Full name of worker at H.M. Factory Gretna (and any other names they are known by) : Cicely Frances Dover

 

Gender: Female

Date and Place of Birth: April 1892, Horsley, Nailsworth, Gloucestershire

Date and Place of Death:  9 September 1925, South Dublin, Ireland

 

Nationality: British

 

Childhood: 6 siblings. Her parental home was Rodmarton, Cirencester, Gloucestershire from 1893.

 

Parents: William Joseph and Margaret nee Wilson

 

Parent’s occupations: Clerk in Holy Orders and a nurse

 

Schools / universities attended and years of attendance: N/K

 

Occupation: Police constable

 

Place of residence at Gretna: Women’s Police Barracks No 2, Gretna.

 

Job title at Gretna: Police constable

 

Marital status: Married Lancelot Richard Shildrick on 7th July 1923.

 

Children: None located.

Travels: Died in Dublin, Ireland

Awards/recognitions: N/K

 

Trivia / any other information:

Cicely was born in 1892 and joined the family of William and Cecilia Dover. William was a clergyman and moved parishes but surprisingly whilst Cicely appears on the 1901 and 1911 census, she is not with her immediate family. The 1911 census only lists her as a visitor but she was living with the Shildrick family, who were to become her in laws. Henry Joseph Shildrick was vicar of St Peter’s in the Fields, Bocking in Essex.

Pure conjecture but one of Henry’s daughters had married into the Mahon family and one of the Mahon’s daughters was in the WPS at Hereford. This possibly led to Cicely joining, but we find Cicely living at No2, Women’s Police Barracks, HM Factory, Gretna. It is possible she served in other factories as her name does not appear on the petition sent in by the WPS members at Gretna in Autumn 1918.

 

 

Cicely Frances Dover was born in 1892 at Rodmarton, Gloucestershire to William Joseph, a clerk in Holy Orders and Margaret nee Wilson. She was baptised on 1st May 1892.

 

1901 -at Brightwell Farm, Berkshire. Niece to the female head of house.

 

1911- a visitor at St Petr’s Wack, Bocking, Braintree, Essex. No occupation listed.

 

Mother a nurse in 1911.

 

WW1 – employed as a police constable at H M Factory Gretna. Listed on the valuation roll at Women’s Police Barracks, No 2.

 

She has not been found on the 1921 census

 

7th July 1921- married Lancelot Richard Shildrick in Kensington and Chelsea, London. Address given is 81, the Grove, Kensington. Lancelot’s father also a Clerk in Holy Orders. Lancelot had a distinguished career serving in the Royal Munster Fusiliers being Mentioned in Dispatches during 1917. In the Great War he attained the rank of Major.

 

After their marriage, the couple returned to Dublin where Lancelot was living in 1923.

 

9th September 1925  – died aged 33 in Dublin South. Her death certificate indicates the cause as pulmonary tuberculosis. Lancelot returned to England soon after, remarrying in 1926.

 

Additional information supplied through Research Project led by Nigel Crompton.

 

References

Blogs about the individual:

Websites about the individual: