Naughty Nina: Eposide Two
OK - here's what I think the Naughty Nina story SHOULD be - at least from what I have collected so far on her "rather colourful" background.
The family we are looking at here is a British Army family. The father Frederick William Edmed was born in 1863 in England and was (it seems) a career soldier. He was, at some point posted with the army to Halifax, Nova Scotia in Canada where he met Mary Ellen Stapleton (b. 1869) and they were married in a ceremony in Halifax in 1886. This was recorded in the British Army Returns for Marriages 1886-1890. Some time after that he was posted, together with his new wife to Egypt to take part in the British army occupation there at the time. This may have involved his participation in such campaigns as that in the Sinai Peninsular or even the military events in 1889, which, besides the battle with the Ethiopians included the crushing of a revolt in Darfur and the defeat of an expedition sent against Egypt, marking the climax of Mahdist expansion. A bad harvest caused severe famine in the area; the privileged treatment given to the Caliph's tribe, the TA'AISHA, caused general resentment; and in 1891 a rebellion was suppressed.
While the Caliph's rule became more and more despotic, the French in 1895 planned an expedition to the Nile, under COLONEL MARCHAND. Now the British administration realized that their claim on the central Nile valley was questioned by the Italians, Belgians and French; in 1896 a British force commanded by SIR HERBERT KITCHENER was dispatched to occupy Dongola; (it had occupied Berber in 1887), defeated the main Mahdist force at Atbara on April 8th 1898; Omdurman fell on September 1st 1898.
Now while all this hoo-hah was going on in Egypt dear old Frederick was busy making sire that his wife was fully occupied. They had the following children during his posting to Egypt.
•Frederick William Edmed. Born 1889 in Alexandria, Egypt
•Muriel Edith Edmed (Nina...). Born 1891 in Cairo, Egypt
•Victor Claude Edmed. Born 1895 in Malta.
So the Edmed family carried on with their army life and we believe they were later posted back to Canada and later to London.
Then, surprise surprise, our Muriel Edith Edmed pops up in Wandsworth in London where she gets married, and of all days she chose the 25th December (Christmas Day) 1911 when she married Charles Newcombe. The marriage certificate shows her father as Frederick Edmed, an Army pensioner and Painter. The groom's father is Frederick Newcombe a cook, and one of the witnesses is no other than Muriel's younger brother Claude Victor.
So we know that this Muriel Edith Edmed is NOT an only child and that on two separate visits she registered her own daughter's birth as follows:
•Muriel Edith Edmed, daughter, Born 27th May 1913 in Handsworth (Birmingham). Mother's name Nina Edmed.
•Muriel Edith Offley, daughter, Born 27th May 1913 in Handsworth (Birmingham). Mother's name Nina Edmed. Fathers name Arthur Offley.
BUT we still don't know where or why the fictitious character of Arthur Payne or that of Muriel Mèrcia Payne were created!
We have found no trace (so far) of what happened to Charles Newcombe. He may have been the father that Nina told her daughter had died early in WW1. The timing fits. I say this because the next surprise that we find is that Muriel Edith Newcombe (neè Edmed) has married a Richard Gunter in June 1924 in Islington in London. Maybe Charles was declared missing, presumed dead and she had to wait seven years to be able to re-marry OR maybe he, Charlie, cleared off when he found out his dear Nina was expecting a child barely eight months after he married her.. But then again, maybe they were divorced...who knows? That was for her to know and for me me to find out!
Richard Gunter might have been the "sugar daddy" who my mother vaguely remembers in Stratford upon Avon and who "sent her off to school". She would have been just eleven years old when this second marriage took place in 1924 and I rather suspect she was not party to, or even aware of it!
Looking at the situation with the change of first name from Muriel to Nina and the sudden suspicious, and twice registered, birth of P0 Muriel, I presume that Nina was disowned by her family for bringing shame on them. IF that was because of the sudden appearance of Arthur Offley.. Hence the Nina's story of my mother being the only child of an only child.. when all the time there were grandparents and two uncles, and later their families too. Nina's army background would also fit in with her horror at my mother wanting to ditch the army captain she was walking out with to marry a lowly (Nina's words) army lance corporal!
Now the work begins in tracing what happened to the Newcombe family. They were from London too.. but things are starting to point to them leaving England to escape WW1.
But did Charles go with them I wonder? It seems that they may have immigrated to Massachusetts, but that needs to be followed up too.
The Edmeds it seems might have returned to and settled in Halifax N.S., but once again that has to be verified. Did Nina get out too, with Muriel, before the outbreak of war? Was this the story my mother told me about? That she had gone to the USA when only little. This was the photo of her that Mum always believed and was told was taken in America...
"Oh Nina what a cruel and tangled web you wove..."
Could I really have some relatives on my Mother's side or am I really, really here ALONE?
So, here ends Episode Two....... Read Episode Three for more.......