Family tree Eric Esterhuizen » Winifred May HOWARD (1889-1985)

Personal data Winifred May HOWARD 

• She was born on April 24, 1889 in Pietermaritzburg.
• She died on April 27, 1985 in Harare, Zimbabwe, she was 96 years old.
• A child of Henry Benjamin Marshall HOWARD and Emmeline (May) WARNER
• This information was last updated on November 10, 2009.

Household of Winifred May HOWARD

She is married to Ronald Frederick Strancham MARILLIER.

They got married on September 28, 1911 at Engcobo, Transkei, she was 22 years old.

Child(ren):

1. Cecil Hubert MARILLIER  1912-2005 
2. Jeanne May MARILLIER  1915-2002 

Notes about Winifred May HOWARD

It was possible that like her older sister, Gladys, she attended a convent for some
of her education. By the time that she was nearly three years of age the family moved
to Cala in the Transkei and all her younger siblings were born in Cala so apparently
stayed in that small town until at least 1902. There was a small village school there,
she may, on the other hand have received her schooling there.
She married Ronald Frederick Strancham MARILLIER on the 28th September
1911 in Engcobo, Transkei, South Africa. He was born on the 26th December 1886 on
a farm near Elliot in the Cape Province called 'Xalanda' and he became a farmer. They
had eight children; the first Cecil was born in Johannesburg, the second Jeanne was
born in Elliot and the others were born after their parents moved up to Southern
Rhodesia, that is the third Kathleen was born at Concession and then two at Sinoia.
The sixth child Althea was born in Grahamstown and the last two in Salisbury.
Winifred and Ronald had a long and happy married life together and celebrated their
60th wedding anniversary with friends and family gathered around them in Salisbury.
Their eldest son Cecil and his wife Myra travelled from New Zealand in order to join
the family celebrations.
A write-up of her early life in Rhodesia was published in a book titled «b»«i»'Down
Memory Lane with some Early Rhodesian Women' «/b»«/i»compiled by Madeline Heald for
the National Historical Association of Rhodesia, Matabeleland Branch published by
Books of Rhodesia in 1979. The hardback ISBN is 0 86920 199 9 and the soft cover is
0 86920 198 0.
Information from Althea Davies:
«b»WINIFRED MAY HOWARD (1889-1985)
«/b»Winifred May Howard was the second child and second daughter in the family of
nine children of Henry Benjamin Marshall Howard and Emmeline May Howard nee
Warner. She was born on the 24th April 1889 in Pietermaritzburg but spent her
childhood in Cala, Eastern Province where her father was the local attorney.
She was educated at the local convent and later transferred to the government
school where she trained as a teacher. As a child she was a tomboy quite unlike her
Robert HART l and Elizabeth DONALD 15 Oct 2008
56
elder sister Gladys. Winifred's greatest delight was to play with her younger brothers
Jack and Harry climbing trees and running races. She and Jack were particularly close
and got into many scrapes together.
Winifred was very fond of her father and dreamed of working for him as a clerk
when she grew up. In her eyes her mother was perfect and could do no wrong. Her
parents decisions were not to be questioned and so when she wanted to train as a nurse
her father would not agree. She spent a year being trained by the local dressmakers
but became a pupil teacher and when she had qualified she went as a governess to the
Hart family.
It was while she was at home during the holidays that she first saw her future
husband Ronald Marillier and was immediately impressed by him.
From Jennifer Jonson:
"Aunty Winifred was one of my godmothers and I was always very fond of her. She
was also my Sunday School teacher at one stage and I am deeply grateful now that she
took her job both as my Godmother and teacher so seriously as most of my Bible
knowledge today is due to her efforts.
She had very definite opinions and didn't have a great sense of humour but she was
what my mother always described as 'such a good woman' and her sense of duty was
of the highest. She also managed to pass this on to her children who are all people of
the highest integrity and most caring of other people.
Like the Warners Aunt Gladys, Aunt Flossie and my father she aged very well and
was active right up to the end. She often amused me because she used to visit people
in the nearby old-age home and always talked about going to help 'those poor old
things' when they were about 20 years younger than she was.
Unlike her sisters she was not into smart clothes or the possession of beautiful
things partly, no bout, because she was never well off. However, her skills at
embroidery, crochet and knitting were unexcelled and she was never without
handwork of some sort. Her embroidery and fine crochet were absolutely magnificent
and I am very glad that I have several pieces made by her.
I know very little about the details of the lives of her children as they were all
grown up by the time I was born - in some cases their children were older than I am -
but I got to know the three girls well after I grew up and we always had the kind of
relationship that the difference in our ages was never evident. Kathleen I saw most
frequently as she lived near us most of my life and she was particularly fond of my
parents. She was really wonderful to them and often had Dad to stay with her.
Winifred and Ronald when elderly lived in Forfar Road and the Postal address was
'Emerald Hill'.
When Aunt Floss visited us in Gordons Bay in 1975 I showed her a partly crocheted
lace cloth my mother was making for me when she died. I had kept all the extra cotton
and hoped to complete it but chickened out because crocheting was not my greatest
ability. I asked her if she could help me duplicate the pattern but she suggested that I
request assistance from Aunt Winifred as she was a very competent needlewoman and
always willing to help others. When in about the November I wrote as suggested.
Aunt Winifred replied that she was very busy preparing Christmas presents for the
family but as soon as she could she would do her best in any way if I would send up to
her the piece my mother had made and the extra cotton, which I duly did. Imagine my
surprise when in February the completed cloth was returned to me so beautifully
worked that there was no way of seeing what had been added. The cloth now covers a
table in our bedroom and I have treasured it ever since.
Aunt Winifred was a real stickler for the principle that every child in a family
should be treated exactly like the others. Consequently if she knitted a pair of socks
for one son each of the others also needed to repair a pair and so on. When Andrew
was about to be married to Christine we sent invitations designed like letters to all the
relatives but added a tactful note to say this was a notification only and that as they
would not be attending the wedding please do not feel it necessary to send a gift. Aunt
Winifred replied that 'as they had not sent a gift to Peter on his marriage they did not
feel it would be fair to send one to Andrea.
Like Jennifer I knew Kathleen better than any of her siblings as she spent a year or
more at 'Graystones' for educational reasons.
On the 4th February 2002 Peter Davies wrote 'Kathleen's youngest daughter moved
to England from Zimbabwe and lived in Worthing on the south coast'. Kathleen
part-owns the cottages in Forfar Road that my Grandparents lived in before they
became too old to care for themselves and moved to live with my mother nearby.
Kathleen is another great family person and visited Aunt Jeanne Regularly at the Old
Folks Home at Imvirwe (use do be called Umvukwees) before she left Zimbabwe last
year. Her daughter, Felicity live in South London , Kent.
I met Althea when she visited the cape and was extremely upset when I learned that
she had drowned while on holiday in Natal. We go to know Althea's daughter,
Veronica and her husband Peter quite well. First when they were in the Cape and then
when we were travelling about the USA in our motor home we stopped off at their
home in La Canada, a suburb of Los Angeles on a few occasions. They were a very
nice family and Veronica has kept in touch with me first by post and latterly by email
from then onwards which has given me much pleasure.
Much later when we visited New Zealand we stayed with Andre on his small farm
60 K north of Auckland. We toured about some of that country and visited Cecil and
his wife Myra at Burrows Street, Tauranga. They insisted on our staying a couple of
days with them in spite of their advanced ages and this proved to be an especially
pleasant time for us meeting them for the first time and we have corresponded
periodically ever since.

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Timeline Winifred May HOWARD

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