William Wilkins[1]
1860 - 1932 (71 years)
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Name William Wilkins Birth 29 Jun 1860 Chatham,Kent,England., 
Christening 9 Sep 1860 Chatham,Kent,England., Gender Male Death 25 Apr 1932 Lewisham,London,England., [2] Person ID I259 My Genealogy Last Modified 16 Apr 2026 | Edit
Father Cornelius William Wilkins, b. Abt 1830, Chatham,Kent,England., d. 1905, Medway,Kent,England., (Age 75 years) Mother Sarah Ann Shackleton, b. Abt 1832, Rochester,Kent,England., d. 1886, Medway,Kent,England., (Age 54 years) Marriage 1855 North Aylesford [now Strood], [3, 4] - NORTH AYLESFORD REGISTRATION DISTRICT
Registration County : Kent.
Created : 1.7.1837.
Abolished : 1.1.1885 (succeeded by Strood district).
Sub-districts : Northfleet; Strood.
GRO volumes : V (1837-51); 2a (1852-84).
Parishes in Kent (1837-84):
Chalk, Cliffe at Hoo, Cobham, Cuxton, Denton, Frindsbury, Halling, Higham, Ifield, Luddesdown, Meopham, Northfleet, Nursted, Shorne, Strood.
Registers now divided between Gravesend and Medway districts.
Could not find in Cuxton church
Could not find in Strood
England & Wales, FreeBMD Marriage Index: 1837-1983 Record
about Sarah Ann Shackelton
Name: Sarah Ann Shackelton
Year of Registration: 1855
Quarter of Registration: Oct-Nov-Dec
District: North Aylesford
County: Kent
Volume: 2a
Page: 455 (click to see others on page)
Family ID F88 Group Sheet | Family Chart
Family Adelaide "Addie" Charlotte Ladbury, b. 29 Jan 1862, Rochester,District of Medway,Kent,England., d. 15 Jan 1936, Lewisham,Kent,England., (Age 73 years) Marriage 1881 Medway,Kent,England., [5] - _HTITL: Husband
- _WTITL: Wife
Children 1. Leslie Wilkins, b. 13th August 1899, Chatham,Kent,England., d. 9 Oct 1957, Adelaide,South Australia,Australia., (Age 58 years)2. Ernest William Wilkins, b. 28 Aug 1881, Chatham,Kent,England., d. 15 Jan 1950, Shamrock Nursing Home,Stutterheim,Cape,South Africa., (Age 68 years)3. Beatrice "Bee" Eleanor Wilkins, b. 6 Mar 1883, Chatham,Kent,England., d. Abt 1972, Bournemouth,Dorset,England., (Age 88 years)4. Charles "Chas" Lionel Wilkins, b. 23 Dec 1884, Chatham,Kent,England., d. Abt Jan 1977, Altadena,Los Angeles,California,United States of America., (Age 92 years)5. Percy Albert Wilkins, b. 1887, Chatham,Kent,England., d. Abt 1969, Folkestone,Kent,England., (Age 82 years)6. Lilian Adelaide (Lilly) Wilkins, b. 21 Jun 1890, Chatham,Kent,England., d. 7 Feb 1974, Lewisham,,,London,England (Age 83 years)7. Ronald "Roy" Wilkins, b. 10 Feb 1897, Chatham,Kent,England., d. 25 Jun 1977, Berkeley,,Alameda,California,United States (Age 80 years)Family ID F87 Group Sheet | Family Chart Last Modified 3 Apr 2020 | Edit
- NORTH AYLESFORD REGISTRATION DISTRICT
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Notes - PRIVATE
- Address on baptismal record is New Road, Chatham, [Kent, England.]
«b»1881«/b» Census: Age 20, shipwright apprentice. Living at home with parents.
The 1881 Censue record was difficult to locate as the name has been transcribed as "Wilkin" not "Wilkins"
«b»1891«/b» Census: Age 31, shipwright, draughtsman. Living at 27 Upper Whittaker? Place, Chatham, Kent.
«b»1901«/b» Census: Age 40, shipwright, draughtsman. Living at 27 New*ds, Chatham, Kent.
Overseer of naval construction, British Admiralty.
An Admiralty Overseer is responsible for ensuring that naval ships are constructed (or repaired) exactly in accordance with its design drawings.
«b»1911«/b» Census: living in Lewisham
«b» 1928: «/b»sailed from London aboard the «i»SS Minnesota«/i» on 29th Sept 1928 age 66
"A gentle man, he lived near Rochester, Kent until he gained advancement to the Admiralty when he went to live in Lewisham. When living in Rochester, he and my maternal grandfather, Stroud (both families knew each other intimately) together with others, established the Co-operative Wholesale Society there to ensure that their families had access to reasonably priced food and household goods. As a young boy, I stayed with him and grandmother in the late twenties. In his retirement, he was a keen gardener with half the garden given over to a lawn and flowers and the rear half devoted to growing many different kinds of vegetables. He also kept a large tank of goldfish there.
He and Adelaide travelled round the world together (roundabout 1929) visiting their sons and daughter who lived abroad. When travelling by train in Italy on the return journey, William was robbed of all his papers and money but was rescued by Adelaide who had sown a goodly sum of money into her corsets! Then, about 1934, Adelaide repeated the round-the-world journey but without William and on the day that she was due back home, William, who was waiting for her at his daughter's (Lily) house, keeled over and died.
As regards Adelaide, she bore nine children (two died in infancy) and raised seven. Always full of energy, she decided, when in her forties, that she wanted to paint and, to pay for her tuition at art school, she plucked birds and prepared feathers for making mattresses and eiderdowns and curled feathers for adorning ladies hats. Most of her paintings were done in oils from the age of fifty onwards and, because she suffered from Arthritis, it was rarely warm enough in the U.K. for her to paint outdoors she spent most of her time at the Tate and National galleries where she copied many of the Great Masters. I stayed with her twice in the mid-thirties, on each occasion for about a week, and on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, she and I would catch a tram to Trafalgar Square (she always paid the daily return fare with cash which she kept in her third underskirt!). When we arrived at a gallery, she would put me in charge of a security guard (giving him an apple or an orange for his pains!) and resume her
Every Xmas, or to be precise, some months earlier, she baked a large Xmas cake for each of offspring overseas and sent them off in a sealed tin box by surface mail. This was not always received with joy as Charles told me that a parcel would arrive for him at customs in San Pedro and he was obliged to go and collect it in person (a distance of 70 miles from where he lived in Pasadena) and when he presented himself, the customs official would open it and stab the cake several times with a sharp pointed knife to ensure that nothing was being smuggled inside the cake! Incidently, to answer your question, Adelaide did not have any help around the house."
Source: Alan Wilkins. e-mail 6 Oct 2006
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Sources - [S366] 1881 England Census, (ancestry.com), RG11 Piece / Folio 0894 / 117 Page Number 18 (Reliability: 3).
- [S367] England & Wales, Death Index: 1984-2004, Lewisham, London, Volume: 1d, Page: 983 (Reliability: 3).
- [S22] England & Wales, FreeBMD Marriage Index: 1837-1983, Vol 2a p 455 (Reliability: 3).
England & Wales, FreeBMD Marriage Index: 1837-1983
Name: - [S22] England & Wales, FreeBMD Marriage Index: 1837-1983, Vol 2a p 455 (Reliability: 3).
England & Wales, FreeBMD Marriage Index: 1837-1983
Name: «tab»Cornelius Wilkins
Year of Registration: «tab»1855
Quarter of Registration: «tab»Oct-Nov-Dec
District: «tab»North Aylesford
County: «tab»Kent
Volume: «tab»2a
Page: «tab»455 (click to see others on page) - [S22] England & Wales, FreeBMD Marriage Index: 1837-1983 (Reliability: 3).
- [S366] 1881 England Census, (ancestry.com), RG11 Piece / Folio 0894 / 117 Page Number 18 (Reliability: 3).