All sorts and conditions of Pigs part 2

Carmen Stafford

Carmen Corisande Stafford was born on the 14th June 1891 in Sevenoaks, Kent. She was the eldest daughter of Edward Tytler Stafford Howard Stafford and Teresa Enriqueta Carmen Stafford nee Krul. Her parents marriage seems to have broken down at some point between the birth of their youngest child, Valerie Violet Stafford, and April 1891 because by the time of the census of 1891, Carmen was with her father and sister in a boarding house at 4 Beckenham Road, Kent.

After that, the next time we meet Carmen is on the passenger manifest for the Adriatic, one of the most luxurious ocean liners of it's day, boasting an indoor swimming pool and a Turkish bath. Carmen was sailing to New York with her mother and sister in July 1907,whence they travelled onwards to Jamaica. According to the Bristol Times and Mirror (13 August 1908) Miss Carmen Stafford returned from Kingston to Avonmouth on board the RMS Port Henderson, operated by the Imperial Direct West India Mail Service Co. Ltd. In December 1908, Carmen signed her pig and name in our guestbook.

In 1911, Carmen is enumerated on the census with her sister and brother in law at their house in Dover. By this point Carmen is 21. Their father is living at Moreton Place, SW and at the moment I have not been able to find their mother. In 1907 and 1908 the electoral registers show Teresa as living at 23 Argyll Mansions, Kings Road, Chelsea which is the home address given on the shipping manifest out to New York. However by the 1909 electoral roll, Teresa seems to have moved.

During WW1, Carmen worked as a VAD. The Red Cross dataset shows Miss Carmen Stafford of 103 Eaton Terrace, London SW1 began volunteering at Ridley House Hospital for Officers 10 Carlton House Terrace. S.W.1 on April 1st. 1915–May. 18th. 1915. At that point, Carmen left and joined as Special Service Nurse working at the Military Hospital in the Masonic Buildings, Oxford from 19th May 1915 to Oct. 1917. She left this service "ill". However, Carmen rejoined the VAD later on in 1917 and worked at Darell Hospital, Queen Anne St. and as a Military Service Nurse at Brighton Pavilion Hospital between 31st December 1917 to 30th June 1918. At that point, it seems that Carmen left to go abroad to France with the French Red Cross, working at the Hopital Temperance, in Arc en Barrois until 29 January 1919. 103 Eaton Terrace was the address of Mary Montgomerie Stafford, Carmen's aunt.

At some point between the end of WW1 and 1923, Carmen moved to Antwerp to be with her mother and sister. It seems that whilst she was there, she met her future husband, Matthias Manley Whedbee, the director of the Belgian branch of the British American Tobacco Company. They could also have met in London, because Matthias gives his address as 88 Eaton Place - about half a mile from Eaton Terrace.

Carmen and Matthias had 5 children, with three surviving into adulthood. By the time of the 1939 register, Carmen and Matthias were living at Homefield, Banstead. Also living there at that time was Teresa, Carmen's mother.

Matthias died on 5th April 1942 and was buried in Brookwood Catholic Cemetery. Carmen died on 10 January 1967.