Kathleen Alice Canepa was born as Kathleen Alice Purcell on 30 March 1873 in Melcombe Regis, Dorset, the younger daughter of George Joseph Gillichen Purcell (1838-1873) and Emily Catherine Purcell née Peard (1841-1906). Her father was a Commander in the Royal Navy and she was baptised on 25 April 1873 in Melcombe Regis.
The 1881 census shows her living at Florence Villas, Fowey, Cornwall, with her widowed mother, her sister, a ladies-maid, a cook and a housemaid.
On 11 July 1907 she married Aubrey Frederick Willoughby (1857-1911) in the St George Hanover Square registration district in London, but he died on 7 January 1911. Probate records show that they were living at 30 Milnthorpe Road, Eastbourne, Sussex and that his estate totalled £3,412-6s-4d. She was listed here as Mrs A. F. Willoughby in the 1911 telephone directory, the house being called 'Tanglin'.
On 22 June 1912 she remarried in Marylebone to a Giovanni Luigi Bartolomio Guiseppe Canepa (?-1950) and their daughter was born on 15 May 1916. Their daughter's birth was registered in the St George Hanover Square registration district as Luigia A. M. V. V. Canepa.
From 1930 to 1940 she is listed in telephone directories as Signora K. A. Canepa at 20 Buckingham Palace Mansions, London, SW1.The 1939 England and Wales Register shows her and her daughter (who is recorded as Victoria V. Canepa) at 'Catchbells', London Road, Stanway, Colchester, Essex, the home of Colonel James Morris Colquhoun Colvin, V.C.
Telephone directories from 1941 list her at 1 Sloane Court, London, SW3.
She died, aged 71 years, together with her daughter on 3 July 1944 at 1 Sloane Court as a result of enemy action when a V1 bomb fell on their home.
When probate was granted on 4 September 1945 her estate totalled £9,413-5s-9d in England.
She is also commemorated in the Civilian War Dead Roll of Honour, located just outside the entrance to St George's Chapel at the west end of Westminster Abbey, London.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan
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