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Mrs Ada Dawson TURNER, née Rivers (1862–1893)
Her daughter Miss Beatrice Louise TURNER (1886/7–1902)
St Michael section: Row 42, Grave N48

Ada Dawson Rivers was born at 14 Portland Road, Notting Hill, London on 30 May 1862 and baptised at St Mary's Church, Marylebone on 17 December. She was the daughter of the carpenter George Henry Rivers and Mary Ann Skarott, who were married at St Mary's Church, Paddington Green on 18 August 1859. At the time of the 1871 census Ada (8) was living at 156 Lancaster Road, Kensington with her father George Rivers (35), her mother Mary (36), and her sisters Louisa (6) and Leah (one month). Also living with them were Ada's grandmother Mary Skarott (64) and her aunt Caroline Skarott (22). Ada's father George Henry Rivers died in Kensington the following year at the age of 36.

On 12 July 1884 at St Michael & All Angels Church in Kensington, Ada Dawson Rivers (22) married the umbrella-maker Harry Turner (24), who was born in Paddington in 1859, the son of the carpenter William Turner. They had the following children:

• Ethel Ada Turner (born at 46 Third Avenue, Queen's Park, Chelsea in 1885 and baptised at St Michael & All Angels Church, Ladbroke Grove on 6 September)
• Beatrice Louise Turner (born at 13 Lake Street, New Hinksey, Oxford in 1886/7 and baptised at South Hinksey Church on 5 May)
• George Rivers Turner (born at 13 Lake Street, New Hinksey on 17 November 1890 and baptised at South Hinksey Church on 6 September).

The couple evidently began their married life in Chelsea, but by the beginning of 1887 were living at 13 Lake Street in New Hinksey (which although in south Oxford was then still in Berkshire).

At the time of the 1891 census Mrs Ada Dawson Turner (28) was living at 13 Lake Street in south Oxford (then in the parish of South Hinksey and in the Abingdon registration district) with her husband Harry (31), who was the manager of an umbrella shop, and her children Ethel (5), Beatrice (4), and George (four months).

Mrs Ada Dawson Turner died there in 1893, when Beatrice was only six:

† Mrs Ada Dawson Turner née Rivers died at 13 Lake Street at the age of 30 in March 1893 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 8 March (burial recorded in the parish register of St Michael's Church).

It is unclear why Mrs Turner was buried in St Michael's Church's section of St Sepulchre's Cemetery, as the family do not appear to have had any connection with the parish.

In the third quarter of 1897 at Wootton near Woodstock, Harry Turner (38), described as a shop manager of the St Paul's district of Oxford, married his second wife Miss Mary Louisa Stroud (27), who was born in Abingdon in 1869, the daughter of the mason Charles Stroud, but then living in Wootton.

At the time of the 1901 census Beatrice (14) was living at 94 St Mary's Road in East Oxford with her father Harry (41), who was still an umbrella salesman, her stepmother Mary (30), and her siblings Ethel (15) and George (10)

Beatrice died in east Oxford in 1903, and was buried in her mother's grave:

† Beatrice Louise Turner died at 92A St Mary's Road at the age of 15 in October 1902 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 11 October (burial recorded in the parish register of St Michael's Church).

Surviving children of Ada Dawson Turner and her husband Harry

• Ethel Ada Turner (born 1885) does not appear to have married, and is probably the woman of that name who served as a nurse in Cumberland and set sail for Buenos Aires on 27 October 1923. She is also probably the Ethel A. Turner who died at Redbridge, Greater London at the age of 82 near the end of 1966.
• George Rivers Turner (born 1890) attended the Shaftesbury School in Bisley, Surrey. He was working as a kitchen porter at the Clarence Hotel in Aldersgate Street, London when in 1907 he joined the army at the age of 18, and in 1911 when he was aged 22 he was a Private in the 1st Battalion of the Princess's of Wales's Own Yorkshire Regiment. He survived the First World War, and was appointed Second Lieutenant on 12 November 1918. He then served in India as a Lieutenant in the 2/8th Gurkha Rifles, and was awarded the Indian General Service Medal (with the Afghanistan NWF 1919 clasp).