When Mabel and David got married

I thought that I would begin this blog with a snippet from my own branch of the Saddington family.

The photo shows the wedding of Mabel Gertrude Saddington and David Brown, held on 3 June 1909 at the Presbyterian Church, Newland Street, Yale Road, Silvertown, Essex.

Mabel was the 10th (and youngest) child and 5th daughter of John Jonathan Saddington and Jane Hewlett. She was 26 at the time of her marriage, and her husband, David Brown, son of Alexander Kinnear Brown, was 32 years old.

The guests shown in the photograph are as follows:

Top row (left to right): Mrs Sophia Ferguson (sister of Simeon Cundy), Simeon Cundy (bride's brother-in-law), Mrs Elizabeth Ann Cundy (bride's eldest sister), John Jonathan Saddington (bride's father), William James Saddington (bride's brother), Mr and Mrs Alexander Kinnear Brown (groom's parents);

Middle row (left to right): Mabel Saddington (bride's niece), Elizabeth Clara Cundy (bride's niece), Mabel Gertrude Saddington (bride), David Brown (groom), Mabel Brown (groom's sister), Clara Elizabeth Whittaker (bride's niece);

Bottom row (left to right): Grace Jane Whittaker (bride's niece), Maggie Napier (groom's niece), Jenny Louisa Cundy (bride's niece).

The witnesses to the wedding were William James Saddington (my great grandfather) and Elizabeth Clara Cundy (known in the family as 'Lily').

The groom was a marine engineer living at 86 Oriental Road, Silvertown, and his father was a joiner. The bride was living at 2 Connaught Road, Silvertown, which was actually The Railway Hotel, a public house run by her brother, William James, and her father was a blacksmith.

Strangely enough, this was not the first Brown - Saddington wedding. Five years previously, on 7 July 1904, Alexander Brown, son of Alexander Kinnear Brown, had married Grace Maud Saddington, daughter of John Jonathan Saddington and Jane Hewlett at the Presbyterian Church on Newland Street, Yale Road, Silvertown. Unfortunately, I do not have a photo of that wedding.