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Thomas VOLLER (1847–1896)
His wife Mrs Emma VOLLER, née Cooke (1853–1904)
St Mary Magdalen section: Row 21, Grave G62½

Thomas Voller was born in Enton, Witley, near Waverley, Surrey near the beginning of 1847 and baptised at All Saints' Church, Witley on 12 September. He was the son of the labourer Peter Voller and his wife Caroline. At the time of the 1861 census Thomas (15) was working as a labourer living at Godalming, Surrey with his father Peter (49), who was still a labourer; his mother Caroline (45); his older sister Eliza (16); and his three younger siblings Alice (10), Fanny (7), and William (5). By 1871 Thomas had probably joined the army.

Emma Cooke was born in Chulmleigh, Devon near the end of.1853, the daughter of the farm labourer Michael Cooke and his wife Mary Ann Cooke (born with the same surname), who were married in Devon near the beginning of 1853. At the time of the 1861 census Emma (7) was living at Kings Nympton near Chulmleigh with her father Michael (29), her mother Mary Ann (30), and her brother John (2).

On 22 March 1881 at St Mary-the-Virgin Church, Twickenham, Thomas Voller, an army sergeant based in Shrewsbury, married Emma Cooke, who was then living in Twickenham. They are hard to find in the 1881 census and may have been abroad. They were in England at the Cowley Military Barracks the following year, and they had two children there:

• Thomas Peter Voller (born at Cowley Barracks in 1882 and baptised at St James's Church, Cowley on 1 October)
• Emma Mary Ann Voller (born at Cowley Barracks on 23 August 1883 and baptised at St James's Church, Cowley on 16 September),

At the time of the 1891 census Thomas (43), who was now a Colour Sergeant in the Oxfordshire Light Infantry, and Emma (37) were based at the Cowley Military Barracks with Thomas (8) and Emma (7).

Thomas retired from the army in 1893, and took over the Royal Champion pub at 39 George Street (in St Mary Magdalen parish). (This pub on the western corner of New Inn Hall Street was demolished in the 1980s.)

He was only landlord for three years, and died there in 1896:

† Thomas Voller died at the Royal Champion pub, 39 George Street at the age of 48 on 6 January 1896 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 10 January (burial recorded in the parish register of St Mary Magdalen Church).

His effects came to £221 19s., and his wife Emma was his executor. She was listed as the proprietor of the Royal Champion in Kelly's Directory for 1896.

By 1901 Emma (47) was working as a cook and was living in Barracks Lane, Cowley with her daughter Emma (17), who was a pupil teacher. Her son Thomas (19) had joined the army and was based at Cowley Military Barracks.

Emma Voller died in 1904:

† Mrs Emma Voller née Cooke died at the Radcliffe Infirmary at the age of 50 in March 1904 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 28 March (burial recorded in the parish register of St Mary Magdalen Church).

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Children of Thomas and Emma Voller

• Thomas Peter Voller (born 1882). never married. In 1911 when he was aged 29 he was a Lance Sergeant in the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, based at Cowley Barracks. He served as an OBLI Company Quartermaster Serjeant in the First World War, and died in Iraq at the age of 33 on 31 July 1916
• Emma Mary Ann Voller was working as a teacher in Cowley when on 23 February 1904 at St James's Church in Cowley she married Arthur Ernest Warnock, a sergeant in the 2nd Oxfordshire Light Infantry . At the time of the 1911 census she was living at Shorncliffe army barracks in Cheriton, Kent with her children Ellen Margaret Warnock (4), Thomas Arthur Warnock (6), and Ernest Warnock (five months). Mrs Emma Warnock died at 10 Thorncliffe Road, Summertown, Oxford at the age of 79 on 6 May 1963. Her effects came to £3,172 15s., and her executor was her son Thomas Arthur Warnock, who was a bank manager.