Emily Violet Oldmeadow

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Police Constable in the Women’s Police Force

Birthplace Birmingham Place of Death 46 Leicester Road Southampton Date of Birth: March 16, 1884 Date of Death: December 4, 1977

Biography

Information supplied through Research Project led by Nigel Crompton.

Name: Emily Violet Oldmeadow
DoB: 16 March 1884
Place of birth: Birmingham
Parents: Frederick Augustus & Sarah Ann (nee Robbins)
Parental Home(s): 1891 – no confirmed census entries found for family but London
Siblings: Henry Frederick (1882), Herbert Frances (1900-1900) (Possibly Percy as well born 1887)
Spouse: Never married
Date of Wedding: Not applicable
Children : Not applicable
Marital home(s) : Not applicable
Employment: Lady’s maid both before and after Great War – WPS during war
1911 Census: Living at 50 Bedford Square London. Employed as Domestic Servant. The property was owned by Mrs Alice Mary Wood
Date of death: 4 December 1977
Location: Northampton. At time of death lived at 46 Leicester Road, Northampton

Gretna details
Name: Emily Violet Oldmeadow
Clock No: Not known
Date joining: Not known
Date leaving: Not known
Addresses: Number 1 Women’s Police Barracks, Gretna
Rank on start: PC
Promotion: None located
Newspapers: Only as attending wedding in Maids Morton
Career after: Worked for large number of families (see below)
Addresses after Gretna: 4 Gloucester House, Park Lane, W1 – 50 Bedford Square, London – 40 Avenue Road, Hampstead

Additional information

It appears Emily’s early live was not a happy one. Her name with mother, Sarah and a brother is on workhouse entries and discharges for the period in London.
By 1901 she is working in Middle Claydon, Buckinghamshire near family as a servant. She had started using Violet as her first name and not Emily.
After the Great War, she travelled widely as a ‘Lady’s Maid’, and at one time worked for Field Marshal Sir Philip Chetwode and his wife Hester at their house, 40 Avenue Road in Hampstead. Apart from being a Field Marshal, Sir Philip was President of the Royal Geographical Society and Constable of the Tower, the highest official at the Tower of London after the reigning Monarch. The Chetwode’s daughter Penelope was married to John Betjeman, the poet laureate. At this time no reference has been found to Violet in the 1939 registration or immigration documents for that period or during WW2.