It had been some time since Samuel Frederick Reffell & Elizabeth West, the pipe makers of Bury St Edmunds had died, but many of their grandchildren are shown in the 1911 census.
Samuel Frederick was a carman living at 107 Ewart Road in Forest Hill with his wife Emma Millicent Pearce of 28 years. With them were their children Edith, Fred & Bertie. The other surviving daughter Jessie was a servant at 98 Standen Road in Forest Hill. Eldest son Thomas was a butcher’s assistant, living at 40 Pattenden Road in Catford with his wife Mary Offen and young daughter Violet Frances. Thomas was to die only seven years later at the early age of 35 and Mary was to marry again in 1921.
Harry Thomas does not seem to be around, but his wife Kate Alexandra Roberts is living at 58 Mirabel Road in Fulham. She has not filled in the ‘number of years married’ column on the census form though. With her are three of their six children; Harry Thomas who is a clerk, Ernest Albert who is a printer, and Nellie an artificial teeth maker. Eldest daughter Kate Augusta is living at 7 Fairbridge Road in Upper Holloway and working as a cashier in a restaurant. She never was to marry. Second eldest daughter Clara Rosie was working as a barmaid and living at 4 Houghton Street in the Aldwych. She was to marry the following year. Both girls were to live to their nineties.
Also in the catering business were Ernest Edward Reffell and his wife Alice Mary Hayward who were proprietors of a coffee shop business at 144 Clerkenwell Road. They employed two of Alice’s sisters, Lily and Rosa as waitresses. Another establishment was the Griffin Hotel in Wakefield Yorkshire, where twice married Kate Constance was assisting in the business with her second husband Edward Beet Metcalfe, a licensed victualler.
Widower Frederick Reffell had retired from the Inland Revenue and was living at 61 Green Lanes in Stoke Newington with his unmarried daughter Agatha Mary.
Julia Agnes Mary Reffell had married Richard Joseph Harvey in 1894 and was living at 48 Wolfa Street in Derby, where he was running a photography business. Also with them were three sons Cyril and the twins Edward and Jack.
Sophia Margaret Reffell was now a widow, her husband Edward Frederic Bullen having died in 1903. She was living at 85 Lydhurst Avenue in Brixton with her unmarried son and daughter; Frederic Edward a pharmacist in a charitable institution & Margaret Jane a sub-postmasters assistant.