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Note: Annie was known as Pearl She was the third child of 5.
Her mother was killed during late pregnacy (the child died too) around
1888 Family split up after mothers death and father returned to his
job as ? in Merchant Navy.Annie went with Nellie & Rita (Brother went
to sea also) to live with her grandmother on a farm at White Roding
and went to school in White Roding. Later she went to live with an
Aunt Ellen (not really an aunt) also at White Roding.
When she was about 18 her brother Charles left the Merchant Navy. He was then 28.
Pearl lived in Stratford with her brother and family. There were two
or three children but they all died of T.B.
She was injured in an accident when she was 19 years old.
She was training to be a nurse at the St. Bartholomews Hospital in
London and was runningfor a tram because she was late for her classes.
She tried to jump on the moving tram but missed her footing and was
dragged along by the tram. She was taken to the same hospital and was
recovering from her injuries when she walked on crutches across a
floor that had just been mopped clean and slipped and fell. She
dislocated her hip and refused to let the doctors touch her again. She lived all her life with a dislocated hip and wore a surgical boot
because one leg was shorter than the other.Charles went back to sea.
Changing careers because of the accident she took an apprenticship at
dressmaking. It was necessary then to go to different establishments
for each piece of the garment. e.g sleeves, bodices etc. She started
in Bishops Stortford and then Gravesend. The owners of the
establishment in Bishops Stortford gave her the address of Mr & Mrs
Sadler who lived in Tilbury who would be someone she could visit on
her day off. This she did once a week..
She worked for a company called Penlerick and Hunwick at Gravesend.
At Gravesend she met a merchant seaman called Jack Miller who was
stationed at Chatham. First record of this friendship is a card from
Gibralter dated 3rd March 1906 when she was aged 25. It is not known
if she was engaed to him. He used to send her postcards from africa
and asia. Jack wrote on 8th May 1907 saying she had not answered his
letters. Last card from him dated 19th November 1908.
She used to go onto the large ships which docked at Gravesend from all over the world, and make dresses for the ladies.
She met Tom Murrell, her later husband, when she went to visit the
friends of her employers (Mr. Sadler - Big man with white beard) in Tilbury across the water from Gravesend. He lived in a house in the
same row belonging to the Railway. Pearl was shaking the tea tablecloth outside when Tom's large Irish Wolfhound bounded up and
playfully knocked her over.
A very tough, intelligent lady she would tackle anything and never let her disability incur her in any way.
She had pure white hair as she grew older, which was lusterous and
beautiful.
She was 28 when she married in 1908 Oct. 3rd
Registration District - West Ham, County of Essex.
Certificate # BXBY 807571/ Application # for Birth Cert. Copy. PAS
B697352/2000
Died of weak heart
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