Edith Bacon was born on 20 January 1895 in Catfield, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, one of the eleven children of Philip Arthur Gillings Bacon (1859-1926) and Edith Bacon née Pollard (1859-1936). Her birth was registered in the 1st quarter of 1895 in the Smallburgh registration district, Norfolk and she was baptised on 14 April 1895 in Catfield, Norfolk.
In the 1901 census she is shown as living in a four roomed property in The Common, Catfield, Norfolk, the home of her paternal widowered grandfather George Bacon (1826-1903), together with her parents and five siblings: Robert William Bacon (1884-1944), George Bacon (1887-1968), William Philip Bacon (1891-1943), Alice Bacon (1896-1975) and Maud Bacon (b.1900). Her father was listed as a railway labourer.
She was shown as a general domestic servant living in an eight roomed property at 101 Selborne Road, Southgate, North London, the home of James Burch, a director of a leather goods manufacturer, his wife and their two children.
In July 1925 she married Harry Watts (b.1892) in the Lewisham registration district and they had twins: John Alan Watts (1927-1944) and Joyce Constance Watts (1927-2022), whose births were registered in the 2nd quarter of 1927 in the Croydon registration district, Surrey. She is listed in the 1939 England and Wales Register as both on unpaid domestic service (i.e. a housewife) and also as a part-time Air Raid Precautions Warden, living at 7 Cottingham Road, Penge, Kent, with her husband and daughter. Her husband was described as both a timber merchant and a part-time Air Raid Precautions Warden.
She died, aged 49 years, on 29 June 1944. According to the Flying Bombs and Rockets website at 00.23 hours a V1 flying bomb impacted at 7 Cottingham Road and caused extensive damage across the area. Four houses were demolished in Cottingham Road and 39 severely damaged. 67 shops and 84 houses were also damaged in Green Lane, High Street, Croydon Road and Clarina Road. It also caused severe damage to a range of buildings used as workshops, offices and stores and also a builder's warehouse. A total of three people died, including her son.
Probate records confirm her address as having been 7 Cottingham Road, Penge and that when administration was granted to her husband, who was shown as a company secretary, her effects totalled £355-1s-4d. She is also commemorated in the Civilian War Dead Roll of Honour 1939-1945 located just outside St George's Chapel at the west end of Westminster Abbey and on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's website.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
