Life story retold by Pamela Moss, direct descendant.
George MOSS (1850-1913) is buried with wife Sarah, daughters Charlotte Maud and Edith, and sons Alfred and Frank.
George is my 2x great-grandfather and was baptised at Holy Trinity Church, Newington, London on 11/9/1850, the son of George MOSS (1828 – 1891) and Charlotte Hunt. The family returned to Reading in the early 1860s, and in 1871 George was living at home working as an apprentice whitesmith. In 1875 he married Sarah SARNEY, from Nettlebed, at St John’s Church, Reading, and they moved to 18 Victoria Street where they spent the rest of their lives. George worked as a machine fitter at Huntley & Palmer’s until his death from nephritis (kidney disease) on 2/10/1913, aged 63. A short article appeared in the Taunton Courier & Western Advertiser on 15/10/1913 as follows:-
” 2 officials at Messrs Huntley & Palmer’s biscuit factory at Reading, Robert James Burroughs and George Moss, have each died at the same hour, each was 63, and each had been in the firm’s service for 42 years. They were buried on the same day in the same cemetery.”
Sarah died on 14/10/1926 (aged 70) of a heart condition.
Charlotte Maud MOSS (1876 – 1946) was George and Sarah’s eldest child. She spent her life in domestic service and never married. Among the people she worked for were William Charles Eppstein, a clergyman and schoolmaster, at Reading School, and Frederick Simonds, of the brewing family, at 20 Southcote Road. By 1939 she retired and was living at Victoria Street with her sister Maud. Two schoolboys were living with them, most probably evacuees from London, as at that time Reading was designated a ‘safe town’. Charlotte died on 3/3/1946 (age 70) from a cerebral haemorrhage.
Edith MOSS (1890 – 1936) was George and Sarah’s youngest daughter. and lived with them at Victoria Street working as a tailoress. In 1921 she was working on ladies’ coats for Heelas department store. She died of breast cancer on 25/11/1936 (aged 46) at the Royal Berkshire Hospital ‘after much suffering patiently borne’.
Alfred Edward MOSS (1892 – 1902) died of peritonitis, aged 9
Frank MOSS (1896 – 1899) died of brain disease, aged 3.
There were 4 other children who all stayed in Reading:
Maud (1877) lived at home all her life, didn’t marry and outlived all her siblings. She died in 1961, aged 83, and was cremated; George (1879) married Charlotte Lake, and was a draughtsman at Huntley and Palmers; Bertie HUNT (1882) was a tram/trolley bus driver living in Liverpool Road. In WW1 he served in the Army Service Corps in Salonika in Greece. He is buried in Henley Road Cemetery.; William (1884) worked as a press clerk for the Reading Mercury newspaper, and later ran a shop selling beer, wine and spirits at 61, Basingstoke Road. In WW1 he joined the Royal Engineers and served in France as a dispatch rider. He was invalided out with a badly broken leg after a collision at night with another dispatch rider. He is also buried at Henley Road.
Division 64, Row B No 37 (scroll)