The Family of William John Wilkey from 1891William John Wilkey was the son of William (b.1871) and Elizabeth Wilkey (nee Gale) (b.c1871) and lived in Weston village in the early part of his life. By the time he was 10 years old the family had moved to 18, Snow Hill in the ecclesiastical parish of St Saviours. William John saw active service during the First World War and it is believed served in the Somerset Light Infantry. William John married Annie Hampton in St Mark's Church, Lyncombe in 1916. He was a master painter and decorator by trade. They lived at 13 Upper Dover Street, Bath up to 1924 and then moved to 19 Belgrave Crescent, Bath in 1925. It is interesting to note that William's two brothers, Richard Herbert Wilkey (b1892) and Edwin George Wilkey (b.1894) were also married in the St Mark's Church in 1915 and 1922 respectively. William John's first child Roland John Wilkey, also known as 'Jack', was born on the 1 March 1917. He married Muriel Pearl Lewis (known by the name Pearl to the family) in the September quarter of 1937 and his first child, Nicholas J Wilkey was born 1938. The birth of Paul Wendell Wilkey in 1942 followed (Paul was named after the American Republican and presidential candidate Wendell Wilkey who in 1943 founded Freedom House with Eleanor Roosevelt to promote world government, and specifically for the creation of the United Nations). Jack, after seeing active service during the World War Two, in which he served in the Far East and Burma, two further children were born; Kathryn P Wilkey (1949) and Andrew L Wilkey (1958). Jack and his family lived at 18, Belgrave Crescent, next to his father and two brothers, who lived at No 19. For many years prior to his retirement he worked as an accountant and general manager for Guest Road Services, who were located in a depot in the Lower Bristol Road, Bath, opposite Bellotts Road. All three of Jack's sons were skilled academics and attended Cambridge University in the late 1950's and early 1960's, with the exception of Andrew who was at university in the latter part of the 1970's. After university Nicholas (or Nicky) joined his father Jack in Guest Road Services before marrying Sally N Parker in the September quarter of 1972 and inheriting four children from Sally's previous marriage. By this time Nicky was an accountant for a number of companies in the Bath area. After marrying Sally they settled in Cape Cornwall, near St Just, Cornwall and Nicky commuted to Bath when required. Nicky retired from work on grounds of ill health and sadly has an illness that attacks the muscles and his mobility, and is solely reliant on his dedicated wife Sally. Paul Wendell Wilkey became a journalist after leaving university and quickly became well known in the Bath area for his articles in the Bath and Wilts Evening Chronicle. He became the paper's sub-editor before giving up the post due to stress. For a number of years Paul then worked in local bookshops, returning to his love of the printed word which had brought him recognition locally as a successful jounalist. Paul never married and sadly died prematurely in his fifty-eighth year from a brain tumour, in the June quarter of 2000 in Bath, the city of his birth. Andrew Wilkey unfortunately did not complete his university course at Cambridge. He was studying languages, including Russian. Andrew has been unable to establish a career for himself and is not married. He currently resides in Bath still. Kathryn Wilkey, known as 'Kate' to the family married Colin Lock in 1977 at the age of 28 and moved to the Weston area of Bath, not far from where the earliest known members of the family originated in the 1700's. They have one child, Chloe who was born in 1984. Chloe in turn married Danny Wiltshire in July 2002 and a daughter, Freddi, was born in October 2002. Robert
Frank Wilkey, also known as 'Bob', was born on the 8 May 1924 and served in the
Royal Navy during the war. He turned 21 years old on VE Day, 8 May 1945. In 1948
he married a young widow by the name of Jean Margaret White (nee Deverell) at
Hay Hill Baptist Chapel near the Paragon in Bath.
Their first children, identical twin boys Robin Leonard Wilkey and David John Wilkey were born in 1950 and they went to live at a top flat in 3, Park Street, Bath. After moving to 84 Queens Drive, Foxhill, Bath in 1953 the birth of Bridget Anne Wilkey followed in early 1955. They then moved to 44 Poolemead Road in Twerton in 1961. Their fourth and last child, Sarah Jane Wilkey was born in 1966. By trade Robert Frank Wilkey was also a master painter and decorator, assisting his father. When his father, William John, died suddenly in the street just before Christmas 1956 he continued in this line of work until he got into financial difficulties in 1966. Following this he became a porter at the Royal United Hospital in Combe Park, Bath until his retirement on grounds of ill health. He died on the 11 June 1999 and is buried in Haycombe Cemetery with his wife Jean, who predeceased him by three years. The grave is situated on the patch of ground between the victims Bath blitz and the war graves and memorial in the upper part of the cemetery. Robert's wife Jean Margaret Wilkey (middle name named after her mother and grandmother), an office clerk by profession entered amateur dramatics in her teens. Once the twins were born she soon entered the theatre again through the Townswomen's Guild Amateur Dramatic Society and had a number of key parts in various plays. When the Bath branch of the Townswomen's Guild folded she joined the Bath Operatic and Dramatic Society (known as the BODS) and enjoyed several seasons with this well-known local society. Taking a break from them in the late 1980's in 1995 she spoke of returning to the stage (and the BODS) before serious illness took its toll and she was unable to realise her new plans. She died on the 15 February 1996 at the age of 69 of breast cancer. Robert & Jean's first children were twins Robin & David (born 12 July 1950), Robin being the elder by 20 minutes! Robin met and married Hilary Jane Percy, a teacher who on their marriage in 1977 had just obtained her first teaching post in Swindon. Robin has spent most of his life working with gas companies, joining British Gas in 1966 as an office clerk latterly working as a Senior Finance Clerk in Swindon. Redundancy followed in 1998. Moving to RWE Npower Ltd (as it became) that year he spent a short spell as Business Analyst, where he introduced credit & debit card acceptance and paperless direct debit to the gas business. Following this he took up the post of Gas Billing Operations Manager, shortly after which plans for relocating the office to Stoke-on-Trent loomed on the horizon. Running a busy department of 85 staff Robin planned to relocate, however, two heart attacks in three years prompted him to decide to take redundancy in June 2004. As a young man Robin studied life drawing at Bath Academy of Art under John Eaves and in his spare time often painted landscapes in oils, which occasionally he still enjoys. He also studied the great German philosophers and theologians such as Nietzsche, Bonhoeffer and Barth but later turned to the existentialists, particularly the French such as Proust and Sartre and other French literature. Other writers such as Klima, Kundera and Kafka (the three 'K's!) inspired his first two novels. More information can be found at the author's website HERE Robin and Hilary, who lived at Thames Avenue in Swindon for twenty-five years, moved to Northern Road, again in Swindon in July 2004. They have two children, Philip (b.1982) and Elizabeth (b.1984). Philip currently works for the Great Western Hospital in Swindon. In his spare time he runs a a website called Straight Edge Lifestyle. Elizabeth works for a care home and part-time at the Abbey Stadium, Swindon. Lizzie, as she is known to the family, has one child, Ben. David, the second twin also studied art under John Eaves and in the 1960's and early 70's exhibited a number of large works of art in the surrealist or pop art style in the Victoria Municipal Art Gallery & Museum in Bath. Distinctive works such a 'Beatle Stratocumulous' and 'Reincarnation' brought bewilderment and gasps to an otherwise sedate art society, even for the late 1960's. By trade David is a printer and operates a five-colour printing machine for a well-known company in Bath. David has always been keen on photography, particularly in combination with his art, which is often sensual and for a period of four years during the 1990's he turned professional filmmaker. However, he returned to the printing trade, but still continues his work in photography, filmmaking and editing in his spare time.
Robin and David have only ever exhibited once together and that was in Walcot, Bath in 1977, along with Penny Steele, another artist from Cheltenham who exhibited ceramics. David married Irene Eynon in 1970 and from this first marriage he has two children, Christopher Mark (b. 1973) and Lynn Senta (b.1976) ('Senta', after the heroine in Wagner's 'The Flying Dutchman'). Christopher married Yumiko Magara (born Niigata, Japan 1976) on 1 November 2003. Christopher works for a security company but in his spare time he is keen musician and now lives in North Colerne, near Chippenham with his wife, Yumiko. Lynn married Tristan Bowyer, who works for the car giant, Honda, in Swindon, on 29 July 2000. They have two children, Kyle and Ashton. David's marriage to Irene was dissolved and she remarried. David then met Kate Kirkland, a divorcee from Radstock (just outside Bath). They married on the 27 March 2004 and live in the Larkhall area of Bath. Kate has one daughter from her first marriage called Helen. Bridget Anne Wilkey (b.1955) married Melvill Ashwood on the 17 April 1976 at Manvers Street Baptist Church in Bath. For the early part of their marriage they worked as managers for various pubs throughout the West Country and Dorset, during which time their two children were born, Charlotte Anne Margaret Ashwood (b.1981) and Natalie Eileen Ashwood (b.1983). Melv, as he is known to the family obtained an IT job in London and the family moved from the Bath area to Reading in Berkshire. Sarah Jane Wilkey (b.1966) was the 'late' member of the family and married Herbert Rodney Nichols (he later changed his name to Matthew Rodney Easton) on the 6 August 1983. Their first child Stephen Anthony Nichols was born in 1983 and he has since married, in 2002 in Swindon a Samantha Marie Barnes and they have two children, Liam (b.2002) and Chloe (b. 2003). Sarah and Rodney's other children are Peter John Ruscombe Nichols (b.1985) and Sarahjane Nichols (b.1988) and named after the mother. The youngest son of William John Wilkey and the former Annie Hampton is Arthur Edward Wilkey, also known as 'Ted'. Born on the 22 May 1927, he served in Royal Navy in the latter part of the Second World War as a Dental Nurse. He was a typesetter and reader by trade, prior to retiring to look after his mother Annie prior to her death at the good age of 94 in 1988 (she outlived her husband William John by 32 years). Until her death they lived at 19 Belgrave Crescent for over 60 years, but after this Ted moved first to Fairfield Park, and then to Twerton Farm Cottages in Twerton, Bath. He
has remained a bachelor and has no children. | ||||||
