Katie Mabel Nicoll was born in Forest Gate, Essex on 20 March 1895. Her parents were
Sarah (nee Lamplugh) and
Eugene Nicoll (see
B5.8). She spent her early years in Forest Gate with a brother and two sisters, one of whom, Nellie Evelyn, was her twin (see
B8.1). Her father was a director of Baiss Brothers, manufacturing chemists.
In September 1922 in Hendon, Middlesex, she married
Frank William Bluemel.
Frank was the son of Frank and Annie Bluemel, and had been born on 8 June 1889 in Mile End, London. His father was a cycle accessory manufacturer who along with his two brothers was described as a captain of industry at the beginning of the twentieth century. The family firm moved to Wolston where they specialised in mudguards, tyre inflators and many other accessories for the burgeoning bicycle industry. They also produced plastic items such as walking stick and umbrella handles. They had purchased a factory in 1902 which had previously been an artificial silk works owned by Joseph Cash, and began with 150 employees, some of whom they brought from London with them. During the First and Second World Wars they made Munitions, and the manpower rose from 500 in 1914 to 800-900. Itcontinued to flourish, extending to making motor accessories such as number plates and steering wheels to some of the most prestigious car manufacturers such as Jaguar and Aston Martin. Ultimately however the company was taken over in 1983 by a German firm, and the factory itself became a business park and in latter days, housing.
By 1911 the Bluemel family lived at Cannon Hill, Coventry, and Frank William was assisting in his father's business. After his father's death in 1933 he became a company director and the family lived, by 1939, at 55 Kenilworth Road, a property possibly built in the 1920s for his father, as by this time he and his wife Katie had been joined by her widowed mother and sisters.
Frank died on 29 August 1961 and his widow Katie survived until 29 May 1976.