Matthew Groom– 11 Priory Buildings, Brazenose Lane

There were10 people living in the 5 rooms at 11 Priory Buildings in 1911 amongst them 14 year old Matthew Groom and his 1 year old half-brother, Ernest Rippin. The head of the household was Thomas Buttress, an iron moulder’s labourer, whose wife, Hannah, was Matthew and Ernest’s aunt.

Thomas and Hannah had no children of their own but they had 2 adopted children and another niece, 5 year old Grace McCartney, was also living with them. Thomas’ brother and 2 workers at the iron foundry were boarding with them.

The story of Matthew’s life told in this family tree is rather tragic.

His father died in 1906 leaving his mother, Alice, with 5 children under 10 years and another on the way. In 1909, his mother remarried to John Edward Rippin, a widower with 3 children of his own. Another child, Ernest, was born to them in 1910 but Alice died soon after.

Matthew’s sister Winifred died in the same year so at the age of 13 years he was an orphan with 4 younger siblings, a motherless step-brother and a step-father who not surprisingly felt unable to take on the responsibility of the family.

Eleven year old George went to live with their uncle, Walter, at Wothorpe but Hannah, Joe and Alice were in St, George’s Children’s Home at the Workhouse. Matthew was probably too old for the Home and anyway he had a job as an errand boy at a draper’s.
No Military Records have been found for Matthew, however, he stayed in Stamford marrying Alice Sharpe in 1920. He died in 1976.