George Collingwood (1828-1871) & Emily Genn Saul (1822-1908)
George Collingwood was born on 6 January 1828, the son of William Collingwood and Alice Maria Hayward, and baptised on 3 February 1828 at Wanstead.
George joined the East India Company as a clerk, where his father worked as an accountant.
Emily Genn Saul was the daughter of Abraham Saul, a butcher of Aldgate, and Elizabeth Phillpot, and was born on 18 May 1822 and baptised at St Botolph, Aldgate on 23 June. (Her father’s ancestry was Portuguese and Jewish and, as such, the family had adopted the surname Rodrigues – but by the time of Emily’s birth were commonly using Saul as their surname.)
George Collingwood of St Mary Stratford Le Bow married Emily Genn Saul of St Botolph Aldgate on 1849.
George and Emily lived at 17 Coborn Road in Bow, and their eldest children were born there and baptised at the Holy Trinity Church: Emily on 21 April 1850, Mary on 10 December 1853, and William on 16 September 1855.
The family then moved nearby to 41 Tredegar Square, where their youngest son Carlton Cuthbert was born; he was baptised at Holy Trinity on 15 December 1858.
George worked as a clerk in the Office of Secretary of State for India in 1858 (when the East India Company was liquidated after the 1857 Indian Independence Uprising), and in the 1861 census return the family were living in Tredegar Square with two servants, and a cousin, Thomas Collingwood, a railway clerk.
In the 1860s, George retired early and the family moved to 69 Upper Street Stratford St Mary, Suffolk. This meant his sons could attend the Dedham Grammar School, a short distance away across the Stour valley.
George died of chronic hepatitis and anasarca at Stratford St Mary on 17 December 1871, aged 43. Present at his death was his son William Collingwood.
George was buried in the churchyard at Stratford St Mary.
In 1875, Mary their younger daughter, married her cousin Carlton Collingwood (son of Thomas Larkins Collingwood, and granddaughter of Carlton Collingwood) at Calcutta where he worked for the Bengal Marine Service.
In 1879, Emily, the elder daughter of George and Emily Collingwood married Arthur Major Lermit. Meanwhile, their sons were working in India – William joined the East Indian Railway as Assistant Locomotive Superintendent in 1878 and Carlton Cuthbert joined the Bengal Pilot Service (alongside his cousin and brother-in-law) in the mid-1870s after serving on the training ship HMS Conway.
By 1881 Emily was living with her daughter and son-in-law in Sutton Coldfield. In 1892, Emily (nee Collingwood) Lermit died following the birth of her daughter, who also died.
In 1885, Carlton married Ida Louisa Wortley in Calcutta. Ida died in December that year following the birth of their son Cuthbert.
On 23 June 1887, Emily’s eldest son, William Collingwood, married Maria Elizabeth Lermit at St Florence, near Tenby.
In the 1891 and 1901 Census records Emily was listed as living with her daughter, Mary, in Harborne. Mary’s husband, Carlton, had died on 19 November 1893. In 1891, Carlton and his son Cuthbert, then aged 5, were also staying with them.
The family had a strong connection with the parish church at Harborne – her son-in-law, Arthur M Lermit, was a member of the Church Missionary Service and Young Men’s Christian Association.
Emily died on 8 May 1908 at 14, St Peter’s Road, Harborne and was buried in St Peter’s churchyard at Harborne on 12 May 1908.
Mary Collingwood died in 1927 aged 73 years and was buried at St Peter’s Harborne on 19 March. Her eldest daughter, Winifred Maud, had been born in Calcutta. Her younger two daughters, Ethel and Mildred were born in Stratford St Mary, Suffolk.
Carlton Cuthbert Collingwood married Charlotte Esme Harkness, the daughter of Colonel George Harkness (31st Light Infantry, Madras Presidency) in 1892. They had three children: Ronald George, Guy Carlton, and Esme Mary.