The short answer is, my great-great-grandparents! Henry (sometimes Harry, otherwise Harry Timothy, occasionally Timothy Henry) Kitcher and his wife, Eleanor Ann (nee Beavis) had nine children between 1880 and 1904, though they lost their first two (Caroline Alice and Henry John Timothy) at three years old and less than a year. Mostly, Henry and Eleanor chose fairly ‘normal’ names for the period – John Timothy, Wallace Vincent, Clara Alice (my great-grandmother), Thomas Edward, Rosina May but then Lord Robert (sometimes Roberts) and finally, Albert Edward. What possessed them, I wonder?
[Source: 1901 census – RG13/992/99/30]
At 69 Unicorn Street, Portsmouth in 1901 (above), Lord R. Kitcher was 3 months old, his birth having been registered in the March quarter of 1901. With Lord aged 11 years, the Kitcher family had moved a short way up Unicorn Road, living at No. 14 in 1911.
In 1927 at St Lukes Parish Church, Portsea, he married Elizabeth Ann Lipsham:
His younger brother, Albert was a witness to the marriage with a ‘Lily Maud Harvey’, whoever she may have been. The couple appear to have had just one son, Leslie R. Kitcher, who was born in the December quarter of 1928 who went on to marry in 1952. Perhaps there are some descendants of Lord Robert(s) Kitcher?
I know very little about his life after his marriage to Elizabeth and the birth of Leslie …. he did not seem to follow his brother (John Timothy) and father to the dockyards though, as he is referred to as ‘canteen assistant’ on his marriage certificate. Dying in 1963 with no will, his effects came to £190 16s.
But, where did the name Lord Robert(s) come from? Even Robert(s) is not a family name….
