Friday, November 9, 2018

Theodore Philip Starke, Norfolk, England 1890's


"Faithfully yours
Theodore Philip Starke"


Theodore Philip Starke was born in 1865 in Buxton, Norfolk, England to parents Robert and Frances Sarah Starke. Robert and Frances had 5 children, of which Theodore was the youngest. Robert Starke was a police sergeant and later, a superintendent of police. Frances Starke also worked, making and selling straw bonnets. Theodore's oldest brother, Henry, followed in their father's footsteps and became a police constable. Theodore, however, had different ideas for his future. At age 16, he was already working as a pupil teacher (or student teacher), though I can't find that he ever actually became a teacher. Instead, he seemed to find his calling in reform movements and organizations.

In 1891, at age 26, Theodore is living in St. Peter Mancroft at the boarding house of Sarah Hughes. During this time he is working as a secretary for the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Also known as the NSPCC, the Society was founded in 1884 to address child abuse and neglect and successfully campaigned for Parliament to pass the first UK law to protect children in 1889. The NSPCC still exists today.

Later that year, in the summer of 1891, Theodore married Sarah Anna Warren. They had 3 children but their daughter, Dorothy May, born in 1896, was the only one to survive past infancy. In 1911 the Starkes are living in Buxton at 10 Queen's Crescent with Mary Ann Warren, Sarah's mother. Theodore was now working as the organizing secretary of a temperance society, the United Kingdom Alliance.

His daughter Dorothy married Ernest H. Clark in 1925. After Theodore died in 1939, his wife Sarah went to live with Dorothy and Ernest on their farm in Shropshire until her death in 1959.

If you know who this may be, let us know in the comments!

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