Cole – Doris Annie Cole (1900 – 1964)

Doris Annie Cole was the first of 10 children to Walter Ernest Cole and Eliza (Lizzie) Cole (nee Cole), born on 20th February 1900 at Lower Moor, in the Parish of Hill and Moor, Worcestershire. In the 1901 Census she was living with her parents in Moor village and next door to her maternal grandparents, John and Jane Cole. Her father was 24 and working as a Railway Packer and her mother was 20.

By the 1911 Census Doris Annie was 11 years old and had been joined by 5 siblings, Gladys aged 9, Jack 6, Frederick 4, Alice 2 and Margery just 1 month old. They were living in a 3 room property, and we an only speculate that it was probably one large kitchen/living room and two bedrooms for 8 people in total, and her father was now a Platelayer for GWR. In the next few years we do not have a clear picture of what happened to Doris but it is likely that at age 14-16 she may have been a servant, or domestic help to a local family, but what we do know is that in late summer of 1916, at the age of only 16, she became pregnant, and in on May 13th 1917 Doris had a boy who was christened Stanley Cole. Only 4 months earlier on 24th January 1917, Doris’s mother Eliza was giving birth to her 9th and penultimate child Raymond Charles. Stanley was brought up from alongside his Uncle Raymond and Aunt Beatrice, born 3 years later, by his grandmother Eliza and for many years understood her to be his mother.

There is much speculation as to who the father of Stanley was, well to do, Mayor of Evesham, Solicitor, etc and some names have been bandied about amongst the family over the years, but it was not mentioned on his birth certificate, so speculation will remain…………

After giving birth to Stanley in May 1917, Doris then married Ewart James Hunt a Market Gardener from Peopleton, a village just 4 miles from Lower Moor in January 1921. Doris was 19 and Ewart was 31 at the time. They had two children Raymond James(Jimmy) born in the Oct qtr. of 1921 and Gladys Joan born in the October qtr. of 1923. Doris and Ewart were living at Green Gates, Wolverton, Pershore, a small terraced farm cottage at the time of the 1939 Records, but they had none of the children living with them.

Doris continued living at Green Gates untill she died at the age of 64 in the October qtr. of 1964 and Ewart died in 1980 at the age of 91. They are both buried in the churchyard at Peopleton. Their daughter Gladys Joan went on to become a nurse and married Derick Sowery in 1951, living on Merseyside for most of her life finally passing away in late 2007. Raymond died in 1987 in Reading, and is also buried at Peopleton but little is known of his life at present.

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