Henry Hulbert
Henry Hulbert was one of the ten children of Charles Hulbert and his wife Caroline Priscilla nee White. (In the 1911 census Charles stated that there had been ten children born to the marriage but five had died by then). He was born in mid- 1876 at Great Malvern, Worcestershire, and was baptised on 19 Oct 1879 in St Mark's, New Milverton, Warwickshire with his brother Ernest Arthur. The address was given as 29 Rugby Road, Milverton. His father was a stonemason and in the early years of his marriage seems to have moved around quite considerably.
In 1881 the family were still living at 29 Rugby Road, Milverton. Sadly, Henry's brother Alfred died in1891, aged 19. In the same year Alfred had been working as a footman and Henry as a houseboy, though at what residence is unknown; perhaps it was Stoneleigh Abbey? Both lived at home, however.
Henry was married on 21 August 1897 to Alice Flint, at Stoneleigh. He had by now become a stonemason like his father. Alice's father Edwin was a Stoneleigh blacksmith, and Alice had lived in the village all her life. One of her sisters, Amy, married
Samuel Smith, (
E 10. 4)and the couple became schoolmaster and schoolmistress until his untimely death in 1892, leaving her with seven children.
Henry and Alice had twins - Florence and Charles Edwin - on 19 December 1901, and at that time Henry was working as a stonemason living in Priory Road Kenilworth; Alice was earning money for herself as a dressmaker. By the following year Henry was working on the Leigh estate.
Tragically, Henry met his death on 14 October 1903 at Stoneleigh, leaving Alice with extremely young children. He had been working to repair a wall at the floodgates at the edge of the village, when strong currents during stormy weather caused the beam he was holding to swing into the river, taking Henry with it. He died despite the efforts of many to rescue him; another man, George Keen, was also drowned in the attempt, though his body was not discovered until the following February, in the river at Stoneleigh Abbey.
Henry was buried on 17 October. Alice continued to live in Stoneleigh, looking after her children and her elderly father, who lived in the almshouses.
[Their son, Charles Edwin Hulbert, also died due to a tragic accident when he was he was just 17 years old, in 1919. He fell down a 50 foot lift well at the Rover Works, and Mr. Roland Hollick, a Stoneleigh resident, was the Rover Company representative. Charles was a carpenter erecting a shed and was collecting some timber from the roof. After putting the timber in the lift, he had not realised the lift had begun its descent, and had gone to get into it, unfortunately falling to his death. His residence was Bridge End Cottage, Stoneleigh.]