Life story retold by Karen Heald
The curious tale of the teetotal cowman confectioner
The inscription on this grave reads:
In proud and loving memory
of
my dear husband
Charles Henry Plummer
(Jack)
who passed away June 9th 1920
aged 63 years
Director of Reading Football Club
The gravestone originally had a football and an angel on the top but these have disappeared (presumed stolen). Reading Football Club has no record of his involvement and he is not known as ‘Jack’ in any official records.
Charles Henry PLUMMER was born in 1857 in Maulden, Bedfordshire. His father John PLUMMER was an agricultural labourer and his mother Caroline MONEY was a straw plaiter and hatter. Charles married Sarah Ann RUTLAND in 1878 in Watford. Her father Henry RUTLAND was an agricultural labourer and her mother Ann was a silk throwster. In the 1881 Census, Charles is working as a gardener and they are living at Rookery Cottages, Watford. Sarah’s daughter, Annie Daisey RUTLAND was born in 1877 in Watford. It is unknown, but likely, that Charles is her father and she subsequently took the surname Plummer and changed her first names to Daisy Violet. No further children were born to Charles and Sarah. In the 1891 Census, the family is living at Wiggenhall Bridge, Watford and Charles is working as a cowman. The bridge led to Oxhey Hall and could be used only with permission of the owner. There is a photo showing the bridge in about 1900 with a single house alongside it which is presumably where they lived.
In 1891, Oxhey Hall was occupied by the family of William Hounsfield, a farmer from Tinsley, Yorkshire. The bridge and presumably the house were demolished in 1925. In the 1901 Census, Charles is still a cowman and the family is living at Pound Lane, Marlow. Robert Griffin (1838-1921) owned Court Garden House, Marlow at this time and was presumably his employer. Pound Lane runs close to this house, the grounds of which are now a park.
However, there is suddenly a change in the family’s fortunes. At some point after the 1901 Census, the family move to Reading and open a business which is described at different times as a refreshment house (1911 Census), a temperance hotel (Charles’s death certificate in 1920), and a restaurant (1921 Census). In 1905, their daughter, now calling herself Daisy Violet Plummer marries an Italian-born restauranteur called Agostino DAFFADA in Reading. She has a daughter, also called Daisy Violet DAFFADA in 1906. Charles Henry Plummer appears in Kelly’s Directory for Reading in 1907 as a confectioner at 13 Chain Street. By the 1911 Census, he has expanded to 11,12 and 13 Chain Street, Reading and is employing one assistant who lives with the family. He also appears in electoral registers at 13 Chain Street for the period 1907-1920 and continues to appear in Kelly’s Directory as a confectioner during this period. In 1911, Agostino Daffada and his wife and daughter are living at 134 Friar Street, Reading and he is employing two waiters who live with the family. Agostino appears in Kelly’s Directory for Reading in 1914 as a confectioner at 134 Friar Street. Since temperance hotels generally served a range of non-alcoholic sweetened drinks, this might be why they are listed as confectioners but it is not entirely clear.
One can only speculate as to how such a change in circumstances came about. It may have arisen from the marriage of their daughter – perhaps her husband Agostino trained and supported her parents in starting their own venture? Or perhaps, Charles or his wife had developed an independent passion and their small family size enabled them to save enough to start a business, which subsequently led to their daughter meeting her husband in the same line of business? It seems unlikely that people from families of agricultural labourers would inherit the money to enable them to start a business, but who knows?
Unfortunately, tragedy struck. On 9 June 1920, Charles Henry Plummer died aged 63 followed shortly afterwards by Agostino Daffada on 8 March 1921 aged only 40. Charles died at Reading General Hospital of a long-standing gastric ulcer (7 years) followed by a 2-day haemorrhage; his wife was present at this death. Agostino Daffada died at St George’s Hospital, London of status epilepticus (a seizure) and it is not known where he is buried. It seems that he had left his family and at the time of his death, he was living at 93 Rochester Row, London SW1 and working as a caterer’s assistant. Charles left an estate worth £804 0s 4d (equivalent to around £24,000 today) to his wife and in the 1921 Census, the three women, Sarah Plummer, her daughter Daisy Daffada and her granddaughter Daisy Daffada are all working and living in the business at Chain Street. It is not known how long the business lasted but they remained in Reading. By the 1939 Census, they are all still living together but now at 13 Carey Street, Reading, and Daisy Daffada the younger is working as a bakery assistant. Sarah died in 1944 aged 85; she is buried with her husband in Reading Old Cemetery although no inscription records this. Her daughter Daisy died in 1949 aged 72 leaving £1898 8s 6d (equivalent to around £60,000 today) to her daughter. Daisy Violet Daffada remained single and was living at 377 Gosbrook Rd, Caversham when she died in 1994 aged 87; she is buried in Henley Road Cemetery, Caversham.
Division 75, Row A, Plot 19