Ada Frances Dengate
Ada Frances Dengate
KEY DATES:
Birth: 9 October 1901, Peasmarsh, East Sussex
Baptism: 13 November 1901, Rye Methodist Chapel, East Sussex
Marriage: 7 August 1920, St Peter and St Paul's Church, Peasmarsh, East Sussex
Death: 30 April 1945, Goudhurst, Kent
Burial: 5 May 1945, St Peter and St Paul's Church, Peasmarsh, East Sussex
BIOGRAPHY:
Ada Frances Dengate was born to Charles and Annie Elizabeth Dengate on the 9 October 1901 in Peasmarsh, East Sussex. Her father Charles was a labourer and a baker in Peasmarsh at time of her birth. Ada was baptised in the Rye Methodist Chapel in Rye on the 13 November 1901.
Rye Methodist Chapel, East Sussex, 2004
Ada Frances Dengate began at Peasmarsh school on the 12 December 1904. Also at Peasmarsh school at that time were her sisters Annie Elizabeth and Clara Isabel Dengate and several of her cousins including Violet Winifred Dengate, Archie Dengate, Ivy May Dengate, Cecil Dengate, Bernice Dengate and Cyril Dengate. Ada "left for service" on the 16 April 1915.
Peasmarsh School, 2003
In 1920 Ada had a son, Patrick Donald Dengate (Pat), the illegitimate child of Albert Pope. Very soon after becoming pregnant with Patrick, Ada met George Phillips and they married on the 7 August 1920 in St Peter and St Paul's Church, Peasmarsh. At the time of their marriage George was working as a fireman and living at 1 Carlyle Place in Rye. Ada's father Charles and F.R. Dunk were witnesses to the marriage. Ada's son Patrick Donald was baptised 19 December 1920 in St Peter and St Paul's Church, Peasmarsh. During the First World War George Phillips served in the Wiltshire and Gloustershire regiments and for some time served on HMS Carmania.
St Peter and St Paul's Church, Peasmarsh
Ada held a variety of jobs including looking after an elderly lady, working for a doctor in Rye and working in a hospital in Bedgebury (now Bedgebury school). George and Ada had four children; Christina, Charles Purcell, Gwendolin Betty and Stanley George Phillips. Christina and Charles Purcell were baptised in St Peter and St Paul's Church, Peasmarsh. The family moved around 1925 to Linton, Maidstone where Gwendolin Betty and Stanley George were born before returning to Peasmarsh around 1930. For some time Ada and family lived two cottages down from her father Charles Dengate on Main Street, Peasmarsh.
(left photo) Charles Dengate's cottage (last white cottage next to chapel), (right photo) Charles' cottage 2003, Ada's cottage third right
Charles Dengate, Patrick Donald Dengate and Ada's brother Frederick Dengate, c. 1927
Ada Frances, Patrick Donald Dengate and Christina Phillips, c. 1925
The final house the family lived in Peasmarsh was called Farthings, where they lived from around 1937.
Fathings, Peasmarsh, 2003
During the Second World War, Patrick Donald Dengate served in the 5th Cinque Ports Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment. Sadly he was killed in France on 27 May 1940, aged 20. He was buried in Bertanacre Military Cemetery, Fletre Nord, France.
Ada Dengate attended the Dengate Reunion in 1939 with her father alongside his 5 brothers and 2 sisters at the Masonic Hall in Hastings.Ada, George and family moved from Peasmarsh on 18 May 1940 to Goudhurst in Kent. Ada tragically died on 30 April 1945 when the bicycle she was travelling on was hit by a lorry at Bedgebury Cross, Goudhurst. Her funeral left from her brother Charles Henry Dengate's (Harry) pub, the Horse and Cart Inn, Peasmarsh to St Peter and St Paul's Church were she was buried.
Horse and Cart Inn, 2003
George Phillips remarried in 1946 to Teresa Mulaure. He remained living at Priors Heath until 1947 before moving to Harbeldown. Teresa left George after 5 years and he moved to Tenterden where he remained until his death on 16 of October 1970 in his home in Tenterden. He was buried in Tenterden Church.
LINKS:
Grateful thanks to Gwen Gill, the late Christina Brown, Linda Vousden, Maurice Addy and Charles and Joyce Phillips for the above information, memories and photographs.
© Copyright N. Goodwin MMII