Turner, Mrs Marion, Ferry Road, Topsham
Turner, Marion Ellen, nee Docking, (1869-1951) was born on 17th October, 1869[1] in Goodhurst, Kent to William and Mary Docking, both born in Cornwall, as Marion’s three older siblings, Lavinia, John and Mary had been.[2] She married William Turner, a sailor born in Dorset, in mid Devon in 1890[3] and was living in Exeter in 1891. Her mother and a younger brother George, who was a musician and had been born in Scotland, were staying with her at the time of the census.[4]
By 1911 Marion had five children, Edward, George, Marion, Thomas and Kenneth and was living in Ferry Road in Topsham, Devon, in a home with six rooms, where the family had been at least since 1905, when the youngest child was vaccinated.[5] Her mother had died and her bedridden father, a former musician, was living with her, together with three of her brothers, John, William and George, and another boarder, all working as fishermen. By now her husband was working as a market gardening labourer. She gave her occupation as a midwife.[6]
Marion became a member of the Topsham branch of the NUWSS, bringing her into closer contact with middle-class women she knew from her involvement in St Margaret’s Church. In July 1913 she was reported as running a sweets stall at a fund-raising event for the church, alongside Mrs. Tom Holman, wife of a highly-respected mariner in the town.[7] Both women took part in the Great Suffrage March of 1913.[8]
Marion was registered to vote from 1920 onwards, when she was living at 38 Fore Street in Topsham.[9] Her husband died in the mid 1930s and, by 1939 she had moved to 84 Tom Street in Exeter, giving shopkeeper as her occupation and living with four of her adult children and her brother John Docking.[10]
Marion Turner died in 1951.[11]
Entry created by Sheila Stephens, June 2018
[1] https://search.findmy past.co.uk BMD/B/1868
[2] ibid. GBC/1871
[3] ibid. BMD/M/1890
[4] ibid. GBC/1891
[5] ibid. GBPRS/DEVON
[6] ibid. GBC/1911
[7] DEG, 23 Jul 1913
[8] Penny Bayer and Mike Patrick, Topsham’s Suffragists 1911-1913: (Topsham Museum Society, 2013).
[9] ibid. BL/ER/OCR Registers for 1920, 1927 and 1931
[10] ibid. TNA/R39.
[11] ibid. BMB/D/1951