Family hope to find final resting place

Readers are being asked to help a family identify the last resting place of their relatives in Tovil. Gladys Harris, nee Twort, died in Scotland on Thursday, July 13. She was 96.

Mrs Harris had been born and brought up at 4 Tovil Green and her mother Eliza Twort (nee Homewood) is buried in St Stephen’s Churchyard, Tovil.

Mrs Harris’s last wish was that her ashes should be scattered in the churchyard at her mother’s feet.

Sadly, St Stephen’s Church was demolished in 1990, and although the churchyard still exists as a public open space, many gravestones have been moved or fallen into disrepair.

The exact location of Mrs Twort’s resting place is unknown. Mrs Harris’s daughter Lee said: “Mum did take me there once to show me Gran’s grave. She said it was just to the left of the entrance from Church Street, but I don’t know remember where exactly.” She has inquired with the diocese, but without success. She is hoping a reader might have known the family and remember where the grave was.

Gladys Twort was the daughter of Albert and Eliza Twort. Albert had been a farm labourer in East Farleigh, but was affected by his experiences in the First World War and in his granddaughter’s words came home a “bit of a tyrant”.

Gladys had eight brothers and sisters – Bernie, Cyril, Arthur, Phyllis, Rose, Millie, Eliza and Emily. Emily died young from TB and is also buried in St Stephen’s churchyard, as is her brother Bernie, who had been born with an arm deformity caused by malnutrition.

Gladys herself became a “Nippy” at the Lyons tea house in Middle Row, Maidstone. She and her brother Arthur had a lucky escape during the Second World War, when, on October 31, 1940, a large bomb fell in Mill Street, Maidstone.

Arthur, who worked on the buses, had been in his vehicle at the Archbishop’s Palace and about to drive up Mill Street when he saw the bomb fall. Gladys was thrown by the blast into a rack of cups and saucers.

Gladys met husband Wilfred Harris on a works outing. He was a maintenance fitter at Tilling Stevens. Later, from 1965 to 1971, they ran a greengrocers shop together in Melville Road, Maidstone.

The couple had two children, Lee and Lance, and in latter years moved first to Ryarsh and then to Detling. Mr Harris continued a small business maintaining trailers and was known locally as The Trailer Man. Mr Harris died in 2009.

Mrs Harris, who developed dementia, moved to Scotland to be cared for by her daughter.

Anyone who can help should email ajsmith@thekmgroup. co.uk or call 01622 695666.