The Mysterious Alexander Feaviour

The only confirmed photograph of my great-great grandfather.

My great-great grandfather, Alexander Edward Feaviour, was born on June 7, 1882 in Harleston, Norfolk. He was the youngest child of Robert Feaviour and Emma Whitney.

His daughter, Maizee, was my great grandmother. I knew Maizee well, as she died when I was twelve years old. I visited her many times with my grandmother. But I never asked her anything about family history at the time.

It was only years later when I was given a copy of her family history, researched by my great aunt and uncle, that I discovered her rich and interesting background.

Maizee never knew her father. He died only two weeks before she was born. He had problems with his heart, something that she would inherit and still pops up in the family today.

It seems that her father was never discussed while she was growing up. She knew so little that there were stories that he was french, to go along with the french sounding surname. But surely a simple chat with her mother would reveal that he was a native of Norfolk? The family has been traced back to the 1600s and have all been English so far.

My theory is that her step-father, by all accounts a cruel man, stopped any talk of him whatsoever.

When my great aunt and uncle decided to look into the family history, they discovered just how interesting the Feaviours were.




Alexander's father, my 3x great grandfather, was a man called Robert Feaviour. He was born in 1830. Robert was an entrepreneur, starting off by inheriting his father's grocery business, and then making a move into coach building.

Robert Feaviour.

Robert's first marriage was to Mary Borrett, in Stradbroke, Suffolk on October 10, 1854. With her he had five children; Mary, Harriet, Robert, Frederick and Arthur. He raised his sons to learn different aspects of the coach building trade, and they worked under him as the business grew.

Fred, Robert and Arthur Feaviour with a caravan they have just built.

His wife Mary died in 1873, and only a year later on March 26, 1874 Robert remarried to my 3x great grandmother, Emma Whitney.

Emma Whitney.

With Emma, Robert had four more children; Margaret, Emma, William and Alexander, my great-great grandfather.

Alexander was the youngest by far, and Robert was already 52 when he was born. When Alexander was only five years old, Robert died of cancer on October 21, 1887.

The business was taken over by his older sons and his wife Emma. Under Emma, the business evolved to reflect the changes occurring in the transition to the 20th century. The business sold the first Model T Ford in the district, and ultimately the business moved from coach building to bicycle selling and repair.

Some of the cars sold by the business.

Emma herself died of cancer on January 20, 1904. Alexander had lost both his parents by the time he was 22 years old. At this point he was studying an apprenticeship as a coach painter under his older half-brother, Robert.

All seemed to be going well when suddenly without warning, Alexander quit his apprenticeship and joined the army in 1906.

What was Alexander's motive? His older brother William was also in the military, but William was never involved in the family business. To quit an apprenticeship back then needed a solid reason.

It wasn't a good decision for Alexander to make. In the army, it was discovered that he had a poor heart. He was discharged on the grounds that he was unfit for service in 1907.

He didn't return home to complete his apprenticeship with his brother. Instead he worked for a different coach building firm, miles away from home in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire.

It was there that he met my great-great grandmother, Rose Hannah Bunning, and they married in the Wisbech Register Office on August 24, 1914. They had five children; Alexander, Margaret, Dorothea, Edward and Maizee. None of them were baptised.

Rose Hannah Bunning

This raises further questions. The Feaviours were a traditional church-going family. They had all been married and baptised in the same church in Stradbroke. It seems like Alexander was actively rejecting his own family and their traditions.

Alexander had another go at the military again during the First World War. This was a big mistake for Alexander, as his heart condition was aggravated and he was discharged once more. The doctor explicitly writes in his military record;

Cause of discharge: Valvular Disease of Heart
Originated in January 1915 in the trenches in Belgium. States that after several spells of trench work in cold and wet weather he suffered from rheumatic fever and on admission to hospital he was found to be suffering from heart disease; for which he was invalided home.
Will probably get worse in time.

The doctor was right. Just two weeks before the birth of his daughter Maizee, Alexander succumbed to that very heart condition. He was only thirty-eight years old.

When Maizee was born, his wife Rose had all the children baptised at once.

So what exactly was Alexander running away from to the extent that he would risk his health? Why would he abandon a successful family business and reject the church?

Sadly, we will never know, but even the small details we know about Alexander makes him one of the most interesting ancestors in my family tree.

This photo was found in the attic of Alexander's daughter Dorothea. She claimed it was a photo of her father. I believe it is, other family members don't. What do you think? Leave an answer in the comments.