Ethel Mary Elmer grave monument in All Saints Church burial ground, Great Ashfield, Suffolk, England

Ethel Mary Elmer grave monument: legible names and details

full name	burial date	age	birth date	relationship	notes
Ethel Mary Elmer	1918	27	1891	first name on monument	Ethel Mary Elmer died of goitre. At the time she died she was teaching in Woolwich in London's East End, where the 3 womenfolk in the family (Ethel, her mother Lucy and her older sister Dorothy) had moved to before WWI. By 1918 her 3 x brothers had all gone their separate ways from Britain, Sidney John Elmer to Queensland, Australia in 1909; Edgar Willian Dixon Elmer to Shanghai, China where he ran the Power Station, and Leslie Arthur Elmer to East Africa where in 1915 he joined the Natal Rifles against the German occupancy of that region. Leslie later served on the Western Front in a Heavy Battery of the RGA, and returned to Africa in 1921 to Eldoret near Kitale, Kenya to work land his Father, Henry Arthur Elmer had bought in the 1880s when he spent some time there for his health, due it is said to flour-on-the-lung (a common complaint millers at the time fell victim to).
Arthur Elmer				father of Ethel Mary Elmer	Ethel Mary Elmer's Father was actually Henry Arthur Elmer, and he is also buried in All Saints churchyard in Great Ashfield, but is one of the several Elmer family stones lined up to the immediate left of the path to the porch door of the church. He died relatively young due it is said to complications from flour-in-the-lung (a common health complaint of millers at the time). In the 1880's he is not present in 2 Census returns for Great Ashfield, and is believed for his health to have removed himself to Eldoret near Kitale, Kenya where he bought land which his youngest son (Leslie Arthur Elmer) took up and worked as a soldier/settler in the White Highlands, from 1921 up to his death there in 1942. His wife, son and daughter then lived there to the 1960's when she returned to Britain.
Lucy Elmer				mother of Ethel Mary Elmer	Ethel Mary Elmer's Mother (nee Lucy Wakelin) is also buried in All Saints churchyard in Great Ashfield, and her memorial is a shared gravestone (one of the several Elmer family stones lined up to the immediate left of the path to the porch door of the church). Lucy Elmer moved to Woolwich before WWI, following the death of her husband Henry Arthur Elmer. Her 2 daughters also lived with her there, and Ethel Mary died there in 1918 from goitre, possibly as a result of contracting Spanish Flu. (TBC). Following Ethel's death & the departure of Leslie Arthur Elmer to Kenya in 1921, Dorothy and Lucy moved to Ipswich but moved to Upper Slaughter in Gloucestershire in WWII near their 1st cousins the Burrells. They moved back to Suffolk after WWII and bought the house next door to where they had lived previously. Both women died there - Lucy in 1950 and Dorothy in 1951. All 3 sons (Sidney John; Edgar William Dixon and Leslie Arthur came to visit in Woolwich in 1920 to farewell Leslie, when he emigrated with his new bride to Kenya. EWD returned to China until circa 1935 when he moved to Northern Ireland to run the Power Station at Ballylumford, Islandmagee. Sidney John brought his Australian bride of 5 years and his family of (then 2 children) by ship to meet his mother (my father Arthur Wakelin Elmer, aged 2 and my Aunt Alice (aged 5).

For more information on one of the individual named above, please click on their name.

Please note that all ages and dates of birth in red have been calculated and are probably not on the monument.

The calculated dates of birth should be treated with caution as in many cases it can be one year out.

The calculated dates of birth should also be treated with caution as the ages given on monuments are often inaccurate.

The names above are all the names that are listed on the grave monument. It is most likely that only the entries with dates and ages are interred in the grave.