Part of the Earley family tree (Mother)
Family background and early life
Rebecca Jean Mary Allan was born at 25 Tunstall Road, Brixton on 4 December 1918. She was the only child of Kate Alfreda Allan (née Branch) (1892–1972) and her husband, Robert Ewart Allan (1891–1964).
Kate Branch had married Robert Allan, a 24-year old Private in the Gordon Highlanders, on 13 August 1915. The marriage was short-lived and by late 1921, Robert had returned to Scotland and settled with a new partner.
At the June 1921 census, Kate, together with her mother Emily and 2-year old Rebecca, were still living at Tunstall Road. 29-year old Kate was now employed as a laundress. The family were living at 74 Aytoun Road, Brixton in 1935 and 1936. The following year, they moved to 60 Wiltshire Road, before settling at 26 Saltoun Road, Lambeth.
Marriage and children
Shortly after they settled in Saltoun Road, Kate took in a lodger, Walter George Earley, a motor mechanic. Walter and Rebecca soon became romantically attached and were married at Lambeth Register Office on 20 September 1938, when Rebecca was 19 and Walter was 21.
The couple lived initially in a rented room in Shakespeare Road, Brixton, until early in 1939 they moved to Downton, Wiltshire where Walter worked maintaining a fleet of vehicles for a haulage company.
They stayed together for the rest of their lives with seven children:
Jean Mary, born in Downton in February 1939
Michael John Steven, born in Downton in September 1940
Peter Gary, born in Hythe in February 1947
David Walter, born in Hythe in June 1948
Geoffrey Alan, born in Hythe in August 1949
Susan Patricia, born in Hythe in May 1952
John Dean, born in Hythe in May 1957
By 1945, Rebecca and her two children had returned to Saltoun Road, until Walter was demobbed.
After the war, the family settled in Hythe, near Southampton where Walter was manager of Marsh Garage, in the village centre. In late 1953, he left Marsh Garage and built Fairfield Garage on the main Southampton Road.
In 1959, the family moved to West Dene in (Lower) Mullins Lane, Hythe, where they lived for the remainder of their lives.
Rebecca died, aged 75, on 8 November 1994 from throat cancer.