Introduction

After a fairly traumatic childhood, Jehu Chester became a baker at Hardington and went on to pursue this occupation at Ludgershall, Glastonbury and Somerton before moving to the South Wales coalfields, where he tragically died from a virulent disease.

Childhood at Hardington

Jehu was born at Hardington in 1869, the youngest of eight children born to William and Anne Chester, who lived in Pen Lane. His father, William, was a farm labourer.

Jehu’s childhood was marked by tragedy. When he was four years old, his sister, Hannah, died of heart disease.[1] At twelve, he experienced an even more devastating loss when his mother died on October 11, 1881, due to an internal obstruction and peritonitis. This loss greatly affected his father, who, in June 1885, attempted to take his own life by cutting his throat.[2] Although he survived the injury, he hanged himself eleven months later. ^[3]

Occupation

Jehu was a journeyman baker for most of his life. As a young man, he sought employment through advertisements in the Western Gazette. In March 1887, when he was seventeen, he advertised for a situation as a good second baker.[4] In December 1888, he again sought a situation, this time as a first, second, or single baker.[5]

Marriage

On 8 May 1889, Jehu married Alice Mary Abbott at Hardington Church. She was the daughter of Simeon Abbott, a farm labourer who lived also in Pen Lane.

Business venture

Early in his married life, Jehu tried to run his own business by taking the tenancy of a bakery at Hardington Moor, which had previously been occupied by Philip Helliar.[6] The premises, which comprised a house, bakehouse, stable, coach-house and garden, belonged to the executors of John Yeandle. Unfortunately, the venture cannot have succeeded because his tenancy, which commenced on 25 March 1890, only lasted one year.[7] By 5 April 1891, Jehu, Alice and their ten-month-old daughter, Matilda Maud, lived at East Field. Their second child, William John, was born at Hardington about a year later.

Life in Wiltshire

Jehu was committed to finding new opportunities. By October 1893, he and his family had moved to Ludgershall, a village near Andover that had benefited economically from a railway station opened in 1882. Their third child, Jehu Simeon Wakefield Chester, was born there.

Glastonbury and Somerton

Their time in Wiltshire was brief. By April 1896, they had moved to Glastonbury, and by May 1899, they were living at Somerton, in a four-roomed house in a road named Behind Berry.

Life in South Wales

Between May 1906 and April 1908, the family moved to Aberkenfig, near Bridgend, a village only three miles from where Jehu’s brother, Joseph, worked as a coal miner. There, Jehu found work as a coal miner, too.

Death

Jehu did not live long after this move. He died on 13 March 1909 from typhoid fever, aged just 39, leaving a widow and eight children, five of them under thirteen years of age.

Alice’s later life

Alice, who was an attractive woman, began a relationship with Ernest Pearson, a coal miner who was ten years her junior. Alice became pregnant and they married on 2 August 1910. Their son, Ernest Arthur, was born in about September 1910 but died in October 1911.

Alice and Ernest sometimes lived apart, although it is unclear whether this was due to economic reasons or other factors. In April 1911, Alice and her eight unmarried children lived in a five-roomed house at 28 Park Road, Aberkenfig, while Ernest worked in Stockport. However, the 1921 census shows Alice, Ernest, and Alice’s daughter, Nellie, living together at 40 Park Street, Kenfig Hill, Pyle. By September 1939, Alice, although still married, lived apart from her husband at 13 Tytalwyn Avenue, Kenfig Hill, near Bridgend, with two granddaughters. Ernest’s whereabouts at that time are unknown.

Alice died in the Bridgend area in 1949, at the age of 78.

Children

Jehu and Alice had two sons and six daughters who reached adulthood.[8] Their only two sons, William and Jehu, were killed on the Western Front in 1917.[9]

[1] Death certificate of Hannah Chester.

[2] Echo (London), 16 June 1885, p.1; Western Gazette, 26 June 1885, p.6.

[3] Bristol Mercury 11 May 1886 p. 7; Pulman’s Weekly News and Advertiser 18 May 1886 p.6.

[4] Western Gazette, 11 March 1887, p.4.

[5] Western Gazette, 28 December 1888, p.5.

[6] Western Gazette, 28 February 1890, p.5.

[7] Western Gazette, 13 March 1891, p.5.

[8] Alice completed the 1911 census return incorrectly, stating that she had eleven children by her present marriage, of whom eight were alive. These figures would appear to relate to her first marriage.

[9] Soldiers Died in the Great War, 1914-1919.