florence cecilia mallandaine
Isle of Wight, 1909
Florence was born in Hackney in December 1862, the second child of Henry Hawkes Mallandaine and Lucy Ann New. Shortly after her birth, her family moved out of London to the market town of Hitchin in Hertfordshire where Florence was baptised at the church of St Mary on 11 October 1863.
Her father’s career forced the family to move often and in her first fifteen years, Florence lived in five different towns but in a family of eleven children, a playmate was never far away. In the late 1870s, the family had settled in Salisbury and appear in the 1881 Census at 39 Brown Street but Florence, then aged 18, was living in Warmister, about 15 miles north of Salisbury, and teaching Latin at a Ladies School.
By 1891, Florence was once again living with her family, now in Wolverhampton. Her parents had retired and returned to Salisbury by 1901 but Florence appears in the census at 11 High Street in Battersea, South London. She was a boarder with Thomas and Emma Rhodes and her occupation was listed as a Mission Worker with the Church of England.
Florence visited Yaxley, Suffolk in 1906 — possibly for her aunt Sarah’s funeral — and signed the guest book of St Mary’s Church on 14 May: Florence C. Mallandaine, Brentwood. Florence never married but she remained close to her family and kept in contact with numerous letters and visits. In 1911, she was living with her mother and sister Amy in Chandler's Ford near Winchester but she had no occupation listed.
A notice in the Chelmsford Chronicle on 7 August 1914 confirmed Florence's appointment as the female Probation Officer having succeeded her sister Agnes Mary in the position. It is not known if this was a paid position or one that was considered charitable work suitable for single, middle-class women of the time. Over the next twenty years, Florence moved several times and appears in electoral registers in South Mimms, Hertfordshire in 1919-20, Swanage in Dorset in 1926-27, and Edgbaston in Warwickshire from 1928 to 1930. No occupations were listed so the reasons for the frequent moves to diverse places is not known but she may have been continuing her mission work for the Church of England and went where she was needed.
Florence retired to the Central Spa Nursing Home in Cheltenham near her brother John but by 1939, she had moved to Worthing in Sussex where she lived at the Myrtles Nursing Home at 9 Farncombe Road.
She died in Worthing, aged 76 years, on 27 October 1939 and her cremated remains were interred at Durrington Cemetery in Worthing four days later. A short obituary appeared in The Times on 31 Nov 1939: ‘On Oct 27, 1939, at Worthing, Florence Cecilia Mallandaine, eldest surviving daughter of the late Henry Hawkes Mallandaine.’ She left an estate valued at £129 and named brother Henry Lucien as executor.