Letters
Your ideas, comments and advice
I can’t compete with the 51-year ‘engagement’ described by Sue Wicker in her letter (January), but my maternal grandparents Charles Fisher and Minnie Neal only married after two children and 17 years had passed following their first meeting. They did, however, have a good reason for delaying their wedding.
They met in Islington in about 1920, and the story goes that they disappeared for a couple of days and returned to say they were married.
Fast-forward 17 years and my mum, aged 12, recalled her shock when returning home to meet her father on the doorstep, as he announced in a distracted way that her “mother had died”. She was understandably panic-stricken, but quickly discovered her mum safe and well indoors. No further explanation was given at the time.
Shortly after Minnie’s death in 1967, the family needed a copy of her marriage certificate, which was nowhere to be found. My mum’s brother went to the General Register Office at
Somerset House to obtain a copy, but searching the indexes around 1920 proved fruitless. He spent the whole day going through volume after volume of indexes, and eventually found the record in March 1937. Minnie had taken the real story to her grave, but eventually her younger sister admitted that the couple had been unable to marry because Charles was already married, to a lady named Charlotte. Unfortunately, she had been committed to a mental asylum and I understand that the law at that time prohibited a divorce if one party was “not of sound mind”.
The doorstep incident occurred when Charlotte had died in the asylum, and presumably Charles was confused and upset. Minnie and Charles wasted no time, and were married secretly six weeks later. It was only through my research into my family history that the full story became known. It was fascinating to uncover the truth.
Carole Poulton, Burrington, Devon
EDITOR REPLIES: Thanks Carole. I expect many couples felt forced to go down this route. It must have been a difficult decision to make at a time when this would have been frowned upon.