Fifth daughter of Edward VIZARD 1810 – 1888 and Ann FOLEY 1815 – 1902

Born 18th February 1852, 4 Grove Lane, Camberwell, Surrey

Died 30th May 1940, Sutton, Surrey

Married William H. CARTER 1852 – 1939 at The Cathedral, Bloemfontein, Free State, South Africa, 8 January 1881

MARRIAGES. CARTER-VIZARD - At Bloemfontein, South Africa, Mr. William H. Carter, B.A. Lond., of Kimberley, son of Mr. Silas Carter, of Lee, Kent, to Jessie, daughter of Mr. Edward Vizard, of Hampstead, Jan. 8.

Source: Pall Mall Gazette, Wednesday 9 February 1881, accessed online at www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

CARTER—VIZARD. - Jan. 8, at the Cathedral, Bloemfontein, South Africa, by the Rev. Canon Miles, assisted by the Rev. C. Tobias, vicar of St. Augustine's, Kimberley, William Henry Carter, Esq., B.A. Lond., of Kimberley, son of Silas Carter, Esq., of Lee, Kent, to Jessie, fifth daughter of Edward Vizard, Esq., of Hampstead.

Source: London Evening Standard, Thursday 10 February 1881, accessed online at www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

Miles

died as a baby in South Africa

Bernard Silas Bernard Foley CARTER

b. 1 May 1883, Newton Abbot, Devon,

d. June 1972, Sutton, Surrey

Andrew Jerome (Joe) CARTER

b. 30 September 1884, Lee, Kent

d. 6 January 1958, Surrey

Jessie Patience (Pats) CARTER

b. March1886, Lee, Kent

d. 24 February 1974, Merton, London

b. 14 Oct 1891 Reigate, Surrey

d. 11 May 1983 Newtown, Wellington, New Zealand

Robert CARTER married Madeline BOURNE.

Jessie was my mother’s favourite sister despite the eight years difference in their age. She was most charming, merry, and high spirited, utterly unselfish and loveable. She married William Carter who was Manager of one of the Kimberley diamond mines and had been a patient of hers. He was by no means of as aristocratic birth as Aunt Jessie and was painfully aware of it. When I was a small child, they had a very large house just outside Sutton, Surrey, in the best part of the town, with billiard room, fields and orchards and a very large garden as Uncle William was a very keen gardener. He liked to grow exotic plants and vegetables and was apt to make such remarks as “Such and such should always be in a gentleman’s garden” They always had wine on the dinner table, and he was apt to remark that such and such a rare wine “should always be on a gentleman’s Dining table”. There was always a complete air of hush-hush about his occupation, we were only told that he was “something in the City”. It was not till many years later, long after I was grown up, that I learned that his business was concerned with ladies’ wholesale textiles and clothing, which was considered extremely infra dig at the time. I spent many happy times with the Carters at Sutton, both in their first house as a child, and later when they moved to a still larger house in the same area of Sutton.

When Aunt Jessie’s first child was on the way, at Kimberley, they sent for Mother, who had just finished her nursing training, to come and be with her. This was in the early 1880s, and there was no railway built between Kimberley and Cape Town. The baby became very ill as the climate of Kimberley was quite unsuitable for babies at that time, so Aunt Jessie and Mother were sent down to Cape town, doing the whole of that endless journey by bullock wagon. Uncle William could not get away from his work to accompany them and they were sent in the charge of a reliable person by the name of Klaas. Mother learnt quite a lot of the Taal language (now known as Afrikaans), so much so that many words stuck in her vocabulary. I still have to stop and think before referring to field glasses as “Vaerkekers” or to a signpost as a “Wegweiser”. In spite of the fact that Uncle William entirely ignored his own relations, Aunt Jessie, with her aristocratic background, had no such inhibitions. She could never have them to stay but kept in touch by correspondence.

On one occasion I was spending a holiday at Eastbourne with Aunt Jessie and her daughter Pats. The former made a point of contacting Uncle William’s relatives, who farmed nearby. They were very nice people, friendly and unassuming, and obviously delighted to see Aunt Jessie.

Aunt Jessie had five children.

Miles, the baby for whose arrival Mother went out to Kimberley, died, either during the terrible journey by ox-wagon down to Cape Town, or shortly after, in infancy.

The next was Bernard. He entered the Navy for a time but left to go into his father’s business. During the Second World war he held a very nigh position in the Air Force. He was about 16 years or so older than I but was always extremely kind to me; as a small child he allowed me to play in the very well-equipped carpenter’s shed where he was an enthusiastic amateur carpenter, and later on an excellent amateur mechanic and always had cars, with which he would tinker for hours, while allowing me to watch as I grew older. I was always very fond of him. He died unmarried within the past six or seven years.

Jerome (Joe) the second son entered the Navy and became Paymaster Commander. He was very tall and thin and seldom at home, but was very nice. He died unmarried.

Patience (Pats), the only daughter, was about twelve years older than I, but very kind to me when I stayed them as a small child and as I grew older we became close friends. She was extremely pretty, so much so that she was known as “Pretty Patty". Uncle William had her trained in music, though whether she had any real love of it, or whether he considered it the “Lady Like” thing to do, I don’t know. She was intensely shy, and had an almost pathological horror of men, apart from her own brothers. She died unmarried within the last few years.

Robert, the youngest, became a Naval Officer. He married and later emigrated to New Zealand, where I believe he is still alive though well over 80. He had, I believe, two or three daughters.

I must have been in my very early teens; it was in the early 1960’s and we were living at Milton Malsor in Northamptonshire. There was great excitement as father's cousins from New Zealand were going to pay us a visit. Visits from cousins living abroad was unheard of; for we hardly if ever, saw the relatives who lived in England, let alone people from the other side of the world.

I just about remember a very interesting couple, who stayed with us two nights. I vaguely remember the name Carter was used as I had a friend in the village by the same name.

I was absolutely delighted with a present of three large Abalone seashells, which they gave me. I was quite a collector of shells and fossils, so these New Zealand beauties made a welcome addition to my ‘museum.’ At the time Abalone shells were quite rare to obtain in Britain. The cousins had found them themselves on a beach.

This visit is the only instance I can recall of my meeting anyone from the Vizard side of the family.