Introduction
Ernest Frank Marsh belonged to a generation of rural men who remained rooted in the countryside while increasingly relying on industrial and labouring work in nearby towns rather than agriculture. Although he lived in Hardington Mandeville for a time after his marriage, he later moved to West Coker, which offered better transport links and more council housing. His life also provides evidence of continuing mutual support within the wider Marsh family.
Childhood
Ernest was born on 10 July 1895 at Hardington Mandeville, the seventh of eleven children born to Edward and Elizabeth Marsh.[1] The family lived near the top of the High Street, and Edward worked as a farm labourer.
On 7 February 1905, Ernest’s sister Frances Maud died in Crewkerne Hospital from tubercular meningitis at the age of sixteen.[2]
A more significant upheaval occurred six years later when Ernest’s mother died suddenly on 25 April 1911 at the age of fifty-four. She had travelled to Yeovil with a son and daughter in a trap driven by Mrs Watts, the wife of the village blacksmith. After seeing her son off at the railway station, she and her daughter went into the Butcher’s Arms for refreshment. About ten minutes later, the landlord heard the girl scream and found Mrs Marsh semi-conscious and collapsing to the floor. A doctor was summoned, but she had already died by the time he arrived. A post-mortem examination attributed her death to heart failure arising from heart disease.[3]
Later that same year, Ernest’s father married Emma Eastment, a single woman with three children who lived at Hardington Marsh. The reason he remarried so quickly was probably connected with the practical difficulty of caring for four children under the age of fourteen. Emma provided a solution for the family, although she herself died of stomach cancer in 1917.[4]
By the time of his mother’s death, Ernest was fifteen years old and already employed as a farm labourer.
Marriage
On 2 August 1920, Ernest married Florence Ellen Parsons at Hardington parish church.[5] Florence was the daughter of James Charles Parsons and his first wife, Minnie.
Born at Badshot Lea in Surrey in 1900, Florence returned to her father’s home parish of West Coker with her brother, George, after Minnie died two years later. In 1906, her father married Frances Selina Cooper of East Chinnock, with whom he had another son.
Florence’s mother appears to have suffered recurrent mental illness. She was admitted to Brookwood Asylum, Woking, in 1893, suffering from mania, and again in 1902, four months after her son was born. She died there in August 1902 at the age of thirty-five.[6]
After their marriage, Ernest and Florence lived for a time with his father and brother Gilbert. The 1921 census recorded Ernest as an unemployed iron foundry labourer who had previously worked for Petters of Westlands, Yeovil. Their son, Ronald William Frank, was born in 1922, followed ten years later by Colin Ernest.
West Coker
By 1929, the family was living at 11 Font Hill, West Coker, and Ernest worked as a builder’s labourer. Their household included Ernest’s oldest brother, Samuel, and a girl named Sylvia Joan Marsh. Samuel was a retired Royal Navy Petty Officer who had separated from his wife. When Samuel died in 1952, his address was still Font.[7] Sylvia’s identity is not clear. According to the civil registration birth index, Sylvia’s mother’s surname was Marsh, suggesting that she may have belonged to the wider Marsh family rather than being Ernest and Florence’s daughter.
Florence’s father died intestate in 1949, leaving an estate valued at £1,000. However, Florence did not obtain letters of administration until 1966, suggesting that the estate may have remained unresolved for many years.[8]
Ernest died in the Yeovil area in 1960 at the age of sixty-five, and Florence died in the Salisbury area in 1967 at the age of sixty-seven.
Conclusion
Ernest’s early life was marked by repeated family bereavements and employment insecurity during the post-war economic slump of 1920–21. Although he eventually left Hardington, he remained within the same small district of south Somerset. His life illustrates the gradual movement of many rural families away from agricultural employment while still remaining closely tied to their native area through kinship, housing, and family support.
References
[1] Civil registration birth index; 1939 Register.
[2] Death certificate of Frances Marsh.
[3] Western Gazette 28 April 1911 p. 4.
[4] Death certificate of Emma Marsh.
[5] Western Gazette, 3 August 1945, p.8-Silver wedding.
[6] Admissions to Brookwood and Holloway Mental Hospitals, 1867-1900; Lunacy Patients Admission Registers, 1846-1921.
[7] West Coker burial register.
[8] National Probate Calendar.
