Family Connections

After our morning coffee, Mum and I stopped off at St Mary's Church in Bexley.  Her grandparents and parents lived in the village from the 1900's up until the 1980's, and her father and grand parents are buried in the churchyard.

Alice (1879 to 1956) was the daughter of a coachman from Hackney, London Before marrying Karl Louis Muller, a German immigre from the glass blowing area of Thuringen, she was the manageress in a coffee house in High Holborn.  The happy couple lived in Red Lion Square where he plied his trade as a Scientific Glassblower.

Their son, Charles Lewis (1900-1955) was the eldest of nine children, and he went into the family business. Family legend has it that one of their commissions was to provide some of the glassware for Queen Mary's Dolls House, now pride of place in Windsor castle.  

Mother and son are buried together in this grave. It also holds Karl Louis (1872-1951) and their youngest son and brother, Henry (1919-1934), who died tragically young shortly after Mum was born.

Each year, as with many others across the country, the graveyard decays a bit more, and one needs to take what opportunities we can to record them while we can - even if it means missing out on  SLPH Blipmeet to Highgate cemetry, which gave me the idea for today's Blip.