On a cold winter’s evening at the end of December 1903 Emma Fricker
took a cup of coffee to her husband, Eli, while he was working in the stable
which was next to their home in Friary Street, Guildford. He was a carman, working for Mr Charles
Holden, grocer. It was necessary for
groceries to be delivered regularly, by horse and cart, to the larger homes on
the outskirts of town. At 9.20pm Emma
heard a noise from the stable and when she went to investigate, she found her
husband unconscious, lying on his back close to the hooves of one of the
horses. Two of her neighbours carried
Eli, who was bleeding from a head wound, into the house but although he groaned
he did not regain consciousness. By the
time he was seen by a doctor he had died aged only 41.
Visiting Friary Street today, you will see only shops and restaurants
and most of the original buildings have been destroyed, but at one end there is
a trace of the houses dating from before the time when Eli and Emma lived there
with their 9 children. Another employee
of Mr Holden, Thomas Lee, told the borough Coroner that he had shared a beer
with Eli Fricker at 8.50 that evening in a nearby beer house and that he had warned
him about one of the horses, which was prone to kick, when he returned to the
stable. All agreed that Eli seemed
strong and healthy and his skull had not been fractured but his heart was in a
bad condition and he was said to have died of syncope.
Mr Holden was generous to the grieving widow as Eli had been
an exemplary employee and a concert was organised in the Constitutional Hall to
raise funds for the Fricker family.
Despite this generosity it must have been very difficult for Emma to
support her children. Eli’s last child,
Agnes Rose Fricker was born in February 1904, 6 weeks after her father’s death.
By 1906 Emma had moved to the Shambles
off the High Street. Her 9-year-old son Charles Henry Fricker had been sent to
Dr Barnardo’s and in 1905 he had sailed on the SS Dominion with a group of British
Home Children to live in Ontario, Canada.
Her younger son William John can be found in 1911 as one of 1073 boys at
the Royal Navy Training Establishment in HMS Ganges, Shotley, Suffolk. Meanwhile most of her daughters went into
domestic service.
But this was by no means the end of their stories. Emma remarried in 1906, becoming Mrs
Strange. Charles Fricker married Pearl
Teskey in 1914 and they had ten children.
He died in North Bay, Ontario in 1973.
He had been joined in Canada by his brothers Albert and William and also
by his mother Emma and all three also died in Ontario. William John Fricker had a particularly
successful life. He moved on from training
school to the navy throughout World War One and was promoted to officer status
in 1918. After visiting Canada in 1923,
he returned to Guildford to marry Amy Ann Lefevre in his smart naval uniform. Lieutenant Commander William Fricker received
the King’s Silver Jubilee medal in 1935 and served with the Canadian navy
during World War Two.
Postscript
I have received further information from a descendent of William John Fricker. He met Amy Lefevre in North Bay, Ontario when visiting his brother Charles in Canada. After he returned to Guildford, Amy followed some months later. The couple returned to Canada just before World War Two.
You can read more about British Home Children in my earlier blog
