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Some data on Florence Eliza May and Walter Pocock.

Collected by David Man, April 2014.

1859-60 Florence Eliza May was known as ‘Dolly’ in the family. She was the elder

sister of our direct ancestor Eleanor Ida May. She was born on 12th

November 1859 at

Montreal, Quebec, Canada, the daughter of Thomas May (1822-1873) and Ida Marie

Wolff (1834-1877). Florence was baptized at St. George’s Anglican Church in that city

on 20th

(?) May 1860.

Below Florence’s baptism: Florence Eliza May daughter of Thomas

May & of Ida Marie Wolff his wife

was born on the Twelfth day of November

Eighteen Hundred & Fifty Nine and

was Baptised on the Thirteenth day of

May Eighteen Hundred & Twenty.

By Me

William Bond

Parents names:

Ida Marie May

Thomas May

Sponsors:

Richard Wolff [brother of Ida Marie]

Eliza Amelia May [sister of Thomas]

Ida Marie May

Below Dolly (left) and her sister Alice in Montreal.

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1879 The marriage of Walter Pocock and Florence Eliza May. Walter is aged 27, a

bachelor, and his occupations is ‘surgeon’. She is aged 20 and a spinster. They were

married on 26th

November at St. John the Evangelist Church in the Borough of Lambeth

in Surrey. Bridegrooms’ father’s name: William Pocock. Spouse’s father’s name:

Thomas May (deceased). Walter is living at 337 Brixton Road. Florence is living at 16

Christ Church [Christchurch] Road, Streatham in Surrey.

Walter and Florence (May) Pocock had three children (Cecil, Sidney, and Gladys) but

there do not appear to be any descendants of this branch of the May / Pocock family.

Before looking at the family in more detail we will first describe some basic facts about

Walter’s Pocock family.

WALTER POCOCK and the POCOCK FAMILY:

1852 Birth of Walter Pocock. Walter was born in 1852 and baptized on 1st December

1852 at St. Matthew, Brixton in Surrey. His parents were William and Ann residing at

Sutherland Terrace.

1861 Census of England. The Pocock family is residing at 1 St. John's Villas, Angel

Terrace, Lambeth, London. William Pocock (43) is a shown as Member of the Royal

College of Surgeons and a Licentiate of Apothecary Hall. His wife Ann (42) is present

along with two other children: Mary (5) and Alfred (1). Walter is not present.

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1861 continued (second page)

Also staying with William and family are two nieces, Marianne and Sarah, the daughters

of William’s sister Elizabeth (Pocock) and her husband Thomas Hatton.

Below Marianne Hatton whose mother was Elizabeth Pocock. Marianne was residing

with her uncle William on the 1861 census above. This photograph was taken in 1910 at

Ostenede.

1861 Census. Walter (8) and his sisters Florence (11) and Alice (13) (last line) are at a

boarding school ‘Keymer Lodge’ at Keymer in West Sussex. The school has not

survived.

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1871 The Pocock family on the census for England residing at No. 28 Brixton Road, at

Lambeth in Surrey, showing William aged 53, General Practitioner, born at Brighton in

Sussex. His wife Ann is aged 52 also born in Brighton and their three children: Florence

aged 21, Walter (a medical student) aged 18, and a son Alfred G[eorge] C[larke] aged 11.

Alfred, like his father and his brother, was also a medical doctor. All the children were

born in Brixton in Surrey. Also shown is a niece Emma Pocock aged 25 born in Brighton.

There are four servants.

1872 The Times, Saturday 27th

April. Walter passes his medical exams in anatomy and

physiology. He is a student at St. Thomas’s hospital.

1881 The Walter Pocock family on the census for England is located at ‘Broadlands’, 57

Effra Road at Lambeth in Surrey. First page: Walter is aged 28 and a general practitioner

(MD), his wife Florence is aged 21 and staying with them is Florence’s brother Sydney

[Sidney] May aged 18 and a he is described as a ‘scholar’. Google map shows only

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modern developments along Effra Road and so the house that the Pococks lived in has

probably been demolished.

1881 (continued) census second page showing servants:

From 1880 to 1887 Walter appears on the land tax returns for 57 Effra Road. The house

is owned by a Mrs. Jewett; so Walter was renting. Below is shown the 1886 land tax

assessment for £1 1s 8d.

ANNOUNCEMENTS OF THE BIRTHS AND BAPTISMS OF CECIL,

SIDNEY, and GLADYS.

1882 The Pall Mall Gazette, Saturday, 13th

May. Announcement of the birth of Cecil

born on 11th

May.

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1883 The Times, Tuesday, 23rd

October. Announcement of the birth of Sidney on 20th

October.

1885 The Times, Friday, 20th

November. Announcement of the birth of Gladys on 19th

November.

Baptisms at St John the Evangelist, Wiltshire Road, Lambeth in Surrey.

1882 Baptism of Cecil Pocock, born on 11th

May, and baptized on 18th

July as Walter

Willy Hugh Cecil Pocock, but always known as Cecil.

1883-84 Baptism of Sidney Pocock, born on 20th

October 1883, and baptized on 27th

March 1884 as Frederick Sidney Pocock, but always known as Sidney.

1885-86 Baptism of Gladys Pocock, born on 19th

November 1885, and baptized on 15th

April 1886 as Florence Gladys May Pocock, but always known as Gladys.

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WALTER POCOCK’S PROFESSIONAL CAREER

1884 Transactions of the Willan Society of London: A society for the study of

dermatology and syphilis. Volume. I. It would appear that sometime between 1882 and

1884 Walter qualified as a surgeon (MRCS – Member of the Royal College of Surgeons)

and hence, following tradition, is addressed as Mr.

1884 Transactions of the Obstetrical Society of London, Volume 26

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1887 The Times Tuesday, 5th

April. Walter Pocock is a partner in a new venture – The

London Skin Hospital.

1887 Further reports of the establishment of the new London Skin Hospital.

1887 London Medical Press and Circular. 9th

March

The London Skin Hospital.

It appears to have become a rule almost without exception that out of each hospital

dispute shall evolve another special hospital. Thus the original Hospital for Diseases of

the Throat, in Golden Square, is the focus from whence two or three others have sprung,

one; and now another skin hospital springs into existence, from a "scandal" at St. John's

Hospital for Diseases of the Skin, Leicester Square, the centre of many previous

eruptions. And on the principle that there is nothing like bringing sin home to one's very

door, the "London Skin Hospital" has been opened in Cranbourne Street, within a few

yards of its foster parent; and we are requested to announce that as an initiatory step of

the Committee of Management, the following appointments have been made: — Mr. Jas.

Startin, M.RC.S.; Mr. Walter Pocock, M.R.C.S.; and Mr. Edward Joseph Barry, M.D.

Ed., M.R.C.S. Eng. to be Honorary Medical Officers to the Hospital; and Mr. Startin,

Lecturer.

1889 Reynolds's Newspaper, Sunday, 3rd

November. Walter is briefly mentioned in a

news story.

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1889 The London Gazette, 15th

November. Announcement of the dissolution of a

business partnership between Walter and Adam R.H. Oakley.

1891 The Times, Saturday, 19th

December. Notice of bankruptcy.

1891 The Pocock family on the census for England. Since the 1881 census, as we have

seen, three children have been added to the family. The census below shows two: Sidney

(7) and Gladys (5). Cecil is probably away at boarding school. Walter puts his occupation

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as ‘Duly registered practioner’. There are three servants. They are still residing at 57

Effra Road.

EMMIGRATION TO THE UNITED STATES

1892 Walter emigrated to the U.S. and a year later Florence and their three children

followed. The US naturalization papers have not been located yet. On various sources it

states that the naturalization of Walter’s children took place on 25th

May 1898 at Jersey

City, New Jersey.

1893 Arrival in New York of Florence (May) Pocock (33) and her three children Cecil

(11), Sidney (9), and Gladys (7) on board the S.S. Elbe from Southampton on 26th

September.

S.S. Elbe

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1900 The Pocock family on the US census residing at Avenue C, Bayonne (Ward 3,

Hudson County) New Jersey.

Name

Age

Walter Pocock 47

Florence Pocock 40

Cecil Pocock 18

Sidney Pocock 16

Gladys Pocock 14

Helen Brennan 43

1900 US census Cecil is at Mount Hermon Boys School in Massachusetts.

Note on Mt Hermon School: Founded by the 19th

century evangelist Dwight Lyman

Moody in 1881, the school aimed to educate young people who had limited access to

education because they were poor. Moody hoped to create generations of committed

Christians who would continue his evangelical efforts. While the Bible was the primary

tool for instruction in the early days, the institution was never dogmatic. Religious

instruction was accompanied by a challenging academic program similar to that of other

private secondary schools of the era. ( from the school’s website). I have also found a

record on the census for Sidney FL Pocock at Mt Hermon but the transcriber says he was

born in Maine; perhaps an error?

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1901 Walter Pocock died on 23rd

June and a copy of the official New Jersey state ‘Report

of Death’ has been recovered. From it we learn that Walter died at 922 Avenue D,

Bayonne, New Jersey. He had been living in the US for ten years and he was 48 years old

at the time of death. The cause of death was Angina Pectoris, nephritis. He had been ill

for a month before death and had been attended during that time by a Dr. Stevens who

resided at 150 Avenue D in Bayonne. Walter was buried at Bay View Cemetery, Garfield

Avenue, Jersey City, New Jersey.

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1905 New Jersey State Census. (image of census not available)

Florence M Pocock F 44

Cecil W W H Pocock M 22

Sydney F L Pocock M 21

Gladys F M Pocock F 19

1905 Passenger arrivals at New York on 12th

November aborad the Minnetonka: Florence

and Gladys.

Minnetonka

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1910 15th

February Passenger arrivals on board the Minnehaha (built by Harland and

Wolff) showing Florence and daughter Gladys on the last two lines

1910 Federal census Florence aged 50 and a widow and her daughter Gladys aged 22 and

single are living at 393 Avenue C, Bayonne City, New Jersey.

1912 14th

September, Florence Pocock arrival in New York aboard the Philadelphia. The

form states her age as 50 whereas Florence would have been 53. The address she gives is

virtually the same as the one on the censuses above.

1913 Under the terms of the will of her uncle Gustav Wilhelm Wolff (founder of the

shipbuilding company Harland and Wolff) Florence received 12,000 pounds which was

to be held in trust and invested for by her nephew Frederick Albert Wolff May.

1915 New York census living at 126 West 91st Street, New York City. Showing Florence

(55) who gives her occupation as Housekeeper. Her son Cecil (33) an Engineer and

daughter Gladys (28) who has no occupation are residing with their mother. A daughter

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in law appears who is ‘Sarah’. Probably the transcriber made a mistake, as this is

probably Cecil’s wife Gwendoline (see Cecil’s section below).

1916 . Florence on the New York City directory at 126 West 91st Street.

Sidney Pocock and ? Gladys

1918 Arrival at Liverpool on board the Adriatic but I am not absolutely sure this is “our”

Florence. Why Essex?

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1920 US census Florence and her daughter Gladys are transcribed as ‘Popocock’.

Surprisingly Gladys has an ‘m’ next to her name indicating that she is married, but

without indicating what her married name is. We know from her mother’s death

registration, which was made by Gladys one month after this census was taken, that she

was married to a man named Collyer. On this census they do not state any occupation. No

street address is given, only the electoral district in which they are living - Manhattan

Assembly District 20, New York, New York. However, since Florence died a month

later her death registration gives us more detail (see below).

1920 According to her death certificate/registration Florence Pocock died on 6th

February

at 2051 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, New York. (Her date of birth is given incorrectly as

6th

February 1861 whereas she was in fact born on 12th

November 1859). Her age is given

as 59 whereas she was in fact aged 60. Her occupation is ‘none’. The cause of death is

given as influenza with diabetes mellitus a secondary cause. It also says that her mother

was born in Canada whereas she was born in Hamburg, Germany. Florence was buried

on 9th

February at Bay View Cemetery, New Jersey where her husband Walter had been

interred over a decade previously.

The undertaker, Samuel Watson, is employed by Gladys F Collier the daughter of the

deceased. Thus confirming what the 1920 census says which is that Gladys is married.

The 1920 census was conducted on 6th

January, just a month before Florence Pocock

died. Both sides of Florence’s death certificate are shown below:

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The ‘A’ below marks the spot where Gladys died.

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A PICTORIAL INTERLUDE

1905 Four years after Walter died, Dolly took her children Sidney and Gladys to visit her

sister Eleanor Ida (May) Loeck and her family in Hamburg. The photographs below

record that visit.

Back row from left to right: Ida, Sidney, and Gladys. Front row: Dolly, Gerda, and Eleanor Ida

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From left to right: Gerda, Ida, Gladys, Nora, and Sidney

The two sisters: Florence (Dolly) Pocock and Eleanor Ida Loeck

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Ida Loeck (left) and her first cousin Gladys Pocock

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Gladys Pocock (left) and her first cousin Nora Loeck

Ida Loeck, Gladys Pocock, and Nora Loeck

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Gladys Pocock in Hamburg

Florence and Gladys Pocock at Bayonne, New

Jersey

The Pocock family on the beach: Sidney, Gladys, and Dolly (Florence). The book is:

Dr. Luttrell’s First Patient by Rosa N. Carey.

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Florence (May) Pocock known as Dolly

DATA ON CECIL WALTER POCOCK:

1903 Lehigh University, Pennsylvania. The Epitome (Student’s Magazine).

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The Hermon Club refers to Mt Hermon School

1904 LeHigh University Students’ hall of residence and their home addresses:

1906 Cecil at Columbia University studying for a Masters in Engineering.

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1906 Columbia University Yearbook

1908 Engineering and Mining Journal, Volume 86, 17th

October.

Cecil Pocock, formerly with the Santa Fe Gold and Copper Mining Company, has

recently become general manager of the Montezuma Mines, Inc., with mines at

Montezuma, Costa Rica, Central America.

1908 Mining and Scientific Press, Volume 97, 12th

December.

Cecil Pocock has been appointed general manager of the Montezuma mines, in Costa

Rica.

1912. Engineering and Mining Journal, Volume 94, 14th

September.

Cecil Pocock, for the last three years with the Cerro de Pasco Mining Co., is now in

charge of the Santa Clara group of mines, at Morococha, Peru.

1912 Columbia Alumni News, Volume 4, No. 5, 11th

October.

Class of 1906 — Cecil Pocock, for the past three years chief engineer of the Cerro de

Pasco Mining Company of Cerro de Pasco, Peru, has resigned to take over the

management of the Santa Clara group of mines at Marococha, Peru.

1914 Marriage of Cecil (aged 31) to Gwendoline Sutton-Flack (aged 27) on 31st January

at Lima, Peru. Below is the US consular marriage certificate.

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1914 Engineering and Mining Journal, Volume 97, 14th

February.

1914 Lehigh University, Volume 1, Number 3, 1st April. Pocock — Flack . C. W. W. H. Pocock, '05, was married to Miss Gwendoline Sutton Flack, in Lima, Peru, on February 3. Mr. Pocock is a mining engineer connected with the Cerro de Pasco Mining Co., Cerro de Pasco, Peru. 1914 Passenger arrivals at Liverpool from New York aboard The Baltic on 20th March: Cecil and Gwendoline.

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1914 Passenger arrivals in New York from Southampton on 8th June aboard the Minnehaha.

1914 Passenger arrivals at the Port of New York on 26th November aboard S.S. Santa Marta:

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S.S. Santa Marta

1915 Bulletin of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, No. 98, February:

PERSONAL

Members and guests who registered at Institute headquarters during the period Dec. 10,

1914, to Jan. 10, 1915: Cecil W. Pocock, Peru.

1916 Catalogue of Officers and Graduates of Columbia University.

Cecil Walter Pocock, E. M., 06. (892 Ave. C, Bayonne, N. J.)

1916 The New York Times, THE DEATH of WALTER POCOCK 19th July. :

CECIL’S WIDOW GWENDOLINE (Gwen) SUTTON-FALK 1881 She was born on 23rd August in England. Her father was Walter Sutton-Flack (1841 - 1907) and her mother was Sarah Louisa Mayo (1838 - 1925). 1920 On the US census Walter’s widow Gwendoline is recorded as a nurse aged 32 at the Hospital of the Good Shepherd at Syracuse Ward 16, Onondaga, New York.

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A list of residence of Syracuse arriving at Ellis Island, New York, has been transcribed and Gwendoline appears on the list three times: 1921, 1922, and 1923. Her address is given as: 220 McClelland Avenue, Syracuse, N.Y.

1970 Gwendoline’s death was registered in the second quarter of 1970 at Basingstoke in Berkshire, England (see last line).

DATA ON SIDNEY POCOCK 1915 Below are Sidney Pocock and his wife Ethel (Hughes) on 6th August at Mushkola Lake.

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1918 Sidney’s first world war draft registration forms (below) showing that he is aged 34 living at 112 Farnham Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada and that he is the manager of a company called Cotton Threads Co. of 26 Wellington Street in Toronto. Given his age he was probably not called up for active duty.

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1916. Registration of a US Citizen abroad. We learn from this that Sidney’s wife’s name

was Ethel N. Hughes and that she was born in Toronto, Canada. The certificate seems to

be dated by hand 30th

June 1916 and is valid for one year. It says that Sidney left the US

in November 1909 and arrived in Canada on 25th

April 1912. His purpose in residing in

Toronto is to represent a company. He obtained his US Citizenship through his father

having been naturalized on 25th

May 1898 at the Court of Common Pleas in Jersey City,

New Jersey.

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1931. The death of Sidney from testicular cancer on 21st April aged 47 while residing at

119 Farnham Avenue, Toronto, Canada. He was buried at Mount Hope Cemetery on 23rd

April.

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So far I have been unable to find when and where Ethel died.

As for Gladys Pocock notes I have on her say she married a man named Collier Reineke.

However I have been unable to locate such a marriage. And I have been unable to locate

a date of death.

APPENDIX

1890. Examination of Mr. Horatio Nelson Hardy by a select committee of the House of

Lords on Special Hospitals in London reported in House of Commons Papers, Volume

16, 12 May.

Question: Can you tell us at all how a person would set about getting up a special

Hospital?

Response: Yes; it is very simple. A medical man who wanted to get fame and reputation

would get a few friends of his together, and form a committee; then someone would be

got, a young man who had not a great deal to do, who would work the thing, who would

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run it, as the Americans say, and he would issue a number of advertisements pointing out

that such a hospital had been long wanted, and supplied a great void, and that the staff

was the most capable that ever was known for treating special diseases of women and

children, and the eyes, and the nose, and the toes, and every other part of the body. And

an arrangement would be made by which the secretary would receive a certain proportion

of the receipts, and he would get some friend to advance a little money, and they would

take an old house, perhaps a tumble-down house which no one could be got to rent in

ordinary circumstances, and he would fit up a few beds in it, and open an out-patient

department, and then the thing is done.

Question: Does such a hospital as that get on to the Hospital Sunday Fund?

Response: Certainly; as soon as it had been established for three years it gets on the

Hospital Sunday Fund.

Question: But how do they manage to exist during the three years?

Response: That is a question which I think probably the secretaries know more about than

has ever been published; but all one can judge from is, that occasionally there are

revelations. There was, for instance, in the case of a special hospital for skin diseases; in

which it appeared that the secretary, after taking up a hospital like that, worked it a great

deal for his own benefit; the arrangement was, that he got 15 per cent on the receipts, and

he worked it up from, I think, £1,400 a year to about £3,000 a year, on which he would

get, of course, £450 a year, partly from payments of the patients, and partly from the

contributions of the charitable, to whom it was represented that the hospital was doing a

most important work, and had to be supported, and all the rest of it.

Question: Then, I suppose, there is also the annual dinner and bazaar?

Response: Annual dinner and bazaar, and fireworks of all sorts.

Question: I fancy the bazaars are not confined to special hospitals?

Response: Not at all.

Question: Sometimes a very great deal of expense is undertaken, which is entirely

speculative, and the returns are not equal even to the original expense of the undertaking?

Response: Yes; that sort of thing is overdone.

Question: Is it the case that the better the position of the president the better the chance of

the hospital?

Response: Yes.

Question: The treatment in any hospital is not very expensive to the hospital, is it ?

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Response: Do you mean of persons as in-patients or as out-patients?

Response to Resposne: As in-patients.

Response: As in-patients it is expensive.

Question: Is there a profit to be made in a general way out of a charge for a patient of a

guinea a week ?

Response: No; I do not think there is. I think the speculative hospitals, which I

understand your Lordship to be referring to, do not lay themselves out so much for

treating patients as in-patients as they do for treating them as outpatients; it is from the

out-patients they make their money; the out-patients will pay 1s., 2 s., 3, 4 s., or 5 s. for

treatment.

Question: Are you speaking now of the Jubilee Hospital?

Response: I am not speaking now of the Jubilee Hospital; I do not know anything more of

the Jubilee Hospital than I have already told you.

Question: You were speaking of the manner in which speculative hospitals manage to get

on?

Response: Yes they can make considerable sums from the treatment of out-patients, and

they do; and it was principally by the treatment of those outpatients that that hospital to

which I referred, the Skin Hospital, made its money.

Question: Will you continue your list?

Response: The next is the London Skin Hospital in Cranbourne Street, Leicester-square.

My objection to it is, in the first place, that skin hospitals are not wanted, and in the

second place, that if they were, there are already two skin hospitals, which are quite

sufficient for the wants of the inhabitants who are afflicted with those diseases; they can

be treated at general hospitals quite as well as at special hospitals, and there are already

two, one at Blackfriars and the St. John's, two well-known hospitals.

Question: Do you know anything about the Skin hospital; how it was founded, for

instance?

Response: No, nothing but a small hospital of that kind is wasteful, necessarily wasteful.

It is necessarily wasteful to have a small hospital of that kind, because the expenses must

be largely out of proportion to those at a large hospital; neither can they have the

advantage of the staff of a large hospital. All those patients could be far better treated at

a large general hospital.

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Question: And with regard to the skin hospital in Cranbourne-strcet: in this return, which

has been furnished to us by the Charity Organisation Society, there is no record of the

cost of occupied beds, or the number of in-patients, or the cost of in-patients; there is

nothing except the notification of 725 out-patients?

Response: That probably will be because it was only furnished in 1887; it is one of the

new hospitals, and that return, I think, dealt with those treated in 1887.

Question: There is one question I wish to ask you. You mentioned your wish that some

of these special hospitals should be abolished; but there was one class of special

hospitals; to which you referred, in regard to which you stated that certain special

hospitals were unnecessary because of the existence of other special hospitals?

Response: Yes.

Question: Then am I to take it that you would not abolish all the special hospitals, those,

for instance, for the skin; you mentioned that one of the skin hospitals was apparently

unnecessary, because there was already the St. .John's Hospital for the treatment of these

cases ?

Response: And another at Blackfriars.

Question: Therefore I may take it you do not think it necessary to abolish all special skin

hospitals?

Response: No, in the present state of affairs; they have arisen in consequence of some of

the general hospitals not giving sufficient attention to these special departments; but if the

general hospitals were properly organised, I think it would be possible to abolish the

special hospitals without any detriment to the public interest.

1884. The Medical Times and Gazette, Volume 1 Walter Pocock’s brother Alfred:

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EARLIER POCO

Spouse: MARION HATTON

Parent/s: George and Caroline (de

Paravicini) Simon. Parent/s: Thomas and Elizabeth E (Pocock) Hatton of Brighton.

Born: 30 January 1842 Brixton, London. Born: 4 August 1847 Westminster, London.

Married: 28 November 1871, St. John's,

Cuckfield, Sussex. Married: 28 November 1871. St. John's, Cuckfield, Sussex.

Died: 12 March 1895, Ostende, Belgium. Died: 30 May 1912, Ostende, Belgium.

Occupation: Wine Merchant. Occupation: Milliner on 1871 census.

Notes: Witnesses at wedding, Charles

Ray and Lucy Nora Hatton.

MARRIAGE 1

Notes: 1861 census, scholar, age 13, with her Uncle William Pocock

M.R.C.S. and family at 1 St. John's Villas, Angel Terrace,

Lambeth, London.

Thomas Hatton, a milliner, with his wife Elizabeth, three sons

and three daughters were living at 3 Ship Street, Brighton on

the 1871 census.

SEE PICTURE OF MARION

Source: Marriage cert., family notes. Source: Marriage cert., Simon family notes,

1861 RG9/365 F110 P5.

1871 RG10/1085 F55 P5.