Part of the Earley family tree (Great-aunt)
Family background
Emmeline Mary Earley (known as Emily) was born at West Grimstead, near Salisbury on 20 July 1887; she was the youngest child (of 10) born to Charles John Earley (1842–1924) and his wife Martha née Rose (1844–1931). She was baptised at St John’s Church, West Grimstead on 21 December 1887.
Emily lived with her parents in West Grimstead until shortly before her marriage.
Marriage and children
On 6 November 1906, aged 19, she married 47-year old Revd. Albert Frederic Acton, who had been rector of West Grimstead until a month before the wedding. The wedding was held at St Mary’s Church at Shirehampton, near Bristol. Immediately prior to the marriage, she was staying at Shirehampton Rectory, with her friend Richenda Powell, whose husband Revd. Hector Alexander Powell conducted the wedding ceremony.
Shortly before the wedding, Albert had been installed as rector at Brixton Deverill near Warminster, where he was to minister for the next 14 years.
The couple had two daughters born at Brixton Deverill: Elizabeth Mary, born on 26 March 1909 and Susan Hilda born on 15 May 1914.
In March 1920, the family sailed to Sydney, Australia on board the SS Berrima of the Peninsular and Oriental Line, where Albert was appointed a minor Canon at Christ Church Cathedral, Newcastle. Their third child, John Reginald was born in Newcastle on 30 January 1921.
The family returned to London in July 1922 on board the P & O ship SS Baradine, following which Albert was appointed vicar at Edington, near Westbury, Wiltshire. Frederick had other posts in Wiltshire before moving to Norfolk in 1932. Frederick died in Wells-next-the-Sea in September 1938.
At the 1939 Register, Emily (aged 52) was employed as the housekeeper at the Clergy House of Rest at West Malvern in Worcestershire.
Emily died at Northampton General Hospital on 13 October 1964, aged 77.
Later family history
Elizabeth married George Gouldsmith, a hotelier, in 1936. She died in December 2002.
Susan married twice: firstly to George Child, a salesman, in 1933 and, after his death, to Robert Wood in 1948. She died in 1975.
John married Margaret Mitchell in 1943. He died in 2022, aged 101. He was an electronics engineer and worked on valves etc., being the inventor of the Dekatron cathode tube. (See this article for the full story.)