Foster Biggs (1850-1916).
My 2nd great-grand uncle.
Foster Biggs was baptised on 8 December 1850 at St Mary’s Church in Rusper, Sussex, grew up in the village and then moved to Croydon with his step-father William Wheatland and mother Olive. His father by birth was Thomas Biggs, who died in 1856.
By 1871 Foster was working as a labourer and lodging in Portland Road, Norwood, and in 1881 was a farm labourer lodging at 3 Surrey Cottages, Farley Road, Norwood. Foster married quite late, aged 39, on 25 December 1890 at St Peter’s Church in Battersea, now in South London. His bride was Croydon-born carpenter’s daughter Sarah Marion Athey, a 17-year-old, and by this time he was described as a carman and contractor.
This essentially involved transporting goods and it developed into a successful removals business that carried his name after his death. In 1921 the company was still trading as a furniture removals business in Portland Road, Norwood, according to a street directory of the time.
The 1891, 1901 and 1911 censuses showed the family living ‘above the shop’ at 50 Portland Road. Foster died in 1916, the Norwood News of 7 July 1916 describing him as an old and respected trader. He left effects valued at £1,661. Sarah helped to run the business after her husband’s death and on several occasions wrote to the authorities to request that her sons be saved from service in the First World War in order to help her, stating that the company had war-related contracts that needed to be completed. She died young on 10 May 1919 leaving effects worth £655. And according to those letters, preserved in her son Thomas’s military records, she had been suffering from tuberculosis.
The couple had a number of children:
- Frederick Foster William Biggs (1892-1930) married Ada Agnes Cakebread in 1915. He died in 1930.
- Thomas Henry Biggs (1893-1957). Thomas married Alice Elizabeth Bailey in 1916 and was conscripted to serve in the First World War. This was disputed by his mother Sarah, who wrote to the authorities saying that her son was vital to the survival of the family business following her husband’s death. It appears that he was involved with work on the home front following this but it’s unclear how far that went. In 1939 he was working as a beer retailer and he died in 1957. Alice died in 1967.
- Harry Foster Biggs (1895-1912).
- John Arthur Biggs. Born in 1897, John went to war despite his young age and joined the Royal Naval Air Service in 1916. He was posted to France and was then assigned to the Royal Air Force when it was formed in 1918. He married Beatrice Nellie Bolton in 1936 and three years later was listed as a beer and wine dealer. He died in 1970, Beatrice in 2001.
- Olive Marion Biggs (1903-1932).