8. Stepfather and Blended Family

The line between comfort and poverty was a short one for a widow in Edwardian England. Bert's mother, Emily, chose to work to support her family, but it was a struggle to maintain six children, her aged mother-in-law, a job and a business.

In 1908 Bert's Aunt Rosa, his father's sister, also died. She was 44, with four living children, two girls aged 22 and 20 and two boys aged 10 and 6. Her husband, Henry Smith, was a foreman in a market gardener in Cheshunt, Essex, to the north of London, about 30 miles from Hounslow .

It seems likely that one of the housekeeping jobs Bert's mother took on was for Henry Smith.

Eliza Ray, widow of Thomas Ray, and Bert's grandmother, died in  April 1910.

Also in April 1910, Emily Grace Ray married Henry Smith in Hounslow and moved, with her children, into his home in St Claire, Church Fields, Cheshunt, Essex. It would have seemed at the very least sensible. Both Henry and Emily had experience in market gardening, Henry's sons were around the age of Emily's younger sons and both families were struggling with a single parent.

The census of 1911 sees them as a blended family, living in Cheshunt. Bert is working as a mineral water traveller, presumably for the Hounslow business, but possibly for his Uncle Arthur's business at Bourne's Bridge, Hayes. Sid is working as a nursery hand, the five younger children are at school and Doll is helping out at home. The house has seven rooms - substantial for the time. Interestingly, it is Emily who fills out and signs the census - unusual for the time.

It seems a reasonable arrangement for all concerned. It was not, however, a lasting one. Henry Smith convinced Emily to sell the  mineral water business that she inherited, along with any associated property and buy Brookfields, a smallholding in Eastwood, Southend. Emily seems to have taken the precaution of keeping the property in her name. Within a few years any money had been spent and Henry Smith told the family he was leaving. Doll was there when he made his announcement. Many years later she told her own children that she offered to clean his shoes to hasten his departure, such was the animosity she felt towards him.

It is hard to say how Emily felt about the arrangement, the sale of the business or about Henry himself. Perhaps it was from the start, a hard-headed business arrangement. Perhaps there was kindness and hope. Emily's children and extended family certainly felt she was used in the relationship. No one in Emily's family ever heard from Henry Smith again, and Emily seems to have expressed no regrets at his leaving. She turned to housekeeping work to support herself and her younger children, probably supporting her two nephews as well. (It is hard to trace Charles and Albert Smith.) She sometimes called herself Emily Grace Smith, sometimes Emily Grace Ray.

Bert looked for work and independence.

5. The End of Security.

Bert's parents were 21 and 20 respectively when he was born in 1891. Their lives were busy and physically demanding. By the time Bert won his first cycling medal in 1903 they had six children, the youngest just born. We know little of how they manufactured their mineral water but the process was demanding and continuous.

C Ruffles delivering mineral water in England 1914

We do know they made deliveries - primarily to hotels - as part of their business, using a horse-drawn dray or van, and that Bert sometimes helped his father with this task. Horse-drawn vehicles delivered most food and drink at the time - to markets, houses and shops.

In the early 1900s Bert's father developed severe angina. Bert's sister, Dorothy, known as Doll, told the story of her father having an angina attack one day at home, grabbing the curtain and pulling it down on its rod as he fell to the floor.


On 26th June 1907, their father, Albert Ray, had an angina attack while on cart the delivering mineral water. At the corner of Kneller Road and Twickenham Road Whitton, he fell from the van and was unable to be revived.  He was 38. A coroner's inquest was held on 28th June 1907 and issued his death certificate on 29 June 1907. Albert Edward Ray was buried at St Leonard's Heston on 1 July 1907.

Probate was granted on 28 September 1907, awarding Emily eleven hundred and eighty three pounds. It was a significant sum, but not enough to raise six children.  Fred, aged 5 and Les aged 3 needed to be cared for. Bert was 15, Doll was 13, Sid 11 and Stan 7 when their father died. In addition to their grief, their lives changed dramatically.Their secure Edwardian existence was based on an income from a business that depended on the physical labour and mature acumen their father had provided.

They would need to generate income to support the family. The heaviest burden fell on their mother, but the older children carried a share.