (1876-1942), Nellie Woods (1878-1932), Francis William Woods (1880-1951) and Thomas Charles Woods (1887-1916). Her father's occupation was now a wine cellarman.
In the 1901 census she is shown as residing at 67 Newcomen Street, Southwark, with her parents and three siblings: Francis, Thomas and Frederick Woods (b.1895). Her father was now a warehouseman.
She was described as a printer's assistant clerk in the 1911 census that shows her living at 130 Union Street, Southwark, with her parents, (her father was now both a sub-postmaster and a grocer), two brothers: Thomas (a printer's warehouseman) and Frederick (a G.P.O. telegraph messenger), together with her aunt, Eliza Cowland née Woods (1857-1915) and her niece Mabel Muir (1899-1940).
Electoral registers in 1925 show her and her mother listed at 130 Union Street, Southwark. The 1939 England and Wales Register shows her as a sub-postmistress still living at 130 Union Street.
She was injured on 10 September 1940 as a result of enemy action when a German bomb fell on the Ewer Street air raid shelter and was taken to Guy's Hospital, St Thomas Street, London, SE1, where she died, aged 51 years, on 12 September 1940. Amongst the others killed were her niece, Mabel Darvell née Muir (1899-1940), and her grandniece, Audrey Kathleen Darvell (1924-1940). She was buried in the City of London Cemetery and Crematorium, Aldersbrook Road, London, E12 5DQ.
Probate records confirm that her address was 130 Union Street, Southwark, and that she died at Guy's Hospital. Probate was granted on 27 June 1941 to her niece's husband, George Darvell (1899-1962), and her effects totalled £616-9s-8d.
Her name is 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. In this she is shown as living at 130 Union Street, Southwark, as does the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's website.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
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