Emma Ida Palmer was born on 23 Oct 1883 at 108 Ladbroke Grove Road, Notting Hill. Her parents were Henry Edwin Palmer, a commercial traveller and glove salesman and Elizabeth Jane (nee) Treleaven. Both came from around Plymouth. She was the youngest of three children and her older sister was born in Plymouth. The circumstances of her early life were probably quite tough but the fortune and addresses of her family steadily improved.
Emma Ida Morgan in about 1926
Whilst growing up, her family apparently frequently moved with addresses in Notting Hill, Fulham, East Ham and Southend. In the 1901 census she is living with her parents and sister Ethel Mary in an address in East Ham. Her older brother Percy (b 30 Nov 1879) already seems to have left home. The two young daughters are aged 17 and 19 respectively and both declare to have ‘no occupation’ . One suspects that the two sisters were very close to each other. Both got married in the same Southend church in the same year 1908.
Her sister Ethel married Arthur Shaw (who came from Norfolk and also seemed to be involved in gloves) and Emma, herself, married William Henry Morgan, an accountant. Both young married couples addresses were in Mitcham Road East Ham in the 1911 census. The Shaws lived at No15 and the Morgans at No13.
At the outbreak of war both couples each had a young daughter – Ida Evelyn Shaw (b 1909) and Winifred Gladys Morgan (b 1911). Arthur joined up and served first in Gallipoli and was to be killed in Northern France on 28 Apr 1917. Ethel had a second daughter Doris Irene (Dolly) born on 27 Sep 1916. William self evidently stayed at home.
The address given on Arthur’s probate papers in 1917 was 107 Empress Avenue Ilford. This gives credance to the belief that both families moved more or less simultaneously from Mitcham Road to the same street in Ilford in about 1914. The Morgans lived at 129 Empress Avenue, Ilford.
Emma’s second child Donald Cecil Morgan was not born until 21 Sep 1922. Photos of Emma seem to show someone a little ‘unsettled’ and it is clear relations with her husband cannot have always been good. She is renowned for regularly rearranging the furniture around her home!
When her daughter Winnie got married in 1937, her daughter, son-in-law and two young granddaughters all continued to live together in 52 Selborne Road Ilford, where the family had moved in about 1928. The 1939 register shows the extended family as Emma, Winnie and Fred Hennessy with daughter Margaret and her own 16 year old son Donald. William Morgan is conspicuous by his absence. In the same survey he is shown to share an address in St Pancras with Ada Lucy Sole (b 1903)
Emma Ida Morgan died in King George Hospital, Ilford on 15 Jan 1950