Subject

Donor to St George's Cathedral, Southwark. From The Tablet 25 February 1922: "A crucifix standing twenty feet in height has been erected outside St. George's Cathedral, Southwark, as a memorial to the late Miss Edith Fletcher, sister of Father Philip Fletcher, K.C.H.S., and aunt of Lord Allenby. For some years previous to her death Miss Fletcher was a parishioner at St. George's Eastbourne: The Forward Movement."

Her brother, Father Philip Fletcher, member of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre (a Catholic order of knighthood under the protection of the Holy See) was the Founder and Master of the Guild of Ransom, in the work of which Edith was a strong support. We can't confirm whether or not the nephew is this Lord Allenby. 

Our colleague, Andrew Behan, has subsequently researched this lady and found that Lord Allenby was not her nephew but that he was married to her niece. On 30 December 1896 he married Adelaide Mabel Chapman (1870-1942) who was a daughter of Horace Edward Chapman (1842-1907) and Adelaide Marie Chapman née Fletcher (1845-1926). Adelaide Marie Fletcher was a younger sister of Edith Fletcher.

Edith Fletcher was born in 1843, the sixth of the twelve children of Sir Henry Fletcher, 3rd Baronet of Clea Hall & Ashley Park (1809-1851) and Lady Emily Marie Browne (1815-1888), her birth being registered in the 2nd quarter of 1843 in the Chertsey registration district. She was baptised on 14 May 1843 at St Mary's Church, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, where the baptismal register shows her father was a Baronet and that she was residing with her family at Ashley Park.

Before the 1851 census had been taken, three of her elder siblings had died in infancy: Emily Fletcher, George Philip Fletcher (1837-1845) and Frances Sophia Fletcher (1840-1845). The 1851 census shows her as a scholar  living at Ashley Park House, Walton-on-Thames, with her parents, five siblings: Adelaide Marie Fletcher (1845-1926), Lancelot Fletcher (1846-1937), Alice Fletcher (1847-1851), Philip Fletcher (1848-1928), Eliza Emily Fletcher (1850-1935), together with a governess, one male and ten female house servants.

In the 1861 census she is shown residing at 34 Palmeira Square, Hove, Brighton, Sussex, with her widowed mother, her maternal grandmother Hannah Brown (b.1788), five siblings: Adelaide, Lancelot, Philip, Eliza and John Lowther Fletcher (1851-1928), together with two governesses, a butler, a housekeeper, a lady's maid, two housemaids, and a kitchen-maid.

The 1871 census shows her still living at 34 Palmeira Square, Hove, with her mother, her maternal grandmother, her maternal uncle Felix Brown (1816-1879), together with a butler, two lady's maids, a cook, two housemaids, a maid and a footman. In the 1881 she was living at 40 Brunswick Place, Hove, with her mother, her brother Lancelot, together with one male and three female servants.

In 1903 her eldest brother, Sir Henry Fletcher, 4th Baronet (1835-1910) assumed by Royal license the additional surname of Aubrey on inheriting the Aubrey estates on the death of Charles Aubrey Aubrey (1814-1901). When he died on 19 May 1910 at Ham Manor, Angmering, Sussex, her younger brother, Lancelot, became the fifth Baronet who also assumed by Royal license the additional surname of Aubrey. For more examples of the close connection between names and inheritance see William Burdett-Coutts.

In the 1911 census she is shown as a 68-years-old spinster of private means and as one of five boarders at the home of a lodging house keeper, Louisa Gibbs, at 58 Lansdowne Place, Hove.

Probate records state that she was living at 164 Lambeth Road, Surrey when she died, aged 78 years, on 14 July 1921. Probate was granted to two of her brothers, Sir Lancelot Aubrey-Fletcher, 5th Baronet of Clea Hall and John Lowther Fletcher. Her effects totalled £9,603-16s-4d.