Encyclopedia Titanica

Frank Hubert Maybery

Frank Hubert Maybery
Frank Hubert Maybery

Frank Hubert Maybery was born in the district of St Mathew's, Ipswich on the 30 November 1875 1 the son of Valentine William Maybery (1845-1876, Congregational Minister of Burlington Road, Ipswich) and Clara Susan Maybery (née Sinnock, 1842-1879).

He had four siblings: Annie (1870-1966) and Alfred (1872-1846), both born in Stoke Sub Ham, Somerset; Arnold (1874-1957, born in Ipswich, Suffolk) and a younger sister Winifred (1877-1961, born in Bristol). 

Following the untimely deaths of their parents, the siblings were raised by their maternal aunt, Eliza Mary Gibbons (1837-1913) and her husband Williams Gibbons (1835-1897), provision merchant and Wesleyan minister, founder, in 1888, of Brookland Chapel in Bristol.

Frank and his brothers went into business with their uncle as provision merchants in Bristol. In 1899 they were convicted and fined after supplying 20 dozen tins of "Golden Syrup" which turned out to largely composed of glucose.

Between 1905 and 1907 Frank Maybery and his brothers, Alfred and Arnold, and sisters Annie and Winifred emigrated to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada, together with Mrs Eliza Gibbons the aunt who had looked after the young Maybery children after their parents died 3. The brothers went into partnership as Real Estate Agents in Moose Jaw, then a rapidly growing city, where they specialised in selling farmland through their firm Maybery's Ltd. All the family were active members of St Andrews Presbyterian Church and the brothers are remembered as men of "religious habit, definite and clear in thought and deed".

On 10 June 1907 Frank married Frances Ella Hadfield 2 at the Greenacres Chapel, Oldham, Lancashire. Frances then returned with Frank to Canada.  They would have two daughters in Frank's lifetime, Joyce Noelle (1908-1929), and Ruth Enid (1910-2003). 

Frank's wife Ella was much troubled with a serious eye complaint, because of which the family decided to return to England, where she could get up-to-date medical treatment, so in 1911 Frank brought his wife and their two daughters, Joyce Noel and Ruth Enid back to England. They arrived in Southampton aboard the Adriatic on 25 May 1911.   The family is believed to have settled in Weston-Super-Mare 4   

On 20 September 1911 Frank Maybery left Southampton bound for New York aboard the Olympic when she was in collision with HMS Hawke. This event may have delayed Frank's return as he is next found arriving at New York aboard the Cedric on 7 October 1911.  He returning to England for a final time in December 1911.  

In January 1912 Frank's brother Alfred had been elected Mayor of Moose Jaw and called upon Frank to come back to Canada to look after the business while he tended to his civic duties. With his family in England, Frank may have intended to settle up his affairs in Canada once and for all. 

Boarding the Titanic at Southampton as a second class passenger (ticket number 239059, £16). He was joined at Queenstown by a family friend, the Rev. Charles Kirkland.

Maybery died in the sinking, his body, if recovered, was never identified. His and Ella's third daughter, Nancy Frances was born on 3 December that year.

Joyce Maybery died aged 20 in 1929; daughter Ruth Enid died in 2003; and the daughter he never met, Nancy, died aged 100 in 2013.

Frances Ella Maybery, Frank's widow, died 7 December 1968 aged 88.

Notes

  1. This date is from family sources, another source gives the date as 13 November 1872 in Weston-Super-Mare, Somerset. The 1875 date is corroborated by the 1881 census.
  2. Ella Hadfield was born on the 10th November 1880 in Fayaoué, Ouvéa, in the District of the British Consulate at Noumea. Her birth was registered in Noumea on the 22nd November 1901, by letter from her father James Arthur Hadfield, this was done to make sure Ella was registered as a British citizen, as the Loyalty Islands at that time, were administered by the French. Ella's father was a Congregational Missionary based on Lifu, one of the Loyalty Islands in the Pacific. Her mother was Emma Foster Hadfield. 
  3. It was with Eliza and her husband William Gibbons at their home on Asley Hill, Bristol that the siblings were living at the time of the 1881 and 1891 census.
  4. The October 1911 Cedric passenger list gives Mrs Maybery's address as Bournemouth, England.  One resource gives the address as being St Paul's Road, while the Titanic casualty list gives the address as 1 Whitecross Road, Weston-Super-Mare. 

References and Sources

Contract Ticket List, White Star Line 1912 (National Archives, New York; NRAN-21-SDNYCIVCAS-55[279])
Marriages, births, deaths and injuries that have occurred on board during the voyage (PRO London, BT 100/259-260)
Alan Hustak (1999) Titanic: The Canadian Story. Véhicule Press. ISBN 1 55065 113 7
British Census 1881, 1891
Craig Stringer (2003) Titanic People, CD Rom
Weston Mercury (2013) Woman whose father died in Titanic disaster celebrates 100th birthday

Research Articles

Robert L. Bracken Voyage (2006) Searching for Kirkland
The story of Titanic’s least-known clergyman.

Newspaper Articles

Evangelical Magazine and Missionary Chronicle (1877) William Valentine Maybery: Obituary
Obituary of Frank Maybery's Father
Swindon Advertiser (1899) The golden syrup case
A false description
Frank Maybery believed to be missing
(19 April 1912) Moosejaw man missing
Left for the old country with his wife and two children
Search archive online

Credits

Steve Coombes, UK
Hannah Dobrowolska, UK
Ruth Fox (née Maybery), UK
Nancy Woodhead (née Maybury), UK
Alan Hustak, Canada

Comment and discuss

  1. Lesley Miller

    I am a Sinnock descendent and doing genealogical research on the family and would very much like to contact any of the people who posted the details of Frank's life on the 2nd Class Passenger List. Lesley

  2. Paul Hadfield

    Hi Lesley I didn't contribute originally, but have just now commented subsequently. Ella was my great aunt. We had heard that Frank was himself the mayor of Moosejaw, so it sounds as if that now needs checking. I know of anthropologist and contributor Hannah Dobrowalska (nee Ivory), with whom my father (now aged 97) was in... Read full post

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Titanic Passenger Summary

Name: Mr Frank Hubert Maybery
Age: 36 years 4 months and 15 days (Male)
Nationality: English
Religion: Congregationalist
Embarked: Southampton on Wednesday 10th April 1912
Ticket No. 239059, £16
Died in the Titanic disaster (15th April 1912)
Body Not Identified

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