One of my favourite collecting hobbies are these late Victorian early Edwardian christening mugs made by Doulton, Lambeth. Not only do they add to my Doulton Collection but also give me the opportunity to do some genealogy searches.
Dorothy Kate Herapath was born in 1889 in Battersea, London, the daughter of Edward and Clara Herapath, a clerk at a solicitors. She married in 1913 to a Ernest Albert Gilbert but there must have been trouble straight away as she took her husband to a divorce court 10 months later.
The reason for the divorce was rather unusual, reading the court papers Dorothy stated that her husband had never consummated the marriage for reason of the frigidity or impotency or malformation of the parts of the genitals. Poor Ernest didn't contest the court case.
Even sadder for poor Ernest was that he was killed in 1917 fighting as a corporal in WW! at Epres, Belgium. As for Dorothy she had another go at marriage in 1920, a Guthrie Adams was the lucky man, but only for a couple years as Dorothy suddenly died aged just 33, haven't found any children yet but the search continues.
The wonders of researching a simple ceramic Christening Mug.
@ladymagpie oh goodness Heather I didn't see all that writing, I commented on the smaller photo as you do when trying to catch up so I missed this. What an amazing story it is too, glad I finally read it all. Poor Ernest indeed for many reasons! Divorce must have been quite unusual in those days without that embarrassing reason, mortyifying for the poor man! All of them doomed all round!
All that info from one christening mug :) Now I'm wondering if poor Ernest was a relative of mine!!! I was a Gilbert and my grandfather came from Stonnington, England :)
