The mixed fortunes of the Roe family

Following the tragic story of the death of poor little Roland Roe in the last magazine (see 1899 A tragic death page) I am adding some more details of that tragic family.

The Roes were a well-established family in Horham, Roland’s grandfather Stanley was recorded as being the miller in Horham in 1841 and was succeeded as miller by his son Robert, then later by Robert’s son Frederick, and finally Frederick’s son Clifford who died at Yew Tree Villa in 1964.

Samuel had three other sons. William, who farmed at Horham Hall, Edgar who farmed at Framsden and Benjamin who had a large grocery and drapery store on the Market Hill in Halesworth. However, a bit of searching in the local newspaper archives showed that it was a family beset with tragedy.

William Roe was farming Horham Hall when he drowned himself on 1st November 1879. According to the report in the Framlingham Weekly News he had tried to hang himself in the stable on 15th October but had been prevented by his wife, who at his request promised to say nothing about the matter.

A few days later he was found dead in the pond in the stack yard. His hat and stick were lying on the ground near the pond.

The aforementioned tragic shooting of Roland happened 20 years later in 1899. Then in 1904 Button Frederick Roe (the twin brother of Roland’s father Frederick Button Roe) hanged himself from a beam in the tower mill in Beccles. An account of the inquest in the Norfolk Chronicle described how he had been very upset because his employer Mr N W Pells had given him notice to leave. He had actually managed to find another job, but his wife described how it had broken his heart having to leave the mill and he had been very quiet and depressed.

The jury gave a verdict of “Suicide during temporary insanity”.

Only six years later Ernest Edgar Roe, a nephew of the twins Button and Frederick took his own life on 3rd October 1910 in the orchard of Mr Ernest Steggles at Larling in Norfolk by blowing the top part of his head off with a breach loading gun. An article in the Norfolk News said that he left a note in his pocket for his fiancee Edith, asking for forgiveness and “hoping that he will meet her on the golden shore”.

Stanley, the lad that accidentally shot his brother Roland, became a master miller like his father and in 1929 he was working the mill at Tivetshall in Norfolk but on 29th February 1929 he took his life by drowning himself in the pond at his parents-in-law’s home at Bush Farm in Denham, near Eye. Three years later in 1932 his father Frederick Button Roe died at St Audrey’s Mental Hospital at the age of 70.

However, we cannot leave the Roe family without recounting the escapades of another of Frederick’s sons, Thurlow Edward Roe, who was the miller at the tower mill in Kelsale. Several newspapers including the Daily Mirror, the Daily Herald, the EDP and the East Anglian reported that in July 1939, 42-year-old Thurlow won a wager of £5 by running with an 18-stone sack of wheat on his shoulder against 35-year-old Heveningham farmer, Robert Kemp who carried no burden over a 100-yard course in Fairfield Road, Saxmundham.

The race drew a large crowd of people six deep in places. Kemp turned up in his running shorts, but Roe simply took off his coat. Thurlow Roe had a 60-yard start on the farmer but to the huge amusement of the crowd won by just two feet.

When he finished, he told a reporter “17 years ago when I was a young man I won a similar race in Ipswich docks. Then I was given only a 50-yard start, but I had plenty to spare at the finish”.

In later years Thurlow retired to Southwold where he made a living by renting out two beach huts, knitting socks and other clothing items on a big knitting machine and making plaster of Paris figures of Winston Churchill, which he sold to the tourists.

I have found no evidence to suggest that Thurlow died other than by natural causes in 1970 at the age of 70 years.

My interest in the family is that Stanley, Roland and Thurlow were second cousins of my grandfather’s first wife.

Stephen Ling (Athelington, Horham & Redlingfield News, Autumn 2023, Issue no. 62).