[13] William Henry Price (1854-1920)

Known as ‘Harry’, William Henry accompanied his mother to England and was recorded in the 1861 census, aged 6, as a visitor to the Indies School that Julia attended at that time. At the 1871 census he was not at his parent’s house in Greenwich and cannot be located elsewhere in England.

He married Annie Cook on 1st September 1878, at Holy Trinity Church, Greenwich, and they had a son, Frederick Scott Price, who was born in the middle of 1880 at 106 Old Woolwich Road, Greenwich and named after William’s younger brother. His grandmother, Ann Cook, who was illiterate and made her mark, ‘X’, on the registration form, was the informant of the birth. The infant died shortly afterwards in 1880. Annie’s father, as recorded at her wedding, was Samuel George Cook, a steward.

An inquest was held in 1882, following the sudden death of William Samuel Price and William Henry was called as a witness. According to a newspaper report, at that time he lived at 28 Egerton Road, Greenwich.

Another son, James Leslie Price was born on 23rd July 1887. For the 1891 census, Henry, a bank clerk, and Annie, were living at 4 Melita Villas, Victoria Road, Plumstead, Kent. Also at home were their 3-year-old son, James L. and one servant. Henry and Annie were living at 1 Westcombe Park Road, Greenwich at the 1901 census, with one servant, and his occupation had then risen to a bank accountant. Their son, James, was not at home, so was probably away at a boarding school or may even have already joined the Merchant Navy. Henry William Price was later a manager at Smith’s Bank in Argyll Street, London.

By 1911 William, 56, and Annie, 51, were living alone at 91 Coleraine Road, Blackheath, a sizable property with 8 main rooms. He was by then a Bank Manager and the census details show that the couple had had four children in total, of whom only one was still alive. This means that apart from the short-lived Frederick Scott, they had two further children, as yet unidentified, who did not reach adulthood.

William Henry Price died on 9th April 1920, whilst visiting the Isle of Wight. He was staying at the Marine Boarding House, Ventnor, according to his Probate Record, and he left his widow, Annie, £1,214 11s 9d. Their address at the time of his death was 250 Regent Street, London. This would have been accommodation above a shop in this main London shopping street. It was within a few minutes walking distance from his bank in Argyll Street.

James Leslie Price married Gertrude Mary Smedley in Fulham in the Summer of 1914, but his family disapproved of the match. She was a nurse and his family more or less cut off all contact with him and his family. Gertrude’s father, Samuel Smedley, worked for Gilbert and Sullivan in their operatic productions as a lighting engineer. Gertrude later recalled only one visit from her mother-in-law, Annie Price, when she appeared in an expensive car and talked to her son outside of the car !

He played for Blackheath Rugby Club as an amateur, was due to move to the USA to take up employment with the Ford Motor Company. Up until that time he had been a ship’s engineer in the Merchant Navy. He died suddenly, in 1919, before he could make the journey. He was an engineering officer on a merchant ship and fell overboard into the River Thames. He died at home a few days later, the cause of death given as spinal paralysis. Family information is that he came home by bus after the accident and his physical condition deteriorated rapidly. It is possible that he caught polio, which can be water-borne, and died in a short time from this disease. At the time of his death he was living at 334 Well Hall Road, Eltham, Kent and he was buried on 9th December at the Church of St John the Baptist, Eltham. He had raised three children by this time – Dorrien Gertrude (b. 1915), Joan Marjorie (b. 1917) and Peter James Leslie (b. 1919). The Price family still had nothing to do with Gertrude, or her children, after her husband's death. (One mourner at James' funeral did approach his young daughter, Dorrien, and tell her that her father was a fine man and highly regarded.)

Gertrude Mary Price later remarried, in 1926, to a widower, William John Robert Davies, by whom she had two more children. One of these was Howard Davies, whose web-based request for information on William Samuel Price was instrumental in bringing together various members of different branches of the Price family.