The Hampshire Family Historian | Volume 49 No.4 | March 2023

Member’s article

My grandmother’s husband, Henry Norton Wheeler GILMOUR, was a bigamist and some of you may remember my short piece about him. Being abandoned by him in 1920, with four children to bring up, she went to sea and had an amazing life. Edith Maria GAMBLIN was the daughter of William GAMBLIN and Jane SHERWOOD and was born on Christmas Day, 1883 in Winchester. Edith had four siblings, William George, born 1877, Albert, born 1879, Emily Jane, born 1882 and Charles James, born 1887. In 1891, when Edith was four years old, her mother collapsed in the High Street in Winchester and sadly died. Jane was only 31 years old and the doctor performing the post-mortem said he had never seen such a diseased heart in one so young. On the 1891 census, Edith and her siblings were living with their aunt and uncle, William and Ann BAGLEY in Winchester. William married again in 1893 to Sarah PRIOR who Edith described as a good stepmother but “not a very tidy lady”. Edith married Henry Norton Wheeler GILMOUR on 1st April 1907 and had four legitimate children, Harry Douglas, born 1907, Charles Frank, born 1909, Arthur William, (my father) born 1913 and Rita Margaret, born 1920. Edith also had one illegitimate child, Ena, born in 1928. Ena did not remain with her mother and half siblings but was adopted, I believe unofficially, by George and Beatrice STAPLES . A Mother’s Life at Sea

Jane Sherwood

On being abandoned by her husband in 1920, because he had “jumped ship” in the USA, where he remained until his death, Edith decided to join the merchant navy (MN) in order to be able to support her children by boarding them out with family or friends. On the 1921 census my father was living with Enos and Florence LAWRENCE in Southampton as their adopted son and I understand baby Rita went to stay with friends. I am fortunate in having Edith’s MN discharge books which detail all her sailings and the ships on which she served.

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