The Hampshire Family Historian | Volume 50 No.2 | Sept 2023

Member’s article

The Hatcher brothers This is a story whose focus has changed several times since I began to write it in the spring of 2021. The records I found uncovered several events I could never have imagined. I have been genuinely moved and surprised as a tragic family tale unfolded. Background My grandmother on my father’s side was baptised Annie May HATCHER (in 1886). After marriage, she was known as May BACKHOUSE . Sadly, she died in 1957 when I was only about eight months old. Of course, I have no memory of her - which is a shame, because she was a kindly lady. This is not a story about her, but her family, which must have had quite an impact. Early on in my family research I was given a hand written copy of the birth dates of Annie and her many siblings. In all, ten Hatcher children were born to Charles and Mary Ann HATCHER (who had married in Dorset in 1874). There were four girls and six boys - all were born in London except the youngest. Charles HATCHER is a story himself - having been born in 1848 in Bramshaw, in the New Forest, he was a boot repairer before joining the Hampshire police in Alverstoke in 1868. He was a good officer and later joined the Metropolitan force in London in 1876. However, the following year he was dismissed for “standing outside a public-house with a pot containing malt liquor in his hands when on duty and was insolent to his sergeant when spoken to". Despite this major setback, he somehow remained a policeman there for another ten years. (I cannot find if he was reinstated.) Around 1887-8 the family moved

to Freemantle (a part of Southampton) where Charles resumed work as a master boot repairer together with several of his sons. My story centres around three of his sons - the brothers Alfred, Sidney and Albert. I knew little about the recent Hatcher family members and realised that, after many years’ research, I had rather overlooked them in my quest to go back in time. (My earliest Hatcher male was baptised in 1740 in Kings Somborne). So during another lockdown, I decided to learn more. Cemetery burial records Way back in 2006, I had obtained database print outs, from Southampton Bereavement Services Unit, of all the burials from c1850 in Southampton cemeteries for several families I was interested in. I have used these records over the subsequent years to find direct ancestors but not the wider ones. So, looking through the Hatcher list (of about 150 people), I only immediately recognised four names – my great grandparents Charles and Mary Ann buried together with two unmarried adult children. However, on another page I noted the burial of an Alfred Charles HATCHER on 9th April 1965 aged 83. This was almost certainly the Alfred I knew of who was born in Finsbury in 1881.The printout also gives the address - 11 Newman Street. Then I noticed something odd. Buried in the same plot – on the same day – was a Rosina Ann HATCHER . She was aged 79 and at the same address. I thought “Ah, that must be his wife – but why were they buried the same day?” Three Hatcher children had died in infancy in

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