Irene Patricia Merci Despard^{[1, 2]}

1909 - 1997  (88 years)

• Name	Irene Patricia Merci Despard  [3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12]
  Born	20 Mar 1909	Acton, Middlesex, England   [3, 4, 5, 6, 11]
  Gender	Female
  Birth	24 Mar 1909	Acton, Middlesex, England   [9]
  Baptism	26 Sep 1909	England   [9]
  Residence	02 Apr 1911	Acton, Middlesex, England   [3]
  	Relation to Head of House: Daughter
  Residence	1919  [6]
  	Other Records: Child
  Residence	1939	Paignton, Devon, England   [11]
  	Marital Status: Married
  Residence	1969	Marsden, Northland, New Zealand   [10]
  Residence	1978	Whangarei, Northland, New Zealand   [12]
  Died	10 Jul 1997	Whangarei District, Northland, New Zealand   [8]
  Buried	Whangarei, Whangarei District, Northland, New Zealand   [8]
  Person ID	P43	john
  Last Modified	28 Jul 2020

  
  

  Father	William Andrew Thomas Despard,   b. 23 Feb 1877, Mountmellick, Queen's Co. (Laois), Ireland ,   d. Jun 1960, Totnes, Devon, England  (Age 83 years)
  Relationship	natural
  Mother	Lillian Elizabeth Dunham,   b. Abt. 1878, Limpley Stoke, Wiltshire, England or Barsham Wills, Norfolk England
  Relationship	natural
  Married	14 Dec 1902	St Luke, Chelsea, England   [3, 13, 14]
  Family ID	F7	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Hedley John Worth Tooker,   b. 2 Dec 1911, Scarborough, Yorkshire North Riding ,   d. 5 Apr 1968, Whangarei District, Northland, New Zealand  (Age 56 years)
  Married	29 Sep 1934	Hersham, St Peter, Surrey, England   [5, 7]
  Children	1. Michael John Tooker   2. Mary Irene Tooker
  Last Modified	28 Jul 2020
  Family ID	F28	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Photos » Slide Show		edna-brackley
  		Eileen TM Despard Moore
  		Theodore Moore & Eileen Despard
  		Irene Despard 2
  		Irene Despard3
  		Irene Despard Story

  
  

• Notes

  Genealogy – Irene Patricia Merci Tooker Irene was a born and bred London girl. After WWI (date not known) the family moved to Gunnislake in East Cornwall, where her father managed the local brickworks. There she met Hedley John Worth Tooker whose family lived next door. It was said that Johnny, as she always called him, was digging the family vegetable patch by lamplight when she first met him! Family stories say that Irene had some competition for Hedley from her younger sister, Eileen, not helped by Irene's preference for working in London where she had a job as Secretary? of the Crystal Palace football club. Her sister-in-law remembered her as a “flaming red-head who knew what she wanted”. She was an organised person. Once, when when stooking oats at Dunkeswell (near Honiton) she saw her son Michael move to pick up a sheaf, thinking she had missed it. Irene said very calmly “I should leave that one Michael – there's an adder underneath it”. That's when she told Michael about seeing adders basking on the Cornish rocks in her younger days. Another story is of her travelling between Cornwall and London to her wedding, with a friend, possibly the “best man”? The car broke down and they had to stop overnight at an hotel. Shock horror! During WWII she worked in a Forces canteen in Paignton, while her mother looked after my sister and me. No fun for me! After the war, when Hedley resumed farming, she became a very adaptable farm wife, but unimpressed with the “crabby” Devon country folk, and never got the hang of the dialect. She had to manage one farm (Luscombe) for several months when Hedley was months in Exeter hospital having his right thigh reset - after dropping a tree on it. I think her main bugbear was the bank manager who wasn't used to dealing with a woman client! The phrase “the Married Women's Matrimonial Act was passed in 1935” was heard more than once. Notes provided by Michael John Tooker

  
  

• Sources

  [S751998740] Ancestry Family Trees, (Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members.), Ancestry Family Tree. http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=100950066&pid=28 [S752001057] Ancestry Family Trees, (Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members.), Ancestry Family Tree. http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=102554215&pid=43 [S752330171] 1911 England Census, Ancestry.com, (Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.), Class: RG14; Piece: 6956; Schedule Number: 308. [S757450654] England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837-1915, FreeBMD, (Ancestry.com Operations Inc). [S757450663] Surrey, England, Church of England Marriages, 1754-1937, Ancestry.com, (Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.). [S752330073] British Army WWI Pension Records 1914-1920, Ancestry.com, (Ancestry.com Operations Inc), WO364; Piece: 1000. [S757450652] England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916-2005, Ancestry.com, (Ancestry.com Operations, Inc). [S752218375] Australia and New Zealand, Find A Grave Index, 1800s-Current, Ancestry.com, (Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.). [S752218657] London, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1906, Ancestry.com, (Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.), London Metropolitan Archives; London, England; Board of Guardian Records, 1834-1906/Church of England Parish Registers, 1754-1906; Reference Number: dro/129/a/01/002. [S776792162] New Zealand, Electoral Rolls, 1853-1981, Ancestry.com, (Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.), 1969. [S774834740] 1939 England and Wales Register, Ancestry.com, (Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.), The National Archives; Kew, London, England; 1939 Register; Reference: RG 101/6830I. [S776792162] New Zealand, Electoral Rolls, 1853-1981, Ancestry.com, (Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.), 1978. [S752189288] London, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1921, Ancestry.com, (Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.), London Metropolitan Archives, Saint Luke, Chelsea, Register of marriages, P74/LUK, Item 243. [S757450661] England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1837-1915, FreeBMD, (Ancestry.com Operations Inc).