Kathleen was born in Yoxford 29th January 1926 to Henry George Harold Mann and his wife Kate Elizabeth (nee Woollett). Henry was a gardener all his life, and at some point he went to work at Satis House.
Kate had been in service for several years, at Charlwood in Surrey, a 28-room property where she was one of four servants, before being employed by a retired member of the Stock Exchange by 1921, at his home in Oxford Square in central London, one of six servants. It is believed she came to Yoxford in service at Satis House shortly after this, so presumably she would have met Henry there.
The owners of Satis House were distinguished senior Army Officer Lieutenant General Sir Herbert Scott Gould Miles, GCB, GCMG, GBE, CVO 1 and his wife Lady Alice. He died 6th May 1926 aged 75 so Kathleen never knew him.
Henry and Kate married 19th August 1922 at the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel in Queen’s Road, Battersea in London. Henry, a gardener of Little Street in Yoxford, was aged 27 and Kathleen 36. Her address was given as 137 Lavender Hill in Battersea and her father William’s occupation as bricklayer. (Kate was born in Battersea as were her four sisters; her mother Eliza and father were both born in Kent). Henry’s father Albert was then employed as a corn porter; Henry grew up in Little Street.
In 1939 the family were still at Satis House, Henry employed by now as Chauffeur Gardener and the family lived over The Garage. During the War Henry served in the Special Police.
Kate died in 1961 aged 75; Henry died in 1967 aged 72.
Kathleen attended Yoxford Primary School then Leiston Grammar School where she was educated until the age of 16, with a year at Mills Grammar School for Girls in Framlingham in 1941 when Leiston was closed during the war. It is not known what she did on leaving school but on 13th July 1950 she joined the Post Office in Saxmundham on probation as a Postal & Telegraph Officer on a salary of 99s per week (just under £5 today). This position was confirmed 2nd June 1951. She then worked for the Post Office for the rest of her working life, either at Saxmundham or at Leiston. She cycled to work until she bought her first car in the ‘60s.
When her father retired, he and Kathleen lived at No 1 Granary Cottages, the council houses on the A12 at Darsham. These were built after the war and so they would have been among the first residents. By the 1960s Kathleen was able to save money to buy a building plot at Saxmundham. She had a bungalow built, ‘Kroyde’ in Fairfield Drive (opposite the Saxmundham Doctors’ Surgery at North Entrance) and lived there for the rest of her life.
In 1985 she was awarded the Imperial Service Medal by Her Majesty the Queen’s Orders of Knighthood ‘in recognition of the meritorious services which you have rendered’.
Kathleen died 9th December 2005 aged 79 and a funeral service and Celebration for her life was held at St Peter’s Church in Yoxford 19th December. She was cremated and her ashes scattered at Dunwich Heath, an area she always loved.
She never married and had no siblings or other family so her estate was divided between her five godchildren.
Kathleen’s father Henry’s mother was Annie (nee Crookes), born in Leicester. At the time of Henry’s birth 28th May 1895 his father Albert was a fisherman. The birth was not registered until 2nd June 1908, by which time the family were living at Hog Hill and Albert was employed as a farm labourer. In 1901 they were living in Little Street, Albert, born in Yoxford, still a fisherman with children William, born in Butley, Suffolk and Henry, aged five, Annie and Ernest, all born in Yoxford. Also living with them was Albert’s widowed father Henry, aged 69, working as an agricultural labourer on a farm.
By 1911 the family were at Hog Hill and 15-year old Henry was employed as a gardener. Three more daughters had been born, Olive, 9, Evelyn, 8 and Cicely aged 1. In 1921 Ernest was working as an agricultural labourer for Charles Lomax at Grove Park.
Albert’s father Henry was born in Yoxford in 1832, the son of farm labourer John and his wife Elizabeth. By 1891 he was widowed and living alone in Brook Street, employed as a farm labourer. In 1911 he was living alone in Park Place, aged 78 and still working as a farm labourer.
1 Sir Herbert Miles
He was the son of Major-General Miles. He was commissioned into the 101st Regiment of Foot in 1869, and then became a barrister in the Inner Temple in 1880. He married Alice Parker, daughter of the late Joseph Parker of Brettenham Park in Suffolk, barrister and landowner, in 1877. He rejoined the Army in 1889 and held various distinguished posts. He served in the Second Boer War from early 1900. He was Quartermaster-General 1908-1912 and Governor of Gibraltar 1913-1918, during the First World War. Sir Herbert Miles Road and Sir Herbert Miles Promenade are named in his honour.
ftom Wikipedia
Sir Herbert retired after the war, in 1919. He and Lady Alice were living in Godstone in Surrey in 1921. They could not have been in Yoxford long when he died, 6th May 1926 aged 75, so Kathleen never knew him. There is a memorial to him inside St Peter’s Church. In 1939 Alice was still living at Satis House in 1939 (England and Wales Register). Her daughter Gladys and son-in-law, barrister Randall Davies and grandsons Richard and Austen were living with her.
Alice died in 1948.
There is an albumen print of her in the National Portrait Gallery, aged 10, by Camille Silvy, created 7th May 1863.
