Mary Ann COLLINS (1839-1911)
& her late husband John Hammett COLLINS FRCS (1817-71)

The couple’s memorial plaque in Christ Church Epsom Common
Photograph by Roger Morgan © 2019

The brass plaque illustrated above is found in Christ Church Epsom Common, fixed to the north side of the archway between the Baptistry and Nave. Nowadays, it is normally concealed from view behind one of the church’s portable notice boards. The interesting story of the Collinses – and particularly of Mary Ann’s mother – is perhaps thus less well known than it deserves.

The plaque is now rather worn and, for clarity, the text is:

In loving memory of
John Hammett Collins. F.R.C.S.
Died 13th July 1871. Aged 54 years.
Also of his wife
Mary Ann Collins,
For 35 years a member of this congregation
and church worker.
Died 4th November 1911. Aged 72 years.

John Hammett Collins was born in Bristol in 1817. After training as a surgeon at the Middlesex and St George’s Hospitals, he joined the Bengal Army as an Assistant Surgeon in July 1841 and, during one of the “Opium Wars”, served as Medical Officer to the transport HMS Sylvia. He was afterwards District Surgeon to the East Indian Railway at Jumalpore, Bengal.

John returned to the UK and – aged 49 – married the 26 year old Mary Ann (née Bull) on 3 November 1866 at St Martin of Tours, Epsom. They returned to his native West Country, and the 1871 Census records them living at 8 Woodhill, Portishead which is on the Severn Estuary about 5 miles northwest of Bristol. Some three months later, their only child, Mary Hammett Vining Collins, was born there on 24 June 1871. And less than three weeks later, on 13 July 1871, John Hammett Collins died at home, aged 54.

The now-widowed Mary Ann had been born in Bedfordshire in 1839, the fourth of eight children in the marriage of Mary Ann (née Watson) and Daniel Bull. (For clarity, I shall hereafter refer to the Mary Ann of the memorial as “Mary Ann junior” and her mother as “Mary Ann senior”.) So how is it that Mary Ann junior then came to Epsom for the rest of her life, rather than return to her native Bedfordshire? Indeed, how did she and West Country John meet? And why was their wedding in Epsom?

The answers to these questions seem likely to be connected with what happened to Mary Ann senior. Her husband, Daniel Bull, had (like Mary Ann junior’s husband, John) also qualified as a surgeon. However, he had turned to farming when afflicted by some paralysis, the progress of which led to his early death in 1852, aged only 45.

In 1855, the widowed Mary Ann senior was one of the very first to be granted a Pensioner Place at Epsom’s newly established Royal Medical Benevolent Foundation. This opened for business in 1855 with the dual purpose of providing asylum for medical men and their widows who had become impoverished through poor health or lack of professional success; and educating the sons of medical men, part of which would be devoted to providing free education, accommodation and clothing to orphaned boys. As the education element increased, the asylum or alms house element declined and was wound up at the end of the 1890s. What remained became Epsom College.

Mary Ann senior’s 1855 admission entry is only the fourth in the Foundation’s register, and reads:

It would seem that Mary Ann junior had relocated to Epsom to be near her mother, Mary Ann senior. And it may well be that it was the medical connection through the Royal Medical Foundation that brought her and John Collins together: Epsom is noted on their 1866 wedding certificate as the place of residence for both of them.

While that is speculation, it is certain that, shortly after John Collins’ death in 1871, not only was the newly widowed Mary Ann junior back in Epsom with her infant daughter, but also that her mother (Mary Ann senior) moved in with them. This can’t be dated exactly, but Mary Ann junior must have been here by not later than 1876 – the year of Christ Church’s consecration – to allow for her 35 years in the congregation (as noted on the memorial plaque) by the time of her death in 1911.

The 1881 Census recorded all three living together in East Street, Epsom. Mary Ann senior died in October 1890. The Epsom Cemetery records give the place of her death as Ladbroke Road, which is where the 1891 Census recorded Mary Ann junior – “living on own means” – with her daughter and a domestic maid. On 23 May 1897, and in Christ Church Epsom Common, the 25 year old daughter (Mary Hammett Vining Collins) married 25 year old John Charles Groscourt Reed. He was a Naval Surgeon (noted in the Parish records as being of Portland, Dorset) and came from a services medical background: he had been born in Bengal, the son of Surgeon Major John Groscourt Reed. (It is not impossible that John’s father had known Mary Ann junior’s late father who, as noted above, had also been an Army Surgeon in Bengal.) Anyway, the newly-married John was soon off travelling again: 1901 Census records him serving in HMS Tamar, being the Royal Navy’s shore base in Hong Kong.

It is not clear where Mary Ann junior or her recently married daughter were in 1901: their “Sunnyside” in Ladbroke Road was occupied by another family (the head of which, John Hamilton, is listed as a “Surgeon”). However, the 1911 Census records the 71 year old Mary Ann junior back at the address – and living with her were not only 39 year old daughter Mary Hammett Vining Reed but also grandchildren John and Alan Reed, aged 12 and 4 respectively – and both recorded as having been born in Epsom.

On 4 November 1911, Mary Ann junior died at her home in Ladbroke Road. She was buried alongside her mother in Grave A65A of Epsom Cemetery on 9 November. The Probate records note that administration of her £ 4,969 estate was awarded to daughter Mary Hammett Vining Reed who, when husband John retired (as a Surgeon Captain RN), settled at 2 Montague Villas, Wilton Road, Salisbury. John died there, aged 53, on 2 August 1926. His widow never remarried and was living at “Winsford”, South Brent (a village on the southern edge of Dartmoor), Devon when, aged 83, she died on 27 January 1955.

Roger Morgan © 2019