Frances Emmeline Lambert Bassett, Barron

A privileged daughter of her wealthy father's first marriage, Frances Emmeline met her first spouse Ivor Bassett when he worked briefly as a teacher in 1913 in her birth place Thetford, Norfolk, England.

The following year, 1914, she expatriated to Canada and married Ivor on August 7th in Vancouver, B.C. He was four years her junior. B.C. Archives cites her name as Emma Frances Lambert. Vital Event Marriage Registration: Registration Number 1914-09-075694, Microfilm Number B11378, GSU Microfilm Number 1983706. http://search.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca/sn-1E3A4B9/view/Marriages/find-a...

"British Columbia Marriage Registrations, 1859-1932," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/JDZN-F28 : accessed 31 July 2012), Ivor Bassett, 1914. … Marriage Date: 07 Aug 1914; Marriage Place: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; Groom's Name: Ivor Bassett; Groom's Age: 25; Groom's Birth Date: 1889; Groom's Birthplace: Kinghten, Wales; Groom's Marital Status: Bachelor; Groom's Father's Name: Charles Mansell Bassett; Groom's Mother's Name: Mary Jane Peunock; Bride's Name: Emma Frances Lambert; Bride's Age: 28; Bride's Birth Date: 1886; Bride's Birthplace: Thelford Norfolk, England; Bride's Marital Status: Divorced; Bride's Father's Name: William Lambert; Bride's Mother's Name: Harriet Peploe; Film Number: 1983706; Digital Folder Number: 4400861; Image Number: 887; BC Archives Film Number: B11378; Registration Number: 887; Banns or License: License

In 1921, when Ivor's affair with his subordinate teacher Marcia Kane came to light and after a shouting fight never forgotten by their then 5 years old son Mansell, Frances returned to her family in Thetford, where she was ostracized and offered no assistance. She and Mansell returned to Canada soon after and she told Mansell that his father had died. In fact, Ivor was very much alive.

For a number of years, she labored to support the two of them, then married second husband, Ontario rancher, Ralph Barron whose housekeeper she had been and who then adopted her son Mansell. At the time of this marriage, she styled herself a "widow" even though her first husband remained living and for whom no divorce record has been discovered.

In the late 1930s, Barron sold the ranch and they moved closer to Calgary. After she was widowed, Frances moved into Calgary, later moving to Kamloops--closer to her son, her only child--where she died.

Buried with her son Mansell's ashes in Hillside Cemetery, 750 Notre Dame Drive, Kamloops, B.C., Canada: http://tempestwebsvr.kamloops.ca/online/cemetery/10-IntermentSearch... [Frances Emiline Barron, Section V, Row 0006, Lot 0023, SubLot E]