HARRY WILLIAM ABSALOM (1868-1942)
A partner in Ironmongers “Absalom & Gardner”, and much more.
Harry’s confident signature.
From the archives of Christ Church Epsom Common,
where Harry was a Churchwarden from 1920 to 1938.
Harry Absalom is best known in Epsom’s local history for being half of the partnership that, for about the first third of the last century, ran Absalom & Gardner (Ironmongers etc) at 12 Station Road (today’s Upper High Street). There is, however, much more to the man than this.
Harry was born on 18 December 1868 in Breamore, near Fordingbridge, Hampshire. (His birth was registered a few weeks later, so appears in some records as born in Q1 1869.) He was the fourth of five children born to William and Mary Absalom. William was a farmer, recorded in the 1881 Census as a “Farmer of 142 acres, employing 7 man and 3 boys”.
In 1890, the 21/22 year old Harry moved to Epsom. It seems unlikely to have been by prior arrangement that he then started work at Dorset’s Ironmongers in Epsom High Street. The 1891 Census records him as an “Ironmonger’s Assistant”, and lodging with James (a “Gardener”) and Matilda Ruffell and family in Vine Cottage, South Street. (The Cottage was demolished in the 1970s. The houses to its right in the photographs below were later incorporated into Epsom Playhouse as the bar area.)
Vine Cottage (arrowed), South Street – in the 1860s (left) and about 1910 (right).
Photographs from Angela Clifford’s article about the 1860s view.
Harry was one of many young men who had taken to cycling when the challenging ride of the “Penny Farthing” was succeeded by the “safety bicycle” (with two wheels of the same size). Cycling was a liberating means of personal transport for not only routine journeys but, perhaps even more so, for recreation. Such was Harry’s enthusiasm that, in early 1891, he convened a meeting of a dozen local cyclists at which they agreed to establish the Epsom Cycling Club. Harry took on the role of Hon Sec and Edmund G Wilson, then Clerk of the Urban Council, was its President.
An early 1890s photograph of Epsom Cycling Club.
Image with thanks to Bourne Hall Museum.
The above photograph was taken in the early days of the Club, outside the Rising Sun in Heathcote Road, Epsom which members used as their first social base. One of those pictured seems bound to be the mid-20s Harry Absolom, but he has not yet been identified.
Harry’s passion for cycling was such that he left Dorset’s and set himself up as a Cycle Agent operating from home in South Street. He is listed as such in the Andrews’ Local Directory for 1893. It was at about this time that he stood down as the Cycling Club’s Hon Sec. However, he remained a member and, some years later, was appointed as a Vice-President.
On 1 August 1895, the 27 year old Harry married 25 year old Florence Gray in Christ Church Epsom Common. This was Florence’s parish church: she was the Epsom-born daughter of Jonathan (a “Builder”) and Harriet Gray, and had lived her whole life in the family home on West Hill. It was not quite Harry’s parish church: Vine Cottage was just the other side of the boundary between the parishes of Christ Church and St Martin’s which ran then, as now, down the centre of South Street. Being outside the parish was not a bar to attendance, and it may have been at Christ Church that Harry first met Florence. In any event, they remained attached to Christ Church for the rest of their lives.
The Marriage Register records Harry as a “Cycle Agent” in South Street, as does the Andrews’ Local Directory for that year, together with a full-page advertisement for his business, as below.
Advertisement for Harry’s business on page 66 of the 1895 Andrews’ Directory.
Harry and Florence’s first child, Helena Florence, was born on 14 May 1896. On her baptism at Christ Church on 7 June that year, the family home was noted as being in South Street, with Harry still as a “Cycle Agent”. Shortly after this, Harry moved the family to 12 Station Road (today’s Upper High Street). He is recorded there in the 1899 Andrews’ Directory as a “Cycle Agent and Ironmonger”.
The couple’s second child, Hilda Katherine, was born on 2 June 1900. She was baptised at Christ Church on 8 July, where the records show Harry’s occupation as “Ironmonger”. That is also how he is listed in the 1901 Census at 12 Station Road – with the addition of “Employer”. He had not, however, given up his interest in cycles: the 1903 Kelly’s Directory lists him as “ironmonger and cycle ma.”
Harry and Florence’s third and last child, Harold John, was born on 26 May 1903 and baptised at Christ Church on 21 May when, again, the records list his occupation as “Ironmonger”. Shortly after this, Harry took Alfred Thomas Garland, five years his senior, into partnership. The 1905 Kelly’s Directory lists the occupants of 12 Station Road as “Absalom & Garland, ironmongers and cycle mas.”
Alfred Garland came from Berkshire. The 1901 Census records him and his wife, Mary, living at 1 Montagu Terrace, Newbury, with Alfred’s occupation listed as “Ironmonger’s assistant” – given the geography, clearly not at Harry’s Epsom shop. Indeed, ironmongery was his long-term trade: the 1891 Census records the then 27 year old and unmarried Alfred as a – presumably local – “Ironmonger” living with his parents (his father, John, being a “Tool Maker”) at 2 Oaks Villas, Greenham.
The 1911 Census records the occupants of 12 Station Road as:
• 42 year old Harry Absalom (“Head” and “Ironmonger”) and his wife, 41 year old Florence;
• their three children, Helena (aged 14), Hilda (aged 10) and Harold (aged 7) – all at school; and
• 47 year old Alfred Garland (“Partner” and “Ironmonger”) and his wife of 18 years, Mary, also aged 47. (They had had no children.)
We have an about contemporaneous photograph of the Partners’ shop, as below – where the right hand window promotes their Centaur & Rudge-Whitworth Cycles.
Absalom & Garland’s shop at 12 Station Road.
Image courtesy of Bourne Hall Museum.
The advertisements by the first floor windows of what is now 12 Upper High Street remain visible today.
Photograph by Roger Morgan © 2021.
Alongside running the shop and continuing membership of Epsom Cycle Club, Harry was closely involved in other areas of local life. In 1909, he was a founder member of the Epsom Brotherhood which, initially, had as its base the Congregational Lecture Hall (on the site of which the Odeon cinema was built) next door but one to Harry’s shop and home at 12 Station Road. As part of the national Brotherhood movement, its remit was both Christian study and the moral welfare of local townspeople. Harry became one of the Epsom Brotherhood’s Vice-Presidents and was also a trustee of its Provident Club. He later served (indeed, until his death in 1942) on the Surrey Mid-Eastern Assessment Committee, where his intimate knowledge of the district proved of great value
Harry also took seriously his membership of the Christ Church congregation. From 1920 until 1938, he held the demanding post of Churchwarden – being stretched early on by the sudden death of the Revd Neville Stiff in 1923 and, after the disappointing tenure of the Revd Francis Hooke, overseeing the parish’s 50th Anniversary celebrations in 1926 with newcomer the Revd Lionel Mylrea.
He would have been a particularly proud father of the bride when, on 10 October 1925, he escorted daughter Hilda down the aisle of Christ Church to marry Ralph Furniss – a “builder” (and, later, a “marine insurance agent”) of another well-known local family.
However, Harry also had his lighter side, being particularly keen on the amateur stage. He was a member of not only the Christ Church Players but also the Epsom Institute Amateur Dramatic Club, taking leading parts in many plays. Indeed, it is in the photograph below of the Christ Church Players’ circa 1930 production of Twelfth Night that we currently have our only certain picture of Harry.
The Christ Church Players’ circa 1930 production of “Twelfth Night”,
in which Harry Absalom (far right) played Feste.
Photograph (OP6497) with thanks to Bourne Hall Museum.
Harry’s partner, Alfred Garland, stood down from their Ironmongery business in the late 1920s and retired to his home patch of Berkshire. He and his wife Mary took a house at 109 Boundary Road, Newbury – which is where, aged 67, Alfred died on 15 January 1931.
Shortly after this, Harry also retired – although the shop continued as “Absalom & Garland” for many more years. The family (less the long-married Hilda) moved to 16 Meadway, Epsom, naming the house “Breamore” after Harry’s birthplace.
They are recorded there in the September 1939 Register. Harry and Florence, both aged 70, are listed as, respectively, “Retail Ironmonger, retired” and “Home Duties”. “Home Duties” are also listed against unmarried daughter Helena, now aged 43. Unmarried son Harold, now aged 36, is listed as “Agent for Asphalt Manufacturer”.
On 3 August 1940 – nearly a year into WW2 – Harold married Joan Margery Edwards in her parish church of St Mary’s, Beddington. The Register entry for that lists him as a “Special Constable”.
In 1942, Harry – who, in the words of an obituary, had “been in indifferent health for some time” – was admitted to what is now known as Epsom General Hospital for an operation. Sadly, he did not recover from that, dying there on 9 March 1942, aged 73. After a well-attended funeral at Christ Church on 14 March, he was buried in grave A719 of Epsom Cemetery.
The widowed Florence remained at 16 Meadway until her death, aged 86, on 23 May 1956. She was buried with Harry in Epsom Cemetery. Daughter Helena, who never married, stayed on at 16 Meadway until her death on 10 March 1969, aged 72. She was then buried with her parents in Epsom Cemetery.
The grave (A719) in Epsom Cemetery of Harry, Florence and Helena Absalom.
Photograph by Roger Morgan © 2021.
The wording at the foot of the cross is: “In / loving memory of /Harry William Absalom / 1868-1942 / Light at Eventide / Also Florence / wife of the above / May 23rd in her 87th year / At Rest“. The tablet below that reads: “Also / their daughter / Helena Florence / Died March 10th 1969 / Aged 72 years. / Peace“.
Roger Morgan © 2021
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of Harry Absolom to help illustrate this article.