Arthur Marsden (1909-1986)
My father was the only son of Thomas Ernest Marsden and Maria Alice (nee Smithson) of Leeds, Yorkshire. He married Elizabeth Maguinness Spencer in 1933. This photograph was taken at his Golden Wedding party. He was a design engineer with a long involvement in the design of production machinery, particularly during the growth of the plastics industry. It is probably from him that I have inherited my interest in "how things work" and lately I have found myself getting more interested in gardening - truly, like father, like son!
Thomas Ernest Marsden (1880-1944) & Annie Marsden (1867-1905)
This picture appears to have been taken circa 1900 when Ernest was about 20. This is one of only two known photos of Ernest and the only one of Annie, who by this time would have been married to John Ford Afflick though the marriage has, for the moment, eluded me. Ernest was a butcher with premises in Leeds but had to abandon the business owing to ill-health. He separated from his wife Maria Alice Smithson and only son Arthur around 1916 and subsequently took up with another woman by whom he had five more children. All contact with his family was lost by 1933 and his second family has only come to light within the past few years.
John William Marsden (1869-1946)
John William was the brother of Annie and Ernest, the only three to survive of the seven children of Thomas Marsden and his wife Jane (nee Adamson). John was an engineering grinder by trade and like his siblings he was born and died in Leeds. He married Martha Clarke but he and Martha only had one child, Ida. The couple lived for many years in Easterley Avenue, Leeds and on their deaths Ida kept the house on until her own death in 1988 when it was purchased by my nephew.
Ida Marsden (1897-1988)
John William & Martha's only daughter, Ida married Percy Hartley Firth in 1923. The couple remained childless so this branch of the family is now extinct. Ida was the oldest Marsden family member surviving when I began researching the family history and she added a lot of detail to the bare outline I had developed from civil registration records. Despite interviewing her in some depth, I was too inexperienced to think of asking about photographs. When she died, I inherited two albums and countless loose photographs, none of which bore the name of the subject. Some I was able to work out but others will remain a mystery.
Thomas Marsden (1834-1885)?
This rather faded photograph was found in an album discovered following the death of Ida Marsden along with one positively identified as Jane Marsden (nee Adamson) and seems likely to show her husband, Thomas. Thomas was born in Masham, Yorkshire and after moving for some years to Knaresborough, moved to Leeds. Thomas was a shoemaker, a trade in which he followed his father William. The move to Leeds seems likely to have been because of the growth of the leather and shoemaking industries in the city. Thomas died of tuberculosis aged only 51 and this may be the result of poor living conditions. He was buried in a "Guinea Grave" in Beckett's Park Cemetery a sign that although not paupers, the family budget did not run to purchasing a family grave.
Modified 1 April 2002