William George Harris and Alice Mary Harris nee Harvey
William George Harris was born on 17 March 1902 in Kenilworth to Robert Harris and Lucy nee Dodwell. He was baptised there on 11 May. Sadly his mother died in 1907 and his father was later married, on 28 February 1911, to Ellen Tuck. Robert was a gardener in Stoneleigh when the census was taken that year, and he had three sons by his first marriage. The youngest was just four years old, suggesting that the first wife, Lucy, had died around the time her son was born. Robert was also the village gravedigger and sexton (for Robert's burial see
B1.13).
Alice Mary Harvey was one of the six children born to Arthur Edward Harvey (see
C2.2) and
Mary Elizabeth nee Mayo (see
B5.10) Four of these children died in infancy, sadly. She was born on 4 June 1898 and baptised on 17 July at Aynho. Arthur's work as a gamekeeper provided the option to move house and they lived, variously, at Brackley, Woolland and Salisbury. By 1918 the family lived at the Deer Keeper's Lodge in Stoneleigh, and on Arthur's war service papers he is described as a rabbit catcher. His gravestone proclaims him gamekeeper to Lord Leigh.
On 4 August 1928 Alice and William were married at Stoneleigh, and their marriage produced a daughter, Joyce, and a son, Robert.
By 1939 Alice and William provided a home for her father Arthur after he was widowed. Similarly William's stepmother Ellen was living with them there. They all lived at Bridge End where William was a radial driller working on aircraft.
Unfortunately Alice died young on 29 January 1944 and William survived her by twenty years. He died on 13 August 1964, at which time he was living at 26 Hall Close.