Ella’s will
On 14 September 1931, Ella Vary Reynolds of Delwyn Cottages, Hardington Mandeville, asked her neighbours Lucy Spearing and Grace Watts to witness the signing of her will.[1] She was dying of cancer at the age of 54, and she wanted to put her affairs in order,
Although written in conventional legal language, the will reveals her personality. She left two treasured objects to each of her “darling” daughters, asking them to pass them on to their eldest daughter in turn. She also left family heirlooms and other objects of sentimental value to her husband, and three surviving siblings, including a silver teddy bear pepper pot to her brother Harry, for luck, as well as old Worcester plates and a cake dish “formerly the property of Auntie Rosie.”
Ella’s will also reflects careful planning. It was less a plan for a single future than a structure designed to hold several futures open. She provided for her daughters’ future support and benefit by creating a trust to hold the two cottages in which the family lived and the remainder of her estate. The cottages were not to be sold. Instead, she directed that they be kept in trust as a permanent home for her daughters during their lifetimes, to enjoy rent-free. Any final settlement of her estate was deferred until after their deaths.
Ella had become fond of the village during the short time she had lived there. In addition to retaining the cottages for her daughters, in her will she expressed a wish to be buried either in Hardington or Eastbourne, adding that she desired that an artery or vein be opened before she was buried.
Ella had probably moved to the village with Harry and their two daughters in the late 1920s.[2] Harry was a bank manager who may have sought relocation from London to Yeovil or Crewkerne when Ella fell ill. Their earlier lives had been spent in the south-east of England.
Ella’s childhood
Ella was born in 1877, probably at 39a Canonbury Square, London, the third child of John and Sarah Ann Saunders.[3] Her father was an accountant, while her mother was the daughter of a Poor Rate Collector.
When Ella was about six, the stability of her life was broken when her father was diagnosed with cancer of the voice box. A year or two later, the family relocated to Eastbourne, a health resort on the south coast. Eventually, her father was admitted to the Princess Alice Hospital, where he died on 10 May 1887 at the age of 67.[4] His death left his wife in sole charge of five children.
The details of Ella’s later childhood are unclear. She may have attended a boarding school, like her siblings, Harry, Mabel and Jessie.[5]
In 1894, the family’s circumstances changed again when Sarah’s father, Stephen Sunnucks, died.[6] He may have left his home at 2 May Place, Northfleet, to Sarah, as she was living there with three of her daughters in 1901.[7] Meanwhile, Ella was living with her father’s sister, Rosena Elliott, who lived at St John’s Hill, Gravesend.[8]
Rosena, known to her nephew and nieces as “Auntie Rosie,” played a significant role as a benefactor to Ella and her siblings. A childless widow, she had been left well off by her two husbands, the first a City of London silversmith and the second a farmer.[9] When she died in 1906, she left an estate valued at £6,992 19s 3d. She bequeathed £1,000 each to Ella and her four siblings and £200 to their mother.[10] This inheritance later enabled Ella to buy the cottages at Hardington.
Marriage
While living at Gravesend, Ella met Harry Bernard Reynolds, a bank clerk living with his parents at 35 Singlewell Road.[11] His father was a Customs Officer originally from Plymouth. Harry and Ella were married in 1902.
Over the next three years, they had two daughters: Della Rosena, born in West Dulwich on 22 January 1903, and Eva Winifred, born in Sidcup on 30 November 1905.[12]
By April 1911, the family lived at Mayfield, Sandhurst Road, Sidcup.[13] Later that year, Harry inherited a one-third share of his mother’s estate, which was valued at £499 5s in total.[14] By 1919, they lived at 3 Tachbrook Road, Feltham, where they remained until about 1927.[15] According to the 1921 census, Harry worked for the London County Westminster & Parrs Bank at 134 Aldersgate Street, London.
In 1926, Ella’s mother died at Eastbourne, which had been her home for at least fifteen years. In later life, she became an active member of the Salvation Army, and this was reflected in the will. She asked to be buried with the usual honours of the Salvation Army, and she left a life policy with Salvation Army Life Assurance Society and the residue of her estate to her daughter, Mabel, who was a Salvation Army Officer. She left Ella her silver and plated articles.[16]
Hardington
In the late 1920s, Harry and his family moved to Delwyn Cottages, Hardington. They probably bought the cottages from Frederick Moon, who had acquired them for £180 in the estate sale of 1920.[17]
By this time, Ella was probably terminally ill with sarcoma of the buttock and paraplegia. She lived to see her eldest daughter, Della, marry Jack Malcolm Plummer, an aircraft woodworker, in 1931, probably at Hardington
Ella died in the Yeovil Nursing Home on 2 February 1932 at the age of 54, and was buried at Hardington.[18]
Harry’s later life
While still living at Hardington, Harry married Amy Sarah Marguerita Tucker at St Margaret’s Church, Ifield, Kent, on 5 October 1933.[19] Amy was the daughter of William Holmes Tucker, a Dover builder. After her mother’s death, Amy trained as a nurse at Guy’s Hospital, qualifying in 1909.[20] In the early 1930s, she worked at the Nautical College at Pangbourne, Berkshire.[21]
Harry and Amy later lived at Uckfield and Bromley.[22] He died on 10 August 1964, leaving an estate valued at £1,313.[23] She died on 16 June 1968, leaving an estate valued at £23,957.[24]
Della and Jack settled in Uxbridge, living initially at 9 Stratford Avenue and later at 33 Harlington Road. Jack died in 1990, while Della died on 4 January 2002. It is unclear whether they had any children.
Eva married Ralph Lawrence Davies in 1933. They ran a market gardening business in Buckinghamshire before emigrating to Canada on the Mauretania in 1947 with their three children, Michael, Penelope, and Ella.[25] Ralph died in 1984, and Eva died in 1992.
References
[1] The will of Ella Vary Reynolds, dated 14 September 1931, proved in London on 4 June 1932.
[2] The voters’ lists record, Harry and Ella Reynolds at 3 Tachbrook Road, Feltham, on the list for 1927 but not for 1928.
[3] Baptism register of St Augustine, Highbury.
[4] Information about John Saunders’ death taken from a family tree in Ancestry compiled by John Saunders of British Columbia (accessed 5 January 2026).
[5] RG11, piece 874, folio 60, p.9; RG12, piece 1111, folio 141, p17; RG12, piece 1120, folio 109, p. 9
[6] National Probate Calendar; London Evening Standard, 10 November 1894, p.1.
[7] RG13, piece 716, folio 62, p.14.
[8] RG13, piece 713, folio 111, p.32.
[9] The will of John Hugh Brodie, dated 20 April 1857, proved in London on 1 December 1857;
[10] The will of Rosena Elliott, dated 6 June 1899, proved in London on 10 May 1906; national probate calendar entry for Thomas Elliott, died 20 May 1893, will proved in London 7 June 1893.
[11] RG13. piece 713, folio 108, p.25.
[12] Civil Registration Birth Index; 1939 Register.
[13] RG14, piece 3713.
[14] The will of Sarah Elizabeth Reynolds, dated 13 October 1905, proved in London on 10 October 1911.
[15] Voting lists; RG15, enumeration district 8, sch. 153.
[16] The will of Sarah Ann Saunders, dated 28 November 1913, proved in London 15 December 1926.
[17] Eddie Turner’s annotated copy of the estate sale catalogue.
[18] Death certificate of Ella Vary Reynolds; MI at Hardington.
[19] Dover Express, 13 October 1933, p.1.
[20] Register of Nurses, 1931, p.1740.
[21] Voters’ lists.
[22] 1939 Register; National Probate Calendar.
[23] National Probate Calendar.
[24] National Probate Calendar.
[25] 1939 Register;
