Name: Edith Kate Ebrey
DoB: 22 September 1888
Place of birth: Bexleyheath, Kent

Parents: Alfred Joseph & Kate Elizabeth (nee Whatmore)
Parental Home: Devonshire Road, Bexleyheath
Siblings: John Alfred (1890-1979) Bessie Cora (1892-1965) Ada Nellie (1894-1988)
Spouse: Albert Stanley Sears
Date of Wedding: 21 February 1925
Children: Ida May (1928-2002)
Marital home(s) : Devonshire Road, Bexleyheath
Employment: None located
1911 Census: Not located on 1911 English Census
Date of death: March 1962
Location: Wantage, Berkshire (see note) Charney, Berkshire (see note)

Gretna details
Name: Edith Kate Ebrey
Clock No
Date joining: Not known
Date leaving: Not known
Addresses: Women’s Police Barracks No1, Gretna
Rank on start: PC
Promotion: Not known
Career after: Nursing
1921 Census : Matron in Maternity Home, Bexleyheath (see copy)
Addresses after Gretna:
1936 – Church Road, Bexley
1947 – Summerbourne Drive, Bexley
1954 – Church House, Market Place, Wallingford
1960 – School House, Springfield Road, Wantage

Additional information

Edith was the first born of Alfred & Kate Ebrey. On several documents her father is shown Joseph Alfred. He was a journeyman carpenter. Although the couple had been married for a number of years, the 1891 census shows Alfred living with his father and sisters in Devonshire Road, Bexley whilst Kate, Edith and John were staying with Sarah Whatmore in Upton Road. Ten years later, the family were living in a cottage next to where Sarah had grown up. Her entry for the 1911 census has not been located. Nor has a reason why she joined the WPS and went to Gretna. Her service at Gretna has not resulted in any newspaper reports or evidence she was involved in any prosecutions.  By 1921, Edith was a qualified midwife and working as Matron of Bexley Council Maternity. It is possible  she had qualified prior to the Great War but interestingly when Edith married in 1925, she gave her address as Fern Cottages, plus no profession. Within three years the couple were blessed with a child. In 1928, Ida May was born.  Up to the early 1950’s the family lived in and around Bexleyheath, but in 1953 we find them living out in Wallingford, which then was in Berkshire.  By the 1960’s they had moved to Wantage where Edith died in 1962. Both Wallingford & Wantage moved from Berkshire to Oxfordshire in the 1974 boundary changes.

Sources Consulted

Source
Item consulted
Ancestry UK
English/ Welsh Census 1891, 1901,

1911, 1921, 1939 registration

Census, electoral registers

Births, Marriages, Deaths, Burial/ Cemetery records

Immigration and travel
British Newspaper Archive
Local, National & Scottish Newspapers
National Archives Kew
Ministry of Munitions & Women Police Service
National Archives Edinburgh
Gretna Police Area records
Devils Porridge Museum Archives
Valuation Roll for Gretna

Electoral Register 1918-1919
Dumfries Archives
Police & Court records
Scotlandspeople
Births, Marriages, Deaths

Valuation Roll for Gretna
Court, prison and legal records
Bow Street Court and Holloway Prison
Metropolitan Police Heritage Centre
Early members of Metropolitan Police Patrol