Ethel Annie Shepherd

Birth: 1891 - Tywardreath, Cornwall, England

Birth: 1891 - St. Austell, Cornwall, England

In 1911, Ethel is living with her family at 4 Par Green Par Station. Ethel met and fell in love with her cousin Bert while he was convalescing after being wounded on the Somme. Several of the postcards she sent him in 1918 still survive, along with a valentine she gave him from the 1860s. The story told is that she didn’t marry Bert because thought life in Canada would be too hard and he went home alone. However, in one of her letters, Ethel tells Bert to burn it because she doesn’t know who might read it. It is plausible that the family found out and forbade her to marry her first cousin. In either case, Ethel never married. She is in the 1939 register with her mother Susan, who is listed as an invalid, living at Thorncliff, Par Green.. Her occupation is dairy and general housework. Ethel died in Thorncliff, 8 Polmear Road, Par, in 1955.