The Old Church House

A Memory of Thakeham.

My great grandmother, Cecelia Mary Gore, b. 1887 - the grand daughter of an earl, eloped with a gardener, Albert Reynolds, in the early 1910s. They married, had four children. Win, my grandmother was one of them, Albert a son and then two little ones one of whom was called Rhoda. They lived in the church house overlooking the cemetary at St Mary's Church. Albert continued working as a gardener. My grandmother went to school with the Gore family..The children did not suffer the sins of the parents. Tragically, in 1919, Cecelia and Albert's two youngest children died on the same day from the effects of the Spanish Flu. They are buried in the church yard. It was far too unbearable for the parents to remain in the house let alone look daily at the spot their children were buried. They decided to emigrate to Australia shortly afterwards. They settled in Perth, Western Australia. Not long after their arrival Albert Reyolds senior died from the effects of a red-back spider bite. Cecelia died in 1966. I have made the pilgramage to the Church yard... and indeed found the grave of the two small children - aged 3 and 4.

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