Agnes TOPPING

Other Events and Attributes:

• Census: 1851, 17, Factory Hill, Lancaster
• Address: 1852; Address:
  Leonard Gate, Lancaster

Notes:

Agnes could not write - she placed her Mark on the Birth Certificate of James Thomas.

Census:
Description: Cotton Weaver

Died:
Dec Q 1902 8e 512 Lancaster

Agnes married John PROCTER on 7 Feb 1852 in Lancaster Parish Church. John (son of Richard PROCTER and Mary MORDICK) was born on 19 May 1827 in Lancaster; was christened on 11 Jul 1827 in St. Mary's, Lancaster ; died on 16 Apr 1899 in 79, Windermere Road, Lancaster; was buried on 21 Apr 1899 in Lancaster Cemetery (Plot 633 N/A). [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Birth:
Dec Q 1852 8e 481 Lancaster

Mary married William JOHNSON on 15 Apr 1876 in Christ Church, Lancaster. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Birth:
Dec Q 1853 8e 488 Lancaster

Died:
Dec Q 1853 8e 349 Lancaster

Notes:

Birth:
Sep Q 1856 8e 521 Lancaster

Died:
Sep Q 1856 8e 314 Lancaster

Notes:

Birth:
Dec Q 1857 8e 505 Lancaster

Elizabeth married William MIDDLETON on 6 Oct 1881 in Christ Church, Lancaster. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Occupation: 1887; a machine fitter
• Census: 1901, 5, Puddlers Row. Consett, Durham

Notes:

Birth:
Sept Q 1860 8c 565 Lancaster

Census:
Description: Iron Works Engine Fitter

Died:
Description: Broncho-pneumonia and Bronchitis

Buried:
Grave space numbered 45 in Square number 64

James married Elizabeth Jane CRABTREE on 25 Dec 1884 in Christ Church, Lancaster. Elizabeth (daughter of William CRABTREE and Alice LAWSON) was born on 21 May 1862 in Springfield Road, Habergham Eaves, Burnley, Lancs.; died on 22 Apr 1924 in Lancaster; was buried on 26 Apr 1924 in Coventry Cemetery. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Occupation: 1891; Blacksmith's Striker

Notes:

Birth:
Two possibilities:-
Sep Q 1862 8e 611 Lancaster
Mar Q 1863 8e 593

Died:
Mar Q 1937 8e 1247 Lancaster

Other Events and Attributes:

• Occupation: 1891; Iron Moulder

Richard married Elizabeth Annie HANDLEY on 24 Sep 1892 in Christ Church, Lancaster. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Occupation: Tailor ?

Other Events and Attributes:

• Occupation: 1891; Cotton Weaver

Notes:

Birth:
Jun Q 1871 8e 678 Lancaster

Clara married Frederick Lewis DEBENHAM on 7 Jun 1897 in Christ Church, Lancaster. Frederick was born about 1871 in Close, Suffolk. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: James PARKER. James was born in 1877 in Lancaster. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Birth:
Dec Q 1885 8e 740 Lancaster

Herbert married Annie Maria BASKETTHoly Trinity Church, Coventry. Annie and died. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Address: 1908; Address:
  65 Powerful Street, Barrow-In-Furness
• Address: 1939; Address:
  10, Thornhill Road, Coventry

Notes:

Birth:
Jun Q 1887 8e 769 Lancaster

Alice married John RUSHTON on 17 Oct 1908 in Walney Parish Church, Barrow-in-Furness. John (son of Henry RUSHTON and Mary WOOD) was born on 20 Sep 1884 in Barrow in Furness; died on 16 Mar 1933 in 4, Leopold Road, Coventry; was buried on 20 Mar 1933 in Coventry Cemetery. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Birth:
Dec Q 1890 10b 17 Newcastle upon Tyne

Notes:

Birth:
Mar Q 1894 10b 54 Newcastle upon Tyne

Eva married Lewis Harold HEWITT on 3 Jun 1920 in Holy Trinity Church, Coventry. Lewis was born in 1896; and died. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Birth:
Mar Q 1898 10b 11 Newcastle upon Tyne

Cissie married Herman Alexander ALLEN on 19 Apr 1924 in Coventry. Herman and died. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Birth:
Mar Q 1901 10a 361 Lanchester (Co. Durham)

Other Events and Attributes:

• Occupation: Courtaulds; Industrial Chemist

Notes:

He had a B.Sc degree.

Birth:
Mar Q 1905 8e 137 Haslingden

Family/Spouse: Elsie Winifred CRUMP. Elsie (daughter of CRUMP, daughter of George Percy CRUMP and Charlotte Lotty BLAKEMAN) was born on 23 Sep 1905 in Warwick; died in Dec 1995 in Coventry. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Madeline PICKERING. Madeline was born in 1905 in Liverpool. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Buried:
MARY GREENWOOD nee Rushton

Mary was born on 5th July 1913 to John & Alice Rushton in Oliver St Coventry. She was the eldest child, having three younger brothers – John, Harry and James (Jim). Her parents had come down from Barrow-in-Furness, and her father found work as a skilled machinist. He was also a talented singer, often performing on the stage in his spare time both as a solo singer, and as part of a quartet called “Les Amis”. As the eldest daughter, it fell to her to keep an eye on her three rather unruly brothers, but she also had another role to fulfil – teaching them to dance.
She was very close to her father, and when he fell ill with kidney disease, she would spend hours sitting at his bedside massaging his back to try and relieve the pain he was suffering. She was devastated when he died in 1933 aged only 49.
Mary was a talented sketch artist, and when she was young used to draw film stars of the day from photographs. She also made some pen & ink drawings of old buildings in Coventry, some of which still hang on the wall in the house.
Mary started work at the Coventry Co-operative Society, and then moved to the Council House as a comptometer operator – the forerunner to the computer! When she was new at the job, she came across some letters that read “FO”. When she asked what they meant, she was told “Fined out”. “That’s what I am trying to do!” she said, unaware of the different spelling of “FINED”.
As was usual during the 1930’s Mary used to go to a lot of dances, and a friend of hers introduced her to a nice lad who had recently moved from Wolverhampton to digs in Coventry to work in the Electricity Showrooms. His name was Richard Greenwood, known to all as Dick. They became very close, but unfortunately the spectre of war was approaching, and Dick was drafted into the Royal Navy. They had to endure many periods apart, but managed to get married at St Mark’s Church in Coventry on May 11th 1940. Dick soon had to go back to the Navy, and undertook some hazardous tours of duty on Russian convoys. Whenever he came back to this country he would somehow get word to Mary, and she would travel to be with him – sometimes only for a weekend or so. One Christmas she learnt at short notice that he was coming in to port in Scotland, and took the train up there to meet him, arriving on Christmas Eve. They dined splendidly the next day on a tin of beef stew which she had taken up with her as rationing was the order of the day. Years later, the Coventry Evening Telegraph ran a competition inviting people to describe the best Christmas dinner they had ever had. Mary and Dick won first prize.
Mary stayed in her house in Allesley Old Rd throughout the war, sheltering from Hitler’s might behind the settee in the lounge – even during the Blitz which devastated Coventry in 1940. She was not a person to be trifled with, as some Army personnel found out. They had set up an anti-aircraft battery close to her house, and the noise of the gun was deafening. She went out and remonstrated with them, frightening them to death as they did not realise anyone was still living in the area. They moved the gun further down the road.
Dick returned from the War, and they soon had a baby girl, Jill, born in 1946. However tragedy struck, as Jill was taken ill with leukaemia and died in 1949. A son Ian was born in 1950, then Hugh came along in 1952.
Mary had worked in the Electricity showrooms as a demonstrator for a time before the children came along, and when the boys moved into secondary school, went back part-time to the showrooms in Bedworth, then as a clerk in the main office at Sandy Lane Coventry. When Ian started work at the Electricity Board in 1967, they became an “electric family!”
Since she was in her teens, Mary had always been interested in “Keep Fit”, and for about fifty years ran several classes a week. She was still teaching into her eighties, when she teamed up with a friend who played the keyboard, and they went to care homes to entertain the residents, and to show them how to do simple exercises to keep moving. It did not really occur to her that she was probably older than a lot of the residents she was teaching.
Mary enjoyed travel, and went to Spain and Majorca many times with Dick. Later she went with Ian and Susan to Malta and Cyprus, and in her eighties, went with them for a whistle-stop tour of four US cities in eight days.
As Mary got older her eyesight deteriorated, and Hugh ended up as her carer as he lived with her, although it was never entirely clear who looked after whom as she always had Hugh’s dinner cooked for him when he came home from work!
Her deteriorating eyesight meant that she was unable to continue with one of her great loves, reading. However, with the help of the RNIB’s Talking Book service, she was still able to lose herself in a good book.
She also a fan of Country & Western music, which she and Hugh would listen to on Saga radio on a Tuesday night.
During her last illness, she said that “I have never felt so ill in all my life” and this was probably because, as a fit woman, she had rarely been ill throughout her life.
Her death at the age of 94 is really the end of an era, as she outlived her three younger brothers, and we look back affectionately on a long life filled with love and humour.

Mary married Richard GREENWOOD on 11 May 1940. Richard was born on 21 Oct 1910 in Wolverhampton; died on 4 Feb 1986. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Address: 1945; Address:
  10, Thornhill Road, Foleshill, Coventry
• Cremated: 23 Dec 2002, Canley Crematorium, Coventry

Notes:

In 1941 he co-founded Grey and Rushton Precision Tools Ltd., Far Gosford Street, Coventry. The company specialities included a range of vernier calipers, sine bars, go, no-go gauges etc. Many checking tools and gauges were made for Rolls-Royce. He once showed his son in law Corin a minute rod with a sphere on the end the size of a pinhead. He said it had been rejected because it wasn't quite spherical !!

They celebrated their Golden Wedding on 21st April 1995.

Eulogy read at Coventry Crematorium

1916-2002

John Rushton was born on the 13 August 1916 in Hillfields, Coventry. He had an elder sister Mary and brothers Harry and Jim.

He attended Frederick Bird Junior School. He was a member of the choir at his parish church of St Marks, (which is now the annex of the Coventry and Warwickshire Hospital), and was confirmed there.

After leaving school he gained an apprenticeship at the Coventry Gauge & Tool Co in Fletchamstead Highway. He was made a Freeman of the City after qualifying as a precision toolmaker.

From 1938 to 1941 he worked at the Standard Aero Co. With a colleague he formed a company - Grey & Rushton Ltd - in Far Gosford Street, producing precision engineering tools. The factory later moved to Leamington Spa, but has since closed. One of their "Vernier" measuring tools is now held in a museum in Australia.

During the Second World War he was a sergeant in 13th Battalion of the Home Guard. After a day's work in the factory he used to spend at least 4 hours on duty, protecting our streets and homes.

In 1939 he met the lady who was to become his wife, a dressmaker by the name of Elsie Ward. They met at an olde tyme dance at Courtaulds ballroom. They waited till the war was almost over, then they were married on 21 April 1945 in St Margaret's Church, Ball Hill. They bought a house in Brookside Avenue, Chapelfields, and had three children, Kay, Lynne and John Jnr. Later the family moved to Woodfield Road in Earlsdon.

Johns' hobby for many years was rifle shooting. He was a member of the Alvis Rifle Club and at one time he was president of the Coventry & District Rifle Association. He was also a natural musician, loved listening to music, played the piano by ear and could get a tune out of practically anything.

He and Elsie moved to Lawley Close after the children had grown up, and John became a regular at the Lime Tree Social Club. Many there will remember his spontaneous tunes on the mouth organ.

John was a gentleman who had great respect for "old fashioned" values of truth, honesty, and good manners. His word was his bond.

He died on 16th December 2002 aged 86 after being hit by a car on his way to the Lime Tree club. He will be greatly missed by all who knew him.

Died:
Description: (injuries received after being hit by a car)

John married Elsie WARD on 21 Apr 1945 in St. Margarets Church, Walsgrave Road, Coventry. Elsie (daughter of Thomas William WARD and Elsie TAYLOR) was born on 5 Feb 1917 in Coventry; died on 24 Apr 2005. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Occupation: Tripe Dresser
• Cremated: 12 Jun 2003, Canley Crematorium, Coventry

Notes:

Harry was in the RASC. He was rescued from France on the last boat to reach Boulogne at the time of Dunkirk- June 1940

On 21 May 1940, HMS Keith was one of three destroyers that evacuated 468 civilians from France. Two days later the ship was in Boulogne-sur-Mer, loading British troops to be evacuated, when she was attacked by German troops. She was hit by a mortar bomb and machine gun fire that killed her captain and wounded many others. Keith sailed for the UK immediately afterwards.[9]

Family/Spouse: Kathleen KETTLE. Kathleen was born on 24 Mar 1920. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Address: Address:
  53, Seedfield Croft, Cheylesmore, Coventry

Family/Spouse: Joyce HUGHES. Joyce (daughter of Frank QUINNEY and Ivy HUGHES) was born on 16 Feb 1923; died on 28 Apr 2001. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Emigration: 1958, Montreal, Canada; 18 April 1958. Liverpool to Montreal on "Empress of England" Occupation - Musician Address in UK "Clovelly" Garden Drive, Rugeley, Staffs.

Notes:

Birth:
Sep Q 1921 6d 1396 Coventry

Family/Spouse: Frederick NEWMAN. Frederick and died. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]