William Athroll and Lucy Martha Woodard were married in the Ipswich Registration district in 1884. They started married life in Claydon where their first child, Maud, was born in 1887. The following year, William had taken a position as a groom in Holton St Mary, Suffolk, where their sons Frederick and Arthur were born. All three children were baptised at St Mary’s Church, Holton St Mary. In 1894, William died, leaving Lucy to bring up their three children.
With nothing to keep them in Holton St Mary, Lucy returned to her home village of Melton where her father, Robert, was still living. In 1901, Lucy, her sons and father were living in The Street, along with a boarder, Arthur Fletcher. In 1904, Lucy and Arthur Fletcher were married in West Ham, London.
By 1911, both Maud and Frederick had left home. Only Arthur remained living with his mother and stepfather at 15 Foundry Row, Melton. Aged nineteen, Arthur worked as a house porter. Frederick, who’d moved away, worked as a chauffeur in Kent.
Both Frederick and Arthur served during the First World War, as did the husband of their sister, Maud.