Biography of Nellie Maud Spurgeon (nee Carpenter)

Born at 69 Golborn Road, Kensington, London on 27 December 1889. In the 1891 census Nellie (1) is living at 61 Wellington Road, Kensington with her parents Charles (28, a railway porter) & Martha (23), and older sister Mary (4). By 1901 Nellie (11) is living at 27 Albert Road, Willesden with father Charles (38, packer in a general warehouse), mother Martha (33), and sisters Mary (14), Winifred (9) & Martha (6). In the 1911 census Nellie (21) is living at 39 Buckingham Road, Willesden, London with her mother, Martha (43), sisters Mary (24), Winifred (19) & Martha (16), and a lodger Henry Jones (28). All four sisters are dressmakers; Nellie trained as a court dressmaker.

Her husband-to-be was living nearby at 31 Buckingham Road: she married Walter James Spurgeon at All Souls Church, Harlesdon, London NW10 in 1915: witnesses included her mother Martha Ann Carpenter, sister Winnie Carpenter, & Charlotte Fisher. Nellie & Walter set up house together in the lower flat of 8 Lushington Road, Harlesden, rented accomodation, where they lived until 1936.

On 19 August 1921, during a tremendous heatwave, their only son Roy Walter was born. In 1936 the family moved to 255 Woodcock Hill, Preston Road, Harrow, Middlesex, to a new home which they owned, and where they lived until her husband's retirement in 1962, when they moved to a new bungalow "Inglewood", Spurlands End Road, Great Kingshill, High Wycombe, Bucks.

On 11 December 1951 Nellie sailed with her husband from Southampton to New York on SS Caronia, arriving 19 December. They returned after visitng relatives in California on the Queen Mary, leaving New York on 8 February 1952 and arriving at Southampton on 13 February, met by her son's family.

After her husband's death in 1963, she moved to Flat 7, Lindiswara Court, Watford Road, Croxley Green, Hertfordshire, and lived there until 1977, when she died of heart failure.