Walter, known as William, was the fourth son of George Lovell Harmer, John Harmer’s oldest brother. This makes him John’s nephew. Walter/William was baptised at All Saints Church, Heathfield, on 22nd July 1855. You can read more about the family’s early life in Heathfield here.
Walter spent the first few years of his life with his parents and siblings at ‘Alley’ in Heathfield, and moved with the family to Brighton around 1859/1860. It seems likely that his father died when he was just 7 years old in 1863. Like his mother and two surviving sisters Emily Ellen and Mary Jane, Walter does not appear in the 1871 census, although it should be noted that they do not appear in the workhouse records at this time. We do know that some time before 1877 Walter moved to Caterham, seemingly with no other family members in tow.
Marriage
Walter married widowed Mary Burnell at Caterham on 2nd June 1877. He was 22 years old. Mary was baptised Mary Skinner at Caterham on 28th February 1848, so was 7 years older than Walter. She already had three children who Walter raised as his own; Walter, George, Gemma. In 1881 we find the family living in a cottage at Godstone in Caterham, with Walter working as an agricultural labourer. The first child born of their marriage, William Walter, was four years old. Ten years later they were still at the same cottage, and Walter was still working as an agricultural labourer. His stepson Walter was working as a gardener, and another two children had come along; Edward and Albert, who were working as gardeners by the time of the 1901 census. By 1911 the family were living at 171 Chaldon Road, Caterham and Walter was working as a general labourer at a lunatic asylum.
Death
Walter was 60 when he died at the Caterham Lunatic Asylum, on 13th September 1915. He was buried two days later, possibly at the asylum.
The fantastic work of the Harmer Family Association records, courtesy of a member no longer with us who knew the family, that Walter worked as a groundsman at St Lawrence’s Lunatic Asylum in Caterham, as did his son Edward Henry Lovell. It is believed that his other sons may have worked there too. This explains why Walter’s death certificate records his place of death as the asylum.
Mary, his wife, died on 6th September 1930 at Caterham, when she was 82.
Children
Please note that full trees for the children below are available, and will be written up here in due course.
William Walter (1878 – 1930)
Edward Henry Lovell Harmer (1881 – 1918)
Edward was killed in action on 9th April 1918, at the Battle of the Somme. He left behind a widow and three children.
