Ampthill, Bedfordshire, Record 8: The Rushbrooke Family, Part 2

Record 8: The Rushbrooke Family, Part 2

Record eight continues with the Rushbrooke family's story. Picking up with the youngest three children of Joseph and Lilla.

Daughter: Irene Constance Rushbrooke

Although at first it may have appeared that Joseph and Lilla Rushbrooke would have no more children after Dorothy in 1891, these suggestions were put to rest by the birth of Irene 10 years later, on the 12th of November 1901. By this time, both her parents were already in their forties, and her siblings were much older than her. Irene would've attended school in Ampthill from around 1906 to 1913. As the family had moved to Earley by 1915, it would appear that they left Ampthill just as Irene was finishing her last year of school.

St. George's House, c.1950

Around the early 1920's, Irene met Dudley MacNeil Evans. Dudley was notably much older than Irene, having been born in South Africa in 1886. At the time, Dudley was a Major with the Indian Army. He had served during WW1 with the 55th Coke's Rifles regiment reaching the rank of Captain, before being a Major around 1921. Before his army time he had played cricket for Hampshire in 1904/05 (more on that can be seen here)

Irene's husband Dudley MacNeil Evans
Seen with the Hampshire County Cricket Team, 1904

Irene and Dudley married in 1923. They had no children, and by 1939 the couple lived in Wokingham, joined by Irene's elderly mother. By this time Dudley had retired from the army, and he did not appear to serve in WW2. He eventually passed away on the 18th of December 1972, aged 86, and Irene followed 23 years later on the 20th of February 1995, aged 93.

Daughter: Violet Marjorie Rushbrooke

Violet Marjorie, the 6th child of Joseph and Lilla, was born in Ampthill on the 20th of October 1903. She started school around 1908, and presumably completed her education in Earley in 1915. The youngest daughter of the family, Violet met Walter Francis Morrogh in Berkshire, and the two were married in 1925. Walter was a military officer, like his brother-in-law Dudley Evans, he had rose through the ranks in WW1, becoming a Major. He had served in the 2nd Battalion of the Prince of Wales's Leinster Regiment. During WW2 he became Brigadier and worked with the Ministry of Supply, he retired in 1947. They had two children, Maureen Lilla (1928-) and Walter Joseph (1933-2001). Walter died on the 19th of August 1954, aged 59, and Violet passed away on the 22nd of October 1980, two days after her 76th birthday.

Son: William Alec James Rushbrooke

The last child of Joseph and Lilla. William Alec James was born on the 28th of September 1908, the couple's third son. When the family moved to Earley around 1913, William was only a child and was therefore educated in Earley rather than Ampthill, the only one of the couples childrens to have a full education in the town.

By the 1930s, William had found employment as a textile salesman, and in 1935, he married 21 year-old Norah Suzanne Franks. Together they had two daughters, Jennifer and Wendy. During WW2 William served in the Royal Tank Regiment, and later the Royal Armoured Corps. It's unknown what William did after the war, but it is known that the family was still living in Surry when Norah died on the 28th of October 1990, aged 76. By the millennium, William, now in his 90's, returned to Bedford, where he died on the 11th of January 2001, aged 92.