Jones, Mrs Helen, 8 The Broadway Exmouth
Helen Laure Jones (1876-1939), néé Barlow, was born in Venice, her British parents were Sydney and Laure Clementina. She married Wilfred Aubrey Jones, a civil engineer, in the summer of 1896 in Worcestershire. The couple moved to Exmouth from Wimbledon in 1900 and in 1901 they were living at Merledene, Hartley Road (next door to Mrs Montgomery, a fellow suffragist) with their three children plus two servants.
Wilfred Aubrey Jones died, aged 44, in 1908 and by 1911 Helen was living with her children and two servants in a modest house (8 rooms) at 8 The Broadway Exmouth. Her involvement in the social life of Exmouth was varied; she took part in the flower show to raise funds for the new cottage hospital and supervised proceedings at events to raise funds for the Waifs and Strays Society, the Girl Guides, the Exmouth Children’s Seaside Convalescent Home and repairs to the organ at Withycombe church.[1]
She served on the committee of the Exmouth branch of the NUWSS and in November 1913 the south-west branch of the NUWSS held a fund raising event in Exeter – a Fete and Forest of Christmas Trees; Helen took part in that event on behalf of the Exmouth branch. The next spring she sat on the platform to support the arguments for women’s suffrage at a large NUWSS meeting held in the Public Hall where the main speaker was Mrs [Helena] Swanwick.[2]
Helen lived in Exmouth until the 1920s, and it is likely that she stayed in Devon, as she died in East Wyle, South Zeal on 12 December 1939[3].
Entry created by April Marjoram, June 2018
[1] WT 20 Aug ,1903, 19 Nov 1919; 1 Dec 1921, ExJ, 10 Oct 1908, DEG, 27 Feb 1912;11 Dec 1913.
[2] DEG, 23 April 1914.
[3] Probate Register.