Rev T.S. England
Thomas Samuel England 1911-17Thomas was born in St Sampson, Guernsey in 1862. In the 1881 census he is a schoolmaster’s assistant in St. Peters Port. By 19o2 he is in St. Johns, Guernsey with his wife Clarice Emmeline ( b 1874) and a new born son, Howard Thornton. One place he taught was St. John’s Sunday school in the town.
On 13th May 1885 he sailed for Africa under the auspices of The Church Missionary Society, he was bound for a missionary settlement at Frere Town Mombasa in Kenya. His wife Clarice was to accompanies him and two of their daughters were born in Mombasa. He was not to return for 10 years though in 1895 he was in Guernsey on furlough.
He probably went back to Kenya for a time but in 1901 we find him living in Battersea with his brother -in-law probably working again as a teacher.In 1907 he was appointed curate at Stowmarket Church and on 30th March 1911 was instituted as Vicar at Stowupland.
The 1911 census tells us that he was now in Stowupland with his wife and 6 year old daughter Cicely who had been born in Mombasa but an 11 year old boarder, Basil Noel Victor Bailey who had been born in 1900 in Mombasa.
They had a 21 year old servant, Alice Helena Foss from Guernsey.
In the 1921 census he is living in the Vicarage at Cratfield, Halesworth in Suffolk.. He is with his wife and a 15 year old servant Ethel Florence Gibson.
His stay was not a lengthy one and after he left we don’t know much about his later career but in 1939 he was living and teaching in Axminster where he died in 1949.— Neil Langridge
