Ellen Ruby Price Lane

Mother of Norma Margaret Oliver

Born:

27 Mar 1893 Herne Hill, Surrey, England

Baptised:

4 Oct 1903 All Saints Church, West Dulwich, Surrey, England

Married:

15 Dec 1929 St Clement with St Peter Church, East Dulwich, Surrey, England to Alfred Thomas Oliver

Died:

20 Jan 1976 Mont Albert, Victoria, Australia. Age 82

Cause of death:

Heart disease

Cremated:

23 Jan 1976 Springvale Crematorium, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Timeline

Mar 1893

1893-1910

1911

1911-1915

1916-1922

1923

1923-1929

Dec 1929

1930-1934

1935-1939

1947

1949

1958

Jun 1961

1962

1963

1967

1968-1976

Jan 1976

Born at Herne Hill in Surrey [1]

Lived with parents at Parkview, 189 Norwood Road, Herne Hill, Surrey. Baptised with siblings at All Saints Church in 1903, aged 10. Attended Westbridge House School, Tulse Hill, Surrey [1] [2] [3] [4] [5].

Worked as a clerk for London City Council [6]

Lived with parents at 5 Stradella Road, Herne Hill, Surrey [6] [7]

Lived with parents at the Herne Tavern, 2 Forest Hill Road, East Dulwich, Surrey [8] [9] [10]

Lived at 25 Ryedale, Dulwich, Surrey [11]

Lived with father at 5 Elsie Road, East Dulwich, Surrey [12] [13]

Married Alfred Thomas Oliver at St Clement with St Peter Church, West Dulwich, Surrey [13]

Lived with family at 112 Copleston Rd, East Dulwich, Surrey [14] [15]

Lived with family at 52 Chatsworth Rd, Cheam, Sutton, Surrey [16] [17]

Lived at the Sun in the Sands, 123 Shooters Hill Rd, Blackheath, Surrey [18]

Lived at 37 Begbie Rd, Blackheath, Kent [19]

Lived at 4 Eastbrook Rd, Blackheath, Kent [20]

Arrived in Melbourne on the Orantes [21]

Lived at 10 Monaro Rd, Kooyong, Victoria [22]

Lived at 30 Hunter Rd, Camberwell, Victoria [23]

Lived at 15 Mont Albert Rd, Geelong, Victoria [24]

Lived at 221 Yarra St, Geelong, Victoria [25] [26]

Died at Mont Albert, Victoria and cremated at Springvale Crematorium, Melbourne, Victoria [26]

Biography

Early years

Entrance Lodge of Brockwell Park, Norwood Rd, Herne Hill.jpg

Entrance lodge to Brockwell Park, Norwood Road, Herne Hill

Ellen, known as Nell or Nellie, was born at her parents home of Parkview on 189 Norwood Road, Herne Hill. Their house was so named as it overlooked Brockwell Park [1].

Nell was her parents' first daughter and fourth born child. However, as one of her older siblings had died in infancy, at the the time of her birth, Nell's only siblings were two older brothers, Harold ("Raldy") and Horace ("Horrie"). Her parents were Joseph Henry ("Joe") Lane, a well-known south London journalist, and Ann Jane Price, a popular Welsh vocalist who grew up and performed in south London.

Herne Hill as Nell knew it would have had horse-trams to London and gas lamps. The area had historically been an affluent, rural district of large mansions and gardens although the arrival of the railway, and establishment of Herne Hill station in 1862, encouraged working families to also move to the area [27].

Norwood Road, Herne Hill, 1910

Nell's upbringing was a privileged one and the family lived comfortably but it was not without its hardships or sorrows. When Nell was two, the family experienced the devastating loss of her eldest brother Raldy, at the age of only 10, on Christmas Eve 1895. The little boy died from kidney and liver disease [28].

The pain of losing a child was so devastating for their mother, Ann, that it led to her permanent retirement from the stage as a singer [29].

In 1903, and at the age of 10, Nell was baptised with her other siblings - Horrie, David Edric ("Dio") and Iris Margaret ("Rissy") - at the All Saints Church in West Dulwich, a short walk from their house on Norwood Road [3].

All Saints Church, West Dulwich

Nell's school - Westbridge House School on Deronda Road - was similarly close to their home. Miss Lawrence was their school principal and the school put on an annual Christmas concert. The concert featured a variety programme, including piano recitals, small plays, and recitations. In the 1905 Christmas concert, Nell - together with three other girls - performed in an amusing dialogue, "The Mad Tea Party". She also played the title role in the concert's main event, a performance of "The Snow Queen" [4].

Music would have been a foundational element of Nell's life. Although her mother had given up the stage, the family still continued to sing. As a lad, Nell's brother Horrie sang "When the heart is young" and "The flight of ages" at his father's school reunion and Iris was an active participant in school concerts and local theatre - at the age of 12, she wrote a war play for children, complete with musical accompaniment. As a young woman, Rissy would perform at many events as a mezzo-soprano, just like her mother before her [30] [31] [32] [33] [34].

Stradella Road, Herne Hill

In 1911, the family moved a few streets over to Stradella Road, Herne Hill. Nell, now 18, was working as a clerk for the London County Council, while her brothers Horrie and Dio also worked as clerks for General Motor Cab Company and younger sister Rissy continued to attend Westbridge House School [6].

Their home on Stradella Road was very comfortable and a testament to her father Joe's success as a professional journalist - 10 rooms in total, including the kitchen. It was a new development, with Stradella Road and nearby Winterbrook Road having only been built a few years before on what had previously been open paddock. The land belonged to the Estate Governors of nearby Dulwich College and although there was demand for smaller houses to support lower middle class families, the landowners exercised strict control for larger homes to be built, to encourage well-off middle classes to the area who, in turn, would be more likely to send their children to the College. The new homes on Stradella Road had rents of £60-£90 per annum, or were over £500 to buy, which required families to be comfortably off [35].

Nell and her family were vibrant members of the local Herne Hill community. The Great War was yet to arrive and the days passed pleasantly, with the Lane family attending events such as a garden party held by the Matthews at Stradella House, also on Stradella Road - their daughter would later marry Dio. In 1913, Nell's brother Horrie married Dorothy Matilda Kruse - known as Dolly to the family - in a pretty spring wedding at the nearby St Paul's church at Herne Hill. At the wedding reception, Nell's mother Ann re-took the stage and sang with her sister Eleanor (known as "Nellie"), who also tread the stage boards as a popular singer. And, in recognition of the role music played in the Lane's life, Ann and her husband Joe gifted their son Horrie with a piano as a wedding present [36] [37].

Forest Hill Road, East Dulwich, showing The Herne Tavern (last building on the left)

The Herne Tavern

In 1916, the family's position in the community further strengthened as they took on the Herne Tavern, on the corner at No. 2 Forest Hill Road, opposite Peckham Rye Park. From the beginning, it was an enterprise between Nell's father Joe and her younger brother Dio. Their very first advertisement as the new proprietors of the Herne, published on 1 April 1916, proclaimed the Herne to be "The House with a reputation. Comfortable, cosy, select." Not long after, they were calling the Herne, "a home from home." It certainly was that. Nell and all the family, except for Horrie as he was now married, lived at the Herne in the upstairs quarters and the whole family was involved in the running of the Herne [8] [38].

The Herne was used as a venue for a variety of clubs and societies - the Ivy Allotment Association, the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes (RAOB), the Loan Club - all of which Nell's father or brother would also be active members of, and the family would provide the evening's entertainment. Nell's mother and sister, Ann and Rissy, often joined by Ann's sister Nellie, would sing with other entertainers, while catering was taken care of by Joe and Dio. The quality of the entertainment was always commented on, as well as the excellence of catering, something which continues to be true to the modern day, where the Herne - still standing - operates as a gastropub [39] [40] [41] [42] [43].

In 1922, Joe and Dio let go of the Herne. Dio was now a married man, so when Joe and Ann moved, it was only Nell and Rissy that moved with them. Nellie was now 29 but had not yet married. Although previously engaged, her fiancé had tragically and unexpectedly died two weeks before their wedding. The news left Nellie virtually catatonic - when she heard the news, she sat and screwed herself up in a corner, and didn't move for weeks [10] [44].

For the last few years, Nell and Rissy had taken care of their mother who had grown increasingly ill, suffering from the swollen stomach of ascites, caused by underlying cirrhosis of the liver. The ascites meant significant fluid collected in Jeanette's abdomen, which had to be regularly drained by doctors. When Joe let go of the Herne, he, Ann and the girls briefly went to live at Dio's home on 25 Ryedale and it was here that Nell's mother died on 2 May 1923 [45] [11].

Marriage to Alfred Thomas Oliver

After her mother's death, Nell moved with her father and sister Rissy to nearby 5 Elsie Road, East Dulwich. By 1928, she had met her husband-to-be, Alfred Thomas Oliver. Alfred was also from East Dulwich, living on nearby Friern Road, and they probably met at a local pub, possibly one owned by Nell's brother Horrie, who had also gone into the pub trade [12] [44].

Joseph Henry Lane outside 5 Elsie Rd.jpg

Joe Lane outside 5 Elsie Road, East Dulwich

Alfred was a war veteran, who had spent a significant part of the years since his return suffering from shell shock. The pair married on 15th December 1929 at St Clement with St Peter Church, East Dulwich, with Alfred's brother Albert and Nell's sister Rissy acting as official witnesses to the wedding [13] [44].

Wedding photo of Alfred Thomas Oliver and Ellen Ruby Price Lane.jpg

Nell and Alfred on their wedding day, 1929

After their marriage, Alfred and Nell lived at 112 Copleston Rd in East Dulwich, where their three daughters (the youngest two being twins) were all born in 1931 and 1932. Alfred's occupation at this time was given variously as "Radio Traveller" or "Traveller Radio & Cycle", which suggests he was a travelling salesman for radios [14] [15] [46] [47].

20240901_111413 - 112 Coplestone Road.jpg

112 Copleston Road, East Dulwich

In 1935, the family moved out of London to the Surrey village of Cheam. The house, at 58 Chatsworth Road, was an end-of-terrace home close to Nonsuch Park.

When the Second World War started in 1939, the impact of it was felt even in the village of Cheam. Alfred and Nell's daughters wore tin gas masks to school (much like these ones, worn by children in England) and, when they arrived at school, they'd take their gas masks off and place them on the floor under their desks. Sometimes an alarm would go off to warn of an impending bombing raid and the children would have to put their masks on [44].

52 Chatsworth Road, Cheam [marked with red dot]

One of Nell's daughters, Norma, remembered Nell and Alfred taking turns sitting up at night due to the risk of bombing, while the girls slept on a big mattress in a cupboard under the stairs [44].

It is perhaps unsurprising that Alfred suffered a relapse when the war broke out and had to be hospitalised for treatment. Nell needed to work full-time to pay the bills and mortgage and didn't want the girls to come home to an empty house, particularly given the risks of bombing. As a result, the girls were sent to an orphanage for most of the war period [44].

It must have been an incredibly difficult time for Nell - separated from her girls and her husband, whilst trying to keep the family home afloat all amidst a war. Nell was only permitted to visit her daughters on the first Sunday of the month, a date she never missed. She would take the bus down to visit her girls to spend the day with them, each time the girls hoping that she was there to take them home [44].

Towards the end of the war, Alfred improved and he was sent home. Nell took the girls out of the orphanage, although perhaps because the situation at home was still quite unsettled, Norma spent a further year with Nell's cousin Grace Vagnolini in Newport, Wales. Grace was the daughter of Nell's aunt Nellie (her mother's sister) [44].

Sadly, in about 1946, Nell and Alfred's eldest daughter Rita, contracted tuberculosis. She was only 15 at the time and, for treatment, she was placed at the Essex County Council's Sanatorium at Black Notley, near Braintree, Essex. A picture of her survives at the sanitorium, which had recently opened in 1930 specifically for the treatment of tuberculosis in women and children.

Ambulant Children's Pavilion at Black Notley Sanitorium

Rita at the Black Notley Sanitorium shortly before her death

Rita sadly passed away at the age of 16 on the 14th April 1947 of tuberculosis meningitis. At the time, Nell and the family were living with her brother Horrie at the Sun in the Sands pub, in Blackheath. Alfred and Nell arranged for Rita to be buried in a private grave at Camberwell Cemetery on 18th April 1947 [18] [48].

In the late 1940s, Alfred found a job managing a news agency in Upminster, east London, which he enjoyed. However, in 1949, he died of a fatal heart attack at the age of only 56 years old. It was now just Nell and her two twin daughters, Norma and Monica [44] [19].

Move to Australia

Nell and her daughters continued to live in the Blackheath area. Monica met and married Wilfred ("Bill") Frederick Emmanuel in 1950 and they moved to Orpington, Kent. Norma met and married Colin Victor Batten in 1958 at the Baptist Church on Shooters Hill Road, close to Horrie's Sun in the Sands pub. Nell was one of the official witnesses at Norma's wedding [49] [50].

In 1960, Norma and Colin emigrated to Australia on the Fair Sky, settling in Melbourne. Norma kept in touch with her mother Nell and her sister Monica and encouraged them to also come out to Australia. The following year, Monica, her husband and two children, along with Nell, also emigrated to Melbourne, arriving on the Orontes in June 1961. Nell's younger sister, Rissy, now a widow had also emigrated out to Melbourne, Australia having arrived on the Orsova in 1959 [44] [51] [52] [53] [54].

Nell and Rissy moved in together and would continue to live together for the rest of their days in Australia. Initially, they lived in the familiarly-named Camberwell, a suburb of Melbourne, before moving east to the seaside Victorian town of Geelong 23] [24] [25].

Nell was an active part of her daughters and grandchildren's lives in Melbourne. In 1962, she wrote a will and in it, she expressed how grateful she was for her family [22]:

I give devise and bequeath unto my daughters Monica Mary Emanuel and Norma Margaret Batten everything I possess, to be divided equally between them. God I bless you both my darling girls for all the happiness you have given me. I have been truly blessed. I thank my two sons Bill and Colin for the affection and many kindnesses they have shown me. Bless my darling grandchildren for me. God bless you all, may you all have long and happy healthy lives together.

Nell would live to the age of 82, passing away at Mont Albert on 20th January 1976. She was cremated and her ashes scattered at the Springvale Crematorium [26].

Source information

Ellen Ruby Price Lane, England & Wales Birth Certificate, Registered 2nd Quarter 1893 in Wandsworth, Record no: 139, General Register Office [www.gro.gov.uk]
Births, South London Observer Camberwell & Peckham Times, 15 Apr 1893, page 5, FindMyPast [www.findmypast.co.uk]
Ellen Ruby Price Lane, Baptismal record, All Saints West Dulwich Parish Register [Church of England], 4 Oct 1903, Record no: 29, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
Westbridge House School, South London Observer Camberwell & Peckham Times, 23 Dec 1905, page 2, FindMyPast [www.findmypast.co.uk]
Joseph Henry Lane, Borough of Wandsworth, Division of Wandsworth, 1910, London Electoral Registers 1832-1965, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]. Location of father is used as a proxy for Ellen's location, as she was a minor at the time.
Ellen Ruby Price Lane [1911], Census return for Stradella Rd, Herne Hill, London, The National Archives of the UK, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
Joseph Henry Lane, Borough of Southwark, Division of Dulwich, 1915, London Electoral Roll Registers 1832-1965, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]. Location of father is used as a proxy for Ellen's location - she lived with her parents until her marriage with Alfred Thomas Oliver. This is supported by family information (her daughter Norma) and the later 1921 census, where she is still living with her family.
Advertisement: Comin' Thro' the Rye, South London Observer Camberwell & Peckham Times, 1 Apr 1916, page 4, FindMyPast [www.findmypast.co.uk]. This ad places the Lane family in running the Herne Tavern from at least Apr 1916 - it is the first ad found to be run in the local papers. The title of the ad "Comin' Thro' the Rye'" is a play on words - referencing both the Tavern's location opposite Peckham Rye park, as well as the well-known song of Comin' Thro' the Rye.
Ellen Ruby Price Lane [1921], Census return for Forest Hill Road, London, The National Archives of the UK, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]. Address is given as 2 Forest Hill Rd SE22, which is the address for the Herne Tavern
Popular licensees, South London Observer Camberwell & Peckham Times, 13 May 1922, page 5, FindMyPast [www.findmypast.co.uk]. This article relates to Joe and his son Dio relinquishing the license for the Herne Tavern, indicating they stopped running the premises from May 1922.
Ann Jane Lane, England & Wales Death Certificate, Registered 2nd Quarter 1923 in Camberwell, Record no: 326, General Register Office [www.gro.gov.uk]
Joseph Henry Lane, Borough of Southwark, District of Camberwell, 1923, London Electoral Roll Registers 1832-1965, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]. Location of father is used as a proxy for Ellen's location - she lived with her parents until her marriage with Alfred Thomas Oliver. This is supported by family information (her daughter Norma) and her later marriage certificate, where she gives 5 Elsie Road as her home address.
Alfred Thomas Oliver and Ellen Ruby Price Lane, England & Wales Marriage Certificate, Registered 4th Quarter 1929 in Camberwell, Record no: 374, General Register Office [www.gro.gov.uk]
Ellen Ruby Oliver, Borough of Southwark, District of Camberwell, 1930, London Electoral Roll Registers 1832-1965, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
Ellen Ruby Oliver, Borough of Southwark, District of Camberwell, 1934, London Electoral Roll Registers 1832-1965, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
Ellen Ruby Oliver, Borough of Sutton and Cheam, West Central Ward, 1935, London Electoral Roll Registers 1832-1965, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
Ellen R P Oliver [1939], Register for Chatsworth Road, Sutton & Cheam, Surrey, The National Archives of the UK, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
Rita Anne Oliver, England & Wales Death Certificate, Registered 2nd Quarter 1947 in Braintree, Record no: 428, General Register Office [www.gro.gov.uk]
Alfred Thomas Oliver, England & Wales Death Certificate, Registered 4th Quarter 1949 in Surrey Mid-Eastern, Record no: 491, General Register Office [www.gro.gov.uk]
Colin Victor Batten and Norma Margaret Oliver, England & Wales Marriage Certificate, Registered 4th Quarter 1950 in Lewisham, Record no: 68, General Register Office [www.gro.gov.uk]
Mrs E.R. Oliver, Fremantle Western Australia Passenger Lists 1897-1963, Orontes 6 Jun 1961, National Archives of Australia, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
Will of Ellen Ruby Oliver, Probate 7 Mar 1977, Registrar of Probates, Supreme Court, Public Record Office Victoria [prov.vic.gov.au]
Ellen Ruby Oliver, Division of Chisholm, Subdivision of Highfield Park, 1963, Australia Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
Ellen Ruby Oliver, Division of Corio, Subdivision of Geelong, 1967, Australia Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
Ellen Ruby Oliver, Division of Corio, Subdivision of Geelong, 1968, Australia Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
Ellen Ruby Oliver, Victoria Death Certificate, 20 Jan 1976, Record no: 2170/76, Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages Victoria [www.bdm.vic.gov.au]
Short history, The Herne Hill Society [www.hernehillsociety.org.uk]
Harold Joseph Price Lane, England & Wales Death Certificate, Death registered 4th Quarter 1895 in Wandsworth, Record no: 233, General Register Office [www.gro.gov.uk]
Death of Mrs, J. H. Lane, South London Observer Camberwell and Peckham Times, 5 May 1923, page 5, FindMyPast [www.findmypast.co.uk]. The article specifically links Ann's retirement from the stage to the death of her eldest son, Harold.
Mr. Birkby's Old Boys, South London Press, 11 Apr 1903, page 10, FindMyPast [www.findmypast.co.uk]
Westbridge House School Concert, South London Press, 27 Dec 1912, page 4, FindMyPast [www.findmypast.co.uk]
The Brixton Empress, South London Observer Camberwell and Peckham Times, 4 Sep 1920, page 6, FindMyPast [www.findmypast.co.uk]
Musical Printers, South London Observer Camberwell and Peckham Times, 26 Nov 1921, page 4, FindMyPast [www.findmypast.co.uk]
A war play for children, South London Observer Camberwell and Peckham Times, 6 Feb 1915, page 2, FindMyPast [www.findmypast.co.uk]
Stradella Road Conservation Area Appraisal, 2007, Southwark Council [www.southwark.gov.uk]
Garden party at Herne Hill, South London Press, 11 Jul 1913, page 9, FindMyPast [www.findmypast.co.uk]
Pretty Herne Hill wedding: Lane-Kruse, South London Press, 14 Mar 1913, page 15, FindMyPast [www.findmypast.co.uk]
Advertisement: Herne Tavern, South London Observer Camberwell and Peckham Times, 6 Jan 1917, page 8, FindMyPast [www.findmypast.co.uk]
R.A.O.B., South London Observer Camberwell and Peckham Times, 3 May 1919, page 3, FindMyPast [www.findmypast.co.uk]
A pleasant evening, South London Observer Camberwell and Peckham Times, 9 Apr 1921, page 4, FindMyPast [www.findmypast.co.uk]
Music in the open: Buffs entertain ladies, South London Observer Camberwell and Peckham Times, 18 Jun 1921, page 2, FindMyPast [www.findmypast.co.uk]
Herne Tavern outing, South London Observer Camberwell and Peckham Times, 31 Aug 1918, page 2, FindMyPast [www.findmypast.co.uk]
Herne Tavern, South London Observer Camberwell and Peckham Times, 22 Dec 1920, page 3, FindMyPast [www.findmypast.co.uk]
Conversations with Norma Oliver, daughter of Ellen Ruby Price Lane.
Information from Sheila Capes, daughter of Iris Margaret Price Lane.
Rita Anne Oliver, England & Wales Birth Certificate, Registered 1st Quarter 1931 in Camberwell, Record no: 440, General Register Office [www.gro.gov.uk]
Norma Margaret Oliver, England & Wales Birth Certificate, Registered 2nd Quarter 1932 in Camberwell, Record no: 365, General Register Office [www.gro.gov.uk]
Rita Anne Oliver, Burial record, Camberwell Old Cemetery Burial Register, 17 Apr 1947, Record no: 273285, DeceasedOnline [www.deceasedonline.com]
Monica Mary Oliver and William Frederick Emanuel, England & Wales Marriage Index, Registered 2nd Quarter 1950 in Lewisham, Vol: 5d, Page no: 194, General Register Office [www.gro.gov.uk]
Norma Margaret Oliver and Colin Victor Batten, England & Wales Marriage Certificate, Registered 4th Quarter 1950 in Lewisham, Record no: 68, General Register Office [www.gro.gov.uk]
Mrs. E.R. Oliver, Fremantle Western Australia Passenger Lists 1897-1963, Orontes 6 Jun 1961, National Archives of Australia, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
Norma M. Batten, UK Outward Passenger Lists 1890-1960, Fair Sky 30 Jul 1960, National Archives of the UK, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
Mrs. M.M. Emanuel, Fremantle Western Australia Passenger Lists 1897-1963, Orontes 6 Jun 1961, National Archives of Australia, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
Mrs. I.M. Capes, UK Outward Passenger Lists 1890-1960, Orsova 18 Apr 1959, National Archives of the UK, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]