John Alcock's 1888 Diary ... and other things John Alcock related: SATURDAY 2nd JUNE 1888

To Stoke with Bert to meet Clara coming by express from London. I went to Hanley and Bert to Hartshill and we both came down to meet the 3:15 train at Stoke Station. Bert and Clara came from Blyth Bridge in coach but I walked.

Lower down in different handwriting, it says:
Alf and Ralph went to Buxton yesterday to see Dad.
Judging by this entry and other's with the same handwriting, it seems that it was John's sister Hannah who was writing these extra bits. Alfred Hordern was Hannah's husband and Ralph was John and Hannah's brother.

Notes:
Clara was Alberta(Bert)'s sister. The story of their family is interesting although tragic. They were the children of Samuel Eccles and Pamela Williams, both from Worcestershire. Samuel Eccles was a tailor.

I found the following children for them:
Fredrick, born 1846 Worcestershire, died 1852 Worcestershire.
Lavinia, born 1848 Worcestershire, died 1852 Worcestershire.
Rebecca, born 1849 Worcestershire, died 1852 Worcestershire.
Clara, born 1850 Sheffield.
Matilda, born 1853 Worcestershire, died 1863 or 1865 Gloucester.
Alma, born 1861 Worcestershire.
Alberta, born 1862 Gloucester.
Frederick, born 1867 Gloucester, died 1867 Gloucester.

So out of these 8 children, only 3 survived. There might have been other children which I have not found records for. In the late 19th Century, the infant mortality rate (the number of babies not surviving to one year old) in the UK would have been around 15%. Compare that to around half a percent in 2000. When people say that things are bad these days, just remember how much modern medicine has improved our lives.

As if the situation of the Eccles family wasn't bad enough, Pamela died in 1873. Probably in desperation, Samuel went to New Zealand in 1874, to start a new life. He took Alberta and Alma with him, Clara staying behind in London as she was 24 years old.

Alberta, having met John Alcock, travelled back to Britain around 1887. Alma married Robert Pearce in New Zealand and they went on to have many children. Samuel died in 1891 in New Zealand and was buried together with Robert Pearce's mother.