James William Hand
James was born on 21 November 1878 in Biggleswade, Bedfordshire to parents James Thackeray Hand and his wife Martha Elizabeth nee Ashwell. However, he wasn't baptised there until 4 February 1881. They lived in Manchester Row, where his father was a bootmaker and his mother was a boot closer. By the time of the 1891 Census, James was being called William, his second name. In 1906 he married Mabel Spiers in Stoneleigh on 13 September. She was a local woman who had been born there in 1878, and ran the Post Office in Coventry Road. Mabel passed away 11 years later in December 1917 at the age of 39. James later married Selina Ann Stocker in September 1920 with the registration being in Warwick. By 1939 they were living on the Bank at Stoneleigh and he was working as a coach trimmer at a motor car manufacturer. Just 3 years later on 4 September 1942 he died.
Selina Ann Stocker was born in Swavesey Cambridgeshire on 26 August 1878 to parents Ephraim Stocker and his wife Emma Hand. Aged 3 she was still living there in 1881 with her parents, her father working as an agricultural labourer. By the time she was 22 she had moved to London and was working in Kensington as a kitchen maid. On 13 April 1903 she married Frederick Parish in St. Ives, Huntingdon. By 1904 she was back in the London area giving birth to their son Fred Parish on 30 January. In January 1907 in Greenwich she gave birth to her second son Charles. The 1911 Census shows them all living in Nelson Road Lower Edmonton with Frederick working as a fruit salesman. Just 5 years later in December 1916 he died at just 38 years of age in Edmonton.
Selina married again in September 1920, her second husband being James William Hand who was a widower. His first wife Mabel had died in 1917 while they were living in Stoneleigh; James was working as a coach trimmer at a motor car manufacturer. They continued to live together in Stoneleigh with James continuing in this line of work until he died aged 63 on 4 September 1942. Unfortunately Selina's widowed mother Emma died soon afterwards, while living locally at the Stoneleigh Almshouses, on 7 July 1944. Selina passed away on 19 June 1955 with her death being registered in Coventry.