|
Katherine Edith Levine Fleuss
and Family
There were 8 children born to Henry Otto FLEUSS, seven married and 6 of these were girls
One of which was:
Katherine Edith Levine Fleuss
also Catherine Born on 02 Feb
1872 at 285 Vauxhall Bridge Road, daughter of
Henry Otto Fleuss Married
Frank Herbert Wilson in 2nd quarter of 1895 at St Saviour's Southwark It
seems that she had two children by Frank, Joan
and Margaret. Margaret was born about 1897 in Brixton and life and the story became
fantastic. She later hand another daughter Cecilia.
Rumour has
it the Katherine left the family to to go to the continent when
Cecilia was about 12 years old leaving
Frank to bring up two girls on his own.
This maybe supported by Census records:
1901 - Wilson lived at 57 Arodene Road Tulse Hill
1911 - F H Wilson lived at 69 Rectory Grove Clapham age 41 married
but on his own -
Clerk
We have record of one Grandchild - Celia Allen
Katherine Edith was the eldest of the children and seemed to live the
most complicated of lives.
Records and details are difficult to find however there is anecdotal
evidence and some interesting rumours.
Some of the story comes from her granddaughter and some from Richard
Stenning, who researched the family in the
1990-2007 and collected stories from many members of the family. Richard
was the grandson of Katherine's sister, Audrey Mary Fleuss, It seems that Katherine Edith ran off with a Count
either Russian or Austrian maybe then the daughter Cecilia and later
somehow had a couple of twins Beryl and June. It
is reported by her granddaughter, Celia, that Frank Wilson, noted as a
clerk in the 1901 and 1911 censuses, brought up all five children but up
to now there is no census after 1911 yet to give confirmation.
| TIME LINE |
|
| 1872 |
K.Edith born |
| 1895 |
Married |
| 1897 |
Margaret born |
| 1901 |
Census reference to Frank, wife, and Margaret
and sister in law Margaret. |
| 1911 |
Census reference to Frank - no wife or children --
see below Cecilia had scarlet fever. |
| 1923 |
Betty, Margaret's Daughter remembers seeing K.Edith
in Kensington |
| 1930's |
Reported by Anne Frankland that her mother Audrey
Mary took her to see Katherine Edith at her cafe in West London |
|
Census 1901
Frank Herbert Wilson age 31, was living at 53 Arodene Road
Lambeth (Off Brixton Hill)
With his wife Edith Wilson
Daughter Margaret Wilson age 4
And Margaret Fleuss aged 24 – {presumably Katherine' sister}
{there is considerable detail about Margaret
Wilson and her offspring below}
Census 1911
Frank Herbert Wilson age 41, was living at 69
Rectory Grove Wandsworth
Occupation Clerk
On his own but the census shows a Miss Deakins at the same address
but different household
Cannot find reference to any of 5 daughters. |
It is reported that Betty Perrier, daughter
of Margaret Perrier nee Wilson, one of Katherine Edith's daughters,
remembers seeing her in about 1923.
There is also a rumour probably from the
Guise family, that Frank Wilson had been in prison for fraud.
.
|
Some details from one
Grand daughter, Celia
I
think Frank Herbert Wilson may have gone to prison for
embezzlement, someone in the family, perhaps Maria or Yvonne Guise
told me this
Catherine Edith had an affair and left her husband Frank
Hubert Wilson to bring up his 5 daughters, while she went
off with her lover.
It is such a pity that no one knows
what happened to Catherine Edith Fleuss, I see her as such a
tragic figure, she seems to have been quite reckless especially
for the time in which she lived. To abandon her five children
seems such a desperate act. The fall out of her actions have
affected so many people. All of her five daughters suffered
terribly, they had trouble making lasting relationships and
it was obviously a terrible family secret, my mother never really
told me anything about her childhood, but she did love Frank
Hubert Fleuss whom she thought of as her father and looked after
him in his old age. Of course I never met him, he died before
I was born. My mother and Father were never married, I am the
illegitimate daughter of Cecilia Wilson and Harry Carter. He was
already married when they met and lived with his wife Ada in
Surrey, my mother adored him, I saw him regularly, about once a
week on Wednesday afternoons. He was kind but we were not
really close. He found the situation difficult but did his
best. My mother could not admit that they were not married and I
had a bizarre childhood full of emotional tension and cover
up, so typical of the time. They eventually told me that they
were not married when I was sixteen, a short conversation with my
father, he said I should have been aborted. He didn't mean to be
unkind, it was just a practical matter of fact, my existence
complicated their lives. I now feel that my mother was very
brave to have kept me. His wife divorced him when he was in
his late seventies and he went to live with my mother in Bexhill,
they were due to get married but he became ill and died. Their
affair lasted all their lives and was another scandal, which I
have to say affected my childhood. I discovered that they were not
married when I was eleven but could not talk to anyone about it,
there was no one to talk to.
I discovered is that my mother was in Hammersmith hospital
suffering from scarlet fever aged 6 in 1911 when the census was
conducted.
Perhaps that is why I never
met any of my family on my mothers side. My
mother said that her mother died when she was 7 years old, but I
can find no record of this.
C.A. |
The notes from Richard Stenning try to piece together
details of Katherine Edith's children and there is a page which he had
corrected by another member of the family, however there is some confusion
surrounding Cecilia whom he thought to be called Celia. Sadly he did not
have the benefit of meeting or contacting K.Edith's granddaughter.
Of her five children nothing seems to be known of the twins June and
Beryl. Richard was not aware of Joan but
some detail is available from Celia.
|
Regarding Cecilia's
Sisters
I did know two of her
sisters Margaret and Joan when I was a child, but only saw them a
few times.
Joan
Wilson was probably the second daughter of K.Edith and Frank
Wilson and seems to have had quite a busy life as did Cecilia.
Joan was married and had a
daughter Brenda, who
later married and emigrated to Canada, then she (Joan) went off
with a married man had another daughter Pat, got
divorced from her 1st husband, was then deserted by the married
man and finally married Ernest .Brenda was the preferred
daughter .
Joan died of lung cancer
when I was in my twenties. It was not a happy household , Joan was
cold and very house proud, Earnest was ok.
I and my mother used to visit once a year, they lived in Greenford
in Middlesex. My cousins were much older than me so I hardly
remember them.
Pat,
(Richardson), Joans second daughter, had two children Jenny (Hume) and Michael.
During a visit they talks of their family. Jenny said that
she has recently met her mother's father {The married lover}
and
has discovered that she had had a half brother. Pat died in
the late 1990's.
I don't think Jenny knows
much about the family history, she didn't know that my mother was
only half sister to Joan, or that Catherine Edith Levine Fleuss/
Wilson had abandoned her husband and five children.
|
From Richard Stenning, we have an induction to Margaret Wilson's family and
ancestry record have enable a family tree to be assembled.
|
