Memories of my maternal grandparents wouldn’t be complete without grandmother Matilda Thorne.

MY GRANDMOTHER – MATILDA DEXTER (nee Thorne)      (1883-1952)

Matilda Thorne, my grandmother, was born 8th October 1883 in Sparkford in the county of Somerset, England.

At the age of 8,  she lived in Sparkford  in 1891. Matilda was just nine years of age at the time of Edward VII`s Coronation a year later.

Residing in Somerset (Sutton Montis) in 1901 aged 18, records show Matilda was a servant to the ‘Head of the House).

Matilda married Ernest Walter Dexter on the 14th Jan 1911 aged 27.  On the following 2nd April 1911, the couple resided in Egham just prior to their daughter and only child Grace Edith (my mother), birth on the 4th April 1911.

Matilda lived in Egham at the time the Women’s Suffrage movement turned militant.

In  1939 records show them living at 52, Claremont Road, Egham.

She died at the age of 68 on the 8th August 1952 at  number 52, Claremont Road. Unfortunately I have only a limited recollection of her, as she passed away when I was just 9 years of age.

Terence Whitestone